##VIDEO ID:9nH7i4XdeIM## all right good evening calling the December 10th norick school committee meeting to order I will begin this meeting as we always do reading the mission statement Nori Public Schools offers a safe joyful and challenging learning environment that meets the needs of our diverse students through school family and Community Partnerships we offer an education that inspires lifelong Learners and cultivates caring and productive citizens of our Ever Changing world I have a roll call Peter schal Lauren Vias Grace lockhead madora champagne Lisa Sheldon ingard s we will begin this meeting as we always do with public comment we welcome members of the community at the beginning of each of our meetings to come in and address the school committee but we are Guided by a policy and um because we have six speakers signed up to speak tonight which is our maximum each speaker will be assigned 2 minutes to speak each we do ask that the speakers respect the timeline of policy once you state your name I'll hit my timer for 2 minutes once you hear the bells if you could just uh close your remarks if you aren't able to finish and if anyone else in the audience was looking to speak tonight but didn't make the list of six uh you can always email school committee members you can submit your statement as correspondents Dr lardi is always happy to answer and is very responsive to emails so lots of options for you you can also come back next month um so as we do have six speakers tonight um Jack Oliver G to come up and state your association with this this is okay can you hear me Jack Oliver for barl Place go um the Comprehensive Health and physical education framework says it's a program guidance document it's not a requirement it's not a mandate it's only a set of guidelines which can be tailored by the individual School District the approach indicates the school at students and their families benefit When leaders and staff of the district school solicit and coordinate Community provided information and services you guys fail to do that section 32 of title 12 says to the extent practicable program instruction materials shall be made reasonably accessible to parents guidiance Educators School administrators and others for inspection and review you fail to do that state law requires schools to notify parents and give them the right to exempt their child from lessons courses and other instructional programs that primarily involve human sexual education or human sexual sexuality issues you fail to do this in fact Massachusetts law does not even require districts to have sexual education or sexual health programs but you have decided to try and include them without notice because of your woke agenda IDE ideology you've already tried to introduce gender identity to eight and niney olds without any family notification or input your plan was to tell third graders that there were girls and boys and many other choices without letting the parents know thank goodness that this was caught before it happened you also instructed staff at the HD school which I remind you was prek through second grade not to call children boys and girls as it says in this slide what were you thinking we have three things we would like to see from you transparency notification in a clear opt out process with regard to gender identity teaching respect for all individuals does not require explaining different genders and how you could transition from one to the other leave those conversations to parents and stick to math reading and writing the framework survey shows 50% of parents did not agree with the teaching of sex education and gender gender identity but here an accommodation was made about Halloween for less than 5% of the parents who complained about the name if you want 37 Milli tax and next we have emly bicker sta can you hear me okay so I'm a local educator I was born and raised in this town and my husband and I are raising our two boys in this town I want to start off by saying I am not a political person but my hands feel forced as our little town encounters another item on the agenda of the radical left I disappointed and frustrated to hear Rumblings of the gender identity lessons and materials trying to be infused with in the curriculum this is not a topic that everyone agrees on and for the district to try and sneak in such material is dishonest and divisive I don't believe in forcing my Christian views on anyone and as a parent and a taxpayer I don't want my children indoctrinated into such a radical ideology that goes against our family's values and beliefs this district has a duty and a responsibility to be transparent with families and as Jack said you failed to do that at the very least parents should be notified provided with lessons of um lesson materials and given the opportunity to opt their children out thank you next we have Ben spr hi Ben spr 264 Main Street thank you for the opportunity to speak I'm here to address the inclusion the inclusion of gender identity in the curriculum specifically specifically is outlined in Mass health physical education Frameworks under Practice 6 information and resource seeking Sexual Health 5.6s where gender identity is explicitly classified as part of sexual health standard and must emphasize the critical need for the district to respect parental rights by providing clear optout Provisions as required by law Massachusetts general laws chapter 71 section 32A mandates that schools notified parents about lessons involving sexual education or related topics including gender identity and guarantees their right to ex their children from these lessons the law is not optional ignoring it constitutes a direct violation of parental rights and erod trust between schools and families while practice six aims to provide accurate information and Foster inclusivity The District's handling of the issues disregards the framework classifications of gender identity under Sexual Health making opt out Provisions a legal obligation not a suggestion any attempt to sidestep this responsibility signals to parents that their rights are secondary to the district's agendas this is unacceptable while supporting all students is essential it must be done in full compliance with legal requirments and with the respect for family values if the district continues to deny opt out options for these lessons I and others are fully prepared to take legal action to enforce compliance with state law the consequences of such litigation will be both costly and damaging not for just the schools but also for the broader Community litigation is entirely avoidable if the committee aderes to the law I demand an immediate action to address this issue first establish a formal policy requiring parental notification about lessons involving gender identity second honor all opt out requests promptly without resistance or repercussions third provide Parents full access to review instructional materials related to these lessons these actions are not optionable they are not they are non-negotiable transparency is critical to maintaining trust with families and ensuring the Integrity of Education goals finally I urge you to consider the balance between inclusivity and parental rights anything less than a failure of leadership in favor of un of a unilateral agenda thank you for your time and attention and I expect Swift decision at a Swift and decisive action on this matter [Applause] next we have Kate Ren K Ren hard act to follow I'm working all day I don't have all my notes together um but I did write a very lengthy letter um on Monday um and shared this with the committee so I'm going to pull from there I do agree with Norfolk public schools that students social and emotional development is a critical component of their educational experience being kind and respectful as a person and a citizen is especially important however I cannot stress how strongly I disagree with the curriculum that you've managed to sneak through and put together which weaves the topic of gender identity and woke activism throughout various models it is irresponsible and you weren't transparent and you absolutely failed not only the parents but you failed the students the topic of gender identity is deeply personal and extremely complex when and how children are introduced to this topic should be left with each individual family is very similar to religion Additionally the age at which such a complex and highly confusing subject is introduced and discussed should also be up should be up to each individual family introducing it in third grade at age 8 or even fifth grade is completely mindboggling these children haven't even been educated on the fact that they're going to need deodorant and many still believe in Santa Claus the tooth fairy and a leprechaun and yet you want to tell them that they have even more choices Beyond being a boy or a girl how confusing is that how overloading is that for an 8-year-old it also goes against my religious beliefs separation of church and state is a fundamental Concept in our us constitutional law which by the way fifth graders have not been taught yet nor have third graders under the US Constitution Public Schools must respect the individual religious beliefs of students this goes against my religious beliefs as it is against my son so again you have failed the school curriculum should remain focused on academic development rather than engaging in ideological or social agendas again our Ela scores are terrible I attended you I have to cut you off I'm sorry so refocus thank you for speaking [Applause] deol is next hi I'm here to say that I object to the adopting adoption of the Comprehensive Health and physical framework for the Nori schools the entire document is Pathway to implementing the ideology of diversity equity and inclusion throughout the entire school system I believe this is Mrs guided diversity often just justifies racial discrimination Equity demands categorizing individuals into groups identities and assigning disperate treatment to members of those groups seeking to equalize what would otherwise be considered unjust outcomes certain groups get favored and others disfavored and is Justified under the ideology of equity inclusion often excludes ideas that some don't like and often times prohibits Free Speech this document IS F filled with feel-good buzzwords but some of the text in this document is literally indecipherable as to what it actually means in the social awareness skills section for the pre- through grade 2 it's a mindfield of extremist ideas and a disturbing worldview teaching preschoolers about inappropriate touching sexual boundaries stereotypes Prejudice discrimination bullying equality and inequality feeling personally threatened is absolute Overkill and inappropriate the framework also suggests discussing gender role stereotypes and their potential impacts impacts on people of all genders that is not scientifically correct the curriculum is suggesting that you teach young children outright falsehoods with regard to gender and sexual identity gender dispor kids make up less than 1% of the entire Public School population protect them of course and guidance counselors and teachers should be trained to offer families help they need to feel safe but don't brainwash the rest of the students with one-sided repeated lessons about gender issues and 53 SE con streen I'm a mother of three I'm an advanced practice register nurse I I mean I have not been keeping up with your meetings this came to my attention through my daughter my daughter started to tell me this is what's going on I also don't agree with that um I used to work for the home Poli Wanderers and took a family medical leave of absence because my father was failing in his health and we are administering transitional medication drugs to be able to block hormones and all these other things without the consent of parents but children that are in DCF custody in which their parents still have legal custody okay I found that to be very questionable and now you know I don't even want to go back to that job because it puts my license at Great risk they want to be able to use my license to prescribe medication all these other things and now I mean I've got my children in the schools I've got pamel here in the noro public schools I mean this is making children feel uncomfortable my daughter told me she felt uncomfortable with the lesson because they're not because they're not my parents you're stepping in the role of parents these are other people's children these are other people's children you can't do that I don't care what you believe you know and you may not care what I believe but I would not approach a an underage patient and impose my belief on them or try to you know get my point across what we're talking about here which you appear to be very cohesive okay doesn't lead to any growth because you're congruent among each other and if you don't take other people's opinion there's not going to be any room for growth there's not going to be any room for soul searching and finding the truth and what we are now teaching our kids 10 years from now it's going to be deemed like a mistake I don't know how many times people have you know come up with these Frameworks and later on found that it was wrong to do that or the child went and underwent you know sex changes or you know all these theories that you have you think are all right could in 10 to 15 years from now be wrong it's extremely controversial experimental and again involves other and I also want I also want to PO out and I also join I also join any class I want to thank all of you who came to speak tonight I know it's not always easy and we do really appreciate Community engagement as this is not a topic on our agenda tonight we cannot respond um this will be on our January agenda can I just say um so again thank people uh in the audience for coming and sharing your perspective um at this time as Lisa said we can't respond to public comment in uh consistent with open meeting requirement um our district is in the process of reviewing our health curriculum we are not implementing the new standards until we complete that review uh we are partnering with rentham planville and King Philip there's a lot of work to be done um the the standards are released in grade level band so standards are grade three to six we need to backwards design to decide what belongs in grade six what belongs in grade five um we don't have a health teacher we have to decide what who's teaching which parts of the new Frameworks um but we are committed we hear uh your concerns we're committed to this being a very public and transparent process I will be updating the committee in January so you're welcome to come to that meeting um but in the interm we are not rolling out the new health standards until we go through that process all the curriculum and and materials will be brought to school committee for review and approval and our intent is to have everything published online so parents can see any of the materials at any point um we hear your questions about opt out um that is something that we have to get guidance from the Department of Education on but we're not at that point yet because we are we won't I don't anticipate we'll be ready to make a recommendation for the health program till probably April or May um although I will update the committee in January so people are welcome to join at that time thank you so that is the end of public comment and we will move on to the correspondent section of the agenda which we have none moving on to the school committee chair report we do have some gifts to approve um one one is from the Special Olympics of Massachusetts for $500 I'll just pause we can pause hope people are right $500 from the Special Olympics of Massachusetts for unified Champions schools at Freeman Kennedy uh $1,655 from the nor PTO which is a grant for H ol of Day School $450 for curriculum enhancement at H ol of day and also from the PTO and $1,928 for a poster maker copier at the Freeman Kennedy School so I would be looking for a motion to approve the gifts as listed so moved second any further discussion thank you to the Special Olympics and the nor T thank you all those in favor having trouble hearing anything you're saying oh okay okay sure all those in favor I [Applause] I and then this was on the agenda from last month U madora went to the mass conference and you an update to share from sure so masc the Massachusetts Association of school committees has a conference every fall um it usually spans 3 to four days um there are workshops and then there is also a delegate voting session on the Friday of the conference that typically um that I was the voting delegate from our school committee for um the agenda items for the voting conference typically reflect MC's legislative and policy initiatives for the coming year so um um with respect to the workshops they were offering there was a lot of great great opportunities to kind of learn and connect with other school committees and school committee members and superintendents from across the Commonwealth so this is also a small plug for other folks from the committee to possibly look into attending next year's conference I've had the pleasure of going on a number of occasions um so some of those included a review of the student Opportunity Act um best practices in equity audits operational overrides court system in the schools uh school and Municipal collaboration Trends and collective bargaining um changes to the title 9 programming Advanced Learners and twice exceptionality that's a mouthful um education in turbulent social and political climates seal for school committee members to create functioning boards and raising awareness around gun safety and Firearm storage in communities um with respect to I'm going to run through these Auctioneer style but just to advise the committee as to what was voted on during the delicate conference um there were resolutions regarding alternatives to the mcast as the high stakes testing standard in the state um an increase in the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18 um the importance of secure firearm storage in communities to reduce um childhood and um School involved shooting incidents legislation allowing for the installation of Live digital feed cameras on school bus arms cuz I know that it has been there has been a recent uptick nationally and locally as well of people disregarding um traffic laws around passing or yielding two school buses resulting in injuries uh let's see aligning uh Municipal taxing Authority with required um local contributions under Chapter 70 uh this is proposed legislation that would allow a municipality to raise their tax levy above 2 and a half% simply to meet their required local contribution under Chapter 70 so solely for educational purposes uh passage of comprehensive legislation to better address the fiscal health of rural schools um legislation mandating an inflation index catchup to Chapter 70 Foundation Aid or um functional Aid rather for municipalities so that there can be a realization of the inflation that has occurred since the passage of the student Opportunity Act Equitable funding for non-regional school districts with high Transportation costs that's actually a really interesting um suggestion that masc is promoting which would allow for the establishment of a um they called it extraordinary routes Relief Fund that would allow certain school districts who have long distances to travel but aren't traveling within a Regional School District to petition a trust fund um overseen by the state and representatives from different School committees and communities to um offset and defay some of the transportation costs which we all know can be high even in the district with a small geographical footprint like ours um and then there were a few really interesting legislative priorities surrounding uh vocational programming and um in particular uh resolution number nine dealt with a request that the mass School building authority treat requests from vocational schools with a slightly different review lens compared to a a more traditional you know an elementary school or your sort of standard High School environment because the costs associated with those are so much higher so lots of interesting dialogue and debate um very interesting voting session again a plug for all of our wonderful committee members to consider attending next year um it's usually at a awkward time in the middle of the week but it's worth it it's not an overnight thing is it it's just like a no I don't I I you don't have to stay overnight okay I you could if you wanted to yeah it is multiple days but it's usually like the seventh or around the 7th 8th of no November into the weekend are there any ideas for um the mcast that they were throwing around the mcast replacement it's just to these are again just legislative priorities so it's it's to identify um so the masc to kind of close out what their next step would be has a day on the hill that's typically in May um there's a legislative priority working group that usually meets um somewhere in Boston and then there's as as very simple title it's a day on the hill with legislators so that's the next St I think yeah over to you all right um our agenda tonight is to focus on looking at the results from the most recent administration of mcast so I'm going to turn it over to Vicki Sana who will uh walk through the mcast presentation and talk about our results and uh next steps so VI I'll turn it to you thank you very much thank you for staying so we can share kind of our um mcast results as Dr L mentioned um this is a very lengthy um which I totally recognize um report so I'm not going to go through the whole thing my plan was to really post it on the website so you can take a look if there's any specific questions that come up please um reach out to me I'd be more than happy to touch base with you um so we can discuss like if there's questions about results or kind of like our plan going forward um any anything that um kind of arises so um I'm just going to touch piece just very quickly about how mcast is scored I'm going to dive a little bit into the ELA um scores and math scores and our science and technology and kind of spend a little bit more time talking about our next steps and kind of like our our um ongoing efforts in terms of curriculum so as I say every year that it really is just one measure um of our achievement it is a really great way for us to kind of see our overarching results in terms of how as a district um our curriculum is um uh kind of going how our students responding to what we're teaching um but we do have a lot of measures that we use um in a more frequent um uh manner so that we're really able to see like how our students are responding um uh for our lessons for our um monthly assessments our benchmarks so in combination with everything is really how we make decisions around curriculum adoptions um any type of supports that students needs so we use this as um a component of a bigger picture so as we kind of look at results just kind of my help kind of keep that in mind so this is the scoring range as everybody knows um our Target is to always get our students in the meeting expectations or exceeding expectations area so that's always our goal for all our learners um one thing I just want to note that usually the state releases some of the questions so when we um we can take a deeper dive and kind of see how the questions were posed it gives us an opportunity to kind of um uh make sure that we can adjust our curriculum if we need to In terms to be able to respond to like questions that students will be able to see this year the state has decided not to release any of the questions so we really couldn't do that dive but they did say as I took this directly from their website that they're similar to how the questions were posed last year so we'll um just kind of go with that and also just a quick note that you will see a multi-year comparison of our mcast scores but it's really a little bit hard to compare the scores because we've had some interrupted schooling and then there were some changes made to the test um so the scores aren't really comparable but it's always good for us to kind of see which way we're trending so um we add this to our bench our yearly Benchmark um uh Benchmark and Baseline Benchmark report thank you um but I just wanted to kind of pull this information just to kind of show how northark is comparing to our Lake towns this is an alphabetical order just to keep in mind so we're not in the middle just like where we kind of um in terms of how you're looking at the data but if you can take a look at cville and BR you can kind of see where we are um in terms of scoring um for um English language arts and this takes into consideration all grades 3 four five and six so it's like a cumulative score and um for ELA we're at our average for all students is 55% and for math again taking into consideration all uh the grade levels our average is um 67% and the average is for students who are in that meeing or exceeding category sorry you said 5 Jack we can't sorry we can't ask questions during the 55% for ELA 55% for ELA and 67% for math is where we are for for this school year for 2024 and let's clarify so what that 55% represents is that 55% of our students are in the meeting and exceeding category it's not an average score in the test 55% are falling in those two categories but this is average Eng three four five and six together so this is just um a graphic which um kind of shows again as we mentioned that taking into all the grade levels um this is where our students are in the 55% of meeting and exceeding the average scale score is where that chart that I showed you um right here is where we fall so our average scale score is in a 500s which is in the meeting expectations and um you kind of can see like the the growth uh the trend from 2019 to 2024 and how we fall into different categories and um the linear kind of shows the solid line is how Norfork is trending over the last um couple of years compared to the dotted line which is how where the state is so Norfork is is trending um well above the state um for math we are in that cumulatively the scores um are 67% of our students are in the meeting in exceeding expectations we're in our average scale score is in the 500s which is in um meeting expectations category and again you can kind of see where how math has trended with a solid line compared to the state so we are in an upswing um in terms of our math scores one of the things that we wanted to kind of pull and one of the other data components that we look at is um a cohort comparison so this is how students um over the last um four years have done in the same cohort so our sixth grade students that just left our district you can kind of see their path how they've scored in mcast over the last um four years so this is like the same group of students so we're kind of tracking what it kind of helps us to see in terms of as you can see the ELA has dipped um in as they kind of reached upper grades and then our math has actually gone up significantly especially when they ended sixth grade so that gives us an opportunity to do a little bit of a deeper dive into exactly how scope and sequence aligns vertically you know and able to um adjust make adjustments as [Applause] needed so um looking at the ELA questions again just really quickly the students are asked three different types of questions um a selective response is when they read a passage and they have to select the right answer they have a constructive response which is basically they have to pull information from a reading and kind of generalize it so like what do you think um having read the story The it might end that the character um uh was left off like in the woods what do you think would be a reasonable next lineage like where the story would go so students are kind of asked to predict and to summarize and to generalize and then the last one is to write an essay so they they read a they read a pass it could be a poem a story uh an article depending on the grade level and then they're asked to write um an essay about um something that has to do with what they've read one thing that I kind of mentioned last year um there was some changes to the way the ELA um has been was scored and the way the questions are posed which also um one of the factors that I think contributed to our dip in ela scores um so one of the the um the rubric has changed so one of the things that they really have started emphasizing is idea development and conventions so like the language uh category and then um they are scoring out of four the idea development is scored out of four points and that all the conventions are scored out of three points and um this is what the rubrics looked last year like I said we don't have this years but they said that's very similar um so when the the essay are scored by a panel so when they look at it this is what the rubric that they use in order to score students responses [Music] um uh so let see oh something here we go so one of the things that I wanted to um kind of just show an example of uh what students in grades three and four being asked so they're reading a passage it's a narrative and then they have to use character setting events and other details from the passage to answer questions and one of the things that for the first time they're being scored um for is also their grammar spelling and punctuation which is um I see which is um also affect is affecting the score so this is new and because like I said when we're comparing to the previous year's data that was not a component that they were scored against it um so like I said when we're looking at scores we have to kind of consider like aest um this is another example of uh what grades five and above are asked they have to write a narrative based on the passage so um this is something again new so they're for the first time students are being asked to like make um like I said predictions about what they think will happen but it has to make sense to where the story was going so like by example earlier if we're talking about a student like the character was in the middle of the woods and then the student might feel like in a spaceship came you know what I mean they would actually be deducted uh points from that because they would say it was not it was not following like a sequential um like a reasonable sequence so this is also kind of a new kind of way of of uh pulling in uh what students are being asked to do in terms to demonstrate understanding um so I I I'm including a few more examples in um in this presentation we can take a look so I kind of put an example what the state has released from last year in terms of what a zero or a one would be scor so these are student work um the next one is an example of I I gave a couple examples sorry versus like uh a student that received a four and a three um in terms of idea development and conventions and if you read a little bit closer you can tell that the level of skill that they're asking is is actually pretty rigorous so I'm just you'll be able to take a closer look so would we take a look at um the next set of scores we're going to dive a a little bit by grade level um uh one of the scores that I just want to bring your attention to is um the student growth percentile which basically um doesn't start till fourth grade because you need to have two years worth of data and it basically tracks an individual students growth from one year to the other in terms of how they're doing the assessment so parents can kind of when when they get their reports they are um will be able to see like how the student is tracking in terms of acquiring new knowledge mastering grade level skills um so that's one of the um scores that are indicated so for grade six um this is looking at Ela our our grade six students last year that have are now in seventh graders scored 44% in um English language arts which is a dip for us um in terms of what we were trending but again just going back to the tested change and um there was quite some more rigor um I kind of looking into just the data like I said we couldn't see the questions but areas of strength you can see that if we break it down by standards reading language essay and writing that um reading and like structure was really um a strength for us 71% of our students actually scored proficient or exceeding in that area um uh and also uh like analyzing effects of of language in the passage identifying a purpose were really areas of strength for us one of the areas of we need to focus and are focusing actually thanks to our new Ela program that we just adopted um is just the writing essay development and that is such a skill that takes years for kids to master you know so it's something we're always have been working on but I think that especially um vocabulary use and um grammar we have the program that we've adopted has a really strong focus and that would be really great that kids are introduced to it much early in the grade level in a consistent way so I really do um anticipate that our scores in this area are going to start to um increase grade five we're at 50% so it's a little bit of a rise but again all the things I just mentioned we need to we're going to continue working with grade five as well um just taking a little breakdown again reading 71% of our students show exceeding and um a meeting an exceeding um areas of and actually vocabulary is really high we got 77% of our students scored really well in grade five so be interested to see why the dip in grade six kind of happened a little bit in that area um but like I said I'm hoping that consistency of the program will kind of help level some of these um and consisten out as well but um writing um area Focus again is writing and then like language is is always something that we could Focus grade four we're at 60% um for students who are needing and exceeding we are increasing in that in that grade level level um and again as you can see there's a pattern reading is really strong um reading a passage our students were at 81% of so we have a really high score and again just kind of really looking at our writing and kind of blistering that um skill and lastly grade uh three where it's 64% um as you can see like we're also in upward Trend and again it does make sense that the upper grades as the skills get more um difficult the passages are significantly longer it makes sense that the upper grades do see more of a dip than our lower grades but um nevertheless it it is encouraging to see that our students are starting to kind of recover a little bit from the last couple of years and at least from from Bill grade levels we're seeing an upward Trend and for grade three um we really kind of did like I said like writing is always great and um writing is something an area that we always need to work on um um that is really like the big Focus I think across all our grade levels even the non- mcast grades where we start at kindergarten where they start drawing pictures of of you know and um like they're really being able to even see themselves as writers you know what I mean and how would you express an idea and I know we have um some teachers that are In Their audience who know very well that um like what the process looks like so really kind of focus in K12 so um when students reach the other grade levels they're able to to General ize and demonstrate their knowledge and I would just jump in with that so um when we presented the we always look at Trend data for mcast in in order to develop School Improvement plans and targeted areas for Intervention when we went through and Vicky led the ELA program review we have seen consistent strengths in our district in the areas of reading critical thinking vocabulary um interpreting author's intent those areas have were a real strength in the prior program um the areas that we have struggled to strengthen are the written language the composition and some of the technical pieces so phonics um we've got look for a stronger program um SE sequential grammar instruction so those were components that we were aware of and actively looked for in um potential new Ela programs because we wanted to address those areas of Gap so we think we have a program that's a good fit that is targeted to address some areas that um are areas of of weakness for our and I'll give an update at the end about how our impation for year one is going too um just one of the other pieces of data that we've included in here is our comparison of students with disability uh versus our um general education students and one of the reasons we kind of pull the um the subgroup out is because we obviously are always striving to be able to make sure that we're offering a strong programming and accommodations for our students with disability as well so um what efforts we're making in terms of being able to close the gap as you can see we are still working on it and like again um one of the things that I'm hoping that we'll be able to see with the new um Ela program which has a strong differentiation component is to be able it will be able to see um that Gap in that area closing as well so just really I'll go through the math data as well and one of the things I do want to mention is that we're conducting a math review this year so we're looking also at new programming because um we're kind of due um to kind of just see how our current math program is responding to um our student needs so there are three types of math questions a student see the short answers selective response is basically they like a multiple choice and then constructive response is basically they have to uh indicate an equation or or solve a word problem so so um just diving really quickly um as you can see our grade six Math scores have always been um significantly High our students are are leaving the elementary experience with some strong mathematical skills which I'm hoping are setting them up for success in Middle School um when they go to king philli or or um other um educational areas um you can see over the last couple of years we're also trended significantly over the state which is a dotted line um one of the racious and proportional thinking of really a strength as you can see we have like uh 70 um should wear my glasses 78% I believe um of our students are in the meeting or exceeding which is which is significantly High um that's also a new skill that they're introduced in grade six so it's really great that students are really finding success with that standard um algebraic expressions and one of the areas that we do need to focus is statistics and um probability and uh geometry which um as you can see there'll be a little bit of a trend in geometry in the other grade levels too and one of the things I'm going to talk about is I'm thinking that it might be a scope and sequence challenge for us be able to get to all the standards because mcast is tested before the end of the school year so sometimes like our scope and sequence doesn't always um give us enough time to fully introduce um or give kids time to master the skill so in grade five our students are showing at 56% in terms of Mastery and um of in the exceeding and meeting um expectations as you can tell we took a little dip last year but we're starting to Trend up um numbers and operation and operations in base 10 that's your place value questions you know like hundreds thousands so being able to understand our number system is something that's a very important skill for students to master and that's something that they're showing great understanding because it'll really help them with when they hit algebra and pre-cal um going forward in in their UC education fractions is an area that is um it's a huge shift in students thinking and it is an area that we still need to focus you know and give students a lot of um practice with and um this is grade five is really what it's the first time they're asked to do some complex mathematics with using that um skill grade four we're at 66% of students are meeting and exceeding and again we're starting to see a little bit of a trend up which is um positive um again place value and we put great emphasis in that because we know how important it is for f to be able to understand that and one of the things like I said measurement in data um which is like the geometry skills I might be like I said I'm curious need to take a look to see if it's a scope and sequence maybe of an issue and we just need to maybe take those standards and disaggregate a little bit better throughout our school year um and then fractions again building that number sense you know and fractions is only introduced in grade three where kids are taught how to par you I mean and then they go from that and they're asked in fourth grade to add fractions so they go from like a very visual you know I mean to all of a sudden being being asked to um do some operations and then in grade five they're asked to solve problems multiply you I mean so it's there's like big leaps that happen in those grade levels and grade three our students are at 70% too so it's really um credit to our kindergarten first and second grade too because all of those skills kind of are um math is great sequential so it's really um great to see that the kidss are retaining skills taught in our lower elementary and again um grade three is really great on operations algebraic thinking which is like our word problems understanding the properties of multiplication which are newly introduced in grade three but measurement in data is something like laps time we have to kind of take a look at um because it is a little bit lower and um this is our scores for mathematics for students with disabilities the very last two bars are 20 24 scores so um as you can see um across the board um we do um uh we do have a little bit of um students that were in the needs Improvement um have stayed steady and then we're hoping to get more students in the green in the green um that uh which we're starting to see that Trend up um to be able uh in the meeting an exceeding um category and very last ly this is our science science is only tested in grade five at elementary so you have to do a culminating um they're asking questions every science science um skill that they've been TOS since kindergarten is being tested in one grade level in fifth grade so one of the things that we um as you can see we're trending a little bit down and one of the areas that we um we needed to take a look at uh that are think our students are not showing a lot of strength um is Technology and Engineering um our life science and physical science is something that we're we're um actually showing pretty decent Mastery of but um I'm going to explain a little bit later but we did um identify that technology engineering is a skill that is challenging to teach and we were looking for um some resources that will help us and through some grant writing and this year through the generosity of the PTO we're able to um find some fantastic engineering units from the museum of science which we we started implementing this year so there's exciting things happening in stem so um kind of just a summary of next steps um like again we try to be as proactive as possible you know and some of the some of the data can be can give us maybe a posle we're like we need take a um a deeper look into why this is happening like I said in terms of the measurement skills kind of trending down for some of our grade levels but um other ones that we we we know so we've taken some proactive steps to be able to respond so I'll take a deep breath and I'll just go with the last part um so again Ela I I can't be more prouder of our staff of we adopted a um a program that really um offered a lot significant changes in how we're teaching reading and writing um and the teachers have done a really tremendous lift this year learning a brand new platform um the way that instruction is delivered has changed a lot um and uh being able to um kind of understand how the different components are taught there is a great um emphasis on the science of reading that are we've offered a lot of professional development over the last two years for our um staff um and there's also um a nice uh emphasis around vocabulary grammar like there's they're very explicit instruction opportunities and the nice thing about it is a really great vertical alignment that starts in kindergarten and kind of goes up so for example like one of the things that we were surprised to find um pleasantly surprised I think is that um in kindergarten students are introduced to even the existence of nouns you know so they don't have to master and and like you think like a kindergarten you know but they would be like a noun is a name you know what I mean can you find a name in this sentence you know so like they don't have to be able to know like it's not a tested but by the time they reach fourth grade if like these type of concepts are introduced throughout they're going to have so much exposure opportunity to have that um so like our our language structures are going to be something that will not be such a heavy lift as as they were um we're also kind of taking a look in the the program offers a lot of resources the stories that are there I've heard consistent reports that they're so rich and very diverse and very engaging the both the students and the teachers really love the stories and I think it's kind of offering a great opportunity for students to um be excited about what what they're learning you know um and this year like I said there's a lot to unpack so we're trying to strateg strategically Pace it so it's manageable for um teachers students to master the program and teach it at the same time um we're just starting to lean into their assessments and kind of see what how we're going to structure their our assessment and um yeah so kind of continue um being able to work with the program and um uh like I mentioned the next part that we're doing we have a math review that we're we're embarking on this year we have a committee um that has been put together we have representative from each grade level as we usually do our special education um our math specialist and we're really we're now looking at um there was a survey sent to parents um about a month ago um and we're really looking at what um are some strengths in our current programming and what are some areas that we need to address so when we start diving into what curriculums are available um we can kind of make sure that we target like we did with Ela are um ccum that would help us support and kind of um the areas that we have identified as um week this um and then the last thing that I wanted to kind of highlight is the engineering units so our integration specialist went to uh multi-week um well collectively not like all at once but over since last year she's been going to the Museum of Science which um through I think through their own grants and they've partnered with the state and they have created these amazing engineering units so um so after her training and we kind of met we and I think we we introduced them last last year I believe um so this year we are rolling them out in grades um two and three grade three just started grade 2 is going to um aligns more with the spring but they're actually building um um magnetic um uh doors for dogs and the way it is it is like the kids already we've only done like one week of it and the kids are absolutely loving it the way the lessons are presented um it it gives them like a real world problem that they need to solve so for example they're like in Puerto Rico there's a lot of stray dogs that the country has and like one of the things that they're struggling is how to feed to meet the dogs that and protect them from having like other the food going bed or or being taken away by other animals so like how can we um build a food dispensary that will allow the dogs to have access so and it presents like a real world problem you know what I mean and there's like um a comic that goes with it that kind of like talks about like you know the situation and then the students have are put into kind of a mindset of being engineers and kind of like all right like how would you what would be your first approach and they have to like sketch different ideas you know what I mean What will what will work what will not work it talks about the magnetics which is a Grade Three standard you know so pulls on so many skills there's like a writing component where they have to write like a proposal and it's very rich in group work and like it's um it has so many great ways that any student is able to access it but it's but it also we say like you know low floor high ceiling you know and then you can really in terms of creativity it's really like the limit of a student's imagination so we're um super excited about this opportunity um like I said grade 2 will be starting with I think they're doing and I'm sorry please don't quote me of this but I think like something with the ecosystem maybe water um but that's will be their their standard and then we're hoping to um introduce these units for the other grade levels next year you know so as we're so um but that's how we're kind of hoping that it will kind of meet that um standard around mcast when around Technology and Engineering um through these really rich units um yeah and then everything else as you can see is kind of like part of how we do business we have a great tier system of support for students um if you are uh um a parent you know that we have a nest system if there's any concerns about a student we have a team of Educators that get together take a look at how we can provide supports um we have a great math and literacy team our um like I said incredible special education department that really like um we really tried to approach the whole child and make sure that all our kids um kind of get um what they need so again the full presentation will be on there I kind of went through everything pretty quickly today but any questions um please reach out any questions from school committee I always have a question um I wanted to reference the chart about Regional comparisons in regards to ELA um you can see kind of from the previous years in to this year I know it's hard to comp compare on our own line because you said the the test changed um there's some workings with the new Ela curriculum um but it seems like several of or a lot of the other comparison districts have significantly increased their scores from the previous years is there I don't know if you've looked into this like a correlation or which of these districts have implemented new Ela curriculums already um like a year prior to us um and and which ones they did and and maybe they're similar and maybe just given us an idea of you know what did they do differently was it the new Ela curriculum that really increased because I'd love to yeah it's a great question um random and plane Bill are both in the first year of a new Adoption with us this year correct or is r a year ahead no I think R plan last a year ahead they last year would have been on the same cycle we were in when we right and we had to defer for a year because of budget so they're a year ahead but I don't necessarily have the data for the other districts but we can certainly get it um one of the things that we do in an Ela review or in a math curriculum review is we do try to gather information from high performing districts about what services what um materials they're using yeah I do think that um the other factor that happened in here uh was covid and districts that had different programs that might have been more easily ad administered online um that could have had a a an impact on student achievement as well during those yeah cuz I'm looking at tops field for math in 2021 which was 34% and this year they're 77% so I'm curious what they what they did um yeah maybe and I'm sure as part of the math review you'll be reaching out we we used to look at districts that had the highest growth score so that made the greatest change um but we also do look at high performing districts um we also I think another thing to look at is what districts have available for specialized support So reading specialist math specialists in the budget process over the last few years we have had difficulty holding on to some of those critical positions um that provide additional support and coaching for teachers uh with a new implementation as well as direct service to students so I think those are all good data points to look at um but I also do think that the program that we have adopted was really um tied to address in a more cohesive and systematic way the those fundamental skills that were we were not seeing growth in um within uh writing and mechanics um some of the phonic skills were strong in the the higher level thinking so we do think that this is going to address some of those gaps and help us accelerate achievements it's good I mean that was my point of concern too especially when you look at planville and rthm and it's you know we are not trending with them really but actually the fact that they adopted the curriculum a year before is a really good data point and they adopted math a couple years ago okay so that that's helpful and and makes me feel a little bit better um yeah so you see pretty significant gains um in the past year in those two districts that yeah exactly and and we stay flat so you know it helps paint the picture a little bit I I think more just Echoes um kind of what's being discussed but it just it's a fair point to make when looking at these comparison districts these are the same districts We compare ourselves to with respect to class sizes our class sizes are always the biggest um I I can't imagine that catching up from the deficit of covid learning loss um is easier because of that I think if you look at the math scores where you see what is that a 9po gain between 2021 and 2022 is because we did have a math specialist on staff um and that position was subsequently no longer available to us when Co funding uh was no longer available to us and I think that it's you know I mean it's a meaningful point to make that we have had another year of mcast scores for ELA that correlate to the use of a program that we have been wanting to replace for several years but have been unable to replace because of budget um and that is not I know everyone on this committee would have um well most of us probably some of us weren't here but wanted to move forward with an Ela revamp um in a timely fashion so that we could best address the learning needs of the students that we have within the district and we were unable to do that because of financial concerns um it's just a point to bear in mind when we are all sitting in this room hopefully all of us together again in March looking at the budget and considering what our class sizes are going to be next year and considering the positions that we will be able to add to try and supplement the addition of the new Ela curriculum and ideally the addition of the new math curriculum so that we can try to recoup um our position as a high performing District so just a thought I think a core is very important to have a strong core you know they would say you can't intervention yourself you can't intervene yourself out of a of out of a c TI one like the core problem you know like you need have a strong core but it's also really important to have appropriate support staff you know to be able to um address all the needs and stuff if um does make me nervous that we're just it's kind of jarring to see that we're at the bottom of our peer group now um and these other districts have seen this nice jump and we haven't um I did also see there was an increase in ela of special needs students not meeting expectations which is also concerning and my question is just something that you mentioned before that I'm picking about picking backing off of is that you said this takes years to build and we're building and with 55% of students meeting or exceeding expectations how do we catch the others up because there seems like they need to learn the new material but there's also some things they have not mastered so is that bringing in more Specialists is that more time on learning for ELA uh I I don't know what is it yeah no I mean it it is a complicated question and we we actually um dedicate a significant amount to ELA we have 120 Minutes for ELA and then we have 60 Minutes for Math and grades K1 and K through 3 and 75 minutes which is more than a lot of districts like and offer and I know we extended our school day by 10 minutes too which like all those things kind of helped a little um yes so it does like to your point of course of course it does take time you know I mean for for a program but you do see some more immediate effects you know I mean because like we like like we're most districts that adopted the program that we're using last year are already seeing positive results this year you know so it just and I said some of the like it's really um when you to take a deep dive there's so many factors that um like play into uh why a student is successful or not you know but one of the things is like that vertical align m is really important because then you ensure that all students have a Equitable um experience regardless of who they have is educate you know I mean for teachers and like so I think that is going to help a little bit level everything out too you know what I mean because we do have such a strong program that everybody's kind of you know um uh have the same focus and like I said our our focus on grammar and vocabulary um as like King up is is going to really also help with that with those skills you know and our sixth grade students right now and one of the things that we have and I kind of mentioned I sent out an email about report like the report cards or or um assessments is that because the program is rigorous our grade six students are not doing as well or other grade students too are not doing as well as we usually see them do on our previous assessments but that's because the rigor of the program is a little bit higher which is not a negative thing you know what I mean so we can really kind of see how the students are responding to those unit assessments and we can really kind of push their skill you know what I mean um to be able to make sure that you know we really are meeting the full intent of like what the standards are what they need that's like a trend in grade six across school so that the scores tend toop the scores I mean we we're just starting because like I said we didn't we couldn't Implement everything we needed time for teachers and students to get to know the program um but we going to start um assessing certain modules you know just trying it out this year but the trends from the from the other districts that even did it like the first year the scores were not as high because the platform the way we're we're administering the test is a little bit different than we've done before so there's like a testing adjustment you know and then um and then um also giving students opportunity just to kind of to go through a full year of this program this curriculum you know so but they said that in year two the score significantly jumped for and I'm talking about the programs assessments you know what I mean not not the not mcast like the programs assessments yeah but um but is like let me just jump on that because I think it's a little confusing so with the new program comes all new assessments for these skills they're unfamiliar to the kids and they may have different benchmarks um than we had previously so it's not surprising when you give a brand new assessment that has a different scope and sequence and pacing that you will see an initial decline um over time as kids are coming in with more skills they've learned the third grade curriculum they're not just starting fourth grade without having had those prior years um you'll see that that change but over the course of the year we expect to see gains and impact on mcast results um I think one of the things that Vicky talked about briefly at the end that I'd come back to is we do recognize anytime you have a new curriculum students have starting in fourth grade don't have the benefit of having followed that same program all across the years so we are looking very closely at data we have data team meetings so when we give assessments teachers look at those assessments they look for patterns and Trends and our U math and literacy coaches are supporting with supplemental materials or we're seeing um in the assessment that students are missing some foundational skills are supporting teachers with additional lessons to try to close those gaps um and that's pretty typical in any new Adoption you're going to have pockets where kids haven't had the prior experience that the program's assuming so we do have to fill in um but we use our coaching staff and um our our data team meetings to try to identify those areas so we can address them as we're going through the implementation as well I think with both curriculum like I said and I'm excited to see where we're going to um L with the math you know I mean but there's some like there also some really great um programs out there that um we we do we we have we're doing a lot of supplementing at this time you know just to be able to um meet some of the pedagogical needs that we've identified you know and I think that again that will help us to kind of close that in the line so I think I do feel very um optimistic that we're going to be coming in the right direction again I I can support the position that the sixth grade curriculum is more challenging fifth grade Cur based upon what I've seen at the kitchen table so yeah it's there's a lot more work yeah which I think I I love it I think it's obviously definitely more riger I you know I mean I think the is just that the the results will take time to be reflected in you know what these you know it is one example of an assessment of the performance of the students within the district but it's it's not a small one right so I you know I think that that's it's a meaningful gauge of where we are and and I I think I would Echo everyone's concerns um with respect to the ELA and you know on a personal level it is frustrating to me that I didn't have two years of rigor for my next sixth grader I would have preferred that you know the kitchen table hysterics were happen happening last year with the new curriculum at that point so again I mean that comes down to budget and um the ability to um deploy what the district's students need when they need it um and that's a bigger topic for the committee on another day at this table I think is there a goal for where we should be where do we aspire to be in terms of percent meeting or exceeding yeah um we can talk about sort of setting benchmarks it's difficult again in the first year of an implementation you sometimes see an implementation temporary dip as we are closing gaps because students haven't had the vertical um the full program um so we wanted we always want to set benchmarks and within all of our administrators um uh professional development plans they have benchmarks and goals for their building um but um we can come back to you with what we think is a realistic expectation um and goal for for the content areas in terms of performance I mean I'm thinking like at the macro level you know Ela and math you know yep we we haven't recovered yet from where we were at it's 2018 on either front so we're effectively flat or below you know if we consider 2018 a benchmark idealistically right if we're going to be idealistically like we obviously want all our students to be in the meeting and exceeding right um and I think that one of the things that we have to also look at like this is a flat score you know and it's also like 3 days of assessment you know which is there's other factors that we can take into consideration that's why like I really lean heavily more on our student work data our our other benchmarks too because there there's when we look at at the we try to triangulate our data because you know we kind of look at the student how they're performing sometimes students do really well on our benchmarks and don't do well on mcast you know so um but I also think that another point that we really want to pay attention to is the student growth overall because sometimes students come in and they have maybe certain um disabilities that might be impacting their learning or other other you main barriers and what we like to see is that if a student start at a certain point that we see a really upward growth and some of our other um screeners that we have so we have the Acadian literacy screener which um I think you received their report it actually measures a students's growth over the year and that's where we kind of put a little bit more emphasis on because that tells us that the supports and interventions we put in place the student is responding to you know so they're learning um so just kind of like when thinking about that it's like I said mcast is an important piece of data but it's kind of hard to look at it you know I mean like there's so many other things that we need to take into consideration too and we do um present to the school committee The Benchmark and Baseline report every February and so that will give you the the percentage of our students that are Mee meeting expectations on the district measures as well as mcast so I think um what Vicki's referring to is that we we can certainly come with what we see as our Target goals for Math and Ela but they would be made up of multiple metrics not just one one piece um we wouldn't set an improvement goal just on mcast it would be we'd want to see that growth in District assessments and other U measures that we report out to the committee yeah so you spend a lot of time on data like not that it's all but I feel like this just it's really important for us to be able to disaggregate it and get on the student level the classroom level you know the grade level it's just like as a district um and pulling in a lot of different measures yeah but the topic at hand is mcast so I mean I'm just not noting that like we're not yet back even to the level we were at 2018 Co being a big part of it but you know what are the other factors that are kind of headwinds for being able to at least get back to the levels we were you know six years ago yeah resources really like was pointed out you know like I'm I'm thrilled by the new Adoption for the ELA resources for support you know what I mean like would probably all of those have would have positive you know implications yep and I think also the um point that madora mentioned uh budget is a huge Factor um when you're looking at some of these other districts you've got class sizes of 17 and 18 you've got multiple uh additional service providers we have uh talk to districts that have coaches for each content area at every grade level um we have two people sharing four grade levels uh our class sizes is are higher if you look at per pupil spending we're the we're at the bottom of all of our comparison districts um other than Berkeley so there are economic factors and resource factors that drive that change too but having a a highquality rigorous Core Curriculum is is is really important so we are working closely with the resources at hand um I think we we can certainly come back with some recommended targets and where we like to see um but resources is definitely a factor that's contributed to all of all of the the data as well yeah I mean and I think that kind of personalization of of this would be great you know because like you know the state we're doing well above the state but the state's not I mean it's horrible numbers for the state so I I just don't want to say we're doing great because we're so far above the state I think I like the personalized approach for our our district and our expectations for for the school district great Point um I think just with reference to the state Massachusetts still outperforms most other states in the country so even though the stores true that's just an important point and the other reason that we provide the state trend line one thing that a lot of people don't realize is mcast is a different test every year so you're not only Chang testing different cohorts but you're testing a different test so some test administrations are harder than other years so you might see and when you look at the state trend lines you'll see often where we're dipping the whole state is dipping it's often that there was a question on the test or the test was more challenging than prior administrations it's not an Apples to Apples comparison so we do give you that so that you can kind of see um are we aligning you know um remaining above we expect our students to perform above the state average but it gives you some context that that it is a different test every year and sometimes um unfortunately in the past they used to release all the items so we could go item by item and say all right only 50% of our students got this question right we could look the actual question and say all right sometimes it's like a fraction question in that grade level learn fractions in October and it's tested in March so we know all right that's a scope and sequence we need to rethink you know revisiting some of these Concepts sometimes it's just a poorly worded question and you can say all right I know a lot of the state missed that because the question design wasn't great because of the cost of producing the test they no longer release the items um so they would release a few as Vicki mentioned in the presentation they're not releasing any of the items this year um so it's hard to do that that analysis and so that's where the state comparison helps us um if the state's doing well and we're not and we're dropping then we know all right we really got to look at this skill as well and sometimes they have one question for an entire standard so if so you measured on one question you I mean so like two so there's a lot of different components and just to kind of um piggyback what Dr lard was saying that's why I like I like the slide which kind of breaks it down a little bit by the different domains you know so cuz like we did have some areas that our kiddos are like worth 75 80% which was fantastic and there was the other areas where our kiddos wereth 45% so like we can kind of like uber Focus onoc those those skills you know what I mean and like I said looking at different so that's how I think we we are able to we could respond more targeted you know and be able to lift I also just wondered about and I mean I think it probably all goes back to what you said about budget is also just that you know I for there's probably a very big swath of students who are meeting expectations but they have Laten ability to accelerate or to you know exceed or outperform and like finding that as well those those those kids who can you know do that right yeah we do look at that because we have students that just miss the meeting by like two points or we have students that are really close to being um Advanced so yes there are opportunities to support those students on an individual level in in changing from Lane to Lane that'll that'll go towards these overall test scores as well yeah when we identify like when we kind of Select our first rounds of like students for like math support for example we look depending on a grade level but we'll just take an mcast testing we'll look at their mcast score um if we have it a couple of years you know what I mean we look at their end ofe Benchmark and their screening results and teacher recommendation kind of like our four points and then that's how we kind of say like R the student might need more intensive support the student it just seems like maybe there was a fluke for this one test you know what I mean so that's how we kind of uh break down the data for each individual kid kids would it be possible just with the ELA scores where they are the implementation of the new program could we get like a spring deeper dive update this is what we're seeing in our data this is how the implementation in uh the implementation going this is what we're hearing from our teachers just like a AA checkin absolutely okay else I'll talk about that anytime you just let me know all right so two other items for tonight um the second item under my report is just to let the full committee know which I'm sure you're all well aware of um we presented a request at town meeting for fun for the first portion of a building construction Expansion Project um the ask was for uh to fund it's about 10% of the total project cost 4.3 million um to do all of the architectural design work the final site testing and site work um through construction bid documents so also developing the bid and securing a bid for what the total project cost would be um as everybody is well aware we are completely out of space and struggling at each all of day um next year based on our current enrollment uh the students that we have in seats um we are looking at needing if we maintain our current class siiz policy two additional classrooms at Hol day which we do not physically have um and that's based on the current students that we have with us uh the only area that we're projecting is kindergarten on enrollment because those students haven't registered yet registration starts on the U fir uh as soon as we return in January um but based on the demographic study we are anticipating needing eight kindergartens again next year um so we are out of space the the town voted to move that forward to a special election and we just received notification um that the select board called the election for February 1st so it will be a special Town election on February 1st um to vote on the building Expansion Project um depending on how that ballot um item goes at the uh at the Town level if it passes there then we would move forward with um with the next phase of the building and the uh schematic design um we would then have to go once that's done that's probably a year to 18 months that work would need to go back to the town for funding for the full project um again we have a website that is has all the information on the building project if anybody wants project history uh we've been working on this plan since 2017 through multiple um feasibility studies demographic studies um so all of that information every meeting that we've discussed on this is available online so um hopefully people have what they need and if anybody has questions um happy to answer them um but that's where we are right now uh for special special Town election February 1st there will be early voting too yes early voting and voting by mail any other questions on that or all right the next just an update on on the Bay State shelter uh So currently we have 16 students enrolled in norfol from the Bay State shelter we have eight students at the H Olive day and eight at the Freeman Kennedy um as we talked about multiple times at earlier meetings with State funding we have added two full-time teachers and two paraprofessional staff members um the teacher salary came from an upfront grant that the the department of Ed has just recently approved um and then the Paris we will be funding with um reimbursement on the per pupil daily rate so we have eight students at each with two positions supporting those students um the other thing that we've been working really hard on is our our concerns about space at AG all of day we uh have one transition classroom which is a very small it used to be the guidance counselor's office and conference room that is uh where we provide instruction for those students um it is it we don't have capacity there to take on any more uh children we're not sure what the winter will bring if we'll have any increased enrollment during the winter months but um we've been really pushing the state to secure funding to renovate the space at the Freeman Kennedy it used to be it's around uh the next set of doors by the gym entrance there was an old cable Studio it's a small classroom space that nctv used to use prior to having um I think their Studio on Main Street and it is currently used by the norfol rec department for their preschool um before school and preschool programs that space we are looking to renovate to move our special education offices which are currently housed at H ol of day when you first walk into the Hol of day building on the left hand side there's an office suite of three offices um and we would like to relocate those to this renovated space that will give us second classroom that we or it's not really a classroom but it'll give us an office suite we could consider using as a classroom if we have to add a second L program um or additional uh space for dividing that group or or accommodating additional students um that will also help us next year um it doesn't give us another classroom but it gives us some flexibility and a little bit of extra space that we maybe could relocate some offices um to try to improve uh instruction environments so we've been pushing hard um on that and we were able to get the funding approved the grant was approved this week uh we have also been working to secure a contractor uh a general contractor and electric uh contractor for the renovations we have been able to do that with the support of the Department of Ed um amarie stron has been very helpful in developing the bid specs helping us get those documents out um helping to show the space and bring contractors in um and construct C now is scheduled to start December 16th so a week from Monday we have also worked with the Department of wck in Norfolk to find an alternate space for their program they're going to share the sac program space because that's only used before and after school right next door um so they'll use that classroom during the day for their programming we also put into the state Grant uh storage so we have a storage pod that was just delivered it's 20 foot storage unit um the the state is funding the first six months of that while the shelter's open so that the rec department can take the equipment that they had stored in their space and have a a temporary location for that um they are in the process of moving equipment now um so that the renovation work can start uh December 16th it is expected to be complete when we return in January and we have also contracted with movers who will move the special education office on January 8th um that will then free up some additional space at H Olive day um the cost of the storage the Contracting work uh the the moving company painting stipend all of that is covered in the state Grant and those funds have been appropriated so um the only other thing I would say with the Bas State shelter we did receive notice at our last meeting that the shelter the Overflow shelter that's in Cambridge is closing um so they are closing that shelter at this time there's only 12 families remaining at that site and none of them have school-aged children so those families will be realloc or re um Lo loated to another shelter some may come to Bay State but at this time because it's been closing there's only 12 families and no new students from that shelter happy to answer any questions people have I don't remember if last meeting you mentioned the change from 5 days to 30 days for the shelter and if that has so the state announced some policy changes uh the my understanding is that the original stay length at the respit shelters was 10 days it was 5 days and then you could have a 5day extension yeah after that you could apply for an extension if you had imminent housing secured so if you and and then you could stay for 30 days if you had that imminent housing extension almost everybody that was there was staying the 30 days and and accessing that so they have changed it to a 30-day stay we don't expect that to have much of an impact because our families were already staying that long one of the things that we we have um asked about there we're not sure what the winter will bring whether that will bring more families coming in um at the same time the the only way that you can stay past that 30-day timeline is if you have access the extensions are based on families having secured alternate housing imminent housing the housing market is um really slowing down so we could see the trend go the other direction that fewer families are able to secure housing to stay beyond the 30 30 days uh because they wouldn't be eligible if they don't have imminent housing so we're not really sure what that's going to look like over the winter but we're watching it and we are again preparing to try to create some extra space if we need it there any other questions all right that's it for me tonight okay moving on to the committee and liais on reports does policy have anything to report uh we'll be meeting after this so a report next month budget budget all right well we had um our second official budget meeting um which was a little more substantial we could get kind of a better understanding what we're looking at for next fiscal year which is another really awful terrible year um for looking at numbers just for level Services we have a lot of increases um I don't know if I want go into like big picture details because we're going to be um you know presenting that once um but Miriam and ingred are Dr aleri um came back with some ideas for just like Baseline cuts to begin with um but it's going to be enough another difficult budget year where we're going to have to make substantial Cuts make get creative um do things that we probably aren't going to be happy about and yeah and I think on on High level um a a level service budget for us is looking like over a 10% and that's just to carry forward the existing Staffing remember last year um we had to cut some positions we relied on uh the we used half of the stabilization fund for special education costs which means we didn't have that money in the budget which leads to a double deficit this year um we added a teacher due to increases in Chapter 70 the town appropriated one-time funding they redirected the additional Chapter 70 but that's not carried into next year's budget so there's two um one-time funding sources we used to mitigate Cuts last year that are making this budget more complicated um but we are working on it if we if we look at kind of like a Target percentage for increase for next year which might be appropriate we haven't come to to any sort of agreement but 3 four 5% um we're still looking at close to a million dollars in Cuts so stay tuned we'll have more for you next time all right and call your local legislators about improving the funding uh forap Chapter 70 should be it's it's very challenging because unlike other communities there's not commercial Revenue in in Norfolk so it's hard for the town I know there's a a Southwood property project that may bring some additional Revenue um but we rely primarily on taxes and we don't receive very many federal or state grants even though we apply um we don't receive competitive grants because they're prioritized to districts that um have high numbers of low-income students um or districts that are underperforming um and so we're not eligible for a lot of those supplementary sources the building committee have any update uh I think Dr covered it in her update so nothing further all right um King Phillip so they made it to the Super Bowl atot Stadium um unfortunately did not win but the football team had an amazing season and uh a season to be proud of for sure their drama uh Club put on Matilda which I think a lot of people in town went to see which was fantastic um so all things are going well at KP there was one piece of sad news I just wanted to recognize because a lot of people in our community knew him as well um KPS senior Devonte Johnson did pass away of leukemia a couple of weeks ago um so we took a moment of silence for him and reiterated that our prayers and condolences are with his family he sounded like a great kid um and he will be sorely missed any liaison updates CPAC um nothing that wasn't mentioned last meeting so all good um PT I have them in my papers somewhere or my Emil sorry okay so there a scholas Scholastic Book Fair that everyone loves is happening right now um my son brought home di wimpy kid and a new Mario book he's very excited about that not thrilled with me because I won't let him buy the posters um but very happy with the books and then their Heritage night is going to be on January 21st and that was a great event last year that really showcased of the diverse backgrounds of the families in our town and uh I know everyone who went to that really enjoyed it so that is coming too people make good food last year um Jen wolf also sent me a comprehensive list of grants that the PTO approved for supplemental items to our curriculum some math programs I know it for fifth grade classrooms subscriptions to I know it math um additional like calm Corner accessories for classes and Freeman Kennedy got you know over $3,000 so thank you so much for the PTO to that and then over at H they almost um through awarded grants of almost $2,000 for um supplies and a snuggle swing and licenses so second grade could have math lab for their class so these um supplemental items are you know really so helpful to the curriculum and we're grateful that our active PTO was able to uh provide this for us that is it PTO NCL NCL not not much of an update um they had a lot of their their holiday events recently um kind of quiet for the next month or so I know that um they are including a lot of their events in the newsletters that go out to school also be on the lookout they host a lot of great things um so I should have more information about kind of their their spring stuff next month so since we have the Lions come if we want to just ask if they'd like to come speak we could do that for sure Lions presented last time and I would just say if you're celebrating Christmas and need a Christmas tree they have a great lot just on Main Street the most beautiful one like yeah really nice treats there so great any other way on updates yeah I've been in touch with the rec department um I already invited an to come so great I'm assuming that would be fine for her but we're just working on coordinating um a time to kind of touch base um but I believe their next round of registrations opens this week so tomorrow glue yourself to your computer at noon when it's time to enter want to say that they've been great um one of the things that we've heard from families is that child care is hard on early release days for parents that are working and they have been able to coordinate and are going to run a field trip on the parent conference days um as best they can but they have one coming up on Thursday so yeah we got spot I'm excited it's great for our families all right perfect and then we have to vote on a school partner renewal and this is is with the Norfork Teachers Association they obviously have a high impact on um the members of our school Community they also put on two activities read Across America and they put do an annual scholarship for a graduating KP senior planning a career in education and so their main purpose is to support uh the teacher so they can provide a high quality education for all the students in Norfork so I'd be looking for a motion to approve the renewal application so moved second further discussion all those in favor I I and then if you've all had a chance to review the minutes of the last meeting um I would need a motion to approve the minutes from the November 19th meeting move to approve the minutes from November 19th a second any further discussion if we were absent do we vote can obain yeah okay I think you can vote can vote if you the minutes I mean you're not barred from it if that's what you you watch the video any further discussion on this all those in favor and next school committee meeting is not December not December janary oh is January January 14 uh 14th January I was wondering if anyone had any flexibility that week to do it Monday or Wednesday if not it's fine I can make it work but I thought I would just ask I would very much prefer to have it on either Monday or Wednesday I have a parent leaders meeting on the Monday the 13th when is ml K it's the 20th oh it's the 20th okay so would be would January 15th sure work for people yeah better thank you we're trying skiing at ski wart so fun hopefully it snows again yeah yeah right okay so the next school committee meeting January 15th Wednesday now I just need a motion to agend so moved second any further discussion no all those in favor hi hi we are AED