e e e okay I think we're about to start so noting the hour and the presence of a quorum I call the act and boxboro Regional school committee to order members of the public who wish to watch this meeting online may do so on acting TV's YouTube channel found at the top of our agenda uh this meeting as always is being recorded and will be posted to Acton TV's website at Act tv.org good evening everybody Welcome um I would first like to extend congratulations to both Ben Blumenthal and Andrew Schwarz on their successful re-election to school committee congratulations gentlemen um and I would also like to thank the uh voters of Acton for coming out in very very large numbers on Tuesday um and um showing support for our override although very narrow margins and I think we'll talk a little bit more about that but um we'll also talk a little bit about the budget but there is no longer an A or a B budget folks we just have the budget um so thank you to the voters of Acton um for that support and we've still got a lot of work to go um I think what I would like to do at this time is just while we've got lots of people in the room remind everybody about the remaining steps in the process so Tuesday was a ballot vote um to approve in actin a increase to their Levy limit since that has passed we still need to now go and have our budget and the town's budgets approved at town meeting so there are still two more meetings for us to have an approved budget for next year uh next Monday uh May 6th uh here at act and boxbar Regional High School in the auditorium cafeteria gymnasium uh lots of space lots of clickers will be available but please come um registration starts at 6 p.m. uh you do need to be at town meeting in person to vote uh on all of the Articles at town meeting including the school budget um they're anticipating a fairly large turnout so please come with ample time for check-in um and you do have to get a clicker and check in uh the parking will be available on all- on campus and then there also is going to be parking at the boardwalk campus um and there will be shuttle buses provided to bring people from Boardwalk um over to town meeting um so lots of planning going on to make sure that there's both adequate space and equipment for voting families with small kids there is babysitting available and flyers have gone out about that so that there's some Child Care available for kids so that parents can come um and uh participate in all that is annual town meeting following the Acton annual town meeting the following week week May 13th boxboro is having their town meeting should we have a successful vote on our budget at the Acton town meeting we then need to move on to a successful vote of our budget at the boxboro town meeting on May 13th um again ample parking there is already a plan for overflow space there boxboro doesn't use clickers we use Nifty neon colored cards so there are plenty of those available um there are plans have been made like I said for some overflow space in the library at boxboro uh at sorry at Blanchard um and there's going to be the ability to remotely hear and uh see what's going on but if you're at boxboro town meeting and you're the Overflow space you do need to walk down the hall to be able to make a comment um and our budget comes up in boxboro town meeting as part of the overall budget votes uh that occur at boxboro town meeting so we do need to have uh lots of people in attendance at both of those Town meetings uh again you can't be remote you have to be in person you have to register you have to show up early to get in the room um no one will be turned away you can come at any time um but uh please do come and vote not just for our budgets and your town budget but all of the other important items that are being presented on the warrants at the annual Town meetings so again thank you to all the voters who came out in the town of Acton on Tuesday and beforehand in uh in submitting their ballots congratulations to our newly reelected school committee members we're not done yet we still have about two and a half more weeks of work um before we have an approved budget for next year with that I will uh welcome our abhs school committee reps up to to uh the microphone to share some updates from the high school who do we have this evening three whole people nice make sure that microphone is on yep all right okay hi everyone uh my name is Julia Xiao I'm a sophomore at the high school and this month I'd like to share a quick message from the high schoolers just saying that we really appreciate um you guys school committee members reaching out to us for our opinion on issues particularly concerning the high school um there's some members that have been really great about that so we um are very happy that we get to kind of have a say in how our school is run and stuff like that and on a same note um a lot of elections are happening in the clubs and other extracurriculars around the high school school so in general it's been great um and the students have really appreciated getting to have leadership and getting to have a voice in their own communities so we'd love to uh be able to keep that up at school and uh with you guys and we would love it if you guys would reach out to us more because we'd love to stay in contact thank you thanks Julia hi Molly I'm Molly I'm a junor um I know I've talked about this before but the problem with the Freshman Boys in West Commons has not really improved we've had different teachers um standing in that area but often times they kind of just ignore the boys um the issue I have with it is that the math classrooms in the lower portion of West um which are very close to West Commons often have to have the doors open because they have poor air circulation um and it's really hard have those doors open and focus in math class when you have these boys being extremely loud in a space that isn't that far away from you and then also the issue with them leaving trash around has improved a little bit but at the same time it's still a big issue and it's really annoying when you have to clean up a bunch of freshman boys trash for them so thank you thanks Molly hi dixa hi everyone I'm dixa I'm a sophomore and I just want to talk a bit about the override that has been approved to be on the ballot so in general after talking to several students there has been a positive kind of vibe about it um a lot of students are still confused about it however so I feel like um providing resources on kind of how the fiscal year runs throughout the school in a way that's accessible to students would be really beneficial uh furthermore it's a season so um kind of just being able to promote um good mental health practices and um studying practices and just hoping everybody does well on tests also I was talking to a student recently uh she mentioned that um that PE credits should be optional for those who take sports during the year something that could help students with their schedules and may even provide some relief in terms of funding so just an idea that that um some of the students want to pop out to school committee so that's it for my update thank you thanks so much Dix please thanks to the student reps I just wanted to remind you guys that any 18-year-old registered voter for either the town for the town of Acton can attend town meeting on Monday night and can vote in favor of the override and it would also be awesome um for any of those I know you guys are super busy right now with finals and end of year stuff but um to give your perspective to town meeting members I I think you're you will be permitted to do that whether or not you are 18 and a registered voter um it's so important that people understand what's at stake and you guys are really I know that you guys are on your way out but you could speak for the younger kids who are coming behind you and same is true for any um you you know uh boxboro residents who are students who um can attend the boxboro town meeting on the 13th so if you guys could just let you know any channels of communication you have to let folks know that in in your school that would be awesome thank you for being here as always thanks Jenny all right uh up next is public participation so per our committee policy bedh members of the public are invited to speak for up to three minutes um I do want to give everybody uh a heads up on our agenda um because we don't have a b budget we're not going to have a public comment section later on in the evening about the budget topics so this be will be the only time um to uh make a public comment as a reminder speakers must be recognized by the chair we typically limit this to three minutes and the committee does not typically respond Mr balescu is this on oh it's already that's why um hi Mike balescu I'm the president of the act and boxboro Education Association also um an act and resident and a Maran parent um feel like I haven't been up here in a while to talk to you all um I've been busy but I I wanted to speak on behalf of teachers and share with you all that that almost every teacher I've talked to in the last uh 48 Hours had the same complicated reaction that I did to the um results Tuesday which is is overwhelming relief um that the the most difficult hurdle for for this process to fund our schools was cleared um and you know it was close but a win's a win on the other hand I think um I speak for a lot of teachers by saying I also felt incredible disappointment that um you know after two straight years of budget cuts facing a third straight year of cuts um that that asking the community even for just adequate resources was basically a coin flip um we weren't talking in this override about bold transformational resources but just adequate resources to keep us a float um came down to 37 votes that's the the most recent tally by the way um and so I I think for me personally what I take away from that um is that I have learned um what a lot of folks have learned around this country which is that we cannot take for granted anymore um that that that the public is going to overwhelming support public education that if we want resources for public education if we want to support teachers and students we have to fight for those resources we have to fight hard um that we cannot assume that that when the school is in need that the public is going to Rally because we were danger close Tuesday night um to seeing really really significant damaging res uh really significant resources slip away and real Damage Done um so knowing now that we have to fight hard I want to ask you all and this committee and everyone behind me and everyone watching at home what are you going to do between now right now and Monday May 6 to get people to town meeting to vote for the school budget what are you willing to do people are going to have to be uncomfortable they're going to have to spend hours parking and waiting in lines and sitting in a chair they're going to have to skip practices they're going to have to find babysitters they're going to have to disrupt their lives Monday night um I think that fight is worth it I think it is really really important but we all need to contribute to that fight um so everyone watching at home everyone here in this room ask yourselves what are you going to do between now and Monday night thank you thank you hi everyone my name is Lindsay tsus and I am one of the steam coaches in the district I work at the boardwalk schools Gates and Douglas and I'm going to read my statement for you tonight I am here tonight to urge the residents of Acton and boxb bir to vote Yes on the override at the upcoming town meetings on May 6th and May 13th this vote ensures our district continues providing quality education with necessary resources and instructional supports as a science educator I am concerned about the impact of budget cuts on Steam education last year's Cuts eliminated the K to8 science curriculum coordinator position now if the override doesn't pass over 85 positions including all all three steam coaches will be eliminated we are women and steam advocating for these crucial programs serving as role models for children and supporting all teachers K to6 the district's website States all students participate in Steam learning experiences to construct authentic ethical and Creative Solutions to real world problems by developing the steam habits of mind students build their capacity to communicate and take action to address challenges educators are supported to be effective steam Educators and see the value of steam education so I'm wondering without steam coaches and a science coordinator how can we truly deliver on the promise of steam education who will advocate for science during the school day when there are so many other demands on classroom teachers who will bring steam into the steam labs and steam into the classrooms who will support cross-curricular steam activities that deepen student learning steam education is a crucial part of the student learning experience it is Hands-On authentic experiential and it is the type of learning that so many of our students need and deserve Acton boxboro was recently ranked number 10 for top high schools in Massachusetts and number 20 nationally for stem schools however these rankings and our commitment to steam education are at risk without proper funding and Staffing we must prepare our students for the future deepen their understanding of the world and Foster their critical thinking skills cutting steam resources undermine these goals so please everyone who is available to vote on Monday please show up and vote Yes for the override to protect our District's excellence and education especially in Steam Fields because our students deserve better thank you thank you hi Gary hi Adam Gary Kushner box borrow finance committee uh first of all I want to follow up what Adam said town meeting for box borrow is May 13th please all of you come uh especially box borrow in the past few years we haven't had all the Box borrow school committee members there so it' be nice to have everybody show up um as you know I've been talking all year long about the fact I can't talk during the meeting tonight you're going to talk about the longrange financial plans I couldn't open the presentation my system wouldn't let me so I don't know what going to be presented so I have to ask questions now so is the is the longrange plan conservative is the longrange plan not conservative uh what's the 5-year growth what's the 10-year growth um so these are all that's was on the agenda I'm told from what I saw on May 2nd's agenda the long-term funds policy yes it's a second read of a policy that we've read once already and I haven't seen it the first time so I must have missed a meeting then that it was discussed so again I don't know what's in in it um so again I can't answer those ask those questions later so I'm I'm pretending I know what's going to be presented um and I don't know so I'd like hopefully my questions going to be answered that we're U going to see some real numbers and understand how we're handling the long-term finances thank you thanks Gary hello I am Rohan um I'm a ninth grader at abhs hello my name is Lennon and I'm a freshman at actin boxor Regional High School we are from a student-led environmental team called resource Force fighting against climate change we are attempting to make actum boxboro into becoming a more eco-friendly school district and decarbonize the AB School District we plan on decarbonizing the school district with our climate resolution um it's the climate resolution um just promises that you'll take fundamental steps in trying to improve the school district's eco-friendly uh capabilities and many students have expressed that they are interested in supporting this climate resolution uh abhs we are currently spreading information to environmental science classes explain who we are and what we are doing we have also hosted a flex block earlier this school year and students have drafted and some have sent their letters to the school committee voicing their opinions on our resolution our resolution um keep in mind is not a financial investment and immediate action is not required the climate resolution is just a commitment that says that you will ensure that you will take steps in order to become more eco-friendly and make the abhs district more sustainable for the future and that you will set an example for other school districts on creating a more sustainable future for everyone thank you thank you gentlemen well I'm not going to ask you to stay till the end we are going to have an update later on this evening about the battery array and solar project at our Boardwalk campus which might be interesting please don't stay that late to hear about it watch the video later and um speak with the resource Force as a whole about what you're going to learn later on about that thank you for coming hi Amanda hi man Bailey 50 Washington Drive Acton and speaking my capacity as a citizen and a volunteer with together for Acton and I just want to say that um you've missed out many of you on a really beautiful campaign we've seen toddlers we've seen elementary school kids we've seen one reluctant Junior High School student we've seen high schoolers out there holding signs running from campus to the polls during breaks and skipping lunch to hold signs outside the polls we've had teach teachers going door too we had a citizen say that was the saddest thing that she's seen that she had teachers from our district coming to her door begging and asking for support and the question that we got from staff was where is the school committee where are our school committee members why aren't they out here with us why aren't they more visible and I know that some of you are taking actions I'm going to Echo Mike please we need you between now and Monday and between now and the 13 to be visible and out there in the community supporting all of us please we know that you're working hard but we need more of you please even one more thing would help please visit togetherfor acen.org to learn more about the budget that we have to pass on Monday at act in town meeting make an effort to show up folks please out there listening um thank you all for what you're doing please please everyone come support this budget thank you thank you Amanda hello again hi I'm back hi um so yeah I'm back this time as a public participant um again my name is Julia xia I live in boxboro so um sounds a little bit like a broken record but again I'd like to read my testimony that I already gave to uh to together for acting but I would like to encourage everyone especially people like me that live in boxboro um to come and vote on the town meet meeting on the 13th I'm too young to vote but I'll try to be there any so as students in the act and boxboro Regional School District we take great pride in both our academic and our extracurricular achievements it is unrealistic and unfair to expect us to continue performing at this high standard should the override fail to pass I think it's fair to say that almost all high schoolers experience a significant amount of stress as a result of a multitude of reasons taking away our opportunities to relax discuss our struggles and form trusting connections with the adults at school is dangerous at best and life-threatening at worst admits the Mental Health crisis affecting young people throughout our nation I'm certain that the proposed budget without the override will negatively in Impact student experiences of all grade levels in Acton and Foxboro we must continue to to support students through arguably the most important years of their physical mental and emotional development and this Begins by voting yes to the override thank you thank you Julian hello again dixa welcome back hi folks um I'm dixa again um I would like to give my testimony as a student especially for act and residents out there watching this right now so basically my family moved to this town solely for the highly rated schools and this school system has provided me with countless educational opportunities and to see extracurriculars in including Sports and competing clubs such as Science Olympiad or speech and debate to lose that funding to lose that support it's highly detrimental to Student Success furthermore it's devastating that we're forced to cut access to Mental Health Care programs and teachers to be able to fit the budget and even during Peak allergy season this year right now we a tissue shorts it's incredibly frustrating to see how these budget issues affect the entire district and so to ensure Student Success and well-being I urge everybody watching this uh residents in Acton and boxboro to vote Yes for the override thank you thank you hello G Molly I wasn't planning on saying anything but now I feel left out so um I also moved to this District my parents decided to move here for the schools um I was in wuber before this and as a child who had severe anxiety and issues relating to bullying um I found that wubber was not a good place for me to be it was a really hard school district for me to be in because teachers principles admin just did not support the students um in the ways that they should have been especially students like me who needed extra support um and it was a shock in a good way when I came to Acton and all of my needs were met by important Mental Health Resources um Mental Health Counselors um just like everything acon has done for me I'm so grateful because I am so much more successful than I ever would have been in wuber because of the resources I've been given and I think just for everybody who can vote it's very important to vote for the override because like just for people like me for every student it's really important that we have those resources um because so many districts don't have those resources and I think one of the things I'm so grateful that I live in for is because we have those resources and I think it's like something that stands out from other towns and I think that's something we should try continue to have because it's something that is good to stand out for so thank you Molly all right I want to just make one clarification for those folks watching at home the override has passed but the budget hasn't so step one was an override and now we need to pass our budget and we only have one budget now thankfully um so everyone who's coming to vote in favor of something look for the budget not the override vote V yes on the school budget with that Peter you have please please please please thank you so much and thank you to the students um I think it's exactly those kinds of things that our town meetings need to hear um we've been accused of Reckless spending we've been accused of having extra everything um we've been accused of of um having all kinds of extras that are not core needs needs for our students these are your teachers these are your schools and I hope that a lot of you will consider coming to speak for those that are those kids who are coming behind you who will lose out on all of these things um and you too to the ex you as well to the extent that you are still um you know have um some time ahead of you at AB these are the things that the voters need to hear because um you know that this this is this is what this is where the rubber meets the road and again these are your teachers working hard these are your um you know staff principal everybody who's who's given you all these opportunities and they're not going to be able to continue to do it if this budget doesn't pass so I know it's hard and daunting and it's not for everybody and if and if you're too young to speak or vote offer to babysit for a neighbor or help in some way um so that we can get our community out there on the 6th and on the 13th um to to vote for our budget thank you so much for your work make sure you encourage any eligible voter in your household or neighborhood to come out thank you all right Peter superintendent update all right uh first thank you to all the students it's fantastic to hear your voices in this and I think that's incredibly important um you know I'll just start off by you know giving you a quick update on town meeting we are expecting a very very large turnout um in both Town meetings uh due to the budget um in in terms of working you know first with Acton uh we have been working with the town manager's office um to make sure that we have enough space available um so we've opened up multiple other spaces in the High School uh to be able to accommodate the number of residents who we anticipate attending um we also have worked with the town to develop a parking plan um and overflow parking at a number of different sites around town um they're going to be setting kind of a priority order to what that looks like but we'll also be providing shuttle service um from those satellite parking locations over to the school um in terms of boxboro we did similar space planning with them um and as we get closer we'll continue to evaluate what other needs that they have and try and support that the best we can I certainly want to thank you know Mark Hamill and Brendan Hearn who have done all of the work behind the scenes to make sure that we are well prepared to support the two towns in the town meetings so thank you to thank you to them for their work um you know I just wanted to give my own thanks to you know citizens and acting in boxboro or act excuse me citizens and Acton um you know for passing the override it was a very very slim margin and as Mike said I think you know it's clearly a sign of the times um I know there's a lot of districts um struggling with financial circumstances right now um I I would say it it's it was a relief um that it passed I think it was more of a feeling of having averted disaster as opposed to having won something um you know quite honestly on a on a personal level um you know I remember you know we're $3 million away from fully funding what we wanted to do next year and what we're currently doing now um and so I think it's just really important to recognize that it was a close vote um and I think we need to make sure that we're reminding people that no this is doesn't fully fund the schools um this is three million less than fully funding the schools um is what we're moving forward with and so you know I think you know certainly having talked to a lot of our leaders um you know I think I've heard that similar sentiment to what Mike shared that there was more relief than Elation um you know but certainly very very appreciative because it's a lot better to be on this side of that 33 margin or 37 margin um than the alternative so you know we're moving forward we're excited about that um I have had a number of either school committee members Andor staff who have asked questions through principles um around what is the process um for the budget adoption and what happens in the event that it doesn't pass one over the other Town um I did send you the Desi um advice about that I'm happy to answer questions I'm not going to present on it tonight um principles also have it in case staff have questions about that um it's fairly long and lengthy and Desy speak um but you know at least we know what that process looks like um so that we can speak to that if we are asked at the Town meetings um I will also follow up and post that on the school Committee website um as a document used just so there's a reference for it that that the public can get to um you know I next item um I'll transition away from any budget discussion um Tuesday June 18th is the last day of school so we have officially set that um we can set it coming out of April vacation um so that's an early release day um breakfast and lunch are available for students and we'll be sending out more information on specific start times uh and end times to families um we had an awesome awesome awesome event um at ly field um last week it was the unified games um and what an incredible opportunity for our student athletes to come out and show what they could do and compete in just a fantastic environment um a lot of our Unified sports if you're unaware of that um it was kind of a followup to what Special Olympics um originally were thought of as but more of um the idea of unified games is more to have maybe some students who have disabilities also compete alongside typically developing peers um and so you know just being able to recognize that student athletes um you know are you know span the entire population of the students we serve um and I think it was great to be able to recognize them I want to thank you know the acting and boxboro police and fire departments because they showed up to do an absolutely great welcome ceremony and thank you to all the staff who are involved in supporting that because it is absolutely hands down one of the best days of the year um we also had a really successful walk over the weekend uh for the out of Darkness walk so for those of you I know at least some of you were there to support that um you know thank you for doing that that is u a walk to support Suicide Prevention awareness um and to make sure that that stays um at the top of people's minds in this community we also had a high school senior art show last week um this is the time of year where there's a lot going on um I would urge you to check out different school websites you can see some of the more public facing events and you're all obviously welcome to attend those um we had I've previously spoken about um two of our students um timson and Arnav who had advanced in the uh regeneron international science competition they're actually now headed to the National level of that uh so congratulations to those two high school students um we are also running a competition uh for the 24 terrific tray of the year so we'd like to get our community involved in supporting our food service program um and voting them up in the standings um and then we're sending out some information on the next cartwheel webinar which I believe is our last webinar of the Year and that is talking to youth about mental health and suicide prevention so um please be on the lookout for that we'll be sending it out tomorrow thank you Peter will the website for the terrific try con uh contest be posted in the superintendent update awesome on service page it's on the Food Service page vote early vote often for the ACT in boxboro terrific try great all right any questions or comments for Peter Tori it's great to hear about the uh the parking in the shuttle plan um do we have a sense of like the timeline on those shuttles knowing that people may be arriving and departing at various times will they run throughout or are they limited to a specific window uh I think that's all going to be posted on the town of Acton's website I'm not sure of the exact um timing of it so I don't want to misspeak I'll let them speak for it they're starting at 6 and they're running every 15 minutes until they feel like people have all gone back to their cars and there's no cars in the lot any other questions or comments rep Peter all right we are now on to our guests and presentation so I would invite our elementary principles up to the table uh to give us our elementary school update all right well they're coming up I'll just sing their praises um you know I was thinking of how I could alliterate while I was um you know introducing them but we have an exceptional group of Elementary principles um is about as close as I got but no really this this is a relatively new group um as you're going to see some new faces uh this year um from what you've seen on previous updates but they have have just formed an incredible relationship working with each other um they push each other they support each other um they've done a lot of great work over the course of the year so we're just excited to be able to welcome them and let them talk a little bit about some of the goals that they worked on over the course of the year you know we did um in preparing for this meeting we had the possibility that we would have to do a b budget presentation for this meeting um which could have lasted hours on itself um so we did give them a of 10 minutes so you're not going to hear really in depth about any one thing or any one school um so what they've done is they've taken some of the work that they've shared across schools but highlighted what that looks like a little bit at each school for you so um I will just you know apologize to you for why it might appear brief um but it's simply because we knew that we had the possibility of a pretty pretty challenging agenda more time for Q&A maybe we'll have to ask the guys in charge of the meeting if that's possible and don't forget to turn your mics on if you want to grab the mic behind you too Dana we have an extra thank you for that introduction Peter and thank thank you uh to school committee members for having us us this evening we do appreciate the time to talk about the important work that's happening in our schools um over the next 10 minutes uh we will highlight some of our accomplishments in our school Improvement plans but it is important to note that all efforts described tonight are directly connected to our district goals as we have included in this slide here so um there are many district goals there are many school Improvement plans but we decided that tonight we wanted to talk about the ones in our schools that connect to strengthening relationships professional learning responsive um to the diversity of our students and families being responsive to the diversity of our students and families um mtss which I know you've heard a lot about before multi-tier system of support and evidence-based screening instruction and assessment so um while that while I just said we're going to narrow it down to that and that seems like a really big list we really are narrowing it down so thank you so our hope is to narrow it down to these three areas that similar to last year all six elementary schools positioned our school Improvement plans around a focus on multi-tiered systems of support culturally responsive practices and social emotional learning and you can see the acronyms on the slide too sometimes we talk in edge of speak so those are there for you too can I just ask that as you start speaking maybe you can just introduce yourself um just again just to refresh everyone's memory I think that may be helpful for the committee I'm chrisel and I'm the principal of McCarthy Town nice to see you all hi I'm Dana I'm the principal of Blancher Memorial School um so as been stated already we're going to talk about a lot of different things that connect back to the same thing and inevitably one of the com things that are might come up as a question question from you is how do you possibly know how effective this is and how do you sustain it um so I'll get into a little bit around that um so we had a focus ofcl as one of our goals at Blanchard and I picked this particular highlight to talk about because it kind of goes back to one of the district um goals around professional learning so um what we decided to do with the building this year is um we felt like we needed some more tier one support around how to support our student social emotional learning um and part of that was building the capacity for teachers and Educators um so we brought in responsive classroom I'm sorry restorative practices same initials um to help support um one of the the things that we think is most important for the district which is around building caring trusting relationships and a sense of belonging and so um what was helpful in terms of offering this PL was it was available to everybody um but also intersected so well with many of the other things that we're doing at the other buildings around second step um responsive classroom and some of the castle 5 Frameworks um the outcome sustainability and ultimately the effectiveness of programs across district and in different buildings are um impacted by how we deliver um professional learning both at the district and at the building level um and so we do know these things to be true about professional learning it's best when it's provided to all so it's Universal and meaningful we dedicate the time for it which the district does do it's engaging in a immediately actionable and there's ongoing support from the folks that um can help deliver that best whether that's from a a program or an institution or from our own education our own Educators which sometimes is uh our best professional learning and then ongoing coaching and coordination from our uh teaching and learning Department I I don't need two mics thank you I am Trisha O'Reilly and I am the principal of Conan School apologies for not introducing myself earlier um I'm really excited to talk about um mtss at Conan multi-tiered systems of support and I'm really excited to talk about it because this year the the teachers um the coaches uh the whole staff at Conan really really made uh Leaps and Bounds progress um in uh implementing adjusting and embracing um a predictable efficient mtss system I'm I'm actually really proud of their accomplishments it was something um that in my previous District took us probably 3 years uh to put together and we were able to do it in this school year so I I'm very excited to talk about it um one of the things we did was we actually um modified the structure of our data team meetings so that every teacher knew when they left the meeting exactly which student needed what intervention who was um going to provide that intervention I'm talking about the whole grade um which teacher was going to provide it where it was going to happen What small group was going to be um together um and what evidence we were going to look for at the end of the six-week period in order to see if there was any progress that's that's a big chunk that's a lot of people being on the same page and that's a lot of folks um actually just believing that they can do something like that and they did a fabulous job with it we implemented a k6 walk tolearn model that means that during Flex time during um four times a week every child in every grade gets redistributed to a different classroom or possibly they stay in their some same classroom so that they are with the best person to teach them what it is they need to know or or what they need to learn or what they need to review um we were we began uh to incorporate seal social emotional learning into our data team meetings um when we met uh we started with check-ins and we're really hoping next year to make that a little bit more formalized and um we uh also had a great protocol when we started out that we realized was not really a very great protocol at all for us um so we spent a little time Shifting the protocol and we really ended up um with something that we know works so uh we're very excited to actually start next year with something solid like this and improve upon it thank you hi there I'm Larry wpie I'm the principal of Douglas Elementary School I get excited just hearing what you're doing so uh I want to do more of it anyhow in conjunction with our cultur responsive teacher leaders which each of our schools has uh two of them we did a whole lot of work with culturally responsive uh practices and essentially what that means is we had a lot of professional learning on cultural responsive teaching practices so meeting kids where they're at getting a sense of their backgrounds and taking that into account when instructing them and realizing that we all come from different races religions backgrounds ethn ethnicities excuse me uh and all of those should be valued and how can we make the instruction culturally relevant to all the students in front of us so we did uh two professional learning sessions on this and in addition to that we also have the staff map out with zaretta Hammond who my colleague Christina will touch on in just a minute uh talks about dependent and independent Learners instead of that whole spectrum that whole trajectory from one to another and getting an opportunity to look at the Learners in front of us in our classroom and say well where do they lie within the Spectrum and how can we best um meet their needs um I'm Allison Warren principal of gates um very excited to share with you I'm going to be um sharing with you about our work here at Gates this year we um are working on building out our tiered supports and systems with so we um started the second step curriculum this year which was very exciting across all the grade levels um we also used AAL screener Desa screener that helped us Focus that work that can also give us information hopefully I don't have results yet but at the end of the year year where we can look to see where are potential areas of growth and where is also areas that we may want to focus on next year so very excited to see what happens with that um and also the castle framework was an area that we looked at with adult seal along with student seal um did some exciting work last summer with McCarthy town and created a lot of great resources that the staff were able to use some for morning meetings but also within our specials classes with art music PE and Library so thank you very much I'm going to just touch on multi-tiered systems of support at McCarthy Town um and I'm actually going to start at the whole District all of the elementary schools this year with the leadership of Deb bookus and her team implemented a new tier one English language arts curriculum which is an enormous lift and the support that we all gave each other we had a wonderful implementation team sort of forging the path and creating a space where the rest of us could learn with them um what this does is create a place where all elementary students across act and boxboro are receiving research-based instruction um I want to also just touch upon at McCarthy town our focus of mtss was the flex block so Trisha talked a lot about the data meetings where they decide what the instruction needs to be at McCarthy town we also this year really focused on what do we do after that in that Flex block period to make sure that teachers are using data to inform the instructions in the interventions and kids are engaging in meaningful intervention work to grow their individual skills um the last piece is really at McCarthy town we always try to make sure we have no story without data and no data without a story so we're looking at spreadsheets and we're looking at quantitative data but we're also thinking about the whole child and connecting our culturally responsive practices rscl and the mtss work um one of the ways we would measure that work is to look at our I ready results our mcast results our classroom assessment data and I just want to really give a shout out to Deb bookas and the curriculum team and all of my principal colleagues and all of the teachers at the elementary level this is the first time in a long time that all six elementary schools at our midyear I ready data had high growth and high achiev and to bring all six schools together like that is really impressive work good evening everyone my name is Christina Gavin and I am the new Proud principal of Miriam and I'm going to speak more to the culturally responsive teaching practices work at Miriam this year for this goal area we have focused on deepening our working knowledge of culturally responsive teaching practices and building those practices into our regular teaching routines our day-to-day instruction and our lesson planning for students and as many of us have spoken to tonight there's an emphasis here on relationships relationships we know that students do their best learning when they're in classrooms where they are connected where they feel that sense of belonging and that sense of belonging is created when teachers know how to connect with their stud students and the practices that we Center much of our work from does come from zaretta Hammond and her work culturally responsive teaching in the brain has been has been instrumental in bridging science cognition brain chemistry what what we know about how students learn and bridging that with education and our pedagogy another Focus area for us at Miriam has been to incorporate culture responsive practices and take that lens with our project based learning and with our lesson planning and so if we know that a complex topic is coming up in our curriculum if we're going to be talking about hard history or um some topics that uh we might have students in our classrooms we want to be considerate of different perspectives different identities we're being thoughtful and intentional about our approach and so that is a practice we have incorporated into our regular routines as we're planning and collaborating as Educators and um it's we're seeing that students are are they're responding to the practices that we're putting in place and we're seeing them take risks we're seeing them persist in their learning and lean into that productive struggle so we've reached the end um and this is kind of kind of thinking about our next steps the goals we'll be looking at is continued focus on our new literacy program that we have um started this year and supporting that tier one instruction and culture responsive practices that is embedded in that in that program focusing on social emotional learning through a distri a district implementation of Second Step curriculum and the bullying prevention program which is very exciting to be doing districtwide um and continued focus on mtss specifically looking making that tiered instruction piece and using student data um to support positive student outcomes and if we have permission we said thank you for listening and any questions thank you all very much slightly over 10 minutes but well we'll have to compare you to the junior high and high school presentation in a couple Jim will be spot on yes Jim will be spot on but questions Ben thank you Miss Riley at Conan you you spoke about the modified structure to the data team meetings along with improvements to theal modeling would you be able to provide an example of how this modified structure and improvements to the modeling have positively impacted the students there you spoke a lot about the changes in the modeling but I would love to hear about you know how the students are doing as a result sure so um the whole notion of um mtss is obviously um tier one instruction needs to be strong and and meet all of our students and then uh when we get together in the data meetings we take a look at using results uh whether it's Dibbles data or an end of unit assessment um was there anybody who still needed a little bit more of a boost and and what we did was able to create a system so just for example um the flex time uh which is four times a week for 20 or 30 minutes um often the kids who need extra math also need extra Ela right that that's not an uncommon thing and um one of the things I heard from the teachers when we started was so what do we do so do we just do one day math one day reading do what do we do teachers were desperate to help students but they weren't quite sure how to do it and so one of the things and this sounds simple but it took us a few weeks to figure it out is we put um groups up there based on data and we put the kids' names up there twice knowing that they couldn't be in two places at once but we bolded their names and when we talked about the students in general we always started with those kids so the whole group was talking specifically about a child who needed both we would refer or or refer to the classroom teacher and say what do you think then the reading teacher might jump in then the math specialist would jump in we'd have a conversation about what was best for this child for the next six weeks um so they might say you know what he just took a math assessment he seems to be understanding the concept so let's put them in reading for the next six weeks and then we codified away across seven teams um so that we could all understand you know each other um when we went back in six weeks we said instead of saying I think we did this we knew exactly who we sort of put on the side for ELA so that next time we had that discussion we said nope we we we know that need to take this child because we didn't last time and so I think there was a more systematic way of students getting what they need um in terms of the extra support um I I hope that answered your question it did thank you very much lots of new principles here I think Miss nean and Mr lab are the two veteran principles sitting here right yes um I have a question do you um so that question is directed to you guys because you're a veterans do you see a correlation between chronical absenteeism and the students's experience in school like if a student has experienced school bullying would that cause them to wanting to miss more school if there is um what's the plan to support a families and students who are having these experiences thank you so that school building is one of those things that can oftentimes lead to Chronic absenteeism as and I'm sure you're all aware of like what chronic absenteeism is I don't you explain it okay um I don't par I'm only speaking specifically for blaner because I just recently looked at the data but when we look at the students that it was at 135 days that had missed 13 days or more I didn't it did not correlate with students that I've necessarily engaged with in that particular sense but what I would say is that there is definitely a correlation between students who um are on the more dependent scale because that's how we place students in Blanchard is um based on Zera Hammond and dependent Independent Learning um so there's definitely a correlation there there's a correlation with students who maybe um need support in two more than one area and um and then there's the social economic status um of students too that we can correlate with that so there's a lot of factors that play into that I would share too that part of why we focused on restorative practices and particularly the session around um Community Building circles and putting the connection before the content is for that exactly that reason in the focus of having everybody feel like they have a place to belong and a voice and I think that is where that has to start because um I mean personally for me my worst fear is that someone's missing school because they're uncomfortable being there based on an adult or a student making them feel that way um but I I don't at least at this moment in time can't draw a line particularity to that to that of students missing school for that specific reason I would just add that as far as planning for students that are either on that chronically absentee list or who have expressed concerns or un bullying we have I think at all of our schools a team called the cares team which is comprised of our nurse our mental health staff the building based administrators and one of our regular agenda items for that team is to look at The Chronic absentee list and check in with each other does any anyone have a sense of why there's this level of absenteeism and if we do we have that person who has a connection and relationship to the family be the one to reach out and say hey we're noticing an uptick in absences is there anything we can support the family and the child with more um if we don't have an a sense of why we sort of pick one of us on that team to reach out to the family and ask why and sometimes it's illness sometimes it's travel if it it gives us an opportunity to make that connection to the family to understand and give them voice an opportunity to be able to say if there's something more we can do around concerns connected to school or bullying or anything happening in the building just add one piece to that too the Second Step having that bully and prevention piece to that is really helpful too and we did do that at all the schools we like we had teachers go through some of that and I know that that's some of the work that um Jen Faber's working on with the aps to have more of a broad like look at students chronically absent and how bullying plays into that as well so it's great to be able to all be able to speak the same language around that bullying prevention piece too bullying prevention also happens to be one of the items we're investing in a curriculum for next year one of the few items that we're adding into our budget I would add Becca it's really fun to have everybody here to sort of talk about this work because I think this really speaks to the budget process and how important it is that you all have funding you need to enact these uh changes because as we know education is very different today than it was 10 or 20 years ago and something we've heard a lot about during this process is class sizes uh I've heard you know all of you speak about small group work um and I was wondering if you could maybe speak a little bit more about how important it is to try to keep class sizes as small as possible so that you can thread that needle of blending data and empathy and seeing children as individuals and get them exactly what they need well I mean I think it goes without saying that keeping class siiz down is uh something we'd all love to see right as as you look at kids if if you look at you know and think back to our presentation the Common Thread was relationships relationships relationships and we're not going to make any progress and any Headway with our students unless we're able to establish those meaningful relationships and Foster and maintain those and leverage those for academic output and academic progress and academic achievement and really it's a lot easier to do that if you're working with 22 23 students than even 25 or 26 because when we talk about students right it's it's more than just a number it's somebody in the room you could have you could have 22 students but have one who takes up the majority of your time too so I think it's imperative that we keep class sizes as small as possible thank you for being here this is It's good to talk about it's good to talk about education again um and thank you also for giving us a sense of how you're measuring progress how you how you know when things are working and when oo this this protocol is not working for us let's switch let's go a different direction that's that's helpful um kind of building a bit on the theme of relationships um one that I know can be a struggle with respect to time and resources is also recognizing you have a very diverse parent caregiver family group to work with as well and I'm curious about what's what's sort of the tier one Outreach to the families what what's the threshold for um now we really need to dive into something because either through through the data we're collecting or the stories we're hearing we know that we need to foster a stronger relationship with this family to help support this student um what does that look like something that comes to mind when you raise that question is the communication Norms that we have as a part of our teams um it we have a number of teams uh in our buildings car's team was one of the teams mentioned another team is the instructional support team and one of the nor Ms that we have in all of our buildings is if we have a student um and we are thinking that there's a student where um we want to gather we want to talk about that student academically social emotionally there might be something going on with the student it could be attendance um it could be a concern about bullying it could be any number of areas where we want to gather we want to bring the team together we're always reaching out to families and um that is a norm within our practices and that similarly um we are communicating with families when we're seeing success as well we want to partner with families along the way and we consider families to be our partners in this work last question anybody Lea thank you for presenting um your slides look phenomenal so thanks for that um I was curious about how you were speaking about how PD is most helpful when there's kind of an implementation process and there's consistent feedback um how the restorative justice is work the restorative justice work um is getting implemented or thought about kind of longer term Beyond professional development I'm super excited that it's happening and just curious about how that kind of will be continued ongoing sure so um a number of years ago uh I went to a training to become a circle keeper um the same folks that came out to train our staff um and it's can be pricey and timec consuming to do that um what was really helpful was when um after I when I initially went I went with other folks including the folks that are most intimately work uh working with students where a lot of issues can come up particularly at recess um and so bringing an assistant a general Ed assistant to be able to be part of that and then opening up that professional learning to everybody in the community not just the teachers um is really helpful how we're going to sustain that is um through making sure that it was actionable and something that people felt comfortable with and could get immediate feedback on and then also shared resources that they could easily access that way they can train the new folks that come on how to conduct and run through um a circle effectively and so to be able to keep that momentum up and be able to share it with peers and share that between other buildings too and those you know we're all shared between buildings at this point um is really helpful in helping to maintain that and keep that consistent and there's again a lot of carryover between restorative practices responsive classroom and um the castle FR framework so um it it's all you know a lot of this is in the water um but that's an one example of something that we did at our school to meet the needs that we felt like that we needed to have um just to go back to one of the the last question that was asked was um school's very different um for kids today than it was when we were children and so you know we talk about homework we talk about um all the different things we're doing in school all the Ed you speak but mtss is one of those things where we need to educate the families on what not only that Acron acronym is but what it really means and how that looks at the classroom level and then also equally important is how we're responding to behavior in order to maintain relationships and help prepare the harm that's been done and stort of practices restorative justice which is they do at the secondary level is a great way to help get a better understanding of that and it's a language that can be used both at home and at school so there's also the piece too around adult education which I think we've all talked about from time to time um to order to maintain um what we're doing at school I hope that answer your question thanks thanks for being here again um I I have one question that I it's kind of related to everything you're talking about because I think one of the key pieces of the current elementary Education puzzle is how we provide support across the scope of our students needs and a piece of that was mentioned by Larry and one of the previous answers is how you navigate the differing needs of students within classrooms so when one student does cons consume all the oxygen in the room how are we supporting the other students in the classroom to be able to manage their reaction to it one of the key pieces of what we've gone through over the last few years are series of uncomfortable situations for all of us from Co lockdowns to schools being destroyed to schools being built to the budget and override and I'm curious as to how all of this works not just for the kids who are directly re receiving the help but for the kids around them who are impacted by all of this I'd be happy to talk a little bit about that um I think the the key component is what you do before you have the situation and that is building the community in your classroom um particularly at the elementary level um when you build a community in your classroom you know that um every child in there is going to get what they need because you explicitly say that to folks but you also say that doesn't necessarily mean everybody's getting the same thing um you model that yourself as a teacher and you remind kids of that um we also have systems in place for uh opportunities for teachers to ask for support throughout the day in ways that look and are quite normalized um whether you know it's a walkie whether uh and it's not help help I need help you know it's um we could use some assistance in the hallway here by room six and then two people go and we have a protocol that once two people have shown up we don't have 10 people we don't have 10 adults we we keep the two there um I think that we also uh owe it to answer kids questions directly um and ultimately um it's our responsibility to let everybody in the room know that they're safe um that the teacher is there to take care of things and that everybody is going to get what they need um that doesn't mean that it's easy and that doesn't mean that it feels comfortable when it's happening or afterwards but the building of that Community it's in the beginning in the very beginning um uh of the school year and continu is is what will get you through I was a fifth grade teacher for 17 years every what I learned was every year I taught I spent more time building Community because it it never failed me so I a big component I'll just touch on something really quickly I think it was great that we talked about proactively and sometimes it does become a reactive situation I had a situation recently where there was a child or a group of children in a particular classroom you know say constantly giving the teacher challenging time the other students uh we had I guess what would be considered a restorative circle on um resilience on inclusiveness on accepting others and understanding that we all come from different places um that a student may or may not um have a disability and it's important that we know who's around us and to Trisha's Point having those one-on-one conversations with the kids whether it's an administrator whether it's the classroom teacher because at the end of the day the teachers are really the first line of defense they're Ground Zero and and kids need to know that they can depend on their teachers there do we have one last question so it was it's a very in insightful and prompting question thank you Andrew it was right at the end and everybody wants to answer it but laxm I think you had one last question no I you're good okay thank you all uh thanks very much uh for coming for presenting on something that's not about the budget but still related to the budget um we appreciate that right there with at at the last moment with one that everybody wants to answer uh all right we're moving on to our ongoing business next item on the agenda is uh an update on our budget I don't think we need to do much Peter no you know I think it might be helpful to just clarify something the you know we had been tasked with developing two budgets one was the school committee's budget which had been previously referred to as the a budget but we had also developed a b budget in the event that the override did not pass um because the school committee would have to revert to the level of funding that was available to the town of Acton um and then proportionately move the budget forward that was responsive to that so we had a and b budgets when the override passes the B budget no longer exists right that that's really important to understand there's actually only one budget proposal at this point um that that moves forward to the town meetings and that's the budget that you voted that's the a budget um you know there was some discussion I know some of our Educators were saying well you know what happens now with the B budget and and we've been really trying to clarify it doesn't exist um anymore it's really the a budget and obviously the the school committee budget has to go through the same town meeting approval process that it would in any other given year um so that's what we're working on I just wanted to make sure we're really clear about that that the B budget doesn't exist I it's probably the 10th time I've said it which was intentional um you know and we are moving forward with the school committee's budget at this point so happy to answer questions on process timing any like that but there's you know where the override passed there is no B budget to update you want 11 thank for 11 members uh so and and I'll add to that right so there is there is no B budget let me just say that a couple more times um we have a budget and Our intention is to pass that budget at town meeting there is an opportunity though for either of the two Town meetings to disapprove of our budget and there's two ways they could do that they could vote no whole cloth on the budget or they could vote to amend our budget voting to amend the budget is the same as voting down the budget and it starts the same process for us which is that if either Town um votes anything other than the assessment that we've given them we need to come back and meet and we need to present another budget that could be the same budget probably not very responsive to our communities it could be a slightly modified budget um at that point the towns need to hold town meeting a a a special or another town meeting to then try to vote that budget and pass that um and that that occurs for both towns if the budget fails in either of the towns um if it fails in either of the towns again we've talked about this highly unlikely then there will be another opportunity for us to revisit our budget and then that will go to a joint town meeting of the Two Towns where a majority of the people present at that town meeting from both towns will vote on that budget there's another eventuality we don't need to talk about that um but again there is no B budget there is our budget now the hope is and the plan is that that will pass remember to invite all your friends family voting members anyone uh in who's a resident a voting resident of the town of Acton for May 6th and town of boxboro for May 13th um so that that budget passes at both of those there's no override anymore the override has passed so the uh act and Levy limit has been raised by $6.2 million and then how those budgets get voted at act and town meeting will actually relate to how much of that additional Levy limit is used currently 5.4 million of that has been budgeted between ours and the town budget and can I just clarify one thing um so you know sometimes there's been some questions around like could someone amend a budget um whether or not someone amended a budget by you know $6 million a dollar or 50 cents it doesn't matter it's the same outcome which it means that it was just disapproved um which kicks a back to the school committee to then determine what to do next with it um and then return to the towns with a a proposal but the the way town meeting works the town meeting can't actually pick a budget number for the district only the regional school committee can um and that but it is up to the town meeting to decide whether or not to appropriate the funds for that um so they can certainly amend it but it's the same as just not approving it Becca question um I I saw that there was a question uh amongst you know community members of exactly how that process would work if we had to revisit the budget and then do another town meeting would it be possible to do a joint town meeting or are we talking two separate Town meetings again and the expense that comes with that yeah so you know the the the process is very prescribed legally the if it was rejected at either one of the two Town meetings the first time the town the school committee reconsiders that and you have 30 days to reconsider um and then you resubmit your budget to both towns they then have 45 days in which to hold a town meeting um and so you know only the town that didn't approve the budget needs to hold that town meeting if both towns didn't then obviously both towns would hold a town meeting that has to take place on the town side um the next time that happens at that point it's a district meeting um where the school committee is actually the host of the the quote town meeting um and it's residents from both communities come together at the district to discuss and vote on The District budget thank you other questions comments on this process Andrew I promise a much shorter response if an amendment is proposed but not passed it doesn't yes trigger anything we so we've been we've been here before several years ago where amendments were made at both Town meetings um by community members those amendments did not um pass right so anybody can make an amendment on a on a article at town meeting um and then the town meeting votes on whether or not to approve or disapprove of that Amendment um so it is quite possible that um people may make amendments to or make proposals to amend our budget um and that will work through the town meeting process the moderators will manage that um should the Amendments pass then as we said that is an O um but it also gives us some some information around where the town is leaning in terms of how much they are looking to reduce our budget not that we necessarily have to take that but it's good information to go if someone says I want to take six million out of your budget we're probably not going to come back with a six million reduced budget but if someone says I want to take a million out we might look at how we do that um and recognizing that what they're amending is their assessment number and not our overall budget and we're responsible for that Top Line of our budget um and then how it flows down to the two assessments Le me can the meeting go beyond the sixth yes Town meetings are scheduled for two three 4 days um the uh budgets are scheduled on the first day of both of the Two Towns Town meetings um with the hopes that we get to the budget vote for our school budget before 9:30 when the babysitting ends um so that those families can come and vote um but yeah it the there's already plans in both towns for at least a second day of town meeting okay moving on end of year District goals update Peter all right so this there this actually isn't really it's the the separate District goals update we actually just came to you like about a month and a half ago um and did a longer District goals update uh but what this is an opportunity to do is just let you know um that the district goals end of the year update is in your packet um you know there isn't a significant status change on most of those items because as you had seen a few weeks ago a lot of them are already completed um or were well on their way to being completed uh we tried to link some selected pieces of evidence for you uh that we thought you might be interested in seeing um some of the great work of our Educators and leaders across the district um just to be able to get a little flavor of of what we've been working on all year uh we also if we've already done a presentation on one of the big three goals uh we included that um as a link so that you could refresh your memory there um around that goal um and just as a note you know because of all the budget discussions and how long some of the meetings had been going just around budget we had postponed goal number two which is kind of the the work really that's going to focus on the mtss process um that actually is coming back um next meeting on May 16th um Deb and her team are going to come and just talk you through what kind of a data cycle looks like um so you can go a little bit deeper in understanding how the mtss process actually plays out and what our educators are doing with data now um as a as a deeper dive so we do have a little bit more information coming your way um you know in terms of you know my own goals um I think I had updated you before you know really wanted to focus on um this idea of developing a high performing leadership team we have a good number of leaders um and I think it's actually 11 of our core leaders um at the district and school level um are new within the last three years um and so that means that we have to do a lot of work making making sure that we've built trust among the teammates that have to work together that we have effective decision-making processes in place um so that we can be efficient and effective in the decision- making that we have to make um and that we have a good system of accountability built within the team um to each other and the work that we do um wanted to do a lot of work on that this year but we ended up spending you know probably better part of two-thirds of the year just on managing the current budget and then trying to move that forward so you know that is work that will continue into next year we've already talked about that with the team and I think the team recognizes um that that's going to be an ongoing effort for us um to continue that work and as you know we're welcoming a new assistant superintendent into the team next year so um there's going to have to be that opportunity to kind of recalibrate and reset and and welcome someone new into the team the other goal I had was around communication um it feels like about six years ago that we actually were just talking about bringing in parent Square um but the people on the staff side that have used parent Square um have found it you know much easier to use than the previous system in brigh arrow that we had um which was you know about 12 clicks to do something that most people could do in one somewhere else um so we've been able to put in a more efficient system it actually saved us some money um to move in that direction um we've heard from our multilingual families that the translations have been good um and that they feel like they're getting the information in the languages that they need um the first time and not having to you know kind of fight with the system um of particular note like when we do a snow day call now um you know I don't use my own voice because if I have the system do a rooc call it actually automatically translates the rooc call into the user's primary language when they pick up the phone so just a more accessible platform um you know we certainly want to grow that and over time what we want to do is start to you know invite more of our Educators in the district um to start using that platform for more of the day-to-day Communications with families but the goal this year was really to focus on um the administrative team and kind of the front office use of that just to you know make sure it was the right platform for us which I think it is and we're going to continue using it um I also foresee you know if if it had been any other year we would probably be migrating our website over to parent Square as well um we weren't able to do that for this year um so probably what we'll do is we'll spend part of next year migrating over to parent square and that actually will unify the communication so if we send a News Post home we can also have it post automatically to a website um and that just makes everything a little bit easier um and it will push it out to social media for us too so um just again less work more efficient work um and a better communication package for families um did a lot of work early in the year um around trying to streamline my own communication with families I found a great tool um called writing for busy readers um which is a great little AI tool that really helps you get right to the point of what you're trying to say with the notion that people don't have time to read and listen to extra Clauses and Flowery language and everything else all the time um Adam was the victim of it yesterday as we were talking through the town meeting budget presentation I think I kept saying why is that extra clause in there we don't need that Clause um you know but but really just thinking about how we communicate in the language we use make sure it's easy to access for parents from a linguistic standpoint um did a lot of that you know I I didn't think that the communicating around the budget was going to take up most of the year um but I tried to take some of the things I was thinking about around my own communication work this year and translate into how we work through the budget we were a bit Limited in terms of Outreach to families because of you know campaign Finance laws we had to put everything on one central place um and couldn't send things out directly to people but I really tried to work developing out that fy2 budget website use a variety of resources some print some video um you know and just kind of reach families where they are I also found rather than putting a bunch of PDFs on the website I tried to actually put the language of what I was saying right on the website because when people um access the website it's automatically done in the language that they need it um so really trying to think about how multilingual families and multilingual community members access the information we have um in what we do so um I offered that up and you know I did a goals reflection to you that'll be posted on the website after the meeting but I tried to offer some just ideas about okay what was the work on goals I did but then also what are the other things that we ended up spending time on that you might want to comment on as you evaluate me um quite honestly I feel like um about all I've done this year is talk about Healthcare um and talk about you know the fy2 24 budget and what we're trying to do to manage it and then what we're going to do for the fy2 budget and how we're going to manage that um I will say you know one of the things I heard we you know we send out feedback forms to Educators and you know I heard in my feedback obviously a lot of frustration about the budget situation we're in um and that that certainly expected um I think another area of feedback was from Educators for me was you know around kind of course leveling at the high school that not every educator at the high school was really on board with that um and quite honestly maybe some frustration that I hadn't voiced that not every educator was on board with it um and I recognize that change is a challenging process and you know that's that's fair I understand that um and then Educators just wanting to see me more in classrooms in schools um I feel like I don't spend enough time in schools it's probably because I'm still a recovering principal um but um I was able to visit over 150 classrooms over the course of the year um see some different projects I got to see you know four different examples um over the last month or so um of you know the the new core literacy program and kind of the final performance assessment students were doing so I got a sampling of you know how different schools had approached that um and that was exciting and you know certainly every year I try to find ways to spend more time in schools and classrooms but that you know things can also come up in the the life of a superintendent that can hinder that but um that's kind of an overview of of of my year I'm happy to answer questions but I think Adam's going to talk a little bit about what the superintendent evaluation process looks like now um and then we can come back for for more yeah thank you Peter um so I want to recognize that there are five new committee members here this year I don't know you know you guys probably don't feel like you're new members anymore after the gauntlet we've put you through um but this is this is a a a definitely a challenging process and challenging um part of the responsibilities of a school committee member um that I just want to spend some time to review with everybody um and it's challenging the first time you do it and the seventh time you do it um but it is also one of the most important things that we do right policy budget superintendent evaluation the big three of responsibility of the school committee um so I do want to spend some time as Peter mentioned he's written you a memo he's provided you with some very detailed information in terms of his progress towards the goals um for this year and we have um a rubric and a an evaluation template by which we evaluate Peter um and so I want to go through some of the highlights of that that tool um because it um can feel a bit daunting but also can serve to provide you with some structure about how you go about um evaluating uh the superintendent so there's the the first step so as Peter mentioned um Julie did email out to everybody um the memo the the information um this template it will go as posted as part of our packet as well um for me the the overarching principle is if you rate Peter anything other than proficient in any category please include text to explain why you rated Peter something other than proficient it's required I it Peter is Whispering my ear that is required and I'm emphasizing it because there are many times where I have received and I will just point out that this will be the third year in a row where I am deeply participating in the superintendent evaluation I see you smirking back there um th this is this this is not about me this is about Peter but what I need as someone who is creating a summative a summary of Peter's evaluation it is about me I need I need content I need you to tell me I believe that Peter is exemplary in this area for these reasons as evidenced by these things that he did that he has provided you the data on super super important that in the comments if you rate Peter on anything other than proficient that you explain that with some reference to something that we've seen in all of our meetings this year or in the wealth of documentation that Peter has just provided us as to why you have chosen to rate him something other than proficient if I ask for nothing else from everybody well there's that's one the other thing is please please please May 24th is the date by which I need these um evaluations May 24th please complete the evaluation by that date and then you need to email it to both me and Julie lumier um so that we have those um documents because again I need to then collect all of that information collate it and create a summary and write up a very nice thing that I awkwardly read it's the meeting in front of Peter and in front of everybody even though we've all read it already but I have to read it into the record so May 24th I also want to take this opportunity to call out to the members of the public who are not just in this room but also watching online please feel free to send any feedback that you have around the superintendent and his evaluation and his performance um to me and Julie lumier and I will include that as part of the evaluation for the superintendent um please feel free to share that information with anybody May 24th would also be the deadline for any members of the public who wish to submit some uh feedback on the superintendent um other than that Peter has done an excellent job of indicating which um focus indicators are being addressed by each of the different District goals and professional practice goals as you read through this um there's a lot of great information that will help you with this evaluation I am happy to make myself available to anybody new or veteran on the committee um for some assistance in how to go about filling this out um it can feel fairly daunting I know that in my first few years I put it off to the last minute because I was like oh my gosh this is so hard there's so much to do here just start by checking off some boxes that's a really good way to start um but if you have questions please feel free to reach out to me I'm happy to individually talk with you about the process I'm not necessarily going to you know influence your evaluation of the superintendent but um it can feel daunting um and so I want to uh make myself available for that so two big question two big asks of the committee one anything other than than proficient please provide some commentary with pointed data as to why you're rating Peter other than proficient uh and secondly May 24th is the deadline by which to send these into me um like I said I've got to collate it all and I'll be doing so on planes traveling around the world so it's a lot easier if I have all of that information right up front and don't have to email and harass people for it can I add one thing to that please maybe two suggestions um you know two two suggestions I have one um is just on a personal note comments are more useful than checkboxes um right check boxes are are nice to categorize and it's because it how gets reported to the state um but the comments are actually what are helpful in terms of me thinking about how I want to grow um you know I've had an opportunity over my career to now evaluate hundreds of people um on an annual basis um so I think you know a couple things I've learned is I go through that AAL process one is before I start going through the weeds of the documentation I actually try and think about you know what what is the feedback I would want to give this person to say okay here here's where things are going well um and what does my gut tell me things are going well on and here's maybe why but then also what does my gut tell me like if this person improved this it would have a deeper impact um and so that usually is a good starting point and then you go through some of the other data and the evidence it's not that you're dismissing that but I I do think in all of the desie work to try and make this quantifiable it's easy to you know get lost in the weeds and not think about from your own perspective what's going well and what would I'd like to see growth on um and that's really where the aval process should kick in for educators so um I would just maybe give that suggestion from my own experience that it's a nicer starting point where it doesn't feel as overwhelming and then you can go through the data and the goals and and make some you know pointed comments in there but um I I've just always found like if I start there it makes it awfully hard um to be successful and then at the end after I've gone through the details then I come back out to the the 20,000 foot level take a look at again and say all right so of all of the comments and feedback I've given is this actually how I feel about that person's performance uh because again you start getting into the weeds then you have to kind of Zoom back out and and make sure you're checking your thinking around that and that usually is a is an easier way to get into these evaluations rather than than just uh being overwhelmed CU there's a lot of information in these desie forms question I have a question um so do we meet with the superintendent one-on-one after the evaluation process or not at all not typically now okay so but you know one practice that I do is that over the summer I actually reach out to all committee members um and I do invite one-on-one conversations um and typically what I do is the start of the conversation is what from the evaluation do we want to talk about on an individual basis that might be left over from last year and then um the second half of the conversation is all right now let's talk about next year what are your hopes for next year what do you want to make sure that the committee is hitting on next year so that as I'm talking about the agenda with the chair uh we can make sure we capture those things other questions no okay thank you all uh next item on our agenda school committee communication goal update um so I will I will start by sharing some Communications that I've received from residents and voters uh and it somewhat Echoes what Amanda said to us earlier um we did not get an overwhelming win at the override um and I think it is just absolutely crucial that we all show up at both Town meetings um to make sure that the community see that we are here and we're respectful of their time and their funding um and that's that's both Town meetings so I expect all of the boxboro members to be in attendance at the act in town meeting and I expect all of the act in Town members to be in attendance and experience a boxboro town meeting um I I I was relating this back to my own professional life and I can't imagine sending an email to my boss asking him for $14 million and not actually showing up in person to to make that ask and that's what we're doing to the members of our two communities so I implore each and every one of you who are here tonight and those of you who are unable to make it this evening please please please show up to the town meetings it's super super important that the community see that we value and respect the community um and the investment that they're making in our schools particularly now that we know inside the town of Acton there is not unanimous support for the money that we're asking for um so I think it's it's even more crucial that we show up and we make sure that we're there and I'm saying that personally but I'm also saying that as feedback that I've gotten from Individual community members who are say who have said to me you guys just made it by the skin of your teeth you better show up and make sure that you are working for these funds that you want so that's my my community uh communication goal update other folks have updates from folks who they've been speaking to out in the community y Shin um I have actually extended the reservation at the Town Hall so the school committee office hour is going to continue um it's very interesting because after about a month and a half of sitting there by myself and sometimes guilt a few people in Guilt Trip a few people in I finally started having um parents and community members stopping by so it it it did take a while but they are coming so I'm going to continue to do that um just uh I'm not here during the weekends because I have to coach so sorry about that y could you tell us what day and what time yes uh it's still every Friday from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and I'm at Acton Tong hall room 126 thank you other communication goal updates uh so last Saturday Peter and I and Adam and also David Martin from the select board um had a coffee with uh different members of the public at KJ's Cafe in Acton and it was really interesting discussion um I always like to hear what people have to bring to the table because it really showcases sort of the the broad range of opinions and questions people have and I'm still struck by how um a lot of people just have questions on process and how you know the sausage is made so you know I I know that we've had this goal Ono going to um be more transparent and more connective and be available to people and you know just sort of highlights again that this work very much is ongoing and I appreciate yin's um work to sort of be available and I hope that you know we can all make uh that effort you know ongoing because even after this override vote even after the town meeting um we you know need to be connecting and available and answering questions me then Tori go ahead um so for the Tuesday what next Tuesday Monday Monday um I think that what Rebecca reflecting what Rebecca said uh it is the process questions lot of people in fact it's not question it's a gap right they don't have that idea that they're missing that information so what I found is lot of people are don't think they have to show up on that day because they already voted so I think we don't have time for everybody to show up at at a yin's town meetings because this is probably we don't have that luxury right so wondering if there's any communication method we want to utilize to get that out tor's nodding her head feverishly so I'm just just queued up what I wanted to say so beautifully that that was awesome that that was yes so where I'm going with this is every conversation matters these in-person conversations really matter and something else we can do that's effective is sending people an email with the links on where they get these answers to the questions so the district's budget website we've all hopefully have those in our signature blocks I sent that out I sent a link to the override Forum um and a couple of other things and sent everybody just to hey here's a couple of sentences on the situation here's some more resources if you want to know more and I had a couple of of people come back to me afterwards and say what you sent out made the difference that helps me make up my mind so even you know if you're in a position where you're camping all weekend at Camp Acton come to Camp Acton let's talk about the budget if you can't do that we can all certainly send out emails we can send out links we can send out that information about the process and we can get people out this is important um just want to say that there was a dance party um on Saturday with folks from the shelter um super amount of effort from acting box for United Way also Jen Faber at the school district um and folks in the community the space was donated there was someone from a local Faith Community who used his passenger van and got cored on Friday last minute um that was pretty incredible so just love to see that um also throughout this process of this override we have knocked on over a thousand doors in conjunction with teachers with parents um with high school students um and it was also fun to see folks that I had talked to at the sergeant moral library in our office hours then show up at the polls to vote um to tor's point I have an email template if anybody's curious happy to share that with you um and if you want to get involved this weekend there's plenty going on so also let me know thank you anyone else with updates okay moving on to the general funds and long-term funds investment policy second read and a vote um Peter do you want to give us a brief intro and I noticed that Gary had to leave so it's really just a reminder for the committee I did send Gary yeah uh the PDF file directly to his boxboro email address y so you know just this we actually had brought this back to you um probably six meetings ago um for a a first read we did not receive feedback on it um this was a policy that was actually written by the Auditors essentially um in order to bring us into compliance standards with audit reports um it was just a comment that we had received in the audit report we're putting the policy in place um just to make sure that you know the financial procedures are compliant um and we move forward um it was not the result of any concerns other than we just didn't have this type of a policy this is not a financial plan um want to be really clear about it it's not a short-term plan it's not a long-term plan it's just a policy governing the investment of funds saying they're done by generally accepted auditing principles so that that's really the goal of it great thank you um so if there are no more questions I will entertain a motion to approve the policy as presented so moved second okay so we'll go with Leela and then Tori uh is there any discussion all of those in favor I any opposed any extensions that is unanimous thank you all right we're moving on to subcommittee and member reports um first one on our list here is policy sub anybody who was a member of policy sub who was an attendance on the 11th want to give us an update or we can defer until Liz is back looking at the blank no you got something um an agenda might not have been posted so we didn't meet um but I had an informational conversation with our energy manager and we are moving towards getting something collated around our use of energy and decarbonization and all of that kind of stuff the resource force will be happy to hear that we also sent them an email um just being like hey we've been talking here is the process we're thinking of following just kind of to let them know that we were listening and that they can follow along the process great uh ALG update from April 22nd didn't have a meeting or no update no meeting great um we're on a roll here health insurance trust from April 25th like this meeting and real life health insurance trust will take up some time uh health insurance trust met on April 25th to review Treasures report gagar consultant report progress on contracts and an update on the legal steps to dissolve the trusts all of our accounts with the exception of our main account have been closed currently we got about 2.5 million on hand this was current as of April 25th approximately $600,000 is owed to the trust from reimbursement another $340,000 is incoming shortly liabilities as of May 1st we going to be around 2.8 million after all payments coming into the trust we should have a remainder of approximately $250,000 in cash this does not reflect continued reimbursement nor quarterly rebates that accrue through our insurance organizations after July 1st hit will continue to ACR Pharma credits but as of June 30th we may be liable for around 1.5 million prior re re Insurance rebates Etc that may offset that amount year-over-year we're approximately 22% higher than last year as the hit continues to run out over a term of time some existing contracts need to be amended Abacus is an example agreed to terminate that contract with us as of June 30th the treasurer and our Consultants will be retained on a Time limited basis with limited time and expense costs the active trust was dissolved when one of the two parties that made up the trust the district us voted to in a previous meeting to exit the trust an ongoing non-active trust will continue to operate to pay out any run out based on the agreements of the town and District all documents including the treasur document are available on the hit doc you share available via the hit town of website our next meeting will be May 23rd at 8:15 here in the absd admin building thank you Andrew finally we have a building project update Peter so you know building project um is in the very close out stages of this but probably the biggest piece of work that's been going on around the building project has been trying to move the battery um array forward um with the solar panels um and that's obviously been going on for you know quite some time um and we've been working through you know Board of Health approval processes and making sure that you know everything's ready to go um you know we continue to hear you know a lot of Resident concerns in the area um we've heard concerns from some of the Board of Health members we've heard some concerns from the fire chief um around that and you know in listening to that feedback uh what I actually want to do we've gotten to a point where we don't need to rush into a summer 25 construction window because it's just too tight to make that so I actually think there's an opportunity to pause us right now on that project um and we're going to use the summer to in the spring to go back to some of the fire chief's concerns see if those can be resolved see what other concerns have come from residents or Board of Health look for ways to resolve those concerns uh we also want to do some Financial modeling because we as we got into um kind of the new updated pricing based on how the solar canopies had to be constructed um the financial return diminished over time and so we had gone from essentially what was a 4 Cent per kilowatt hour PPA to an 8 cent per kilowatt hour now up to a 13 to 14 Cent per kilowatt hour PPA um and with a 30-year commitment um it starts to actually border on whether or not that's the right decision so you know we want to make sure that anything we do is obviously a safe project we commissioned an independent consultant um who actually is a national leader in energy response um for battery fires that can take place uh we had them review the project and all of NEX amp's work um they came back to us and said nope we believe this project can be built it's safe you've taken all the right precautions um they've offered nexamp a couple pieces of feedback and next nexamp was willing to put those into place um but I don't think we fully resolved some concerns in the community so we're just going to slow down right now um take the summer re-evaluate it and rethink it from a safety perspective rethink it from a financial perspective um and then come back in the fall and have more of an opportunity to talk about what are we doing with this project so just wanted to give that update um that we're going to slow down pause and and think deeply about it Ben real quick question I can't recall if we were going to utilize the IR tax credit to offset some of the costs with the battery storage system and if we are I know that tax credit goes away I believe in the fall or or winter has that been taken into account you know I I want to make sure that the decisions we make around this are safety first um and then we make financial decisions as you know secondary to that um with that said yeah there's a lot of financial considerations in pausing the project or choosing not to proceed um that I think what we need to do is just put all of that in one place and be really clear about our decision- making um but the the decision tree that I've put in place with nexamp right now is such that first step is we're going to resolve any safety concerns um if we resolve the safety concerns we're going to do a really thorough financial analysis of all of this um to then be able to make sure that we have the right choices there um and then we'll make a decision about what the Project's going to do um following you know some of the backup plans could be um solar panels only on the roof um what we know is we cannot build the number of solar panels um to make this a net zero Building without a battery storage system in Massachusetts anything over 500 kwatt hours uh um has to have a battery attached to it um or it can't be constructed so you know if we choose not to proceed with the battery that means that we have essentially said no we're we're not going to have a net zero building um from an energy standpoint um the building is still performing remarkably well and solar panels on the roof um only quite honestly because of the cost of um construction of the the parking lot might actually be a more prudent financial decision um just to do the solar panels on the roof than even trying to do the battery and and the parking but that that we really need to dig into that and in order to do it um requires a pretty in-depth financial analysis with people with levels of expertise in solar and and battery storage that well exceed what we have internally um you know nexamp actually has offered to cover the costs of that even though it's our own independent consultant so you know we're we're we're really just making sure we follow all the leads and doing this the right way is is the goal here sorry for the long answer but I I will add that there are literally hundreds of thousands of dollars already buried in the ground because of this project there was ledge that was that was blasted away there were kons that were dug there's there's a lot of money that's already sunk so uh the financial model um is something that we're looking at but again outside of the finances of this I think the this while the safety is Paramount the other thing to consider is that when we brought this project to both communities we sold it as a tripl Net Zero building and we are very close to losing that ability um to have a triple Net Zero building um because of safety concerns and I I won't qualify those concerns but I will just say that you know we're putting a pause on this now um we are going to revisit it it's not done yet but I think anyone who is concerned about energy Reliance uh sustainability uh the environment it's time to start coming out and speaking in favor of this if you believe that that's an important component of both our schools and our community because like I said we're we're we're at risk of not having a Net Zero Energy building um and not because we didn't build the building right another comment Ben real quick I promise uh one of the concerns I have moving forward is that with the fragility of the grid right now they're talking about for next year if we have another Arctic Vortex we will start to have rolling blackout so that battery system also backs up as an energy system something to take into consideration I know where I work right now we're looking at battery backup systems we're looking at fuel cells we're looking at all sorts of creative and innovative ways to harden our system because with electrification means more load more load means you know we need to generate more energy and store more energy during the day so yep all right any other last comments or questions on the building project solar and Battery array okay we're at the home stretch we're on to our consent agenda as a reminder items on the consent agenda don't usually require discussion and are approved with one vote um unless a member would like to hold an item and if you would you just simply say hold um I will read through each of these items and as a reminder you don't need to have been present at a meeting to vote on the minutes item one is approval of the absc meeting minutes of April 4th 2024 item two is the ABR ptso donation of $5,500 to RJ gray for the seventh and eighth grade year end ye grade endof year field trips um item three is a donation of $4,299 from abhs speech and debate coach stiens to the abhs speech and debate Club account item four is a donation of $11,000 to the senior high school stem program item five a donation of $11,000 to the high school science team from Crystal pharmatech item six is a donation of $1,000 to the high school science team from an Al Al I can't say this one Al nyum Pharmaceuticals thank you item seven a donation of $2,758 71 cents to mirium Elementary from for supplies from the mirium elementary PTO and item a is a donation of $1,000 to the abhs from the ptso for the prom bus expense so moved second so given that no items were held was there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second Ben moved and toy seconded um all of those in favor I any opposed any extensions that is UN animous thank you statement of warrants and recommendation to approve I move that the school committee vote to approve the below listed warrants totaling 10,758 6963 36 AP vendor warrants as follows 24- 020b dated 44 2024 and the amount of 35537 4.32 24- 021a dated 411 2024 and the amount of $16,733.34 in the amount of $466,900 22A dated 425 2024 and the amount of 1,881 104.9 payroll vendor warrants as follows 24-20 PR dated 4422 24 and the amount of 587490 40 24-21 PR dated 418 2024 in the amount of 1,248 32853 payroll warrants as follows p2420 dated 44224 and the amount of 2,971 77711 p2421 dated 418 2024 in the amount of 3,7 $7 4,569 32 and Student Activities uh warrant as follows 24-22 JH dated 425 2024 in the amount of 13,2 282 second Tori got that second all of those in favor I any opposed any extensions also unanimous thank you very much Peter any last items to notify the committee about so there was was a book microphone there was a book at your seat uh when you came in um it's by an author Nate levenson um who was a former superintendent but he was also um a Schoolboard member up in uh Boxford um he has his own Consulting business now he's very very skilled at what he does in one of his areas of specialization is making really good decisions with valuable resources um from taxpayers and so you know he's going to come in actually right at the end of school and do a workshop for school committee um based on some of the information in this book um the idea isn't that you necessarily try and do everything but the idea is to consider some alternate points of view about what might be priorities in spending and how to make sure that we're spending money wisely with the resources that are given to us from the community um so you know I'm sure he will insert some cognitive dissonance into our thinking and that's the IDE is to have to Grapple with some ideas um about how we approach future budgets uh but we thought it was appropriate to actually think of kicking off next year's budget process at the end of this year um and really really get rolling I know I know it sounds exciting um but but that that is the plan that we have we also invited some members from our leadership team um to join us as well so that we can actually do some learning together thank you um I will just highlight that we do have a meeting posted for Monday the 6th um in the high school at room 136 should we need it um we may or may not uh so please just keep an eye on your emails particularly Sunday night into Monday morning um if we need that meeting it is an opportunity where we can meet as a quorum prior to town meetings should we need to um talk about anything that we think might be coming up in town meetings so that's um on the agend on the on your agendas uh Monday May 6th 6 PM room 136 in the high school if we need it with that Jenny would you like to make a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn seconded Ben seconded all of those in favor I any opposed extensions unanimous thank you all have a good evening eight