Speaker 1: Forum today. So we'll get started. What is, it gets so as good as it gets today. Yep. So welcome everybody to Natick school Committee. It's Monday, May 19th and we'll get our meeting started. We're gonna do roll call and then make a motion to go into executive session. So roll call Ms. Lathers here. Dr. Fugman. I'm here, Ms. Collins here and I am here. So I'm gonna make a motion to go into executive session for the following purposes to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental
effect on the litigation position of the body, of the public body and the chair. So declares and I do. And two, to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel. Second. Okay. Sorry. Hold that on the job. No thank you. So I'll have a roll call Vote Ms. Lathers. Yes. Dr. Fugman? Yes. Ms. Collins? Yes. And I am a yes. So we'll move into executive session planning to return at approximately 6:50 PM
and we take that moment of silence to honor our troops serving us abroad and domestically. So announcements Speaker 2: Actually Speaker 1: Do Okay. Speaker 3: Okay. I have two announcements. Do you wanna queue up the video? But I'm gonna do one another, one first. I literally had this come across this afternoon from Mr. Craig Chisolm who leads our arts department, and this is what he wrote. The Natick Public Schools for the third time in four years has earned the best communities for music education award along with some other districts across
the commonwealth in the country. This is from an organization called nam. So this is fabulous accolade. This is what they do. The NAM Foundation advances active participation in music making, AC music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, Phil Philanthropic giving and public service programs. So this is fantastic. He wrote thanks to everyone who makes this possible based on the application I do each year, it really is reflective of everyone in the community, including the school committee, central office, music staff,
school admin and office staff, non-music teachers in every building, and most importantly the families and students who have committed to a distinguished and excellent music education pre-K to 12. So we're really thrilled about this and wanted to share today. Wonderful. So that's number one. I've got another one if that's okay, please. This one comes with multimedia. So just as the school committee was, the school department will be doing a Natick 1 0 1 topic next week on May 28th. So please come to Natick High School next Wednesday at 6:30 PM to see us talk about Natick Public Schools.
We're also fortunate that various students have agreed to help us make our presentation truly come to life by creating what we're calling a day in the life of videos. And since we know a selection of folks might not actually be able to go to Natick 1 0 1 because they're actually two in the know about Natick schools, we wanted to show you the wonderful Natick High video created by none other that our own school committee student representative Anthony Lou. Yes. As well as his classmate. Camden, how do you say Camden Camden's last name. Eric. Thank you sir. So let's cue it up.
Oh, we need audio. Hold on. Speaker 4: And today we'll be showing you the life of a Yic High school student. Speaker 5: Every day I drive to school, it's about a 15 minute drive, but allowed to sleep for CDS Cs is required class unless you have labs Speaker 4: Or eighties. Speaker 6: That's it. Math, Speaker 4: One of the most important things a native high school student does is learning in their classes. A student's schedule will have four classes of route minutes each day and the classes will alternate every other day. So on one day I have history science elective engine,
and on the other day I have English World Language free Block and math in classes, native high school teachers engage the student in the content. So instead of just learning information classes, encourage students to utilize information from application with labs, presentations in class discussions. There are many options for lunch at native high school there is a hot lunch, a salad bar and pre wrapped wraps and sandwiches, whatever to you liking. We have around 20 minutes for lunch and after that we go back to our classes. There's still many things that make students engage in after school. There are over 30 clubs at native high school
and you can always feel free to create your own. I'm in the mantra out team and I also do volley with Can n High School students also play a lot of sports. I run cross country, but other students at mid high school also also play other sports. Something I would like to highlight is our unified track team. They the two times Defend champion and they the three Ps this year I is quite prolific in their sports, but they're also really prolific in performing arts. Our theater program, our band program and choir program always wins state competitions and bring in gold medals. This is the single snapshot follow through. Thank you. Speaker 7: We missed the homework post.
Speaker 3: So we, we hope that's kind of a good teaser to coming to Natick 1 0 1. We hope to see you there and we're excited to talk about all the things we do and to show, showcase our students, which are really why we're all here. So sometimes it's good to kind of help bring them to life. Thank you so much for kind of leading this and and making it happen for the high school. It was Speaker 1: My pleasure. Speaker 3: That's what I have. Speaker 1: Okay. Awesome. Any other announcements? Okay. So we'll now move into public speak. Public speak is scheduled for a period of 15 minutes. Each speaker will be permitted a maximum of three minutes during which time they can speak about topics within the
scope of responsibility of the school committee. All remarks will be addressed through the school committee chair. Public speak is not a time for debate or response to comments by the school committee. Do we have anyone in the room for public speak? Anyone online? No hands. Okay. We'll end public speak. Okay. We'll now go to our student representatives. And I hear that it is Nathan's birthday. He's not here today though, is he? But we'll wish him a happy birthday anyway. Yeah, Speaker 8: Yeah, that was one of my announcements.
It's Nathan's birthday, happy birthday to him. And in addition, yesterday was I think, yeah, yesterday was the senior's prom at the aquarium. Everything went really well. I was there to help out with the senior class and it was like really fun because we got to see the penguins in the aquarium pool and also the dance floor. It was really hard to organize but they still pulled it off. And next month is gonna be the junior boat cruise and everything is mostly set up for that. And the junior class is about to put down the deposit for their senior prom soon.
So there'll be updates about that later. And other than that, looking at the consent agenda, there's been some stuff about out-of-state field trips. So following up about that, I remember a couple months ago this school committee approved field trips to China and then the students who went on that trip all had a really great time. There's even a news article about it inside the Na Nest if you would like to check it out. And other than that, there's no more updates. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you very much. And our teacher representative is not here today and I don't think she sent us anything. No, she didn't. No. Okay. Super. Okay, so may I have a motion for the consent agenda?
So moved second. Okay. All in favor. Okay. It's four in favor for approving this. So the consent agenda passes. I wonder if we could go to subcommittee updates that first. Yeah, that's okay. Speaker 9: So the only, I have just a quick update. We don't really have a formal subcommittee, but one of our sub of our school committee goals is professional development for us and specifically focusing on the topic of equity. Last time we talked a little bit about it and what we want to get out and one
of the decisions we made last time was to reach out to Dar Jackson Monte to explore the possibility of her coming here and doing two sessions with us. So I did reach out to her as I offered and I'm scheduled to speak with her tomorrow. So I just wanted to, now, besides being providing the update, just wanted to make sure that we know what we're asking her. I know one of the things we talked about last time was a focus on using data to better understand, to figure out how to measure and monitor progress towards equity.
And the other one was kinda more broadly looking at equity, bringing equity lens decision making. So just wanted to see if there's anything else that we wanna make sure I mentioned to her tomorrow. And by the way, I was also thinking out, talking to her about, specifically aiming towards doing something over the summer. I think that's what we discussed last time. So that's the plan or if anyone has any thoughts about that or any other, any, anything that came up for you since we last spoke about it. Speaker 1: So, so I just reviewed the proposal again.
So are we still talking about potentially having two sessions? Yeah. Okay. Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm trying to find the specific language that we had. One was focusing on data and one about applying information to school committee decision making. So budget policies, et cetera. Yeah. So that, that would be the, the fo the focus of the two sessions of each of the sessions. The foci, is it the foci? Plurals, Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh that's not a bugaboo. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Just wanted to, I think, I think that sounds good. So after you speak with her, will she give us another sort of written,
Speaker 9: I'm assuming so. Okay. Proposal. I know we had talked about how we would pay for it. Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, great. Any other questions about that topic from the committee? No thoughts. Okay, great. Thank you Shai for doing that. Are you gonna finish that section? Yeah. Do you wanna talk about policy? Yeah, Speaker 10: I think I'm the only person from policy here. So this is the second reading of file BDA, B-D-B-B-D-C, BDD. Don't ask me about the numbering system. That one I can't answer. It's essentially the organizational, how the school committee organizes itself.
And last year we had put in a section on adding a Medco representative, but we never anticipated that the Medco representative might not for whatever reason stay the whole year. So basically what we're doing here, a couple of things we're accomplishing in this changes before you. One is making things gender neutral. They there one is making it clear that the METCO representative serves the fiscal year so that they're able
to join us in the summer retreats if they desire. And the third is making a provision that if someone who's in the role resigns before June 30th, the school committee may appoint someone to fill the rest of the term. And we went back and forth should it be the rest of the term or should it be into the next year? We were very clear that we wanted it to be the rest of the term and a new appointment for the following year. It could be the same person, but the, just because you were appointed for like in March say
to fill some of these term doesn't automatically give it to you for the following year. And it's open to people who are interested to put their, you know, show their interest. What's not covered in these changes are now, this is not the one that was on there the other day. We have not fully gone through this, this policy to make sure that it is exactly what we want for everything. We started it, but there was some question as to which is the right form and that this is not the one that was,
was posted the other day. So I don't, the one that was posted the other day is the one that I spoke to in subcommittee. Speaker 11: The last subcommittee, I don't think you were present. No, Speaker 10: But what was posted on, what do we call this granicus on Thursday is the old version. So Matt had had forwarded it because it still had the vice, the vice chair of operations and the vice chair of finance. And it shouldn't, this version does not. So I just don't know if all the changes
are represented here. But we needed to make the change for the METCO because it's coming up and you wanna be Yeah, Speaker 11: The I'm I'm not looking at that one. I'm looking at the one that we changed. Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking at the one that's posted and I think I agree with you because I remember both of you who were on this committee can confirm whether I'm remembering correctly, but I think we changed Jay to being prior to June 30th of each year as well. Yes, it Speaker 11: Should say that. Yes. Speaker 3: Which is important because I think given tonight's, yeah, Speaker 10: Because yes it should, it it should be prior to June 30th.
This is the wrong one, is when we make the vote not prior to June 1st. Speaker 11: Sorry, I don't know which one was posted. The, the one that, so I think Jay wasn't edited, that's the problem, right? It should say prior to June 30th of each year, each year, that's an error that didn't get corrected. So it should say prior to June 30th of each year, a current or former participant. Speaker 10: And if you look at the last line in J where it will commence at the beginning, schools crossed out fiscal Speaker 11: Should say fiscal year Speaker 10: Should be in red. Yep. It's for whatever reason, not highlighted no big deal.
But just to be clear that Yep, it that's what we intended it to be to fiscal year. Correct. Speaker 11: That Speaker 10: Just we added K and then we moved what had been K down to L. Correct. We just renumbered that last. Speaker 3: So if, if I summarize to make sure I understand the date under J is one change that, that should be June 30th. Yes. And then the fiscal should be in red. Speaker 10: The word fiscal should be in red. Yes. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 1: And just to clarify, is it in red because it's a track change?
Speaker 10: Yes. Okay. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 10: Alright. Yes, but for some reason it didn't change when it did de detract change it, you know, crossed out school, but it didn't pick up fiscal as in, in the red track change form. But that's just so people are clear that that is being added as part of this even though it's in black. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 10: And again, don't ask me about the computer system behind it. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 10: So this is the second reading. Speaker 12: You got the right one. I just get changed. Sorry. Speaker 1: Are you guys able to find the document or Speaker 13: We look for the agenda? I, I think Speaker 10: Oh, okay.
Speaker 1: Okay. Are we, are we comfortable voting on this since it's second reading? Okay. Yeah. The only question I had is why did we pick, I was looking at it earlier, why did we pick fiscal year and not like per the same reorg? Was there a reason for that? Why we're not doing it on the election cycle? I mean, outta curiosity, I think we, if I, if I recall, I think we did it just last year, right? Because we thought it'd be simpler for, for parents that they'd be thinking about
what they'd be doing on a school year as opposed to like March to March. I can buy that Speaker 10: Because there, there may be parents of new incoming kindergartners who wanna be involved who aren't incoming. They're incoming kindergartners, not kindergartners even. I can buy that. So that's Speaker 1: Kids graduate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean we can, we can revisit that if that turns out to be, you know, not, not Speaker 10: Helpful. It also meant that the person was there for the training in the summer or the retreats in the summer, but also for the evaluation of the superintendent in June.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah. So they saw the full cycle of one school year, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Do you need a motion? I do. Speaker 9: Motion to the, to revise to approve the revised, what is it? Policy BDA, BDB. BDC. BDD Speaker 10: With Speaker 9: It's fun to say Speaker 10: With Speaker 1: With Speaker 9: The, can I say that again? Just 'cause it was fun Because it's Speaker 10: Fun to say if you're string it Speaker 9: All together, like it's like that song A Speaker 10: With the edit to the date of June 1st to June 30th Speaker 9: With the edit of June from June 30th to June 1st. No,
Speaker 10: June 1st to June 30th. Speaker 9: June 1st. June 1st to June 30th, second on item J. Speaker 1: Okay. All in favor. Okay. So we've approved those changes, thank you. And thank you to the policy subcommittee for getting that done so that we can work on getting our next METCO family or parent rep in place for next year. Thank you. Okay. Superintendent report. Speaker 3: Thank you and thanks for that. We will have a recommendation to you very likely on the 16th. Okay, great.
So for my report, we have two guests here today and I'm gonna go in the order of the agenda and have Mr. Sprat come up and talk about a request for Natick water data collectors. Speaker 6: Figure Speaker 14: Out how I was gonna share my screen. So that's good. Thank you very much. I provided this last week. I hope you've had a chance to review it. I'll give you the bottom line up front. We're here today to ask for some space on the roof for a data collector. It's cellular in nature so it just is collecting radio waves and then reporting via cell via cellular
to an internet website at two locations on school property. One being the roof of Kennedy Middle School and the other being a pole at Wilson. And I'll, I'll go through those quickly. And I just wanted to give you the bottom line front of of what we're here for today. The town has invested in advanced metering infrastructure that covers about 70% of the town right now. We have locations that are automatically reading water meters throughout town. The way we used to do this is drive around every street
and the buildings or houses would provide that data to a handheld reader. This system allows it to be done automatically, it allows it to be done very quickly up to almost hourly so people can look at their water data on a, on a live basis. Just gonna show you where these are proposed. So the first one is at Kennedy Middle School. The red arrow shows where that location is. That location is inside a screened roof area. So there's mechanical systems behind that. That screen is about 10 feet tall.
The camera locations, you can see the front camera and the rear camera. That's what the views will be. If we could just go to the next slide please. So that is the rear view, probably the, frankly the ugliest view from the the field side. From the front side, you, you can't really see the antenna at all. The way we estimated the height of that and if you see that little picture on the right side of the screen, we floated two balloons. One was at the tower height and one was at the antenna to height. And then we superimposed that to give you kind of an artist rendering of what that would look like.
Next slide please. So that's from the front side of the school, essentially from right before the, the solar canopies. And from that view you really can't see where the, the radio tower would be. Next slide. This is just an example of an existing one at another building. Not here in Natick, but they're ballasted. So from a facility's perspective, this is not a penetrating, it sits on pads, it has a stand. The stand is weighted by concrete block, it doesn't interface with the roof and that's how it's weighted down for wind. And that would be the proposed location
inside the screened area where that red helium tank is. That's our proposed location at Kennedy. And then the other one would be on an existing pole. There's the backstop screen screening fence. So we'd be aix a four foot antenna on top of a 75 foot pole with an electrical conduit going up. So all this needs is just an electrical connection to run a essentially a cell phone. And this is the proposed pole that we'd be, would be going on and there's existing power close to
that pole, so it'd run underground to the pole and then a conduit up the pole. And I believe that's it. Speaker 1: Any questions from the committee, Ms. Collins? Speaker 10: Thanks. So because these are school property, you need our permission. Do you also need anything from planning board or community development or anything like that? Speaker 14: I don't believe so. I believe the only thing we need is your permission. These are, these aren't locations that require like foundations or, or things like that. It's just, I believe all I need is your permission. I will double check that. Okay. Speaker 10: And was that you taking the pictures?
Speaker 14: Nope, that was Rich Ames who runs our drone program. Speaker 10: He photographs well in shadow Speaker 1: Dr. Fugman. Speaker 9: So obviously we have to ask any risks, you know, I know there's some, I don't, I know where we are these days with the researcher on cell phone towers or, I know that's not a cell phone tower, but any risks around what it can, is it just a camera or This Speaker 14: Is just a receiver. So the radio waves are already in the air. This is just collecting them via an antenna. No different than you're picking up a radio station on a, you know, an old school good call.
Yeah, radio. Yeah. Speaker 9: Yeah. And any risk of, and again, I have no idea, I don't know anything about this, but any other kind of risk in malfunctioning or anything that would, or especially the one in, in Wilson, if kids are playing in that field, if it falls or, Speaker 14: So it would be attached to the existing pole. The pole, the, the biggest force in that pole is the net. This is just a smaller four foot antenna and the conduit is a metal conduit. So the electricity, the wiring would be inside the conduit protected.
Speaker 9: Good, thanks. Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 8: So having played baseball on that same Wilson field, is there like any way you could like install a fence around that electoral conduit to make sure players, especially little kids, don't actually like end up falling into that electrical conduct or throwing a baseball into that conduct? Speaker 14: So the, the conduit is likely three quarters of an inch. It's a very small electrical conduit that would be mounted and screwed into the pole. So, and we could put it on the backside of the pole so there'd be no risk
of someone bumping into it from the field of play. Speaker 8: Okay. So what about that box looking thing Speaker 14: That's existing? That's their currently I believe that's the lights for the, the sign. Speaker 8: Okay. Sounds good. Speaker 1: Are you saying that people run into that a lot? Speaker 8: Sometimes like there's a stray ball and it might just like damage the antenna. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 8: Depends on like, so Speaker 10: Just clarify, there's no guy wires here that we need to worry about? No. At any. So that risk is non-existent? Speaker 14: Not yet. It's a metal conduit going up the existing pole. The, the, the me the wire run from this sign
to the pole will be underground. Okay. Speaker 10: Similar to if there's a telephone pole on my side of the street, the house across the street now runs under the street and up the conduit with the pole to hook in their cable and all that sort of stuff. Speaker 14: Similar. Yep. Speaker 10: Yeah, same idea I had. There's no extraneous wires coming out? Speaker 14: No, there's no guy wires. The, the on this pole location, there's only a small four foot antenna at the top. Speaker 1: I had a question for the one that's on top of the roof, how strong a wind would you have to have to actually be able to knock that over and have it fly off the building?
I know it's weighted down by concrete blocks, but is there a, like do we know that that's enough waiting down? I Speaker 14: Can double check on that, but it's a, an aluminum tower that's open. So wind would blow through it. Yeah, I would have some sort of wind resistance, but it's not like a sail. So it's just a bad example 'cause it's certainly not as tall, but like a radio tower you would see they're, they're there and the wind goes right through them. So these systems, we have them at the police station for other types of antenna
and we've never had one topple over. Speaker 1: Okay. No, that's helpful. Thank you. And Speaker 14: It's also inside a screen so the, the majority of that base and, and antenna or, or the frame of the antenna is, is behind a windscreen. Speaker 1: Okay. Got it. Thank you. So you'd like a vote from us to approve this if we're, Speaker 14: I'm not pushing for a vote right now, but I'm trying to give you the information so we can just gather our information so we can move forward with this project. Okay. So if you'd like me to find out about the planning board
or other things, I can come back or the, the wind question, I can come back with that data. Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't need the in I, I, I'm satisfied with that answer that it's been thought about. I don't need to know the specifics. Yeah. So I'm good with that. And Speaker 10: I would like you to check the planning board, but it's not gonna change how I view. Speaker 14: I will do. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 10: I just don't want somebody screaming at you. You didn't ask us. Speaker 14: Thanks for looking out for me, Kathy. I appreciate it. You Speaker 9: You can go ahead. No, I, no. So I'll make a motion to approve the installation of, is it a A MI towers? Yes. The antenna. A MI antenna MI antenna at Wilson and Kennedy
Speaker 1: Second. Okay. All in favor? Okay, so that was unanimously four votes in favor of that. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Oh, thank you. Speaker 3: Thanks so much. I warned him. I'm like they're gonna maybe wanna wait. You might get the vote the next time. So great job. That was well handled. Thank you. Thanks so much. Speaker 1: Humility helps. Speaker 3: Excellent. I'm gonna skip around a little bit to have our next guest come up. First I'm thrilled to invite up the Natick Education Foundation. Both Jen and Rosemary we're so grateful for your partnership. I'm not gonna steal the thunder
and explain the grant total this year and kind of the process, but we're gonna hear about that and as always, thank you and welcome. Speaker 15: Nice. Hi, I'm I'm Jen Gory. I'm the president of the board of the NA Education Foundation. Speaker 1: Just turn your microphone on. Oh, the little room light. There you go. Alright. Speaker 11: I'm Jen Gory. I'm the president of the Board of the NA Education Foundation. Speaker 16: And excuse me, I'm Rosemary Driscoll. I'm currently the treasurer of the NA Ed Education Foundation and here to support Jen in her brief presentation. Speaker 11: So, oh, I just forgetting, forget. Speaker 16: Yeah, let's get those around. Hopefully there I'll do,
Speaker 11: But we're happy to be here to tell you the results of this year's Natick Education Foundation grant cycle. We have awarded 16 grants out of the 31 applications for a total of 27,000, over $20,007,000 of grants funded. And we did have a, a record amount of applications and, and the, in terms of the funding rec requested this year, it was much higher than normal. But there are grants awarded at all of the elementary schools, both of the middle schools
and the high schools. 11 of the grants are classroom in innovation grants that where the teachers are looking for extra resources to support what they're, to try something different in the classroom. And five of the grants are our new professional rejuvenation grants where we're looking to support the teacher's own learning and development. And you know, we, we had a great pool of grants this year. We love hearing about the creative ideas that these teachers want to bring to their classrooms. This year was from chicken incubators to dash robots
and how these grants will impact everything from drawing to coding. We love that these grants will support students in unified athletics working out together and students supporting other students as teaching assistants. We love that teachers are asking to grow their own learning in art, education, math, chemistry, and library science. And we, we also wanted to mention that, you know, we've been working on making some process improvements and so we really appreciate the assistance of the, the district business office in improving our grant award tracking process this year.
And as that will help us to use our funding more efficiently. Speaker 16: I was, yeah, the only thing I wanted to, it's always interesting to see the range of what comes in, but first of all, to just hit, this is the largest number of grant applications I think we've had in ever. And I go back and you go back to 20 years. So that's ever, so I think that's interesting. And of course our timing was before some budget decisions were made, but still, and I just wanna shout out to the folks they know who they are at home, who reviewed all those grant
applications and it's a combination of some board members and community volunteers. So they took on a bigger burden this year. But yeah, no, I think there's, there's some just really fun, interesting grants. So we're excited. I even brought the big check but, and then I was like, do I leave it with them? I, yeah, we used to do this and then it's like, yeah. So 27,000, right? $27,262 and 42 cents. Wow. Cash it your local Speaker 17: Bank. Speaker 16: And I think the check is not even in the mail.
It's been mailed, I think it's even been received. But, and thank you to Matt 'cause it's been great working with Matt and trying to get things up to speed better for all of us. So yeah, we're excited. Speaker 1: Yeah, wonderful. Thank you so much. And that's really exciting to, to know that people are donating but also that people are coming up with all these really great ideas to, to do projects with. So Yeah. Speaker 16: Wonderful. We wish we could have funded them all, but, Speaker 11: And, and actually I would just, since we were, I just wanna mention that we did have two marathon runners run in support and they did education foundation this year.
Hannah and Yuko and Yuko. And, and so, you know, we really wanted to thank the community for the support for our runners. So, Speaker 16: And they, they all made their goals and they all finished and they all did as well as they wanted to. So it was a win for everybody. Yep. It's great. No questions for us Speaker 1: Ms. Collins. Speaker 10: Not so much a, well I guess it's a question. The variety In terms of, well I mean it covers elementary through the high school, but it's media arts, it's coding, it's robotics, it's
AP instruction, it's, I mean it just covers such a wide, were the rest that weren't, you weren't able to fund as wide as well. I mean is it, is there that, or is it, I guess I'm trying to figure out, you know, this covers a whole lot of areas. If you had more money, would it cover more areas or would it just cover a few area, some of these areas deeper is what I guess I'm trying to understand. Speaker 11: There were some grants that we did partially fund. So yes. You know, if we, if we were, if we were raising our grant budget, we would able
to fully fund more of Okay. More grants. Yeah. Speaker 16: And, and there were also, there were grants that we don't, that don't get funded for other reasons. So some of them don't get funded because we do run all of our grant recommendations through central office. And so occasion, I mean it's not even just occasionally every year. Speaker 11: So I'm gonna take the, take you out of the hot seat and, and Speaker 16: It's never hot. Speaker 11: So they, I run through all of the grants and some of them were things that we felt were more appropriate to be funded through us. They were great ideas
and things such as bulletin boards to celebrate that team, you know, to displays in the hallways. Those are things that should come through us or particular textbooks for a certain class. Those are things that are, are curriculum materials that we should be providing. It just hadn't come through us as a curriculum request yet. So we pushed back and said that should come through as a curriculum request or particular pieces of technology. Well when we're purchasing technology, you know, Dennis and I reviewed those, those are things that we need
to have a sustainability plan for. We can't just go out and purchase technology without having a long range plan for that or for Dennis's team to be able to manage that technology and have a sustainability plan. So there were some things that we had to push back on. So those were things that we asked NAF not to fund and the reasoning behind. And so I reached out to those who had requested or applied for a grant in that case and explained the reasoning behind it and then gave alternatives or said, let's revisit this in the future when we're in a
different budget situation and come up with alternative ideas. Speaker 10: Well I'm excited that the process that they go through surface things that were more appropriate for us so that we could jump on them without waiting them for them. Somebody to get really frustrated and finally send it to you. Speaker 16: Right. And that, I was gonna say, that does happen every year. So that, and it's again, you know, and the, the, the speed with which you all did that was great also. 'cause we're always in this little tight, very tight window. So it's working well thanks.
Speaker 11: Yeah, we, we, we appreciate the partnership we have with the district in our process. Speaker 16: Okay, Dr. Fugman. Speaker 9: So first of all, I'm compelled to make the same joke I made a while back, which is, how are we gonna find an ATM that is big enough to cash that check? Speaker 11: It's Speaker 10: An over the counter transaction. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 16: Person. Speaker 9: But I, I also wanna say thank you 'cause I know it takes many hours of volunteer time. You, you and the board and the, and the other reviewers are volunteers and, and raising money and, and getting all this, the, the funds, the ideas, funding the ideas. And these ideas are gonna make a huge impact on our schools
and our students and our community. So thank you for, for what you do. I I actually started as you know, my volunteer here in Natick as I review your NAIC education of the grants. And I just wanted, my question is to check on some of the criteria because I think it's, it's worthwhile mentioning the criteria, assuming it's the same. So I know one of the things you look for is innovation. Are these innovative ideas, presumably they are. And also the broader impact not only to the individual teacher or classroom, but what potential long-term impact can this have to the school. So anything else you can tell us about the criteria that kinda allows us to under better understand
was what's the lens through which you looked at these grants and what does, what do these grants represent to you? Speaker 11: Sure. The, the criteria that you mentioned, you know, we're looking at like, is this really under something new that and in innovative they're trying versus, and, and especially we try and steer away from things that seem like more operational re requests and we look for the, the idea of like, is this something that could be implemented more broadly if it's successful? We look at sustainability also, you know, we,
it is this something that has life past the, the year that the grant is funded. So those are some of the things that, that we look for. And just generally, you know, like besides the generally like does it seem sensible? Yeah. Speaker 16: And things like if it's heavily weighted towards what would consumables something that's just gonna get used up and has to be repurchased all the time doesn't make a lot of sense. That's a different kind of sustainability. And I, and we always ask and, and look really favorably on when the applicant is indicating how they're gonna share
that information. So even if it's an individual classroom based thing, there's an assumption that they would share that out within their building, within their grade group. So we're, we're looking at that as well. That's an important part of it Speaker 9: And I think thank you. And I think that's important to know the, the way in which these grants are gonna push beyond the outcomes that might be seen on the chart. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 1: Thank you again, really appreciate you coming and sharing with us today. Speaker 15: Thanks. Thank you. Speaker 1: Do we wanna get a picture of the big check bullets here? Speaker 15: I don't need to Speaker 6: Check washing.
Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 15: It could get used against you so I would Speaker 1: Okay. Alright. Fair enough. Fair enough. They took that check. Speaker 3: I love it that you came with props though. That's great. Thank you so much on behalf of all the teachers and the students who will benefit from that. Okay, we're gonna move on to the literacy audit update as kind of the last update here for the end of the year, which they've gotten a lot done. Speaker 15: Okay. So we had a very successful day actually the day before April break. We had a big meeting here in this room
with our curriculum council. So we've met several times over the course of the year with, Speaker 18: Sorry to interrupt, you can't hear on Zoom right now. Speaker 11: Sorry. Thank you Catherine. We've had several meetings over the course of the year with our most recent meeting being the Thursday before April break with our curriculum council. And that day was incredibly successful and very productive. Unfortunately none of our parents were able to join us that day, but we still had a great day. So things that we've done so far this year was develop our curriculum council meet several times.
We did a standards review, identify our priority standards per grade and we developed our surveys, which went out to parents, students, and staff. And we put it out through the engage. We sent it out through school messenger, we put it on our website. So if you went to our website, it was the first thing you saw. You couldn't get to any other page without seeing that survey. So we got a lot of really great feedback from families. And on that day in April, we analyzed the results
of all of those surveys and got some really great information. We used that information to develop a vision statement. This was a labor of love. We spent a lot of time using that data to identify what we wanted the vision of literacy in the native public schools to be. And we played around with the wording. We went back and forth, we finally walked away from from it. We took lunch, we went on to some other things and then we came back to it with some fresh eyes
and we were able to come up with this. We used a little support from ai, which was hard for some of our English teachers. But we got there and when we finally came up with this statement, everyone in the room cheered and clapped, which was really rewarding for them through all of that hard work. So I don't typically read slides, but I think that this vision statement that was dev developed warrants it. So the native public schools is committed
to cultivating proficient readers, writers and communicators through equitable evidence-based research-backed literacy instruction aligned with state standards across all grade levels. Students engage in purposeful discussion, thoughtful writing and meaningful inquiry through diverse, rigorous texts that reflect their identities and expand their perspectives with a tiered support system and responsive assessment practices. We ensure all learners grow academically, socially, and personally ready to lead, contribute,
and thrive in a complex world. We felt that summarizes what we want our students to be able to do when they finish 13 years in the native public schools as readers, writers, leaders, learners. So we felt good about that. Moving from there, we did what they were all excited to do, which was to dig into curriculum. And so they broke off into grade level groups. We took over town hall to the point that downstairs they were calling saying, are those your people in the board of Selectmen Room?
Yes, yes, sorry. But they dug into curriculums. They used Curate and Ed reports really digging into high quality instructional materials and all of the reviews and narrowed it down to five elementary curriculums that they wanted to dig into and get more familiar with. Five middle school. All of those sample materials have been or are being delivered to the school so that all teachers, not just the ones on the council can put their hands on
them, dig through them, get into the online resources. We have demo accounts so that they can dig into what's available. They'll be assessing them using rubrics. And then from there they'll have Google forms where they can rate those five curriculums and we hope to narrow it down to two or max three that we'll be able to pilot next year. We won't start the year in a pilot, it's just too soon. We need to be able to provide all of our pilot teachers with professional development
and the opportunity to unpack that, those lessons. So they'll all start the year the way they typically would. But we will, when we pilot, we will match our standards in the same sequence that we would be teaching anyway. So they'll still be teaching the same standards, it'll just be with one of the pilot curriculums and then the high school is going to be conducting an internal audit of all of their current units. And will also be bringing in external people
who are unbiased to dig into their curriculum and audit it and provide us with feedback. I've met with other districts who've done that process and found it extremely successful to have somebody unbiased come in and really dig in and say, here's what you're doing well and here's where you really need to improve and here are some suggestions. And the high school's really excited to embark on that process. So we'll be moving into that process next.
So in terms of elementary curricula that's being reviewed, we're looking at CKLA Wonders Fish Tank, EL Education and Witten Wisdom. Witten Wisdom is a curriculum that you may have heard of. It continues to exist, but they have also created Arts and Letters. Arts and Letters is not ready to come out yet, but it will be coming out in the fall. It's based off of Witten Wisdom with some tweaks, but we're looking at Witten wisdom right now. We'll see how they feel about that. But we will be piloting two or three of these curriculums.
And then if you look at the middle school, you'll see a lot of the same ones, which is nice that if we find a common one, we may have an aligned curriculum K to eight, which would be really great for kids. So I'm hoping that's where we land. The only one that's different here is that elementary is looking at Wonders Middle School is looking at into literature. So that's where we had a little bit of a a difference. So like I said on the next slide, the high school is looking at an internal audit
and an external audit and they're excited about that process. And then moving forward, our plan is to conduct pilots at the elementary and middle. From there we'll select a curriculum to adopt, we'll develop our implementation plan and our professional development plan. And then the high school will conduct the internal review, external audit, we'll review our findings and then we'll begin our curriculum changes based on those findings, which will be, you know, it could be course changes, it could be developing
or expanding on new units, making changes around that area. So those are our updates. Speaker 13: Okay, Speaker 1: Thank you. Questions from the committee, Ms. Lathers and I was looking, I got a question, I was talking to other parents who came to ask as well, what, in the selection of the curriculum, how, how closely were you ensuring that they align with the science of reading? Because I heard expressed concern specifically around wit and wisdom is one example that is not known
for being well aligned. So how did that factor into your selection? Speaker 11: Our literacy coaches are very much focused on the science of reading. So that is something that is very much a concern for them. So when we select something, they will be looking very closely at all of those pieces. When we selected things to dig into, they were looking at high quality instructional materials and DESI is obviously concerned with the science of reading. We also are connecting with other districts who are implementing all of these curriculums.
So when we say we're looking our vision, which clearly states evidence-based research backed, that is part of science of Reading, that's where that comes from. So it has to align with our vision. So if it doesn't then it will not be adopted. Speaker 1: So that wasn't part of the first round of vetting as much. Speaker 11: It, it was something that was definitely looked at and when they looked at the, the pros and cons, it was probably part of it, but they wanted to get more information,
which is why they brought it in and wanted to dig through it. So it may not, it may not come to the point where it's a pilot option because it doesn't have enough of what they're looking for, but they wanted, they saw enough value in it to get it into their hands to look at, Speaker 1: I'll clarify what, how do you define in instruc? Like the high quality instructional materials? Like what, what elements of the curriculum? Speaker 11: Yeah, so both CURATE and ED reports have very specific criteria
that quantify it and qualify it as high quality instructional materials according to dsi. Which means it has to be aligned to the standards, it has to, I'm blanking now on all of the CHA characteristics because I don't have it in front of me. But there are very specific criteria and it has to meet them and it has specific ratings. Can you think of all of them off the top of your head? I just don't Speaker 3: Know. I mean I actually think it's worth taking a little bit of a deep dive, but we aren't looking at any curricula
that isn't rated meets or higher by Ed Curate and ED reports period. Speaker 11: And that's a requirement by Dessi. Speaker 3: But I do hear the person's question. Yeah. 'cause when I look at wit and wisdom and look down through the phonemic awareness phonics I fluency, they're, they have no claim. There's other pieces of science of reading that they do have a claim. But I also hear the kind of argument oftentimes when people are looking at curriculum, they kind of look at a lot of it 'cause they contextualize and compare some big pieces. I think they're gonna see gaps. But it is completely expected that we will have a high quality curriculum
around phonics fluency, all the different science of reading. There's elements of that that's not negotiable Speaker 11: And not all of the curriculums that we look at will have every component right of literacy instruction. And there would be a another curriculum that would teach the phonological instruction just as we do now. It may not be foundations, I don't know yet, but not all of them would have it embedded within it. And that's something that we would be looking at curate
and ed reports to help guide us through that. Speaker 3: That's helpful because I think what this is teaching me when there are decisions made, we'll report out really explicitly on that question because I, I hear you. You could go with wit and wisdom and have another element that teaches the phonics that's highly rated and we actually have different blocks in our elementary schools for the phonics instruction or skills instruction. So they're literally different times in different blocks of the day. So, we'll the team will be considering it, but the phonics is, we have to have just as high quality materials for phonics as everything else. Which science of reading basis of research backed materials. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. I see Ms. Brunell online and then And Speaker 18: Then Dr. Hi. Thank you. Two questions following up on the foundations question or the answer you just gave around Fundations, when you're thinking about the implementation, is it a heavier lift for staff to learn and use two different programs or you know, is it better to get a program that has the reading curriculum and the phonics all neatly tied together? Or is that not as much of a concern
because phonics is, I don't know, so theoretical that as long as you have it, you have it? Speaker 3: That's a great question. I'm gonna take a shot at it and Sue can add on if she wants to. They are different blocks of the day. So I think like logistically it's, that will be, teachers would be indifferent to it and it's usually phonics or skills-based instruction is very prescriptive. It's kind of like you out, you literally do the lesson plan as it's outlined. But I would actually lean in on asking the people piloting this curriculum for their takeaways.
I think that's much better than myself who's not really using it. But my initial impression having seen a rollout previously is that they can be done separately. It's really more that they're high rated and what the teachers are most invested in wanting to work with. Speaker 18: That's helpful. That adds one more question to my original too. So I actually have two more questions. I know Dr. Fash, and you're actually in your interviews when you were coming into the district, you spoke about having teachers volunteer to pilot things. Is that your plan here as well?
Who like, I guess my question is who is piloting and how do we make sure that there's different types of kids piloting? Sure. Each program. Yeah. Speaker 11: Yep. So just as we did with the math pilot, it's an opt in situation where teachers at will have the opportunity to complete a Google form volunteering. And then we're looking to make sure that we have teachers, every grade level is represented across the district and every building is represented across the district. And our goal is always that we have
two teachers in a grade level in a building so that they can co-plan and not be isolated. So that's how we would, we would look to do that. I know one building has already said that most of their grades, they do not want to pilot because they have a lot of leaves next year. So they've actually opted to just have one grade if possible, do the pilot. So we'll be cognizant of any teachers that we know of that will be going out on, on a leave to ensure that those aren't the pilot teachers because that's disruptive enough
and having sub, you know, long-term subs in there. We don't want that to happen, but that's how we do it. And, and we're, we're not selecting, you know, classrooms that don't have any EL students or special education students. We wanna make sure we have a wide range of students who are participating in the pilot and that our special education educators and our multilingual educators are participating in that work as well, so that they have a voice in what's working in meeting the needs of all learners. Speaker 18: Great, thank you.
And then my last question is about the rubric you spoke of, I'm assuming, well I, I guess what I would like to see, let me think about how to ask this. How will you assess the, assess different aspects of the things native public schools values about each program? And I'm thinking specifically about technology components, adaptability for things like RTI EL success, you know, will tho will those things be in the rubric? Speaker 11: Yeah, so most of the rubrics that are out there, which is
what we'll be looking at, have all of those components. And when you look at ed reports and curate, a lot of that is also a component of how things are rated. So that's what we'll be looking at. And then when we have, when we pilot, those are the questions that we're asking feedback on from the teachers who are piloting it. And that's what we're asking for from our EL educators and our special education educators as well as the classroom teachers of are there resources available
to meet the needs of all of your learners? Are there extensions, are there opportunities to step back for those students who need reteaching or for us to go back to entry points for some of our learners? Speaker 18: That's great, thank you Speaker 11: Dr. Speaker 9: Fugman. Yeah, so first of all, just in, in case it's helpful, so the, I pulled out the HQ IM thank you standards. So it's standard aligned, rigorous, incoherent, cultural responsive and inclusive, supportive of all learners, including scaffolding
for multilingual learners, evidence-based and usable by educators. So I'm assuming all five are on fall under the HQIM guidelines. So presumably that means that we would assume that as rated them on all six of those criteria. My question, so in case that's helpful, what are the criteria specifically are, my question also is about, similar to Ms. Brunell and the, well actually lemme take a step back. So it sounds like, and sorry if I missed something, but it sounds like the kinds of audits we're doing at the elementary middle school and the high school are different in elementary, middle.
We're talking about the audit is really an intro, a selection in, in piloting, implementing a new, eventually a new el, a new, sorry, ELA curriculum. Whereas the high school is really looking internally at what we're doing. Does the elementary middle school audit have that? Any element of that, of looking at what is currently working, what's not working, what do we need? So in essence, an actual audit of our current strengths so that we can better make strengths and weaknesses and opportunities so we can better make a decision regarding the selection of the new curriculum
Speaker 11: We have, we've had those conversations and through the surveys opportunities for input on what is working, what's not working from parents, students, and educators, as well as data review of what is our data telling us is not working. So all of that is part of it as well. The difference with the high school is that now we're digging into the lessons and the units specifically to say what's working, what's not working. There are very few high quality instructional material curricula that you can purchase at the high school level.
There's a handful out there and with all of the opportunities that we have at the high school with electives and, and the different paths that students can take, that would be removing all of those opportunities and we don't wanna do that. Whereas at the elementary and the middle school level, there's less of that. And I think what we're seeing in our data is that there's more need to ensure that we're really teaching our students how to read and to write so
that they can be more successful when they get to the high school level. Great. Speaker 9: And then the other question, I remember hearing particularly from teachers, it was a hard process to transition to illustrative math when we did this with the math curriculum. And I'm wondering, are there kind of lessons learned, obviously different subject, but lessons learned in terms of, I think one of the issues was that it was the, the timeline was very short for moving from pilot to actual full implementation. So I'm wondering if there's lessons learned to make things a little bit more smoother.
Speaker 11: So many lessons learned. Oh, good. Speaker 9: Yes, Speaker 11: And, and you know, we're doing a full year pilot here, which gives us time to really think and plan of how the rollout is going to go. We ripped the bandaid off and just made everyone implement at the same time, which reflecting back maybe wasn't the best choice because the way illustrative builds on itself, it assumes at first grade that they have a lot of things that was taught in kindergarten and they just didn't have that.
And teachers found it very frustrating and they had to step back a lot by the end of first grade. If you talk to Mrs. McEnany, she'll tell you, I hated it at the beginning. I loved it at the end. We have to be thoughtful about it. And teacher voice has to be in there. Yeah. Speaker 9: And that, that last comment you made, I think had to do more with the transition to the curriculum rather than the actual use of the curriculum. Once you have, once it's rolling. Thanks Speaker 10: Ms. Collins. Thank you. Thank you for raising math. Where are we in that process? What year?
Speaker 11: We're moving into year three Speaker 10: And everything is fully implemented. Speaker 11: It is. Speaker 10: And that was when Speaker 11: We fully implemented it. Year one. Day one. That's Speaker 10: What I thought. I guess I have a concern that I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. Our elementary teachers, our EL teachers, our SPED teachers don't. How do we make sure they don't feel whiplash and overload because they've gotta do it all. Whereas in middle school, you know, okay,
if I'm the math guy, I am over here. And if I'm the English person, I'm over there. And yeah, we talk in team meetings, but I'm not actually trying to teach it. So what kind of supports do you need from us? Do you need in the system to, to help that process go smoothly? Speaker 11: I appreciate that. I will tell you when I know, but teacher voice needs to be what drives these decisions. And I, we need to go into the pilot and have teachers tell us what's working, what's not working, and what do they need for support.
And then I need to advocate for them. I think one of the things that I'm seeing is that they are trying to get three steps ahead of me and I'm trying to slow them down. And that's part of the challenge is that they wanna jump in with both feet and I want them to weigh in and we're gonna get there in due time, but we'll make a plan for implementation that's thoughtful without them getting in over their heads. Speaker 10: Okay. And that, that's a fine answer of, of we're not quite sure yet. But I would just ask that you keep it in mind
and what you need from us to make sure that we don't burn our teachers out trying to do it. Speaker 11: And I've said that to them already. I said, I care about you too much and I don't want you to leave, so I don't wanna overwhelm you. So let's talk about how this is gonna go. Speaker 18: Okay. Thank Speaker 11: You. Thank you. Speaker 3: Can I add on to that a little bit? I love that answer. I think the fact that we, the committee already supported a two year audit was a huge gift. It was something I heard when I first came in and we're seeing it pay out. I think to the credit of Sue
and the whole team, it has been very collaborative and it's followed the DESI sort of guidelines on curriculum adoption. So like they've followed it to the T, it's very participatory and informed, which is great. What she said about high school curriculum is spot on it. The state is behind on that and they know it. And that's okay. I think also our team has used that muscle when they lifted illustrative. And so that muscle is there, which is good. All the data work that we're doing around digging deeper on, I think it's incentivizing them to use high quality
curricular materials 'cause they know it's gonna likely have higher yield on scores. And then I would say there's some assets in that, even though we think, or there might be a narrative that science of reading is new to naic. There's a ton of it going on. The, the Haggerty and foundations that are being used in phonics blocks is solid. All the teachers who have been trained on Orton-Gillingham, there's way more asset there than we probably give ourselves credit for. I'm saying it. And then lastly, I just wanna say we're doing, we're we plan to be doing a lot of work around PD delivery and how much is owned kind of by coaches.
We're gonna, we're gonna do a lot of work with supporting our coaches in the skill of coaching all through next year, which I think is gonna help when we roll out new curriculum because coaches and PLCs are essential to supporting teachers through that process. And I think we're gonna be at, at a fabulous place at the end of next year to help support that internally through how we're working and meeting in PLCs with professional development. Speaker 1: Sure. And just so, yeah, Ms. Brunell, go Speaker 3: Ahead. Speaker 18: Thank you. I, I'm excited about this. I'm really grateful to everyone for the time that you're spending on it.
And I understand that this was a national and statewide issue, you know, not just an IC issue. I I was wondering about the high school. I know you said that the reading curriculum is hard, you know, that there are not many or that the state is behind there. Is that also true for writing curriculums at the high school? Because I have heard people really sort of question our writing curriculum at times. Speaker 3: You know, I don't know the answer to that question and it's the first time I've actually had it separated from just all of English language arts. We have a, a contact at the state that we'd happily reach.
I'd actually now wanna reach out to her. Catherine Tarka, she's a faab, been a fabulous partner to my work in literacy over the last six years or so. We'll call her and ask her. This's a great, great question. I think the writing question in general is one to look at when we look at curricula. 'cause a lot of it can be more reading focused and less write writing focused even even in these that are high rated. So I think it's a thing that this literacy council needs to look deeply at how writing happens. As an aside, you'll see when we share
strategic objectives later on the before we break and, and in the fall, a huge piece of it is improving our tier one instruction and the, all the principals have done a great job of making our, our main core blocks a little bit longer to make sure we have enough time to fit this new curriculum. And that's another big piece of support. Speaker 1: Okay. I had, so I think it's just a follow on question. So are we, in this pilot, we're gonna be introducing two to three new curricula to pilot. Are we going to be comparing it against what we are currently using?
So that will be included in the rubric? Yes. Okay. The current one. And then, so then I guess the, I assume there'll be some kind of report that follows after the pilot? Yes. That will kind of, so we'll get to see sort of where our current curriculum falls compared to these new ones. That's very exciting. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions from the committee? Well, I'm really excited about this. I'm, I'm really excited with your vision statement because it starts right off the front that we're gonna create readers, writers and communicators.
And I think that that's just wonderful to have that front and center. So thank you. And looking forward to the next update in the fall. Speaker 3: Literacy's always fun. It's exciting. Okay. C which is on here, results of the annual town meeting school capital warrant articles. And we're just gonna talk to that briefly, Mr. Gillis. Speaker 19: Yeah. So there really wasn't anything for the school this year at, from our asks at town meeting for capital Warren articles. 'cause as you know, we're a little bit in, in, in limbo
and waiting for MSBA and early design. Early field design study is still in progress. So we didn't have anything to ask for it. Springtown meeting. And then we'll talk about MSBA in a little bit. Speaker 1: Okay. Any questions? Thank you Mr. Gilli. Speaker 3: Excellent. Thanks Mr. Gillis. Moving right along. Ms. Balone will bring us through a piece on projected enrollment for 20 25, 26 for kindergarten. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 20: So we typically Speaker 11: Come to you every spring
and let you know what our numbers are looking like for kindergarten. So I shared a memo with you that Linda is just bringing up now. So currently our current numbers right now for kindergarten shows you that Ben, he's at 108 Brown at 90 little Jet 1 0 7, Memorial at 72. Our current registrations as of Last week shows benham at 81. So that's a low number. Unexpectedly brown at 82. So fairly close to where we were
Lilja down at 90 Memorial, very up at 72, sorry at 91. So that is a concern for us. It is something that we are watching very closely. I did summarize for you a little bit that last year, from May 1st to June 1st we had nine additional students register for kindergarten. And from June 1st to September 1st we had 11. So we had 20 additional students register from May 1st to September 1st when school started. So these numbers are not set in stone.
We could see additional enrollment, which is why we're very concerned about those memorial numbers because they have four classrooms right now. So that puts us at class sizes of 22, 23, 23, and 23 per our collective bargaining agreement. Our max is 25, but even 23 in a kindergarten classroom is, is high. It's concerning. So that is something that we need to continue to watch.
So we will continue to keep our eye on it. We may be coming to you at some point over the summer to say we need to make some adjustments. Speaker 1: Questions from the committee, Ms. Collins. Speaker 10: So, you know, in my form, you know, in my former life I was an auditor. It means that I tick and tie everything. This memo does not tie out to the enrollment that was in the consent agenda, specifically in little Joh here we've got 107, but it adds to 105. I get the two according to the enrollment memo. Oh, but enrollment memo,
Speaker 11: That's because these are their homeroom numbers. There are two students who are in a sub-separate program. Right. Speaker 10: But the enrollment in the consent agenda ties to 1 0 6. I just, I don't know why, but it just gives me a queasy feeling beyond the queasy feeling I walked into the room with tonight, which nobody wants Speaker 1: It. It has nothing to do with us. Speaker 10: Right. No, that the queasy feeling that I I came with has nothing to do with you Speaker 11: On the consent agenda. Speaker 3: Just to clarify, are you saying that the kindergarten column under lilja adds to 1 0 6 in the consent?
It it, yeah. Oh, I added to 1 0 7. Lemme check. Speaker 10: Well, listing is 1 0 6 too as well in the totals. Speaker 6: Brown. You're missing classroom too. Speaker 11: Oh, sorry. Speaker 10: Yeah. 'cause that number seemed doesn't Yeah, it just, so I just, Speaker 6: You and I are doing the Speaker 10: Same. Yeah, it's, it's the auditor in me. I can't help it. Speaker 11: Are you looking at April 1st? Or May 1st Speaker 6: Well's? Speaker 3: I think the, your 1 0 6 looking, you're looking at the right column or the left column. Column. We was looking at April. Okay. Speaker 10: April 1st Speaker 11: Is, is, yeah, Speaker 10: But my bigger question is, if we are already 20 students
beyond where we were at Memorial last year, I guess there's two questions. One, do we still keep a teacher in reserve for these unexpected numbers given the type budgets that we're in? And two, do we have any physical place to put them? Speaker 11: We have a physical space to put them because we're dropping from five third grade classrooms to four third grade classrooms. Okay. So there is a space for them. Speaker 1: And just to follow on that, do we still have the practice of keeping a kindergarten teacher position in advance in case we need it? That's Speaker 10: What I meant by the teacher in reserve.
Speaker 6: Substitute teacher. Speaker 19: As in somebody that's hired or somebody, a position that's budgeted for Speaker 1: Like a, a placeholder for an additional hire. Should we need it. Speaker 10: That is budgeted. That is Speaker 1: Budgeted. Speaker 19: I think we budgeted for all those classrooms we have now for next year. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 19: I didn't, I didn't add extra classrooms into the budget. Okay. Speaker 6: Hmm. If third Speaker 3: Grade, if third grade is dropping down one, Speaker 19: It's a, it's just a shift of assignments. Speaker 3: So I think that we'll go take a deeper look and see if there's a position
that would cover a potential ad of a kindergarten. That's what we're talking about. That's, Speaker 10: I just wanna make sure we're, we've got the resources or we know whether we don't have the resources early enough that we might Speaker 3: Fair brought up Speaker 10: Strategy. Speaker 3: We'll follow up with you if that's okay. Speaker 10: That that's fine. I just don't, I don't wanna get to September and I mean, 23 is a lock. Speaker 3: I think that's what assistant superintendent in class Balone was sort of referring to and that we're gonna track it and come. Yeah, I mean, and I don't think that's gonna last much longer. We have two more meetings, so I think we're gonna track it and see where we're feeling before we close out
for the year on whether we'd make a recommendation to either use an A position in abeyance or add one. Okay. Speaker 10: I just, 'cause I can't imagine 23 kindergarters. It's kind of scary just saying Dr. Flan, Speaker 9: I don't expect you to have an answer. I don't know if you do, but I'm curious, do, does anyone have a sense of what is happening in Memorial? Like do we know what is leading from 72 to 91? Is it just bedroom locked more bedrooms,
gotta fill 'em up more? What? Speaker 10: More bedrooms gotta fill 'em up. Speaker 9: So just more construction, more houses And, and I, the reason I'm asking is I'm thinking about long term, you know, is memorial and keep growing and I know we, you know, obviously we have plans to build any memorial, but that's not gonna show up right away. So I'm just curious if, and again, not that you would see those in your numbers yourself, but I'm wondering if we have a, any kind of sense of what's happening and,
and the, on the opposite side, we have a sense of why the numbers are dropping because you know, in Benham it's almost, it's almost 30 students, fewer. And I know you'll, you said some more might be added, but I'm just, you, you know, you know, in a way, if you just look at the bottom box table 81, 82, 90, 91, that's actually seems like a pretty reasonable distribution across four schools. So if this is gonna be a long-term trend, obviously it, it maybe it's something that we need to think about.
How do we redistribute so that we keep this fairly balanced as opposed to how it is this year where, where Memorial was significantly smaller. I don't know that there was a question there. More rhetorical question, don't you? Great. Speaker 3: Yeah, I think two things I wanna add. And I know Mr. Gillis wants to, we did commission an enrollment study. He's gonna give an update on that and I think that'll be a great way to kind of predict, have some predictions. But from an objective really database source. I would also say, I feel like it's a bit of Freakonomics to look at this one data point without,
I'm almost gonna recommend if it's possible to start tracking the registrations on a weekly basis so we can kind of walk, watch how that emerges. 'cause this is probably fairly volatile. But go ahead Mr. Gillis. Speaker 19: So yeah, I was gonna thank you for the reminder of the enrollment, independent enrollment projection study. So just a quick update on that. So sent that off to three different firms. Two of them have said they're interested, they're in the process of putting together a proposal. One said it didn't really fit their schedule with their workload right now,
and these are all pretty reputable firms that this is either their bread and butter or one of their main, main things that they do for work. You know, in 2018 we had 394 births and 359 kids enrolled in kindergarten. In 2019, we had 397 births in town. And 367 kids enroll in kindergarten in 2020 kids will be born in 2020. We had 360 4. So, so far this year we've had three. How many students sue? I mean I had estimated at at least 3, 3 36
or more rather. That's what the five year? 3 44. 3 43 44 Speaker 21: So far, yeah, Speaker 19: 3 44 coming in with a three year average. And so they don't always come from exactly the same neighborhood. We haven't changed really the, the map. So we could do an analysis and see, see what, what homes are different from the year before. But I think to be able to balance the schools in the future with the enrollment study, maybe we'd look at buffer zones
or somehow you just, you accept that sometimes there's gonna be five sections on a temporary basis and then it goes down to four is the, the fourth grade migrates out and then a new kindergarten comes in instead of the two fives being together now there'll be bookends for the following year. It, it's, it's hard to, it's always gonna be exactly consistent across the grades while we're sort of in transition with, you know, possibly building and zoning. Yep.
Speaker 22: Thank you. Speaker 1: I see Ms. Brunel online. Speaker 18: Thank you. I'm in agreement with Mr. Gillis a about that looking at the neighborhoods and understanding the fluctuations. Just in my personal experience in the last 15 years, there were times that my kids were in sections that were, you know, one class bigger than another child and then that, you know, so it did, it did fluctuate across the elementary level. I get my question is, is
that an internal process that we do, Mr. Gillis? Or is that part of the enrollment study when you're talking about the neighborhood research Speaker 19: In the short term? It could, it could be internal for the enrollment study. I guess I'd, I'd have to double check and, and I don't want to commit just yet. Speaker 1: Any other questions from the committee? Speaker 20: Okay. Speaker 1: Yep. Ms. Collins, Speaker 10: This is a question I received from somebody outside many years ago, probably about the time that Julie joined the committee when there was
a huge push at Brown with kids. One of the things that we got was one of the things that was developed that was used by the school committee was also used by the finance committee, which is why I saw is where the kids are coming from with the building. I don't know that we've gone back and revisited that, but I think that as part of any review, we should bring in community development and find out because of, you know,
how many kids are coming in from the apartments that have gone up, how many kids are coming in from the new developments in South Natick that have come up or just, there's been a lot of flipping. I know, and even I have six houses on my street. Two of them have turned over in the last six months. One of 'em, they haven't even moved in yet. So it just, I, I think it behooves us to reach out and see if they have some sense of how many kids. And it was done with the town clerk, the community development and the school department based on addresses.
So I just, and I'm happy to provide more, but I, I think it's a, a worthwhile exercise. This person happened to ask, have we done this? And all I could say was not that I'm aware of. Speaker 20: So, Speaker 19: So I just took me a minute to, to look it up. But in, in the scope of services, migration trends, the, one of the things on there is in Natick internal neighborhood to neighborhood migration to schools in, in between the grades. And then just as a preview, I've asked for projections by school and by grade at a low, a high
and whatever they recommend. There's, there's other things in there, but I think, yeah, I think we'll be able to get to a solid projection and be able to plan better off this enrollment stu, an independent enrollment study. Speaker 10: Thank you. Okay, Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Speaker 3: I have one more item, which is just MSBA update. And part of that was going to be the enrollment study, which I think Mr. Gillis just provided a bit of an update for. Good segue Mr. Gillis. So the only other two updates I have, and we attached one of these, there was just
to formally let the committee know that we wrote to, I wrote to the, after the SBC school building committee meeting to ask formally ask the MSBA for an extension to the eligibility period based on the timing of town meeting. So basically town meeting in the fall will start on October 21st. Usually, as we know it continues Tuesday and Thursday. Usually it's no more than six sessions and then it takes seven days to actually be certified. And we felt very nervous about having that a October, 2030 first being the end date of that.
So when we inquired with them, they said you can just send a formal ask. I did that today. So we'll let you know what we hear. But just so you know, that will be extended so that we could fit a vote into the fall town meeting. Speaker 1: And also I see Catherine with her hand up. I just wanted to, did you want to give an update Catherine? Speaker 18: Yes. Yeah, I prepared an update in case that's, Speaker 10: It's not a question. It's okay. It's on what Melissa's Speaker 1: Okay. I'll just have Ms. Collins make her comment and then you can give your update. Speaker 10: Thank you for doing that, Catherine.
The other option to keep in mind if MSBA comes back and says no, we're going with the October 31st, is to push the second floor to call a special town meeting that happens a little bit sooner will dissolve. We'll be certified faster than, you won't have to wait for all the business of normal town meeting. So just something to keep in mind. It's been done before for other things where we needed that town meeting to dissolve fast enough and it wouldn't under normal annual. So just to keep it in mind. Speaker 3: Helpful. Thank you. I, the indication we receive from the MSBA is that it's likely to go through, but you never know until, you know.
So thank you for that process. Kind of other alternative, and I'm grateful to you, Catherine, that you have the update. I was gonna give probably a much shallower one. So grateful you have it. Speaker 18: Okay, I, that's a great idea to Ms. Col, what Ms. Collins just shared that that special time meeting if it's needed. But Mr. Gillis and Dr. Fash fill in here if I've mi if I miss anything, my quick update is that we had our first meeting on May 12th. Once the work really gets going, which will be the fall, the committee will meet on Mondays, opposite
of the school committee meetings. Our next meeting is June 9th and we will most likely be meeting at Memorial school. That's not confirmed, but that's the hope so that we could see the space and tour part of the site. Possibly. Mr. Myer asked committee members to consider three things before June 9th. And I'm sharing these three things with you in case anyone wants to give me feedback on them, whether on the committee or in from the public, whether or not Natick should join the model school program for this particular build. It is something we've joined in the past.
Number two is in addition to Memorial and for due diligence because that's required by MSVA committee members are asked to bring sites other than Memorial that will would be a potential place to build. And then two to three recently built elementary schools in other towns that people are interested in touring possibly over the summer. So if anyone wants to contact me about that, please do so from the committee or the public. And the last thing, I'd say two things that I had thoughts
of after I wrote that one. Just if people are interested in, I noticed that the Framingham Hemingway school is about six months ahead of us. So if anyone's interested in watching the process unfold in a nearby town, Framingham Hemingway is something to look up. And then we did have a question on the committee about where if committee members could access materials that were from the Kennedy build or the high school build, just so that they're not reinventing the wheel and they could like peruse materials that of this MSBA process since it's rather prescribed.
And I didn't know really the answer to that. Is there a readily, I mean, I know we, they could FOIA things from MSBA, but before they do that, I'm wondering if there is a folder perhaps that Linda or you know, the administration has access to that we could just make available. Speaker 3: So yes, I've asked Linda to kind of take a look into the Google Drive folders. That's our best bet is for some electronic files. And so I think the recommendation I'd give or I,
and I'm happy to do this in the SBC, is to kind of get a list of the types of things that the group might feel would be helpful because it's probably a lot for Linda to go through. Speaker 18: The one, the one the specific question was asked about was about the sites and the soil samples. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 18: That was the the one specific question I would, somebody asked. And then I think it was Julie or somebody told me that that information would be in the feasibility study. So I didn't know if it would just be as simple as reproducing the feasibility study from KMS. Speaker 3: So we'll look for that. Speaker 18: Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 1: Any questions from the committee about the MSBA process or the meeting? No. Anything else for me and Melissa? Speaker 3: Nope. I just wanna wish Linda, happy birthday. Speaker 1: Oh, happy birthday. You get to be at school committee. This is my birthday. Yes. So, okay. So then our last agenda item is just to talk about the process for the upcoming superintendent evaluation. So Catherine and I met with Dr. Sp last week to talk about this. So this is the process that we're proposing is that next week, I think right Tuesday we would receive
artifacts and then the committee would be asked to review the artifacts from Dr. Fash and provide questions by the weekend. So I guess that's May 30th. So that Dr. Fash has time to consider the questions and provide answers in advance of the June 2nd meeting. And then at the June 2nd meeting, if committee members can come prepared with your evaluation for the different sections of the evaluation rubric. And then we'll go through them together systematically, everyone can contribute.
And then I'll from that, compile the final evaluation report, which we would then read on June 16th and vote on. And if any of this process didn't go as we planned or we felt like we needed more time on June 2nd, that we could just agree that we'll spend a certain amount of time on June 2nd on the evaluation. If we go beyond that time, we can extend the evaluation to June 16th and then we'll schedule perhaps a virtual school committee meeting to do the approval of the final evaluation just so
that we don't get into some marathon session on June 2nd and become less effective, Ms. Collins. Speaker 10: Okay. You said next week, does that remind me, I know that we set out a date next Monday is Memorial Day. Yeah. Are we getting them on Memorial Day or, I thought it was gonna be a Friday that we were getting them, so I'm just, I'm just trying to organize myself here and I'm not even pretending to be very organized right now. Speaker 1: Okay, go ahead. Speaker 3: My recollection was May 27th. Okay.
Yeah. But I will get those early to you on that day. I know that that's a crunch timeline for everybody if there's, yeah, I'm likely to finish it over the weekend and get it to you. Okay. Speaker 10: I just wanna know when to look for it. That that's Speaker 3: The morning of the 27th. That's Speaker 10: Where I am asking. Yeah. Speaker 1: Any questions about the process? Does that seem feasible? Okay. Any, anything from online? I don't see any hands up. Yes. Ms. Collins, Speaker 10: I assume when you're talking about come prepared with the evaluations, you're talking not just circle the number, but comments and Yes.
Recent, okay. Yes. I just wanna be clear, Speaker 1: Come, come prepared with your, your evaluation, including your reasoning for choosing whatever you've chosen in Speaker 10: Terms of, I'll not share physically with the committee because then it becomes a public record. Speaker 1: Right. You can bring your notes, but don't email them to everyone in Speaker 10: Advance. That's, that's what I wanted. Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 10: Not that I'm stingy with what I have to say, but I just Speaker 1: Will give you 27 words now. As many as you need. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Okay. Alright. So,
and I'll, I'll send out the template also by email to everyone in advance so that we can see that and start thinking about the different sections. Oh, Speaker 10: Sorry. Speaker 1: Ms. Lathers, Speaker 10: Move to adjourn. Speaker 1: All in favor? Oh, I guess we have to do roll call, vote since we have, okay. Ms. Fathers? Yes. Dr. Fugman? Yes. Ms. Collins. Ms. Brunell? Yes. And I'm a yes. So we are adjourned. Thank you everybody.