um first off to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
officially calling the April 16th school committee meeting to order um agenda is kind of long tonight so we will move right along first up is the student spotlight series i will turn to Dr o'neal all right good evening i am very excited tonight to introduce um Mrs jen
Young and Mrs michelle King with their Norton High School Cubers um so I'll invite everyone to come up and they'll give us a presentation [Music] all right we don't have everyone this is a The club is a little bigger but we
have Sarah Liliana Samantha Abby and Kayn and they're going to tell you a little bit about what we do and they're going to do a really quick demonstration after of a very small scale so we took our show in middle school one day and Mrs bridges organized the whole
thing so we saw every kid in school and that kind of got some But yeah Aby's been our great high school recruiter and I'm very concerned because I'm a little worried about what's coming on wow amazing job thank you guys so much for sharing with us
that is so cool [Music] [Applause] mrs young can we keep it and I'll return it to you tomorrow um I'm going to stick around anyway so perfect yeah uh don't worry yes I can stay thank you very much uh next up is public
hearing and vote on school choice participation for 2526 all right thank you i think I have to go over to the Do I have to open I have to open this correct yes okay uh I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing on
school choice participation for 25 26 school year so moved second all those in favor all right thank you so um I have some information to share um tonight based on questions that were asked our last meeting and some additional data that
I've pulled together for everyone so I'm going to go quickly through these slides and then we can open it for discussion um so one of the conversations that we've had recently is where are school choice students coming from um as most of you know we have currently have 238
school choice students um that number increased just last month from 231 because we had two families that were originally here in Horton that ended up moving out of town but they stayed as part of our district so the majority of our students come from two communities
they come from Taton 106 students and then Adelaro we also have 14 students from Rahobath uh 10 from Mansfield eight from Rockton eight from Rainham um and then five from North Attabaro the oh I'm sorry seven from east and the rest are
more ones and twos and often those are our staff bringing their own children with them from their home community um I also wanted to share some data around the difference between Norton students and our school choice students and as you'll see today there's
really not a lot of differences between our Norton students and our school choice students the numbers are pretty close so um Norton enrolled students we have 255 stu 2,155 students versus our 238 school choice students um the
special education populations are are pretty closely aligned 24.8 versus 26.5 um the number of students on 504s we have 9.3% of our Norton students and then 5.4% of our um choice students and then
um we're up to actually 70 English learners here in Norton which I was actually really surprised when I saw that number because when I started overseeing um the English language program we had four students um and that has grown significantly and we actually
have zero choice students that are considered L's um I think it's almost like talking about the elephant in the room and um I had a great conversation earlier this week with one of our school committee members and we were talking about the fact that there's a big perception that
the school choice students are exhausting our system and what does that look like um and so what we did was we pulled a little bit of data to kind of show uh the differences between Martin students and school choice students and I think it's really important for us to remember that when we're having this
conversation is that we're talking about kids and that you know um the large majority of our school choice families have been looking for an opportunity to provide their students with a better educational um chance and you know maybe
they're living somewhere that's a little bit more urban or maybe they're working here and they want their children to be with them they know how great their colleagues are and they want you know their children to have that experience so I'm going to go through some special education data for you um some intervention data and then also some
student discipline data um so this year uh we have this is our total number of referrals for special education as a whole um and there are over 200 so 11% of those um
are school choice 88% is Norton and about.3% are our homeless population and so this is important for us to know that this includes all evaluations that are taking place throughout the course of the year this is students that may be
involved in a re-evaluation we do those every 3 years for all students on an IEP it could be an initial evaluation um it could be that we're just looking for more information about a student or perhaps that we think that maybe they need um more of a of a structured
placement and so you can see when we take a look at this data um our residents are at the top left where school choice is at the bottom right the re-evaluations are both in red um 64% of our about 65% of our
Norton students was a RIAL about 58% of the school choice was a RIAL initials in both categories 21 versus 26 uh extended val 1.2 versus 2.9 and then the additional information um was
roughly around 12% for both groups so nothing that's really sign statistically significant when we look at these numbers um and it's also you know one student or two students on an extended AVAL out of 63 is different than you
know one or two students on an extended eval out of 500 plus so the the percentages I think help us look at that a little bit more closely and of those evaluations that we did this year um 45% of our Norton
students were found eligible and again this is not new eligibility this is could be for students that were doing their re-evaluation and they were found that they're still eligible versus 47% of um choice 40 uh 16% of our Norton
students were found not eligible versus 18% of choice and then as you can see we still have between 30 to 40% of um eligibility statuses that have not yet been determined so they're either in an active placement and we're waiting for feedback or they're still going through
that evaluate evaluation process the IEP has not yet been signed um I also pulled some information about um elementary interventions um as you know this year we had to see a reduction in our intervention services
at the elementary level we were able to bring back some support after the fall town meeting um but it's a low percentage of students um that are receiving i actually was honestly really surprised about some of these numbers i was like "Oh I hope we're not missing
anybody seeing that you know at LGN or JCS is only six or three stu school choice students that are receiving intervention." Um and then obviously at the Yell School 33 total versus um four that's because we only have that one interventionist at the Yell School right
now so their ability to see they can't see 82 students cuz they're only one person um and then if you'll look at the discipline data um one of the great things that we have is something called Swiss SWIS and what we do districtwide
at all five schools is we update all of our student discipline data into the single system so we can pull all of our referrals so this year there's been 1,077 referrals um 300 of the So and what I did too was
I looked at okay how many kids does that really mean cuz while the Norton students have 960 referrals that's only 317 students right um versus 117 choice referrals that's 34
students um and I think the thing that's important for us to remember is every kid has a bad day um you know every kid can have one or two referrals so I wanted to make sure that we were showing like really what the number of students were and you can see the percentage of the resident students with referrals is
14.7 where the percentage of choice with referrals is 14.2 again very very close to each other when we're taking a look at some of this data um so I've actually shared this data previously with the school committee and I wanted to make sure that I addressed some of these
concerns here tonight um I think there is definitely a lot of conversations that are happening in our school community about um choice and about um the ways that they're impacting our classrooms and our schools so I I I did think this is important to share with
you so you can all see that the numbers are pretty similar the other big question that we always talk about is special education reimbursement so my friend Karen Winsper is going to say there is way too much on this slide and it is very teeny tiny and I I can't
see her face but I'm sure she's not right now um but what we've done in the past is said "Okay this is what we're getting for special education reimbursement." But we took that a step further this year and I want to say thank you to Mrs hadfield and then to
Mrs russo and to Miss Sandborn and and her office for pulling all this information together what we did is we looked at every single choice student and the services that they were receiving then we talked about the
actual cost we looked at okay as you can see the first column says special education teacher where you guys see those dark heavy lines each time you see a dark heavy line like underneath um the third line down so you see 76 19 38 and
then you see two blank lines and you see a dark heavy line each heavy line denotes a different student so tonight we're looking at one six different students so we said okay what are we getting reimbursed for for the special education teacher what are we getting
reimbursed for for the speech and language pathologist occupational therapist counseling PT BCBA or a paraprofessional and then we said what is the actual cost for that person so
Casey and Christine and Alex sat down and they said okay this is student number one who is their special education teacher how many students are in that group what is the hourly rate if there are four students in a group
divide the hourly rate by four so I want you all to know the level of detail that went into this analysis and um it was a huge amount of work but I actually think it's it's really really beneficial so we can all
see what the actual numbers are so as you can see the first student um gets support from a special education teacher we are re what we're reimbursed versus the actual cost they also get counseling services what we are reimbursed from the
actual cost and then you'll move across the column the total cost to educate the child for special education the special education reimbursement and the difference so here you can say that see that we're paying or it's costing us
$8224 more than what we are receiving in reimbursement and if you do that for just one student you might get nervous but we did it for all 63 so if we go down to the next student what are we paying for the special education teacher versus what
are we um what is our what is our cost versus what are we being reimbursed and in that case we're actually um collecting uh $1,200 more than it is costing us i think you guys get how we did this
and went through this um so as you can see student number three special education teacher and OT again in that case we are it's costing us more than we're being reimbursed student four special education teacher
only student five um special education teacher speech OT and BCBA support cost versus reimbursement and then student six
special education teacher speech OT counseling PT what is the cost versus the reimbursement now I think the important thing for us to know is that these numbers are going to change all the time if we were to do this each and
every year I might be working with one educator that is a veteran staff member and the next year my speech um therapist might be someone who's brand new to Doran so those numbers are going to change and so what the cost for services
versus the reimbursement is is is going to fluctuate year-over-year um but the total cost for services is $330,226.51 the total reimbursement is $353,9162 which is a difference to the good for Norton schools of
$16,871 so we are actually being reimbursed $16,000 more than we are spending to provide these services to these students and the other thing I want to mention is that this does not include the $5,000 that we get for every
single pupil that comes in through the school choice program so that's 63 * 5 that is on top of these costs um there are there any questions about that before I move on cuz I know that's a lot of
information no okay um one of the things we also did was we reached out to staff to see um are staff interested in bringing their students to Norton for next year and we also took a look at our current kindergarten enrollment to see how many of those students are siblings of current school
choice students so siblings we have three um rising kindergarteners at JCS and one rising kindergartener at LGN for a total of four and then we have three staff members that are interested in bringing their children to school that are not currently siblings so one in
grade 5 one in grade six and one in grade 8 um and then we have the recommendation so based on the conversation that we had last time um I'm recommending an additional two students in grade um two
at LGN to take a look at those class sizes there um as we've discussed before the seventh graders um are our smallest cohort district one um I'm thinking we can add two there and then we also lose a number of students between 8th grade and 9th grade some students go to
Southeastern Regional some students go to um Zarian or Bishop Fian and so that is a total of seven spots so we can open up for public comment um or any questions that the committee might have so Dr
o'neal you have seven spots as your recommendation but it would be in addition to the staff members correct so I think that's 14 total okay so four plus Yeah seven yeah 14 total okay um I just want to thank the staff that
put this together i think this is the most detailed we've ever seen regarding this program so um I know it was not easy for the staff but I do commend them for their work um this definitely puts a lot more into perspective when it comes to the program so thank you to to Casey
um Mrs samour Mrs hatfield so um just want to make sure we thank them and and give them their credit where it's due agreed i was going to say the same thing i know I was the one who called for a lot of this information but I think it's necessary when we're looking at their numbers here i guess we'll open it up to any public
comment awesome all right any uh other questions concerns suggestions from the school committee i just um I also just wanted to reiterate cuz I was also part of a lot of the conversations around school choice and um thank you to the whole
admin team that put all of that time and effort and I think this is extremely helpful and I hope maybe going forward we can sort of continue with some of it just to be able to document and really know where school choice um openings are
potentially there and um where we might want to hold back a little bit as well um going forward i do think that school choice is a benefit um I just think that as a district we need to find that number that's sort of in that sweet spot
of where are we going to be able to provide the services and not put a strain on um staff and case loads um so again just wanted to say thank you appreciate it can I comment on that part
sorry absolutely just just come on up you said public comment and you said this one hi I'm Shannon Taylor i am a special needs teacher at um the JC Salmones um there are so many other things that we could look at about what's exhausting
teachers right now and it's not school choice we you know having kids here in our buildings I I didn't even know some of my kids were school choice until I was like really looking at their IEP and I was like "Oh wow you don't live in NOR." Like it doesn't these kids bring so much to our community and just like
every kid like Bren that's why we're here this the the significant strains that personally if I'm just talking myself sorry Casey and Vinnie um is you know I have I have 17 students on my case load and one and I'm one special ed
teacher 17 and that's just me and I think I'm pretty great but when you're looking at splitting me between seven you know 17 people that's really hard and I'm doing the best that I can but we're trying to provide the service and like today I was pulled to sub for an
hour and a half because we didn't have sub for an IEP meeting am I happy to do that yeah i need I need to help my colleagues and this is an opportunity I could do that and thankfully my district my principal is doing a really good job of if I need to be pulled I'm subbing for a classroom I'm already in so I do
get to kind of see my kids and provide some differentiation but there's there's other things that we can certainly look at to being able to give time back to teachers so that we don't feel so stressed and burnt out and be able to find ways back in but I don't think the school choice is necessarily the way i
really hope that like we can keep these conversations on how to keep moving forward so that we can reduce the stress load on not just the teachers but on the kids as well because I'm not my best self if I'm thinking about 16 other things the same way no no person is but
I think that's where we'd like to be able to work with you guys on how to get there um I appreciate you guys looking to find ways to find the money like maybe it was somewhere maybe we could save all for that we've been trying to figure this out for years um but I think
at times it's just that we we have a lot of kids that we're trying to provide support to and not just special education referrals but also like like Miss uh Dr o'neal very sorry Dr o'neal was saying um we have getting those
interventionists back was massive for us especially at JCS and LGN so I can see 27 kids in a class next year at Hay that sounds stressful um those are kind of the things that I would be looking at is how can we support that and how can we
get some better early intervention so that we can get to these kids before we have to worry about it later down the line then I want as many kids as I can have please know that I love all of my students the spring plane that was this past weekend just completely warmed my heart to see everyone running around and
having such a great time having LGN JCS and Hay together wow i was overwhelmed um but that was it was you saw me Audrey my face was but I just want to at least say again like there's so there's other things that we can think of and if you
guys want to continue to work with us we really appreciate that because there is there are things we can do was just find the ways how do you follow that sorry Jen Farley I work at the JCS and I know it came up before about our school choice
kiddos and staff and case load and Shannon really hit on a lot of that but when we're pulled to sub it's not because of our school choice kiddos it's because of a substitute problem um our school choice kiddos they're just one of our kids they're part of our community
they help create Norton in in our school system and I think about some of the school choice kiddos that I've seen grow and mature and now they're at the high school level and they would not have had those possibilities if they didn't come
to Norton and as a parent I can't imagine if if I were in the other parents shoes so we do really amazing things here in the Norton School District and I want to keep providing those services and like Shannon said
those kids are our kids bring them on all of our students um but thank you for the breakdown that was helpful to see and we're here to help support and work with you guys thanks any other comments
um I mean I just want to make sure we clarify one thing just because I feel like it's always comes up school choice the students who are here and the siblings who are here are here for until they graduate with us um so you know whatever we do with school choice all the students who are here will remain in
norm schools until either they leave or they graduate um and then I guess my only thing Dr o'neal would be um would you entertain taking second grade LGN those
two spots and moving them to the high school and maybe like 10th grade and why I say that is again those class sizes are you know whatever 18 for for both uh well I guess it's a little bit bigger at
at JCS but I feel like just moving those we know we have the the um siblings coming in for kindergarten i feel like we're going to kind of backfill a little bit already on that side of things um and then again the nice thing about doing it a little bit later where we do have a lot of our
students go to you know whether it be fe or eastern uh that 8th to 9th grade um and filling it at the high school level to me makes a little bit more sense um you know just because again the class sizes as they get a little bit bigger to me it's just a little different um so I
don't I'm not against doing seven um I would just entertain or look at would would you be open to moving that till 10th i think we have two options so we could add two and 10th and make it actually nine based on my poor math the other day um or we could move
those second we could take the spots out of second grade and move it to grade 10 um I'd say it's really what the committee thinks is best and um we can go from there i think my thoughts on it are I I wouldn't mind I
wouldn't mind adding more spots i It is what it is i would say we could add the two spots at the high school and keep the two at the LG because in in my thought process with school choice is if the kids are here at a younger age then they're more likely to stay versus we
may not get too many new kids at the high school level versus at the LG level um but I mean I whatever vote is is going to be put in front of me will be a yes for me so that's just a matter of semantics on the number [Music]
any other thoughts i mean we definitely can have the space at the high school my recommendation for the second grade was to just make those numbers a little bit more consistent across those two buildings the JCS will be about 21.4 4 as the average class size versus we have
a um you know the LGN will be 18 so even those two spots it would be 18 or 19 in those um classrooms but that is certainly up to the committee i agree with Dan i mean I I would I would be fine with adding two for 10th
grade but I I would be fine with leaving the two for second grade as well i'd rather see him at the high school personally I'd also rather see him at the high school so we can keep the number seven and move
the two from LGN to the high school and I mean I guess I would even be opposed that I mean if we just did a quote unquote five at the high school between 9th and 10th grade you know I think that would almost maybe give us a little bit
better of a chance i don't know um you know so if it was five and ninth grade or three and two or two and three I feel like that would be a little bit better um and then obviously you know seventh grade being a smaller class that kind of makes sense but some there
I'd have to look and see if we could do it this way but we might be able to say five in grades nine and 10 so like depending on what way the enrollments come in if you had four ninth graders and one tenth grader you could do that
um I'll have to double check um legally if we can do it that way but I don't see why not so if we say five at the high school in grades 9 and 10 so that would bring our number to eight I believe and then um one more thing here and I
know this is an issue across a lot of districts um I would love for us to put some serious pressure on students who are going to school in Norton but do not live here um and again I know legally
there's some challenges to it but I would really like to see a push from administration to make sure uh I would be honestly open to turning those kids into school choice immediately um and then that way we're actually getting some money back from them um and some reimbursement so I would be open to also
entertaining of you know giving a final hey this is your last call and then if we do catch people who are not residents in Norton but attending school here and they're not a part of the school choice program um we we try to do a little bit a followup there yeah that's definitely
something that we're working on um it's difficult because legally we don't have a lot of anything behind us is really what it comes down to so um those are some conversations that we're having i just had a quick question is there a
significance to the nine or seven number is that the lowest you can go or because when you did you have to move them for two to the high school or like to maintain that number or you could go down sorry I didn't know where I was going you could go down to Well you
could go down to zero but that has consequences but I mean like you could go down to one so there wasn't there was no need to really shuffle them you just couldn't no it was just based the original number the original seven was just based on recommendations and I apparently couldn't do math earlier this week and said 2 plus 2 was nine so it's
been a while it must have been a long week and the recommendations are based on the class sizes and the or what was the number coming from like what was the decision on that one my recommendations were just based on current class size what we're projecting for next year and
just data trends and how we know kids are coming and going okay thank you DZ welcome back great to be back uh Denzra um I I apologize i have not followed any of this since like
last so I'm a little loop um I I wanted to ask and it's all well and good that we've done the special ed um analysis have we done an analysis on the non-special ed have we figured out first
of all if it's profitable i I believe it is i think I've historically been an advocate of of school choice as you know um that being said at the same time and I think this will be kind of near and dear in the next five that $5,000 number hasn't moved in
9293 1983 93 93 sorry 83 93 doesn't matter that right so there is going to there is going to come a time when there's there's an inflection point where or maybe there's not if there's an
inflection point of okay when we reach this number of kids we're no longer profitable we should know what that number is and if there's not an inflection point we should know what that number is too because it's there is a possibility that there is actually an theoretically infinite number of kids
that we can add because if we can add enough kids and still hire a teacher under that we may want to look at that right it's a revenue stream so we should know is this revenue stream profitable or not and where does that profitability stop
and and I'm surprised Nick has not said this yet cuz he used to say it all the time we need to start pressuring the state and saying that $5,000 number is the wrong number it's not even close anymore and and I and I do think that it's still profitable because of the you
know the variable and fixed costs that I talked about forever but that being said it's not going to be profitable forever because costs go up at some point that 5,000 is going to become not enough to to meet the needs of each of these kids so I guess my two things are first of
all you got a compression on the state that number has to go up and the second part is you really need to do a full analysis of the entirety of the program to see where it's profitable where it's not etc and maybe seven's not maybe 17 is the right number maybe we could actually add more and I get Jen you're
doing it on class size and trying not to increase the class sizes but there is the possibility we can add a whole new class with a whole new teacher and if it's profitable do it at some point there's there's the education part of this but there's the business part of this too right this is school choice is
not something that we do because we're you know we're being altruistic and we love the neighboring towns we're doing it because we want to bring in revenue and we want to maximize that revenue as much as we can so that's it nice to see you guys way nicer place
than that you were just at the wrong meeting DZ nick always says the number's too low yeah i mean I think to Danza's point I kind of had a a conversation with Jen about this earlier you know if you want
to stay with me for a second from a money standpoint right we have 63 kids who are in our special ed program plus the $16,000 in reimbursement plus the $5,000 that we get from the state that's $331,000 that we get from our special ed
students on school choice that leaves us 168 general ed kids that's $5,000 a piece we don't get anything else from them that's $840,000 so if you take those two numbers it's $1.171 million in school choice funding
you know now again me and DZ have had some good conversations around per pupil spending in Norton um you know and again 19 or or just shy of 20,000 um you know per the Desi website you know I've had some conversations with Dr o'neal about this as well you know if we're looking
even if we're spending $12,000 per student you know if you take those 231 kids take the $5,000 they're costing Norton $7,000 to come here now again back to DZ's point of filling classrooms and keeping the lights on and teachers
and so on so forth um you know but that's $1.617 million i mean the difference by just doing it that way if we only spend $12,000 per student in Norton you're looking at on paper we're actually running a
deficit you know from school choice standpoint now without the full analysis it's very difficult to find out exactly where that falls you know how many kids and what is that exact number um I just have always gone back i know we have a lot of smart teachers here we have a
outstanding administrative staff we have 231 kids in our school choice program the closest district to us is 75 you cannot tell me there's not another district sitting there being like "This is so profitable all these districts are
struggling for money why haven't they opened up for school choice and have flooded their their schools schools school choice students?" You know I know Mansfield just opened it they're they're you know obviously way far behind and again we've done this for a while we kind of maybe if you want to say we jumped ahead of it a little earlier than
most um but I do think you know I something something's got to give here and I and you know I think that number is just extremely high so I think and again I'm not against choice i've said this a thousand times over and over again a lot of these kids you know I'm friends with their parents and they're
you know involved in baseball and everything else um you know it's it's not that it's the simple fact of is is this actually worth it is it is it worth adding to Shann even if it's three we added three school choice students to Shannon's uh you know case load that's
now 17 that's now down to 14 you know now again we're not people will never get removed out but if we kind of freeze it for a little bit here let it catch up a little bit let us get to a good point i feel like that might be the right move um but again it's it's kind of impossible to tell until you run every
single report and know every little thing and know how much you know each kit is 100% costless so hello Laura Gustoson 9 Allen drive i I have a couple of questions that I'm just wrapping my brain around trying to understand okay
so when we're talking about per pupil expenditure that is the total operational cost of everything divied up amongst the student population yes okay so in theory if those 231 students
didn't exist the per pupil expenditure would still be there it would just be higher because it would be divvied out amongst this student population versus this student population correct am I right on that okay um so then in theory
in theory if we're going to use the 12,000 as an example how much approximately would that $12,000 be that is completely consumable non-refundable that that
child walks away with i.e workbooks school supplies paper things like that that actually get burned up not electricity not any of that because as we've said that stuff continuously exists what I'm curious is an
approximate amount of money that that child actually costs that goes away that doesn't exist anymore so what would we say about $500 of things that like how I'm just
just wrapping my brain around this idea of per pupil expenditure population what those numbers actually really are in terms of this idea of there being a deficit versus not a deficit like hard money that actually goes away i think I
can't really answer that because to Denz's point and this was something that we talked about last year as well is we don't have not done the analysis analysis of what that number would be right so I'm looking at you know school choice numbers that we have here right
now um you know JCS third grade we have five school choice students LGN third grade we have eight school choice students neither of those grade levels would change in terms of the number of teachers that we have there cuz you wouldn't be able to cut a whole class
for that fourth grade we have 21 school choice students perhaps you could cut a whole teacher there so I I think it's not a black and white answer because you would have to go through and kind of figure that piece out um what what do we spend on curriculum and
supplies and paper towels and toilet paper and all of like all of those things that you know are the hard money the actual hard money correct it's It's really not 12,000 in in our 12,000 world correct
like that unless it it comes down to adding or subtracting staff that that's where the where the hard that but the way that this has been deliated out that's not so much a thing
maybe minus that one fourth grade staff member in theory correct in theory in theory theory okay thank you all right i think between last meeting and this meeting we've kind of hashed this whole thing out um someone want to
make a motion oh we got to close it first um I would vote and then close it cuz um the vote is part of the hearing perfect make a motion to approve the superintendent school choice recommendation as presented
so move you can just you just second it yes cuz he made the motion motion yes so second motion by Dan seconded by Sher so all those in favor of supporting Dr o'neal's recommendation is that the ninth and
10th grade or the or what was on uh that's Dan is going with what the recommendation was so the recommendation that from Jen which was on this paper not my little thing about two moving two people so the motion that Dan is reading
is a recommendation from Superintendent O'Neal which is the numbers you have so we have a motion by Dan a second by Sher all those in favor i I two all those opposed I so that motion fails do
we have another motion um all right i motion to do um the amended school choice numbers with seventh grade as two and then 9th and 10th grade as five
seventh grade or second grade seventh i thought we were talking about the two spots of LG right and that was moved to nth and 10th can you just do me a favor do that motion over and just read how many students in each grade so everyone knows in this official public
record okay so I motion um for school choice for the following 202526 school year to include let me go grade by grade first grade zero second grade zero third grade
0 fourth grade 0 fifth grade 0 6th grade 0 7th grade 2 eighth grade 0 9th and 10th grade 5 second all those in favor three so that motion passes all those
opposed two so that motion passes three to two school choice is good to go the third motion thank you all right close the hearing yes and I will take a motion to close the public hearing on school choice
participation so moved second all those in favor hi hi all right uh now we're back into public comment period um for our normal April 16th agenda is there anybody in the public who has anything to say
good moving on uh vote to approve the minutes of March 26 2025 open session meeting school committee did everyone get a chance to review the minutes yes i will entertain a motion to approve so move second all those in
favor i I uh Mr cohen with Marks i've reviewed and approved the following warrants school expense warrant March 26 2025 $39,993.88 school payroll warrants March 20th 2025
1,140,6.7 i wish to enter that into public record well done just I was just about to say the last mark read um next up uh just Antonio with a student rep update all right good
evening everyone um from the JCS last week our second graders had an opportunity to work with staff from science and engineering education development seed Inc on designing prosthetics for injured dogs teams of second grade students worked together on coming up with a design using available
resources and then had a chance to test their designs on stuffed dogs this week our entire our entire school community is gearing up for your JCS fun run which is being held outdoors during the school day parents and guardians will have the opportunity to come and cheer on their students as they run and then from the
Yell this week they're getting ready for April break students are doing are doing well finished things out before uh before the vacation this week is our final of our 2025 ST March Mathness tournament with our 15 home rooms all matched up against one another in a
bracket style tournament competing we're looking for each student to do their 60 required puzzles per week with the class with the better percentages moving on to the next round the first round has home rooms from fifth grade versus fourth grade and our final two home rooms are Miss Le's fourth grade and Miss Hannon/M
Winter's fifth grade home room it's been an intense battle will be cringing our 2025 ST March Mathist champion after this week's final competition a couple of weeks ago our students did a fantastic job on their ELA MCCASTs putting in excellent effort effort taking their time and making sure they answered all the questions and all parts
of the open responses during the MCAST days our students start the morning with a morning recess and a snack in the cafeteria with all their friends and we move their bachelors to the afternoon so that the day is pretty enjoyable one for our students and they deserve it for the effort they put in and we are so proud
of them last Friday night April 11th we had our Hey PTO music bingo event there are prizes concessions music and lots of family fun it was a great night for all those involved after break we are getting ready for our math MCAST for both grades and science cast for fifth grades all I ask again is for our students put their put forth their best
efforts and then from the middle school middle school sports are in full swing with both our basketball and softball teams off to good starts this season the girls are currently undefeated and the boys only only lost this season came in an extra inning yesterday when they lost 1-0 mcat season is well underway at NMS
and all three have completed the ELA portion of the exam clubs continue to roll along with the N at NMS with many of our clubs doing some cool and exciting things our woodworking club recently finished their American flag projects the Rubik club recently finished their latest Rubik's Cube portrait of Mr abdu which is on display
in the rotunda the literary magazine club is getting ready to publish their magazines of student work in the drama club is creating closer to their showtimes for Annie on June 5th June 21st sorry June 22nd and June 23rd uh a group of students led by Benson Jane Lee
traveled out to the Forest Grove Middle School in Worcester to do a workshop for the playbook initiative and project 351 approximately 30 students travel to Worcester to discuss issues related to race bias and discrimination this trip serves as an eye opening educational experience for both groups of students
lastly NMS is working on gathering materials for our time capsule and getting ready to open our time capsule which is a has been buried by the flag pole for the past 25 years and then last but not least from the high school the big thing at the high school this week is the battle of the grades um the seniors are winning by law right now um
students have been dusting their first beer days all week with battle of with the battle accating in in Friday's half day where students will compete against each other in activities to earn their grades points seniors have been winning for the past 2 years now just saying there will be a pep rally at the end of the day crowning the winning grade we
also have 35 industry schools and other organizations going to present for juniors and seniors at the opportunities for tomorrow that's all I have for you thank you very much uh we're going to skip the next agenda item on AED so we're going to go directly to number
eight which is uh updates on Reed's uh DHH program dr o'neal and Mrs maderas all right thank you i'd like to invite my colleague Dina Maderos up um to the podium to share some info about the Reeds program
thank you Dr and thank you to the school committee members uh this is actually a presentation that I um created for the board of directors for Raids collaborative um Norton is one of our
esteemed members as are 19 other communities as of um July 1st we have added Whitman Hansen and uh Brockton city of Brockton as among our members uh one of uh the programs that we are very
proud of is the Reed's uh deaf and heart of hearing program for the past 10 plus years the Reeds deaf and heart of hearing program has been hosted by your community by Norton public schools as a relatively new executive director I
became the executive director July of 2023 i was told uh very clearly uh by the program director at the time Dena we love being in Norton and it is a wonderful relationship our kids love it our staff
loves it whatever you do preserve this relationship it's been so rewarding and um we are more than pleased to be part of your wonderful community and to be accepted by your staff and students and
administration um I was sad to hear that over the years that hasn't always been the case for the deaf and heart of hearing program uh the deaf and hearted hearing program has been housed in other communities or different portions of the program and they haven't always felt the
warmth and the warm welcome that you all provide for them uh and that means a lot it means a lot when you're on the fringe when you aren't always able to communicate with all the adults and the peers some of our staff are also deaf so
I can't say enough about all the wonderful things I heard about Norton and I can honestly say after being the executive director for a year and a half and then some um everything I heard was clearly not an exaggeration so um again
a sincere gratitude for all that Norton has done to work collaboratively with Reeds as uh I started with uh Reeds it did become apparent that um space has become an increased issue the read deaf
and heart of hearing program is continuing to grow there is a continued need for our services uh as well as there's continued need within your own district for providing specialized services for your students as is the
right thing to do it it is to keep students within your own community and as such more and more communities are building programs within so students that you would typically send out of district you're trying to keep in your district it's it saves money and it's
the right thing to do for kids so absolutely the right thing so we have our program growing we do need a couple of additional uh classrooms but we also have Norton uh needing the spaces that we uh currently use so what I have here
is just a synopsis for those of you who don't know me I probably can't talk a dog off a meat wagon so I will try to speed it up from here on out uh and just letting you know the situation and how it became
apparent to me again historically I can only go back till July 2023 so just to kind of present uh Reed's deaf and hearted hearing program by the numbers uh here in Norton when I did present this I I did also include that we have a program at BP and you'll
see that that's delineated uh but currently for this school year and the numbers as of 129 which really are similar numbers uh for right now we do have uh two or three pending referrals but we are currently still at 52 students enrolled prek to grade 12
within um the whole program keeping in mind seven students are at BP so you have 45 here um physically in Norton in preschool there are nine students we
don't uh typically have our preschool students included in any of the mainstream classes in Norton simply because our little ones are really just trying to acquire um language some of them have parents who are hearing some of them have parents who are deaf uh but
they really are trying to just acquire the basic foundation skills for language and having that substantially separate um class time is really what they need they might see friends potentially um at recess or playtime but it's not really
an inclusive program the rest of the programming K through 12 we do try to offer uh inclusive opportunities and we are grateful for for that opportunity that really is what makes our program stand out um in our area and in the
state of Massachusetts we just had uh a family uh travel from another state from Washington state actually they're traveling to different states to see which program would be best for their child and they want to and they are willing to move to whatever state will
provide the programming for their child so programming for death and heart of hearing is difficult to come by the state does have a few programs uh but none within southeastern Massachusetts that are comprehensive as the program through
reads so um you can see by the numbers that um here are our classrooms our K1 class has eight students and we do have students participating in specials and two attend meeting grades um two three our classes are multi-grade we usually
have at least two grades uh within the classrooms our two three um classroom has six students and two are participating in partial inclusion and all students get to participate in specials grades four five there are three students uh for those classroom uh
for that grade level there's one full inclusion and one who's fully included and uh two students who only attend specials grades 6 through 8 we have eight students three are fully included three partially included meaning they go out for certain subjects and um and
specials and things like that and two students who only attend specials grades 9 through 12 uh there are 18 students five are included in six out of seven classes so they have an academic support class separate from uh full inclusion
it's generally considered full inclusion six out of seven uh three and four out of seven classes are being included and one and two out of seven classes for total high school uh numbers and then we have seven fully included at BP as far
as staff members that are part of our program we have 10 full-time teachers we have 13 full-time specialized assistants thanks to the opportunity for inclusive um opportunities for our students when I started we had 13 or 14 interpreters
that's only a year and a half ago we now have 17 full-time interpreters and two part-time interpreters to be able to provide that access for our students and we have four full-time specialists that includes SLPs uh speech language pathologists SLPA's assistants to speech
and language pathologists and counselor here are the building spaces that we currently occupy within your district uh we have I always mispronounce this school's name JCS we call it JCS jcs okay thank you uh at JCS
we have three classrooms we have a preK classroom we have a classroom for K1 and a classroom for 23 we have an additional classroom space that's used for speech and language literacy and counseling kind of break up that area with some dividers uh and then there's an
additional OTP room space may not be necessarily um the full capacity of a classroom at the uh Henry Ael Elementary we have two classrooms for grades four through 5 we have one classroom with classroom space which is us which is
housed for our uh administrative staff our program director team chair secretary um coordinator of um interpretation etc and we also have one speech uh literacy counseling all specialist kind of space
room at the Norton Middle School we occupy two classrooms for our grades uh 6 through 8 there's also one additional specialized service space it's actually 0.5 it's shared with the the technology department and then we have one
additional OTP space at Norton High School we have for grades 9 through 12 it's the media room space it's not really a full classroom but um it is sufficient for the needs that we have uh
in addition to it it's like an al cove and it has two other you know attached spaces that we use for speech and language building literacy skills counseling room spaces um and again those none of those spaces would equal a full classroom size uh but they are um
useful unique spaces that we access and at BP we have uh some spaces there total for uh building space uh being accessed we have 10 classrooms uh that we access in Norton and we have 6.5 additional
spaces for specialists and we truly are embedded in uh the Norton community we have a student who plays on the basketball team uh with support through interpretation we have a cheerleader on your team we
have our students who my understanding also are in band in middle school i believe I've heard woodworking mentioned uh for an afterchool activity uh we have there's a play i'm not sure which one but we have a couple of students either
participating or helping out with the play uh our students are everywhere and again you wouldn't even try out you wouldn't go for any of these things if you didn't have a level of comfort to even try so
the benefit to that is truly that continuity they're here from prek through high school so by the time you get to middle school you have the courage to try out for an activity or an area of interest or an extracurricular that really means a lot to a student and
that's why you know when I first came along they're like you really want to preserve that not many programs like this have that continuity of prek through high school of getting to know a community and feeling like you're a part
of of um what's going on and that you develop friendships kids know who you are uh here when the space concerns arise I did get detailed and then of course I got myself listed like on Bob Dole for
those of you that are my age you'll know that reference for those of you who don't look it up so when I came on in July August um I was informed by Dr dr craig who was my predecessor uh the executive director for Reeds who was in the process of
retiring that DHH here's the priority for you Dina dhh only has a one-year contract right now in the books which means that um we won't have a place to live after June 24th unless we come up with some plan hopefully an extension
with Norton because um we feel that that's such a strong relationship dina if you don't mind I'm going to jump in for just a minute just to save everybody long story um so the biggest concern that I had when I met with um with Dena
was specifically around two spaces um number one um the high school uh Norton High School right now our re students are in what we call at or what we called at one point the TV studio it's a very
interesting shaped space of um three smaller rooms that were actually designed during the addition and renovation to be a TV studio for our um video and media students and so it's
three small little spaces and it has actually worked very very well for for the DHH program and for their students because they have little small workup like breakout spaces um but what we are seeing is an increase in um our specialized programs at the middle
school needing to move on to high school and as everyone who works at the high school knows while we just did an addition and renovation 10 years ago we really weren't looking forward I think to some of the needs of you know educating students 10 to 15 years down
the road um additionally JCS right now we are you know pretty much at maximum capacity there um but one of the things that we found is that we need additional classroom space for some of our best programs in LBC classrooms and so
therefore when I share that information and Dina and Rebecca shared that they also need an additional preschool classroom because they're growing well 2 plus 2 equals 4 and we can't make space out of nothing so just for I don't want you to worry
about going through the whole process so if you want to talk about the the new building so what it came down to and what I um explained in the next few slides were the efforts made and the communication that was ongoing um and we
have been talking through this since Dina and I began 2023 and we met actually met in July of 23 because we were both in the new superintendent induction program together so correct we spent a lot of time together and I have said to the DHH
program uh to our staff because they're like "We don't want to leave." And I said "Well none of us want you to leave i don't think Norton wants us to leave and we don't want to leave Norton." Um but there is a space concern and a space issue uh
so as we tried to figure out how things could work and again I can't say enough wonderful things about the superintendent you have and her level of compassion as well as wanting to keep this relationship going i think if it had been a new superintendent in Norton that didn't have the historical
perspective of DHH program I don't think she would have tried as hard especially as a brand new superintendent which is a a big role and I've commented my appreciation repeatedly um we did look at different things that we can do um I
did my due diligence and I know um Dr o'neal did her due diligence uh they've tooured spaces we've looked at every nook and cranny and we were able to work out an extended contract for yet another year which would conclude now in June
June 2025 so we were able to squeeze out another year um but with the clear indication that another year after that may not be um squeezed because of the needs from both um communities from both
programs and what I did is I tried to find room within our other member districts and we were not able to be successful with that because everyone is jam-packed within our member districts i reached out to
everyone no one had room i reached out to non-member districts i reached out to Mansfield i reached out to Easton i reached out because we also want to stay within a regionalized area it really became apparent that you know we really need to think outside the box and uh our
program director was like "Hey let's see if we can actually find a neutral space and maybe we can still access a community and bring our kids for inclusive opportunities if we can somehow magically find a place that would be close enough." So we started
looking and like a little Christmas wish a building did appear right before Christmas break in Norton and it's um only a few miles not even a a a mile
from JCS and we looked into it and I don't want to bore you with everything all the pieces sharing it with our board uh and expressing the need uh the board yesterday did approve for us to go ahead and sign a PNS agreement and we um have
executed a PNS agreement as of this afternoon so I can actually tell you the property is at 399 Old Colony Road Norton uh it's actually next to a very nice bakery which is probably not a good thing for me but uh it will it will uh
certainly be a wonderful opportunity for the DHH program it was used as an adult uh learning facility so it's already divided into classrooms it will need some cosmetic upgrades and again we've
looked into all those pieces and done our due diligence before going into any kind of agreement for it um I can tell you uh the benefits certainly outweigh our other opportunities we don't have another
place to live so if we are able to which we've been approved to purchase this building which fiscally we are in decent shape as a collaborative to be able to purchase the building it will be a um a
5-year uh loan and um we will be able to move as of September 2025 all of our classrooms from JCS to free up JCS for your students and your um town needs and
we will be able to free up the high school which I've been referring to as the bookends what we are planning to do is we still want to give our kids all those inclusive opportunities as much as possible so we are going to also be purchasing two vans through Reed so
we'll manage our own transportation for these two vehicles and we already have staff that have volunteered uh we have people that will be able to be licensed to drive these vans and we um through our good relationship and talking to
staff and administration uh we have the support of the Norton administration to carefully work through a schedule so we can minimize the transportation of our students so our students can be included say all
everything they need is in the morning and then they come to us in the afternoon for a little bit or you know whatever the student needs based on their IEP we are going to carefully orchestrate by making sure that they access that maybe our students get dropped off as they normally do in vans
and they get included and then we go pick them up for whatever portions they need outside of your buildings again for those grades grades 4 through 8 appears to be sufficient space and projections look good when I spoke with Dr o'neal
that we could carve out a three-year um contract when we looked at that and we looked at um that is the picture of the building um when we looked at the expenses we currently were projecting
that we would pay Norton for a rental fee for the FY budget of 130,000 for the spaces and what we discussed with um our business manager in meeting with Dr o'neal and her business manager and also
meeting with Miss Russo is that we want to make sure that we're not jipping any of you because we are accessing your curriculum we are accessing your inclusive practices that we in in discussing it with my business manager
we're like "All right 130,000 for the spaces we're not going to need some of those spaces because we no longer need JCS and we won't need the high school but we want those inclusive opportunities for our students what would be the fairest way because we want to make sure that we're compensating
uh our partners and uh it was discussed that we would pay 50% per pupil cost for educ so in other words instead of like nickel and dimeming okay this student is only going for two classes and that's
going to be this portion of per pupil and you know what I mean and doing those kinds of things just flat out every one of our students um that's tied to Norton would we would pay 50% of the per pupil cost and that that means like our pres
you know our um K through 12 students that are going to be accessing it and that actually means that the funding for next year would be $229,98 so you would actually keep your classes but you'd be getting more money
for including our students if that makes sense and we're still working through the contracts we haven't signed anything in we haven't signed anything we would really like a three-year contract so people could sleep at night but
so I just wanted to mention that nothing has been cut out and we're still working through that but it's been you know as um Mrs madiro said it's been a great partnership to kind of think about ways creative ways to keep reads here in district and to
um continue to have them as part of our school community i ideally we would love to stay in Norton um if it turns out that you can't continue to house us and we need to be able to maybe try and be included in another community it gives
us a little more time to be able to do that as well there are a couple of other member districts that would love to have the program and have said you know we you know we love the program we love reads we just don't have the room but we are in the process of building a school we may be able to in 2 to 3 years you
know we're redistricting uh based on a building uh that we just were able to get in one of our districts and they said we just need time to redistrict what we're doing and settle ourselves we may be able to take on some of the programming so there's never any
security when you're a collaborative because you do rely on being able to be welcomed and accepted in different communities if you're going to give your students those inclusive um opportunities and our students for the most part I mean they do have multiple
disabilities sometimes sometimes they you know have the hearing loss or are deaf and may have a learning disability but many times they're very typical students like anyone else they just happen to have a hearing impairment uh so we want to be able to be in a
community that provides those inclusive services ideally that's what we want um so as Mrs madro said um we are going to be working with them um the board just approved yesterday the purchase of this building um so this is you know
basically hot off the presses i'm sure you guys went right to work as soon as we got off that call um but what we'll be looking to do is looking at the student schedules at Norton High School um and figuring out a way that they don't have to come back and forth from
this new um space multiple times a day um and we've also you know made the commitment that um they will have a space while they're there it just might fluctuate from um block to block based on what is available so they would have
a space if students are not in um included in a in a classroom but the way the schedule rotates and flips that they they you know need to hang out for an hour before their next class or you know have their academic supports we can do that within our own space um we'll do
the same thing at JCS for these students um as you saw at the beginning of the presentation a lot of them are are all included in specials so perhaps we are placing them in classrooms where we we'll have to be creative with the schedule and be strategic okay that this
third grade classroom and this second grade classroom are all going to have specials at the same time just to kind of help with that scheduling piece um we're very fortunate that um not only is it right next to Flaky Cross Pies but it is literally about a 3minut drive from
JCS to their new building so um I I really you know as Mrs madiro said like having the inclusion opportunities for for the Reeds students is so important and for those of us who are educators that have seen this program over the
years and what a impact it has on our school community for our Norton students for the Reed students um it's it's just an incredible incredible program and I really did not want to see it walk out the door so um there is going to be a
lot of collaborative planning in the you know the coming months as we're you know finalizing what this is going to look like um the yell and the middle school are going to remain as is uh for the time being and then we will you know as
things come up and if we'll go from there administration that is currently taking space at the will actually be at the new building so they will have the administration there so that actually frees up an additional space there yeah so and that and that's great too because
as you said it frees up another space and yeah maybe we can do something with that um other anybody has any questions concerns i mean I think this has always been a positive partnership um you know been around as long as I've been on the
board here and I and I think maybe you remember this Dr maybe you share i believe we did a survey of students on on like world language offerings a few years back and ASL was by far the top choice because a lot of our students being compassionate wanted a way to
better communicate with our guests not that they were treated like guests but they knew that they had disabilities and unfortunately we weren't able to work something out to kick off that but maybe that's a future plan but it was it was I remember the presentation it was overwhelming to see not only are our
students accepting you know our guests but now they want to be really in tune with them and and become um able to communicate with them so it was it was you know upsetting when we couldn't get the program kicked off but it was it was a remarkable you know occurrence that
our students wanted to take things further with some of our guests um it's also been wonderful because over the years Reeds has offered a number of times free um sign language classes for Norton staff and I know a large
percentage of our staff have at least taken the very intro one so that's really amazing as well any other questions concerns um I think the first thing is I'm glad that there's a logistical plan to obviously keep the
kids included you know within norm public schools if you will um Jen Christine I guess what does this kind of mean um for FY26 budget and then obviously 3 years down the road what is I guess kind of what is this all going
to look like um so as I mentioned earlier nothing has been finalized in terms of the contract but we're working um Christine has taken the lead on this with um the business manager from Reeds Lindsing and they've been working um you know back and forth on this so
ultimately what it would mean is that we would be taking in funds um not necessarily through facilities as we have in the past but instead through that tuition line um I believe the committee may recall um a couple meetings ago where we talked about that
one student we have from Dyon Hobith that attends one of our specialized programs and we accepted tuition um from Don Hobith in order to have that student here that would be very similar to with the way that we set this up um but those
are logistics that quite honestly until the contract settled we haven't kind of um really looked at it too much and it's important to note that while we will be taking in money from tuitions we will be losing money in rentals so it's um it's
definitely a benefit I think for everyone involved but um until we really finalize those numbers it's hard to kind of say and then what is the I'm just reading this quickly like this says Norton per pupil assumptions 200 just called $230,000 using 50% so I'm assuming 50%
is going to reads 50% potentially is coming to Norton is that correct correct and then that number $230,000 is divided by the number 45 45 so the number of students that are included in the
program so what does that equal out to for I have to go back and check we use the number that was on the DESI website it's the foundation budget per pupil it's not the um 18,000
so okay what What do we have 45 from the program so so it's it's basically you you also are taking out the preschoolers cuz they won't be accessing anything true so you're taking out give or take probably
around $5,000 so now you're looking at like 36 students if you're going by the current estimate of who we have now and what we determined was you can only estimate by what you currently have for population
correct so we're using um like current numbers to assess for next year and then we similar to the way we do school choice um but as as Dina mentioned it is well I'm sorry as Christine mentioned it is the foundational budget for pupil that is a number from the department of
education okay I'll wait for my other questions till we have something a little more finalized anything else thank you very much much appreciated thank you very much
i don't know how to get off all right i was not hired for my tech skills absolutely uh hi my name is Rachel Kierney i'm an inclusion teacher at Norton High School and I just wanted to take a minute to offer our condolences
to Dina and to all of the staff um at Reeds and their students they had a very untimely death in their program about a month ago andrew Kemp who was a very valued member of the Reeds program the Norton High School community um passed
away very unexpectedly and it was a devastating loss to his colleagues his students his family um I was lucky enough I worked with him this year he uh was a Reeds teacher in a geometry class where we have several sophomores in the
Reeds program um he was a wonderful person he was a a very valued colleague and so we just sort of wanted to take this moment to offer our condolences again to to all of the staff and reads all of the students i think it's my understanding most of the students that
he worked with he had worked with along the years so he you know these kids had been working with him for most of their time in the Northern Public Schools so it was a very devastating loss to the program um we will miss him the students will miss him the staff miss him so we
just wanted to again say we're very sorry uh for the for the loss thank you so much for that and on that note um when you are hurting and all of you know because you've lost Did you just Sorry did we do the camera sorry
thank you so much for that um very much a difficult loss for DHH and your community has also experienced quite a bit of loss this year and I can't tell you what a support it was because I got a call right away from Dr o'neal uh from
Mr cersei we call him Vinnie and and um and the staff uh the leadership staff um pouring out not only their condolences but offering their resources and uh it was greatly greatly
appreciated again can't thank you enough uh and all of you for being part of your community thank you thank you for bringing that up too um anything else we good all right next on is the superintendent evaluation discussion and vote um so this is my
first time doing this so I quickly spoke to Jenn about it uh earlier today um so everyone's seen the obviously you guys all did your individual evaluations and then I also uh I compiled them all and put them together just for the public record I'll kind of walk through
a little bit quickly um we have to by law I guess uh evaluate the superintendent um during each year we've obviously moved this time up a little bit just so the members who are on the board with our town election being at the end of April um we try to move it up to April that way the five of us who are
sitting here can actually do this correctly um it is a little awkward cuz this is the only position that we have to review uh in public lucky you Jen lucky me um you know but basically we did a uh sum summary evaluation report
from the um from Jessie and we just basically go through exactly um kind of you know where where Jen's at um for you know I'll just kind of quickly go through some of this um her biggest things professional practice goals student learning goals and district improvement uh she met all of her
professional practice uh her student learn her student learning goals and her district improvement goals which I'll go through a little bit more in depth both got significant progress uh she was proficient across many standards uh instructional leadership management and operations family and community engagement uh we actually gave her
exemplary there uh professional culture proficient uh just reading some of the comments from the school committee members and again I'm not going to read all these we'll probably did we post this some yes it will be posted um it's actually already in the packet online perfect so if you really Yes correct so
if you guys really want to go into that and go through that's great um you know I just think some of these things that I think are are very important uh Dr o'neal has demonstrated most strong leadership and effectiveness across several key areas over this past year one of her notable strengths are deep commitment for to community engagement
through consistent outreach open communication active participation in local events and forums uh she's continued to build meaningfilled relationships with families students educators and community stakeholders uh this has definitely strengthened the trust and collaborations throughout the
district um obviously with our you know financial stuff we we mentioned you know the strong grasp uh if you sat through our budget hearings of how much clearer they were laid out uh that's credit Dr o'neal and obviously Mrs hatfield and the admin team and uh overall um you
know one of the growths that we would like to see is a little bit more of organizational management continued efforts to establish clear assistance define accountability especially around student behavior and teacher attendance and streamline uh procedures to help enhance the district's overall effectiveness and align daily operations
with a broad broader strategic vision which brings me to my next point of uh the strategic planning committee has now met twice um so that's another you know step in the right direction if you will uh in summary Dr o'neal Dr o'neal remains a strong asset to the district demonstrating leadership through her
community connections fiscal responsibility and innovation approach to problem solving um what else is kind of important on here um we obviously go through all of her goals that she set up um you know she's in a pretty good spot
um whether it be proficient or you know definitely progressing um I don't think we have too much more uh obviously Dr mcneil continued to do a good job with instructional leadership we've seen more uh more growth in year two um and obviously having the assistant uh
superintendent Dr eman kind of settling into his role as well working with many of you out there with the new curriculums uh we kind of expect that instructional leadership area to continue to grow and reach new heights uh obviously talking about the budget you know from you know sitting here for three years and I think you know uh Dan
and Sher will definitely uh agree you know just seeing the progressive uh you know making it clearer to read you know not just a huge Excel file with a bunch of line items and everything else jen and Christine have done a phenomenal job I think definitely this year and even last year just kind of highlighting exactly where we're at and what we need
to do so uh I think our biggest thing is that she does a great job is our community engagement between the newsletters uh constant communication um she probably well she she kind of has that open door policy um you know so whether it be you know school committee member individually um you know teachers
parents community members in general um she does a great job in terms of making sure uh people are heard and and you know hearing their concerns or or uh hopefully some of their positive feedback anything else anybody wants to add great job J great job thank you
just be grateful you guys don't have to do this publicly so thank you all uh next up is uh which is actually kind of good timing I guess is a vote to approve the superintendent contract oh yeah sorry sorry about the vote good
call thank you um I will entertain a motion to approve Dr o'neal's evaluation so moved second all those in favor i i thank you all uh now moving on uh vote to approve the superintendent's
contract um so part of Jen's contract is uh within the language she obviously is uh signed a three-year deal um back in 2023 yes 2023 so 23 24 24 25 she would still be in that same contract for next
year um which would be the same contract that we've had with the same amount of salary and all that fun stuff um this contract is actually extending Jen um for another 3 years after next year um so basically this gets us to a point where Jen will be with us for the next 4
years bearing something crazy happens but we don't see that happening uh hopefully she doesn't leave us um the um I mean I guess can I take this over to you or what do you want do we just vote on this what do you want me to do um you we can talk through what the terms of the contract were if you want
to or we can just say it will be published online later you know after um it's not really a big secret everything's public record but um ultimately um I'm grateful to have the opportunity to stay in Norton all of you
know that I've spent my entire career here um it's a little bit crazy to think that when this contract ends it will be June of 2029 um and I will have a college sophomore and high school sophomore um so that is
just as my friend Karen Woods says banana pants um but um grateful to the school committee for giving me this opportunity to continue my work um and like I said the language wise and everything else didn't really change too much so if you are interested in seeing
it all the contracts for all of our non-UN admin and our union contracts as well are on our uh public schools website um I will entertain a motion to approve superintendent employment contract from July 1 2026 through June
30th 2029 so moved second all those in favor i I Thank you [Applause] perfect um I just saw Allison walk in which is great so we'll go back to um
our number seven uh acknowledgement vote to accept donations of AD students alison if you could come join us at the podium that would be great so I I want to welcome um our wellness committee member you off but the important thing
is did you win oh okay did you have fun great um some question okay there you go um I want to welcome our wellness committee member Allison Drad um who also works for the American Heart Association um and earlier this year she
approached Norton Public Schools in conjunction with Sisters at Heart and Senator Paul Feny um to help us procure AEDs for the outside areas of Norton Public Schools um we're super excited that we have
um I believe seven that are coming and um a total of nine so yeah so we'll have um outdoor AEDs at Norton High School one um kind of over near the multi-purpose field one over um near the
snack shack um and then one behind the yell by the tennis courts one behind the yell near the tennis courts um we'll also have one near out out back of JCS near the softball field uh two at Norton Middle School one in the back for the
soccer um fields and then one closer to the front tennis court pickle ball court playground um and so this is really amazing the AEDs were donated as well as the outside um they're like weatherproof containers
so they can be outside whether it's 100° outside or -10 um and we've actually had a few issues in the last year or two um at our own events where we had um the AED used at JCS earlier this year we had
um one used at a football game a few years ago so um it's so important to have these um devices accessible they save lives so I'd like to number one thank Allison and her work and and the Sisters of Heart um for approaching us with this idea and
this donation and I'd like to offer her some time to speak about the organizations um thank you so much and I'm sorry I was late coaching the baseball game um that I would just say on behalf of both the heart association and sisters at heart and I'm sorry they couldn't be here actually one of the was undergoing
heart surgery actually so um they couldn't be here they've worked really hard they um started in um north outbur and then um I had been working with them and asked them to come to Norton um my son is a uh third grader at the LG and
plays a lot of sports so I have always been really passionate about this and had been bringing it forward to the sports boards um But obviously there's a price to that so I'd just like to thank Senator Feny in particular who has worked for the last couple years to get a specific line item in the budget for these defibrillators i really do hope
that we never have to use them on the field that would be my hope um but they are there if they're being accessible um they'll be open um at all times like um Dr o'neal said they're in these secure boxes you can call 911 the location will be on the box so you'll be able to tell
um EMS and fire where you are and hopefully they'll get there even at a quick the quickest response they can be it will still um be really important to start CPR and have the defibrillators available um we know that it can happen whether it's someone that goes into some cardiac arrest or gets struck in the
wall gets struck in the chest and goes into cardiac arrest it's really important to have them so I'm really um very thankful that Norton was open to this um and can't wait to have all the fields covered so thank you i appreciate the support thank you Alison um and these will all be installed the week
after April vacation so um spring sports are starting up and we're you know I think there was a little bit of a delay getting um them up but we are um scheduled for the week after break so thank you so much this is an incredible donation i am extremely grateful it was
a very easy thing to say yes to and that doesn't always happen so thank you yeah I can't thank you Dr you know obviously it's a huge benefit to North public schools but uh I think also just the nor community in general um you know as Dr neil alluded
to you know you had two in the last two years you know both of them were were people who were visiting you know and watching their kids games or grandkids games and whatnot so just so super super uh you know thank you so much for the work that you did on this cuz it is uh so very
important all right we do have to vote to accept that um so I will entertain a motion to accept the new AEDs at our uh schools and fields so moved second all those in favor hi hi thank you very much all right and last but not least uh
obviously um this is Mrs sher Cohen it's her last meeting with us uh she's not seeking re-election in our town our town election is uh you know in not next not this Saturday but the following Saturday uh Sherry's been an obviously a great friend um you know even a mentor you
know coming on the school committee she's been at this for a long time uh her heart is we're definitely going to make her cry now um you know she's been you know a wonderful uh wonderful colleague up here with us um you know her heart's always in the right place and has always tried to do exactly
what's best for our students uh in the town of Morton so can't thank Sher enough but I'll turn over to Dr o'neal um I think Nick said it very well um Sher has been a member of the school committee since 2016 um and one of the
things that Sher always says when we're having difficult conversations is I want to do what's best for the students of Norin and throughout the course of her nine years as a school committee member she has always brought that to the
forefront of the work that we do here um she always puts kids first um and I have been very grateful to have Sher on my team um during my last few years as a superintendent but also um she's a wonderful friend and a wonderful person
to have in your corner so I have something for her so I'll come up over here and she's going to come and join me we've apparently got a sign and flowers a more of an Irish goodbye kind of you can do nothing
um so we have a plaque here and it says um in appreciation Norton Public Schools recognizes Sher Cohen for her dedication to the students of Norton as a school committee member from 2016 to 2025 hi so
[Music] cute something I'm sure you need to speech you want to be sharing first mhm if you don't want to talk
if you don't want to we will Sherry so that's your decision um thank you honestly I you know thought people were here for school choice conversation so I'm a little surprised i knew when my friend Robin showed up that something was up um it's been it's been
a good 9 years it's uh we've had our ups and downs but at the end of the day like Jen said you know I I really tried to do everything the best I could for our students um I'm proud of the work that we've done i'm proud of the the friends that I've made they're lifelong friends
um and that's that's it really i just want to thank you guys it's it's been a great run thank you [Applause] if we haven't seen a tier yet we're going to get there let's go Sherry we
can do this i'm Shannon Taylor JCS um I served as president um of the Norton teachers association for 5 years it felt like all of those years were COVID years but a significant amount
were were and um we we're we're going to talk someday about like before CO and after CO we kind of already do that now but I think being a school committee member during CO uh being any person that was public facing and having to make very difficult
decisions in the moment with random information coming in from all different places and all different sides and you're hearing from your neighbors what they need and you're hearing from some the scientists over here from this and that um you led with your heart
throughout all of that and at the end of every conversation it was okay so what are we going to do next and how where do we go move forward it was never that we're going to stay in one place and that's something that I've always appreciated about you in the past 9 years that you've been doing this but in
my in my experience with you it was never where do we stop it's how do we keep going and how do we keep moving forward but you always have that great lens on of leading with your heart and you can see it when you can see when you
when you talk about um the different things that come up different items that come up you you haven't just skimmed over it you've read it you've asked questions i know you've asked me questions i know other people here have said you know Sher will reach out she'll ask us "What do you think of
this what else is going on with this?" She's not afraid of conversations at football fields or other things where people might not agree with everything that you do here um cuz and as much as I know how much those decisions weighed on you because we had those conversations
together you you still led with your with your eyes forward and where do we go what's what's coming forward um I'm not um there's something about being a teacher and looking at a school
committee and not really knowing do they understand what I do do they really get what my job is and how I can love it and be drained by it in the same moment i love my job but there's some days that are hard but to know that there are
people that are sitting on the other side that are making those decisions that also can see that pressure because they feel it themselves too there's something really beautiful about that Sher and you can't you it's just a a mold that you've created that I'm not
sure how to fill i just need you to know how much it has meant to for the tears for the for crying when things are exciting and for getting like you know I just we've been through a lot together and I know you guys have a thankless job
where you're getting paid nothing to do this all five of you right you're here on your own valition you're you're reading all these things you're you're putting yourself publicly out there for criticism for for whatever it is and you've done it with such humility and grace um I I I love you Sher and I I
hope the best for you i hope that another night like this i mean Dette got to see a beautiful building another night so that was good you'll come back and see us um but you you truly are something special thank you anybody else all good
um I just pity Cersei I guess I'm going to be here as 13 Brick Street or mask because one of the things that Sher did beyond working in the school committee both as a as a parent and um which impacted our lives you know I might get terrible that doesn't happen um but also
um as a director of counseling is her work with it and the impact that had on so many people in this town um and she carried that forward despite also being here um and doing all the things as school committee and I I think it would
be remiss for us not to to take a moment to thank you at this time for that because again both as director of counseling as a as a a member of the community who was impacted by that i can't thank you enough and so many families I'm sure would would say the
same thing so and I know you don't i'm good all right what's up i just cherry oh sorry here we go peter Wiggins the mayor and I thank you
Sher for your nine years on the school today you've fought hard for the kids and you did very well in your 9 years and I thank you very much from the middle i will still see you around the hockey game thank you thank
you um I think we could be here all night praising Sherry um I met Sherry got to be 15 years ago um when she was starting up parks and wreck i I may with Denise have had some
conversations with her about joining school committee 9 years ago so I I guess I apologize um it's been a privilege to sit here with Sher for 9 years we've we've had spirited discussions we've had knockown
dragouts we've had uh laughs she's had tears um but her humility and her ability to really do what's best for our 2200 students is
remarkable and it has been a absolute privilege to be here with you for 9 years thank you i'll tell you it's it is not easy for me to sit here and listen to all of this stuff um because I don't I don't do any of this for any of this i do it because I genuinely care about
people um so to sit here and listen to this and not be hysterically crying right now and just like the way I am right now um I just want to thank each and every one of you honestly it truly means a lot i saw it on the agenda and I thought "Oh Jen do we really have to do
this?" um for you guys to take time out of your nights to be here to do this for me and the things that you said i I do truly appreciate it and I thank each and every one of you thank you all right uh other business nothing for me just a few quick
reminders uh obviously annual town election next Saturday April 26th uh and our next meeting is Wednesday April 30th back in this room at 6:00 i will entertain a motion to
adjourn so second move second all in favor thank you very much have a great night thank you