Speaker 1: I am going, sorry to grab it. Yeah. I will call the school committee meeting to order. We'll start with a roll call Ms. Dr. Welch. Present. Ms. Corset Present. Ms. Collins? Yes. Mr. Patel present and I am present. I'm now going to make a motion to enter into executive session 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 superintendent and director of nursing and EPLC. If the chair declares And the chair does declare
Speaker 2: Second Speaker 1: Motion by me. Seconded by Ms. Collins. We'll do a roll call. Vote. Dr. Welch. Yes. Ms. Corset? Yes. Ms. Collins? Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. And I'm a yes. We are now in executive session. We will return to open meeting at approximately 7 0 5. Good evening. Welcome back. It is seven 14. All right. We're gonna start with the Pledge of Allegiance. So if you are able to rise, we'll do that and we'll do a moment of silence. After that. I pledge allegiance Speaker 3: To the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic WIT stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Speaker 1: We take that moment of silence to honor all of the people serving our country, both domestically and abroad. Yeah. All right. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast by Pegasus for future consumption. We will start with announcements. Dr. Bash. Speaker 4: I have a few. It's June, so this is gonna be a few because there is so much going on in the district.
Congratulations to our unified track and field team on winning its fourth consecutive state championship. This is amazing. Natick also proudly hosted the statewide unified track and field championship for the fourth year in a row. There might be something about this. When we host it, we win welcoming more than I say that very gly. Speaker 1: Our first, our first spit take at a meeting. Speaker 4: No, but to be it was, it is such a joyous, beautiful place. Spot. Welcoming more than 40 districts to Natick High School. Thank you to coaches, Nick Dantonio, Aaron Harris
and Neil Donahue, along with our student and staff volunteers, athletic department and high school admin for making this event possible. As part of our ongoing commitment to unified programming, you might wanna know that several of our elementary schools are also hosting Special Olympics day games this weekend. Next, creating opportunities for students, families, classmates, and staff to also celebrate and support our little athletes, youngest athletes. In academics, we've begun professional learning. This has been a question we've had from the school committee. Even the last meeting for our new literacy curriculum with K four educators, including special education
and multi-language learner staff participating in CKLA training. Middle school literacy training with EL Education starts next week. As we prepare to implement this fall across the district. Students are showcasing their talents through art shows. Concerts and performances have had the joy of being at several of these in last week. We went to the elementary one. Saw many of our principals and youngest learners there from the elementary schools. Their stuff is still on display and it is beautiful at the Mors Library. So we're grateful to our students and staff for the creativity and dedication they bring to our fine and performing arts.
And finally, spring athletics also continue to to shine Several teams, earn strong playoff positions, including baseball, boys volleyball, boys lacrosse, and girls tennis. Our track and field athletes earn multiple state honors, including state championships by Chloe Elder and Emmy Aian. And recognition goes to Juniors Deny Deny Williams and Bridget Poll, who are honored in the MIAA Women and Girls in Sport Day. So lots to celebrate in Natick. We need to do this much more often, but I could not be more proud
of all the accomplishments in all areas. Not just sports, not just arts, but so many places. There's things that we're shining at. So congrats. Congrats to everyone participating. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Collins. You have an update for an announcement? Speaker 5: Yes. As Dr. Sp said, it's June, which means it's Pride month and a number of business owners, community individuals have gotten together and put together pretty much a month of pride related events that if you wanna know what's happening when go to Natick is united.org.
And there's some really great things out there. I was fortunate enough to participate. We, we in Natick, we need to be ahead of everybody. So we started last night and it was like a moth story our about living True. And it was wonderful. So I encourage everyone to re you know, figure out which ones mean something to you and go for it, or which ones don't even mean anything to you, but you'd like to know more. Speaker 1: So, and just a couple. Any other people? I have a couple quick things. One, I just want to echo, I know Catherine was there. I was at the unified track meet,
and I don't think I have experienced that much joy and support. I would highly encourage anybody, we have a crowd in the room tonight, but for the millions watching at home, like put it on your calendar. The, if you have a chance to go to one of these track meets, it's really one of the most incredible things. It's just ear to ear smiling and support. It's wonderful. And also, I'm gonna get it wrong, so I'm gonna need somebody to help me. Catherine, I want to shout out a special thanks to all the volunteers who helped with the after prom party on, on Friday night.
For those who don't know, or you don't have, maybe you don't have students who are old enough yet after the prom, there is an organized event at the high school from 11 o'clock at night until like two 30 in the morning with inflatables and food. There was a psychic this year with prizes. It's, it's a more, it's a better organized event than my daughter's bat mitzvah. It's the, it it, from what I heard from the kids who are there, including my own, it's an incredible thing. And those parents and volunteers do so much work to make that happen. And so, and I know you were there, right?
You were one of them. So thanks to all the parents. I don't know if you wanna on the spot add anything to that. Speaker 6: Well, just by name I would shout out Maureen Austin and Debbie Ick, who handles so much of the organizing and who I think will be phasing out in the next two to three years. Maybe we could get a little bit more from them. But there's definitely is gonna be a need for people to step up because it is such a special event. So if you're inspired by the, the work and it's actually not that bad to stay up till three 30 in the morning. Again, it's fine Speaker 7: Even on Speaker 1: Manage the kids, the, the students love it.
It's like a really fun, great thing that Natick offers. All right. Okay. We will do public speak now. Public speak is, 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 comment by the school committee. We have two people tonight who signed up. And so, and anybody online, I don't know. I see you. Ms. Hopkins, if you don't mind coming
to the podium please and you can state your name and then I'll start a timer. You have three minutes. Speaker 7: My name is Mary Hopkins. I'm the grandmother of a rising, Speaker 1: Hang on one second. Ms. Hopkins please. Speaker 8: Okay. Grandmother of a rising preschooler and hoping to join the conversation, which I'm sure is ongoing about the use of ed tech in Natick schools. I'm working, we have a loose working group, two other grandmothers. One is a retired Natick teacher and two other parents of elementary school students.
The rare ones that feel that they have some time. And we are trying to learn more about the use of ed tech. We've been informed by a lot of the news coverage that I'm sure you've all seen about concerns about tech for schools not delivering on the promises that all the schools expected, you know, a decade ago. And we've also been really inspired or moved by a lot of the concerns that have been shared with us by neighbors, friends, you know,
concerns about the youngest students having tech in the classroom, concerns about middle school students using screens all day, that sort of thing. And I'm not going to give to specifics because that's hearsay, but that's where we're coming from. We're certainly not anti-tech at all. We are just hoping to, as I said, join a conversation directed towards intentional use of tech, making sure that it's effective when it's used, and then it's always additive and never a substitute for other teaching methods.
So I appreciate, as I said, this chance, I know Matt, you and I are gonna try to get together for coffee sometime when the schedule lightens up. And the other thing I'd love to know is, is how parents can best get their questions about tech use in the classroom answered. And then thirdly, ideally if the, if the use of ed tech could be an agenda item, I think that would be ideal. Thank you so much. Thank Speaker 1: You. Appreciate Speaker 8: It. Speaker 1: Alright, next we have Ms. Formica.
Did I pronounce that correctly please? You have three minutes, please introduce yourself. Speaker 9: Good evening. My name's Amanda Formica. I live in Precinct two. I am a parent of a 4-year-old Mateo who's here with me and an 11 month old. So both, both Future Brown Elementary School students. I'm here to mention the, the topic of Johnson Elementary School and a hope that you'll consider Johnson for the consolidation of Natick pre-K units. I did email about this,
but I was really surprised to see that Johnson School was not in one of the, one of the main contenders. As the district is looking at consolidating the, the pre-K units to, to one or two locations, I seems like the town is, is looking at figuring out what to do with the Johnson property. I participated in the flash vote and, and really loved to, to participate in all the flash votes. But I didn't know at the time that I responded what exactly was going on as far as Johnson School in,
in the conversation with Memorial Elementary School and all of the plans to expand or consolidate pre-K, it seems like we're gonna spend millions of dollars to do something with that building. We're also would have to spend millions of dollars to add incremental pre-K units to Memorial school for whatever MSBA won't reimburse us for as a town. Why not make those one thing instead of spending money two times as a town? Why not just spend the money one time and renovate that building even to demolish it and make it into open space, which I appreciate.
I love open space would cost millions of dollars, so let's use it there. Also, I live in West Natick and like I love South Natick. I'm, I'm part of the farm community, but it's really inconvenient to have to commute there, whether you are going back home to work to most places in Natick or if you're trying to get onto Route nine or or to the Mass Pike. And it's also an equity issue because South Natick is our, one of our most affluent parts of town. And I just think that it, it, it would be the logical choice would be to find a more central location and to use Johnson. So, and also whatever, wherever the pre-K is located,
whatever you can do to make full day pre-K would be fantastic as a working parent two, two working parent household. I would love to send my kids to NPS pre-K, but it's just, it's not an option because of the schedule. So I, I hope that full-time pre-K will be in the cards in the near future. So thank you so much. Speaker 1: Thank you. Anyone else from public speak? Anybody online? Okay. We will move on. We're gonna do the teacher METCO and student reps. Mr. Wood.
Speaker 10: Thank you Mr. Chair. I simply wanted to apologize for my absence, but your long national nightmare is over. I'm back. You're welcome. Speaker 1: I've been waiting. Did you miss me a month and a half for that? Yeah. Yeah. That's the big update. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Mr. Penn? I have no update at this time. He was here. He was here. That's right. Ms. Combes, or She is? Ms. Es. Hi. Good Speaker 11: Evening. No updates at this time. Speaker 1: Okay. Moving along the consent agenda,
do we have anything to say Speaker 5: Move approval of the consent agenda? Speaker 6: I'm sorry, I didn't have a chance to look at it. Okay, so I have to pull it out and may can we put it, does it, it can we put the, the June enrollment on June 15th. Okay. I just, once the, once the agenda gets posted on a Monday, during a Monday during the day, I can't look at all the material. So Speaker 1: Kathy, do you want to, we had a request to pull the item out and not do it tonight. Speaker 5: I mean, it, it's obviously the pleasure of the committee, but it's no report.
It's just the numbers. Speaker 1: Right. But any objection, we're gonna, I, I would prefer to push it so that everybody has a chance. I know it didn't get attached until today. Is that all right? Good. Okay, moving on. Dr. Sp, you're up? Speaker 4: Yes. Okay. We're gonna start with Natick Ed Foundation, who's here today to share an update on, its recently completed grant cycle. And before I turn it over to them, I wanna just express just great gratitude for the organization's generosity process and your extraordinary commitment to the kids in Natick and our programs.
Thank you. And we're excited to kind of hear about the latest update. Speaker 7: Hi, thanks for welcoming us to the committee. I'm Jen Go. Speaker 12: I am Jen Gore. I'm the president of the board of NEF and this is Jeremy Burke, our Chief fundraiser coordinator. So this year, the NEF is, please announce the awardees of this year's grants. We award two kinds of grants each year, innovation and teaching and teaching and learning grants, which seek to support innovative practices and projects in classrooms and school buildings.
And also professional rejuvenation grants which support teachers professional growth and passions. We're pleased to share that we awarded 15 grants for a total of just over $34,000 to projects in professional development for Nat Public Schools. Four were professional rejuvenation grants and 11 were for classroom innovation grants. And the schools, including grant receiving grants included Benham Brown, Memorial Kennedy Wilson, and Natick High School. And among the grants funded were new robotics supplies and sensory and skilled materials for the access program
and a student athlete mentoring program. But we were especially pleased to that one of the grants was student led and proposed. It's, and the funds awarded will go towards creating a multilingual library collection at Natick High School. And when I say creating, I believe they are actually building the bookshelf as well as assembling the materials. So, so the funds will be the, the grantees will be able to work with the funds over the next two years. So we think the grantees for their dedication and skill,
and we look forward to seeing the impact that it has on our school communities. Speaker 13: Also at this time of year, as the school wraps up, we wanna remind everybody of a Natick Education Foundation program, which is our teacher tribute program. So as parents and, and folks in the community want to find a way to recognize the hard work of our wonderful Natick school teachers, the Natick, the NEF Teacher Tribute program is a great way to, to do that and recognize specific teachers. And you can do that on our website
at Natick Education Foundation. Speaker 12: Great. Any questions from the Speaker 1: Committee? Questions or comments from the committee? And thank you for the update, but anybody, can you say the full website? So anybody, it's Speaker 12: Natick ed foundation.org. Speaker 1: Natick ed ed foundation.org. Yep. Any other comments or questions other than mine? Yeah. Speaker 5: Thank you for supporting educators and students this year. That's really cool. Speaker 1: Yes, indeed. Dr. Fugman, Speaker 14: I'll echo the appreciation. It's your generosity, the, the work that you do, raise the funds, and then to invest those in our schools.
I did look when you first announced 'em on Facebook, I did actually look through that slide, all those pictures. It sounds like really exciting projects too. And I'd love to hear either through you or or through the, the grantees how those things go once they're up and running. Speaker 2: Great. Speaker 1: All right. Well thank you for coming and for all the information. Appreciate all the work. Thank Speaker 4: You so much. I just Speaker 12: Realize, sir, Speaker 1: Well wait and wait, there's more. There's a handout. Awesome. Thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Speaker 1: Alright.
Speaker 4: Okay. So we, I feel like I should do a drum roll to, for, for, we're going to be presenting the strategic plan presentation. Mr. Edward Lee from Teaching and Learning Alliances here. I'm not sure if you wanted to kick us off or you want me to kick us off. Great. Welcome. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 15: Good evening. See some familiar faces on the school committee and thank you again, my name is Ed Lee. I work for an organization called Teaching and Learning Alliance, TLA as as we're known.
And we had the pleasure of facilitating the strategic plan. And when I say facilitating, often people look at it and think that the consultant agency owns the plan. But one of the things that we tried to do in this particular plan was to make sure that it turned into a guiding document for the district. Not one of those files that, you know, you work on and 11 months later you take it outta the final cabinet and blow the dust off, change a couple of dates. I think that the work that this committee has done, you'll hear some of the work and their presentation has been really extensive and has
provided itself as a guiding document to really provide direction for the district over the next, the course of five years and beyond. Just a couple impressions in doing many strategic plans throughout Massachusetts, you quickly get to know a district and it's, first I'm gonna say that Natick is a really impressive district as a community. You know, you can see and feel the kind of commitment that people have made from, you know, starting from this committee and right through the, the entire committee. 'cause part of our process is really to reach out and get broad input from, you know,
the everyone across the district. Not just parents, but we want to, we want to talk to citizens, we want to talk to senior citizens that may not even have, you know, children within the district because they equally support the district. One thing that I've learned about Natick is that there's really broad support for the school district and hardworking people. I'm not sure if your administrative team, there's a harder working administrative team in the district. It would be hard to outwork them, but, you know, and, and it was actually a large committee that we had, we had 37 members,
which a little bit larger than committees that we work with. But, so the, the benefit of that is that you got a lot of voices, you know, from varying perspectives. But what the committee did really well also is we reminded them all the time to make sure you're representing the MTC, right? Those handful of students or handful of parents that may not have good representation to make sure that the strategic plan was really developed to support 100% of the people and not, you know, the vast majority of the people. So I think that you have that plan
and the, the hard work that you'll hear this evening and the presentation from this committee, I think you'll appreciate, I hope that the school committee will adopt this as part of your guiding documents to, to inform the superintendent's work and the superintendent will, will thus, you know, inform what happens at the school level. So you really have a pre-K 12 system that you are working with. But again, the, the strongest voices on the committee, and I wanna acknowledge were the, the students on the committee, right? Anytime we became an impasse, we turned to the students
and they always had great insight on that. So again, congratulations to the, the, to the work of the committee and especially the students that you have here. I know they've really experienced some success both academic and athletically. So great work. Thank you. I don't know if you have, I'm sorry, any questions that you might have, Speaker 1: Why don't we go through the whole presentation and hold the questions to the end. Speaker 15: Great, thank you. Speaker 4: Okay, great. Thank you so much. So tonight represents a culmination of almost a year's worth of work and a lot of different ways. We were doing outreach, 37 people,
you see many of them here. So you're gonna hear from us tonight as be patient with us as there's two mics. And we're gonna kind of try without having practiced this ahead of time, come and make this look fairly fluid for you. But we thought it was be very important to have really a great representation of our committee present this collaborative plan to the school committee. So we're really proud about it and we hope you see the voices of our community shine through. Next slide please. Here's the agenda for tonight. So we're gonna walk through the process that brought us here, the mission, vision and values
and priorities that emerged from the work. And then the next steps for implementation. You'll hear from students, caregivers, educators, school leaders, district staff and school committee members who served on the steering committee and helped shape this plan. Speaker 1: Am I supposed to talk now? Is this my slide? Speaker 4: Yes, yes. Speaker 1: Showtime. No, I'll be brief. So this slide is just listing all of the, the people who participated in the steering committee. And, and so Dr. Welch, Dr. Fugman and I and Ms. Gomes were part of this. Dr. Welch hadn't been elected yet, but he's here now.
And so after I say anything, if you wanna jump in, I, so I just wanted to say 37 people is a lot of people to, to have a strategic plan or any discussion with. But this group of people was very efficient and collaborative and we had, as you can see on the slide, caregivers, students, educators, school leaders, people at this table, all kinds of voices. It was actually a lot of fun, which is unusual for a meeting other than this one, which is always fun. But it was a, it, we spent many, many hours over
five, or what was it? Six meetings, three hours each. So it was a lot of time together, so much collaboration. And Ed was saying, and I wanna just second the students in particular, and I was thinking about this earlier today, two of whom are with us tonight, to, I was thinking, would I be able to sit in a room when I was in high school with my school principal, let alone all the principals, the superintendent, everybody who who works in central office, a handful of school committee members and all other adults might be able to not only sit there
but participate in the conversation. The answer is absolutely not. And so wonderful job by the students. And so thank you for participating, not just being there. And all in all, you know, I'm really pleased with the process and, and the group who helped to do it. So thank you to everybody there. I don't know if either of you wanna add anything or Ms. Gomes if you want to add anything. Speaker 11: I mean, I would just echo everything you said, Matt, the, it was a large group, but I think everyone did a really good job of giving every, everyone a space, a safe space to kind of speak their truth
and speak from their perspective. I know I can definitely attest to that. So yeah, it was a great experience. It's my first time kind of being on something like that. So I did a lot of learning too. So it was great. Speaker 2: That's us. Speaker 1: That's us. Most of us. There were a couple people who were not there for that one. I'll Photoshop you in. No problem. Speaker 4: So as each of the members come up, I guess let's just try to come up to these mics and please introduce yourself and, and what stakeholder group you represent. Speaker 10: Good evening, Jefferson Wood. I am a fourth grade teacher at Memorial and also the union co-president. Speaker 16: I'm Dr. Rob Dombroski Elementary,
phys ed at Brown Elementary. Speaker 10: And before we, before we even got that very attractive group assembled for the first time, the work had begun with a series of forums, 10 community forums to allow for as many voices as we could gather to present what their concerns were. And this included caregivers, it included staff included students, it included school committee and town officials as well. There were several thousand, as you can see, 2,224 staff and student survey responses with a series
of questions about what we do here in Natick, how we do it, and identifying our needs and also the our current performance standards. And outta that came the a few key themes. Speaker 16: In phase two we held six meetings, as we had talked about totaling 18 hours of long debated wordsmithing. From all of that, we were able to analyze the data and community themes that were emerging. And within those, from that we were able to develop our mission, our vision,
and our core values, which we worked, worked extremely hard on and I feel everybody had an opportunity to have their voice in that. From that we were able to identify the four strategic focus areas and then we created pri our priorities, the initiatives and the outcome measures to go from there. Speaker 10: So from there the leadership team then took those initiatives, refined them, made them into action items. And we had a theory of action that was developed from this over that time period. Of course, Mr. Lee's primary job was wrangling that group
of 37 to make sure that they stayed productive. In particular, keeping Matt, Brandon, and I from being on the same team ever. I, but I know, but at that point that brings us to tonight the action steps and responsibilities were assigned and we are here presenting that plan to you now. Thank you. Speaker 6: Hi everyone, my name is Michelle Elms. I'm coming as a representative of a parent who has three kids in the native district and I have two fifth graders and a seventh grader. Two of them are outta district and one is in district.
And when I heard about this opportunity to be part of the strategic planning committee, I decided to volunteer because I felt, you know, it was really important to have a diverse amount of voices present, which I, I believe we really did and a lot of different perspectives and it was a really great experience. I wanna echo what other people have said about was a very collaborative group. I did feel like my voice was important and was valued, which is not always the case when you get
onto big meetings. And so I really want to kind of e echo what others have said about that. So that being said, you know, one of the things that we came up with where the mission, vision and the values as you can see here, and for those maybe listening and don't remember from back in the day what the difference between the vision and the mission are. I thought it would be helpful to revisit that because we hear these words a lot, but we don't necessarily know what they mean. Sometimes I think, you know, the mission is really what we're doing right now. You know, what, how, how would we describe
what we do day in, day out? And as you guys can see, you know, we came up with at, as somebody else said, with a lot of wordsmithing, you know, together we cultivate in an inclusive community where every learner grows academically, socially, and emotionally through engagement in meaningful experiences. And I just wanna point out, we did put a lot of thought and discussion into what exact words we said and put into this. This wasn't just something we came up with on the fly, so to speak. There was a lot of really thoughtful discussion around it
and I'm, I think we're all very happy with the way it came out. And then the vision, the vision is really kind of the future orientation. You know, what we hope to do over the next five to 10 years, our AKA North Star. And so we came up with a vision that says inspire lifelong learners who are empowered to contribute meaningfully to their communities. One of the biggest themes I think that came out besides inclusiveness throughout our discussions was the idea of community and involvement in our community, both as a community as a whole, as well
as a school community. So some of the core values fostering belonging, this one is near and dear to my heart. Having two kids that are outta district and three kids that have some sort of special need, very important to me that belonging is, is a big part of it. We want all of our students to feel that they belong. So creating, welcoming, inclusive environments where everyone feels seen, valued and respected, cultivating character, obviously, you know, that's something that's really important that we all aim
to do with our students. Developing integrity, empathy and civic responsibility and every member of our community. And then lastly, inspiring excellence. So we hold high expectations for all learners and support every individual to reach their full potential. Again, you know, the, the way these are written, there was a lot of thought that went into this in exactly what words and how we say them. So hopefully they resonate with the school community members and the members of the district and our community as large. And I appreciate the opportunity to be involved in this.
Speaker 17: Hello, my name is Charlie Couture. I am one of the student representatives from the strategic planning committee, specifically in the junior class of Natick High School. The main reason I wanted to get involved in the strategic planning committee, 'cause I really wanted to like make contributions and get involved with our Natick public schools committee. And as we see we got here, this is basically almost like a shorter, shortened version of sort of like a mission statement where we can almost put this on like marketing sort of native public schools where each learner discovers a place,
a purpose, and a future. This is sort of like what we hope each student within Nat High can like reach or n high except or may public schools. I mean, this is what we want for each student. Yeah, Speaker 12: Good evening everyone. I'm Jordan Hoffman. I am the principal at Penn Hemenway School. And I'm Johanna even, I'm the principal at Brown Elementary. And so when we, this is what it looks like in these photos when we are providing our students a place, a purpose, and a future. This is our, this is it in action
and we're gonna talk through a little bit about our strategic focus areas as well as our theory of action. Yeah. So over the past several months, the strategic planning committee engaged in a thorough review of district data and stakeholder feedback to better understand what our strengths, opportunities, and emerging needs looked like. While our current bridge plan focused primarily on instructional practices and strengthening those instructional practices, our data analysis revealed the need for a broader framework to support long-term district success.
So through this collaborative process, our strategic planning committee came up with four strategic focus areas that include teaching, learning and instructional leadership, belonging and student experience, commun communication and community engagement and resources and infrastructure. These focus areas build nicely upon the important work of the bridge plan, while also recognizing the critical role the student experience, community partnerships and organizational systems play in achieving positive outcomes for all students. So together, I think they provide a really comprehensive
roadmap to help guide our work through 2031. So any strong strategic plan, of course, is grounded in a theory of action. We have identified these four primary focus areas and we have an if then statement that supports the reason for focusing on these. And I actually like to call it a when then, because I know we're gonna do this. So under teaching, learning, and leadership, we know that if we establish a clear and coherent and consistently implemented instructional approach across all of our grade levels,
and that the focus is really on this continuous improvement of tier one instruction for all of our students and our students are every single day in every single classroom, every single student is engaging in high quality grade level learning every single day. We know that is critical to the success of our students. We also believe that when we create these consistent, supportive school environments, and we do that by setting clear expectations, aligning our practices across the many inter adults
that our students interact with then, and we're making sure that each and every student is experiencing a sense of belonging in our schools. We also know that if we commun create communication and community engagement by building transparent, reliable partnerships with our families and our community through very, very clear communication and also really meaningful, authentic opportunities for our communica, for our community and our family to engage. And finally, if we align our resources, systems
and operations to support high quality instruction and those consistent student experiences across all schools, we know that when we do all four of these things, and we will then each learner will grow academically, socially, and emotionally with reduced gaps in access and outcomes and will be prepared to contribute to their communities in meaningful ways. So this is the theory of action that really grounds all of the pieces of our strategic plan as we move into some of the details around strategic initiatives
and the actual implementing and action of the plan. It is based in this theory that when we do these things, then each learner will grow socially, academically, and emotionally. And we'll see those gaps that we are working to reduce close and why are we here because of our students. So we just wanted to highlight more photos of our amazing young people that we are coming to work for every day in service to. So just to break down our focus areas, I'll focus on breaking down focus area one, the teaching learning
and instructional leadership. So as DR, even shared closing Perent achievement gaps, it's something that we really, our data is telling us we need to focus on. So we want to make sure that in our strategic plan, we are making sure that our students who have historically been underserved and are consistently experienced saying gaps that they have access to high quality grade level, tier one, meaning classroom general education, classroom instruction
with the right supports every day, that if they require additional supports and interventions and you know, special education services or multilingual supports, that they're getting that in addition to the grade level classroom instruction, that that comes first. And then we do that in addition to, so every student in Natick deserves access to rigorous high quality education that prepares them for the future. And we're committed to ensuring that the opportunities and outcomes we celebrate
as a district are experienced equally by every learner in every classroom, every day. Just as Dr even had said that we increase academic growth for each student, that we are ensuring that each student shows measurable growth. So it's not just that we're focusing on the final number that each student is getting, that's important, but we also wanna make sure that they're showing growth because they can have high achievement. But if they start the year high, we wanna make sure that we're pushing them to their next possible level so
that every single student, regardless of where they come to us, that they're making growth over the course of the year and that they have, again, that tier one, that general education classroom instruction is based on evidence, research based, evidence backed instruction with high quality curriculum materials and that it's rigorous and that we're using formative assessments and that kids are engaged across all classrooms. And that each
and every student deserves the opportunity to grow. And that we're committed to ensuring that more of our students are making strong academic progress year after year. Again, talking about growth, we're not just looking at their final achievement number that they're growing. And then technology, I mean we, we've heard from, we heard from a grandparent today focusing on technology, AI and digital learning. We wanna make sure that the technology that our students are using is purposeful, that it adds value, that it's not.
And we had a lot of discussion about this during our strategic planning meetings that we're thinking about student wellbeing. Dr. Ferguson, who you'll hear from next, we have these conversations a lot that we need to care. We need to be thinking about what is the purpose and what is the value added when students are on technology, is it actually adding value to student learning? And are we thinking about how this is impacting students' wellbeing? And it shouldn't just be that students are on technology, but that it's,
it's supporting the strong high quality instruction that's happening and it's reinforcing and adding to it. So we need to have a clear district wide approach that strengthens the instruction. And we also need to make sure that they, that we're teaching digital literacy and AI literacy so that students can use it safely and responsibly. So we're committed to ensuring that technology is a meaningful tool for learning in natick. One that's used thoughtfully, safely, and in ways that genuinely support every student's growth and preparation for the future.
Speaker 15: Hello, Dr. Ferguson, student Social Emotional Learning Clinical services and support and central office. I'm here with my colleague Erin Miller. I wanna take a quick minute to contextualize this particular focus area because I think you've heard a lot about what belonging means to us here in Natick. And quickly, one of the things that sort of came up for me is this idea that belonging is not just a byproduct of success, it's actually a condition for success. And increasingly we're seeing a disconnected community,
you know, on a broader scale that has led to what researchers have called this disease of despair, that increasingly folks feeling disconnected are oftentimes reporting greater, you know, mental health challenges, substance use and abuse, and a whole host of challenges. So this particular focus area in many ways tries to harness the, the joy and meaning and purpose that comes with belonging and a shared sense of connectedness and value and the social bonds that come out of being in a community
where you feel like you belong, where you feel like you connect. So I'm very excited about this particular focus area and Erin and I will talk a little bit about the three different priorities and we'll go from there. Speaker 9: Thank you. So I'm gonna talk about access and belonging. So we heard through our, our surveys that, you know, we have a lot of opportunities for kids here in Natick, but we have to make sure that those opportunities are being well represented by all of our students across the community. So this is really thinking about fostering belonging
through inclusive, inclusive practices and removing barriers to access. So some of the outcomes of that to think about are our extracurriculars, our athletics, our higher level courses, are those things all being represented by, by underserved populations in our communities such as our students, our special education students, our multilingual learner students, our Bipoc students. So that is a major focus that we wanna foc, that we wanna look at in ex and thinking about trusted adults and what does that mean to have a trusted adult, whether that trusted adult is a part of the Natick public schools community
or a part of a student's greater community or both. And what does that look like for our students? And thinking about how we are supporting kids in and outside of the school day and and thinking about, and I also think the, the to Dr. Ferguson's point about thinking about what, defining what belonging really means and what that means for all of our kids here in Natick. That's it. Speaker 15: Thank you. Priority two talks about how the work we've started around social emotional learning allows our students to develop a sense of self,
develop a sense of identity, develop, deepen their own sense of belonging in the community. And you know, we've embarked on a lot of work around SEL and this continues to be an area that needs to be prioritized because it serves as protective factor in many ways for mental health challenges and a whole host of other challenges that our students face. As a result of that, we are not just looking at mental health, we're looking at wellness more broadly defined as a priority area for our students. And this continues to be an area that we as a school have to
continue to support our students and develop their sense of agency around prior. Priority three is about aligning our established behavior and support systems that students need to develop equitable access. And so across the district we are oftentimes able to identify students who may present in more clear ways to us, the levels of support that they need to succeed. And oftentimes we may be blind to other students who have needs and we just don't have the capacity
or the ability to assess their need and support those needs. So this priority really is about ensuring that we are taking a broad look at all our students, ensuring that we're supporting their engagement, their engagement, their attendance, ensuring that we are using the tools that we need to assess each student's need and support each student's need so they can continue to succeed in our community. Anything else, Speaker 9: Ms. That's it. Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 8: Good evening. My name is Jackie Menza, I'm the director
of human resources and I am also the communications lead for the district. And I am going to talk about focus area three, which is communication and community engagement. And when I was thinking about how to introduce this slide, basically these five things came to mind in terms of communication. So what we're really trying to get at is does our community understand what's happening in our district? Can they find what's happening in our district? Can they access what's happening in our district? Can they experience what's happening in our district?
And finally can they celebrate what's happening in our district? So those are kind of the broad pieces that really kind of drive this work in this part. So the first priority area is communication as a whole, and it's to approve coherent and coordinated communication. So particularly in the survey and from our caregivers, we heard a lot of feedback around the need to really streamline some of the communication that they receive. If they have students in multiple schools and they're getting communications across multiple schools
and the district on top of that, it can feel somewhat overwhelming, maybe not as aligned. So that was a lot of the feedback that really pushed us into this bucket. And so we wanna ensure that families receive clear, consistent and aligned communication across classrooms, across schools and the district. Some of in the aims you kind of see on the bottom we have these things called aims. It's like our reach goal. It's like what we're really trying to see, that's what the aims means. So we're really wanting to strengthen our partnerships with families by fostering clear and accessible
and responsive communication across all levels of the district and ensuring that families feel informed, connected, and meaningfully engaged in their child's experience. The second bucket is equitable access. And so we wanna expand access to information in services. So we're, you know, the first thing that jumps to mind when we think about this is our website itself and how we can ensure that every family, regardless of background, can easily access school and district-based information in services, whether it's translation or any other type of accommodation, to ensure
that our whole community is able to access the things, the wonderful things that our district is doing every day. So we wanna promote equitable access to information, resources, and supports by ensuring district communication and family facing materials are accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the linguistic and diverse needs of all of our families. And then the third bucket is community partnerships and opportunities. And this is, in my opinion, a really exciting bucket. It's a bucket that feels the sky's the limit almost with this bucket.
And we wanna deepen community partnerships and opportunities. And there's a piece to this I'm gonna talk about in a minute. So we have to strengthen family and community partnerships through inclusive engagement at the school and district level. And here's the star that we heard a lot about in this process to expand afterschool opportunities and wraparound services. So the afterschool engagement opportunities was something that was very clear in a lot of the data that we received and we investigated. And same thing with wraparound services. So what other services and opportunities in the community are there
and available to support our students and families and making sure that those are known and accessed and broadcasted and advertised and put into a format that is easily accessible by all those people. So that's a tricky one to measure. And so our aim and our goal for that, we first have to e establish a baseline measure for student and family participation and community-based opportunities and our district participation in afterschool and wraparound programming and active partnerships. And we wanna be able to show growth in that within five years
and particularly with partnership driven programs and expansion of afterschool opportunities by year five. So That's our little, that's our little communication and family engagement bucket. Speaker 13: Good evening, Dennis Roach, chief Technology Officer and I'm joined by Mr. Gillis on this section. We represent the business office facilities and technology and we're all the head of service departments, so we realize our role is to support every other initiative going on in the district and be smart and and strategic about how we do that.
In the first bucket, we do a lot of capital planning, long range planning and that process is very strategic from a technology perspective. We leverage the E-Rate process, which gets us a 40% discount on qualified projects that we do. Matt, do you want to go into some of the other building related things too? Speaker 18: Sure. So with facilities, you know, this committee reviews our five year capital plan that we submit to the town each year and things that have been on it, like the memorial school,
the high school field, and you know, some other projects that we talk with the town facilities department on that they, they handle. So we don't have too many specific capital asks, but, but the ones we have usually seem kind of big and and coordinated both with the town, the school department, and how we're gonna gonna pay for it all together. We do take into account quite a number of things in, in the five year plan as well as the town's ability to pay.
So we try to prioritize things in a draft and then give it to the committee, the school committee for feedback to make sure we're on the right right path. And then we try to get those things implemented. We've got pre-designed plans and budget estimate for the field and we've got a feasibility study for the memorial project. And so the last few years we've been busy productive and we're starting to see some of those things come together as well as recent kind of cleanup of past warrant articles to, to squeeze out as much
as we could get done in a variety of different things, both facilities and technology wise. So we get our information also from folks in the schools who are working in the facilities, not just the facility staff, but the principals and other school staff. And Dennis is obviously getting feedback on how well the technology's working pretty regularly. Speaker 13: Yep. So moving on to P two. This is an area where bread and butter of technology sits probably a lot of facilities related things here as well
from a tech perspective. We have three broad areas. We cover help desk, our backend infrastructure team and our data team. So all these things are, are things we look at our, our technology governance is really strong. In other words, how we deliver deliver services to our teachers and to our students every day. Making sure we have devices available for kids so they're available when they're needed for their learning. That's important. It's critical. A lot of the backend infrastructure that people don't see that supports the instruction
and also supports the administrative needs. So you heard earlier in focus area one, there's a technology piece in there for the instructional needs. You also heard from Jackie in focus area three where there's some technology needs. Now you're hearing in focus area four, we struggled early on in our strategic planning, figuring out where does technology really sit? It sits in so many different areas, we just have to be strategic and know when to leverage it and when not gets back to the comments earlier about balancing our technology use
also in this bucket is a lot of our security, both physical security and cybersecurity. So some of our main trends are how do we minimize risk to our environment? How do we implement these things? Smart data privacy is another the big thing. We have vetting processes and how we acquire products, how we acquire applications, how we integrate them. This gets into our data team and in creating integrated solutions and not data silos and how we secure data. So this goes pretty deep into my world
and I've been here a long time and I told the superintendent this many times, doing a strategic plan like this, getting everyone aligned makes my job and a lot of our jobs a lot easier because we know where people need our help. It's not hidden. It's right here in front of us. I don't have to guess. So that's an important part. And, and getting to the final point on P three, how do we measure our success? We need to collect feedback as we do this. This is a five year plan, it's not gonna be done in one year. So we need to take surveys, we need to collect data,
we need stakeholders to be able to voice concerns. We need to be able to update this committee and the public on how we're doing in our plan. Of course, over a five year plan, there'll be adjustments along the way. So I thank you for your time and that's all we had for you. Thank you. Speaker 4: Okay, next one. Yeah. Okay, great. So as you've heard tonight, our plan is organized around four focus areas that's gonna be like imprinted on our brains in the next five years and 12 priorities that'll guide our work
for the next five years through 2031. The roadmap provides long-term direction. This is kind of a visual that so shows it all at once. What I wanna emphasize is next is moving this into our annual action plans and kind of taking year one is taking the highest leverage items we can while still remaining aligned, cohesive and really manageable to the work. So we're gonna pace ourselves, but we've also, and and really importantly, hopefully we, the committee and the community can see that we've built so many structures to now support this work.
We've made our school improvement plans be school specific, we have made our educator goals align to those SIP plans. All of that kind of looks like it's in the rear view mirror, but it's absolutely the framework that this strategic plan can sit upon. And I have every faith that we're gonna see our goals align to these items for next year. So we might be tempted to ask like, what's the exact action plan? I would probably say that's coming when we do, normally, when we roll out our action plan, superintendent goals next fall, we already have an actual, you know, X page document on it.
So we're well underway. But that'll kind of come the first year goals when we start sharing our goals for next year in the fall or in the summer, I'll say August, Speaker 8: Another awesome little photo collage with some of the awesome arts pieces that happen in our district. So I'm just gonna talk through the next steps on what the community can expect from this process. So obviously we're at step one tonight as you can see. So it's the school committee review and vote. So we are gonna review our plan. We gather final edits and feedback from the committee.
There's a formal vote for the approval of the draft framework and then we, we will document any changes that need follow up that will then move us into step two, which is the post meeting revisions. So the leadership team will incorporate the feedback that we receive tonight. We'll the initiatives that we have will be refined to ensure they're achievable, clearly worded, and measurable. Then it will bump to bucket three, which is the consultant final review. So any of our revised content will be shared with Teaching and learning alliance and it, they will embed it into the final format that
will bump into number four. So while that's being in its final format, the leadership team will jump into the action planning that Dr. SP just spoke about. And we'll develop detailed action plans for year one, which are already underway. And then number number five is the graphic design and the public release. So the plan will be sent to a graphic designer that works with TLA and they will make it presentation ready. It takes about three to six weeks and we will then very widely publish it to the community and it will be available on our website
and it will include great pictures of our awesome students and teachers. And it will also really take us through the whole story of the development of the strategic plan. Speaker 19: Hi everyone. Good. Anthony, I'm Anna Maximal. I'm one of the students, I'm a senior. And I would like to enter presentation by restating our vision statement, which is inspire lifelong learners who are empowered to contribute meaningfully to their communities. And I would like to thank the strategic planning community staff, students, families
and community members whose voice shaped this plan. Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak here tonight. And I forgot to mention, but I'm here representing the MLL students. Thank you. Speaker 1: Now it's now would be a good time if you have questions. Thank you everybody for all the presenting and slide work now it is the committee's opportunity to ask questions or make comments, share your thoughts before we vote on anything. Ms. Collins? Speaker 5: Yeah. When was this
version completed? I ask because it's not what you Melissa pointed to in your artifacts. Speaker 4: Well that I entered my artifacts on May 26th, Speaker 5: But I understand the last meeting of the committee was May 12th. Speaker 4: Yeah. But we were asked, if you go back to The strategic planning process, the team handed it over to us to refine on their behalf and that, so it wasn't usurping the committee's output. I mean anybody here can speak to that. We were asked to kind of fine tune it, which we did a lot of kind of de jargoning of what I have before.
We did a lot of fine tuning. You'll see the survey 4.3 was added because we were like, how are we ever gonna me measure this? So that was added afterwards. But that was something that was allowed through the process as we understood it from TLA. Speaker 5: I would say we didn't de jargon enough and we should Speaker 4: Yeah. Before it goes out. Fair. Speaker 5: Well we should define every acronym we use the first time we use it at least. Speaker 4: So we actually wondered if, when we kind of share this more broadly, if we should almost make a, like a appendix glossary of terms.
So that would seem like a recommendation you're making. That's Speaker 5: Fine. Great. But I mean, I've been your seven years and I have to stop and think frequent about, great, what does this one mean? Speaker 4: So imagine what it looked like before the de jargoning. Speaker 5: I, I, thank you. Think I have the d you Speaker 4: Might Speaker 5: Pre jargon the themes and focus areas that were identified, what kind of qualitative analysis was done to identify those? This is my inner nerd coming out, Speaker 4: How, how we came up with the four focus areas. Speaker 5: Yeah, the themes. Then the four focus
areas that we came up with. Was it just statistical qualitative statistics approach or was it just word clouds or, Speaker 4: No, actually the pro, does anybody wanna mention the process? But yeah, go ahead. That would be helpful. Speaker 15: So as part of the process, what, what we did is gather data from post ex post facto data. As you heard, meaning with the 10 groups, the, the qualitative and quantitative data was, was reviewed by the entire committee. And, and essentially what they did was when they reviewed the data, they started to come up with themes.
And we, we took a look at those themes and we categorized those. And that's how we developed the four focus areas that, that are part of the speech plan. So it was all really based on data. A good strategic plan is based exactly on that. It's not based on opinion. And that's some of the work that we did with the committee to talk about, to make sure that, you know, whatever they were saying was all immersed in the data that they were reviewing. Speaker 5: I appreciate that. But my statistics nerd within me is asking how that was accomplished. Speaker 15: I, I guess the process that, that we use was
that we were divided into three groups. We looked at the data and we, we gave each group a portion of that data. They individually worked on their data. One was a community, the second group was academics, and the third was more of a operations piece, the budget and operations. What TLA did was took a look at their common themes, you know, so what we, after their work was done, we brought it back together and we looked for common themes that were coming out of each of the three groups. And from those common themes, we identified areas of focus.
Speaker 5: Okay. I, I must not be asking the question properly. Speaker 1: We, we'll, we can swing back if you want. I think Dr. Wel Chad, his hand up before, so he might have a clarifying comment on that. Speaker 20: Yeah. In my experience of doing this, I was just in one of the groups, so Mr. Lee, as the facilitator would've been going between groups and could have seen this, but within one group, one of the things that we were doing was looking through pieces of qualitative data that came from focus groups and our particular case from different folks in the community, different members of the community. And as we did that, we broke those out by
categories or themes that people were using. And then in doing that, we created four categories. Now if, if you're asking about a specific method, you know, these were lay people, but as somebody who's a qualitative trained researcher, I would say it resembled grounded theory, which then became axial coating, by which we mean we created, we invented the buckets based on the themes that came from the community. And then the facilitators looked across the three groups and those three sets of buckets, if you will. And then those became this kind of universal set
of four buckets across, across all the groups that we then all came back to those four groups that had been created by looking across the different individual buckets that have been created in the individual groups. Speaker 5: Okay. Again, I'm, I'm still not sure. Speaker 1: Okay. We'll come back, Ms. Brunel, Speaker 6: Just a couple comments. I just wanna thank everyone so much for this work. A former member of our committee recently re was upset that the Container Store may be closing. And I think that you've done what here? I think she would also appreciate this. It just makes me think of the Container store because you have taken something that is like impossible
and organized it in a way that makes sense to, to my brain. I, I just, I'm so inspired and by it, I'm proud of our district. I'm so inspired by these slides. And I think that it, you've said a couple times, Michelle, I think you spoke about this, that you spoke that it was like very carefully chosen words and you can tell, you can tell that there's heart behind these words and that there's people behind these words and that there is expectation and future for our students. Which, I mean, honestly, that's why I ran
for the school committee six years ago, like the, to have something like this and I didn't do any of it. So I'm just so grateful to see this come together and to have had the stakeholder involvement that you had. The thoughtful process. I made a joke to Matt that he's gonna put this on a t-shirt. The where each learner discovers a place, a purpose, and a future. Charles, I think you spoke about that. I like, that should be on a t-shirt. That should be on everything in Natick like that. Honestly.
Like, it just makes me so proud of our town. Speaker 21: You mentioned a car sticker. Speaker 6: Oh, all right. Let's do it. And I think we have the access program that makes stickers still do we, so IJI just want to affirm everything that happened here and I tried to, I like to pick, pick things apart. I tried and I couldn't literally, I, I tried, I, I thought like, what, what else would I put on here? What, you know, somehow these four buckets are just perfect for our students and for our district from my perspective. I did have one question on slide 16.
Just be based on the presentation doctors through, through the chair. I thought I heard that you're, that you're going to take each one of these priorities one by one, that they're listed in like a, like a timeline priority too. Is that correct? Speaker 4: We focused on the first year as our timeline priority, but each, hopefully I'm answering what, what you're asking. So let's say for 1.2, yeah, we literally have an a, b, c action items that we're planning for next year that will become part of our, our goals. It would be very overwhelming to share that in,
I think a presentation format like this. You're gonna see it more like in the goals, but it goes through and it says, what exactly are we gonna deliver this year? Who's actually going to engage in this? Because we need to be deeply considerate of how it affects across our organization. So we don't only aim all of our PD or all of our steering committees or all of our work towards one group of teachers or educators or leaders. I'm worried about that. So that's kind of what we're in now. But we have a, a document, it's an Excel spreadsheet that literally goes through every single one of these in great detail for year one.
It's a reflective process. So I think it's gonna be, we'll be reflecting at the end of next year to kind of design our year two. We did put in the appendix something that went away from aims, which we put in the main presentation into outcome measures. I wanna emphasize their first draft. 'cause they're kind of granular, they talk, they're very granular, but we felt like the committee might have an appetite for that. And so it's, it's there and that's what we wanna achieve by year five. Mm. So this is gonna take a lot of our year one when we go through the more detailed plan. And we'd be happy to do that for the committee in the fall
will literally, it, it, it's, it's a lot of steps and you'll be able to see the build out for the year one and then we'll have to build year two. Speaker 6: Can I just make one more comment? Yes. Then I wanna say that this appendix piece, this is what caught my eye, this just how, how intentional these goals are and how outcome based they were. They are. And it just gives me faith that all the work that you all put into it is actually going to happen. So what the principal said that when, not if, because of the, the way these goals are even stated.
So, and I personally like just seeing this increased student achievement, SGP that has SGP above 60 by eight points and decreased students whose SGP is below 40 by 12 points like that, that's an incredibly thoughtful, you wanna talk about integrity. That that goal pretty, to me sums up this entire presentation and how thoughtful and how you see all of our students. And I, I am so happy with, with what you've prepared tonight. So thank you. Speaker 1: Before we, before we move on, just, just
for everybody's comfort 'cause it was a big problem in my house, bed Bath and Beyond acquired the Container store. Oh. So they're just merging. It's okay. Any other questions or comments on the strategic plan or the container store? Dr. Esman? Speaker 14: I did not, I was not prepared for the container store. You pick which one Speaker 1: You wanna talk about. Speaker 14: So I have, I have a lot, a lot to say. Although much of it was already said by, by others. I'll start with my only disappointment is that after, hopefully if we, you know, prove this after tonight, I'll no longer be able to make my joke that we're in our eighth year of our five year strategic plan. So that, that's my only disappointment with,
with this process coming to an end. But you know, this, you know, I made that joke multiple times, be half joking 'cause I, I really felt that this was something that was really needed. Strategic plan, Mr. Mr. Lee talked oftentimes to us as a committee about how this is the North star gives districts a direction, one that we've needed for quite some time for various reasons that was delayed. This was a really important piece for me, especially as I'm
considering stepping off the committee in my last year. This for me is, is a great legacy. Now obviously I was just a small part of a much broader group, but this feels like a good thing to leave this committee with and not just because of what it is, a strict plan, but because of the entire process that we went through, there was a lot of thinking at each step of the way, including, you know, starting with selecting TLA. There was a lot of thinking about selecting the right facilitators. And we did, and I wanna thank not only Mr. Lee,
but also your colleague who was with us for, for the process. There was a lot of work around developing the survey that every single question was well thought out. The focus groups engaging so many people in the community beyond just people who, community members who, including those who don't have children in the system. Were part of the, of the survey, were part of the listening sessions. The data that we brought in, it's imply, I mean it's there on slide five, I'll, I'll go and expand phase one.
Besides the surveys and the forums and the district performance and outcome data, there was other all kinds of data. There's a group that has very strong, as you might may remember, there was a group that has very strong interest in sustainability. They wrote a letter to us that was included in the data, but obviously financial data was included. So there was a lot of data that we all poured a lot of time into the wordsmithing, you know, I'll call it fun, but, but it got us to the right place and, and I,
and I really think we have, you know, the right plan moving forward to echo what one of the things that Mr. Lee said now that we have it is this is where we, we begin. This is not the end of a process. This is the beginning of a process. Now we need to work together as a community to follow this, this blueprint that we've created for ourselves. We, you know, we've created a map of where we want to go. And now the responsibility of making this into something real, to something that is actually on the ground, that we can actually measure that, that is all of our responsibility.
And I really say all of us as a community, you know, this plan is exactly what we need in terms of determining the next steps. Now we need to take those steps. I remember Dr. Spa predecessor, Ms. Wong, Bella Wong saying Natick is a great district as it is right now. Now we're ready to make it a great district. And I think this is the plan. So I, I'm really excited. I hate to do, to do this, but I'm gonna, there was one if I could make one little change if, I dunno if I'm still allowed to. But the one thing I will say, if I, if I can pick things apart and,
and maybe this is, it's implied, but I dunno if there's a way to make this more explicit on slide 14, communications and community engagement. I'm wondering, especially for areas one and two, there's a way to talk about two way communication. I know a big thing that a lot of families want it is to not only get information but be able to voice to make sure their voices are heard. I think it's implied, especially in P two. But that was the only thing that as I was reading through it and sorry I didn't, I missed it before was kinda missing. But otherwise, otherwise I think it's was,
we're in really good shape. Speaker 5: That's it. Speaker 1: Ms. Collins. Speaker 5: Thanks. And I wasn't involved in the committee, in the steering committee, but I appreciate your efforts. But it is in my nature to find the things that don't match made me a great auditor. So can you go to the academic growth outcomes of focus area one for a minute. I'm not sure whether this changed or whether because it's different in gran than what that that's Speaker 1: Two back Speaker 5: Other way. Speaker 1: Four back now five back seven,
back 25 back. Speaker 2: It's slide 12. It's grouper. Speaker 5: Okay. 'cause I think Ms. Brunell was using the same version that I was with the SGP over 60 or less than 40. And there's a whole piece in the middle that we're not addressing. So I can Speaker 4: Explain that. Yeah, I'd like to explain that. This is where Speaker 5: We, Speaker 4: We were almost given, I'm just gonna say it. We were kind of given the advice from our consultant that we were getting almost too granular with those outcome measures. But I'm like, the appetite of this committee is
that they're gonna wanna kind of see what we're aiming for in five years. So now I'm gonna go into that, the reasoning behind that, the department of Ed identifies high growth as anything with a student growth percentile. SGP over 60, it's literally a definition for MCAS as high growth, low growth is below 40%. So those weren't arbitrarily chosen and those are now in the appendix. 'cause we turned those into aims to be a little bit more digestible. And so increasing students achieving SGPs over the over 60 is us wanting to ensure that every student,
every family could see their student in this. We wanna make sure our highest kids are pushing their growth up. But we also wanna make sure we're decreasing the students in that low growth category with lower than 40%. And 12 points is something that we, based on some evidence of how districts can move, that's how we chose 12 points. Speaker 5: Again, I'm, I'm apparently not being clear this evening. My concern is that we talk about the high growth and we talk about the low growth, but we don't say anything for the, that middle group of what they're gonna do.
And that's, that's my concern. Speaker 4: I would answer that in the same way I would kind of talk about our SIP goals when we're trying to operationalize implementation around goals. It's really hard to just tell a group of people writing a goal to do everything for everybody. And so it's really important that we kind of select really a place to be targeted. And so you're right, it's not explicitly on that middle group, but we're trying to give a narrow view of what will move up the hole. We, we could take the feedback to change that, but I think that was our goal there is to really try to move the high, make sure we move in the high.
You can have kids with, by the way, SGPs of 60 and B warning or needs improvement in their scores. Those are all, so it doesn't categorize kids as being the highest performers of the lowest performers. It's saying we kind of wanna move everybody up. But I hear the point Speaker 5: And my other comment or question is, I guess for the committee to consider in belonging and student experience, the outcome measure one and in communication and community engagement, oh, I'm looking at the wrong page, sorry.
In, out in P three they both have an implied cost to them. If this committee decides not to fund increased excess additional sports Yeah. Whatever, is that a failure of the plan? Is that a failure to achieve the plan? I I, I don't know the answer, but I just wanna make sure that people are aware that, you know, some of this you can't do that's on us and does it, does saying yes now mean that we're giving implicit instructions
that we will be open to whatever cost comes down the path. So I guess it's, can Speaker 4: I respond to that or, I love that question. 'cause I hope that also says the importance of our partnership with the school committee and this plan. And I hope the deep focus we have in in meeting and retreat, I think it would behoove us to come with budgets that are explicit about new ask. You've seen us model for the last two years a very small movement around strategic reallocation and this would a hundred percent be kind of part of what we would see there any changes.
But I think you're right, even in even some of this is requiring a lot of it baseline measurements that don't exist today. We don't even know what, where the floor is. And so I also think a five year plan is a long duration. Some a lot of people do three. I happen to think our buckets to Ms. Brunes point are the right ones. I think even if we could juggle what we put where these are the right 12 things to do. But we're going to learn as we go through the first year and we might have to adjust a little bit and we are just gonna have to have some discussions around it. And of course the financials, I think your point is really,
really well received and we can make the commitment that for next year we'll be explicit about what those asks are for year two, Speaker 1: This brunell, Speaker 6: Just to that point that you haven't here, that under four structurally balanced multi-year financial plans with 90% of the expenditures aligned to the strategic strategic priorities. We're gonna talk about that this later tonight in your, your superintendent evaluation. But you did that this year where you were able to expand the budget with strategic allocations without going above what the number of the town could do. So even within your this plan, there is a way
to fund things if you continue the strategic allocations. Speaker 1: Dr. Dr. Ferman and Ms. Corset. Speaker 14: The other thing I'll add, and I keep quitting Mr. Lee, but clearly you had a good, a big impact on, on, at least on me is a five year plan is a direction Anything can happen in the next five years. So things will move, things will change, things will have to adapt. So if there's a major, well for example last year,
last time we had a five year plan, we had a pandemic in the middle. There was I'm sure a lot of adjustments. I think the idea here is to, you look at each step at a time. If you don't accomplish something, then the question is why not? And you know, if we had a budget crunch or you know, an issue that came up that we had to re so I don't think this is a commitment of this is what will happen five years. This is more of a direction that we, you still reassess every year. You know, is this still the right focus? Is it still the right, are these still the right steps? But at least there's a vision, there's a direction. That's how I'm thinking about it. And I know that's how you've explained to us. Yeah, I think, not to put words in your mouth,
Speaker 1: He's Speaker 15: That's exactly true. This is the, the plan should be dynamic and not static. I'd be disappointed if I came back five years from now and there were no changes made to this plan. Priorities will shift. And I think essentially what you are doing is you're identifying priorities. 'cause we understand budgets, it's easy to add, it's always very difficult to which, what are you gonna give up to add, right? It is a limited bucket that you are working from. So I think that what the plan will help you to do is identify the priorities you're going to focus on.
Right. And I think that there are so many priorities come to a district and to a school committee to make decisions on, hopefully this will be a guiding document in working with, you know, the district administration and the, the entire staff. So you can work in unison with, with everyone within this district. And everyone's not in lockstep, but working in the correct direction. The way that the, the plan when we first presented is that this starts with the school committee filters down to the superintendent, filters into the schools,
and then to the staff. As, as you know, your principals work with your teachers every year in establishing goals for them. Those goals should all be working towards the priorities you have identified here on the committee. Speaker 1: Ms. Goeth, Speaker 22: Thank you. So I, I just would, you know, like to thank you all for all the work on this plan. I, I do agree that I think that the buckets are correct. I hear the voice of the entire community and the different pieces of this and I, I appreciate that it's all been integrated and woven together and I really do feel like this is the
vision for our district that is really personalized for us. I have a question. As we see the more granular year by year implementation of this, will we, will we see innovate? Will we see efforts to innovate? And I, I guess this looks like a very traditional plan, right? In terms of we have goals, we wanna achieve them and yet we know that we have this looming, you know, budget crisis in the state. That's a big concern.
Are we going to see in the delivery of the year by year plan some ways that we're gonna be able to creatively innovate or do things differently or even use AI more? Like we had mentioned AI here in terms of having students use it responsibly, which is hugely important. But will we be having that kind of built into the plan to provide efficiency where it can be provided as this is, you know, this is such a big transformative technology. So I guess I'm curious to, to know when we'll hear, I have no doubt that we will hear about that.
I'm just curious to know when that will be kind of part of this. Speaker 4: Yeah. If I'm, so I'm hearing both innovation but also efficiency. Yes. And so let us get started and what you're highlighting for me is our need to almost be explicit when we are seeing efficiency or where we are innovating. I can almost even in scanning one of these, start to talk about where we're headed with some of those efficiencies. I think we're gonna learn a lot when we look at this ed tech and ai and we are, we've already been going to a lot of symposiums and kind of sessions to learn
that will cause innovation. When we start to make different recommendations about the ed tech we have, it's gonna cause efficiencies and it's also gonna cause innovation in how we're learning. So it's a huge question that I think we'll just pay attention to bucket and talk about as we go through. I have every faith that you're gonna see both. Speaker 22: Yeah. And I I do too. Yeah. I just think that it'll be really helpful to have that be explicit. Yeah. And, and so that we can, you know, be able to communicate that out that we're making change and we're, we're being conscious of the need to be efficient and to do things differently. Yeah. I I'm really excited about this
and I just can't wait to see what comes next. So thank you all. Speaker 1: Alright, other questions Mr. Patel? Speaker 23: I just wanna reiterate what some of my colleagues have said here and to say thank you for all the hard work you've put into it. It looks really good. And I just have a question for the students, if I may. On page 11, what is happening in that one picture with, with treadmills in the middle of the gym? It's, I won't be able, it's not treadmills. What is it, sorry? Stationary bikes, if I may. Speaker 1: Charlie's got it. Yeah, he know ops.
Speaker 23: I've zoomed in and everything and I won't be able to sleep if I can't figure out what's happening there. Speaker 17: Oh, that. So I believe this is during, I believe one of our pep rallies where we had a couple of students in like a sort of competition where, where they had to go on these sort of bikes, these fa cross bike bikes as I like to call 'em. And I guess the competition was who could go the fastest in the sort of race. I don't remember who what though?
Speaker 24: This foam roller in the middle. Speaker 1: Oh, Speaker 17: Oh, that's right. It's a tug it the foam roller. It's like a, they have to push it to their, the wind from the bike with the power of the fan. Yeah. So like they have to pedal it as hard as they can and if they can like get it to their opponent, if their opponent like ends up touching the sort of foam that's awesome pillar, then they win. I don't think anyone won though. I think it was a tie. Speaker 23: Exactly what it looks like then. Okay, thank you. Speaker 6: If I could just add, if you wanna do that this summer, the strength and conditioning program is available at native public schools and there is an adult class
that starts every morning at six 30. Can you use those bikes? Speaker 1: So before we move to any, to, to me accepting any motions, I just wanna say I, I spoke a lot during Mr. Lee knows Mr. Wood definitely knows I did a lot of talking at the steering committee meetings. But I just wanna say that the process from my perspective was awesome for a number of us, well for four of us here, this is the first they are seeing of 18 hours of meetings.
It was a great, I think a great process that yielded, and I've mentioned this to people in individual conversations, a product that I'm quite proud of and I hope everybody who worked on it, and I, it was, I think for many of us far outside of our comfort zone, having conversations in that large room, a lot of speaking in front of people, talking about things that maybe weren't your field of study. It was a great collaborative process that, like I said, yielded this product that I hope everyone is as proud of.
Particularly those folks who worked on it and hopefully the rest of the community, certainly as I am. And I, I don't wanna speak, you know, for Ms. Gomes or Dr. Welch or Dr. Fugman as the people who, who sit here, who are part of it. But it, it was awesome. So I like, thank you again to all of the people, educators, students, caregivers, all the people who, who were part of that and district administration as well. So with that, does anybody have any motion that they would like to make? No, I mean, I'll make one, but
Speaker 6: Can I just ask the process of this? Yeah. Because the, yeah, I was wondering about feedback from stakeholders given that this was presented tonight, it, would it make sense for us to wait and vote on it on June 15th? Or is that problematic for all of the work That's about to begin? Speaker 15: I think if you're gonna make adjustments, Speaker 1: Mr. Lee, do you mind? No, sorry. Thank you. Speaker 15: The school committee should vote on the final copy. So you shouldn't vote this evening. If there are going to be adjustments that will be made, we won't be sending it to the graphic designer until the school committee has final approval.
Once you have final approval, then, then we'll, we'll start the process of developing presentation plan. But the final product has to come from the school committee. And if you're uncomfortable this evening, I would table it, wait for any minor changes that are made to the plan so you can review the entire plan and then take a vote on it following meeting. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Conley. Speaker 5: I would suggest that we move it to the June 15th date because what I read four times is not what was presented tonight.
And for that reason I was gonna have to abstain if we voted it tonight. So do that as you may. Speaker 1: Okay. Dr. Are are you holding your hand up or are you just resting your glasses? Okay. Other thoughts Ms. Bruno? Speaker 6: I just, so in terms of getting feedback from other stakeholders, have we, and Mr. Wood, I might put you on the spot here. Like has the union discussed this has, you know, Nathan, do you think students would want to weigh in here more than they already have? Like, you know, I mean I know that all the stakeholders went in in the beginning,
but is it appropriate for us then to say, this is what came out of it before we make the final vote? We've made this mistake with a calendar recently, so I just wanna not make that mistake here. Speaker 10: Much appreciated. I do think it would be appropriate for it to be shared with the school community at large, the teachers, the staff. I'm trying to think what the, what the most efficient way for doing that would be. I mean, probably a faculty meeting or at the individual schools or at the very least a, I'm perhaps a, a memo from the superintendent that offers a link where
staff members can look at it and perhaps if we're interested in soliciting feedback from the membership as a whole, that there's, there's never anything wrong with asking for input. Speaker 15: Mr. Lee, you're not gonna, I believe everyone in the district was given two opportunities to provide input on this particular process. There will continue to be input on this particular process, but I, I would encourage you, it's really the school committee. I think you have to trust the work of the 37 people that have invested over 20 hours
in this particular process in the work and listening and representing their constituents. So I think it, it, the, it's the feedback. What I was referring to was the feedback from the committee this evening that would be embedded in the plan and you would take a final look at that. I would say that if you open up the feedback to every other constituent at this point, you will not end up with a strategic plan, right? Because there's gonna be varied feedback that we had and, and there were 20 hours of, of this discussion that this group engaged in.
And I will tell you, we wore them out. You got your money worth out of the 37 people because people walked away weary from the work that they did. 'cause it was hard work. And I think that you have to trust the work of the committee and trust the work that has been done around this particular plan. Now the input from the school committee is always important 'cause you have to approve the final plan, but to open it up to, to other constituents. At this point you trust that those constituents actually sent representatives very similar to the work that you do, right? So if you make a decision
and then open it up to the thousands of people in Natick to provide you with more feedback, I'm not sure if this committee would ever get anything done. You know, that, that they have to trust the fact that you are elected to represent the best interest of the school district. And I think that that's what you did with the 37 people that are on the committee and the hard work of everyone on that committee. So the, the input again, as I referred to is, is, is I would narrowly say that whatever feedback the committee has provided this evening would be embedded as part of the plan
so you feel comfortable in moving it forward. Speaker 1: Thank you. This is what I would suggest, and I'll come to you one second. The artifact that's in granicus for the slides is different than the one that was on the screen. So people may have prepared tonight on a different set of slides. Slightly different, not massively different, but like the, the measure the outcome measures were replaced by aims. There's just words that are different on what was presented. So my suggestion would be that we get the latest version in Grant, guess the one that was presented so that everybody has a chance to look at it. And then at the 15th meeting we vote on it. The, our normal open meeting process allows members
of the public to consume this meeting or look at the whatever's posted in the agenda and provide feedback. And there's nothing that stops anybody from doing that. Mr. Wood, did you have a comment on that? Yeah, Speaker 10: Thank you Mr. Brand. I, because it, it Thank you and Mr. Lee for what just said. Yeah, I, I would simply like to say that I, Ms. Burnell, you did very much put me on the spot and I was, I I'm engaged in something I must admit Yes. On further reflection, I agree. I think that as people are going to have individual opinions, and I think that there are, there were opportunities
to share prior to the meeting. I think what's more important is recognizing that the teacher representatives who were participating in the work stand behind what was produced. And I think that, you know, sure, I think if you open up to the cell a hundred members who work in the NA schools, there are going to be a variance of opinions. But I don't think there's anyone who would seriously overwhelmingly object to the vision and the initiatives that we agreed upon. Speaker 1: And, and those folks are welcome. Should we follow this plan to look, I mean, they chose representation on this committee like everybody
else, and they would be welcome to look at whatever's posted and send an email or come speak at the agenda item if they would like. So that's what I would suggest. Ms. Corset, did you have another comment? Speaker 22: It was along that line. I have nothing to add. Okay. Speaker 1: So pleasure of the committee on the plan that I just proposed Dr. Fugman, I Speaker 14: Just wanna make a quick clarification as far as I'm concerned. 'cause I did make that comment about communications. I would vote on it, I would support it tonight. It's easier for me to say that as one of the members who was through the process. So just to clarify, I would vote on it tonight, but I,
but I obviously recognize, you know, the slight differences in, in slide decks, the fact that four school committee members haven't seen this before. So the plan sounds great to me. Speaker 1: Great. That's what we're gonna do. So we'll vote on it with, if we can get the latest slides on the 15th. Again, thank you all. I'm, I'm assuming you're all staying for the next very exciting agenda item, but if you're not, thank you all for coming again and for the time and incredibly hard work doing this. And to you, Mr. Lee, for all this. I'm sure we won't have, we we haven't seen the last few, but again, thank you everybody.
We'll have a shorter version of this probably on the 15th. That good? All right. This is your moment, by the way. Speaker 4: Thanks everyone. Thank Speaker 24: You. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thanks for all the work. I mean you can stay, but you don't have to. Speaker 24: Thank you. Speaker 5: What's scar though Speaker 24: For general thinking that we developed? Speaker 1: All right, so we're gonna move on. We're gonna do a couple of rapid fire things before we get to the superintendent evaluation. So well, maybe they're rapid fire. The first next item on the agenda, so we're into the, into the chair report, is the meco appointment
for 26 27. And you'll see in the packet that the, that Ms. Gomes was the recommendation for another year. Ms. Gomes, do you have anything to say about that? I assume you're okay with it? Speaker 11: Yes, I'm okay with it. I'm actually very grateful. I just wanted to extend like my gratitude to the entire school committee and the entire community of Natick. It's been a great opportunity just being a member in this role and I look forward to continuing in the year ahead. Thank you guys so much. Speaker 1: You are welcome. Ms. Collins, move Speaker 5: To Reappoint County, Joan County Gomes as the Medco
representative to the Natick School Committee. Speaker 24: Second, Speaker 1: Do you wanna specify the year Speaker 5: For the 2026 school? Year Speaker 1: 20 what? 26, 27. 26. Speaker 5: 27. I'm reading it. This is awful for the 26 27 school year. Linda, second. Speaker 1: Dr. Fruman seconded that. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? 7 0 0. Ms. Gomes, welcome back. Speaker 11: Thank you all. Speaker 1: You never left. All right, next up we're going to appoint or we have a, an item here. Dr. Sp, do you wanna say anything about this
or or do you want us just to Speaker 4: No, I don't. Unless the committee needs me to say something I Speaker 1: Do people understand what this is? Okay, so any motions as it relates to, I'm not gonna say it because that would be the motion. Ms. Brunell looks like she's about to do it. Move Speaker 6: To appoint Dr. Fash as the Natick school committee representative to the accept board of directors for the 26th 27 school year. Second. Speaker 1: Second. The motion by Ms. Brunell, seconded by Ms. Collins. She was first by a by a nose. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? 7 0 0. I was gonna let Mr.
Gillis do the pre-close out transfers, but he said to get that, but okay. We have another before we move on to the evaluation, there's another thing that we have to vote that came out of executive session. Speaker 14: Oh, that's me. Motion to approve the side letter that was received by the school committee on June 1st. Today, June 1st, 2026. Speaker 6: Second. Speaker 1: Regarding, Speaker 14: Regarding changes to the PLC leadership titles. Titles, titles, Speaker 6: Friendly amendment. Just add elementary to that. Speaker 14: Elementary PLCs titles.
Speaker 1: And who seconded that? Catherine. Catherine did. Okay, Dr. Fugman and Ms. Brunell. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Any opposed? 7 0 0. Mr. Gillis, before we do the superintendent evaluation, would you like to do the pre-close out transfers item? Speaker 18: Sure. Happy to. So you got a, a three page memo for me, and it's relatively short as most of the transfers are within like the school committee policy
by sections one thousands were administrations, two thousands are instruction, three thousands are other student services. And the bulk of the, the bulk of the trade there is from when we took staff that were unit A people and made unit B administrators, we moved them out of the teacher line item and started charging them to building leadership line item. You know, so that stays within instruction. But initially when we built the budget, sort of that part of the budget late in the year, we put it in as an administrative line item, but they're, they're not district wide administrators
because they're, they're all basically assigned to a specific building. So just need to make the transfer to, to cover that. And then the other difference was, as I'm reading this sideways, some, some of the balance to text and materials, which would be going to contribute towards our new literacy curriculum predominantly. Speaker 1: Any comments, questions Ms. Bruno? Speaker 6: Move to approve that pre-close out transfers as dated May 28th, 2026 in the memo presented on June 1st. Speaker 1: Second, Ms. Brunell made the motion.
Ms. Collins seconded. Any discussion or debate? All in favor? Any opposed? 7 0, 0. All right, one more thing before we do the evaluation. The MSBA update we're gonna try to do quickly. Now this is, I'm going to set a table and ideally not have a long discussion tonight. So, and hopefully that'll make sense after I set the table. So on the 15th at the, at the 15th meeting, I would like to have a longer discussion like an,
an agenda item with a whole long discussion with an opportunity for plenty of that. So I wanted to sort of frame that discussion now so that people had a couple of weeks to, to prepare. And one of the questions that I asked Dr. Bash and Mr. Gillis was about the timeline of decisions that need to be made and who makes those decisions so that we could prepare. So by June 30th, the school committee needs to vote on a direction for the educational program,
not the building location, not the design. Right? There are, there are slides attached to the agenda item tonight that we saw on May 4th that highlight the four options, option A, B, C, and D that's the east to the, the four classrooms at, at memorial, one at Behem, five at the high school, and so on and so forth. If you've seen those that also highlights the priorities that, that this process is trying to solve. So after that June 30th thing, sometime in the summer,
late summer fall of 2026, the district team drafts the educational program based on the guidance that the school committee provides with feedback from the school committee and the community. Late 26. Early 27, the site options and the feasibility alternatives are evaluated and recommended by the school building committee. So that's not until the late, late 26, early 27, the main priorities from the, the, the main priorities that come from the slides on May 4th, right? Maximizing the MSBA reimbursement, easing high school space constraints, ideally trying
to reduce the, the, the locations for preschool. Those are the priorities. There are any number of solutions that we might come up with, but those are the, the main priorities in those, I think in those slides. But maybe it was a separate memo, Mr. Gils, you can correct me if I'm wrong. There were already some rough estimates on the memo. It was in the, it was in the memo, there were some rough estimates about what it would cost to add six additional classrooms to a memorial project. There are estimates about what it would cost for the roughly, and we won't hold Mr.
Gillis to this exactly what it would cost for the improvements to the Johnson building for a DA, what it would cost to rebuild or to sort of entirely redo Johnson in order to pay for not, you know, for the whole building there. We can discuss all of this in greater detail next meeting, but just, I did some like back of the napkin math to put in people's heads and, and I can be corrected by any number of people in the room if I get this wrong. So according to those estimates, roughly seven to $8 million for the a DA improvements at the Johnson School.
Similar numbers, if we were to add, and it's right behind me. So similar numbers, if we were to add six additional classrooms to the MSBA or to the, to the new memorial, potential new memorial, if we were to redo all of Johnson roughly 55 oh million dollars. However, what's also clear is that we wouldn't, for preschool, we wouldn't need all of Johnson. I asked Mr. Gillis it was roughly 66% rough, very rough, right? 66% of that building was what we would need for preschool. So that would be, if you really rough here again, somewhere
between let's say the five, $7 million for the a DA $33 million, which is 66% of the 50 million somewhere in there. So let's be really rough about it. 15 to 25 million, I don't know, I'm just making up numbers, right? For, for the Johnson, that might be the right solution. I'm not, I'm not biasing that any one way or another, but I wanna make sure for the conversation in, in two weeks that we are focused on what the problem is that we're trying to solve as a group. And then once we align on that, we can entertain all the,
the possible solutions. So that's the conversation that I would like to have in two weeks and I wanted to sort of frame it now so people had time to think about it, gather any input that they want, any research that they need to do. And then we will, we will have that conversation. Yes. Dr. Fuman Speaker 14: Brief questions. Yes. So for June 30th, looking at the slides, we basically need to pick among options A, B, C, or D. Speaker 1: So Dr. Stash Speaker 14: Or, or or any other option, but one of those options, Speaker 4: Those are the options that the district through a lot
of analysis prepared and tried to weigh against one one another while naming the trade offs. If there were additional options, the committee can always come up with those. Yeah, sorry, Speaker 14: I guess there, Speaker 4: But they weren't on our recommendations or our kind of pre-work. Speaker 14: To rephrase the question, we have to pick an an option whether it's A, B, C, D or we create our own EFG, but it's, we have to pick one. Speaker 4: Yeah, and the idea there is that, you know, basically Sue and team are going to be developing that templated educational program and we don't want her to have to create more than one. And honestly, I, I think
sometimes hard decisions are trade offs and we're just gonna have to get to the hard conversation. We're gonna have to roll up our sleeves and decide which way you want us to head. Speaker 14: So that was actually a follow up question to that first question. Among options A, B, C or D, there's a column, alternate space currently says currently east that my real question is, is there a way for the 15th to have each option budgeted? So to say this will be about or at least a plus, plus plus or minus a delta between one option and the other so we can, you know, whatever the base
budget is for everything, but like we save this amount of money or we spend more amount of money for A, B, C, or D, which is actually eight options because there's a option a 0.1 and HA 0.2 because we have currently east versus currently John alternate space east versus alternate space Johnson. Does that make sense? Speaker 1: Or any other alternate space? It's, it's currently, Speaker 4: So, so the way we conceive the alternate space in our cost analysis is through the rent or lease option on here, which I believe is about half
$480,000 per what Speaker 18: That would be for year one Speaker 4: For a year. So that is the alternate space, not conceiving of it being like a swing space, but a permanent space, which would basically mean the town, you know, and we haven't discussed this, but whether east is a viable opportunity for a long time, whether someplace else is or whether we were to lease another space if we wanna solve the high school issue, which I think is a paramount piece in order to get the votes to pass memorial in general. But the option C is Mr.
Gillis had that one, that's his first piece on the memo. I have to look at it with glasses, which is between 8.1 and 6.7. That's option C that's fitting six more classrooms onto memorial. The option two is the Johnson, which was introduced after we gave that initial report. And we could talk more about that on the 15th. Option three was trying to get at what do we do if we can't have east, because many of those assume we keep four to six classrooms. I think B is four classrooms and D is six classrooms at a swing space
or at an alternate space. If we were to free up space in high school and the modulars are, you know, we only get two classes out of them, but that's kind of option A where we don't make any headway on the high school space and we'd have to add modulars to get two classrooms and there's really no space or footprint for those modulars from what I understand. So yes, we can kind of drop in to this chart what's link the cost estimates into this, these options. Speaker 14: Yeah, it'd just be easier to see the number. But I, I do see the memo and I, I now see the connection between some of the tables
and some of the options, but just being able to compare Yeah. Numbers, you know, the other brief question I have is the alternative spaces we're considering, whether it's East or Johnson or anything else, I wanna make sure we're good partners. None of them are owned by the school committee. So I'm wondering at what point do we reach out to the select board and say, hey, we're we're trying to make a decision that pertains to, to release something that's in your purview. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question and this is what's so hard about it is that it it, it is hard to enter into any of those processes.
And again, we'll have this longer conversation in two weeks. I would like to move on shortly, but without knowing what the real cost is, if it, and frankly what the town will pay for. Because anything outside of the MSBA process, we have no shot at getting reimbursed for it, right? So we have to figure out as much as we can figure out. And that's why I wanna give the timeline and the two weeks before we get to you, Dr. Welch, did you have something Speaker 20: We don't have to necessarily cover or know this tonight, but as we are considering costs and options on the 15th, I was told
by somebody in the community, and I'd like to know if this is accurate, that there's a portion of money from the Kennedy project that is a surplus or remainder that could potentially be available to support some options related here. If that is true, I, I would appreciate knowing and maybe the, my colleagues would like to know if that money is available, if it is, what strings are attached to its uses that we could potentially consider to supplement any decisions here? I I'm not, I don't want to, I don't know if anyone is watching at home, but I don't wanna claim that that is accurate.
Someone told me that's accurate. If you could help us understand that on the 15th, I would appreciate it. It would help me make a decision. Speaker 4: My recomme, so there is a surplus from Kennedy, it has a lot of rules around it and I would recommend we bring the town administrator to get that answer. Speaker 1: That's a good, that's a good question to, to have answered as quickly as we can to That's a good question. Mr. Gillis, did you have something to add? Speaker 18: Yeah, I mean, just to, just to frame the difference, right? If we're trying, and that's what administratively we we'd like to do, we're trying to get the free up the space at the high school, the pre-K space so
that we can put high school students in there. We've been overcrowded since day one and we'll be overcrowded until the fourth grade is out of the current fourth grade is out of there. So it's been a challenge to run the program the way the building has been designed. So this would help alleviate a lot of space there. So it, it could be between 8.1 million and 6.8 million. And the reason it's between five and six classrooms is because MSBA gives us square footage and not, not not a number of rooms. So depending on how we, we squeeze around the edges of all the different spaces. It could be five classrooms, it could be six,
and there, there's choices to make as you kind of go through that with the architect. So that's why there's a range there and that's why there's a possibility of it. So you're gonna take that number and then if we, if we were to do something to, to make, to make the building equitable for pre-K, if we're gonna have it at two sites, we're gonna be renovating significant portion of the space over there for school purposes. But we don't need it all. 'cause there's about 13 classrooms plus a gym, plus a library and various office spaces and bathrooms.
And we don't, we don't need it all, we need about two thirds of it, but so 50 million that we could spend without reimbursement or some portion close thereof, or seven to 8 million without reimbursement and have everything be designed and, and fully in, in one place. I understand the, the location and it's a legitimate concern that some people have. But the question is for the school committee is how many asks do you wanna bring before the voters in town? We've got a memorial project, we've got a field project
and do you want to add a Johnson project? That's a question for you to answer, but that's basically what it would be. Do you want to have two asks or three? That's that's, that's the question. Speaker 1: All right, Ms. Corus, and then we're gonna move on to Speaker 22: The Yeah, I, I, I appreciate you taking my, my question on it. No problem. I, I hear you, Mr. Gillis and I have, I have a concern that we're conflating what we need to do for, to give the administration the information they need to do the education plan with, with, with another desire we had, which was
to have the Johnson property used in a way that could help with preschool and help with afterschool. 'cause we did send a memo, we sent a letter right to the select board about the Johnson use. And I, I just, I feel like we have communicated that to the town, but I would really like us to constrain our decision making to how many preschool classrooms we want. We want add to the memorial site. And if we just stick with four, then we have to have a separate conversation about the high school and location. But if we decide we're gonna take on all 10 preschool
classrooms in Memorial, then that's, that's what we could, should commit to. So I feel like we need to make this really simple and not, not have so many options. That's just my thought, Mr. Chair. But I just wanted to, to say that tonight as we think about things in the next two weeks. Speaker 1: Good. Thank you everybody. That's a, a lot of things for people to think about. I understand it's a big topic, obviously, and that's why I wanted to give people at least a little bit of food for thought for the next two weeks. All right. We are gonna move on to the superintendent evaluation.
So that's why we, if you mean you don't have, I'm not me, so let me talk through what, how this process works. And this is the first time I'm facilitating it, so apologies in advance for the things that I get wrong as we go through this. Dr. Stash sent a memo in October. We voted on the goals and the indicators for this year. A couple weeks ago, Dr. Sp, Dr. Sp sent us a memo with her evidence as it relates to those
goals and indicators. That's what we will go over tonight for those who are new to this process, we're still watching. If you think it's awkward to do a public evaluation, I think most of us agree that is still, that's the rules, that's what we do. I will take notes. Ms. Brunell is gonna help me take notes as well. After we're done with this meeting, we'll go through each thing. Anybody should feel free to give feedback on any of the indicators or goals, we'll do our best to take notes. I will then synthesize those into the, the evaluation document that I've already shared
with the committee on the 15th. I will give it to you in advance on the 15th. We will review that final document and vote on it with one caveat that the committee knows about that I'm gonna share with everybody else. One of the indicators that we've been working towards for the year, Dr. Bash in particular, is in working towards, is within standard, or is it standard four? I'm gonna find it. It's standard four C collaboration. So anybody who's following along at home, according to desi,
there is no four C collaboration. It's actually a different standard four C is something called communication. So we, I don't wanna speak. I, you know, I won't speak for everybody. Collaboration is obviously something that I think is important, I think probably we all think is important. It is not one of the indicators in desi, and so it will not be included as an indicator in the final evaluation. That being said, we can include the evidence that Dr. Stash provided as part of Indicator four E,
which is shared vision, which is probably the closest equivalent to collaboration. There is a, there's general guidance that for each standard, the superintendent should choose at least one indicator that is still met. So we're all okay, and we will consider the evidence. So that's what we're gonna do tonight and as late, obviously, but we're gonna do it anyway and we're gonna be all right. So, Ms. Brunell was until two 30 at three 30 at the after prom party. So this is nothing. All right.
So I'm gonna just go through one at a time and people can give, and we'll walk through things and we'll give feedback. And if there are clarification, clarifying questions that you have for Dr. Smash, she's right here. I, so Should we start with, according to the evaluation, I'll be typing, so you'll hear me typing with the professional WW Why don't we go through the goals first that make the most sense to go through? Yeah, please. Well, Speaker 6: Okay. So if you, the first link that Dr. Fash, that you put in your fir in your memo to us,
this memo was fantastic, by the way. The very first link at the very bottom of that memo is takes us back to the FY 26 superintendent goals. So when you click on that link, that identifies goal one is the student learning goal. So it's the same thing. We don't need to start with the goals. We can walk right through that. So if you go to the evaluator, it says student, well, it actually starts with professional practice goal. So the professional practice goal, there's just a, you know, that that was the, the coaching goal that I think Dr. Sp has listed as goal four in her memo.
We can go in whatever, whatever. So it's the same, but I'm just saying that they're, they're the same thing. Yep. So there's not goals at the end to do. Yes. We just, okay. Speaker 1: So why don't we, if, does everybody have this document in front of them? The 25 26 superintendent evaluation goals with, I dunno what color it is. I think it's blue Superintendent evaluation goal header. Yep. Mr. Collins, Speaker 5: There are performance goals and there are standards. Speaker 1: Yep. Totally Speaker 5: Understand. And I found that it's easier to start with the performance goals. Speaker 1: Yep. Speaker 5: Which are more specific or parts of it. And then move up to the larger standard part.
Speaker 1: So here's what here. Great. I agree. So let's start in that document with, with Dr. SP's goal one, the student learning goal. And we can just get feedback and notes on that. So does anybody, so this is Dr. Span's goal one. Anybody have any comments? Who wants to start us off? Don't all jump at once. I mean a long night, Ms. Purnell. Thank you. Speaker 6: Okay, well I find this one to be one of the harder ones to, to Measure.
So I have said, for my, my perspective is that we've met this goal and that the, in her first memo it says at least 75% of the schools demonstrate measurable process on academic SIP goals, which are the SIP goals were fantastic this year. Things like, I mean, I'm not gonna go into it 'cause it's too late, but you can all, like, there were very specific SIP goals and we will learn about that this summer. So given all of the things, things
that we have heard tonight, even in the strategic plan, I'm quite certain that 75% of our schools did that, which is why I'm going to vote, vote met. Speaker 5: Okay. Speaker 1: Other comments or thoughts? And we can, we can also, if people have thoughts on the, so if you, if you look at the evaluation document, the DESI template, we do have to also choose, did not meet some progress significant process met, exceeded for each of these.
Speaker 6: And just to say like a little be before, more than just the strategic plan that was presented tonight, we had Dr. Ferguson present and Ms. Miller present on the code of conduct a few weeks ago. So like throughout the year we've gotten nuggets of insight that the, that the student learning goal was being met. So I just wanted to point that out as a specific, another specific example of the student learning goal. I can't wait to dig into the school improvement plans though, Speaker 1: Ms. Collins. Speaker 5: So some of the focus indicators that you've listed are not the focus indicators that Dr.
Sp reported on Speaker 1: Correct. Them. Which, can you be specific? Speaker 5: Like two? Well, two A here says environment, but that didn't show up anywhere in Dr. Fascia's goals. So I'm, I'm a little unclear as to how we're, man, whereas, you know, down on the district improvement level 3D I've got his family concerns. It might, that might have been four D, but four D is continuous learning versus management and operation.
So I'm just, I just wanna be clear what Speaker 1: Yeah, so in the, just to be to, I'll tell you how I did that draft doc or the template based on the memo, Dr. SP said, so the, in her goal one strength in tier one academics, SEL and behavioral expectations through the FY 26 bridge plan related indicators, one B two, A four C communication, four E shared vision. Right? Speaker 4: But all I'm saying is they're not her Speaker 14: Goals. Speaker 4: Can I clarify? Yeah, please. My understanding is the indicators we voted on didn't have to be correlated to the ones
that are supported by the goals. The goals can be the goals are the goals. The indicators that we chose was a totally separate process and memo. Right. Speaker 1: So, so Speaker 4: In two different meetings in the fall Speaker 1: To, so to be clear, the related indicators that you provided in your memo are just related, but not the evaluated indicators necessarily. Some, in some cases, Speaker 4: I believe I linked that memo to this, and I believe that the conversation we had in the school committee meeting was which of these indicators, if we're picking just a few best represented the goals. So there wasn't duplication of work,
but that they didn't have to be a hardwired line like the four that were measured as indicators don't have to per, per this process be exactly mirrored in the goals. They can support a broader number of indicators in the goals. That was my understanding. And that's how we've done it the last two years, to my recollection. Yep. Speaker 1: Okay. Any other, Dr. Ferman, this is on, on goal one, strengthening tier one academics. Speaker 14: Yeah. Everything that I know about MTSS points to how complex of a systems change process it takes
to implement MTSS. The fact that we're talking freely about tier one and tier two and tier three, that's become part of our vocabulary, is part of that really important building of MTSS. We didn't talk about, we didn't talk about those, those tiers before Dr. SP came. I think that the fact that by the second year we already have, we already so far ahead on the change, the systems change to build MTSS to me is pretty impressive.
And the way you begin building MTSS structures is first and first foremost tier one. You know, it's like if you're gonna build a building, you're not gonna build a 10th floor before you build the first floor. So the, the fact that I, I was very, I I'll say I'm very impressed by how much progress we've made, obviously in the past two years, but particularly in year one, I'm sorry, in year in the current in year in year two, creating the bridge plan setting expect, I mean the goal is about setting expectations for tier one. The fact that these goals reflected the goals of 93%
of educators, that is a very impressive way to bring a whole system up to speed and aligned around these specific expectations around academics, SEL and behavior and behavior. So to me it is quite a remarkable accomplishment. Speaker 2: So I'll, I'll go for exceeded Speaker 1: Dr. Welch. Speaker 20: In looking at goal one, one of the things that I have been looking at are tangible products. Things that we can look at that will be used in the district that have been produced as part of the work
as it relates to instruction and instructional vision and trying to improve instruction. Things that will be used beyond the folks who are in the central office in other parts of the district formative assessment tool, particularly the learning walk tool and collaborating with principals on instructional leadership and a, a specific process for that, a specific tool for doing that as well as using data, incorporating data into that. I beg your pardon, I'm gonna need to adjust my glasses. The bringing data into that process.
So there's a vision, there's a process for going around and observing that vision in action and collaborating with principals for doing that. And then incorporating data into that vision. I'm looking at some of the supporting documentation on page 17 in the memo. So I, I'm certainly inclined at least to say that some of the instructional goals are met, again, because some of these pieces are in place and, and there are tangible products to show that that work has been done not only on the part of the superintendent, but in collaboration with other instructional leaders in the district. Thank you. I yell back. Speaker 1: Thank you. Any other comments on goal one?
Okay. Oh, Ms. Collins, please. Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I'm gonna probably go with met here as well, but I wanna be clear that Matt is good. It's not the gentleman's B or gentleman C or whatever they call it now. And it may be that I'm looking at it because it was less fiery than year one. You know, it didn't have an override, it didn't have a a, there were a lot of things that we had in year one that kind of got Dr. Sp off to a less easy, let's say, beginning,
which clearly moved her into the exceeded level in my book on year one. And maybe it's that they're less flashy this year, but I know that she's at least met them. Speaker 1: Okay. Any other comments? If not, why don't we, how do we do this in the past in terms of choosing a score? Maybe remember? Yeah, please talk. Yeah, Speaker 14: I think we just vote. I mean, like we go around the, the seven of us and each of us says they're reading and I think that's how we did it before. Speaker 1: Okay. So I'm gonna make myself a little template.
Well, we already know Speaker 6: I have it recorded already based on what people have said. I've, I have the votes recorded that have people who have spoken. Speaker 1: Okay. Says I have this. Are we in the same document? Oh yeah, Speaker 6: I copied it. I just thought I would drive you crazy in that document. Speaker 1: I appreciate that. So I'm doing the same thing. So the only, so it, correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Dr. Welch, you were a met, Dr. ResMan exceeded, Ms. Collins was a, met Mr. Brunell was a, met Ms. Goeth. Speaker 22: Yeah. So I, I think it just would've been impossible to exceed this year 'cause there was so much building to do.
But I feel like there's this incredibly solid foundation that we can launch off for next year. So I would give it like a really solidly met. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 5: Matt didn't include that Speaker 1: As an option. Mr. Patel also Speaker 2: Met, Speaker 1: You're met, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna say exceeded because I put a lot of stock into the tier one thing. And until I was a met, until Dr. Fugman talked about, I didn't think about how many times I've heard tier one this year that I never heard before.
And that to me is a, is a huge deal maker. Okay. So we're gonna move on to the next one, which is goal two, the district improvement, goal development of the district's long-term strategic plan. I didn't see who went first. So Dr. Welch, Speaker 20: You, you'll just want to copy and paste for me the phrase tangible products, just so you don't have to type it again. Speaker 1: I already finished typing it, Speaker 20: But this goal clearly has a tangible product.
It is the strategic plan. We spent a great deal of time tonight hearing the thoroughness of that strategic plan as well as in thinking about the specific indicators it involves in terms of collaboration and engagement with folks in the community. And that process has produced a strategic plan that, I mean that that goal clearly has been at the very minimum met I go back, Speaker 1: Did you say what your score was? Speaker 20: That goal has at the very minimum clearly been met. Speaker 1: Okay. So you're a met
Ms. Collins, you had your hand up. Yeah. Speaker 5: Here I'm going with exceeded because the, the three things that stand out, one is the long-term, long-term strategic plan. Another is the code of conduct, which we're getting very soon. I look forward to that. And the third is the labor management team, which came out of negotiations two years ago. That keeps the working relationship that's gonna be necessary to enact that long term term strategic plan.
God, I can't speak, that's a lot in a year to get buy-in, even though I wasn't ready to vote it tonight because I was looking at the wrong document. I, I think it's quite impressive. Speaker 1: Okay. Any other pre thoughts or current thoughts, Ms. Cor? Speaker 22: Yeah, I, I agree with both, both Dr. Welch and Ms. Collins. I, I feel like we've got a strategic plan. It exceeded my expectations in terms of the amount of detail and granularity that's in there. I feel like that was an incredibly heavy, heavy lift
to do this year on top of everything else that was done. And I would also want to have that be exceeded. Speaker 1: Who's next? Dr. Fugman? Speaker 14: I'm gonna go with exceeded for this one as well. The one comment I'll make, I mean, obviously I talked about earlier tonight, how amazing a process it was. I think there's multiple people in the room right now who I would give exceeded rating if, if they were, if we were evaluating them as well. Just 'cause the whole team really did amazing work. The other thing I'll point out is the bridge plan. We, the fact that Dr. Sp went from year one, create a bridge plan to, to make sure
that we're moving forward with direction while we're building the strategic plan, was incredibly helpful to me. That that is something else that I was very impressed by. As well as everything else that was said about the strategic plan itself. Speaker 1: Alright, any other comments, Mr. Patel? I'll Speaker 23: Also be voting exceeded on this one, especially after that presentation we went through tonight. Speaker 1: How can you not, okay, Speaker 6: One point I think I wanna point out is that in the memo you wrote about how early stakeholder feedback identified concerns
related to facilitation. And so I just wanna point that out in your leadership style, that you are able to shift in the midst of something that's really cumbersome already and you put other structures in place during that strategic plan. And I don't think we would've gotten the feed, I don't think we would've gotten the product that you produced, the whole team produced if you had not had the leader, the vision of a leader to step in and say, we gotta adjust a few things here. So I I am also exceeded because you didn't just hire a company.
You actually probably modeled for the company how they should do strategic plans in the future. I say that with respect also. I really appreciate the language in there that the goal is to reduce gaps in access and outcomes. And I am just so impressed by that. You, you said in your interview with us that that was a value of yours. You promised you'd bring it here and you have, Speaker 1: And I, this one for me is the easiest one. And like, and I'm in, I'm in exceeded for this for all the reasons everybody said and how, what I said earlier about the strategic plan.
So I think we can move on. And we are finding our groove goal three, district improvement goal, strategic budget development and alignment. Where did I put Speaker 5: This is where we differ from what DESI has. It says 3D is decision making, but three days family concerns Speaker 6: Point of order. We're not in the indicators yet. So if we could just stay focused on the goals, we'll move to the indicators. Next Speaker 1: Stand. Let me just see where I am in my document. Oh, here.
Speaker 6: This is, this is technically another district goal. See how it says district improvement goals or goal. So this is technically the second district improvement goals. The first one was the strategic plan. This is the second district improvement plan goals under step one. Speaker 1: Right? Development. Wait, do I have the right one? Development of the FY 27 budget recommendation, fiscal alignment and long-term facilities planning. Yes. Speaker 6: Okay. So this with the previous goal, we just rated, we'll both go together. Yep. For the district improvement goals. Speaker 1: Got it. We're in it. All right.
Comments on development of the FY 27 budget recommendation, fiscal alignment, and long-term facilities planning. Who wants to break the ice? Ms. Brunell, Speaker 6: I'm going to quote the memo and I'll just put this in the, given the fiscal conditions facing both the district and the town, maintaining an increase of 5.4% while avoiding reductions in force and preserving core student facing programming represented a significant fiscal and operational accomplishment within the broader municipal context. That to me, sums up everything. And I'm gonna rate that as met Speaker 1: Anyone else? Ms. Goeth?
Speaker 22: So for this, I'm, I'm going to quote Dr. Welch. I feel like we had a, an incredible tangible product here in all the years that I've been following the budget development process, even before I was on school committee. I, I have never seen it so clear and so well communicated to all stakeholders and so well understood by all stakeholders. Like they're cl people clearly listened, they understood all of our governing bodies that we interact with, fin com, select board. Everyone understood this budget and the questions they asked were like smart questions
about, you know, important issues rather than getting lost in some details or a table somewhere. And so I, I really feel like this was just so well done and I feel like we've set a new standard for what a budget should be for the school committee or the school district. And I would, I would put this as exceeded. Speaker 1: All right. Anybody else with comments or votes? Yeah, Dr. Fugman. Speaker 14: Yeah, I'll build on that. I actually heard from a fin com member who thanked me. Just literally just, we ran into each other for hiring Dr. Sp this year. Well, he thanked me this year.
He, he me what time along what he hired me, he thanked me for the fact we hired her two years ago. But because of the budget and I've heard a lot of great comments from a couple of town meeting members, from FINCA members that basically validate everything that Ms. Goeth just said. So this is not just, you know, my vote so to speak, but on behalf of many of the people that I've spoken to, especially those who are deeply involved in the budget process outside of this committee and in the community who really appreciate it. It's not only the clarity, but it's also the clarity of vision.
So not only the clarity of the budget itself, but clarity of vision to stay within our means as a district. And in doing so to re validate the, the vote of trust that the community put in us when they approved the override. So I'm gonna say seeing as well, Speaker 1: Ms. Collins, please, Speaker 5: I'll add to exceed it by saying ditto to Ms. Goeth and Dr. Fugman and just adding in the realignments that we've done to, to stay within our fiscal means as best
Speaker 1: We can. 900,000 or not the, is that what you mean? The strategic reallocation? Yes. Okay. I was gonna say that. And so I just wanna make sure I put it in the notes the right way. Mr. Patel. I'll also be voting. Exceeded. Exceeded. Thank you Dr. Welch. Did you have something Speaker 20: Just in the realm of, of specific products or specific processes along this goal? The memo mentions tri board meetings. I think that's a really important step that the administrative team, you know, Dr. Sp but also Mr. Gillis took this year. If you had the opportunity to attend
or watch that meeting, it was very well presented and it did a, I think a long, it did a lot of work, excuse me, in creating a really good relationship between this body and the school district office and the select board and the fin com. I believe the word that the chair of the select board at the time used was, he described it as a metamorphosis. And I think we can check public minutes or videos if you want to double check me on that. But that's not a small thing to, to take collaborative relationships within the district with this body and with other bodies in town to try to get
through the challenging budget process. That is a local school district budget in Massachusetts. So I would certainly say that is is an exceeded, I yield back. Speaker 1: Thank you. That leaves me all the evidence that everybody else said I'm an exceeded as well. I would add, and, and people alluded to it, the town meeting vote. And this was in the evidence 87, yes. Two no and three abstain. It's really hard in town meeting to get that many people to say yes and that many and that few people to say no.
And that's democracy. But like that the work to communicate and that to, to Dr. Welch's point, whether it's the, all the things that went into communicating and educating people on what the budget was and maintaining the great service that we have, it's just, that's a lot of work. And I know, and I appreciate the other folks sticking around for this. I think Dr. Spatch would probably say none of this is just her. It's the whole, it is a whole team effort, but she's the leader and the budget is such a complicated thing.
And to get everybody on board and have it reflect in that vote is just a, every year it's challenging. And so that's why I'm an exceeded. Did you have something else Speaker 6: On that? No, I'm gonna change my vote to exceeded to listening to the committee members. Because also I, one thing I was thinking about was watching other districts around the state this year went through things that we were able to avoid because of the pre-planning that you and your team did a year ago with collaboratively. And so we weren't in the news and that is a good reason to say, yeah, you've done a good job.
Speaker 1: Very good. One more goal. The professional practice goal building capacity for coaching and evaluation. Who would like to start? Somebody can do it. Dr. Welch. Speaker 20: I mean, I have to begin by pointing out what the tangible products are. I love for this goal, hold on. I Speaker 1: Have to type that 10 Speaker 20: Tangible, I told you copy paste products told the, the presentation that was led by Mr. Cook on coaching and evaluation and that work that is going on in the schools. And many of the products that come from this goal are also obviously
related to goal one. When you're talking about trying to create a vision for tier one instruction, create a walkthrough process to try to see if it's being implemented to create a, a shared vision of instructional leadership and looking at data. So obviously there's some, some synergy between these first and and second goals. But certainly the efforts to create and implement coaching and supports for educators. There's clearly some tangible products there. So again, this is in my view, at a minimum, this goal has been met. Speaker 1: Is met your, your,
your vote or do you wanna come back to it? Do you wanna listen and come back? Speaker 20: I'm gonna listen and come back. Alright. I don't want to get a reputation as a soft grader, so I'm gonna just Speaker 1: Understood, understood. Hold off Speaker 20: For just a Speaker 1: Moment. We'll, we'll hold you as a, as a un voted at the moment. Thank you Mr. Brunell. Speaker 6: Well I actually have a question for Dr. Fash about this. 'cause I remember when you presented it, I'm thinking like surprise, right? That this was your professional practice goal, even that be, especially 'cause you were in the NSIP program. So I guess I would love to hear from you, and I know I am putting you on the spot, but love to hear how building the capacity for coaching evaluation perhaps influenced your own
professional practice this year? Speaker 4: So to me, building my whole job is to coach, my job is to coach principals and cabinet and to hear them. So to me, I'm more, I less was, I less perceive my professional learning goal about my growth. I could say leading, now I could say nsip, I could say presenting with Darsa in a CO in a couple months. But I just feel like I wanna take the real estate of goals to reflect the goals our entire organization are doing. And that would be what I'd advocate for always. It doesn't mean I'm not doing my own personal learning,
but I gotta use this real estate to, to lift and support and coach into the work of our entire team. And when you look at the bridge plan, an entire block is on this and I couldn't omit it. And there was no other space for it without making goal one, which was obscenely large, even bigger. So I don't know if that an that satisfies Yeah, but that's a, a philosophy I have. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 6: It's part of your distributed leadership, I would say. Yes. So I I do, I think that you
well exceeded this goal, 98 educators surveyed, you know, you talked about in the memo shy, I think you spoke about like the monumental lift it takes to move tier one. I think coaching and evaluating teachers is probably one of the most things I like. I still remember being evaluated and hated it. So the fact that you took that on for an entire district, I and, and have such tangible products to show us throughout the year. And again, it wasn't just this memo. We received reports on this all year long, the walkthroughs.
And I also love that you incorporated the teacher feedback and made it very, maybe not teacher feedback, but you made it very clear to the, to the educators that this was not about an evaluation or some sort of punitive process. That this was about all of us growing and, and becoming a better district through, I think you used the word instructional inquiry. It's like you modeled that for our own teachers. So then our teachers are doing that as our students are learning. So I think it was, I'm, I just was really impressed
by everything that you produced here. And I think we could probably say like all those professional status teachers that we honored the other day, like that's, people are coming to our district for a reason. Some people might be leaving too, but we can be proud of what's happening here. Speaker 1: Ms. Collins. Speaker 5: Yeah. Everything that Ms. Brunell said, plus the idea of consistency in evaluations across buildings, I think is really important.
And I love the fact that you did 50% more walkthroughs as you committed to, and I, I, Ms. Peral said this in her way, but I'll say it in my way. You, you don't do it with ruler in hand. Sorry, I'm going back to my, the nuns in my past. And I think that's really important. If you want people to grow with you and, and buy in, just telling them where they're wrong doesn't help them. So I'm an exceeded as well. Speaker 1: Who's next? Speaker 14: Oh, you No, no, no. I'm just scratchy.
Oh, I was scratchy. Just kidding. Speaker 1: Seinfeld reference. Speaker 14: I'm also exceeding honestly between Catherine and Kathy. Kathy you cover and, and actually Matt Welch, you covered everything. I love Mr. Cook's presentation. I love the fact that his, it was very clear in his vision in this, in the slide deck, all the things that they just said about, you know, evaluation for growth, you know, true coaching, supporting, growing together, that was all part of his messaging. So whether he gets credit for it or you get credit for it, either way it's
exceeding expectation. Just Speaker 6: Wanna add Sandy Lemon in there too, if we're gonna Speaker 22: Yes, it's Speaker 14: Both. Yeah, it's true. Speaker 1: Ms. Corset. Speaker 22: Yeah, I'm, I'm in the exceeded camp as well. I just really feel like we changed something this year. Like we really changed the way coaching happens and the way evaluation happens in a way that you can see it from both angles. You can see it from the way you presented to us. We can see it from the way district staff came and presented to us and from input from people who are surveyed.
And I'm just really grateful for that. 'cause I think this is a huge part of what's gonna help us meet all of our goals going forward. So exceeded for me. Speaker 1: Mr. Patel, do you have a score or comment? Yes. Yep. Speaker 23: Absolutely. I'll, you know, add on to what everyone else said and go with exceeded as well for many reasons. But you know, one being that every presenter we've had, I don't remember the last time, they didn't thank Dr. Pash directly for her involvement in some way or another and credit her for, you know, all the work they did with her so exceeded. Speaker 1: Dr. Welch, are you ready to make a decision
or would you like me to do mine? You don't have to, I don't wanna pressure you, but I do Speaker 14: Exceeded Mr. Speaker 1: Chairman. Okay, thank you. I yield Speaker 22: Back. Speaker 1: So I'll just add my thoughts. I'm an exceeded and everything everybody said in addition to one other thing. And it's not, I'm not punting this acronym on purpose. I have a sneaking suspicion, I don't know if we do this, if we did an NPS survey as in a net promoter score, not native public schools this year, I suspect net promoter scores. When you ask for those who don't know, how likely are you
to recommend a thing? How likely are you to recommend you see it in stores all the time, right? How likely do you recommend working as a teacher in the native public schools? I suspect that if we were to chart an NPS survey amongst the educators in this district over the next however many, a couple years in, up the next few years, it would be sort of a steady incline. And the evidence here with the consistency. And I think people all in their careers want to grow and they want to, you know, get promoted
or they want to get more experience, they want to learn more. And I I, the, the evidence on the learning walks and all the other, you know, things that all the other members have talked about to me is proof that this is a, and Natick has always been a great place to work, but that it is a, it is growing, it's a greater place to work every year. And this year I feel like we've made, I don't know this for sure, but it feels like we've made even more progress like that. People actually really like working here more than they did before because of the consistency.
Because they know what their expectations are and they're supported and all of those things. So for all those reasons and everything else, I'm an exceeded, okay, we've done four goals, good work, everybody. We're not done, we're not done. But we've made good progress, Speaker 6: We've exceeded our goals. Speaker 1: So we're gonna go, how do we do the next? So we're gonna go to the standards, the indicators. Alright, we'll skip over the overall standard score for now, right? And we should do notes on the indicators.
Does that make sense everybody? Alright, indicator one, let me get to my notes. So standard in standard one, indicator one is one dash B instruction. So what we're looking for here, because I don't know why they do this differently, I guess because one's are goals and whatever the, the scores are unsatisfactory needs improvement, proficient or exemplary. And if you need a reference in the Google Drive folder, I shared the DESI rubric.
So you can look up in that document. So if we are setting the table here for the first one, which again is one B standard one indicator B instruction. And you look in the rubric, it defines for each one what unsatisfactory needs improvement, proficient exemplary would mean, plus the evidence that Dr. Bash provided. So I'm gonna find in my document B. All right, standard one B instruction, comments,
questions, everybody need a minute to re recalibrate. These are different than the goals. Speaker 6: I Speaker 1: Can go. Okay, thank you Ms. Brunell. Speaker 6: So I said ex exemplary and I think Dr. SP has cracked the code in this rubric as any good student does in any rubric. This is all about what you do for other people. And so the systems that we have been talking about, she put in place across the school systems using an excellent instructional leadership team, relying on coaches. And I think some of the work that you've done with the principals this year has been the most
important work in the district. And so you have set the high expectations that's in the rubric across the district and doing that across all of the principals and instructional staff. Speaker 1: Thank you. Head Noddings. One head nodding you if you don't. So just to be clear, I know we've gone through four goals already. If you don't have feedback, that's okay. You can just give a score. Speaker 22: I just wanna say ditto and dito. Exemplary. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 1: Exemplary. Exemplary as well. You're the same thing. Hold on. Oh my God. Now it's happening fast.
Speaker 2: My computer's about to die, so let's go. Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you want my charger? I won't work. Won't Speaker 2: Work. Speaker 1: Dr. Welch? Speaker 14: Same. Speaker 1: Dr. Fruman, I see you leaning. Yeah, Speaker 14: I, I'll say same. And just a very quick comment. If you read the exemplary definition and compare that to the literacy audit and selection of the curriculum curricula, I think it, it, it speaks for itself. The exemplary definition is exactly what Dr. Stash and her team did here. Speaker 1: Great. What was that? Ditto. Ms. Collins is a di is a ditto. As am I, Catherine.
Okay, we're good on standard one B now we're moving on to standard 1D, evaluation 1D evaluation. Who would like to go first? Speaker 5: I think we did it under, Speaker 2: Hold Speaker 5: On, lemme get to my right page. Speaker 1: Under Speaker 5: The coaching and evaluation, the professional practice goal, Speaker 1: We did cover it under the goal. Right, but I, so we need different, right? Speaker 5: And I'm sorry, I'm just saying I Speaker 1: Evidence say the same thing. Okay, so which is Speaker 5: Exemplary. Speaker 1: Exemplary is exemplary. Ms Ms. Brunelli, did you have, were you itching?
Speaker 6: No, no, no. I was gonna say exemplary too. And again, you, whenever you see a gap, you dive in. And I think that you did this with the evaluation that's with all the walkthroughs that you did. And you also know that there's, there's, you can't just have a, a desired outcome. There's always steps to that desired outcome. And so you identified this with the evaluation system in our district. You also modeled it this year in your midyear, midyear goals. And you invited the leadership team to participate in all your goals this year. And that term you love distributed leadership. So I, I see that in this process.
Speaker 1: Okay. Who else Speaker 14: Just say exemplary for all this same reasons and the reasons we talked about before. Yep, Speaker 1: Yep, Speaker 22: Yep. Exemplary. And I, I think that, you know, we, we did talk about in terms of the coaching and evaluation, but I think that this, you know, this description of exemplary just, it just permeates through every action and every other goal in terms of providing feedback and supervision and evaluation and yeah. So exemplary.
Speaker 1: Okay. Agreed. Agreed. Speaker 6: I think we should also mention the school improvement plans and how they are smart goals. There's some of the best goals we've had in this district. 'cause that's part of the rubric. And then also the two hour weekly executive team meetings that happen. I mean that's a commitment Speaker 1: Tomorrow it's all day Speaker 6: Tomorrow, apparently it's eight hours. Yes. Speaker 1: Template for me as well. And, and for me, this one, like to Ms. Collins' point, I feel like we covered a bit already. All right, next one, Speaker 6: Two E. So this is not, this one's not part of the her memo.
So the next one is two E. Speaker 1: I'm a little confused because, so help me understand, 'cause this is the memo I printed out. Speaker 6: So in this, this memo of the rubric, Speaker 1: The, so Speaker 6: No, here it is. This is the memo that we received in October. So one B 1D two E. Oh, did I Speaker 1: Give it the wrong one? Oh, did I just type it? Is it it's it's, it falls under standard two. But wait, well, so there's a data informed decision making and there is a two E in the evidence of fiscal systems. Speaker 6: I mean, we didn't pick data informed decision making in October, but, Speaker 1: Oh well we still fall under one in each group even.
So this is the second one. Yeah. However you guys wanna do it. Yeah, let's, well let's finish this. So to Ms. Bruno's point, let's go to two E right now and then we can come back. 'cause I don't want to ignore the evidence either. So, alright. Two, two e fiscal systems. I am just, Speaker 14: I'll say exemplary for the same reasons that we gave that I gave her exceeded goal for, I forget which goal. Two or three. The fiscal responsibility one. Speaker 2: Yeah, the fiscal one. Speaker 1: Same reasons as fiscal. Okay.
Speaker 6: I also gave exemplary in this one it says align the district vision and mission and goals that address the needs of all the students. And frankly, we didn't have a vision, mission and goals before this year, but you ha already had a north star in your head. So you developed that in the, in from all the stakeholders. You developed that. But again, we talked about strategic allocations this year and back to the rubric leading the administrator team so that any of the budgets that happened came from the school base. They were school based budgets, which is why we see different things
happening in our budgets. And I think that that's an excellent way of, of working. Also all the, the community members, municipal stakeholders, like all of that basically. I think she looks at the rubric actually. And does it Speaker 2: Studies the test That's possible. Always the way you do. Speaker 6: Yes. Speaker 1: All right. Dr. Welch, Speaker 20: I'm inclined to rate this as proficient with the reason being that the strategic plan that would allow for more clear alignment to those four specific buckets just wasn't completed at the time, as we've just discussed
with the fiscal goal. I think that the budget was very well handled. I think collaboration with the other bodies was very well handled, but just the specific piece wasn't in place yet to align it to those specific goals. Mission and budgets, excuse me. And those buckets that will be in place next year. Speaker 1: This is a good opportunity by the way, to share that ultimately what the score is in the evaluation will be like the majority scores, but all the feedback will be incorporated. So even if your score is not the one that ultimately gets the checkbox, your feedback is all still included.
Anybody else or everybody else? The scores have Speaker 2: Exemplary. Speaker 1: Okay. Mr. Patel, I see you. Same expl, exemp, exemplary. Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Speaker 6: I told my kids I'd be home at eight tonight. Speaker 1: We're doing great. Have maybe a tactical error. Did you look at the agenda right Kathy? Speaker 2: I was just gonna vote Speaker 1: Exemplary. Okay. And I am as well. Speaker 6: Okay. The next one. Can we move, Speaker 1: I'm typing as fast as I can. Standard. Are we on three B sharing responsibility? Speaker 6: Yes. Speaker 1: Who would like to go? Speaker 6: Matt has his hand up. Dr. Speaker 1: Welsh,
Speaker 20: I'll rate it as exemplary. I think this is exemplified by the strategic planning process and the fact that it involves such a broad array of stakeholders, folks in the community that were teachers, parents, members of this committee, principles, just so many people there being involved with a collaborative process. I think it's just a clear, tangible example of engaging that kind of shared responsibility. Speaker 1: Great. Anyone else? Ms. Brunell? Speaker 6: I also said exemplary, your willingness to meet with families and stakeholders right up to June, I'm sure.
June 22nd. You know, it's just, it's impressive the way that you are able to just meet people with kindness and with a listening ear always with all students in mind. I also have seen you this year defer to the principals and bring people back to the school level. And I think that goes, speaks to your leadership style and actually what works because it's an empowering leadership style and it's just ultimately collaborative. And may it, it, it makes a lot of work, I hope, lighter, but also I think it just builds respect
across the whole district. Speaker 14: I'm exemplary as well. In the past we had a leadership model where the conversations in families and administration when direct to superintendent, and you've shifted that to the administrators, to you coaching administrators. But the conversations happen between the administrators at the school level and families, which I think is a much better model and you've empowered them to do that. So I think I, I'll, I'm exemplary, Speaker 1: Ms. Collins, Speaker 5: I'm gonna go with proficient here only because it's a high proficient, but only because, and and I like the fact that principals are more,
more involved, but some of the responses and emails that I've seen and some things that I've heard makes it unclear to me that families feel heard. It's not to say you're not reaching out to them, it's not to say you're not telling them things, but there's something in there that they're not quite feeling heard. But not enough that I would go below proficient. Speaker 1: Okay. Onto to Ms. Corset. Mr. Patel, myself. Exemplary for me.
Speaker 22: So I thought, I thought quite a bit about this Speaker 5: And Speaker 22: I feel like the, the act of empowering people and, and, and reaching out to give the, the supports for administrators to share that responsibility to collaborate on students. I feel like that has definitely been done, but I feel like it's still a bit of a work in progress that that's trickled down maybe to every educator in every family, kind of having, having that good interaction.
So I feel, I feel like I'm on, I'm in Ms. Collins camp here and I would rate that as proficient. I mean, I really, I think it's gonna happen. I just don't think it's quite there yet. Speaker 1: Okay. And I am exemplary. I'm gonna say why I was reading the rubric and I'm like looking at the verbs under the exemplary empowers all administrators. I think that's a, for me that that's a yes. Monitors those processes to ensure all student needs are being met. I, I think that's a yes
for me models this practice for others. That's certainly a yes. So based on those things, I'm an exemplary good feedback. Standard four IVE shared vision. And remember, this is the one where we can also consider, we can, if you'd like, consider the magically imagined collaboration standard. But we, that is part of that can be part of this as well. Shared vision. Who would like to go? Dr. Fon may have fallen asleep. He's, oh,
Speaker 14: No, no. Speaker 1: You're Speaker 14: There. Exemplary. No, Speaker 1: You don't have to. Speaker 14: I woke up with a dream. No, I, I, you know, again, I read the exemplary dis definition in the DESI rubric and it basically describes our strategic planning process. And before that, the bridge plan, which was informed by over 200, 250, I forget the number now, meetings instead of 90 as promised. You know, like there's constantly this creating vision, engaging people to engage, to create vision. It's not imposed from the top, but it's really leading for a bottom up
or a collaborative, I should say collective vision, which is exactly what it describes. It Speaker 6: Got the word in there. Speaker 1: Here you go. Catherine, Speaker 6: I'm proficient on this one because I believe this is where we're headed based. The, you know, the idea that the, you're leading all of these people through a shared educational vision. It was articulated well tonight. I think that that's what's gonna happen in the coming years. College and career, civic engagement, community contributions, that's where we're headed right now. So I, I think in general, professional culture
is a strength of yours and will continue to bring our district up. Your emphasis on instructional inquiry. And then I love this, the idea that the school improvement goals or and plans were aligned so well to the district goals all the way to the teacher goals. That was kind of like, I feel like there you have a magic wand to make that thing. I don't know how you get that much alignment, but I think it's, IM impressive. And also the principle end of year reflections. I don't know if we're ever able to read those, but I, I think that that would be a powerful thing. And I just love that that's a part
of your practice in this district and part of the professional culture that you're building. Speaker 2: Collins. Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm gonna go with exemplary here specifically because there is such alignment between SIPS and, and, and the district. And one of the things in the exemplary is that ensures alignment of school and district goals to this vision. And I think we did that for the first time, really well this year. I was very proud of the work that that happened there. And also that the,
you know, the, the technical career stuff Desi imposed on us, but I thought it was handled really well. I think that your relationship with Keith Tech is really important to remember here. 'cause those are our kids too. And it's important that we have a good working relationship and we still send our eighth graders. So all of that leads me to exemplary here. Speaker 1: Dr. Welch, Speaker 20: I just want to echo Ms. Collins and particularly, and actually Ms. Brunell said this as well, the level of system alignment with school plans, educator plans, that's, you know, really where we're trying to get to
is a really tight level of vertical alignment behind a particular vision. And the fact that that was also part of the work that was done on instructional walks and trying to get principles on the same page and thinking about what good instruction looks like. And we're not, you know, imagining things like rigor or quality instruction, but we're trying to imagine trying to, excuse me, see those things in classrooms and take principles around to one another's classrooms as well as having those plans. Align I think is an example of exemplary practice in the past year. Speaker 1: We have Ms. Goeth, Mr. Patel, Jamon. Speaker 23: I agree that everything everyone said,
I will be voting exemplary Speaker 1: As well. Okay. Speaker 5: Exemplary. Speaker 1: I was so, I'm I'm last on that one, aren't I? Yeah, I was on the fence about this one for some of the reasons that Ms. Purnell was talking about, like, this feels like a journey and we're still at the beginning of it and I feel really good about where we're going. I know where we're going. I know we're gonna get there, but I'm not sure we're quite there. I mean, it would be unreasonable to think that we're there yet, however. And I was like rereading the, I need these, I was rereading the, the, the rubric again, leads, administrators, staff, student of all ages, families
and community members to develop and internalize a shared educational vision around student preparation. Do, do, do ensures alignment of school and district goals to the vision models as practice for others. And after reading it again and listening to I, I don't know how I couldn't do exemplary because of those last two sentences. So I'm gonna be an exemplary in this. All right. We're just about done everybody. I think so pleasure of the committee. Do we need to now go around
and sort of do a standard roll up? Yeah. Or can I just sort of look at the indicators for each one and whatever the result of the indicators were becomes the result of the, to be clear, we'll put this together and then at the next meeting there'll be a final draft and people can make changes Speaker 20: And vote on a composite Speaker 1: And vote on a composite. So, Speaker 14: So just ffy I two, three, and four are just one indicator each. So it's easy to make. That's two, Speaker 1: Three, and four. That's, that's why I was like, do do we need to do, do people feel like they want to vote separately on the rollup or can we, can I draft it
and then we can finish it two weeks from now? I don't wanna make a decision based on people's tiredness. I wanna do it based on the efficiency. Dr. Welch, Speaker 20: Mr. Chairman, there was a fair amount of consensus Yeah. On a number of the ratings. And given that I would propose to you and to our colleagues that you create a composite and that the committee have an opportunity to edit and amend and then vote on that composite at the next meeting. Speaker 1: So moved. Alright. Anybody have any other thoughts on this evaluation or on the container story? No, thank you. If not, I will take one more motion. Move
Speaker 4: To adjourn. Motion to ajour. Speaker 1: Do you want, do you wanna say anything? That's a good point before we, Speaker 4: Yeah, sure. Oh, so I wanna thank the committee for reading my 18 page memo. Honestly, there was so much the team did, it all deserved to be on paper. So as much as I disliked having to give you such a meaty thing to read, I also couldn't make it smaller and do justice to the work of this team. Every single thing and rating that you gave reflects the beautiful work of this team. And I heard you say that in your responses, so thank you. At the very beginning. I remember the fall meeting where we talked about it.
I think Ms. Brunell, you were the one who were like, are you kind of crazy? These are huge goals and yes they are, but it's such a firm belief of mine to mirror the educational goals. This is what we're asking our teams to do. So I shouldn't be rated any differently or any smaller. So huge gratitude to the team who kind of pulled all this together and to your really intentional work and discussion tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Speaker 1: Thank you. And now I'll take a motion unless somebody else wants to talk. Motion to adjourn. Motion to Ajo. Second. Second. Motion by Mr. Patel. Seconded by Ms. Collins. All in favor.
Goodnight.