Good evening. The school committee workshop and business session of January 28th, 2026 will now come to order. This meeting is being recorded and will be made available for viewing on the Mthuan public schools website. Secretary, would you please call the role?
present. >> Present. >> Present. >> Here. >> All are present. We now need a motion and a second to accept tonight's agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motions from member Keegan, seconds from
the vice chair. Any discussion? Not will vote. All those in favor? >> I opposed. The eyes have it. will now rise for the flag salute. Do we have anyone in the audience who is here for public participation?
No. We did receive written correspondence. Uh I have a copy. I'll read it into the record. This is from Alejandro Bayz regarding the items before us tonight. Uh he says through
you, honorable mayor Borugard. Good evening members of the school committee, its officers, the mayor, and the community as a whole. For the record, my name is Alejandro Bayz and I live at 152 Center Street. I am addressing you tonight with the hope that my words as a constituent holds weight during your
vote and consideration. Specifically, you all have an executive session tonight to deliberate about the consolidation of both the city and school IT departments. I respectfully ask that you table this discussion until after the charter review workshop being held this Thursday, January 29th. I
think it is prudent to withhold this conversation due to the looming broad discussion over charter changes revolving around consolidation. Mr. Mr. Mayor, thank you for your update this afternoon regarding your efforts for consolidation. I acknowledge and admire the length you have gone to make this
happen. It is clear that public public opinion is in favor of consolidation and many of us are worried that your comments are a preamble to a potential surrender of those efforts by asking this body as a whole to drop the current lawsuit. We understand the current
predicament of the schools and their leadership, but that is why prioritizing efficiency might be the way to go. I only ask that you all delay this executive session through a motion at table so that the conversation could be as open as possible with the ends of finding the best possible solutions with
peace Alejandro. Uh that's all we received in terms of public participation. So at this time I will close public participation. If you're not able to make a meeting in person for public participation, you can send an email to Susan Shanti at snsc
timuan.k12.mma. us before 3 p.m. on the day of the school committee meeting. I just wanted to share a brief uh housekeeping item. Um in case anybody's watching, you might notice the presence of uh member of the Mthuan uh police force uh here with us.
uh going forward uh similar to city council meetings, there's presence of law enforcement simply to keep the peace and ensure the safety of the public. So, we do have an officer here with us tonight and we'll have that going forward. Uh at this point, I will invite Dr. Galobski to start the quarterly
review presentation. Okay, thank you very much. Um I am presenting the slides for this evening's presentation. This is our quarter 2 update um as we're in our second year of our three-year strategy plan.
So I will move through each of the objectives um which are I'm sure becoming familiar to you. Talk about some recent updates. Um I have the humanity supervisors with us here tonight. Um, so you can put um some faces to the names that we've been referencing and ask any more direct
questions that you may have um about reading and literacy in general. So, as you know, in objective one, we're focused on accelerating literacy development and language acquisition across all subject areas. Really trying to um make the responsibility for those
improvements widespread among staff and administrators. Um and so today I want to talk a little bit about CKLA the launch and professional development prism LAN lots of acronyms um which boil down to the support that we received
from DESIE um and implementing our new curriculum. Um, and I'll share the middle of the year literacy benchmarks, give a quick update on investigating history, um, which also has a heavy literacy component in our social studies curriculum for the upper school, um, and
share some good news about early literacy high dosage tutoring. So on this slide, I wanted to share um just some of the feedback I've received from supervising principles um and other administrators in the building is that
it's Oh boy, just a second. I lost my presentation. So nice to hear students talking about um really meaningful topics of discussion that appear to be maybe beyond their age or grade level um but
are a part of CKLA. Just a second. The touchcreen got me. They're coming to help. Okay, we're good. We doing better. Okay. Okay. Um, so I was talking about how the
administrators um and people visiting the classrooms really love to hear students talking about topics of discussion and I want to share with you what some of those topics were um because they've evolved from the knowledge portion of the CKLA curriculum. So, um, for instance, in
kindergarten, um, we can hear students discussing how a love of plants inspired people like George Washington and Johnny Apples Seed to improve lives and communities. In grade one, students are talking about how body systems work together, talking
about um, digestion, for example, and small and large intestines. In grade two, students are talking about exploring the beginnings of ancient Greek civilization. Um you'll hear um discussion debate about Athens and Sparta, Socrates,
Plato. Um and in grade three, how scientists classify animals in multiple ways. The Middle Ages um in grade four and in K2 um talk about letter representations for sounds and how they form when reading and writing. So these
units were deliberately chosen for the CKLA curriculum. Some are a part of the curriculum and others are what we call choice units. So the supervisors and I elected for content that related to science um in some historical categories
where we felt like we were weak in other in other curricula that we have. Um and then teachers are also working on mechanical usage of knowledge knowledge and skills shifting to soundbased phonics instruction. um beginning to in uh explore the CKLA
intervention resources and then next month during professional development we'll start unpacking protocols that come along with this curriculum. And so to u remind you that we are recipients of the Prism 2 grant from
DESIE. This is the one-year grant which helped defay the cost of purchasing the curriculum but also provided us with an abundance of professional development support. Um, our Prism coaches were actually due to be on site Monday and Tuesday. Um, and they fly in, so we have
rescheduled their um, visit, but they visit all classrooms K through K through three because those are the grades covered by Prism. Um, and they're also going to do a two-hour session for our leaders um, in each building, learning how to support the implementation um,
and how to make sure that we're consistent across all buildings. In addition, we also have the weekly coaching meetings which the supervisors and I attend. Those preede the MPS curriculum council meetings which are comprised of educators and
administrators. So, it's really nice to have uh feedback and voice from many stakeholders included and also also to get some insight on how we can be improving in our implementation. And so members of that curriculum council are going to be the ones leading
the professional development sessions um in February for their peers to learn more about um using the curriculum optimally. LAN is the other group that we're a part of. This is um a free offering from from
DESIE and this focuses on our upper school ELA um LAN and Prism. They've also been very good about helping us include our ELE supervisors or our English learner supervisors. So, there's lots of crossover happening. Um, and so we have
more administrators and teachers becoming familiar with the curriculum and what we're trying to do in the classroom in general in terms of students owning learning and approaching grade level material and beyond. And we're also part of um a couple
communities of practice which means there are neighboring districts and districts across the state who are similarly implementing CKLA and then in our other group EL education which we use for our upper school. So these other districts are in their first second or
third year of implementation. Um I know that the convenings have been very beneficial in terms of learning from each other but also there's professional development that comes from that offering for our leaders and again um representatives from school kit who is
that third party who works with those communities they come out to our school and advise us and visit classrooms as well. Um so it's really nice to have that support. So before I get into the um the data share for the middle of the year
benchmark, I just wanted to make a few notes. So we do do beginning, middle, and end of the year benchmarking for our students. Um K8 last year and we've moved on to K this year. The nines and
tens have not yet taken their middle of the year benchmark because the high school is on terms whereas the grammar schools are on trimesters. So, I'll have to share those later. Um, and I just wanted to note that the middle of the year benchmark for those grades 1 through eight occurred earlier this year
than it did last year and that was done purposefully. Perhaps a supervisor would like to speak to that later at the conclusion of objective one. um but they found it was a little bit of an interruption to do it at the time frame last year in terms of vacation learning
loss and now we have a longer um stretch where we can work on the skills that students need development in. Um and at this time of testing teachers had been using the curriculum for about three months. So that's gone from their launch PD to opening the materials becoming
familiar with them. Um, and although the assessment of dibbles hasn't changed, we do use the M-Class version of administration now, which is the digital version, and that requires a little bit of uh calibration as we move through our plans. So, just some factors that we're
thinking about, and we're interpreting the data and what it could mean. So the first slide um shows Mthuan public schools against the national average. Um and so
you can see beginning, middle and end of the year. Right now we're on beginning and middle and we have the breakdown showing above is blue and green is at um grade level and then yellow's below red
well below. So these are composite scores made up of many subtests. So well below um essentially indicates a student is below in multiple subtest areas. Um below maybe one or two um and
then at is where we would expect a student to be this point in the year and above is certainly above. So these um benchmarks or measures do change as the year goes on. So we're not looking at an endofthe-year measure. How are our
students measuring up to where they should be at the end of the year? This is a measure for at this point in time, where would we expect our students to be? So, at the end of the year benchmark, that threshold will be higher because more time will have elapsed.
The next slide shows um digital sorry dibbles benchmarking by school and you can see the beginning and middle of the year scores. There is some fluctuation in some schools where the above is getting larger.
on the whole not much shifting. And then the next slide shows um dibbles by grade. So just the zoomed up view of what this looks like across the district. I'll let the supervisors dig into that a little bit more
in just a few minutes. And for our Dreambox reading plus insight assessment, um these are for our upper school students, we have the beginning in middle by grade and then by school. Um, so I did check the middle of the
year benchmarks uh for grades and schools um is still slightly behind where we ended the year last year. But again, the the game has changed as these students have evolved and um aged a year. So has the threshold in terms of
of the difficulty there. So this assessment measures fluency, vocabulary, um reading comprehension. Our students perform on the whole relatively high in vocabulary.
Reading comprehension is is the most difficult category. And fluency is measured by the pace at which students are moving through the assessment. Um, so students who move too fast um or too slow or checking their work, their
scores could be um impacted by that. And so our supervisors, I think this might be a good time um to bring them up, um had bulleted some ways that they're reviewing the data and addressing it with teachers and then moving forward. So as you may remember,
we're down to two humanities supervisors. each shares two schools. Um so Kathleen Denlvy is working with the Tenny and CGS and Jennifer Connelly is working with the Marsh and the Tim. Um, and so I would like to highlight that
most recently within the last couple of weeks, they've moved through every grade level CP, which is like the common meeting time, and reviewed the data for that grade level and that team specifically with them, um, along with other building administrators and
highlighting some ways that they can help to move the data, improve instruction. So, if you'd like to introduce yourselves. >> Oh, hi, Kathleen. Levy CGS and Tenny and I'm Jen Connley Marsh and Tim.
>> Sure. Yep. Um so we sat with each we had a CP at grade level um and looked at their benchmarks and looked at the measures and we are doing a couple things with those students who are well below. We are readjusting our reading
support groups, looking at the midyear students that they service. Um, are there any outliers who have shown growth? Are there students who aren't growing? Um, are there students in the well below that come up as needing reading support? We're trying to figure all that out and adjust our groups
according to all of the data and teacher input. And then we're also um implementing small group within the classroom for kids who aren't supported with reading support. So, we weren't doing that. I'm advising that to start because we're in the mechanical phase right now. They have a brand new
curriculum. It's completely different um than what they're used to. So, we worked with CKLA and our partners at TNTP who advised us that all of the CP um excuse me, the PD in general should be about like getting to know the program, getting into it. So, now that we have
that mid-year data, we're using um CLA intervention. So what it does is it takes the progress monitoring and the uh benchmarking and it kind of calibrates that data to create groups with like skill and has 10-minute lesson plans for those uh groups of students. So say I'm
a second grade teacher. Um I have the students who are well below the whatever the latest assessment was whether it was progress monitoring or benchmarking. For us it's benchmarking right now. it calibrates and says, "These guys, these five students need to work on phone segment lesson plan. Um, and we're going
to be implementing this three times, three to five times a week for 10 minutes a day." We're also asking the teachers to do the same with our yellow students who are a little bit less than our red students. Um, if they get support with their reading specialist, we're they can do an extra, but they
don't have to do that. So, we are looking at who the reading specialists support. We use multiple data points. We're adjusting those groups and we're asking the teachers just pull small groups and really looking um at what CKLA has to offer to help those kids, those different tiers.
>> Um I'll just add too that we also pick um like a broader focus area based on the data. So we don't just look at the composite scores for us, we go into the subtests. Um, and so looking at the subtest and how they vary across the district, um, and the like prerequisite
skills as they get more difficult, like one depends on the other. So we also like pick a focus area for the grade to focus in their further instruction in TR1. So >> I have a few quick questions. Okay. When you talk about the subtests like in the lower grades, does that mean like you're
looking at phmic awareness or Okay. >> Yep. which is very different than reading. Okay. Like it's a component. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I understood that. >> So different grades have different subtests. >> Yeah. And >> I think that might be helpful for us to
all hear how these test these benchmark assessments what they include >> when you're looking for how a student is learning to read. >> Does that make sense what I said? >> So you want to love it. Kindergarten um has letter naming fluency which is an
indicator for reading success. Um it has phone segmentation which is the students given a word and they have to um segment the sounds of the word and give it back to you. Um and then they have and we also um are hoping in that test is kind of like two measures in there that
they're blending um oh sorry it's wrong. Nonsense word fluency is the one with that's two. So we're looking for letter sounds and then blending into um nonsense words. We use nonsense words because it eliminates the site memory um to see if they're using their phonics skills. Um so phone segmentation is
phmic awareness then phonics. Um and then in kindergarten they do also word um reading fluency which is a real word list that consists of some um high frequency words and some irregular words. Um and that is linked to future
reading success too. And then in first grade, um, they repeat all of those, but they add in oral reading fluency, which is connected text reading a passage. Um, where we measure the rate, like how many words they get through and their accuracy. We're really looking for
accuracy. Um, second grade drops letter naming fluency and phone segmentation fluency and adds maze, which is a comprehension. It's a basic comprehension. Um it's like a closed passage which is just a passage on grade
level every seventh or eighth word is eliminated and they have a choice of three to choose from. Um third grade keeps those and then fourth grade only has oral reading fluency and maze. So we
look at those and so for a first grade classroom for example I might be looking at one of the concerns I would have for us is their phone name segmentation fluency. If that's not in place, then we're going to have problems going on further and so forth. >> Okay.
>> A student a student in fourth grade might be asked to take a lower sub uh measure. So, for example, um someone who is above on oral fluency won't have to, but if you're on grade level or below, you will probably have to take um a nonsense word measure to see if you can
properly decode. So, yeah. >> Thank you for that. That was helpful. Um, how are parents being notified of the these assessments? >> Do you want to? >> Yep. Um, CKLA has a parent letter that
goes home. We sent it in the beginning, sent it, uh, well, the teachers printed it and sent it out. Can take credit card and, um, did the middle of the year, so it shows them their progress and explains the measures. >> Okay. Okay. And finally, you talk about the reading specialists. Are students
still like is it still fluid? So you may have success and then move out. So you wouldn't expect a student to occupy a seat or you wouldn't hope they would occupy the seat for the whole year. >> That's the hope >> if they're if they're occupying a seat, you know, for if they're in there for a
long time, then we bring up things like TSS or other, you know, so it depends on where they started and how far they're moving and the makeup of the group. Honestly, >> I think in the past, Dr. Popski, you you provided us with a list of the number of
students who worked with the reading specialists. >> Does that make does that sound familiar? Yes, >> that would be I think down the road very helpful to us >> to make sure you know especially as we look at budgeting. We did we did I think last time I produced that um find some
inconsistencies among buildings which has been an upside I will say to having um two I don't know if they find it an upside but working with two buildings there has been greater consistency in sharing best practices across the two >> but I can provide that for you.
>> Well Lisa I'm sorry to say too our reading specialists this year have gotten together a lot more in the past and they are mostly using the same curriculum. using a UFly um curriculum which is a tier 2 and they're working together so professional development days they've been getting together and talking and the ones who are um kind of
experts in it are helping the others and it's really been nice they've told me that it's been nice that they have someone to actually talk to and piggyback off of especially at CGS in March because Melissa and Chantel are all by themselves so >> okay thank you very much >> vice chair some questions and then
member Maxwell >> thank you uh one kudos for your your back and forth there, especially the CGS to the marsh has got some mileage in between. Um, do you guys go into the classroom or do you take them out as
groups? >> The reading specialists, they take them out into their classes. >> Okay. So, I wasn't sure. I know some classes are dedicated and some are not. And the reason why I asked that question is are the groups in a classroom? Are they in the hallway? I know there's some
>> No, they have classrooms. their own classrooms. And how big are these groups? >> We try to keep them small because in order to have a family, >> we try to keep them no more than six. Like six would be a max. Um fifth uh kindergarten we try to top out at five.
>> Um >> it's it's really difficult to match the needs because it's it needs to be um a very tight skill focused group so that we can get them out as as fast as we can. So if you have too many needs, you can't meet them all. And sometime, you
know, it could be as short as as small as short vowel sounds versus long vowel sounds. So if a student doesn't need short vowel sounds, they need long vowel, but the group's working on short vowel, they're not going to get it. >> So I'm assuming in let's say I'm just going to use fifth grade for example. Um
I'm just going to just pick a grade. Out of the fifth grade, there could be eight different groups, let's say, or five different groups. How many groups? Let's let's use real numbers then. Typically it's typically it's one or two groups per grade and well for reading
specialists. So for example CGS our reading specialist works with two groups of grade two because that's our lowest um performing >> because you rank each of those groups on how >> we look at the data per grade and see what they need and um just for example fourth grade at CGS does not need as
much reading support. So she has one real small group of um students in in fourth but she has two. So, we had a really we really have to look at their schedules, what the schedules are of the kids. We're trying not to pull out of CKLA skills, trying to pull out a win, but then there's ESL services and it's like a massive puzzle piece um
>> to try and like Jen was saying, you really want to get it skilled based. So, because they also need immediate corrective feedback, so you want to make that um so it's >> and the reason why I asked these questions, just so you know, my wife's an EL supervisor in in a different district. So, and I hear the story about
how the groups are different, got different skill sets because some are reading at higher level than the same grade, different group, and John Doe might be doing a little bit better. So, we'll move to this group, but Julie is doing a little bit worse. So, are you guys doing that? moving students around,
shuffling them around and trying to figure out where they their strengths are or >> Yeah, we are actually still finishing up some, you know, because we make a first list, the reading specialists go through it and then even after they get started, sometimes there needs to be tweaks. So, we try to be as flexible as we can with
all the student services and other things to make sure the groups are as tight and effective as they can be. >> It's not as fluid as we would like it to be because of schedules and whatnot. >> It's only two of you. >> Yeah. or even even just figuring out schedulewise. So mid year I would say is the first time we're really changing
groups at Tenny and CGS, but um we'll try to be fluid and our reading specialists are so good about talking to teachers and teachers really want the input, but we need we're starting to do more of that. >> Thank you. I just wanted to bring the light to that. I I I thought I knew the answers, but I wanted the public to at
least hear it from you that there's a lot of shuffling. >> There's a lot of need and and you guys are creating these puzzle pieces along the way. So, kudos. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Member Maxwell.
>> So, just a few um pointers or questions too. Um I know Dibbles you said measures phonics decoding fluency um some comprehension. Um Dibbles is a warning system for us
not proof of proficiency. Correct. Right. Um so it's more of an adaptive assessment. Yep. >> It's not it's not like insight where insight is adaptive um to the student. >> Uh okay. So I guess let me ask it this
way. So Dreambox for instance gives a question then it watches and if they got it right it measures how fast they did it, how many hints they got, how many tries >> and then the system decides is easier next same level of intervention harder.
>> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Um so it personalizes the sequence of questions to that student. So when we look at these numbers where it's, you know, beginning of the year, end of the year benchmarks, they are in fact just that benchmarks. They are not showing
proficiency or showing grade level because these assessments really are just benchmarks and um tools to help us identify how to get our students the help they need to perform
at grade level. >> Yeah. >> Right. Um so um I know that uh Dibbles defines their benchmark at benchmark um as quote based on national data a child is likely to
meet future reading demands without intensive um intervention with all of these test scores. Now I know um you know the teachers had only a certain amount of time with the curriculum and all that. These specific
tests actually don't test curriculum knowledge, correct? They test um levels of reading. >> They do not test curriculum. However, I would say that they do assess the
foundational skills, right? A part of the framework. >> Yep. >> So, they're not standard aligned. >> So, I our curriculum is has two pieces to it. So the knowledge part which is more content and skills part which is very heavily rooted in early literacy
skills which is essentially what the benchmark is helping us predict what we should do next to help students continue to advance to your point. Mhm. >> But it's not I think if you're talking about standards like writing standards or or things of that nature,
>> standards, just grade level proficiency standards by the framework of Massachusetts curriculum standards. >> It's not testing standards. It's testing your reading level and your reading abilities. >> Dibbles. No. Yeah. It's not testing the standards,
>> right? It's a it's a tool. It's a screening tool. Um, so, um, I mean, given your answers, is it accurate to say that Dreambox and Dibbles are being used to imply grade level proficiency, even though that that that's not what they're designed to do?
>> We I I think that we're looking at it as just like you said with the definition, like what students need more than the core instruction. >> Yes. >> And which ones don't. >> Yeah. I mean, I I love it when we present it as we're using these as progress monitoring tools to get our
students to where we need to be. I mean, we had eight of our reading specialists stand at that podium last April telling us that, you know, our kids aren't reading at grade level. We need more support, right? I don't want to come into another budget season and have them say like, we need more support. We're
not getting it. That was last April. At that time, we took MCCAST. we got the MCCAST scores back this year. It clearly shows we still need help and I feel like these tests do help us identify where we could target help,
>> right? Um so I think I just want to be clear that like in you know with these this presentation it says percent of students at or above grade level and this is a percentage of students making progress not a percentage of students at
grade level because these tests do not test grade level they test whether the students made progress upon themselves. No, they test where they are in relation to a benchmark that is set for grade level at a specific time. I think saying
whether that's grade level or not, I I do feel that a lot of people use that interchangeably, >> right? >> However, I think that it's it's not nec we are looking for their growth always, right? >> But we are also measuring them against a benchmark.
>> So a benchmark, right? The benchmark is not a state standard. My impression is is that you're doing a diagnostic testing, >> right, >> of the student >> versus a standardsbased testing formula like the national
assessment of educational progress or an SAT or the MCCAST. So we have to differentiate between the two vehicles. >> I agree. I think if you can diagnose a kid in terms of deficiencies, just like if someone has a speech impediment, but they have high
intelligence, I think that's the the proper course of action and then to be able to follow up on an individualized basis, but to equate like uh standardsbased testing, I think if you take a practice test, it's not going to
have the same weight as an SAT >> test. And I think what was problematic was we took away the MCCAST um as a measurement and we're just doing the test and I think it's it's implicated in how kids with their test
results but we have to this is always was a diagnostic tool right >> what happened was a couple years ago >> we were changing some of the diagnostic tools and changing some of the the testing and adapting to a new test and
that was and then we were still going to a previous benchmark where we should have just started from scratch. That was the problem I had from a couple of years ago. >> Yeah. So I I I just wanted to clarify for you know people at home um what what
these tests were just because I I know there's a lot of confusion with it. I know um I I just won't don't want people to assume that these are standardized tests and these are showing grade level proficiency when they're showing um grade level progress um and we're
monitoring how they're progressing um and and making progress because they are making progress. That's very evident, you know. Um but unfortunately these tests are not aligned with Massachusetts state standards. So they're not um showing proficiency or mastery. They're
really just showing skill set. >> Yeah, I think. Yes, I think. >> Yeah. >> So, the green bar, >> which here we're calling at, otherwise known as core core support, >> indicates that if the student carried
about their day and attended their ELA class, it's very likely they wouldn't need any intervention. they're where we would expect them to be for this age and grade which syncs with reading standards and what we would expect of that grade
>> that and so you're right in that these are our internal markings and certainly that we share with families that we use and are sharing out quarterly as progress to update the committee on how we're progressing and how students are
growing. Um, so it's not meant to be alarming in any way. Um, and we do hope that students who are are performing um, well below, as we'll say, or needing support in multiple areas need support in fewer areas as time goes on. Um, but
there's a million ways to slice this in cases you could look at. Um, but at this point in time, considering we just unboxed the curriculum and are now getting into the beyond the mechanical use, I think that we're we're pleased with with how it's going thus far. Um,
and I will I I will just move ahead to one slide because I wanted to highlight this in like the discussion earlier about reading specialists and how few kids can get to them. um who and as you can see we have many students who are in
need of that um very small group targeted support. Um we had applied to be part of the early literacy high dosage tutoring from DESIE and we found out just last week when I was actually creating this presentation that we were
awarded which is excellent. Um and we've done this a couple years ago and I think our teachers have asked for it again. Um, and so you can see here that we've been awarded 80 seats at the Timony, 80 at the Tenny, 60 at CGS, and 30 at
Marsh. Um, and so this particular initiative is targeting grade one students who fall into um, and they equate this to Dibbles because that's one of the certified benchmarking tests that for why we were awarded the red category and then you
can creep into the yellow category, too. But once you've covered those students, then you can go into other grades. But grade one is really the focus. Um, and it's through a a a third party group who we will meet, I believe, tomorrow. Um, but we're able to hire our own staff to
provide the support. Um, and so it was really nice last year or year before. I don't think that we had as many seats. So this could be depending on how the the third party group lets us structure it 16 groups that could carry at some schools throughout the end of the year.
Um we had done before school before we could talk about after school. So there's lots of ideas of of how we can deliver this. But this will also help um alleviate some of the um the stress on the reading specialists um because students who may be in these high dosage
tutoring groups can be removed from that list and students who may not have access for one reason or another to these groups could join the reading specialist group. So that's going to be tremendously helpful to us. Um and so we're excited about that award. Um you had mentioned the red and yellow um and
green areas. The that shows us um that shows us that the the child is meeting benchmarks, >> right? >> Green. >> The green the green >> I'm sorry. The green shows they're meeting the benchmark. >> Yeah. And and the yellow and red show that in some of those subtests that were
mentioned, they didn't fare as well. >> So they're below that benchmark. And so in red there would be multiple subtests where they they were below where they should be. >> So are they all getting the same tests as their peers or is it different based off of that child's need?
>> Same test. >> Same test. So it's for this point in time. >> Yep. >> In this grade, this is the test. >> All getting the same questions. >> Yep. Yep. Same exact >> because it's a benchmark. So it's measured against this is what you should be able to read at this >> at this time.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. Um so if a child in let's say fourth grade is at a 1.3 um comprehension level you would say that they would be well below and they'd require intervention.
>> You talking about in Dreambox? >> Sure. Yeah. Yeah. If they well if they were a 1.3 in Dreambox and they are definitely well below but we would probably look at their dibbles measures to see why they aren't reading to where they need to be as opposed to why they
aren't comprehending. >> So you would use both tests and kind of see Yep. >> Okay. And do you ever take um the MCCASTs into consideration as well and kind of break those down because I know you could see like question by question because maybe those kids need help with
the same stuff and you could group them together based off of that too. >> In upper school >> um which we didn't have an upper school reading specialist at our schools last year. Um this year we we are now at Tim
and Tenny. So there's an upper school reading specialist. And so that is part of the data set how they how they did along with um dream blocks. Um but we also will when they you know if those two numbers aren't looking good we'll go ahead and do a dibbles real quick to see
and then like do further assessment if needed. um dream box is like we wouldn't use that as a standalone if >> we look at yeah for for um attend CGS for our win groups we're looking at MCCAST data in the dream box and we're looking especially at SGP so that their
growth for MCCAST so we're like oh this student is either like they could be on the custom of MCCAST but they have a really low SGP did they not try last year let's look at their writing oh they didn't fill it in so we're trying to have like goal setting conferences with them so the MCCAST data does fit in there along with the dream talks and
then in fourth grade you get it all. So it's we are we are trying to become datacentric and trying to work with teachers um to talk about it more and to manipulate it and um this year with the new curriculum it's been more last year
was my first year in Mthuan and reading success was a really great place to do all of that. So now we're learning how to do it within CKLA and our systems that we have in place um especially since we do have so many kids who need reading support and we don't have enough reading specialists. So, we're trying and the teachers have been so great
about about it and um so >> I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh excuse me, Member Willlette. >> Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um just want to emphasize again and I I know I've mentioned in years past um and we've had an influx with
leadership with the the school system. In terms of a grant writer, now I know you have a lot on your plate and we were able to be successful with a couple of grants. Is that something that we as a body should be exploring again? Uh because you're talking about formula
grants versus competitive grants versus foundational governmental the works. Is that something that we should be looking at? I know it's going to be a very finite year again. Obviously, we might have to do some cutbacks, but if we have to look at strategically and you're
going to be in competition with other school districts. Um, is that something that we should be exploring uh as an asset to to your office down the line? If I don't know if that's your philosophy, if that's something we should be exploring as a school committee. I
>> I think it's worth a discussion. Um, our demographics um and makeup of the district make us prime for a lot of DESIE grants. we fit a we fit a lot of the criteria. Um we have a good track record um with making those dollars
count. Um so we've been fortunate on that end. Um I do write a good number of grants as does John Crocker, as does Nancy Lopez, as does Gina Bozac. So when we come across something for our department and it's incumbent on us to do that, the
principles are helping me write grants for science right now. um the ones that are in front of us were successful with. I do think there is more opportunity to search beyond the ones that are so visible on the DESIE website. Um there
may be other matches for larger needs that we have >> because I think again in terms of the audit uh professional development was one of those uh glaring issues and then also literacy is going to be our focus this year obviously. Um, so if there's
anything I can do from my perspective, and I I posed that question in the past, but again, I think you have a lot on your plate. If there's something we can do from our end, I just want to emphasize that. Thank you. >> Thank you, member. Thank you, >> Vice Chair. >> No, nothing.
>> All right, we can continue. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> We'll move on to um objective two, reducing opportunity and achievement gaps between student groups to ultimately improve outcomes. Um so
quickly wanted to give you um an update on our latest leadership quarterly meeting. uh the MTSS revisioning team, my cap planning, mental health screening, um and special education root cause analysis.
So, um we have quarterly leadership meetings, which I've I've mentioned before. Um our leadership team across the district is so large that we're split into two sections and we run them back to back in the office. Uh most recently um we gave an update from the
TSS revisioning team which I'll allude to later and then we explored our decap. So that's the district curriculum accommodation plan. Um that plan hasn't been um updated in over a decade and um
it's outdated, not representative of what we do and really is the foundational layer for the tiered support process. So that needed some looking at. So we looked at ours um and then we looked at uh 10 or so other districts who have recently revised
theirs. Um I was looking for 24 and 25. Uh and so in teams we we spent some time filtering through discussing what are some sections that we liked or didn't like and what did we want this to be. Um the overall consensus was that we wanted
the decap to be a useful tool for teachers. um because that is in fact its purpose. Uh and so this is a general education tool for teachers who notice students may be struggling a particular
area. They can go to this document and see what are some ways I can assist the student that don't require formal documentation uh or necess necess necessitate a 504 or an IEP. And these um approaches often
align with best teaching practices. Um so ultimately the groups agreed that these would be the main sections of the DECAP. Um so we'd have one on assessment, attention, regulation, executive
functioning, behavior, belonging, instruction, and motivation. Um within those several subheadings as well. Um, but what I've started to do is to craft this document, taking the feedback from the group on the sections, taking what
I'm finding, um, might still be salvageable from our previous plan, what I've seen put into use, and also looking at what are some common best practices from other districts. Um, one thing that we did like was that the decap from
other districts and does not necessarily encapsulate every best best practice that you could ever employ, then it becomes too overwhelming. Um, but districts tend to lean on a handful that they think would be really helpful for teachers. So, we're trying to do that.
We're trying to be specific and give examples. I don't think it would be very helpful for a teacher um struggling um with behavior in the class to look under that heading and see try classroom management strategies. Well, what like what what are they? What does it look
like? Um so we're trying to build that out now. Um so I'm writing the draft, sharing it with the team who's going to pick it apart. I'll share it out to the larger staff. Um, but whether this is our most final version that should live
for a decade, no. We're trying to get something that we think is true and solid for us and then it should be a yearly revision and an updating. Um, and so if we're living in it and we find it could be even better, we can do that the following year. That's a quick update on
the decap. I hope to be bringing it to you um the next meeting or the meeting after. How is early? >> It's It's really everything. Yeah. Okay. >> Um, so in the in the DECAP,
it's not going to specify specific with early reading strategies, but it's more overall instructional practices that are applicable to many subject areas. What we're what we're going to see is beyond that if a student if a teacher is
employing all their resources and tools and have tried everything and are still finding that the student isn't progressing that would be caused to bring the student up for TSS or for discussion for tiered support. So, what this um
revisioning team is working on now, which I just came from, they're just meeting again at the Timman Library. Um they're looking at um there's a data subgroup that's working on what pieces of data are exactly essential for the teacher to look at in order to bring the
student up for discussion. Um we have another subgroup who's looking at tier one practices. In most recent years, we're finding that um a lot of students who are being brought up are getting sent back uh or the teachers getting some sent back with tier one practices
instead of um intervention practices because sometimes tier one isn't quite where it should be. So, how can we make sure tier one is solid? We have the data. Um another subgroup is looking at um engagement and attendance. Um, and so
we have all these different parts and also curriculum mapping as a part of it. So we're we're trying to piece everything together, rehash it, and then look at how these teams function within a school. So it had been the case over time. There was a group that met about
academic needs. There's a group that met about behavioral needs, but they overlap and one causes another. And so it really didn't make sense. So we want these groups meeting together to form one big group and look at the whole composite of a student and then prioritize how we can
improve them from there. So it's it's exciting. Um and then I'll move to the my cap planning grant. Um this is another grant we wrote and um were awarded. You may have heard of Naviance, which is
the tool that the high school students use for scholarships, um long range planning, short range planning, um receiving their um recommendation letters from teachers, organizing themselves. My cap is the
free uh version with different pieces um from Desessie and this has really been um celebrated in terms of um its usefulness for students in grades 6 through 12. It's also recommended for um districts that
have vocational programming like our own. So currently we don't we don't have Navian in the upper grade upper schools. Um we are planning to start my cap in grade six next year. Um and then have those students begin with their goal
sharing so that the whole staff is aware of where students are hoping to be and that we can give them the steps they need to get there. Um and that speaks to our reducing the opportunity gap and ultimately the the achievement gap. So, we've had um some members of the MYAP
team and counselors at the um upper schools and high school start looking at this and are really excited about a lot of the the pieces and some post-secondary planning pieces. So, more to come on that. Um but that's that's a way we're working toward this objective.
Um and then the um fall mental health screening overview. Um Mr. Crocker shared some some data for tonight. Um so there was a strong participation rate of 81% in grades 5 through 12. Um there were no significant declines in
outcomes across all administrations despite the expected natural backslide between 25 um spring and fall. Sometimes over summer we see a backslide. Um there's been stable growth and not
much significant change and overall reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression in grades five through eight. So these slides can be somewhat overwhelming um with the information, but it's nice to note the trend. Um and
so the first bar on the left um represents uh 2015 2016 and then moving all the way to the right um which is our current. Um so we can see that the severe anxiety is at its lowest rate
since school year 1516. Um that's for 9 through 12. There's been some decline in severe depression rates. Post-traumatic stress prevalence um is is pretty much stable.
There's an 82% decline in severe and post and moderate post-traumatic stress symptoms since this measurement began um in 2021. five through eight anxiety. Um strong gains uh and reports of no concern or
mild where we aspire for students to be in terms of 5 through eight depression prevalence. um strong gains and no concern and severe and then again 63% decline in severe and
moderate post-traumatic stress symptoms um in 5 through eight. So what these slides essentially demonstrate is that um there's a longstanding screening history in Mthuan with a data set which is really nice to be able to compare
ourselves to um there are many districts who are just starting to get off the ground with systems like this. So whereas we're at a tweaking situation or situation we can reflect over years of data um that's been very helpful. Um, also I think it was brought up last
year looking more at the impact of specific interventions that students are receiving as a result of the screening data. Um, so Mr. Crocker has been um working with counselors to track that as well. So we know what's typically
working well for students or not and that leads lends into the MTSS um piece too. Um so what supports are students receiving? Are they working? um what type of structure seem to be working for the student? Can we replicate that in
another area? Um I had asked last time, do you have any information on um the students that are taking this the the questionnaires um L kids, special ed kids, kids who are reading below grade level um that don't
understand the questions and what we're doing to support those students. Um, I speak from experience that I have a student that doesn't understand the questions and I get called constantly because he's answered a certain question a certain way
>> because he doesn't understand the question. Um, and then the followup, you have a guidance counselor talking to a student who didn't understand the question and doesn't understand what he's being asked and that conversation doesn't go well either. And so, how are
we supporting those kids who don't understand the questions and how how are we helping them? Because it's I'm not saying they don't need help. They do need to be screened, but >> we need to find a way to screen kids who don't understand these written questions,
>> the delivery of the screener, the follow supported followup. >> Okay, I can get that information for you. I know in other communities and I'm not saying Mthan but in terms of the the opt
out process. >> How are we doing that? We we're re focusing with the parent to let them know about the survey. Do they have access to the questions in advance just to look it over? If they have objections
to it, can they opt out? What is that exactly that process? >> Um so every fall um there's a communication sent from Mr. Crocker to all students. Then there's another checkpoint um from the counselor who
disseminates the information. If you wish to opt out, you certainly can. Um and ultimately before the screener begins, part of the script is read to the student. If you wish not to participate, you need not do so. Um we Mr. Crocker and I have have tightened
that up a little bit um in terms of the time frame of notification prior to screener administration. Um so we make sure and I'm copied on those two that two weeks prior to the screener the message is reiterated. Um one thing that
I I do like is that once a parent opts out that opt out is flagged in the system and it remains there. So they need not opt out repeatedly. Um but they they will be opted out until they express otherwise. >> Okay. So is there a a dual process of
the student is notified of an upcoming survey? >> Is the parent at that same tandem notified that there's an upcoming survey. >> There might be some serious >> controversial questions. Most people
will fill it out, but a parent might want to avail themselves of an opt out and there'll be an explanation of the process. Pretty straightforward for them to opt out if need be. >> Yes, there's a website that articulates what each screener is looking at. >> Okay.
>> Um and certainly follow-up is encouraged if they had questions about particular content. >> Would they have access to those those questions on the survey? >> They would be able to view them. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. We'll hear from member Donovan, the member story. >> If I just may share, Mr. Wlette, I um
received some concerns about um a screener um and looked into it and my research brought me to the guidance web page where there's like everything you need to know. I ought to hand whoever built that. You can see the actual
screeners as well. >> So, you know, if you have any if anyone has any questions and I also want to commend the principles. I like to look at their weekly um newsletters which is which are online frequently. They will I think pretty consistently give the heads up.
>> Yeah. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. That is another layer. So there's the four. Yeah. >> Dr. Gowski, what's the um percentage of parents that opt out of doing something like this? Is it minimal?
Um, off the top of my head, I think it's one or 2%. >> A member Maxwell. >> Um, I will say, well, first of all, I want to say thank you because the MTSS and the DECAP, um, we've been talking about for a couple years and you jumped
right on that. So, that's huge. Um, second, I just kind of wanted to give a little bit of um, uh, comfort maybe. Um, I opted out of u, mental health surveys uh, maybe two or three years ago. Um, and I since have
not had any issues with anybody giving a survey to any of my kids. I mean, once you're on that opt out list, it follows you yearly and and you do not have to opt out again. I just wanted to provide comfort for maybe somebody who may not
know that. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um and then I also wanted to highlight that um through special education department. Um so Miss Bozac, myself and Sarah Brown from the high school um special education team has
been working um to identify root causes uh of the following data points. So grammar school academic proficiency specifically grades four through eight in ELA and math. Um high school academic proficiency specifically in grade 10 um
ELA and math. So those would be um MCCAST driven results. the graduation rate of students with disabilities and the dropout rate of students with disabilities. So those are four areas that um we find ourselves below the
state or significant um gaps between our own data set um that deserved a little bit more attention. So um we're using our resources to help dig a little deeper there. Um, and the next steps would be to develop an action plan. Um,
and then to use some of the fund code uh 240, that's a grant, uh, monies to implement that action plan. Uh, and then to progress monitor. Um, so I have some some um ideas of of the cause. Um, but
when we jump to conclusions without really taking the time to go back and carefully look at the the data and articulate what that root cause is, it's just a guess that could lead to a dead end. So, we're taking time to do that well.
And finally, objective three, um, ultimately to enhance partnerships with students and families and trying to, um, build that sense of belonging within the school community. Just wanted to give the quick update on the um the MPS portrait of a learner slashvision of a
graduate. We've decided on a name vision of a graduate after much debate. Um and then uh I had talked about last year in Infinite Campus, we tracked student participation in extracurricular activities and athletics. Um, which was
really interesting to see the percentage of students in grade nine who are taking advantage of what we offer. Um, I did be begin to administer that survey to try to figure out what the barriers could be to participation.
Um, and I'll update you on the CTE exploratory, both the grade nine and grade 8 experience. We have some case load monitoring updates, um some presentations that our students received, and then where we're heading with bullying prevention.
So, the portrait of a learner. Um, again to remind the public, on February 5th from 5 to 6:30 at the Neans Memorial Library in that hall upstairs, our students are going to be leading a workshop to get some feedback um from
the community on what they think a graduate from Mthuan High School should be, be able to do, how they should handle themselves. Um and so really all feedback is valuable to us. Uh those in the workforce can tell us the skills
that they think are important for students to have. Families can tell us about qualities they think would be important um for students to have. um the work up to this point and while the work was happening um within our working groups at the high school and faculty
groups and student groups that is when the um state vision of a graduate came out and so luckily um our directions aligned. So right now we're looking to detail the vision of the graduate in terms of the operational definitions for
the competencies. So for instance, if we all agree communication is important, do we have the same idea of what communication is and how can we help our students get there? So defining those terms will be the work of that day. We had hoped to have a draft ready to vote
on. Um we were a little bit delayed in our workshopping of that, but I think it it ended up being a little bit better. Um so the community can get their their two sons in a little bit earlier. Um, we do ask um if people are able to and willing to sign up ahead of time, it
helps the students plan. So, there's a QR code for that. Not necessary if if we can't figure that part out, but it would be nice. Um, and then the survey that went out to grade nine students. Um, at the point
when I created the survey, not all had responded yet. Um, but I was I was becoming a little bit surprised by some of the results. Um, because we did do the clubs and activities fair at the beginning of the year. We did do um
the athletic um information nights prior to the each season. Um we do offer no cut sports. Um we encourage theater and band and I think we have 40 operational clubs. um in any club that a student
wants to to create, they're able to do so. Um some of my findings suggest that we need to do even better getting the word out about um you know, some students said I didn't participate because I didn't think I would make the team, but there's a no cuts um team
every season. Um, also there was some concern, which I think may be natural in grade nine, but that I would like um to put them at ease about thinking that they wouldn't be welcomed by coaches or peers or teammates. Um, that's something that I'd like to address. Some concern
about getting school work done. Um, and there was some um concern about transportation, but it wasn't necessarily to the degree that I thought it would be. Um, so I'm interested to see when when there's more respondents what the differences are. Um, so next
steps is that um I'm going to share the results um with our grade nine principal and teachers and see if we can make um individual connections with students to help get them involved. We're also on the verge of course selection time in the counseling department where students
meet with their counselors and register for classes. that might be an excellent time to also inquire from students what activities they'd like to participate in and garner a potential list or roster to share with that advisor so they can follow up with them. So I think we can
just strengthen some connections there. Um, in terms of CTE or career career and technical education. Oh, I'm sorry. >> Just a quick question on um the
athletics or extracurricular. How many wa do you know how many waiverss we're giving on average to the lower schools at this time? >> Um, the upper school, I should say. I'm sorry. I don't have I don't have the number in total, but I I do know of a
handful of programs that do have them. So, those essentially are waiverss to allow grade eight participation when we don't have >> um the numbers of students at the high school to be able to field um either freshman JV teams
>> because I do know there's a few teams going into next season that are going to have a hard time filling a roster and and and I and it's sports that are it just blowing my mind considering how much we've invested over the years in these sports. Um, so seeing some of
these comments questions, you know, is that the reason and and then also are is it an ability to start hitting eighth grade sooner because again this is grade nine
>> to really show them that in eighth grade this is an opportunity for you to to be a part of our program even if it's a JV league >> because I'm looking here this is a big number of students in a class of what 450
475 am I right around that right number >> we're a little smaller this year so just under 400 >> oh it's under 400 okay >> just under um >> so that that's a big chunk of numbers and it could be the same student you know over and over saying it but ultimately if we could hit eighth grade
even seventh grade start getting them ramped up >> into Mthuan public school sports especially at the high school level I mean I don't have to tell you I know how how much you love our athletic here at >> I think this this would solve the problem.
>> Yeah, we we um did the road shows in the fall where we actually have the students and a lot of the captains and club adviserss go out and do all the speaking which was great. >> Yeah. >> Um I think the my cap piece I talked about earlier is going to be good too because it's going to help students articulate what they want to do and
formalize it so we can find that interest recorded somewhere and bring them along. I know a lot of the high school coaches have been really good about trying to form those relationships um between the upper and high school, but you're right, there has been an uptick in the grade eight waiverss. >> And I see it's very heavy on athletics
like band might I don't know if band's running into the same situation. I know there was a confusion with performing arts recently with the same show being used in different places. Like are we are we having these comms within all of our clubs and specials? Well, and band's
unique because that is a class period offered during the school day. >> Yes. >> So, um with additional extracurricular offerings um but I know the grade eight, for instance, um grade 8 band was invited to participate um with the high
school band at a football game this year to >> try to encourage that. And so, um there is some excitement there. Also, the jamborees in the fieldhouse when the grammar schools and high schools are all together. Um, yeah. So, that we have had our band numbers have been growing in
past years actually in the lower school upper schools. >> Do we still do Dirty Hands Inc.? >> We do. Okay. Because I remember one year we started inviting eighth graders into that program. I'm not sure if we're still doing that too, but it's just it the excitement of getting the upper
school who is now the older kids in that school becoming the babies of the new school or the young adults, excuse me, in the new school. I think that that momentum >> especially when it's something with the
arts I've always been passionate about this part of the school is is the creative side >> is if we can still harness that momentum I wouldn't I don't think we'll see these comments like you know I I don't think I'd make the
team >> like you wouldn't like if the momentum is there you're seventh and eighth grade that's carrying over Mhm. >> So I just I I just want to be mindful that attacking it as early as seventh grade and having the Tim and Tenny right here too.
>> I I look at this as a great opportunity for like a ctorsium like you use this as opportunity. >> Um so I I'll just say that I don't want to repeat myself but I just want to carry that momentum. Yeah, I think the grade 8 participants have had really good experiences and parents have
comment commented to me that they've been surprised at how welcomed the students were. Also, our playball program I think is helping students get involved in an earlier age. And if I could build on what um remember Daglio said precoid I remember like the Dirty
Hands Inc. group coming to touring the schools and performing and students going wild because it really is an innovative creative wild group that defies description sometimes, >> right? >> The lights went black and the guys were all highlighted doing the
>> and I know like there there was more of that. Um, and then you know we had co whether it was COVID or we had to it was you know you're pulling kids out of class that's the other thing but maybe it's something and timing is everything. It's usually
around MCCAST. >> So um I I think it's something worthy of a discussion or if you would be so kind to ask your team. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Or even walk some kids over. I don't know. I don't know. But I remember the Dirty Hands Inc. The reception was
just insane and everyone wanted to join band after watching >> such an impressive show. >> Yeah. But thank you for that. >> Maxwell, >> uh, just a couple things. Um, just talking about the partnership with students and families. Um, play ball
that it's a great program and I think it does kind of introduce the level of sports. Um, so I I would love to continue that program. Um, one thing that I wanted to ask about was just going off of um, member Daglio was with the theater and fine arts department.
Can we do um, can we offer like a each school has theater? They each do a play. Um, I know that, you know, field trips and everything are kind of tough at times. Can we do maybe a show or a performance for grades K through four
with our theater group as an enrichment opportunity for them to kind of see like, oh, this is actually kind of cool. Let's let's join theater. You know, >> I know there um in many of the grammar schools, they do something like that within their own building. Like their upper school drama will put on the show
for the lower school. They'll also do that with band um especially around the holiday time. I think they had some of the kindergarten first graders in. >> I've never seen it. I think it's a great idea. I mean, those kids would love to see these shows, you know. Um, and then the last point I wanted to address was
the um after school clubs and I know, you know, it it contracts and things like that. can we bring in maybe like a parent volunteer at let's say the CGS who does photography and she says all
right let's um give me eight students and maybe charge them 10 bucks a piece because the afterchool programs we offer now are $250 a a kid. So that's a lot for a parent that maybe can't afford it but would love to have their kid do an afterchool
activity. Is that something we could do >> at the grammarss? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Um are you talking about lower school particularly or we do have >> yeah lower school particular I just think partnerships with students and families it could be a nice opportunity. >> Yeah there's there are many many offerings that are free I will say that
but we have had um parents with experience in certain professional realms. Um thinking about the CGS um a parent offered and said you know I'm really good at coding in STEM. I'd like to do a workshop. Um, and that was put out to families who could sign up for
something like that. Um, Yasmine, who you've probably seen Yasmin Breida present a few times at school committee over the past couple years, >> has been doing that. Um, she goes over to the Timony and runs a club over there. Um, so, and I know um, Principal Reeve has been really trying to
strengthen mentorships between high school students um, and Tim students. So, JRTC is part of that too. >> Awesome. Thank you. No one else. The last one actually bothers me a little bit too. There aren't any clubs I am interested in and
I'm assuming that's based off the list. Is there an option of what are you interested in? >> That was provided. I didn't share the answers. Um, some were duplicative. Uh, we we do offer >> Yeah, >> those clubs. Um, others were pretty
interesting. Um, and I think maybe a lack of awareness of what we offer. Someone said, "Well, I really enjoyed academic bowl." We don't have that. We do have quizbowl, the high school. So, that that message hadn't gotten there. Um, but I know that there are several clubs that have popped up in recent
years that were inspired by students and students sought out the adviser and and created it. So, >> and you only need like >> we encourage that. >> Was it three or four? Like there was a and then you got like a little budget too if I recall. >> So, the way it works is a student has an interest. they seek out or approach a
faculty member and ask they'd be willing to advise. If they can't find one, the principal, associate principal will help them do that. And then essentially that first year, it's it's almost like proof of concept um where we try to develop the group and then then we will move um if we find success with the club, we'll
move that club into a a tier of stipend um for the adviser. >> Um but yeah, there's been several that >> totally student inspired and weren't on my radar >> started. I remember That's how the ski club started in in 2001. I remember that
that was how it started. But long story short, yes. All right. Good. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that there is an avenue where they could have put in that feedback. Thank you. >> Okay. Um so just to speak about the
exploratory, this is exciting. This is our first year we've offered um exploratory in this fashion because we recently added that fifth um vocational program multimedia production and broadcasting and that's the rule is once you have five formal chapter 74 programs
you need to have um a formal exploratory. So this um opportunity is for grade nine students. It's a semester long. So students enroll in exploratory and they essentially rotate through each of the five chapter 74 programs. Um, and kudos
to the teachers and Miss Meansen who's our CTE lead and really putting together an an amazing program where students get to engage in hands-on projects, learn about what's possible in careers in that field, learn about some of our other offerings that aren't represented in in
these cycles like uh robotics and engineering, early college. Um, and then at the end there's a wrap-up and then they move on to the next um shop per se. So, we just wrapped up um this first um
semester on Friday. Um and so I um quickly gathered this information. So, um of all the students, 94 took part in semester 1. uh 51%
said yes that they intend to continue with CTE in a designated pathway which means they would take a series of courses um and and earn micro credentiing along the way um and engage in that pathway fully. Uh 41.5%
said maybe um and then only 7% um said that they weren't interested. So, um we are very pleased with those results, especially because it's just from half of the students participating in exploratory. We have a brand new um
group that just started moving through. Um and then these are their indications of where they would see themselves um if they had their first, second, or third choice in the pathway and they didn't need to choose a second or third
pathway. Um we've been we've been able to accommodate students first choices by adapting the scheduling of teachers. Um but uh biotechnology had traditionally been um a pathway that had lower enrollment. So I was pleased to see
there was higher interest there. And if you recall last year we added a teacher to early education and care and marketing because we knew those were popular um and so they remain popular as well. um in computer science and multimedia production, broadcasting also
had had a fair share of interest there too. So the next steps um for these students will be that we have their initial indication of interest. They'll meet with their guidance counselor, formalize that interest um and then by March with our new CTE policy that was
mandated by the state, we'll need to let students know that they've been accepted per se. Um, and so while we were doing that, um, this was brand new this year as well. So again, thank you to the the teachers for
their flexibility. We offered the grade 8 experience. So it was um every grammar school grade 8 uh they were bust or walked over with all of their teachers um and spent the morning in Mthuan High School CTE
programs and they moved through the shops just like those students would do over the course of a semester. Um we like to have students facilitating and taking the lead. So students were the ones that presented um in each of their groups and talked about what they do. um
the students kind of got a sampling for what it's about um so that they too are informed when they're choosing their classes for grade nine. They'll know whether or not exploratory might be something that they would like to begin with. Um so 61.9%
of those grade 8 students said that they were interested in learning more before they decided. 31% um were ready to sign up um and 7% didn't feel like it was for them. Um but really great reviews um from all
the students and teachers that came. Um a lot of students were impressed with the facilities. They hadn't necessarily been in the labs or the academic wings um before. And then our multimedia room is up here in the media center, so they got to travel through the hallways during some passing times, which is
always exciting. Um give them a taste of of high school. and then I'll move on to um the case load monitoring updates. So um there were slightly over a thousand tier 2 and three services
um offered by the the counseling department in quarter 1. This was um a smaller number um than last year but they are um down a few staff members. Um and so these were the um the rates of
success for the um the progress students were making in different areas. So this doesn't clearly articulate the purpose of the service because all services are unique, all profiles are unique. Um this is to give you an overview of improvements that were made as a result
of the counselor's work with the student. Um so largely um improvement in social, emotional and mental health um and overall general improvement um and in attendance and in behavioral progress
and um uh 67% of those services resulted in improved academic progress. Not to say that improvement was needed in all those areas but those were a byproduct of the intervention. Um and then so those uh counselors have
been really good at cor collecting that progress monitoring data um bi-weekly. Um we are building that into the main U platform that's going to house our data for TSS. Um so that will be phased in later on as well. Um as of
this point 148 referrals have been made to Car Solace um and cartwheel. So 129 to carousololis and 19 to car cartwheel to augment what's already been made available through the counseling department.
When we came back from um winter break, we started priming students for um being thoughtful about what it means to be a school community and to support one another and to understand um difference um and appreciate difference
uh beyond tolerance and to appreciate the rich environments um that our schools that our schools have. Uh and so in grades seventh through 12 um they heard a presentation from Edward Walker. In the seventh and eighth grade, it was
more focused on building community and cultivating leaders. At the high school is more focused on um uh discussion versus dialogue and disagreeing across um across uh barriers or divides. So these topics aren't new. We talk about
them in social studies a lot in English class facing history and ourselves have broached these through professional development teachers but we kind of wanted to get the message out to all students that community is important to us. How we treat each other is important to us that we're going to spiral into our
multi-pronged approach um to bullying prevention education. So these are um tools that we have identified as being useful to us and are now um designing
implementation and roll out. Um so we'd like for there to be touch points this year and then a full launch at the start of next year. Um so first the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has launched an anti-bullying campaign. It's called Stop Bullying. be
the reason someone belongs. There are really great um excellent resources for families, students, teachers. They offer posters you can order. Um but what I liked about it is that the teenage section or the high
school section of this resource was focused on cyber bullying, um social media, all the different forms of bullying that students might engage in and how to pre prevent that. Um, there's also
some articulation of whether an act can be considered bullying or not, it's unpleasant and unkind and it needs to cease. And so there's discussions about how to do that as a peer, how to do that as a teacher. Um, the second step
bullying um prevention units I am sampling now. Those are um grade level specific units from K through 8. I also got access to the 9 through 12. They're just they're a little bit different um in terms of how they're structured. For
so for K through 8, there's 20 lessons per grade. For a 9 through 12, uh there's more larger modules about the school message, the classroom message, and whatnot. Um, so part of our revisioning team for MTSS is starting to
look at the mapping of which lessons are essential, who's delivering them, are we having some counselor delivered lessons, some teacher delivered lessons, when in the calendar year is appropriate. Um, and then also they need to be professional development offered for
teachers to know what is this whole unit about and how to do that really well. Um, so we're working through all those pieces. We also work with uh Massachusetts Partnership for Youth and we have a few sessions remaining um from our partnership this year. So, we plan
to use those as offerings. Um we're going to see how many um offerings they'll let us have. We have at least two, but parent workshops we think would be really good. Some of the providers are excellent. Um and facing history in ourselves, we've identified teen resources and
resources for families. And then I was really excited with our YAR groups, our youth participatory action research clubs at each upper school. Um last year we heard from grade 8 at the um Timony
um through their uh not grade 8, 5 through 5 through 8, 6 through eight at the Timn about their interest as their YAR project um is being bullying prevention. And then this year um a class from the tenny reached out to me
um and they're interested for their civics project on parent education on bullying. So I'm um we're emailing back and forth now the students and I and I'm going to go over there and seek their input and how they're going to help design some of the workshops for
bullying for parents and also work with the Tim students. So, I love when the the civics projects align with the things that the adults are concerned about because they're seeing the same the same things that we are. And so, that's reassuring that we're heading in
the right direction. So, so for the bullying prevention, I heard that we're doing this stuff, but do we are we do we still have that coordinator or I don't want to insult the title, but there's a title of a person that's overseeing these cases
>> handling the investigations. Yes. >> Are they responsible on any curriculum or any insight to curriculum? Because the way I look at this role, it should be like a consultative role too on pointing the administration andor the
schools in a in the right direction too. So is that person involved in any of this? >> So on on a consultant level, yes, not for delivery of course, but um I think her input is essential. Um and the principles have been reflecting on the
data they've been seeing as well. We're noticing particular grades have certain upticks right now and what that could be. Um but yes, previously um we don't have the health teachers in the lower school any longer. Um they were delivering um the social emotional
curriculum last year um and would likely be doing something like this. So we're trying to see how we can piece that in. Do we not have health teachers in the lower school because of budget cuts? Because they were grant funded >> before.
>> Um, no. Because we we couldn't afford them. >> If I recall in 2017, I made a comment and 18 that we had had fire hired three health teachers. One was a former
student here that I remember and I won't name the name and it had come up that they were being paid on a three-year grant. >> I haven't seen that. Would would it be an ESR grant? >> We had eventually moved everyone off of Esser. Um so it wouldn't have been that.
I I don't they're not on any of mine um that I oversee. Um, >> but at the time you weren't you weren't also >> right >> assistant super. >> Yeah. To my knowledge. >> So >> I think some of those roles were
originally at the grammar schools grant positions that we had transitioned for three-year deals. We made comments about it. So it it's a budget situation. >> So how many health teachers do we have currently?
So, we have one in each upper school and at the high school we have four. >> All right. >> And they're the ones that will be administrating some of these conversations then >> some. Okay. >> But we're also going to ask for a schoolwide effort. Um so it's not going to fall on any one person, but I do think it's important for everyone to
have a voice so the students can hear the message from multiple parties in their school. So we will be asking some counselors, some teachers and that but that's what we're mapping out now. Um, so to do 20 grade level specific lessons,
that would be a big ask. >> Um, so we're going to look at, you know, what are the essential themes that we're looking to integrate. Um, but it it did come up also in our mapping of supports that we we were very light in K4 um in
bullying um and then also in high school. So, it's nice that we're addressing that. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Going back to the um case load monitoring updates. Is that hund a thousand for actual students or could it
be a student that's been referred multiple times to the service? >> Um it's different types of services. So there could be a student that's that's in need of multiple from the counseling department. So maybe it's a group therapy and seeing the counselor
um one-on-one bi-weekly. Um so the counselor could be rating each of those. Um but predominantly it it would be students receiving one service. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, that'll do it for the
quarterly review presentation. Next on the agenda, we have custodial negotiation committee nominations and appointments. Do we have any nominations for the committee? We should have three members. I've been quite involved in the facility
stuff, so I I would probably urge against nominating me, but if I have to, uh, I'm willing to. >> Yeah, >> sure. >> I'll nominate um, Nick Daglio.
>> We have the vice chair. Do you accept the nomination? >> Yeah. >> All right. We need two more. Member Sice. >> No, >> I I'll accept if no one else wants to do it. Sure.
>> I'll nominate member So. >> So, we have Member So, you accept. We need one more. Um, I'd like to nominate member Keegan. >> Do you accept? >> Yes. >> All right. So, we have the nominations
of the vice chair, member Soy, and member Keegan. I'm going to ask for a motion and a second now to appoint the nominated members to the custodial negotiation committee. >> Second. >> Motion's from member Maxwell. The second
is from member Donovan. Uh any discussion? If not, uh we'll take a roll call vote. >> Okay. >> Uh member Daglio, >> yes. >> Grassi, yes. Keegan, >> yes. >> Maxwell,
>> yes. >> McCarthy, >> yes. >> Wlette, >> yes. >> And Bogard, >> yes. All right. Uh, next on the agenda is other business from the committee. Is there any other business from the committee? Member Sice, >> I would just like to mention the
backpack program for the students. Um, food donations can be brought to 10 Branch Street or I believe C. Uh, member Daglio, you said the library. Someone said the library the last time as well accepts the donations. Um, I believe
there upwards of about 80 students right now that bring a backpack home every week. So their desperate need for peanut butter jelly any anything that can be easily made and prepared by students. So thank you. >> Thank you. Any other updates? If not at
this point I will be recusing myself uh for the remainder of the meeting due to the fact that I am the defendant in the litigation that is to be discussed. So at this point I will hand everything off to the vice chair. Have a good night.
Thank you, mayor. Have a good night. >> I make a motion to adjurnn and go into executive session. >> I have to call it into I have to call it into order first. So pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21A3 to
discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining of litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares Essex superior court civil action number 2577
C as in Charlie V is in Victor 00627. we will go into executive session and not come back into regular section a session afterwards. Do I have a motion in a second?
>> So move second member so and and and seconded by member Keegan. Roll call, please. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Maxwell.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> And has left. >> We are now adjourning the public session and we'll uh readjourn in uh executive
session in a few moments. Thank you. >> Oh, the time is uh 7:48 p.m. Thank you.