Call to order the regular meeting of the Nohoba Regional School Committee. Uh now at 6:01 p.m. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. So you guys can all mute, rise if you want, and I will recite. I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, everybody. So, we're going to start um the agenda now in order here. We have citizens comments. I
did not receive any comments from any citizens. Um, so we're going to keep moving on. Um, we're going to head into executive session. Uh, and I'm going to ask Amy to
set a motion in in play here. Yep. Um, I move to enter into executive session at 601 p.m. pursuant to MGL chapter 38 section 21A3 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 session to include the school committee, superintendent downing and director of business and operations. Ross Moaren committee will reconvene to open session
at the conclusion of the executive session and I do declare uh and I will second that motion. So let's do um a roll call. Any discussion? All right, let's do a roll call vote. Sharon,
yes. Myself, yes. Scott, yes. Robin, yep. Amy Vessels, yes. Shondor, yes. Lindsay, yes. Amy Cohen, yes. And Jackie, yes. All right,
everybody. We are an ex. I'm just waiting for Alita. Alita has taken control. Thanks, Alita. All right, everybody. We're back in regular session now and we're going to move the agenda to the consent agenda. And I just wonder if there's
anybody who is interested in pulling anything out of the consent agenda considering it has so many things in it before we make the motion. Scott, so I apologize for doing it this way, but as I missed the last meeting, I didn't get a chance to comment on the
student handbook and the acronym contained within it. That's the portrait of a Dhoba graduate. Uh, it didn't look like that had been fixed in the most recent version. So, um, you know what, Scott? I think that that's because it's like a like a it's grammatical, right?
It's an acronym that has no explanation anywhere in the handbook. Got it. Yeah. So, that can act you can keep that in the consent agenda and just ask that small change to be made. Yeah, we can make that. Any anything else that's kind of substantive that you're worried about?
Um, and you might vote no on that one item, but vote yes on everything else. And therefore, we'd need to take that one thing out. And guys, there's so many people in this meeting right now. I cannot see you all. So, just if I am ignoring you, it's on accident. But I think I see Jackie's
hand. Uh, I just sent there are u minor edits to the handbook that are inconsistent. So, I just I'm fine to vote on it assuming that those edits can be implemented. All right. Very good. All grammatical,
right? It go just goes back to the previous conversation that we had that I'm just looking for consistency in language use around parents, guardians, caregivers, and then just using collectively they as
a pronoun use in the handbook. All right. So, we'll uh file these things under the discussion of it. Kate, maybe maybe in the discussion I could ask a question, Madam Chair. Yes, 100%. Yep. All right. So, Amy, why don't we
get a motion on the floor? Um, I move to approve the consent agenda of May 28th, 2025. I'll second that. And now it is time for discussion. So, Scott, why don't you start? So, as I mentioned, I'd just like to
request that the acronym PG, which as far as I can tell is not defined anywhere within the handbook, be spelled out as portrait of an Ashoba graduate somewhere. Thumbs up, Kate. Yes. Yes, Madam Chair, that can
absolutely happen. I took notes, but clearly I did not take notes on that one item. I don't think we heard that one last time. So, I will put that there uh in the handbook. Not a problem. You were missed. You were very missed. And then Jackie, um, can you
just lodge your information? Yes, I can forward it to whomever. There's probably about 15 to 20 minor edits. Can you um just give the community, anybody watching for the
record, what the nature of those edits? Yeah. So I think consistency around using parents, guardians, and caregivers cuz it's utilized in some sections but not universally. Um, and then there's sections
of I think intermittently um using like he or she rather than they or sometimes it says he slash she slash they and so we're just looking for consistency in the in the handbook. Excellent.
Is that okay, Kate? Yep, Madam Chair. I did a control find all for each of those, but because the wording is a little different, it does it it'll take another several passes and I I'll I'll ensure that that's done. My aim is to
have parent, guardian, caregiver universal. So just so the committee is aware and also universally he, she, they to be inclusive. Um so that is the aim to have those. I will say that some of our state policies are
not do not have gender-inclusive language. So those are in at the I'm using gender- inclusive language, but some of the state policies um do not have that gender-inclusive language. So I'm making that change just to be um transparent, but we'll make those changes for that consistency across the
board. Awesome. Any other comments or discussion on the consent on the handbook specifically or the consent agenda in general? Uh, I would just like to make note that I purchased a part of the donation that
ca that is going now to the EMT program. I saw those students outside of Boston Beans selling their wares in the freezing rain. And so Amy, I'm just going to give Naomi a little bump here. Um, I so appreciate her hard work. I think she
was there twice, right? Yeah, she was with um a few other volunteers, hearty volunteers. Yes. Including her younger sister showing her the way. So, that's wonderful. Thank you to Michaela and to all the kids who helped uh raise money for the MT
program. Uh which is to benefit story a storage venue for the equipment in the new uh school, right? Yes. Yeah. I think that's worth mentioning. Thank you. Yay. Any other comments or uh discussion?
All right. So, let's take the vote. Uh, let's see if I just want to make sure I get everybody. And if I skip you over, if I skip over, you just yell out. Uh, so I'm going to vote yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Uh, Sharon,
yes. Amy Vessels, yes. Scott, yes. Jackie, yes. Shandor, yes. Zooming. Robin, yes. Lindsay, yes.
And did I get everybody? All right, everyone. Um, so thank you for that. And the consent agenda is now behind us. Um, next is a school committee chairperson update. So, we have a small uh glitch with regard to
our meeting schedule that we approved last year. Um and we are looking to make a change. Uh this the change would make this our last business meeting of the um current school committee and then we
need to set the date for the organizational meeting which would be in June and I am recommending either the 4th or the 11th as the 18th is kind of pushing it out a little bit too far which was the original date. So sorry for that glitch. We are operating under
some misunderstandings all year long and it had been set that June 11th was going to be the organizational meeting. I know that a lot of people have a lot of conflicts and I apologize for that glitch, but we need to reset it because that org meeting is going to bring two
new members in. Um, and two of our members are leaving. So, can I just get a um a thumbs up or thumbs down? How many of you guys can make the fourth work? and Amy vessels, you don't need to vote. Shawn Door, Jackie.
Yeah. Can I ask um if the 11th is better? Can I get a thumbs up if the 11th is okay? Yeah, that's what I thought. So, um Amy Cohen, do you think you can make the motion to make that change um
showing that June 11th will be the org meeting and this will be our last meeting? Yes. I move to hold the school committee reorganizational meeting on June 11th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. I'm going to second
that. Is there any further discussion? All right, let's take the vote. Amy Cohen, yes. Myself, yes. Sharon, yes. Amy Vessels, abstain. Scott, yes.
Uh, Jackie, yes. Shawn Door, yes. Uh, Lindsay, yes. And Robin, yes. Did I get everybody? I think so. All right, everybody. So, we're going to set that uh June 11th as the first meeting of the
next round for school committee. And um Amy, we will not see you there. We will miss you a ton though and I know we already said goodbye to uh at our last meeting, but we will be sure to do it again. All right, guys. That was all I
had for my update. I don't see our student reps here. Is that right? No, I think Ava is busy busy busy. And I'm sure Ryan is too. But um we look forward to potentially inviting
Ryan back to the organizational meeting if he has time to do that. Uh and definitely welcoming um Ava's replacement the next time around. All right. Uh so guys, on to the superintendent report. Um we're doing
well on time, but that always jinxes us, so let's keep this party rolling. Uh Kirk, what can you tell us about your announcements? Have no fear. While this is a three-page report, it is not going to be long. Um uh I just wanted to uh formally recognize that Mr. Mole Karen
and I have come to an agreement and pending uh favorable action of the committee later in tonight's agenda. Uh I would uh like I'm asking for uh favorable action on the appointment of Ross Muler as assistant superintendent
of finance, operations, and safety. Uh the other two uh announcements that are in the report tonight uh I'll leave for you to to read and update yourself. One is around regional school district regulations and the other is around the
graduation council recommendation and listening sessions that are being had uh on both of those. uh public commentary on the the regional uh agreement, excuse me, regional school district regulations are open until 5:00
on June 28th and the listening sessions are cited specifically in the superintendence report if for any reason uh a member of this committee would like to participate. And the last element of the report is a strategic element around the NOA regional high school scheduled
pilot update, but we will res uh reserve that uh for that portion of the agenda, madam chair. So that might be a world record superintendent report for you. Ah, well done. So um did anybody have any questions on these items,
Kirk? Considering that the regional school regulations are rather technical, is that something that regional superintendent are weighing in on? Uh several of them are just around the establishment of new regions and the
agreements that are in those regions um and looking at language around sections and severability. So I know Mars is participating in these conversations as well. So we look to our leaders and our board there uh to keep regional superintendents engaged and informed.
Okay. And I do know that um with regard to the graduation competency requirements that the governor is pulling together um I saw the list of people who are participating on that committee. I know that um one of my students actually tried to get on to it
and was unsuccessful, but there are multiple students um on that committee weighing in on what the new graduation requirements should be. There's also teacher union um superintendent representatives. It's like all the stakeholders are on this committee. So I
assume what you're saying is that they are looking for the public's perspective and giving people opportunity. Yes, this is the governor's office hosting listening sessions to hear from the public. Great. All right, guys. Any other questions on the superintendent
report? Not seeing any. We're going to move the agenda to the next item. So, thanks for that, Kirk. No. All right, everyone. So, the next item here is new business. And I think that
our CPAC chair, Pam Dougen, is here to share with us some of the um work of CPAC this year. So, welcome Pam. I think I saw Pam. There you are. Hi, Pam. I'm here. Hi. How are How is everybody?
Fine. Hi, Lee. We've got good weather, so hopefully everybody's smiling and happy. U So, yeah. So, my co-chair, we do have a I did have a co-chair this this year, um Allison Heavey from Stow, and unfortunately, she wasn't able to
make it. Uh but we did have um you know, kind of a a good amount of of participation and we had a a number of additions to the officers and and everything this year. So, we we had some good attendance at the at the meetings
that we were having. Uh we started out our year with meeting with the new um director of student services, Rowanne, uh in July and then we continued to meet with her probably about every other month. Uh just kind of checking in to see how things are going and everything.
Um and you know, we've been kind of a little laidback, just letting her kind of get get her feet in the water and stuff. So, um, Allison and I have actually been focused on putting together a parent handbook and we are just about completely finished with it.
We split it up and we each took up, you know, took half of half and half and um, put it together and we're getting ready to meet with Rowan to um, you know, kind of get feedback and collaborate on it and then move forward from there. So, that's that was a big accomplishment for
the year. Um, in September we had a presentation called Let's Get Organized, which was presented by Molly Duncan from uh, Family Ties, which was well attended. Um, then we in Octo October, we also had
um, Rowanne presented the new IEP that was very well attended. That was at the high school in the library. Nesca came out and did a a presentation. Well, it was actually virtual. She didn't come out. Um she did a presentation on transition planning for students on IEPs
that was really well attended. We actually had some staff that actually attended that as well. Um we had a social at the Bolton Bean in December. We had a basic rights presentation on evaluations and eligibility. In
December, we actually had gentle yoga which was well attended in December and another CPAC social in Stow that uh was in person. Um so we just have last on the agenda is our June 10th meeting where we're going to do elections for
next year. Um and we hope to still you know have continue to work and collaborate with the district and just try to help uh you know kind of support the kids and families that are on special education getting special education services and hopefully we'll
continue to have positive you know response from the district. So thank you for having us here tonight. Does anybody have any questions? That's amazing Pam. Thank you so much for all of that. That's a very very um
active year and we appreciate everything that you're doing. I know all parents are busy and that's a volunteer job and you bringing all that together is impressive. So, thank you. Thanks. It was it was a very busy year. I'm I'm wiped out. So, yeah. I have a
question for you. So, that that parent handbook is amazing. I know that that's something that our CPAC has been interested in building and our and our department of student services has been interested in building for a long time. Where will you guys uh where will it be hosted? On the website or Yeah, that the
plan when we talked to Ran about it was to like to have it, you know, like on the website someplace. But it is like what we did what what Allison and I did was kind of look at what other districts have and kind of, you know, pull kind of combine them, you know, kind of look at
them and everything. But it's not going to be ready to roll out because we need to sit with Rowan and kind of figure out like what because we don't know all the ins and outs of what our district does as opposed to other districts and stuff like that. So, we're hoping maybe we'll
have time to meet over the summer when maybe it's a little bit quieter and then that way we'll be able to really bring Nishoba's pieces into it. But but we basically kind of put a skeleton together and and then now we need to really put the meat on everything, but
we need we need, you know, to really work with Rowan and this was such a busy year for her that um we just we kind of did what we could do and then now we're going to, you know, put it together. But yeah, it's we figured that it needs to
kind of almost be a living thing because there may be changes and things like that and then it would go on to the website and you know be be available for anybody that has no questions or kind of what's what. So that's the plan.
Awesome. I'll throw it over. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you, Pam, for all your hard work and we'll use our communications office as we get to that final draft to to get it out through all of our channels and educate our community and and uh families in the region around.
Great. Wonderful. All right. I wonder does anybody else have any questions for Pam? Oh, go ahead, Jackie. Pam, I just wanted to say thank you. I know how hard everyone on the CPAC works. um both for
our district but also for all of our students. I was curious, do you think that the document that you're proposing, I know you mentioned specifically special education, but knowing that we have a large number of students on section 504 plans or using decap
accommodations, do you think that there's um space in the document that you're co-creating to include um information for families on those two areas as well? Yeah. what what we wanted
um it to basically answer is like um right from the beginning like what do you know when when you as a parent you look at your child and you go oh I'm not sure if my child is on is on track I'm not sure you know should I go to my
pediatrician should I you know what you know kind of where do I start and then um and and what does the school district do you know like the multi-tered system of support you know that type of stuff that the parents don't know are there,
you know, so just to kind of like so that we we're better informed and because a lot of times when parents get denied either a 504, an IEP or whatever, they think, "Oh, geez, my kid isn't going to get what what they need, you know, and it's like, well, no, maybe
they didn't need that level, but there's all these other things that are happening behind the scenes that parents don't know are happening because you can't really find it someplace you it's you know you can't find it on the website or or something. And so that's
kind of what we're hoping is to just I think it'll give parents more confidence in what the school is doing and um you know and that there are actually things there that you don't even know about that that the school is doing that you
know so yeah from beginning to we're we're hoping to but again we don't know all the pieces. So that's why we've got to work with Rowan to kind of like say answer these questions for us and let's put it out there so that you know and it's it's doesn't need to be so in-depth
that then the district is like stuck with oh gez it's on the website and you know so that's why we have to everything has to go through the proper channels so that it's correct. Thank you. I I really appreciate that. I think it's good for people who don't they don't know what they don't know and
it can be very confusing and anytime kids are involved and people are concerned about you know the health and wellness of their children like it's to have it be clear I think is so helpful. So I really appreciate you sharing that. Thanks. I think I see Kirk's hand. Yep.
Go ahead. Yeah. I just uh Dr. Riner for clarity wanted to put in there. The CPAC is specifically around the special education guidance to that knowing that it folds into the initiative that Pam did a nice job of summarizing. So that's why it's going to be important for uh as
as Pam's focus is in the special education arena, we'll be looking at through the lens of the student service office uh with collaborations with the teaching and learning office as it ties into our MTSS handbook as well. All
right. Uh, so Pam, one more time, thank you so much for your service. It's so important and we all appreciate you. Thank you. You guys have a good night. You, too. Bye, Lindsay. I saw that effect. Well
done. All right, guys. I did not say this at the outset, and I meant to. Um, I'm trying to be a taskmaster for us all. Each one of these items is slated to take about 10 minutes. And it looks like we have five more in this section.
About 10 minutes. That means the presentation will be about 8 to 9 minutes and then maybe 2 3 4 minutes of questions. That's kind of the track I'm trying to stay on. We are ahead of schedule so maybe we can have five minutes of questions per item. But of
course, I'd never shut you off. I'm just trying to let you guys know that some of these things are going to be longer than others. So, we're going to try to be efficient with the time. So, we have um additional new business items here that are all super exciting and important. And the next one that we want to ceue up
is the NHoba Regional High School trip presentation. We have teachers who are looking to bring students to Montreal and Germany. They are brave and awesome. And I'm just u maybe turning to you, Kirk, to cue this up for us. and I'll let you know that we have briefed everybody on the tightness of our
presentation. So, let's go team. Here we go. I I'm gonna give Dr. Boon the honor of introducing the educators that are here from the high school tonight as she has an opportunity to work with them every day. Dr. Boon, thank you so much, Superintendent Downing and Madame Chair and the rest of school committee. It is
my great pleasure to introduce um French teacher Robin Hermans and our world language department chair Maria Davis um who will say just a few words. They will not be doing a full presentation based on uh our tight timeline, but they will um happily share a few words as well as
answer questions. We're very excited to be able to offer um a trip to Montreal following up on our very successful trip to Quebec City and to um our host uh community in Germany. So, um, I turn it over to Robin and Maria.
Um, would you like me to start? Go ahead, Robin. Um, okay. So, um, I'm here first of all, hello everyone. Uh, thank you for letting us present tonight.
um following up on the trip to Quebec City which was uh two years ago and then our French exchange which we just wrapped up about three or four weeks ago to uh Normandy. I was proposing tonight and I
uh a three-day twoight trip to Montreal. thought being that we rotate the cities sort of Quebec City, Montreal, France. Quebec City, Montreal, France. Keep that that rotation going. Um, as you know,
Montreal is just a few hours away. It's safe. It's an excellent real world situation for us to practice our French. It's like a living classroom. And, uh, we've got a great itinerary planned. We would like to go
in uh February for the winter sports and the winter life in Montreal. And um I guess what we could do is I can field any questions you may have or you can I I won't be presenting properly
like but uh do you have any questions for me? Yeah, thank you so much for that. So, we're kind of old hat at this at this at this point because our trips are fully back and you are an old pro here. Not an old pro, but you are an amazing pro. Madam Chair, I also the the
documents that Mattis Herman has presented are are in the meeting materials for you to view. Yes, indeed. And remember everybody that we're not going to be voting tonight. We're going to actually um vote upon this at the organizational meeting um which sometimes happens. There's just a little bit of carryover into that or meeting.
But are there any questions about the trip to Montreal that's being proposed? All right. Not seeing any. Uh that's a good sign. Uh let's head over uh perhaps uh Kate, we have another presenter who is going to be talk uh is that uh Miss Maria's here to talk about
Germany. All right, go right ahead, Maria. Hi everyone. I'm Maria Davis. I'm the department head at the high school and um I am proposing to continue our exchange program with Vileheim Germany.
Um we have 18 German students who will be arriving at the end of October and they'll be here through the beginning of November and our return trip would be during April vacation and the week before April vacation I believe. Um, so the kids would be staying with host
families as they have in the past. Hopefully, they're bringing 18. We currently have 14 travelers, so it's almost a one forone exchange this time, which is really exciting. And again, you you have all the materials, so you can look at our
itinerary and um costs and all of those things that are associated with with the trip. Um, so we're hoping that you'll give us a approval to continue our exchange program. Does anyone have any questions for me?
Any questions? Yeah, Amy. Yeah, the first of all, thanks for organizing such amazing trips for our kids. Um, it's very exciting. Um, I've been my only question is these are these open to is the German
trip open to German students and and how does that work with the changes to the German program? Like is it opening up to other students? So, how's how's that part work? So, originally our first line is always to invite German students. So
the German students that were uh contacted originally were students who will be in German 2 and three um 2, three, and four next year. So um not this year's current seniors, but the upcoming kids. Um and we didn't we
haven't reached out to any freshmen because we don't know them yet. So um there are two or three additional students that are students of mine who I invited because we were trying to have an uh oneto-one matching program. Um and
those students were by invitation but the um German students had first claim on spots for for travel if they wanted to join. We have um we just have a I don't know if you would call it a criteria but says that
the students need to be in good academic standing that they not have a discipline record of any of any concern those kinds of things when we when we um vet who we can take on the trip with us. We check out those those kinds of
things. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, everybody. If anything comes to your mind uh over the course of the next couple of weeks, just let me know and I can get those answers for you. But
you guys have given us uh very thorough information. So to both of you, thank you so much for being here. And again, like Amy said, thank you for organizing amazing trips for the kids of Nshoba. Thanks so much. Thanks,
guys. It's exciting stuff. All right, everybody. on to our next item on the agenda and that is um and actually Kirk as a point of order. I know that we have the school improvement plan wrap-up presentation. Next we have
the um high school schedule pilot update. Is that pi can that pilot update uh can those two things be merged? Because I know that the the schedule update exists in both. Uh what we can do is that um uh I know Dr. Boon I believe
comes up last in the presentation and we'll smooth right into the high school update. Fantastic. Um so there's no uh vote to be taken here per se. Correct Kirk? Yeah, this is an information only. It's one of those things we're trying to establish some practices of returning back to the committee to give you a
brief update on efforts towards those school improvement plans that you approved back in November. Excellent. So, um, therefore, we will move forward to, uh, hearing about the school improvement plan wrap up. And Kirk, I'll let you introduce your team. That's
great. Uh, here with us tonight is Hail Principal Kyle Grady, Scott Blanchard from Mayor Rollinsson, Joel Bates from Florence Sawyer, Lenor Zelick from Center School, Dr. Buon uh, from the high school, and I would like to welcome Mr. Quinton Burks. He's the dean at
Luther Burbank Middle School. He's here in lie of uh principal O'Shea who currently is in Washington DC with his eighth graders. And I be believe I I toss it over to Mr. Grady. Is that correct? Oh, Mr. Bates. So, Mr. Bates,
if you can kick us off, please. Yes. Thank you very much, Superintendent Downing, and thank you, school committee, for providing us with this forum to share an overview of our district school's progress toward actualizing our district's work through our school improvement plans. Tonight,
my colleagues and I intend to offer an overarching update on how our shared goals have result we will conclude tonight by discussing our next steps as our school improvement plans continue to evolve.
And I believe our is our school improvement plan SL are they up the slides? Alita, do you mind doing that? Go on mute. There we go. On their way, Joel.
Okay, next slide, please. Thank you. And so, um, as I said, we will go through a a review, update the goals, and then, uh, conclude by discussing our next steps as they continue to evolve. And now I'm happy to turn it over to Principal Zav to share
our preK through 8 overarching goals. Thank you, Principal Bates. So what we looked at um for our school improvement plan goals this year um are summarized in these four goals that um well I see them on on my screen. If the slide could
be advanced every there they are perfect. Um and this is these are the areas that we're reporting our progress on. So the first goal uh is about communication. The goal is that we will calibrate to ensure consistent communication structures and protocols
across the district. and that includes standardizing protocols and expectations of communication regarding student progress. The second goal that we'll be reporting our progress on is about our professional learning communities. That was goal number two. Those PLC's are
guided by common principles, practices, and assessments. The third goal is our NRSD schools will integrate social emotional learning best practices into daily instruction and student life. And
the fourth and final goal is NRSD schools will review, adjust, and evolve safety practices and procedures consistent with our district and safety organizations. And now I would like to I'm not sure who
I'm passing it to because I've got a lot of windows open here. Hang on one second. Um I'm going to pass to Dr. Buen. Thank you. Uh Principal Zatalik. Um Superintendent Downing. Procedural question. We to are toggling back and
forth between K to 8 and high school. Um, would you prefer for me to reserve all and have Alita go back and forth and just reserve all the high school slides to the end for the SIP update or just present as you've uh prepared and then we'll we'll attach the schedule at the
very end. Wonderful. So, the high school over the last three years has had five uh school goals um in the improvement plan. Uh first goal was to increase students self-reported feelings of engagement and belonging at school which um I had the privilege of presenting at
last school committee meeting uh an update on that. Our school goal number two is to increase authentic experiential learning opportunities across all classrooms. School three is to take a look at the high school schedule, examining that to create a schedule that facilitates the
best use of instructional time, better access to course offerings, opport opportunities for deeper learning, and the ability for staff to more effectively collaborate. Our school goal number four was to audit or is to audit the process of leveling courses at the
secondary level and develop a plan and timeline for collapsing levels to remove barriers and create increased access to highle courses for each and every student. And our final goal, um, school number five, is to implement a
datadriven intervention team and student assistance team process, stat process, to more effectively identify students in need of supports to create, develop, and implement our multi-tered system of support approach, MTSS, at the high school. And I'm not sure exactly who I'm
turning it over to. Okay, you turn it to me, Kyle. Kyle. Um so just to pair down the Thanks Kate. Uh just to pair down the uh the goal, it's really about uh um admin and teacher communication and platforms um that that we use for
communicating to our families. And then secondarily, it's about um reporting on student performance. So um from the administrative lens um principles have sort of utilized a universal communication tool um w with the use of
s'mores aptagy and of course um our newsletters and and in emails and our agreed upon timelines typically is about every two weeks and that's um any sort of emergency communication um would be notwithstanding. Um the the current
status for teacher communication is that um uh there's consistent communication on on certain platforms that includes websites, email um and the G Suite. So like like parent updates um through through Google Classroom um that we have
we monitor and we adhere to the school committee policy surrounding communication um you know basically the the 48 hour and the uh and the 10day rule for implementing um uh grades into
the grade book. Um our progress on that is uh student progress is reported out um through our different screening tools like STAR, our curriculum based measures, um our portrait of Nishoba competencies um and then um anchor standards for uh
the different um core academic classes. Um starting next year, you're going to see what was a really exciting um uh development through teaching and learning and our unit A staff. And that is something that's been in the works probably hasn't been looked at for for
maybe a decade. And that is um a new standardsbased report card for grades 1 through 5 and 6 through 8. Um so that that information will be coming out about that that starts next year. Um the uh next steps and sort of the big bigger
things that you will see to follow is um in June um the kindergarten report card will be redesigned. Um, you're going to receive communication about the the the K to8 uh standardsbased revisions. Um, and we will uh look to continue to
receive feedback from our families and the potential redesign of our parent teacher conference models. And I think Kate, I'm sending it back to you for your goal one. Yes, Kyle, thank you so much. Uh and if it um if I may remind the committee that
when we initially presented um our school improvement plans um I indicated that the high school also was focusing on communication but because we had such a robust school improvement plan with the five goals that communication um effort was living in the background um in addition to safety. So those things
are happening but um did not appear on the school improvement plan. Um so school number one, school goal number one is to increase students self-reported feelings of engagement and belonging. Uh some highlights um are that we have established our equity team um which uh actively met uh three times
uh at the building based level um this spring. Um the superintendent and I created a student advisory council to the principal and superintendent and we met four times over the course of this year once per quarter. Uh we continued our collaboration with Kaleidoscope for
deeper learning in support of a schoolwide instructional focus on focus element 2A2 on student engagement in the classroom. Conducted learning walks and and um site visits with that uh that group. We implemented wolf day community building events that took place um
several times over the course of the year. Um we elicited a frequent student input input and feedback through survey survey implementation um not only about the schedule which you hear about um later but also through through NISK. Um we had our third annual international
fest as well and then considerations for next steps. Um, our departments did uh conduct somewhat of a deep dive um about their own specific feedback for the engagement survey and that's going to drive some um some of their shared goals
for next year. Um we're going to maintain a schoolwide focus on improvement improving student engagement and belonging and then continue to focus on aspects of the instructional core related to student engagement, well ststructured lessons and meeting the diverse needs of our students. And I'm going to turn it over to my K to8
counterpart. Next slide please. Alita. Thank you Dr. Bon. Um so our next K to8 uh goal uh goal number two is aligned with strategic initiative 2 develop a professional learning community uh culture across schools, departments and grade levels. Um, so in that PLC work,
we continue to uh focus on the four essential questions of the PLC, uh, which are what is it we want our students to know and be able to do? How will we know that they've learned it? How will we respond when the students haven't learned what we'd intended? And how will we enrich and extend the learning of students who demonstrate
mastery already? And in a larger sense, um, our work is anchored by the three big ideas of a professional learning community. and those are uh a focus on student learning, collaborative culture and collective responsibility and results orientation. So this year uh we
continue to partner with solution tree and have received ongoing support and guidance from Jackie Tolman. Um our next meeting with her is scheduled for June 18th and we'll be analyzing feedback uh and reflecting about the year and planning for the upcoming school year. Um, at the building level, our
instructional coaches continue to be critical partners in our PLC's as we analyze evidence of student learning, plan targeted interventions, and develop common assessments to measure student progress. Um, this year, in addition, our aligned master schedule has made it possible for us to expand our PL PLC
structure to uh be able to bring together teachers from all three towns in a single district-wide virtual PLC meeting, uh, which was exciting. And um it's also important to note that our professional learning communities continue to directly support our district's equity work. Uh for example,
through the PLC's, we're aligning our understanding and implementation of tier 1, tier 2, and tier three instruction. Uh as outlined in the MPSS handbook, um supporting uh the promotion of a culture of high expectations for student learning and uh establishing a
guaranteed and viable curriculum for our students uh just to name a few. Um, as a result and through this process, we continue to build our collective efficacy uh as we work to ensure that each and every student receives what they need to be successful. Uh, and now I will hand it back over to Dr. Boon.
Thank you very much. Um, the high school's second goal was to increase authentic experiential learning opportunities across all classrooms 9 through 12. Um, this is directly related to our first goal. Um highlights of progress within this goal is um deep
curriculum renewal. Um and there are four highlights there and I'll add an English highlight as well. For science uh as you heard last um last school committee meeting um and along with math we are diving into the next generation science standards. Um we're utilizing
building thinking classrooms in our math um classroom instruction in social studies. Um our students are deep into the civics project which um I have had great pleasure u fielding questions and meeting with students about um these highinterest uh topics for the civics
project in social studies. Um our world language department um has um really dove into the proficiency model and continues to refine um their instruction. Uh and then in our English class um working on the writing process um and aligning uh with the middle
school as well. We have adopted um and implemented our innovation pathways in advanced manufacturing and engineering in business and finance and now the information pathway newly approved which is very exciting. We've implemented the practice of learning walks using several
tools. Um most notably and I think most effectively is the tool through kaleidoscope. Um we have our second cohort of the our leadership team um getting trained and and actually finishing their training this week in analyzing teaching for student results methodology. Um continuing our two-year
partnership with Kaleidoscope for deeper learning which we hope to continue next year. Um we hope to use NASC recommendations in in terms of next steps for curricular and instructional shifts along with the continued work with kaleidoscope and um also continue
and expand our schoolwide focus on the instructional core um meeting the needs of of diverse learners will be um the next step in addition to engagement and well structured lessons. And next slide for K to8 me again. Um so this is an update on
the status of our social emotional learning initiative. Um well first thing to point out is that we have experienced the expansion of our district level equity team into our building based equity teams. Um those teams have served several different purposes. Um it grows our capacity as
educators to uh recognize and interrupt inequality uh inequity sorry. Um it's uh serves as a consulting group when incidents occur within our our communities and schools and um it has been serving as a group that plans events that um enhance our students
sense of belonging and safety. Um we have moved our work from um uh Dr. Kiss Warham into our monthly staff meetings, specifically um with the application of real world scenarios that require staff to think about ways in which they would
um uh interrupt and mark the moment when they uh when they see um uh bias or inequity occurring in their classrooms. Um we uh have um worked with our classroom teachers to implement K to8 um
uh instructional rounds where um we're observing the SEO practices in real life uh in in our classrooms. Uh we have the uh uh adoption of our advisory curriculum uh which is all centered on the castle competencies for SEAL and
that's present in each of our three towns. We um have concluded three years of work with Dr. Larry Epstein and his focus on the identifi identification of skill deficits. Um that's outlined in his calm
compassionate methodology. Um our future moves uh and our future goals uh include the uh further integration of the MEIFA pathways initiative. that is something that's sponsored by um DESIE and um it's uh
organized by the Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority. Um it's something that our middle schools have touched on this year and our plan is to more fully integrate that. It aligns very well with the pathways uh at the high school and allows students to start
to think about um the course selections that they'll take in middle school and their interests which might put them into um uh like I said the pathways options through uh no region high school. Um we will continue to explore
other platforms uh to collect data from our students on practices. I know that um teaching and learning is looking to move away from some platforms and and introduce new platforms for um uh collection of of our students thoughts
on SEO and I think it I think I'm sending it back to you again. You are. Thank you. The high school's third goal was to examine the high school schedule to create a schedule that facilitates the best use of instructional time, better access to course offerings,
opportunities for deeper learning, and the ability for staff to more effectively collaborate. You'll hear more about this at um the next uh presentation. Um but some quick highlights is that we did have a schedule working group that was formed 23 to 25. Um, we engaged in the exploration of flex block and various
schedule models and we did implement a short pilot schedule in the fall of 2024 and considerations for next steps. Um, we intend and to engage in professional development during the next school year for use of flex block as well as PLC
structure at the high school level. Um, we met uh my administrative team and I met with Jackie Tolman a few weeks ago at teaching and learning. Um, not all of our department heads have been trained in PLC's and so that work needs to continue. Um, we'd like to engage in a
year-long pilot in 2627 um with hopeful imple implementation the 2728 school year which would be the year the new school opens. Um, and in our self-reflection and um ideally in in the NIAK recommendations um the schedule and time
um for for collaboration will be uh something that is likely mentioned. So, we'd like to um utilize NIA ask recommendations for some of those structural shifts. I believe I will turn it over to our K to8 colleagues as well for the next
slide. Thank you. Yep, that's back to me. So, I'm going to report out on um our fourth goal, which is our um safety goal, and just say first that a real highlight for all the schools in the district is their very close and um
productive working relationships with our law enforcement team, our fire teams, um and that's across all towns. So some of our um shared progress this year and some highlights from this year for all our schools are are for our K
to8s are the um consistent and regular practice that we engaged in for Alice drills and code blueue drills um for which after each of those we gathered feedback from staff and um are always
looking at feedback to find ways to improve and make those drills um not just more smooth but also troubleshoot anything that might have happened along the way was problematic. Um we all engaged in practicing evacuation
um drills to our evacuation spots. So for example on a personal note for us at center we practiced evacuating up to hail which went great. Um we've reviewed our reunification protocols and just jumping ahead a little bit. We spent
time this year delving um into um or going back into our emergency response task force um curriculum, if you will, and guidelines and really um examining those to find out where we're at and
where we need to be in the future, especially when it comes to things like reunification. Um and that is ongoing. Um, in addition, we um all have had regular meetings of our school-based safety committees. Um, we
have them every month. And in those meetings, we do look at things like the results from um our Alice drills, for example. We talk about things that are going on that are particular to our schools. Always realizing that the this is progress and works in progress. Um,
we will share, like I said, the feedback with the safety committee. Um, I know that in my safety committee, we uh worked with um our law enforcement officials to come up with some tabletop talk scenarios that we shared out at um one of our staff meetings and um had
some really great discussions about situations that um we would perhaps find ourselves in on the school level and what we would do in those cases. Um and I did speak a moment ago about the ERTF, the Emergency Response Task Force. Um
that is connected to our next steps which is to continue that work um that was uh looked at again this year and um work on the not only reunification drill procedures but also other items that
would um be appropriate to uh work through with the ERTF. So that's um something that everybody is looking forward to next year. And with that I believe I turn it back over to you Dr. Buoyant. Yes, thank you. Two more goals
for the high school. Uh so goal number four is to audit the process of leveling courses at the secondary level and develop a plan and timeline for collapsing levels to remove barriers and create increased access to high school courses for each and every student. Highlights of progress. Um we've done some gathering of research about the
impact of leveling and tracking. Um shared with our department heads. Um this is over the last several years. Um there has been uh and it started before I arrived as principal a level collapse in some courses and departments which has slowly continued to um to take
place. Um we've begun to collect historical level uh data um to see um which students are in which levels from demog certain demographics as well as the movement of students up and down from levels. Um and then we do now um
have access to data through open the open architect platform which we will continue to learn about and explore. And so that's a really um kind of wonderful development there. Um considerations for next steps. Um our leadership council um high school department heads actually um
took a took a vote of sorts uh this spring um to focus on leveling as a problem of practice for our 2526 school year. Um, we're going to be continuing to provide professional development to staff in preparation for implementation of a change down the line in course
leveling um in UDL and social emotional uh learning um language based strategies if needed um as well as our um MTSS which is connected to the next slide. Um and um ideally if if all goes well to
implement an informed and I say informed really intentionally level shift across all academic departments. Um 2728 is the ideal timeline. Um that could naturally shift depending on developments but that is the timeline and um also again NEAS
is kind of woven throughout um use some NEAS recommendations for some structural shifts around leveling as well. And I think the next slide is mine because I have five goals. Next slide, please, Alita. School number uh school goal number five is to implement a datadriven
intervention team and stat process to more effectively identify students in need of supports to create, develop, and implement a multi-tered system of support approach at NRHS. Um so highlights, we have refined and improved our datadriven intervention team and staff process. We meet um pretty much
weekly on Wednesdays. We've implemented very successfully two supports, our bridge program and our student success center. Um we have a refined stat process that that um looks to data. We also um in our third year of working
with Dr. Larry Epstein as um principal Grady mentioned in calm compassionate teaching and um had monthly or several times over the course of this year consultation with Dr. Epstein. And then the high school has um using data to
inform interventions in particular grade nine um with star data uh as well as the introduction to open architect. We'll be expanding um grade the math star um into grade 10 um next year and I believe Nate spoke about that um at an earlier school
committee meeting. considerations for next steps. Um using data analysis protocols to exam examine student data with our leadership team kind of going through an inquiry cycle. Uh as well as then expanding those to department meetings and staff meetings to inform
instructional practices and then um which will increase student achievement. Um so basically going through that inquiry cycle and modeling the inquiry cycle with leadership and then with uh with our staff and providing training and in and creating a structure and time
for NRHs staff to meet in professional learning communities centered around student learning. We'll be starting first with our department heads and working with Jackie Tolman. And next slide it might be Joel.
Thank you Dr. Boon. As we close out our school year, we are finishing the collection and synthesis of multiple data sets pertinent to our school goals. This summer, we will come together during our leadership retreat to review the end of the year results for each of
our schools and identify areas for focus and student achievement for the coming year. This cycle begins again when we bring these identified areas and potential actions to our school councils in the fall as we work on the development
revision of the next iteration of our school improvement plans. Thank you very much for your time tonight and as always, thank you for your support and at this point we would be happy to address any questions that you might have. Madame Chair, would you like us to move
straight into the high school scheduling presentation? Um, I think it's probably best if we hit pause here and allow people to ask questions and then we can talk more specifically about that schedule piece. So, I think I can see everybody.
Um, let's start with Amy Cohen. Okay. Thank you. Um, first of all, let me say thank you for the effort that went into pulling together this presentation, especially with regard to the K through8 schools
and um because I know that that required an extra level of coordination um that the high school doesn't face because the three of you are well the five of you are working together to put these slides together. Um, I think one
of the challenges for me when I look at the K through8 um, highlights of shared progress, and I wonder if it's related to this, is that it's it's hard for me to as a school committee member measure
the progress towards these goals without kind of more specifics. Um, so I I wonder also if it's because of where we are in the cycle and I saw that the last slide that Joel was
pointing to was talking about how data collection is still underway and that's going to be reported out at the end of the year. Um, I don't know who to frame this question to, but I was wondering more if we could get kind of more of an update on what kind of data collection
is going on to measure progress towards goals like in particular the communication goals like do is there data being collected on what platforms are being used and how you know how much
or how frequently or that kind of thing. Looks like Kirk might want to respond. Okay. Yeah. Uh I think I'll address the the first thing, Miss Cohen, by saying these in in coming before this board tonight. This is not a presentation to
show you all the detail of what is happening school improvement plans. Those are local at the school level. That's not the purview of the school committee in that regard. Um, so I I think when we're talking about what we're doing here, it's updating you on
the activities that happened within that realm. Myself, Miss Mo, uh, uh, assistant superintendent friend and Mr. Mo Karen report back on the specifics of those elements like we've reported back on the student learning data and things
like that. So, um, happy to address specific questions around those things if you have them. However, that's not we didn't prepare for that for this evening or for this presentation because it's a general overview.
Yeah, I guess like a specific question would be um related to um consistent teacher communication like Google sites to um I'm just curious. Yeah, those are
supervision and evaluation methodologies. So, so uh principles and evaluators work directly with educators on those tools. So, we're not collecting data on um you know, if you will, specific access, click rates, entry rates into
that. All those are things that we could, but we're putting our energies into really working together with colleagues on what's highly effective with those measures. Okay. Um I'm going to interject and say I think that this is something that this
committee kind of goes round and round with, right? that have been here for a long time and I think that there is still relative ambiguity on who's responsible for what. So Mass General law says that school committees are responsible for school improvement plans. We approve them, they are then
attached to us. Yet, um the cycle is such that it's hard for a school committee to kind of track those goals and whether or not the goals that we've approved the school is actually producing results on that. I mean, our
goal is is student achievement. It's our charge by master law. So, I know that Kirk, we talked about you trying to work on this protocol over the summer with your team to help us better understand how we can make this a better process
because Amy, I hear what you're saying like they now remember I'm not I'm not posing this to Kirk's team, but like any school department could tell us that the sky is purple and like they could tell
us anything that they want right now and we would have no ability to test whether or not it's accurate because there's a glossing over of evidence because I have already put you to a 9-minute time limit. And so we need to get our heads
around how the school committee can fulfill its obligation of making sure that the school improvement plans are being enacted and that school and that achievement is being forwarded. And so
Kirk, I don't know if you know where I'm going here or like how do we accomplish this gigantic task? Well, I think there's two mechanisms for looking at that. What you will notice is in the development of the school improvement plan, they're aligned into the strategic
work of the district. The strategic work of the district, what was voted upon by this committee several years back and it is the basis of the superintendent's performance evaluation. Those are the tie togethers for that. So that's why in our school committee reports each month
we always or each meeting we always identify the strategic initiative tied to that. So it ties directly back to the strategic plan which is where the school improvement plans are based upon. So it requires us to kind of follow the ball
in those areas so that we can see that. Uh an example of that is the the student growth metrics for instance and I know assistant superintendent friend has reported back a couple of times this year on that particular measure as one example. So I think those are the
mechanisms of which we we operate and build that from through our interplay um with superintendent and the school committee. they should tie together. And I know that a lot of this is going to be revisited in your presentation, Kirk,
which is um kind of next. I almost said they presented a lot of the things for me. I know it's true. And so maybe Amy um anything that you see that comes through Kirk's presentation. That would be a great opportunity for us to provide Kirk with that feedback at this
formative stage where if we're not seeing something or we want to see something more come through his evaluation next year, maybe we can say it then. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Um, any other comments or
questions? Amy vessels? Um, yes. Uh, I just had two questions. Um, my first one I guess was um that I noticed I know Kate was saying that you're doing a lot of stuff and so
you didn't report on the communication goal, but I do hope that that'll be in like next year's presentation because I know we've heard about it now from K through 8, but it would really it would be great to see what's happening at the high school level around that use of Google Classroom and up in the grade
book and stuff. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I I can those things are happening. um it just did not appear other I would have had seven or eight goals. Yeah. So I I streamlined it a little but I have a newsletter that that gets sent out every week. Um we have Google classrooms.
Every teacher has a site as well. Um yeah. So happy to give an update um perhaps in the fall. Madam Chair, is that that would be great. Yeah. And again guys, if there's any question about the schedule that's specific to the schedule, hold it because we're probably going to get more information
from Kate in just a minute. My second question is um it maybe I should keep it for the schedule, but I guess what it wasn't specifically about that, but I guess my question was um I noticed that at the K through eight level, it's really exciting what's
happened with the PLC's and it sounds like they're very tied to the MTSS and helping them develop that and make that robust and and um effective. And so I guess my concern was that it looks like with what it says about PLC's at the
high school, that's not happening next year, but it's happening the year after that. So I guess I'm wondering that I guess that concerns me if if like you're if that's really tied to MTSS, like how, you know, are there going to be PLC's
happening next year? And so is that work going to be happening? Like I guess I'm that seems like a long time to wait, I guess, for that work to happen, I guess, is what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm not sure if Kirk or if Dr. Bon wants to respond. Yeah, Dr. Bon.
Thank you, Amy Vessel for that um for that question. We're going to be working with our um our department heads who have not gone through the PLC training. And so, we won't we will not have um professional learning communities as they exist at the K to8 level next year
at the high school. our our department heads will be engaging in some really intentional training with the hope of um the intention of bringing it back within their departments um to expose teachers to the PLC model.
Um so that's the step that's going to be taking place next year at the high school. They just have not been um trained. The entire group has not gone through the training with solution tree. So we need to take that step first with our department heads. So, Miss Vessels,
I I'll just first name it. The challenge is what you just described it. Yes, that is going to be a challenge. Now, I will say that that PLC work is not just those times. It's also the other times that we utilize on early releases. So, it's not as if we aren't engaging in that good
PLC work. Um, we are on the early release uh days that we're doing for professional development and curriculum alignment. So, it is there. What we're trying to do is work out sort of the puzzle to have it be systemic and
regular more than just those monthly uh uh early release days as well as the monthly department meetings. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um I have three quick comments that do not need any response per se unless
somebody wants to. Um but my comments are this. Uh we talk at the high school of doing level collapse. Um I would not want to see that mean that the accelerated and the CP kids are all in the same room. I don't think that that's appropriate. I know that it's happening
here out of necessity now. Um but I don't think it's appropriate. And the reason why is because that doesn't calibrate workload. And so I'm noticing that that's a recurrent theme in some of the student data. And we we talked about this at the last meeting that workload is something that needs to be dealt
with. That having seven blocks a day and taking home seven blocks a day of homework every night is a lot. And if you collapse levels without managing the philosophy behind leveling, um it could become really odd for teachers and for kids. And then the other thing that I
would say is that um using the word somewhat in your surveys is problematic. And I think that I just wanted to get it on the record that if we rest a lot of our assumptions on respondents saying somewhat, it doesn't tell me anything.
And so anybody who's in a somewhat category in a survey, I question it deeply. And then um another thing with the survey data is that I was looking at in your presentation is that it looks like you're comparing cohorts. like you're saying the sense of belonging in
April of 2024 was much lower than I think it was December of 2025. But if you look at that, what that means is that you've had a whole grade level of kids move out of your school and the survey data is collecting information
um and then making comparisons. I don't think that the that the sample size is reliable enough for you guys to make those leaps in the data. So, I want to just caution you there. Um, we have some belonging survey data at Hail that is I I don't want to say alarmingly low, but
34% felt like that hit me in the gut when I got that a few months ago. So, I I know you guys are working on this super hard and it's a hard thing to deal with, but I just I needed to call it out cuz it's low and and it's a problem. Um, and the other schools are higher. The
other middle schools are higher. And so then the the last thing that I want to say is just um with regard to communication strategy and Kirk and I have talked about this because it's in his goals and um this will go for later as well. If you guys could just keep the end user in mind, I think that that's
the best way to proceed because I know you're managing all of this technology, but as a parent who has multiple kids, I'm totally overwhelmed with the communication and I love information. So, um, for somebody like me to be overwhelmed, it might mean that you're
not reaching people. So, Kirk and I have talked about like methods of streamlining information, like maybe all of your communications sit inside the common or things like that where you can just streamline everything to help the end user, to help the parent consume as
much information as possible with the greatest level of ease. Uh, and I'll I'll yield there. But, um, any other questions or comments from the committee? I want to thank all of the district leaders. I think you guys are awesome. I really, really do. Your work is amazing.
It's inspiring. It's enormous. And uh we're really grateful. So, um yeah, I I think Kirk, if if if your leaders are not Dr. Buon, can they perhaps Yes, we just need Dr. Boon to remain and she
will uh introduce uh two of her teachers that are joining her today. All right, school leaders, you're always welcome to stay, but you're busy. I know. So, thank you everybody if you're going to go. Thank you. All right, Dr. Buon. Uh on to the next item, which is the schedule.
Awesome. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And it is my great pleasure and privilege to introduce um three staff members. I have first assistant principal Janine Boule uh joining me this evening. Um she co-led the schedule
working group um with me. I also have history and social studies teacher Jennifer Dontramont joining me uh who was on the working group and science teacher Mike Toliffson who um was also on the working group. Um and thank you
so much for my team joining me today. we're going to co-present. Um, and so with that, Alita, could you please um put up the presentation? Nope, I see the school improvement plan. one. Feel like we need a drum
roll. There we go. Wonderful. Uh so again, I want to thank the committee. I want to thank um chairperson uh Vivito for the opportunity to to share schedule update um with the school committee. Um and again I introduce my team. So u Miss
Mastersonson if you could go to the next slide. Just as a reminder uh to the school committee and to any new members who were not at last spring's meeting when we did a presentation at that time uh early May I believe um we had a very
representative uh working group um we had two members from each department uh and myself and Miss Boule so 22 members in all we took more of um a senatorial model if you will so that we two representatives from each department and then there was a consistent feedback
loop back to um two departments. Um and with that, we'll do next slide and I'd like to turn it over to Miss Boule. Hello. Thank you. Happy to be here. Um I just want to start by sharing kind of our our calendar. So, we did have that
group together. Um really great representation across the staff and we were we've been working on this for two years. Um so at the beginning of the process, our first meeting was actually June 2023. So um when we fully got um
into meeting, we did a lot of um looking at the research, reading literature together. Uh we looked at some sample schedules. We uh engaged in site visits to other schools. And so we spent that um first part of the process really
looking at options and then trying to decide on one schedule that we could select for the 3-we the 3-week pilot. Um which we arrived on at at the end of that school year and over the summer and into the fall we did the planning for
it. Um that included you know putting together the the schedule for the flex block. So organizing teams who would be able to work together professionally while um other folks were working with students and providing some of that
additional uh support to students. Um we also identified the mylex learning platform which is a software that schools uh all over Massachusetts and beyond are using um to just manage signups. Um, in
October, we implemented the three-week pilot. That was an intentionally planned time of year, was um, early on, so not too disruptive to the rest of the school year. We did two full 7-day rotations, so it lasted about three weeks, three school weeks. Um, and then after that,
we spent November gathering feedback both from students and staff. Um, and then we continued to meet and make revisions. um got a lot more feedback from the staff um on different aspects of the schedule and we still continue to
meet and review feedback. Um we did in the spring just now through our involvement with NEASK get information from a couple of different schools that um also engaged in very long-term pilots and um had several iterations in their
flex block design. So that's feedback that we just received and uh now we're still in the process of planning next steps which you'll see um a little bit on the next slide what our just example was for the the pilot if you don't mind switching to the next slide. Thank you.
Um so this is just a glimpse. You can see the rotation schedule. We we continued our rotation. we had dropped one day uh one period per day and then we the teachers and students would meet first thing the next day in the period
that they didn't see the day before. We had two flex blocks per week. Um again we used the my flex learning platform so students could sign up to see teachers wherever they wanted to go during those flex periods. Um and we continued rotating. We also ran just three lunches
instead of our current four. So that was part of the pilot schedule. And with that, the next slide, I think I turn it over to It's me, Janine. Obviously. So student feedback. Um we
uh had um 383 students, 75% of the students who responded um favorably um with the pilot schedule. 25% wanted to keep the current bell schedule. um a little over 500 students responded um out of our 800 student population. When
we looked um at the written feedback, students generally liked the pilot schedule, but the the written feedback was mixed. Um the mixed feedback on longer classes, students generally liked dropping a class, some students did not. Students generally liked the concept of flexbox. However, there was some pretty
critical feedback um from students about how flex block was structured. Um and with that I'll turn it over to Mike for the next slide. Yeah. So I'm going to talk about the staff feedback. And one thing I wanted to note is um in the contract it focuses
on developing a consensus um amongst the staff uh to facilitate an approval of a new schedule. And so by Robert's rules um that's defined as 2/3. And so that's the bar that we've been looking at. So the staff feedback that
you see in the pie chart there is is what we've seen before and after um the pilot when we've surveyed multiple times. And so the staff has been very very close to 50/50 on the drop part of
the schedule. So that's that's more or less what we see in the data. And the the thing about that is, you know, we we we're doing surveys trying to understand why. Um, a lot of teachers, everybody wants to do what's best for students, but there's different views on how to do
what's best for students. And there's definitely teachers that feel that that um it's reinforcing to see their students every day. And so that's that's um a very valid point of view uh from some of the teachers because there's actually no strong evidence for one
schedule over another. Um there's other feedback as uh Kate had mentioned around flex block and its organization and so um couple key things teachers want to work together. We don't have common planning time or PLC's um but there is
concern over the structure of that. Um and I think some of that has been addressed since the pilot. Um and and actually the frequency of flex blocks is another piece of staff feedback that's not in the presentation, but when we go forward, we're probably looking at once
a week instead of uh twice a week. Uh and also defining what that MTH MTSS uh piece of the student support in a flex block. Um the T teachers really want more definitive structure to what that looks like so that they can focus on
helping the students. um and understand when it's appropriate for them to pull students. So, I mean, that's that's a little bit um uh of of the feedback. We have gathered a lot more feedback than that, but we're trying to understand where to go with our next steps. So, I'm going to turn it over to Jen next for
what we learned. So, hi, I'm Jen Donont. Um what we learned. So throughout our conversations and the working group which did meet as Janine said or Kate said almost two years every Monday afternoon um any
change in the schedule needs to be done methodically with input from multiple stakeholders. So, we had concerns from different members of the high school um that had a variety of different concerns, not just general education teachers, but our guidance staff and and
also notably our special education staff. Um willingness to adjust timelines in order for the process to continue and also to make adjustments along the way. um if flex is implemented without clear definition and parameters,
it is likely to be unsuccessful. So the majority of our staff feedback was around that short 3-week pilot schedule and that there's a phrase that we've been saying as we've been meeting is that we didn't know what we didn't know.
So 3 weeks just really wasn't for many people long enough to um understand and buy into the flex model. Um and we need a lot of people have come
forth and said we need more time to live a new schedule as a pilot and see you know where the kinks were and how we can work them through. and I'll pass it on to Kate.
Next slide, please. I will share that um we learned from one one or two schools that uh and we didn't know as Jen said what we didn't know but a 3-week pilot did not necessarily allow for as robust an experience which is why
we're proposing a fullear pilot of drop one with flex uh in the 2627 school year for next year we are reducing from four to three lunches um classes globally increased to 50 minutes. Um we as uh
school committee approved um a few sessions ago a reorganization of exam weeks to have early releases instead of late starts which removes the challenge for students and staff of toggling between review periods and exam periods. Um we will continue with an iteration of
the working group uh to continue to flesh out our goals organization and parameters for flex block. that critical feedback came from both students and staff. So, we really need to dig into that. Um, and then as mentioned in the school improvement plan presentation,
additional staff training on MTSS, professional learning communities, um, inquiry cycles um, uh, in conjunction with um, the implementation of a pilot with with a flex block. So again, our hope is to implement a fullear pilot flex. That's our intention of that drop
one schedule with flex in the 2627 school year. And with that, I will um happily have our group take questions from the committee. Thanks for that to Dr. Whiten and the
entire team. Thanks guys for being here. All right. Uh do we have any questions for the committee? I I don't have a question. I just have a comment that I'm I'm um I'm glad to see.
I was really looking forward to this update. Um because I know that the there's a lot that ties into the schedule. Um a lot of the strategical goals kind of tie into
limitations of the schedule. Um, I guess one question I have is how the how the considerations that went into doing a fullear pilot in 2026 27. Were there
other options that were considered like what what drove that decision? Really the need for professional development and the flushing out the parameters of flesh of flex block which will take longer than the summer. So we really we we had debated when to do an an extended
um pilot and we really landed on the 26 27 school year to give us time for that intentional prepar preparation and professional development. Thank you. Uh Amy vessels. Uh yes. I had a question about the not
next year, but I guess the next when you're going to run the um the pilot. Uh it So you were saying is there only going to be one flex block for students? So I think that's something uh that we need to to work on. Um it
that's we have two two possible iterations, a two flex or a one flex. Um I think the intention is to begin with one flex and see where we are simply because we're not familiar um with flex and as we flush it out. Um but that's something that our team is is looking
into. Yeah, I would just be concerned about that given that you know if a student has multiple teachers they need to see and work with in a given week that would be very tough um with a one one flex block um program.
Thank you. Um, so I'll weigh in. I I am also disappointed by this result. Um, I think that so much hinges on the
schedule being more flexible. I am glad to hear that you're able to reduce down to three lunches. That's not going to become a difficult cafeteria environment, Kate. No, not with our current student population. And obviously year onear we
can monitor that, but the cafeteria capacity is um is can support three lunches very very safely. Um yeah. Okay. So that helps. Um, I think that uh I share Amy Vessels's concerns around the
flex block. I think that the I think that Jen was talking about the concerns educators have about dropping classes. So, what ends up happening is right now you meet with your students 180 days. If you drop a block, then you're going to meet with
them something like 152 days. If you drop two blocks, you meet with them 127 days. Right? So I think the general concern amongst educators with this drop block uh waterfall schedule is that they lose instructional time
um and that and that you don't see kids every single day and that might be disruptive. So I can understand that and um I live in a drop two block a day schedule. Uh we're changing it next year. It's going to be different and we're going to try to get more flexible for early college and internship stuff
which is necessary. Um, but the reason why we do it is not because we don't care about instructional time. We do. The reason why we do it is to make room for flex block. And so I
am really, really worried about kids who need to find help between the bells. Kate, right now, how do kids get extra help? during studies before and after school is generally the time that uh that students receive extra help. Okay. But
it's not contractually required that kids can access teachers outside of the bills. That's kind of on the good graces of teachers. Well, I believe that there's a provision in the contract that teachers need to per fulfill their professional duties. So, we have teachers who stay after
school is that that's their professional duty. And and yes, thank you, Kate. And Leah, you were you were there at negotiations when we added that into the contract the last time. I I never actually said in my comments um about the drop. I think that you insinuated
that. But I will tell you that the staff was philosophically um divided with good intent. So, we had 49% of our staff who want to see their students every day because they
believe that seeing their students every day is the best for the kids. And then we had 51% who felt that a drop was a benefit and that a flex without a drop
just wasn't enough time. Um there is no peer-reviewed research that supports a drop schedule over a notrop schedule. Right? There is no perfect schedule. And I think that where we are at and where
we landed was that we have a high school where I will support and defend, as you saw me in negotiations, to the end of my time on earth with some of the best educators that I've ever worked with who want to do the right thing by the kids.
And so we're still in the process of developing that. And we are doing our very best by that. And I know that my colleagues are there. I have kids that come in to see me at 7:15 in the morning, 7 o'clock in the morning. I We're all there. The majority of the
school is there by 7 a.m. and the parking lot is still full by 3:30. So, we are there and we understand and we value the flex block and we've learned a lot throughout this process and many
schools that have gone through a schedule change that we've interacted with in our investigations and our research and visits. It was a longer process than anyone expected to do the right thing for the building and to do
the right thing for the kids. And I I we spent every Monday for almost every for two years just about two years every Monday afternoon sometimes until 5:00 at night meeting talking working outside of
the school day to figure out how we were going to make this happen and and I believe our hearts are in the right places and we still have some more work to do. So Jen with absolute with absolute respect I I am not saying that the teachers are not looking to do the
right thing and not trying to do the right thing by teachers. What I'm saying is that we have a school system that K to8 recognizes the wind block. And so if we're offering win from K to 8 and we're offering it every single day, we are
clearly a school system that values the the flex block. And so I would just like to see that at the greatest rate possible um move up into the high school because uh I think that kids, you know, outside
of the bells, it creates an inequity that we're requiring you like the only time kids can really get extra help is to do it outside of the bells. And so that's my main concern. I am totally with everybody who thinks instructional time is important. And I know that that
benefits kids to be with teachers, highly um qualified teachers, which Nishoba is chalk full of. What I'm saying is that I think the flex block is so essential for from an equity perspective that I hope we can get to a
place quickly where that's introduced. And I would rec I would I would respectfully request that it's more than once a week. as a parent in the district and as somebody who just, you know, talks to a lot of parents, kids need help during the bells to get that to get
access to their teachers because if we're just asking teachers to use their prep time or, you know, burdening them during that prep time when they might have a study hall or might not have a study hall or maybe they leave chemistry to go get English help, it's not really a sustainable or equitable model. And so
that's that's the perspective I'm coming at this from is like how can we get as m as many kids as much access to you as possible. And so I appreciate that, Leah. I appreciate that and we felt that way. And the majority of our staff feels
very strongly that a flex would be beneficial. Um we just need a little bit more time than three weeks to flush it out. And overwhelmingly we had a lot of positive feedback around the flex block.
We did and I personally as a teacher can see the benefit in that. And I I had students sign up from other classes that were working on a big project in APsych and they gathered together in my room during flex block and I got to help them
work through the directions on the project. Many the majority of our staff did feel that the idea of a flex block was beneficial. We just didn't have the staff felt through surveys over
and over again with significant patterns in the data that there wasn't enough time to flush it out. Okay. So, I've I have three hands up. I'm going to actually um prioritize Jackie. So, go ahead, Jackie. All right. So appreciate this
conversation. The thing that I wanted to ask I think dovetales with what Leah was asking about um so maybe two questions for the group to just answer quickly. I know I recognize some of the
amazing educators names on this list, but is anyone specifically on the working group that is a special educator? Okay. Um, and then the other piece is I just want to I guess echo uh Leah's statement. I think that we have
um a phenomenal group of educators who who stay outside of the bell. I have I know that there are teachers before and after school. And I also know that that really can have a significant impact when students rely on public transportation to get to and from school. And so I I really appreciate
that we're even having this conversation. And so thank you to the group. Thank you very much, Jackie. Um, I'll go perhaps to Kirk next. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to take an opportunity to remind the committee and
everyone watching and everyone in our school district that uh several years back we set forward um a strategic plan for NOVA that takes us up to the year 2027. And that's a five-year strategic plan of which we're wrapping up our year
three. As we have included uh scheduling as one of the important ele strategic elements within that plan, we were still within that window. And the plan that was proposed and shared tonight is still within the window of the five-year strategic work that we've been talking
about. And so I I I hear and I feel the sense of urgency and uh a lot of the things I think Mr. Hares was the one that labeled it the audacious plan if I recall. Um, and that we are still within that window of what has been a very
audacious plan that we designed for the district. So, as we're working together with our educators, with our district leaders, with our school committee on executing that plan we laid out uh those three years ago, we are within the time frame almost thinking in terms of like a
building project. Uh, what are your two goals on a building project? on time within budget, right? So, when we're talking about our strategic plan, we are still on time and hitting our targets. Uh, and we know that we'll be taking it down into the fifth year with this plan.
Uh, but I think building the the the capacity, the agency, and the buyin with all of our educators is what is the critical element needed for durability in a highly effective program of the long term. And I want to wrap my
comments up by saying uh the feedback that we're receiving from our um committee tonight is excellent feedback for us to be thinking about and considering uh throughout this process as well. And so we need to be looking at multiple stakeholders in terms of the
impact of ultimately uh where we land with this. So that'll wrap up my comments, Madam Chair. Okay. Thank you so much, Kirk. I wonder if there are any other comments from the committee or anyone else. Okay. All right, guys. We're going
to move on to our next item in the agenda. I thank our guests for being here. We appreciate your time. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, Mike, for joining us tonight. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is your last uh item of the evening. And M. Thank you for having us tonight. Thank you. Thank you.
We have great educators at the high school. They're awesome. Yes, you do. Thank you, Jen. They're amazing. Yes, we do. Um, okay, guys. So, moving on to the next item here. We have um a vote that we're needing to take. Um, and that is
the appointment of Bob Sakansky as the chair of the Noba Regional High School school building committee. And I'm going to turn to Amy for a motion. It's something we talked about last time, but today we're going to vote on it. Thank you. I Let me pull up the motion.
I Is there just I just want to make sure I get the language right. Yeah, please do. That's fine. Had something else pulled up related to this, but not the motion. So, sorry. Okay. Um, I I would like to move
to appoint Bob Sakansky as the as the chair of the Nshoba Regional High School Building Committee. And um, Leah, if you would like me to provide any kind of statement or explanation, I'm happy to do that, too. Yeah. So, I'll second that, Amy, as the other member of the
school building committee, and I'll turn it to you to just give a little bit of background before we take the vote. Sure. Um, yes. So, I I I'm just going to remind the committee that Joe Gleason um was serving as the chair of the
building committee and I guess since his resignation, I have been filling in as the acting chairperson of the building committee. At our last meeting, um we the building committee voted to
recommend Bob Sakansky to be the new chairperson of the building committee. And Bob has been a um important member of the Bolton community. He's served on the select board, the advisory board. He was actually part of the original space
study that was done at the high school back in like 2013. I think he was an original author or one of the authors on that space study that started this whole process. Um he served on you know several committees within the building
committee to help search for the owner's project manager, the um architect and um I'm sure there are other accolades too and that's what I had pulled up and of course now I can't find it. So anyway, with all of that said, he is eminently
qualified to take this on. He has led other committees and there was a unanimous vote of the building committee to recommend him. So, all right. With that said, uh Kirk would also like to weigh in. Uh just briefly, um as someone
who was involved in the day-to-day operations of of this building project, uh two comments. First, I I just want to thank publicly attorney Gleason for shephering us through this process. He did a tremendous tremendous job with the
school building committee and I can't thank him enough and uh unfortunate that that uh Mr. Gleason decided to move on. I cannot bring forward to the committee a better recommendation to replace attorney Gleason uh than Mr. Sakansky.
For all the reasons uh Amy said I would just like to put my stamp on that as well. Um so I I hope the committee looks favorably on this appointment. Wonderful. And of course, whatever you guys decide, we will then send to the MSBA for their approval because that is
a requirement of the process, but you are normally who they defer to. And madam chair, it does bring uh to order, and I'm sure you're going to address this at the reorganization meeting on the 11th is that with attorney Gleon not on the committee, we will need to bring
some balance to the committee and look for a school committee rep from the town of Lancaster to join the building committee. I'm just giving a heads up to that now. Great. Um, any discussion? All right, let's do the roll call. I'll start with Amy
Cohen. Are you there, Amy? I am. And I vote yes. I vote yes as well. Jackie, she says yes. Yes. Sorry. That's all right. Robin, yes. Shandor, yes. Sharon,
yes. Amy Vessels, yes. Lindsay, yes. And Scott, yes. Wonderful. I want to formally thank Bob for taking this on. It is a tremendous amount of work and uh the committee and now this committee
feels very strongly that he is the one to shepherd us here to the end. So, thank you, Bob, shouting it out to the into through the ether here. We appreciate you. Um on to the next piece here which is the superintendent evaluation and um
Sharon is there anything that you would like to say about the feedback survey? Um I could do it if you want me to but if you have anything that you want to say about the results there that the personal subcommittee found. Um sure I can do that. Um so it was two
meetings ago where we went through the process of um a training for the evaluation cycle and um thank you to everyone who sent feedback through the go Google form that helped us to know um what was helpful
about that presentation and what we can do better. Um from the feedback that we received it it seems that the committee fel feels prepared um for the formative assessment that's happening tonight.
Um so this tonight's um formative assessment provides a formal check-in on the progress that's being made towards the goals um that we set last fall. and um recognizing that we're in the
midcycle of of the of the goals. Um it's two-year cycle, so the work is ongoing. Um so tonight is an opportunity to ask questions and to give feedback. Um, it's likely that much of what's in the
presentation is is very familiar to us, which is a credit to Kirk, um, and to his commitment to continually updating us through the superintendent updates um, at our regular meetings. Um, I did
notice um, that the information that Kirk presented to us was on the evaluation form. So, you see checkboxes for things, but there is no formal um rating that's taking place tonight. So, or during this check-in um that will
happen next spring. Did I miss anything, Leah? No, that was perfect. Thank you, Sharon. So, without further ado, I'm going to hand it over to Kirk. His materials are there for you guys to review. Um him giving us an update. The way that I would like to
um structure this guys is that Kirk will give us his brief presentation and then your job is to give him feedback really just kind of like a policy first reading where you just say, you know, here's some feedback for you. He doesn't necessarily need to respond to it unless
you have a specific clarifying question. Anything that you want to um help kind of nudge him in one direction or the other or just throw something um on his plate, feel free to do that uh after he's done presenting. and then um we will continue this process as we go
forward. Everybody cool with that? Okay. All right. So, Kirk, over to you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the committee. Uh between your words, Madam Chair, between Miss Pox's words and the and the presentations that we've seen tonight. I feel like the the heavy
lifting's already been done this evening. Um it is going to be brief and I offer this to our our our new committee members and our oncoming community me uh committee members that will be coming in. Um the analogy of a first reading of policy is a good one.
So I'm providing the document to you tonight for the first time. This is not intended to be all things about the district and all the work that we do. It's the highlights. And um what I do want to say is whenever we look at the superintendent's evaluation, I'm
remarkably humbled myself because um this is not the work of the superintendent. This is the work of the hundreds of educators in our system, the dozens of leaders in our systems, uh and our team of uh cabinet officials that
work so hard to move the strategic objectives of the district forward. So, I've already used my speech on the strategic plan earlier tonight, so I'll skip over that so you don't have to hear it a second time. Um, but I'll walk everyone through this document briefly. Um, know that this is a dynamic uh
document uh which is why I've shared it to you in view status um and printed it uh posted it in PDF status. Uh and the idea behind that is is as you take a look in the at this document in the coming weeks uh you'll have an
opportunity to share some feedback through the chair and we will be coming together in the fall uh for our summer retreat to kick off the year at in the end of August. Uh so we have some time to gather that feedback. So um with that
being said, I will share my screen. Madam Chair, confirm that it's showing. I can see it. Yep. Yep. Great. So, I'm just going to breeze through the document. I'm not going to read through it tonight. I think uh you all can do that at your leisure uh to grab some of
the detail, but I'll show you how it's designed. This is going to look like redundant language because it is set up and I provide this through the template that we have as just a walk up to ultimately what will be the summit of evaluation that Miss Pac already spoke
of as we divide it into the superintendent goals of student learning and our professional practice. We have our district improvement goals which are the strategic objectives and the performance standards are the standards that we agreed upon that at the end of year two. These are the key standards.
So you'll notice there are no links in terms of evidence underneath the standards in this formative time. All the information that I'm providing to you lives beneath uh the goals and the objectives. So our first student learning goals is that uh measurement
goal of looking at um uh u 70% growth rates on our star 360 early literacy reading and math assessments. Uh the key element of that was presented to this committee by Miss Friend earlier this year. Uh we continue to see uh that uh
in general as a district we're meeting that mark. However, we do see sub areas that we address and we will continue to address them. But this takes you back to that presentation on that evidence. We're currently uh doing our end of the year uh assessments and uh in the fall
we'll be coming back to the committee on our learning there. our professional uh practice schools around each and every student having equitable access to challenging high level learning experiences that foster engagement academic growth with the goal of eliminating disproportionate
enrollment advanced courses among traditionally marginalized subgroups. So you heard some conversation tonight about leveling that's going to be an important element of that. the activities that were described tonight in the school improvement plans uh addresses what we're trying to do even
at the earliest grades of making sure all students are getting highlevel engaging instruction. Um and so we have worked on that through the uh collaborative walks that uh assistant superintendent friend led our district team on all throughout the year. We visited each other's
schools, classrooms in each other's schools so that we could begin to walk those conversations and our observations of where we see excellent teaching around the district. Uh you heard of the work uh regarding Dr. Cleornum and Dr. Larry Ebstein already this evening. Uh
so I'll move through that. Uh we know in the Kate 8 model the what I need to know block is really a targeted block for that instruction. This is a piece that a couple of the committee members not noticed tonight that this is the type of concept that uh uh is needed at the high
school. What is an appropriate high school level and you saw our team present on that and how uh we look to move forward to that by the time we wrap up the strategic plan. um the implementation of our curriculum and then um uh again I I
spoke to the professional learning on on-site visitations and coaching walkthroughs. The next section section two is around the district improvement goals. These are four strategic objectives. So you can see the first objective is around communication. I
would like to amplify that yes uh looking at a focus on that at the high school uh is going to be uh important in the upcoming year. Um and we'll continue a lot of what is in that strategic objective of communications has been launched. Uh feedback has been heard
about streamlining uh some of those communications. Madam Chair, I couldn't help but giggle that we've we've sung swung the pendulum in another direction uh in these past four years. And so I think uh streamlining communications is
a good problem to have and so we will certainly work on that and I've already provided that to uh Miss Hanigan and and we're working on those strategies. Uh in terms of strategic objective two, this is the strategic objective of what we are all about in education. It's the teaching and
learning bucket. And so uh the activities were listed here and the evidence that you've seen around the professional development schedule this year, the curriculum guides, the curriculum review cycles particularly for math and science this year where you recently saw some presentation, the
acquisition of high quality instructional materials with Imagine Learning and Eucation. We just saw the uh math um uh recommendation for those highquality instructional materials coming into next year. Uh we continue to
look at growing improving our MTSS multi-tered systems of support structures. Um I would like to point out um that we did bring in the third pathway this year. Success to uh all of our pathway educators, assistant
superintendent friend as well as Miss Hanigan for bringing that in. Um and then we also uh you know in an element of that the great road uh podcast season two eight episodes led by um our director of digital learning and innovation Mr. the
phantom dropping in a strategic uh three is looking at those equitable opportunities for all. And so this is where we're looking at our surveys. And madam chair, I agree with you on the surveys. And I I frankly have issue with five point surveys. The this is why a
lot of liker sales go to four points so that you don't have a middle point that is a toggle place. So we're going to be looking at our surveys this year over the summer and recalibrating those surveys. And I think it's a good time to do that since we've established this culture of surveying over the last three
years. Strategic objective four is uh around our our finances and human resources. I think the work that has been done around the finance and operations center is well established and well understood by this committee. So those links are there. Uh but uh we
also have to recognize the competitive grant opportunities where we've been able to secure $268,000 of additional funding to advance these strategic initiative strategic initiatives along. Uh assistant superintendent and her f uh
team have been tenacious in acquiring these grants and I know we will continue to do that uh to help augment uh the NRSD budget. Uh, so it's at that point, Madam Chair, I'm going to take a breath as I did a little speed read through the
document. And I know that's a very general overview. It's not meant to go into great detail with you all tonight. And like I said, please dive into this document, look at those things uh that are provided. If you're looking for more elements uh to be included in the
particular areas, provide that feedback to the chair. she will coalesce it together uh so that we can be looking at that as we develop our strategic work for the next school year. With that, Madam Chair, um I will stop sharing and and hand back the mic. Excellent. Thank
you. Um so, um I always know our eyes are on the clock, but I want to give you guys an opportunity to share anything publicly here that you would like to help the super help guide the superintendent as he guides his team. Yeah, Amy Cohen, you're muted.
Thank you. Sorry about that. I um I guess I will start off and I just say some feedback for consideration is that um under strategic objective number one in section two for implementing and
monitoring the effectiveness of policy um IMJDE which is the parent caregiver communication response. I would I think it would be helpful to get data to some evidence that shows how that has been
rolled out or you know the compliance with that policy somehow this year you know what stage of progress we're at I guess with implementation. Absolutely. Thank you. Great. Thanks Amy. Any other
feedback? I know we've said so much tonight that and Kirk, I know that you're writing it all down all the way along. I can see you doing it. I appreciate that you're so open. I I might have to rewatch the meeting. I know. Well, good record. But um no, I
want to just interject and say like I know that this is your work. You guys work so hard on everything and getting it all the way down to the kids is like it's a master your your leadership is a master class. So, we appreciate you. We
also appreciate your openness to our feedback and you're always, even though I know you feel proud. Um, and you don't ne, you know, it's hard to hear constructive criticism, you're always open to it. Your whole team is. Um, and so I just want to thank you for that
because it is, it means the world to me in particular, but I think to most parents when you just demonstrate a listening ear. So, um, on that note, I'm going to go over to Jackie. Sorry, I was trying to find where it was in here. Uh, I really appreciate the
layout. Also, I think that it's really easy for anyone who is not familiar with the complexities of evaluations within school systems. Um, so I did want to just provide feedback around um,
superintendent goal to professional practice. It's really clear what the steps are and the activities that have occurred. I know that in the op the process of looking at our school committee
um subcommittee goals and advisory goals that the foundational building based equity groups that have been created. It would be helpful at some point in the future to know a little bit more about what
that looks like, what is the work and how would that directly um just some of the activities or the information that's come flowing from those. And then also specifically to loop back to the development of a district equity
statement which I know was something that the district equity group was working on and I know that that's an ongoing process but I know that that was a recommendation from DRJ. It was in the equity audit and um would love to see at
least something um tied into this goal because that work is happening. Uh, two things, Dr. Reiner. Thank you for that reminder on uh the statement on equity. Um, absolutely. I think in terms of evidence of how we're advancing these
schools, maybe some sample agendas of how we've taken the district work to uh to the schools might help out. Our principles will be happy to give me some sample agendas on that. Thank you. We've done it in two ways. We've embedded uh equity is expected in every faculty
meeting. um an element there, but then we also have our equity team, school-based equity teams that are doing work. Um so I'll look for examples of both of those to add to the evidence for the future. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks, Jackie. Uh any other
comments or feedback? Again, knowing so much has already been said and you also have time to provide that feedback in writing if you choose. Just last call for anything you'd like to add. Madam chair, I'm gonna add one more
thing. Yeah. What I was uh working on in my office today, as a matter of fact, is walking through to the strategic plan and I I actually was doing a retrospective of where we have come these three years to get an assessment of
uh where we are moving forward. So I plan to bring sort of that summary analysis of that back to the committee for as we look at our goal setting in August. Great. All right everybody I am going to
thank Kirk for that presentation and uh we look forward to your continued work Kirk. We are very much in appreciation of you and your work and your team and everybody's effort here. So, thank you. Welcome. Thank you. And thank you to the entire team. All right, guys. Um, we're
going to now move on to the next item on the agenda, and that's the finance and operations update. And Ross, I think it's your turn. Thank you. The magic word at 8:35 is brevity. Uh, the April operations report is
available for your viewing as part of the meeting materials and Alita is pulling it up here. This has been reviewed with the budget and warrant subcommittee as well. Um the same footnotes uh continue to apply uh as they have. We're sort of honing in on the end of the the year. Uh
again, this is the end of April even though we are currently at the end of May. Um I'll have a really strong picture at the end of uh next week when I run the the May report. Um, so just in general, we'll be a little bit lower on
the surplus side this year than we were last year. Uh, based on sort of the projections right now and what I believe has happened during this month as compared to last year at this time. Uh, one thing we discussed at budget and warrant that I'll put in front of the school committee today is that this
summer I'll be working on enhancing this report to include revenue as well. Potentially I'll bring that to budget and warrant as well. The conversation about excess and deficiency has come up. So I want to let you know that this is just the one portion of it. The other portion of the excess and deficiency that we look at is
did we take in additional revenue over our projections in our budget. Obviously our town assessments equal what we budget because we provide those assessments to the towns. But things like chapter 70, Medicaid revenue, regional transportation reimbursement can vary. Um, so just want to let you
know that I'll be vetting that with um, budget war because I think going into FY27 budget planning, I think it's going to be important to have a good understanding of how END comes together, not just at one time during the year, but throughout the year. So, thank you for that additional two minutes of
brevity today around that. um because I do not want to lose uh sight of the fact that the operating surplus does not make up the entirety of what could potentially be put back into END at the end of FY25. Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks, Ross. Uh any questions from the committee? I know the budget and war has already reviewed this as always, but any questions from the committee on that report? All right, guys. So, we're going to move the agenda now to some unfinished business. And the first item here is to appoint a new assistant
superintendent of finance, operations, and safety. And I'm going to turn to Amy for a motion. All right. I would like to move to accept the superintendent's recommendation to appoint Mr. Ross Mccarron as the assistant superintendent
of finance, operations, and safety. Do I have a second? Second. Ah, good job, Sharon. Uh, you got to the mute button fastest. Any discussion uh on this item?
Seeing none, we'll take the vote. And I will start with Amy Cohen. Yes. Congrats. And Sharon, yes. Robin, yes. Amy Vessels, yes. Jackie, yes. Scott, yes. Shawn Door,
yes. And Lindsay, congrats. And yes, and myself, congrats to you, Ross. Uh we're happy to have you and we appreciate your leadership. Thank you. Thank you to Superintendent Downing and and thank you to the school committee. Um looking forward to getting started in the the
expanded role. So, thank you. Uh yeah. Um, just on that note, I do want to go on the record one more time because I have had a couple of questions from the community to say that this is an this is um an important strategic move for our district to create or to basically take Ross' position and change
the job title. Um, this is commensurate with the work that he does with um the value that he brings and with the competitive job market that is abound. Uh we're happy to keep Ross in district and we um have just certified that
providing that different title is important. Madam chair, if I may comment please. It also aligns with our strategic plan in domain 4 in our distributive leadership design. Yeah.
All right. So, uh, next guys, we have our school committee goals check-in. And, um, I'm actually going to drive the bus here, Alita, if you don't mind. And goodness knows I don't want to share anything
weird. So, let's see if I can do this right. Can you guys all see the spreadsheet? Yep. Okay. So, uh, thank you to the subcommittee chairs for submitting, uh, their updates. This will hopefully make this, uh, a a fairly
straightforward process for the community. You can all see that, uh, we had proposed goals. They're on the main page of our website as well. We had proposed these goals back at our workshop. We finalized them in September. Uh, ultimately, the goals were then assigned to a subcommittee to
kind of shepherd through the year. We are on a two-year cycle. This is a formative check-in for us as well to see what progress we are making. And so, um, as we go down here, there are, you know, one per goal. And so, I'm going to slide
the spreadsheet over and show you guys what was reported back by the subcommittee chairs. And I'll just ask the subcommittee chairs to give a very brief overview of the progress that your subcommittee is making toward one of our goals. I'm going to start with budget and warrant, and that is Scott. So, Scott, can you just give us a quick
rundown here? Scott, are you there? Are you muted? I can't see you guys. I'm muted. I I'm going to have to pull up the document. I'm a little tired at this point. Oh, that's okay. It's projected. I'm trying to share it. Can you see it? Oh, yeah. I didn't see that
that right column was available. Yeah, it's basically what you wrote. Yeah. Yeah. So I think from budget warren's point of view the key thing was that we wanted the our goal had to do with transparency of the budget and I think the administration did a great job of you know providing all the details necessary to fully understand the budget
including posting it on the website as well as the budget book. We did take an opportunity at the last BMW meeting to give some feedback on the budget book so that it could be used next year, but we also decided that it should be reviewed in the fall so that any feedback that the committee might have could be
incorporated into the book the following spring. So, we're kind of um handing that over to the next version of the BMW committee to have those conversations. Um and that's pretty much it. Awesome. Thanks, Scott. Let's go over to Pauly and Amy Vessels. this your
this your swan song. Let's hear what you accomplished here, Amy, this year. It's a lot, but run us run it down for us. Um yeah, so we um we did get through the like over 100 policies that we had to look at. Um the only thing that you guys
will have to look at is that BDA those school improvement plan, the one that we tabled I think the BDFA or whatever at our I don't know a couple meetings ago. Um so that will be it. Um, and then I just added in one of our big goals was
to meet with DearJ and to um use their new this equity decision-making tool to look at a policy. So, we did that um and uh looking at policy JIC which looks at like um expulsion suspension, you know,
it's a discipline policy. Um and some of the conversation that we had um in that meeting was really great. Um they gave us some great suggestions. Um, one of the things that they were really hoping for before you guys started next year was to uh meet with you at the school
committee retreat in August and maybe run through that same thing that we did with policy JIC and subcommittee so that the whole committee would um have a chance to use the tool and to you know kind of work with a policy it doesn't
have to be policy but at least get some familiarity with that um before you start doing your work for the Um they also um one of the things that we sort of talked about was like um you know you know how are these policies
impacting parents and students and how do we know that? And so one of the things that they talked about was you know they felt we should be looking back to the edi uh the equity audit more for some of that information because some of that
was gathered there. Um and so that was like a suggestion I think for policy subcommittee particularly next year as they um start to look at new policies and make suggestions for uh red lines and what have you is to look back at that you know look at it through an
equity lens look look back at some of the suggestions that were made in the equity audit and consider that. Um the other thing they said was like getting feedback from teachers about the impacts that they're seeing from the policies as well. Um they we talked a good bit about
uh restorative justice and um some of the things that we brought up in the handbook, right, that are mentioned, but it's not really laid out. And they were curious about, you know, what budget and resources we have for really trying to do more of that work in the district. So
that's a conversation they thought it might be helpful to have. Um they we also had a conversation about you know should that the changes be made to the policies or to the handbook. Um they felt like it should be a policy change but most of the people on our
subcommittee felt like that change should come in the handbook. Um so that was a that was a a discussion that we had. Um we also let's see what else. Um they also brought a point that you know always be asking the questions like
do our policies reflect the values that we talk about um and you know being really critical about that um and asking tough questions about that. So I thought that it was a great meeting um we had a good discussion and I hope that this will help um the school committee as you
move forward next year. Awesome job Amy and committee. So, thank you for all of that. Let's move on to communication and I'll turn it over to Amy Cohen. Great. Thank you. Um, communication subcommittee had three goals this year.
Um, and the first one was to create a structure that facilitated consistent communication with student council to try to help us be more in compliance with the policy we have, policy jib. So,
um I'm happy to report that we the superintendent facilitated a meeting between the super the school committee and the communication subcommittee. Um and the communication subcommittee spent a decent amount of time flushing out how
this would work. But where we landed was that the chair of the of the communication subcommittee along with the chair of the school committee would um meet with student council and come up with a a plan for future meetings. So we
we did that. We came up with a plan that we hope to implement next year which involves meeting with the student council three times throughout the year in the beginning, middle, and end. Um and and um the idea is that we would it would be
a way to establish more permanent lines of two-way communication so we could share what our agendas are with them so that they get an idea of what we are what the work is that we're doing, what our purview is um and so that we can help support the
role that we already have in place of the student representatives to the school committee. Um the next meeting um that we have set up is this year is actually is June 11th. And so in that
meeting, we will be touching base on how they elect their representatives to the school committee and how we kind of reorganize and elect our um our not our rep well how our elect how our representatives are elected and
then how we elect our leaders. Um, all right. The second goal we had was to, um, explore opportunities for improving access to meeting materials and archived information on school committee meetings. So,
um, what we did was develop a survey. I think we brought this to the school committee just a meeting or two ago. Um, that survey has been shared out by the superintendent and I was just checking the results. I think we've we've only gotten about 25 responses so far. So, it's going to go out again uh this week
and you know, this is a busy time of year for people. So, um we'll see how many responses we get, but hopefully we'll be able to get some good data that the committee, this the communication subcommittee can reflect on next year to help finish working on that goal of
taking a fresh look at the school committee website, reorganizing it in a way that's most useful to the end user. the parents, the caretakers and um students. The last goal we had was to finalize the formatting of the school
committee manual. And that's actually we kind of did these these goals in reverse order. That was the first one we did. Um and we tackled that pretty quickly and Alita posted that on the website. So, I think moving forward that should just be something that we're um updating
annually, but the bulk of the work was done last year and we just kind of finished it this year and hopefully it won't be much work going forward. Awesome. Thanks Amy so much and to your entire committee. We appreciate it. On to personnel and Sharon. What's going on
here? Um so personnel's overarching goal um really had to do with the evaluation process. Um it started in the summer um with getting input from the committee on
which indicators would be used um in the superintendent evaluation and um then we've worked on continuing to revise and make the um evaluation
um trainings be more um effective. and be as helpful as possible for committee members and for anyone um in the community that is interested in learning about that and understanding how that works. Um so we did that presentation
for the formative assessment about a month ago. Um we gather we asked for some feedback about from the committee about how effective that was. So, we were able to get some information about what was useful, what was um what might
be more helpful. And so, we have that uh data now um from that feedback. And uh we'll in the fall um work on um implementing some of those suggestions as we move forward into the
um second year of the goals. Excellent. Thank you Sharon and thank you to your whole subcommittee. Uh moving on here um to the to the next one and that is DearJ our advisory committee. Um I just wanted
to make a quick public announcement to the community that uh not all members of DearJ are able to return. They have served for the year and uh life takes them in other directions. So there are a couple of vacancies on deerj and so if
any member of the community is interested in serving on this advisory please email me directly and I will put your name in the hat. Um and at the next uh meeting the organizational meeting we will finalize our advisories. uh all
advisories are appointed on an annual basis and the committee needs to decide if they want to continue each advisory and if so they appoint the members and provide them with a charge. So more on that at the organizational meeting but if anybody's interested let me know. Kirk a quick note or question for you.
Uh typically dear J has a member of the uh staff that is uh that sits on the on the advisory. Do you think that you might have and it says that you you are responsible for appointing that person. Do you think that you might be able to
um find a staff member or maybe two who would want to join? Uh the answer to that question is yes. Uh let me sorry another note. Um I will follow up with you on that. Uh
the answer to your question is yes. Uh but let me let me do some work on that. Okay. Cuz that that was one of Dearj's requests. They would love to have a staff member to better understand um the the whole context. Uh and at this point I'm going to turn it over to our liaison
to give us Jackie what hopefully is a brief update on what DearJ is up to. I think they might also be presenting on the 11th. Is that right? Well, we're I um I just drafted something to send to confirm that that's the date that we would be meeting. Um and so if we have
space in that agenda either for my like our co-presenting or having representation from DearJ because they did accomplish quite a bit this year. Um, a few things I guess just to follow up with what chairperson Vero said, they
are specifically casting a wide net and we have as a um school committee really identified the lack of representation equally across the three towns. So, I would be strongly encouraging any Lancaster residents
listening to, if they're interested, submit their name to our chair. Um, the other thing that maybe Superintendent Downey can talk about with you, Leah, is the possibility of having something like an associate or um associate school
member. So, basically, that person would not affect quorum. That's something that we can discuss at a further date. There was a lot that um Amy Vessel's already summarized, but I did want to just say that you know the ongoing work that
we're doing as a school committee is supported directly through DRJ. Um so they did present to us at the beginning of the school year. They had three priorities. I'm really excited to indicate that we've I think almost successfully completed two out of the
three recommendations and I have a feeling that the third will be uh clarified at a later time. Um and that as we're moving into this next phase of year 2, it will be really looking at successful implementation of the
decision-m tool in other arenas other than policy. And so we'll be looking to towards our workshop to figure out how that might look. Fantastic. Thanks so much for that, Jackie. I appreciate all your work there. Negotiations, there was no goal.
Scott, we had a pretty rudimentary goal for audit advisory. Is there anything that you want to add here? Um, at this stage of the game, even though it's kind of preudit, I'm still trying to arrange a meeting. Got it. No problem. Um, so I'm going to
write more to come soon. All right, everybody. That is the formative goal update for your school committees goals 24 from the 2024 to 26 cycle. I'm going to stop sharing now. I
can see you all. We'll now move the agenda to the next item, which is um I think that we've perhaps already covered this, but Amy and or Jackie, is there anything else you want to say about the decision-making tool update?
No. Yeah. Okay. So, that's really exciting. I linked it in the goal spreadsheet. Um you guys can check that out if you want. This is perhaps something that we could focus more on at the workshop. Um, so we'll see
later. All right, guys. Items for next agenda. Uh, we do have the the agenda is going to I'm going to change the planning committee or the planning calendar to the 11th. Um, we will meet in the school committee conference room. We have a
couple of updates from the superintendent. Uh we have basically the reorg and hopefully a dear J uh co-presentation or just Jackie will present to us to give us even if we need more information. Jackie maybe you and I can talk about
whether or not that's um a necessary step if Darj has something to present and would like to. It doesn't have to happen but we're always uh willing to welcome those friends to the meeting. Anything else that you guys want to see
on the planning calendar? All right, it's bound to be a quick one, but famous last words. All right, that's all I'm seeing there. So, everybody, um, the last thing that I want to say one more time, can we all thank Amy Vessels for her work over
the last three years? Oh, she's going to make fun of me every day now. Amy, you're awesome. What would we do without you? Your expertise has been such an enormous asset to the school district. Um, most of school committee
volunteerism kind of goes unnoticed, but if it does, that means it's working and so I really appreciate you and thank you. Yes, Shondor. Any last words? Amy, just thank you for being so wonderful to work with.
It's been a great experience. Um, being a teacher, I was already familiar with some of it, but I've learned a lot. And it's been really, um, it's been wonderful to be to be so a part so much a part of my own kids
schooling experience and to know how how all that's happening and how much work is going into uh, making things better for every student. So, that's been really rewarding. Thank you. Thanks, Amy. Uh and at the June 11th
meeting, we look forward to welcoming uh Matt from Bolton and Jillian from Lancaster. They have already gone through the school committee orientation uh with me, which is required by our bylaws. And so they will hopefully be able to join us hope, you know, hopefully. I know it's kind of a potly
meeting at this point. Uh so on that note, guys, at 8:59, I'm going to move to adjourn. Do I have a second? I'm gonna give it to Amy. Amy Vessels, say it. Uh, and then Amy, you get to vote first.
Yes. I vote yes, too. Robin, yes. Jackie, yes. Yes. Sharon, yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Scott, yes. Shandor, yes. And Lindsay, yes.
Adios, amigos. All right. Bye-bye now.