##VIDEO ID:vAjN06_UUl4## e e e e call the meeting of the woodo regional votch school committee to order you please call the rooll Mr early yes Miss Sullivan here pres Mr Rossy here miss CA Mr President Mr wood I'm here M Irving y m l present Mr Okana m true yes here Mr sloski yes please join us for the pledge of Al I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of am first item on the agenda is public comment anyone here for a public comment going once going twice nobody here for public comment is there any written public comments that were submitted no all right next item on the agenda is approval of minutes December 11th 2024 minutes of the regular school committee meeting is there a motion Mr chairman move to accept motion by Mr Irvin second seconded by Miss Del any discussion seeing none call the rooll Mr early yes Miss Sullivan yes Mr Rossy yes Miss CER Miss Miss delai yes Mr Irving Miss L yes Mr Okana yes true yes Mr thos yes Miss OK here is she here miss Okana yes can you volume a little B next item on the agenda is going to be payments of bills Financial Treasures report for December is there a motion for approval motion to approve motion made seconded any seeing none call Mr early yes Miss Sullivan Rossy yes Miss CER yes M yes Mr Irving m l yes Mr Okana true yes Mr loosi yes Miss o yes pass communication student representative report Kaye Hab Mr chairman superintendent Lynch and all other members of the school committee welome to the new year is being finalized for completion by the end of January while staff portraits are being updated fall Sports pages are in progress winter sports photography is underway and Shop photos are also being captured poetry will kick new year with a carousel activities all are welcome to going on with drama club rehearsals for The Little Mermaid began on January 6th with in March working on music and choreography well carpentry shop build sets and costumes the Key Club spent filling out Hol of the nurs home and newbry port and Meals on Wheels recipients in Salsbury they will be doing the same for Valentine's Day students and Art Club have been creating C sorry ceramic pieces to add to the weekly K firings and working on paintings and illustrations they're also making props for The Little Mermaid four GSA students attended the northeast regional Leadership Council at G students attended this dayong Leadership Council and created models for how to make schools more welcome for the lgbtqia plus students chess club is going strong with consistent attendance with over 20 students this week they will be going over the blitz style play and they will be entering their first Blitz Tournament of the year for 56 students are headed to the Pats Peak night skiing this Friday January 10th interact club and peer-to-peer CL are hosting a sock drive for Ruth's house and hail from January 8th to February 4th there will be collection bins in the calf the board game students Ling some new games they continue to have many regulars with games each week the multiculture club thank those who generously donated the towards the codes for kids drive in December they took over three dozen items to Anton's Cleaners with environmental Club seedlings have been transplanted into the tower garden the operation has been approved and donations ceration with engineering will continue with the enviral prog the enviral log project along with the creation for a website for pictures government had fun participating in National ugly sweater day in late December before off they will be working on potential student faculty basketball game or volleyball game early March the United Nations had their first meeting after break on Tuesday where they discussed the upcoming competitions they'll continue to hold Tuesday afternoon practices debates new students are always welcome to join going with sports the boys basketball team held triy outs on December 2nd and welcome new coach David Steins to build winning culture on and off the court the team is now three and five with consecutive win and are enjoying the Improvement each game the girls basketball team is off to a strong start winning the Asbury Christmas tournament with two two for two victories they are working hard toward their goal of a championship and winning the conference the wrestling team is also off to a strong start over vacation the team first place at the B Holiday Tournament and the team's current record is four and two to improve throughout the and there should be a mix for a sectional title the hockey team is of is now three and five while their JB team is two and four the varsity team is very young with seven freshmen nine sophomores making up the roster they have a very good squad as they look to the future thank you thank you next item on the agenda is going to be the Principal assistant uh superintendent report Mr lanus good evening chairman Madam Lynch superintendent Lynch and the rest of the school committee members uh Happy New Year to all uh just to add on kayle's report uh to continue to move forward this season as you heard uh our teams are developing and the young we have new coaches which is awesome the basketball coach we have uh sort of a record 250 57 uh winter sports athletes that that's quite a few kids that are uh competing uh so far and they stayed with us that they registered record high Whittier Asbury hockey team I was over to Governor's and watch them play Beverly they ended up losing um and they have 25 players whiter has 25 players uh participating which is and that's the combo of JV and Varity so that's kind of neat uh staff and students are preparing for midterms they're starting uh January 21st 22nd week one and then 23rd and 24th of January two grade second and Midterm uh year midyear assessments I should say grades will be due the 29th and report cards to July 31st January 31st at the end of the month um before the holiday break ation activities enjoyed a holiday potluck Extravaganza in in the uh curriculum off and I just want to thank also you heard the student government put together an ugly sweater day uh and they're planning on having some other fun activities so it works out uh the to with with the H holiday pot lock it's a Google share form for some reason um superintendent is as an Irish woman she's she's developing some Greek dishes so a lot of the staff around and they they put Greek dishes on there and whatever type of but in the end everybody brings something and they have such a fun day so uh just some positive stuff that's happening the holiday fund uh the foundation received uh $3,620 in do um the foundation presented gift cards of 14,350 as described Thanksgiving 68 students issued get issued $50 Market Basket gift cards uh Christmas uh 73 students that issued $150 in both Market Basket and walnut Walmart giard so again helping out uh you know our families and students of need on Monday January 20th uh will will be uh no school we have no school for B Luther King day and we're starting to figure how we're going to celebrate Dr Life and Legacy uh and also during our school council meeting of my school council the entire culinary uh The Culinary Delights here the day uh they all received the employees of the month uh so they were able toing uh what they do and and how hard they work every single day um they did rece parking so you four cars out here at the poing the day uh they're able to park and that's one of the perks they get uh if you're in the employee of the month so that's all they have a lot of POS happening here at the tech thank you thank you manager no um business manager report associate principal Miss Jensen changes in the mcast requirement good evening Mr chairman superintendent lynon school committee members just give you a little update on where we are cast and graduation requirements it's a Hot Topic so in the past um all students who earned have passed the mcast 2.0 in English language arts Math and Science and Technology but right now we have a change based on the new law so all students students will still have to take all three exams so we our freshman still will take biology this year and our sophomores will still have to take English and math what has changed is the highlighted yellow if a student fails they will no longer be required to retest they only need to take it once mcast scores however be used for accountability so the department of Ed still will be looking at individual schools and how the students did on the mcast and the students can still qualify for the two um scholarships the John and abigil Adams and the C award they can still qualify for that um there have been numerous webinars and documents and frequently asked questions if anyone's following this it is it's a lot um we are planning to continue to teach the standards in English Math and Science we will continue to do that um and we will continue to hold high expectations for all our students even though they don't have to pass for their diploma so what does this mean for the graduation requirements so um they H previously they had to meet all the requirements set by the school committee they had to fulfill the state curriculum for physical education and history the underlined there is what's going to change it said all students pass the state competency test test which for us was the mcast all students have to pass their Vocational Technical area each year students must take in past four years of English math history and science which are considered to be the core academic subjects and if a student fails a core course in they will not be eligible for graduation and will not be able to walk in the ceremony that was the Wittier Tech graduation requirements so now what's going to happen is you'll see that that that test part is all students still have to pass the vocational area excuse me they still have to pass all the requirements you have set out so they still have to take four years of everything and pass they have to fulfill the curriculum mandates for physical education and history and if a student fails in grade 12 they still will not be eligible for graduation or to walk in the ceremony where will we go they they are always going to have to follow whatever the school committee policy is for graduation comply with All State graduation mandates and will adopt any new assessment the state implements any questions Mr ear how many haven't passed yet seniors seniors were 100% because they were able to take the retest last year okay yes there many of them um technically yes there were like um I think 11 in the science and there were 11 in math and then there was a big group in the English part but they don't have to retest we actually did do the November because round the vote and we didn't know what was going to happen so we talked to the students before and said we're going to register you for the test and we're going to administer the because even has voted to not have this as a graduation requirement they haven't come out and said what what is going to happen with it so because we didn't know maybe it wouldn't have been the class of 2026 it with like the Freshman this year so we did have them all take it but we don't have those they did so long thank you no problem uh Mr R and then Mr L um so if a student still wants retest are they doing it or is that going away um well it's funny you should ask because right now we should be preparing and registered our February students the current sophomores who pass the Biotest so we we have 11 but they haven't let us register anybody yet know what they're going to do um because even if the studes they cannot qualify for either scholarship because it happens from um so the past it's notation required anymore so you know one we I'm on a lot of groups you know School said well the student just they can do it but they haven't let us register that yet so I'm not sure I and I'm sure it's a lot of money to do the retest and stuff so I'm not sure we're going to do whatever the state allows and if students want to and they offer it sure um but it is important for students to know that it's the first time they take it that's what counts for all the scholarships like it won't our accountability if the 11 students take it now they all pass that only the first time they take it thank you um my other question I guess is for everybody do do we have any policy language that says they have to pass the mcast in order to graduate yes we need to make adjustments to that yes so um I know Miss um Lynn said she was going to talk about it but book so I know that Mr lanus is preparing that as well because that will have so I I will be looking for a meeting with the instructional because um we would also like we looking at a possibility of another graduation requirement for next year so adding that in so we'll be looking at setting up an instructional for some time in January great thank you my question I think is similar but related to the policy question do we actually have to change our policy to eliminate State competency as one of our requirements in the graduation requirements policy I that we should yes yeah so what they have been saying is that you have to take out requirement you can write something for a competion termination that says you already have it that they have to pass off more math and English and they have to pass freshman science you already have that but you they are saying you have to take out that that line that would say that mcast that test is a graduation requirement and I think we have that my change yeah you know because I think state is trying to figure out where we're going to go so you know for this year handle it that way even though all of our kids have passed the mcast exam but let's clean that language up and then know that we're probably going to have to back into thank you have you got the impression that they are going to stick with the mcast 2.0 as an assess the Rumblings of ask that too so Pearson has been the support system you'd call it the com you know that's how that's where we take the test from the Pearson is the the tool um and it's so Angel and I have already had to do some webinars and it's funny because we were just talking before this and we've done our trainings we've done a couple of them and we each have have our login but they have set no guidelines for like able to support our kids when we're going to be able to train our staff so we are kind of he says we're getting close know but we have no no idea when gonna happen so it's not GNA be Pearson anymore um and it's not going to be testnav it won't be testnav so I guess some new app that they're gonna we're gonna have download but we have no information on that yet and the next assessment is is well the one we have to take is March yeah stressful and it's a lot to train because you have to train everybody that's going to touch the test so we patiently waiting other questions okay thank you so much next item on the agenda is the Le essic Community Mr Mr Reagan good evening and happy new Committee Member superintendent Lynch it's a pleasure to be with you again tonight on the progress of the proposed shared campus building project Northern essic Community col I want emphasizing again that we're in the very early beginning St of thinking about what this partnership might look like and how it might work for the benefit of the full rot Tech you may have uh wch high school was invited into the Massachusetts school building authority eligibility msba executive board on December 13th this Milestone represents an opportunity for us to partner with the msba to create a modern and Innovative learning environment that will benefit our students our communities and our region Workforce needs for generations to come as you know wiot Tech is considering a partnership with no Community College to build its new high school on hail go havil campus the goal of this shared campus model is to enhance efficiencies reduce costs and create Innovative educ opportunities for both institutions shared spaces like and administrative add value to both schools in their communities while supporting development of a strong Regional Workforce project has the poal to not only benefit Northern essics Community College and woodier Tech but also the educational Workforce needs serve to navigate M mba's multi-year process what your Tech is establishing a working group dedicated to guiding the school through each phase our top priority throughout the process will be to maintain open and cons consistent communication with the Whittier school committee and our lever member communities eligibility period is not yet in invitation into the feasibility study phase invitation to the feasibility stage will require another vote this coming summer of the msba board the district's eligibility period is scheduled to begin Friday August this and conclude Tuesday 2026 in order for Woody Tech to proceed into the eligibility period on August 1st 2025 the district must provide the following information to msba prior to July 1225 Midsummer they want a letter signed by the local Chief subec member of the wiot tech member communities that each Community is repaired to one amend if and as necessary existing vocational Regional School District agreement two dur the existing site of the wot Tech High School and the possible relocation to Wood to Neco AAL campus as described in Wood Tech's building proposal statement of interest to the msba proceed three proceed with the understanding that the cost of the feasibility study is to be paid for by the wiot Tech District now that the Administration has done its work achieving preliminary approval back into the msba pipeline next the most important step for us is the commencement of the wher tech Neco Municipal working group meetings scheduled to kick off and begin Monday January 27th at 1M at these work and greet meetings are where the member communities and and Neco will determine if the shared campus project is viable and if and how we had to move forward the work designed to help us our shared vision for the for an Innovative with your Tech model for Career and Technical education while incorporating each community's unique desires concerns and financial interests these meetings are include up to two representatives from each district member Town manager or the Town Administrator and or the Mayors plus one guest or designate such as the select board chair or other member again two REM two agenda for the first meeting includes the steps required by the msda recent approval to admit our building project back to the ms's eligibility phase the near final Institute report and its recommendations final report and recommendations are due mid-February VAR what your strategies for achieving a more more efficient project forties and towns planning toward a new Regional agreement with the state EO as partners lastly about the Don report last time at recent meetings the completed UMass Don report Institute report of findings and input from public Outreach interviews and sessions along with recommendations for next steps the report is expected to be finalized very soon again as I said early to mid um February and as soon as it's ready it'll be shared first with um the wood committee and then publicly uh that's my update for happy to uh try to answer you might have thank all right excellent thank you I do have one sure are you hearing any feedback from um just that they're all um as you know they all sign the memor of understanding so that you know except for one so they they've indicated willingness to to you know keep talking with us um and I think a lot of them are looking for the the meeting on the 27th be their first time we and I think at that meeting um you know we'll hear from everybody um you know superintendent Lynch and L Glen the president Neo will um you know leave the meeting and it'll be uh at those meetings that first meeting will'll get are you hearing it from Individual people other than uh you know everyone's iation and we just of that yet as I said but um um you know we get the msba approval which is a big step we got a letter from them which I think the superintendent for a lot of information expect um and um you know I think see that they're all going to be e be eager for at that meeting and uh the the uh so that's January 27 February meeting I'll give you an update and um you know I'll can tell you a lot more about um you know what what all the town city think after that what time is that where's it it's uh it's 1 pm it's at Neco um and it's um um more I think the super I can jump in no I'm not sharing it um Dennis doag the former mayor of chair that who is it that meeting Dennis Zago um so he's to help coordinate and um through some of the the concern issues and you know kind of our deliver to do so um we're excited to have somebody from the outside that has some experience in municipal government to help us work and iant keeps in contact with y'all regularly but um you I'll have my cell phone if if you know if I can ever answer any questions I'll let you know where we're at um you know don't feel free to call or email me anytime lot um I think I heard you correctly that the one of the requirements we even enter eligibility is that we have to get a letter signed by all the municipal CEOs that says they're prepared to amend the regional agreement did I do that right okay it's amend as may be existing Vocational School agreement okay that seems like a tall order in six months is the strategy to use a working group to get we're hoping that okay if we don't have that um then we will have to remove statement of interest and that has to be done by July 1st see n thank you all right thank you reports and recommend Madam superintendent Mr chairman members of the committee happy here um again iterate some of the things that Mr Regan on Friday December 13th we attended the msba zoom meeting um we were invited to eligibility at the beginning uh that would begin in August 1 but by July 1 we must provide those deliverables that is um the um CEO District or each City and town needs to sign that they amend as may be needed the existing R Regional agreement District during the feasibility study and possible relocation at Northern essic and proceed with understanding that the uh feasibility study will be paid for by the district and will not be reim um if if the district is um if the district is unable to provide the requested letter by July 1st the district will not be eligible to commence the eligibility period and will be asked to execute and submit a declaration of removal of the statement of Interest form by August 1 so um I do think m is setting us up for for um for Success um to make sure that we those things are done um before we move any move forward so I'm very hopeful about that um on Monday de 16th board Chris wild from West Newberry on Monday January 6 I hosted a meeting for the selection of a municipal representative contract negotiations I'm happy to report that stepen K from ipswitch um will be our Municipal rep and has volunteered um for that project on Monday January 6 I met with L gut Glen to discuss our upcoming mpal leaders today we have we were informed our staff and students of a Cyber attack of our school information system um from Power School um we've been working with our attorneys we had a webinar with power school today um so more information to come but once we received information to make sure that we were uh told our staff and our students as quickly as possible um this was Cyber attack not just for Whittier it was for six my understanding is 60 million um and you know through the superintendent group and um throughout this State there's been a lot of emails back and forth um so pretty much anyone that had power school their student system um is dealing with this right now so they feel you know in our webinar today they felt like the the information is secure that it's not going to be sold or distributed anyway but you know we need a lot more assurances than that and that is all I have for you tonight oh wait sorry overnight field trip to Pat competition um for uh the restaurant competition management and cake decorating um and that is at Patriots Place and they will be staying at the FI field and it's an overnight field trip what is there two of them is there um two yes I have um the other thing is um I found out recently our students team which is co-oped with Asbury it's actually asb's Co-op team um they are traveling to for some practices um because it's cross state lines we have the policy that we need to get approval from school committee so I'm also looking for approval for that as well right so the first uh motion was Mr Irvin to approve the field trip request second second L any discussion Mr early do we have the proper paperwork we will have the proper paperwork didn't see that question coming I do have another question the next one are we driving driving up there I believe no Chris is saying no most of our kids drive their parents okay that's for games if talking games rides okay that's what I mean yeah thank you all right so this is just the motion on the field trip though to clarify this is one will be the the hockey team into Salem New Hampshire this is the field trip uh the State restaurant competition further discussion Mr early yes Miss Sullivan Mr Rossy yes M CER M Mr Irving Mr OK Miss true Mr sloski Miss OK yes ask and is there a motion to to approve the amsbury wood attack hockey team to motion to approve true second seconded by Miss CER is there any discussion take none call the Mr early yes paperwork Mr Rossy yes m c yes Mr Li yes Mr Irving Miss L Mr Okana Miss true Mr sloski yes Miss Okana yes pass this old business no old business new business uh the 2025 standard mileage rate for vote is this just the update of the um it's increased 3 cents to 70 cents per mile is there a motion to approve the 20 standard mileage rate and what's it up to now thank you motion by Miss L seconded by second miss any discussion seeing none please CER yes Irving Miss L yes Mr OK m true yes Mr yes Miss OK yes passes reports of the special committees executive uh believe met tonight but I don't have a report on that uh instructional Personnel Miss true yeah I meeting yes um um January can we do it a week from today um yeah we have a salary on Monday sorry Jan okay I can I can do 3:30 but I mean I might be just a couple minutes okay so 3:30 on 15 instruction all right plan operations Mr Murphy's not here um salary and negotiations Mr early discussion and possible vote regarding the municipal representative in the salary negotiations committee yes we have a meeting set up I believe Monday o' right right so we're looking to have Stephen crane the municipal rep from ipswitch be a part of the salary negotiating team so we do need to have a vote on that they want to there a motion do we have to vote on here right I'll make a motion Mo by Mr early second second true um I don't know who that is he's the town manager or Town Administrator for the town of hip switch okay any discussion iwg law he doesn't have he's been Municipal Town manager in multiple communities over the last couple decades but he's actually by trade okay I know I've heard his name reputation okay great any other discussion seeing none call the r Mr early yes M yes Mr yes m m Irving m l Mr Okana yes m true Mr SL yes Miss obana yes policy Mr Irvin motion by Mr Irvin to approve uh November 25th second um second by Mr L any disc discussion see can I please call the r on that early yes Miss Sullivan yes Mr Rossy Miss CER M Mr Irving Miss L Mr Okana yes m true yes Mr sloski yes Miss OK yes Mr chairman in that meeting U we voted to continue the that we presid have then is there a motion to approve the admissions policy approve motion by Miss LEL seconded by second Mr any discussion seeing none please call the RO on the emissions policy Mr early yes Miss Sullivan yes Mr Rossy yes Miss CER Miss yes Mr Irving Miss L yes Mr okon yes m true yes Mr sloski yes Miss okor passes Mr chairman um it was the understanding of the policy subcommittee that we should uh continue further discussion on the admission policy for the future so it's been recommended that we pass this on to you and the full committee and for you to establish an ad hoc committee for admission okay I will do that and I will reach out um to a couple members to serve on that comme that's it thank you I don't think we need a meeting do we I mean that of the clarification of language we can do another so we're going to have the um discussion on instructional and then we will come back with a a policy on graduation all right is there a motion to agend I have one one thing okay Mr early I'd like to congratulate the young representative from the senior class she had some good news for us she didn't tell us earlier um I have been accepted into Wentworth I'm going to Wentworth for electrical engineering I'm also committed to play softball there as well congratulations all right motion to adj motion by Mr early to adjourn second seconded by miss caringer all in favor of adjournment anybody opposed see none we are adjourned