e e e e e I'd like to call this meeting of the nans at Regional School District school in h if you would all please rise and pledge iedge alce to the flag the United
statesis andice for all as a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and recorded and is available of you on YouTube and Facebook um so we're going to start with regular business here kicking off with meeting minutes um I would entertain a
motion to approve the meeting minutes of January 30th 2025 is written motion by Sean second by Heather any questions or comments on the January 30th minutes seeing none all in
favor opposed stained and I say yes so that is unanimous moving on to meeting minutes from February 6 I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of February 6 2025 as written so motion by
Sean second by Heather any questions or comments on those me minutes seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that it's also unanimous
moving on I would also recommend a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrants as presented so motion by Sean second second by Heather any questions or comments about the bill
payr seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous okay um our student rep was not able to be here this evening
we were expecting he Cory Rogers is just finishing up a session with desie that ends at 5:30 so I wonder if it's not a problem Parker would you would ndea like to say
anything this evening not much just um things are going well back from February donation hoping for no more snow days um ready for the midterms for core three already in M High School which is the been saying it's just going by so fast but everyone seems everyone seems to be
back in the groove and getting ready for those the turns to close I know girls have a game tonight so that's exciting the varsity girls um but nothing nothing new so no news is good news no news is good news thank you
so much for updating us um so we'll keep moving through the if anyone's not opposed we'll keep moving through the agenda then we'll come back um to Cory when once he's here all right excellent um so fy2 budget update any any news on budget for this
year no you know we say the same thing but I'm sure it's it's tight but we are plotting along so um but all things you know all things considered were right okay um FY 26 budget cycle update
so as my initial reminder um on March 6 at 5:30 will be our preliminary budget hearing um and on March 20th will be our main budget hearing so preliminary budget hearing is already next week um so please make sure those very important meetings are on your calendar um some of
our most important meetings of the Year we love F from public ndaa Etc to be here um for those meetings um definitely a lot of important discussions going on um one of the things I would share is
we did have um so we had the multiboard meeting um on February and we did follow that with a chairs meeting to further dig into and discuss what was happening in towns um
Templeton um select board chairs Advisory Board chairs and Town Administrator and assistant Town Administrator were were able to attend um good discussion good conversation um
I will share that um we're being asked to look at we're being asked to do a lot of projections um such that the the the as from the town is based on the amounts
that we have um asked for for this year what happens next year now projections for school budgets are very difficult we have to make a lot of assumptions and caveats about numbers of kids Etc that said um you know they essentially asking
us is this the pattern forever and ongoing or is this you know another year of sort of catching up from that influx of students several years ago this year we said we don't really think it's really related to the students so much
as it's related to increased costs um but you know difficult difficult to predict the future though we will do that they did also ask us to look at what might happen happen in worst case scenarios what they built
into the budget for this year is only a roughly a two and a half% increase which would mean cutting our budget proposal by around $750,000 you're looking at that they're not saying that that's what we are voting for that said in order to be
responsible also going to do some projections out of what would happen if you did cut the budget by that amount because what our what our gut says and um school committee world is that should we cut the budget by that amount we would only then be trying to recoup that
again in the coming years and it wouldn't act it would be a shortterm cut with long-term negative impact um so but more to come there more discussion happening the important thing to emphasize here is that there is
conversation happening would you Dr C or Danielle would you add anything related to FY 26 budet discussions no I mean that's generally it's almost status qu this is how it generally goes is that we
you know we we're we have been told to project the budget or at least project to present the budget um has need and from there is where we do the work um and that's where we're at right now I know there's a very important um
advisory committee meeting going on right now in or or soon in Templeton in regards to this year and years forward so um we have another meeting obviously as just said we have
ch meeting coming out morning of the 6 that going to be appropriately reflective of those conversations so yeah sorry I was going to to the next agenda item I'll show we had something f126 okay so let's talk about
so yeah I don't know uh and I don't want to labor too long but we um the districts had gone through has gone through the process of approaching the cpcs of both of both towns um to for
funds to complete the softball slash practice field that is adjacent to the baseball F right and so as we might have talked about that from facilities and finance committee where we're we're needing to um increase our space because don't have practice areas and we don't
want to necessarily you know transport or have transported the kids back and forth and K them away and and the girls don't have a softball field they don't play on um n cansas so we we we've gone through all that so we've we went through the
process we made the application uh the CPC met um and they allocated a not the total amount but a certain amount of Monies to um towards the project which then has to go before well the town
actually literally has to be on the warrant and in your vote vote Town's vote on whether or not they want to expend those funds on this project the way for all CPC not just because it's thect
okay so last night I I noticed or that that there was a u an agenda item in regards to the CPC funds so I I watch you and um Mr Bennett what did I say did I say you didn't specify what thought oh
my did I say board yeah the S board fromon because it was on the agenda and Mr Bennett um you know presented the case of of who going back several years but um when there have been these discretionary fund opportunities and I'm
going to say discretionary because they I don't know what basket they would actually fall but the aror monies as you know as we know really helped out like drainage Etc and of course we see we see monies when we've when we've um applied for these type of monies um we break it
down to whatever the uh percentage is per kid so let's call it 8020 just for La of better number that Philips and 20 I mean 80 for Templeton and 20 for philipson um in all cases you know Templeton has come
through U they did for the Opera monies and Philips didn't declined um the CPC Templeton at least to this to this judger um has approved you know said yes um to put it to the warrant and
philipson decline but Mr what Mr Bennett was basically saying is that we've we've gone forward in this is a this is a we're a regional and templon has put a lot of money towards the district without much uh I would say
reciprocity from our other member town and it and of course the budget as it is because of the number of students the the comparison between the two towns it it is it's very heavily weighted towards Templeton rather than Phils because it's
probably 85 15 and these are monies that course Templeton is giving the district which is the regional and and and the argument was you know that look we we keep giving and you know there isn't a lot of
reciprocity and we've we've got other things to do and we've got projects of our own I'm doing a very poor job summarizing Mr Bennett but it's it's it's on YouTube I so what I did is in thinking about this I did I I wrote Mr
Bennett and I CC the chair of the select board course chair and I will forward to the rest of the meting I if I it's just easier for me to read that you know I what I ultimately I said that I completely
agreed with him after listening to you know what he had to say he said as superintendent my primary responsibilties to this District most importantly to our students my puru providing them with the best possible opportunities I sometimes you site with
Brad political and financial realities of operating Regional School District the mutal responsibilities that come with it it is clear that Templeton has been incredibly supportive especially in the instances where philton has not provided the same level of commitment in my in my continuous effort
to improve the district I failed to fully recognize and appreciate the financial imbalance that has occurred this is not to criticize Philips whether the lack of ccal support is due to financial constraints or other factors is not the key issue here what matters
is that I take responsibility for having overlooked disproportionate financial burden templ in his shoulder particularly regarding distribution and discretionary Grant funds support of the district while I have expressed my gratitude for Templeton support on multiple occasions last night's
discussion May me realized just how much the town is contributed often alone uh through discretionary funding sources such as arpa capital Improvement funds Etc let me be clear no one is off the hook for me not asking for money I
will always Advocate strongly for the Ser of Services of kids so if you thought this was me going soft think again and I put kid in to make sure I didn't offend it with this in mind I plan to address the issue tonight's school committee meeting under the FY 26 budget
discussion item I will recommend that the district res send its request for CPC funds for the softball field practice field project as a step in the right direction addressing the final balance and so I in you know I I mean that and
it's and I want that field and I want that space for our kids that's that's all right that's that's but in hearing Mr Bennett's argument yesterday I really if I was to just look at it rationally that there we have absolutely gone to the
well T the well quite a bit and they've actually they've actually um invited us it isn't like we've gone and have the bag or anything like that they've been very very helpful with the needs that we had and and thinking about
that think it's that that iend that official and if there are projects in which I'm sure there are that CDC could um benefit then I think that that's where I really I believe that that's where that those
money should go until we until we can offer some type of balance between both communities and again I'm not speaking so much of the budget I will be very candid look my I can understand this but we also need to do what we need to do in terms of
educating our children but the um these type of discretionary funds or whatever you want to call them I think um you know I I I definitely agree with Mr Bennett about that so I just want to make sure that I said that to you I before the letter to everyone but I did
send it off this afternoon this any questions for Dr celd those specific funds all right um so we're g to put a pause on budget update items um and we're going to uh give the floor to Mr
Rogers about the American Enterprise Summit information um is there something to pull up on the screen or um can we at least pull is it possible to pull up I'm gonna call it the flyer but just while we do that how
about yes we would love to hear from you more about this thank you for the time I apologize I was trapped in a department EV ENT training that just SE never seems send um so this is actually the second year so this a pilot program um put
together from hero Al hero Al Association which is is um largely a philanthropic organization it's made of you know um men and women all across the United States and now it's it's it's
gone into Canada and um they do a lot of things mostly around scholarship and you know investing in students and uh education and a number of years ago they decided that they were going to start to do it earlier try to try to uh in inject
some opportunities in places where they did didn't exist right so um they came up with this concept um rer alge Association is is uh based in Alexandria Virginia happens to be right next to closeup which has historically been around it's been around since uh it's
like 53 years where they have brought students in to do um kind of a ton of work around um Civics and government and things of that nature and so they've got a a core understanding of those kind of Concepts and hero Alger um Association
partnered with them last year to do the first one and so what they did was they took 10 schools from all across the US the title one schools um and they offered them an opportunity to take one one teacher and 10 Rising eighth grade students and bring them down to DC for
like a 4-day conference um everything for the conference from the Transportation there Transportation while they're there the hotel accommodations while they're there all the food all of the materials there's there's no cost to be born by the
students the school or the staff those things are all paid for by the Association um and the agenda is essentially the American enterprise system Freedom democracy civil responsibility um expectations as as a
citizen of the United States so they go to there's a million opportunities to do those things in DC as we all know um some of the advantages of our students getting to see that from a different lens is so as an example and I think I can't be certain this year last year
they couldn't make it happen but one of the Association members is a Supreme Court Justice and so last year the intent was to have the students get to go in to the Supreme Court and sit down with the justice and kind of review what it looks like that's right now there's
only two organizations in the US that get to do that her aler is one of them so this this one which is sasio aler also but to get to go a second time with a different group of students is is ideal um lots of different opportunities for them to see some of the things that
have made our country great um and one of the things that I I think is important is it reminds me when I was a college student we made it you know we did a lot of mentorship with kids in school and where it made the most impact is we we met these kids in eth grade and walk with them through high school and
that's kind of the model that they developed for this and so most scholarships come out and you know for for kids graduating or done at the end of their senior year the association has back their scholarships up to the beginning of their their the end of their junior year beginning of their senior year and they're working with
them all through their senior year to maximize all the opportunities for them for their following year so I I think since we started doing that as an association you know the scholarship itself is amazing it's it's $40,000 it's it's a really a lot of a lot of
opportunity there but a lot the amount of students that have not used all of their scholarship money and have have seen and found opportunities to offset that cost is was probably at 40% which is it's it's a huge number which is what
the intention is it's to help bring you know the original concept was you know overcoming adversity and still finding success because of all the opportunities that exist here um and I was excited they offered it to me last year is I was a middle school principal and we weren't
able to get it off the ground uh I didn't expect to to be invited back a second time and they were they're gracious enough to offer to us it may be some it may be an opportunity that is just one off they don't know this is only the second year they've done it they don't know if they'll do it every year if they'll pick different schools
this particular year this there are four schools that are returning from last year so there is some opportunity there may be an opportunity this might be something that would you know we would do for the future um at the very minimum it is at least this opportunity this year and so I'm excited to have that
opportunity for for us and our students I would add that you know so much about this because I was a 1990 htio aler scholar um in Massachusetts uh back when I got the scholarship back before you know there were you know
paper to write on and things like that um there was one per state so there was only 50 now we give away um annually well it's probably about 3,00 scholarships a year because they do all kinds of military scholarships CTE
scholarships uh senior scholar well Junior scholarship now um St scholarships National scholarships I was a national scholar so I represented Massachusetts in 1990 um I've been going back I'll go back this year for the annual conference where we'll have all
150 or so SC National Scholars will be there for a week we'll be doing all all similar things but you know at a different level um for these students um some of the events so every year the association invites and inducts 10 or 11
members nationally and internationally um usually you know one or two of them are folks that we've heard about right like you know I think of uh Buzz Aldren you know Justice Thomas uh Magnum PI Tom celic you know all the the famous over
Winfrey um all these people that everyone knows those are kind of in our face all the time but then there's you know uh Ambassador Barrett she's she's she's an ambassador now but before she was the first female pilot to break the sound Perrier for the you know the Air
Force so like these are kind of people who started with nothing all kinds of different opportunities and so when they're there in DC in you know a uh April they'll throughout the course of the week of the things that they're
doing they are sitting meeting talking about hearing about making connections and a lot and that's where a lot of those opportunities for the students come I remember when the year I got it one of the students that I was friends with Jim Bob Moffet who was the chairman
and CEO of free Port mcar which is like the largest global mining community in in the country I think it's in the world now but back then it was it was very fairly large and um so here's this kid who lived in the community near where he was and so he took this student on as
like a intern and like for the entire time he was in college you know he always had jobs to work off off so he had lots of opportunities to learn and benefit from and so these are the kind of opportunities that these students will get um and they're just every
single time I go I can't believe they've impressed more than it's it's it's probably the greatest opportunity the students that we see now compared to the one like what you know the amount of students that applied for the scholarship back in 1990 there wasn't the internet there wasn't all these
things you know they got they called all the guidance counselors in Massachusetts and said You know here get this applicant you know so maybe who knows I don't know maybe there's only one person maybe it was just me that applied or there could be a hundred I don't know but every year when I sit on the committee I sit on the committee I'll
read 40 to 40 to 60 applications from from 40,000 people applying and the people and this the kind of ability set and and what to expect from these Scholars is UN un it's
unmeasurable you just cannot put a it's it's you know you know they' moved across you know a foreign country in the back of a car while you know Civil War was going on and you know they're waiting for their parents to come and they've been living in a you know in a closet for the last six six years all these things and yet somehow they're
managing to have a 5.0 grade scale on a 4.0 five 5.0 on a 4.0 grade scale you know they're they've created a you know coding for women class and all these things it's it's just it's so amazing and so to see that and to start have
them start looking for those things in the possibility in eighth graders is just it's it's really a great opportunity so I'm excited about it maybe you can't tell so the committee we're not asking there's obviously because we would have
had to say that um you know the time down there is Late July right so we don't know what U that was 2024 yeah that this year it's the last like last week in June it's in the long yeah last week in
June and what we also you know what we know is that look you know I'm sure we'll find 10 kids who would certainly meet the criteria and want these type of things what we don't know is that if we can find someone who um is able willing
to to um sh about the word so what we wanted to do before just went ahead um is to give you a very quick background we definitely have some um
some documents that you want to look at as as you can get an understanding what we're talking about other than just hearing it from an actual you know scholar the program but you know these these These are opportunities do not present themselves often um and if 10
students from Marans could possibly you know actually enjoy these type of you know gu then who knows what happens after that you know that I I would I would uh I wouldn't be doing my job quite frankly if I did you know into
hosit given the fact that there is literally no cost to anyone to do it's all about the benefit of kids so um we're going to of course talk with and it's it's rising e8th grade so we we'll have conversations with both and of
course Mr Young because you know one is leaving and one is going to be receiving so we'll we'll talk to both schools to see if there's anyone who's um heck I might volunteer I I just can't imagine just going down there and seeing if you've ever been to the Washington you know eighth grade trip it's it's it's
fantastic this is Washington Trip on stairway it's about s but um but I wanted to just let you know that that's something that we're going to look into and then we will come back next month and we've talked to the organiz well we have so many meetings in
March anyway it makes it makes it easier to come back to kind of let you know what we've um what we've been able to find out in terms of um participation and uh interest any immediate questions about this opportunity
this sounds phenomenal I mean I'm really excited for this and yes your excitement definitely sh I don't know that always getes me that's it's special to see someone who has benefited so much get to share what they have benefited from with a new set
of students so that's that's a really special thing so really excited to find out more about what's what exactly is needed and you know the student selection process and all that but know I think this is just amazing right and we're going to start right off the bat
we're going to start off with would anyone like to be a part of this in terms of the staff perfect yeah you need the staff member first that's that that you know course that'll be you know okay great thank you so much for
coming into absolutely if everybody has any questions feel feel free to reach out happy to answer and respond and and uh make sure I can do whatever we can to help these kids go beautiful awesome awesome Miss Smith behind think she I absolutely I know it's not my it's
not first gr might be work changing right to the budget update section of our presentation um we also wanted to make sure that we had an
opportunity to talk through uh the Templeton working group um so just to make sure that I am appropriately referencing this the document is attached um I am going to read a little bit of it though not all of it um the
charge and composition is a working group to explore withdrawal from the from naraga Regional School District the Templeton Town Administrator within his authority as the Chief Financial Officer shall appoint a working group to examine
efficiencies res restructuring up to and including withdrawal or partial withdrawal from the nanit Regional School District um this was posted uh publicly to Facebook on the tctv um Facebook page
um we know that there's been a lot of discussion online and this is the first opportunity we've had to you know speak to and address it as a committee um so Dr C was gonna what you would like to add um so
without going into too much you know as to why and you know the next that many of us did not know that this was going to be posted let me be clear before we started that as well within administrator
Authority and SC to do to to have this committee there is absolutely no question about that and I I want to make sure I always pause so people understand that that is not issue of course of course he can have this that's one of
the great things about being able to have a communion why let's have thing other but that was well within his scope what what transpired the following day without really knowing that this is coming and there's there's I there's
some disagreement I think I don't know about exactly why and how it was posted without really any kind of run up to it or notice um and that is that it it caught us it caught almost everyone ADV and I received I don't know
there were a lot of concerns um that were you know my had parents going is my son and my daughter going to be able to graduate from their can is this do I need to move and it was a lot because you know when you see leave the district you know you get the obviously the
impression that it's it could be a median which it is not so let me just be clear I also received phone call from the the state R you know so what what are you doing like what is and I didn't
have answers and and so staff reached out I had other I had local districts reach out to me going what's happening it was it was a it was a busy morning um so the point of making is that um there
has been I I think some clarity that has been offered as to uh as to why um they would like to what or what they would like to look into I don't know how widely that has been
desited um in a conversation that we I believe it was during the last select board meeting um Mr went into it a bit in terms of he went into it in our in our chairs meting and he went into it more thoroughly in our chairs meeting
um about you know looking for opportunities ETA I don't what works but in general you know and and so well we haven't quite I don't believe might have missed something but I don't
know that something has been put out is really kind of to close the loop on that because I people still kind of kind of they do so that's me as to what is the one what is the role of the district we don't
so as it is a by the way is also under the absolutely okay under the perview of of the Town Administrator um they they have a local community group to to look at some of these options um so we're not
part of the conversation but that that is okay meaning from the fact is that it's not some type of VI someone told was a violation it's not violation this is a working group we would like to be part of the conversation we like to think
that we know a little bit about regionals and how they're set up how they're financed and how you know the mechanisms works so we think we can be can be um a help uh we could be a good source of information I plan on
attending the meetings once they're posted because I I'd like to understand where the direction is going I understand that there are conversations that have happened with philipon I I I don't know but I I think that they're part of the of the larger group here but
I don't know I there's some things that I still don't know um but I want to assure folks that that there is nothing that that is so folks should not worry that that Naran will somehow
change into something else in the very near future there are there are statute right that one has to follow to even there's the regional agreement issue that we have because as it's been widely discussed we do not have a current
Regional agreement um and before meaning that we don't have an updated Regional agreement and that has been something that we've been chasing for a bit um Department of head has talk the department of Ed to find out what is the next step in order to move that process
along um and it's been going on I think our first meeting was in um 21 or 20 uh 20 or 21 um so again there's a lot to this um a lot and I'm sure that the um
the working group will tackle all of it um but I you know what I don't want to do is put I do want to put something out of course I do I do want to put some information out to the public and to the staff who've also asked me questions because of course they
it affects them um and you know but I wait I I wait for for direction and Clarity on that um so that way our folks can maybe really a little easier or just to
understand that you know that um this is not something that's going to happen literally overnight I'm not sure how else how much more I think the only other thing I share is that at this point in time the only ask that has been um made to the
district is to be prepared um to send over documentation on request um which we have of course committed to doing um so we're we're I mean there's lots of documentation available so as as they identify those needs we will certainly send it over um but you know just to
reiterate right now we don't know exactly what the composition who who will be serving on that working group or how um those folks will be selected um um and um though though um Mr did did
confirm that philipson reached out and expressed an interest in uh participating in that working however again who who that will be and what that will look like we're still waiting on so but we did want to make sure that
everyone heard from us on this topic um just to to you know first of all reassure folks that this is not happening tomorrow um and also to you know help folks understand what our role
in this is for any questions on that moving right along um I know Amry is still out do we want to suspend business manager report for the
next meeting okay no um so we will review things with her next time around we do still have our um school committee vacancy for Templeton so encourage your friends your family uh
love we'd love to have um a full committee um curriculum and instruction update I understand we have some middle of year to share excited to share with you our middle of the year at for just just
one more to add to your list um so we we do what's called Benchmark assessing with our students three times a year it's essentially like taking the temperature to see where our students at um in relation to uh National normative
data so how do our students compare um and what are some of their strengths and areas that we um can identify to support planning instruction and or interventions and enrichments to support our students um so just before February break we
finished up ouri or middle of the Year assessment window and so today I'm excited to present to you what that data shows um what some of the highlights are and then what we have done leading up that might have contributed to some of the changes that you see um in the data
so to start off we um assess all of our all of our K to3 students our primary age students um using an assessment tool called which is dynamic indicators for basic early literacy skills another one to add to your acronym list um but essentially
this assessment assess students early or or foundational literacy skills um including femic awareness their ability to understand and process sounds phonics their ability to connect those sounds with letters um following the alphabetic
principle um and various skills related to that and then their read fluency and so I'm really excited to share with you that overall we've had for grades k to3 a a 10% increase in students meeting or
exceeding um The Benchmark for foundational literacy skills so when you look at this very colorful bright chart um what you're seeing is a comparison of the beginning of the year data overall data for this assessment to
the middle of your data and what this shows particularly for K2 um are some really exciting patterns showing positive growth for students Within These categories um we I was actually up at the elementary school today talking
to a few of our teachers one of which said did you see my data this year did you see it I mean they were so excited um and one of the things that we did um leading up to this school year or two of the things we did really we readjusted the um Elementary School schedule to
prioritize literacy instruction time um and we have brought in and been um implementing this year the structured literacy component to our core reading program which is new from our publishing company so our elementary teachers in K1
and two have been learning about and implementing a structured literacy component to our inine reading program which has shown some really significant increases and you'll see that echoed in our star data as well so we're pretty excited to see those those growth patterns um I know folks have seen this
probably at nauseum uh but we also for all students across the District of grades K through 12 we use a benchmark tool called star um and star assesses a variety of skills for both reading and for Math and so you can see just an
overview of some of the strands or major topics that are covering in that assessment this assessment is um adaptive so it does questions do get progressively easier or harder based on student input so it's a very individualized assessment and then their
um scores are compared to national Norms as well and so when we look at our star data we really are looking at two different things we're looking at the achievement levels so how do students compare to other students at the same grade and at the same period of or time
of the year um we use four categories um to talk about achievement data at or above Benchmark what those expectations are on watch which are students who are pretty close or the cusp or approaching um students who are in need of intervention or students who are in need
of urgent intervention um and then in addition to that we look at students growth rates um with their student growth percentile so that we're looking at both achievement how are they doing in relation to a standard and then how are they and growth how are they doing in relation to students with a like
profile to them over time similar to our SGP scores on our M um and so districtwide um our current reading proficiency rate on this assessment tool is 69% and our current proficiency rate on
math on this assessment tool across students assessed is just under 65% um what we're really excited to see is in both of those subjects our growth rate is higher than our achievement rate so what that tells us is over time if
our students continue at that growth rate we should start to see those achievement levels continue to um so we were really excited to see that data point our admin team was looking at this um earlier this week and we're just like celebrating um those growth rate
scores as well as some really you know solid wins and achievements um you'll see a a slight discrepancy in the number of students assessed here because our Primary students some of them do not take STAR reading they take STAR early um early
literacy um and so that those those are sort of in two different buckets the test so that's why you see that slight discrep um so diving in and taking a look um what we're going to be looking at are graphs for each grade with the
exception here of grade one um because grade one students take start reading for the first time in Moi in the middle of the Year prior to that they take the early literacy assessment so if we look at grade two for example what you'll see is a comparison of where students fell
in those um those achievement categories for the begin beginning of the year to the middle of the year and so looking at tees I hope what one of the things you'll notice is that every grade level has had growth in the percent of students meeting or exceeding Benchmark
from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and additionally every grade level has shrunk the category of of urgent intervention so what that shows us is we are moving students at both ends and so we're really excited to
see that Trend and those patterns and that's acrossed all grade levels at um at TDS for reading when we look at our math data um we see similar Trends but they are not quite as dramatic with the exception of
grade one but a little caveat this is the first time the first graders um at Boi take STAR math or or Star reading in that capacity um and so we tend to see we've seen over the years that there tends to be a jump voi to Moi that's a little more significant in first grade
um but again when you look what you see here um are some pretty significant decreases in the Urgent intervention group um and some less less dramatic jumps but some jumps um in math scores as well for tees um when we look at our Middle
School we have a different pattern going on um we don't see the same growth when we look at um grades five and seven for reading we actually have declines in the percent of students that are falling into that meter exceeds category we are see growth in that grade six cohort a
slight growth um but one thing to keep in mind is we were unpacking the data with the Aden te this week is that even though you don't see that growth in students moving in a cohort it doesn't necessarily mean they're not making that growth but it means they're not making growth at the rate to keep up with the
Benchmark change um so we were really digging in and saying who are these students what does that growth pattern look like and digging into some um more diagnostic data uh we see a similar f with math at the middle school with the exception of
our grade six where we do see some pretty significant growth um and again you can see that both in the row for students meeting exceeding and in the decrease um for students who are in the Urgent intervention category um one of the things that we
did at the middle school last year was create and um and start putting out our um literacy in action classes so we've been increasing literacy instruction as a result of our data the past few years
um for literacy at the middle school so we are in year two of putting of the literacy and action classes at the middle school um High School reading scores what you see here generally is our high school has Higher Achievement across the board we are really approaching that 80%
Mark in a couple of places um you'll see consistent growth in grades uh 8 n and 10 in the % of students meeting are exceeding um and then we see some Vari data at the 11th and 12th grade um level excuse me um and one of the
ongoing conversations we've been having is motivation for our seniors uh when they're looking at assessments right now because we're seeing patterns and Trends across many years with our 12th grade cohort um and what's interesting is if we follow their cohort data it doesn't
look like that till they hit 12 grade so we know there's something going on uh when they're when they're seniors that is um that is that is not matching their patterns and Trends we see for other grades so we have a lot of questions there that we're we're leaning into um
and then similarly when we look at our high school map we're seeing um some strong growth patterns um in certain pockets and then some flat lines in some in some other Pockets um and so one of the things that we are starting to question um both for literacy and math for high school is looking at some of
our class levels and starting to question whether students needs are being met with the leveling system that we have in place so we're starting some conversations with the development of our program of studies for next year uh about you know whether we have General classes resource basses things like that
so we're definitely leaning into um looking at different data sets to see if certain classes and Mak upups of students and our co-top classes are having the impact we anticipated that they would have so just to summarize some of the
highlights um at tees we have seen achievement in all grades in Reading um which includes in all grades an increase in students meeting exceeding and a decrease in the percent of students in Urgent intervention so across the board our data for reading at
tees is very positive um when we see math particularly in grades two k to two we are seeing an increase in the percent of students meeting exceeding and a decrease in the percent students in Urgent intervention we're not seeing the same patterns in math for grades three and four so we're taking a look um at
that a little bit more intentionally um and for both Ela and map our growth rates are higher than our achievement rates schoolwide so that's really exciting patterns for us to see um at the middle school some of our highlights um achievement in grade six Math we've
had an increase in the students meeting or exceeding in grade six Math um we've seen achievement in math in all R 5 5 through eight excuse me I think I have a typo there my apologies i' have to double check on that um it's a decrease
in the percent of students in intervention that we've seen across all those scens so it's not an increase in the percent meeting or exceeding but we've consistently not seen a decrease in R so that's related to achievement so it's a little bit confusing the way I worded that I apologize but that's that
is a positive the decrease in those red categories in math across all three grades is is a strong wi for us it means we're really meeting the needs of our most vulnerable students um in terms of math Middle School um and again at the middle school our growth rates in ela and math um are exceeding our
achievement level rates which is a positive for us long term when we think about growth for our students um at the high school we have a solid achievement happening in grades 8 nine and 10 with an increase in students meeting exceeding in reading and in math for all
students who had an increase in students meor there ing as well um we don't see the same growth rate at the high school but our achievement is higher at the high school and they are like it's like a percentage Point difference so they're pretty close but we do have achievement
um scores that are higher than our growth rate at the high school but again it's pretty close to level there um where we're seeing the opposite in the other two schools so one of the things we're excited to see here is we've been focusing a lot on um on literacy in the
last few years with our profession development in our programming um and we're seeing really solid results for that um in our bookend schools primarily at our at our elementary school um at our high school um so that's where we're sitting
questions questions these are really exciting numbers to be seeing and you can definitely tell the amount of work and energy is going into this I love I love hearing about people's reaction to the data and seeing you know all their hard work come to fruition and and these the
movement of that green box or the decrease of the red box um so really like please pass along our hearty thanks for all of the great work that goes into helping our students you know to to achieve to learn the skills that they
need to learn to be successful not only in the grades are in today but as they move through their school career and Beyond it's really appreciate that and just long term you know this has impact for us as well because we've been working a lot at tees on strengthening our literacy interventions as well as
our core programming and when we were looking at this um as an admin team earlier this week the question started to come up of like oh I think we're at a place now where we're so solid using our program now we can start building some more intentional math interventions during our wind blocks and focusing on
balancing supports for literacy and math um and then at the middle school they're talking about how they're utilizing our data specifically for individual students during their um teacher assistant team or t meetings and other meetings and thinking about what they can do structurally to support um
ongoing work for individualized students but also looking at what are we doing in court classrooms now to move move that needle for all students um and in our high school again we're looking at courses programming um and our academic
coaching program when we look at which students are in that program those are students that are we're starting to see movement in different data points as well so we're celebrating that our academic coaching program at the high school um is also having some success not just some success significant
success thank you oh thank you so much okay um did you have any professional development update or is that something I left on the agenda for West time I apologize I always want to talk about professional development but what I can tell you is that our next p professional development is actually
next Friday so we're the process of finalizing um our sessions and getting those updated out to teachers um for tomorrow and I'll have an update at our next meeting about all right um we do not have any surplus items this evening so we'll move
right on to our out of state field trip is there someone who wishes to speak to this for me excellent sure um so what you have in front of you is a field trip um request form from Eric stle Eric Supple is our Ela and history teacher
who teaches the um academic content for students who are enrolled in our MVP Academy which is the monite tech program for carpentry and electrical and so he's looking to take a field trip um as you can see in late March with the group of
our senior students so this would be student tour both carpentry and electrical um it would be up to it would be six students right three enrolled and carpentry three enrolled and electrical um and they are looking to go to a building convention where they can
experience exhibits um and breakout sessions related to residential construction um and it will include a wide range of options that they can pick and choose from there are things like how to hang drywall um indoor air quality and air tightness and how you
plan for that when you're building a new home um window installations lighting um deck construction flash taping for moisture control all these things I know very little about but our students know quite a bit about um and so he is
looking to uh take our seniors on a trip so that they can um look at what's sort of up and coming in the residential construction field and compare what they've been learning about through their MVP courses at monitech um with some of the newer construction um and
they've been doing some history about how construction has changed um over the past few decades and so they are doing as you might read in their WR up doing some research projects around as well there's no cost associated with the
trip itself because Eric was able to solidify some free passes for he and the students so the cost is basically gas for the B um for the field trip so it's a great opportunity for them um and excited to see it get up and any
initial questions before we get the motional table all right I would entertain a motion to to approve an out of state field trip to the jlc live convention on March 28th 2025 in moot sorry second by Shan um any
questions or comments about this field trip I I think that's great thank you um as somebody who does work in that field it's ever changing every six years so it's good for them you haven't had an opportunity yet to tour the facility I have to with you tour the facility and
MCH you'd be very impressed with what they're building I would like to do any other questions or comments all right seeing none all in favor iOS abstained and I say yes so that is
unanimous um it looks like we also have a donation acceptance there someone would like to speak to us yourself so we have been um given a very generous donation from Cindy Bear who's
the sister of our own Dave bear who was all lighting and things in the auditorium for our shows and whatnot um Cindy works for Bose and her Department apparently has been dismantled and they're getting rid of a bunch of
outdated equipment um lighting and he has spoken to them and they're willing to donate scraps I'm using my air for can't see happen to fit very nicely into our Auditorium because we're not like a state of so this is great things for our for
our Li Department um instruments for playing the stage area um and there's a list list I think we can have the items are included are an Etc Source 4 an Etc Source 4 Junior
degree Etc source for junior zoom and another Etc source for um one of the the first one was a 19 degree I apologize I missed that and um there various numbers of units across the board um any any questions about
this all right seeing none I would entertain a motion to accept the theatrical lighting instruments donation from Cindy bear has presented second motion second by Heather any questions or per bills seeing none all in
favor oos same and I say yes so that is unanimous and Susan if you could please on behalf of the committee send a thank you note for this donation really appreciate that she thought of us um because this is this would be great Improvement um got some exciting things
coming up um in the auditorium so this be excellent I'm wondering if anyone knows if they'll be actually I'll use the word installed before the um will the will the lights be be able to
be put in sure we conversations with d about that because he'll be the one I know I know he does I just didn't know like regardless of absolutely you know if that was kind of
if not they'll be into the spring concert excellent there we go um and then as Heather and Jeff and I were reviewing um our policy readings we realized that we had gotten some work
done and then just fell through the Cs fell through the Cs and we need to follow up so you want to speak to me so we have linked here um some policies that we already done they're technology related uh we um approved the first reading of these three policies back
here the school committee on October 17 2024 and as we were trying to access them and review them during our last subcommittee meeting we realized that they weren't live and then when I dug it was because we had never actually brought the second readings so today
we'll bring you to the second readings and um I can read the description again it's i j n d access to digital resources um this is a new to US policy um that was previously recommended by nasc um we
recent in the past they recently updated it we had just never adopted it um this Poli States the intention of the school committee to facilitate the students access to digital Resources with appropriate budgetary allocations um second one is by jnd DB the use of technology and instruction
this is a proposed update it's a changing the name from Empower and digital use policy to use of technology and instruction and there are some bullet points that can be removed because they are in the policy following um IG and DC which is the acceptable use
of digital sources we're proposing an update renaming for that policy um see the previous name was internet publication and then we are looking for i i j NDC to the accept acceptable use
of digital resource so we'll get a motion on the table I would entertain a motion to accept the following for second reading as presented J and D access to digital resources IGN and DB use of technology and instruction and IG and DC acceptable
use of digital resources than motion by Sean second by Hank any questions or comments on that second seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so
that's unanimous um item number five on the agenda uh just didn't successfully remove itself uh so we will move on to the superintendent M chair I promise to keep it brief
because had some all some uh discussion about some things that would have maybe been in so um we're back from February break um we went on break just in
time ask the nurses like what's the you know what's the uh what's the uh prevailing illness that's going on right now and I said is it co is it uh is it the flu is it you know neuro virus and
they said yes so it was we we did we really kind of lived into fiary break so we're glad that um it's helping it back so we've had you know we've had obviously a good start to the pretty long stretch ahead
of so know that people are motivated for sure to to do that so um I think the one thing that of note is that I took Mr John kapas who's part of the advisory committee and Matt rard who is on the
select board for a tour of the D um I haven't I haven't I haven't conducted a tour in some time um and I forgot how much I actually love doing that because I get to brag and and I do and and again they
are you know they're they're interested in a lot of things but quite frankly you know we talk a lot about the budget as we as we move through and what have we done and what are we doing and what we hope to do Etc and uh so I I got to tell you that I think I know for a fact they
were impressed with um not only just the things that we've done here programs as I was explaining they've heard all of that when we actually get to see it it's it's different but I have you know I I remarked on several occasions tell me in elementary school
high school middle school but you didn't walk through you know it's it's just really just it was kind Co colleting now but I also know transparency that maybe I Nally miss something as we're walking through
the hall just never know we are you know again first we had 14400 kids so but they were just really just impressed with just a lot of what we do and asking great questions and U was was you know we stopped in in a few classrooms here
and there just to make sure that um they saw kind of what was going on and it was just it just reminded me after going through everything that how much we do and how much done and how well we're doing it uh because I think that that is you know that's that's the
important part and um it was just a good it was just a good opportunity uh to to brag a little bit and to show what what the money that we do ask for which we understand is considerable um where where it's going what uses the the servs and so I think
that that um right off the bat was something that was just you know a really really uh great opportunity for everyone um you know it's budget season we have a lot of information that's going to be coming you know generally
pieces together starting here very soon um we have our preliminary meetings the towns have their meetings we then present to the towns again to the board not just the you know I know we've already had um kind of an all work
meeting but um it'll move very quickly here you know especially the first week of the first couple weeks March um and as I've we've said plenty of times we're confident that we will we will get
to where we need to be I think this this year presents a challenge you know we knew that this year was coming and we have we've we've been able to project that um we did so last year um but we'll figure it out we we're talking we're not
no one is you know no one is not talking at this point in time so you know give it a week or two we'll see but um we've had a lot of good communication and my you know I'll be meeting with the teachers and you know it's really become kind of a dance
it really is really kind of scheduled out in terms of like with the union and I I I generally try to get to the uh the uh school meetings you know teacher meetings um just kind of give them a
state of a state because I don't really know until we know terms in terms of numbers become solid um but we've got it'll be a tough this year you know I don't think that that's any sort of but we'll um we'll just
communicate out we can and what we do um both from there and really I'm sure that's given all the other things that we' talked about that's that's really for me questions is there any is there anything in student enrollment you wanted to Pilot I'm
sorry um so we were basic very little was happened we U Let's see we minus three lost five tempet residents we gained a Phil resident game um this is this was beginning with
game one school choice um through a very weird situation so like that but not accept the school choice but it was just all that that particular student was was coded um so we were minus three from enrollment month from January to
February um so very little has changed all I say that I want to say three fist came in the last three days we had one who just re-enrolled over M school yesterday so we're you know it's you know we had three families so it always
it's always an heav flow but um but other than that we're we're pretty St pretty consistent um I don't have anything um to cover in items not anticipated within 48 Hours um so School commit comments is
there anyone to speak seeing none um then we can run through supp reports um so find some fa actually um did not have a meeting in February though as you can tell there
have been plenty of Finance discussions um District Operations the recap want to start wait we so in District Operations there's a couple different discussions happening
one is around what what do we want to do or what do we need to do um with regards to mobile phones uh um you know especially addressing devices like airpods um and their use or in this
particular case should not be used um in schools what means to be policy what means to be part of handbook you know making sure that admin has a chance to weigh in so no no conclusions just just ongoing discussion to figure out what
what exactly is it that we want to do it's pretty hot topic um there's definitely some things coming in from the state but um but just trying to uh make sure that we have all of our our information Collective before we make
any decisions um we also spent um a little bit of time again addressing that we do have um the new school Committee Member handbook um which hopefully will be helpful as we do um have that open space um and as well as new school
members um Labor Management did not uh meet this past month um so no updates there um we are still meeting Elise on to oh no CP that's you I'm sorry it was the next
one um they had a meeting on the 3 um basically they said it went well Corey Rogers uh went over the new IEP they're lining up a company called periva periva I think Health um to
present in March and the Federation for children with special needs to present in wonderful thank you so much for that update um so it's PTO for which we do not have a l on um if seeing as we
haven't had a volunteer for a few months I will reach out to PTO and just see if they can't send us in just an email report um of their you know either send us the minutes or or whatever format works best for them so that we can at
least make sure that they're getting um represented during the meeting and that the school committee is staying up to De with um what they have going on um but should anyone feel so inclined as to operate as the official is on please do
not hesitate to speak up um so leaz on to nrsc student advisory Council Sean I know that you've been working to try to get a meeting on the books um any updates there no okay and legislative representative
Danielle any updates for us so actually you uh made me think when you're were talking about the cell policy I um intended a um like a meeting I was going to say professional development but it wasn't
development it was the regional school health task board meeting today we were talking about um some proposed legislation to support schools trying to limit self- loone use and access um so look forward to sort of seeing what's on
the uh on the horizon for that um as well as on Tuesday the board of Elementary and secondary education voted to unanimously uh put its proposed competency determination regulations out for public comment um because they're
looking for some feedback about a second potential pathway graduation that still includes the use of FC imagine that has caused a lot of controversy out there so we'll see how that is update thank you so much for those
updates um we do not have any correspondence this today um our next meeting as we discussed earlier is Thursday March 6 at 5:30 so again another reminder that that is our preliminary budget meeting um so really important meeting and really hoping to
have some folks at that do need Executive sessions this evening um but we will not return to open session afterwards um so I would entertain a motion to enter into executive session as per mgl chapter 30A
section 21A for Reon number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares the meeting will not return into Open Session immediately following so Move Motion by Heather
second second by Sean roll call vote hi Sean hi chy hi Danielle hi Heather hi and I say yes um so that's unanimous thank you everyone for attending