e we go call to order the regular meeting of the sh Regional school committee tonight at 6:m on December 4th we'll start with our Pledge of Allegiance you can Jo to States
all right guys uh first matter is public comment and I'm not seeing anybody here for that so we will move on our next matter of business is to enter into executive session and I'll turn to Amy for a motion I move to go into an
executive session at 6:00 p.m. pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with
non-union Personnel World Language griev grievance executive s session a to include the school committee superintendent Kirk Downing assistant superintendent Garr Director of Human Resources Jess Jessica Murdoch Kevin
keany Mike toson and Cecilia Sullivan and pause for a moment please that is the motion which L friend would be included on as well she's tied on to the second one and is that okay yeah she was
listed on the first one too what is here oh yeah she is assistant excuse me okay you um I further move pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union
Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negoti negotiations with non-union personnel seal of by literacy mou ratification custodian differential mou ratification executive session B to
include the school committee superintendent K Downing assistant superintendent Laura friend director of funeral resources Jessica Murdock I'll second that any discussion um all right all those in favor raise your hand R call oh we need
roll call I'm sorry um so let's go around the table yes yes myself yes Amy yes yes Amy yesin yes Scott yes Lindsay yes hi John hello will
you say yes to go into executive session yes thank very good so here we are intive e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e all right everybody so we are now back in regular session of the mova school committee meeting and uh we're going to pick up our agenda where we left off and that is with the consent agenda so I'll
turn to Amy for a motion I move to approve the consent agenda December 4th 2024 I'll second that is there any discussion on the consent agenda seeing none all those in favor of the consent agenda raise your
hand any OPP post all right very good that was startingly quick moving on now uh to the next item is a chair great job policy subcommittee by the way thank you for keeping that train rolling we really do appreciate you guys um so oh can I
just say no we have several coming you you can say nothing just a heads up ready this train keeps rolling all right good um so chair chairperson update I don't have anything specific outside of the agenda so we'll keep
going to our favorite part student representative part so aan Ryan are here so go ahead guys so this week winter sports tryy outs started um we had a very successful fall Wolf Day on the Tuesday before thanksg Thanksgiving
break and we had the P or teacher event which was really fun and we did win the food drive competition against Clinton We Comm we collected 1,700 lbs of dry and canned goods to wheat which is really exciting Deca M competition is
being held in the auditorium tomorrow and the Winter concert is next Wednesday myself and I believe it is seven others students at nber are going starting with for and soer we're talking to eighth graders just about like what high school is and different opportunities there and we're going to
the other middle schools but so uh we talked about it at last meeting we went to the mesar um like delegate assembly so I thought I was going to tell you guys like how our day went just like a little bit about what we learned so even and I got there in the morning and we
were sitting with three girls from North Andover and then a couple from w elsley and one from shepher Hill I think so kind of all over so the day started they just told us a little bit like about kind of what they were as um a group of
people and so the founder um his name is Sean he organized this thing by just what they talked about is how they reach out to all the schools to find their representatives so they said they email superintendent they go on YouTube and actually watch some of
the meetings and it's um go on their see what kind of names they can get and they um their kind of main purpose is just to like expand the voice of student like like a and I student representatives and like connect them among schools to like
better them as a whole so that's what they kind of told us about they they wrote A bill that they're working with um a congresswoman to it's for students to have a vote in the school committee so that's like kind of it's like a long process there at Town House so they in
the works of that so after like kind of an introduction we um broke up into different workshops there we got put into groups I think 10 or something like that four different Workshops the first one was communicating and networking so they
what I kind of just said where they um reached out to different superintendent just to kind of get everyone connected to each other and then we we talked a little bit about turning ideas into action and um how you can kind of go forward with that which is really helpful um there's a kid from Framingham
who um was speaking there talked a little bit about budgeting and school funding that like how that works and what kind of role we can work to play on that and then diversity equity and inclusion just kind of how you can promote that and the school setting is
our role we broke up had lunch and then answer any kind of questions and then the executive board just shared a few words it was like students College students who were a part of this kind of program years before so they kind of tell us about that
great so thanks guys for representing us at that conference I hope you guys made some good networking opportunities yes we did um I plan on running for the eboard for it wonderful yeah so good luck hopefully I get
itre fantastic um so any questions or comments from the committee or our superintend we're going to get to put some of this advocacy to action in January when we get launched up so I I know I'm going to be planning that with Dr Boon here in the in the coming week
so looking forward to you guys putting some putting to work some of the things you learned from that Workshop yes we will okay any other questions or comments from the committee um I know that Amy is also did you want to just mention quickly how
you're forging ahead with I think that's what last month ding with um I thought you were talking about your your advisory no no this is when um the group will be going to work with the school council and our reps and things like that excellent yeah I can well yeah yeah
the communication subcommittee and the school committee is going to be working with the superintendent um to reach out to the student council and come up with a kind of a plan
to to meet every other month or on a schedule that we can agree to so we can start to build on some of the things that you've learned at that conference of open up the channels of communication and and um kind of give you more
opportunity to bring student voice to our conversations and our votes perfect oh wait when is our advis or what is it the student council going to meet again The Advisory Council the advisor group with Dr Bon and I yeah
I'll talk to Dr Boon okay yeah our goal is before the break okay so awesome y thank you fantastic guys thanks for being here as always we appreciate it thank you you thank you um all right guys so we're going to move on to our superintendent report and
uh Kirk will light it up with some announcements that um I'm going to go a little bit out of order as we have three items to bring to you um two of which I've asked assistant superintendent in Fr to bring uh but I want to talk to you a little bit about and give you a
legislative update um as I've shared with you before I serve on the legislative committee for the Massachusetts Association school superintendent and right now we're developing our advocacy platform with the governor's office and state
officials for what is coming up is is going to be a very trying budget season for the entire State um we have some challenges in front of us we know that OSD has sent uh increases for out of
school um for private school tuition based programs at a 3.62% increase and third quarter Revenue at the state indicates Chapter 70 increase looks like it's going to be around
1.91% so our ability to fund is not matching what increased costs are based upon some of those inflation rates that the state is setting their reimburse their state aid on um as well we have to look at the circuit breaker reimbursement for special education
costs as well as special education Transportation reimbursement and so we've begun conversations with desie but really we have to to to get into the ears of our legislators the governor's office about how to um get increases in that Aid it's
our was our position last year and it will continue to be that that support be increased from a 75% reimbursement level to a 90% reimbursement level so that we can start um uh closing the gap on these tremendous costs that uh go to programs
that are very much needed for the students who receive them and I think that's the key component that is lost in some of the conversation that we see particularly articles in the globe uh that public schools and or superintendents don't want money funnel
to those schools it's like that's not it at all it's how do we create Statewide structures where the funding sources are going to back up the increases that are allowed because what ends up happening is those increases that are allowed and approved by the state end up being paid
for locally so State decisions are being made where local funding is necessary to execute programming for our students and so this is a lot of important work that we're going to be doing so I'm glad to be doing that work um through Mass this
year I will be coming back to this group throughout uh the season to give you opportunities to chime in your voice send your letters to advocate for um how we can advance some of the bills that that we putting our energy behind to hopefully change some of these State
funding forms um we've begun a task force around shifting um the Chapter 70 uh Pro calculation process entirely um Chapter 70 is a Formula that benefits many and it does not benefit many and so
depending on where do you sit on that spectrum of benefit reflects your support of what that formula is right now and I will have to say Rural and Regional districts don't benefit as much as urban areas do out of Chapter 70 funding Chapter 70 is
there to help level of funding in a way where State money is going to places that can't afford it as much as other Arenas um but we all know that with prop Two and A and other constructs that we have in the budgeting process sometimes
it it makes it very very difficult for us to advance budgets so there's a complex issues I'll be bringing them back to the committee and pointing you in the direction of where you can put your advocacy when those times come okay with that I am going to turn it over to assistant superintend to talk
give you a kneas update as well as um talk a little bit about digital report cards yeah just two brief updates um the first being uh an update around NES um which has just begun at the high school the high school is really at the beginning stages of the process which is
a twoyear process um and they are engaged in the self reflection process right now um the first phase includes um reviewing and unpacking the new standards for accreditation which are hyperlinked in the
report um collecting evidence and artifacts towards the standard um thinking about strengths and and areas of Grove completing staff surveys family surveys student surveys um and then taking all of that information to complete um the
self-reflection report and determine ratings based on the standards sharing the ratings with the faculty and staff at the high school provide engaging with them and allowing them to have input in the ratings and then this spring
um will welcome the collaborative conference visit which will include classroom observations reading the self-reflection report and ratings meeting with various stakeholders and and examining student work samples um so the high school team and
Dr blon and uh has two teams um engaged in the process right now the steering committee um and a self-reflection committee and they are kneed deep in the work right now as we look ahead to the collaborative conference in the spring
the dates of which are April 30th and May 1st um that will include a tour of the building classroom visits um a meeting with the self- reflection committee a meeting with students teachers parents and separate groups um
school council meeting with central office administrators building administrators department heads and then support staff so it's involved what happens after the collaborative conference the visiting team provides feedback about the
self-reflection ction in a report um which includes recommendations for the school growth Improvement plan which Dr Bon will work on and will be shared with this committee the visiting School creates the school growth Improvement plan based on the outcomes from the self-reflection report and feedback from
the collaborative conference visit this spring the visiting School implements So the plan will be implemented and then Revisited in preparation for the asial visit in the sprm of 2027 uh and speaking with Dr Boon and
her team um we would um with permission like to provide the committee with an update um a more robust update after the report is generated in the self-reflection process has completed prior to the collaborative conference visit in April and or or after the visit
in April or May I'm personally looking forward to pointing back to the last time we went through accreditation and they cited your concerns about the physical plant and we now have uh a great plan for addressing their concerns
around the physical plan so that want to maybe go to questions around you ask first sh um so I'm for maybe obvious reason is more familiar with the private school version of this
accreditation um is this only for the high school the rest of the district doesn't get accredited okay and the second thing is does the school committee have any role in the process of the accreditation um I I I I would need to
seek input and guidance on that I do know in speaking with Dr Boon I did ask her what the role of the school committee um was and she said we prepare this the plan we present the plan um and so the committee will be apprised of the
ongoings of the process as we work through it so they're they're brought into the communication of the process and the output from the process awesome thanks for I think that one of the standards is community relations right one of the new
St so I my understanding is that the school committee may be needed for I know that the last time we did it school committee members weighed in and and were asked questions so it's possible okay we'll
let you know any other questions that the me ask up toate for the legislative piece all right we have one more piece yes um exciting one not that the ask is not exciting um but uh in an effort to
improve our uh K to8 report card delivery um we are moving to a digital document delivery through Power School for our KDA report cards this trimester um of note we're Shifting the date for
distribution back two days from December 16th to December 18th to give our teachers time to um engage with the new process have time to um write comments have time for our building leaders to work with our teachers on it so I will
be pointing to that change in that common this Friday about the the change in date for our families at large um principles um will be provided information to families about what to look for they're going to provide a
sample email um to parents so they know what the email looks like and what the directions are it's very simple um and um and so we'll ask our families to be on the lookout for that email from principles to not delete the email um
but to be aware of the email um what I I'm particularly excited about this move um not only does it reduce the need to print all of the report cards um multiple times particularly when changes are made in the process um but it also
ensures universal access to the report cards particularly for our Middle School families where we were opening out opening up our School Parent Access parents were having to navigate through that find the comments find the standards this will be in one document
um so you know easy to rate a report card any family who wishes to uh physic copy of the report cards and simply email the principal or the administrative assistant in the office and we' be happy to send home a printed copy of the card
for families wonderful this is a good move and it's just for Middle School at this point K to eight oh K to eight and I guess my question is do you imagine it growing up into the high school as
well we imaginations run loud so the comments are the piece that I always find very difficult to find yeah this is we we've been focusing on KD but we would certainly be in discussions right okay any other
questions is there um still going to be asked that the parents sign something and return um acknowledging that they've seen it in an envelope not necessarily in an envelope but just um like the
handshake that says yes I saw this that's great feedback um we have not engaged in that process at the middle level since we just opened up um Power School Parent Access I think
communication um for families um you know in multiple formats so that they're aware the report cards are are coming and how to access them will be critical we do not have a mechanism um established now at this point looks like the superintendent we I can just tell
you from personal experience we made this shift when I was a principal in another District we actually found out that our parents through the electric distribution were more informed because we didn't have to put it in the hands of The Courier to get to their hands at
home but they got it Direct in their inbox so actually the the um number of parents that were knowledgeable those report CS increased as result of it without having a signature return more
on that topic well I I I guess my question is prompted because in the high school they do have just the digital report cards um and it is and and I will own that I am an older parent with a younger
or my youngest is the only one still receiving it so maybe it's not as important to me to see it as a parent younger child um but it is difficult to know when those report cards are coming
out and then find them and get all the information that is there um and so I'm just thinking about making sure that people have knowledge you know that
they know to look for it yes um and that they I mean the other pieces I think are are already spoken for in terms of key um K to 8 um it will be December 18th I'm working with Kathy leonardy on
defining the time frame so it will be explicit uh you know two between two and four for example on December 18th so that will be on the lookout for that communication in the common and then in the followup communication with our building principles as well anything
more on that topic yeah just that I I hope power school has analytics on who's accessing it and that someone is looking at it to make sure that this practice is Equitable and everyone is able to receive the grade reports I I will say my my general
experience has always been uh fewer grade reports seem to get lost when they don't uh be physical objects but um hopefully everyone can access them but just to rip off what Sharon was saying I think that that's that envelope
as archaic as it was it told the teacher that somebody put eyes on it um and signed it and so without that envelope thank goodness it no longer is going to exist but like we need a a way to make sure that parents and I know conferences
happen and all that and teachers are getting in touch with the children are struggling but it was just one more safety out all right ready let's keep it going pass the superintendent report thank you guys for that a new business and we're very excited to bring our friend George
fani is coming to the table for the robotics vote hello sir what can we do for you today U well I mean we are having our preliminary approval for possible trip to Houston for the robotics team World
Championship um we have to qualify don't know if we will but here we are so in your packet is the information that Mr forani submitted to you for new committee members the reason why we asked Mr forani and you will also see Mr
a come in andopolis around Deca is because they go through these tournaments and it's a quick turnaround to go to the next place after they qualify and what we discovered is that we didn't have the committee meetings in place in between those moments to get the approvals done for travel so we do
this preemptively now um to get ready for that moment so uh why don't we make uh because we are needing a vote tonight um this is um this is something that we do year after year after year so it's nothing new to the committee and I feel comfortable making a motion voting on
this this evening and so I'm going to allow Amy to make a motion and then you guys can decide what you want to do I mooved to approve the travel request for the nrhs robotics team to travel to F FRC World Championship in Houston Texas on April 15th through 2025 contingent on
the team qualifying I'll second that what discussion do we have if any other than the celebration of this amazing program so thank you so much for organizing and pulling it together once again uh we really rely on this is a great experience for our kids anything
else all right guys all those in favor that was easy first my button thank you appreciate it thank you good luck appreciate it everybody keeping on going here we're going to talk next about another opportunity for our kids and that is the FSS Outdoor Classroom
and Joel's going to help us understand more good evening thank you for this opportunity uh tonight I'm seeking your approval for two overlapping uh overnight trips to Outdoor Classroom formerly Nature's Classroom in Ocean Park
Maine um Florence soyer School traditionally had held a trip for our seventh graders for their experience you may recall as a district we decided to uh move that trip uh districtwide to our fifth
grade um as a result we now have a cohort of students our current fifth graders and our current sixth graders that will not have had an opportunity for the experience so um I met with several of our parents in this cohort and we decided that we would plan uh uh
some kind of experience for our current fifth and sixth graders um the result of that work is is the request before you now uh it would be um an overlapping trip for fifth grade on March 24th 25th
and 26th at Ocean Park uh Nature's Classroom now Outdoor Classroom Ocean Park which is in Old Orchard Beach Maine uh Orchard Park Maine near Old Orchard Beach and then uh the sixth graders would attend in the same week
the 26th 27th and 28th um the benefit of um and and the luck that we had in being able to find Ocean Park is that that is also the site that um our our fifth graders in the
following year would go to so it would be a common experience um any clarifying questions Scott so did seventh graders go last year MH and so the students that are seventh graders this year when did they go did we had nature on wheels for this
experience for our current seventh graders which is it's it's essentially the same experience but they come to you it was uh a program that they developed during the pandemic any other questions
um I assume there's some accommodation for families that can't afford those $25 yes y I've spoken with our PTO and we will ensure that everyone has the assistance they need we don't want to exclude anyone for financial reasons ever any other questions before we
move all right Amy I moveed to approve the travel request for the Florence Sawyer Outdoor Classroom field trip for fifth grade on March 24th through the 26th 2025 and 6th grade on March 26th through the 28th 2025 to Ocean Park May I'll second that
any further discussion yeah I'm I'm really um so glad to hear that those kids are going to get to go to Ocean Park it is just a fabulous was so much um there's just so many opportunities at that location so I'm
really pleased that Park is the place to go and to double down on that is I wanted to thank Mr Bates for Gathering Together uh a group of parents that were very interested in understand what to do for that Gap to solve that Gap and I am
especially grateful to that group of parents for coming together to do some planning on that as we're we're doing this sort of in short order to to do that and we're going to have some great experiences for kids so well done he you guys stole my thunder it's really what I wanted to say
thank you for pulling us together so quickly so that we can make sure that the the kids get that common experience we looking forward to in such a milestone you're welcome to strike my comments from the minutes so but let me put my annual asterisk on
this that I look forward to this extending out to the other middle schools as well as well yeah yeah one day well this is going forward they're all going to do it this is going to be great yes thank you guys fifth grade be fifth grade elementary well Elementary School El right right um all right guys
so no further discussion all those in favor all right thank you everybody and thank you princi thank you very much um all right moving on we have um excited to bring forward our director of student service
and um we're going to hear some entry findings I'll let Kirk introduce and get it queed up it's great so I I want to reintroduce the committee Miss R deand she's see there she attends our school community meeting our director of student services here MOBA um in our
entry processes this community has been accustomed toward the beginning of the year you to get a plan of Entry findings and then typically april-ish we we may we come back of what are those findings so that the administrator can move forward with work we accelerated that
process in the student services office and for good reason um we know this was going to be a critical process to go through as we prepare for the upcoming budget season special education services are critically important for us to meet
our mission of educating each and every child to the greatest of our abilities uh both those that attend our schools or that we look for uh outside placement for to educate our students and that being so um I asked Miss deman to
accelerate the process to present this evening so we can prepare our minds for the upcoming uh season and understand the work that we have to do so with that I will turn it over to Mr Man thank you superintendent Downing Madam chair school committee members I'm really
excited to be sitting here I can't actually believe that it's December uh it's w by um with a lot of great work I do have to say coming in you never know how you're going to be welcomed um and how much information
you're going to be able to gather in a short period of time but the staff and the families around a showa are so open and welcoming I've had a lot of phone calls meetings I've had people just
approach me with ideas so this work actually has been really exciting and I've been able to get up to speed pretty quickly there's still a lot of work and things I need to learn and I will continue to learn through my entire time here because it's ever
evolving um I did uh write up a formal plan um of findings that you have in your packet but today I'm just going to go over the highlights and then um if you have questions for me I can answer as we move forward soita so my intended goals and outcomes
um um this is a student services department so it not only focuses on special education but it also looks at the 504 process uh with the district um I also oversee guidance and the social work
structure across the district um families are a huge part of especially the special education process so that really um I took a hard lens at that to really focus on on how that's working for um nooba families and really
professional development needs and I will be working closely um with super assistant superintendent friend on creating theal structure for the mtss handbook that already exists in the
district so I'm going to go through each one of the goals um really special education takes up um a majority of the departments focus and time as you know it's very complex um and currently right
now in nooba we have about 650 students that have active IEPs um throughout the district that are being serviced and that includes in District out of District um students um what I did notice and this
came right to my attention through our team chairs that there's some um differences among the schools on how either they're presenting information or parents are gathering information out of the team meetings so we agreed as a
group that we're going to start a manual so that we can really look and focus in on when a parent comes into a meeting they have the same expectation across the district um they have the same level of being able to communicate and what is um the outcome of the meeting also when
they leave the meeting they have a very clear idea about what was discussed at the meeting and then what next steps are going to be happening so we're going to create a manual to really make sure that's solidly in place uh for families and what to
expect um which will also create um which is lower down on the list of next steps really creating a district um student services website that's more friendly so the parents could access those documents prior to meetings um and
really being more clear about um um what to expect at meetings especially with the new IEP so we also have the new IEP roll out so that's you want to make sure that everybody has a Clear Vision of of what that looks like um the other thing is creating a
transparent monitoring system so are our timelines being met um we don't we shouldn't be waiting until um we have a teared Focus monitoring time for us to really review that should just be an ongoing process us so I will be creating
systems with our team chairs and myself doing um record reviews to make sure we're on track with our timelines and um making sure we're staying in compliance um we I will continue this is
my first budget season so I am continuing to work with the cabinet on creating a budget for this year and looking at the staff structures based on the IEP student needs um and making some recommendations so those will be further coming along with
the budget season um I will continue to look at preschool programming and how that's um being uh implemented as you know a lot of our students Services uh for preschool are really
driven by the IEP process so if we see more students coming in with higher needs we may need to make some more additional recommendations um um I talked about the district website and the other thing that came up was and this will be on the website is
our IND District program so we have several IND District programs that I gave you a brief summary of um in the district and those are really driven by student need um and they're they are housed across the district we currently
have teams across the district working on a better description of those because that has been in a request of families to have more information and be more transparent about where those programs are located and what student that really services and supports and what supports
are added to that program so we will be um making that more clear and posting that on the website as well Alita goal number two so this is really the 504 uh process
and procedures um it really is um looks more simple but sometimes it can be very complicated uh the district really um hasn't had u a central oversight on this so really where um it
needs to start is with a clear process for how f4s are run um and training to the staff that are involved with that and with that comes an identification of a clear 504 coordinator within each
building so that we're posting that out to the public they know who to access if they have questions about the 504 process and how meetings are going to run in that um realm we also need to do some cleanup on monitoring and making sure that current active plans are being
looked at on a annual basis and um updated as needed so I will be creating that process as well Alita thank you um so guidance so
I've had a few meetings um on the half days and this is really um an area where I want to focus not only with guidance but along with the mtss seal model this is the group that will be doing a lot of that work and
helping with this um but they have expressed that they would like to be able to sit together um as a colleague and a group to really discuss what practices they want to engage in that are more
relevant to the um school Mass School Association of um guidance counselors and really determined what best practices they can engage in um and that would be any type
of counseling support um maybe we want to look at a curriculum we might want to look at um additional professional development um they are a very busy group because they're constantly engaged
in any type of um matter that comes before them any given day so a student can come in completely disregulated they may have had counseling or group work that day and that's out the window for them so they'd like some strategies on how to better manage some of that and
get kids back on task more quickly and back into the classroom so they've expressed some of that especially at our elementary level and so we will do some work as a collective group to um to come up with better strategies and give them more
professional development and a greater voice goal number four so I've had the opportunity to meet with the CPAC leadership twice um I also ran a parent training group um around the new IEP which offered a lot of feedback about um their experience es
with the SHA um some are very positive they I will say the most positive thing is they're teachers they all have great things to say about the general education teachers special education teachers there was a lot of feedback
about communication about the IEP process and how the IEP is developed and their voice in that IEP process so I'm working with the CPAC their goal is to work with me on a parent handbook because I'd like to give more
information out to families um have greater access to families uh for some training so we're developing some more trainings we've already listed some in the common um that have occurred this year and we'll continue to uh Post in the
common we I will continue to do we have a team meeting survey that happens at the end of the team meeting process to get parent feedback and that's a lot of where that information about well I was a little bit confused or I felt like I didn't have a voice and so that will
continue to happen um but I will also be sending out a climate uh survey for special education at the end of the year so how did the year go how did your child feel about this past year um in for their services and how did you feel
as a parent for the services so we're not just focused on the team's process we're f focused on you know how did the service delivery also look um in the in the school and then
um we will be updating the website it really is not parent friendly right now um so we will be um handling that this year I anticipate we'll have I'll have more work around this as I move forward
and get deeper into some of um this work with training things will of course develop and and continue to grow L the goal number five sorry so professional development this was probably one of the biggest um
pieces where I heard a lot of feedback from staff um they um professional development is it's a very sacred territory because because there's a lot of initiatives that we
have to engage in as a district as a whole um with under the student services department uh my responsibility really is to look at instructional assistance special education teachers speech and
language Behavior Uh uh therapists and um OTS school psychologist so it's really making sure there's a very robust professional development plan to meet all their needs and also to look at
their sub needs so for example for instructional assistance they don't all have the same type of job so they don't want the same blanket training they want training that's very dedicated to the work that they do every day whether they're in an inclusive environment in
the General Ed or if they're assigned to a program that is servicing students um on the Spectrum or who have um daily living skills um needs so I'm going to work on a plan to
really outline those very explicit uh professional development needs and identify that so that next year we can have a nice roll out where everybody gets um more choice about what they're um going to be engaged in for professional development
um the other nice thing that nishoba has done um and I believe that assistant superintendent friend started this um along with some of her work was a lot of our elementary special education teachers are trained in Orton Gillingham
they have the basic training which is um it's a three-day training but beyond that which is very unique to nooba is we they've been placing them into the practicum for or in Gillingham which is a year-long practicum for training that on
multisensory reading instruction which is really important at our elementary level my goal is to really make sure that moving forward we're focused in on making sure that everybody is trained at the elementary and middle school level and that we keep up with that on a
regular basis so I'll be creating kind of a tracking uh system um to make sure that we're staying on top of that Alita goal number six so this is a multi- teared system of support for um you know really tier 2
and tier three and the um seal work that um when I was hired is part of the focus of the work of the student services department so there is work uh we this district has a beautiful mtss handbook that was started and it's really a great
guide to continue working from um the area of focus now is to start looking at what does social emotional learning look like for nishoba in that tiered model so really meeting with the assistant superintendent um and creating the
groups that will do some work around what seal um instruction looks like across a district right now it is instruction um or choices are at the building level for some advisories so there's some great work going on there
and we should build on that um but have some consistency around you know we have data through Panorama what are we doing with that data what how does seal fit into that what are our needs as a district and what are we going to propose long uh for more longterm
process so that ultimately encompasses all the work that I'm going to be doing thanks so much for that we really appreciate that conference yeah and like I said it's ongoing work I hope to come back and give you updates on what the Committees and meetings that I'm holding
and work that we're doing throughout the year um I'm really excited again there's no lack of when I reach out to the staff here um to say I want to start this there I have many people that are like I want to be a part of that process which
is just fabulous so I'm really excited about the work moving forward great I wonder if the committee has any questions or comments yeah go ahead Jackie sorry I have to thank you so much yeah um I I know that I speak um as a
Committee Member but also as a a parent that having full transparency and more information on the website is key um so thank you for this presentation and for sharing this information with our community um I did want to ask two
questions um one of the things that I know in my own work and in my own experiences in talking with community members there's a lot of misconceptions around what special education is the difference between a 504 plan our district accommodation plan do you think
that in I'm thinking in particular around goal one and or go goal four like around some of that transparency either on the website or cuz we I'm sure like many other people you get um requests for testing
that are not um they're based Sol on like an outside diagnosis and there's a lot of misinformation I think from people outside of the academic field so is there any efforts to kind of like educate yes definitely and that's been
coming up a lot as a discussion um with our team chairs um they're two very different processes so we have to be very clear about that um unfortunately I think what happens sometimes in that process is if
a student is um if a parent wants testing or a team wants testing we are required to go through that evaluation process so we go through that evaluation process and at times at the end of that process there's an eligibility sheet
with certain questions um and if the first two question questions are does a child have a disability and the team says no it kind of drives you to this box on the side that says this child may be eligible for a 504 so that
I think that's confusing and how we're presenting that at teams meetings need to be more clear because the meeting needs to stop and if the 504 process is going to move forward then we have to have a very clear separate process and
that's a piece I'm trying to work out with guidance there's a clear team for that and so I can make that very much more clear on the website to divide out the two processes and really what they mean um in supporting a child for learning but yes that is uh
Focus um the other question I had is as part of this process do you think that um you would revisit the Decap and update it yes when I first came on assistant superintend tenant friend said we're
doing the Decap this year so yes January her and I will be starting the process of the Decap um I'm actually excited for that work so yes over it is overdue and uh what is what is the Decap oh yes so it's a district accommodation plan um so
really what is it's a driving document that says these are all the accommodations that our district teachers our general education teachers are going to engage in in their classrooms at any given time um so it
doesn't need to be a separate IEP process or a 504 these are the things we've committed to we've trained our staff on them these are the resources to access them um to see how they might work in your in your
classroom so as a followup in yeah I I hope that there's going to be actually some education to parents about that about the Decap cuz like I know about it because I'm a teacher but if I was trying to figure out what that and even looking at this document which is huge
and how would I even approach like okay I think my kid could use some of these what is the pro what do I do where do I go from here and like like what are all the like I don't you know what I mean it's kind of overwhelming so I I hope that there's going to be a m i don't know if it's a manual or something that
gives some guidance to parents about that no I I completely agree with you and I think you know part of updating the plan is also updating how we're going to message that plan out and train our staff on that so that's a whole
process that we have to make sure we put action steps on and and do but I agree with you yes please sure M Wessel brings up a great point and I want to cue us back to our goal around growing our family
University concept is as because I know Mr man has talked with the CPAC about that on how we can bring some more Family University events forward that are going to educate them on these types of components that were you know capturing here tonight so we
will be doing that okay any other questions I just have one quick one I really appreciate the program that you brought in where parents are given the opportunity to weigh in on the process the the IEP evaluation process whether it's an initial or reeval I wonder if we
could expand that to survey parents who are going through the 504 process because if a parent gets kick to that parallel world um which I've been through a
couple of times myself personally I know that that process is just as critical just as emotional as an IP meeting can be and getting that feedback from parents can be really helpful yes I agree with you
yeah can I just following up on the um the 504 piece um I think it also would be helpful that that piece of um teaching or sharing the information
about what that means instead because as a if if a parent is in that process where they have come to an IEP meaning there it's clear that there's something happening and to be in that position in
the in the IEP meeting where you have a child that is struggling and the answer is no that they're not your child is not eligible for niep um I think that that leads families feeling like they're not heard um and so
to for families to be able to understand then the I is not available for this and this and this reason but or and we are offering or we have this other way to address your needs I think would be
um I I think that for parents to understand that would be a really helpful thing and how that 504 plan um is implemented and used um by the teachers yes yes and that's really where that when I look at
the 504 process it it's about making sure that the family not only or the parent understands that process but understands that we carry that process through just as seriously
as we follow through on an IEP and often times families feel like if it's not an IEP it's not going to be implemented so that has to be communicated of how it gets implemented what the processes around how we uh convey that information
and updating families on what that looks like in the classroom how is it going what is the 504 accommodations happening so it's really more communication and more transparency about the process so I agree with you on that yeah a piece I'll
add to that as well miss p is we've really worked hard with our our principles in the past 12 months and we'll be doing this again as we go through these are our midyear updates are permanent is when requests come and a parent presents as hey my child is
struggling that they have a sit down let's look at each other let's look at our eyes and educates them about the potential outcomes prior to them ever beginning so that people don't feel like they're not sure what the outcome might be on the other end so the pathways are
clear so that is something we're growing not just in the team meeting process itself but before we even enter yeah to that point at some would it be possible to do some level of Outreach I think in the community
because I think there's a there is a lot of misperception around a lot of these processes and what it looks like and not even as a like going through the process as a parent and having the ability to communicate with the building principal or with a guidance counselor but like
our pediatricians our area of mental health agents there's a lot of Opp that you know I think as we know demands are increasing like and then the expectation is that how are we meeting those needs so it's
it's really important that it's clear for everybody all right so that has been an education thank you so much appreciate thank you all right guys so the next element on new business is to uh Advance a
couple of motions on two memorandums of understanding or agreement as we sometimes call them and this is something that was handled in executive session and now we are going to bring forth to the public what has occurred and so we basically are replicating something that was done earlier and so
you can just engage in the same way that you did before so we'll turn to Amy for a motion on the first mou that is about the Seal of biliteracy I mooved to approve the Seal of by literacy mou as presented on December 4th 2024 I'm to pause before that and
so will the M be put into the meeting materials now they will yeah they will be put into the meeting materials we'll get those finalized up get all the proper signatures on them and then yes we will okay so thank you I'm going to second that and just as a matter of
discussion um is basically creating a coordinator stiffened position for work that is being done um adding this to the contract to be discussed at a later time so we're going to go around the table and just take second I second yeah
unless there other further discussion all right so go around the table John yes and Lindsay yes Scott yes Robin yes Amy yes Joe yes am yes myself yes chor
yes and Jackie yes excellent um so now over to the next M I'll yeah I move to approve the custodian differential mou as presented on December 4th 2024 and I will second that and just to give a
little bit more information this is to uh Rectify a glitch in the contract that we approved to make sure that the custodial pay is um living up to the spirit of the contract language and it amounts to about 20 cents more per hour
um per day or during a certain period of time at the M you identifies so any further discussion all right John roll calling I'm uh I think you can roll call you know you know what we can roll call it because we
took the vote in executive session of roll call so yeah that's replicate yeah um so let's do it it's this so fun go ahead John Lindsay yes Scott yes Robin yes am yes Joe yes Amy yes myself yes Jaren yes
sh yes and Jackie uh all right guys so I think the next item here we have no unfinished business which is shocking uh but we can move now to subcommittee advisory report there any subcommittees that need to share anything with the
committee nothing you on the building committee front Jo um nothing nothing more than to say that we have our foundation permit as the members of the building committee know and that the the foundation has been being laid speak um
and I I do think uh I'm I'm just going to say I think that uh uh a debt of gratitude should be given to superintendent Downing and our Consultants at scansa and kba for the diligent work that they did in securing uh the approval that was the
prerequisite to get the foundation uh permit um I think the kba ran up against some it ran up against some uh scheduling issues with d but uh I don't know how you did it and I don't know how you were so quickly to appease the
Bolton uh Board of Health but superintendent Downey and the team did it so we've got a foundation and um we build an high school and uh well this is not public knowledge yet also but attorney BL be
secure our Wastewater application uh has been accepted oh it was okay so now we can proceed with that so water and waste water really important to you really want to know a lot about portable water and waste water uh tune in to on the uh
the Board of Health meeting that we had back couple months ago okay um and then I will also share with you attorney gon because I received this today is that uh attorney G and I attended the Bolton planning board meeting regarding the the
conditions and those and if you recall attorney gleon reported on two of the conditions the school district were not in favor of they did remove those that was voted on by the planning board I received that report today so we can proceed on with activities I mean it's
it's it's going smoothly thank you to the town of Bolton can I just mention what one of those conditions was I I still get a kick out of it you're asking for sidewalk uh snow clearance in perpetuity yeah so get k out that yeah I'm sorry so we we were not agreeable to
clearing the snow up well we're not compell we're not obligated to do that but we will always make sure the sidewalks are safe for our students so great all right so thank you any other subcommittee or advisor reports seeing none uh items for next agend agenda you
guys can see on the planning calendar there our next meeting is yeah so our next meeting is going to be December 18th it is the last meeting of the calendar year here um there's a big item on there that's required by the regional agreement and that's the capital plan
presentation 5year Capital plan presentation uh so get ready for that awesomeness and then uh anything else that's not on here that you guys want to get on well there'll be first readings there'll be a lot of first readings yeah yeah yeah I should have
that feedback for you by then okay excellent anything else right now you want to put on there or consider put in the parking lot I wanted to just note that in the parking lot we have a piece about warrant signature protocol and so if
budget and warrant um has time it's on emergency we don't have to change what we're currently doing which is granting the chair of the school committee the authority to sign the warrant you can leave it like that budget and warrant but it might be something that you want to deal with such you um anything else
one thing and this is basically Bally for our new members the January 15th uh budget Workshop meeting just so you have expectations that's a marathon meeting so that's a night where we go through all the sectors of the organization and the budget which is why we don't put any
other agenda items that night but we will have to vote some rates um that go along with that but that so bring a snack and uh we'll um just want to let them know yep that uh historically called the budget one workshop and um
like that that was all we did was a Saturday from like 8:00 in the morning till 1:00 in the afternoon we fortunately don't do that anymore so um all right so that's it for our agenda I'm going to move to a journ Sharon got you all those in
favor any opposed okay guys that's it that's a wrap e