Good evening. calling to order the uh school committee of the whole for July 22nd 2025 will all rise and with the flag regular meeting pardon me to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all call the roll Father, roll call, please. Mrs. Stacy Bronson, she's absent.
Mr. Anthony Paganiano, here. Mr. John Kingston here. Mrs. Jacqueline Monttou here. It's all right, dog. Don't worry, V. So, Mrs. The issue Billy Ellis present.
Mega factory here. U can we please note that Mr. Fred Sella is also absent. Yep. We have a quorum. Uh first item is the recognition.
No. Again, no recognizing anyone. Uh we have uh the consent calendar. Miss Montroso. Before we approve it, I wanted to ask the committee if we could move the new if you would consider moving new business up um to the first item of the
superintendence report so Matt Cruz doesn't stay until the end in case we have questions about the warrants and the busing contract. Uh I have no problem with that. Does every everyone in favor now so that then when they would have already discussed these things?
That's fine with me. You guys want to move it to start with it now? All in favor? Sure. Okay. Okay. So, we'll take that out of order. Okay. Thank you. So, Mr. Mr. Cruz, we're going to go to number 11 with warrants. If I may,
Mr. Mr. Kiano, page six. Yes. Um, item 173. Global assessments. Can you can you clarification on that? Yep. Global Assessments is the vendor
that we use to do psychological assessments of potential uh special education students. So it's the overflow from the work that our staff psychologists are doing. If we have overflow work, we contract with global assessments. Okay. They bill us on a monthly basis um
through the special education uh GL accounts and also 186 security subscription. same page on number 186. Yeah, that's that's um a security subscription that John Ferrara has for
the is it the is it the the the swiping. Okay, there's a support of that entire system that he has a subscription for. And don't forget with those contracts, there's a base level of service that happens each month. And then if there's
something that's broken or an additional service outside of the scope, we have fixed pricing for those services instead of having to go out each individual time that there's an issue. Now, is that a total amount or or is that a partial? Right. So, this would be the annual base
cost for the whole year for for the year and then if there's major repairs to be done, you'll see a second, but we know that the pricing is locked in for those services for the year. Thank you. Thank you. Um, council, for the record,
Mr. Seller is present. Any other questions on the Florence? Miss Montroso. The only other thing was that under uh late communications in relation to what Mr. Matt Cruz can answer was a contract
we had for busing. So, I want to make sure we it's not on the agenda, but for the record, that's that's a late communication we can discuss. Now, if folks have questions, so the basics there are that whenever possible, we would like to operate our own school bus vehicles and so we uh do
a lease for two of the larger 77 student buses and we're also contracting for two of the smaller buses which will enable us to do our own transportation with in-house staff rather than contracting for those runs. The only reason this is coming before you is because it's a a
financing commitment. So there's three years of payments to be made and the financing agent off of the joint municipal contract requires a vote of the school board to commit the funds off of the existing contract but beyond just this fiscal year. So that's why we'll
take the vote here. Um, tomorrow Denise and I will get the paperwork to the financing agents so we can have these buses ready for the first day of school this year. Uh, if we could have waited to August, we would have, but the late communication means we'll be able to order the buses this week.
Thank you, Mr. Cruz. Any questions? Just one other note for me. If financial reports are your thing, you will love the August meeting. But tonight there's no financial reports because we're still in the process of closing out and opening up the new
fiscal year. So there'll be several that will come to you and as soon as I'm able to finish them, I'll get them sent to you for your review. Uh those won't be late. Communications are something that you're seeing a day or two before. Uh but July is too early to get those reports in your hands. So August that
will take up a bulk of the committee of the whole. Thank you. Okay. Matt, did you say you needed a vote on the um on the bus proposal? Yes. So, you you the uh the terms are right off of the joint municipal contract that we use for that and when
you vote tonight, we'll be able to communicate to the financing agent tomorrow. The vote has happened. The approved minutes will come out in a month, but they will know that they can begin the process of initiating the financing so that we can get the buses
here for the start of school. So, they need the school, the school board is what they call it, to just take a vote saying yes, the money's in the budget. Yes, we're going to lease these vehicles for good purposes and we're putting our yes behind it. Can I make a motion?
Miss M Miss Miller Ellis, um was this money the the amount for this lease already included in the the other um figures that we talked about when we were discussing transportation over the course of the last several months? Yes. Yes. So, if you went to the big
transportation budget detail, you would see in the other costs account that there were three items. There's a lease for 77 passenger vehicles. There's a lease for well, they could take up to 29 students, but we're only putting 14 on because it's special
education runs. And then you'll see a blank line for um cameras that we did not put the budget in at the time, but it's holding that place. That's where we would put that account also. Okay. And again, we could we could show you offline the savings generated anytime
we're able to remove a run from going out to bid and to do it ourselves. If we had limitless staff and limitless field to park limitless buses, you'd be you'd be voting, you know, in approval of 8 to 10 leases, but four is what we
can do and house properly safely this year. Thank you. Can I make a motion that we have this uh vote on this three-year lease for the buses? Great. Uh can you just make the motion read to approve the consent calendar and it'll be included in that?
Okay. Make a motion to include that in the calendar then. Second. Roll call, please. Mrs. Stacy Bronson Rizo. Mr. Anthony Kajiano. Yes. Mr. John Kingston. Yes. Mrs. Aisha Milbury Ellis.
Yes. Miss Jacqueline Montto Rosso. Yes. Mr. Frederick Sala. Yes. Mayor Patrick. Yes. Motion's approved. Okay. Thank you very much, Matt. Thank you everyone for letting me take care of the financial stuff on the front
end. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Um, while we're on new business, should we finish up with the new hires and res? Okay. Uh, any updates on new hires and resignations? Uh just that you'll notice that the list that you received in your packet especially of um
the July sorry 22nd 2025 piece with the new hires resignations um retirements leave of absences transitions etc is extensive. That includes all of the changes that occurred in the month of June when we didn't have time to
finalize details for the June meeting which was came upon us quickly. I guess I'll just put it that way. Um, and so this is actually like June and July what you're seeing here. And then the second piece as required by Massachusetts general law, we provide a profile for
each of the new hires um including their educational background uh and some other information. So that's the second piece that you have um which is shorter uh but that's the second piece that you have uh under this piece for new hires, retirements, resignations and
terminations. Thank you. Oh, Mr. Kingston. Dr. Kelly, I believe the number was 21. If I'm mistaken, you can correct me. Of the 21 people that we were uh trying to relocate to keep them in the system, have they all been notified and know
they have physician and know where they are? They have. There's one person that we're um anticipating a resignation that's going to make their placement uh more in align with um the position that they want based on uh
their lensure and all of that. So that one individual hasn't been given a notification yet. Everybody else has. Okay. Uh they they'll they're some of the people you'll notice under the transfers list. That's why it's so long. We had some pe we I had I think Malis and I both had a couple that were reaching out
to us because they were still concerned. But as long as it's down to one, I think that's Yeah. Was that recent that they were reaching out or a few weeks ago? A couple weeks ago. Okay. Yeah. I told them when I met with you, I would ask. So that's what I'm doing. Thank you. I appreciate that. [Music]
Any other comments, Mr. Sella? uh to the superintendent that we received notice of uh the deputy uh assistant principal. Is that on here? That would not have made it today that we just signed that. Although it might the resignation might be on here.
Um Robin, do you know if uh Mrs. Wuchin's resignation has gone on yet? Okay. Well, she resigned and we hired somebody. Okay, correct. Yeah, I did email the committee um when she resigned and when
I sent the notice out to all staff that we were advertising the position. Well, the my I guess my question is that going through the budget just recently, next year doesn't look so rosy. Um the
makeup of the high school administration, um you had a resignation. This is a chance probably for consolidation. Um, you have a principal, deputy principal,
four assistant principles, and an AR budsman. Um, could none of the assistant principles have moved into that position instead of an outsider? We did advertise the position to everybody in the district, including um
the existing high school staff. Um, I believe there was one internal candidate who was not a current assistant principal at the high school. Um, I know that we've talked a lot about, especially in this budget year, um, the constraints that we have and the desire
of the committee that we look uh, more acutely at our administrative team and whether some economy can be made there. Um, and it's a commitment that I will continue to make. Um, but I do think that we just restructured the high school last year. Um, and took these
steps because we were having trouble ensuring that all of our students were able to feel safe and included in the school. And so, you know, one of the changes we made was to uh increase that administrative position with the uh operations coordinator. Another decision
we made was to add au school resource officer. Other things that we did was build the team structure at the high school with an assistant principal, a social worker, two guidance counselors, a student um engagement coordinator, and a student support coordinator. And I
really think that it that's an investment that was welldesigned, well planned, and well made and will serve the high school well. So right now uh I'm hesitant to look at that brand new structure that we're one year in on and
already start to dismantle it. But I I have heard the committee um when they say that we need to look at the administrative team and see if there are places uh among the administration where we can um you know make some changes and
this particular position was already budgeted for for FY26. So, uh, there'll actually be a little bit of savings there because it's a a person who's been with us for several years who will be replaced by a new staff member, um,
whose salary will naturally be, uh, different than than the person leaving. Well, I think my making reference is that this year it looked as though we were cutting back paper trying to put together. When you when you talk administration, you're
talking a large chunk of change. So I would scrutinize a lot closer where from now I mean it was an open position. Yes, it it may not fit the profile or whatever but I I think that we start looking from the top down rather than from the bottom up. Thank you for the
time. Thank you Mr. Sel never works. Okay. So, um, placed on file. Okay. Go back. Yep. Add it to the consent calendar.
Correct. Okay. Mr. Mayor, we're now um a public no public comment as we approve the consent calendar with the transportation contract. So, uh, for if anyone signed up for public comment, you can now start to
line up. We have a sign-in sheet. So, I will read the names and then if we have more than five people signed up, you have two minutes. If we have less than five people, you have three minutes. And if anyone wishes to, uh, speak, there's an extra copy of the sign-in sheet in
the back, so you can continue to sign up until the end. So, uh, the first person on here is Luis Grus. It's just uh your name, the street you live on, and then I'll start when you start speaking. I mean, I have
you have three three minutes. Jeez. All right. Um I'm going to pull on my glasses. Sorry. Thank you, committee. Um, my name is
Luis Luis Cruz. I live on Thorn and Dice Street. I'm going to make it brief. Uh, I'm a current res. I would like to talk to the something out of the agenda today, but the topic that was many families upset. The topic is the budget cost of school bus transportation. I was
I wanted to get to know what Mr. Cruz was saying, but I talked to him later. I'm here today to advocate for the kids, students, residents of River, and low-income families who rely on public transportation to to and from school. I'm concerned with the attendance being
low, students calling out sick, and their safety. As you are aware, the city has cut the transportation fun from the fiscal plan less than one to two months before the upcoming school year without realizing the negative effects of the students in the community. family must
now scramble around, juggle their schedules and come up with alternative options for kids like after school care. The city and school department knew months ago they were having issue with the high cost of transportation and community a community a committee was formed to discuss ways to handle it. The
city gave families an option and mutate bus pass for uh and transferring kids. There wasn't no other options of transferring kids to other schools. The city should have done an aggressive campaign notified parents ahead of time that the city was having major issues with the school bus transportation and
funding will be cut so the families can make informed decision and plan ahead of time and prepare for these cuts. The city funded the transportation in the past as a courtesy to the residents of city re. To make the long story short, if we knew
ahead of time all this was happening, this would have been avoided. Back in two 21525, transportation was mentioned back on 228 2025 tour of the middle schools. The lottery back in 318
2025 we school committee meeting middle school lottery update section 8 report of the report of subcommittee ways and means subcommittee transportation cost overhaul and transportation for middle school lottery. A committee was formed. So you guys knew about this ahead of
time. Uh 47 lottery was performed. Families knew where the upcoming schools they were going to attend. 4:30 transportation discussed in length. Dr. Kelly discussed the potential cuts outlined in the handbook. All right, this I just want to go ahead.
Um, what about the cash reserves from the prior fiscal year for the rainy day funds like emergencies? Mr. Cruz mentioned in the prior meetings about this cash uh cash reserve stabilization fund for carpet improvements, the circuit breaker program for for money
discussed in recent meetings. This program helps district offset the high cost of special education. And the city gave the school department $9.2 million. And this is MBTA bus pass. My son has to take two
buses and walk to school 15 minutes to get to school. And you guys and you guys want to cut the transportation for the middle schoolers. Thank you. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Cruz. You're welcome.
Is there anyone else who wishes um to do public comment? Okay. Um with that motion to close public comment. Um I just want to see if there's anyone online. I think there's a few attendees online. I do want to make note that um
Oh, somebody does have an agenda. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jico. And I also want to make note that um school committee woman uh Stacy Rizzo is online. Hope you're feeling well, Stacy. Miss Rizzo, it's good to see you.
Go ahead, Mr. Chica. Good. Good evening. Thank you. I will um I'll make this brief because a lot of the comments, thank you to the first uh speaker. He went through a lot of the um information that I wanted to state. Um my it's it's not on the agenda, but I
really wanted to discuss the transportation. Um and one other thing that uh I think that the school school department and the city needs to look at is they really need to find the funding for this transportation uh for the students. uh years ago, I know it was
done out of out of um out of a a a great uh help for parents, but years ago also when transportation was started, we when it was originally started, we did not have these three middle schools and the middle school lottery. We have parents that need to c
need to go across cities because of these middle schools uh to take their students back and forth. So, we have the morning and we have the afternoon. Um, so this is a big burden for these parents without this busing uh with the with the new rules and regulations for
the distance uh for for for transportation to be able to um take the students now. Uh so I really think that we need to put pad to paper pen to paper and find this money for transportation for these students. Uh because we are
having students go across city because of the middle school lotteryies. Uh and it's a it's it's a big burden for parents to go let's as an example going from Northair to the Garfield or going from the Garfield area to the SBA. Uh we do not have the community the
neighborhood schools. If we didn't have a lottery and we had neighborhood schools this transportation would not be as much of a need but this is a great need uh in its caused because of the three middle schools. This is a burden that was put on because of that process with the middle schools, the lottery and
students did not have an exact choice of what school they wanted. A lot of students would like to stay in their neighborhood and we would not need the transportation. So, we need to find this money uh to help that out. Um and uh if we if we actually look under rocks or wherever we can, we need to find the
money and we have the perfect opportunity to not replace um that administration in in the high school for this year. And I I know I I believe I don't know how many students it is, but with that one person out, you would just have to allocate split up how many
students went for for that administrator uh and divided between the other four. And that's a big savings whether it's um $100,000 or $50,000 or $200,000. Every dollar helps and uh should be used for the transportation of these students.
Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Dico. any other online wish to speak there. Someone has a hand up. I go to There is I'm gonna um move them up. I can't see their name. So, if you could just give your name and address for the record.
Hi, my name is Karen Higgera. Um my son is going to the SBA. I submitted my question online. Um, I don't know if you guys can see it, but my concern is, first of all, I feel like I'm forced to send my 11-year-old on public
transportation when they are not mentally mature enough to do that by themselves. I'm more concerned at the fact that it's not just one bus that my son has to take. It is two. And in order to get to the school, he has he got into
SBA. We live uh near him. In order for him to get to the school, he needs to leave my house at 6:30, catch one bus, hope to God that the MDCA is reliable, which we all know is not, catch a second bus to go to the school, and be there 30
minutes, 25 to 30 minutes prior to school opening. So my question is, and then has to walk not only from the second bus, but has to also walk 10 minutes to get to school. My concern is in inclement weather, will the school be open if children have to wait 30 minutes before school gets open?
to be able to get in or if the MBTA MBTA bus is running tardy or if it breaks down all the wonderful things that the MBTA is known for. Will the school wave its tardiness or will my child be penalized because for whatever reason we
decided that making a priority to find funding for school transportation wasn't a top goal. So, I'm just very concerned and I'm I know a lot of people have raised concern to me and I have all told them to come
on. I am just super just annoyed and frustrated that this is the case. A lot of us work 50, 60, 70 hours a week to be able to provide for our families. And the fact that now we have to figure
something out or pay for child care so someone can take our children to school is absurd. Uh, thank you, Miss Montto Rosa. The next person is um Myra C. Hello. Yes. Um, thank you so much for
your time. Um, I'm also concerned about um public uh about trans school transportation. Um I'm in the same boat as the last parent who spoke. Um living um you know in near the Paul Verier innovation school that that part of
River and um my son got into um SBA as well. Um didn't know anything about this transportation um that it was a possibility um that it was going to be taken away. Uh we were never told this. Um the main concern also is again a
child who's turning who's 10 who just turned 11 um to take two buses to go from home walk through a bus then take one bus hope to God to catch the other bus then go again and then walk um
winter time it's dark outside really dark around 6:00 6:30 in the morning I would not feel comfortable sending my child through school on public transportation it's not they're not emotionally, you know, ready to do this. Um, I just think that's a big kick in
the gut. Um, and I just hope to God that there's something that can be done. Um, you know, so the children can be safe um, get to school. Middle school children, they're not, you know, um, mature enough, you know, especially just going into middle school to take two
buses, walk in the dark, in the cold, in the rain by themselves. God forbid something happens. Um, so that was just I was just very disappointed and I'm hoping that something can be done to reinstate the buses. Um, especially since parents weren't born beforehand.
Now we're scrambling to try to figure out what we're going to do. Um, do we leave our job to like be there to be able to pick up our child? Um, and to take our child to school. Um, you know, we rely on on our jobs. We can't just leave our jobs, you know, and this is
just, you know, it was just came out of left field. Um and I would have been involved more um if something would have been apparent in the beginning like hey wouldn't we be discussing this um I don't know I I haven't seen anything like that. Um I would have been gotten
involved sooner if I would have known and or made aware that this was a possibility. So please please anything that can be done um to protect our children. Um the city is crazy. It's very big um with lots of people moving in a lot of u busy roads. Um, and you
know, I I speak for myself and I've heard from several other parents who live in the same area that I do. There are several um students that are going to be going to SBA um from that area and this has been a concern. Um some parents are working and we're not able to make
it to the meeting. Um but this is a you know a very strong concern. Um, you know, at this point we're like, what do we have to rever to try to find, you know, another school system that will have transportation or that my kids will be safe or be easier to get to? Um, and
the lastly, we're not even allowed, not that, you know, my son really wanted to go to SBA. I mean, he's happy with SBA. He loves it, you know, um, doing that summer program. Um, but even if parents wanted to try to transfer their children to another school closer because of transportation issues, that's not being
allowed either. We're temp. We're being told no, you can't transfer your child. No, nothing can be done. Here's pass. Myra, your three minutes are up. I don't know if you want to wrap up that last thought. No. Yeah, sure. Just you know that that's all I wanted to say.
Thank you. Could you also share your last name and just your street name? Yep. Um it's Cruz. Okay. And um I'm on Bournight Street. Off of Rivier Street. On what? Sorry. Um Bournight Street. beer street.
Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Myra. Any other uh people wishing to speak online? Is that it? Is that what we have here? There are no other hands raised. Uh thank you. Any
I do I don't want to uh ignore the comments. U obviously people are commenting and we we don't want to sit there and and and hunker down and hide. Uh, I I I'll speak for the committee and certainly everyone can speak for themselves a little bit here. Um, just so everyone understands, this was this was not a decision that was made in a
bubble. This was not a decision that was made in in secret, but I I would admit school committee meetings at the most interesting part of the week. So most often uh people don't watch them very often until there is uh something that's uh polarizing. But uh this was as mentioned by Mr. crews discussed uh some
funding issues were seriously discussed not just in transportation but as a school as a whole city as a whole and I think we can pay attention to what's happening in the world there's a lot of state and federal funding issue uh issues out there this is not uh the city of Riviera or the school department is
not um uh immune to that um also as we all know the costs have everything has gotten up so so dramatically so just for everyone's edification you know the city Mr. Cruz mentioned the city additionally funded school transportation by $9.7 million this year. That was more than
last year, $500,000 more. Significant amount of money. Um and then of course the school department funds it with additional resources and of course with some of the circuit breaker funding. So as a whole, more money is spent on transportation, but it's going it's not going as far. Uh and it's unfortunate,
but we've gotten to a breaking point. In the last few years, some of those one-time funds have been used to help subsidize the difference in the gap uh with ESR funding or some sort of that American Rescue Plan type of money to help continue to keep the uh
transportation as it was. After two years of taking those one-time funding uh sources, it was no longer sustainable. And that's where the tough decision made. No one here wants to make that decision. Uh it was not made easily and it's certainly not something that we were happy about. is probably one of the hardest parts of our job. Uh the same
thing goes for the hundred or so positions that were eliminated in the school budget this year. I mean, I want to say close to 100 positions were limited. That's 100 people um that don't have jobs or jobs that will not be filled. Uh it's not easy uh choices, but as we all know the you want to if you
really want to be upset and certainly we're here to take the brunt of that, but you know there's unfunded mandates that are passed down that we have to spend so much money on transportation and and I would say maybe unnecessarily or it's just not it's not fair and we don't get full reimbursement for or any
reimbursement for uh that it's really eating up the cost of all of that that uh and then of course as we all know um there's a lot of funding shortages is coming from above that, you know, it's one of those where we have to deal with it. We're going to probably deal with it
over the next few years, even worse. And then hopefully we'll see green we'll see greener pastures at some point. But, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of um blame to go around. We have to take our responsibility. None of us are hiding our are hiding from that responsibility. But it's just the
reality of school transportation is it's become unsustainable. So we we will always provide what we are mandated to provide and the additional is now become unsustainable and and that's unfortunate. Many of the communities and I'll just say surrounding almost every
surrounding community made that decision 10 years ago. They didn't even enter into this realm of doing it additionally over the last 10 years. The city of Riviera has been u um uh helpful in continuing it. And I do understand when it comes to as mentioned the uh lottery
that is just so everyone knows in full transparency the school committee has already begun discussing the future of the school lottery. Again we don't make decisions in a bubble and we're not going to make them independently. So that's a discussion that we'll continue to have over the next school year and we'll probably come up with some sort of
a consensus decision for the following school year. That may be helpful. It may not be helpful. But I just want to make sure everyone knows that very tough decisions. We're not happy. I wish we could. I really wish we could fly every kid to and drop them off in our school. Um, but it's just not it's just not possible. It's not always what we want
to do, but it's sometimes what we have to do. Um, I hope I just hope you can understand that explanation. Thank you, M. Montroso. Motion to close public speak. Wait a second. Second. So, all in favor?
I sorted. Okay. Thank you. Uh we have the superintendent report. Miss Miss Kelly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um we're going to start the superintendent report. There are a number of big updates and just to
give an overview, several of them um like the handbooks and the guides for guide for parents and caregivers. um we're not going to look at in depth. We did share those with the committee, but we're going to over we're going to give an overview of what the changes have been. Um prior to that, we've got a
couple of presentations, one from our fantastic equity advisory board who is going to update us on all of the work they've been doing over the last year. Uh and also, uh language acquisition uh sorry, language. Oh, this says assessment. It should be access plan.
Um so, we'll have to correct that on the agenda. Um, uh, principal Bowen is here to give us an update on some of the personalized learning stuff that is has been happening at the high school. Uh, and then I just want to briefly talk about the strategic plan. So, we'll begin with the equity advisory board and
I am going to bring up their presentation while um, Dr. Garcia gives an introduction to the presentation we're about to see. And just before he starts, I want to point out the number of faculty and staff members that are in this room
right now midway through their summer break uh to share some of the incredible work that they did last year. [Music] Thank you. Thank you. Um the equity advisor board advisory board sorry the advisory board
has done an uh an amazing job um meeting throughout the uh the school year uh working on a variety of uh you know uh problems of practice uh policies uh recommendations so on and so forth. that these are this is certainly an
incredible group of people comprised of students, teachers, families that come u meet on a monthly basis. They certainly work on a variety of issues. We got five uh groups that are going to report and we'll start with the family engagement
and community relations. [Music] Hello everyone, my name is Aaron McNamera. I am part of the family engagement and community relations working group alongside Cynthia Bashad,
Jackie Busang, Alexa Ko, Samantha Ford, John Lind, and Reicho Marcos. Um so for this year, our team established a foundation of intentional event planning that ensures consistency across the district. Um to start this
process, we had principles conduct a temperature check. And within that temperature check, we focused on areas including what is the event attendance look like in your building? What is the timing of your events of your building? How are you communicating this to
families? Who's the designated point person? And the role of the family leaison. We identified both consistencies and inconsistencies across the district. Um,
two significant findings that um helped to guide our next steps are listed below. And as you can see from the responses, we got a variety of different um people that were um the point person for their school building and a variety
of ways to measure the success of the event. So our next steps, we created this checklist for anyone who would be facilitating an event. And this is going to help streamline the process for
planning the event, organizing the event, how are they going to be tracking attendance and communicating this out to families. So regardless of who the primary contact person is in that building, staff will receive this
checklist that really goes through each um task that's needed to have the event. And we're looking to distribute this to school administrators in September. And then next year, we're really looking forward to measuring the success of
events by gathering feedback from families and then collaborating with the data and accountability working group. Thank you. Hi, my name is Lisa Hannifan and I'm part of the data and accountability
group alongside Allison, Allison Shank, Shammy Gaul, and Jacob Nichol. We aimed to identify ways to make school events more accessible and inclusive for all community members to continue cultivating a sense of belonging here in
the Rebe public schools. Our work was grounded in a quote by Maya Angelo. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. As a group, we researched inclusive guides used by other entities. For
example, UMass Amhurst. We looked at one from Harvard um and um also uh a document on mass.gov um just to name a few. We also collected data about events
from each school in the district to look for trends um that we noticed. Uh some of the key takeaways, RA public schools organizes numerous events each year for families, caregivers, and students, which is great.
Some of the challenges reported was the timing of events, um child care, transportation, and parking issues along with language barriers and physical space limitations. As a result, we developed a guide for RPS staff to utilize when planning
events to help mitigate potential barriers. For example, is there a designated quiet space for attendees who may have some sensory needs and may need a calming break during a busy event? Another example in the guide asks, is
there an established parking lot for strollers for our caregivers who may walk to events? Our next steps um is to collaborate with the family engagement working group which as you just heard we
um have very parallel um uh information that we we've collected. Um, we would like to pilot an inclusive event planning guide uh with a small group of individual schools and we would um then
incorporate the feedback feedback we receive um for a new iteration of the guide and distribute to all the remaining schools. Thank you. Hello everybody. Uh my name is Nate Dory. I'm part of the educator growth
and professional development working group along with Jen Lavalita, Kie Livingston, myself, Victoria Brinkle, Roxan Campbell, and Sandra Figaro. Um, historically our group has focused our work on ed growth and professional development for established veteran
rever teachers. Um, while we of course want to continue to do that work, this year and last year, our group looked more at working with um, new teachers, new hires. Um, there's of course a a a yearly turnover of teachers, but we also felt that this was a great way to help
set the expectation of equitable practices and adherence to equity goals from before um the onboarding process even begins. So, we kind of had two projects that went along with that. Um, our first project, our team developed and proposed uh equity- based questions
um for the interview process of all employees. um we reviewed the DESIE teacher evaluation rubric and made sure the um that those questions were aligned with each of those four standards. So on the right you'll see the four standards and
that each one of those standards has at least one or two um related equity based questions that interviewers can choose that aligns best with the person that they are or the position they are uh interviewing for. Our second goal uh we implemented a
professional development led by Dr. Khalis Warham uh for all new hires. So the professional development was delivered virtually over multiple sessions. Uh this training equipped all educators with the tools to become culturally responsive and competent in their practice and we conducted a survey
of the participants to get the to gather uh their opinions on their experiences. So as you can see on the right we received overwhelmingly positive feedback. there was 144 uh new staff members this year that participated in this training. So our steps going
forward um based on the data we collected, our new teachers are very interested in continuing to grow and learn in this area. So we certainly plan to to help and support them in that in doing that. Um additionally, outside of um Jen and
her role, our group doesn't have much of a direct uh impact on the hiring process. So we want to coordinate with HR a little more. Make sure that the all interviewer interviewees are aware of the questions um and the importance of
asking at least one of these questions of all um potential hires. And then lastly, we want to interview or um survey and get data on those interview questions and um from the interviewers well how they thought it went using
them, how often they use them, which questions they used, which questions they may have not used and why. Thank you very much. Good evening. Um tonight I will be presenting on the work done by the bias and sensitivity review group. My name is
Mary Davies. The my partners um in this work are Rachel England, Rose Barrett, Jen Kingston, and Laura Vaughn. It just so happens that my entire team is made up of a group of ESL teachers and uh we represent from elementary to
high school. And we went to our director uh director labelita and we asked what do we really need to focus on? What do you think? Give us some direction. She said girls we have this we have the multilingual learning walks which are walks that uh the district administrators, the campus
administrators and also teacher members walk through the classrooms and make assessments. What's going on in the learning classroom? What are some observations that we will give back that are positive and also constructive feedback? overwhelmingly, excuse me, it
looks as though we really need to focus on academic discourse. In other words, are the students talking or they having academic language discussions or is there just a whole bunch of teacher talk? You know, teachers will get nervous and talk a lot, but we really
want to focus on having students talk. So we came up with an idea that we wanted to uh create a toolkit for all the teachers in the district from every um every every every content area not just L's not just EL ELA but everyone
that could talk and work on how do we get students to talk academically to each other and about what the work is being done because to quote my director she always says if they're not talking they're not learning. That sounds very
general but it's true. when we talk we also uh not we also synthesize what we are learning. So the toolkit is pretty cool. It has quite a few things in it. It first of all it discusses what does academic discourse look like. It's like a little handy dandy tool. You click on
it. It's going to be um something that every teacher will have access to and it will it gives you ideas of projects of things you can do in the classroom. also academic literature, the latest and the greatest of why this is important. And it also has um different types of
fine-tuning tools. That's the next slide. It has videos that we have actually taken of actual um classes that are going on in the district and how teachers are facilitating the talk. We really think this will be a very helpful tool to all the teachers and all our
students. Thank you. And I'll just point out um Mary that the tool there's a link to the tool in the handout that parents, school committee members, anybody who accesses the packet can take a look at that toolkit. Good afternoon. My name is Norashur
and we are the student agency restorative justice and seal support working group. Our members are Norashur, which is who I am, Julia Figureroa, Francois, Kojo, Lisa Gendro, Lo Paulo
Cabraw, Amanda McDonald's, and Linda Barber. Now, our project, why is it important to establish a welcome club at River High School? The River High School Welcome Club supports all students, especially those
new to the school or community, by easing their transition and helping them feel connected. The welcome club emphasizes well-being as well as social and emotional support. There are three things that the welcome
club creates. One, belonging. It helps students from diverse backgrounds feel seen, valued, and included. Two, peer support pairs newcomers with friendly student mentors to reduce isolation.
And three, cultural celebration, a space that honors and celebrates students diverse identities. A summary. The welcoming club fosters a more inclusive and inviting environment for all students.
Hello, my name is Franis Cojo and I'm also part of the student agency working group. The mission of the welcome club. The RHS welcome club creates an inclusive environment where all students feel safe, accepted, and valued. Our mission
is to support newcomers and those experiencing social or emotional anxiety by helping them connect and integrate into our school community by reimagining what means to belong both on campus and beyond. We strive to create positive
experiences that enhance academic performance, self-esteem, and social skills, motivation, and creates a strong sense of belonging. And now I would like to highlight the welcome club expansion more specifically
at the power. The RHS welcome club presented to the entire school staff highlighting the positive impact that the club has had on the lives of members and their peers. 23 students were recognized as leaders within the club.
While the staff facilitated the initiative, the students took charge by conducting tours and engaging in relationship building activities. Since the club's inception, three new students have enrolled at PRE. Club members
welcome these students, offer toys in their native language, and foster relationships with them before returning to their classes. and more specifically at the remedy marsh. The welcome club is
a student-driven and supported by guidance counselors and social workers. It helps ease the transition for newcomers, builds community, and supports our power of presence initiative by fostering attendance,
strengthening connection and belonging. This past year, staff have identified students interested in becoming peer leaders. The RHS welcome club has been invited to meet with the support staff to begin planning. Goals for the club will be implemented during the 2025 to
2026 school year. Next steps to enhance our efforts. We have built upon previous initiatives by establishing the welcome club at Rumny Marsh Academy. Our objective is to expand to additional schools by creating
welcome clubs at the Rumley Marsh Academy and Paul Rivere. To make informed decisions, we will collect data in the following areas: attendance, grades, student behaviors, and sense of belonging. Students, teachers, guidance
counselors, social workers, and administrators will work together to analyze this data and make informed decisions. We are eager to continue our efforts and broaden our membership to enhance our voice and better represent our
community. And to end on a positive note, the following is a motivational quote. To push for excellence today without continuing to push for access for less privileged students is to undermine the
crucial but incomplete gains that have been made. Equity and excellence cannot be divided. By Ernest Eler. Thank you. And this has been our equity team presentation.
[Applause] Miss Monttoa, I actually had a question for our students. Um, I know that the student working group Francois had been working with the student council to uh create an
equity advisory role. So, I just wanted to ask if you guys were able to create that role and how that's been going for you all. Um, that's um that's a kind of a hard question to Oh, and if you don't have an answer, that's fine. I just wanted to know like how
that was going because I know you all were working really hard for that. Sorry guys, it's been a while. Um, in terms of the new equity position that I created for student council, um, I'm I'll be honest, I'm not too sure um,
what's going on with that. I feel like um, I was told by Mr. Bowen that it has been implemented um, um, for the like 2025 to 2026 coming school year. Um, as of right now, I believe that once the
new school year is, you know, starting that students will be able to run for the position, but that's more so something that I would have to discuss with Bowen or maybe if you could just like touch on that possibly. Um, that's
that's what I could say. I'll be honest. I didn't want to put anyone on the spot, but I know you all worked hard for this in conjunction with the principles. Just wanted to see. Yeah. No, absolutely. We're super excited about this. So we have um at the end of the year we had applications um put out for students rising into senior
into junior into sophomore year. Um when the fall comes we will have the same thing for 9th graders um the next year's nth grath graders and so there will be one position one officer level position at each grade level that will be working with the district equity team with student senate with the building administrative team um is sort of like a
unique officer role that is taking what Prince started last year and trying to grow that for us next year. We're super excited and thankful for how she's pushed this forward. Great. Thank you as well. Yeah. So, Mr. King. Okay. Sorry to interrupt. I just hope
that answered everything. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kingston. I just want to say thank you number one for coming here tonight. Number two, for all the work you've done. I know a little bit about this. I hear my daughter talking about it. She's part of this group. So, I really appreciate the work you're doing. And I thank you for all the extra time and effort that you
put in for this. um because I know it's to help the students and I think that's really important. And I did like the piece Mr. Dory said about um you know kind of indoc I don't indoctrinating might not be the right word um but getting people on board um that are coming into the district that may not be familiar with Reier and what we have
here. Um because I do think it's a lot. I've lived here all my life and um I value what people bring to the community and I think it's great. Um, but I do think people need to understand, you know, this is what this is what we are here and this is what we're about and this is what's important to us and it's
not going away. So, it needs to be um needs to be something that's absorbed and I do again appreciate all your work and thank you and thank you for coming tonight. Thank you, Miss Marosuk. I just wanted to echo what Mr. Kingston said. Throughout the school year, I ran
into our working group at various conferences with my full-time hat. To see our district was always presenting or being recognized. I think uh statewide we're being recognized positively for the work that's so important. Researcher shows helps with recruitment and retention of our educators. So, I just wanted to let
everyone know that we we truly are shining across the state. You all are always present. Mr. Kingston. And last but not least, I apologize uh Dr. Garcia for leading the group. Thank you, sir. We appreciate you and I mean that for appreciate it. They do the work. I just
stand there. I find that I know I know you better than that, sir. Stand there. Stand there and look good. That's what's important. Okay. Thank you. Uh Miss Miss Dr. Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um the next item
is actually quite closely related to our equity advisory board work. Um again, Dr. Garcia has partnered with school districts across the state on a grant that we were that he was able to access from the Department of Education um to work on a language acquisition plan. And
so again, I'll turn the mic over to him um to introduce this as I as I pull up the presentation. And I just want to note that the team did make a presentation tonight for the school committee. Um, but the actual equity, sorry, language access plan is
in the school committee packets. Do you want to put the first slide? Yeah. Um, I want to thank, first of all, I'd like to thank the this group. Um, there are several people there. Uh Jamie Fle, Jennifer Lavalita, Melissa um Lis
uh Katie Felen, uh Jamila John Cinte Bashar. uh over the last 18 months pre public schools this group has teamed up with UMass Ammerst on and DI on the development of a language access plan
which certainly is a crucial document for our district particularly in a district where you have close to 70% of students are students of color but with probably almost a half I would say close
to half of students are yellow students I talking about about 3,000 kids in River public schools are classified as multilingual learners. So a language access plan is a framework that will provide families an opportunity to
access resources and also be served in a language that's meaningful to them. This is a critical document for a district like us. Many other district many other districts are doing that. We work with three other districts on this. I think
it has been a productive journey and you will see it through the presentation. Without any further ado, the team will start presenting. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um my name is Cynthia Bashard. I'm coordinator family
lison and language access for Rivia public school. Um on slide one, you can start. Um so what is the language access plan? So it's a practical uh road map to help our schools communicate clearly with families who speak languages other
than English. Uh also this plan ensures that families can receive important school information in a language they understand best. It also helps uh staff know how to support parents and guardians um and encourage clear two-way
communication. If we can go to slide two, please. As Dr. Garcia stated, over 75% of our families uh in our district speak a language other than English at home. So, this plan would help our schools communicate clearly with families, also
provide accurate interpretation and translation, also strengthen communications between school and home. Um, if we can go to third slide, please. and how this plan was developed. The
slide you can see um shows training and work we did to create the language access plan. And also just want to mention briefly that this training was sponsored by DESIE at no cost to a district. And with that I give you Jennifer.
Thank you. Good evening everyone. I'm Jennifer Labalita. I'm the director of the multilingual learning and world language departments. So our slides what are the stakeholder roles in interacting with supporting and promoting the LAP. So the way that we
have designed our document that you can see is to serve both our families and our faculty and staff. So the document is split into two sections that share language access information based on the audience for each section. So, we're hopeful that by doing this, this will
increase the usability of the document and ensure that all stakeholders are able to access and share information in a language that best suits the needs of our community. Everyone has a role to play. Our leaders model commitment. Our teachers and family leaison use the
tools and disseminate and support families and educators in um implementation. Our families are better able to engage and connect with their child's education and our students are able to learn in an environment where all are included. Next slide, please.
Identifying family and caregiver language access needs. So, upon registration at the parent information center, every family is asked to complete a home language survey document which indicates their preferences both for written uh interpretation, excuse me, written translation and verbal
interpretation. And sometimes those choices may be different depending on the family's preferences. So this information is then added to power school which is our student information system so that educators and staff can be aware of what languages families prefer. Families are able to communicate
with school or district staff and update these preferences at any time that they wish. Uh we are using parent square as our main vehicle of uh communication and families can select the language that they would like to receive the texts and calls and communications even if it's
not a language that we officially translate uh documents into. Additionally, the special education department does confirm these family preferences yearly as they're meeting with their families as well. Okay. and then training and education.
As part of uh all of this work, UMass has been a partner for ours for many years. So, our family liaison and pick staff have all been trained uh with some official coursework uh at UMass Amherst so that they are well qualified to be
verbal and written interpreters. Um, our families are supported by our family liaison to set up parent square and to train to be able to use it and access our communications. And our staff and educators are supported uh with
Lionbridge, our telephone interpretation system as well as with parent square so that again they can send communications that are available in all different languages. So I will pass to John our communications coordinator. Good evening. John Linds, director of
communications for River Public Schools, and I'll be discussing how we plan to monitor language access services as well as raising awareness for the uh language access plan. So, RPS will implement the following
strategies to oversee the delivery of language access services. And these will include enhanced communication across various languages and platforms to promote effective two-way communication with family, caregivers, staff, students, and the public.
Ensure that trained personnel, for example, interpreters and translators who are knowledgeable about the identities and experiences of our diverse stakeholders, facilitate effective communications. perform an annual eval evaluation of the
LAP to ensure communication remains accurate and consistent. Some data sources include administrator, educator, and family surveys and focus groups as well as usage and access data from
all communication applications. Next slide and extending awareness to all staff, families, caregivers, and community members. We plan to publicize, disseminate the plan internally and externally using all our platforms like
social media, Facebook, Twitter, uh the website as well as advertising campaigns. Develop annual multi-tered differentiated training for all stakeholders. Post multilingual notices and announcements in hightra areas such
as libraries, schools, MBTA stations. publishing RPS web page with information about RPS language services including language assistance and utilize tools like I speak cards and greeting scripts to facilitate identification of language
needs you know at things like coffee hours and family engagement nights and stuff and with that I hand it back over to Dr. Casio. So the next steps and recommendation that we are making that we're going to make tonight is next steps first. We
want to make sure that content is translated and monitored. One of the things that sometimes we see people developing all these plans. You have all these potential strategies, goals, etc. It's all on paper. We don't follow up. We don't monitor. We don't track the
data. That's critical in the process. Monitoring. See where we are. ask questions in the data discussing the findings the shortcomings and so on and so forth. That's basically what monitoring is all about and then once based on the data you find then you define the next next step in terms of
addressing the shortcomings but also continue to work on what we have done right and dismantled or put aside things that really not working for us. So that's important and that includes to make sure that those documents are properly translated in a culturally responsive way in a meaningful way that
really makes the impact on our key on our families and our students as well. That means that the notice that go home needs to be properly translated. It means that the reports that go home needs to be properly translated into the language that makes sense to our families and other types of docu legal documents also need to be properly
translated. As you know, many legal documents, academic language has a lot of jargon. Those needs to be translated in a way that makes sense for our families. We also need to make sure that those events that we provide, re does a lot of events. There's no doubt about it. I I work in many school districts
and I've never seen a school district that provides so many opportunities for our families to come and enjoy enjoy the learning of our kids, enjoy the climate that we have in our district, enjoy what the kids are doing. So it's important that we have
translators at those meetings, competent translating in those meetings and rever is doing a great job. Just to let you know over the three or four years we have trained over 30 interpreters through UMass Ammerst. That's a huge accomplishment. They have been trained
in special education and also general uh special education translation but also in general education translation. They have the skills to do it. So I would say that and this is a request I would make to the school committee to make this document stronger. I would make a
recommendation for you to look at places like uh Framming uh and New Bedford where they took a document like this they transform it into a policy. A policy is always something that has is stronger and probably and it's it it's
simply stronger. If you leave a document like this probably it will not have a lot of weight moving forward. But if you transform it into a policy that really will serve that will dictate the language dictate in a good way uh the language that really serve our kids then
probably it will be um it will be better for our students. It will be a a win-win proposition for the school department for the image of our school our institution and also for our families and our students as well. Lastly, I would like to thank the school committee members uh and also Dr. Kelly for
providing us with an opportunity to be creative about things, to imagine things, to come out outside the box and really do what's best for our kids and continue to come up with things that really will serve our families in a in a
in a in a meaningful way. Thank you. You have any questions? I did not ask. Do you have any questions for me? Thank you. I just had one quick question. Is the directory of resources going to be posted on the website or maybe printed
and left at the front office put in take-h home materials? Yes, it will uh be translated. I guess has been already translated. It will be posted on the website uh for families to have access to it. and also um
copies copies also will be left in the principal's um office uh for those who probably don't have access to computers and things like that. So the goal is to really you know we can certainly uh use the uh media to really as John pointed
out to advertise it. So these are all possibilities. Our job is to ensure that this plan um gets in the hand and it's known to all constituents in the district. And I'll I'll just add that there are also plans to have this become part of
the welcoming packet at the pick when new families join us. Miss and is is this also sent out through I I just noticed that the parent square doesn't accept PDFs like that you can't use uh translation for PDFs that are
uploaded. But can we just get into the habit of uploading the information in whatever other format that accepts it whether it's text or or word or whatever? We can certainly do we can certainly do that. Any you know any venue or ways in which this can be
disseminated and people can get you know um um it can get in the hands of uh those who are we are serving. I think any any any good suggestion we'll take that. Okay. And I as Doc mentioned it's it is all all but finished being translated. We
made a couple of changes in format that we need to tweak in the translations. Um and then it'll be on the website and then links to that will go out in the newsletter that John does for the month saying please look at our language access plan um and people will be able to see it in whatever their preferred
language is then as well as parent square and parent square. Yeah. So that's my question. So there's be on the website first and then in those four major in the four major languages but we have what se over you know 70 other languages. So I guess that's my
issue is that I know parent squared is the primary tool that we use right for parents to elect their native language that and the or the language in which they want to receive information right okay those are the major languages obviously um there's of languages
of course so but but I would want to make one clarifier when we put a PDF on the website a parent can choose what language they want to see the website in and it can be any language and it will translate the PDF okay so the trick is for us to send the notice in parent square that says go
look at the website to see the document in the language that you want to see it if it's a PDF. That's what I was going to say is just getting out the information that there are uh translation services inherent in these softwares that we're using. Yes. So parents know. Thank you. Thank you, Doc. Thank you,
thank you, Christella. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, everything that I've heard so far is come an awful long way to accommodation. I don't know if this would be my question is everything is translation in
language of choice. Nowhere have I heard and there may be that I'm unaware of if someone wants to learn English. I mean I know Boston back when my grandparents they would have classes in the evening that people would attend. Uh do we have programs of that nature? Good. Okay,
thank you for that. I mean, this is I I just can't believe there's so much that is actually catering and making it easy. Not just for one, not just for two, multiples, because if satisfaction is granted, then everyone follows in
line. It's it's it's beyond the script. I mean, beyond I'm having trouble with English, so leave me alone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sella. Uh um we obviously have the RE community school uh and this year I don't know if anyone was able to attend um there was over a thousand people in
this the cafeteria um celebrating their end of school year graduation um all re uh andor lo other um surrounding communities mostly reair uh a lot of parents uh kids that are either post high school uh that want to learn the
language and um one of the most uh successful years and continuing. So, we're seeing um a lot of people come in and want to want to learn the native language to um to this this uh community. So, it's really nice to see and we'll continue. Yeah, it's very nice.
I think the viewing public should be made aware too. That's that's Thank you. Thank you. So, our community school uh office classes year round and and uh if you're interested, you know, certainly you can sign up. Uh there is a small nominal fee, but it's it's definitely worthwhile to um to continue to uh
find ways to learn English. Thank you. Yeah. Great. Thank you, Mr. Sella. Any other questions? Great. Okay. Thanks, Doc. Great job as always. Um, the next item on the super
Great job, everybody. Um, the next item on the superintendent's list is an update on personalized learning from uh Mr. Bowen. This is a an update that we've been trying to give the school committee every 6 months to a year as we prepare
to move into the real world um in the new Riviera High School which will be open 3 years from right now. Um, this highlights the steps that we're taking so that when we get to that new building, we are well situated, well structured, and well defined to provide
students with a very personalized learning experience that they themselves have a voice in creating and ensures that they are prepared for whatever journey they choose to take when they graduate high school, whether that's a trade school or college or the military or uh a profession, whatever they choose
to do. So, um, I'll just turn that over to, uh, Principal Bowen while I Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Um, thank you for having me. I am so excited to share some of this with you all. Um, the past few years, um, I'd say maybe going back
about 10 years since Dr. Garcia, as principal, has really been laying the foundation for lots of this work. Um, and next school year, this coming school year, um, we're really digging into, um, sort of codifying what we mean by personalized learning pathways. and we're really excited. Um the first slide
that we have, um if we go to the next slide, um just shows kind of a range of things that we already do at the high school. We've been doing dual enrollment for a while. There's been internship program for about 10 years. Um every year for the past few, um we've added something else in that vein. Um and this
year, this past school year, we've taken a team of probably close to 25 educators really looking at what do we want to grow into over the next three years as we prepare for the new high school. So when we think about personalized learning, we're talking about how we have students who have similar interests or similar desires working together.
We're helping them develop profiles. We're coaching them um sort of through their path in these pathways. Um we are awarding credit in competency based ways because you'll see as we talk about some of the work we're doing. Um some of the old ways of awarding credit don't fit nicely with some of the complicated work
we're doing that's interdisciplinary that is very um kind of innovative. Um, we have flexible pathways for how students are working towards their graduation. Um, and we're really focused on how they use their learning to focus on what they want to do after they finish high school. Um, so next slide.
Um, we've also just want to name that there's been several partners we've had over the past few years um from the Department of Education, an organization called Redesign, we've been working with the Renie Center, the 5DP, uh, Mass Hire, which is through workforce development. there's just a lot of partners in the state and local level
that have been kind of thought partners but also consultants and contributors to this work. Um, and that's exciting. So, I just want to share out that. Um, and we're going to kind of focus on two specific programs that we're piloting and expanding next year. Um, so you'll look up on this list and there's a range
of programs that fit personalized needs of different students. two specific ones that we're kind of intentionally focusing on growing out next year um is our coast collaborative program and our career concentrations program. Those are the career pathways that we're building out for the new high school. So I'm
going to start talking about what we're doing in both of those. Um so first I'll start talking about career concentrations. So these career pathways um the idea and I guess I asked you to take a step back and think of like kind of like a college major, right? When you think about a student going to college,
um they have core classes they have to take and then they get to choose how they spend their elective classes. We have the framework already for these elective classes to be spent in internship, in dual enrollment classes, in specialized electives at the high school. Um and then obviously the core
graduation requirements. Um, as we've named the five pathways that we're building out in robotics, engineering, IT, education, hospitality, marine science, and biomed, um, we're really trying to create opportunities to leverage the systems that we currently have for students to sort of major in a
personalized pathway that works for them. Um, that starts with uh we're envisioning in down the line sort of a nth grade exploratory that students can opt into to test out each of these and see what they're interested in. uh a planning process where they think
about how they use their electives and potential early college classes, internships, workbased learning, and kind of culminating senior year and like a senior capstone project uh that will close out that major, so to speak. Um and we're just kind of very excited to
dip our toes into that next year with one specific pathway I I'll describe. Um we are um this coming school year working with Josh Miranda and a few other teachers in the robotics engineering pathway. Um it's very exciting. Um it is this
interdisciplinary pathway um where students basically work uh on these project-based sort of open-ended problems that combine um robotics, physics, math and ELA in a very interdisciplinary way for students to build their skills uh working towards
what it means to go into engineering. um and at the same time focusing on the academic advising for post-secary planning um career development and sort of the kind of future ready skills that will need to set them apart and set them up for success when they graduate. Um
we're conceptualizing this as sort of a halfday experience for students. Um so I think you're familiar with our schedule. We have a 4 80 minute period schedule currently. Um students will take two of their students in this p pilot pathway will take two of their classes um two of
those 80-minute chunks. So 160 minutes plus their advisory will be with this cohort as well. Um and that lets the teachers the three teachers who are working in and out of this pathway um really personalized for students at different grade levels with different interests um doing sort of this project-
based experience. Um we're very excited about that. Um we are also kind of having students the opportunity to take courses outside of the pathway. So sort of half their day would be with this cohort who are choosing to major in this robot robotics engineering field and
then the other half of the day two of their classes would be outside. So their regular core classes that they want to take maybe some college level classes or some work-based learning that they're doing outside of the day. Um but it's sort of a very interdisciplinary approach. Um we have uh it it's open for
rising 10th and 11th grade students. Um we've select it's been open it's open access so anybody who's interested can join. Um we've been publicizing this over the registration period this past spring. Um and then we have a select group of rising 12th grade students who are sort of mentors in the program.
They've done robotics for a long time with Josh Miranda. Um they're sort of in this space. Um, and we're working out ways for students to get AP credit um when they're kind of focusing on classes that lead to those AP exams in in this pathway. Um, and then the second uh
expansion that we're piloting this this year is we've been working to expand the Coast Collaborative Program, which is currently a very small wraparound support program um that serves about maybe uh 15 20 students. We're looking to really expand the way that those students um have access to sort of
learning on a spectrum from asynchronous learning, which is very much at their pace when they need to inperson learning when that is what they need. And we're really trying to grow the different ways we provide access to real flexibility for students who for various points in their career need that. Um and those are
the two programs that we're really growing out as part of this suite of personalized learning pathways. And the goal is over the next few years, we're just building out and building out so that when we get to the new high school, we're no longer in design mode. We're ready. We're ready to to launch
and and be there. So, it's really exciting stuff and it's fun to work through. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Bowen. your team is doing incredible work and really um forward
thinking about what our students need and what's going to set them up for huge success in the future, however they define that for themselves. Okay, next. Um next, Mr. Mayor, and this I'm going to kind of take um D and F together.
These are updates to the uh guide for parents and caregivers, formerly known as the student handbook, and also the faculty handbook. Um, and we've made some minor adjustments. Mostly we looked at the work that the strategic improvement plan team did uh and updated
our mission and vision, which I'm going to get to all of that work in just a minute. Um, but I thought that right now I would just take us quickly through um the the guide to parents and caregivers and the faculty handbook highlighting just the changes. Um, and all of these
changes uh will be delineated in the meeting minutes for this meeting. So anybody who wanted to can go look at um the past handbook and we'll be updating, translating and then posting um the new handbooks in the coming weeks. Um so let
me just share here. Um so the list of changes um you're going to see that this document I'm sharing right now has 17 pages but a lot of that is just so that the committee and families can easily compare what it used
to say to what it says now. And so you can see the old language is in the box on the left and the new language is on the right with anything changed in yellow. Um so as I mentioned just a second ago, we've updated the mission statement to reflect the work that the
um strategic improvement planning team um developed over the last year. Um the vision statement was updated. We updated some information on who our directors are. We've already got a new one that we have to make.
Um, we updated the school calendar from last year's to next year's, the 2526 calendar. Um, this change here is really just about updating some there. There used to be a personal day form and a vacation day form. We no longer need those forms
because they're now done electronically. Um, we updated the equal employment opportunity language to match what is currently the state law and I know that's something that um the committee is going to be looking at in their policy subcommittee to review that
language and update that as well so we're in alignment. Um the next section we did add a piece under um how colleagues work with each other and this is after some reflection between uh administrators and uh central
office on some important highlights of characteristics that we expect in our staff and just being transparent and clear about that. Uh we added a little piece to the uh employee attendance section. Um, one of the places that we've seen an uptick is
in requests for unpaid leave. Um, which I can see on the one hand that folks think if they take an extra couple of days off during a school year and they they request it unpaid that we shouldn't be worried about that, but in reality that has a negative impact on students,
especially uh if it happens repeatedly. and and so we just want to be a little bit more specific about our intention to follow the collective bargaining agreements in that regard going forward. And so there's a bit of a language change there.
Um the health and wellness policy is new last year. So we added a a click a link where they can access that. We had a grammatical error that I don't know how Carol Tai didn't catch that 10 years ago, but we wanted to fix that. Um
and then another piece that we wanted to clarify for employees is when they give us notifi notification uh midy year of their intention to leave their job that they are required and they all do sign uh I'm thinking of teaching staff in particular here they
do sign employment contracts that say that they'll give 30 days notice. Um and another thing that we've been seeing lately is people will give their 30 days notice but then they call in sick for 15 of those 30 days. And so we're just trying to clarify what our expectations are in that regard as well. Um,
paid leave benefits no longer needs to be here. Again, this is a policy that we used to have before we had frontline where folks do all of their their requests and work online. Now, um, paid leave benefits. Again, just an update in
that language. The same for this one. Um again, sick leave is consistent with the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. Just clarifying language there. Another mention of frontline absent management. Um a bereavement leave can be requested in
frontline now as well. Um and then the professional days um can also be uh we are anticipating that we'll be able to request those through frontline starting next year. So we're just really trying to move forward with our online requests for leave of all kinds.
Um again the emergency dock days in case of an emergency. Um this is a notification employee emergency form that we're hoping to up get that going in front line as well. Um we updated the teacher rubric um due to
contract negotiations with the teachers union um to the new DESI 2024 rubric. Um we updated um requests for field trips to four weeks. This was um school nurses who had
requested more time to approve um and review student records before approving a field trip. Uh updating that we reviewed it, updating our W4 forms to the 2025 version. And that's about it for the faculty handbook. So nothing
really significantly huge. um with the student handbook or the guide for parents and caregivers. Again, we updated the mission statement uh following what our um strategic improvement planning team came up with.
We updated the the vision statement. Um, we removed, updated, and added some different information here on uh, director's information, school committee names, and annual review that that this has been updated this summer. We changed
the calendar. We updated the MCCAST schedule for this coming school year based on what Desi has told us. Um, updated some names in different sections on pages 20 and 22. Um um
[Music] we we removed the word nurse here uh and then updated some pieces on supporting the whole child. This is mostly mostly from the health and wellness team um that came up with really just refining the language that you see on the left. Um the bulk of
the content is very consistent and the same, but if anybody has any questions, they should feel free to reach out to Jill herwig uh sorry, Jill Foley, and she can um share any any thinking there. Um updating language.
Um here we had language that previously existed in the student handbook. And I just want to highlight this for parents and families because sometimes they don't realize this. Um, but the state has defined a dangerous weapon to include mock weapons and toy guns. And
it used to be in the handbook. Somehow it got we lost it along the way. Um, but we want to make sure that that language goes back in because we definitely want parents and students to understand that even toy weapons are considered weapon weapons in a school environment and they should not be brought to school no
matter what. Um, we updated this language to reflect uh work that we've been doing on AI and using AI in assignments. Uh, and making sure that that only happens when there is permission from the teacher to do so.
Um, again, this is just another area. It moves on from elementary schools to middle schools. So, we're repeating the language about mock weapons and then doing that again for high school students. We changed the dates. um again uh with a mocka toy weapons
piece and you'll see this is just repeated because there are different sections that talk about different pieces and it was necessary to update the language in all of those areas and that's it. Those are all of the changes for the faculty handbook and for um the
the guide for parents and caregivers. The one thing that's not on this list that we do need to add um is the language on the competency determination which the school committee voted back in January. Um and that was new as a result
of the vote that happened last year uh making the MCCAST 10th grade MCCAST not part of the graduation requirement. still have to take MCCAST as we talked about at the time, but it's not required to pass it in order to graduate. As a
result of that, DESIE now requires that we have what's called a competency determination, and that says what are the minimum standards in order for a student to graduate. And just to summarize, we did talk about this in depth in January, but our competency determination is really a subset of what
we require in Revier for a student to graduate anyway. So, for 99.9% of our students, uh, this isn't going to be a question, but there might be some changes for students who transfer in from out of state, um, where their district requirements might have been a
little bit different. And Desi did give us the leeway to make adjustments in cases like that. Um, so that's one addition that will also be added to the guide for uh parents and caregivers and students um that we missed as we were
doing this piece of the work, but we will get on that. And that's it for handbooks. Mr. Snow, um through the superintendent, um is the student guide book the same as the student handbook? Yes, it is. Yep. Well, you have u an attendance for staff
members. I don't see anything for students. Yeah. So, this this is just the list of changes. So, everything that was already in the student handbook is still there. And if you look at I I should go back up. Let me share again for a minute. Um
uh in this document um let me just go back to the top for a minute. So, these are just the updates for this current school year. But if you look at uh the first page where we were going over the employee handbook first, you can click this link and it will actually
take you to the to the staff handbook. Okay. And then you can I mean look through the whole thing. Our goal was that you wouldn't have to dig through 106 pages. Well, I'm I'm I'm questioning nothing about cell phones. I mean that's heavy
and uh the state's close to doing something something's got to be in their handbook um for come September. I mean in writing that and not only in writing but enforced. Yeah. And if we go so if I scroll down Mr. Sella. So, we did the faculty
handbook first and then where you see in this list of changes, I'm sorry for anybody that I'm scrolling so fast. Where it goes to purple, that takes you, that's the actual student handbook and you can click this link and it'll take you to the student handbook
and the policy is in and so all of those policies and pieces are in here. Um, just the what I was just reviewing is only the things that have changed. All right. Would you be so kind as to tell me what it says about phones? Sure. Um,
I can I can summarize it. We essentially have a a zero cell phone policy. They're required to maintain them in their bags and they can't take them out. There's a progressive um discipline except for Except for lunch. That's right. Except for lunch. We just changed this last
year. Um it was a pretty hot hot hot and heavily contested um discussion but we did um provide new language in the handbook to reflect our policy which essentially is a zero tolerance policy for cell phones. So in that regard we're
we were ahead of the state in in buckling down on our cell phone policy. No, I know we had discussion. I know there was something whether to put them in compartments, whether to have the teacher, everything else. Come opening day in September or the end of
August, no cell phones period. Is that correct? That's my understanding. That's the policy that we understanding and in writing different things with the exception of lunch. That's what we have in writing. That's our policy. Okay. And there's a policy that how they're enforcable and people who are
responsible for enforcing it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Solo. Thank you, Miss Montrosa. Uh, through you to the superintendent, the only suggestions I had for your team to consider was in regards to the student and caregiver handbook, maybe
including how at the high school we're going to have the dock, that little docking box station for the cell phones, just so that more parents, especially freshman parents, are aware that's new. And then uh for the changes to the faculty handbook, if I was a teacher, I
would like to see the information about the new multilingual and dual license stipens that were bargained. So my only suggestion would be to consider maybe including information on how to go about that. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Miss Montroso. Any other questions? Okay, we're on the 5year strategic improvement plan. Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor. The last item on the superintendent report is to share
information on our five-year strategic plan. And I really do I mean I am so thankful to the people who helped work on this. We had um I think it was eight meetings Aisha is that right? Yeah. At least at least eight meetings and um really
started from scratch and and took this to uh a whole new new level. We had input from parents from teachers from students uh from school committee members. Um m Mrs. Milbury Ellis and Mrs. Montterroso were instrumental in
getting this work done. Um, so I'm thankful to them um for for all of that work. I won't go through the whole thing. This is 15 pages long, but um just to give the highlights, this includes like a table of contents, and this is in the process of being
finalized. It will be translated and will live on our website just as our current strategic plan does. Uh but this plan should carry the district with review every year. Um it will carry the district until 2030. Um and all of the
folks who contributed so um heavily to this are included in the in the beginning of the document. So you can see there everybody and what their role was and how they how they their voices were all a part of it. We wanted to make sure that we included some people who
are often left to the side like our uh head of facilities who had a lot of great input into um in his opinion what we needed to focus on as a school district. So it was great to have the a really diverse group of voices in the room. Um I'll say the same thing about
our IT director who was able to talk about um AI coming forward and technology all of those pieces. So I'm thankful to them. There's a piece in here that talks about the process we went through. Um, and then as I mentioned when we're doing
the handbooks, the new mission statement and the core values and I can tell you that we struggled tremendously over the language on these pieces. Um, uh, but I feel like we landed in in a really great place. I love that our core values are
student agency and ownership and I think that you saw that tonight in the presentations from our students being involved in the equity advisory board. Um, our core values include high expectations and productive struggle with personalized support. Uh, a lot of what Mr. Bowen talked about tonight is is captured there. Um, authentic
connections and belonging. Again, when I think about our equity work, that's where it is. Our connections to the community and to families are really important. And then innovation, collaboration, and growth also what um what we envision for the new high school. Um, so I won't go through all of
this in detail. I will highlight that our focus areas, the first one is teaching, learning and leading. Um, and you can read some of the details of what we have in mind uh over the next five years in that area. Our second focus area is safety,
belonging, and well-being. And when we think about these focus areas, we're trying to think of students, staff, and the community all at once. And our third focus area is community engagement and communication. And I
think that these these focus areas are really uh important and speaks volumes to the work that we've been doing the last couple years, but also the the long way we have to go before we um really finish doing that work.
Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Is any any committee members have questions regarding the five-year strategic plan? Okay, thank you. And it is really thorough work. So, good job. Thanks. And that concludes the superintendent's report. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, do we have any subcommittee reports bring up? Okay, fantastic. And I know um, Miss Montroso, you have a few motions. Yes. Before I start these, um, do you need a motion to approve the strategic
improvement plan? Sure, that'd be great because then our principles can get moving on the um school improvement plans which will grow out of that. Okay. So the bless you bless you. The first motion is to approve the guide to rever schools for parent caregivers and students. Do I
have a second? Second call, please. Mrs. Stacy Bronson. Yes. Mr. Anthony Kajiano. Yes, Mr. John Kingston. Yes, Mrs. Aisha Milbury Ellis.
Yes, Miss Jacqueline Monttou. Yes, Mr. Frederick. Mrs. Frederick Salella. Thank you. Yes. Mayor Patrick Keefe. Yes. Okay. Approved. Uh, then next is a motion to approve the faculty handbooks.
Do I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Mrs. Stacy Bronson Rizo. Yes, Mr. Anthony Kajiano. Yes, Mr. John Kingston. Yes, Mrs. Aisha Milbury Ellis.
Yes, Miss Jacqueline Montto Rosso. Yes, Mr. Frederick Sala. Yes, Mayor Patrick Keif. Yes. Great. Motion passes. Last is a motion to approve the 5-year strategic improvement plan from 2025 to 2030. Do I
have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Mrs. Stacy Bronson Rizo. Yes. Mr. Anthony Kajiano. Yes. Mr. John Kingston. Yes. Mrs. Aisha Milburialis. Yes. Miss Jacqueline Montto Roso. Yes.
Mr. Frederick Sala. Yes. Mayor Patrick Keith. Yes. Great. Motion passes. Back to you, mayor. Thank you. Uh, we have no hearings. I don't believe any and some unfinished business. Any unfinished business?
If I could bring up um just uh regarding potential new business, not that it's really new, but just to report out uh August 14th uh for uh all of your viewing pleasure, the city and the school committee and the school department will be hosting the
groundbreaking for the new high school at the Wonderland site. If you if you've driven by the site over the last few weeks, you've noticed there's been some large equipment that's starting to do uh pre-demolition of the former um foundations that were on the former site. August 14th, we will officially be
breaking the ground on our new Riviera High School. At 9 9:00 a.m., you're all welcome to join. It is it's a it's a it's a huge day for the city of Rivier. It's a huge day for the entire Commonwealth. It's the um the largest school project in the state's
history. Of course, we all know that the next school project will probably be the light the next largest. Um, but we we'll take the uh the achievement, the crown for as long as we can. Uh, so again, everyone's welcome to come August 14th at 9:00 a.m. Uh, light refresh light
refreshments will be served and we hope to see you there. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to accept the warrants, new hires, retirements, designations, and terminations.
Miss Rosen Rizzo, we did that with the consent calendar before you joined. Oh, okay. I apologize. Oh, thank you. We we we took it out of order because we wanted to get Matt Cruz on the road. Thank you very much, though. Nothing like confusing me more.
All right. Do we have a a roll um roll call for a motion to adjurnn? Mrs. Stacy Bronson Rizo. Yes. Mr. Anthony Kajiano. Yes. Mr. John Kingston. Yes. Miss uh Mrs. Aisha Mila Reales. Yes.
Miss Jacqueline Montto Rossu. Yes. Mr. Frederick Sala. Yes. Mayor Patrick Keith. Yes. Well, we are adjourned. Have a good evening. Thank you.