##VIDEO ID:lyaM_iDrBcA## e e e e e e e e e I would now like to call this meeting of the narit Regional School District school committee to order if you could all please rise for the plge iedge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for stands with liy and justice for up as a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and reported on YouTube um so getting into the business of the evening I'd like to start with approval of the meeting minutes um so I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of December 19th 2024 as written so motion by Heather second by Danielle any questions or comments about those minutes seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous moving on to bills and payroll I would recommend a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrants as presented motion by Danny second by Heather any questions or comments about those bills and payroll see none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous now moving on to our report report from art student representative so winter sports are going well I know uh boys and girls basketball have had a couple games the boys are playing tonight girls are playing tomorrow track had a beat maybe today yeah today they have a meat and then um that's really for sports I know for clubs The Little Mermaid uh has started rehearsals on Tuesday Thursdays and Fridays people can buy tickets in March and um the dates for the play are the fourth 5ifth and the 6th of April and then we have our club still going well High School um some events that have been scheduled are the Winter Wonderland dance to help keep kids involved during this slow winter season because we don't have a lot during the winter and stuff and during the fall we have everything and the spring we have like all the dances and stuff so they said we're going to put something in the winter and then on Friday next week there's an MIA student ambassador field trip and STAR testing this next Friday um for the middle school all winter sports have started um and all the clubs have continued um and inals have not changed to Matt ball and crazy soccer uh this week is week two of the anti bullying month where um the first week they did an anti-boy pledge and then this week they wrote thank you notes and then for each task they complete they get a charm for participating in each activity and that's all I for this month what's going on sounds like STAR testing is the Highlight though yes icked up on all right thank you so much for sharing collecting sharing all the news I don't see anyone from the public um that said we have our NDA representative fear um how is are things going coming back for on the holidays pretty good actually not bad um and I with man before these meetings too so she's she got to say a lot of things that I would have said if um and she's also my amazing intern um but across the board in all schools right now the windows open for STAR testing so um um at all levels in the next two weeks teachers will be um getting their star math and star reading tests which is always exciting to see that see those results to see to see the growth that we're going to see um at that point and also um in the next couple weeks it's um we're doing the middle of the year um Finance screenings which are the social emotional screenings so it's it's always nice to get that that inage to see you know how those results come out and it's nice to look at your students just to see where they've come from the beginning of the year to now and hopefully you're seeing progress and that's it now we have a long weekend coming up grades Clos next week term two I think tomorrow is day 90 yes or tomorrow or Monday I can't I can't remember if the snow puts Monday but I was just doing the figuring because I'm thinking of Gres closing and I think tomorrow's day 90 so it's gone fast bck half of a year yeah wow I I lost Carol so yeah no great lots happening and lot of sickness though lot of sickness through teachers students to stize theier yeah but that's about it thank you so much all right anything on fy2 to report on not um and 26 um I did you know as a reminder we do have our our various budget meetings coming up there'll be an initial um school committee review of the budget presentation on January 30th um hoping to have our multiboard meeting on February 6 um I do want to note that so far we have not actually gotten confirmation from any full boards from any towns um we have heard from Templeton of a couple individual folks who were interested in attending so it may be less of a multi-board meeting and more of a school committee meeting with a couple folks from various towns able to attend um but unfortunately we haven't been able to get confirmation from any full committees from any St um so that'll be a bit a bit unusual though we're still trying to stay in punch and and get that done but neither town has posted the so um we're getting close so not sure if we're going to be able to make that as we have in the past um but we're certainly excited to welcome um those folks from the town who are able to make it that evening um and then that follows um our preliminary budget hearing more official hearing on March 6 and our full budget hearing on March 20 all right andry back to you for our business managers report really nothing to report where I mean that general fund we're just watching it really closely un Ely I'm saying no to a lot of people um you know doing what I can but I watch the revenue side too and that's looking a little bit down on the Medicare side um won't know that final C until the end of unforunately so that up short I make sure this side all right thanks for AUD okay yeah well thanks so much for such side all that I know it's been a tricky year between substitutes and um you know need needing some additional staff to cover essential and some contracted Services cont servic that's what I was referring to that's what's pushing us over service yeah I know it's always a tricky so that is true I don't think we've ever said like we did pretty good through the year last year but yeah three years prior to that I know things are tight years weren't bad the sensor funds came in handy um we do still have our school committee vacancy for the town of Templeton um so certainly um welcome any applicants um for that position um and you know I know I'm continuing to reach out to folks still try to to inspire some interest um but if you know anyone um please do pass that along and should should anyone have questions about what it means to be a school committee member or also be to connect you with someone to talk to okay Miss superi I'm passing it over to you for curriculum and instruction sounds great I I have a very brief update uh today which is that we had a um AC professional development for all Staff last Friday um we continue to focus as a system on Universal Design for Learning and how to design and build lessons and activities um to remove barriers considering we have a wide range of Learners um in front of us as teachers and staff and so um our elementary school and our Middle School both shifted their focus within udl to focusing on um how to design activities and lessons for multiple means of representation so focusing on student perspectives and varing perspective Tak in classrooms um how to use language and symbols in classrooms to help solidify meaning um and focusing on really building deep level um understanding on content or context U within lessons as well our elementary school kicked off with a review of doing a nice fun Jeopardy game that got a lot of very positive feedback uh before really diving into practices and implementation in classrooms um at the middle school level they had the same Focus area um and our assistant principal had stepped up to run the professional development for this round and did a phenomenal job feedback was incredibly positive um and our high school um has a slightly different Focus they focus on student engagement and student ownership of learning in the classrooms and how to design lessons to support more um urgency around student agency and getting students more invested in their learning um which connects to some work they were doing pre like last year and early this year um around really less teacher talk more student talk in the classroom and how do we engage students um as as really dragging the ship in their own learning in the classrooms of the high school um so we are continuing to get positive feedback on that um and we had some additional smaller sessions for our mental health staff our so sorry uh for our mental health related staff and our related service providers like our occupational therap ists our uh physical therapists or speech pathologists they had participated in some online webinars U more specific to their fields of study and then our special education staff um continued to focus with uh with our special director uhal service director excuse me um on the roll out of the new IEP um which is kind of an ongoing thread for them this year uh as well as um some work around some of the compliance the special education department is working on um and along those lines uh we've gotten some really positive feedback from desie um around the work of the special education department to tighten up um some areas around compliance uh for I writing and things like that so we're in a very good place there and if you haven't heard we're starting a our STAR testing window we did we did hear that any questions or comments All right so we don't have any surplus items tonight um but we do have the senior out of state um field trip um who would like to speak to that particular field trip um I guess I will um so the uh seniors have decided to go to NYC um or their class trip and again a lot of these bids are hard to some of these things are really people are just not as responsive as they used to be so but in any event um again it's pretty well laid out we finally heard from Capital tours uh you know per person cost for is you know was $119 they get a free w it's pretty it's greaty frankly if you look at if You' had a chance to check out the itinerary um so it's a three-day total three days are right back on Sunday they leave on a Friday um and they go to all the great you know great places of of NYC so um we're waiting to sign obiously until I didn't sign the they didn't sign the contract yet until we get it approved but um I believe all the information is there just double checking and quick stop at Six Flags on the way yeah well you got to do that Bas that's just stand I like that they conveniently squeeze that yeah and that um that hits the PE um just so and of course money management and PE which is so this is H this is happening from in that time period from when they finished their last day of school and before graduation um they graduate the 30th of May okay and this is the week well basically prior yeah they also received Broadway tickets to see wi there as well to see Wicked is that what you just said yeah think we could pass the seniors any questions about the trip or the details here I actually do have one question the trip is there I actually probably don't remember the subs the nurse that comes out of the general not the not out of the trip yeah right exactly so Subs won't be needed because so many seniors will be Oh I thought on thing that said that they need I would assume I'm sure that I I can't imagine I'm just trying to think of we didn't use almost any subs last year to cover unless how many teachers are going so that's right right yeah yeah so you're right you're right so my fault yes it'll come out of the J assume that supp shoot yeah yeah there' be too yeah it's already expensive enough but um actually a thousand actually was actually pretty surprised with the price it actually is a pretty good price point for all the third is any other questions right seeing none I would entertain a motion to accept the senior out of state field th as presented motion by H second second by J any questions or comments seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that is UN um so we had the msba schematic design next to on the agenda here I know we were hoping to have some we put in we put this in hopeful that we would have what we needed to have a discussion and possibly vote tonight but I'm guessing we're not quite there yet so long story short the msba has very specific language Bo boiler language to do pretty much everything we have been invited into this into the into the schematic phase of the program which is going to obviously give us a an actual cost for what it'll be for the well the language that they provide is based for for towns to make that to make the assurance that those monies will be available to do the schematic design well we're not a town we're Regional and so going back and forth and and we don't really know the actual price of the schematic design for remember they give you all of the roofing jobs that they've done you know for on a year you have to look at and go well this is about an average so we looked at every roof of you know job with 100,000 square foot or more and to all of those and go 70,000 you know that's that's a safe bet so we contacted our attorney because they have to approve of the language so it's not like we can just get lucky we've got to actually send them the language that we're going to use MBA the msba part of thank you they'll send it back and so by the time we got this all figured out through our our attorney the turnaround was just going to be too quick he was hopeful to get it in time so that I could send to the msba it didn't happen so we'll have to revisit it the 30th of January some of the paperworkers do by then but this vote isn't do until March 1st okay so we have to good good all right um so moving into policy um so the first item we have here is um if if you recall from our last meeting we had a basic update to an existing policy was list of subcommittees and since the list of subcommittees has updated um we just needed to make an update to the policy um and so I would entertain a motion to accept the following for second reading as Pres presented it is bde subcommittees of the school committee motion by Danielle second second by Hank any questions or comments seeing none all in favor post stained and I say yes so that as okay this next one um is a little bit different um so we reviewed this policy in um The District Operations meeting um and essentially um as a reminder mcast there's a vote on mcast and as a result of that vote mcast is no longer a competency determination for graduation um starting for the class of well it's not quite that clear I know technically it's um it's any student who did not get certified for competency determination by desie as of December 5th 2024 um so it's it's hard to say class of because there are some students who will have met anyone who has taken and received the competency determination by December 5th December 5th of 2024 qualifies to use the impa as that competency determination anybody who did not um an alternative method of Competency determination had to be identified for and so um you'll notice that what the what the subcommittee recommended was to bypass the first reading and go to Second reading the reason for that is because um our our staff or guidance team really needs to start having discussions with seniors now about for those students who did not receive that mcast result gave them the competency determination by the end of the year um they need to be digging into the this alternate method of Competency determination um and so it's all kind of smooshed together in uh a shortterm around time what I do want to caveat is that what we've learned um from the super cheet and our discussions is that there is a lot of conversation happening about this across all districts across Massachusetts um and there are frequent updates coming in from desie Etc and so it's entirely possible that we could put together this together and additional changes might be recommended but we did want to give a foundational way for those conversations to begin happening um because it's important for us to give our our guidance team and our students enough time to um make sure that they're able to make strides towards those graduation requirements how did I do you did great thank you what would you yes please so previously there there are really two buckets here right there's graduation requirements which have always been under the guid of the school district and then there's competency determination which previously was determined by the state the Department of Education and previously was based on 10th passing the 10th grade mcast so with the changes in um the regul ation and the statute the competency determination feys is no longer based on passing 10th grade mcast and is no longer certified by Des by the state now districts will create processes for students feeing that competency determination and districts will then certify competency determination so it's no longer at the state level um and so the way the new statutes were written were basically it's remaining as a t 10 grade requirement and it's focusing now on course completion in previously mcast tested subjects for 10th grade so what we've proposed and I think most districts are moving towards is a policy that outlines that we will certify competency determination based on completion of English 1 and two Algebra 1 and geometry and biology which are the 10th grade courses that were essentially well nth and 10th grade courses that were entally assessed by mcast um what you'll see at the end of our draft policy is an alternative method for us to provide competency determination for students who may not be able to um access a competency determination because of um complex or significant disability so this would be students who previously would have taken mcast alt to receive an mcast for to get a certification of Competency determination by the state and so we as a dist District are recommending that we will use a portfolio to show competency in those same subject areas if students are not able to go through traditional halfway um to fully complete or satisfy those courses um and so that's where we're sitting um currently with uh with our policy we as a district will then put procedures in place for what those that portfolio process would look like but that's procedure that would be procedural based and not necessarily outline in policy so that would be our next steps for for the compeny okay that would be uh you know the portfolio that they would have to take would be work their IEP as they come along so they would know what the would be when they come to the end of their AC academic career is that correct yes remains still as 10th grade so the portfol would be specific four through 10th grade um curriculum as outlin alible algebra one in Geometry English one and two and biology so that's where the corkin it's right now is that this it's still that 10th grade piece um so that that's what we are currently recommending and um and there was discussion about that quirkiness in ouring as well and trying to understand why why is it the 10th grade determines confidency for graduation aren't there another two whole years and I understand that when the mcast test was given which are represented under our our district graduation requirements yes now it's the competency determination um and and please I want to make sure folks listening understand mcast is not going away right mcast is still in place it is still a requirement for students to take mcast um it is still tied to quite a few other things while it's not a graduation requirement it is still utilized and used for scholarships like the JN abale Adams scholarships seal of by literacy um college applications and so we um and we we still have um a participation rate and school um data that comes to us through mcast as well so there is sometimes some misconception when people hear that mcast is no longer graduation requirement that it has gone away and that is not the case mcast is something we were planning for earlier today our administrators were on a meeting about um you know about student registration for mcast just this morning so I just want to make sure people that same any other questions or comments for Molly or any questions or comments about the recommendation from the subcommittee to suspend the first reading because I do want to leave space for that if anyone has a question okay seeing none I would entertain a motion to suspend first reading and accept the following for second reading as presented ikf graduation requirements the motion by Hank second second by Chrissy one last chance for any questions or comments seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous so we can get that into policy okay now I will hand it over to you Dr C for the superintendent report thank you madam chair uh busy couple weeks back uh how just day 90 halfway these first 90 go very quickly I find that the last 90 not so much um so we'll see how that how that alls out um we are we are in the throws of figuring out the budget um patiently waiting for January 22nd to happen and that is when we are supposed to receive our Cherry sheets which will tell us Chapter 70 um and if we are still Health harmless or if not and all all those things so we are preparing for that and that's what we've been we've been working a lot on um other than that you know we the other part of it is we working on all this you know student enrollment U comes up and just a couple of very quick tidbits going back my first my first fiscal year would be technically FY 17 which was the 1617 school year and we had 1191 residents and 206 school choice kids at that point of time now it's you know old years gone like this but to think about we were 8550 85% of our kids that were enrolled were resident and 15% were were school choice when you fast forward to October one I'm just saying with October one numbers we are at 1,329 residents and as of today's report 100 and 125 school choice students which is roughly 91% resident in college 9% school choice um it just looking at the numbers and just a you being an a numbers just watching how they can just you know change why they change think that we've increased somewhere close to 200 someone residents give it to you and we have essentially cut almost that many not cut we have not replaced that many almost that many and we are still at the same number is is unbelievable so one of the things that I'll foreshadow and I've already spoke about this is that we are at the end of the roow of reducing the number of school choice students uh the meaning not replacing is are trying to replace as many as we nothing else the report today showed exactly what you know we're proud of we have 125 as when the report was done and the school choice in and I believe 80 Susan we don't have the the exact number but it's in the 80s um so it's like the fifth straight year we have reduced the number of students who are school choicing out that is awesome and that is a direct causation to that is the principales the administrators the teachers not us teachers because people will keep their kids where they are happy where they they are safe and so every year when we have less and less school choice out kids then it's just another you know feather in the cap of folks who actually do the you know the hard work um but to watch these numbers go the way they have gone and for whatever reason is is absolutely it's unbelievable quite frankly because I don't believe anyone around us have increased the number of Resident students um by this by this and we could certainly check on that so foreshadowing before we're going to you know we're going to have to really keep an eye and actually work with our buildings and to keep our school choice numbers at a certain level because we have a number of Staff members who are still being um nine I was going to say nine but I wasn't sure but we have nine staff members who are being paid out a SCH Choice by the way not by our hand it's just how that's they to save money or whatever it was over the years so we need to we need to absolutely that help we need to keep differential which are my part a lot um we need to keep that at a healthy balance because we depend on what it been um short of that in terms of where we're sitting today um you know October well pardon me in January 2nd the numbers I know that's in your packet um we have 1,467 students that are enrolled um which I think was plus one I think minus one from year over year you from month from last month and um so yeah again we're driven by the number of kids that we have we believe that we'll be out of held harmless just given the numbers that we can glean from uh The Sims reports that were done and it'll be the third time in our history that we've been out of Health harmless which means that we'll actually receive money from the state and not not receive it um so a lot going on um and so yeah that's that's our mindset and it has been for while we questions for see okay we didn't have any items not reasonably anticipated um so I would open up um the opportunity for any school committee ments that be me oh yeah yep so as I step back into this familiar position okay uh once more I simply want to say it's great to be back I'm deeply grateful for the warm welcome and the opportunity to return thank you all for welcoming back foris we are very excited to have you back at the table Jeff thank you so much all right so subcommittee reports um finance and Facilities um we I had a great meeting at they do a little bit of a different meeting in early January where we invite um the administration team into the meeting um to talk to us about their various needs it doesn't mean that all those needs get fit into the budget but it does allow us a chance to hear from them hear what their um what their vision is for their for their different um are of responsibility whether that be for tees nms or NHS NS um or or to hear from you know like our um our folks who are in charge of Technology Etc um and so it was a really it's one of my favorite Finance facilities meetings to attend because it allows us to hear directly from folks um so really I would say the the overarching theme was around needs related to special education especially uh our English language Learners so you know we've seen quite an uptick in our English language Learners particularly for our district um and so they're you know being able to balance their needs um along with our our special education needs and then to do a better job of that next year we are considering some different options um related to that um so we can expect to hear more about that during the budget presentation um Danielle or Hank anything you would call out from that meeting definitely it was nice to see IE com in here from so for having done that while so yeah absolutely okay um District Operations well thankfully we all just worked on a most of what our meeting was about that last policy um but we um I do want to update that we've got some great work has been done primarily first draft of the school committee new member handbook by um the lovely wonderful Jen sitting next to me and uh I get the fun task of adding my comments to it which is my homework for the weekend excellent um we are also working on policy a cell phone policy um because there's you know uh guidance in the handbook around cell phone use um but we do want to develop a PO little a policy level statement around cell phone um so that effort was kicked off um as well as you know a review of some other policies so um there will be more coming through to this committee um in the next uh in the next few meetings um Labor Management um we have not had a meeting here NOP before negotiations oh well LMC LMC and wc both neither one of those have kicked off yet this year um so nothing to report there um but how about our CPAC update um I don't believe I have anything for I got in touch with them uh they had a meeting last Monday but they don't do not servings okay so that's all I know all right great uh so let us know what progress you made there um we are still missing our Lea on to um PTO um so please reach out if anyone is interested in that because I do want to make sure that gets back up and running absent that I will send an official request of like hey we don't have an officially aison yet but if you could send us or central office an update monthly then we really like to make sure that your updates are getting U showcased here um reach out if you'd like to volunteer um our Le on to student advisory council is Sean um and he is visiting the Mouse um this week with his family so we look forward to hearing from in next time um otherwise uh Danielle um anything happening uh with with legislative updates recently every district is on the same situation waiting on their their predictions for Chapter 70 funding um waiting to hear from the state about competency determination um there could be some changes to Title Nine again and a result of some Court findings in Kentucky so all kinds of things that are sort of just in this percolating so we'll keep an eye on all of those um there's no correspondence this evening and our next meeting is January 30th I do want to remind folks that we did move the time for that um so that folks are able to attend um the the basketball game that evening and I want to say Warriors again Wizards Wizards thank you the Wizards game later that evening um so we will be meeting at five o'clock um the main item for that agenda is um a a review of the budget presentation um so it will be light on other content um although if if we do need to push something through like for the msba um we will sneak that in but otherwise really the focus will be getting a chance to take a a preliminary look at the budget presentation um prior to the multi-or meeting and we do not need Executive session this evening um unless that's changed no need excellent then I would entertain a motion to adjourn Mo motion by Hank a second by chissy all in favor thank you everyone um really appreciate your time this evening