##VIDEO ID:2w-fhDnox2s## [Music] [Music] [Music] e for e for e yeah everything is happening else is on the f okay all everybody ready yeah welcome back to the uh school committee meeting for today Thursday January 23rd back from executive session uh please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag United States America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indis with liberty and justice for all right uh first up we will have our student Spotlight we're going to hear from Project 351 Miss hassa Jean from the John teen Nichols Middle School so with that I'll invite Dr Tucker and Miss hadassa jeene to come talk a little bit about project 351 um a little bit about what the group is and what her work will be what it'll entail at the Nichols Middle School this year and Beyond welcome to both of you thank you so much for having us so very exciting to be able to do a Nicholls Middle School Spotlight and I am very excited to present this year's Nichols middle um Nichols Middle School project 351 Ambassador hadasa jeene and project 351 engages 8th grade ambassadors from each of the 351 cities and towns of Massachusetts in a 12-month long program of service learning leadership development and Civic engagement ambassadors are diverse in all ways but one they share Dr King's criteria for a life dedicated to service a Heart full with Grace and a soul generated by love Educators select ambassadors who've demonstrated an exemplary ethic of service and values kindness compassion humility and gratitude the project 351 places a special premium on these unson Heroes and quiet Leaders with uh Rich diversity in our Commonwealth so we have a nomination process and I'd like to read the nomination that was written for hadassa by a staff member so I'm writing to nominate a student hadassa Jean for the honor of participating in Project 351 hadassa is a dedicated and passionate individual who has demonstrated leadership empathy and commitment her positive attitude strong work ethic and desire to make a difference align with the values that project 351 celebrates I believe that hadassa would greatly benefit from the opportunity to engage with peers across the state deepen her leadership skills and continue her dedication to service she's a shining example of what the type of young leaders that project 351 seeks to cultivate and I wholeheartedly recommend her for this incredible opportunity and so Hadas I want to give you a little opportunity so congratulations um to just share a little bit about why you're excited to be the 351 Ambassador okay right um I'm excited to be the 351 project Ambassador because I can like finally show my ideas and I can like spread the word about what's going on in school and how children are getting affected by bullying and racism and all that bad stuff so like I just want to spread like positive energy around schools and not like you know yeah good so what is exciting right is this Saturday is launch day okay and where are you going this day house the state house and so um there's a van that or a bus that comes regionally and brings every single 351 student to the state house to learn a little bit more about project 351 to connect with other kids across the Commonwealth and um you know to start to embark on those leadership based skills and projects so I have a certificate that I would love to be able to present to hadassa and so this is a certificate of congratul ations that you've been selected as the class of 2025 project 351 Ambassador and recognition of self selfless service potential for leadership and values of kindness compassion humility and gratitude thank you you're welcome did we want to do um we've done a picture before with the school committee is that something that did you or absolutely come on abely would like to sure you want to come up and get a picture you should do do want to take this you take that all right give me your jacket I'll take you a jacket if you want your jacket you [Applause] yes be careful be careful as you walk I am and so with that we will move into our second student Spotlight of the evening which is also at the Nichols Middle School so I'll again call T uh Dr Tucker over to the table um this time we're going to be spotlighting our honor band student nominations um this was a group of students involved in our music program at the Nicholls Middle School that participated in an event at Bridgewater State University and I have to tell you this uh this has happened every year actually for the last three at least and every year I get an email from the college President to tell me how impressive these children are and how well they did at this performance so I'm happy to see it highlighted here so with that Dr Tucker I think you have some photos or I think there's a photo and there's a composition piece if we wanted to listen to at least a a quick piece okay so what has happened is the um in recognition of the Bridgewater State students the Bridgewater State University has middle has a Middle School honor band Festival which is a day of rehearsals cumulating and a concert that afternoon that is open to families in in the community so our students are nominated by their band director and selected for participation based on the instrumentation needed to for a balanced Ensemble this year the the nms had nine students participate the students had a little over a week to prepare these three selections from an advanced music level which was rehearsed throughout the festival day with 18 other communities uh this year they played Tin Man does the Iron City by Rick HST and we'll hear a small clip of that today uh green Willow Portrait by Mark Williams and Star Wars the Force awakens by John Williams arranged by Michael Sweeney oh there we are there's the pictures um the students had a very long but enjoyable day including a walk around the BSU campus um before performing this well attended concert and I think the thing to note is it's a 3 weeks selection process so really tight and the kids practice those um those pieces in that full day so you know know it's quite the talents of the students to be able to P perform in such a way and so I really would like to acknowledge the following students Will Bradley grade eight tenor saxophone Jasper Freeman Gade grade eight bass clarinet Sebastian glasby grade eight trumpet Charles Hansen grade eight altox Olivia Miller grade eight flute Brianna Perkins grade 8 trumpet Logan pittsley grade8 trombone um Oliver ruths grade seven percussions in Quinn sabuki grade seven baritone small clip for you [Music] so congratulations to our um you know middle school students to be part of an honor band and having the opportunity to go to a local University to be able to perform and play so um and just thank you so much for the opportunity to highlight some of the students here at Nicholls thank you thank you all right our next item is public comment hi Bri okay I just want to thank everyone um for last week's meeting and demonstrating that hard topics can be handled respectfully um I particularly wanted to thank the two alumni who spoke and shared their personal experience people really underestimate how hard it is to speak publicly but doing so on such a personal level when you're really passionate about something takes a tremendous about of Courage um and also control to maintain composure and to do it with Grace um so I really it speaks volumes to what this community can do um I do think the Nuance that was lost on some of The Outsiders that came was that it's simply not about a book or denial of representation of people but rather about the actions of the teacher um and these actions are opposite diversity equity and inclusion it shared only one Viewpoint and the outcome did not have um what everyone claimed it should have had to increase kindness and respect for people of different views um the parent used discretion when she said that the children were um disrespectful in waving flags she actually left out um that that her child was excluded from a lunch table she he was unfriended by others and called derogatory names so the antecedent to the be children's Behavior really is the repeated reading of the books on one topic under the premise of reducing bullying um but it fielded in its attempt to teach social emotional learning um and as the Nea tries to say like to end biased based bullying well this created biased based bullying so um could this have happened if the teacher read only books about baseball that lacked diversity equity and inclusion um for other children um what if a teacher read developmentally appropriate books that were in the Amazon indicated grade level that taught social emotional learning about being kind and respectful but with a Christian worldview with Jesus as the main character do you think then people would raise some red flags and say I object to this action um it's possible but we don't know because those social experiments weren't conducted on our children nor should they be um since the last meeting we now know that there is school committee policy that addresses this situation that was not made clear or transparent um at the last meeting um teaching about controversial issues is a policy and it indicates that the teacher must refrain from using a partisan point of view the teacher's right to introduce controversial topics does not include the right of advocacy there must be a minimum emphasis on opinion and maximum on intelligent analysis and teachers must ensure that reasoned arguments on all sides of an issue are given equal presentation while this policy does not as the superintendent stated require advanced notice of the topic on another another policy does and that is the parental notification relative to sex ed that conforms to Mass General law 71 uh section 32A and that states that all parents must be notified in writing on a topic of human sexual education or human sexuality issues with the right to review curri ulum and to opt out and while desie has decided to narrowly interpret this law and issue guidance that state only human this only applies to human sexual behavior it excludes the second half of the law and our written policy I contacted desie and asked about this thank you m CS I'll make sure to share all that information on the school committee pages so the parents have access to it thank you um and will you also send us a copy yes thank you uh discussion items reports from school committee members Su oh I'm sorry my name is Alexander cook believing transed people exist is not an ideology it is a fact I exist we exist and we have been here longer than any hatred and confusion and we will always been here with certain leaders in our federal and state government fighting hard to erase our existence and our identities now more than ever we should be prompting love and acceptance if your children have questions about what they are learning in school talk to them why is it so hard to explain some people were born in the wrong body or are you scared they might ask their own questions about their own body and gender if so why are you scared children will encounter queer and trans people every day including at school if you are this paranoid about what your children are learning homeschool is always an option transgender and queerness is as common as red hair peanut allergy and the name Michael if you are fighting so hard to erase queer kids ask yourself why transgenderism is not sexual education it is an identity that is should be accepted and welcomed in every school district thank you thank you anyone else right uh reports from school committee M so uh yes since oh that's loud sorry uh since last week met uh two things uh that I've been involved with uh the first uh are as a part of the budget subcommittee um Zeke and I and he'll speak more about it and his report but we visited uh so far we have visited with the Mech MHS mkg and nms uh their their school councils and coming up will be hbb to talk um with this uh school councils about the budget and its relationship to the school Improvement plan and just really to get their perspectives of how we're moving forward um and using the resources that we have to move forward uh we did these as a way to have another um venue for conversations uh around topics uh that are important and I've thought that they have been very helpful in providing some of the Flesh and Blood of of what's For Me of what's happening in the school and what the the principles and the teachers and the parents together what they're thinking need to happen um in the budget to continue that forward and I really I have really appreciated the school council I want to say thank you uh to the people that participate in that it's a real commitment of time and they get very educated on um what's happening in the big picture but also how it relates to the day-to-day actions within the school and um groups that I hope will continue to do so and and be uh Partners in moving forward in the district um that and then also had a meeting um with Dr ter Martis um and this was scheduled before the holidays I wanted to talk with her about the curriculum review uh as well as the guidance um that we've been talking about when talking about sensitive topics um again I was impressed uh with it ended up being a followup on the remarks that she made at the last school committee meeting uh and I was impressed with her desire to incorporate in appropriate ways the um voices of uh the community a as we do the next uh complete cycle of program review uh and the plans that are for that and also uh of bringing forward the temporary guidance that should as uh Carolyn has been speaking of will be coming out soon so um I really reinforc for me some of the work that's being done so I appreciated the time of everyone to sit and talk Jess um a lot of my update will be later um but I do just want to uh call attention to this lovely letter that the school committee all received at the start of this meeting uh we received a personal invitation from a student at the Nicholls Middle School uh Hazel LeAndre to attend the Middle School production of Matilda Jr that is coming up in a little over a week I know um Eddie will probably mention it but I just found this to be a wonderful step and much appreciated and um I will use the opportunity to plug the show um it will be January 31st at 7 p.m. February 1st at 3 p.m. February 1st at 7 p.m. at the alanar Lindsay auditorium at the Nichols Middle School so we do hope that uh everyone will will consider going out it is a wonderful musical based on a amazing book so I do hope that uh people consider going and and uh Miss Ducker please um extend our gratitude for the personal invitation CHR I wanted to give a shout out to athletic director Sylvia and the uh Middleboro high school basketball program this past Tuesday the uh boys varsity team hosted uh one of the Metro West teams it was the sixth grade team one of the sixth grade teams and uh they were included in the pregame activities and got to do a scrimmage at halftime and the the vertical engagement between the high school students and the middle school students is uh it's incredibly valuable um and I and you could tell the the middle schoolers got a lot out of it and hopefully the the high schoolers did they were great making them feel like they were teammates too uh so thank you it's a it's a fantastic opportunity for our young younger students on that level uh the other thing I just wanted to touch on last week we had a lot of people uh speak a lot of people attend um I heard from a lot of people through email in person and other means um and I just want to say to everybody uh in Middleboro if there are issues that are important to you it's great and I encourage you always to either attend a meeting speak send an email uh and talk to us um it's really important for us to have all persp perspectives on important issues because ultimately we are accountable to you um so thank you for everyone who sent the message or came or spoke z uh I will save my comments for a budget subcommittee all right superintendent's report oh I'm sorry no uh Ed skipping over me [Laughter] sorry so I just have a quick update for what's going on inside the mech the students are learning about hibernation migration and addition and subtraction um the January character word is cooperation and they are focusing on teamworking skills and just to REM mention but I think it's very important the prek lottery is now open for children in moar who will be aged four by September 1st 2025 and the lottery selection is scheduled for February 13 2025 and for the HPB um the hbb has started a lunch reward program for grades 1 two and three students earn a star every day they are quiet when the chime Rings four stars earn a DJ lunch and that is what you're thinking it they do play music and during the lunch um and eight Stars allow students to sit where they want and congratulations to the grade two the first grade to receive their four stars who had their DJ lunch on January 15th and for the mkg no DJ lunch but but there will be a PTA meeting on the 27th from 5: to 6:00 p p.m. um the Nichols Middle School the open house for the class of 2029 will be February 5th um Bristol agie interviews are January 29th to the 31st um basketball continues with the New Year drama club dress rehearsals from Matilda are already ongoing and club meetings like art club and chess club continue gather just some Community Resources um the Needle felted co cocoa cup Workshop January 30th College Planning webinar January 28th and middle borrow matters resources on vaping the nms unified basketball team is organizing to start their season playing against other towns in the Massa soy League the nms theater will be performing Matilda the weekend of January 31st families should see the tiger times for the rehearsal schedule and fundraising for school enrichments with options to donate via box tops and Bay State textile bins for the PTA fundraiser and the February PTA meeting for nms is scheduled for February 4th at 6: pm and lastly MHS encouragement for students to reflect on semester 1 quarter 2 progress and start semester 2 progress reports and start semester 2 and quarter three strong just some student achievements recognition of student leaders Caroline D and Lily price for their deese student advisory Council contributions appreciation goes out to MHS volunteers supporting literacy night programs at elementary schools and just one last reminder for the key academic dates the quarter 2 semester 1 ends January 28th 20125 quarter 3 semester 2 begins January 29th 2025 quarter 2 report cards available February 6 2025 and that is all via Aspen college and scholarship planning college financial planning night will be January 28th 2025 scholarship information Night February 11th instant decision day UMass Dartmouth is March 6th 2025 winter ball will be held on February 8th 2025 in the MHS gym guest forms due January 30th 2025 and just some upcoming special events the unified Bachi tournament this Saturday January 20 25th um the C mask winter conference will be February 4th and um permission slips for that are in the front office at MHS Polar Plunge will be the February will be February 14th and Junior Prom theme voting is ongoing and the link for that is in the bio of the class of 2026 Instagram clubs and meetings creative writing Club is open for new members yes Club is Tuesdays at 2: p.m. GSA meetings are ongoing meetings at 2: p.m. after school um the class of 2029 open house is February 5th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m and the community blood drive is happening on March 8th 2025 and that is all I have in any questions thank you very much lots and you can get out of here now uh superintendent's report okay uh good evening Mr chairman MERS of the school committee tonight I have a couple of items on this report which will include an Athletics update some updates specific to Middleboro High School we're going to take a second look at the academic calendar or proposed academic calendars for next school year and then a budget update um I'll begin by calling athletic director Ryan Sylvia to the table to give his update and while he's doing that you know he and I spoke last week about the fact that I wanted to highlight our athletic trainer Mary Sylvia who twice in the last month has been at events for our students and has responded to Medical emergencies for not our students um in the case a couple of weeks ago it was a Friday night basketball game and one of the referees actually had a medical emergency um and the prior to that there was an incident at another school's campus and it was another adult in the stands and I wanted to point that out because sometimes I think athletic training work is a little bit invisible um and Miss Sylvia in particular I think is very humble she would never tell you um her her fantastic value to this community but this is just an one of many many examples where she jumps in um does above and beyond her Duty and I wanted to take a minute to to recognize that I was hoping she would be here this evening but I'm sure she's nowhere to be found and wants nothing to do with that type of recognition so I took it upon myself to make sure we talked about that tonight and with that I'll turn it over to Mr Sylvia thank you superintendent lions and school committee members uh yes Mary's probably watching at home uh horrified right now that you called her out that way but no it was a great response uh in our gym um it was fast uh we had some a parent come down already had the Emergency Medical Services on 911 on the call and the AED was there luckily we didn't have to use it uh the referee became responsive fairly quickly and um EMS took him out and uh I heard from him the next day very thankful sent an email and had a conversation with them so uh scary situation but yes having um someone to respond to emergencies at athletic events is obviously very important so um but thank you all right so my Athletics update I tried to make this update a little bit different a little more formal I usually kind of go off the cuff a little bit um so I put together some slides with a couple of topics that I thought the school committee might find interesting and informative and also just some informational stuff that you have now have access to if you're ever kind of looking for information on Athletics um winter SE fall season went great uh winter season is in full swing and and actually coming to a close in just about three or four weeks depending on how the teams do um the first slide just says where do I find information and it's uh the answer is the Athletics website so uh you'll see that throughout my slides and the Athletics website really you can find everything you need to know about our Department there um we got we have 57 teams 20 different sports five different levels 30 varsity teams 13 junior varsity teams three freshman teams 11 middle school teams and four unified Special Olympics teams now with the addition of Middle School uh unified basketball which we had two years ago last year it just did not run and so when you click on the Athletics website here hopefully it goes to it for you um the way to access this is anywhere on on the district website under the quickest way is under family links and you just click Athletics and then Nick has helped me put together some buttons and it's it's a work in progress it has been for a while but it's come together nicely sure many of you have already been here but when you click this top button that has athletic schedules on it it's going to immediately take you to all of our teams the games that are uh for today so we had Westport um Middle School basketball is kind of a light day today you can view and it defaults to show just the active teams if you hit show all it actually goes it says 70 because some of them are duplicated depending on how other schools have entered them Middle School versus seventh and eighth grade you know that type of thing um but one of the points I wanted to point out here is the calendar view if you click the calendar view um it gives you kind of a um the little road and the little h house for home and away and you can see everything we have upcoming um you know as far as the schedule goes and also be able to access all of the teams um so I brought that up because this winter um we have five different Cooperative teams and um I just thought it was important for the school committee to be aware of that and know that that is always an option for us and what it is is combining um our team with neighboring schools to try to to make sure that we have enough participation numbers to feel the team so right now in Boys Hockey we're combined with Carver Wham and Samuel Fuller school it's four different schools within one team with have 23 students on the roster uh boys swimming and girls swimming we combine with East bridgew they come over to our pool every day for practice or for every practice and meet gymnastics uh we became the host school with the ponit regional and wrestling uh we've been a Cooperative team for a few years with Old Colony uh I included um a few links to Cooperative team maximum numbers of participation uh and then guidelines for Cooperative teams in case that's of interest to you but uh basically I'm it's I'm trying to clear up the confusion of why are some teams combined and others are not um and really it's just to increase participation and make sure we have an we can actually feel the team um and so that that really mostly only happens in or it only happens in the winter season we don't have any Cooperative teams in the fall or do do they play they play Within the same league or do they have a A specialized League that they play Within so it uh the way the Cooperative teams work is it's the host school is the league that you play Under so since Middleboro is the host school for all of these Cooperative teams uh then they play the Southshore League schedule and the schedule that I build uh for the non-conference games thank you um we do have one we are actually a member uh a guest school and a Cooperative girls ice hockey team uh but we only had one student that was participating and she opted not to play hockey this year so uh technically we're part of East Bridgewaters girls hockey team as well and so I'm not I won't get into all of the uh the details on the links below but those are there for you if you if you want to take a look at them and then the other um topic here is the middle level waivers and these have become increasingly more popular as well um in the fall we had field hockey we had a waiver to allow eighth grade students to come up and play uh we were a little short on numbers at the middle school level we didn't have enough for a team so we allowed the eighth graders to come up at the coach's suggestion which uh the two principles and myself agreed on uh boys and girls swimming along with the co-op we have seventh and eighth graders that uh are allowed to come up and participate girls basketball seventh and eighth grade we ended up bringing only um three eighth graders up to the junior VAR team wrestling seventh and eighth grade softball in the spring will most likely bring up eighth graders to help fill out the junior varsity team and boys lacrosse and boys tennis as well to help fill out the varsity roster with eighth graders um one important point with that Middle School waiver is that they are required to play at the lowest level possible uh which in some sports is Varsity so uh swimming specifically uh track and field if we've ever when we've had those those are typically varsity only Sports um and there are certain Sports where middle level waivers make a lot of sense and there are other sports where uh maybe not so much so um we'll continue to apply for those waivers based on our participation and so the next topic is Youth Clinics you may have seen the newsletters that went out um we offered a wrestling Youth Clinic for 2 through sixth grade and a boys and girls swimming clinic for 2 through sixth grade uh this winter they're actually still going on um very similar setup they're run by our head coaches along with volunteers from The High School varsity teams they run four to eight sessions I believe swimming had five and and wrestling as eight once a week and it's an introduction to the sport uh they teach proper technique progressing towards competitive participation we run these programs at no cost to families and we're also exploring expansion to other sports and activities and and wrestling and swimming were really two of those Sports where we saw some declining numbers there's not a lot of uh youth uh opportunities um at the younger grades for wrestling and and boys and girls swimming in town besides maybe the Y um and we have the first you know we had it capped at 50 students and it was full the first uh the first session all the way through so those have been successful and we look to continue and then the monthly newsletters just another aspect of the of the um I try to send a newsletter out every month sometimes it ends up being a month you know one month goes by just based on how the athletic calendar works out like we have a January February letter going out this uh in the next week or so but if you click on the Athletics website families can access Athletics newsletters uh from previous months as a resource so you can see the free Youth Clinics uh information there the 5K all the newsletters that have gone out really all the way back to last year and years before just as a resource if they if people are looking for information there um that's available to you on the website as well um something else that was new this year digital tickets and payments um we're encouraging everyone to purchase tickets through Gan for football basketball indoor track and other select events we'll sell tickets for our wrestling quad through Gan we'll sell tickets for our swimming championships through gofan uh we do currently offer cash option but we're trying to move towards digital only as much as possible um and then families can also make payments for team items and Senior banners so for example uh rather than writing a check or paying cash for the swimsuit uh because there's certain items in athletics that students purchased and they keep it's not a uniform that gets turned back in so uh that can all be done through an online digital link and then uh just gets deposited into the Athletics revolving account um that's something that can also be used for Student Activities and other other uh ways to to raise funds as well live streamed athletic events um this is something that our All Sport boosters Association it's probably the most important um kind of item that is on there budget every year for the boosters uh basically they lease the indoor and outdoor automatic cameras that record and live stream all of the events on the turf and in the gym um huddle the company we go through called huddle uh recently came out with new cameras for baseball and softball so we're exploring those for the spring um and this is a no cost as well to families who want to watch the live streamed events um and again all they have to do is go to the website or just type in fan. huddle.com and search middlebar uh we have our own page here that you know it shows recent highlights but also the upcoming games that are streamed in the gym out on the athletic field so it's a little it's a much better setup than what it was with the national Federation high schools cameras we had a few years back these seem to be um there's no charge for them and they don't really they actually work that where the other ones were going you know losing signal often and my last slide I know I'm a little longer than usual tonight uh is just save the dates um so we have our spring Sports registration opening February 1st um and then all of those state tournament dates sectional meet for swimming indoor track sectional meet at Reggie Lewis Center swimming's at MIT wrestling will be at stoen high school gymnastics will be at Al gonin uh Regional High School in North borrow um and then boys and girls basketball hockey and hockey tournaments all start on the 24th we have one month to register for spring Sports the clo the deadline is 33 March 3rd and then we start up on March 17th and we have a tentative winter sports awards night on the 26th uh which looks like that'll be the date but we still need to finalize that um and that's all I have for you tonight thank you Mr Sylvia before I turn questions over to you I just wanted to highlight Mr Benson was just talking about this getting younger kids involved in our high school program so I hope that came through Mr Sy has been very Dynamic and creative about these clinics and I know he has ideas for the future as well um so I just wanted to highlight that because it really shows a cohesiveness and a vertical alignment just like we would for any other aspect of our curriculum so I say thank you to you um and would that any questions you might have want to say thanks for the the fancy presentation this time and the updates to the Athletics portion of the website are are great it's it's really helpful to have everything uh pushed out in the way that you guys have been working on so thank you agre Ryan I was at both those games where Mary stepped up and uh made made me feel a hell of a lot EAS uh more at ease knowing that she was in charge and uh when you see the throng of people run down to help somebody in distress generally it's you're like what are they going to do and then when you see Mary there who knows what she's doing it's uh it's a lot more comforting you know so I appreciate that um I also want to say the um the Huddle for the uh the tape of the athletes is huge um my student is as freshman but we're already starting to try to put together uh highlight reels and tapes and stuff like that and to have that access through the website for that types of thing is is just amazing and extremely helpful for you know someone with a freshman who has no idea what he's doing trying to get that stuff together so I appreciate that we can help you with that if you need help and I and that's a good point Alan I didn't even actually make that point I was talking more about the live streaming but every student athlete in our in our department has an account with huddle where they can receive film directly from their coaches that's being recorded cut up the film edit it to make highlights send it off to coaches colleges and also just use it to uh for analysis and to try to get better at their at their sport the fact that freshman athletes are watching film is amazing to me because we didn't even have film when I was running around in high school you know I think it's uh yeah I I it's value can't be overstated thanks soon as Miss C is done I'll take all the things I this for when we actually put this to sorry um but just to thank Ryan syvia again um My Name Is Karly paling but I just emailed him this week and Mr bran again um I've been emailing with Coach Powers the girls varsity basketball team we're trying to set up and it is in the works but we're going to bring kindergarten kids to um spectate a game and I had reached out to Mr Sylvia he welcomed us with open arms we're going to go support um a Middleboro High School intern and the rest of her teammates um who works with us in kindergarten so thank you in advance for working so closely and and being so willing to accommodate us and these are these are easy lifts so if there are a community members watching or if you want to get you know A team out to a game we try to do it as much as we can we bring the middle school teams up when we can in the spring and in the fall um it it's got to be driven by the coaches you know of those youth teams and and it's an open invitation they just we just need to have some time to plan it so that's really um you know I might be eating my words on that a little bit because I'll probably get a flock of people coming to games but that's a good thing so if it you know that's that's what we want Miss c um I do have a question for Ryan but before I did want to Echo um the Youth Clinics and what value they bring so um I know for swim because I have a swimmer um that the enrollments really down like in Cross swimming it's not unique to Middleboro swimming um enrollment is down everywhere across schools so you know having to have a co-op team has become a necessity cuz we can't even fill out a team you know maybe two boys um which can't make a relay so it makes it really challenging when you don't have enough students um and and having that Youth Clinic is so critical because you actually introduce the sport that children might not otherwise have an opportunity to engage in and actually G give them skills um that they don't have because it becomes a little bit of a technical sport which we I at the first meet we had some swimmers that didn't have the swim skills really needed and I was timing and I'm like I think I'm going to have to go in after this girl she ended up having to hang on to the Lane line so it's a unique situation in which unlike other sports if you're just bad at it it's you know it's one thing but if you're not if you can't make it to the end of the lap um it it becomes a safety issue so having that Youth Clinic is super critical for this sport in particular not only that but also driving interest in being able to fail out of Team um so and I think that the kids really enjoy it I know my son really enjoys the Youth Clinic as the as the high school athlete so um I think he loved that opportunity so that was great also but my question was what is what do you know I don't know if you have the answer it seems like sports enrollment there's a lot of sports that where we can't fill out teams and I don't think this is unique um we're seeing a lot of teams where we have Middle School waivers or Co-op teams um where again I might be aging myself or dating myself like Allan I'm like we're we had I'm only 28 right um when I was young there was like an abundance of I mean our hockey team was ginormous it was huge and yet now like these sports are kind of declining is it a draw away to club sports um or are there so many sports available to kids that you're just you have the same number of athletes but you're Distributing them differently like what's the yeah I mean I don't I don't have the we talk about this we have a monthly meeting with the the Southshore League athletic directors um and the topic comes up at times um cuz we're all kind of dealing with some of the same stuff uh so there's 10 schools in the league and and you know we don't have actual data to to prove any of it but you know the idea of you know students and families choosing club sports over school teams um is is a thing especially in a sport like swimming uh and it's definitely certain Sports I mean there's some sports that are really thriving and others that are kind of challenged with uh participation numbers um there's also a theory of you know when the pandemic was about 5 years ago and so some of those kids are starting to get up through High School level that maybe didn't weren't um exposed to the same athletic opportunities at the Youth Level and maybe maybe that has something to do with it as well um but um you know I think we we're just trying to do as much as we can to get youth involved um in these opportunities earlier um so that we can so that we can feel the teams okay any other com questions thank you very much Ryan okay with that we'll turn to we have several uh Middleboro High School topics this evening so I'll invite Principal Paul branagan to the table so we can start covering them he's going to begin by covering the class of 2025 uh final activities for this spring um then we're going to talk about a couple of new scholarships on the horizon for our very fortunate students and then we'll have a discussion about mcast competency determinations and ending with his program and studies so with that I'll turn it over to you principal Brenan good evening everyone and thank you for allowing me to be here tonight it seems like every January there is a uh list of items for the high school that need to be um shared and then hopefully approved as well so the first one is the one that I love to come before you each year which is the senior class final schedule um as we prepare to graduate the class of 2025 and so working in collaboration in different aspects with the senior class advisers Bridget redpath Candela as well as the senior class um officers led by Jacob Waterman the class president um what is before you is the um draft with your approval of the senior days you're going to notice at the very top where it says senior final days May 15th through the 29th what we did this year is that because of the new schedule and because of the rotation we learned valuable lessons from last year about from staff who wanted to do sort of final projects and and final activities in their senior classes in the fact that as you know we do not have formal exams any longer at the high school where everyone's doing it at the same time but many teachers still want to do some sort of a final activity or final exam and so what we did this year is we kind of planned accordingly that it gives the senior teachers a number of days so they can forecast so from May 15th through the 29th that every single class that our students would in it gives them anywhere from four to six sessions where they would be with those seniors for the final time so it allows for them to kind of plan some long range planning so that's when you see those days it also for the seniors allows them to kind of hit this Benchmark to say all right I have so many days to make sure that I get everything in good form to be able to make sure that I can graduate you're going to notice the fact that on May 22nd is the annual future Signing Day if you're on the second floor the academic center is where um all of our seniors will have their pictures um placed for the year and that they will take their place on the wall finished strong wall um after that event on the 20 on the 22nd and that is for all students no matter what their plan is it is that's why we call it the future signing day you're going to notice that their Senior Week in terms of last week of high school will take place the week of Memorial Day the 26th is the holiday the 27th would be a full day of school for seniors the 28th and 29th would be as we always have afforded the half day or the early release day for the senior class with the 10:30 dismissal on the 28th and then of course their final day of school would be Wednesday the 29th of May at 10:00 a.m. um the 30th is a a no school day for Stu for the seniors however it is a day that they need to come back onto campus it is also a day that we use as our makeup day so grades are due from senior teachers the turnaround is incredibly tight to be able to finalize and and to ensure that we have a senior class ready to graduate that evening is the senior memory night that we're so grateful over the last many years that the S and pride alumni Foundation has helped us run um and that is a night for seniors only it is um dinner it is an ice cream truck it is a memory night and um a slideshow in here of their Journey down through their through their years in Middleboro and then of course we come back on the Monday June 2nd and that is the official start of senior week Monday is a senior meeting that we would have that morning here in the auditorium it is where we officially announce the valorian salutatorian the class Marshals um and end the morning with the senior barbecue out on the back quad as well as the yearbook Distribution on June 3rd would' start with our senior breakfast um senior we'd have rehearsal for graduation and for senior last assembly and that we would um end the day at the senior prom which is um contracted to be a Granite Links in quiny from 6:00 p.m. to 10: p.m. scholarship night is on the 4th of June that will be a 6 p.m. event that's an invitation only event based um for all the students who will be receiving scholarships through Dollars for Scholars as well as the middlebar high school scholarship program and then on June 5th is scheduled to be our senior last assembly that is um in the evening event um which is um looking at before the rehearsals and or after rehearsals and all of that and then their final day is June 6 where we will have our final graduation rehearsal here at the high school and that'll be followed by probably one of the um best days in the community in the school system is really the annual Senior Walk where the class of 2025 will make their way starting at the mech through the elementary schools um to the middle school and then back here at the high school for the final time and then lastly the big event on Saturday June 7th with a graduation start of 6 PM out in the stadium um what is going to be a really nice addition this year is that working with the um Education Association here um and our faculty that um we are now incorporating almost nearly every member of the faculty in graduation so um they'll be in gowns and regalia and um to add that into the procession to make sure that our entire faculty or pretty much the entire faculty will be represented at graduation that day so I'm really excited to see how that turns out so I can take any questions that is the schedule and with your um approval um we will then begin the process of preparing to share out uh communication from me to all senior families about the importance of senior week but also the importance of keeping the eye on the prize and making good decisions and then with the senior calendar as well so they can begin their important planning for the senior class so thanks for your consideration um bran I'm sorry I didn't notice this when I was looking it over when it was in our uh Google Drive um the first few days um just fix the day of the week it's Monday to the 26th but then Tuesday the 27th Wednesday the 28th and Thursday the 29th it's like where'd Thursday go so it's just the three and then it corrects by Friday yep the date the the numeric dates are correct just the week I like what happened to Thursday thank for that so um but other than that it it looks like a a normal jam-packed yes week of uh senior activity so thank you for bringing it forth as always does anyone else have any other comments or questions I didn't say a motion to approve so moved second motion a second to to approve the uh calendar for what do you want Senor class of 2025 final activities any uh all in favor I opposed pass UNS great so with that we'll turn to the new scholarships yes so every year um we come before you with any new scholarships that have been introduced to our senior class and with your approval tonight that um these five scholarships are going to be added to the scholarship booklet that um is being put together now and finalized and it will be shared with all senior families and alumni um on the 11th of February at the scholarship information night that is being held here at the high school so that is the official launch of the scholarship season here at the high school and that it is with great pleasure to um share with you the five new scholarships for your consideration and your um support um as you know you had um the wonderful wonderful community members from oakpoint here a few weeks ago um to be recognized for their unbelievable support of the students of Middleboro um and they're adding three more scholarships um onto their really very lengthy list of of scholarships for our seniors the first one is the oak oako homeowner scholarship fund the family and friends of Sal lichman Memorial Scholarship the family and friends of s lichman have donated a scholarship in memory of s who is a very active member of the Oak Point Community and the recipient of the scholarship must be a member of the senior class who is planning on attending an accredited college the second oakpoint scholarship is the oako homeowner scholarship fund in the Joyce MCD Memorial Scholarship as an oakpoint resident John MCD has donated a scholarship and wife in memory of his wife Joyce MCD the recipient must be a member of the class of 2025 who is planning on attending a two or fouryear accredited college or university in the third um oako scholarship for this year to be added is the oako homeowner scholarship fund the Waterman building and remodeling scholarship the Waterman building and Remodeling Company has donated a scholarship to be awarded to a member of the class of 2025 the recipient must be a member of the class of 2025 and is planning on attending a two or fouryear accredited college University and the fourth one is the middlebar High School class of 1965 scholarship I think it's important for the community to he their their description of this scholarship because I think it is quite something it says for the class in 1965 change was in the air many aspects of society were being questioned just as they are today we still had hopes and dreams and plans for the future maybe you were curious about some of the same issues these long ago graduates are we facing in recognition of the spirit of the times of the MHS class of 1965 we invite you to write an essay about your own hopes and dreams and vision for the your future in these un settling times it has never been more important to hear the voices of young people what do you do to what work what work do you do and what hopes do you have what contribution do you hope to make and how would the scholarship help you reach your goals and the last one which I know is a very um prominent name here in our community is a Richard G Brooks senior Memorial SCH music scholarship as you know Mr Richard G Brooks morial scholarship will be awarded to a deserving student in recognition of their exceptional talent and dedic ation in the fields of coral and string music the scholarship honors the legacy of Richard G Brook senr the former former director of coral and string music here at Middleboro High School who profoundly influenced the music program with the his sense of care commitment passion of helping young musicians grow and the recipient of this um scholarship um will be based on their outstanding musical achievements and promise reflecting the same dedication in art in Artistry that Mr Brooks exemplified throughout his distinguished career so I give to you these five scholarships your consideration and hopeful approval to be able to add to the 2025 scholarship program anyone have any comments questions I understand I only like to comment of how wonderful um for the members of the community that have done this and also as you pointed out the different um perspectives and uh values uh that are represented in the different scholarships and how wonderful that is uh it really means a lot i' entertain a a motion to approve these scholarships as presented so moved second a motion and second any comments questions all in favor I I opposed passes unanimously great thank you so much okay and with that we'll turn to our next item and you know you might want to pull up the slides that are now I think Advanced um while we're getting set up there I wanted to just briefly give a lead in into this discussion which is that um our voters in the Commonwealth uh had this question on the ballot in November and what the voters voted was to no longer use the mcast examination results towards the competency determination competency determination is used to confer a diploma so what that vote did was say okay no longer will the mcass exam results be used towards competency determination I think many communities in the Commonwealth were expecting thee to provide immediate guidance on how we might approach that and I can share that that isn't exactly what has occurred there has been some guidance provided um and I think Mr Bernie and I have talked about this a couple of times we do anticipate further guidance forthcoming however we we can't wait for that because Middleboro High School absolutely needs to come up with what its criteria is going to be to confer competency determination now that mcast cannot be used um for the class of 2025 and then ultimately the rest of the classes at Middleboro high school and then even Beyond so we're here tonight to recap there's been several meetings between the curriculum Department the Middleboro high school student services special education I've been at the table as well our work group has sourced information from other communities um we've talked within our own groups so special ed directors talking with special ed directors curriculum directors talking with other curriculum directors about how everybody was going to approach this what Mr bran is going to present to you tonight is our plan that we are required to bring to you and we're looking for your approval of um for just the class of 2025 this is by no means the end of the conversation I I just firmly believe there's this is going to open up several questions that our work group is going to stay together and continue to tackle but we did not want to make long-term decisions based on very little guidance provided to date so with that I'll turn it over to Mr BR again he can recap what the work group has accomplished and again my heartfelt thanks um to all of the administration at MHS they were uh very hardw workking on this along with student services special education and curriculum as well great thank you Mrs Lions um so as to just kind of add to what Mrs Lions had um shared as the preface um as you know the fact that in November the voters of Massachusetts had made a their voice clear about their intentions with the mcast in eliminating it as a graduation requirement um you'll see the fact that there are really competent determination in three parts and Mrs Lions alluded to that the class of 2025 that is the most critical right now that really the state is requiring for every school to come before their school committee and to seek approval of of really what that looks like also the current students that are here what does that look like for the students that are currently in the high school and then lastly for students who are not yet in the nth grade and so thanks you're going to notice the fact that um right now for tonight it is really just about the class of 2025 so just in terms of really the new language that is there you're going to notice in the red is really what has been the change in the law so you're going to see the fact that it's by satisfactorily completing coursework that has been certified by the students District as showing Mastery of skills competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum fr Frameworks um in the areas measured by the mcast high school test described in section one that were administered in 2023 that years important because the class of 2025 sat for those high stakes mcast tests in the spring of 2023 and in in any additional areas determined by the board so really the key word in this is satisfactorily completing coursework so when you're looking at what schools have been doing is really looking at what does that mean in terms of really Beyond because now that the mcast test is no longer a graduation requirement how do then we determine competency and we want to share that with you tonight so really there were two prongs to this the expectation from desie is that we must certify that students in the class of 2025 um in the areas our our meeting competency in English language arts and Mathematics and in science especially in the area of biology that is because in our high school the mcast test in grade n is in biology but also satisfi to completing coursework that's been certified by the district so this would be really looking at your graduation requirements so this is how does Middleboro meet the competency determination in the class of 2025 it is that every senior that is currently in our in our building has successfully completed grade 10 English which is English 2 they have successfully completed Algebra 1 and geometry grade nine in Algebra 1 in grade 10 in in in geometry and then also successful completion of bi biology which happened in grade n so it's important now to look at really what that means as we've met the competency in regards to the fact that all of our students have made it through those key courses that I just shared it's important to see what our acade academic requirements are because when you look at competency it's looking at really where the state has said was made in competency at which is was the mcast test at the end of grade n in biology and end of grade 10 in math and English but this is really where it goes beyond so to be promoted by promotion requirements by by credit is that every course you take at the high school it receives credit at the end in a full year course it is five credits in in a halfe course it is two and a half credits and all of those credits will add up every time a student passes the class if they do not pass the class they do not receive the credit so at the end of 9th grade that every student in order to go into grade 10 and be promoted they must have on their transcript 32 and a half credits that is the threshold to get into sophomore year and then you'll notice to get into junior year it increases his 65 credits and to become a senior they have to have at least 97 and a half credits if you look in C grade 12 in order to graduate from middleb high school every student must attain 136 credits to graduate you're going to notice that in grade 12 that seniors must earn at least 30 credits in grade 12 in order to graduate now what does that mean because in grade 12 that students who have met all the requirements in in high school when they hit senior year the only required courses that they may need is English a math in physical education so in terms of that we then have a responsib responsibility to ensure that they have a full Academic Program which is why that every senior must attain 30 out of their 40 credits because in an academic year every student has a maximum of 40 credits in their schedule seniors also must complete the requirement of 24 hours of service learning learning requirement and also they must mean all the requirements of the MHS attendance policy as well now when you're looking at by courses so what I just shared with you was by the credits they achieve now let's look at by courses I want you to keep in mind that just a few moments ago I shared with you the courses that were considered to be compet that a student would meet competency in the Commonwealth under the mcast test meaning biology Algebra 1 and geometry as well as um English 2 if you look at the require ments by grade excuse me by course that all students at the high school must have 20 credits or four years of English right now the requirement for mathematics is 15 credits and you'll notice the courses Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 are must have courses on their transcript after algebra 2 they will go into Branch into many different aspects of mathematics but those are the three courses of the fundamental ones that they must have history it is a three-year requirement two of those years must be in US history science is three years all three of those years have to be a lab science and we have biology there as the fundamental lab science in grade nine word language it's 10 credits which is two years of a language and it must be consecutive of the same language um to meet the requirement many of our students go well beyond the 10 credits and do a fouryear complement of their language Fine Arts it's five credits so that would be at least two courses potentially or one depending upon what the course would be in in the Arts to meet the requirement five credits in technology four years or 10 credits in physical education which means that students have to take a PE class every year and then also an elective credit which is they have to have at least 41 elective credits of study meaning they have to have a compliment of the electives program at the high school the minimum number to graduate is 136 now let me take you into the next stage of that you've seen the requirements by credit you've seen the requirements by courses one of the things that we're looking at and this will be something that when you see the program of studies presentation that this is one of the things We'll be asking for your consideration and approval you're going to notice the fact that moving forward it is the recommendation as preparing we know the class of 2025 we firmly believe has met the competencies and you'll see that in just a moment but we also feel like as Mrs Lions had said it's about really setting the stage a little bit to make sure we're in the best place we can be and with whatever guidance may come out from the Department of Elementary and secondary education it is a recommendation starting with the class of 2026 that we move to a full-year requirement for graduation in mathematics let me explain something to you in 2016 the the board of higher education came out and gave a mandate that every senior applying to a four-year institution public or private needed to show a 12th grade math on their schedule and so in 2016 we began the Journey of taking a decision of whether or not should every single student be taking math in 12th grade we made the decision in 2016 not to make it a full year requirement because we did not want to pigeon hole students that had no in desire or intention going on to a four-year school that they must take math in 12th grade what we also did though however is we also didn't want to predetermine in grade 11 whether a student was going to college or not so we have always had the practice that every single member of our junior class preparing for senior year that every single senior is enrolled in mathematics all of them are and we would say that close to every single senior is always enrolled in math this graduating class we only have four students that are not enrolled in a senior math class so when I share with you this proposal of making this a graduation requirement it is something the fact that every one of our students in the senior class are already a part of and it would just be solidifying really a graduation requirement that fully aligns with your next slide which is what is called Mass core so Mass core was adopted by the board of Elementary and secondary education in 2007 it was again amended in 2018 and mass core is really the state recommended program of study that is intended to align high school coursework with college and Workforce expectations it is really the the boilerplate for every school in the state in terms of what they offer for graduation requirements you're going to notice in the orange it talks about programing studies that include successive completion four units of English four units of mathematics three of a lab science three of History Two two of the same word language one unit of the Arts and five additional core courses which we interpret in many schools as elective and other programming so when you see what that programming is it aligns fully with what our program of studies are and our graduation requirements you see it here of really what Mass core looks like in more of a graphic um format you're going to notice right down the line and I wanted to page special notice to mathematics you see four units that would be four years including completion of Algebra 2 it goes beyond actually what the competency determination was prior to the vote in November where students showed competency at the end of 10th grade after completing Algebra 1 in Geometry really what we're trying to share with you as members of the school committee as well as the community is that our students don't only meet the competency set by the state but they exceed it you're looking at Really Right Down the Line from all of the lab Sciences they need to be taking as well as through um all of our programming the one thing to note is that in the program of studies you will see in just a few moments I want to make note about us history and world history as you know that we're in the process of realigning the scope and sequence in history so in the program and studies this year you will not see a world history program but it will be re reintroduced to all of you next year when the next group of students would be eligible going into 11th grade or world history will be reintroduced to them and I'll explain that when we get to the program of studies but you'll notice just really everything in here is aligned firmly with our program of studies and our graduation requirements so what does that mean company determination in the recommendation to all of you for the class of 2025 is that we believe and we know that every single one of our students in the 12th grade has successful completion of the grade 10 English we also know that every one of our seniors has successfully completed Al one in geometry and we also know that every one of our seniors has successfully completed biology you see at the bottom where it says awaiting further guidance from desie before adding any additional requirements as Mrs lion said that the guidance that has come out has been very um sparse to some degree and it has been very clear that they're looking for us to focus on just the senior class and then as more guidance comes out then we will act accordingly based upon where the Commonwealth is coming from but this is going to allow for us to ensure with confidence that the seniors that will be walking across the stage in June have met the competency not only by the state standard and are saying to them we've done it but also how we've exceeded the expectation as well so I want to just share with you quickly and then to really share with you our entertain questions and comments of course but even just last week more guidance came out and so I thought it was important to share with all of you what we know at this time this is has nothing to do with the class of 2025 but I think it's important for the community and all of you to be able to see how this is really an evolving kind of scenario with the guidance that is coming out Beyond um this current senior class in really revolving around the battery of tests that are coming in the spring every March we hold math retest exams in math and in ela and this was always for students in junior year who did not pass the mcast test in the spring so this is something that we always would do retest in November and then for students who still needed to retest they would do it again in in in March you're going to notice the fact that this is very distinct guidance in terms of the March retest that we could administer here at the high school it is for any student repeating the 10th grade and students in the 11th grade who have not yet taken the grade 10 Ela or math mcast test it is not anybody who has to retake the exam because one of the things that is in the state law that is really U um must know is the fact that every single student at the high school must sit for the mcast test still regardless of what the what the requirement is that we still have to have every student sit for the exam so this retest that we do offer it if we have any students who are in need of it then that would be the cohort of kids that would take it our students who have yet to take it who were repeating 10th grade and what that means is is that they were ninth graders in the year of where they were eligible to test because if they didn't have enough credits to take the 10th grade test they're not eligible to take the mcast test so when you see repeating 10th grade there were students that were retained as ninth graders at the time of the spring battery of testing during their sophomore year hence these students would be Juniors now but it may be sophomore by credit and then for any Junior who potentially did not test those of be kids who were out on a medical it could be students who have moved into the state um who have not yet tested and then lastly you're going to see or the last two slides is in the spring of 2025 this is the ELA and the math mcast exam for grade 10 this is for students that would take the ELA exam at the end of March and the math exam at the end of June this as you notice where the guidance is it is all first time grade 10 students so our current cohort of 10th grade they would be sitting for the ELA and math exam in their in the spring of this year also grade 11 students who have not yet taken the exam for the first time you're going to notice where at the bottom in the PRI prior slide in this one you see things like scholarships the John and Abigail Adams scholarship the Copic award those are opportunities and we don't even know how we're going to navigate this but I'm going to share it because this is what we mean by the guidance is evolving is that students have the eligibility to retake the exam if they wanted to be eligible for the awards so that is something we need to navigate how to do that and that's what we're working at now this guidance literally just came out late last week but knowing the most important thing for the community to know is that really the test is just for the sake that every student must sit for the exam and then lastly in in June of this year that all ninth grade students who are all currently enrolled right now in biology will sit for the biology exam at the end of 9th grade and it's all first time 9th grade there'd be no student that would have to repeat the exam unless they're a 10th grader who has not yet taken the exam so with that being said um I questions and comments and all of that that I myself and I know Mrs lines has been so integral in terms of the work we've done as a team um to make sure that we could really unpack the guidance that has been given to us and the research that we have done to ensure that our graduating class of 2025 is in good form and confident that they will graduate competent in those standards that are required so just a couple of technical notes the first is that tonight we will be looking for you to vote to approve the plan for class of 2025 only okay we'll be coming back certainly with more information I've spoken with quite a few parents in the district um really since the vote and I did want to take the opportunity to reiterate as Mr branagan has here mcass is not going away and the test will still administered and the expectation is still for students to take the test what I do think presents an interesting scenario is that now this test will be used as an assessment it will not be used towards graduation but that does not mean the test does not have value and by way of review what I would just share with all families is that the mcast exam is born out of the standards the mass curriculum Frameworks that all children are educated through k K through 12 education in in the Commonwealth so I think that the the you know I hear parents who have many different opinions about the mcast exam um and I I don't think it's our place to correct parents or weigh in on what they should think about the test the test is what the test is um but I I do think it's an opportunity to take away some of that high Stak stress around the test so that it can become an assessment and in a more authentic learning opportunity to see where a student is functioning any parent that's out there listening or has questions or concerns I would encourage them to reach out to any of our principles um our curriculum director you can reach out to me um really any any member of the of the administrative team because I I do think we're in New Territory um these exams will certainly still be used for accountability measures against the dis the district for sure but I think it's more important to engage the community be about what exactly has happened here and what that means for each individual family um so that they are not feeling like any message has been forced upon them so with that any questions you have I do just want to Echo the importance of us voting now I know the high school is just about wrapping up the first semester so making sure this is approved so that it's clear any student who needs to adjust their schedule for the second semester has has time to make sure they can get into the right classes and meet any graduation requirements and and I know from from uh reaching out to to Paul that that's all already been um initiated so all of the work to support any students that need the extra help to to make this uh a good end of their senior year and to meet those requirements is already part of what you've been working on um I do think that the the decisions that were made for um trying to find parallel competencies was logical and and set forward very um very clearly so I thank you all for that work and I I think it uh is um a great solution for for this year and then we can re-evaluate based on whatever other guidance we get um but I do also want to say that I felt all along that the additional requirements that were already in our um program of studies for the high school for a student to graduate and all of the credits that were required and the classes that were required we have a very high level of expectations um and I just felt strongly all along that we um had a an existing level of Competency expectation that was already in place so that this wasn't uh a huge uh shift for us to say okay we're just going to put some actual values on a couple of the classes that you need to have completed but everything else is already there so thank you for that anyone else I Echo what my colleague here said um about the work and the competencies and uh the alignment and uh making these decisions for this year the only comment I would add to this discussion uh is the support for parents of all mcast takers um and what their pathways are going to be and what kinds of decisions that they're going to be needing to make um which can be complicated ones given the changes that have been made and that um I know I know from listening the other night that that those conversations are starting but I just wanted to highlight them here for families that those have started and that um people should be reaching out to their resources to be thinking about how um those students navigate these New Journey thank you all right with that I would entertain a motion to uh approve the mcast competency determination for the class of 2025 is that yes so moved yep oh I'm sorry m c um this is a question for Paul I might have misunderstood you um and it's more in relation to the current 9th and 10th graders that you're saying they're still required to sit for the test I I know you're there you're still administering this test but they're required to sit for the test because in all of the other years they're not required to take the test right so it is the state expects that every student sits for the exam so that's always been but we have students who are refuse to test and then right but the requirement um for all the other grades is that you administer the test not that the student takes it that has always been different for nth and 10th grade I know I understand the difference with the the test being for competency for graduation but there's still the law still says they're required to take it versus how we do it in all the other grades which you're required to administer it right so in the 10th grade in high school that every student is required to sit for the exam even when it was high stakes so in the other grades where it's administered that it's administered and that we administer it here as well but that we need to make sure that every student because before if they didn't take the exam then they were not eligible for the diploma and so we needed to make sure the fact that every student tested and they did um and then if students couldn't pass it then we would work with them to pass the exam so that would be the additional courses it would be the um you know the appeals you could do to the state for those students I think if I'm understanding your question bridet I don't I I I'm not sure because my understanding was that um the requirement was for the I I understand the graduation requirement but once you remove that graduation requirement why does does it not then go back to like all the other students it's the it's the obligation of the school to administer the test but the student can choose to not take it sure I suppose they could but as I said the state guidance right now is is that they're requiring for all students to take it so how that's guidance not law or regulation the law regulation says the student can choose not to take the test I understand I understand the value of the test I'm not devaluing it I'm saying that that law still without the graduation requirement those nth and 10th graders can choose to not take the exam and there is no there's no yeah there would be no consequences for that in terms of their diploma or any of that and what we're starting to do you bring up a good point because what we're beginning to do in our planning is that it's really about creating conversations with our students who are in the n9th and 10th grade you know I use the star 360 um assessments that we're doing those Benchmark exams that we're doing and what's amazing is is that really the energy that students are putting into them and it doesn't count for anything it's really just to see where they are and to really give us a baseline of really how they're doing at the beginning of the year in the middle and what's been so great about it is is that you're seeing the energy they're putting into that when it doesn't count for anything and I think what we need to be doing which we've never had to do before is that we really need to be getting the discussion with our 10th graders and our nth graders about what this now is and it's an opportunity for them to be able to see how how well they're currently doing as well but also even for us to be able to see what we're doing well and what we're not doing well just like that St 360 data so it kind of is we're wondering and we're hopeful that when you take away the burden of the fact they had to do this for this diploma that the entire experience may be very different because now they can go in and just do the very best they can with it and really let's hope to see how well they do so they can qualify for scholarships potentially that they can and for us as a school to be able Lally have another Benchmark to be able to say at the end of 9th grade in biology what are we doing really well but ultimately really what do we need to kind of to weak but then again conversely in the nth in the 10th grade with English and math right and I understand the value for those things and did I hear you say so the the scholarship the opportunity for the scholarships really is like a motivator and it's an incentive for student who um who who does foresee themsel as being eligible for that so that does motivate them to take it when they make could elect to not take it did you did I hear you say they could take it they could repeat take it in order was that something they could do in the past no they could well they could they could new guidance had come out that they could but it was very rare if that happened but what we're trying to now figure out as all how to now engage that so it could be an eligibility for students who wanted to try to go for that that scholarship again that they could do it again what we just now need to figure out is how does that look so there's been as I said said the guidance that has come out has been really sporadic and when it comes out it's a little piece of something so the guidance that just came out last late last week was really about preparing for the spring battery of the retest and then ultimately the the compliment for grade n and 10 okay I didn't know if I just didn't I wasn't aware that they could retake it or that was that was a new piece that I just heard okay all right thank you thanks okay I have a motion in a second um all in favor hi opposed passes unanimously and with that we'll turn to the program of studies um where principal ban I think is going to prominantly highlight changes um although he'll walk us through there's another slide deck on that same slide if you want to pull it up all right oops sorry all right so um one of the greatest uh things I love to do every year is come before you to share the programing studies for the upcoming year and that this is a body of work that takes a significant amount of time for our teachers um and administrators to really go through the evolution of uh of our programming and as we're have now been living in this building for a few years now it's really you're going to start to see the the redesign the rebranding of many of our program programs to really meet the the needs of this school but also trying to make sure we're creating as many entry points as we can for the students who are um who are here with us so tonight I want to just thank the multiple people that are part of this process every year from the significant work of the department leaders who represent all of the content areas um here at the high school to Sean suano the chief technology officer for really ensuring and helping us make sure that this program of studies um is compliant and it is accessible um obviously to the entire curriculum team for their leadership and guidance of partnering with the Department chairs and to really be looking at it from a very different lens and it's really just been so valuable Amy burn our school counselor who has really become really just a a wonderful partner in ensuring of actually this the implementation of the program of studies and of course the entire School counseling department because they see the lens of this very very differently in regards of the whole picture of an entire school where a department maybe looking at what's going on in their own Department the school councils really do give a really um robust um kind of view of what the needs are so really in any decision we make as a school it's all about um really going back to Our Roots it's really looking at the district strategy for continues to Improvement it is really aligning with the vision of The Graduate and it's making sure that our school and learning expectations are really embedded in everything that we do and so anytime we're looking at a new course or we're looking at redesign designer programming we need to go back to make sure that it's doing what we want it to do the design of the program of studies is really um making sure that it's modern accessible and manageable for students and families um it's really utilizing the school website to allow the program of studies to be navigated by a search menu and content areas by course number the engagement of the program of studies to be userfriendly and ADA Compliant and accessible for all and um that it's easily translated for any member of our school Community into their preferred language and then also the program in studies um is also linked in Aspen to make it much easier for the document to be using during course selection as well and really the criteria for graduation we've already shared this just a moment ago but you know the fact that we are looking to maintain the 136 credits to graduate from the high school and that um continue what we're looking to do is increase that graduation requirement to a full full years of math the mcast expectations has been updated to reflect the change in the state law and the current guidance from Desi regarding mcast expectations but students are you know from the state view expected to sit for those exams as we just talked about but it would be administering the grade nine biology exam but also in grade 10 English and math um as we look at this new high school um it is really a reflective document of the wonderful learning opportunities here and many new courses offering our direct relation to the facility that we now have um and really just um this year we we added an entire section about the offerings through the MHS learning Commons and media center though with the work that Mrs Phillips our wonderful librarian is doing that we thought it was important in this year's document to include a whole section about the opportunities through the learning commment we would be maintaining the community service requirement for service learning hours minimum collected of 24 hours of validated service through their four years at the high school and S and students self-report what those hours are it's important to note that any student who's doing any activities here in the school for all the students as Eddie Parkinson had mentioned about the unified Bachi games here on Saturday the students who are coming to help be fans in the stands to play in the game that is all considered service hours because they're involved in a schoolwide activity and here are the changes so we're going to start with English and how I've created this here is is it will share with you just kind of anything that is being removed from the program of studies and then anything that is being updated or added so in some cases it may be that we've realigned grade requirements so we may be opening up courses to a new grade is also adding the courses that we're adding or rebranding you're going to be noticing especially in math and in science that we're eliminating certain courses that you may be like well why are you doing that you need to understand that the courses that we would be removing were courses that were directly connected to the mcast test and they were immed video courses that students had to take if they did not meet with Proficiency in the math MC in in the respective mcast test so you're going to notice in ela the fact that we it's any of the updated descriptions and all of that to the program of studies and that also two courses are being removed I think it's important in English that there's been a significant amount of review that the um the humanities coordinator as well as the English Department led by Jessica Buco has really done a lot of work in kind of looking at what we're doing and the offerings to students they ended up surveying students about different electives that they were thinking about so really what you're going to see is a sampling of what the students said they love to learn more about so the artist personal storytelling and the bestseller are being removed these are 9 through 12 electives and we just thought it's time to kind of put them on the shelf and to maybe return at a later time and for changes it's adding a creative writing elective for grades N9 and 10 um real world Communications which is really looking at more technical writing it doesn't sound really fancy but when you see the descriptions and really what we're hoping it will do with students in grades 9 and 10 it will give them a very very different kind of writing one of the things you're going to see is that we've really aligned the electives program in English to really build the capacity of a writer and so that's why you're seeing in English in particular it's no longer the grade 9 through 12 elective it is really hyper focusing on grades 9 and 10 and then focusing on grades 11 and 12 we have a world world mythology elective that is offered in 11 and 12 that would be a new offering Sports and literature as an elective in grades 11 and 12 podcasting in elective 11 and 12 and then a course for seniors only which is an elective called genocide in literature if you know that in 2021 Governor Baker had passed um had given guidance and an advisory that um schools needed to be able to teach and to explore um patterns in in um world events that are identified as a genocide and so that the English Department came together to create a senior only program um in literature for that and last two courses is a brand new one is called literacy lab 9 and 10 and this is really coming out of our um project our star 360 data and that really what it's going to look like is is really creating an area to be able to enhance skills for students that were identifying that need some extra support and even though that we can do it within the classroom setting it would be a course that students would be able to take that would help them actually enhance certain key elements or Cur certain skills that we identified through their data points in the beginning of the year in the middle to be able to actually um get the extra support in the literacy lab the literacy lab one is in ninth grade and the literacy lab two is in grade 10 and they're semester ised courses so would not be a student in there for the year say they have data points at the beginning of the year to say you know what it may be really great for you to have this extra support they would be finished in the um in the in the winter time as they finish the lab in mathematics it's realigned redesigning updating all the descriptions and really the big one here is to really make it a fouryear requirement of mathematics to move from a threee requirement note to all of you and to the community that almost every single one of our seniors takes math every year anyway so would have no impact in terms of Staffing or in terms of really what we do in our schedule anyway with the senior class is just really put it into writing that all of our students are taking math in 12th grade it is important to not when you're looking at really what our 12th grade math is um for most of our students in 12th grade their math that they're taking is financial literacy so it's really a course that is an important one and a lifelong one for them as well the topics those courses we're getting rid of or removing with your approval is math topics this particular course I bring it to you only because it is the course that a students cannot sign up for they're assigned to it if a student going into grade 11 failed the math mcast test they would take this math topics course to do a crash course to get them ready for the retest in November and in March math strategies 1 and two these were pre- um mcast courses that were really based upon longitudal studies that we would do of students mcast scores throughout their entire journey in school and we would identify that these students could be predicted of how they would actually do Fair on the mcast test these these ex these courses excuse me will be removed because the entire thought of those courses are no longer necessary the math lab and and you'll see in just a moment is a tether to almost what I just shared with you in regards to the literacy lab as well you're going to notice pre-calculus honors the reason why this course is being removed from the math department is because it is the same exact curriculum as AP pre-calculus and so to really have students be able to engage in the AP program when it's l nearly the same exact curriculum in scope and sequence seemed to be really unnecessary so the honors program for pre-calculus for next year would be removed changes um some of the electives we moved it to grade 10 so now number game in consumer economics which is kind of an offshoot of financial literacy is now being offered to grades 10 11 and 12 there's a an elective that we're offering through the math department called Excel um it is 11 and 12 elective and then you see the compliment of the math side of the lab which is the literacy to the literacy lab in grades N9 in 10 in history and social studies it is really updating the course descriptions and this is really where US History 1 grade 10 is removed that is not meaning we're removing US History because of the new scope and sequence the fact that we had to re-engage the the students that are in the pipeline now so all of our students right now our ninth graders are in US history 1 our 10th graders are also in US history 1 and our 11th graders are in US history 2 next year our ninth graders will be in US history 1 our 10th graders are all moving excuse me our current ninth graders are all moving to us US History 2 because they've just completed US History 1 and then in grade 11 they would go into a world history program that is yet to be designed so you're going to see this kind of scope and sequence year to year as we had to flip world history from 9th grade to realign with the state Frameworks that are really calling for US History to be done in grades 9 and 10 so next year's program will be removing US History 1 grade 10 because all of those students have already taken the course what we're also doing is that um AP European History is no longer offered to grade 10 we tried it it was just not successful um but we're also what I did omit in here but I just wanted to make sure I just realized it is that we are now moving apus history to grade 10 before it was an AP course you could only take in grade 11 because you needed to have us history 1 completed our nth graders would have done that so they would now have the opportunity to do US History starting in grade 10 at the AP level and the last one is a five credit elective which is I'm very excited about as a former history U member in the department is international relations and model diplomacy it's an elective that will be offered to grades 11 and 12 it will be a FYE course and the whole scope of this is to allow our high school to finally become involved in the model un program which um we're really excited by so hopefully there'll be a lot of interest for that in science technology and pre-engineering you're going to notice the biology review course is being removed because that was the review course for students who failed the 9th grade biology mcass so that course would be re being removed from the schedule you're going to also notice I'm going to flip to AP Chemistry really quickly um in grade 10 we're now officially offering it to grade 10 I want to share with you really a quick story that last year we were looking at the AP program in chemistry and that by far is probably the hardest AP course in the school and the fact that we were really looking at the enrollment numbers and we were looking at the number enrollment numbers were somewhat low and it was too low for my liking so we had a big meeting and said what do we do here and we said why don't we look at our 10th graders Rising 10th graders who are going into chemistry and see if any of those students would be really academically in a place to engage in AP Chemistry so we try we tried it and I have to tell you that every one of those sophomores that were in AP Chemistry last year um qualified on the AP exam and so for a group of students who never had taken AP Chemistry so we're like let's keep on keeping on with that program so that there would be select um students that would be um that would be recommended potentially or eligible to take AP Chemistry now it's stared in the 10th grade you're beginning to notice at the high school that all of our EP programs were always in 11th and 12th grade and now they're slowly starting to move down which is really much more in in align in um in Elite in Alliance with the rest of the country you're also going to notice our principles of by biomed our introduction engineering design and our computer science Essentials we're removing the college preparatory level from the program right now we offer it at the honors level and the college preparatory level and they're taught within the same course we have been really reviewing it over the last couple of years and we realize the fact that the Project Lead the Way program is so scripted that it really if you differentiate the instruction you do not need to be giving two different levels for it so that next year that the only level for all three of those entry-level programs into those Pathways will be offered at the honors level and then really it will be working with the students in the room to make sure the fact that they can meet the requirements the Project Lead the Way in those entry courses cuz what's important to note once they leave that class and they go into the next level in the pathway they're all offered at the honors level so we want to make sure that we can get them hit the ground running in a way to really make sure it's high rigor but it's also meeting them where they at and these are the courses just to overview of all the courses that we offer um many years ago we were adding a new course every year as the pathway was growing now these are all of the Pathways in the biomedical science you see it's a 4-year program the engineering with the offsho aerospace engineering that could be an an opportunity for students in the program as well as computer science as well ending with advanced placement computer science a this just gives you an example where a student who could be taking computer science at the CP level by the time they hit the end of the pathway they're in an AP course which we think is totally manageable but we wanted to make sure going into that entry program that it was given the Credence what it should be which is the honors level in word language it is updating all the of the course descriptions and it's two electives that would be removing Global Communications and Spanish and the workforce they just have not been um electives that have ever been really popular with students and the one I want to point your attention to is Russian one you know that there's been a conversation at our level here at the high school in the district about every way to possibly save and sustain the Russian program and that we know the fact that over the last many years that regardless of how hard we've been trying the marketing the the engagement we've been really struggling to get students to begin that journey stting in the 9th grade what we've been looking at is is how do you keep the tenance of the program and the the history of that program here in middlebar um and from being here for 28 years I know the importance of the program here in our community and that what we're looking to do is do really a slow phase out but also a redesign as well potentially it is really looking at keeping all of the students who are currently in the Russian program in the Russian program so a student who's in Russian one right now would be able to go into Russian 2 they would allow themselves to meet the the expectations of the 2-year sequential language requirement but they would also be able to complete the fouryear requirement if they so chose to be able to have those students in the pathway to be able to complete it and make sure they could get that in working with the Russian teacher in particular and the department chair that we would begin in the fall of next year really building a Russian culture class so that we would be able to kind of have an opportunity for all students to be able to have exposure to language to the culture and to the richness of what these students have been able to learn over time so the proposal for tonight is to begin to really look and redesign and Rebrand what that looks like here in our school because what we don't want to be able to do is keep trying to hang on to a program that is just not is just not able to be hung on to so that's why the proposal tonight is to remove Russian one from the program of studies but make it clear it is not to do anything with Russian 2 three or four in the Arts it is really updating all the course descriptions it is removing two courses start drawing and calligraphy but it's important to note that start drawing has been redesigned and to create a better entry point for our students and it's now called Art exploration visual journaling it will become an entry point elective for maybe the non- artist that a student could be able to enter into the art visual arts program and I want to thank the visual arts teachers for their really outstanding job of really redesigning that program to meet the needs many many of our students in theater the only course that's being removed is the art of theater and I want to give Mr Moser um a shout out as he's here because one of the things that that he has done which I think is really quite interesting and you don't see it in the presentation because they're all courses that were currently running is that he's really taking students in terms who really are looking at theater as a core content area for them there's a very big difference for a student who's going to take say um the foundations of art that student is an artist in comparison to the student who is a non- artist to take more of the survey kind of course in theater you have students that have an array of electives to take and it may be a student who has never thought of themselves in in stage or in the backstage whatever it may be but what we're doing is is that art of theater class has been a course that has really been blended into the other courses that we're offering so next year a nth grader could enter the high school so all these students that are in the in the musical next weekend who really have a love of theater would go right into theater one that was never allowed for a nth grader they would enter theater 1 as a nth grader 10th grade would be theater 2 junior year would be now theater 3 which had always been this Capstone senior year experience which weely struggled to get students to do and what has been redesign is really what is called the theater lab and the theater lab would be offered now in grade 12 which would be really an independent personalized experience for those seniors who really have a passion for it where it becomes independent project it becomes really doing research that's really something they're passionate about in the world of theater so it allows for student to now have a formal four-year pathway that is really um accessible and allows those 12th graders to be able to have something that really we struggled with getting them into that Capstone course along with all the array of the electives that's why what you're going to see here is that one course being removed because it has now replaced itself with that fouryear pathway I hope I did it um in music there is no change for this year next year excuse me what is really quite exciting is what's happening in TV production and a real thank you to Adam pellet here you're going to see this slide and get nervous like what is happening to the television production program because every one of the courses that we currently run TV 1 2 3 and digital filmm are being removed from the program of studies before we moved into the High School Mr Peter had begun a lot of research of a complete redesign of the television production program you would notice the fact that in our program there were year courses a student would have to go into TV pro one and then could go into TV 2 3 4 but ultimately a student in grade 11 who just wanted to say I really think I want to take it as an elective they had no other opportunity besides TV pro one and then two so would really be create a limit this kind of a program worked fabulously when you only had 8 to 12 students taking the course back in the day when they were taking the van over to the middle school now that we're at the high school and you have a really robust TV studio and program in it was time to really begin the journey and Adam has done a fabulous job of really creating a multiple entry points for students there are four brand new courses that are being presented to you today one you're going to see the same name but it's a complete redesign it will start with video production for all entry level students field production would be the next course Studio production and film making any student could take any of these courses as long as they've taken the fundamental course of of video production all of these courses are two and a half credits meaning the numbers of students who will be um accessible to the program um is significant and they'll be able to mix and match when they do it as well so we're really excited by the work Adam has done to do more specialization in TV pro for a student who really likes to do the reporting that field production is for them but the student who really likes to be backstage and working in the studio that's a course for them as well and so it creates very different avenues for students than what had done before and just really a wonderful thank you to Adam for really bringing the the mission to life of really this redesign and in physical education um it is really just Mr Sylvia's credit um as you know last year we came before you and and shared with you our complete redesign of 9th grade PE which is that frit for life course and the Freshman experience it was really met with some great success and that really looking at strength and conditioning you're going to see introduction to strength and conditioning and also advanced IT strength and conditioning which was a course we did not run last year that both of those courses through the PE teachers they decided to just run strength and conditioning because what they're doing is is when a student takes that course they would be able to gym the PE teacher will be able to meet the students where they're at in their own journey in terms of strength and conditioning so instead of the one size fits all it's going to allow it to be almost like it's like the health club almost of being able to determine where their entry point is with that work and then really updating scope and sequences to make sure that the students going through the pathway of PE that it's the right complement of courses and lastly just for your consideration we're adding one more course as you know that last year we added courses finally into the Innovation lab through our designation through the career Pathways and advanced manufacturing as you know we have state designation for the advanced manufacturing that um next year we'll be offering the third level of the course all of our students this year all entered in manufacturing one this semester we have a whole cohort of kids who did you manufacturing one this semester who will go into manufacturing two next semester and now to be able to have the complement of the Capstone of manufacturing 3 what this also allows for us to do is with the ninth graders coming up that with the designation through desie for the advanced manufacturing credentials that students will be able to graduate with that our manufacturing one program will be operated at an elective rate for 2.5 credits as well as a five credit course to make sure that those ninth graders who are in the pathway will be able to to meet the designation requirements by the state early college is still happening and these are the pathways the P the pathway for business in the name of Jim Braga Early Childhood programs um criminal justice and of course all of our school to Career SC internships as you know early college Begins for our students in grade 11 and lastly what's next um we're in the process of getting ready to begin to engage our students in grades 8 through 11 on the courses for next year teacher recommendations will begin next week and the portal will open for teachers in grades 8 through 11 to make recommendations for students next year we started this last year and I can tell you about the conversations that allows between teachers and students students and their parents and of course parents and teachers as well to Ally determine what level they will be in next year and the goal is to make sure they're challenging themselves as well in areas where they should we're opening we're offering as Eddie had shared earlier the class of 2029 we're opening our home here at the high school for all of our eighth graders and the families to come up for an open house this is very different than the information night back in the fold this is really about exploring courses visiting with teachers looking into the labs and be able to see really what we offer and what the these courses look like where our um school counselors will head down to the Middle School um on February 6th to do an assembly we break them off into the beginnings of meeting their school counselor here at the high school and so two of the councils will take their case load of students the other two will take their students and to do an overview of what the program of studies looks like that will then lead into the week after the vacation where the school councils will go back down to the middle school and the four councils will work with their students individually to really go over and help them prepare to to schedule their courses and lastly program of studies nights will be taking place here at the high school for All Families grades 8 through 11 from February 10th through the week of the 10th through the 14th and we do the same program program every night and allows for families to find an evening that's going to work for them to be able to come with their student to be able to learn more and to ask questions we will officially open the portals to schedule for next year's um courses on February 25th and that we'll be preparing to share all of that communication out with all of our families and through the month of March we'll be preparing to working with students and with teachers about building the schedule and we'll go to actually build the schedule for next year in April and then be able to finalize all student SCH SCH so every student walking out of the 8th grade and all students here at the high school will know what their schedules are for next year by June 30th so um that is the presentation for tonight and I'm happy to take questions and comments and I thank you on behalf of all the faculty here at the high school I thank you for your consideration for the program of studies anyone have any comments questions so uh first in terms of comments and again I I had the opportunity to have some of this conversation the other night I just want to uh compliment again the work that's done uh to both increase specifically in math the expectations around math uh the targeted intervention through the labs uh the uh increase in the career Readiness uh and the pathways uh you know the the work and the thought that goes into all of this program planning is truly amazing uh and thank you for that that uh I do have a question uh and it is about the languages and it's not I am a a an Alum of the Russian program and I benefited and some of my classmates had very unique opportunities because of the Russian program but I thoroughly understand um why that we are U beginning to phase that program out and and have no question about that what I do question is um what how how long do you think it's going to be before we really uh Target uh what a second at least a second language uh offering is going to be third we have Spanish and French also Okay the third I'm sorry my apologies the third or is there going to be a third uh language that's going to be offered I I remember when the time when there was only two uh and that that was a gain forward to us when we went to three that's many years ago uh and I do think it would be a step backward if we don't um consider and I'm sure you are so I'm just wondering what the timeline no I appreciate that Mrs Panini and and we're on the same page in the world language Department as well as the curriculum team and the superintendent that it is not about as we're beginning the process of having to make a really hard decision about a program that we have desperately tried to save it really affords an opportunity of really what's next for our students um in just conversations and as as I shared with you tonight there's no third language that is coming right now and because we really need to come back and figure out well really where is what should we be offering you know we've had conversations about offering Portuguese which we know is the second highest language spoken in our region um we've talked about American sign language as as an opportunity as an entry point for students as well so you know we've also had conversations in a broader scope of where does World language begin does begin when they enter nth grade or is it something where it begins even earlier in their Journey so there's a lot of conversations that are happening but I if if anyone who knows me I tend to be very systematic and it's to do things when it's right and then how it's appropriate and so to rush a language that we really have not done our research on to say this is right for our students is right for our community um would be ill-placed and I think right now it is ensuring the fact that our students who are um currently in that pathway of FR are able to sustain that program and to make sure they can get the maximum experience that they wanted to get and then really looking at our nth graders coming up and say we know the majority of our students are taking French and taking Spanish but then looking at really maybe the year after the year after that would be the introduction of potentially a third language maybe even a fourth language so um I think over the next academic school year you're going to start to see more from us in regards of Whata ifs um and some ideas and then really how we would be working with Dr meltis and the curriculum team of really what would that look like and how do we do it um in my journey in this role in particular we've never infused another language we tried a long time ago um and it just we tried it with mandarin through kind of an online approach and that just did not go well and we realize you really need to have somebody in front of you doing it um and teaching that and so that is something we need to begin to look at too so hope that kind of answers your your question it's thank you thank you Jess um as a i Echo your your language requirements but I are language feelings um but I do also think it's exciting to be able to to look at what other language I know there are high school programs in in Massachusetts some of them offer uh you know Mandarin or Japanese and there are others that offer German and and sign language and so it's hopefully it'll just bring a a new uh new Option forward I love the the consideration of starting to bring the languages into maybe the Middle School level as well since I do think that that is uh an area that um Can level set some of our students who are really interested in languages as they get to the college level because most um many schools do offer those languages starting at the middle school level so it'll it'll allow greater um greater scope of learning um I also just wanted to uh commend the math department for all of the variety of electives that are now available especially looking at having a fourth year math requirement and saying it doesn't have to be calculus it can be the the financial planning the um number of them look really interesting I I love the idea of introducing an Excel course to start learning you know if you want to go into that kind of data analytics side of things how do you represent and and properly structure your data so um those are uh really exciting options and I think will make that fourth year even easier for the students to fulfill um and the the uh revised structure of English electives to focus on writings and the different types of writing um because they are very different from you know kind of a professional writing or how do you how do you write to convey facts as opposed to a story um so I find those all to be wonderful additions to the curriculum and um am excited to see how they how they kind of pan out and uh what interest the students have in them so thank you to everyone for the work to to put this forward thank you anyone else with that I would entertain a motion to uh approve the 2526 program of studies for the middleb high school so moved second have a motion to Second any comments or questions I just want to say thank you obviously you've put a lot of time and effort into this and uh we certainly appreciate it and I think your students will appreciate it thank you so much thank you everyone all in favor I I opposed passes unanimous thank you thanks so much thank you Mr BR again um so if we can just get back to the other slide deck what we're going to do next is the second read of the proposed drafts of the 2526 academic calendar we did absorb there was a request for additional clarification about professional development days just to make that clearer on the calendar so those changes have now been made the calendars are available on our website we also added a student and family survey we thought it would be helpful to put a survey on our websites that anybody could take it and say hey I like option one or I like option two or I like option three I brought some of those uh results this evening we're going to keep these surveys open until Monday uh February 10th prior to our next meeting just so that people have more opportunity to weigh in um and take another look at these models I'm not real there's no change between last week and this week aside substantively um aside from the clarifications but I did want to show you what we received in terms of early survey results actually let me just reload yeah that's still 36 um you can see that it includes how many people have responded so far what this uh we asked what their first choice was and I know it's a little bit small on there but draft one is the blue with 43.5% of the um votes which is Teachers before Labor Day students after number two was draft three the second place so far at 35% has teachers and students starting before Labor Day and then draft two so far is the least popular with 21.6% that is teachers and students after Labor day as well so that's your up I'll I'll bring that updated information to next meeting and I would encourage students students families go vote so that we can have your voice heard there's certainly no promise but I think it's helpful to the school committee in making your decision hey is there a popular choice um so we we put that into um into play I also have a couple of comments that we were able to synthesize from these results that ultimately um many people are sharing with us that they do have a preference for starting after Labor Day because it allows students and families to enjoy Fuller uh summer vacation plans and a more natural transition um some noted the difficulty of returning to school before Labor Day for families with travel plans or working parents there was also comments about ending the school year before June 19th so may be in Conflict little tricky but that's okay I mean this is this is the thing about surveying is that you get the responses you get the response um but uh obviously there's a desire to end before the 19th um because if snow pushes us further you know snow days would push us further into June everyone appreciate or the you know comments were signaling an appreciation fore date that is earlier to avoid extended school sessions during late summer so these are your early comments as I said I'll update them and yes I do have to not the natural conflict with those two positions but that's okay I think it's um just just one of a few factors you will want to consider um there was additional comments about flexibility for snow days that there's really a lack of flexibility for snow days with an end date of June 22 or later and what about additional buffer days to account for potential school cancellations um with a suggestion starting even earlier in August and then finally um some there was some request or comments about um adjusting the professional development days on the school calendar specifically many suggest switching the full days um you know day long full day in service in January with the um early release in March as this would better break up the school year and make the calendar more effective for staff so these are just trends that doesn't mean that everybody said this but it also doesn't mean that one person said this um actually Mr Siciliano and I used um some artificial intelligence in order to help us with the summary of this data which oh that's nice it's a Cutting Edge we're brand new with it and we have a AI committee that we are assembling so more to come on the topic of AI but not tonight um so the surveys themselves are the LS are have I seen them in the um Friday things that go out to families ah good question I will make sure I signal to the principal's um newsletters go out to right tomorrow is Friday so I'll make sure that they link that in there it's very easy to do that they're on the homepage but it'd be good to put in the newsletters parents don't for I'm not sure how many people go to the home page you know that often yeah um sure I'm just thinking of different places we could embed the link so that we get U more more surveys great the surveys are open to teachers everybody mhm we didn't we didn't ask for we didn't ask for any mandatory designation we thought all info would be helpful to you agre you can do with the info what you know wait it however you see fit any question yeah go ahead um how many snow days do we at cancel school like on an average year I don't remember I don't know that you can ask me average I've had in the this is now my third year I also I I knock on wood I hate asking that question in the last week of or the third week of January but well some of some people I know are very excited for when that happens including a lot of our students so what I can tell you is we had one we we had one day last year and one day the previous year and it wasn't snow it was wind knocked out power to that was an early release last year that was an early release but there but I believe there was one closure day also last year um so remember if there's an early release that doesn't that's not a day that you make up although early release is wildly difficult for all yes of course um so we have not in the last few years there have not been multiple but that it's just very hard to predict what we're going to have and not have and all I can think of because I was sitting here was the winter of 2015 when we got 100 inches of snow in January so you just it's uh absolutely that snow on April 1 so you know I certainly see a trend of fewer days but all that can be messed up with one seon and I'm not looking to invite that so no we had trouble with the budgeting for snow removal with the town budget too because at least a budget and then everybody wants that money come springtime and then you don't want to nobody wants to budget the same the next year and then you get smacked you get smacked and now you're stealing money from everybody so I I know it's it's not easy to predict but at least we're not I don't think it's the same driving around in a truck shaking table Sal off the back of the truck to Salter roads in Massachusetts so we'll take we'll take it I mean there is a trend that there are fewer and fewer I think there's a clear Trend in fewer and I can tell you in my 13 years here in the district actually Paul could probably give you a better data set because he's been here longer but I've we've never seen five plus days of of cancellation even in the even in the year of um 100 inches of snow in January which is just my favorite story because it's so wild but um so we really you know we really haven't had many many it's just it just really depends sometimes you know it's not uncommon to get a blizzard in our region and due to the size of Middleboro not you know not be able to open for more than one day I've seen that occur in in past blizzards but I I wish I had a crystal ball I know it's frustrating for families it's certainly frustrating for for school um School personnel as well but yeah it's I I me there's over 200 miles a road in middleb so to properly clear those on a Sunday night if you get a Sunday night snowstorm is difficult um hats off to the DPW any other questions yes I've got a I've got a couple questions um one would it be prudent at this point since there's only 21 22% on on option to could we remove that and if not which is totally fine that's just a question um is it possible to add to um your survey uh what their second choice would be um well funny you should say that um we we did ask that question and I didn't bring you the question because the results were the same which tells me that respondents picked their first choice twice so it just was not helpful data so which I understand but this is got to be a little trickier with those perhaps maybe maybe I need to talk to Mr Sian about how to lock some of those um selections that said if you if you no longer want to see three options you can absolutely I can remove them and go with two if that's what the board wants to do yeah so that's that's my question for everyone you know there's only 20 you know it's it's clear that that's the that's the option that's least yeah and it it would help inform the choice between the two exactly I move that we remove the third choice second dra two the third choice which is draft two yes I second that have a motion to Second any comments questions all in favor I I oppos suest all right so we'll we'll remove draft two and we'll come back with one and three for next meeting all right yep okay I just have a question um I know you said teachers and um Educators receive this the survey has it also been available to facilities maintenance and transportation who might also be affected with a a later earlier start tape um there's been no there's been no like block on the survey so anybody can take it but now that you're raising it I think the way we're communicating about that um we could enhance hey make sure you weigh in on this so putting that in the newsletter I'll talk with the principles before tomorrow before end of day tomorrow on that just to make sure everybody has their voice heard okay thank you sure and with that director Peron is waiting for us ever so patiently with our last item of the of this report this evening which is our budget update now before we get into um slides I just wanted to reiterate that we are now headed into the the meet of the budget season so director Peron and I will be back with a presentation of the entire budget at next meeting this presentation is meant to be an overview we wanted to have more regular budget updates so this is that the focus is actually on fy2 rather than FY 26 but if you're looking at this um slide deck and wondering hey shouldn't we have more specifics hang on to your seats because that's coming next meeting and given the hour I figure it made more sense to do an overview so with that director Peron H welcome and why don't you launch right in so uh three topics we want to talk wh I want to talk about and that's uh the fiscal 25 project did close out uh the 26 Capital re requests and then finally the budget building process for FY 26 so in uh looking at our current budget and the expenses uh I'm trying to project out what where we'll end the year the good news is that we're in good shape for this year uh but I did want to point out that there's uh increased costs in uh special ed and the reason I put that there is because that will have a lingering effect and and be part of the 26 budget and a we'll have to deal with some issues going into uh the budget process with FY 26 and how we handle those costs and with you know with the U uh Source the other sources other than the town funding uh the salary Surplus uh projection is that uh that is going to kind of save us for from the uh increased cost and special ed uh that is due to some vacant positions um uh positions that are somewhat difficult to fill the timing of them when they became vacant uh we don't like to have obviously vacant pos position especially in um inst struction but we have some and uh because of that it it actually offset the uh cost in special ed uh additionally in trying to build the Surplus as as much as we can we are implementing a freeze superintendent and I uh are working on that right now I'm working with the department heads and principles to get some of the things that they definitely need to get through the year uh but this is kind of uh for two reasons we're doing that obviously viously to build the Surplus but we're also going live with the new Financial system in March uh March 1st so I'm kind of thinking that the uh not that we think it's going to be an issue um but if we can uh limit the amount of expense for the last four months and not dealing with the new system uh until we get used to it and July 1 we'll be ready to go um so as I said we are projecting a surplus I don't have I can't give you a number at this point it's a little early but that Surplus whatever we uh do have we would like to uh help offset the FY 26 budget with uh and by uh paying for prepaid tuitions like we did uh last year to balance the budget just quickly on uh Capital the 26 requests I have three of them here two are really for FY 26 first one is Paving of the hbb and mkg parking lot and that's around two 276,000 we have technology requests uh for new network switches at Nickles um and I believe that's 300,000 um yes it's 300,000 for that um the last uh bullet here is a new roof um at Nicholls that will be part of your f27 Capital the reason we have it there is because there's an application through the msba that is due in uh March and part of the application is to have approval from both uh your committee school committee and the town so we need uh and that'll be coming to you in February but I just wanted to give you a heads up the first two are act the ones for FY 26 a little bit about the uh 26 budget uh where we were where we're headed um in uh December uh the department heads submitted their budgets uh the superintendent and I met with each department uh at least twice in December and January uh we had a good meeting with the finance committee rep uh a week or so ago uh one of the biggest parts of the uh budget process and we had uh the second meeting at with the department heads was a audit of all Personnel so they came in and we went through every single person in their building and uh looked at um any vacancies positions uh people their salaries and so we went through a full audit of that um the uh budget subcommittee you're going to talk a little bit about that I think in the next item is uh are scheduled to meet on February 3rd and February 6th um coming up for the school committee uh we have three presentations the first uh budget presentation is February 13th then the public hearing on 227 and then the final vote on March 13th and then following that uh date to be scheduled sometime in March is the budget presentation that we will do to the select board and finance committee so that is it uh kind of a summary of those three topics I'll take any questions or uh comments if the committee would like any comments or questions thank you very much thank you and that completes my report for this evening all right on to subcommittee updates policy subcommittee that's me um so um I have a few items that I kind of wanted to start our subcommittee work um focused on um it has been a little difficult I think because Suz and I are kind of all on the same grouping of committees and has made it a little difficult with budget and negotiations needing to take precedence um but we have agreed to meet on February 5th um which is now in the middle of a week of budget subcommittee meetings so thank you both for agreeing to another day in the middle of that week um uh we are planning to meet at 4:30 um we can talk about location and it'll be in the agenda when it's when it's posted um so once we find where to be um we will go from there um just a quick update on the the topics to keep in mind that we're going to be starting with um I am using as a basis uh a guideline that I found from another District in Massachusetts to look at creating not a policy but a guideline a communication guideline for famili um with everything that um we hear with some of the requests for making sure we have clearer channels of communication I think it would be helpful to have some guidelines as if this is the concern here's where you start and that kind of thing um I also want to um look at our existing policies related to out of state field trip and fundraiser approvals I have a draft language that I've run by the lawyers that we will review to see where is appropriate to add to handle kind of time sensitive requests if we have meetings cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances and now that Allan has jinxed us and we're going to have snow days those could come up um I also want to um just kind of start the process of the overall policy review um I have been thinking a lot about how difficult it is to slog through all of that paperwork so I am starting to try to do um a comparison again using some AI tools to help hopefully um comparing each uh section of our policy against the masc kind of standard or their their guidance um mostly just to look for gaping holes or big differences so that as a committee we can focus more on the things that are more different and the ones where we match the existing language hopefully we can just do a quick review and make sure that they're they're um still on target Target for how we want to have them in the district so just kind of trying to find an easier way to to to prioritize um our Focus as we do those um the other thing um is with uh an election coming up in April um trying to put together just a a little bit of guidance for um whoever May if people may join our committee to say hey here's the quick link to our um our handbook here's the quick link to our um masc information um here's where you can find out information on charting the course and those kinds of things just to um sort of maybe hope people can start off with a little bit of of information instead of coming in with uh a feeling like they're a little loss so those are the the four topics I just wanted to touch on quickly we're not going to hit all of them at the next meeting the communication guideline um will be the the primary focus of that meeting and potentially just looking at some of that um kind of time sensitive approvals um policies as well and we'll go from there for everything else and uh I don't imagine we'll be able to meet all that frequently until budget and negotiations are in a more level set place but we'll see what we can do so February 5th 4:30 location to be determined and that is my update all right thank you very much Jess anybody have any comments questions on to the budget subcomittee yeah that one's me uh first off I want to start by thanking Sue um because she's really LED point on um the start of this which was meeting with the school councils um and to that end I want to thank the principal's um staff and the parents who also attended those meetings um I found that those meetings were very FR uh fruitful and insightful discussions um and typically in the past we would simply just meet with the administration right off the bat um I believe uh Mike Peron uh gave us the the dates um I'll give you to the I'll give you them again that's the third and the sixth is when we would be meeting um and and we would just take it from there and sit down but uh this time round uh Sue approached me about the idea of of Outreach and I absolutely love that idea and we went with it and uh it's been like I said very fruitful um not only did we discuss the budget the budget in terms of monitary ask but we also tried to get into the wise and how's um and what's more is we tried to tackle those pieces from various different perspectives as well um being able to answer and ask questions with each of the stakeholders uh was incredibly collaborative and I really appreciated that and I think she would would agree with me um the SubCom commmittee participation in these meetings is new um I already said that B I have bullet points is what I'm looking at so um if I get ahead of myself I apologize um but I do think that we should entertain the uh idea of doing this in the future as well um this this won't be just a onetime thing I actually really enjoyed this um there is one more school council meeting with ipal Sanborn at the HPB that will be taking place on the 29th at 3:30 U which I believe Sue had already recapped at the very beginning um after that takes place Sue and I uh expect to receive our budget binders in the days following and then thereafter we'll be meeting um as a subcommittee um a few times in February with uh superintendent and the Director of Finance along with other administrators um that's basically my update yes do you have a I I saw the agenda posted for for the Monday February 3rdd meeting at 4:30 at school street do you have a time for the February 6th meeting uh not yet as far as as far as I know um I'll firm that up in the flash I think we were going to go with 4:30 4:30 for both times right 4:30 is what we what we posted for the third I would recommend we stay with the same time but I confirm that up through the flash tomorrow generally generally it's 4 if I'm involved it's generally 4:30 or0 exactly so yeah yeah expect 4:30 yeah I'm looking at this now yep 4:30 thank you I'm happy to entertain any more questions anybody else have any I I do have one question at Mike and Carolyn maybe for both of you and that is do you anticipate any more meetings with um a representative from the finance committee of the town I don't think so but I don't know that for sure because yeah Sullivan usually oh that's right attends he usually attends the we invite our thank you for pointing that out we um invite our finance committee liaison to these meetings so meeting that we're having the budget sub committee and and they participate alongside um everybody else so I'll make sure I reach out to Mr Sullivan I want to make sure that he's aware of our times you know and and I'm sure he will join as he as he does thank you sure any other comments questions all right I would entertain a motion to uh to allow me to sign the consent agenda as presented so move second motion a second any comments or questions just read out the donations sure we have a donation from shter to midar high school at the John in the John T Nichols Middle School and the Mary K good Elementary School we also have a donation from the New England police benevolent Association local 76 the M of our High School class of 2025 and the class of 2026 thank you I have a motion in a second all in favor I I I opposed passes unanimously we have two action items entertain a motion to approve the mea M moas so move second a motion and second any comments questions and that's the mass Educators Association memorandum of understanding good job all right so I have a motion the second all in favor I I opposed passes unanimously I would entertain a motion to approve the out of state field trip for the Mary K good Elementary School to Roger Williams Park Zoo in Rhode Island grade 2 June 4th 2025 so moveed second have a motion a second any comments questions all in favor I I opposed passes unanimously entertain a motion to adjourn so move second have a motion and second any comments questions all in favor I oppos passes unanimously thank you very much have a good evening thank you you go