going to get started uh calling the Wednesday February 5th 2025 uh school committee meeting to Ard uh first up is Pledge of Allegiance flag is directly Al to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice
the meeting is being recorded by nor media if anyone else is recording please just let us know first up on the agenda is the public comment period do have quite a bit of people in attendance from what we normally have anyone got anything moving on then uh um second on the agenda is vote to approve the minutes from January 22nd Open Session has anyone everybody got a
chance to review the minutes yep motion to approve so second all those in favor I I I was not here thank you uh next up is the warrants Mrs con so can I read these if I wasn't here last meeting to sign Jen okay so I have reviewed and approved the following lawren January 22nd 2025 $548,500 85 School payroll warrants June 23rd
2025 1,155 26487 and we should enter them into public record thank you uh next up student rep updates Benson and Antonio all right good evening everybody uh from the hay last week we finished up our twoe hey PTO Boosterthon glow Fun Run fundraiser um the Boosterthon is our glow Fun Run in the gym where we darken
the gym with strob lights and different colored lights the the kids run their 35 laps around the gym the kids have an absolute glass running and having the best time with their friends we are able to raise an unbelievable unbel unbelievably genous generous support and help of our Hask Nation community over $224,000 which we are going to be using to continue to pay off our new playground from a couple years ago finally all paid $84,000 and we will use the other money for assemblies enrichment ideas fifth grade yearbooks and other student
centered activities because the kids are able to raise above our 20K goal Mr G and Mr B will be doing something special for the school community in the past Mr G and Mr B have been taped to the wall Pat in the face kiss a pig and exotic animals including an alligator and Kangaroo justed as Knights and wore purple slime last year these events are all turned into videos and and celebrated at the end of the school year can't wait to see what this year brings us the individual classes are mult multiple incentives for meetings for
meeting their in-class goals which they will most likely be enjoying at the end of this week into next week prior to the vacation PJ day extra Tech time board games field trips to honeydew and more and for the Middle School the students of nms have once again begun work in Earnest on the Playbook initiative a select group of students composed of students from all three grades has begun the important work task to the students of the Playbook and the school more broadly of working to make nms a more inclusive and tolerant place
for all students and members of the community students involved in Playbook will be traveling to Worcester next week to our partner Middle School to conduct a workshop around building skills to combat issues of prejudice and discrimination the nms will be holding our annual Spirit Week sponsored by suel next week prior to the vacation Spirit Week kicks off with our annual black light activity night this Friday from 6:00 to 8: the boys and girls basketball teams are getting ready to wrap up their Seasons next week the boys team is enjoying their more most successful team in the past 20 years while the girls
team is sporting a winning record as well and finally the nms drama club has announced their annual production of for the spring this year's production will be Annie over 90 students audition for roles and the cast has been set the date the dates of the show are May 21st 22nd and 23rd and then lastly from the lgn we celebrated Global School play day as well as World read aloud day today February 5th the students had a lot of fun learning new games and listening to stories old and new will'll be also celebrating the 100 day of school this
Friday that's all we have for you thank you very much uh next up on the agenda is our student Spotlight series for the Norton Middle School dialogue Divas book club all right I'm going to go stand up at the podium please come and join me I think this is why we actually have this big crowd tonight this is more people we've seen in this room in quite some time thank you
oh wonderful so thank you all for joining us Morgan you guys going to come up we were planning on talking that's right still be recognized you too all right so um first of all we asked the middle school I love this love the name by the way dialog Divas to come and join us tonight to be recognized along with their teacher Mrs Dell Hall um I'm actually going to read to all of you a little bit about the letter that I got from Mr Hayward recognizing Mrs Hall and now she feels uncomfortable but I think it's very
important this is supposed to be a CT operation okay entire time it is with great pride and admiration that I write this letter of recommendation for Mrs Hall grade 8 math teacher at Norton Middle School earlier this fall following the enthusiasm expressed by several students after the school book fair CU who doesn't love a book fair right uh Mrs Hall took it upon herself to create and lead a book club for a group of grade a girls this initiative centered around Louisa May Al hot's Timeless novel Little Women was entirely
driven by their desire to provide an enriching and memorable experience for students who saw an intellectual and social activity beyond their typical classroom experience so this is something that I find so much fun um often times as students get a little bit older they lose their love of of reading and it's really such a lifelong skill that I love that you guys develop this book club and so I want to invite you all here tonight to recognize you to recognize Mrs Hall um for creating
something that just sounds really really fun and I know you guys have something to share but I guess I'm wondering are you going to read another book yes all right once a month until the end of the year and what is the book you guys are currently reading the summer rules we're schoolers school next year um that sounds amazing but come on up and whoever coming up uh Charlotte's
going for us right yeah um good evening everyone I'm Charlotte we are some of the members of the nms book club also known as the dialogue divos this club started at the book fair um a little while ago me Miss Hall and Nora were discussing our love of reading Miss Hall offered us to stay after school one day with her and read I decided to take it a step further and suggest that we invite some other members who also love reading to come and read with her Miss Hall
loved the idea and we started to form our own book club after I got enough people interested we held our very first meeting at our first meeting we were really excited to start and we went over some ground rules one of them being that we would meet up once a month in the library at each of our meetings we would discuss our book and choose the next we all would pick a name from a hat with a book on it um I'm and then after we selected our
first book which was little woman we took some time to read it and then after a few weeks we met up and discussed it like our favorite characters and and we also some of us selected our favorite quotes and then told what they were significant um and then um some like Miss Hall and some other members brought some snacks for us to enjoy while we uh watched the little one movie and then once that was over we selected our next book at our most I'm Nora and at our most recent meeting we decided to do a
um like a cook we decided to all pick a cookbook and read as well as as well as we also read the book this Summer I Turned Pretty we picked a cookbook and read The cookbook and it was our favorite recipe from The cookbook and then on the day of the meeting we all had like a little feast and we brought in a ton of like um all the foods that we made and we shared why we liked the food and why we you chose the
book that's it so uh it's really quick it is such a joy to really work with these girls because I see them in a different light very different light than I normally see them in the math classroom uh sometimes they can be very reticent or a little less confident but boy once you start talking about their positions on anything they're very animated they're very enthusiastic about discussing the books the characters the events that
they might relate to and what's really great is to see that even though they're very convinced of their own position they're very respectful of the other person's position and willing to listen to that and not dig their heels into the ground being willing to um understand the other person's position even if they don't totally agree with it so it's been a great joy to really work with these girls so does anyone else want to come
up and introduce themselves so I'm just going to so Charlotte Satie Olivia Nora Michaela Violet Morgan Isabella and Kelsey congratulations guys this is awesome I think that is the coolest coolest thing I've heard in a very long time I love that you also did The cookbook and had the feast that sounds like so much fun um what was the cookbook you chose your own oh that's so fun you share what they were yes you really had a feast okay well I really
like to read too so if you guys are reading a book this spring I'd love to join you we're going to select our next book and let you know thank you thank you everybody any uh I love the student Spotlight series but I think this one was my favorite one yet um just kind of seeing this grow you know starting with the students I feel like and kind of working itself up and you know we all know how technology can affect everybody's lives phones and iPads and everything else to
kind of go back to earlier times if you will I think is an awesome awesome thing so I'm you know super proud and super excited to see all this you know Club kind of keeps rolling along I I couldn't love this more I mean you guys so you know well spoken too tonight you know it's not easy to get up at your age and talk in front of a group of people but very well spoken and like your teacher said what you girls are learning are are life lessons super important so and the only thing I would recommend is maybe inviting us to your Feast next cuz that sounds amazing never would have thought
to read a cookbook and do something like that so awesome job lady super proud of you nice work great good thank you very much uh number six on the agenda project 351 we are going to move that to the February 26 agenda we had a little conflict with uh getting scheduling squared away so you guys don't have to stay for the rest of you're more than welcome to leave thank you all so much thank you guys for sharing thank you very much
[Music] frankly schedule programing and Mrs Brown will be right on the door behind uh all right so since skipping that one we will go to um stor Brown for our first reading on the concussion policy revision I didn't prepare anything
um just myself uh Nicole Nos and cat cigy um revised the concussion policy from the one from I think it was it like 2020 is yeah is yeah and um we brought it to the wellness committee and got their opinions on it as well made some minor changes to what the three of us did and this is what we have if there's any questions or anything so I I guess mine is you know is there and maybe you know this off hand if not like what's
the cliff notes version of what's getting changed or is it just more language or I think it's less language the last one CU I was looking through it I'm like okay the last one was rather repetitive and wory okay that's that's what I was kind of going at so you guys actually have both copies here the first um the current concussion policy is first in your pocket and next to the title of JF um sorry excuse me jjif it says current policy in red um as you can see this one is very cumbersome and as
Mrs Brown um noted um very repetitive as well um and so often times we are working really closely with families and with students um and they want to get back to play and so we're working with them through the process so this is definitely a streamline version it does not change the actual requirements of um return to play for students that's all um based on recommendations however um it's just a little bit more user
friendly for families and and for us as well now do you know Mr Brown are we seeing an uptick in concussions like I don't think in general no I think it's it's kind of status quo I I don't think it's definitely not an an increase at all I just concern would just increases our policy still affect no I just did our January monthly report and we had one I mean I'm I sit on the wellness committee and this was a Hot Topic if you will we talked about
it for a little while about you know trying to do it obviously with my career and doing what I do at Bryant we you know definitely switched around some wording and stuff just to make it easier I think was the key um you know and then ultimately making it so it's user friendly to read but also the students and parents can understand it and understand this the most important thing returning from concussion is obviously the stages and how those work you know um and it I think it just cleans up a language if you will for like Mak the pretty easy to
understand now how often do we see new guidelines from like the CDC is it just like I don't know like are we see like cuz like one thing some of the sports teams are doing like the guardian helmets or this like a new technology with like the neck brace like have we seeing any new guidance or is it just more kind of trial and error with when it comes to you know prevention and things like that like we still have the same really been any new guid from the CDC in several like said we just kind of followed Mass
law and you know Ed what has worked for us in the past and the graduated return to play that's all overseen and consistent from District to District school to school so is the final say a doctor or our our nursing staff and trainer It's usually the doctor it's just it just gets tough when the kids don't go back to the doctor so then we it's more left up to the trainer in the in the nursing department more the trainer cuz
especially unless it's a kid that was like a car accident or something you're not an athlete then it's more up to the nurse if if the kid doesn't get back to the doctor so with all policies we do them as um two reads so this is our initial read so if the committee has any questions about specific language or would like to see language adapted um this is the time for us to have that conversation otherwise we would bring it back to you for a second read and a
vote anything else from the committee well good thank you very much thank you thank you you can leave now too all right um next up is the meal charge policy uh Christine hfield um so this is very similar it is just an update from a a older mle charge
policy um the current one that you have in front of I think the new one is from 2017 and so this uh revised one is for new guidelines and procedures um and we've updated a bunch of language pretty much to reflect the new guidelines that are going on right now in the state and the um also sorry including the uh Universal free meals as well um I'll just do a super quick outline of it
just because there's a lot more in this one um the very first section is almost identical to the old it's pretty much just the district's philosophy it's very standard almost every district has the same one um the next is new we added key terms and we thought this might be helpful um because with the universal free lunch in breakfast it gets a little confusing as to what's reimbursable what's non reimbursable all car items um charge student accounts and so um
after doing a lot of research and reviewing different districts we saw this in a couple and we thought it was it would be extremely helpful especially when parents call um and ask numerous questions on the um you know new rates and their balances and whatnot um so the next section with the student accounts um we just we added the universal free meals that's going on right now where the state pays um for the portion of the one free breakfast
and one free lunch and also we added in this new section which it seems a little confusing and a little contradictory but it is also just in case perhaps hoping not but someday they are no longer free um this keeps it clear it was partially in the old um policy and it just explains um what our procedures are for
students with free reduced lunch versus students with full paid meals and what each of those means um the next section we literally just combine language for the payment and low balances just cleaned it up a little bit um and that also goes for the refund and delinquent account collection um major purpose of the M charge policy is just how does the district go about collecting ing the money making sure
that it's never in the school lunch account as a whole is not in debt and what do we do about that if it was so um that's why it needs the different subcategories as well and lastly we we decided that to add the financial assistance because that does come up a lot if um at the end of graduation they have a low um they have negative balance and also to let families know that we will never deny a student um lunch breakfast with the inability to pay and also um you know we
also always have donations accounts and different things like that and the last new item is the non-discrimination statement which um I believe we already have on our website but we have to include in our mear policy as well I like the uh unlimited fresh fruits and vegetables still um what does I should probably know this but so when the the state allows for a
free breakfast and a free lunch to every single student how do we pay for that UPF front and then we get reimbursed or is it factored in as like what do you do um so we pay for it's not per meal it's more just for the supply so to speak um so uh the federal we get federal revenue for a if a student is classified as free we get that from federal revenue what
the state now offsets um that they serve for permanently free is a paid meal so if a student is on paid meal status that is also free at the same rate as a free student would be that we receive from federal revenue and they also get the offset of the reduced meal Revenue St uh meal student as well does that make sense
I know really all those words so I so I guess then when we pay or CH rolls whatever how does it like does the state s cut them a check or does it come through us then we so we have to put in a claim each month and what we do is the food service director and I go over every single meal count um for breakfast and lunch for each school we enter it online
with desie it and then they reimburse US based on the calculation perfect and then J not going to like this but is this something else that desie does that they say we're going to do 100% And then give us 70 not at this time so right now they are actually they are fully reimbursing schools for because of this free lunch program since Co perfect that's yeah obviously um in terms of when we started this thing and then I guess from a
policy standpoint is the reason kind of why we're doing this CU it kind of seems like everything kind of current but then is it because of all Universal free lunch I guess I kind of what why why change the policy now I think because it's approaching 10 years of being an old policy and yes because of the pandemic um in the new language of um reimbursable meals and um still charging for that second meal especially
mostly at the high school level um it's just good to have an update of poliy so so while students are guaranteed the free breakfast and free lunch other items are not necessarily free so for example ice cream Fridays or um students that want a whole second lunch we charge them for that and so often times we have get phone calls from parents and say why is my meal account you know why do I owe you
$150 and it's because your child eats two lunches every single day and only one of them is free so putting things like this into the policy really help um when we're having those types of conversations with families as well um that's not me that has those that Christine's the lucky girl in that regard um but it it definitely helps us to have those things in writing and then as she mentioned as well the USDA non-discrimination statement is is a requirement of our policy as well perfect okay make sense y all good
so again this is a first read if you guys have anything that you have questions on or would like us to up to please let us know thank you uh next is the second reading on the entrance age policy revision Dr okay so for us this is the second reading which means tonight we will um vote on this entrance H um and as we discussed at our last meeting this policy JB Act actually um is an attempt
to reinstate language that was inadvertently taken out in the last revision so um we added number three um back in I believe 2018 and unfortunately at that same time lost numbers one and two which gave us the initial um entrance rate a age for kindergarteners but also number two which talks about the initial admission of children in first grade um and off there are times where we have families that their child
doesn't meet the kindergarten cut off and therefore they may enroll in a private kindergarten for that year um this helps us to have a clear policy in terms of what that would look like for a child entering grade one do we do we have to or one do we have a policy and two does it have to be separate for the preschool program or is there an age no because preschool is is you know it's 3 years old for students that are part of child find that are coming to get their
specialized services and then the peer models are three as well um and it's not um a required grade level for us so it's a volunteer program and I know someone said this probably the last meeting um so if a student hypothetically comes from Bourne they did kindergarten in Bourne but they were born November 1st had to
be born first um so they come from born they're born November 1st so they started and finished kindergarten turned five after August 31st come to Norton would how does that work so what we would do is number one we would look at their kindergarten report card narrative whatever they have from their previously send uh sending school to kind of take a look at how they did um we would sit down with the parents have
some conversations about their child and then we would give them um a series of Assessments to kind of see if we believe that they are ready for um kindergarten I think the academic expectations are challenging now it's it's very different than many many many years ago when I was in kindergarten and we basically had to play nicely with friends and use scissors um not at the same time um but so we would do that and we would have a lot of conversations just about the developmental appropriateness as well
but I guess the from the par we would have a meeting and there would be a potential that that student would be able to go on to grade one yes and the district's decision is the final decision exactly okay any other questions from the committee no no so now we can take a vot on this correct correct um I will entertain a motion of approval so move second and all all those in favor I I I by V majority thank
you all right and then I believe sorry uh and then yes last but not least uh superintendent goals and a midyear update all right so um I think we did this a little bit earlier last year so I apologize that um it's already February and I'm giving you my midyear update so um quickly I have a few goals for this upcoming year uh the first one is that in partnership with the school Community to develop a comprehensive strategic plan that establishes a blueprint for
success of all students um and as I humbly admitted in my narrative to you this this one's a little off Target um I'm unfortunately I'm a little bit behind schedule um on this particular goal um I began the internal process of creating a system and structure for this work uh families will be invited to participate in the strategic planning committee this coming Friday as part of my news liner um and they will be asked um a few simple questions just about what they believe we're doing well as a
school community and what are some areas that we need to work on um students in 6 through 12 will'll be getting an email from Dr O'Neal on Monday um asking those three important questions that I asked them all last year do you feel safe at school do you feel welcome and respected for who you are and do you have an adult at school that you feel that you could go to if you had a problem and asking students in um Middle School and high school those three questions um is
really eye openening and it was really interesting to see that information and data last year so I'm hoping that we'll get the same response rate from our students um finally we will be sending out a similar survey for elementary students that will be a little bit more student friendly um including pictures and images and then family and staff surveys regarding our vision vision mission and goals as well as our portrait of a graduate will be shared the Monday following February break um so this completed plan um I can sh I
actually there is the internal process but you guys obviously can't click on that little link I will share that with you as part of my Friday memo this week um and the whole plan is lined out to have it to you in early June so um number one I appreciate your grace and understanding that this is a little bit behind schedule at this time um but we will get that done into you as soon as possible um the second goal was my student learning goal um which talks
about using a district-wide data review process that will include local curriculum based measures observations of teaching and learning Norm data and state assessments to take a look at individualized student action plans um that will partner with our imts efforts to focus on student learning and attendance um this has been kind of a fun one um I have been able to visit schools and classrooms with our principles throughout the course of the month each month in a variety of ways um
Dr arrian and I have also started learning walks in partnership with some of our building principles uh during these walks we focus specifically on particular grade levels instructional purches and curriculum alignment one of the best things that we've done so far this year is we split a day between JCS and lgn and what we did is we went and we visited kindergarten classrooms at lgm and kindergarten classrooms at JCS and third grade classroom and it was so interesting to see the parts of the day
that were so in line with each other and the ways that they were different too and so it actually has um allowed us to have some really interesting conversations in terms of what are we seeing that's working really well how do we um streamline our expectations of all students and do the teachers have the resources and materials that they need in order to effectively instruct um and so we'll continue to do that and then
the other thing that I can't take credit for this um but Dr arriman and Mrs Russo have been doing are these really great transition meetings where we're getting teachers together preing kindergarten what the expectations look like once they leave little Lancers preschool and go into the kindergarten classroom and how can the preschool teachers help to prepare them for those expectations and they'll be doing that as well this year in third and fourth grade in fifth and sixth and then also between Norton Middle School and Norton High School um we are doing a lot of data
work this year it's becoming increasingly prevalent in all of our leadership meetings um and within the grade levels and Department teams teachers explore how students are performing on critical grade level skills and then they take a look at how they can provide interventions during that scheduled time um beginning next year all five buildings will have an intervention block built into their daily schedule which will allow students the opportunity to access both intervention and enrichment in their
classrooms um one of the places that we've seen the best change this year is at Norton High School during the LLB block this gives students and there's so many different things that happened during lb and I've got two high school students here that could maybe speak to it if they felt so inclined um but it's giving students the opportunity so maybe if they miss school because they were out sick or they're having a difficult time they're able to go and connect with a teacher during that time or maybe even
connect with a peer or members of one of our honor societies for some tutoring and reteaching um and it's built within the structure of every school day so it's something that all students can access whether they're on an i or not um and then also it gives it a great opportunity for um some of our clubs and activities to get together during that time for example best buddies often does a lot of stuff during the day with um during the LLB blog um we have also as you guys know um been
implementing some new curriculum programs in K to8 which is really really um helping to provide that structure and high quality resource for our teachers so uh making sure that they are aligned and following the program um with Fidelity and then one of the things that I think we um can do a little bit better on is taking that student level data and sharing it more widely um teachers that are engaged with those students are constantly looking at student data and
my goal with of course with privacy expectations is that we're able to share it with a larger staff and wider Community to show progress that is being made um across our imts s model we have a lot of really great success stories of kids that are making great progress um because of the way that our teachers are going above and beyond for them and and because of a lot of the work that we've been doing over these last three years I would love to be able to Showcase some of that in a way that protects the
privacy of our students but also um can celebrate the great work that's happening and then finally my third goal is that new superintendent induction program um I actually had one this morning so I've been to five out of six net meetings so far this year they're a mixture of virtual and in person um they have been a really really great resource for me um today's topic was how do I help build principles as instru functional leaders because as the superintendent I can't be in every
classroom every day and so it was a very timely topic and conversation based on the work that we're doing um I believe you guys have all met Dr Wong as well um we meet virtually twice a month and um you know during some of the crazy things that have happened so far this year she's a quick text or phone call away um so I'm very fortunate to have her as well um last year we tried to get my evaluation done prior to um school committee election so I will defer to
all of you on how you would like to do that this year but if there's a different additional information that you are looking for or would like to see other examples please let me know and I would be happy to provide them yeah I mean I I think it's important to you know similar to last year and and not previous years but I think it's it's best to probably do it before spring election because especially esally this year there's this potential turnover
um but you know cuz I it happened to me when I was elected I'm like I'm not found this out um because I at that point I I'm like yeah yeah everything's great I don't know um so I think it's just that timeline needs to stick to you know March or or I don't even know when's the electional end of April usually the end of April so I mean to be you know in that earlier spreading time frame just to the best way to evaluate is your current routine yeah I think it
definitely has to be I mean whatever you're going to say at the end of April you're probably going to say at the end of June so to me it would just make sense that we continue that process especially with the potential of losing three members and one cycle here that it would make no sense have three new members potentially on this and then have only two people evaluating so yeah because it wouldn't be a great evaluation for somebody knew to come in and say oh yeah everything like I I abstain from the one on so it makes no sense um yeah so I obviously continue
continue that sounds good any other questions concerns comments no no cool good go ahead um that is it other business not anticipated in 48 hours we got pretty good timing here this this is very good all right and that will'll do it thankk you very much have a great
evening sorry motion to a Jour I always do something all those all those in favor