okay we are recording thank you it's almost like we're live on Saturday night but not quite yeah not quite Joe are who else are we waiting for on your
end nobody else okay and I know Christina could make it hello um I hadn't heard anything from Ursula have you Ursula will be here I believe yes
she will right now in fact okay um so I am going to call this meeting to order it is six o'clock on Thursday February 13th I this is the meeting of the Mount
Greylock Regional School District school committee uh and we are meeting remotely via Zoom the meeting will also be live streamed on wilenet.org and broadcast live on Spectrum cable TV channel 1302 in Williamstown let's start with a roll
call normally would begin with Christina so but she's not here so let's begin with Jose Constantine is here alen B is here green here m
oh sorry oh okay I didn't know you I'm great thank you and boen here excellent um Curtis is up to read our mission statement Mission at Mount Greylock Regional School District our mission is
to create a community of Learners working together in a safe and challenging and learning environment that encourages restorative based practices processes rather respect in inclusive diversity courtesy integrity and responsibility through high
expectations and cooperation resulting in lifelong learning and personal growth thank you Curtis so we will not have a student update today unfortunately the students were not able to come because they're engaged in a great event at school um we
will move to public comment and I don't see anyone from the public here the comment so we will move keep moving down to the approval of minutes from January 9th
2025 do I have a um anyone who can make a motion to approve those minutes they moved thank you Carrie second thank you Curtis a second from Curtis um any discussion on those minutes hearing
none I let's move to a roll call vote starting with Jose Constantine I Elfen Bine I green I Malloy I Miller i o and I and that is approved
unanimously um I see that Joe Johnson has joined us um Joe berson are you introducing this or should I go right to Joe Johnson I can introduce it and if Joe would like to then provide more more
information that would be wonderful um but we we have the uh the field trip the formal field trip approval form um that the World Language department has submitted uh for the lumbra Argentina
trip um to Argentina in April of 2026 um that form is in front of you um per uh our internal review of it all is in order um the things that we will continue to work on with the World Language Department um would be the
logistics around the finances um transportation you know being able to finalize all of that um as we're looking about a year and a couple months out but aside from that um I would I would love for the trip to gain your approval um I
think it fits all of the interests of the district um and that the the team within the school district that's been working on it so hard um is is ready to to take the next step Joe what did I what did I skip what did I miss anything
not much not much that felt very uh very thorough and yeah we are indeed working hard on it we've got the uh argentine's coming in April as as I know Julio well knows and Stephen um yeah just getting really excited
about that leg of the trip and uh in preparation for that we have been I have been and Miss Venta is beginning to uh try and embarking on a project of getting our students to know all the names of the Argentine students who are coming so we're we've got their
the photographs they sent us for that purpose and we are you know hearing they send us videos we talk about where they talk about their hobbies and what they're excited about coming to see in Massachusetts um and that's been maybe the most fun of this whole business bus
is that it's really becoming a two-way street now um with huge interest from their end and also from our end and the more we talk about it it's great because we talk about it in Spanish and uh the more we do the more students are just wanting to know like in their minds all
right so when will I be eligible to go as a freshman will I would I be able to go next year and I said no you would go when you were senior when hoping to go every other year so the the sophomores are all like okay so I've got a year Year to you know save my pennies and
yeah it's the excitement is definitely building uh Carrie by when do the students need to sign up um for6 yeah boy I don't even know that typically before uh once it's approved
for the following year what we have done is when it's approved we announce it and we know which kids are eligible we send home um information packets H we have meetings for parents to ask any questions and then we begin uh yeah
trying to set a date for people to put in deposits but we're we we're not there yet thank you go ahead I say thanks Julie and and Joe um there's a lot of this we we I certainly this
sentiment I shared with you when you were before us a month ago just grateful for for all the work you and your team have have done to make this trip happen to make this relationship happen um when that's reciprocal and and and really impactful for for our
students hopefully and on both sides of the relationship um I just wanted to uh have recorded in our in our notes and also have it for something that we um should should plan for when is the this is something that we we hope to repeat you know periodically so uh this is
April 2026 this particular trip uh when do you expect uh to be able to to go back again um following that following this upcoming trip yeah we thank you for that um the pattern was when I was in Lennox and there were a lot of things to
recommend it was that the SP there was a very strong Latin program and there was a very strong Spanish program and that every year a trip would go and that the Latin would go one year then Spanish the next then Latin and then Spanish and most students studied either the one or
the other there were some who studied both and who wanted to go on both so that system allowed um allowed for the possibility of a student who wanted to go on both they could do it and it allowed for us to limit it to Juniors
and seniors because that it guaranteed that everybody would get a crack at it either their junior year or their senior year so for those reasons the advantage of that uh that's the way we would like to have it go we went last year we will not go this year we would go the
following and then you know alternate every of the year and in an ideal you know calendar the argentines would come maybe in September um because that's early in the year it's the classic New England time
of year to be here there's we won't get in anybody's way that way academically because we're really just starting weather is more reliable there's soccer games to go to uh you know that's it's really that would be the ideal time of year we we they're coming in April now
because they didn't want to miss their friends that they met last time uh but but going forward yeah it would probably be a they come in September and we go in April thank you of course Dave did you have a
question Steve I wonder if he's his signal has gotten hard yeah I felt like I heard something for a moment he's G try to log back in and now yeah now he's gone um why are there any other comments or
questions um I I don't know if I need to disclose this but I am before we vote I'm going to just share I anticipate my son would go on this um so I feel like I should name that um as as any if there's if
that's considered a conflict technically it's it's it's not a conflict but stating those types of interests are always it isn't as though your child will benefit financially or anything like that from and no more different than every other student will benefit right yeah
right um all right well let's uh move to a roll call vote to uh do we have somebody who could actually make the motion to approve this um trip thank you Carrie is our second second second thank you Curtis um and uh
let's move to a roll call vote uh starting with Jose Constantine ey Elfen B ey green ey Malloy ey B and
I all right um thank you very much Joe for all of your work for this partnership uh we are excited that this you can you can move forward now knowing this will happen in in 2026 thank you so much we're very excited thanks for all the support you guys it's really we
really do feel it great all right take care thank you all right um Joe why don't we move to the next item the continuation of our participation in school
choice uh sorry was that oh sorry I skipped the school bus camera enforcement systems item um so I think maybe to make the discussion most efficient I will go on
ahead and recommend that you move a motion to request a warrant for each Town's annual town meeting to the effect of acceptance of legislation School Bus camera enforcement systems to see if the town will vote to accept the provisions of chapter 399 of the acts of 2024 or
any other applicable laws to permit the installation operation and maintenance of school bus violation detection monitoring systems on school buses or take any action related there to we mov thank you Carrie do we have a
second second thank you Ursula I any discussion Joe do you want to give a quick overview yeah so the the state um the state uh passed an act that um would
allow towns or cities if they accept the legislation to um to work on the installation of the special type of additional systems for video cameras on buses to make it so that if the the stop
sign is out on a bus and you drive right past that in violation of the law that that camera could capture an image of what had happened that could be transmitted to local law enforcement and they could then issue a um a fine for
that um so that law now exists as a possibility in Mass Massachusetts if we ask our two towns to put this on their warrants and if it's voted um in the affirmative by both by both or either Town um then we could have the option
not the requirement to work with our transportation company to have those types of systems installed so that then that type of enforcement Could Happen um but it's not it doesn't create a requirement it doesn't trigger any costs or or any concerns for the for the
contractor it's really just um creating the opportunity for us to do it at some point in the future if our towns um accept the possibility go ahead Carrie so this is a great example of a resolution that was
passed at the masc level and then sent to um state legislators um there are some really horrific examples around the state I don't know if we've had any but kids being hit by by um cars passing
school buses um where the the arm has been out and the lights were on and they just drive right past and sometimes you know it's obviously difficult to see if there's a line of cars stopped and your
several cars back you know those are things that we're not going to be able to prevent but any kind of deterrent um to um passing um you know school buses that are stopped uh to let kids on are
off uh I think would be good my it seems from the legislation that the cost of the monitoring devices falls to the towns is that correct or is
that um it and then the the monitoring itself would fall to the police departments in those towns so it it may be worth um if we
decide to approve this it may be worth having a conversation with the town managers and the police Chiefs uh to kind of fill them in on this
and um have a have them prepared to speak at their Town meetings if these kinds of questions come up thank you Carrie I I was going to make the same comment about the example this committee
actually um encouraged me to support that at the masc conference um and I also just wanted to name that following that school committee meeting back in October I heard from one of our bus drivers urging us to support this uh because he drives in fear that this is
going to happen um on her routes so um just want to underscore that same importance yeah I mean it it says in section 71 b a city or town that accepts this
section May install so again it's the city or the town that would be installing and says may install and operate a school bus so I don't know I guess because we're a region um I I
would just maybe seek clarification on who's doing the installing who's paying for the system and who is responsible for monitoring that actually seems the most clear to me that is the police
departments when I had had a brief conversation with legal counsel about this the indication was that we would work it into our contract with our transportation provider um um of course we would in some way end up paying for that which also means that in some way
our member towns would end up paying for that we were passing it on to the town the cost pass through um I see but then absolutely this is not like uh it isn't like all of a sudden the school bus company would be sending out traffic violations the information does go to
the police and and they they then send that out and it goes to the police in the form of date time Bus location and a snap snapshot and video of what just happened so that it's it's evidence proof you know it it can't be uh I mean
I guess nowadays anything can be falsified but the the systems are trusted and and uh and they are in use many other states already have legislation U like this it's been in effect for a while including New York so
um neighbors definitely um have this and it's been in operation for a while yeah one thing does not do is take a picture of the person driving so if someone else is driving if someone is driving someone else's vehicle it's the vehicle that's
being identified not the person so any other discussion okay um can we go with a roll call vote starting with Jose Constantine I Elfen b i green I
Malloy I Miller I Bowen I and that passes thank you everybody now let's move to the next item of our continuation in the participation in school
choice so would somebody like to move a motion for for the uh Mount grock Regional School District to continue participating in the school choice program of Massachusetts move oh let's keep do
it we have a motion from Miller and a second from you Carrie sure second go ahead Joe and then so the discussion is our policy as it currently stands it it uses uh I don't know if that's technically a double negative but
it says our policy is to not participate in school choice unless we decide to do so prior to June 1st um of a given year and so all you're doing tonight is really voting to continue our participation in the school
choice program if we opted to not do so um we would we would still carry forward all of the school choice students that we already have within the district we would just close off except any new Choice students in for the coming year
um a vote in the affirmative for the motion that we just um moved and seconded um does not require us to take additional students it just means that we're going to continue participating in the program and we have the option to take additional students in this coming
year so have we been in violation of our policy the last couple of years because I no I think we've always voted we've always had this on the agenda annually and and voted um there's a different version of this policy that masc has
that we could adopt that says we do participate in the school choice program and if we are ever going to not participate we need to hold a public hearing and vote against participation um so we just have the policy that requires us to vote in the
affirmative annually if we want to participate that's all any other questions for Joe so we have a motion from Stephen a second from Carrie let's move to a roll call
vote Constantine I Elfen by I green I Malloy i m i o and I that motion passes thank you Joe you're up with the
superintendent report the and the draft the draft school calendar for this coming uh school year is in your packet um it is not ready for a vote yet um because we're still working with um staff across the district on how to
optimize our um half days that are professional development in the afternoons um that work is going to continue over the next few weeks and then we'll have a final for you to vote on March 13th um but the the highlights here within this draft calendar um we
are starting uh we're bringing staff back as early as we can contractually which is August 28th um so August 28th and 29th would be professional development days first day of school is the day following Labor Day September 2nd um that continues on
um then with a fairly normal school year um having a full day off prior to Thanksgiving so that Wednesday in November which is what we've been doing for the last few years um and then in December and January we had a decision
to make which was either we go with two full weeks the way we did for this school year that we're currently in um which would mean we would have been off the 22nd and the 23rd of December um or we go the route that I think most school
districts did for this year and and are planning on continuing doing for next year which is be in school on the 22nd and the 23rd but then be off for a week and a half um the rationale behind moving to this is um somewhat anecdotal
because that's that's really the best evidence that that we've got that um having two consecutive weeks um especially for families where um having their student outside of the the structured learning envir environment of school um it can be challenging when you
are um home with them for for two straight weeks um the counter argument to that is if somebody wants to take a Grand Vacation pile everybody into a car and go somewhere in late December the two weeks might might be a nice thing to have um so in this calendar that you see
before you we opted to um have a calendar that we believe is in the best interests of um especially the students who might have the most challenges around Behavior loss of learning um and and continuity um then the normal uh one
week breaks in February and April um and with the calendar the way it is we're able to get out um at a reasonable point in time in June um not too early not too late just right is is what's there um the things that will change here
potentially are the half days that you see we will be adding half days and we're changing some half days so that's that's the to be determined item that's most important to note are there any and this is just here for draft form are there
any questions comments I wanted to get it in front of you earlier rather than doing it all at once quick question Joe how many additional half days are you anticipating for professional development and how does that relate to previous years um this year I believe and Joel
was it we had we have eight I think in uh two years ago three years ago we had six each year um I I think we're leaning in the direction of of six for next year but that's
um that I don't want to go too much on record although I just went on record with that um but we're we're trying to time them um up because it ties to what we're talking about later um we're going to make sure that we have half day PD days to be able to best UTI Iz Benchmark
assessment data um for so for lengthy data reviews by teams both within literacy and within math um and uh other PD days will be around um adoption of math curriculum um potentially trying to
work with some other uh forms of of professional development outside of outside of math and then definitely more time on literacy instruction and um and what we've got going along with curriculum review for bias and and you
know all of the other things that are that are piled into our staff schedules that really can't squeeze into regular school days um so a lot to do just figuring out how to stack them up um and have them be most productive for all is
the challenge right now but I think we're leaning towards six in total thank you for that estimate um uh any other questions for Joe I just have one in regard to um you
know we were just talking about families uh and it being a hardship um you know having those extra days off is it is this does this pose a hardship for families the half days yes and do we have ways
to help with that the the the best ways that we have to help our our lboro elementary school after school program and our um William the
the Williams on Youth Center um that said those do not necessarily help completely in these situations and so um it's definitely a consideration and that's also partly why we're trying to
um have as many as we need but no more and to maximize the the impact that that those days have um positively on students throughout the rest of the year so it's it's it's definitely a hardship um it is nice having it within the
school calendar because it means that you can plan ahead um we have heard things like having them on Fridays means that um grandparents can come into town or aunts or Uncle you know that it makes it a little bit more accessible than doing it on a Tuesday or Wednesday or
Thursday or a Monday but um but it I'm I'm not I'm not at all saying that it's not a hardship okay thank you all right we are now into the literacy instruction planning update and I will share my
screen here I can find the right window to share Zoom changed the way we do this now I need to share I can't share a window apparently I have to c c can everybody see what I
have have in front of me here that's that's legible and um all right so uh literacy instruction planning update um literacy instruction it builds the foundation for all learning and critical thinking across
our schools and throughout life um the strong Foundation that we're able to to build it enables a student to read to comprehend the world to to write to communicate effectively um all of which necessary for success in every subject from math and sciences to history and
the Arts um that's a little kind of refresher for for what literacy instruction is why we're here why we care about it um literacy instruction is one of the goals within the district Improvement plan that we adopted last winter um it's
also one of the superintendent goals for this year um what we're providing you here um is kind of a a status update of of what we've been working on um along with importantly given the point in time how that has impacts on the budget
proposal that you're going to start to see tonight and be working on for the next month um so the effort that we're that we're undergoing it's comprehensive it's multi-year it's across all of our schools all of our grade levels um we're looking at our curriculum tools the the
tools that our staff work with um the staff that we have the different roles and responsibilities that each staff member has whether you're General classroom teacher um reading specialist special education teacher um we are valuing the student assessment data that
we have which is both The Benchmark and progress monitoring assessment data that we have through fastbridge as well as um our mcast data along with all of the the smaller bits and pieces that are a little bit more varied across different classrooms within different um
curricular environments and so on um and we're evaluating the professional development opportunities that we've already utilized as well as what we might do in the future those are all the different levers that we can pull so to speak in order to um improve our
literacy instruction efforts so our status quo first um our schools are highly ranked um across many different data points but here's one um that I would love to make sure that we mention uh malok is the top ranked High
School in Berkshire County per US News and World Report um it's also 25th in the state um and that the the schools that comprise 1 through 24 are largely magnet and exam schools um that are within larger school systems um so those are
schools that students test into in order to be there and then their their scores are are perhaps going to be high to start with um given the way they have funned into a school um within a larger District um so we're starting from from
a good place um but we're nowhere near perfect um and and we know from our internal data um that 65% of our students are above the national average within literacy benchmark assessments um utilizing fastbridge as an assessment
tool fastbridge is an assessment tool that's used across many school districts all around the country um and so that type of benchmarking is a valuable um body of data to have and we go through that process three times a year we've been doing it for the last last few
years um and um when we look at that data um and we're keeping it at a high level tonight but believe me our our teams within each School building um have really been been pouring through that and uh really
picking it up student by student pick up a student's data look at it say um does this one how is the student doing two if the student is not doing as well as as we would hope um what kinds of supports
do we have in place to help bolster that students education um some of the 35% of our students that are at or below the national average um are currently receiving tier 2 instruction so that's time with reading specialists in small
groups um typically and some are receiv receiving specialized instruction through their IEPs um through our special education services department um now not all of the students within that 35% are currently receiving tier 2 or I
AP type um customized education so our Focus area is to commit more time and effort to that data that we're seeing commit to further customizing instruction for our students um and monitoring the progress that we make as
a result um this might sound like a like a given as something that's that's quite obvious um that said the amount of time and effort eort that goes into administering the assessments then making sure that we schedule time for staff um with the data to be able to
work as teams to spend considerable time uh reviewing each student and trying to determine what tools within our tool set um will best serve that student or those students um and then following up with progress monitoring and and really seeing the impact of exactly what you
changed um and and what that did um that's where our focuses and there there are a lot of different things that we can do there um and we're going to start to talk about some of them here in a second and Joelle because I just keep on talking I
cannot recall is this where you jump in or would you like for me to take this slide this is I think this is me but if you want to keep talking go for it no no no please do okay just yeah um I as Joe has said we're starting from a really
strong place um you this information on this slide is not really new for you you know that as a school committee you've supported us in modernizing all of our tools we've have what we're calling high quality instructional materials that
have been really well vetted by the state of Massachusetts and through what works Clearing House and also Ed reports um we've done a lot of professional development related to those tools our staffing levels are first of all our teachers are amazing you also know that
our staffing levels are really good um our class size is great there's one exception which we'll talk about in a minute um and again we're really lucky that's thanks to the school committee it's thanks to our our towns that give
us this incredibly strong Foundation um we have spent as we've spent lots of time as an administrative team and talking with reading Specialists and Noel our special ed director and teachers about all right we've got this
amazing strength so why is it that 65% of our students um are reading at grade level or above and what can we be doing to make that number that present way way higher um because we have all the raw materials and that's kind of led us to
this really exciting focus of a very tight plan our district imp Improvement plan our superintend in schools our school Improvement plans um our budget asks everything pointing in the same direction um we believe that Improvement
will come from as Joe has already mentioned expanded use of diagnostic assessments and I'm going to talk about that a little bit more on the next slide um and especially more time on data reviews right now we have consistent
data reviews at least three times a year those reviews tend to be focused on the students who are struggling most and so conversations tend to be about okay how can we best support this student who needs tier 2 instruction and we believe
that we could do a better job expanding those discussions to say okay so what can classroom teachers do for tier one instruction for kids who might not need that extra pull out support but what can we be doing in the classroom to support them by differentiating um regardless
we are so that yeah I think Joey can go to the next slide so some of the things that we're doing specifically you've heard us mention fastbridge and we started using the fast Bridge assessment I think this
is our third year um we intentionally started using it kind of as a slow roll out just to kind of get some sense of the data that it gave us we wanted to compare how it
worked with classroom assessments how it um coincided with mcast results ultimately and um we haven't really loved it it's it can be clunky to use it's not extremely intuitive so it's
it's not a great access point for a teacher who wants to say I know this student's struggling let me just go right in there and see how I can use this so we've been on the hunt for something new and at the same time time um and I should mention that um and I
know I've said this before that the department of education's mass literacy team is just tremendous and so they have been a great resource and there there's a pretty limited list of Benchmark assessment tools that we can choose from
um coinciding with this uh we had last we spent last year doing a review of curriculum for math we this year we have eight teachers who are fully piloting a new math program which happens to have uh a required diagnostic for math with
it which we have used extensively in those classrooms and it's really strong it gives almost too much data um but lots of actionable steps that teachers can take and interventionists can take and special Educators can take and so we
started then looking at the reading diagnostic because this is and it's called I ready um and so we've been using the math I ready and we started researching the liter literacy I also really well reviewed and we've made the
decision to go full boat into I ready not only because it looks great and we believe that it's going to give us the tools that we have been looking for but also because we're trying to make teachers lives easier and having one tool if that can work feels like the
best approach to take um we're the our biggest question around it at grades K through three there are some districts that are using one benchmarking and progress monitoring tool for early literacy um and then fourth grade and up
are using I ready many many districts in the state we decided for next year we're going to use I ready across the board and if we decide with our team in K3 that it's not exactly what we need and it's not really flagging things that we
want it to flag then we'll make a decision the following year um because of our partnership with I this year they are we're getting the reading diagnostic for free next year so that's not a budgetary implication so it's going to
be a very widespread pilot um we a big piece is scheduling and that's part of the reason why we don't have the half days and the calendar all set yet because we're really trying to be extra intentional about the timing of these
days to make sure that they are scheduled for moments that work for data review um and it's going to be ex expanded data review so to build on what we've already been doing with data teams we will also have reading Specialists
working with classroom Educators as the second part of data reviews to say Okay so this student doesn't need pull out intervention at that level but we want to keep an eye on on them so what can you as a classroom teacher be doing to
help boost the students learning we're really excited about that um and then with all of this will'll come professional development some through I ready um they actually have been really great this year with their trainers um so some will be through that some of it
will be our own reading specialist some of it will be our principles um really working to help teachers and our data teams be as effective as we possibly can do you have anything to add to that
Joe we're good uh no okay I think that's great okay thank you yep is this me or you I can have I either way what do you feel like I'll just keep going for one more um so the
asks that we're that are reflected most of these are reflected in the budget are restoring a reading specialist position at Mount grock Regional School um we are saying restoring we haven't had one in quite a while but there was a reading
specialist for years and years who retired and then that position was not replaced upon retirement um the reading specialist Position will be talking much more about in coming days but it will be a blend uh it will will be a shared
position some of it will be working with students who have IEPs IEP goals for reading some of it will be um co- teing in classrooms with teachers and some of it will be being available to do um I
don't know what we're going to call it yet but kind of win periods what I need um periods so that when there is information that comes up for a student in benchmarking benchmarking assessment there's a person who is a reading specialist who can then help address
those specific concerns in shortterm you know six week six week groups so we're really excited about that and working on that really very much hoping that that goes through in the budget um a second
piece is we are working on embarking on a partnership with the stern Center and doing extend Ive training in Orton Gillingham which is a foundational um it's not a program it's
a foundational approach to literacy and reading instruction it is it is program agnostic so meaning you can have this approach to understanding and diagnosing a student's really specific learning
needs but then you can use the tools that are available to you in your District so it might be our foundations it might be Wilson it might be something that's from what wit and wisdom but it doesn't have to it's not buying another program it's training teachers to know what the needs are and then trusting
teachers to use the tools they have to address the need we're really excited about that um and we will definitely be talking about that more and then we will be we have some in highly highly trained reading specialists in the district
already who are going to be working with us to do some science of reading training in the middle and high school elementary teachers this is second nature well-versed um and so we are
going to be talking about best practices in comprehension strategies vocabulary um content area writing those kinds of things so one of those is a staff member position the other two come in the form of expanded professional development
expenditures within the within the budget just so that people can can zero in on specific lines and uh and reasons for that thank you Joel so we've we've already touched upon some of this but I wanted to close
with at this point in time the budget implications are the reading specialist position that is embedded within the Mount Greylock Regional School teachers line um we are planning on adopting I ready as a math curriculum um what comes
along with that is well one you see a math uh investment within our textbooks line but there's a fair amount of professional development that comes alongside that um and that professional development will have dual purpose in
how to use diagnostic assessment and progress monitoring tools built into I ready um and that learning will benefit um within literacy instruction and use of I ready um the Orton Gillingham training investment um is reflected in the uh
professional development expenditure Lines within the the draft budget um and then schools are working on trying to figure out how can we best schedule the time the common planning time that teachers need in order to work as teams
reviewing data talking about next steps with each student um in some cases that will come with extra um substitute teaching um or time where we're where we're investing in par professionals being able to cover in situations where
teachers just based on our schedules just need to be able to be together so that they can work on um on important next steps for students so um those are the budgetary implications we did try to
keep the um the financial investment for this coming year um fairly light because we think that we've got work that we can do with our staff internally providing them with better opportunities and um
and being able to um feed that effort through professional development work um the reading specialist position at Mount klock is something that um in many ways that are very important it is a requirement of the special education
department to have that position um and conveniently for us it also ties directly into the to the literacy instruction updates that we're that we're trying to um push through the district Improvement plan and all of the
related goals so I think that was the update that we had on literacy instruction what kinds of questions comments do you all have um Joe I know we got a preview of this in finance um so that was really
helpful thank thank you um I might have missed it in the presentation tonight but wasn't um did you mention did one of you mention um which part of this was also being done in seventh and eth
grade wasn't there yeah so the the reading specialist Position will will um the reading specialist time will be heavily dedicated to seventh and eth right I thought the math curriculum was also 7eventh eth grade the math
curriculum will also be available to seventh and eth grade which which is kind of separate from everything that we've got here but but definitely the math curriculum when we make a shift towards it um that will be available um elementary schools and seven and
eight okay so we're purchasing the curriculum through the elementary school budgets but we're making it available to seventh and eth grade stud well there is also funding within the textbook line for Mount Greylock so so is the
elementary schools are are paying for what Mount Greylock using yeah okay yeah thank you good question may I add one piece to that um the element the expectation with the math curriculum is that the the elementary schools will be using it
exclusively and as Joe said it will be available for seventh and eth grade they use multiple different programs and tools so they won't be using it exclusively so that's just the difference Jose thanks Jo I didn't know if you
could see me um it was I spent some time wondering if I should ask this question but I think it might be a question that uh folks who are tuning in or or might watch this later uh might have um
and the reason why I I paused asking it is I don't know if it's fair but I think I think it's still worth asking um so uh and I I will start off by saying as always appreciate the care the thought that Joel you and Joe have have put into this and
um you know as a as a parent of of kids in our district you know I'm certainly grateful for um you know the work you're doing to to help our students learn and and and in be whole uh but in the presentation you
highlight that uh I think the number is 35% of our students I I think it's K through 12 or maybe P how how we identify who is a part of that 35% are reading at or below
um whatever the standards are for for that age group and uh you know I I could be wrong in in how how I understood that or remember that uh but there might be a Temptation by some and I think it's a
fair question to ask the longer I sit with it that this investment that we um we might make in in this area should we expect to see that number change in a few years down the road like
you know you know where I'm at the return on the investment yes AB that's the goal okay um and and to to um to phrase what you just said I think in the way that the fastbridge data would would
say is 65% of our students are above average 35% of our students are what somebody would call below average um and and so the focus here is on the 35% and trying to understand how
we can better serve them through looking at the data that pertains to them understanding what tools we have at our disposal to um provide them with differentiated instruction so some form of instruction that's different from the mainline that seems to be benefiting
other students um more than more than those students um and whether that's happening in tier one instruction which is in a general education classroom or if we are utilizing tier two instruction typically small groups within our school
within our elementary schools um and potentially this coming year within our within our middle and high school um or special education services um and and so being able to um do that for every
student is is the goal and we would expect that over the course of the next few years that that 35% number would um would become smaller yeah followup question just because we've talked about
this um before um is a reading specialist by definition also trained in teaching students with dyslexia or is that a different component and how are we
addressing that within the district the answer is a gray area yes in that and that if you are a reading specialist and if you've gone through the the programs that um are required in order to gain that certification that
lure um you would have gained tools that are commonly associated with supporting students who who have dyslexia um does that make you a dyslexia expert necessarily no um so so I think that
there is a little bit of like a yes and no there um what uh one investment the district had made um this past last school Year's winter and then spring was teams from our district
participated in the dyslexia Institute through the state's programs um and um gain the knowledge that was offered there via kind of the the latest science and the latest methodologies around supporting
students with dyslexia through their literacy instruction um uh progress and Joel anything that I clobbered or omitted there feel free to just unmute and say well yeah no I
don't have I don't have that I think you answered that well and I would just say that um we're learning more and more every day about how to best teach students to read and in particular student with dyslexia so we will
continue to do everything that we can to educate ourselves in that regard our reading special I am really confident to say that our reading specialists in our district are really highly trained in that area um and it is also one of the reasons we're so excited to bring Orton
Gillingham training to our special education department because that will be a primary focus I'll also offer up that if if if we were to talk to somebody about the ideal environment um for a student with dyslexia they would profess that we we
have the right curricular tools um it would really benefit every student to have um individual time with an educator who's able to use those tools in the optimal way um now can we as a district
afford to have many hundreds of students have oneon-one time for for an hour every day with with an educator unfortunately we can't um so we're really trying to figure out how close to that can we come
given um the best practices that exist within public school districts around Staffing levels um ways that data is collected and processed ways that tier one instruction larger group instruction can utilize those tools to best effect and so on so um that's where we are
are there any other questions comments thank you Joel thank you so much all right what's next on the list the principal search update um within your packet tonight um you have a copy of the
job posting um that is going live uh I actually don't know whether it went live today or if we're bringing it live tomorrow um but we are formally publicly um promoting the search for uh Williamstown Elementary Schools next
principle um that is a process where uh job posting is going up um we are going to um starting tomorrow going to be utilizing um social media tools making sure that all the professional organizations um have the job posting um
and really trying to push it as far and wide and thoroughly as we can to attract interest um in folks applying for the position um then uh over the course of the break week I am going to be reaching out to um both staff as well as families
at Williamstown Elementary School um to gain their interest in um both providing input into interview questions and and into the process and into the qualities that um that they most want um reflected in the candidates uh as well as interest
in participating in the interview committee that interview committee will consist of staff and parents and Guardians um at Williamstown Elementary School um along with perhaps um some students from the Middle High School to
um conduct interviews that we are planning on holding in um mid to late March um into early April potentially so that we can make a decision um by early mid April um so that the next principal
can start on uh preferably July 1 of this year are there any questions on that all right I'm excited I'm excited that we're that we're moving through the process and and I think already just
seeing the energy that that everybody has um around it is uh it's really energizing so that's a that's definitely a highlight a good note within um within my workday if it's right I'll just just follow up with a just a quick um question Joe if
that's okay definitely yeah and um you I'm not sure what what Preamble I'll have for the question but uh I think I'll speak from the perspective of a of a parent with kids at uh Williams Elementary who
have been really um grateful for Griffin taking on this role of interm principal um and and that leads to the question uh is the expectation or the hope that Griffin then reassumes his his former role as assistant principal um and will
Griffin be playing a role in in this search in some way um it would not be traditional necessarily for somebody in Griffin's position to play a role on that interview committee um definitely Griffin's input throughout this process
um is very valuable in understanding the state of the school um reaching out to folks understanding what's working what's not um and so uh Griffin definitely has a home in the assistant principal position um that is you know
nobody should fear that that that somehow this is the uh this is the end of the road for Griffin um so um yeah we are excited about his continued participation um and uh and we're we're also excited to see what this process
brings as far as um candidates for the position um in the longer term I'll also mention just because it I don't know if it was going to be your next question Jose but Jen Downey who has been serving as the interim assistant principal um
incredibly thoughtfully thoroughly well just uh I mean I Jen to me gets one of those MVP awards across the district for being willing to jump into the fry um with us uh Jen Jen of course has has a home to return to as a teacher at
Williamstown Elementary School and and we hope we we never lose her so um so that's that's the natural uh set of things that that's lined up when you have interim and interim and and they have roles that they um stepped out of
in order to in order to serve grateful uh for both of them as as you just just expressed all right any other questions on that before we move on
to draft budget presentation okay I'm just gonna keep keep on talking here I I apologize all right so in your packet tonight and let me try to make it so that uh let me share this now um in
your packet tonight you have a draft budget I made sure to Watermark that with draft in as large and old a font as I could because it is um at least over the last four or five
years we typically do not have a complete looking um budget there in in early February um this one it it is it is uh technically complete um but I don't want anybody at home or
within our town halls saying well that's the number that they're going to try to bring to annual town meeting um because we do have a lot of work left to do a lot of discussions um this is not ready for a vote um and I want to make that make that very clear upfront um it is
however a starting position um where we can then go to work over the next month um whittling in some situations adding um and and definitely trying to figure out how we can achieve um as much as we
as much as we can with the budget for this coming year um so this is a draft budget presentation please don't view it as a uh as a full final proposal for you to vote um okay so when we have difficult budget years and it feels like every year is a difficult budget year
it's very helpful to go back to our values um and our mission statement for the district um is uh is the most concise expression of our values um it's also a statement that quite honestly I I do think we should
renew um every number of years uh through a process and so part of me tonight is also standing here saying I think that perhaps over the next uh year or two it would be it would be really great for the school committee along with um the district as a whole to to
take a look at this um and uh and determine um one where where we're living the mission statement um and and two uh where we might want to modify the the mission statement um so it's already been read once tonight I'm not going to
read it again but I do want to highlight that um within the mission statement we say that we're we're here to create a community and we want that Community um to be a safe and challenging learning environment um and we want to encourage restorative based processes
respect inclusive diversity courtesy integrity and responsibility um so with all of that said um who we are and what we want to be um we are definitely an academically rigorous um but not perfect School
District um part of what you've been hearing tonight around our liter literacy instruction work um but also what you will see uh within math curriculum adoption and and and the desire to invest in additional staff um is that we need to continually renew our
approaches to educating our students um and we need to invest in our in our staff that we have and their ability to respond to students of all needs um or students who present all different kinds of needs um and all of that work is grounded in creating a safe and
inclusive environment um we are working to cultivate a sense of safety belonging in community regardless of race color sex sexual orientation gender ident identity religion disability age immigration status homelessness and ancestry ethnic background socioeconomic
status social class or national origin um those are a lot of phrases those are a lot of words um but I can tell you uh very seriously that over the last few weeks in particular um the emphasis on
understanding how for every one of these groups for every every need and characteristic that a student brings um the work that we do is incredibly important um and every decision that we make takes all of them into account um
so this is the work it's the work of every staff every student every Community member um and it continues and and the way that continues and some of the ways that I will be expressing it um through the budget tonight um is that we need to give our staff the best tools
and opportunities that we can um we need to set ourselves up for success by communicating communicating effectively with our staff with our students with our families um we need to prepare them we need to prepare ourselves we need to be prepared to do
the work that we know that we need to do and to Center the work centering is I think a really important thing to um to keep in mind throughout especially a budget process um the work of cultivating safety belonging in community with every decision and turn that we make
um when I say centering the reason I I think it's especially important is that um with every position that we're talking about with every investment that we're making um there is a lot of work that went in through the Committees the teams the conversations um to make sure
that we were centering all of those groups all of those needs within every decision that we're making so that so that we are not um leaving people out of consideration as we are attempting to move the district forward uh
so that was the more inspirational side of things and now I'm just going to jump right into the challenges that we face in in trying to do that um the the first one upfront and um it quite honestly for me has been the most in many ways
mentally debilitating thing in trying to figure out this budget uh for the coming year is that um health Insurance uh is increasing 16% from this year to next year um when you're when our health
insurance premiums increase by 16% um what that leads to is um in this year a $550,000 expenditure increase just dedicated to health insurance premiums um that's almost half of the spending
increase that you're seeing within the budget tonight um so the minute that um Mountain was placed in front of us it made a lot of the other areas where we wanted to to see
additional Investments make additional progress it made them more difficult to um to address more difficult to to just happily include within the budget um we also have increasing level service costs um we we do have contractual obligations
we we do every year um this year reflected in our uh in our teacher lines and and some of our other positions that are within our um our contract um we have a fair amount of colum Movement we
have a we have a lot of people who are wonderfully moving from having a bachelor's to having a master's degree and with that comes a pretty significant bump in in compensation um that's one of the reasons why when we've talked about the impact of retirements in the past
we've said yes that is a cost savings there when somebody retires who's who's um kind of at the highest uh step level and perhaps as far over within the columns as they can be um but pretty quickly when you hire wonderful staff who are interested in furthering their
education and making sure that um they are best suited um to serving their students you pretty quickly see column movement um and then the step movement comes naturally with that so that that's definitely a cost that you see embedded within many lines of the staff side of
the budget um and then we also have a need for additional pair of professional time and numbers um for students uh who who need them through their IEPs so through um one-on-one assignments and so on um so those are two those are two
things um State funding unfortunately uh we're only seeing a $72,000 increase from this year to next year um that's across our Chapter 70 chapter 71 and our Charter tuition reimburse urement um projections through the governor's budget um that $72,000 increase this
year it's not keeping up with uh cost increases across really any part of our budget um so when you look at State funding increase by $72,000 health insurance increase by $550,000 um even if you were to apply
all of your added State funding to uh health insurance um you'd still be left with a 470 4 about a $475,000 increase um that our towns would need to bear um because that there
is no other uh source of funding for for that type of um expense um so it's both in absolute terms but it also means that the Gap the percentage gap between what the state funds and what are local towns are are going to need to fund um that is
increasing as well and it's something that we are very mindful of I think that many school districts across the state advocates for um the state investing in public education um are are definitely uh talking about and pushing right now
um then compounding that just because I'm I'm on a rooll here with the challenges um we have intentionally spent the funds that we have on hand within our revolving accounts our tuition our school choice our and um we've intentionally spent those funds um so that we could keep property taxes
increases to a minimum um that's a good thing because the money in the bank you should spend before you um Levy higher taxes on on folks and and their property um but we've been doing that intentionally we've also been signaling to our towns that we're doing this and
then we're going to be coming back to you with uh larger percentage increases um as a result of of running out of that as a tool to um offset our expenditures um so our Town's Financial pictures are open okay but they're not great um we've
heard loud and clear from our towns that they have minimal Revenue growth right now um new properties upgraded properties um that kind of growth is not happening happening in the way that um it quite honestly has been in other parts of Berkshire County other parts of
the state um it is a challenge right now and we see our finance committees and our select boards talking about that um regularly and then our towns also have some other specific challenges of Their Own within various revenue and expenditure lines um but we have been
preparing them and ourselves for larger increases uh from them um for numerous years um so we are here in a budget cycle um where we are forging ahead with that in mind um but it but it doesn't make it easy and it doesn't make it uh
so so it's a given in many ways so I think um it's really important that we bring this budget forward with a high level of justification um and with hopefully a lot of support from um all of you but but also all the community
members that that we represent and that we um work on behalf of so now what are we trying to do um the the elements uh the the qualitative aspects of this budget are we are
restoring positions that were previously lost at Mount Greylock through retirement without replacement um that phrase is it's a little bit complicated but retirement without replacement just means that um often times in difficult budget years when somebody has retired
from Mount Greylock Regional School um the school has said well we're going to figure out how to get by without a replacement for them and that works up to a point um but it definitely strains the scheduling that you're able to do
the staff that you have remaining who are covering the the gaps that are created when when those staff members are not replaced um and and it drives either larger class sizes or potentially um fewer opportunities for students um
in terms of the courses that they're able to select um so the positions that we are talking about um bringing back um or adding in one situation through this budget there's the reading specialist which I mentioned before is driven by a special education requirement but it's
also valuable broadly for our literacy instruction efforts um within Wellness um the investment in Wellness uh in a wellness FTE is um Wellness is an incredibly important component of the
overall academic picture um especially within social emotional um learning Health um and being able to give students um a portion of their day uh that is not seated within a classroom
environment um that said the real emphasis to me within adding a wellness FTE um within this budget is we currently are so thinly staffed within Wellness that we are pulling teachers from other departments to cover for
courses that that we need to offer um so we have an English teacher a history teacher a biology teacher um we have two social workers and each of them is currently taking um what really is a
wellness teacher classroom uh course um so by hiring an additional teacher within the wellness Department um we're going to allow those staff to uh return to focusing solely on their departments
um we're going to allow our social workers to um focus more on their case loads and on the small group environments where where they can be most productive in in helping our students um and so
on and then um looking at Spanish um it's a department that's seen incredible growth um and it has consistently high class sizes um I actually kind of as has been my uh my um thing tonight I got a little bit
ahead of myself I've got a whole slide on those three positions that I'll get to in a second so I won't talk as much about Spanish as I as I will in a second but um you'll you'll be able to follow along with me so sorry about that um along with restoring and adding positions uh at at Mount Greylock um we
are planning on investing in a new math curriculum for our elementary schools um our last significant overhaul was 1997 um so since 1997 we have certainly been updating the program um making incremental improvements but a uh
significant overhaul of the curriculum um is something where we've been able to go out with a committee with a pilot um program and we've been able to find the what we view as being the best experience and research-backed option
for us um which is I ready um so that cost is embedded within within the draft budget that you have in front of you um we are talking about increasing investment in professional development um specifically in areas that are highly action able um for literacy instruction
we we went through an entire presentation on that so I'm not going to labor it too much right now but I'd love to continue talking about it over the course of the next month as a part of why this budget um is needed uh for the students within our district um and then within this budget we also are equipping
two gr grade levels um at leansboro elementary school with the projectors that um that Nolan had talked about when he came and uh presented for his school counsil um two grade levels is equivalent to four classrooms so that's four
projectors that are um embedded within the budget that you have in front of you here so jumping back to where I had jumped forward and now I'm going back um the reading specialist position I think I already covered all of those all of
those points the wellness position um I think I also covered all of those points um with the exception of um bu uh enabling staff to get back to the Departments um where where they are
really uh housed and focused um we we can either create additional sections of of the of an existing course um or we can create a new type of course that provides a genter slope from say what we
have traditionally viewed as nth grade English and then 10th grade English um so those gentler slopes can be highly um effective and helpful um for students especially within a school environment where quite honestly we ask
a ton of students as they move from 9th to 10th from 10th to 11th from 11th to 12th um the the steps and the rates at which um our students uh receive more challenging work um are greater than
many schools around the state um and so trying to figure out where we can how we can best support our students through potentially um gentler slopes across our various departments um is a focus here as we're able to um gain that additional
class period um covered by a teacher within a within a department through the budget that we have here today um now Spanish um so I already said that the department has um grown considerably um over the years in terms
of uh student enrollment as a result keeping um teacher ft is the same um we've seen consistently high class sizes um right now our three Spanish language teachers are um averaging uh having 120
students right now across their across their courses um that's well above uh our school's average of 100 students per teacher so they are um outside of Wellness they are the department that has um the the highest student load on a
per teacher basis um Wellness I will note that um because I I know that some people are are um asking about why the emphasis has been there um Wellness is also a department where whereas many of
our classroom environments are 20 to 27 students typically right now within Wellness we're at um between 40 and 55 students within within each CL class now might say well that's fine it's it's uh
it's just PE um but it's also Health it's also social emotional learning um these are environments where as we are um seeing such a large number of students within um within single classroom
environments it it does limit the ability of our of our staff to work with them um in smaller group or differentiated more conversational formats um so it's a focus here within Spanish it's also one of the things that we're that we're seeing within Wellness
as a as a need so that's Mount Greylock um I'd highlighted on the previous Slide the um the areas outside of Staffing at Mount grock um and then tradeoffs um because
unfortunately we we do live in a highly Zero Sum world and the and the budget is um the area that is um most unfortunately like that um we are proposing embedded within this budget um
to gradually phase out Latin instruction at Mount grock Regional School um we are as a part of this we are maintaining our commitment to current Latin students to provide them with the full course progression that we have currently available within Latin at Mount grock um
so what it means is for this coming year we would not entertain new students within Latin 7 which is seventh grade students um taking Latin for the first time or Latin one which is um commonly uh well there are only a few students
who have utilized this option over the last um three or four years but um a Latin one student can be a student just starting to learn Latin um in nth grade or 10th grade so rather than starting when you're in seventh grade if you all
of a sudden want to start Latin um in or 10th Latin one would be your entry into that um so the proposal here is to not have a new Latin 7 or Latin one students for this coming year um and the the rationale I mean we we have had
extensive conversations and a variety of ways in the past but it's really to focus resources where the student demand has shifted um and and that's as plain as as I can make it but at the same time um if needed we we can talk about all all the other aspect aspects of um the
impacts of that decision um where there's correlation versus causation in terms of student achievement and student opportunities um we can go through that in more detail if needed um and then other tradeoffs um we heard requests
from our school councils around adding a math teacher um adding a Middle School Visual Arts Teacher um restoring math interventionist positions at at our elementary schools um those are positions that are not embedded within within this budget that you have before
you um and again we can talk about why this why that um oftentimes I think it is justifiably difficult for a principal or a school counsel to try to pick between children so to speak um but um
that is a that is a role that unfortunately um all of you and and I get to uh get to carry so we can do that in the most respectful um productive manner possible as needed here over the next month um so now the cost increase
drivers that we have within within this proposed budget um I mentioned health insurance is is the single largest item um that is a $550,000 increase across the three schools in the district office if you add up the increases within the
um the active Insurance um line um Staffing increases at Mount grock th those three positions that's roughly $200,000 within this budget um associated with salaries um additional one toone pair of professionals that really are required by um by the needs
that our students are presenting $100,000 the new Elementary School of Math curriculum um that uh that cost being spread across primarily across the two elementary schools it's a $90,000 investment um here in year one um and
then the expanded uh professional development that we've been talking about um making sure that staff far are are given the best um ramp up with the new math curriculum um as well as literacy instruction work across all
three schools that's $56,700 within the draft budget that you have in front of you and then the lboro elementary school projectors um $30,000 so that's $1,267 within the embedded and across all the lines that you have within the
budget the remaining $340,000 um that uh is an increase represented within the top line if if you look at the top line of the um revenue and apportionment sheet um that's spread across all of our contractual obligations step movement
colum movement um the added borrowing that we're doing related to the $800,000 in the field and track project um shows an increase uh our transportation contract um has a natural increase embedded within it um and then there are
a variety of services costs um that have increases as well so once you take into account all of that the big picture is our total expenditures are projected through this budget to increase by 5%
our Town's assessments um within this draft they are not actual assessments yet um and and I think we do have a lot of work to do um with ourselves and with them before we bring final numbers forward um but the effective increase
for our towns is larger and that's driven by one state funding is not increasing by 5% it's it's increasing by a whole lot less so our towns need to um absorb more of the increase than say the
state is on a percentage basis but also our revolving accounts as we started talking about early on with the challenges we have been spending those down very publicly very you know and very transparently uh saying we're going to spend this before
we come to you Lanesboro and Williamstown for for the increases associated with what these um accounts are covering um so we have a decrease in the total uh amount of money that we're able to draw down out of those accounts
because we've been spending them um on a negative basis we've been spending more than we've been depositing into those accounts um for I believe it's four years now so we've been gradually been spending those down and you see a shift of some of those expenditures into the
appropriated um need for our member towns um so that was all a part of a plan doesn't make it uh easy to um to take or to manage um then I want to talk about because to
me this is just as important as as the as the new money that we're spending um the things that we're trying to do within um the Staffing and and the expenditures that that we already have um within our existing bu budget one is
um within literacy instruction we talked about how we're trying to rework scheduling so that we can focus more on assessment analysis and teamwork um coming off of that um so that's something that does not necessarily in most situations it does not cost us any more money unless we need a substitute
to come in to cover for somebody while they are participating in that um so that's one thing that is budget neutral um but that is progress that we are planning for this coming year second thing we are Contin I mean we're always
refining roles and responsibilities for the staff that we have we're already putting things on the people's plates or saying gosh let's figure out how to how to spread that load across multiple multiple people um because it's become larger it's become more challenging over
the years um but uh throughout this year and into next year um we are going to see within our existing um within our existing Staffing um continued investment in uh better incident
response practices um that is a focus of the work that we're doing um with the equity imperative through the funding that was provided by um by uh the town of Williamstown and Williams College um that's across um bias incidents uh title
n sexual harassment and um sex based discrimination um incidents bullying incidents so trying to figure out how we can best respond when things don't go well um that's an area that is in emphasis and it's within the budget that
we have here um restorative practices restorative um practices are embedded within our mission statement um we have definitely uh for lack of a better way to say it nibbled around the edges um trying to figure out how to um how to
best integrate restored practices into all of the different things that we do um both through our work with the equity imperative as well as the conversations that we've been having across our buildings um we are looking at ways to um to better do that more thoroughly and
more quickly across all of our schools as we move forward um for the benefit of every student um communication uh whether it's our website or our use of parent square or the documents that we produce to explain why we're doing what we're doing um or
the frequency with which we um we communicate and and we share progress updates and we share successes and challenges with our community with our staff um with our students um all of that is an area of focus it's it's something that that I am committed to on
a on a day-to-day basis um and many of our staff um are also taking um taking a larger and and uh more more critical Paton trying to carry that forward um in ways that that best honor our community and um and produce I think positive
results where people understand what we're doing um better and then cultural awareness knowledge and celebration um this this has been it's been embedded in presentations that I've given for the last couple of years um that there have
definitely been some some successes some challenges um I do think that finally an effort districtwide is is jelling around um how we celebrate Heritage months um how we go about um featuring uh
different cultures celebrating different cultures within various environments uh just over the last couple of days um today uh a fourth grade assembly um featured three famous or three um important
um um people within history all black um through storytelling and Theatrical reenactment um so an entire fourth grade did that with their families um and and it spanned uh social emotional learning
classes and music classes um wonderful uh a music teacher within an elementary school um spending uh a portion of their time this month um covering blues and jazz and uh wonderful artists who are
black um within that genre um and doing so in a way that engages students and and gives them a greater sense of of culture of of opportunity of uh famous people and and what they've done um and doing it in a way that's that's really
fantastic and then um tonight the reason that we didn't have a student update um the Mount Greylock Multicultural Student Union um was holding a Valentine's themed love your culture um dessert event so um various people uh brought
desserts from from their culture um doing a a dessert eating swapping kind of kind of um event um being able to better promote better facilitate um making it easier making it larger um for
people to do that um is an emphasis within our staff and it's something that um I'm looking forward to expanding here over the next year as well um then having an openness to change and evaluating all of our options um it's a continual and long-term effort um that
that we know that as budgets get tighter and as as our maneuvering room within um the staff that we have the buildings that we're in um where the choices that we make need to become more difficult and more strategic over the years um that is something that I think that the
conversations that we're having within every room um across every building and and here within at the school committee level um we we need to be open to change we are open to change and we are um we're working hard on figuring out where our
priorities need to be and how we can move forward um so that's within this budget that there's a whole lot of work that is planned um a whole lot of progress that is planned um that does not necessarily increase the the dollars spent um and so I wanted to make sure
that that that that was not uh left out um even though it's not sitting there as a line within a budget it is certain certainly an intent that is embedded within um what the budget means so uh next up the process um we
are this is a draft We are continuing to try to identify areas where we can reduce supplies and services um we do not um and I want to say this loud and clear for staff because I know that budgets every year across any any building are challenging um we do not have any uh areas where where where
we're going to be proposing um reducing people um We are continuing to ensure that we have identified every potential increase I think that there are some areas where we're still looking at um some contracts and various not not staff contracts but contracts with vendors um
where we're trying to make sure that we've that we've really got everything pinpointed um so but that's something that over the next couple of weeks um we'll make sure we have in final form um all of this right now is kind of feeding in in real time as we're as we're moving
towards um the 27th with the budget workshop and then the March 13th for the approval um uh we are finishing our audit right now Auditors were were with us uh last week was it just last week last week um and and we're also uh we're
at the point in the year now where as we look at all of the expenditures that we are um that we have encumbered for the remaining of the Year along with things that we know are coming um we're trying to get the finest pencil point we can on that so that we'll know where we will end up um within our revolving accounts
and their availability for next year so that if if you all want to utilize every penny that we can out of choice tuition and our excess and deficiency by the 27th um all of what I'm talking about above will be complete so that um we'll
be ready for uh a real a real final draft at that point ahead of the March 13th public hearing so we're actually kind of ahead of schedule from where we have been in many years but I think given the nature of the year in so many ways it makes sense to make sure that we're all um active in discussing and
and trying to get um this uh to a Finish Line as efficiently but transparently as we can um so here we are I think yes I I am done talking I would
love questions thank you Curtis because a after the monologues that that you've had to endure with with policies I appreciate I appreciate you that you you uh have some tea drinking some of the caffeine the
whole the whole time that helps with the I'll just add that oh go ahead Curtis uh I did have a a somewhat quick question question which is what was the uh increase uh the percentage to the towns last
year five something let me double I'm actually pulling up our budget documents on our website so I make sure I don't get that um 3.9% to Williamstown 3.38% to Lanesboro last
year thank you yeah something that I should I should add here I think an intent was not I was not trying to overwhelm you with information as a part of this presentation I was trying to get as much out as I could so that then you don't need to ask all the
questions make all the decisions right now but it would be great to either now or over the course of the next week or so so that I've got time prior to the 27th if you have questions um let me know so that we can make sure that we structure the budget Workshop um
so that we're able to to really take those questions in some amount of detail and and make sure that people um understand all the what's and the wise so don't feel as though this is your your one shot at asking that critical question
Jose thank you Joe I want to um start off by uh saying thank you to you and and to Julia who who signed on to your your statement to you know families in the district um regarding
our commitment to our mission and you know a statement of our values and I think it helped assuage a lot of anxiety and concerns that families had you know in our district and so I I really appreciate that Clarity that
um that you you delivered through that communication to us all and then and then again tonight you know and uh to speak quite clearly to how that commitment to our mission um is reflected in in all that we do and and and in your you know discussion around
around the budget for for the next fiscal year um I've got two questions and I don't need to ask them in succession but um the first one uh is one that I suspect many members of
our communities um are going to ask and that and that is the proposal to to wind down our um commitment to delivering Latin you know and the um and hard to know how to
phrase the question um but I think the best I can do now is is to ask you to respond to you know potential criticism of of this proposal and that it it might be shortsighted or
that it may not be reflecting the um curricular aspirations or learning aspirations of our students or or you know families um so for instance um if it wasn't Latin if we could offer
another uh World Language you know why why not go that route why why the commitment to the single language in this case Spanish um and then secondly I think for those who I think will be for
lack of a better way of describing it might be distressed at the thought of having to revisit this discussion again about the future of Latin um what what might you say to those families who I think I suspect and I hope we we do hear from uh regarding how
um we came about this decision you you explained that today in your presentation but I thought um I think it might be good to to reiterate some of those points and to explain how you came to this this difficult um decision or or
proposal sure um so it's it's important to reiterate that for any student who's currently taking Latin the plan is to allow them to progress straight through AP Latin if
if if that is their wish um in terms of why phase Latin out um and whether or not it's an option to add an additional language um the the Y phase it out is
um it's three or fourfold um one is enrollment numbers um student interest in Latin has declined from 20 years ago um that is that is for sure
um part of that is functional in that there are are many students within our schools that um that either recognize on their own or they recognize with their families that the importance of learning Spanish um goes well
beyond um having a world language on their transcript for the purpose of uh completing graduation requirements and gaining access to college if if if that is what they want to do um it is a value to to um any person within a work
environment interacting with with folks for whom Spanish is there is their first or most comfortable language um it is valuable for doctors in interacting with patients um in ways that sometimes people have have I think tried to
indicate that that Latin is the most important uh language for for a doctor and in learning roots and um being able to make it through organic chemistry class um with amount of alacrity um and and then um when you
look at where Latin stands relative to other languages that that we might offer um I think that in an Ideal World we would offer Spanish Latin Mandarin German French Italian we
we would offer many languages um but then the question becomes do you offer more languages and potentially have situations where we are right now where Spanish has um such large class sizes
that we are not providing um I mean our our teachers are wonderful but I think that within a lang within a World Language having 27 students versus having 18 students um is uh there's a world of difference between those two
environments for a student um both listening as well as speaking uh and and so when we look at um the importance of quality over quantity or perhaps thoroughness in terms of what we are able to offer
students over offering um a little bit of many languages and hoping that somehow we're able to have um class sizes and course offerings all magically work even with limited Staffing ability um and and all the complications that
come from trying to schedule that um the focus on quality within our Spanish language Department um is is here through and through within this budget I would love to say next year um that that we are looking to add an additional
World language to to what we offer at Mount Greylock um I think it would be of incredible value but I would not want to do so if that meant that um that a large number of students attempting to um
progress through Spanish courses if if we could not have the funding necessary to make it so that they can have reasonable class sizes um opportunities for for a number of sections that that allow for them to have schedules that are also fruitful in all of the other um
in all of the other subject areas um and and the full progression that that they want and deserve to have um so th this is very much a a trying to um invest in an area where we already
see a pretty incredible amount of demand and and it's justifiable why the demand is there so uh you know we we can go through that in a more structured way than how I just rambled for sure um but at the same time um it it is
not it's not a decision that I take lightly um but it's also one where I do not see a lot of wiggle room that we have within um the the building the student body the the funding and and the Staffing that that we have available to us um just going off of what Jose said
in terms of welcoming feedback um can we direct that feedback so that it's not um necessarily the same feedback that we got that we already received um is
there um I think Jose may have said um that we invite questions um but I don't think it's useful for folks to reiterate what um was said when we
looked at this last year and last year I think the one of the concerns was that it came up too quickly people didn't have a chance to really think about it and we have given it that year we've thought about it
um very carefully through this budget process um you know we've talked about it in finance um and that's that's where it it should be talked about because it is in the end a budget
consideration um as well as a programming consideration so we're choosing to put our um dollars where they will make have the greatest impact for our student
body um and I think this is a solid decision and I know that there will be a number of folks who still do not agree with it and um I just don't want to go through
all of the um um same consider you know concerns so is is there a way to direct folks if they do want to um Express their concern Harry what I think I hear you
saying and I would agree this is the same school committee as it was constituted a year ago um we've heard and received and read and listened to to and deeply considered the feedback we got a year ago um and over the course of
this year the finance committee um the administrative team I know in conversations one-on-one with Joe undoubtedly this has come up um and this is where Joe was coming out and the um so I hear you saying if there are people
who are disappointed or concerned about this decision if they have different input you would really appreciate hearing it um but please the message is we know that this is disappointing to many and we understand the arguments that you've already made is that is that
what I'm hearing you say um yeah the the intention the original intention was not to necessarily rehash it tonight but to raise that this is these are the potential um you know trade-offs that
have to be made in this difficult budget year um and that we I I think Joe as we talked the intention was our next our budget hearing would also give that space for any further exploration of of the
details behind the topics that feel like they're um you know deser it deserving of more of more discussion um and so I I guess maybe the ask would also be if people want to send any additional
different input um we can take that into account at the budget Workshop is or the budget hearing I guess I'm a little bit confused about what both of those there's a workshop and then there's a hearing so yeah the workshop is on the 27th the hearing is
lat in March and it feels like that I mean by the time we get to the budget hearing we're going to be voting that night so there going to be changes it feels like the budget Workshop is where we would want to hear any additional different input that we haven't heard
before that would be my my advocacy before Jose um says his comment I just want to modify something Julia you said this is a difficult budget year next year is going to be another difficult budget year and the year after
that and last year was and the so this is not just a decision for this year this is decision to set us up for the future yes yes very clear think Julie Julie is it okay yeah
I don't know who's calling on people that's true I don't know who's uh Joe but go ahead sorry Julia um no I uh you know I I just want to um acknowledge that I I hear and
appreciate you know car's perspective and and I don't know if um Julie if you if you seconded that perspective I don't want to to speak for you but I just want to acknowledge that did I hear car's uh perspective and and um but I would would
like to offer a slightly different one in that [Music] um you know as as public servants I think it's our you know responsibility to um be responsive and
to be open to feedback however often in whatever forms and whatever you know how how you know whatever the messaging that um is being shared with us I think I think it's our responsibility um I will say that
uh one of the concerns that was raised of us when we first considered this um I think that concern still stands and that is the concern of this and and and Carrie I I think um the point that this is a a budgetary decision um perhaps and
I think Joe you you you acknowledge the important role that Latin has played and can play and and can continue to play you know um in terms of the learning outcomes that the the language provides um but that that concern that we heard
that this really should be a curricular decision less and you know more than than a strictly budgetary one um I suspect that might be a concern that will be raised again um and then you know and I I would certainly you know
welcome a conversation if that concern is is raised of us um you know and it probably speaks more broadly around how we how we should go about uh identifying how our curriculum should evolve in response to the needs demands of our of
our students and and and our families so we've had a curricular Committee in place of of some sort right has this come up in the curricular Review Committee um it it has come up um and I
think that but what Jose is pointing to is more of a almost like a public discussion with with a t-chart of uh the value of um Spanish versus the value of Latin the
value of offering an additional language you know that's the type of exploration um that that I would be supportive of um but at the same time I I think that it it it does this interplay between Financial
constraints and what you offer um is is one that un Ely really is a full school committee um topic and so if there are questions that that people want answered we can bring the research back
on those but at the end of the day if we don't make this decision what then happens is the principal and the guidance office are going to be making other decisions without us involved or without
you involved that um that take into account the constraints that have been created by for instance not adding an FTE here knowing that they have 60 students across seven
courses that are that are taking Latin needing to schedule that in amidst all of the other courses that they're scheduling so the ripple effect of not being able to make a decision about um Limited
um funding needing to focus where there is demand and um needing to ensure that we have adequate Staffing for other departments um that that's one that just comes straight to us and it it is unfortunately kind of cut and dry simple
at the end of the the budget year go yeah you're good you're on it's the uh stuck in limbo here um I don't want to to uh cut necessarily this conversation off on this topic but I had
a separate question Joe um and I can I can wait uh in case other folks have would like to discuss this topic more uh in in in the intervening moments between when I first uh saw the budget slide
presentation uh and uh the the post about the the Latin uh being discontinued as a part of the budgetary process uh I thought it important to look up kind of where the country in general is at in terms of high school
Latin instruction uh uh both and and college foreign language instruction and College foreign language instruction uh has dropped substantially since around 2016 uh somewhere around a 16% decrease
in students enrolled in foreign languages at the college level in five years from 2016 to 2021 and a large part of that was covid um and that remote instruction in a foreign language is an incredibly difficult thing uh
mathematics is very difficult to teach remotely but foreign language taught remotely comes with a a lot of obstacles uh that aren't normally there in the classroom so I pulled back and did a bigger look and there have been times where uh Latin instruction disappeared
out of high schools in America largely in the 60s and then came roaring back into the 80s and 90s and then dipped again at the uh when the economy tanked in the late two late a do we call it that 2008 um uh and
when we look at enrollment It's a combination of factors that are both economic and social uh and another facet of the increase in the enrollment in Spanish is the increase in our uh Latino
American population both locally and nationally uh and so there's a more vested interest in learning Spanish than Latin because you will be speaking Spanish to your fellow Americans who speak Spanish um and
uh as our country seems to at a national level becoming more and more uh isolationist for lack of a better term uh we may see a continued uh decline in learning languages uh outside of English and Spanish being the two most commonly
spoken languages within the confines of our country so when when our stakeholders who may listen to this later or read it through a third party medium uh or find it in a Facebook post uh talk about uh dismay or uh uh
displeasure at the concept of discontinuing Latin uh uh outside of our own budgetary constraints there are larger factors at play here in the level of enrollment and interest in the instruction of Latin and I know everyone on this committee wants to have Latin
next year and have a middle school art teacher and another math teacher and we we want it all believe me we are greedy greedy for the school we want to have everything we we love being number one in the county we'd love to be top 10 in the state I'd love to Elbow some test
School exam schools out of the way uh and keep keep shining a light on how good education can be uh but this is a very hard choice and it's not one I'm happy about but it is one that I can understand the the math about it um and
so I hope people can bear that in mind as they communicate to us their thoughts um and I look forward to reading and hearing those does I you want to go to your other question yeah yeah thanks Curtis thank you Julia um this this question
Joe is regarding the the 16% jump in our you know supportive medical costs and uh just just curious if you could just explain a bit more is that was that unforeseen that sizable jump and then um how do you how do you see
things have we do we have any information or or has any information been provided that that would give us a sense of of how those costs are going to change moving forward like how how should we best be preparing a 16% jump for someone who's a
non-expert seems fairly significant um but just just curious about like what God us here I mean I know there are Market forces that play but um how can we as districts school districts be be better prepared or be
prepared full stop yep uh so we're a part of Brookshire Health Group um which is a um it's a it's an entity that represents um the majority of municipalities within Brooker County
um the town of Williamstown the town of lboro or or two others within that um booksh health group is self-funded which means that any any claims any costs that that are coming from um Health costs um
are fully funded by the groups fund so by the premiums that that flow in um and the way that um that exposure is pulled across the the thousand of people who are who have their health insurance
through the Berkshire Health Group um earlier this year we were thinking 8 n 10% as being the uh the increase that we'd be looking at which would have left you know 8% is half of 16% and if we
were in that kind of a position we could actually be bringing a budget forward here that would be like 5% and four and a half % people would be saying yeah that's great that's spoton with kind of the larger that that maybe they they had
hoped for um in an Ideal World you know I I I think that quite honestly is lower than what um than what we had talked about in previous years we we've been talking about six maybe s% with one town five maybe six percent with another
we're up a little bit above that here um but um that's where we had been the reason the 16% increase ended up um being voted and and will come into effect is um Brookshire Health Group has just seen and and this is consistent
with many many groups within the state we've just seen sustained losses every month in this um health insurance calendar year
between July and right now um Berkshire Health Group stands to lose I believe believe it's five or6 million in total um over the course of of this year so the the trust fund that you have in reserve to be able to cover those
unforeseen like where the projections don't line up with reality um that has been dwindling um and and we were in a position where if if we didn't have that 16% increase com into effect
um we could end up in a situation middle of next year where the health group would need to say okay everybody as members you are all on the hook to cover whatever exposure we have
so mid year that could be um each of you like for an entity the size of Mount Greylock it could be you need to give us an extra three or $400,000 this year in order for us to uh remain solvent um you know that's a very
dire picture but what would happen then is because we we don't we don't necessarily have that kind of those kinds of funds on hand we would end up um along with our towns because they would be in the same boat just in with different different SI scale of of issue um we'd be going back to special Town
meetings and appropriating and and scrambling to find funds um so this this measure was try to try to avoid the potential for that um and the cost increases that we're seeing are driven by increasing costs which part of it's
inflationary part of it is that postco um a lot of people evacuated the medical profession because they were exhausted they were beaten down they're they're not they're not game for it anymore um
so I think as a result there's there have been a lot of ways where the supply of of expertise has um been less than the demand and that drives costs up um and then you have uh Pharmaceuticals um different drugs that cost an
extraordinary amount um we're seeing more and more high priced um highly specific drugs out there that that just cost a fortune and and those costs can add up um pretty quickly um in terms of the crystal ball for future years
um given the state of the world your guess I think is as good as anybody's and and and and I know that uh you're not an expert I I'm also not an expert um Blue Cross Blue Shield that represents millions of people around the
country they're looking at the data and they're saying that they don't feel as though their projections are necessarily accurate in any given year right now um so there isn't a ton of confidence in knowing exactly what will happen um in terms of where costs will
go that's that's an answer to your question it's not a happy one but that's all I know thank you y can we just take a minute to talk about the budget hearing or sorry the
budget Workshop that we're going to have and any topics that people want to make sure we address in that budget Workshop or Joe do you have a sense of how you wanted to structure that differently not not necessarily I mean I
I I do want to by the time we exit the public hearing it you know T tonight we ended up we spent a fair amount of time talking about Latin and and and we spent some time talking about health insurance um there's a lot that we're trying to do within this budget that I think in order for our
towns to support us in the two Town meetings where we need it to happen um we need a lot of advocacy um and and so I think it it would be really great to make sure that the workshop focuses on on what we're
gaining as much or more um with with what we're losing um so in any way that we can make that happen um I'm all for so if it's talking more about the math curriculum if it's
talking about the value of adding staff at Mount Greylock um it was talking about the value of the professional develop that that we're looking at or the necessity of of the health insurance um increases and how that can be considered relative to everything else
um I think we need to make sure that we focus the conversation there because um that's where people are are really seeing the the 8 and 7% increases and trying to figure out whether or not they believe that we we need them
so I I appreciate that um important perspective that that ideally we are walking out of the workshop and if if maybe not quite at the workshop at the hearing with all of us able to Advocate
effectively for the budget that we're asking our towns to pass and so maybe what we should be doing individually is thinking about you know what do I need
to know in order to do that um and and I'm I guess can we each do that individually outside of this space and send that to you so that you can think about how you can use that to structure the hearing or the workshop um and then
it's really just incumbent on us to say what do I need to make sure that I can effectively advocate for the budget that we're going to put forward that's something I'm just trying to see the school committee members does that make sense to others how to use that
time yeah and it's worth mentioning the the budget Workshop is open to the public it's on February 27th and then the budget hearing is two weeks later um we have a snow date I
think for the budget Workshop in between those two dates um and it's a budget Workshop did we decide that was in person or online okay so in person in the um in the
meeting room at the at the uh at Mount Greylock what time is that on the 27th six o'clock I think right yeah same day uh Joe is the steering committee till 5:15 yeah all right
there are a lot of things happening on the 27th yeah in terms I know the location for that is TBD uh maybe the location should be close to if not in the same room uh same location as that
meeting that's 45 minutes later somehow yeah well and and and there's also I will acknowledge that um March 13th uh the prism concert is happening on March 13th um we're trying to work on
timing um this is one of those things where the where the budget hearing um second Thursday in in March um consistent the prism concert um needs to happen uh based on the way the school
schedule Works um the the Thursday right before spring Sports start because spring Sports trigger a lot of Demands and potentially students being being away and not being able to participate um and
so we have that Collision as well um so we're trying to figure out if we can manage any of those things best better um all right um on a similar kind of note will we reach out or will you
reach out to the Finance committees in our two towns and invite them to attend either the workshop or a hearing or both I think it would be great to invite
them to both um not necessarily to uh participate as like a joint committee meeting but just to be present to hear the conversation to hear the conversation exactly I will make sure that that both um Town administrators managers that they uh that they get that
message along with the finance um committee chairs uh tomorrow great any other discussion on the draft budget if not again each of our assignments is to consider what we need
at that budget Workshop in order to leave ready to advocate for the budget okay thank you so much Joe um think you get to rest your vocal cords as we hand
this over to Jose and the policy and governance subcommittee uh report thank you uh Julia Joe take a sit because we might have you uh might might bring you back as a as a guest MC here in just a
second just get just get ready uh so uh colleagues dear friends we've got um uh several proposals uh several policies that um we're bringing before you as information items or what we would used to call as as first reads um these are
long in some cases multi-page uh policies uh and as a result we won't be reading them like we might um if they were much shorter so we're we're saving Curtis's voice here um we hope that each of you have had a
chance to read this would be um policy AC on non-discrimination the non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation which is a revised or a revision being offered to policy AC uh there's policy ACA non-discrimination on the basis of sex
sexual orientation or gender identity which is a which is a revision of um the exist existing policy uh there's policy acab uh revision of the sexual harassment policy and then there's a new policy uh policy
ACR the non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation uh these revisions and this is where Joe I might ask you to pipe in if I misspeak uh these revisions and the new policy are all um being Guided by uh
uh policy recommendations from the mesc uh and from our own legal council um by adopting these revisions in the new policy uh they would make the existing policy acab b-r uh would be ultimately rescinded uh
because they would be covered by the above policies Joe did I get any aspect of that wrong just sorry Carrie I see your hand I just want to make sure I didn't didn't okay yeah Carrie so um in the packet it says that they're
Redline copies but I don't I don't see any red lining so were we going to receive what the markups were I just noticed that the document that went in the packet did not have the track
changes visible I can share it on my screen because the changes no could you actually put them in the packet I sorry Joe just I think what happened was in um converting the Google Doc to a PDF uh
that conversion effectively made permanent or remove the the track changes you know um records uh and I I wonder if the most seamless way to do it would be to share the Google Docs and to
allow um yeah view only that's right yeah that way we can see clearly see the the track changes J don't if that's something that you think is possible I believe we had an issue previously where view only
doesn't allow you to see the that's correct that's actually changes so I would need to share it with edit wrs and I have a feeling that when this file was saved um so
I I can figure it out what if you download them as a Word document I think they that's what I'm GNA show up there that that that's what I'll do is I'm going to download them as a Word document and then save because that I can print um and save as a PDF but I'll
I'll go through that work um um what I will say is like a summary and Joe please correct me as I'm likely to make a mistake here that uh much of these changes or recommended changes from masc had to do with um uh
realigning these policies with ACC Accord to and we could speak to how the definition of Title 9 and enforcement of title N9 have recently changed but uh maybe maybe you could
speak just really briefly to how um some of the recent changes in in in title n regulations are reflected in in these policy documents uh yes so Jo apologies and then I'm going to add in there um in
our original policies they were conflated a bit where they spoke to procedure as well um so in keeping with the masc sort of recommendations we've the the these revisions reflect um you
know an effort to to pull out the procedure and have that you know embedded in in school handbooks um and and and embedded within the perview of the superintendent and and their staff and so these These are more policy Focus
documents sorry Joe Carrie did did you want to say something before I no I was just going to say the policies look good I mean I don't I'm not questioning the the new polic the revised policies um I was just
and I don't want to make a lot of extra work for you Joe and providing yet another document um it would just save us you know trying to look at the two side by side and see absolutely and the intent was to have
the track changes version there I apologize for not reviewing it um but I what I will do just because I think Jose you kind of teed it up with um here within these policies you have
the really Tangled interplay between Title 9 updates that happened in 2020 then they happened in 2024 but then some are all of that was repealed a few weeks ago so that it kind of sent us back to
2020 but then you have the state of Massachusetts meanwhile has been contributing its own updates um um indicating uh new definitions expanded definitions for protected classes and so on and so the
the net impact of what you have here is there's definitely streamlining associated with removing things that should be procedure or that might change frequently um removing that and making sure that there's pure policy here um
with respect to the um to policy AC um the addition is making sure that when the word race is used it um it says race to include traits historically associated with race
including but not limited to hair texture hair type hair length and protective hairstyles um and and that was a change in uh the state of Massachusetts in 2022 that has gradually made its way into um
policies um and then as we look at ac- um the same thing the the expanded definition of race um along with some of this uh reorganization around trying to make sure that if something if a procedure is going to change if might
evolve over the course of say work with the equity imperative um that should be located on a web page where it can be present there as a procedure and explained thoroughly for families um and staff within the district um so that's a
change to ac- R which is the second one um policy ACA um as a result of both uh State changes as well as um the uh US
Department of Ed which is separate from um from the 2024 Title 9 updates um sexual orientation and gender identity are added as
um as terms within non-discrimination on the basis of sex sexual orientation or gender identity um that's a change within ACA acab
the acab really only has a a um typo fixes that that we have made where rather than the use of the word uh complain
we're using complaint because it's it's a a appropriate um and then once again linking out to the district to where the district will keep all of its title 9 coordinator information along with the title 9
procedures um linking out to that rather than embedding it within the the policy itself so those are the changes um they are all progress um they do represent the state-of-the-art as far as um both
state and federal law and I will make sure that the track changes that the day track changes PDF gets dropped in the packet and I will make sure that it gets out to all of you tomorrow as well via email I have a general policy
question um and I'm I'm guessing that Council has already weighed in on this but um do the presidential orders on Dei and removal of certain termin ology did those affect us did they affect schools
I should say in the way that they're meant to affect businesses and other entities um there's enough gray area there right now that I think everybody's scrambling to figure out how to interpret what and
um currently the the Attorney General's office for the state of Massachusetts is in definitely in hyperdrive trying to understand where the federal government might be trying to supersede state law um state
and local laws um and what kind of an impact that has um so we currently what you have here is definitely in line with the latest best legal council that we have that we pay for that the Attorney
General's Office of the state of Massachusetts has and the masc has so we're we're triangulating across that um where some of these executive orders actually have Impact versus um well have impact
on actual laws and work versus just having impact on people um I I I don't I I don't know for sure I mean I think the general consensus is um you know no one should
do anything quite yet we need to see how it all plays out but I would imagine we need to be ready ye yes and at the same time um I I did feel I mean we've been going through this process getting these policies
ready and even with the ups and downs with Title Nine rulings um for months and part of what I am trying to do as a leader within this school district and and I and I'm urging all of our staff to do is to try
to not have the up and down swings on a minute by- minute basis that you might be inclined to have on a personal level and instead to try try to find the PATH forward that you can um that best serves our students you know that pays attention to laws but also doesn't get
too shaken when um when any one thing happens and continuing forward with these policies to the best of our ability is in the best service of our students and that's what we're doing I'll just just PL Ben and thank you Carrie for those for that those
questions um and Joe correct me if I wrong but these these policies uh just ensure our alignment um to existing federal and state state laws and policiy they move us in any direction away from it they just ensure that we are in
compliance right wanted to highlight one of the it's a subtle change but um it's one that uh I think in practice was was already in effect but in previous versions of these policies uh the policies designated the school committee
uh as being the um the the the body responsible for uh appointing for instance the title dine coordinator and and the like and in these revised policy documents um language you could argue might be a bit
vague um but we read them all as as the superintendent uh as being the the responsible um the the the individual who who will appoint the the the coordinator which was also confirmed through conversations with our legal
council is that when when a policy states the district or the school committee will ensure fair and Equitable educational or will designate an individual to act um that's actually this the superintendent is the
instrument of the of the policy so if it says the district will or the committee will it it it actually ends up falling on the superintendent to do so y so we we made sure that that language was more clear Within These draft policies good point yeah any other
questions or or or feedback that uh you have for for us um we will be uh reviewing uh the policies again at our next subcommittee meeting um and they may and will likely
appear as as action items for consideration by the by the full committee um up next is uh one that I suspect will um lead to some conversation and it's uh
the mgrs compet competency determination for the class of of 2025 um and you all have uh that document um in front of you or hopefully with you can see it from the from the
packet or within the packet um Joe it might be helpful to provide some context on both why this uh is being proposed uh and then why this is coming before the full committee um and then
with the context that the uh policy and governance subcommittee um considered and have moved this unanimously so it's already been moved to the floor of the full committee um and the um the motion to adopt uh the
competency determination for the class of 2025 um only needs to be seconded uh and then I'll second it thank you k discussion Y and Joe yeah sorry Joe I was going to just add another bit of context um this
is only for uh the current graduating class of 2025 uh so for the class of 2026 and um and and Beyond um we will as a full committee need to um both reconsider or
consider and and vote on a on a a um a comp competency determination for for classes in the future so this uh came to your agenda and plate um as a result of
uh last November um the uh the vote on whether or not mcass would continue to be uh used as the competency determination tool um across the state of Massachusetts when that vote said no
mcast will no longer be um what it triggered was a process where the department of Elementary and secondary education needed to figure out how to advise school districts on complying with the updated law um So within the
PDF you actually have in italics the the actual thing that was voted into effect it um I I don't think I'm hurting anybody's feelings by saying it's kind of clumsy language um and it's a little bit difficult to to figure out
what it's saying um but in essence what it's saying is somehow every school district needs to come up with a competency determination um uh method that is um
that is in alignment with uh measuring how a student might have done on the 10th grade mcast in 2023 so the subject the
content um the uh the um all of that is 2023 mcast that's that's how it works so what the state advised school districts to do was to go out and for this year and this year only develop something
that would just satisfy your needs for the class of 2025 because the state is working on um it has its whole panel it's committee trying to figure out what should it propose how should it do that um that will hopefully come in time for us to implement something that that is
viewed as being widely adopted and best practice for the class of 2026 and Beyond um but we need something in place for the class of 2025 um the language that you have here uh beneath that italic you know bullets
one and two um appear to be what most most school districts across the state are going to use because it's the most direct um it's the most direct language that you can within the um program of
study and within the results that students will have already been logging over the course of their um High School careers like we we can't all of a sudden create a requirement that is impossible for a student to meet um between now and
and and graduation um and and have that be something that that feels uh appropriate fair just uh so item number one is any student who had already achieved a competency determination through mcast right up through the November
2024 um retest um is considered to have achieved their competency determination so they're all set for any student who had um who had not yet done that um the the uh the simple statement is if you
received a passing grade in the equivalent of the school's English 10 course received a passing grade in the equivalent of the school's Algebra 1 and uh geometry courses and received a passing grade in one or more of the equivalent of the school's biology physics chemistry or
technologyengineering courses then you have achieved your competency determination um we have a very small number of students for whom this applies um and this is the only fair thing um that we could adopt and it's very
similar to what um other school districts are adopting um so why it's coming before you and why it's immediately here for a vote um it's not a policy it is a um it's a kind of a
procedure but the state wants every school committee to vote the procedure um for its District so that's why it's here in the form that it is where it's it's not going through a three month
month process um but we did run it through policy and governance because it is a policy and governance type item um and it's here for you for tonight for just the class of 2025 so that we can then know how the administration at
Mount Greylock um will will manage getting through to the end of this school year with um ground that shifted mid year for them any any questions or feedback or concerns all right hearing none um roll call vote I never know Julia we we had
this question at the in the subcommittee because um do do I vote last who I vote first what goes on here Julia you gotta go you must it's roll call you're you're up first all right I'm happy with this you're putting me first I think so okay Bo and
I uh I'll what and and and jump in Constantine ey help by an ey you go okay sorry sorry I didn't realize I was muted green I Malloy i m i I've been trying to avoid dead
zones for a couple of hours I may drive into a dead zone the next few minutes so if I get knocked out I'll try to get back on all right thanks Steve uh the motion passes um and I believe that's all from the policy and
governance subcommittee Julia thank you thank you very much um next on our agenda is um to discuss the expiration of the Massachusetts open
meeting law remote meetings that's supposed to end March 31st but there is movement um to uh make this uh there's a a bill currently working through the process to make remote meetings a
permanent option so we spoke uh in advance about what our role or Joe and I were talking about what is our role and do we want to put forth a statement from our school committee to encourage our Representatives our delegation to
support this um uh going forward that's kind of the question and I guess that if if we were to do that we have a vote on the agenda maybe it's a vote maybe it's just Collective yes let's go advocate for that and then
I can draft something to to send to our delegation so do we move to vote and then discuss or sure's I would so move to vote uh to craft and approve such
measures Mill second makees sense so I know Glenn put something out on the list serve um asking School committees um who is still meeting remotely um did anybody see
that I didn't see that okay yeah there was an interesting mix of feedback to that I think he put it on the um yeah just the regular list serve for school
community members huh so I think masc is trying to gather some data on existing procedures or existing um IES of school
committees right I mean and most said that they're meeting in person but that their subcommittees meet virtually um some said that they're all ev Everything meets in
person um and there were a few people who said that they're meetings I haven't looked at all of them but I certainly added that we meet virtually in our sub committee meet virtually so I guess I'm not sure who
the like who would a statement go to it would go right to the legislators that was my intention maybe there's maybe that's not the right Avenue but this is something we know has been kind of coming and if we can have a
voice and yeah promoting it we probably should um wait but we have a a motion from Curtis but I don't think we have a second to no I seconded it oh right sorry sorry right the the the the the appropriate person who's driving the
most remote right second it right okay right and in fact I I'll use that as an opportunity to quickly speak in its favor uh when you have a large District when you have people who are busy the ability to have virtual participation greatly
increases the talent pool you have people who are willing and able take positions like this as well as the ability of members of the community to listen to the meetings and so I would strongly support a letter to the legislature I would support a letter to the masc and our
representatives there go ahead as thanks Julia just just seconding uh Steve here and just to add I think um I I would suspect that Rural and Regional School Districts um that
pull in you know resources and you know you name it from from a from a large geographic area H having the remote option um you know makes our meetings more inclusive uh both in terms of you know who we can call on to serve on the
school committee but also just as Steve said you know who can par participate uh and and provide feedback and and which which I I I think we need and and want go ahead I've been trying to view it through the lens of you know we are elected by the taxpayers and that we
represent the interest of all stakeholders uh and should we send out a poll to people to to stakeholders saying hey what are your thoughts do you think that school commit you would prefer school committee meetings to be in person or remote but then when I think
about it in all of my time on uh since we went remote um we've talked about bringing the meetings back in person or keeping them remote in school committee meetings multiple times as deadline that deadline's been pushed back and pushed
back or Rewritten or whatever and not one Community member or stakeholder to my knowledge has ever expressed any opinion one way or the other and certainly not in favor of uh moving the meetings back to iners as a means of
increasing accessibility uh which would be I would think our only point in doing it really uh because we seem to be an effective body despite being on Hollywood Squares so uh I fully support uh any measure we
can do to keep it um an available option to maintain remote meetings uh with the understanding that if we were to hear from stakeholders that there is a a v vested interest in moving the meetings back to in person for increased
accessibility to people who may struggle to maintain signal in our hilltowns uh or what have you uh that we be open to that but I certainly want the possibility to keep the meetings remote to be on the table for as long as as it is uh
beneficial I do think it's different for regionals than it is for district schools and it's even more so for Rural Regional Schools um you know we're the
prime candidates for meeting remotely I've captured a lot of those points that I can include in a draft and I especially Curtis I I might have not thought about your point but I think it's a especially important um that we have been talking about this for years
and um I at least have never heard anybody um concerned about how we are meeting um and certainly I've heard nobody Advocate that we need to be back in person except when we have met we know like we can have a rich
conversation in person it's good to do that every now and then um which we have done with Retreats and we'll do with the budget Workshop so knowing we have the option I think is is what we want to make sure we preserve um if there are no other
comments can I add to thater please please yeah just quickly adding on to what you said I think it is important that we have you know a couple of meetings such as the retreat in person there's value to having people get to know each other but when you consider
the transit time with people in different life stages this way people can be at home where they can be dealing with family issues uh they can be traveling for work and they can still participate and you we would just lose a lot of people I think who I mean we
we've had trouble for years in the past in getting people to serve on these committees it's not just the time of the meetings it's the time to get there and how you have to arrange your schedule and it's much more challenging to find meeting times we all have to be there in
person thank you great yeah thank you for adding that point in Steve um you know I I know a number of us who have spent many meetings not in our homes but doing them virtually from other locations so yes uh super important Point as
well um all right so if there are no other comments um we have a motion we have a second I do we let's vote I'm gonna start with you Jose ey elf and by ey green I Malloy
I Milla I and Bowen I all right thank you everybody I Carrie you are up next with the masc um division six report sounds good um so I went to the
president's Retreat which was focused on strategic planning for masc um and then 's a strategic planning workshop coming up um for the masc board at the end of February so you should
have all received in your um school committee mailboxes an invitation from masc to take a survey and I would like
to encourage folks to do that um so it's a survey on uh to plan to guide our work for the next five years focusing on core Mission achieving excellence in school
leadership through advocacy training and service um if anyone did not receive this then let me know and I will forward it to you um your feedback is most um
appreciated um to clarify is this a hard copy thing or is this a digital thing this was sent by email on February 3rd from MC
Jason Jason from Jason Fraser no so Curtis I'll forward it to you right now thank you and is asked to be completed by tomorrow yeah oh I also put down the wrong date on a renewal of training that I need to
do I put the 14th instead of the 4th so I'll be doing that when this meeting is over as well y um okay so um the next masc things that I will be attending I'll be I
signed up to go to the nsba which is the National Association of school board committees um or Association I signed up to attend that in April is is in Atlanta masc is paying
for it because a former president of masc is being elected as the nsba uh President elect so that's very exciting we'll have someone from Massachusetts heading the National
Organization um and I think most of the board is attending and I also signed up to attend day on the hill so uh that's in May but coming back to the president's Retreat um the other feature of the retreat aside from the strategic
planning was a presentation from the former Commissioner of Ed for Massachusetts Jeff Riley on um artificial intelligence and he is now working with an organization called a day of
AI and um their tagline is AI is for everyone Empower your school and your students to thrive in a world of AI I encourage you all to look it up day of AI um I think it's co-sponsored or maybe
part of the MIT lab um yes d da of AI was born at MIT in 2021 so um as part of his presentation he showed some slides um and there was
one slide that I think is worth um uh sharing not the slide itself but the um the uh L the uh text on the slide so it's a day of AI primary
objectives um educate and train teachers and administrators in their effective and productive use of AI and AI enabled Tools in their work support educational leaders in developing effective and appropriate AI
policy IES to ensure students safety and well-being provide AI literacy programs for all School stakeholders including students and caregivers so that they can be prepared responsible and productive users of AI in school and in their
everyday lives so clearly this is AI is here it's not going anywhere we should know how we want to use it and how we don't want to use it how we don't want our students to use it
but we should embrace it at the same time um and then the line that I really liked was um AI won't replace humans but humans with AI will replace
humans without AI um so it seems to be a good resource the day of AI and um might raise the question for us of how much PD are our
faculty are getting um in the use of AI and the tools that it has to offer I know we're using it um in the classroom with lots of different programs and various other things but um maybe a topic for another time it's s getting
late so that's it that's fantastic thank you Carrie yep okay we um next on the agenda is to
um and I'm looking for a motion to enter into executive session with the intent to return to open session pursuant to mgl chapter 30A uh section 21A 1 to discuss the reputation character physical condition
or mental health rather than professional competency of two individuals these are sick leave Bank requests moved thank you Curtis do I have a second second thank you second I'm not gonna be able to join
executive okay thank you Steve so we'll have you leaving at 8:54 safe thank you thank you thank you um so Joe I think you're moving us into to a breakout
room thank you all right we didn't actually vote roll call vote to go in I was gonna declare a vote but I guess I'll just join all right
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e okay I'll move that we accept both sick
Bank requests sorry one quick what we lost as presented in executive session do we lose Joe we have Joe Jose oh well we still have Quorum oh he might
have hit leave meeting instead might have okay there he is there he is okay second Ursa seconded y okay so Carrie moved to Grant both leave Bank requests as described in executive
session Ursula seconded we're now going to do a roll call vote yeah roll call vote starting with you Jose Constantin I Elfin B ey green I Malloy I and Bowen I
that motion motion passes thank you everybody um upcoming meetings we have discussed a number of times we have our budget Workshop February 27th 6 p.m in person at Mount Greylock and we all know our
assignment to turn into Joe I by next Friday does that work yeah that that would be great and that would give the two of us time to figure out how to structure the right the workshop and also hopefully all the questions are
already answered but you know right there might be a new one in there haven't heard yet excellent okay um policy and governance subcommittee on March 6 at 5:00 p.m. um and then we have our uh school committee meeting budget
hearing on March 13th at 6 p.m. can I bring one thing up and then ask a thing uh thing I'm bringing up I I actually misread the most recent I got like 40 invitations to the steering committee meeting uh the most recent one
says 5:15 to 6:15 in person which means they now overlap it it it it uh once once it's right it'll be 3:15 to 4:15 for the steering committee what is the steering
committee the this is this is for the the equity imperative work funded by town of Williams town and Williams College uh that's the the the superintendent formed group that is working with the consulting firm
gotta oh and then the other uh I had a question is just out of Interest Who here uh G given their brothers and ability uh is planning to attend the prism concert as they have a kid performing in it ah this is the I 100%
cannot miss it I would be in so much trouble it's a highlight of my year so this is I can't be at this meeting yeah the March 13th meeting should we be looking at our calendars for a different day is that but is that a I mean I know
it has to be done I mean Joe what time is wait what time is the what time is the concert I believe at s I'm not sure so we we could do the hearing six to7 at Mount
Greylock and then have reschedule school committee because the the budget hearing might be on other people's calendars I mean if it it could work to yeah that the concert the concert starts itself
we we could potentially have the public hearing start at 5: as a special thing on that day which would give us two hours we still wouldn't we wouldn't end school committee though by seven but you're saying no way longer
could could the budget hearing be longer than an hour is I guess the question could the bud hearing be be longer than two hours no an hour I saying started at 6 and then do the concert at 7 but you're saying we need two hours for the budget
hearing no I mean I've been involved in budget hearings that only last half an hour but I've also been involved in budget hearings that last four hours so I was trying to split the difference and saying like maybe if we gave it two hours knowing that because the the good thing about the workshop is that it
gives us and the public a real chance to try to Grapple with some issues and have discussions so that um and I feel good about us signaling that you know we started signaling it a month ago and we're continuing that way um so I think
two hours would be enough but um and if people who are going to attend the concert just did the remote meeting from we could make various rooms at Mount Greylock available for people um that could work and we try to keep the rest of the agenda light
um I believe the only other thing that I would feel really times sensitive important about would be getting the calendar voted so that everybody's got a an official calendar but that again is something
that could be a very quick item um we got school choice out of the way which I wanted to make sure we we got done um not not to ever propose adding a meeting to anyone's life much less my
own but would it be possible to separate the budg hearing from our meeting for the month of March and have it as its own isolated thing and then have a meeting of the committee say the next week or week after being that there's two more weeks
left in March rather than trying to shoehorn more than the budget hearing itself into that time slot I'm just saying that I think that maybe March can be even for the for the school committee as a whole it can be as
simple as the budget and the calendar and the calendar unless you all have a lot of concerns it shouldn't be more than a few minutes I I think if it's just those two items then that's fine but any other items that people may look to add or
include uh we may want to uh suggest tabling till April uh or uh and and another question is would there be a public comment portion of the budget hearing meeting because that could
be that comes after the preventation um so that's I think what Joe is trying to allow for with the two hours yeah and the the presentation that I gave tonight was about as similar to a public
hearing presentation as as you'll typically see um I actually borrowed I like I made sure to kind of Slide by slide pretty much get all the same things that we would have covered um so
like that's also something where I could make sure that a presentation was actually posted online and we could just talk about things that had changed um but I could hit things at a high enough level that you know that would work I'm just offering
up ways to kind of make it make it efficient but also just make sure that everybody gets to hear all the different different reasons and what's Chang you know what's changing and why it's changing so could people move to five
o'clock to provide us with enough buffer just in case I I would be taking you up on the offer to be in the building uh on the zoom for five o'clock on that that day Jose Carrie urilla could you do five
o'clock that day I can do five o'clock I'm going to say I probably can but I never know exactly until I get closer but I can try to make it a y and knowing that presentation we already saw a bunch of it we will have been at the
budget hearing Ursula if you needed to be you ended up being late like sure y Forum um and four of us can be there at five we'll have Quorum um and I would probably also wind up at the school Curtis with you so go to the concert after SL in next to me on my laptop you
that's right yeah we don't need to be remote from each other I'm not I like it so I I think the consensus here is uh we're going to move the meeting on the 13th to 5:00 pm do the budget hearing
have an a truncated school committee agenda meet from 5: to 7 so that those who want to get to the prisms concert prism concert can get there did we it's at seven or did we just go off of my memory y uh yeah I I confirmed that they
just announced it today which is what the minute I saw the parents Square message go out I said okay so excellent um I don't have any other items to discuss that were not already reasonably
anticipated um Joe I I I have one thing that and and Stephen dravis is here uh we just in the last um 24 hours we we've been trying to figure out how to bring closure to the
whole Power School data breach topic power school has made um a couple years of credit monitoring service available to every former um as well as current student or staff
member who had data within our systems um and that means anybody who was a student at Mount Greylock um or a staff member from 2006 through the present um we have plenty of
folks where their email addresses are they've changed from 2006 2007 so um I would love to somehow through our local media potentially even just get out a little a little alert that Mount Greylock is is
uh is trying to get the word out to folks that they can just click on a link it'll take you straight to where you sign up um from everything that I can tell it's essentially based on the honor System with power school that you're going to put in your name you're going to put in your information you're going to get the credit monitoring services
and they're going to trust that you are a former or current employee or student within an impacted District so I would love to get that word out at something that's kind of popped up here in the last 24 hours the uh what we're doing and that's not something specific to M grock there are a lot of districts in
the county use power school so that's all over the state right yeah all all over the country country yeah but I'm thinking local media to get that word out that's not a specific to M rlock thing um that's super helpful to um so I
will probably Email Stephen to but I just wanted to kind of say it and get it elevated here because it is it it it's one of those things where it would just be good to make sure the word gets out yeah will there be some way to contact former students um so that they
know we are we are providing last known address last known email address uh to power school power school is the one sending that information out um but we can also just uh we have a web page up on our website um and I will share with
media and others the direct link so that people can can go and uh receive that um that benefit if um if they so choose credit monitoring services for I think it's two years thank
you any other agenda requests okay then I will look for a motion to adjourn no moved thank you Curtis how about a second second thank you Carrie and Jose kick us
off happily uh Constantine i w Bine I green I Malloy I I thank you everybody have a good night night