p.m. So, I'm going to call to order the regular meeting of the Nshoba Regional School Committee at 6:30 p.m. on November 19th, 2025. And if you would mute and rise to join me in the pledge of allegiance.
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, thank you everyone for joining us. We have uh the next on the
agenda is public comment. I've not received any public comment this evening. So, we will continue to move the agenda to the consent agenda. Amy, do you want to make a motion on that? >> Sure. I move to um approve the consent
agenda of November 19th, 2025 as presented. >> I'll second that. Is there any discussion? All right, everybody. We're going to take a roll call vote. Uh Amy, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Matt, >> Robin,
>> yes. >> Scott, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> Uh, Jackie, >> yes. John Door, >> yes. >> All right, I think I got everybody. Let me know if I didn't.
All right. Uh, so consent agenda passes. Thank you everyone. The school committee chairperson has no specific update beyond what is already in the agenda and so we're moving right along.
So glad that our student representatives are prompt because we're on their item now. So I see Maria and Ryan are here. Hi guys. >> Hello. >> What can you share with us? >> Um Maria, you can you can go ahead and
start off. So, last time I did mention we have our Powerpuff happening this Friday, November 21st, but we also have our play happening on Friday and it's a Midsummer Nights Dream. So, I mean, opening night is always very exciting.
And our food drive colle um our food drive is happening and the collection bins are located right outside the main office in the show. Uh and the food collections end on November 25th, so you guys still have time to know. And just a reminder that every item counts, not just food. If you want to like give
personal hygiene items also, it's everything it's received with very much appreciation. >> And um yeah, and then I think >> um so winter sport registrations and the
season uh is coming up. Um the Massachusett Association of Student Representatives, I'll give you a quick update on what they are doing. Um so they're creating a new position for one adult. It's um the organization is entirely studentled right now. Um and it
will continue to be that. But basically this um we received a grant from the bar association for like $100,000 for the next three years each year. Um $100,000. Um, so part of that would go to paying a part-time um, adult who looks to kind of
expand our network um, and is really looking into some of this more like legislative stuff um, between districts and like attending different conferences that um, the students can't really attend and just kind of um, and they'll like propose new initiatives for the
organization to kind of explore. Um, and then another thing they are doing is they're working on designing district specific conferences. So, right now we have like the annual delegate assembly which is from all over Massachusetts, but they're also going to establish like
um a meeting that with schools from like our given area. Um, so like more um specific problems and stuff like that can be kind of approached and talked to with student representatives from that area. Um, I think that covers the list for
this week. >> Wonderful. Thanks, guys. Uh, to the members, do you have any questions for our student Jillian? >> Maria, I was just wondering where you guys donate all of the food that you collect. >> Okay, so actually that's an amazing
question. Let me go check the email cuz I we all received the email about it. But okay, all donations will go directly to um Oh my god. I'm not going to know how to pronounce
this. Like it's we no wh and I know I'm going to pronounce it wrong. That's why I spell the hand out. Community connection. >> It's wheat. we thought it was like pronouncing it very
wrong and things will be completely stupid. >> So yeah, community connections, that's where it's gonna go. >> Oh, that's amazing. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Great. Any other questions for our students? All right, I'm not seeing any golden
hands. I don't have a question, but I'm just uh wanted to tell Ryan that I really appreciate the updates on um the student representative organization and like it sounds like um not only is it a great opportunity for you, but for
our district and for student representatives across the state. Like it sounds it sounds like an amazing opportunity. I'm so glad that we have representation from Nova. So, thank you. >> Thank you. All right, guys. We appreciate you. So,
thanks for being here and letting us know what's going on. Uh, we're going to move the agenda to the next item here, and that is the superintendent's report. And so, I will turn it over to Superintendent Downing. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. Um, before we begin, if I could
ask Miss M Oh, you already did. Dr. Bon just entered the room, so that's great. And I know that Miss Hanigan is going to be joining us uh shortly. Is that correct, Miss Friend? We're we're getting people the correct links to come join us. So >> on her way, >> she's on her way.
>> Han's gonna come uh talk a little bit um about our survey uh map for the year. So while we're doing that, why don't we give her a chance and I'll transition um to the timeline of requests for
proposals. Uh so Mr. McCarron, I'm calling you up to bat uh a little early in the order here. Um, we're going to have a brief report today. There's no new strategic items since the last time we met that are uh that we're reporting back on. So, Mr. Mccarron, can you uh
brief the committee on our timelines for the two requests for proposals? >> Yeah, thank you, Superintendent Downing, and good evening to the school committee. Uh, we're presenting a brief update on the status of our request for proposals process for both food services and the before and after school child
care program. Uh specifically, we're providing an overview of of the timeline of those RFPs, obviously. So, uh with regards to food service, uh that would need to be submitted to DESIE by January 30th. They would have an opportunity to review the template language uh prior to
that getting posted. Uh and once it is posted, it would take approximately 60 days uh to conduct the entirety of the process depending upon how many uh proposals we receive uh interview times, site visits, tastings, uh all those
types of things. But at the end of the process, a proposed contract would need to be approved by DESIE and then it would be brought to school committee. So you as a governing body would be the final okay on that. So we would anticip anticipate uh submitting a food services
RFP template as the first step to DESIE in December. Uh there's no DESIE approval process for the RFP for before and after school care. However, we do need to follow proper procurement um laws and regulations and would expect
this process to also take 60 days uh from the posting date to a contract being brought forward to school committee for approval. Uh we anticipate posting the before and after school RFP also uh in December or early January.
>> Okay. Any questions on that item before we move to the survey strategy? >> Okay. Not hearing any. Uh I wonder Oh, Miss Pac, thank you. >> Hi, chair. Sorry, I couldn't find my golden hand. Um,
so let me just when we met two weeks ago, it seemed like there was a lot of confusion in the community, especially in Lancaster about what was happening here and and why this was happening. So
I just want to make sure that the process is clear so and so that it's clear to me and to everybody else who's watching or interested um what's happening here. So, um,
the towns have made it clear over a period of several years that finances are tight in the towns and that they want the district to find ways to rein in the budget. And this has been coming up for several years through in the
budgeting process. Um, and it's been happening in the budgeting process is things have been streamlined and efficiencies have been found. um throughout different pockets in the district. And so right now what is
happening with this RFP is exploring another option to create an efficiency for the district. Um, and the RFP process will give us that information. And then at that point,
the school committee makes the decision about what's in the best interest for the communities and for the families based on the recommendation that the district that the administration brings
forward and based on what is going to be the best provide the best programs or the best food services for our communities and for our families. Did I say that correctly?
>> Yes, Miss Bach. I'll and and I'll just um sort of put a stamp on that. Uh yes, your words I think outlined it. This is a process that is going to help us understand um um you know the operational responsibility in these two sectors as
we do that with every element of the budget. Um so these are the things that we have constant conversations around. like we get we don't get direction from our towns about specific things to examine. Uh we just continually do our due diligence like we have in past years
with looking at non-salary accounts, developing our classside standards ratio, our administrative standards ratios to ensure that uh we're we're being responsible to our taxpayers. And in the end, yes, it is a vote of the school committee. So once we analyze
those requests for proposals, the district will point the committee forward on a recommendation based upon the findings uh from those RFPs and uh ultimately the school committee makes the decision. >> Thank you.
Any other questions on the timeline? >> Okay. >> Sorry. Can I just ask a point of clarification? Yeah. >> So to be very clear, it would be approval from Desi first
and then it would be brought to the school committee based on what superintendent said, >> Mr. McCarron. >> Yeah. So Desi has a a model template that they require that we use. We have to use that model template and get their approval to post meaning that we've used
the model template according to their regulations and standards and as they require. uh once we go through the process of posting and you know reviewing responses and the whole process there uh if we do
move forward with recommending a contract, Desi has to see that contract first and approve the contract from their lens before it would come to you for approval. Your approval would allow uh the superintendent to sign the contract.
>> Thank you. All right. And is it looks like that might be the only um couple of questions we had for that. Kirk, >> great. Um our next item is uh our survey strategy for the 2526 school year. I am
being an opportunist here in bringing forward our communication specialist and innovation uh pathways coordinator Bridget Hanigan. She's done a tremendous job for these in this area. she is the one uh that leads up uh the construction and distribution of our surveys um while
we as a team work on uh the content of those. So she's here to just talk about uh the pathway of the surveys and what we're going to be doing this year. So Miss Hanigan, take it away. >> All right. Um so we developed our survey strategy over the summer. Um, and we
were really looking to identify areas that and topics that we wanted feedback on while also making sure that we were building a timeline that was mindful of avoiding survey fatigue. Um, so in identifying those topics, we launched it to our leadership team during the summer
retreat so that not only we could kind of walk through the survey tool with them, but also to gather feedback from them on if you know we were hitting the topics that they felt were important. Um, you know, like Superintendent Downing said, I might be the person that sends these surveys out, but it's really a team effort to identify the questions
that we're asking and the reasons behind why we're asking them. Um, I think probably the most important element of the survey strategy. um or at least the most notable one is that we've been really mindful to make sure that we are building time for our leadership team to
look at the data and look at the responses that are coming in so that we can close that feedback loop and make sure that families, students, staff who are taking these surveys are not getting fatigued from the amount of surveys, but also not getting fatigued because they feel like we're not hearing their survey
responses. >> Miss Masterson, would you mind pulling up the uh survey map for the year? Um, thought exchange is our primary surveying tool that we'll be using as we're moving away from the Panorama
platform as that contract expired and and we didn't feel the need to carry two contracts. Um, and so I know it's in the meeting material, so you probably have it in front of you, but for the benefit of all, we'll put it
up on the screen here. Okay, go ahead, Bridget. >> Um, yeah, so Alita, if you don't mind, Miss Masters, if you don't mind, um, just scrolling down a little bit. We've identified three main target audiences: staff, students, and families. Um, and we've really kind of tried to go through
and be very mindful of the topics we're asking, but also the frequency at which we're asking questions. If you look at the analysis timeline, those are meetings that we have pre-identified where once these surveys close, we'll sit down as a leadership team or as a principal team. Um, thought exchange
does an absolutely phenomenal job of taking all of the responses you get and formatting them in a way that allows you to really easily identify trends. So, we'll come together as a team, look at those trends, and then if you look at the far right side, the follow-up deadline, that's where we'll be letting,
you know, we'll be emailing out or responding to recipients, letting them know, thank you for your feedback. Um, here are the things that we've identified as trends, and, you know, we'll be using these moving forward. Uh, but really, I think it's the survey strategy is built to be from beginning
to end so that we are really utilizing these surveys to their max um ability. And I think we were also mindful of these are our baseline surveys. So this is what is absolutely going out this year. There's a high likelihood that we'll identify other areas of feedback
throughout the school year. And those surveys can either be added in as additional surveys or we can look to identify if there's an upcoming survey in which we could include specific questions that would give us the feedback we're looking for or if there are other tools that we can use.
I'm happy to answer. Pastor, would you mind scrolling down a little further? So, one of the questions, thank you. That's where I wanted to point out. One of the questions uh we uh that I was asked previously was around uh getting some surveys uh our faculty for our
leaders. our faculty and staff do their 360 surveys of their leaders in May and that's when um the leadership team also completes their survey for me at that time. So I just wanted to point that out because that was a question earlier this
year. So with that we can take that down. Are there any questions? >> Uh Shandor, sorry took me a second. Um, with the surveys, uh, are they all anonymous? Are there demographic questions so you can do sort of crosscut
analysis or, um, do you know who is responding so you can correlate it with other data you have? >> It's going to largely depend on the survey that's going out. Um, traditionally in the past like our sense of belonging survey through Panorama has
been anonymous for students. Um but we are still colle collecting demographic information so that we're able to actually you know evaluate and analyze those results. Uh but the short answer is it's going to be specific to the survey um and the purpose of the survey.
>> But you have some standard um demographic questions so you can do the same cross cuts ac across all surveys. >> Yes. >> Oh that's awesome. >> Any other questions about this? Go ahead Jackie.
I didn't have this question prepared ahead of time. It was just based on something that Superintendent Downing said. I I know that we're moving away from using the Panorama uh data. Is the district still able to retain that? Okay,
Amy. >> Yeah. >> Yes, we have retained it. Sorry, I was muted. >> Oh, okay. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you there. Um, so I guess my question is this is an engagement
I is the is the main purpose of these surveys to um gauge communication because at the top it's called communication and survey strategy and then on the second page it's called engagement
and um and I'm I'm just wondering because there There are some things that I would like to see incorporated into the survey strategy, but I want to make sure it's part of what the goal of of what you're looking to gather
information on is. Um, >> so the focus of these surveys is is teasing out the items that we discussed with our leadership council so that we can uh gather that information to make uh the effective steps that we want to
make. So we'll be reporting back on what those highlights are. Um but the student engagement survey for instance is it will follow along sort of the same themes and trends as the panorama survey um did as one example.
>> Okay. Um, I wonder if when you survey the K through 12 families on fall conferences, I know that has Could you also include open houses because I noticed that that wasn't listed on this um mapping
anywhere? And I I personally feel like they're very important >> part of the family experience. Um, and >> well, we're those surveys have already been are already out there. Correct, Miss Hanigan? Yes, those were already sent out. >> So, uh, but I think that's good feedback
and we'll notate that and add, um, open houses, uh, into our followup next year. >> Yeah. >> It sounds like maybe you just need to add it to this table if you've already done it. >> Yeah. Yeah. And then um my other question or I guess my other ask would
be that when you are um looking to assess students sense of belongings and their level of engagement in school if I see that the target audience there is the students themselves which I love that we're gathering
you know information straight from the students. I feel like the information might be richer if families were also um part of the target there. And
um there was a third. Oh, so that's that's my second point. I don't know you know if you want to respond to that or not. Well, when I think of student engagement, I do think directly from the student because when you go to talk about student engagement from the lens
of the parent, it's now through that filter and and it becomes that per it becomes a perception survey at that point. >> Um, so I hear your point. I guess we could develop that topic more to understand specifically uh what it is you'd be interested in
learning. I just know as a parent sometimes my kids appear different in school than they do at home. And maybe having both sets of data would help inform, you know, your understanding of what's really going on. >> Um >> what's difficult about that just in
terms of a survey strategy, I'm not uh contradicting your point. I think it's a good one. Yeah. >> Um but when you you survey sort of a third person about the other person um it loses validity in its assessment of what you're trying to assess because
it's not a direct result of so that's why it it would have to be a survey of the parents I think not the parents perception of the student. So I think it's the semantic. It's so it' be the a survey of the parents
thoughts on that but it can't necessarily be the parents thoughts on the students thoughts because then we start getting into muddy waters that we can't define well to help us then apply it to the work because ultimately what
these surveys uh are intended to do is inform us so that we can uh validate or identify uh areas that are important and make the reinforcement or actionable change that we would desire.
>> Yep. And um along that thought process, I guess my only other piece of feedback is that um I see that you're asking what was your most positive experience this year at school to the students? And I
wonder if we should also be asking um you know in in in light of our goals for being a a learning organization and with a goal of continuous improvement. If there's we could be asking a question
like you know what was one thing that could have gone better or you know one thing that um yeah maybe that I don't know how you would phrase it but something along those lines like is there something that
could have gone better or that we could do to make your experience at school better? just my two cents. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I I think I'll jump in with my I have two questions for you guys. Um and
I think that Amy kind of covered the second one mostly, but I think that the last two rows of the chart >> are um they're leading. So the two questions are are leading >> and that's what we call a push pull. So
I think that you need to kind of frame it differently. uh make the question more neutral or just maybe ask it two different ways like Amy said because I think that um uh kids most of them anyway many of them in Nishoba and in a
lot of school systems they only know Nishoba and so they don't really know what they don't know and so I know that the family perspective can be useful because a student might come home
um and is cramming for mult multiple choice test and is really like trying hard and wants to do really well and a parent is thinking wow I really wish it wasn't another multiple choice test and the student will not know any different and say oh I think that this you know
this is normal this is this is the way you learn this is the way it's done this the way it's done but I think that parent perception can provide you with another angle on the teaching and learning and um so I don't I don't want to get inside my own kids's head I'm good But um I think that to provide you
with my perspective as I raise my child while they go through the school system and all the parents I think can be really another triangulation that can be useful for the teaching and learning department. So yeah I agree with you Amy. So I I would like to see those two surveys
worded differently. Um I also think I had a quick question for you just like about the operation of thought exchange. I noticed that when I took the survey on the conferences, I was so grateful to give all the feedback that I gave. Um, so thank you for that.
But normally thought exchange um asks me to weigh in on the commentary of other survey takers and it didn't offer any of that methodology this time. >> That is typically when an exchange is
set up. The reason that we opted to do a survey for this was so that people wouldn't be um held back by concerns of others seeing their responses. So this just means like you can give your full response and we can collect that data. The exchange is like what we used at the beginning of the school year with staff
members where we wanted to create something a little bit more collaborative. Um, and Superintendent Downing, feel free to step in if I'm misspeaking on any of this, but the reason the choice was to keep it as a survey without seeing other responses was just to increase the comfortability of the participants.
>> Yeah. The the element that you saw uh for the conferences is what gave us the confidence to move away from panorama because thought exchanges broaden their capabilities. So, we took advantage of that. Um, and um, so Miss Hanigan, I thought you answered the question quite well. But do you guys think that you
will be using that that methodology going forward with some of the other surveys? Because I actually found that aspect of it to be the most revolutionary part. Oh yeah. I mean ultimately I don't know what you're seeing on the back end but it felt like a Google form to me >> whereas thought exchange was like far
more powerful the last time I engaged in it. >> Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I think we would just keep it at some of those shorter surveys so that it's easier for people to respond without you know all of the varying answers. Um, but yes. >> Yeah. >> And Oh, go ahead.
>> Yeah. I was just going to say that I I put some information in there that I thought to myself, well, maybe my position is an outlying one. And that's why I like thought exchange because it can kind of get rid of my outlying um position. So, and that can be more useful for you guys because if I'm an
outlier, I don't want to totally skew your data. Um, which is why I liked it. I have one last question. Oh, go ahead, Jack. I mean, >> yeah, I think Jackie's up. Go ahead, Jackie. >> I'm just wondering, too, if we ever if
we loop back around to this at some point in the future, it would be great to hear what response rates you are getting for those of us who like that kind of stuff. >> Yeah, that's the that's the last column on the chart. You see that? Uh, we will be coming back on the highlights from
those service. Go ahead, Amy. >> That's what I was going to say. >> Results matter. Okay. Anything else on the um survey procedure or strategy?
Right. Uh we're grateful for you guys not only taking this work on, but sharing it with us and making it super transparent so um the community knows what's coming. So, it's great. Thank you for the opportunity to present it. Thanks for being here.
>> Thank you, Miss Hanigan. >> All right, superintendent's report. >> Sure does. >> Well, then let's move on to new business. Um, I am going to turn it back over to Kirk because we have the NRHS robotics travel request which we didn't
necessarily expect, but it was um, so we kind of moved it around on the planning calendar, but it did make its way to us because it's ready and uh, sooner the better. So, >> that's right. >> Go ahead, Kirk. >> Well, we got we got a real bang up and excited uh, uh, leadership team with our
robotics team with the uh, retirement, Mr. Fordiani. So, I am going to turn it over to Dr. Bon at this time. um uh to introduce our request for robotics travel. >> Thank you so much, Superintendent Downing, and thank you, Chair Vivivero and school committee for the opportunity
to be here this evening. Hopefully, you can hear me. I've got my earbuds in because there's some family noise. Um and I am very, very pleased to introduce our new robotics advisors, Erin Stutum and Brian Broer, who are longtime mentors to the program. Brian is also a
parent of a robotics uh team member in the program and um we are newware adviserss and we are um here to share with you our proposal and and request for um preliminary approval for our um
world trip uh competition in the springtime. Um, and with that, I will turn it over to Aaron and to Brian um to share with the committee. You have the field trip uh packet. So, they'll just introduce a little bit about the um the
competition and the timeline and then I believe um it would go to a vote for next meeting. So, not not for this evening. So, this isformational. Aaron and Brian, welcome. >> Thank you very much. Um Erin, I'll jump in and just give the
framework for the trip and then you can tell a little bit of something about the robotic team. Um for our for our team this year, um this will be the fourth year in a row that we're requesting to go to the World Championships in Houston. We've been able to go the last three years. Um, and in fact, last year
was our most successful year where we made it to the top level of competition in what they call the Einstein field, which means we were like really the best of the best and got to compete on the highest level um, with all the teams across the world. So, it was super exciting for our students um, and for us
mentors and all the parents. Um, so this year's trip is very similar to the previous four years. It's in Houston, Texas. The dates of the competition are from a uh Wednesday, April 29th through Saturday um May 2nd. And our travel will
typically be around those same windows around that Tuesday night or Wednesday through like Saturday night, Sunday. Um and what we typically request that our parents um support the students that are going um in terms of paying for their
travel. So typically the parents will book airfare um for the students and then for hotel and lodging actually through the first organization they partner with another company called conference direct who is responsible for booking the thousands of rooms that all
the first students need. So um we qualify for the event um approximately two weeks before the travel date. Um, but because we're we've gone three years in a row, we actually get a an invite to book our hotels much sooner in the year.
So, in previous years, there was a lot of a last minute type of activities um being able to book. So, although we don't find out if we qualify until about two weeks before the event, we should be able to secure some of our travel um much earlier in the um in the season
around January, February um time frame. And then so typically that conference direct banks an aotment of hotel rooms based on our need for the number of students going um through their vetting process and then um the parents then book direct through that hotel a lotment
um for the trip. Um the rest of the details I think are in the packet for any of the other nuances about just getting back and forth from the airport. Um we've been lucky that our hotel has been really close to the venue so we don't need any additional transportation um on a daily basis. And Erin, I don't know if you want to give a little bit
more color just kind of on what the event brings for the students and the team um and for the program overall. >> Uh yeah, so as Brian said, um we reached the highest level of play this year. So we were the number one seed on our
field. So we, you know, we were the best team on our field in our division. Um we won our division. We went to Einstein. That's 32 teams out of uh I think it's almost 800 that attend world champ 600 at world champs. Um but that puts us in the top 5% of teams in the world. So you
know obviously the continued support of you know school district has been helpful for us. Um you know the event is a huge opportunity for our kids to interact with teams from all over the world. Um this year on our field we had multiple teams from Israel, Mexico,
um Turkey, and uh Canada. So, you know, it's a great opportunity for the kids to interact. There's a really awesome uh college fair and demos and things like that. Some of you might know who Mark Robber is. He was there last year. So, uh yeah, it's a great opportunity for
the kids when you ask them. Um you know, we start our season meeting. We had our team kickoff about a month ago and the question we asked the team is, you know, what team do you want to be? You know, how far do you want to go? And every kid says Einstein's the goal. You know, that's the the pinnacle for us. And uh you know, they're motivated to go back
and we're motivated to help them get there. So that was my my one big takeaway from last year is at the beginning of last year's season, they had the goal to go to Einstein and our team has never made it that far. Um, so throughout the year, every event, every night at the school,
every project that we worked on, it was within the guise of like that's our goal, that's our north stars to make it Einstein. So, it was great to see it sort of plan out. And then when we got to Houston and to worlds, um, to be prepared, to be excited, to be ready, um, for all of our robot skills, our
personal skills, um, and then just to execute and succeed. So, I think the the kids found a good sense of accomplishment um, when all is said and done. Yeah, we had just to share, you know, one of my favorite moments from this season is uh 1690 is uh arguably the
best team in the world. They're from Israel. And um they came by our pit to talk to our kids and check out our robot, which was I think they were all a little bit starruck that this team that we admire, you know, the world champions want to see how Nishoba builds a robot,
which was really cool for our kids to, you know, get to explain and show what we're doing. Thank you, Aaron and Brian. Does Madam Chair, does the committee have any questions for our adviserss? >> Yeah, let's see. Jillian,
>> just a quick question out of curiosity. Um, it looks like it's a a pricey trip for the families. If there were hypothetically a student who um would need assistance in order to attend, how do you guys handle that? Yeah, we we've offered that every year
both and we we have an upfront fee. There's a couple hundred like um team fee or whatnot and we offer up front if any student you know um has an issue paying that that the team still lets them in and we've sort of applied the same mentality to the travel for the big
events. It's always put out there um that the value is for the student to be a part of the team all the way through. Um, we do some fundraising as a team. Um, which we've been a little, you know, we've improved the fundraising year-over-year. We've been able to give the families a little bit of money, um,
to help go to that travel. Um, but through our nonprofit and the organization, we would have funding to be able to support any student um, that couldn't afford it. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions about the request?
All right. I am seeing I have a quick question for you. The total cost of the trip, you're saying it's somewhere going to be somewhere between 225 and $34,000. >> $3,400. >> I'm sorry. >> Oh. Oh. Total cost. I'm sorry. Yes. Thousand.
>> Yeah. So, I'm just looking at the total cost. That ranges because you're not totally sure how many kids will be on the team, how many will go. >> Yeah. The math was with with I put >> I put in there what the assumption was for the number of kids and I just multiplied it by that 1500 to 2,000.
>> Yeah. Our hotel cost isn't we don't know it until we we basically get a block of rooms and get to decide and since we want to avoid having to take any type of transportation to the venue um we're kind of at the mercy of hotels near the venue.
>> Yeah. My estimate was based on approximately 15 students. >> Oh, interesting. Okay. And then the 1,500 to $2,000, that's an all-in total cost to the student, including airfare and everything else. >> That's just um the computation for
airfare and hotel. And then we with also help from the parents um work through at least one meal a day that the team helps support or the parents help support. >> Great. Okay. And so there might be a little bit of additional cost beyond that, but not a ton. >> Yeah. And one thing that Aaron and I are
super proactive about is we have our sort of official team meeting the first week of December with students and parents. And as a parent myself, it's super important for us to kind of lay out the plan for the whole season to the whole group. So our plan the first week
of December is to sort of set that expectation with all parents about kind of like both the time investment but also a little bit about the financial investment um that we that we get the support from the family. So that way they know now um versus maybe sometimes in the prior year some of that stuff was
a little bit more last minute um and a little bit more like scattered on trying to raise money or a little bit unclear kind of on what some of those costs might be. >> Yeah. Okay. I see Kirk's hand. Go ahead, Kirk. Yeah. Uh, for our members of the committee that are hearing this for the
first time, uh, Brian and Aaron, well done. Thank you for for being here tonight. Um, we bring this forward in November because once they get into the competition uh, and qualifying schedule, it's a fast turnaround after the qualifiers then go
to the worlds and and there's been cases where we had to pull a meeting together to get things approved quickly. So, so we adopted a practice a few years ago of approving in the fall with those ranges in there knowing there'll be some variability to that.
>> Yeah, we we probably won't know that we qualify until April 15th would be the day that we find >> we'll have a good idea, but we won't officially know until after our district championship. So, this year's the biggest break we've ever had between districts and worlds, and I think it's only
>> 13 days or something. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. 11 days. >> So we do this practice for both robotics and the DECA program because of the the tight turnaround time after qualifying for those big events. >> And where is districts?
>> Springfield. >> District is out at the Big E in Springfield. >> Yeah, the Big E. >> Oh, okay. >> So that's just a day trip. >> Yep. >> Got it. Okay, Jackie. So when they make it, we need to make sure that everybody has the link to
watch online because it's really it's very impressive to see our students on this world stage with kids from all over the world. It's really exciting. Thank you both. >> Excellent. So I don't see any other
questions. Um so we all wish you the very best of luck. We're grateful to you to carry this program forward into this next school year and it's a huge um it's a really big reason why Nishob is so great. So we thank you for doing this
again for our kids and for our schools. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we'll take up the vote next week. All right, everybody. So, we're going to move the agenda now to the next item of new business, and that is policy IKF,
the graduation requirement policy. This is a first reading, so this is an opportunity for all of us to give our policy subcommittee feedback if we think it's necessary. But I'm going to turn this over to Jackie to um cue this up, set it up, help us understand what you
need us to do. So, I know, thank you. I know that everyone remembers there were these three very timesensitive policies that we were asked to review with Superintendent Downing and central office. Um, so this is the second of
those three policies and this is specifically looking at the graduation requirements. I will let Superintendent Downing um, take over from here, but I did want to communicate that you'll see that there's the redline version and then a clean copy for school committee members who
need to and benefit like me from being able to see it without the red. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Reiner. Um I would like to just open by saying we're in this period of time uh where with the passage
uh last year of of um ballot question two and MCCAST being removed as the competency determination requirement. We're in this sort of like bridge time of when uh uh the state will be coming out with what
will be the future competency determination. I had the great benefit today of attending the Worester County Superintendent meeting where uh Secretary of Education Patrick Tutweiler appeared today and we had quite um a beneficial discussion around those
graduation requirements. So we will be getting the report uh that the committee has been working on in the next two to three weeks. So we look forward to seeing uh what has been happening at the state level there. Uh but in the meantime, Miss Mastersonson, if you'll
bring it up, um the first piece we need to to look at was our graduation requirements. And if you could bring up the redline version, Miss Mastersonson. We currently have our uh NOSA graduation requirements already in policing. The redline version that's in your meeting
material tonight simply points out the changes with that. I will point out that in terms of the coursework, the biggest element in the changes is aligning our graduation expectations to the mass core. Now, what I will say about the
mass core is while there are increased requirements according to our graduations, the vast majority of our students, somewhere in the 90% range are already meeting the mass core requirements. Um, and so it it lines up
pragmatically with what our students are already doing. Uh, so there's no changes in the initial element of the policy. If we can scroll down to where you see the red lining. Here we go. Um, here's just a little bit of
change in language, but we needed to insert the piece about uh, IKF, which will be presented to you at the next meeting, which is the competency determination. Uh so um it just that's the sentence
that connects the two and how also explaining that these increases are aligned to the mass core first developed in 2007 updated in 2018. If we move down to the table, those changes in requirements would be going from three years of math to four
years. In science, there would be three years of a labbased science. Social studies, including US history and world history, world languages, um, two years of the same language. Currently, we don't require that. We also recognize
you'll see there are some appeal and exception policies to that when there are some circumstances that get in the way of that two-year uh connection. Uh also uh it gives me an opportunity to point out that physical education is
required for four years by Mass General Law and then additional course of five years. The total of these and you'll see it says years and then we say credits. That's a really important distinction because uh when we in the mass core with the
graduation requirements, it says four years. Let's say you were to take two sciences in one year. Well, that doesn't count as two years. It's still just one year. So, it's three years that you were enrolled in school that you're taking at
least one science as an example. Um this would uh take effect for uh the graduating class. The competency determination takes uh effect in for the graduating class of 2026. And
when that comes forward, you'll see uh that we're in line to meet that competency determination requirement. um the adjustments uh 2028 for all other requirements uh because you know we don't want to move the ball on our juniors and seniors on those graduation
requirements right now. So then uh as we come down the adjustment of 25 credits that we did before needed to be added to the policy um and just some language uh adjustments. If we move down to the exceptions and alternatives,
you'll see the language here. This is language that we worked out with Dr. Buiton and her team uh around uh the substitutions of courses and academic coursework. There's a lot of complexities that are involved particularly when students transferred
to NHOBA as juniors or even seniors um and if they've come from out of state or even out of country, how do we make those walkovers? So there is a process that allows that where uh Dr. Bon and
her team uh can make some uh decisions to override or provide exceptions as long as the academic rigor is meeting the spirit of our graduation requirements. So uh with that uh we'll take any
questions Madam Chair. >> All right. Great. See if I can just try to see everybody here. I see Sharon's hand. >> Miss Masterson, I think you can pull the policy down. >> Um,
on page the second page of that policy, I there's a line that says I'm going to try and look at it at the same time as I'm talking here. It says additional core course 5 years. >> Yeah,
>> I don't quite understand what that means. >> It's the math that gets us to 90 credits. So it's basically saying there's five years of additional core courses that you can take. So if you did take a double science, that would be one of those. So it's just part of the
baseline of how the graduation requirements was was set up previously or excuse me in in the mass core. >> I guess I'm confused about the five years. I'm sorry. Am I being really No, I'm
confused, too. I think it >> I think it's confusing. >> Yeah. >> So, here's what I here's what I know as a high school teacher, Kirk, is that um >> there are, you know, the freshman and sophomore year, there's typically five
cores. There's the social studies, science, English, math, and and world language. um assuming that in the junior year a kid no longer wants to take world language then it drops to four core classes
and so those four make up 16 credits but they need 25 oh I'm sorry wellness as well wellness as well um wellness is two credits so let's say if I'm a freshman I have five core plus a wellness so it's
22 credits in that year I could take up two. I think that they can take up to 28 credits. So that means I have room for one more class, but it looks like you're saying it has to be a core course.
So does that mean it can't be a business class? It can't be it has to be like an English, a science, a social studies. I think madam chair this is where uh some of our language in our current policy of years gets confused with uh
the um mass core. Uh the mass course speaks in units and as you're bringing this up this is um where it's providing me that that um what am I trying to say what that
confusion is of the conversion of units to years. Dr. Boon, do you want to speak to that? >> I I think you're spot on, Superintendent Downing. And essentially the the additional core courses should be the equivalent of fullyear classes whether
they're two semester science classes or there it would be the equivalent of a total of four credits which is a full unit in the mass core which then is the equivalent of a year. So madame chair I have uh pulled up as that question was
being asked. This is a resource document if I may share. Um so this particular document here is the mass core uh uh educational document for parents and this is where it talks about
uh the unit. Yeah, >> that a unit represents the full academic year of study. Um, and uh does not mean students need to be seated in a class for a specific number of hours to receive the credit for the course. You
can see and that adds that additional language. So, it's it's those additional classes that students do end up taking towards their graduation. >> And so, why did you use the word core course? Additional core course. Couldn't
it just be additional courses? Like they need to take five additional year-long courses even or like 10 semesters of coursework beyond what's above.
>> I think I think it's a good suggestion. Uh it's simply just walk we were walking over the mass core language. Uh Dr. Boon, you want to speak to it? >> Uh I I would. When you look at the mass core document, they use the terminology core and I think they have um an
asterisk there that explains their >> their methodology for core. So core there it should be the um two and two is additional core courses provide flexibility to students seeking to take multiple electives andor additional
coursework to fill specific interests or follow specific career pathways including CTE which is not us but um I think if it confuses folks if we just took out additional courses took out core and put additional courses I think that
>> that satisfies that because it's not it's It's really allowing students to go down that business pathway if they want to or if they really are interested in sciences, they can take multiple science electives as long as the equivalent of uh 10 semester or five years of of
course work that gets them to the minimum 90 credits. >> Yeah. because I think that it's not um obvious that that could be 10 semester classes because I know a lot of our elective courses are semesters. I actually think more of them should be.
But um maybe we could just either put an asterisk so that we they we know what core means in our document. It includes electives or put five years slash10 semesters total.
Either way, I don't think it matters. >> Um, >> Jackie, Madam Chair, I just did I shared that document uh the mask document uh with the committee >> so that you would have a link to that uh in your email. >> So, Jackie, maybe just yeah, make that
note that that that clarification needs to be made on that line item. Sharon, does that help? >> I think the part that was Yes, the core part was confusing. I understand that now that that um
includes electives, but the fiveyear what is really throws me off because they have four years of high school. So when I look at that, I think they have to take five years of these core courses, but they're only there for four years. And that's the part that was
throwing me off. Um, so it's more it's clearer to me to take to say 10 semesters worth of additional classes. Um, it's just the the it was the language of
the year and it being a fifth year when kids are only there for four. That was really confusing to me. >> I I'm wondering if it just makes more sense as we define the units. We are attempting to use the language that we were already familiar with because the
it was there. Maybe we just use the language of units and it clears that up. So it's not perceived as as the years >> like two courses. But the problem is with science like you said it has to be three years worth.
>> Yeah. So I don't want to complicate it, but the way that the framework speaks is that a unit represents the full academic year or its equivalent. So if we switch, we wouldn't be switching all of them to reflect units. We would be only
reflecting the additional courses and removing the core. Is that the request? I think that what I was saying is that you could leave core as long as you put an asterisk on it and then define that core includes electives.
>> We'll pull that we can I think we can pull that language straight over from the guidance documents on mass core >> and then I agree with Sharon. I think um I mean what you're ultimately saying is that they need five years, but what they
really need is 20 credits of additional coursework. And so I wonder if you said 3 years and so like in the science line item it
would say 3 years equivalent to 12 credits, four five years equivalent to 20 credits. Maybe that would help clarify and and it's not an or, but >> yeah, I think we would have to do an and
or uh because the math gets a little wonky with our lab sciences that are the six credit as opposed to the four credit classes. So, it can create an imbalance for kids that do extra science classes, but I I think we can find the language
to meet that. >> So, I'm sorry. I just want to make sure that I have this exact because if we're um integrating those requests in anticipation of a vote for next meeting
um would it be possible Kirk to like edit those in real time so that it's very clear as to what we're changing? >> Sure. Can I can I interject here a little bit because like everyone else this is this was confusing to me.
C can I request that the table's default measurement be credits rather than years because at the bottom at the end of the day you need a certain number of credits to graduate don't you? >> Yeah but that's where it gets tricky Scott. So you have to understand that yes it is it is credits but it's also
years which correlates to units depending on um the course. But until we started talking about this, I had no idea how many credits a course was. >> Yeah. Because it is it it varies, right,
for science. >> Dr. Boon, do you want to talk to this piece? >> I can. I think any of our students who are taking um the what the what the chart indicates is the the minimum. We need a minimum of four years of English.
Now, we need a minimum of four years of math. We need a minimum of three years of a lab science. Um and th those students who take we could do like a range of of credits perhaps in the lab science area. Those students who are
taking um honors level biology for example will be in a six credit class because they will have class every day and an additional lab every other day. Those students taking AP biology will be in an eight credit class. That still
counts as a single year, I believe. >> Yeah. So, the way it would work is if you took two courses like that, it would be 12 credits. But in the other science courses that are four, four credits, >> you would take three of those courses to
get to the same 12 credits. credits. >> And that's not what the the mass core is because it's to say doing 12 credits of science in two years is the same as doing 12 credits of science over three
years when the requirement is for them to be in a science class for three years, not for three the equivalency of three classes. That's the complicated element. But just to get over that hump, um the
science requirement in the mass core is a minimum of 12 credits for NSHOBA. And so you could just say a minimum of 12 credits because some of our lab science classes are still just four.
>> Um some of the kids are going to take the advanced lab classes that go for six. So you could just say a minimum of 12 science credits across three years. Maybe use that column to be a little bit
more descriptive and include years and credits. >> Yeah. I I think in an effort to be simple, we're losing a lot of important detail and you think you think you need both credits and years to understand what you need.
>> I just want to let Jillian weigh in. Uh Leah, you actually just just gave my exact suggestion which was just going to be maybe if we had in that table, you know, if we called it units or credits and then specified, you know, for the science example, you know, 12 credits
over a minimum of three years, you know, so then you are capturing that it needs to happen, you know, over a specific time horizon and also capturing maybe the credits. That might be a little bit easier for people to parse. Does this document articulate anywhere,
forgive me, that each that each course each that a year-long course is four credits at a minimum and a halfyear course is two credits. That might be worth adding. I know it's in the handbook or excuse me the course of studies but it might be worth adding
in here as maybe even just an asterisk at the bottom to say that some science classes are um earn six credits full year science classes can earn anywhere between four and six credits
and that's why and like the asterisk is pointing to the above >> Dr. Boon is that that's extrapolated in the um the course of studies. Correct. >> In the program of studies. Yes. >> In the program of studies. >> Yes. >> Yeah. But I think that just to like if
we're going to be talking about credits and years, I think and I'm a policy maker. I'm never looking at the program of studies. you might want to just make sure that it's clear what each class is worth because in
Hudson, I think our classes are three credits. So, it's it's variable across districts, too. So, it's not even a common number. That's accurate. In some places, a full a full year is five credits, half year's two and a half, full year's one credit
versus half credit. Every school district does it differently. >> Yeah. in terms of awarding awarding credits and I think that's where the standardization came in with the units um through Massore because then it aligns with um with UMass and our state school um acceptance policy and um
admissions policy. That's where I think the units came from to standardize that across um all of the high schools in Massachusetts. Yeah, I'm fine doing it this way, but I think it needs to you probably need to do years and credits and then just articulate at Nishoba a full year
classes, four to six credits, halfear classes always too. >> Madam chair, may I bring the screen back up? >> Yeah. >> So, how does this look in the notes column here? Where's English it's four years minimum of 16 credits.
Mathematics, four years, minimum of 16 credits. Science minimum of 12 credits. Like laid out like that. Yeah. >> Yeah. I Sorry, I didn't raise my hand. I see. >> Go ahead, Amy. Go ahead. I'm sorry,
Sharon. I'll get right back to you. Go ahead, Amy. I think my preference is really just to stick with the term units because that's what's used in Massore and just explain what a unit is instead of yours because I think that
this this adding the credits on the right hand side will help. But I I do think other people are going to look at this document and have questions about the five years. >> But if you put five units, it's a little bit more clear.
or semesters or what, however we want to. Um, but Massore uses unit like everything that I'm reading reference as a unit. So, >> we actually >> Yeah. >> So, we actually um originally adopted
this earlier in 2025. I don't remember if any of these um concerns like what was our rationale at that time for retaining the words years. I'm not sure if anyone remembers.
No. Can I just ask a quick clarifying question before I go to Sharon? Um Kate, is it actually 16 credits of wellness or is it eight? >> It is not 16 credits of wellness. >> It is Thank you.
>> Two, four, five, I want to say six total credits. Junior and senior year it's one credit each and freshman and sophomore it's two credits. So six credits is a minimum. >> Okay. Yeah. So like you have to take it
for four years, but you're only getting six credits for those four years. That's why I actually think this is the best way to do it because >> I like it. Um, if you're if you're if you're then saying you need 25 credits, then that gets a little wonky because you'll say, "Well, I took wellness and
that was supposed to be a a unit and now I'm down two credits." I I actually think we need both. >> Mhm. I agree >> for lay people especially, but let me go to Sharon. Um so I'm feeling like for the English,
math, science, social studies, languages, um the year is very clear. Um with very with a few exceptions, they're all year-long courses anyway. Some of
them are one semester electives, but they fit cleanly into that year um language. The wellness, I hadn't thought about that, but it's really what it is is
four semesters spread out over four years. >> Is that correct, Kate? >> Essentially, yes. Yeah. >> Um, >> yeah, but but not always. >> Not always. Two credits during your your freshman year, two credits during your
sophomore year, one credit junior year, one credit senior year. >> But Sharon, it can be um day one. It can be like alternating days. So, you take it for the full year, but you don't meet every day. Right. >> Right. Right. >> So, that can be weird.
>> Right. So, that is a full year course though in freshman and sophomore year. No. >> Yeah, but only two credits. >> Because it's every other day, right? Um, so that one's a little trickier. What
really confuses me I I'm sorry. I just that five the extra five credits over five years is just it's breaking my brain. I'm sorry. Um, is it
10 semesters worth o spread over the four years? >> It could be a full year class like you take art one which is a full year class. We could express >> we could express it in this way and strike out the five years but where it
says additional core courses minimum of 20 credits >> you just leave it blank. >> Mhm. >> And just leave it blank and it will take care of that concern because I I I I think it is since we have the 90 credit minimum and the and the the 25 per
I think we end up hitting that. Um, when you add up these credits and Dr. Bon cross check me 16 English, 16 math, 12 science, 12 for three years of social studies, eight world languages,
four for fine and performing arts. Is that accurate, Dr. Boon? >> Yep. That would be the equivalent of two semesters worth. Yep. >> Uh, the business classes are four credits. >> That's correct. uh PEU explained would be a total of six credits and then uh
the additional 20 credits that actually adds up to 82 credits out of those those columns. Uh but by saying that 90 credits are minimum that gives you the ability to add additional courses in other departments and it
actually opens up opportunity for kids to develop coursework uh aligned to their interests. >> Yeah. All right. So, I'm sorry. I'm going to jump in here. And this is what always hurts my head when I'm helping my kids with their schedule. The fine and performing arts and the business tech
applied arts line items. They can actually be part of those 20 credits, can't they? >> Yes. >> So, that's weird. And maybe this is what we can do. you what you're basically saying is that >> so you could take band and chorus
>> but on these on this table and the way mass core is written is that that you would do an additional credits. So while you have the fine arts and business here, that would be a minimum requirement there and
additional course credits would be >> Yeah, but I don't I think that if you add up all those credits, you're into like 110. >> It's 82. So, if you take from uh English all the way down to uh additional core courses and add these
credits up, these minimum credits, that's minimum credits of 82. >> Okay. So that leaves room for two more two more four credit classes of student choice of which these additional core courses
would be student choice as well. So over the course of their experience that would be six of those courses in terms of determining pathway outside of what's standard in the departments.
Oh, go ahead, Sharon. >> So, can we put so that we don't end up with a total in our right column that's less than the minimum, can we put additional core course
and put um elective in that column too and then bump that up to 28 credits. And then we get then our total in that right column adds up to the 90 minimum.
It is kind of weird if our total adds up to 82, but we require 90 minimum credits. But is correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that because the additional 20 credits has to meet
the specific academic standards in the core course. So this is the the language on additional core courses to provide flexibility to students to take multiple electives and or additional court work coursework to fill specific interests
career pathways career technical education. So it would technically include under mass core language electives. >> Is there anything that the kids get credit for that isn't coursework? like EMT or because what Sharon is
saying makes sense to me, but maybe that would then box somebody in. >> Alyssa got it for jazz band, chorus, all of those um extra afterchool activities had credit
>> or >> those were those classes. >> Yes. >> So those were credits. Those were credit bearing. Yes. >> And so if if Alyssa had to take 28 additional credits, that would be
forcing her to do more than she needs to cuz she'd be well over the 90 minimum, even though she already is. But >> I think I think in that situation though, those kids like she was getting 32 credits or 30 credits a year. they
they were so far over those kids that were doing that that the minimum was irrelevant. Yeah. But I'm wondering about kids where the minimum isn't irrelevant where they really are just like scraping to get to 90, but like maybe a work study gives
them eight credits over the course of two years and then like then they don't have to take courses to get those eight credits. They're doing work study. Um, >> so having that discrepancy I think is fine is my point.
>> I'll put in the chat, but there's a link um I know that there's the document that we've been referencing, but there's also the core framework which has additional information um at the bottom that might be relevant to our conversation.
All right, let's go to Scott. >> Yes, I have a couple things. So, first of all, with respect to this credit issue, I keep doing the math and I'm pretty sure the it adds up to 78 before you get to the additional line. Um, but um, as far as what the as far as the
additional line is concerned, is there some prescription that says that has to be 20 credits of additional work or are we just trying to say you need to take enough credits so that you reach the 90s? So, should the additional line just be saying instead of 20 minimum, it says
the whatever credits are required to reach 90. >> Kirk or Kate, I'll let you guys answer that one. I'm going back and forth between the program of studies actually from this past year and and Kirk, I'm not sure if
you have thoughts on Scott's suggestion. Right now, I know most of our students end up graduating with more than 90 credits. Um the 90 credits is um something that where a student is enrolled in 25 credits a year. It allows
a little bit of wiggle room for some students who may struggle and we they may need to do um some additional coursework maybe um doubling up on a year to make up some credits to meet that 90 credit threshold. The vast majority of our students who are
enrolled in 25 credits or more and uh in the case of Miss Puck's daughter up to even 30 credits, some of those had to be after school. um those credit bearing EMT and/or music classes because they can't fit it in that 90 credits allows
students who may struggle to still have that time in their schedules over the four years in order to meet that 90 credit threshold. Um if that makes sense. sort of that um it's a benchmark that is right squarely in the middle where our high
achieving students will surpass it and it's achievable for students who may who may struggle um while keeping that 25 credit minimum. We did find when we came back to you a couple years ago and asked to increase the credits to 25, we were
finding that our students with the 23 credit minimum per year were struggling to meet the 90 credit graduation requirement. So, now that we have we're back at 25, we're finding that most of our students are now able to meet that 90 credits with the 25 credit minimum um
to be considered full-time um as a student. And I'm not sure um I I honestly could go either way. I just want to make sure that this policy is clear for our students and our families. >> I guess the question becomes what's the purpose of the line that says additional
courses? Like if because down below there's a bullet that says every student's expected to take 25 credits. So why it'site like do we need that line that says additional courses or is it just need to say that the credit graduation credit requirement is 90?
>> This this is a line that exists within the mass core. I think it's there's language to just explain. It wasn't on our previous um policy. I I I'll point out the difference in terms of what we're talking about pragmatically today
and what this policy will do is it adds a year of math, >> which my other point by the way >> and so so and this additional core course was just to try to define that beyond so Mr. Pal
if your recommendation is to to eliminate that line. Um I don't have an issue with that. it was to make it reflect how the mass core was written. >> I don't think it's adding anything. So my suggestion would be to take that line away. >> I don't know how the rest of the
committee feels. >> Well, I mean the ma the mass core framework says does have a line item that says additional core courses five units. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. And then and then it references in the framework of it says
other additional coursework or any of the above. We didn't keep we didn't retain that but >> and and I'll remind the committee that the mass core is the recommendation from the department. It is not a regulation. >> Correct.
>> So it's not a requirement of us. >> I mean I would assume that in order to get those five units the kids would have to take coursework. Um, I'm just trying to imagine programming that would allow kids to amass the graduation credit minimum
without actually meeting this additional course requirement. >> They really wouldn't. If you meet 90 credits, you you meet that additional course. >> Yeah. >> Of 20 credits because you're taking 25 credits a year.
>> But are some of those do we have work study? Do we have like did they take just like science like a ton of sciences at the six credit total? >> They take a variety of of course work. They they they could double up on an on
art on business. That happens a lot. Um we don't currently have work study, but we're working towards that. Um certainly as a credit bearing option. Um when we explore and continue our pathways, um those students will be engaging in internships that are credit bearing and
capstone projects. So, um, but our students who are enrolled in the minimum 25 credits are earning, if they're passing all of those classes, they're earning 100 credits, which is 10 above the 90. >> So, maybe we just eliminate that bottom
line >> and make sure that the minimum is there. >> How do you can I Sorry, Jackie. What? >> I think how it's currently on the screen is the clearest. So removing
the second to last line with the additional course core course because it then it just feeds up that this is your credit the credit total. Can I get a thumbs up on just eliminating that line item? How to do
you want to direct the policy subcommittee that way? Can you show me your thumbs if you're looking that way or thumbs down if you don't? Amy. Yeah, it's okay. Um, okay. So, there you go. Policy subcommittee. Go ahead,
Scott. >> There's one more thing I'd like to get a little more clarity on. That's the mathematics line. I I guess I'm a little puzzled here. Like, are we saying four years is now required or I guess this whole thing's a little is a little puzzling to me because >> because then the comment says a math
course during senior year is recommended. Well, if we're saying that you have to take math all four years, it's not really recommended. It's actually required. So, what's what's the what's the message? >> Uh, Mr. Pal, I think that's because math is the recommendation, which is why that language was like there. So, I think
that's a good point >> to eliminate that language, Kirk. >> Yeah. >> Is that okay, Scott? >> I I think that makes sense. Yes. >> Um, I like Massor's framework. It's great and all, but what I like to go by
as a parent is UMass's requirements. And I know that our counseling department just goes they use Massore, but they they say they talk about UMass's requirements because they're pretty baseline. And UMass wants four years of math.
Um, so I think that's a good move. Leah. >> Yeah, >> I am on their website right now and UMass because I noticed the same thing when my kids were applying to school that UMass had different requirements than what our um program of studies
said. So, for me, this is all really helpful to get it all like sorted out and eliminate some of the confusion for parents going forward. But when you go on UMass's website, it says mathematics, algebra 2 minimum, four units, including
math in the senior year of high school. >> Yeah. >> And Mass Core also had that reference to the senior year in high school. So I just I'm a little um concerned about removing
that. Maybe the solution is get rid of recommended. just say >> including a senior year course. >> Yeah. Or just four years of math are required because four years it's not you can't double up freshman and sophomore
year and not take it junior and senior. >> Right. >> So I would just ask the committee then for consistency purposes in the document English is also four years. Would you write a sentence that says English is required for seniors?
Yeah, >> it doesn't say that on the for I'm not an expert here. I'm just checking those two websites and it doesn't say it on either of those websites. But >> I'm just talking about inconsistency of our policy document. >> Well,
>> calling out math for seniors when we say four years means you have to take a freshman, sophomore, senior, junior, senior year. If we're saying that in English and then it also says four years for math, doesn't that mean the same thing?
>> Is it because some students are taking algebra 2 in 8th grade >> and some are taking freshman? Does that is that why they're saying you need the fourth math course in senior year? >> Nope. No, because the kids who don't take >> four years of math
>> and if you start at geometry as a freshman or algebra 1 >> um it's still four years. I think be as consistent as possible. And I think that the mass UMass framework does not say
that English has to be taken in the senior year. But I actually think that philosophically I believe it should. I wouldn't want to see kids not taking English class senior year because that's where they learn to write.
Should we really be prescribing these things for every student, even ones that don't tend to go to college? >> I would argue that English is the one, like I would even let go of social studies, and I'm a social studies teacher. I think English is the one
that we want kids taking every year. >> I agree that it's something they should do. I don't think it's something we should require by policy. Okay. So, um let's say this. Do because if we leave it without the prescription,
they would still have to take four years. They would just be able to double up if they wanted to or we could put in the prescription and force them to take it senior year. So those I think are the two choices
because math they have to take it senior year because UMass requires it which is I think what the standard we should be using English they don't say it. So >> again you're you're you're using UMass under the assumption that all the
students are going to go to college. Um, but I feel like we're get this is getting into the weeds though. Like if the major change was that it used to say three years for math and now it says four. So then that's that I think that
was why at some point there was the addition of math because it's it wasn't required previously. >> Does that language take care of that question? >> Minimum of one course per year in school. That's one option.
Can you guys give a thumbs up if you want to prescribe that for English? >> And then we would just apply it on the other lines as well. >> Well, I guess it would just be English and math.
>> Oh, Kate, did you want to weigh in? right now our our English courses are semester and so >> I may I may want to amend that to say minimum of if we're going this route to have English match math minimum of one
course and we don't have semester math classes right now minimum of one course or two semesters per year because our our senior classes are semester based or English right Mhm.
>> We've been we've been looking over this document um with input from Superintendent Downing um Dr. Buon, assistant superintendent friend. So I I do want to caution that I feel like
we're moving pretty like if we're going to make these really significant changes. Um, I'm I'm just concerned >> my about to die, so I'm going to go off camera for a second.
>> Oh, okay. Shandra, go ahead. >> Uh, I I share the concern of Jackie of making too many changes of new requirements. But, uh, just for clarification, what happens if a student fails one of these classes that are required for four years and all
that? they need to make up those credits and there's a number of different ways for them to do it. Um most most common is summer school. Um but we do have occasions where students will double up and take let's say a student didn't pass English 9, they would double up on
English 9 and 10. Um occasionally on that, but most often it's summer school for credit recovery. >> Okay. All right. So guys, um I get the I get the comment about getting into the weeds, but I honestly think that this is
one of the most important things we do. So I think we probably need to just spend a couple more minutes on it. But I'm wondering, can we just see the language that Kirk put into the English row? Can you give me a thumbs up if you want to require that English is taken
each of the four years? Thumbs up if you want it to happen or thumbs down you want to give more flexibility. Okay. Um Sharon, do you have an opinion? Cuz I'm seeing a lot of thumbs down.
Jillian's kind of neutral and Shandor's down. So it looks like we're heading You're muted, Sharon. you don't care. It's like meh. Okay. So, I feel like um Kirk, we're going to let English be more flexible and math is the one guys if um
should we prescribe math be taken in the senior year? Are you guys do you want to require that just like UMass does or do you want to allow for more flexibility? I'm not seeing every thumb.
So, Shandor's down. Scott's down. Amy, you're muted. I'm thumbs up just because it's consistent with what I see on mass core. So, okay. Robin wants to keep it with
UMass. Amy, you said you want to you want to prescribe the senior year math class? Yeah. Jackie, what do you say? >> I would like to stick with what we presented in the meeting minutes uh materials. >> Does did it originally say that we would
force math in the senior year? I think that the language said that it was recommended, but it provides flexibility. >> Okay. So, Jackie's with flexibility. All right. So, how many of you guys want to just leave the recommended language and
allow for flexibility? So, I see one, two. Scott, what do you say? I I'm struggling with what all this means as far as you know is this all a requirement for graduation or not and if it's a requirement then four years is
required I guess does it ma are we saying it doesn't matter when it happens or we saying you need to take it in your senior year >> so I think what Jackie recommended is that we just make it clear that it's highly recommended they take one in the senior year but they could double up and
take two during the junior junior and or that again with the language that's on the original document that they can al there's there's flexibility to substitute the computer science course for one for one year one unit
and that was recommended by the math core. Yes. All right. So do you guys want to keep the math language the way that it is and allow flexibility? One more time. Thumbs up or thumbs down, please. All right, I'm seeing a lot of thumbs up for
that, Jackie. Um, I feel like we're nearing the end on this, but I actually have one more issue. I'm so sorry. Um, I'm wondering why you are requiring world history when all of the other stuff only says US
history. Again, it comes into Mass core framework. Mass core points to US history and world history. So if we want to align to the mass core, we would include world history.
Matt, I know you've had your hand up for a while. Is it possible to have his input? Um, yeah. Matt, was your input on English or Oh, mine check
>> mine was on um I know within the mass core within world language it's two years of the of the same language. Um, and I guess one of one of my questions was if a student were to take like Spanish one year, switch to a different language because Spanish it wasn't their
thing, they moved to a different language, would they per this policy, would they be required to take that same language another year, so three years of world language um to meet the requirement or was that does that then does that then fall under the exemption
portion as a possibility? >> Dr. Borton, you want to do that one? >> Absolutely. I can do that one. Most of the time students would take the two years of the same language. So if they, for example, Spanish one, Spanish was not their language, they moved to French, they found success in French
one, they would need to move on to French 2. We would look in rare circumstances for um for exemptions and I think there's language at the bottom of the policy below the chart to account for those very rare um exceptions. We also have students uh who may qualify
for a language waiver in rare circumstances for different reasons. Um so we would take those on a case- by case basis with myself and the guidance director, but by and large those students um who maybe switched to language after freshman year would then take the same language their sophomore
and junior year. Um and um that that's by and large what would happen. >> Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions about this? Trying to see everybody. All right. I don't think so. So perhaps
we are uh where we need to be on this and policy. Do you feel like Jackie, do you feel like you um have everything that you need to make those adjustments? cuz I know Kirk's been doing it in real time for you, >> right? So, I'm going to lean on those
edits that everybody can see in real time as being the most accurate. Okay, great. Um, all right. Thank you to Dr. Boon, too, for all of your help and getting us through that. We
appreciate it. Um, oh, I I know what I wanted to ask, Kirk. Um because this policy is dependent upon the competency determination. I would um like to have these those two policies second reading.
I mean don't you think that it's a little weird to approve this one before we know what the competency determination is or do you think that that's okay? >> I think it's I think it's okay because the competency determination is is is just around that competency. We've noted in here, we've acknowledged that we have
to meet the competency determination. That's all we really have to do in the graduation requirements. So then the competence and determination is then after that. That being said, we're bringing competence and determination to you at the next meeting. So we're going
to we will have time to have our work completed by the end of the year, by the end of the calendar year. >> All right. So maybe this is what we'll do on that agenda is we will have the first reading of the competency determination before we vote
on this policy just in case. And so we can we'll this this second reading of this of IKF should not be in the consent agenda. Let's put it in its own vote. >> It was always going to be >> oh it was okay because you need to have
the roll call. >> Mhm. Um, so let's make sure that that happens after the competency determination first reading so that there's no hiccup there. >> Yep. >> And also, would it be possible if um school could school committee members
have um more specific feedback after they read through the materials? It would not be to engage in any kind of correspondence, but to maybe have those front-loaded would be helpful. >> And to send them to you, Jackie, you mean? >> Yeah, that would be really great. Okay. So, if the materials are posted,
guys, a couple of days in advance, if you go through them and you have maybe questions that Jackie could just field for you um one-on-one, then that's probably okay. Or just even send me your questions so that then we can be prepared to know who
should field what questions um in our meeting. >> Excellent. >> That'd be helpful. >> All right, guys. We're moving the agenda now to finance and operations. So, I'll turn over to uh Kirk or andor Ross. >> We'll just go straight to uh Mr. Mo Karen, the assistant superintendent,
finance, operations, and safety. >> Uh good evening everyone again. Uh so, the first two reports I'm presenting to the school committee this evening will bring closure to our review of the end of FY25. Uh the first report I'm presenting is
the revolving report. Uh Miss Masterson, if you would mind pulling that up for us. Uh so as that's happening um just noting that this was reviewed with budget and warrant subcommittee uh at their meeting last week. So for those of you who have been on the committee just
a refresher and to to new folks as well revolving accounts live outside of the operating budget although you'll see within our annual budgets we often use them for uh budgetary offsets. So revolving fund uh separately accounts for specific nonoperating revenues that
come into the district and it allows for the expenditure for specific purposes and you'll see that we've created notes on the right hand side of this document over time to make sure that people are aware of what each account is for. So uh there's specific revenues that come in
and specific reasons to uh or specific areas to spend those those funds on. Uh so essentially the revolving is the inflow of the revenue and the outflow of the expenditure. Um and they can't be expended for um things otherwise stated and you can't put revenue in uh that is
not otherwise stated. So uh we present these revolving funds in sort of chunks. So I'll begin by talking about the top section and then break it down from there. So the first cluster uh is essentially our general revolving funds. Uh these are sort of typical for most
school districts. So our custodial uh is our under our facilities department revenue comes in from from rentals and goes out towards expenditures most often offsets. Uh you'll see that some of the expenditure is higher this year. That's because of the boiler situation that
Sawyer um some of you will recall especially Bolton residents that that we did pay for that out of the revolving and actually our revenue back on that and the reimbursement from the town of Bolton came in after July 1 because it was ratified at their town meeting in the spring. So that's actually a much
higher balance at this point already. So circuit breaker is the one I'm going to spend the most amount of time on. Um so this is uh the account where we receive our state reimbursement uh through the circuit breaker program like all school districts do. Uh circuit breaker allows
the district to receive a partial reimbursement on IEP services and programs that are above the state threshold per pupil. In the past it's been about $50,000 uh dollar per student. And we typically get anywhere from upwards of 75% over that
threshold back. um it's been as low as 40 something% for transportation for those students and um and higher as well. So in FY25 we received approximately 1.7 million in reimbursement. Uh we had budgeted the
need to use 1.6 um but because of the expenditures that came in over expectated budget we ended up using approximately 2.6 uh instead of the 1.6. So that leaves our remaining balance around one uh 150,000. Uh the good news
is that we feel comfortable this would be bolstered back to approximately 800,000 or more by the end of the year. Uh we'll receive about 2.6 million in revenue uh from the circuit breaker program this year. We already have been given that figure from the state and we
have a $2 million budget offset committed to special education funding. So, with all the the the ups and downs and the the escalation of special education costs, we feel like our circuit breaker uh account will be more
or less back to where it was at the end of FY24 at the end of FY26, which is good news. School choice, as the committee knows, we've had more school choice students in recently. So, that's where that funding comes in. um and we can expend it on things uh for offsets
for the budget. Uh tuition and transportation is a rather unique account. We currently only use it for if we have tuition or trans excuse me transportation for students who may go to an agricultural uh we service that uh transportation and they get reimbursed
by the descending town. So you can see why that's uh essentially the inflow and outflow was the same. uh preschool, we do use this uh account where we take in our preschool tuitions to help offset some of our preschool staff salaries uh whether they're teachers or instructional assistants. And you can
see from uh last year essentially what we brought in we spent on those staff. So it's got a nice stable uh savings balance. Uh and we'll look to do the same this year. Obviously lost textbooks uh textbooks come in, you know, um excuse me, textbook revenue comes in.
when those books are lost. Uh it had built up over time in last year. Uh we did use it to offset some one-time curriculum purchases. Uh we are not uh earmarked for that in FY26. So you will not see that next time uh of year on
this same report. Uh Miss Mast, could you scroll down just a little bit and just bring to the very top of the screen? So, -ate is a federal program um where portions of your cable bill, if you still have cable and other sources, go
to fund rate. And what that does is provides discounts for school districts on their technology expenditures such as our um uh our fiber line uh and certain equipment purchases. We are basically expected to spend what we bring in, and you can see that we did that here. Uh
the following set is all gift accounts uh at our specific schools. This is typical across the Commonwealth. Uh, one thing that I will note is you can see that we have some healthy balances here and that we'll be meeting with the principles in the next couple of weeks and one of the agenda items is to talk about spending some of these things
down. Not all the way because they don't want to to bring it to zero, but for those who have a little bit of a healthier balance. Uh, it's good to know that they have some um expenditures that they can make. And uh for those who do not, uh it's good to know that they they can build those up if they bring in gift money um or that they might be used in
the future. Uh the SAT, excuse me, SAT uh has not been used uh in the past year. That's for prep courses. Uh that was not um uh done through the high school. Uh the you'll see a little bit further on in the guidance department.
That's when they bring in the revenue from the actual uh fees that kids take or pay to take those c those tests and those uh that account is also used to pay those um pay for those tests and then uh whatever else is needed for the guidance department graduation that's
exactly what it is. So we sell tickets for graduation and pay for the expenses for graduation. Uh the EMT program also uh is explained here as well as the parking um fees that come in. Over time, this had built up quite a bit. So last
year, we did use as an offset to help with some of the snow and ice removal at the high school. Uh the the revenue from that comes in from the parking fees that students pay, whether it's for the full year or for three months, however long they have their license uh their junior or senior year. Uh but they do pay to
park on campus. So that's the sort of the general revolving accounts. So before I go into anything else, are there any questions on those? >> Can you just review very quickly the guidance one one more time? >> Yeah, sure. So that the guidance can use that they bring in the revenues from uh
the fees that get paid um and then also they they pay for the uh the tests, but also they um they would use that for things like bringing in speakers. Um, I could get more specifics from Miss Suspect, but you know, that's where they
would bring in speakers on, you know, um, student loans or financing college or, you know, how to choose a college or any of the fairs or things like that that they have. >> So, did when we pay for a like um SATs, when we pay for well, not SATs, but when
we pay for AP exams, I'm just wondering where all the guidance revenue comes from. Uh my understanding is that some of it is the testing. I could get more specific with that and bring it back to either this group or budget warrant. >> Yeah. I just think it's a pretty big number. So it caught my eye.
>> Yep. >> All right. I'm trying to see if anybody else has any other questions. >> I don't think so. So we can keep going, Ross. >> Yep. No problem. Okay. So the next set of accounts is our athletic revolving funds. Um, so the
first set that's really essentially our gate receipts that come in. Um, so, uh, you know, from when you pay to go in and you pay your ticket, uh, over time that's what's expended. Um, the main purpose of that we use is to offset some
of our track debt. uh in meeting with Miss Rich in budget preparations, we may increase that offset uh moving forward, but we'll have to take a look to make sure we're trending um well over time, but we've built up a good balance. So, I feel like we may be able to increase that offset. Uh the rest are the
building based um athletic accounts and also we'll be doing more offsets for transportation from those accounts um as those costs have gone up. Um but they're they're carrying um decent balances in some places. Um but again it's all
dependent upon uh what the needs are uh of the students from year to year uh for what where they're going and where their where their meets or their competitions or games are. Any questions on the athletics? >> Not seeing any. Keep it going.
>> Yep. So our extended learning uh account obviously that's for our before and after school child care program that we run in house. Um this information would obviously be shared as part of the RFP. Um we do use a lot of the revenue obviously to run the program but then
also offsets on utilities and then some insurance uh to make sure that um those things are also being covered um from the extended learning program. So you can see the revenues that came in uh just over 700,000
um and our expenses across uh the year as well. So, our balance built up a little bit. Um, and again, we'll look to see how that impacts the RFP. Um, and regardless of the RFP, we look at this uh during budget season as well. Are there any questions on the extended
learning program from a financial perspective? >> Not seeing any. >> Okay. And our last one, I added this this year um for a couple different reasons. Number one is that typically you'll see some financial information as
part of the operating budget presentations. We sort of put it at the end um just to make people aware what the budget is for for food services. But I think it's important to report on this annually and obviously number two uh being with a a a contract for the food
service director um I thought it was important to bring this in. So um it came up during budget season. Um but a couple things I want to point out is number one the contracted services. So in previous years our contracted services was minimal but our provisions
and supplies was very high as far as expenditures. Our contract with Witson's they provide and do the procurement of provisions. So their contract while we have a food service director uh the entirety of the contract also has them bringing in all of our food service
procurement as a as the manager of the the program. Um the salaries are obviously to our employees um as well as um uh the health insurance is for those employees who are food service member or excuse me food service employees who
take our benefits. Um so that the operating budget is not paying for food service employees share of um that that that percentage that the the district pays on their health insurance. Um food service provisions and supplies is a lot
lower because again those are within the contract. Uh we pay Witson's on a monthly basis and everything is within there. Uh a couple other things uh the cafeteria equipment. This is where you can look to see how we're doing with spending down our surplus. members of the committee who've been here for a few
years know that we need to spend down that surplus, that balance over time. So, I can report uh that we have been able to start spending that down. Prior to Witson's, we were actually building that up and that's the exact opposite direction that Desi Food and Nutrition wants us to go. So, we're headed now in
the right direction. Uh we've actually paid our employees more last year than in the year before. um we're now covering the health insurance for them within the food services budget and we're definitely delivering a much better program uh to our students. So
overall um from a fiscal standpoint healthy but also um the program execution was strong last year. Any questions on the food services revolving? >> Not seeing any hints. >> Great. So the last report for FY25
is the treasur's report as of June 30th, 2025. Um so just to remind the committee members who've been on and for new members um this isn't the money that we carry always dayto-day. This is a snapshot um at one particular time. Um
I'll talk a little bit about each of these accounts and sort of cluster them through a little bit. The quick one I want to talk about is TD Bank. Uh I spoke with our treasur after budget and warrant. We've had that open for a little while. It doesn't carry a lot. Uh there's some concern about closing it in case a vendor payment hits that. Um we
wouldn't want it to be closed. It would sort of wreak havoc for a little bit on our own books. So I do believe we can now run a report um out of our software to ensure that nobody is um lined up to get that uh get get paid out of TD Bank. So we should be able to close that
during this fiscal year. Um the Clinton Savings Bank. So, our general operating we we have some money within that as well as our student activities are are run through Clinton Savings Bank as well. Um, MMDT where you can see there's a a more significant amount of cash. So,
as we take in our assessments from the town, they're placed in the MMDT, uh, which is Mass Municipal Depository Trust. Also within that account, uh, is our MSBA revenue. So, that's also within there as well. Um and again it makes really good interest which you saw in
the revenue report last month. So most of the revenue that we receive from interest earnings is from that account. So it does behoove us to keep money in there. Uh Uni Bank at the very top of the screen is sort of really where we do most of our our paying uh for any
payables for vendors. Uh that's where we pay our payroll out of. So at any given day that will be higher or lower depending upon our warrant cycle. Um the second or well more one of the last ones I'll cover is hometown. Uh that's just
where some of our food services revenue goes um from parent payments. Um the Bartholomew account that is something we opened a few years ago that holds all of our bond money for the high school project and also why that's so high. Uh
and then lastly, OPED. That is the trust account uh that offsets our OPED liability and that continues to build as well. Are there any questions on the treasures report? >> Not seeing any. >> Fantastic. We will now jump back into
FY26. Uh so this is the uh October operating report. Uh the end of October. Uh there's no major changes uh in forecasting at this point or expenditures. Again, it's too early to really know where our facilities will land. We just sort of turned the heat on
a few weeks ago. Um and again, with special education substitutes, um it's a little bit too early to know. And with athletics as well, the majority of the 462 that's there is due to surplus on
salary differentials from last year to this year. Um, as you know, when people retire, uh, and we hire new people, there's typically a salary differential. Um, but the more majority of that is there. I've also updated the footnotes with budget and warrants recommendation
to just make sure there's a little bit more specific, but that money that's surplused in um, insurance and benefits comes from that change in rate. That was after the budget vote um, when we went back to to sort of do a last ditch effort to negotiate with Maya on our
increase. uh and we picked up some pilot programs for wellness. That money essentially that surplus is paying for those deans of students positions uh that are now back in the budget where you might see a deficit in those accounts. The the sort of the differential on that is uh washed out
through that surplus and insurance and benefits. And then also uh the curriculum line, our teaching and learning line with the tutors. Uh we're paying for tutors because a big portion of our literacy coaches is now covered by Prism. So um again these things
offset each other um and allow us to do some dynamic things for early literacy through that grant um but that explan those explainers are there for the very purposes that I just said. >> All right, any questions on this report?
>> All right, not seeing any Ross. So thank you so much for that detail and for that great explanation. We appreciate it. >> Thank you as well. All right, everybody. So, um, one item under unfinished business and that is the, uh, 26 27 district calendar. So,
Kirk, I think I'll turn it over to you. You can present the drafts that you have provided in the materials. >> You bet. So um as you know last week what I brought forward to you that we need to uh sort of advance our calendar timeline a little bit and advance the calendar next year by week and then we
also discussed um early release days uh being on Fridays or possibly Wednesdays and the committee uh gave us a task to go back and provide three calendars uh a calendar with Fridays a calendar with Wednesdays and then also a hybrid
calendar to identify those days those Fridays with the highest absentee rate and we make those Wednesdays. So, Miss Murdoch is here to present those calendars to you. Uh you have them in your materials. I think uh Jessica, we can just go through one calendar
calendar to explain it and then what we need from the committee tonight, Madame Chair, is is maybe just a poll, some direction on which calendar you would like us to bring forward ultimately for a vote for approval. unless you think
it's worthy to do that this evening. >> Okay. So, Miss Murdoch, we'll turn it over to you. >> All right. Well, thank you, Superintendent Downing, and um thank you to the school committee. Um as Superintendent Downing shared, we had presented three calendars. Um, I wanted
to take a moment to point out that we are proposing an earlier start to the school year and that's due to the construction schedule and the needs um of the of the construction and additionally due to state primary
elections we have proposed a full day of professional development and you'll see that um in September on the Tuesday I'm just moving my screen. uh September 1st and we will make sure that there's no
conflict related to that professional professional development day with our voters um based on our needs there. Um you'll notice all of the days listed uh colorcoded for the start of the the
year. Um we have the first day of school on the 26th. We have the first day of kindergarten on the 27th and pre-K first day of school on the 28th. Uh you'll see the early release days are highlighted
in red. Our holidays and vacation breaks are noted in orange and green. We have early release parent teacher conferences uh yellow. And we have full day parent teacher conferences in blue. And then we
have our high school um high school days for midterms and finals notated. And we have early no kindergarten incoming screening for kindergarten in May. Um and then the
last day of school based on our 180 days versus if we had a five um five snow day um need which would bring us to June 10th and June 17th. Um, so I will pause there and see if
there's any questions that you might have. All right. Anybody have anything they'd like to weigh in on? So, this really does come down to um the reverse half days. I had a question for you guys from a
constituent wondering why I think do we have seven half days half PD half days? Um so there's sorry one two >> excuse me yes seven half days for professional development. >> Yes. So, somebody asked why it would be
a good idea to do half days as opposed to full days, like reducing that and just making them full day PDS. >> Uh, well, the half day PDS allow us to count that as the day of school as well. So, we can meet the 180 days, 900 hours
for elementary, 990 for high school. >> Okay. >> Any other thoughts about the reverse half days, guys? And which uh Wednesday or Friday? Go ahead, Scott. >> Yeah, so I definitely like the idea of doing a mix of Wednesday and Fridays as
a opportunity to get more data about, you know, if Wednesdays do improve attendance versus Fridays without fully committing to it. So that's my perspective. >> Thanks, Scott. Uh let's go to Matt.
I would just kind of kind of second like what what Scott was saying. I think the the data collection is important in terms of like attendance because I know that was an issue that we had talked about. Um also like in looking through the lens of like your educators I mean the purpose of the half day is for
professional development for educators. Um, and looking at in terms of like what they also would work best for our our educators, you know, having a full week of of working and teaching followed by a half day on Friday. Now that last the
half day, students are gone. I'm still there after a full week of working going into PD. Is a Wednesday a better opportunity for educators then come back the next day on Thursday and Friday practice what you we learn in the PD or to have that discourse and conversation with your
colleagues where it's on a Friday. You kind of lose some of that over the weekend and now it's like I had the PD but it's more impactful in that middle of the week as we're kind of like like chunking the week on two ends. Um, but I would definitely say the more data we can gather on this would help in future
decisions when it comes to like looking at that calendar and what works best for both, you know, educators as as well as students. >> Thanks, Matt. Let's hear from Jackie. >> Sorry. Um, I understand that the
calendar has to satisfy many consumers and recipients of said calendar. Um, I do think it's important to think about continuity um, for educators and for students. I
do think that having Friday PD is less disruptive to our younger students. Um, having a midday half day can be very disruptive to some of the younger students. Um, and I do think that I
don't know that it's appropriate for any conversations for this year, but it would be interesting to talk about and explore full day PD versus half day, knowing what the research says about how beneficial that is, not only for the educators, but for the long-term outcomes of our students. So, I
understand the current rationale and that's just something uh to consider in the future. >> Thanks, Jackie. Go ahead, Amy. May I comment on that, Madam Chair? >> Go ahead, Kirk. Y >> um what would just so the community would know if if there was any interest
to uh do additional PD days, you would be lengthening your educator contract. And so by lengthening the educator contract, you would have to make that an investment. And I just want to make that clear
>> because right now the contract allows for 180 teaching days plus how many additional teacher days? >> I believe it's four additional days. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh Amy.
Uh yeah, I just wanted to share that the strong um preference of the constituents I reached out to and the families was for Fridays. Um, and so I just want to put that out, you
know, that I think because of work schedules that have already been arranged and um, even some activity schedules that have been kind of planned, like I know the Bolton um, ski club takes advantage of two
Friday half days to extend the ski time. Um, almost everybody I talk to strongly prefers the Fridays. However, I I think it's important that we recognize that the mission of
the school committee and the and the district is you know to educate students and um you know Wednesdays might accomplish keeping more kids um present in school um with the
added benefit of you know Matt's perspective that Friday afternoon professional development sessions present challenges for teachers, too, which I I really hadn't considered before. Um, one thing that I was I guess as a
committee I'm hoping that we could think about for our planning calendar next year is like if we're going to be making a change to half days um or any kind of other substantive change if we could kind of like bump up the timeline a little bit just to help
people plan out their work schedules and um travel schedules, all that kind of stuff. Um, I think we used to vote these two years in advance or two two calendars at a time. This feels like a
little bit late to me to be switching things up for next year, but um, yeah, that's all. >> If I may, Madam Chair. >> Yes, please. >> Um, I think we're doing an incredibly
responsible job of getting giving plenty of notice. uh this calendar will be approved uh 9 months prior to the start of the school year which I think is ample time for people to plan their calendars and set their dates for their to the course of of the needs that they
have. Uh doing it any further out from that we have had to come back and do many calendar amendments because the state decides to set election dates or other conditions come up that we have to adjust for. So, I think doing one calendar a year is the responsible thing. And I think doing this nine
months ahead of time um prior to the start of school is ample planning time for anyone in our community. >> Yeah, I mean I I understand that, Kirk. I mean, it's certainly ample time for my viviverto planning. um maybe we don't
vacation enough. But um I think that for some people there are legitimate um things that are getting kind of messed up because of this. But here's what I would put on the table for anybody listening is that we have an extraordinary situation happening right
now in our district with the construction of a beautiful new high school. That is what is driving much of this conversation around the start date and the end date. So um that's unique. It will hopefully uh it's it's really about the demolition of
the current building which is incredibly exciting and making sure that as many kids are as far away from that demolition as possible. It's not going to be perfect but um that's also at play. So we spent a lot of time talking about the half days and the PD stuff,
but that start start and end time is really getting screwed up by the construction stuff. So I I really thank everybody's patience um through this process. It's just one more thing we need to manage in an effort to bring about this really amazing thing for our communities.
Yeah. So Amy, >> is that an old hand? No, just one more um question about Wednesday half days because um would this be an opportunity for looking
at whether extended day programs could be offered for students who like for the younger kids who might have parents who've already arranged work schedules to um you know work from home on Fridays
like I think that the Wednesday half day presents um some obstacles for families with young kids who need to arrange child care where they may not have had to before. So, one of
the one of the ideas that I saw expressed or or suggested was, you know, if we could come up with some kind of afternoon enrichment program that was offered to the younger students, that might kind of solve this whole all the objections I've
been hearing about moving to a Wednesday half day. >> Food for thought. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh Jillian, >> I was just curious um since Kirk brought up needing to extend um the teacher
contract. Those four days that are built in now are what are they used for? Just sort of out of curiosity. >> They're built in and I I I may have misspoke there. It's u we have our two days before the school year begins and then we have the one professional
development day. >> Okay. Sometimes I Jillian, I walk back into my past when I've worked in other districts and draw those numbers out of my head. But it's two before the school year starts and then we have a professional development day in March. On the calendar you're looking at, the
professional um uh development day will come on that election day, that first Tuesday in September. >> Okay, that makes sense. And then like when they um have like full day conferences, is that sort of included then as one of their
>> Oh yes, pardon me. That actually is the the 80 the fourth day is the full day because the other days are half day conferences. >> Okay. And then my last question on this is when the teachers have their evening conferences, um is that somehow built
into their contract as well? that's written into the negotiated agreement. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. Any other questions about this? All right. So, Kirk, I heard you say that you would like us to maybe identify
the one we're leaning toward to then present it for a motion the next time we're together. >> Yeah. So, however you want to do that, Madam Chair, if you want to pull the committee on the options, then we'll we have a sense of which one you want us to bring forward for a vote.
So, um guys, we'll go through each one. The three options are the hybrid of Wednesday, Friday mix, just Wednesday, or just Friday half day. Otherwise, everything else I think is the same on the three calendars. So, the first one up is the hybrid. How
many of you guys are leaning toward the hybrid? Just give me a thumbs up. So, Kirk, I'm seeing one, two, three, four, five. How many of you guys are leaning toward just Fridays?
Seeing four. Okay. So, no more floating thumbs. I'm losing it. I see five for just Friday. Can I see how many are there for just Wednesday? Oo, none of that. Can we do thumbs one
more time for bringing forth the hybrid version? I think I got a little confused. Who's looking for the hybrid version? Where's Lindsay? Um, so we have um five and five it looks like Kirk. So hybrid
and just Friday, >> right? >> We can we can prepare both of those and uh we'll enjoy the debate. >> We'll have a we'll have a little showdown um on that.
>> So any other further discussion or commentary? Go ahead, Scott. I think you're going to have a hard time resolving the five versus five. Um maybe the compromise is fewer Wednesdays >> or not. If Lindsay is able to join us,
she'll be the tiebreaker. But um I think I think that we can bring these two versions to the committee because it's only a difference of four versus three, right? Um in the Wednesday, I'm sorry, in the hybrid one, I did not do the math. in the hybrid one. Jess, how many
Wednesdays? How many Fridays? Sorry, I was just trying to find my microphone. Hold on just one moment and let me pull that up. Um, so the so Wednesday early releases there are,
let's see, >> looks like three. There's four. >> I apologize. I I have to work off like the one screen I have. >> There's four Wednesdays and three Fridays. >> Thank you. >> Four Wednesdays, three Fridays. One, two,
>> madame chair, if I can just close with one last thought. >> Yeah. >> I would just implore the members to think about as you are thinking in your minds about what you want to do moving forward is what our core mission is as a school district. Our core mission is to
educate and to have school students in school as much as possible. And so we have to look at our systems and our structures and ask ourselves the question does our structure encourage or promote
uh more opportunities to not come to school and we got to be cognizant of that and be thinking about that ultimately when we make a decision. So it is it is a core values vote according to what our mission is uh in our work.
>> All right. So I hear what you said, Scott. I think what we're going to do is just have them bring these two we'll have these two versions present at the meeting next time and then we're just going to take a majority vote. Um hopefully we can all be present and we won't only have 10 people otherwise
we'll have to get really persuasive. All right. So, I'm thinking that's the last of that. So, Kirk, uh, is that okay? So, guys, um, let's see if there are any >> Okay, great. Any subcommittee shareouts that haven't already been shared?
>> Uh, the building committee, uh, will be meeting uh, tomorrow evening. Uh, are we're going to have a discussion on solar uh, specifically to consider a letter of intent. Uh um so encourage folks to tune in.
>> Um no decisions are being made on solar tomorrow night. >> Correct. >> All right. So >> there's no decisions being made on solar. Um >> we had originally we're discussing the pathway to get to that point >> or potential pathway.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Any other committee shareouts? Subcommittee shareouts? um communication subcommittee has a presentation um ready to share out and I guess we just need some
guidance on whether the superintendent would like to join us to review it prior to bringing it to the school committee. Um should we follow up with >> Sounds great. >> Yeah, Miss Masterson and she'll put it
on my calendar. >> Perfect. we can invite you to our next meeting and then we'll get it on the agenda for the school committee. Leah, does that sound right? >> Sounds great. Okay, >> I'm going to actually put it in the parking lot right now. This is um the
school committee communication strategy survey results >> and and the website. Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. which which might result in like a a rehab of our web page on the website,
right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any other subcommittee shout outs? All right, guys. Um, let's talk planning calendar. I am I can share or Alita's already on it.
There it is. So, as you guys uh know, our next meeting is going to be November Nope. December 3rd. So, Lita, can you pull it over to December 3rd? I can't really see what
you're sharing. I'm sorry. Thank you. So, December 3rd, um, we have a few things already on there, but anything else that you would like to add? So I I miss Mr. Chair um I think we had a brief exchange regarding the an OPED
readout or review maybe. So I think that a brief review of the OPED situation would be in order at that point. >> Great. Do you want to make that just a subcommittee share out or would you like to put it as an agenda item perhaps um unfinished business?
So, we have three slides just to kind of review the concept. Um, whatever you think would be most prudent to share those slides and maybe have a little conversation. Um, open to whatever you think the right way to go is.
>> Uh, I'm going to put it under unfinished business and and call it the OPED recommendation review. >> Sounds good. >> Great. And if you could just send those materials to Alita whenever you're ready, that would be great. >> Okay.
>> Thanks, Scott. Any other things that you guys would like to see on the planning calendar? Leah? >> Yeah. Um if you have Alita, scroll down just a little bit um to the one the meeting after that. So,
we so we'll review and vote on the um graduation requirements doing a first read of the competency determination, but then that would be a separate it wouldn't go in the consent agenda. It would be separate.
Thank you, Alita. It's actually already down there, so you can just delete that. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. Anything else, guys? All right. As always, if anything comes to you, just let me know. Um Kirk and I uh meet, as you know, just pulling the
agenda together, and if there's something that you want on there, just let me know, and we'll work it in. All right, everybody. So, it's been a good one. This one's a little longer than usual, so I appreciate your energy and all of your time, but I'm going to move to ajourn now. Do I have a second?
>> Second. >> Nice, Jackie. Um any discussion? Is that a thing? I always forget. I'm going to vote yes to adjourn. Jackie, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> Uh, John,
>> yes. >> Sharon, >> yes. >> Robin, >> yes. >> Shandor, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> And Scott, >> yes.
>> All right, as always, thanks everybody.