Just quick. >> All right. Good evening everyone. We are starting it a little bit early this evening since we have a executive uh session at the top of our agenda. Um first thing I'll do is call the meeting to order at uh 6 p.m. If everyone will please join me in the pledge of
allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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.
>> Right. Next, I'll read our land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that we are meeting on the unseated ancestral homeland of indigenous people whose enduring presence we humbly recognize. We honor the Wanoic people as the original stewards in the Herring Pond Wampaoic as a surviving tribe indigenous to these lands. In our commitment to
lifelong learning, we acknowledge historical injustices to the native people of this land and vow vow to educate ourselves, our community, and our students on the first peoples and the hardships they endured. We offer this as a small but essential step towards building a c culture of respect,
truth, and accountability. And next, uh, we do need to convene to executive session. If I could have a motion. >> I'll make a motion. Move the executive session. >> All right. And our purpose is to conduct strategy sessions and preparations for
negotiations with non-union personnel. We have a second. >> Second. >> All right. M. Jackson seconds. I'll take a roll call. Mr. Smart. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morgan. >> Yes. >> M. Jackson. >> Yes. >> Miss. Bryant. Yes. >> And I vote yes. We are in executive session as of 6:01 p.m.
So we can All right, good evening everybody. We are back in uh open session. Our first uh item on the agenda for open session is comments from the comm from the community. Uh tonight we have one speaker uh wishing to speak and that is Mr. Richard Cury.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, >> my name is Richard Ceri. I'm a town meeting member from precinct 2. I'm coming to you tonight to discuss the article that appeared in last week's Plymouth Independent about Patrick
Vantosh. It outlined thousands of dollars of food and equipment that he stole from the town of Plymouth over the course of 11 years.
And the brazen nature of his thievery uh was breathtaking. According to the article, he collected condiments, hot dogs, snacks, coffee, and other items paid for by the schools
or provided by the federal school lunch program. Once or twice a week, he ordered school food service employees to slice nine pounds of deli turkey and 4 and a2 pounds of deli ham and p place them
boxed into a school department refrigerator with the initials PVC on the boxes. He ordered eight cases of premier burger patties at a cost of $3,199.20 and charged them to the schools.
They were later sold at his side business known as the snack shack on Cape Cod. He also stole two $2,200 refrigerators, a $3,950
freezer, hot plates, a griddle, a fryator, shelving, a sandwich preparation table, a convection oven, hanging chalkboards, as well as two underounter commercial refrigerators.
School department video footage showed him loading one of the underount commercial refrigerators onto the back of his pickup truck. And additional video footage from the same day at the Sagamore Bridge
showed him crossing the bridge with the refrigerator in the bed of his truck. I mention all of this because a plea agreement has been presented to the United States District Court and
will be heard by a federal judge on May 14, which is just around the corner. And I have a a copy of the elements of the proposed plea agreement, and I'm going to leave them with the chair.
The plea agreement proposes a prison sentence of between four and 10 months and restitution in an undetermined amount. Now I have several questions and
comments and I'm here to ask the questions and to make the comments. I'm not here to throw stones but I think there are lessons to be learned here. One of them is why were there no audit procedures in place to discover such
losses over such a long period of time? Periodic v inventories, for example, of materials on file would presumably have revealed
uh losses that were uncustom not customary over prior periods of time and they would have disclosed that something was a miss. If the committee feels, as I do, that a
prison sentence of between four and 10 months is inadequate, then the committee should immediately write to the United States attorney, Miss Leah Foley, at the Mowley courthouse in Boston, to let her know
before the May 14 hearing. If the committee feels, as I do, that restitution, quote unquote, in an undetermined amount, is not satisfactory, it should provide a detailed cost
estimate of the value of the equipment and food that was stolen to the US attorney. That should be computable. That should be in existence. I did a title rundown on Vanc's home in Sandwich.
which was assessed for $683,900 for fiscal year 2026. The only incumbrance found was a $50,000 home equity loan mortgage executed on
July 31, 2025, last summer, after he was charged. That means he has at least $633,900 of equity in this property.
If the committee feels, as I do, that the town is entitled to security, to be sure that Vantosh can in fact pay his restitution, it should ask the US attorney
to place an attachment on his home or it should ask the select board to authorize town council to do so. That's what any private victim of financial crime would do.
Upon being no aware of the loss, it would file suit. It would seek permission to place an attachment on the house and that would assure that if and when the property is refinanced or sold
that the town will be repaid. So that's what I'm here to comment about and to question. And I'm going to leave you with a copy of the um correspondence I was provided
with um documenting what I just said. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Turkey. >> All right. I think that's it for today. Next up, we've got our student uh representatives. Thank you, Mr. Um, first up we have Anna King from Plymouth North. >> Um, good evening everyone. Um, over
April break, Plymouth North and Plymouth South students were able to travel to Spain and want to extend a huge thank you for helping them lead a combined um, district field trip. 32 students from Plymouth North and Plymouth South were able to speak Spanish, taste tapas, and
danced flam flamco through Sevilla Spain this April break. and students were tremendous ambassadors for the Plymouth public schools community and carried themselves with grace and kindness in situations unfamiliar unfamiliar to them. This was our largest trip in
recent memory and our students and chaperones responded to every challenge and rose to the occasion to make this a lifealtering trip. So many students expressed their desire to return to Spain and study during college and will be bringing their best attention and effort back to their Spanish classes
here at PL here in Plymouth in preparation. Once again, thank you um for giving Plymouth public school students the chance to extend their horizons and enjoy a cultural and linguistic opportunity of a lifetime. During April break for Plymouth North
students, 37 students were able to travel to Greece where they explored Athens, Olympia, Deli, and the Seronic Islands. Throughout the trip, they experienced history beyond the classroom by visiting significant sites such as
the temple of Po Poidian and the ancient theaters of EP Epiduras in Olympia and the AC Acropolis in Athens. In addition to these historic landmarks, students engaged with Greek culture through
activities like a pottery workshop, an olive oil tasting, and a traditional Greek night. They also had opportunities to explore local towns, enjoy time by the beach, and take in scenery during a seronic suric cruise. This experience had a meaningful impact on the group. It
helped bring their studies to life, strengthened connections among students, and encouraged independence and open-mindedness. By experiencing another culture firsthand, they gained a deeper understanding of the world around them. And they were grateful for the opportunity um and support that made the
trip possible. On Tuesday evening, Plymouth North seniors who have completed the biomed science program are being recognized at their senior celebration. Each biomedical student will be recognized for their achievement and their future plans at a university
or college career or service. Students will receive a certificate of achievement, a gift from the biomedical science department, and their silver graduation cord. Um the upcoming concerts of the Plymouth North music department. All of these
concerts and ceremonies are happening in the PL performing arts center at Plymouth North. The chorus and choir concert is on May 14th at 7:00. The band and orchestra concert will take place on May 12th.
PNH, the Plymouth North High School student art show is happening Tuesday, May 14th from 5:00 to 7:00, right before the chorus and choir concert. And the spring a capella concert is on May 8th at 7:00 p.m. And those tickets are now on sale. And the other two concerts are
free of charge. The junior prom will be held on May 29th and is approaching very quickly and will be at Lake Pearl in Rethm. A reminder that AP testing begins Monday, May 4th, and will go through Friday, May 15th. And at Plymouth North,
we have 190 students taking a total of 402 exams. The senior class will be celebrating National Decision Day this Friday, May 1st, and all classmates are encouraged to wear the college gear of their decided school. Senior Fest will take place next Wednesday and we'll kick
off all of the end of the year senior events. And the senior class officers, I can speak on behalf of them, are looking forward to a jam-packed end of the year full of celebration. And a reminder that dinner dance tickets are on dinner dance ticket sales end, excuse me, on
Thursday, and no late tickets are available for purchase. And dinner dance will be Tuesday, June 2nd at Indian Pond. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Anna. And next we have uh Charlie Walker from P South. >> Thank you. Um congratulations to guidance counselor Jason Hall who was
honored with the general colon L. Powell service u memorial service award. This award is a public service recognition that exemplifies the life and legacy of General Powell and is pre presented um to high school guidance counselors in appreciation of their guidance,
counseling, and mentoring that they provide students while assessing their accomplishments, talents, and interests as they move along their journey through education. Counselors are nominated by military recruiters, sorry, and presented to those guidance counselors around the um country that best
represent the service, compassion, and commitment de demonstrated by General Coen Powell. Zach Hodgej was uni unanimously approved as a recipient of the 9th annual outstanding citizenship award. A big congratulations to him. And finally, students are busily preparing
for AP tests, which begin May 4th and will take around two weeks. These mainly impact seniors and juniors and an email was sent home detailing expectations today. Thank you. >> Thank you, Charlie. Do we have any questions for either of our reps?
>> No. All right. Thank you both. >> All right. Uh, next up we we have a trio of school improvement plan. Starting off with Miss Kristen Wilson from Hedge Elementary. Hi everybody. I'm Kristen Wilson. I'm the building
principal at Hedge Elementary School and thank you for having me here tonight. I am looking forward to sharing a little bit about what we've done in our first year for our school improvement plan. So I'll be talking a little bit about year one and what we're looking forward to for our work for year two.
First, I'd like to um introduce you to our school council members. We are thrilled to have a for our small little school, we have four parents on our committee. Um Jessica Armoir, Amy Rosen, Ashley Grupilian, and Katie Lorge. Um Michael McGran is our faithful staff
member that has joined our committee and Louise Pisano is our school committee representative. Um they've done a lot of work this year and it's been nice to have the parental voice on our school council. And now I'd like to introduce you to our hedge school kids. I always use our
October data because it's a constant data that we can look at year after year. Um so this is what our school looks like this year. We have in October we had 188 students and 78.7 were identified as high needs. 30.9 were
English learners. 36.2% had English was not their first language. 64.4 four was low income and 20.2% of our students were students with disabilities. Um, our numbers are slowly going down. As of today, we were down to
179. Um, when I looked at our attendance this morning, which by the way, we did not have anybody out sick today. The only children that were out were on vacation. So, we have some world travelers. Some are in Japan, some are in Australia. Um, so be exciting when they return to hear what their
adventures were like. I'm just going to skip to this one first. Um, so we're using MCCAST data to to track some of our work that we're doing and but we also are using STAR data. Star data is what we really helps drive our work that
we do at Hedge School, but our goals are based on the MCCAST data for the school improvement plan. So up here um it we show we're making substantial progress towards our goals based on the Department of Education. We're at 54% which um which is good. Um and when I
look at the MCCAST data I showed last year to show you where you were where we were. So in ELA from grades three, four and five we were at 33% meeting or exceeding and we had said okay let's try to get at least 1% more um each year um and we made it to 39%. So we were very
impressed with our work that we did in ELA last year and our students growth percentile was right in that 50% mark which is where we want to be if not higher. So, we were pleased with the work um with our EL ELA students on their scores. Our our math we still
which is always fun to look at at some of the work that we do. Although our math scores went down a percent, you'll see that our student growth percentile went up. So, that's good because that means the students although they might not have achieved as high as we would like them to do, they really showed
growth. Um, so hopefully we will continue to have a trajectory with those scores going up for meeting and exceeding. Science was a little concerning for us when we got our science scores back and as I talk more about what we did this year and what we're doing next year, you'll see why you by these scores, you'll know why
that we are working on that. Um, I do like to highlight that science is one of those subjects that you don't teach the same topics year after year. It builds on each other. And our school is a transient school. We have a lot of apartments in our community. Kids come and go. And our current fifth grade
class has 26 children and 11 of them have been with us since kindergarten. And some of those kids have started with us, left, and come back. So it it's hard to in the subject of science to really be able to identify gaps and target the instruction where we do that really well
with ELA and math. Using our data, we can identify areas of weakness. we can target that with intervention while we're giving them grade level content. So, we're able to show um growth in in um increase lower, excuse me, the student achievement gap that way. Um but
before I move on to what we're doing about those science scores, I just want to give a shout out to my grade three team. And if you look at those scores and think about our demographics, to see that 50% of our students in grade three
last year met or exceeded the um expectation for MCCAST, which was higher than the state average. Um we were very impressed and that was through the dedication of the grade three team and they work really well together. Um so we're hopefully those that cohort of
children that are now in fourth grade will show us the same growth this year. The other shout out I want to look at is our STAR data which is down to the right of that slide. Um last year at this time when we took the test um we take it in
like January February and I use that data for this presentation last year 46% of our students met or exceeded the expectation on our ELA star and this year we were up to 70%. Um same thing with math. Last year we were at 51% this
year. This year we were at 61%. Um, so everyone's working really hard over at Hedge School. We're having a little bit of fun too, but you have to have fun to be able to learn. Um, so what did we do this year? Well, we're still we implemented number corner for grade 1. We know math is an area that we need to
focus. Uh, we continue to explore ways that we can continue to enhance our reading instruction. So we piloted the grade three, four, and five units of study for reading. All of our grade three, four, five teachers did that. So, we'll be adopting that next year. We did
a lot of work during our PD sessions, the one before the children came and throughout the school year on engagement work and how to engage students and have them be more um take more ownership of their learning. Um, we looked at those
science scores and I immediately called Allison Reard and I said, "Allison, I need your help." Um and we set up some professional development for the teachers. We started looking at um in both all grades. We looked at our science notebooks. How are students
using their notebooks, their journals to be able to think and talk and share about their learning in science? And we did a lot of work with teachers and how to in increase student discourse. We have a lot of e students. It's very important for Yale students to talk and
to be able to hear different students um ideas and to help develop their vocabulary. So we did a lot of work around talking about science. Uh we also brought our teachers to other schools that are piloting open sad. So my grade
three and four teachers went to Manama Elementary School for an afternoon and participated in their science classes. And then we were fortunate enough to bring grade five to PCIs and we were able to see all the great work going on in sixth grade and their with their
science. Um so we were very excited to see u what open siad can look like and so we decided at hedge school that we want to uh start implementing open sed. So we're going to do a slow roll out and that's part of year two but we've
already purchased two kits per grade level. So we'll do two units of open sciad, two units of mystery science, and continue working with um Allison Rearen to help implement those for next year. And we already have secured some money from Dr. Rogers to do some curriculum
work over the summer. So we look forward to that. Um continuing to work on our math coaching. I'm really um impressed with my teachers and it really demonstrates how committed they are to the work that they do. I had Jen Powers, our math coach, pull up how many
teachers in our building have taken the all learners network, which is the organization that supports a lot of our math instruction. And thinking I have 12 classrooms at head school, seven of those teachers have already participated in that course. Um also there's other um
they do offer our teachers coaching cycles in a v variety of areas um like small group instruct instruction math menu math corner and just this year some of seven of our teachers have signed up to do math coaching cycles. So in our small little school, their small group
of staff, um that's a pretty good percentage. Um and we use a lot of the resources from our all learners ne network when we target instruction. And our staff is really dedicated to taking a student into our school and
identifying their need and then targeting the instructions and using the resources that we have in Plymouth. So for this year, we're going to continue our work that we've been doing. We're also going to be in um integrating
number corner in grade two. As I said already, we were going to do open sad. We're going to continue our coaching cycles and we're also going to continue um our data teams which we're always very um proud of the work that we do because we do data teams for math and
ELA throughout the year. Our next goal was social emotional wellness. Um this is an area that we feel very strong about at Hedge School. We really feel that students cannot um access education if they're not ready to
learn. So we spend a lot of time on our social and emotional work. Um we have guidance staff that go into our fourth and fifth grade classrooms and teach positive peer relationship classes um pretty much weekly. And what they do is
they're out on the playground regularly. They're doing lunch groups regularly. They're in the cafeteria. They're talking to kids. They identify challenges that children are experiencing and they're teaching to the um the needs in the moment. So, we're really trying to get ahead of those
social challenges that we face particularly with our fourth and fifth graders as they as the hormones are kicking in. Um we continue our PBIS experiences and every year the staff explore what what are we going to do for PB PBIS? Should we change what we do?
And every year we say, "No, we really like what we're doing." Um, but we did a couple of different things this year. Years ago, way back when, when we started the HedgeKid ticket, we had those the the carbon copies so the kids could write on it and rip it off and put one in for the prize and take one home
so they could show their parents they got one. And when we were at school council one day and we were talking about PBIS, the parents were like, "Well, we never know when the kids get one." And I said, "Oh, let's what can we do to fix it?" So, we've very easily fixed it. Now, instead of printing out one little piece, we have a we have a
section that we can rip off. And this section here says, "I got a HedgeKid ticket today. Ask me why." Um, so that's been kind of fun. A lot of times the kids don't remember why they get them, but um but we hope that sometimes they do. Uh so the the kids get to put those
tickets in um they get offered four experiences. We truly believe that building relationships is a way that we can um be successful at our school. um we thrive on that. And so our staff volunteer to do an activity with a child
a couple of times a year. And so each month children are offered four different experiences. And they take their hedge ticket and in their classroom there are four envelopes, one for each experience, and they get to put their ticket in that envelope and we select winners at our whole school
meeting which we have each month. And then they get to have those experiences and the kids love them. And when we did our survey this year, I well, it's the same survey as I did last year. So it there's a question, what is your child's favorite thing about hedge school and it
was always the playground of course PE and the hedge kid experiences? So that was really fun. >> Not the turkey dinner. >> Well, that this year I know it's yours. >> My favorite thing, >> the mashed potatoes and gravy enrolled. Um, which thinking about healthy food
options was one of our goals. uh which is great. We have had asparagus, broccoli, all kinds of different um things in our cafeteria this year. Our breakfastes are much better. We have moving away from sugar cereals. We're having eggs. We're having pancakes, um sausage, sandwiches. Um so, it's been
really great. We have like 90 kids that have breakfast um sometimes in the in the c in our little cafeteria. So much we have so many kids eating breakfast that our fourth and fifth graders have to eat in the classrooms because we don't have enough space, which is another topic of conversation. Um, so we
continue continue to work on adult relationships in our school. We've increased our Big Brother Big Sister program this year. Um, so it's been it's been great. And I just put some pictures of some of the experiences that we've
done with our kids. Um, so it's anywhere from arts and crafts to making slime to playing Blokus. Uno is always a big one, nature walks, um, going outside, um, to play in the snow. Um, so those are some of the fun things that that we did. And
our school council would like to add a fifth experience next year for children, which would be a parent volunteer as a way to try to get parents more engaged um or continue to increase that engagement. Um, and I just put the picture up there also of the kids playing in the snow because that's how
much snow we had in our playground. So those are picnic tables and they actually were walking on them. Um, it was it was fun. And then on the bottom left is our our peer leaders did uh hot cocoa sales at dismissal and they raised
money to um donate to the Plymouth Pound and I was able to drive the school little bus and got the kids over there. Um and they got to play with the cats and the dogs which was a lot of fun. >> Um the other thing that kept coming up
on our school survey was the when parents got to be asked what is your favorite thing about Hedge School? it was the small close-knit community. So, we do feel like we're doing a nice job with our community engagement. Um, one thing we did this year which was really
fun was our first ever bike bus rally uh where we gathered at the Mayflower Coin Mart and we with Plymouth Police we all rode our bikes down to Hedge School and we had over 50 kids, we had scooters, we had um rollerblades, we had you know it
was fun and we had loud loud music and had a great time and we're scheduled to do that again next week and instead of just going straight down Spooner to Stannis, we're actually going to hit a neighborhood. Um, if you know the area, it's the Sawmill area which has a a fun hill that we're looking forward to which
will be 1.6 miles. Um, so we're in this time we're just going to have kids that can ride bikes without training wheels just so that we can anyone else can join us on um closer, but we want to really explore how to get some healthy exercise before school. So, we're looking forward
to that. And I do ride a bike, too. I can still do that. We had 55 family surveys for of our school. That was the highest number we've had in years. Um, and our K through2 teachers all initiated mystery readers into their classroom. So, they have guest readers
come in usually on Fridays or whenever the parents can come in and read to the class. Our uh we had a math night this year uh which was new. We haven't had a math night in a long time. It was very fun. and our school PTA raised over
$20,000 with our glow run. That's a picture of our glow run up there and we're going to be purchasing a little bit more equipment for our playground um which is a community playground. So, everyone who donates will hopefully be able to benefit from it. Um one of our
goals was that we identified last year on our school survey was that teacher parents didn't really know what their kids were learning in school. So, we made a big push for that this year. One way to increase curriculum communication
is by having homework if the k if kids are doing homework at a young age and not much because you know we want kids to be kids and play after school but it it's a way for students to have extra practice and also for parents to see what their child is learning and it allows an opportunity for parents to see
how their children are doing with the work that we're providing for them. We also um committed to making sure that teachers were communicating and as well as specialists and support staff what they're learning uh what they're teaching in their classes. So we increased our curriculum communication
and our evidence showed that when we looked at our S survey. So what do we have for next year? Um one of our goals was looking at our transportation barriers and you know fiscally it's very expensive to to add
buses. Um so we are looking at carpool connections. That's something our school council identified. You know what if we have uh families volunteer to help with car pools that people can connect with each other. It's not us, it's all them together. So we're going to look at that
um how we can make do that for families. Um and these are just are some of our things that people have said our favorite things. Small close community, kind staff, teachers love the kids, everything. The playground. Um and that was one of our graphs that shows that uh
parents felt that they were getting solid communication from teachers in regards to curriculum. Another area that we wanted to work on was our chronic absenteeism and we were very pleased with our chronic absenteeism. As you can see from 2023 to
2025 we've gone down by 5%. And I ran some numbers thinking about when you when you say that 12.7% of our students are identified as chronically absent, which as of today was down to 12.3% by the way, but I did
this before vacation. How many kids does that really mean? And and so when I looked at all of the children, four students right now are identified as chronically absent in our building. And so we are able to narrow that down by
looking at the data and and work with those families and some of those kids have medical challenges that makes it difficult for them to come to school and we understand that. And then I identified we've identified nine other children that are close to being identified as chronically absent. So
we're working closely with them. you know, when you have children that take vacations, um it's hard they if they take a vacation and then they get the flu, they're they're going to be chronically absent. Um so although we know that vacations is important for families and children to have
experiences, um we wish that they didn't always have to be outside of our school vacation time, but we do understand that. So we're very we're very pleased with our goal. Human capital, finance, and facilities. Um, that's part of exploring our
transportation barriers. We repaired our garden beds. So, our garden beds got rotted. They were falling apart. Um, Mr. Armoir, he's a merchant marine. He was home on leave and he's like, "I can fix those for you." So, he and his um, kindergarten son Ben spent about a day
and a half repairing our gardens. They were beautiful. We grew the we grew things last year. And then the snow plows came and they did a really great job clearing our playground, but they hit the garden beds. Um, so we were able to get them fixed. So we fixed them
twice. Um, and they've already we're already working on on um planting. Uh, >> flags. >> We What was that? >> Big giant flags around them. >> I know. I have to put Who would have thought we would have to put that much We had that much snow. >> I have some of those poles I can give
you that I don't use. >> Okay. We actually have some. We do. use them for story walks with the kindergarteners so I could stick them in there for next year. If I put them there, we won't get that much snow. >> Yep. Exactly. >> Um uh as I'm sure you all know, we have
um presented um a um owner's project manager corporation to to hopefully be our owners project manager for our feasibility study for the new school. We did uh tidy up our playground a little bit. We put some new dots. We put a four
square area which is used all the time. We were able to secure funding to have another ELLL fellow and um we are raising money to um increase options for our playground. We just had the uh Volta installed over April vacation um our
donated adaptive PE uh equipment when the kids were out there today and having a grand time. Um, I'm sure that some of the adults aren't very happy with it because they have to watch the kids go round and round and round, but they're having a good time. So, we're excited to
be in the feasibility study portion of our school project. Um, so I just want to thank everybody for all of the support that you offer us year after year. And, um, these are just some fun pictures of some of the family events that we've done. Uh, we had some, um,
Brazilian dancers in. They told us that our school was the best behaved group of children they've ever had and they were the most engaged. Um, and it was fun because they actually knew the lyrics of the song, so they were really getting into it. Um, but that that's um that was
special to hear. Uh, we had our one school, one book, and that's a picture of my fifth graders and for recess. They chose to color and and make the props for our special day. Um, we had a movie night, which is fun. Old school in the
gym on mats. Um, love it. And, uh, our theme for our one school, one book was a soccer based theme. So, the night I have, uh, one of our families up there with all their soccer jerseys, and they all had the kids' names on the back, which was adorable. So, nice to see the families getting into it.
But, thank you. Does anyone have any questions? >> All right. Questions, Mr. Smart Jealous. >> Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Um, was that the 64% low income? Was that a correct number?
>> Um, yes. >> So about I mean I I think the you know the the work that you're doing in absenteeism with that high amount of low income, if you look at national data, you're you're making a lot of progress.
>> Um, you know, there's I I think I think what was it? 40% of low income is is for title one, right? You're a title one school if you're over 40% low income. >> Mhm. >> Um, you know, is there are there any other things programwise that you know,
I know the you know, school councils can help raise funds and um there's other projects, but is there any other programs you've ever identified that could help in certain areas like afterchool programs or I mean, you said 90 kids are coming for breakfast, right?
>> Mhm. I mean, it's almost half the school, so that's good. But is there anything else needs wise that you have? >> The one one of the barriers we identified was transportation during inclement weather, which we're trying to come up with an alternative plan for that. >> We stayed money in that area. We just
signed a contract. >> We have options that we can >> there's well there's other options. You know, we talked in our meetings about the school vans, right? there's some options for I mean I'd hate to see it put on the backs of car pools when we
>> are in that area of a line item in a budget you know spending a lot of money so >> um but you know but any other things that you can't do that you've seen that we could help with that might not have made it to this >> sure >> presentation >> the one thing that I didn't speak about
was our afterchool programs and we do have minimal funds through the budget for afterchool programs um they were cut this year because we tried to make it equitable between the larger schools and the smaller schools. So, I you know lost I didn't really lose but less money came
to my school this year. So, we offered less we had less opportunities for students. Um it's challenging sometimes to have to have staff to do those afterchool programs. >> Um but that's something that I know my families are always asking for is what
can you offer more things after school? Uh we do have the Y after school which is always full. We've extended um we've got our library approved so that through the state so we can make it even larger if we want but our space is so small you can't make it too much bigger. Um there
are organizations that we could look at and hire to come into our school to offer programs. Um so that would be one area that I would see would be great for our kids. I'd rather have them doing something fun and constructive and it doesn't have to be academic um but
something to keep them, you know, busy and their brains going and um always wanting to to come like we we we want the kids to come to school, >> right? >> I I think thanks for identifying that because there's other revenue streams that, you know, we can look at for
support other than just our fiscal budget. I mean, there's corporations out there that will >> if there's a a program that's bundled nicely and put in front of a group. Um, you know, there's other ways to get funding besides grants and, you know, the town conference. So, if there's a
need that you see like, you know, in a presentation, I'd love to, you know, you you laid it out great, but then a page of, hey, we'd love to have this, too, right? just so the community is aware and you never know who's, you know, watching and listening. But I think
that's important, too. As we face things where people are throwing around fiscal cliff and all this, there's there's going to be some creative thinking, it doesn't mean we got to stop saying like what we need. Um, so if something's cut, I mean, we can identify that. Yeah, we'd love to bring it back because it would
be helpful. >> So, yep. >> All right. Thanks. >> Thank you, >> Miss Awood. >> Thank you. Um thank you very much for your presentation. Um I just have a couple of questions. Um just in terms of the um the numbers as it relates to the science you you mentioned a barrier
being um like trans transient like community. >> Were there do you purs were there any other barriers like to those numbers >> just in terms of >> well what we're looking at is our practice. Okay. um and trying to make
sure that that teachers are comfortable with teaching children how to be science thinkers. >> Okay. >> Um and that's what we're working on. So, we did identify that. >> Yeah. I I see that you've um made some um or have identified some
solutions. Um, also too, just in in terms of your school population, I know you Cold Spring have a larger population of um, English English language learners and you mentioned something in terms of just the amount of students. You have
you've been impacted in terms of um, numbers um, as it relates to that population and with everything that's happening without me saying you know specifics. Yes, we have seen a dec decline in our students that are identified as the English language learners over the last year.
>> Has it been a significant decline? >> Um I have the numbers here. So we had last year when I presented it we had started to see a decline and um so this year we are at 30.9% and last
year at this time we are at 34.3%. >> Okay. >> Okay. Um, >> we're still high. Yes. >> But not as high as we used to be. >> We were before. All right. >> All right. Just want Thank you very much. >> You're welcome.
>> All right. I think we're good. Appreciate it, Miss Wilson. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have Stacy Perry from Federal Furnace. Hi, I'm Stacy Perry, principal at Federal Furnace Elementary. Thank you
for having me. Um, okay. First, I'd like to thank my school council. We have a very active group. Um, so I'd like to thank my staff and the community um and parent community and parent members that are on. We got a
lot done this year. Um, we're not quite finished, but we have a lot um on our plate and we made good progress this year. There we go. Okay. So, we are sitting at about 347 students. Um, since I got there, actually, since I was there 12,
13 years ago, it's a steady decline. We're kind of holding right around the 350ish and then we go up or down a little bit. Um, so that's declining a little bit. Our sub subsparate programming, our our numbers are going up a little bit. Um, luckily for us, our
building accommodates it. We had two classrooms that we were able to use for different purposes this year, and we may actually gain another one for next year. So, our space is fine for the population that we have. We typically have three teachers at every grade level. Um, next
year, we're kind of looking at that. We may go down in a grade or two. Um, our special ed population is about 28%. We're always pretty low for English language learners. We're only at 7%. And then our econ economically disadvantaged
population is at 32%. So the first goal for us is our teaching and learning. And the work that we've been doing is um going well. So we are our objectives are to have like a workshop model for all of our curriculum
core areas. Um we are looking at data with our data teams and our child study meetings to we do that monthly with our grade level teams um to see what the data is showing and then try to make improvements. We did a lot of work with
literacy this year. We started right in September with Mossflower. We had literacy lab sites. We did it three times a year this year. Um, and that was kindergarten through fifth grade. And it is going to roll right into the end of the year to prep us to to start the and
hit the ground running in August and September next year. Um, like Kristen mentioned, we are doing number corner. It is now gone from kindergarten into first grade. And then we have already observed Carver Elementary in second grade so that we can roll it out in
second grade next year. Um, our learning walks are growing. the the ones that are really popular are the teacher walks. So, we are rotating through our staff and we've had a lot of the staff um go through the teacher walk and I have gotten nothing but positive feedback. Um
they really like going into the different grade levels, different classrooms. They're able to see where it starts in kindergarten and how it builds when they get the students get to them in fifth grade. So, it's really great and we're going to continue that next year. Um, we do try to get community
feedback. So, we have a stakeholder survey that has just gone out. We're collecting that as a school council and analyzing it and then putting in some goals for next year. Um, and the last thing that we have, I we have the launch of the social studies pilot classrooms.
Um, and that has gone really well this year and we've gotten some great feedback for for data. I have a snapshot of our MCCAST scores. Um, so we are green and
overall the scores looked good. Um, we are going to put a little more emphasis on literacy. We started it this year um because we're we're falling a little short there, but we're going to continue our tier 1, 2, and three interventions.
Um we put a priority on early literacy, so we really targeted kindergarten, first and second grade. Um we did really well in math and then science. We actually did really well, which was great to see.
What this assessment is our fifth grade star assessment and the reason why I included this slide. We want them in green. Um this was our winter assessment. So we still had room to grow. But it shows that by the time kids get through kindergarten through fifth
grade, fifth graders are doing really well meeting the standards that they need to meet in order to be prepared for middle school. So what are we doing to close the gap? Like I mentioned, we're really focusing on strengthening tier one so that kids are getting interventions by their
classroom teacher. We focused on early literacy, kindergarten, first and second grade. Um, and then we're really looking at tier 2 and tier three with our EL teacher, our CTLs, our coaches, and looking at really making sure we're
doing push-in support versus pulling kids out of the classroom. So that's been over the last, this is my fourth year here. Over the last four years, we've gotten a lot better with keeping kids in the room and bringing the resources to them. And it it matters. Um for the learning environment, we're
focusing on time on learning. So we're making sure as soon as that bell rings, what are we doing? Is it productive? Is it helpful for the students to be working on it? And are we working right up until the very end of the day when they need to get to parent pickup or
buses? Um, in the bottom right corner, I included the engagement continuum because we put a lot of emphasis on looking at this chart and making sure the way that it works, we want the students to the right. So, we want
students to be more driving there. They need to move to the right and the ultimate goal is to have them driving what they're learning and driving what they're doing. So in our upper grades, the teachers have done lessons on this with the kids, teaching them about well,
what's it mean? Were you an active participant or were you just absorbing? Um, and then even at the lower grades, we've modified it and put it in kid-friendly language so that they can understand it, too, so that they learn how to be a student. And I think it's important that we teach them that. We do
have two Title One staff, part-time staff. They service about 58 students. The way that we operate title one is we're able to take the data at the point in time. So usually it's the beginning of the years from the previous year's
end of year data. Um we look at it globally. We prioritize some kindergarten, first and second grade and then we try to spread it out as best we can and we do an intervention and then we come back together as a team look at
the data. Um, and that is using the title one staff, the EL staff, and also our CTLs. Um, so we're constantly meeting as a group to look globally at all of the students and to see which students are in needing the most.
The next goal is social emotional wellness. And we um have a few fun things. We have our our PBIS, which is our ROAR. Um, respect, account, uh, respect, ownership, accountability, and responsibility. Um,
we still have, I know every year I talk about it, but you can see the little girl on the telephone. That's our positive call home. She's at my desk, she calls home, brags about the great things that she's done. We take pictures, they go on the bulletin board, they get the t-shirt. Super cute. I love it. Um, it is the greatest thing that we
do in the building. Um, and then another silly thing that we do that, but I think it sets the tone every day. Part of our morning announcements, the kids are there with me. They do their portion. Um, and we do a joke of the day. So, we're getting it's I have a stack of dad jokes. They're they're great. And no
offense, mom jokes, dad jokes. Um, but it sets the tone for the day. Kids love it. They get excited when they hear it. And I think it just makes it a fun place to be. Um, we do teachers are doing second steps. Um we do all school meetings to build community and that is
where we just come together. We have a morning meeting. We discuss things that are important to us. Um sometimes it'll be honoring the positive call home recipients. Sometimes it's the chorus students performing, but it's a nice way to come together every month and just
build community. Um the other picture that I included on that slide is Officer Dan. So, a lot goes into making students understand how to be safe in the building and then practicing it. And then Officer Dan in that picture is in a
classroom where some shenanigans went on and there was a mystery and he came in to take a police report. It was really cute. Um, he's done a a great job getting himself integrated into our building. Um and the the the big push for us for school council was to get a
sensory space pulled together and we are getting there. Um but we have with one of the classrooms we're turning into that into a sensory spa and we'll be able to keep it for next year which is great. If we ever outgrow our building we'll just kind of move it into the
hallway right now. We were able to give it a classroom for community engagement. I have a very involved PTA. I want to thank them publicly. They do amazing things. They've had programs that have gone on for years and years. I think Federal Furnace is known for the spooktacular.
People in college and beyond come back for it. It's really great. Um, and the families run it. It's not really our staff that does it. It's the families. the family does a scene and they do it all themselves. It's such a great community builder. Um I mentioned earlier we do the stakeholder survey and
and we get feedback from the family um along with doing a weekly newsletter to update families on what's going on. And then something that we're really working hard because attendance is still a struggle for us um we have a men monthly attendance committee at Algangquin
Heights. Miss Dei is really great at spearheading that. She gets community members involved. Um, she gets the schools involved and we're putting a lot of effort there. For us, um, same as Kristen, we have a transportation issue. However, I do have a a van that stays at
the building. So, sometimes when they say, "Oh, they missed the bus and they can't get there for X, Y, and Z." Um, I can either go there with the van or or bring uh Ben over with me. So, that's been very helpful. it the that has also
helped with clubs and and things that the kids typically weren't able to go to because they can't get to the building. We can do that. So like our yoga, I was able to drive a group home. So it's really great. Um some other events that are big showstoppers, we always have a
one book, one school. I cannot tell you what it is because we haven't revealed the book because we pushed it to June because we're in school until the end of June. U bingo night. We love when there's a picture of the football uh readers. We love when they come with the cheerleaders. The kids love to see them.
Um we always have ice cream social at the end of the year. And then before kindergarteners come, we do a popsicles on the playground so that they get to meet some people in their class. Um and then senior walk is turning into a really big beloved tradition um where we
have the seniors come back and they get to share about their their experience at Federal Furnace. Um, and the last two pictures, I don't know if anyone is driven by our school lately, but you should see lots of flowers because this fall every student planted a bulb and it
was called bulbs in bloom and now they are all blooming and it's really, really, really pretty. So hopefully you can drive by the building. So what's new and exciting? This is my slide that's new and exciting the most. So this is it's called Mass Maritime
Bigs program. So we are partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Mass Maritime and we thank you to the district for providing transport transportation. We have a bus come to Federal Furnace, pick up my kids, drive
them down to Mass Maritime. They're paired up with a cadet. So each of those you see that's their big brother, big sister. They're in the dining common. I purposely chose the one with the ice cream because the kids get very excited. They get to eat whatever they want the
entire time. Um, and they play with the kids, they play games, they go outside, they walk the campus, they can go wherever they want. Um, and the they love it. The kids really love it. And the bigs are really good at teaching them about how they chose this school,
wh why did they do it, what's it take to get here? And so I think it helps our kids see what's outside of our walls, what's outside of where they live. They can see the possibilities. So it's really great. And I also want to thank Miss Dee public publicly because she
gets on the bus with them, drives down to Mass Maritime, stays with them, and then drives back to Al Gangquin. So it's really great. She's she's instrumental in that program. Another new and exciting, it's not really new, but it it just was so cute this year. our kids. We're expanding
every year with our our baby Shark Tank here at the Children's Business Fair. Um, Federal Furnace, I think, was a smaller group typically, but they're really growing in numbers every year for the Children's Business Fair and they're making a lot of money. It It's really
great and they have good solid business plans and I think it's going to really pay off when they get older. We had a girls on the run club for the first time this year and we traveled up to Boston and we ran the fall 5K. Um, a
lot of these kids, I would say half of the girls in that picture are not runners, never had had run a race and they all finished, you know, so it it was really exciting to see. And we are actually offering a spring run, too, because there was such an interest. So,
there'll be another group going up in the spring to run the 5K. And then lastly, I think it's lastly, lastly is our Friday. So yes, we do jokes and then on Fridays we dance. So this is a Friday
dance party and this was a big dance party because typically we don't have DJ Mags that's in the middle. Um that's his son Milo who's in the intensive learning center. Um typically we just play music, but Mr. bags came and he brought his DJ equipment because he's a professional DJ
and we just danced and had a great time. So, it's celebrating the kids making the great choices throughout the week and it's bringing the week to a close in a positive way. Kids run into the building on Fridays and everybody starts the day having a great time. So, I want to thank
DJ Mags on that. Um and really Erin Rearen, our teacher that was the creator of this and now it's just grown and we can't skip a day and we cannot skip a Friday. So for focus area 26, we really focused
on small groupoup instruction and looking at our RTI practices and making sure we have tier one interventions in place and then working on tier two and tier three. Um, like I mentioned earlier, we had a lot of emphasis on um,
early literacy for kindergarten through 2 grade. We reworked our practices a little bit for um, English language learners and made sure we were more pushing into the classrooms. We did more teacher learning walks. Um, nature's classroom and getting out in the garden
has been our push for the last few years. And I would say we've layered on a little bit more of the healthy habits Kristen mentioned about what we're feeding the kids. Um we do have the hydroponic growing station that we just got that we're going to have next year.
We are asking whenever possible to pilot anything related to school food services. Um I'm teaching an in the kitchen enrichment club because I just walk around and I see what kids are eating and and when you see all that sugar, it makes it really hard for them
to focus. So today we did an an activity where they actually saw how much sugar we I did teaspoons of sugar in a cup for them to see what is in that apple juice or that milk or that coke or the this and they were amazed and and I think little things like that where you're
not, you know, saying you can't have that, but you just show them like, oh, look how much is in that soda. Oh, and then we made spa water. Look how much was in your spa water. There was zero sugar. So little things like that. So that was a focus for this year. Um, and then as far I mentioned the sensory
space and then as far as our teaching practices, so when we looked at our scores for ELA and and we, you know, we we wished it was higher. Um, we started really looking at like, okay, when you're going and teaching a lesson, who's doing all the talking? Is it you
or is it the kids? So, we really like had people like self-reflect and think about it. Are are the kids doing the talking? Then layering on the engagement continuum. are they driving what they're learning or is it you pushing them? So we want the kids to take ownership of
it. Um so we really are looking at student talk and for next year we're continuing that. So we want kids talking so that will increase the rigor. We want a teacher to use her expertise watch walk into a lesson observe and see what
you see and then decide what you need. like don't go in there with a predetermined plan because they are experts and they can analyze like oh they pretty much have this let's change direction a little bit and Mossflower really helped us with that they modeled that for us. Um for me building safety
is something that we really want to focus on. Um I I'd like to put some effort into our entrance and our gym. We did some safety drills and we've got a few things that we would like to correct um every year. So and Chris and I got the Volulta too. The Volulta is a great
p piece of equipment because it's an adaptive equipment and our students in the ILC that have mobility issues can ride it, but it is something that like when it's not used, great. Kids can sort of fall off. So, we have a little bit of um uh teaching around it that we have to
do. Today was just day one, so we had people stand and guard around it. Number Corner will expand next year and so will our social studies programming. And that is it. Any questions? Great presentation questions from
>> Thank you very much for your presentation. Um, I uh really I guess I I like the fact that you're really making um an effort um to kind of combat just um the absenteeism and and you know
understanding some of the challenges that um certain community members have in terms of this transportation piece and having the ability to actually drive there to these you know communities and pick up these students which is absolutely wonderful. I I just um commend you on trying to like bridge
some of those gaps as it relates to like access. Um so >> yeah, thank you. When I came here four years ago, that was the thing that was just glaring to me. It it just it didn't allow a big group of kids to be able to participate in a lot of things and it
just, you know, didn't seem fair. >> Yeah, I would second that. I just uh I think it's great that you're like finding a individualized focused solution to be able to help these people, the community members that might
not as easily be able to get to these events. Um because it's so important for everybody to feel included >> and >> you know to have a barrier that's easily fixable and you're going out and doing it. That's just wonderful to see. >> Yeah. I say as as a formal federal
furnace parent, I know that direct support was not there, you know, 8 10 years ago when my kids were there. So that is really nice to see. I'm also I love the uh the Mass Maritime Partnership. That's really cool to see that stuff special. So I'm sure it's sure it's an amazing experience for those kids.
>> Yeah, it is. And it was it's a small group. It's 12 right now, but they wanted to start us small. And I could have filled I could have filled like 40 easily, no problem. And they they're talking about expanding and potentially going to the middle school like letting it flow into the middle school too which would be really cool.
>> No, that's that's a great concept. So take advantage of you know have mass time right there. >> Yeah. >> You have other questions? >> No, I I think I just would like to expand on that because I think especially when you have um particular communities that don't necessarily see
that far ahead. >> Yes. >> Or have not been exposed to that. It it just when you talk about opening up someone's world, I I think it's excellent. >> Yeah. No, couldn't agree more. >> Well, I'm looking forward to being back there in six weeks for my last senior
walk, so it'll be fun. >> Very exciting. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Perry. All right. Next up, we have Mr. Palino from PCIS. >> And on the side, I wanted to say Paladino pickups
>> and I can do my pickup. Huh? >> Yeah. That whole initiative came because Stacy was like, I don't know what to do. >> Yeah, I know. It sounds like >> and I was like, we're going to get you a van. And she took her 7D license and did all the >> Yeah. You did all the things. You did all the things. >> So, I have Kathleen Shaw with me. Uh
she's here. Uh she worked uh during her administrative practicum with me and some of these initiatives we wanted to be teacher based and we felt not administrative. So, she took on a lot of those some of the things we're going to be talking about today. So I wanted her to present some of her stuff uh because
she's been instrumental in it and she'll explain why we want it to be teacher based not administrative based. Um so our theory of action really is we wanted to increase teacher effectiveness and we felt like through uh strengthen our collaborative learning communities we would really achieve that implement
evidence-based instructional practices and use data to drive instruction. We felt like if we could do those four things we would see student success. Um so hopefully with our my presentation or our presentation today you guys will see some of that some through some of the work that we've been doing at PCIS. Our
objective one again is to strengthen instruction through collaboration and to rewind a little bit um over the last few years and actually started uh with Dr. Campbell in those learning walks getting out and getting into classrooms and seeing what was happening and seeing not only in our school but some of the other
schools really helped us as a school uh really make want to have an emphasis on that collaboration because the collaboration wasn't just what we were seeing in schools. It was those conversations afterwards, talking to other leaders, talking to other teachers, talking to our district uh administrative and kind of getting being
able to have those conversations and and really look at teaching and learning a little differently really helped me and wanted to expand it to the schools and and and try to implement that in schools. And what that led was through uh monthly walks with each of our
coordinators and again going in seeing what's happening and then also having those those discussions in uh you really talking about teaching and learning and then in turn seeing what's happening as classrooms and really wanting to share the wonderful things that are happening
and showcase them for our teachers to really learn from each other and collaborate with each other. So that's how that objective really uh came about. Um, so I'm going to turn it over because this is kind of the things that we wanted uh Kathleen to kind of help out with. Um, and I'll jump in here or there.
>> Um, yeah. So, I'll start with the mentoring and collaboration portion of it. Um, we co-created the Falcon Academy a few years ago, which entails the new teachers and existing teachers at PCIS. So the purpose of the new teachers in Falcon Academy is understanding best
practices and uh common routines that they'll see at PCIS. Our existing teachers get the ability once a term during their duty period to go into each other's classrooms. It is uh strictly peer-to-peer non-evaluative admin isn't
really part of it other than knowing um that it's being successful and the feedback's been really great. Um some of the highlights in the classrooms that we're trying to show is with the applied learning lens. Um we've been working closely with the 18 foundation who's
been helping us with this. Um we have been using professional development to uh develop student discourse and the professional development has also been teacherbased. So the teachers have been presenting um to each other on student discourse. Uh we've really been
emphasizing on different subject areas. So, we really have been including our last PD service. We had an art teacher and history teacher. Um, and it was just a really great little carousel of um, presentations to help uh, with an
activity of NEST, which we'll talk about shortly. Um, I liked hearing about the fifth grade, the engagement continuum. That was a big focus in our PCIS classrooms. um is located in every classroom including every office and students are um well aware of the vocab
that's connected with it and what that looks like in each class. Um and some of the consistent routines include like the voice levels and I do have to shout out the elementary schools because I have a nephew who was very loud in a restaurant the other day. I said voice level of one and he knew exactly what that means. So
that was great. Um Mr. Mr. Paladino spoke about the walkabouts um including staff walkabouts but also with the uh department heads. Um we're also fortunate uh with staff to be able to have PLC's not just department-based
um as a sixth grade teacher. I'm able to meet with my math department and science department, but I'm also allowed to meet with my team um during our cycle. >> One of the things too with the Falcon Academy, uh it's the it's the new teacher, the mentee going to observe the facilitator. So, a teacher would go and
observe Kathleen in her classroom. Um, and then Kathleen would go and observe the new teacher in the classroom, but then they would also do an observation together so they can really talk about what's happening in the classroom. So, it's not just come in and see what I'm doing, but actually having those conversations about what they saw and maybe how they could implement something
that in the classroom because it's real important for new teachers to kind of learn from what what our existing teachers are doing and be able to have those conversations. Um and we do monthly curriculum coordinator uh part of our admin meeting there's an agenda where we get we actually were able to zoom in the coordinators some come uh
and we are able to meet as an administrative group to again collaborate with the curriculum coordinators monthly so they can talk about what's being presented at their department meetings you know what they're seeing what they want us to see when we're going into the classroom. So it allows us to uh to be connected with
them uh as well as those those walks that we do. And we think that's important because we're all running in a million different directions, but once a week we do meet administratively and then once a month that coordinator uh does jump in in those uh those meetings with us.
All right. And we feel like with this collaboration, we're going to see increased uh professional growth uh because again, we're learning from each other. We're allowing teachers a time to get into other uh classrooms to see what's going on. A lot of teachers, you know, when they they come to PCIS, it's a big school. So if you're in uh Gemini
House, you may not necessarily know what's going on or who the teachers are even in Ranger House. So it allows that uh that collaboration in getting to know other people within the building. Um consistency is important too. Some of those things we're doing with those carousel best practices, you know, for kids to know the expectation. There's
voice levels in an art class is the same voice levels that are being used in a math class. The engagement continuum that's being used in a science class is the same engagement continuum used in an art class. Um, and just having common routines so the the consistency of what's happening in the classrooms that
students know what to expect and there is an expectation that there's an opening activity, there's routines that are in the classroom and trying to build that throughout the building. Um it it just provides stronger classroom environments, increased student engagement, improved academic performance, and again consistency of
class classrooms. And we've seen with that uh a decrease in student behavior and we'll show a little bit more data data on that, but 23 to it's actually a little more like 24% of the conduct that we have in our school is uh tardiness and attendance related uh things. So, um, and in middle school, tardiness is
kind of tough because a lot of the times it's it's they're not they can't drive themselves to school. >> Uh, so that that can uh make it make it difficult. Uh, but with that being said, we've seen growth in all of our MCCAST data. Um, you know, in our ELA, our growth growth percentiles have increased
2.3%. Uh, we have 7% more kids meeting and exceeding expectations. Um, we've seen growth in our in our math, uh, 3.6% six% in our growth percentiles and 3% meeting and exceeding expectations uh in 5% meeting uh and exceeding
expectations. There are no growth percentiles in science because um they take it in fifth grade and they don't take it again till 8th grade. So that's not available to us. you're going to notice and and this is something we're trying to do at at the building level when you talk about student discourse uh inquiry based learning you know that
applied learning trying to incorporate that into our math classes our uh social studies classes through IHM and then even in uh in our English classes where we we we tried to promote we work with teachers on how student discourse and letting them do the thinking. Um so
you'll see some interesting data with that. um our ESL students in ELA, we saw a 6% increase and that was something we were flagged for last year. So in one year with changing that we have kids in all of the classes, they're not pulled out as much. So they're actually integrated into all their classes. We
saw some good data with that. Uh there was no change in meeting exceeding expectations. But in math, our ESL students uh increased gross percentiles by 5% and 7% more are meeting exceeding expectations. in science 27% of our kids
in it's 27% increase of meeting and exceeding expectations and when you think about how the content and the curriculum is delivered in open sedc incorporate more of that in the other subject matters at at PCIs we've seen you'll see our science data um has has
higher levels of increase than than the others um special education there's no change in the growth potent percentiles but 2% more uh we're meeting exceeding meeting expectations math. Same thing. It wasn't a change, but we did see an
increase of 2% in meeting expectations uh meeting or exceeding expectations in math. And then a 9% increase uh in science and meeting uh and exceeding expectations with special education. Um in low income, uh we have a 4% growth
percentile in ELA and a 7% more students meeting and exceeding expectations. the math again no change but we did see 4% meeting and exceeding expectations in science uh 9% increase in meeting and exceeding expectations. So uh you know
this is one year in trying to change things that we're doing and the collaboration all the things we're doing. We we did see some positive movement with our Did I go buy one? Uh reducing chronic absenteeism. Uh we uh we have attendance data analysis to
identify patterns with students and families. Uh we have truency meetings with families uh students and families. Uh we try to start at the low level and increase with uh eventually with uh Mr. Janowitz uh who comes in. We have mandatory re-entry meetings for students who are returning. We want to make sure
when kids return from long periods of absence that we have a plan in place. We have a plan not only to get them to school whether it's they meet with the adjustment counselor first. Some of them meet with Anzel. Uh some of them go to our bright room. Uh which has been huge. Um some of them just spend the minute
with the guidance counselor, have breakfast. So there's different plans that we have in place and then they might need breaks throughout the day. So we try to tailor a plan in those re-entry meetings to get kids acclimated back into our school envir environment. I talked about our Bright program uh which was an instrumental um and she had
shared me some data but I already sent this up as far as kids graduating through that program but also maintaining some level of support through the teacher that's in that program. She's an adjust adjustment coun counselor by trade. Uh so she's able to work with those students and then
continue at least those engagements. uh we we have a lot of uh counseling and social support social emotional supports with our adjustment counselor but also uh sending families and getting families resources for their own uh needs. So it's been it's been big and then early
alerts to be proactively communicating with families. We have attendance incentives and recognition programs for students. Uh we have done I've done home visits. Uh we try to if if families are okay with it. We do go out to the house. Sometimes hearing from a a a guidance
counselor, an administrator, just assisting the families cuz sometimes it's the family, the the the mother daughter or father son butting heads and having someone in there to try to find a way. And we've we've had some success with that. And Kathleen's going to talk about our nest initiative to kind of get
kids uh invested in in our our school. So we've uh we've reduced our uh chronic absenteeism by 7.7%. Uh we've this actually because it's the end of the term. Uh so I our data is actually 90 95% of our students are
passing all of their classes. Uh was which is an increase of 4% from last year. Um our um our overall attendance trends is is that has increased 1.4%. and our tardies. We've done a lot of work with
tardies. Um, our tardies went, this is at this time of the year. Uh, last year it was 1,992 and we're down to 1,148. And again, that's a that's a tough thing because it's not always the the child's fault, but we have some things in place
for for those kids to try to work with them. So, um, and it could be a tardy is 2 minutes after the bell to an hour after the bell. We don't distinguish between two. When you're tardy, you're tardy. >> I'm going to have >> right my the nest the nest is like a
passion project for us that we established this year. Um we were fortunate some of us to travel to um Denver, Colorado through a grant um a leadership team and we were able to experience some amazing things out there. And one of these programs that we saw we tried to kind of replicate with
the NEST program at PCIS. Um what it is is teachers and students meet once a month during our half days for a block and about 12 and 13 students per staff member. So um you guys we get a mix. So I have currently sixth graders who all
have for seventh and eighth grade a group of 12. And uh we created the curriculum and the framework to connect back to our pride tenants. So our participation, responsibility, integrity, determination and excellence. So, uh, lessons were created where we
are incorporating the student discourse portion of it with an activity that relates back to our attendance. Um, as well as then figuring out how to apply these skills, um, outside of the classroom and in other uh, classes. So, every staff member has a group of 12 to
13 students that they are going to have um, for six, seventh, and eighth grade. Um, but it has been so far successful. We sent out a couple surveys out to um staff members and overall it's been positive. Um it's been a nice little kind of break from the system of like
we've always dreamed of having this like small group connection with students and uh teachers. So um it's been a really great um program and it's only been developing throughout the year. Uh teachers have been sending new ideas and plans that we've created into lessons
and they send pictures and hearing teachers and students in the hallways just look forward to our half days so that they have this nest experience. So um it's been really great and there's still so many more things that we want to do with it. So it's definitely um going to continue growing from here.
>> And we're falcons so everything we've done is around nest. We have a sore period. We have a nest. >> Flying the nest when they leave in eighth grade flock talk when they're sitting in a circle. It's a whole thing. >> Uh objective three, strengthening family and community partnerships.
>> Um we uh we feel like we do a good job with this. Um there are every week uh the teachers send out communication to all the parents of what's happening that week. Um so parents on Tuesday will know what's what's happening in their child's classroom uh that whole week. And it,
you know, I I joke when my my son my kids used to come home and say, you know, what'd you do in school today? And they say nothing. Well, on Tuesday, you can, you know, you can tell them, "No, that's not what I heard. You have all this work that needs to be done. This is what you're doing in class." Uh, we also do weekly newsletters. Um, and that is
sent out on Friday from uh what's happening that week. Um, so that's been uh that's been we also have a social media page. Um, and the uh the increasing views, we get between six and 7,000 views on a on one post. Uh, which
is which is huge. So, we're getting a lot of traction with our um our Facebook page. Um, our our administrators and teachers use talking points because that uh translates for our families. It's it it gets information to all families without having to go through any Google
translate. Uh they also use translation services as far as if they need to talk to parents or if they want to bring parents in for meetings whether it's Mari or we have a system that we use for the uh for translations because we want to make sure we're engaging uh those families. Uh we have increased
opportunities for family engagement. Uh we've had I mean just last week we had Starbucks where families came in and and and were able to sit with their child and visit different uh we the cafeteria was set up as a Starbucks and the teachers are wearing their uh their
aprons and kids were really excited to share what they read and their projects. Um we have uh I mean uh we're our our chorus team is singing uh the national anthem at the Red Sox next week. We put tickets out to our community. they sold
out within the day. Um, it's not just parents of uh, core students. It's all Providence Bruins. We've had uh, our musicals. Um, our, and this goes into community collaboration. We've had uh, families engaged in our literacy nights.
Um, so we, you know, awards nights, student of the month, basketball bonanza. try to do at least one or two things a month that's going to get parents into our school to be engaged in in their students work but also uh our school. Um I too as uh Miss Perry was
talking about I met I I attend those monthly along Heights meetings uh and work with them to help support uh their students. Um we have weekly communications. So my newsletter goes to DD at at uh at Elangquin Heights. It
goes to the Plymouth Public Library. It goes to the YMCA and I believe it goes to the senior center. Um because we do a lot of work, I should say, uh community partners collaboration. We do a lot of work with the uh center for active living. They come into our school and work with our yellow tulip project. Um
our yellow tulip project goes out into the community um planting tulips at the police station, at the library, at this active fac. Um they work with McClean's hospital. Um they do a lot of work in in our community. Um, we have positive
school climate initiatives. We, uh, Kathleen talked about the PCIs pride participation. We expect, we want kids to participate not only in just after school activities, but active participants in their learning in the classroom. They're participating in discussions. Uh, they're responsible for themselves. They're responsible for their behavior. They're responsible for
their work. They're responsible for how they conduct themselves. Uh, integrity is treating each other with kindness, supporting your classmates, supporting your school. Uh, determination is just being determined. Things get hard in life, things get hard in school. Be determined to fight through that. Use your resources to help you be
determined. Be determined to come to school. Sometimes that's difficult. We want kids to be determined. Um, and we feel like if you uh if those you can do those four things, you will have excellence. And that's kind of how we've been we talk about it in lunch. We talk about it anytime we have the kids
together how important PCIs pride is. We talked about Nest. And then we also have Connect Four where the kids can earn uh Connect Four chips and at lunch on Fridays we play Connect Four. Um it's all all around positive behavior, integrity, and responsibility. Um and
they get to have a a party with me. The winners of Connect Four have a little trivia party with me. Um when they when they do win and and the kids seem to enjoy it, don't they? >> Yeah. >> Because you want to >> Good answer. >> They love it. >> They they always want to win,
>> Mr. P. loves a good opportunity to be on the mic for a Jeopardy. So, >> okay. >> Uh but again, just keeping the collaborating with our community um and and finding ways to engage not just our parents but our community. Um again, increase family participation
in school events. Every year these events get bigger. Uh we try to uh work with those underresent under represented families. our guidance counselors every year have uh worked with um you know they worked with um Miss Wilson with Hedge and getting those families to our
school to do transition for high school transition um and we had a uh increase in those families coming for uh high school preparation because sometimes they're not able to go um but we're able to provide that at our school um and I
can show you some data around our family survey. So 90 90.6% 6% of our families believe that the child feels known, valued, and supported at PCIS. 91.5% of families feel that overall PCIs support students learning and well-being. 91.6%
of families believe that PCIs promotes a positive, respectful school culture. 93.2% of families feel that their child is encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and behavior. 90% of families feel that when my child needs support, PCIs responds in a timely and
caring way. 93.2% of families feel that communication from PCIS helps me uh feel informed and connected. 96% of families believe that PCIs uses effective methods of email, newsletters, websites to communicate with families. And 95% of
the families feel that information from PCIs is easy to access and understand. So that last one's important because we want to make sure that all families know what's going on and have information about PCIS. Um so that's that that one's important. So uh we're pretty proud of
that survey that we did on that. So again, feeling that if we have strong instruction, stronger in tech uh attendance, stronger partners partnerships, we'll have stronger outcomes. And I think we've we're growing. Uh we're definitely not perfect. We want to continue to work
hard, utilize our staff, all of our PD this year has been uh with staff done by staff. Um again, we we talk about those carousel PDs where Kathleen will be doing something on student D discourse. Those teachers will go with her, then they might go to a teacher that's using
uh the voice levels or the engagement continuum. So they they're able to see um and that's kind of how we've utilized RPD this year to really share what's happening in the school. >> Great. Excellent questions, Miss Jackson.
>> Oh, I really like the way that you broke down the data, not just by looking at it overall, but also by looking at like the under represented groups. Um, I felt like that was really helpful in analyzing everything because um you're making sure you're not just
checking the box as a whole, but you're also targeting each population. I really liked that. Uh, and I think I speak for everybody when I say like your progress is really impressive when it comes to absenteeism also. Um, and that's a big one. I know
in middle school keeping people engaged and wanting to come to school. So, nice job. >> Thank you. >> Um, and then my one question about Nest was um, which seems like a great program also. Um, have you asked the students or
do you plan on asking the students at the end of the year like what their like what they liked and what they would add to the program? >> Yeah, so we've actually part of the surveys, we've sent staff surveys and student surveys through the year. Um, and it I guess the only feedback that we
got so far is there's not enough time. If we could make more time, we could, but um because we only see them once every like month, the biggest feedback with students is they're they wish they same with staff. They wish they had more time. But so far, we're getting um positive response from students. I think
by the time the sixth graders are eighth graders, >> it's like building a community. So, by eighth grade, they're going to like be more comfortable with each other and the group that they're in. >> The first year, I just knowing it's eighth grade, they've been here three years, there's there's you're only getting that one half a day a month.
>> Right. Right. Whereas, like Kathleen said, I think the real fruit is going to be when these sixth graders have >> Yeah. >> that for three years. And that's kind of you. We just put it. We didn't want to start with sixth grade and like phase it in. We wanted to all in. >> That makes sense. >> I think the other positive thing is it's
setting them up for that that advisory concept they have with the high schools where they move with those kids for four years. Granted, to your point, go thing, they meet with those kids every other day versus once a month, but it's that that same concept. And it I mean we've seen it works at the high school level
and no reason to not it shouldn't work at the junior high level. >> Miss you. >> Um thank you for your u presentation. Um I I just want to piggyback I guess on what Miss Jackson said in terms of the um improvement piece. What do you
attribute this 27% increase >> in the ESL science? >> Well, first of all, they're in they're not being pulled as much. they're in their academic classes more >> uh than they were before. Some of the kids were pulled out two periods to receive that ESL support. We wanted to
push in more. >> Um but I also think it's the way the science curriculum is delivered. >> Okay. >> Uh where there's student discourse. They're they're they're there's inquiry. There's they're not >> so they're more engaged. >> They're more engaged. I'd say the engage
and and it's hands-on, >> more modeling, more visuals. Yep. >> Okay. Wow. >> It's amazing. I mean, I got to imagine that's actually helping with their English, too. It's not just science. It's it's I know Chris, you've been in some math classes where the kids are at their boards and they're communicating.
And so, it could be an ESL kid with a there could be three or four kids in there and they're communicating. >> They're learning both. Yeah. >> They're learn Yeah. And they're working together even though the English might not be as strong, >> but they're learning the math through the modeling that's happening from student to student. And there are classes we go into and you don't even
you don't even see the teacher because the kids are doing >> the the teaching and learning and they're just help helping guide and facilitate and support. >> Yeah, I love that open ed program is amazing. Mr. Smart Jones, >> I always enjoy the middle school updates because my dad taught middle school for
38 years and he gives me this counsel because I have a elementary school, a middle schooler and a high schooler and it's interesting to watch how he deals with my kids separately on the same issue. and he said, "You know, the the elementary school kid still thinks
you're a superhero. The high school kid thinks you're a retired superhero, but the middle school kid thinks you're a glitch in the matrix. They think you're" And I said, "Dad, that's" He said, "Just let it play out." and you know to to make progress in a middle school under
the the massive, you know, neurological changes that kids are going through. Um it's something to be said about, you know, the the challenges you face. Um you know, it it's just it's something that keeps a district together, right?
Because that's that glue in between elementary and high school as they enter and they leave. So, you know, I also applaud um and it it's evident with all three of the presentations tonight, the care beyond the curriculum. >> Um you know, I I like getting emails
where leaders of schools um really state that, you know, they're educating the whole child and and they're, you know, sticking by decisions that are made um for a group and not just, you know, coming from from one person. So, I
appreciate everything you uh you know did with your presentation. So, thanks. >> Thank you, >> Miss Bryant. >> Hello. >> Hey. >> So, when I first became involved in school committee, one of the parts of my spiel,
I would say, is I was very upset that I felt in the district. My children had different experiences based on where we lived. So, I've been able to experience
both middle schools. And I know I I believe I've said it before. One of the things I'm really excited about is watching how the collaboration between
what you have done and now Erica moving with some of the learnings over to BSMS. What that's going to bring for students going forward. I've had two children now
who um go to PCIs and I can say fully confidently in in agreement with this family survey that at PCIS there is that joyful safe space. There's never a time where I have
a child that's been scared to make a mistake. They're excited to get out of bed and get into school because of Starbucks and making sure I leave a tip because that's that's what they were doing at the tables. Um, wanting to be
engaged in every activity that's offered because it's not just about hanging out with her friends. It's about what she's getting out of the experience. And I can see that from the families that I'm also
talking to for PSMS. So I say that there's something special about this environment that you are creating over at PCIS that I think is going to benefit us as a district whole because while we have different spins on things and
different schools, essentially that that foundation is being built there. And then I'd also be remissed if I didn't mention Jessica Fuller. I can't speak highly enough about her, but also all the teachers
just in general to have so many kids in one space. >> Oh, >> and not even realize there's that many kids cuz they're just so well behaved and great stewards to represent us in those community spaces. So, I just want
to say as I show up as a parent, I'm also taking note in regards to how we show up in the community and just want to thank you for that. It doesn't go unnoticed. >> Thank you. It is a team effort. We have a wonderful staff. >> Absolutely. >> It takes to to really create that. Uh
but I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Po. Thank you. >> All right. I just want to take a minute to shout out to our principles. You guys, I am always so impressed at how above and beyond you all go. Like I
loved what you said, Paul, about care beyond the curriculum. It's just so obvious how much you care about the kiddos and the families and your buildings. And it's just unbelievably heartwarming and just amazing. And I would say that to every principal who's come up and given their school improvement plan. It's
>> it's outstanding. >> So apparent. >> I'll go to dinner and send her the invoice. happily. But I get to go to the dinner. I get to go. I get to go. I get to go. >> Van, big purple van. >> Thank you.
>> But it has to have something to do with the Falcon. >> All right. No, definitely three great presentations tonight. So, we're >> Yeah, you can see >> we're definitely fortunate. >> Yeah. >> All right. We'll keep moving through our agenda. >> Our district. >> I know. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Next up, we've got a uh out of town uh travel request. Who's presenting this one? >> Oh, yeah. >> Detroit. >> Detroit. >> Um so, this is a field trip that we've done um every single year. And um
typically, um >> my god, I'm blanking on the teacher's name. >> Carl. >> Carl Nielsen takes his group of students who qualify for the robotics um competition. This year it happens to be in Detroit, so I resubmitted it for approval. Um, just because the change in
location, but again, it's it's something we approve every year. We're super proud of our kiddos who who qualify. >> Yeah, it's awesome. >> It's very cool. >> Yeah. >> All right. Do we have a motion on this one? >> I move that we approve the Detroit field
trip as requested. >> All right. You second. >> All right. We got our first and our second. Oh, I got logged out. Hold on. I didn't vote. >> Yeah. One sec. I got logged out. One sec. >> Something's going on. It says voting in
pro. Oh, there you go. >> There we go. >> Yeah, I had I had to log back in. Oh, okay. Couldn't see it on my end. Excellent. Thank you. >> All right. And that passes unanimously. Thank you. >> All right.
All right. And next up, we've got a Where are we? Where do I go? Uh cafeteria truck uh driver uh job description. >> Um so, we've had a cafeteria truck driver position for years. Um but there hasn't been a job description that goes behind it. We have truck drivers in the
district um that are Cobra based um in the custodial contract, but um this is a cafeteria truck driver. Um it is not affiliated with COBRA. Um they literally work for the cafeteria delivering um products and and goods from PCIs to
mostly the elementary schools, but they do deliver to some of the other high schools, too, because a lot of the inventory comes into PCIs and then gets dispersed from there. Um we're trying in the process to kind of eliminate some of um that work and getting a lot of the deliveries directly to the elementary
schools, but um this truck driver position will will continue um even despite some of that. So this is just formalizing um what the person does um on a daily basis and um then we can officially put this as a true job
description um and match what they do with something in paper. >> So it it's not a representative position at all. It is not representative. >> Not at this time. >> It may be in the future, but at this point it is not.
>> All right. We have questions on this. >> I would just ask for additional language or stronger language around the goal of inventory management. it is located within the job goal,
but I I would like it a little clearer in regards to either performance responsibilities some somewhere in there within the team assistant like to be more specific
>> in regards to inventory and so forth. Yeah, because I think it's it's under the job goals, >> but I think having a line um specific within the responsibilities under either team assistance or others
>> maybe under others where it's preparation of required reports and other documentation >> just to put inventory management in there as well. Mhm. >> Um would be appropriate. Other than that,
I'm fine with it. >> Perfect. Okay. I think it makes sense. >> Anybody else? Mr. >> How many do we have? >> We have two right now. They were >> That's >> That's it. >> So, was this just something like a housekeeping thing where you're like, "Let's get a job description." Was there
anything that came up with >> No, it was in in reviewing some of the rates. Um when we were looking at some of the rates and unc and kind of going through pieces of information, we realized it didn't exist. >> Um and so it yes, it was kind of
housekeeping. >> I think that's a good catch. Then if you don't the job description, >> now we got one. >> Right. And then there were questions in regards to because it was unaffiliated um there was no specific contract. >> Yeah. >> That went along with it. So these people were getting trying to make it a little
bit more formalized and making sure that the process that when these people are hired there's something that they can look at and say okay this is what the job pays this is the responsibilities >> um we have something to back ourselves up on as well and the person who's being hired can read and say okay this is what
I'm supposed to do >> right so it didn't come from the food services director that said hey we don't get a job description did it come from there >> it basically he and I were having a conversation and I asked him have you seen anything cuz I don't have anything in my records and he had nothing either.
So, um kind of it was a joint conversation between the two of us. >> Gotcha. All right. Do we have a motion? >> I motion, let me look at the language that the job description for cafeteria
truck driver with the additional language be accepted and approved as amended. Yep. >> Have a second. All right, we'll save it with seconds. We go up. Oops, wrong button.
All right, that passes unanimously as well. Next item is a job description for administrative secretary for special education. >> Yep. So I'm not allowed to say this, but I may or may not have a retirement upcoming. And um so this job description
hasn't been looked at in quite some time. So um just I know in the period of time that I have been here um special education has changed quite a bit. The requirements have changed. um not necessarily the requirements, but a lot of the the data requirements, the
technology, there's been a lot of shifts. Um so this just sort of updates that position. Um and it creates a position um that would be an unaffiliated contract and outside of the um secretar's association
um which would align with the central off other central office um administrative assistance with regard to confidentiality and things like that. >> Yeah. So the last time I was up there was 2014. >> 2014. Yeah. >> All right. All right. Do we have any
questions or questions on this one? >> A motion that the job description for admin, secretary, assistant for special education be accepted and approved as amended. >> All right, Bryant is moved. We have a second.
Mr. Jackson seconds. All right. And All right. That passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Rick. All right. Next up, we have uh superintendent update. Dr. Campbell, >> Mr. Pisano, just a few things. Excuse
me. Um first, uh town meeting update. So, happy to report after town meeting. We had a successful town meeting with a vote of 141-6 to raise the appropriation for the school committee's proposed budget. Um, so we appreciate the town
meeting members for their continued support. There was a motion to reduce our budget by 1.5 million, but that was defeated overwhelmingly. So again, we we really appreciate the support of our town meeting members. Um we also as as a part of that process
there were a lot of capital projects that were approved. So we were very fortunate to receive some additional funds for a new Plymouth South Middle School roof. So this is a roof restoration uh which Mr. Derky has brought that concept and idea into the district,
which is a very smart and strategic way of really stretching dollars because if we can restore the roof when it's still within a certain period of time, it's extending our um roof warranty by a couple of decades and it cost a fraction
of the cost. So, we're really excited about that project. In addition, there'll be a a chiller replacement at South Middle School. Uh, we also have funds for district-wide HVAC repairs again to to maintain the many HVAC
issues that come up and there's a new school bus, additional school bus and a 70D van and box truck. So, we're very fortunate for for that as our fleet ages. Um, and then really excited and this will be coming to the next school community meeting, I believe. Right. >> Yes, they will be here. um the you know
that partnership with the town sustainability planner on the solar port uh project. So Plymouth North and and the campus of Plymouth South both South Middle School and South High School getting those uh solar car ports projects underway which is which is
great. We've it was a concept that started with the the development and construction of South High School. So it'll be great to see that come to fruition. So really excited about that. May 18th. Not May, not next week. May 18th. >> May 18th. Sorry. May 18th and coming.
>> Yes. Uh, three weeks. Um, another thing I think which is which is I think I have a couple more things, but another thing which is very relevant to I think our work as a committee with the town was the the votes on article five, six, and
seven. Really important. So during town meeting there were those these interrelated articles that were passed to really shift sort of our municipal calendar um and they were voted as a consolidated group. So article five is really uh the charter amendment to town
election date. So the town election date is going to move to the third Saturday in May, excuse me, from the third Saturday in May to the third Saturday in June. So this is really now you're going to have elected officials that will stay
through, you know, the the the our fiscal year, which is a change. Um ensuring that the local elections follow rather than precede the the major budgetary decisions that are made by the town. Article six charter amendment was
spring town meeting date. So the window for spring town annual town meeting has been expanded. previously uh restricted to April. It can now be convened any time between March and June at a time fixed by bylaw. Article 7 was the
general bylaw amendment, spring town meeting election dates. So, um to implement the charter changes that I just mentioned, the general bylaws were amended to officially move the annual town meeting to the third Saturday in May, which was formerly the first
Saturday in April. So, you know, how does this affect us? I think it benefits us um for school district budgeting, you know, having sort of that additional time for thoughtful budgeting certainly helps us. We have a better sense of um
where funding is going um in terms of financial forecasting with the town. I think um it's always it's always been a challenge for us. Um, so moving forward, I think this is something that we'll that we'll want to discuss in terms of adjusting our internal budgeting
calendar. We've had some conversations about this uh both before this and and at town meeting, but really to take it full advantage of the time that we have now. I wouldn't I wouldn't suggest starting the process any uh later. Uh we
certainly want to continue with that early process, but I think will allow us to have different um moments in time to bring information forward, you know, to the committee as a committee, sort of do some scenario building and and really
look at some projections to really put um some thoughtful planning into our our budgets moving so forward. So, it's um I'm looking forward to that. and I think it will be something that we can benefit from. Um, I know that I think Anna
mentioned the biomed celebration at North. So, uh, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so both at 6:30, Tuesday at at North High School, um, Wednesday at South High School at 6:30. It's the senior premed celebration. So, um, you
know, if you can make it, that's great. Um and then this Saturday, I think it's our fifth um annual health and safety fair. So really look forward to that. Um we have the um the early childhood fair which has been going on for I believe 30
years now. But the health and safety fair will have about 40 plus vendors from the community nonprofits um and organizations that provide health, wellness, safety, a whole host of things. It should be a great day. um from 10 to one. Uh touch a truck is the
big draw. So we have great partnerships with the our municipal partners, the fire, the police, uh DPW, the back the bus bus loops for the kiddos. Um it will be a great day. So we can make it and and it looks like the weather will be good too. So looking forward to that. So
>> that's all I have this evening, Mr. Pano. >> All right. Do we have any questions for Dr. Campbell? Mr. Saros, >> could um election day fall on graduation day? >> Uh specifically was discussed to be the following week. >> So it be after graduation.
>> It'd be after. So you'd Okay. So that's good. So you wouldn't be elected. >> Yes. >> And then then you're at graduation your second week. That's how it >> work. That's, you know, and that's what that's what happens now, I think, in terms of like committee like um so you have that the gift of the whole school
year really to have the committee in place, >> especially if you only want to serve one term and you have a senior graduating. I'm not saying that. >> But so I think Yeah, I think it I think it will be very helpful for a lot of >> Yeah. Now it'll be the end of everyone's term. I mean
>> Well, you finish out the year. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It it'll finish out Yeah. I think it works for our calendar really well. Um, you know, think about the uh superintendent review moving that cycle where we start in May and deliver it in June. >> You know, it makes a lot more sense. So,
would cover the whole school year. >> Yeah. Just being able to make disinformed decisions to be able to not have to constantly bring people along because it turns over >> so close to that end of year. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean the schools are
had nothing to do with it other than the budget cycle, but it I think it just it lends itself all to our to what the way the school calendar >> goes. So yeah, sorry about that. >> All right. Anything else? Dr. Campbell. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Campbell. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Uh next up, retirements. Dr. Blaz, >> we have one retirement to report. Carol Jerger from Federal Furnace, who's been a life skills professional, um retires on June 30th. >> All right, Miss Jackson. However, >> we would like to wish Miss Joerger uh a
happy retirement and thank her for her 23.5 years of service to the district. >> All right. Thank you for that. Next up, we have uh committee member reports. Any uh reports or general reports or proposals from committee members?
>> Miss Jackson. Um I was I attended um the CPAC both the leadership and the general public meeting this month um as they do every month but this one was about transitions which was very informative uh and very helpful I think for the
people who attended. Um they also did post uh Facebook live um >> but they do host their meetings on the fourth Thursday of every month both virtual and live. So I know they're looking to up attendance and I thought
this one was particularly informative for all the families that were there and uh wasn't just preschool it also talked about high school uh middle school to high school and elementary to middle school. So I think you know a lot of good information was shared. >> It must I agree.
>> And and related to that, thank you for reminding me. I forgot about that. Um we do have a the survey out to our special education families regarding the many transitions that happen. Um it's a very comprehensive survey and it's out it was
out before break. It's out this week and we'll close it on Friday. But we've got about 120 participants so far. I pushed it out again today. So hopefully we'll get a big draw on that. >> Thank you very much chair. Anybody else?
Um the one update I have just uh look out for we are due to do our annual superintendence uh evaluation. Um the critical time is I want to make sure that the seven current members have input. So, I want to make sure we get
all inputs um uh for e our members that who definitely won't be here or may not be here in uh a a few weeks. So, when I send it out, my goal would be to try to get all inputs by the end of next week. So, it gives about a week and a half. Drop dead would be the 15th um since that's when you know kind of that
critical timing for uh the elections. Um and then target delivering it either the 18th or the 1st of June. So, it kind of depends on when people get inputs into me. Just adds up questions there. All right.
Give us some. Okay. All right. We'll keep moving. Uh, master planning committee. Any update there, Mr. >> No, that's pretty much all set at this point. >> Dropped up. Okay. So, we can drop it off the >> Yeah. >> Agenda. >> All right. Uh, report from building committee. Did
we We haven't met since we had our last meeting, have we? >> Oh, no. We did meet. Yeah. Yeah, >> we did. I forgot my notes, but I'm looking at the agenda from the meeting. Uh, we did discuss updates on the um elementary school um
um study um owners project managers uh selection and next steps. Uh we we discussed um a couple other updates regarding um architect selection for the DPW um building. Um the uh we got an
update on the repairs at Memorial Hall cuz they're having some water infiltration issues. Um um the um u renovation of the visitor centers going out to bid. Um we uh got
an update on the doors at station two um that are eventually will get put in, but they're not in yet. Um and then um uh we talked about um an idea of possibly a a public safety campus, a
shared facility with a fire and police. Um and um there's a fire um headquarters is kind of um um falling apart. Um so that's one of the ideas they they
thought of. Um and then um we got some members um that are up their term is up um in talking about um future members on the billing committee. So >> all right, thank you for that, Mr.
Morgan. All right, uh Dr. Blaze, back to you for personnel reports. >> Um to add on to to Mr. Morgans's um May 4th we are going in front of the board um for MSBA for approval on the OPM. Um
so that's this that's next week actually. >> Um and for human resources we have six appointments, six leave of absences and three resignations. >> All right. Thank you for that. All right. Any unfinished business or
new business any members want to bring up? Nothing. All right. If not, that takes us to our uh consent agenda. We have one set of minutes, couple home uh school plans, and then some accounts payable
warrants and some equipment disposals. Is there anything anybody needs to pull from the consent agenda? All right. If not, I will entertain a motion to move that. All right. Mwood. All right. Mr. Motion Maralous moves it.
Well, you're going to say with a second. All right. All right. Let's go back to that. And we all right. And So close. >> Miss was really pondering the consent agenda.
>> Take your time. >> Oh, I'm sorry. What? We're waiting. >> We're voting on the >> Oh my goodness. You know what? I was just looking. I have >> We can take a recess sidebar. I was impressed, but I was. So, >> we're good. >> I have to.
>> All right, that passes unanimously. All right, and that takes us to the end of our uh >> I forgot one thing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. >> Before we adjourn, we should recognize the uh the great job that our chair did at town meeting as it's fresh in our mind. I want to say it was my first town
meeting. >> Um and after there was a lot of things that that that mean a lot to the country that the town meeting does. Um, but I think what should mean a lot to this community and I know means a lot to this uh group is how you representative and
you did a great job. >> Great. >> I appreciate I apprec I appreciate that. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, with that I will uh adjourn our meeting at just before 900 pm. Thank you everybody.
>> Thank you.