good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Boston school committee I'm chairperson Jerry Marson we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the UN States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all I want to welcome everyone who is joining us tonight in person on Boston C City TV and on Zoom I'm going to ask everyone here in the chamber to please turn off the volume on your laptops or other devices so it does not interfere with the audio for tonight's meeting thank you for your cooperation tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's website bostonpublicschools.org school committee under the April 10th meeting link for those joining us in person you can access the the meeting documents by scanning the QR code that's posted by The Doors the meeting documents have been translated into all of the major BPS languages any translations that are not ready prior to the start of the meeting will be posted as soon as they are finalized the meeting will be rebroadcast on Boston City TV and posted on the school committee's web page and on YouTube the recording will be available in all the BPS languages the committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish Haitian Creole karano Cantonese Mandarin Vietnamese and American Sign Language the zoom interpretation feature has been activated Zoom participants should click the globe icon at the bottom of your screen to select your language preference I'd like to remind everyone to speak at a slower Pace to assist our interpreters we will begin with the approval of minutes I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the March 27th 2024 school committee meeting is there a motion so moved thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the minutes are approved we'll now move on to the superintendent's report I present to you our superintendent Mary Skipper thank you chair and welcome to everyone and in person it's nice to be back so this morning I had the pleasure of attending mayor woo fy2 budget breakfast at City Hall today marked the official transmittal of the city's proposed 4.6 billion operating budget and $4.7 billion 5year Capital plan to the Boston city council I am grateful to city council way Ways and Means chair Council Brian Morel for sharing the city council's budget priorities with our district and you as a committee as you considered the Boston Public Schools fy2 budget over the past couple of months thank you to council Rell for his Spirit of collaboration and willingness to work together for the benefit of our City's students and families I look forward to working with the city council throughout this upcoming City budget process I also want again to thank mayor woo and the city for continuing to make historic Investments so we can change and improve the way we are serving our students this year many other districts in our state and Nation are facing much tougher budgets because they do not have the same support we do here rather than announce any investment or increase many districts are facing only incredibly large reductions thanks to the administration's investment the BPS budget includes an overall $81 million investment 20 million of those dollars will go to support highquality teaching and learning through school-based investments in inclusive education including additional support for students with special needs and English language Learners and an additional $1.3 billion from our capital budget to help us build and renovate worldclass Boston Public Schools facilities I'd like to provide a quick update on the admissions process for the city's three exam schools the John de o'briant School of Mathematics and Science Boston Latin Academy Boston Latin School late this afternoon the invitations for school year 2425 were sent out to students and their families I want to acknowledge the hard work of the welcome Services team and senior director Sonia Gomez banre in getting the invitations out almost a month earlier than original expected this earlier date was something that parents and our committee here have been asking for and I'm proud of the team and it's work that made it happen we will share more information about this year's invitations and applicant pool in the in an upcoming meeting I also wanted to let you know that the BPS sy425 calendar will soon be available to BPS students and families the new calendar looks a little different the Sy 2425 calendar includes important visual updates that are part of a broader initiative to ensure that BPS materials developed by Communications are compliant with Ada accessible regulations these changes ensure that online and assisted technology is able to correctly interpret the meaning of the information contained within the calendar short after the calendar will be posted on our homepage at bostonpublicschools.org and although there are still a few months left of this school year it's not too early to start thinking and planning for the next school year also today former New England Patriots tight end Rob granowski and members of the gronowski family joined mayor Woo new Mission head of school will Thomas and BPS student athletes from new mission for the ribbon cutting of the state-ofthe-art wait room at new mission High School fresh off three state championships for Boston Public Schools Athletics including new Mission boys basketball team this event celebrated our community's commitment to the success of BPS students student athletes we're grateful to the granowski family for their support and generosity and I heard it was a pretty amazing event gronowski was spiking the ball and everything so sounds like the kids out a blast and speaking of Champions uh BPS state championship high school teams were recognized with a parade and ceremony with mayor woo and their coaches and families at City Hall Plaza on Saturday April 6th included were two boys basketball teams Charlestown toties and the new Mission Titans the cathedral Panthers girls basketball team the Josiah quinsey upper school wrestlers and the Boston Latin School Wolfpack hockey team Boston city council also hosted the BPS teams today at its weekly meeting and treated students to a pizza lunch we will find our own way to celebrate here in school committee with these championship teams but we also want to thank the city mayor woo and our counselors for celebrating our student athletes a special thank you to councilor Flynn for including the Des Zia quiny upper MIAA division 2 Wrestling champions in today's recognition we are so proud of of sophomore Jaylen Edmonds and Junior Essence Tucker who both won first place in their respective weight classes congratulations again to all of the inspiring athletes and just what a memorable season that they provided to us here in BPS as a continuation of my fall 2023 engagement tour I met with a group of more than 30 Vietnamese Community leaders last week for a conversation coordinated by the office of family and Community advancement thanks to Don Dr Anna Taris Deputy superintendent of equity family and Community advancement mayor mortiz chief of community engagement and Joel G chief of multilingual and Multicultural education or we call it omme and their teams for joining me it was a great conversation much of which centered around interest in the Vietnamese dual language program at the ma Elementary School and our District's commitment to furthering dual language last week I joined mayor woo for the annual Red Sox hat giveaway this year's event was held at the Yana Academy in East Boston the event marked the donation of blue and yellow City connect Red Sox hats to more than 40,000 Boston Public School students and staff at 104 of our schools this year's hat style celebrates the 20th anniversary of the club's 2004 World Championship at the event we were joined by the 2007 World Series champion Manny dearman who is also a 2000 graduate of West Roxbury High School Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy Red Sox partner and Foundation board member Linda Henry and school near Filan uh it was a wonderful day the students were so excited um especially I think and most especially for Wally and Tessy so they had to get their pictures taken I just want to thank the entire Red Sox organization for an really enjoyable event and for just their ongoing support with our students many BPS students took advantage of a reare astronomical opportunity and learning experience this week by observing the solar eclipse with School communities and I bet there's a few people in the room who also observed that um students from The le8 Innovation School joined their families excuse me to watch the event while students at the Kenny k6 Elementary School were joined by representatives of Lego who helped explain what was happening and provided fun activities I was lucky enough to see the eclipse from the roof of this building along with many of my colleagues and it was just the amount of one wonder and joy uh that everybody took in watching it um through safety glasses uh it was just really a memorable event that I think will join all of us and share that concludes my superintendent's report thank you superintendent I'll now open it up to questions and discussion from the committee any questions comments okay hearing none I just W to thank the superintendent for her her report oh sorry no um no thank you for the report um just so that we're staying on top of things um how are we doing just with Summer programming and really thinking about um how we're reaching families there H sure through you chair so actually in the next meeting Dr alins will be providing the full update with Summer programming but I will say it's going wonderfully uh the summer team is working closely as is special education esy programming um everything is actually earlier and out earlier which was another goal of ours and so we'll share all the numbers with you next week sure dronio thank you um Madam chairman superintendent it was nice to um spend time with you at that breed Sox event and also the other school you visited in East Boston that day because there's been a lot going on to our East Boston communities recently from safety issues to um some pretty serious tragic news so um it was nice the support that the district has been providing to those schools and and appreciate you personally you and I both visited one of the schools in particular so um I'm interested in you mentioned the exam school admissions went out today and thank you for that love that it's much earlier than it was before so allows families to make some choices I I will be interested and I know the data isn't ready yet but it'll be interesting to see the difference this year based upon the tweak that we had made to the policy um and um what the impact has been on students that are in schools that have points versus don't have points by tier so do we just have a sense when that data will be out or I know it's not the priority right now that's the secondary piece following up right yes uh three chair so the the team is is busy beginning analyzing it um I can't commit yet to which school committee meeting we will update but it will be one of the next couple um you know I do think that us getting the data earlier uh for many reasons uh it just helps us to be able as we think going forward uh to any kind of additional change we get the data earlier we have longer to look at it so um I'm very pleased and proud of the team it was an enormous amount of work to get it earlier including getting the grades uh from all the different entities so it's just a lot of work um and then the process of checking and rechecking and triple checking uh so that we make sure our calculations are correct and the invitations are correct so um we'll look forward to providing all of that data over the next few School committees so if you could just dig a spec deep on that how did how were you able to shave so much time on it is it that all the schools now getting used to getting the grades in yeah you've worked out the process about trimesters versus dual semesters that type of thing is it is it getting more regular information from BPS schools from the charter schools would how did they shave some time off well I mean I think it's it is uh it's a it's a product I think of uh certainly schools becoming more familiar with it uh but also our school superintendents and the regional soups being engaged to work with our school leaders to make sure that data comes over it's also working um you know we have to also work with the outside schools such as our Charters our private and prial schools and so it's really just giving everyone the same sense of urgency that things need to be provided as soon as possible um and I think that's also parents getting information in so I think in general everybody did what they needed to do with the new timelines and as a result we were able to you know give the information so parents I think uh you know private school acceptances are and many of them are due this coming Friday and that was really uh something that the parent Community had asked us to please make sure we we were getting the information to them so they could make a good decision right very much so and it's and it's great that you beat that time because you had committed to trying to reach it so love that you're able to and we're comfortable with this data that you know it has been vetted very much very much yes it's been vetted and revetted yes great thank you thank you for the team who worked on this Mr um first of all thank you for the report and I know this request may be out of work but uh the uh the students uh who were more line or who were somehow declined rejected through these uh exam School in the first round or the second round is there any way that we can have you know followup information on them um just to see where they at and how they dealing with the fact that they are now not at the school that they you know they they they would like to be despite the fact that you know otherwise they would be that they they they that would be admitted but because of the change so I think uh definitely so I think definitely we will I think that was the timer oh um I think I think definitely uh me me Tron we can we can certainly from the change change that we made on the policy look at the particular tiers um that we believe would have been impacted so we can look deeply at them we can look at the points versus the non-points uh I think in terms of actually looking at what number of students did not get an invitation to any of the exam schools and then where they go if they go to a BPS school we can track that longitudinally I think it would be difficult would be if they were to exit the system right just a short followup the reason I'm asking this because we you know for the past few years since uh the implementation of of of the the policy we've had so many parents groups students that come before us that came before us uh testifying to the fact that they are otherwise qualified for these schools but they they were not selected because of the the the new Poli that we implemented I was just wondering how they are doing now and you know would there be some kind of support that we that we somehow can allay alleviate there there you know that the fact that they they were they were rejected despite their potential for admission from the beginning so that you know I I was more interested in looking for something that would A system that would somehow alleviate their concerns or their you know loss of Hope or whatever yeah so I can I can talk with the team it's more likely a summer project um but we could we can look his we could look historically at the last two years for students who did not get an invitation and what portion of them stayed in BPS and where they ended up the data outside of the system is just much harder to Garner um but I think for inside the system we can certainly do that that would be great than yeah I have a follow-up question to that in terms of just no understanding the number of students we have that qualify for seats versus the number of seats that we actually have and is that difference great enough that we need to consider an additional School expanding the programs because my concern similar to Mr TRS is that we may be losing students that we would otherwise like to keep in the district by virtue of not being able to provide them with a product a seat in a school that they feel um will give them what they need sure next because I don't feel that in a time when we are losing students that we want to lose any of them so how do we begin to here and think about ways of accommodating students or and growing stronger programs period for all of our students but particularly students who are in this case right so through each CH so I think we can we can definitely do a little bit of a study on kind of who's remained um I think part of the alignment to the seventh grade for the high schools it was to give parents who did not uh whose kids did not get a seat in the seventh grade the opportunity to have access to high schools at a at a at a earlier grade um and I think this is really the work the Deep work we're doing at the secondary level which is to create that option for high quality student seats and that really is about early college that really is about our careers and how we're expanding those pretty exponentially um you know in the course of a short amount of time so that parents do in fact have more choice if they uh you know if a student after the exam school and they didn't get in I think on the n9th grade um same thing we can look at the ninth grade data to see has the nth grade data changed do we see more BPS kids applying in the 9th grade versus students from the outside parochial or Charter we can also look at that as well um so I think we'll get a lot of yield from this this amount of data that we're about to look at um two followup questions one thank you for the report um do we have the total number of students who were invited or is that just you were naming it as a later presentation I I think we can give some of the early on data around it next at the next one um and then I think for some of the deeper data uh which might be the analysis across the particular uh points non-points that might take us an extra couple of weeks to be able to do but I'll have to confer with the team to see how long they believe that that will take copy and then I think sort of second question because I'm I am always worried about our heavy focus on these three schools um the notifications for all of our other schools has also gone out so I'm curious sort of in the presentation around exam schools can we also get data I think two things we've been talking about sort of where are parents and students voting with their feet so like what are our highest demand schools what are our lowest demand schools and then what schools are we seeing where we're going to have to administratively place the most students and I think that's from ascending school as well as the impact on a receiving school um I think that conversation this conversation obviously important because we know that these three schools are important to the community but I think this conversation is also really important as we think about the future of our system and the nature of a choice system obviously is that people have Choice yeah so I think we can give some of that uh preliminary data from the first round certainly um what we also find is with administrative assignment that happens in the later round so that piece of data in particular won't show up as much yeah um but it will still be interesting like parent even if my school was not actively involved in my student applying I'm G to my kid is going to be applying in the first round but I also was a kid on a in a different moment of my life where like I didn't have that experience and so without the heavy hand of a school I would have had to apply in round two or have been administratively placed right so I can see sort of both realities so there's like a there there you don't get your Top Choice if you don't get in the first round so that that first round data I think is will be interesting for us to sort of think about on a school experience sort of what's going right and also what's going wrong yeah like what schools had 100% of their kids applying first round and what schools didn't right there's like a there there for us to to really talk about yeah no it definitely be informative data I I also think some of the Horus mans will come later cuz their lotteries are later um so the high schools are sort of staggered in a way but we'll piece together what we can for the next one just as a a way to be sort of saying here's some of the trends we're seeing understanding that data may look different after the third round anything else okay thank you all I'll now entertain a motion to receive the superintendent's report is there a motion thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the superintendent report is approved we'll now move on to General Public comment Miss P thank you chair the public comment period is an opportunity for parents caregivers students and other concerned parties to make brief presentations to the school committee on pertinent School issues questions on specific School matters are not answered at this time but are referred to the superintendent for a later response questions on specific policy matters are not answered at this time but may be the subject of later discussion by the committee the meeting will feature two public comment periods with the first comment period limited to 1 hour priority will be given to those testifying in person time permitting the committee will then open it up for virtual testimony after 1 hour anyone who hasn't testified will have the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting we have 13 speakers this evening each person will have three minutes to speak and I will remind you when you have 30 seconds remaining if your remarks are longer than three minutes please email your comment for distribution to the committee the time that an inter interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from a speaker's allotted time speakers may not reassign their time to others please direct your comments to the chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members of District District staff please state your name affiliation and what neighborhood you are from before you begin we will begin this evening with our in-person speakers our first speaker is Gigi green followed by joanni B Burgos and Kevin suniga I'm gig green a senior at Snowden International High School first I'd like to apologize for not having a full comment prepared as I'm currently finishing my International baloria Studies um I have the added pressure of needing that diploma to attend the University of gallway in Ireland as I will not receive a BPS diploma due to my boycott of the mcast I was at the mcast ballot question hearing a few weeks ago and I'm here today because I am disturbed with what I saw there a panel of Representatives that did not resemble my BPS community in any way offered one-sided criticism of the reform one of the so-called experts compared students to cattle and there are no other experts aside from mcass it felt very different from my previous experience several months ago when I testified in front of the education Committee in support of the Thrive act I shared with them why I am boycotting the mcast when I entered nth grade I took a physics class in which I did not learn physics we learned instead to take the physics mcast test I also learned about the fear intimidation around and lack of belief in gcast especially at the high school level where people will speak against it privately but not publicly I decided to take a stand which I have done for the past three years because I believe that mcass is not an assessment of my competency nor of any other student in this state I shared with the committee that I would be valid dictorian if not for this test my mom says that what you risk reveals what you value and I will not lie not being able to receive that honor is a sacrifice which I have willingly made yet on top of that I have been informed that I cannot participate in graduation in any capacity not even as a attendee my absence will be noted by my peers given my leadership in the school community and I am on the student government I believe that my right to address I think I deserve the right to address my classic graduation in the words of the late great John Lewis we're all going to be called to make some good trouble in the times ahead as we go out into the world I want to remind my classmates of their power and that they have agency if only they use it we know what the governor's position on mcass is I wonder what bps's stance will be seeing as mcast has a bigger impact in Boston than in some other communities I hope that my protest will be as impactful in the adults as the students I have spoken to we have amazing teachers in this city and state and it's a damn shame to waste them teaching us to take tests Miss sker I look forward to continuing this conversation thank you for your time thank you next speaker is jaavan B Burgos who will be supported by our Spanish interpreter good evening everyone my name is jaavan buos I am a boss monitor I haven't been a boss monitor forever uh like 19 years I am um my nie 101 Monitor and also I am running for vice president for the monitor un I'm ask for a translation because I am a little nervous this is my first time here and I want to make clear the what am I going to say tonight the reason I'm here tonight is because I communicated with the director of Transportation um mon Department because there are a couple of things that are taking place at the monitor bu monitor Department [Music] I did talk to director I did Express that there is a conflict of interest between a supervisor and some family relatives that do work there as well so what is happening is that the supervisor is doing the of the family's payable and that should not be allowed to should not happen so monitors brought this to my attention considering the fact that I am applying actually I'm a candidate for for this position to see how are we going to handle this so I did communicate this to the director and he just brush it up as he always does and my interest is applying for the position of Vice President went to fre J and I did find that they had a a tent there there was a tent there with no heat since last year um mayor mayor's office so I did call Via maor's office I did report the situation because basically we are like animals in a cage so three three days after I went to a yard because I'm in the process of doing the campaign as I explained before that I'm the interest in the candidacy for one position so I was able to perceive that the supervisors were retaliating against me advocating for the monitor's right and it had saved many of them from not losing their jobs and so this happened during the previous administration and the current the present one I have never received a letter of any type from none of them so your time is up so did called my laer and I told them that I was called to go to one of the offices without no Union repres presentation without tell me what it is and this is discrimination they told me that they cannot write me up like that and this is the retaliation against because I complain and they need to take that letter back next speaker is Kevin Sun uh school committee members and superintendent my name is Kevin suniga and I'm a bilingual school psychologist at the Mario Mana Academy in East Boston this is my sixth year serving 700 K througha students over 90% of whom speak a second language in my role I have witnessed firsthand the unique challenges and diverse needs of our Multicultural and multilangual Learners I am here tonight to share information about school psychologist critical role and express my deep concerns regarding the District's plan to cut positions from the Behavioral Health Services Department as school psychologist we follow the national best practice model and bring a unique and comprehensive skill set to the table our responsibilities extend well beyond the special education process we provide crucial expertise in designing and providing multi-tier support to address academic behavioral and social emotional concerns we collaborate with teachers interventionists Administration families and social workers to create a supportive environment for our students as a bilingual person of color and a former BPS student my lived experience is intimately connected to the students I serve I have witnessed a concerning Trend where systems in place are actively working against progress for the students who need it the most the superintendent and the mayor recently announcing substantial investment of over $20 million in mental health but that funding is being directed to the Boston Public Health commission and not our schools in spite of this significant investment school psychologist prision are still being cut from our department this would affect our student to psychology ratio and limit our ability to provide comprehensive services to students across the district as a district We should strive to increase mental health and bilingual school psychologist because our students and families deserve it providing Equitable Services to our multilingual Learners should be a priority and not be an afterthought I urge you to seek full transparency from the BPS leaders and please consider altercations to budgetary allocations to ensure no school psychologists are at risk of losing their position it is essential that this funding is directed towards preserving school psychologist positions that provide direct servicer to our students as we navigate transition to inclusion I ask you to consider that invaluable role of school psychologist in creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all Learners are students and their families deserve comprehensive and culturally responsive support that truly addresses their needs School psychologies are uniquely trained and ready to help but we need your support thank you for your time and consideration thank you very much we will now transition to Virtual testimonies please make sure you're signed into Zoom with the same name you used to sign up for public comment and be prepared to unmute yourself and turn on your camera when it's your turn to testify please raise your virtual hand when I call your name first group of speakers say John mud Lisa Graph Mike hman and Nissa Harrison please raise your hands John mud okay can you hear me yes we can hear you yeah my name is John mud I'm a resident of Cambridge and a longtime education advocate in Boston this is April 10th the long-term facilities plan on page 47 says that in in the late March April period the district will share proposals with a quote time pound advisory working group and with the school committee this timeline raises many questions will the district be making specific facilities proposals for mergers closings and new Investments this April or this spring for implementation next school year who or what is this quote time bound advisor working group and most important when and how will the affected communities and families be engaged in the proposals what opportunity will they have to participate in these proposals before they come to the school committee or the mayor the timeline outlined on page 47 has no provision for the engagement of the community in the development of specific proposals the only commitment is to clearly communicating why the decision was made time timeline for New Capital planning proposals outlined in later pages does say there will be quote meetings with each impacted Community but this just as the goal of a clear and transparent communication about the proposal the supporting data and initial outline of a transition plan the whole BPS orientation seems to be for the district to tell parents and communities what the district has decided to do to them it is not designed to engage the community in any authentic way in the development of the proposals this reproach has this approach has repeatedly failed in the past it has led to protest not participation it has increased cynicism and mistrust why would we continue this failed process why can't we learn from the past why can't we do it right this time school committee members please ask the superintendent one will there be proposals for mergers closings or new Investments this year two what and who is this Tim limited advisory working group and three how will the district and city planners genuinely engage the participation of parents and communities in the development of the facility proposals that will affect them and and when the proposals are in draft form before they are presented to the school commit this kind of parenting Community participation does not require more staff it requires a change in the mindset of the district about how to engage the community there must be a commitment to treating parents as partners not telling them what the district has decided is best for them thank you for hearing me thank you very much next speaker is Lisa Graph hello can you hear me yes we can hear you please turn on your camera okay hi um my name is Lisa Jean graph and I am a BPS parent and a self-identified autistic person this month month is autism acceptance month each year there is movement forward on autistic people being accepted for who they are being listened to when sharing their lived experiences and having their voices incorporated into policies that are reflective of their values however this movement is slow and there can be push back this month I'm also in my last semester at seic University for a masters in public administration as part of this work I'm overseeing a project that has been funded by a suff university Meep Grant this project can be viewed at insteadof aba.org and is informed by a growing number of neurodivergent organizations and experts the focus of this project is to educate caregivers who have been recommended applied behavioral analysis for their child information about the alternative of opting out of ABA and choosing neurodiversity affirming supports only also as part of this work the risks of ABA are shared to ensure that caregivers have their legal right to informed consent when making decisions about their child's supports and accommodation currently IEP and 504 templates are being developed that will not include APA and only include neur neurodiversity affirming supports they will be built off of the new state IEP forums I ask BPS staff and caregivers to contribute to this important work thank you for your time and possible collaboration happy autism acceptance month everyone thank you thank you next speaker is Mike heishman my kman Bea dochester the BPS strategic Vision begins with at BPS every child in every classroom is entitled to an equitable worldclass high quality education at your last school committee meeting five of you voted in support of a budget that betrays this wonderful aspirational Vision five of you put your names on a document that promises additional harm to our children since my daughter entered the BPS in the mid 90s I have been an educational justice justice activist for the BPS for the last two budgets stepen ains and Brandon CED Hernandez for voted an opposition In My Memory this is unprecedented and I appreciate their no votes both of these gentle people were painfully conflicted when Dr alkins hesly voted no his voice was so soft and quiet he was asked to repeat his vote when Mr Cadet Hernandez voted no he apologetically asked that he still be considered to be a member of the team what is this team and what is their mission throughout the history of Boston going back almost 400 years most of our children have attended under resource schools too often conditions have been deplorable this has always been done with the consent of a team supporting the will of the power structure the last couple months I've wished that hundreds of the school administrators and central office workers thousands of teachers tens of thousands of students in their parents and caregivers and Z tens of thousands of community members had raised hell against this abusive budget this has been part of my aspirational vision why did mayor will block the will of the people in unilaterally prevent an elected school committee the tepid opposition to this abusive budget is exactly what boss will wanted this is the team that Mr cardet Hernandez and all of you belong this is the team that begins your every meeting by standing and pledging Your Allegiance this proposed budget serves poorly our children and Community however your process protected the mayor and supports A system that does not love all of our children this story shows is that we need an elected school committee and aroused public that believes that it is how has the power to protect educate and love all of our children I also want to speak in support of that students who spoke first at this meeting she is an example of what an educated BPS student looks like she is courageous she should not be punished she is an exemplary model of what we want our students to be thank you Nissa Harrison is not signed into the meeting so the next group of is Mike Sweeney Cynthia Marinelli Cheryl Buckman D Manning Joseph Smith and edit Bazil Mike Sweeney hello everyone dist committee my name is Mike Sweeney and I just moved to Matan from Dorchester this is my second year working as a school psychologist at the English High School in JP before BPS I worked as an autism spectr disorder interventionist and a mental health counselor in San Francisco and Oakland Public Schools respectively I became a school psychologist because I wanted to emulate the psychologist who helped my brother and I my brother received special education support in school due to his developmental delay the psychologist thoroughly evaluated my brother's cognitive behavioral social and academic strikes and weaknesses consulted frequently with my parents taught my brother emotion regulation and social skills and effectively supported him through school my brother recently graduated from college and is now in an MBA program at a competitive University this social school psychologist also supported me as I struggled with grappling with my identity as the closeted adolescent this psychologist is also identified as lgbtq the psychologist was a great raw bottle for me as a successful lgbtq person who felt secure in their identity with this psychologist support I graduated high school then college and received an education specialist degree today I'm here to represent my fellow BPS psychologists and other lgbtq students School psychologists support students and families academically behaviorally and emotionally yet the current plan for the next year Cuts school psychologist positions in BPS this spring I heard the school committee cheer investment in mental health in school however I'm deeply concerned that the impacts of cuts will prevent students from having the best support that they are entitled to especially following the regression scene following the covid-19 pandemic School psychologists are trained to uh complete the following consultation and collaboration with teachers students and staff academic inter interventions Mental Health Services and interventions schoolwide practices promoting safe and supportive schools family and Community collaboration Equitable Equitable practices for diverse students research and evidence-based practices legal ethic and professional practices essentially you name it BPS syes can do it we are Boston's on shop for all social emotional behavioral and academic needs I urge the school committee to question superintendent Skipper and and and mayor woo about the proposed cuts to the school psychologist positions and maintain our current number of psychologists thank you for your consideration thank you next speaker is Cynthia Marinelli hi there my name is is Cynthia Marinelli this is my 12th year as a school psychologist and fourth year working as a psychologist in Boston Public Schools I became a school psychologist because I believe in empowerment positive psychology and intervention supports I'd also like to be inspirational to youth to overcome any adversity um by myself I'm bilingual Latina doctoral level staff in Boston and I currently work at a dual language English Spanish school at the Hurley in South End my position is being reduced from 5 days to 3 days and districtwide there are cuts to school psychologist in Boston so I'm here to urge the school committee to question superintendent Skipper mayor woo about the proposed cuts to school colleges positions while I can't speak for everyone I can't speak on my personal experiences this school year and last I provided nine individual counseling five group counseling that consisted of 15 students through our SST and so about 25 to 30 students each year are supported by me at the full five days knowing that our school has about 300 students in the building that means I'm supporting about 10% of the students in the highest social emotional needs in the top tier two and three level with intensive Counseling Services these counseling services do not include regular walk-ins that come into our shared mental health office where myself and our social worker work with students in lunch groups or mental health Health breaks or emotional check-ins for those that have temporary needs or bullying investigations Crisis Support support to those with behavioral support plans our walk-ins last year logged at approximately 237 students for the school year that means we would see about students two times per day who were not in my regular counseling schedule for an additional Universal support to the entire school so I you imagine that number would continue to increase as students seek mental health support as a priority so that they may be the most successful social emotional version of themselves in the academic realm I also consult with parents and teachers about students strengths and needs from testing counseling Behavior Support plans or SST projects I contact I do consults for two hours weekly around incentives and reward programs advisory periods where I push into class room I also push in for social emotional learning so on top of doing all this I test 55 students just in one school however I also travel districtwide to other schools for bilingual evaluations because we do not have enough positions to fill that need of our students that's are um struggling with either communication or learning needs and speak another language and so your time is up thank you thank you our next speaker is Cheryl Buckman Miss Cheryl Buckman please accept the prompt we could we will continue with d dram maning we can go back come back to you D Manning hello my name is deardra Manning I'm a single parent a Dorchester resident and parent of a BPS fourth grader and a former BPS student who now goes to a charter school in response to Vice chair O'Neal's question of how did BPS shave so much time of the exam School notification process it's because it's run as a kangaroo court they refused to engage with people they left Boston Collegiate administrators hanging when they were questioning how the GPA calculation was done for their students who use standards-based grading um it's a very difficult U grade to receive as Vice chair O'Neal knows from being quoted in a WB article for the first quarter of over two 200 students combined for fifth and sixth grade only one student a fifth grader got all fours to earn first honors my daughter got three threes and five fours and that should have resulted in a GPA of 10.93 s or something like that I communicated directly with the office of data accountability and they confirmed that that's what it should be but a month later they sent me notification that her GPA was a 10 3125 that dropped her overall composite score by four points and meant that she really had no choice in this exam School process BPS fails students in so many ways there are not enough quality Elementary School students to prepare children for exam schools BPS does not enforce the BPS code of conduct which is why my older daughter left BPS after Mrs lamron was assaulted by a 16-year-old girl and BPS kept administratively assigning problem kids and there's so much violence we only lasted seven months I only removed my younger daughter there at the beginning of this school year we stayed an extra two years hoping that they would fix the Henderson and they just wouldn't my daughter didn't get any bonus points she was assigned to a neighborhood tier that we're not living in she had to take the map growth assessment under very different and stressful testing conditions that BPS students aren't tested under and her school used a more difficult grading system that BPS recognizes puts kids at a disadvantage but they only use a special special process for their own students when converting the GPA I just don't understand how they can treat a different set of children so differently Boston public schools and all public schools are supposed to open doors to opportunity not close them I feel strongly that BPS is exacting retribution on students who leave the system BPS should make the system so good that people want to stay I just am I I I honestly don't even know what to do at this point I'm going to continue to fight because I have a fourth grader who I don't want to see kick to the curb like my older daughter was it's just unconscionable that you're acting this way actions should have consequences and students who are high achieving and who work hard should have opportunities the tier system should next speaker is Cheryl Buckman good evening my name is charl Buckman I'm a parent to a BPS special needs student who is a fifth grader at the de in Dorchester and I'm a member of fosa a long life resident of South Boston I'm here to ask you not to play this dangerous game with a high quality the education as you know my son attends the deor which went to receive a ship in 2014 in which the community red for not to do the state didn't listen to those parents teachers and staffers the dev lost 15% of its Latin teachers and a state-of-the-art dual language program now with these budget cuts the deor is expected to lose 10 % of its full-time teachers staffers and high quality programs having our children already suffered enough in this process why are we playing tug-of War shouldn't we be investing in our children's future by adding more programs more teachers our children are our tomorrow's future and Beyond without the proper materials teaches or places to learn how do they spread their wings and Thrive cutting this bu cutting the budget is a major insult and blow to our teachers and staffers who have been the superheroes for our children during and after the pandemic this is how we repay them by telling them they could lose their jobs this is how we repay our children by telling them they have these programs that they'll possibly lose where did we go wrong here thank you thank you very much our next speaker is Joseph Smith good evening everyone um can you hear me yes we can hear you okay um so thank you everyone for allowing me to speak in front of this panel this evening my name is Joseph Smith and I'm a seconde school psychologist currently working at the John D filb School in Rosendale I want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity um to help represent the Boston school psychologist and share some of the growing concerns some of which have already been shared here tonight um unfortunately despite the significant role we are capable of filling in the functioning and growth of Boston's mental health and special education programs we are currently left fighting to maintain the few positions we now have as contact uh contract negotiations continue to unfold due to many school psychologists overwhelming case loads many people simply view us as test administrators who occasionally support and counseling services this is a gross underestimate of what we are capable of providing in our school communities now I will refrain from restating the long list of qualifications we hold um as they were just previously shared by my colleague Mike but I do want to emphasize that if we had the proper Manpower and resources um we could not only play a bigger role in supporting our students mental health but in just about any area of school functioning and yet because we are the only roles in the school district who are capable of completing specific kinds of testing for several of the Desi disability categories for special education qualification this is all we seem to be valued for at the district level despite the ridiculous amount of testing the majority of school sites are complete are expected to complete during the year many school psych psychologists still find the time to fulfill many other responsibilities many of which overlap with many of our colleagues and other roles and yet get no acknowledgement or support from the district level this is particularly drawing as Boston shifts towards a full inclusion model there's never been a better time to increase the number of school psychologists in the districts because we are trained in this specific kind of work we can support in so many different ways I'm here just to ask how do we get it so that those determining this budget see the value of having one of us School psychologists in every school like our nurses and social workers how do we get our school leaders to realize that if they want us to be more involved in our schools we need to set boundaries on the number of Assessments assigned to us as well as the counseling cases we take on we're not asking for major changes all at once but the fact that we are at risk of losing positions when we are already overworked as is is absolutely ridiculous it has been reported to me that the union Representatives can't even get a response from the superintendent office we're showing up every day to improve the our next speaker our last speaker is e Bazil thank you so much what has BPS done with the $430 million in erer funds how is the additional $50 million allotted by the mayor for inclusion being used how is the 1.6 billion general fund an $81 million increase used to improve student outcomes Title One funds in 2024 will rais to $43 million but only 15 million will go directly to schools this is a 63% overhead charge that's 63 cents on a dollar what is being what is that being used for and why aren't these funds going directly to schools overall gaps persist for black students due to poor access to literacy interventions harsh discipline lack of access to evidence-based inclusion models ineffective special Edge Services Limited AP and exam School enrollment all while black families flee BPS at the highest rates because their school choice is limited to chronically underperforming underfunded underresourced understaffed and under supported schools 50-year anniversary of Judge G's desegregation order and racial Equity remains a broken promise for black students this Administration has weaponized the HR process to silence and erase black leaders doing racial Equity work and black teaches are collateral damage of budget cuts so where are we the racial Equity planning tool abandoned plan to hire nine Equity specialist scrapped racial Equity planning impact committee disbanded racial Equity impact dashboard dismantled racial Equity complaints ignored racial Justice work eliminated anti-racist advisory committee has been hacked into learning conversations meanwhile the school committee is proposing a bifurcated plan to transition the opportunity and achievement Gap task force into a water down advisory committee to the superintendent to be clear the ratio of this Equity racial Equity work has been done intentionally during this Administration beginning with the secret driving out of Dr Charles granson who led all of this work racial Equity work has been replaced by The Familiar tokenism of the that places black students outside the margins of racial Equity wiping out racial Equity work is taxation without representation chair Robinson this is on your watch this year you stated you have the superintendent back what about our children families and Educators we demand fiscal accountability a comprehensive budget audit of the district's budget with a through line for racial equity and that's something that the school committee should vote and could vote on right now that concludes public testimony thank you Miss parix thank you to those of you who spoke this evening and shared your perspectives your testimony is very important to us move on now to action items our first action item this evening is the grants for approval totaling 45,3 se5 now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments uh thank you chair so I think on these two grants um they're pretty self-explanatory uh one is um around our homeless services and this has to do with students that are coming in there's been a series of updates to the grant modifications to the grant uh this is the the latest uh and uh we also have I believe ran Marx is here uh to provide any commentary uh if that were needed uh so I would just encourage us to vote for these I think both of these support the ongoing work of the district and the second one is just a small it's small Health Grant uh it's just again a continuation Grant thank you I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee I have I have one um not necessarily related to to the grant but just how we are tracking the numbers of uh of our homeless student population um and are we seeing particular Trends in that population sure so uh Bri Brian do you want to answer that one hi everyone uh I'm Brian Mark senior director of opportunity youth um so if I understood your question correctly you're asking about how we're tracking the uh number of students experiencing homelessness uh as well as if there are any increases so unfortunately we're seeing very significant increases um we will have the highest number of students experiencing homelessness uh for a given school year that we've ever identified to my knowledge I believe the the highest number we've ever had was in school year 1718 which is just over 4500 students experiencing homelessness and we are likely to surpass 5,000 students this year um it's also important to keep in mind the context that through our partnership with Boston Housing Authority we've housed uh over a thousand families um in the past four years actually over, 1500 families so you can imagine what that number would look like without some of those housing ility programs that we've been able to implement so um families are struggling there's a lot of factors at play of course the the very high cost of living in Boston seeing some of the protections that were in place around covid um in terms of tracking we have a very robust system um we work closely with uh welcome Services we work closely with a network of school-based homeless liaison so every school has a staff person designated as a school homeless Le aison uh we have a uh the ability to maintain confidential records in our student information system um and then as it relates to newly arriving families newcomer families that are in some of the emergency shelter sites we're working closely with uh Desi as whether as well as other state agencies to ver to receive and then verify um our identification up against the identification of when they're coming into the shelter system so actually um a major component of that took place last week where we verified our list and then submitted it to to desie through the electronic security portal so that they can verify on their end so uh very robust process in terms of identification but the need is Extreme yeah I would just add to that that you know we we have strong Partnerships with higher ground herk there's there's a number of um nonprofit agencies that we work with close ly to support so it's really kind of all hands on deck one concerning trend is I think um the unaccompanied Miners and that is our older students uh who come in and um are homeless and uh don't have any kind of family fabric to rely on so we're really trying to uh work to support and they're really in all of our high schools uh with some concentration so I think it's um to Brian's point this is It's been a growing issue but it's also an issue where there's no one descriptor for what leads to homelessness uh or how to solve it and so you really have to work across the different populations of students to figure out what that customized solution set is to best support so I think I guess my follow-up question to that would be what ideas are you currently pursuing for either newer Partnerships with other nonprofits in like in the Boston area or just forward more funding essentially yeah so we have a number of strategies in place um we uh thankfully to to this uh committee the school committee we we will have uh sustainability for our uh essential housing uh stability programs going into next year we've also been involved with uh a a child homeless uh intercept mapping and engagement initiative where we've worked across multiple uh Focus areas based on some of the social determinant of uh child and family homelessness from the Aspen Institute so uh over the course of the last 12 months we've convened multiple groups including here at bowling to really map out the services and resources identify where we have gaps and then also have uh students and families themselves at the table to lend voice to their experiences and where they face barriers in the system um the overall system right now is stretched incredibly thin so we have to be creative in terms of our our our case management to try to identify any and all resources that are available in all honesty often times the the basic necessities types of resources like coats and backpacks and sneakers which we have and we're really well resourced and very thankful to that that's much easier to come by um the types of multi-million doll initiatives that are required to stably house folks and shift some of the broader policies I mean I think that's a conversation that we need to have in all public forums any other questions thank you if there's no further discussion I'll now entertain a motion to approve the grant as presented is there a motion so is there a second second is there any objection a discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent hearing none the grants are approved our second action item for tonight is the school name change proposal Boston Community Leadership Academy McCormick adoption of joint identity and renaming as the Ruth Batson Academy before I open it up to the committee for final questions and comments I'd like to invite the superintendent to offer final thoughts uh great thank you chair I I think we just had such a powerful presentation from uh you know School leader Johnson at the last meeting uh for the thorough process that they went through and uh the amazing decision they made in choosing to name bcla mccomic after uh Ruth Batson who was just such an such a a deep you know Community member and did so much for our schools with tireless Advocate um this is uh to me an honor uh for us to be able to put forward and my hope is that the committee fully supports thank you I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee [Music] any well I I certainly second superintendent's comments and if there's nothing further I'll now entertain a motion to approve the superintendent's school name change proposal Boston Community Leadership Academy McCormack adoption of joint identity and renaming as the Ruth Batson Academy as presented is there a motion so moved thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discution objection to the motion Miss Prix will you please call the role Dr alkins yes Mr CET nandz yes Miss Lima Barbosa M palanco Garcia Mr Tran yes Mr O'Neal yes Miss Robinson yes the motion is approved thank you we'll move right into our main report transformation School update on the third quarter of this school year I'll now invite Mike Sabin executive director of school transformation Holmes Elementary School leader Leanne Hughes Odum and Dearborn STEM Academy school leader Darlene Mar marcoo to please step forward with the presentation while they're getting settled I'd like to invite the superintendent to give opening remarks uh wonderful chair we're in for a treat when I look the school leaders that are here um so this is the third quarter update on transformation schools as you may recall as part of the requirements for our systemic Improvement plan or our sip we're providing quarterly updates to the committee two of those updates are part of my report and the other two are formal reports that go more in depth we provided you with an in-depth report at the October 18th meeting and a second report at the February 28th school committee meeting tonight we will share some key details with the final report for syy 2324 before the end of the school year as you know transformation schools is the term BPS uses to refer to schools identified by Desi as requiring Assistance or intervention they are schools in the bottom 10% of sleep accountability system primary support for our transformation schools comes from our transformation office in partnership with regional teams the office is Led by executive director of district and school transformation Mike Savin who is here tonight to walk you through the presentation and assist with any questions you may have we're also joined by two outstanding transformation School leaders lean Yoda from the Holmes Elementary and Darlene raro from the Dearborn STEM Academy both will speak to the impressive strides that are being made in their in each of their schools this quarterly update provides an opportunity to share several things the midyear submission of quality school plans and 90day plans Equitable literacy updates including instructional observation data progress highlights from the homes Innovation school and the Deerborn STEM Academy chronic absente ISM data and Improvement strategy and sy425 hiring update uh we will continue to monitor progress across three priority areas in conjunction with our Improvement plans student learning School climate and attendance and we're making adjustments to accelerate Improvement our most pressing challenges as you will see in the data remain Secondary School attendance and student growth in literacy we continue to make adjustments and Investments to accelerate this Improvement and at this point I I'll turn it over to executive director Savin thank you chair Robinson superintendent Skipper School Comm committee members it's good to be here presenting the third quarter transformation update as the superintendent shared this evening's update will focus on literacy on attendance and On hiring and I'm thrilled to be able to share my time this quarter with two wonderful transformation School leaders lean Hughes odm and Darlene Marcano before diving into details I want to comment briefly on the school Improvement planning process itself all transformation schools submitted updated quality school plans in February laying out strategic actions in Equitable literacy School climate and attendance supporting the development the implementation and the monitoring of these plans is perhaps the most important role of the transformation office as you have heard in other recent presentations from the division of schools and the division of academics we are particularly focused right now on making sure that all students have a strong sense of belonging have access to grade level curriculum and have good attendance so let's start with instruction the graphs in front of you summarize some of the results of over a thousand classroom observations done so far this year and transformation schools a pattern evident here is informing our understanding of lagging student academic performance we can see that over 80% of observed classrooms represented in the circle on the left showed evidence of grade level tasks that's higher than last year and a great sign of rising expectations for our transformation students however a much lower percentage of classrooms showed students actually doing the hard work or doing higher order thinking we know student learning will accelerate only when students have access to challenging grade level work and when they are both supported and held to high standards we still have work to do to make sure that every one of our classrooms meets this description the assessment data of our students we believe is The Logical outcome of the pattern we observe in our classroom visits this bar graph shows student growth during the first half of the school year in transformation non- high schools on the map reading test we can see that nine of the 26 schools represented by These Bars exceeded the district average and only three of those schools met or exceeded the national growth average of 50 we expect better results and we also look forward to learning from one of our brightest K to8 spots when Leanne Hughes odm from the homes Innovation School presents in a few minutes okay yeah like that this graph shows similar literacy results for our transformation high schools we can see that six of the 13 high schools exceeded the district average and two of those schools met or exceeded the national average of 50 as we have discussed in previous meetings achievement gaps only start to close when student growth is above 50 and this is the target level that we must achieve for all transformation schools and you can see Dearborn at the high end of the high school growth so now it's time to hear from our school leaders we look forward to learning from the wisdom that these inspirational leaders are going to provide about what it has taken for their schools to achieve High literacy growth the performance of these schools so far this year shows us that closing gaps in literacy is possible so please join me in welcoming homes Innovation School principal Leanne Hughes Odum to be followed by school leader Darlene marcoo from the Dearborn STEM Academy Leanne all right thank you so good evening my name is Leanne H's Odum and I am the proud principal of the homes Innovation school which we call inhouse the greatest Elementary School in the city of Boston Key phas days of work in progress the homes Innovation School is located in the heart of Dorchester we currently serve 289 students in which 100% of our students are young gifted and Brilliant and come from the blackest and brownest neighborhoods of Roxberry Dorchester and matapan when I think about the transformational work and the results we have gained thus far I think about my core value used as a black woman principal I am Boston born Dorchester raised and a product of the Boston Public School System I spent the last three decades in BPS as a former student as an educator a foster parent transformational coach and now first year principal every career decision I have made has been about coming back and giving back to a city that really raised me and I know firsthand from my personal and professional experiences that relationships move the work so when I walked into the homes it was important that I collaborated with the people on the ground rather than colonized spaces it was important that I embraced this idea that good principles never forget what it feels like to be an educator and the classroom so my first 90 days of my principalship I met with the custodians the lunch monitors every educator students families and I asked oh how can we be great from there the data I collected allowed me to build a theory of action so I believed and this was like deep down in my heart if we are a highly relational and purposeful or organization that cultivates and affirms the Geniuses of adults through highquality professional development spaces and ond demand and live coaching then we can strengthen tier one instructional practices for students our climate data as a result of that increased by 57 percentage points and our professional learning indicator increased by 62 percentage points and less than 90 days I really contribute this to two factors first the mindset slash conditions we set in our professional learning spaces and then second the intentional work we have done with our quality School plan week after week through feedback sessions with our ilt and weekly surveys we progress monitored the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives but for culture in climate and professional learning and next and I no this about myself when I walk into spaces I walk into spaces with my blackness and like critical Consciousness so it's important in my leadership to emphasize that black and brown students from neighborhoods like mine can do complex work and be held to high academic expectations so it is the expectation that black and brown kids at the homes could do really hard things next and we know this and research has shown that task predicts performance so at the homes we shifted to ensure we put high quality instructional materials in front of students and co-constructed these non-negotiables as a staff we are and we say this with pride well planned lesson plans and critical consumption of materials are non-negotiables our instruction is culturally responsive it is our goal to bring lessons to life and ensure that they are real relevant relatable for our young people and lastly we are engaging and provide access access meaning it's our Collective responsibility to teach every to teach every child and not just some this intentionality has transferred into classrooms and it is evident in our academic achievement data and Equitable literacy data that you can see in this next slide and while we are excited about this data and realize we have so much work to do it is our hope that if we maintain these conditions that we set and hold students to high expectations every child at the homes will be a proficient reader finally I just want to thank folks like Dr Monica Hall Mike Sabin Dr Pauline lugera white and my academic sup who's the goat Mary Drisco alongside the entire teaching staff at the homes for being vision and Mission aligned and to for believing in my leadership being a first year school leader in 2024 is incredibly hard but such a humbling and rewarding experience and it's because of folks like them who are in service to schools like mine and the blackest and brownest neighborhoods that we are able to roll in the same directions so thank you and I'm going to pass it over to my big sis [Music] Darlene uh thank you Leanne W I just want to say lean is absolutely incredible you just inspired me phenomenal so all right good evening everyone my name is Darlene marcoo and I've had the privilege to serve as the dearborn's head of school for the past 5 years the Dearborn is a grade 6 through 12 open enrollment Early College School in Roxbury we serve 549 students most of whom come through one of our four neighborhood elementary schools our mission is to graduate students with the 21st century skills required for College and Career Success prepared to serve as thoughtful engaged citizens who contribute to the health vibrancy and development of their community on a side note the Dearborn has truly become my second family so we first began working on improving our professional culture similar to what Lan said we needed to start with the adults first the internal coherence survey internal coherence rubric and the staff Panorama survey Have Been instrumental as tools to help us both reflect plan and also focus our work to improve coherence at the Dearborn there are nine domains in the survey that provide us with valuable data to consider as we work to build systems to work in an integrated way and this is where I go off script because unfortunately what I've seen in the past is most most staff members were doing their own thing and I think what we did was we sort of supported them in that but we knew we needed coherence in order to build a better system in service of our students so I want to first show you the results over time for two of the areas connected with professional culture the first is team shared understanding of effective practice and I believe that's the one at the top and collaboration around an improved strategy the second graph that you see is from the staff Panorama survey it shows improved results over the past two years and so what you see in all three data points is within the past two to three years we've steadily improved when it comes to being in being very intentional around our students and around our professional culture this internal coherence work over the past two and a half years and youen surveys rubrics have helped to guide systemic improvements and focus we were able to make changes to our schedule to allow us to have grade level and content team meetings during the day which allowed us to continue our work that we do during professional development time we also crafted opportunities for our staff to take on leadership responsibilities and what we've seen is increased trust amongst staff resulting in video peer observations which is not easy for us to do and overall we've experienced collaboration across all contents after making the intentional decision to stay the course with our instructional Focus we have seen an increase in literacy our professional learning is connected to the work that's done in both grade level and content teams all focused around our multilingual Learners and in case many people don't know the Dearborn has over 65% um either current or former multilingual Learners the areas that we focused on were improving students abilities to have academic conversations and also to do content-based writing both without lowering the rigor of the tasks all staff engaged with the speaking writing waeda rubric and lastly again similar to Lan we use District approved moved highquality instructional material in all content areas and have reading interventions in place we specifically use curriculum in ESL in literacy classes we worked on the development of language across content again focused around academic conversations and contest content-based writing we created opportunities for peer observation connected to our instructional focus and we also implemented the rewards program in middle school and have two reading interventionist one in middle school and one in high school both work diligently to help students improve their reading as you can see these carefully crafted decisions were not made within the administrative Circle or in an administrative bubble but with the implementation of community input we have made it a point to have transparency as the Cornerstone of our professional development and have seen that Foster into the bonds of trust and kinship thank you thank you Darlene and thank you Leanne we'll have a chance to ask them follow-up questions um in just a few minutes so we know how hard you both work and how much thought and energy is invested in your students and your staff and I've noticed that your survey results show that students and teachers love your School communities and I think we can see why these two schools are examples of our BPS Improvement strategy in action and their work points us to our next steps for all schools we must continue toward full implementation of grade level curriculum in all schools and all classrooms excuse me you heard that theme in both sets of comments we must work together to develop and implement strategies to engage and challenge all students and we must further improve our coaching and professional development in support of these conditions in every BPS classroom our students can Excel and it's our responsibility to ensure that we have the expectations the conditions and the skill to support them I will now transition to brief updates on student attendance and on the launch of the hiring season this spring the graph in front of you shows rates of chronic absenteeism in our transformation schools the good news in the dark blue bars is that there is a continued reduction in chronic absenteeism at all levels compared to the end of March last year thanks to the hard work of our Educators our supervisors of attendance and of course our students and their families we are seeing our absenteeism rates come steadily downwards at the same time The Chronic absenteeism rates for our transformation schools particularly our high schools simply remain unacceptably high as always we disaggregate our data by subgroup as well as by grade level we can see here that all subgroups in our transformation schools have higher absenteeism rates than the same subgroups in non-transformational this wide Gap shows that we still have a broad systemic issue to address our transformation school students simply cannot be successful in close achievement gaps and learning gaps if they AB ISM rates are this much higher than other students looking toward the spring and the upcoming school year we will continue our strategy of strengthening student engagement and sense of belonging while also partnering deeply with families in addition we need new and creative strategies for our high school students and we're excited to learn from the win the day project pilot attendance Improvement project that Corey McCarthy and his team are leading right now in Region 8 as is the case across the country our schools need help in this area we need the whole Community to come together in support of getting all of our students back into school finally let's end on a high note and with a big shout out to the BPS office of human resources and to our school leaders we can see that we can see on this slide that one year ago as of April 3rd 2023 transformation schools had filled 16% of their vacancies this year by April 3D we had filled 32% of our vacancies double the rate and actually more than double the number of hires and I checked the hiring data this morning which of course I do every day and this percentage is now up to 40% and it goes up every day this progress reflects the hard work of office of human capital to post vacancies early and the amazing efforts of our busy school leaders and their teams to act quickly to fill these positions we know that early hiring leads to more diverse and more skilled Workforce so this Improvement is likely to make a big difference for students in the future on that note we close our presentation and we welcome your questions we know there is much more work to do but we're also proud to have been able to share some highlights and some real signs of progress thank you thank you Mr Sabin Miss Hugh Odum and Miss Marano I'll now open it up to the committee for questions and comments like going this way we is all jumping um thank you for the presentation um it is great to see uh the progress that's happening in real time for sure um just going through the entirety because I have a bunch of questions um I'm looking at slide I guess four um just a little bit around the um the observation itself could you speak a little bit more to what constitutes heavy lifting during a lesson that's one of the things I want clarification on that is a great question and one that's asked a lot within BPS do other of you want to take that I can talk about it so heavy lifting um refers to who's actually doing the work uh for example if you're in a classroom and um the expectation is that students are to complete a task um maybe they're supposed to do part n work but unfortunately what happens is it's more teacher directed teacher-led and the voice that you hear the most is the teacher that means the heavy listing the actual work the thinking the thinking may be happening with students but we're not hearing it what we're hearing is the teachers thinking got okay okay um and then it would actually well I'm trying to think about when this tool was implemented also seeing this um what this would have looked like also comparatively in 2022 to 2023 too so at some point I'd love to see how this might look um just looking back um another question um I have is just related to um particularly like chronic absenteeism you spoke a little bit about one of the initiatives that you found to be particularly I think rewarding or at least looking like it's moving in the right direction um how are we how are you sharing that with other institutions and thinking about that from from from that standpoint thank you I'll take that the there are a lot of different initiatives going on in schools across the district in attendance and we're monitoring those very very carefully I think we've concluded that our high schools need some additional help beyond the school level initiatives and there's a exciting pilot going on that I shouldn't represent to too much myself but it's being led by Corey McCarthy and his team with a group of schools in Region 8 and they're calling it win the day and it has a range of Outreach incentives and motivational activities um being conducted to impact the schools in Region 8 and I believe it's going for we be going for 50 days through the spring and we'll learn a lot from the results of that they're doing a lot and they're keeping track of the efforts so we're very excited to see the results of that yeah the um the idea when the day came from uh the kids uh we actually got a group of students we worked with BAC and um Chief McCarthy uh they they kind of designed all of the material for it including what the students felt would motivate students or would help address some of the underlying issues of why they weren't coming to school and at the high school level you know things like homelessness or home insecurity is like a big one for them mental health issues uh work and having to make money so we're really trying to design from the incentive sides like linking kids with jobs and um you know working to make sure like you have buddies so that when you're not there you're seen like people are going to reach out and to the end's point it's about relationship at Day end and so kids knowing that when I'm not there people notice that makes a difference so sometimes a text message sometimes an email or a phone call so there's like a whole tearing of it we decided to isolate uh Region 8 because we wanted to figure out what works and doesn't work about the pilot um and the plan is for September to be able to roll it across the regions you can also earn time back through creative ways so you know by doing some vacation stuff uh or after school stuff there's different ways to be able to earn your way back from being chronically absent yeah and um and my last question at least for for for right now is one it's also great to see the the hiring update my question then comes on I guess the other side of that is knowing are there differences um that we see in transformational schools versus non- transform um non- transformation schools with regard to retention um and how are we addressing that that is a really good question we have not looked carefully yet at that particular data point but one pattern that we know is that when jobs are filled late in late hiring there end up being lure issues yeah and then lure issues lead to high turnover so the early hiring makes it much more likely that properly credentialed people are hired who can stay in those positions so your hypothesis that probably there's higher turnover is is true there's a lot of high vacancy schools on our list and this early hiring is part of trying to change that we don't feel like we see an outflow of teachers because they do not appreciate their jobs or they're trying to leave but we see a lot of those lure problems or difficulties in hardto fill positions that that we don't ever manage to get the right teacher in yeah I think it's also uh stability of leadership you know because when you keep the principal core stable and you invest in the principal Corp then Staff feel more confident in that school in that school community and it takes as as I think our leaders know several years to turn a culture in a building and so it's going to be really important that we're investing in Leanne as a firste principal who's amazing but making her even more amazing by investing in her as much as it is important that we're supporting Darlene who though five years at Dearborn has a wealth of leadership prior so we have to look at our principles and invest in our principles in a way we haven't been and that's created turnover in our principal core in past years which in part creates turnover in our teacher Corp thank you thank you well um I I I have just a couple of questions again my questions are very simple first of all um back to uh slide four four that uh my colleague here raised regarding the uh the instruction quarters uh of um when he raised heavy lifting and things of that nature am am I to accept the let's say uh look at the heavy lifting and the the other the third circle am I to accept that the 27% of heavy lifting from students is acceptable at this point and also the 40 11.4% of students demonstrating influential comprehension is is that something that that that we can live with or you want to talk about I understand that you're presenting these as achievement yeah in my mind they're not um so thank you for your question no it's not acceptable I think it describes a process we're going through that we're learning about as we do it uhuh we've seen that the alignment of tasks to standards meaning grade level standards has increased significantly we'll make sure we provide that data because we actually do have that compared to the Past yeah so that has gone up and that's part you heard both of our leaders talk about implementing the district curriculum high quality instructional materials the reason we're so focused on that is because that is a form of grade level expectation and that's helping us to raise the level of expectation but if you have a grade level text but the teacher reads it out loud instead of the students reading it that's not a heavy lift the right text is there but the students not doing the work yet and the next shift we're focusing on is how teachers use that curriculum and we're learning that this has stages and we feel very positive that we're seeing change but we also know that the schools that are out ahead of achievement their data for that middle circle looks different I've been in both of their schools and these leaders emphasize the middle circle as well as the curriculum and that's the those are the footsteps or the path that we think we need to follow landre you want to add something yeah I just wanted to Echo so like for example when you walk into the homes where we're trying to go is this like 2 First Century Learning we're shifting from like lecture style to this idea that like kids are really really owning the work um and that's a that's a teacher shift as well so when they're coming in they're not just you know lecturing kids over and over and over again because my kids will like tap up and like turn the classroom up right and so like how are they creating experiences where they're going into the curriculum they're dissecting the curriculum the're consuming the curriculum and making the curriculum pop so students are really owning the work because the research continues to show like if they own it if they're doing the heavy lifting then they'll internalize that information right which like ends up executing into like results um and so I just wanted to just emphasize that Mike yeah I just wanted to add one other piece that I think is is just as important um I think we also need to look at values because if we're talking about low expectations and we're thinking about a teacher um doing all of the work then the expectation is really low and so then I have to think about well is that part of your value that our students can't do the work and so I think those things need to be surfaced first which is why I think it's important to start off with professional culture because if we truly understand how a person sees our children then we can really understand whether or not they're the right fit for our schools just I appreciate your your answer just a a followup question on that your presentation indicates that the curriculum that are Implement are implementing at at your institutions for for for the students even though the rate of uh of achievement according to those who circles are kind of low um you know heavy lifting and in influential uh uh ability how do you well my my concern is given given those low number are we certain are we very certain that those curriculums curricular whatever are appropriate for this classroom I understand you know educational uh teachers training and all teachers uh uh instructional uh techniques and all that understand all that it just if the number is that low are we sure the the curriculums are high quality I you're asking a fair question I don't think we could say we are certain certain until it happens but the curriculum has research behind it it is successful in many places it's successful in many classrooms and some whole schools so we have evidence and we have research to suggest that it can work but it's not easy and it's the intersection of the curriculum and instructional expertise and belief systems that's needed and those aren't easy things so we're on a path that we have a lot of confidence in the path but it's not simple so we're we anticipate seeing increasing numbers of schools following the path that we see Dearborn on and we see homes and other schools on and I hope that each time we present we're going to have more of those examples okay and I'm confident that we will uh may I have just two more short questions very short okay the the number of of teachers that you you submit that that you submitted for high or to be hired there's no way we can tell whether they are hired or because I I believe that is the you know the percentage that you submit or that you presented to us both type of students uh both type of of of of candidates and um there there are are two categories there's the submitted for hire and then there's actually hired right which is a part of that and just there's a lot of data whenever I present so I tried to simplify it a little bit but we actually have the data in that division of hired and submitted for hire and right now of the 40% today that was submitted about 20% of about half of those are actually hired and the other half are in process we hope they won't of a problem and they'll work their way through but it isn't completed so that is a that is a fair question I see just uh the last uh comment um chronic absenteeism I have same same questions like like like yours I I noticed that the uh you know with the uh transformation schools um multi learner English learner students uh students with disability are pretty high I hope that you are going to somehow Focus other strategies to bring that down because student with disability 47% English learner 38% chronic absenteeism pretty high are in my own assessment is excessively high so I hope I'm just appealing to you to find other ways lowow on that or anything else okay um I think we agree yeah when we're sharing the superintendent can comment further but we're sharing information that sometimes presents us with a challenge we're not at all saying it looks the way it should we're presenting it as part of the path toward Improvement and we would all agree that's troubling yeah and I think I think uh with the chronic absenteeism what we're seeing is that this pattern and actually with students in disability and English language Learners as well that that pattern is following at the state level and it's following at the national level um I think that we we see it as a Citywide effort where it's about bringing parents in as partners to this so that they see 18 days which is the definition of chronic absentismo didn't need to be in school to learn and that was a dangerous message uh it was it was necessary at that time but it never ever could replace the magic that happens and the learning that happens when kids are in school so we're working back from that and I think at the high school level it's also a lot of practical issues that are going on for kids some kids have become the contributors to income in their families um and a lot of the overaged uh unaccompanied miners that we're getting there's it's a survival issue it's not that they don't want to come to school they can't and so that's why as a district we're trying to put more broader solutions that our principles can't control but for instance opening up you know a new program so any any of our multilingual Learners who at 18 to 22 can get a different schedule they don't have to go and start in a regular High School where they're just going to be forced to not go um so we as a district have to help with that um you know in addition to all the work these guys are doing which is calling parents knocking on doors home visits like making those deep connections thank [Music] you Mr C yeah thank thank you for the presentation and you both are incredible and we're so lucky kids are lucky for your work and we're lucky to learn about it and hear about it so thank you um I'm trying to figure out where to start I always ask a series of similar questions so you can suspect what's coming um I guess on a process piece oh all my gratitude didn't make it into the microphone but thank you for everything you're doing and it is hard work and we are lucky um to have you um on a process question I am just saying and I will bring this up in new business I submitted a bunch of questions none of them were even I they weren't even not responded to the they just like were not responded to at all it wasn't like we can't get it or we'll get it to you eventually they're just like radio silence including the follow-up to the questions we have a process problem I'm naming it here we need to bring it up in new business on how we're going to solve it um and so I guess the big so like moving on from that I won't ask you every question I had because I think it will be it would have helped me in this conversation but I don't think it would be fair in this moment to like go through the data specific questions that I had that I thought would make sense to see in the PowerPoint um so a few questions now just moving into real stuff I am curious on Slide Five and slide six as we're looking at growth and this is always my struggle as we talk about these schools because we'll talk about these schools and we sum all of the data together and in a few weeks we're going to talk about uh the exam schools and we'll separate all their data and we'll talk about each school as an individual school and then when we have the conversations about these schools we just sort of like lump it together and give us no names but as we see sort of homes with a growth of uh in the 60s or 60 and then we see this school at the bottom 23rd I guess I'm sort of curious like while I want to celebrate the hard work my eye is always on the most vulnerable kids who are being underserved and so like I'm celebrating everything you guys are doing and also very curious about like when we're seeing a 23% growth one what is who is that school where is that school and then what's the plan and like the sort of viability around that and I think the same is true as we look at the other school on the other side again with no names um which is just like some real talk of we every time we've had this conversation I've said we have to name the schools that we're talking about so so first Darlene is a hardworking School leader she started at 7 AM and she's off to another school event bless her so on her behalf we really appreciative if she could be here but she's not even going home Sav next have a wonderful night but Leanne can follow up my answer to this with her own thoughts but we look very intensively at data of individual schools we do not sum data for analysis it's school by school because that's where change happens in terms of public sharing of information we have shared a lot of individual School data linked to this presentation it includes updated attendance rates for individual schools and a lot of other detailed information one data point that we're not sharing publicly is the interim data on the map Reading and math assessment and we have some beliefs that there's a reason for that we don't want that assessment to turn into a highly stressful high stakes assessment for students and for teachers which is what m C is and we believe that is what would happen if that became a public indicator it's part of our continuous improvement process we look at it in great detail not just by school but by grade level and even by classroom and individual student its most important use is within each School organizing supports for students but we do use it extensively centrally but we have the policy that it would be counterproductive to share that to publicly because it would change the nature of its use for the school and the teachers and the students but I would open it up if you have any comments or thoughts about that as a as a school leader no I just think we try to just set the conditions that every exam whether it's a unit assessment or the map exam matters um and that we're just not competing within our region but also with within our state and nationally as well and so our kids just come in excited and ready to go so I do think some of this is just like we we set the conditions that this this just matters at the homes um and it allows us to know like are you grade level ready and are you ready for the next grade um so I think our kids come in with just a different mindset on how they approach um the exam and we too try to not make it high stakes but it's it it it matters for us and it matters for our Educators um so yeah thank you yeah I would just say um member kette Hernandez uh in in the Excel spreadsheet that was provided um there is really good detailed data in there that um is definitely worth a look that includes every school broken down by state accountability chronic absenteeism both midpoint and endpoint so first 90 days and then end of March and then what that Chang changes as well as mcass Ela mcast math uh and shows both the growth as well as the meets and exceeds so I think um that's actually I think going to be really helpful in understanding sort of where the schools align um if it would be more helpful to like provide it we didn't get that spreadsheet we have an email with three a school presentation the equity impact statement and a cover memo so just can you just click clarify where it is okay so the email we got I can send it to you Megan in the email we got it can be then it's buried but the email we got is three a presentation I'm just like I'm not getting checked on this in this meeting if there is three if there's an email with three bullets and it's like look at these three things those are the three things I'm looking at I can go dig around for an Excel spreadsheet I love that that conversation's happening but sure like if it's if it's valuable that's what we're looking at and just I'm really keeping it real my email wasn't even respond it wasn't like hey Brandon go search for this Exel spreadsheet well I think I think one of the things is in the Glorious half hour that you and I get to spend every week I think if there's um something at that point that you feel hasn't been given I will be more than happy to get team on there uh or to get you whatever you need to be able to make the decisions and ask the questions so I think we can put that in place kind of quickly um but I I do also one of the other suggestions um this is in a numerical format I also think sometimes visually it's kind of easy to kind of look if it were graphic and so what's nice about the midpoint data is it shows sort of where the schools fall might be just very easy to transform that so that it's much more easier kind of to the eye but there's a lot of really good Rich data so we'll just make sure we review so that you know you have what you need moving on from process I am I appreciate what you're saying right around the discretion around the data and so I want to honor that I also W to this is a tough one right because these are our lowest performing schools which on some level in a choice system require the most transparency for families there is a m we are making a decision a pointed decision to share the highest performing outcomes and a decision to not share the lowest ones and so Food For Thought for me that is like a complex thing to Grapple with where it's like I will tell you who's making 50 who's at the exceeding the city standard but I won't tell you who is not even cutting to half of it and that I think impacts black and Latino kids in really deep ways and I think we have some sou searching around that level of transparency and I have felt that way in a lot of our conversation you know and I I am so thankful for your work I think it's hard work but I I I I'm just keeping it real I think this I guess the second piece on it and this is the most important I always ask this sort of what's next so like what is our standard for acceptable growth and unacceptable growth and when is a school no longer a viable option for a family I want to invest in adults getting the belief systems down and learning all the instructional moves they can get but not while my kid is waiting for them to build those skills and so I'm like there are schools that have been on this list for years and when is it no longer something we stand behind and say this is an actual choice for you I think I would hesitate to weigh in on a decision at that level but it's not acceptable for schools to continually have low academic growth to have low survey scores around climate and safety and professional learning to have chronic absenteeism higher than average and our whole school Improvement planning process on these 90-day Cycles is based on that information and setting goals for improvement and I think what we're learning to do as a schools Division and as a school department is to find the appropriate balance of intervention and support to move schools we see some moving we see others that are more stuck we have to figure out how to do that and what the right combination of supports is to move that some of the schools I won't tell you anything you don't completely know but it's complicated because some schools are beloved by students but have one of those indicators low some have academic indicators that are high but have other issues it's a complex mix so that what our department is thinking about is instruction climate and attendance how do we get those three areas moving steadily forward and the other thing I would just add that we have to always keep in mind about growth is 50 is the average but it's mathematically designed that half are below average and half are above so while we expect every school to be above half the schools in Massachusetts and half the schools nationally taking map are going to be below 50 we're pushing hard to have our schools all be above we have more coaching than other schools we have certain resources that other schools don't our students can do it so we want and expect them to be above 50 but we do have to keep in mind mathematically everyone can't be above 50 growth is designed for half to be below that so one of the reasons we look at the whole group of schools is that we will start to feel that our transformation strategy and our BPS strategy is working when we see two3 of our schools above that 50 rather than one3 in high school it's six out of 13 we're getting close High School literacy is actually progressing but so that's just something for us always to keep in mind yeah and I I think um the other thing I would say is uh knowing like um how important school choice is uh the school choice as we've unpacked it with parents has at each grade kind of the different grade levels a different meaning for some parents the tearing of the school the academic teering isn't the thing they most look at same for students it could be the type of programming that's being offered it could be the proximity to home which we see for parents is super important it could be the access to a dual language program so we can't really just look through one lens when we talk about how school performance impacts school choice or could school choice I think what we've been saying with the long-term facilities plan is that we're trying to accomplish two things one is increase the number of seats in all of our schools relative to the high quality student experience and do it in proximity to where people live yeah those are the two things that I think if we can do and that student experience includes things like programming includes uh different kinds of offerings uh includes Early College at the secondary level or at the elementary May uh you know may include enrichment opportunities after school that student experience is kind of all encompassing of that so I think that is really the goal of what we're trying to do that said uh we've taken we we say decades it's far longer than decades to get to the point where we are and so it is going to take time much like it does at a school you know if you were to look at homes would say hm look at that school right but it's transformed because you have an incredible leader that's tapped into as she put it the genius of an incredible staff and the genius of incredible kids so what can happen with the right supports can often help a school that we would have said or probably written and said ah that that school can't do that as a well actually it can so I think I think this is an evolving picture I think the long-term facilities plan is attempting with data end with the rubric to allow people to be able to look at schools in any ways they want if it's about proximity great if it's about the high quality student experience great if it's about particular kinds of programming great they can look at it because it we're not going to replace what parents want yeah and that's that's the place that is we start to think about looking at optimizing the district from a size perspective and a quality perspective we just want to make sure that that the community and the parents are able and the students are able to look at the same data that we're able to look at and have in the rubric a tool to help them do so more easily I'm I hear you and at the and I'm with you like part of why I'm always asking about this is like as we rightsize the system and then at the same we are grappling with like then what school and what schools and where and then at the same time as we start most of our meetings with a lot of platitudes around like world class education and all this stuff like graduating kids from that means those are the choices we're going to present to families that like fit into those values and so having a history of kids leaving schools with low levels of literacy is not a world-class education and so like that is no longer a viable choice in the portfolio of options and so I just think like there's some of that and while I agree like we can have a fabulous leader who can turn around the school there may have been a time I don't know the history where a lot of kids were still graduating while we were waiting for that right leader to come with low levels of literacy and like that's on our watch and that's may have still two things can be true great choice today and not a great choice for the years that we are waiting around and how long is the right time to wait right that's the reason why in addition to hiring fantastic Le not picking on you but fantastic leaders like you in addition to that that's only one solution you have to lift the system that's a systemic solution and that's actually what Mike and the team are attempting to do he with Mike it's about the transformation schools but with Drew and School soups it's about the whole system right you can't do just one and our Focus now on literacy is extremely important across the district we've never had a time where we can begin to say we have high quality instruction materials in all our classrooms and an observational tool to begin to ensure that high quality instruction at grade level is happening in every classroom we've never done that we've done all kinds of other calibration I've been a part of over many many years and I'm sure there's people in this room who have been but it's never been to the level that it is and that is actually that we'll never close our our way out of poor performance that it doesn't work like that we have to make sure that yes there's an optimizing to the system that has to happen but we have to get at the root causes of what led to some schools being so disproportionate in this and other schools not and we're working through those systems and it does take time to do that but in the meantime the things we can do in our control is make sure the materials and the instruction are to par and that's what we're working on I'm over my time okay go back go back and then back to thank you madam chair so let's continue the conversation about high quality instructional materials if we may and I'm interested to hear particularly as a school leader thank you for your presentation um delighted to hear what's going on at the home so I'd love to hear from your Viewpoint as a school leader how did you choose the curriculum that you were using I don't know if you're using focus and the early years or fish tank or something else I'm interested in what you chose and um the thought process you went through and then I'm interested in from across the transformational schools you know what the latitude is on school leaders on that and at what point does the district say it's not working for you you're you're using a different one um so when I walked into the homes we were using eel for our Upper Grade so third through six and then focus and focus on three for our early Elementary grades um I think our biggest thing this year has been about really just unpacking every unit and again I'm really consistent and on brand about making after like unpacking every unit in our cpts and professional learn in our PDS as well is um having teachers like consume it and have conversations on it and having them you know get in front of students and you know have students even give them feedback on if you know the um the how quality the the lesson is so I think think you know there wasn't really a lot of conversation on choice but I think for us the conversation was like how do we continue to just bre life into the the um curriculum that we're using I think El sometimes could be hard but for me and I say this to my staff just all the time is we just have to continue to you know to sell it to our young people we had a um biodiversity unit that most folks would say like black and brown kids are not interested in like science and our teachers just like made it pop and students are walking around like oh I want to be a scientist because I understand that scientists in this country can make $100,000 right and so that was one of our biggest things and it's something we're still working through like as a new school leader do you feel you have is it your choice on what curriculum you have in your school um I think you know my academic coach and I like we we talk about the different you know curriculums that are out there but right now our whole thing is like stay on brand and like stay a course and so because we have been using e in our school we're going to just continue to use E I think in a school like mine the the consistency is important like we can't continue to say oh we're going to use this curriculum one month we're going to shift to this curriculum next month cuz as you know the research continues used to show like sometimes when teachers have a little bit too much autonomy within the curriculum they're not putting grade level content in front of students um and so for us it's just about the consistency and staying on course staying on brand for now so Mr Sav could you address a little bit about the how School lead is a choosing curriculum and and particularly at what point does the district intervene if we're at you know one of these lower percentages and say is it the curriculum is it school leadership is it the professional development you know what is it that needs to change so first I preface my comments by saying folks from the academics Department would be probably better suited to answer your question I was looking over give it a shot um I think we're in a different era in terms of curriculum than we were in during my 19 years of being a principal you hear the term HQ IM all over the country now and in the state of Massachusetts you're seeing much more guidance than there used to be around what curriculum to use there are lists of vetted and research based curriculum at the state level which Massachusetts did not have before and then there are lists in the district a subset of those of the state list that are district recommended and we call those hqm but really they're their research-based and um fully developed curricula and transformation schools don't have choice not to do that they there was some limited Choice within those lists and different subjects but our expectation is that schools use that curriculum and what we're learning is that first of all no curriculum is perfect we know that it's the intersection as we talked about of instructional expertise belief systems and relationships and a curriculum but in the current moment in education the expertise of the teacher goes into the relationships and the belief systems the instructional moves and they're not spending all their time developing the curriculum they're learning a curriculum that experts have developed and implementing it and we know the previous approach worked in some plac and not others this new approach we're in the process of exploring it having lived under the other model as a teacher and a principle I appreciated it but I'm all in on this because it was very inconsistent what we did before and so this is not easy but my personal belief system and hearing from leaders like lean and Darlene who are making this work in their schools is that this can work and we've moved with adopting the curriculum and now we're moving with implementing it and I think that's a good path where we're not Reinventing the wheel each year as we probably used to when you just switch a curriculum and you're back to day one or you take over a classroom as a new teacher and there's nothing there that's happened to many Educators we should never do that to anyone and so I I'm hopeful that this new approach is going to work yeah and superintendent you can tell if this is the right time to push deeper on this or if you're planning a different presentation later about you know Equitable literacy and and where it's going I'm just interested in um you know obviously we've pushed a lot of chips to the middle of the table on this and and that's great it's a very thoughtful approach it's a big Focus it's a superintendent said this is the first time I've certainly he that this district has the pieces in place on it I also know that there are range being used around the district and some are seeing great results some are not and so particularly with transformation I'm interested in if these are the schools that are lowest performing when are we going to push and say okay we they going to change School leadership or we're going to change the curriculum or we're going to change the professional developer approach right because you said it's a combinate you had a beautiful way to phrase it much much better than I did um but I'm just wondering the thought process of the district and I'm not sure if this is for the academic team or the regional soups or you Mr saber or even for the superintendent like at what point do you look at some of these that aren't improving as well as the homes is and congratulations on that um and say we need to make a change and not not to the point of a closing but we need to change curriculum we need to change leadership we need to change professional development we need something's not working in this school I think we're at that point and that's what we do um we are as regions under the guidance of the regional superintendents in schools every day looking at curriculum that now the regional people are expert in as are the school people with a common tool describing the instruction we want to see and developing Improvement plans every 90 days that are based on how are the students doing and what are they saying so I think we're at that point and hopefully it feels like a combination of support and teamwork and pressure it's meant to be both of those I hope it feels that way but I think we're at the point you're ring now I appreciate the work going on and I know this is a midyear update and you're saying every 90 days there's a test or there's a a fresh look I mean at some point it's okay we're making changes and I'm not sure if it's the end of a year or something like that so I'll I'll put a pin in that conversation as I hear too often in the day yeah so I'm just I'm I'm just thinking about um what what I know about school um performance and design um I think that the three areas that the transformation unit has picked are the right areas um because at least in the case of the non literacy side uh students can't learn if they're not in school and the school culture itself has a lot to do with how teachers and staff build relationships in Implement what's being given to them so you can have really good curriculum but you can still have poor instruction you can have really good curriculum and pretty good instruction and still have a poor culture in a school that means students aren't learning and you can have in some of our schools real over representation that we've created of special education and multilingual Learners where there becomes real tipping points in the school as to how to provide enough service and I think our transformation schools represent a lot of all of that um so I you know this is one where I think the 90day cycle is the right cycle to unpack and look for change and then recommend change and I think that's what the calibration of the academics office transformation unit and the school soups it's that kind of working together to ensure that we're really looking at that 90 days and not letting so much time goes by that if we're not seeing correction we've lost the year so they're in there constantly making that changed um I think on the curriculum side we have you know we have 30 I don't know 35 autonomous schools still I think I think autonomous schools have always seen curriculum in their domain to be able to you know do things differently even the autonomous schools have really bought in in a deep way to working with the academic office around high quality materials it doesn't mean they're adopting something on the list but it means that there's a process by which they can take their materials and vet them and so I think on the curriculum side I think we can ask Leslie Ryan excuse me Leslie Ryan Miller to come to a future one and just kind of talk a little bit more about it but I think the the part here I see the power sorry frog I think the the part I don't want to lose here is that it is about the whole Le use the term rowing and this is about all the adults rowing in the right direction and that's everybody from the custodian up to the principal everybody knows what they're doing what they have for resources who the kids are what the relationships need to be and they're rowing and it's that that is the part that when we insert really high quality curriculum when we insert uh tools for which they can look at what's happening within their own classrooms uh when we insert tools we give them around chronic absenteeism it's that rowing in the right direction that actually wins the race and that's I think what we see in these two schools is that for a variety of reasons they've been able to get those things to click there are still some of our schools that we are working on who would be not at the top of this chart but at the bottom of that chart that we are in the process of unpacking more to figure out what's the other pieces that are causing them not to row in that same direction um so it's a long-winded answer to it it's not just a curriculum one but I think for the purposes of the curriculum lesie Ryan Miller and the team will build in so that at some point you know over the next two months with what we have for time we'll make sure that they can just give you some like a more a deeper look at the curriculum yeah look I'm delighted we're having this conversation right as we try to be and the chair will say this all the time a student outcome focused governance board right it's great that we're talking about outcomes what you do though is say 90 days tweaks changes and love seeing what's going on at the homes at the Deerborn but we're we're not necessarily talking about changes that are being made based upon what you see in the data you're pushing on three years your FOC we agree with that I think it aligns with the school committee goals and we're in agreement on that maybe it's at the end of the day and end of the year report it's okay here's how they have done which have had lift which haven't what changes we're making as a result of it I do want to talk about um attendance as well but chair I know I'm over my five minutes so I'll stop and okay come back to that if if we have time at the end I have a question and then I'm going to come back to you um looking at this this is the um the graph on page five um that shows homes is at 60 and then all the other schools um so I have two questions um I'm going to assume that this is only a small subset of our schools the question is if we were to line all of the rest of our elementary schools would they all be going higher than 60 or do we have some of our non transformational schools down in the lower end of this the Red's the city average that's a great question I don't have that graph but we can see the red line here is the district average right so given the number of schools there would be a distribution but I actually maybe I'm a little too focused on the set of schools that I work with right so yeah I'm just wondering where the others fit into this piece too and then you know I look down here at the school that's got 23% in my question is and this will go back to your questions often about I'm a parent with a child and my child is in one of those schools at the the tail end how long how many years does my child stay in a school that's got that's only moving this needle only 23% before either the school says to me that this is not working we'll help you find another place because you know my my fear often for parents is that they trust the school they're in and if my child is sitting in your school and my child is getting A's I'm going to assume that a actually means something but then if my child moves to another school and I find that a actually was a c minus in this new school in the same district then we have not kept our contract and so the question is how do we you know I mean you've done a wonderful job of bringing all of your adults together I don't think we' often talk enough about teachers as being the critical piece I can give you great materials but you can't be the the reader and not the interactor ETC we know sort of what those things are where becomes our accountability to all of our kids to say you know we've got to find you of space in a place that's really going to give you that grade level peace and you know I know we're we we're keeping you know we we're doing all kinds of things to accommodate a lot of different needs but the bottom line is how are we accommodating the number one reason we're here to improve student outcomes if we don't take those bold chances to say we we're not going to allow a child to be in a program for more than a year if we not seeing the growth and we're going to be looking to move that child to a better place and how are we making sure we are creating those better places how are we holding the adults accountable to say we demand that we do the kind of work that you're doing in all of our schools you know that is what we're here for where do we get to make that demand so that we can actually see the change begin to happen and not be looking at this another year yeah it it is a matter of trust and we have to feel that urgency and it's more than urgent we've been saying this for 50 years it is urgent but yes but what what what's the Tipping Point change to say no more well I think the way in in the scope of the transformation office I'm asking ourselves and our school leaders a different question which is how can we immediately make sure that something changes in the classroom if it's a classroom where the growth is low something has to change right away I'm not in my mind not thinking about does the student go somewhere else I'm thinking how can we ensure that every classroom is functioning to match our vision of what BPS classrooms should be and the way we should be using the information whether it's attendance data climate data or literacy data this isn't more important than the safety survey or the sense of belonging survey those are very urgent for students also that they feel safe and they belong but when we see an indicator that's low our regional teams and our transformation office we need to be able to respond quickly to that to work with the school to figure out what to do and I I I know I'm a school reform minded person so but most districts have year-long Cycles in their Improvement planning some have multi-year Cycles it's unusual to have 90 days we may be the only District in the state that has that it's a lot of extra work for the schools to do that but it allows us to respond more quickly and if we we use the systems we have we should be able to do better than most systems what you're describing which is use our information to spot a concern and then work right away with the school to address it and that's what we have to do yeah yeah I don't I don't I think chair that it's a I mean it's a it's a great point and I think we certainly feel the sense of urgency I don't think there's been systems like this before in PS at the classroom level to really look at each classroom and understand and know what's happening and I think the regional Network and the support it brings and the office that Mike is the head of is it's uh it is an injection of resource for this very purpose so that we see fewer and fewer schools at the tail and more schools above the red line um and and we feel that emcy too right until like every one of them is up but that response team didn't exist before and I think that's something that has been created and we see it working just in the year-to year and just in the district performance overall we see that so we know that it's working we just need to get it to work as fast as possible yeah the comment that you made that um closing gaps doesn't happen until we're at a 50% do does everybody even understand that I mean that was literally the first time I've heard it put in that kind of way tonight that would say to me okay if I'm at 50 I believe I can begin to see myself closing gaps but if I'm at 23 you know terrifying I should be terrified and be urgent so you know and if our whole issue here is about closing gaps you know how are we helping people to just even to begin to see that and then think about what does this mean for what we're doing I'm going to stop and move it back to thank you oh okay um so I think another input of this is also looking at for those schools that we're we are seeing growth looking also at staff diversity uh among them because it's I think it's all the inputs that you named and it's also who's in front of the students and what type of representation that we see there for for Student Success that's the first thing second I think my questions are more for you as a as a new school leader um one what type of Support Network have you received not just from your own School Community but from other school leaders um in the district and then my second question to you is you're now in a position where you've seen growth at your school and we talk about transformation schools um but it's like one of those things not completely out of the water it's about sustaining that growth right so what do you foresee as still what are still challenges that you see at your in your school Community to sustain that growth I think um being like Boston born Dorchester rais and like a BPS student who's gone through the entire pipeline system I have benefited from what I would call my own personal executive cabinet of like former principles who used to work in the system that I could call on I also did like Lynch Leadership Academy which was super helpful that kind of gave me the strategy on like when you walk into a school building the first thing you actually need to do is like take a step back assess and build like strong relationships and then I think what's also helpful because this is like hard work is um the regional support model I don't think we touched on that much like I have an equitable literacy coach I have an attendance coach I have a um he I mean for the regional support Mark I feel like we have a coach for everything which I think is is just helpful because really good school leaders know that you can't know everything right and so I'm able to like lean on that support and go into classrooms whether it's a K2 classroom or a sixth grade classroom and say like am I looking at the right things am I making the right pushes you know my superintend my assistant superintendent Mary Driscoll who's here is in my building we're having those conversations she's picking up her phone and I think that is the type of support and like coaching as a new school leader that you need to be able to thrive in any building um and you know a lot of my friends who has con gone through you know similar systems and you know they talk about the same thing this idea of like the regional support model model is helpful when folks are effective you know our our hiring liaison that we have that's helping me push people through that's answering questions when it comes to evaluations calling on you know Mark to say like hey am I writing these up the right way um am I looking for the right things for me that it's just and it's an incredible Network to have I'm also a doctoral student at upen and I recently defended and so I get to sit in the classroom with School leaders nationally and everyone doesn't have a regional support model and I'm like oh I'm grateful you know I'm a grateful School leader and I'm really reflective and I'm like Oh I'm great that I have a roller de of people that I can call anytime and can be super responsive um and so I try to take advantage of that all the time when I need help and you know just how I was raised is like oh if you need help you better ask so I try to um you know lean on my executive cabinet when crisis happened and I try to lean on to people you know at the central office level and the relationships of um the principles at the district level too I think as a you know as a black woman I think other black women feel really responsible for my leadership and I think that's the that's the you know I don't know the the thing I get to lean on the most um as well so they they they check on me they call on me they're like do you want me to pop up on your probable org and I'm like I think I got it um so I think that level support is there for me as a first year school leader um and then I think you asked another question what was your second question it was around being able to sustain the progress and sort of what challenges do you still see for your school Community um we talk about that all the time folks are like oh you did something really incredible in 90 days like how do you sustain that and I think my biggest thing is staying on brand and saying like we are staying the course right I inherited a school where 88 and I said like a mini HBCU right you walk in there's one white student two Asian everybody else is like black and brown um and so my biggest thing is just like we're staying the course we are putting high quality instructional materials in front of everyone we're having you know consistent coaching Cycles um you know we are doing things where we're honoring staffs or you know what I would say like we're um making sure like we're taking care of our staff we're building those relationships we're building moments within our school culture and climate where we're coming together we're shouting people out we're um you know celebrating key moments um as well so I just think you know my biggest thing is just stay in the course our qsp slightly shifts um because we want to see the consistency and I think that's the hardest part is like you come into a building like this and you're like there's so much that you can change and there's so much you can do and I'm like oh no what I really know is like if we do three things and we do those three things really really well then we'll be able to close the achievement gap for families we are clear on like when you come into the homes we're engaging our families we're engaging our students we're teaching our kids folks are you know live and magical in classrooms and we have a top tier which I invite you all to come see a PBIS system our school store has to be one of the best school stores that I have ever seen and our kids between our PBIS system and our town halls I mean they are jumping for joy I'm like oh we're the school that goes viral um because you can see the excitement in our kids and they believe every kid like oh yeah I'm at the greatest Elementary School in the city of Boston right and because we're trying to create that counter narrative um so for me it's just about like sustaining and staying the course and not shifting up every single thing that we do cuz new gimmicks come out or other schools are using new curriculum we're like no we're just going to do what we do um and we'll see oh Lord I'm obsessed with you but that's a whole like you you should come to my school I want to you gonna come okay we will schedule it I'm like I have so much respect for you Mike I was like oh your job is really hard I thought my job was hard as a first your school leader but you're doing fabulous if nobody told you you are you are great and your kids are lucky and I want to see it all in action I do I have a sort of broader question not about your school because I'm going to see it so then I'll have different questions I have a broader question for us because I do think we're getting the same question sort of being asked but there is no answer yet like if I'm leaving tonight sort of headline for me is we will support low performing schools in perpetuity with additional Resources with a 90day review cycle and like I love the analogy of like we are all if we all Row The Boat together we finish the race God Bless America but like at what point I think there actually has to be a policy like at what point do we offer someone a different boat like at what because I feel like if you surveyed this building real talk and you were like how many people sent their kid to the school with 23 percentile growth y'all know that that's not that's not what's Happening Here at because they're making different choices because they have enough information because they know the name of that school because they have enough information to make the choice like what is the policy that a school has been in turnaround or transformation how many and even with all the new system structures routines like is it five years is it six years is it 10 years is it 20 years is it two years we have to have we can't set up systems without an endpoint then we don't have a system like it's a system to what end so Mike it might be good to just talk a little bit about with the state what happens when a school is underperforming for many many several years I think you're asking good questions then we're asking ourselves the same questions and just to frame what's happened in Massachusetts 10 years ago there was a very aggressive intervention attitude of turnaround turn over 50% of the staff extend the school day invest lots and lots of money and I think they found that sometimes it worked really well and sometimes it actually was counterproductive and produced stigma negativity and no improvement in performance so AC the state changed their approach and nationally to be more supportive so right now schools are in different levels of support from the state and the schools in the highest comprehensive support do have more intensive oversight and some additional resources above all they receive a lot more visits and focus on the classroom level instruction and we believe that that is helping us to align rather than to just be fearful of a very dramatic um overturning of everything happening in a school but we need to show results um to to justify that more supportive approach if not the question you're asking is a good one the interventions used to be much more dramatic if we can't get results with more supportive interventions we would have to consider more dramatic interventions and I think that tension is one that we're thinking all of us are thinking about all the time and I think it's important to name it I don't think the answer to which one is better is completely clear no we're probably completely align that the only thing that is better is great outcomes for kids and giving families high quality options I I'm just I'll keep saying it and I will I we're clearly not getting to a policy tonight but like it does matter for us to say publicly how long we're willing to see a insert number percentage of growth and how long and then what we do after that like something can't be on life support forever and then we will have schools who turn around and are like doing the work with great leadership and high quality instructional materials and all the stuff and things and like that is fantastic and we would be naive to think that that will be true across the board as we saw with turnaround schools nationally right that would you know Massachusetts wasn't the only place who did had that some were really uccessful some weren't not every intervention works but at some point it's about adults the intervention is about adults and not kids when you're just letting it go on for decades and I would like to be a body that gets to a place where we say this is a process we commit to for X number of years and after that time we have to make a very different decision for kids like that's the work I just I'm like I feel like we're missing the mark and maybe at the end of the year that's the conversation we're having that's more clear particularly as we're going into more difficult conversations about mergers and consolidations but like we need that policy and then real talk on community engagement people need to know that policy because what's gonna H what's about to happen if it's like we'll see we're going to like feel it out we're just going to be in a situation where people are like you're closing my school and you didn't and I don't know why and it's like no if we said publicly we do this after 5 years this is what happens if you don't move up to a 35% grow growth percentile like it's no longer a viable option that's a much clearer thing for people to wrap their heads around and like we just don't say anything we're sort of just like and like I'm I'm down to like celebrate superstars in the work like I see you and I'm also like my eyes can't move past 23 percentile because I know what that means I know what that means for a school to prison pipeline I know what that means for economic and health opportunities like this isn't just like let's be cute for 10 years and like support as much as we can and throw money at it like those are kids and like to not be more aggressive about a policy for me feels like it is like it's it feels like we are not doing the thing we are supposed to be doing here at nine o'clock at night so that's just that's me I think the last question I have I know you won't have the data this evening but I do think it will be important as we talk about enrollment is to also understand the um enrollment around the school so how many are plac over the counter um or administratively paced and um the percent of students who are submitting applications outside and I really do hope by the end of this year we have a clearer policy around what happens I am so thankful for your work like everyone in the community is better because of it and at the same time it's always student outcomes for me thank you so um Mr Kat Hernandez I'm just thinking through what you're saying and I hear you let me try and analogy and see if it works like we as a board hire the superintendent and we evaluate the superintendent so we set up goals right for the B the board and we set up goals for the superintend or we agree on goals with the superintendent and then we evaluate the superintendent and if at certain point year after year after year the goals aren't being met we're going to make a change and I think if if I hear you right to me it's almost like us saying to the superintendent what is your evalu ation process on these schools and at what point do you say the goals for these schools aren't going to be met and so what is your action plan on it is it is that kind of what you because I don't quite see it's us setting a policy at 30% whatever but hearing from the superintendent like what's your plan on this I think it could be either or I think it's all connected there's like the what's your plan and then there's also we vote on a budget that supports these schools at a higher level and that means there is a kid somewhere else who's not getting the that money and so when you have a tranch of 39 schools that are requiring s and deserving because those kids deserve it but getting additional resources and we are not having a conversation of how long that type of resourcing persists as part of a budget like it's all connected and so like it could be as simple as this is a you are in transformation for 5 years with X percentage of growth that is a real policy that's like a real thing that we believe in or it's tied to the superintendence evaluation but like you and I both know like real talk like what that the real the thing that's going to actually move the needle is like we publicly say a school is in transformation for X number of years and these are the measures that they meet I don't know what that is that's for the superintendent to tell us but like then we make hard decisions CU if not we're just talking about the same schools over and over again and being like we'll give more money and that's great and like patting ourselves on the back because there was like a 8% growth and that's still 33% and like yeah you know it's a little bit of what I was getting at before like at what point do you say okay the curriculum you chosen isn't working or the school leadership or the professional development of something and what are you going to sexy part of it and at what point do we close a school yeah and say like this is not no longer working Mike um can you just uh look at the slide that shows the district median for growth on the map for the uh non- high schools or the high schools uh for all I think it's on two different uh slides this is the non- high schools yeah so what approximately is that 41 is the district average for non- high schools so if the district average is 41 I guess this is a k to2 average we have itself 41 is the um K to 12 average so if the district were 41 then that means 60% of the schools are actually below where they need to be so when we look at our 119 schools it would not be feasible uh even if we had X number of schools have been in transformation for four years to have enough seats to transfer the students until we bring the district average up using the systemic strategies that you guys are doing I mean that's my read I think uh I think we have to recognize that BPS has been in the lowest performing 10% and it times the lowest performing 5% well before this committee decades we couldn't transfer our way out of this we have to raise the boat of the entire District before we have enough seats that we could actually offer to be able to say we're moving a student from this school to a higher without having a domino every year we do need to have in and I don't think it's the way that it's been in the state with kind of the punitive turnaround because to Mike's Point that hasn't resulted in anything and actually the community comes out and says don't take my school I love my school I know it needs work but I love my teachers I love my community it's safe it's where I want my kids to be so any policy we set or any policy procedures that I set has to take into consideration that it academics drives but it isn't the sole factor for what parents look at when they are looking at our schools but this you know we learned this with the high schools a decade ago if we close schools based on just performance we close five schools another five just tip because we haven't like dug in to figure out inclusive education so we have schools that have tons of like substantially separate programs and it tips the school and then that school becomes the 23 so then we dismantle it take all the substeps move them out to the rest of the schools and then the next school that we just put two programs in tips we have to work deep and Broad at the same time but also to recognize we got here and it's not going to get fixed in one year or two years we can't make a policy that pretends that with one thing we're going to all of a sudden give parents a better choice we have to make sure that in every classroom we go into in every school using the regional sup model that it is a better experience than it was yesterday for our students and in that way we have to work to change broadly at the same time we are working deeply with the work that Mike's doing so I just offer that to think about uh I'm always open for suggestions if we want to talk more about what could be something about our own classification when a school has had you know more than three years of subpar performance but these are all things we're already doing like for instance we don't wait for a school to get to the 10 percentile we now look at the 11th to the 15th and we say that those schools need intervention and then we look at the 15 to 20th s s and say good schools need intervention because we don't want any school to start going in the wrong direction those are systems that never existed we are not in the bottom tip percentile of the state any longer and that's because in the past couple of years the Deep work that these teams have been doing and the systems that we've been setting up is raising the boat at the same time that we're going deep in these that 23 or that 27 you know or any of them so I just think we have to be in the context of what is happened here in BPS and the history of it and recognize this is going to take some time but rather than move kids around let's work in each School giving it the resources and as deeply as possible to get all schools to come up so that next time Mike shows that that red line isn't 4 one because that's not all Mike's transformation schools that's the rest of the district that line needs to be 50 or above right that's what we got to kind of focus on and that it happy to continue to have the conversation is always we feel this urgency I think every member of the team feels it and I know I did that's why I came back but we we do need to understand where Boston's coming where BPS is coming from in order to understand where it's got to go to in it so so Madam chair may I continue thank you so um very helpful thank you and really appreciate that analogy of the necessity of being brought in deep as well and I think the point I was trying to make is um I think it's helpful for us to understand how you think about making change and when you think about making change and you know it's comforting to to us to hear your thought process on that not certainly not for me to dictate it so to speak I do want to move on to as i' said I had a question about chronic absentee is on the the other piece that we talked about today and um I was reflecting on I've been reflected on this issue a lot and it reminded me of the analogy of a number of years ago the Private Industry Council did a great study with nor Eastern University about the cost to students of dropping out right and it became quoted endlessly about you live a decade less which U Manny Allen at the Credit Recovery Center will tell me when you're 19 years old you could kill less about living a decade Less in your 70s because you don't think you're going to make it to 21 Manny taught me that lesson um but make a million dollars less and that caught students ears right and I was thinking about how we transform that to having people understand what it means to you if you're going to be chronically absent we all get letters from our energy companies that says here's your energy consumption here's how you compare to your average neighbor here's how you compare to your most efficient neighbor and we also go oh I want to get to that level right I want to save money and I was with a couple of school leaders last week who interestingly both had gone into lockdowns or safe modes um so they were spending the next day calling every family that hadn't arrived but that hadn't come in and they were hearing different stories they were nervous they hadn't had the right information that type of thing and we started talking about the students who were chronically absent and what their academic performance has been over the years versus the students who do attend and what their projected academic performance is right we know chronic absenteeism from a ponon report a few years ago is one of the early indicators of being a future Dropout and all the other things Mr Kar hernandz just mentioned right and so when we dig in on chronic absenteeism do we have the data that we can share with parents that says your students projected growth is this if they keep missing class they're going to be missing out and here's their projected academic growth which is going to be less do we have that data could we get that data do we think that data would be worthwhile yes so I think this is a great point we with with the win the day the goal is to connect with the parent and the student and educate about where they are and the the impact that The Chronic absenteeism is having on them academically but it's also to help understand better why they're not coming yeah that's right like that that's kind of the key because you what we've learned from visits is you can't we can't go which feels like almost like a blame thing like your kids's not in school and so therefore da d d da immediately shut down we need to start a say we need to go and I'm sure Leanne does this in her conversations but like you make the connection with the parent and say we' noticed right like John's not coming to school what do we think is H you know what's happening like what can we do what can we provide for support now all of a sudden you're on the same team and so and then once you make that bridge then parents are receptive to hearing right what does this mean well I didn't you know sometimes we hear parents say I didn't realize he was out 18 days and we're like yeah actually yeah it is 18 days or 20 days so sometimes the parents like oh I understand like yeah he's not going to be out anymore you know or sometimes um well I know he was a good student he was but now that he's become absent looks look at kind of what's Happening like he's really smart but he can't stay like with the curriculum because he's in and out now all of a sudden the parents with you as kind of like a a way and this is what our attendance um what our attendance folks do this is uh what our family liaison do this is what sometimes our social workers do and there's a power in that conversation so that's the win the day it's the idea that we're tapping in incentivizing with kids but also making connection with the parents and I agree and the stories are completely different right about what the impact is high school it's they could be working they could be caring for siblings younger ages you hear particularly in the Early Learning Centers where parents say oh well you know Friday the the the little ones tired and you know Friday they don't need to be there and that type of thing I one of the places we see the highest absenteeism at the high school level is 12th grade yeah see that's the thing right yeah I mean there's a number of reasons but I think it's also I think to your point and what you said it's also to some degree not calling out but calling in individuals on it and and being very intentional about disarming and I mean if you know if you're coming to me and say like my child is out there's almost immediately a judgment on the parenting yeah exactly like because that's I guess as a parent that's how you would feel and so being able to do that in a way that disarms that to say like I'm not saying that you're a bad parent I'm not saying that you're not doing any I what I am saying is that your students your child's presence here is valuable and we need that and we need your support in doing that and so yeah so you're so I'm trying to bring it home to the pick analogy right where it became real for a lot of people when they saw the impact of dropping out I think it it would be interesting to see the academic performance of students with regular attendance versus academic performance of students who are chronically absent and how that Gap happens over the years and that becomes an additional tool to share with parents of here's the repercussions type thing so I just throw that out I think that's I think that's right and I think um I think we can also do one of the things we did at the beginning which was led to the chronic absenteeism actually being the indicator is we overlaid the academic data aggregately with the absenteeism and that's it popped right it was like very clear um that's like something we can do and and give like halfway through the year and then at the end of the year um for for for sure I think you know this is the one of the biggest issues nationally Statewide and us that we just we have to continue to to work on and and I love the win the day approach and look forward to the learnings from region a and it's just the more ideas we can come up with the better because this is such a critical issue yeah students can't learn if they're not in the classroom yeah the other thing I will say is we're also seeing kind of like what which I think is extremely positive uh from a dropout rate standpoint uh we're seeing a big bump in students that are still engaged in what we call the five-year graduation or the uh extended engagement those are students who would have previously dropped out but because we're offering so much support and different kind of opportunity they're staying in the pipeline and they're going to graduate so it's it's not an insignificant factor for us uh because otherwise our Dropout could have just gone through the roof as it did in a lot of districts because of the pandemic but I think like in general like um you know we'll be able to report out on all of that the actual numbers but um trend-wise that's one of the things I see thank you thank you madam I just wanted to say thank you so much for having me I have to go be at school in the morning thank you I want to say thank you so [Music] much we're gonna wrap this conversation up because I think we could go on all night thank you both um for all three of you actually for what you brought tonight and um the exciting work you're doing and I feel like as our friend leaves you know we say particularly all the time student outcomes won't change until adult behaviors do and tonight we've seen an example several examples of what it can what can happen for our students when actually adult behaviors do look forward to your contined work and thank you thanks thank you so much um we're going to return to public comment M Parx no public comment thank you um new business just one thing um I I knew I know we said we were going to revisit the idea of uh working groups at some point um do we have a update on that or just is that going to be at our next meeting or uh I think we can bring it up at the next meeting we'll organize something around it I think one of the recommendations was finance and facility as a area that would be worthy kind of drilling down to I mentioned this to you chair but I want to bring it up as a new business and then figure out how what we do with it um I want we are often talking about like it's on the calendar it's coming up at the next meeting and I want to have a visual of where what is happening meeting to meeting and I it would be helpful if we were able to see what is like a mandatory um report or update that we have to get I'm a guy who likes things colorcoded so let's say that's in blue and then separately sort of what do we just have on that's like sort of historical I think sometimes we're just doing updates because it's just the way we've done updates and then I think there is a moment for us to talk about what we want to see more or less of and what's not there but I think that would be really helpful for us because even like the meeting started today right and was like oh that we'll talk about that next week and it's like help would be helpful to know um and then I'm just echoing what Dr Alin said about the the [Music] subcommittees thank you thank you yeah and the other thing I just would like to encourage all members to do is to really take advantage of both the weekly meetings with the staff be it Megan or with the superintendent in our bi-weekly meetings too because there is so much that goes on in between meetings to catch up people with so can do home visit pardon me can they do home visit home visits are not in the contract gotta I have to email Patty to do some school visits so that's another opportunity to so yeah we'll send you an update of um responsibilities and what else you can great do but thank you all okay so that concludes our business for this evening the next hybrid school committee meeting will take place in person on Wednesday April 24th at 6:m right here at the bowling building is there a motion to end this meeting some thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the emotion by unanimous consent hearing none this meeting is adjourned thank you all and have a good night thank you thank you good night good night