the recording right now and you're on Bill thank you welcome I'd like to call the uh this meeting to order we'll need a roll call vote to do it uh Cliff spatcher here Heather catulus here Jane Oaks here John iringer here Wendy Thompson here and I believe and myself William Tom I'm here thank you all lar Lee Adams just joined us as well she did Laura Lee are you here yes thank you per uh We've called the meeting to order former Governor Baker's order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General Law chapter 30A section 20 the public will not be allowed to physically access this school committee meeting members of the public can access the meeting via moniku community television broadcast the extension of the emergency open meeting law Provisions were signed into laws chapter 20 section 20 of the acts of 2021 the school committee reserves the right to implement additional remote participation procedures and will notify the public of these procedures as it is practical to do the op the option for public bodies to hold meetings remotely until March 31st of 2025 has been signed into law by Governor Healey as chapter two of the acts of 2023 and with that I like to note that there is a link on our agenda if you can get there to partici to observe this meeting uh I'd like to welcome to visitors and this is an opportunity for public participation our policy B first example at the start of each Reg regly scheduled school committee meeting individuals or group Representatives will be invited to address the committee the length of the public participation segment shall be determined by the chairperson and previously I believe we have set that at 15 minutes is our expectation certainly if there are more people to talk um it would probably be ex extended given that each person presenting uh should try to limit their time to three minutes and with that John I think we have uh several people that want to speak You're muted John yeah yeah there was several people and I think Joseph cats was on the list is that my key to uh start my video no we can fine okay great great so sorry I need to use my phone my computer's acting wonky so appreciate you all being patient okay so thank you for the form to speak today will be my last comments as a unit a union member because I'm leaving the district at the end of this week I however remain a resident of Turner Falls and look forward to continuing to work together being able to connect with you all over this last year has felt um collaborative as we've worked together and I think really accomplished something special by ratifying Unit A and Unit C contracts in these means I've noticed we often talk about the state of K through 12 public education across Massachusetts and it's true that many districts are struggling to hire or retain staff what is also true is that many districts are conducting exit interviews to try to find Solutions I do do not know why our central office is not prioritizing exit interviews in our district to help find solutions to our staffing challenges but I figure I have this opportunity so I'll take it to share with you all why I am leaving our district working with my colleagues students and their families at Great Falls Middle School and Turners Falls High School particularly in our substantially separate therapeutic and life skills programs has been incredibly rewarding for me my leaving the district really has little if not nothing to do with my work day-to-day in Great Falls Middle School and turnis Falls High School the primary reason for me leaving this district is feeling consistently undervalued and disrespected by our central office one example of this is my experience trying to address my salary uh with our central office in June 2023 I submitted a horizontal salary move request um through our District's official paperwork for a salary Lane change this move was approved by our central office through email on June 9th my current salary step has me at 63 or just over $63,000 632 $39 to be exact the approved salary move uh requests would increase my annual salary by somewhere between 925 and $2,700 I do not know which specific step I was moved to because after approving my horizontal salary move on June 9th uh central office stopped responding to my emails I understand that circumstances can change I do not understand why our central office um was unable to communicate to me what had changed on their and for over seven months the lack of communication left me feeling confused and disrespected by our central office pushing me to seek out alternative employment once offered a new position I tried following up with central office again emphasizing I would prefer to stay employed in our district but we need to resolve my approved horizontal salary move from June 9th till this day I still do not know what happened within our central office between June 9th's approval and my decision on February 1st to leave our district this is one example where I felt undervalued and disrespected by our central office between my personal experiences plus those of my colleagues and families in our district there are more examples we could share of feeling undervalued and disrespected and some of our interactions or really lack of interaction with our central office leadership I think back to our December 12th school committee uh meeting where we approved a pay increase of around $2,000 beyond what was budgeted for our district Treasurer I wondered then why our district Treasurer uh not only justifies a significant annual salary increase beyond what was budgeted for or what previous District employees received but also why this was being prioritized and voted on immediately and now I compare this to my experience of central office regarding my horizontal salary move I wonder what's different between me and my colleagues versus the new District Treasurer my perspective perspective shared by many of my Su to be former colleagues is that our central office leadership values and respects the work of a part-time District Treasurer much more than the daily work done by dedicated staff across our schools this is a p pervasive perspective at Great Falls Middle School and Turners Falls High School thank you and I look forward to working together going forward thank you for your time uh Jana should be next I think hi I just want to make sure you can hear me okay yes thank you so good evening my name is Jana Hall and I teach first grade at gil Elementary School this is my sixth year working in our school district I'm speaking today to advocate for the reinstallment of first grade instructional assistance as staff positions because although the overall budget was voted on at the last meeting it seemed clear that there was still some flexibility in terms of moving things around in the Lines within that budget I appreciate that you all shared a hum first approach to handling the incredible challenge of having to cut a budget so significantly I know you were faced with some really hard decisions there however I'm also concerned about how these decisions were made regarding the involvement of direct stakeholders or lack of involvement of direct stakeholders accuracy of information and Equity among schools it seems that one of the greatest factors playing into the decision of cutting first grade instructional assistance was that we're expecting smaller class sizes in first grade next year at both schools yet I'm getting new students added to my roster for next year all the time um our kindergarten open house tonight was booming and we found out about more tonight um and aside from that I feel that numbers don't tell the whole picture um that they're not comparable to the student needs another Factor stated at the last meeting was that there are five onetoone instructional assistants moving up from kindergarten to first grade but I would like to point out that that is only in Hillcrest and that that would still mean one adult in a first grade classroom at gil it was also stated that two first grade IA positions are currently unfilled which is not true it is more how the people were hired and how um their position is designated on paperwork but um I want to make sure that you know we did hire a first grade instructional assistant at gil and um it has been incredible having that additional layer of support even if um that person was labeled a special education instructional assistant on their paperwork if as a direct stakeholder I were asked to share why instructional assistants are so important at this developmental stage here are some of the things I would have wanted to highlight um in the most recent budget presentation you shared that one of our wins right now the good news is that we have quality tier one and tier two in um support for students at the academic social emotional and behavioral levels and I just want to make sure that you know that classroom instructional assistance Have Been instrumental to that high level of quality support that quality di diminishes significantly without those Human Resources even preo it usually took at least half a year for first grade students to be able to work with a level of Independence in small groups Partners or individually allowing teachers to take other small groups and individuals to a small table to Target their needs now we've seen a huge dip in Readiness for independent work in this age group we're observing not just a decrease in executive functioning skills required for independent tasks but also greater challenges with communication and social emotional regulation when things go wrong when students need help they're not always able to ask for it appropriately and many students are still developing foundational skills in identifying and managing their emotions how does this look in the classro I'll tell you but I also really encourage you to come and visit our schools and see it for yourselves before making these high impact decisions students have daily meltdowns over what we might call Little deals an adult's full attention could literally be taken up by spilled milk not to mention needing a Band-Aid getting frustrated by a writing task or having a problem sharing with a friend with one adult in the room these is incidents deter from whole group instruction and they make small group instruction next to Impossible being able to work with small groups throughout the day is how we differentiate and Target needs and it's also how we've been able to make tiers not locations but levels of support that can be provided in the classroom not just by a specific specialized teacher in a different room by leaving a classroom teacher alone to manage such such a diverse and widespread range of needs we're asking for failure the likely resulting scenario is that the teacher will have to work with the students with the highest needs in the moment to the detriment of the rest of the class and students in the class will observe that the loudest most disruptive behaviors get the attention and support which is not the example we want to be modeling first grade is a huge area of growth or a huge year for growth in every area Decades of research and practice have shown the benefits of early prevention and intervention with the appropriate levels of support and we've seen that here with instructional assistance the last couple of years and we have the data to back it up I worry for these students when we take away their support during such a critical year for building foundational skills I worry for the teachers who will undoubtedly be burnt out trying to work miracles on their own some of whom are already on the lookout for jobs in districts that better support their human resources and I worry for this District because it seems that at this pivotal moment we have the potential to create future problems like losing integral faculty members are creating a bubble of students that will just need increased support down the line including special Education Services to catch up when we could have prevented falling behind in the first place thank you thank you for your time and I think Ramona is on the speakers list hello can you all hear me yes wonderful um um hello again school committee members thank you for allowing the opportunity for public comment my name is Ramona Electronica and as you know I'm the elementary librarian here in Gil monu um before I begin tonight I just wanted to acknowledge that we are remote again tonight after a few weeks of in-person meetings I know that that is been signed into law by um Governor Mora hey until March of 2025 however I did want to acknowledge that one of our district goals for teachers and staff and central office is inclusion and Equity quote educators commit to create creating an inclusive and Equitable School environment that provides relevant and accessible educational opportunities embody social justice practices and affirms all students cultures and identities end quote I feel that the remote platform is not Equitable compared to our in-person meetings given that not all our families have access to the necessary equipment or internet at home I feel it's important to bring this up and to urge you to prioritize inperson meetings I would like to continue this idea of equity and thinking about making sure all students get what they need to be successful and share a little bit about the immense importance of a fully staffed school as well as preserving and advocating for low student to staff ratios at the last school committee meeting the fiscal year 25 budget was voted in along with cuts that primarily affect the elementary schools in our district as Educators we know that additional supports are only beneficial for students especially at the primary level and early childhood level this allows students to access all they need to be successful this allows students to build a strong Foundation to both AC both academically and emotionally this allows students to be better set up for Success when transitioning to the secondary level or facing new academic and social emotional challenges when those supports when those Staffing positions are taken away the people that suffer are our students two of the cuts made that will impact our students learning next year include no grade one pair of professionals at Hillcrest and Gil and the loss of one classroom at Sheffield these positions take away taking these positions away increases our student staff to ratio student to staff ratios I know there was discussion that combining classes would only create classes of 20 to 202 students and that was something we could definitely do however I'm here to ask the question should we yes this is technically something we can do we can technically combine three classes into two we can technically have a classroom without a pair professional but this will not support our students because our students are not a number on a chart when you increase a class from 14 to 21 kids you increase it by seven that's seven more students students that need and deserve undivided attention that's seven more students that need and deserve differentiated work that's seven more students who make bringing challenges or trauma with them that's seven more students that deserve the very best one of the best things we can do is preserve and advocate for smaller class sizes and a lower student to staff ratio so when budgets and school funding is discussed we should be fighting for what our students deserve advocating for what they deserve we should not be asking about what we can cut and I again invite you all to come into our schools and see our students ask questions see firsthand what they need and what they deserve please feel free to reach out to me and I will send you my schedule and I would love to have you into my library to meet all of my students thank you thank you for your attention to this matter and I think that's it for speakers uh we have Jana Hall she wrote us a a letter does she want to speak or no Jana already spoke but I believe there was sorry she did speak I believe Jessica Fox had emailed to speak oh okay uh that could um John actually can I interrupt for one second I I just I know we're not supposed to respond but I i' I'm on Facebook regularly addressing this we have a standing um item on our agenda every week about meeting in person or remote we are down a seat right now we are down people who are that is why our chair is not here right now we all prefer to meet in person please do not accuse us of being inequitable we are doing the best we can to work with what little we have it is either show up online or not show up at all and we have too much work to do to not show up I'm sorry I just couldn't let it go again no thank you heather I was going to address it but I appreciate your stepping in front of me we certainly do intend every every other week to be in person and tonight happened to be a special occasion which was only come to for yesterday so nothing we uh we appreciate the concern and we look forward to always being available that's the primary goal I'm sorry John you were about to say uh yeah hold on uh let me get Zoom again here hold on uh oh yeah I yeah there was another letter I I I'm just trying to look at my email in the screen at the same time to see uh what other speakers me too and I can't remember one from the next so I'm I apologize for that yeah so I know there were letters that we uh received from uh two people um doctor and Amanda yeah and did everyone get those I forwarded them to the school committee members so I believe they did so we're good is there anything else then in public uh presentation I'm sorry pardon me I I my name is Jessica Fox I had emailed to speak as well I'm sorry I'm sorry that's okay no it's a lot to manage uh thank you good evening U my name name is Jessica Fox and um I've lived the vast majority of my life as a resident of montue and I'm actually alumni of our district I did spend a few years in Boston while earning my Bachelor's of Science and human development from weot college and I have my Master's in early childhood education um from American International College in Springfield um I worked for two years at a head start preschool prior to accepting a kindergarten position at Hill Crest that I've now held for 15 years but my most important role um is that of mom to Liam who will be in fifth grade next year and Wes who will be in second grade both at Sheffield um and I wanted to speak tonight because I'm concerned as yes an educator in our district but really truly as a mother that the importance our district has really always placed on class sized um is is being diminished um it has always really been a very big top priority so much so that I was hired mid year um because our kindergarten classes were getting so big over 20 they hired me they gave me a few from each class and we began a new class um I've noticed a trend every four to five years we have this bubble class and we've always addressed it to keep class sizes manageable the first time that we haven't done that was actually the um fully back um after covid um what I and many of my colleagues have noticed uh in the classroom over the years is how the Dynamics Dynamics have changed and the amount of needs that we're now it used to be a few decades ago that maybe a third of your class was high needs and we've watched those needs increase year after year to where now that ratio has almost seemed to switch and I wondered if our sort of antidotal observation indeed was true so I L looked it up and did some research and I just want to share some things I found um according to the CDC in the year 27 and 1,000 children um were diagnosed with ASD uh fast forward to 2020 it was then 20 eight and 1,000 children were diagnosed with ASD the National Health interview survey reported that the prevailance of ADHD increased um from 4% to from 1997 to 2016 this one blows my mind 2third of American children exper experience a traumatic event by the age of 16 one in seven children experienced abuse and neglect in particular that trauma and that abuse and neglect the impact it has on those children and their ability to learn and how it shows up in our classroom is through really extreme behaviors that and I don't have the time to get into it but I would again recommend you know talking to teachers more about what that looks like and doing some research and reading about that if you're if you're unaware um and some of this increase can of course you know be the fact that we're better at identifying it a little bit and and diagnosing it and documenting it but not completely the fact remains that classrooms really all across America have substantially more challenges than they did just a few decades ago um and Studies have been done on class size too research has found that smaller classes increase the rate of learning for all students it has an even greater impact on our more disadvantaged populations though students that remain in classes of 13 to 17 far better um there students in classes over 20 they they begin to fall fall behind it is extremely challenging to provide a large class with all of the necessity necessary excuse me necessary accommodations and the amount of differentiation that needs to happen and as our classes grow so do the needs more often than not um it's also more difficult to build relationships with our students that we know are so intrical um as well as their families we know family engagement is a very important uh goal for our district and um you know we not have a class 20 or more for instance my my conference time goes from 20 minutes to 10 minutes I'm just less available and so class size is so truly important um and these are all things our district has always understood and I'm looking at the you know the budget cuts and I know it's a very difficult situation um but I'm just I'm afraid we're losing that understanding um I'm also concerned about where the vast majority of these cuts are happening if you remember a little earlier I said that um class size most impacts some of our most disadvantaged populations um and the the Cuts really are impacting those populations most within our district um both shefield and Hillcrest are Title One schools because they serve um they have the a lot of children living in poverty more so than than other schools um Sheffield Elementary School I looked up you can look up all of this data it's on desie there's information about the percentages of all the different populations within schools and Sheffield element M um is 73% high needs um so you know knowing that Equity inclusion and social justice are also important to our district the fact that we're thinking about having larger classes at Sheffield and losing those pair professionals at at Hillcrest um doesn't really seem to align well um with those two important goals so I know it's a tricky situation but I just want to humbly you know ask us to to think of what else we could to do what else we could possibly do to keep those things as as priorities for our most disadvantage students um and I guess I'll just leave you with this thought that I teach my kindergarten students every single year is that um fair or doesn't always look the same uh it's not always equal and that our students um that are most disadvantaged sometimes need more in order to do the same in order to reach those goals and those standards that we know that they're capable of at the the end of the day um I know members in the past have asked um you know why can't all of our schools have um great mcast scores and I hope that helps to answer some of that that question for you um I want to thank you for your for your time and I think that was the last speaker you're muted bill yeah I just saw that excuse me I meant to thank our previous speaker for her time and attention to what she was addressing which is certainly a concern of everyone on this committee we all hear everything that's been said and moving on at this time we have been 15 minutes or more so Brian are you going to uh present the important events coming up sure um as um one of the I think Jana had noted the Gil Elementary School kindergarten openhouse was held this evening Hillcrest Elementary kindergarten open house will be held on Thursday March 28th um there's a Scholastic book Fe fair being held each day this week during students Library time at Sheffield Elementary School where students can purchase books um but families are able to come on Friday March 29th from 3: to 400 p.m. and then again from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. to Sheffield Elementary School uh where the book fair Scholastic Book Fair will be open for families um there is a student showcase uh variety show at Turner Falls High School that will also include a cake and pie auction with all benefits to go to Ben uh to benefit the music program but a number of these students have gotten together almost like an old school talent show and that will be held on Friday March 29th at 700 p.m. in the Turner Falls High School theater next Wednesday April 3rd uh is an early release day for professional development and Friends of Hillcrest meet on Thursday April 4 from 5:30 to 6:45 PM thank you heather has uh perhaps another item or two to consider adding here yeah uh well this is where we do events for that school committee attended and I just wanted to let you know that Jane and I both attended the Community Foundation of Western massach Massachusetts um elected officials event for Franklin County this past week it was um a really wonderful informative meeting about how we can have potential collaboration um with other nonprofits in the area um we made some connections did some networking um and I look forward to learning more maybe having someone come in um to speak to our students and families in particular they had that in of particular interest they have a wonderful scholarship program where students from the county actually I think from most of Western Mass but particularly our County for us um they apply uh to the foundation and and they have access to a number of um scholarships but it they streamline it so you apply and then they sort of put you put the students in buckets and then let them know which ones they potentially qualify for which is really quite interesting um yeah so that was really great we look forward to more there and I did want to mention that um Wednesday evening I believe it's 7 6:30 at the Greenfield Library MC's division five meeting is going to be held um we'll be advocating for public talking about advocating for public schools um and I think the I can't remember his name Jay something he has to do with finances and Massachusetts and I think we're GNA talk a little bit about rural financing so hopefully more of us can attend on Wednesday Jane and I are planning to go oh wait that's tomorrow um and then also coming up is the day on the hill for 2024 where we where school committee members are invited to come speak with our legislators that is May 6th it starts at 9: it goes till two lunch is included you do need to register through the district um we are hopefully tomorrow at the meeting we are going to um find out if we can work together to get a van for other area school committees in the area to go down there to make it a little bit easier if not I can certainly bring a few people people in my car um yeah so May 6th masc probably sent you something on that but that's where you can find out more there um Brian's gonna talk about the musical um I went to three shows so I got to see a lot of kids perform it was amazing I'll let Brian give you the details uh sorry that was a lot but I think that covered it thank you well when I talk about it please add in your thoughts uh as well um it was it was super impressive um Heather I did not get together with Cena to see if she was going to be doing a report tonight I assumed that she may need the night off if we were in person but given that we're remote if she is home is she able to provide a report yep she's ready to go okay great hello all right I don't have a ton of stuff today we didn't have a meeting with our student council this week I think everyone's pretty busy uh but I have a couple of things that have been going on um as mentioned we had Chicago this weekend it was super fun pretty exhausting I was in it but it was so fun and we had such good crowds like so many community members showed up and it was a really positive energy for sure it's always a big mood booster in the school Community we also had a dodgeball tournament recently that I believe was ran by the sophomore class yep and and I didn't I was busy that night so I couldn't go but it looked like a lot of fun I saw some videos and the winning team got to take home a prize so that was pretty fun you know anything that brings the community together is always awesome we have a variety talent show coming up on Friday that it is Friday yeah Friday it's the six not this Friday right I don't know it's a Friday and I think he's talking about it he probably will um and it's gonna be awesome I can't wait to go there's a cake and pie auction oh he did talk about right and that money goes to benefit the music boosters again so fun we love talent shows at our school they're always the best and we'll probably have another one this year just for like the high school and it's going to be awesome we do that Unity day we have the theater Department going on another field trip to see The Lion King over April Break um back to New York City super cool can't wait for that I think I might be going last minute attendance but it'll be awesome again we've just gotten so many great opportunities this year in the music and theater world it's been fantastic and then the senior class some of the senior class is going on their senior trip also over April break they're going to Florida and they're going to be what's in Flor is it Disney World yeah Disney World and there's like graduation night where it's only um class of 20124 students allowed in the park for a certain time so it's pretty cool and I know lots of people are excited about that but that's all I really have today not a time we didn't have a meeting so thank you for your energized report we appreciate it thank you thank you Cena and um I I had no idea that you had such a a great voice you you uh the the entire cast crew the stage crew um it was remarkable it was one of the more um one of the more outstanding high school productions that I've ever seen it was uh it was quite Dynamic thank you so much we put a lot of work into it so really appreciate it yeah we could tell um so congratulations to the high school uh theater advisers Kimberly Rose and Jessica vula Curtis who an amazing production of the Musical Chicago this past weekend um the student performances were amazing and the set and stage crew did an incred incredible job of pulling together what was a really complex and dynamic performance each night thank you to all the staff student and family volunteers who worked hard to support these performances and ticket sales raised almost $ 9,000 for the theater program which is great especially considering that we did have uh a little weather impact on attendance in particular on Saturday with that um snowy slushy storm but congratulations to everybody it was a remarkable production Brian well do you mind if I interrupt on that just to add a little more it really was that like Cena said the kids put in so much work um what was really special and so they do this every year but um this Sunday was the last show and they do a little celebration of the seniors which is outstanding the kids are amazing they've gone all so many of them have participated since sixth grade to see their growth if you attend the shows regularly is quite astounding but was was really most striking and notable was just the how obvious it is that Kimberly Rose and um Jessica vula Curtis and Paul wansa and all the other people who support these kids in this program just how they care so fully about these kids what they get them to do there's so many kids who I know who are stepping outside of their comfort zone and really giving it their all um they've grown this program just so incredibly I it it was just it was Perfection it was just really really wonderful to see the the connection to the kids as well as what we get out of the kids yeah I have to agree with that it's definitely one of the things that makes our school special and unique like each senior like got to go up and they had like a little speech about them and it was just beautiful especially like shout out to Kimberly Rose like she's done such an amazing job just creating this supportive Community where students who have never done anything musical or performance wise in their whole life feel comfortable to step forward and do this really challenging thing and it's incredible and she forms such deep connections to students and we have a lot of teachers who do that and it's just such an amazing thing at our school and really makes Turners Falls Turners Falls I think and we got to love it sorry for hijacking thanks that's okay thank you I appreciate that um we also uh last week had a very successful um district elementary mathematics night uh we were pleased to be joined by dozens of Elementary families from around the district who joined us last Thursday night for the math night special thanks to Jean Powers for her exceptional efforts in coordinating the event also to Elementary principls Sarah Burstein Carri heathway and Walter Houston as well as Dian Ellis for the significant support that they provided to Jean I would also like to thank the members of our Elementary faculty for leading a great variety of fun activities for the night thank you Al also to the parents and members of the community who volunteered their time to support this this event which I hope will remain an annual event and I wanted to say a a personal thank you to Nikki Henderson for uh sticking her hand out while I was in the gym and preventing me from getting hit in the face by a Stomp Rocket but the math night was incredible I did also want to acknowledge the work that's been done at gil Elementary School members of the staff recently attended the farm and SE to school conference as part of our farm to school initiative local farmer and parent sorl hatch along with faith Rand a Gil instructional assistant and a local farmer have been a huge help with bringing back the Gill Garden program and so we expect to see uh quite a bit more In Bloom outside of Gil ele school this coming spring uh just a reminder that there is an masc charting the course orientation offering for new school committee members on Saturday May 18th in Garder if you're interested please let Tara uh carthy know as soon as possible the school committee next meeting with students will be held on Friday April 5th at 9:10 a.m. in the school committee room at the high school it will be in person rather than remote this time um if you are interested or available to attend please email me and let me know and I will also send out a reminder email a few days in advance of that meeting in case uh somebody has forgotten and their schedule's opened up and that you're able to make it I did also want to take the the time to provide an update on the the search for a new director of uh pupil Services I wanted to thank um extend a heartfelt thank you to the 11 members of the school Community who participated on the search committee to replace Diane Ellis as the Director of P pupil Services through the two days of interviews five prospective candidates uh were interviewed and a third meeting to deliberate about potential finalists was held and the search committee selected Karina wislo who currently the director of student Support Services in Irving Union 28 and Matthew Holloway who is currently the director of pupil Personnel Services in the narraganset school district as finalists I will interview the two finalists with the central office team on Thursday March 28th with the intent of bringing candidates forward to the school committee for the meeting on April 9th to officially be appointed to the position but thank you again to all those who participated in the search process it was a great group they were very thoughtful and I'm very appreciative of the time effort and and thoughtful approach that they put into um that work Heather um I know we can't get into details but I did just want to say as the liais on um every single person was such a strong candidate it was actually a very difficult decision um and I just I guess I kind of feel lucky that we had the the group that we did and the people that we spoke to it was it was really it was really great it was really nice to see all the support we had for people wanting to be in our community and again I'm really appreciative of the time that people took to bring in their own questions for the that round of the search process because those are questions that we won't necessarily have to answer in the next round plus the qu the the candidates also acknowledged that they appreciated the fact that the questions were um Coming directly from the membership of the committee and not necessarily questions that were hand handed to them they got a a better feel for uh what the district and its variety of stakeholders are looking for in a new director of people services so thanks everybody and that's it for my report Bill thank you that then moving on business and operations report that's Joanne yes and Joanne's not here tonight um there are two items in the business items um that I can provide a little bit of information on at this time if that's okay Bill that's fine okay one of them is not a a voting um item but an informational item we received an enrollment projections report and I put that in attach that to the agenda just as information but it would be important to look at that in conjunction with um with uh this brief onepage report that Joanne had submitted um where she did a little bit more of an analysis and took a look at the um most recent report that we had Nest de do for enrollment projections which was back in 20 uh fy21 and she did uh she compared that it basically looks as though even though our birth rate has increased a bit slightly um that our enrollment is looking relatively flat for the next five years yes and above the projections of nesda and then the other item is a is a budget transfer um that comes up in the business items I very good anyone have any comments on any of that as the I I I I noticed that uh they it was a pretty interesting report like the birth year is given from the how many births are uh occur in the town for a given year as an aid for projecting enrollment in the future and and um yeah so uh um yeah oh okay I thought they ended at 2018 but I can see they they do they are making those birth projections for the future as well okay all right sorry thank you well that's okay thanks John anyone else that I can't see okay moving forward again school committee reports basically um we have warrants subcommittee approval or warrant approval we have two warrants FY 24 warrant number 3456 in the amount of $2,415 187 second warrant would be fiscal year 24 warrant number 3457 in the amount of $2,794 192 as us usual uh I would like to see a motion to combine these two if that's agreeable to everyone so that we can pass them so I'm sorry who Moved motion to approve the okay you have a second I'll second thank you John uh taking them both at once then I have to do a roll call vote uh Heather catulus yes uh first I should ask is there any discussion around either one of these and with that we'll take the vote thank you heather John iringer yes uh Wendy Thompson yes thank you Laura Lee Adams Clifford spatcher yes thank you and myself William Tom with that it passes um we have polic yes we're moving on to the policy subcommittee um Heather can you present this yep I think that let me just double check both yeah we will be voting on a couple on their third readings today um we met this past week but that information really isn't until it didn't make it for the agenda so we don't have much to say on that uh um yeah I don't think I have anything because they're in business so I think we're good we continue to plug for move ahead okay business addressing issues of Equity Brian who's going to address that Jean Jean has a a brief presentation on that topic good evening I'm going to go ahead and share here all right so I have a couple things to highlight tonight regarding issues of equity um the first is uh as I had shared previously we had done a districtwide book study um we do this every year and this year the focus was on trauma informed practices and how it connects to being culturally responsive in the classroom and so I just the book study is finished it was really successful we had about 30 staff members take part and uh we do a kind of a surve survey afterwards to get feedback and kind of what are you taking from this um so I just wanted to highlight a couple things you know what are what are some next steps that you are going to take you know looking at reflecting on the information putting some practice into action um mindfulness and meditation routines that was a big component of really understanding and and focusing in um looking at classroom energy and relationships again this is just a sample of some of the feedback and then what are two Chang you have one or two changes you've made in your practice again we really want to um not only just read and discuss but then act um so looking at being more mindful of students and their situations um also understanding the physical environment and how that environment could impact students uh I think this is great this one of the strategies was two minutes per day right so connect with a student two minutes per day and this teacher you know has 80 students but can connect for 2 minutes and get through connecting with all students over time um another example is looking for feedback so really asking students about the space you know a teacher may think that a physical space suits the students but getting their feedback is important um and then just looking at providing some growth oriented feedback for students um so overall is a very positive and successful book study and I appreciate all the facilitators who stood who stepped up to lead the groups um so that we could have groups that fit in teachers and staff's time frames um so we had them kind of sporadically throughout the week and they met for five weeks in a row the next is just an update oop sorry Heather did you have a question um I can I sorry for some reason I thought that was related um I can wait until the end okay um so we continue to meet as a group for the cultur responsive practices Leadership Academy we met today with our consultant and we're looking at defining what is culturally responsive look like we have a draft and um along with that looking at a framework to say as a district related to teaching and learning and school systems um family community engagement and um kind of district and state policies you know when we when we address things how are we looking at them through a culturally responsive blend so I'm hopeful um either the next or the following issues of equity I'll be able to present the draft of the work that the team has been doing it's been really great work really rich conversations um so I look forward to sharing more about that and then my last connection here um as Brian said we had math night um in the at at Sheffield you know huge shout out to our math interventionist who really took the lead on that work um we had a literacy night in Hillcrest um so we have one more night plan for Gil and you know I'm bringing this up because you know not only does Gil have a very small parking lot if you've been there at a Gil Elementary um but we have many families who don't have access or transportation and so we are offering bus transportation to this science night um so Elementary families uh you should be looking for some communication from your principls and their weekly memos um where you can sign up and Reserve spots um for our third and final science our you know curriculum night that we're offering and um you know last year we had the math night and we had all district um schools combined and that led into doing this this year with literacy Math and Science and so it's becoming a tradition in the district um so again just wanted to mention that and that's all I have for tonight I have two questions the first one is um should people assume that that's that there will be a shuttle bus or really it's a sign up and the bus trips are limited yes so it is sign up um we have a form for families to fill out so that one we know how many seats are being taken and two where they need to be picked up um we're doing kind of five different locations um in monteu um and so we also need to know how many buses we need so families will get um if they were at math night they got a little flyer that highlighted this where they could sign up um and principles are putting out communication to the elementary families well okay and secondly um can you describe if you're looking to Define culturally responsive efforts how do you then set up a framework for cultural responsib responsiveness if you haven't established what is culturally responsive yet so we have a working definition that we have kind of created and we've left it as like okay we've Wordsmith it to kind of what we feel is good but we're going to come back to it after we look at the framework to see if what we do in the framework really meets our definition um so we have a draft definition um it's really just about now like okay does that definition really meet what we're what we're implying as our framework so one leads into the other which then evolves to adjust the first exactly yes yes thank you you're welcome Heather thanks Jean um as far as the curriculum nights it's really great to see um the growth the it's great that they are one at each school now um I did a curriculum night believe it or not a MTH like when I way back went and I think three people showed up so I'm so happy that we're way way above that that's so great and the BS is such a great idea thank you um as far as the district book study um I know that one of our commenters was talking about some trauma education um and so was this open to any employee in the district only teachers also par professionals or instructional assistance yes it was open to anyone in the district um we had administrators we had teachers we had instructional assistants we actually had some interns students who are interns right now um at the high school they're uh school counselor interns um so yeah it was open to anyone who in the district who is interested and so i' say the majority of folks were teachers but there were in each group probably one instructional assistant or someone who's not necessarily A a classroom teacher great glad it was for all yeah thank you again thank you I think we're moving on to uh the student Opportunity Act plan and that requires a vote and um ran would you address it yeah Gan and I will um address this and I think Jean's going to share her screen again and so um the some of you may be familiar with the student Opportunity Act and I will say for our school district in terms of this year's budget um as Joanne had indicated in previous budget presentations the student opport the funding that we have from the student Opportunity Act for fy2 is relatively small and so it's it's just under $30,000 it's about $30 a student when you're in held harmless um but over the course of the next two years that this plan would also be guiding um those increases could or those that fund could increase for us from year to year or we could remain in held harmless a lot of it depends on the factors that go into the the process at the state level of identifying which districts are going to be getting more money than other districts and uh as some of you may know the student Opportunity Act was attached to changes in um the state formula for funding Regional and individual school districts requiring that school districts put together threeyear plans um where they identify data that reveals disparities in student learning opportunities and outcomes for student groups that we serve in the district and and we need to uh provide the state with a description of how we're going to utilize evidence-based approaches and strategies to address those disparities and it's a fairly long read this yes is for sure so we did link the full plan um but what we pulled out some highlights to go through in slides to make it a little bit more um condensed and concised um so part of the process is to look at data and determine kind of where are some gaps where are some disparities between subgroups and I'll talk a bit more about the specific data but section one of the plan asks you to summarize what you put together and So based on the data um we kind of found three areas that we want to continue to build and strengthen um over these next three years the first is the English as a second language curriculum and program to support the needs of our elll students uh continuing to invest in social emotional mental health needs of students um particularly looking at out of school suspension rates for and chronic absenteeism for some of the subgroups listed above and then continue to build the capacity of Educators to improve academic performance of students with disabilities so how did we get there um we started with looking at the data and so um desie provides a lot of data we had some in-house data as well and if you are looking at the actual plan um we break it down by the actual percentages and areas of of disparity based on these data tools so looking at mcast data providing that pre pandemic to post pandemic kind of comparison you know are schools recovering um you know or is there still a long way to go in the different um subcategories of the mcast testing looking at specifically last year's achievement and growth data um I've linked in here it's called the student Opportunity Act dashboard this is where a lot of the data came from it really looks at Point 22 and 2023 data and gives you some breakdowns specifically by subgroups um and so a lot of it came from there we also are provided a lowest performing subgroup um set of data where we would have students who fall in the fourth core tile of um being successful on mcast and then we use our continual observational data that principles provide and um you know feedback that we receive from staff on professional development and that's what led us to these critical areas so and thinking about what requires attention again I I didn't want to put all the numbers up here but it is in the report if you want to dig into the specific percentages but you know we want to have attention towards our consistent English language learner curriculum implementation we've had a huge focus on this this past year and last year but based on the numbers there is disparity of students who are meeting their expected percentage growth on access and access is a test um for English language Learners um the state then sets a goal and um for the next year and so we do have a number of students who seem to be plateauing and remaining in ESL Services longer than expected uh so again we've had a wonderful three-year Grant thanks to Diane Ellis um for social emotional mental health needs of students in which we've been able to get a lot of support and um bringing in curriculum and that is ending so we do need to focus on that um we've noticed that you know there tends to be some additional social emotional mental health needs and um if you do look at that dashboard there is a higher although the percentage is low for our district the percentage of um students that are suspended out of school with students with disabilities and low-income students is higher than um all students um as a group and so that's something that the state looks at as well and then low academic performance with students at disab abilities if you read the report there are lots of places where students with disabilities have made huge growth especially from 2019 2023 um but again looking at come some of the places we want to focus so the high percentage there's chronic absenteeism a high percentage of that for students with disabilities and that impacts their academic growth as well as some areas where mcast testing is showing um there's some additional need of supporting students so then okay we did that work we were to kind of make our analysis now what do we do um what's our plan and um as you know we have really invested in our ESL program over the past two years and looking at a new curriculum um we've also invested in a fourth ESL teacher to support across the district and really ensuring that we're making sure that what we're teaching is meeting the standards expected from weda which is kind of the national Consortium for English as a second language um which Massachusetts doesn't have their their own ESL standards they rely on the the weda standards um excuse me continue to focus on social emotional needs mental health um building in funding to support continuation of our newly adopted Elementary curriculum as well as trying to find support for our secondary building to implement um social emotional learning curriculum as well and then again continuing to build the capacity of our teachers to address modifications accommodations um we've done a lot of internal professional development around this um but we're looking to provide some you know bring in some experts from outside particularly maybe around Universal Design for Learning or other kind of how do we build you know scaffold instruction for students um in the classroom so that's kind of our here's our data this is what it's showing us now what do we plan to do about it and again these are kind of like threeyear goals and as Brian said if you look at the very end of the report it talks about like what money is going towards this so it's not just the funding from the student Opportunity Act because it's not a lot but it's also our district commitment to to these things and then briefly section three is basically an affirmation um desie sets threeyear targets for improving student achievement specifically for ELA and math and mcast um and it's targeted towards our lowest performing subgroups and we're basically saying yes our goals will help meet those um those goals that are set by those targets that are set by Desi so section four Brian and then as as you guys know for each of you who have been on the committee um in through the winter that we begin the budget development process uh in late November as we begin to get preliminary numbers from the state that um the business office is able to begin to build a shell of uh what the budget might look like and then we send out to principles um budget development sheets so that they can gather input from their faculties and staff um in a variety of ways in addition to that um school councils PTO and every Community event really provides us an opportunity to hear from and connect with families directly Community leaders are brought into the process at the the variety of public hearings that take place between between December and March and we do have a meeting with the select boards and finance commit um to specifically go through the budget with them after we have um provided the school committee a couple of opportunities for input um additional places where information is gathered in terms of um programming and Staffing as well as materials curriculum and professional development all also comes from Individual team meetings for students who might be on IEPs or 504 or otherwise being evaluated um as well as the data days and the information that's provided uh through the analysis of our teachers in the district helps to provide information on the needs of students across the district and our elpac and CPAC are also that's English learner parent advisory Council and special education parent advisory Council um the district needs to work at um really trying to inspire more participation and and holding meetings a bit more regularly so that we can hear from those groups you know while elpac has a really significant support of um AA as the Spanish family liaison one of the things that we do realize and we have added to the report is that we are also going to have to identify some potential resources for some of the other families that are moving into our district that that do not speak Spanish as a first language and so that's another challenge that we have to take a look at going forward is we had added 22 um English Learners to our enrollment just during this school year so the last the last part um of the plan ask to say okay based on what desie identifies as evidence-based programs what are the areas you're going to focus on to address those disparities so those kind of goals that we set and I talked about earlier um so again these are just just looking at the focus areas identified by Desi and evidence-based programs and you select the ones that align with what you're working at um so the first evidence-based program enhanced support foral and mental health um the second one high leverage practices for students with disabilities and then the third effective programming for multilingual Learners and so in the plan under each of these Focus areas it's a little description of what are you going to do how much money are you putting towards this um specific f Focus area and then breaking it down by each component um in there what does it what does it look like um and then overall like where is that money coming from and so we did that for each of those so you again could kind of see where where we're looking to provide support in building out this plan so those are kind of the highlights um I'm happy to pull up the plan itself and show anything on it if anyone has any questions uh I I I have a question about what are the uh languages that are coming into the district Brian what what new what what languages are the students predominantly uh as a percentage Russian has been um as a larger percentage and um just second to the largest which is uh Spanish speaking families I see okay thank you are we done there yes unless anyone has any questions thank you very much for your report thank you very much Jean I really appreciate the uh identification of the data and and uh pulling the bulk of this together for us to review and get off to the committee so thank you very much for your hard work on this yeah I will say looking at at the report um of the challenges ahead it's clear that there are many and I hope that um the effort is successful and each year Bill we do also have to provide uh an annual update which provides us the opportunity to amend um our submission if necessary however I think that what what Jean has targeted um in through the you know the the students who really require and are going to benefit from the most support are are probably going to remain the same over the course of the three years of the plan but we do have an obligation to continue to assess the efficacy of what we're doing with the resources and keep our fingers crossed that from year to year that resource Source will grow thank you the next item is a budget transfer I believe this relates to oh Bill I'm sorry we need to we need to vote to approve oh yeah all right backing up uh can I have a motion to approve the student Opportunity Act plan so moved Heather Heather moves is there a second I'll second thank you John uh we do another roll call vote start with Heather again yes John yes Wendy Thompson please that yes Yeah Wendy says yes Laura Lee Adams yes and Clifford spatcher there's another yes and myself William toome thank you all now I can move forward uh discussion about school committee and legislative advis events I believe this is Heather oh I'm sorry Bill you you were going on to the budget transfer first oh well since I backed up I obviously skipped over it so yeah you must have checked the moment you said it the budget transfer is relative to the settlement of the uh Unit C I believe is that correct yes and that is all money that was held aside pending uh the development of an agreement with our unit c people so thank them very much for allowing us to move forward with this uh I think we just need a a simple vote is there a motion to um I don't have the exact number in front of me can you read that off Brian yes it's uh 296 568 to be transferred into um transferred in order to be able to cover the cost of the uh negotiable increases for the contract right thank you so moved Heather thank you heather is there a second second thank you again a roll call vote Heather yes John iringer yes Wendy Thompson take that as a yes Laura Lee Adams yes yes thank you Cliff Batcher did I hit you already I don't think so thank you and myself William to I don't think I left anyone off so that passes thank you again now if I'm not incorrect we're at business item D discussion about school committee and legislative advocacy events and now Heather is are you covering this um did I already yeah you really covered it under important events um and I guess the thing that I would add is just a reminder that the day on the hill is on Monday May 6th and please reach out to Tara um here at our offices if you're interested in attending that event and you may Heather and Jane in the loop on that as well as well just uh because Heather's as she indicated they're is trying to arrange some sort of regional um kind of Transportation because there are other school committee members from nearby districts that are attending and we're trying to they're they're trying to shorten everybody's uh gas expenditure to get out to Boston I think it's a great idea I'd like to add just secondly that on the meeting tomorrow night in Greenfield I'll be in uh virtually in Northampton because there's a meeting of the board for the collaborative for Educational Services and I represent our district thank you Bill yeah thank you Bill you're doing a great job with the meeting bill um yeah tomorrow is the meeting tomorrow I guess it's actually I was just looking at their sort of agenda it's more about prepping for day on the hill um and I know that in previous years like Holly and Greenfield or something shared a bus and so we Jan or I should have some information tomorrow um about how we're getting there either my car or um a bus with more people which would be more fun so I'll let you know our next meeting does anyone else have any questions of of Heather about this and if not I can try to move on to the next sequential item which would be the NASDAQ enrollment projections report I think we've sort of covered that a little bit but not yeah we did the only thing I would just reiterate again that uh if people are going to take a look at the report um also just take a moment to look at um the notes that Joanne bler provided in her report about the the the comparison to the fy21 uh version of the report that we received from n de it's a it's a useful instrument but um we just provided it in here for uh information for the school committee and what that those two there are two reports from NASDAQ the first one being having been performed in 21 I think during the pandemic which was showed a much D more dire uh slope on the downward side as opposed to reality which leveled off and is actually climbed yep um and that's pretty much the extent of it with any other questions on that not seeing any I will stumble forward into a vote for retainer for legal services this is an annual uh commitment to our legal staff Consultants performers whatever they are and so uh I do want to add that once again um the dupare law offices have they've not changed the retainer which means their rate is going to be the same as it was last year and the year before which is uh which is always nice when you don't have a cost increase and we need uh a motion and a second I'll move it thank you Heather thank you all in fa uh yes all in favor Heather yes uh Clifford I'm going out of order just to surprise you he said yes John heringer oh you're muted John John you're muted so we couldn't hear your vote you okay now okay yes thank you Wendy Thompson I'll go to Laura Lee Adams Wendy unmuted and said yes we just didn't hear it but I can lip read so she nod she nodded I got it and myself William tone thank you po this the next item is a policy issue policy BDF AE do I uh include the one two and three in parentheses School Improvement plan um yeah a third reading and it does require a vote yep and not just to reiterate so in um our well in probably most districts books there were three eforms one two and three yep for submission approval and approval of the school Improvement plan they have just Consolidated it the important information into one which is great uh and actually well we'll take a vote I'd like to combine these two uh policy BK school committee memberships this is a removal of the whole thing it's uh duplicated other in other places and this is also a vote so if we can vote on these two things in one I'd appreciate that and can I have a motion to that effect I'll thank you John I have a second thank you yeah I think that was Wendy I think so uh roll call vote Heather C yes that was a yes Laura Lee Adams well thank you Wendy Thompson John iringer yes and Clifford spatcher yes thank you and myself William tomone thank you all I know it's difficult putting up with me but I'm getting to the end uh discussion about inperson versus remote school committee meetings I think this is a a pertinent discussion at this time and I would say uh on my part I look forward to having in-person meetings as often as every other week um every now and again I think we do need to have the virtual just as tonight is an exhibit for and beyond that uh I I don't have any additions does anyone else have a comment they would like to make about iners or remote Bill I just want to add to what Heather had said earlier it it is obviously it's our intent to have person meetings as often as possible going forward but there are two primary reasons why the meeting is going to be posted uh in both ways going forward uh in case we run into an issue like this where people are sick and we have concerns about um being able to meet Quorum particularly when we have a deadline vote like the student Opportunity Act um and so tonight um we made the decision to move it to remote to ensure that people who could attend remotely in including Jane if she were if she had to attend to make Quorum were able to attend uh outside of that the other reason we might move to remote would really be the weather um outside of that and I I don't anticipate any issues with the weather coming up because supposedly Winter's ending at some point that's the the that's what I've heard that's the myth yeah did the groundhog lie I don't know yeah yeah um I have a comment about H I just didn't get caught soon enough but that's okay um but I I don't know is it something because this is something I literally every I'm not on Facebook a lot and every time I check in somewhere somebody's upset about us being remote I mean as you can see we can't even hear everybody of course we want to be in remote teams work better with making personal connections we want to be remote we never choose to be remote because we're being lazy or we don't want to have a meeting so I don't know can we put this maybe higher up maybe not even in business just give it its own thing right after Community input or something I don't know just so that people understand that it's always on our mind we just have to be careful especially when we're down a seat um previously we were down two seats so we're just doing the best we can and I just want everyone to really know that I also think that yeah thank you heather I also think that for the most part um people are it is not that we're having trouble right now with having full membership of our committee but there are times when for whatever reason personal reason some members can't make it and in that situation we do as you just said uh would anyone else like to address it remote versus in person at this time from the committee and I don't see anything I think I think what Heather is talking about with really coming out with a blanket what excuse me yeah we could hear you oh I was Heather was about being able to have a um being able to have a blanket statement at the beginning of the mo the the meeting would really speak to the fact that we understand that we prefer to be in person it's but there's also being able to educate the public in what AUM is why we need a quorum because some of them don't understand that they don't understand the meeting process to begin with so they don't understand that if we don't have this many people it's not con a legit meaning and we can't vote on anything and it's not just the school committee that's having difficult a quorum so yep thank you anything else on that line I don't think so if not can I just ask a question probably of Brian maybe I can wait but um sometimes I drop things so something like policies that are either removed or are adding commas or anything like that I don't know if we need to speak to legal or not but do we really need three readings for that bill and I were talking about that in our our policy subcommittee meeting this week and um it just seems silly to have to have three meetings because Massachusetts is just correcting their language unfortunately yes the only circumstance that I've been made aware of is emergencies and we've only had one over the last few years and that was the adoption or removal of masks was one that fell into that category but everything El test is supposed to as minuscule as it is go through the same three readings process all right thanks you may have mentioned that but I wanted no I didn't but I did ask the question back in in1 and then again in 22 so I sort of remembered it okay thank you if nothing else reviewing each one acquaints us better with all the policies that we have that's a good point uh in that event moving forward we do have two sets of minutes to approve February 13 of 20124 and February 27 of 2024 and I think we can consider both of them uh yes we'll have a motion first and then if anyone has thoughts they can express them can I have a mo a a motion to consider this whatever it is called some moved I approve both sets of minutes Heather moved in second somebody must second it Wendy Wendy raised your hand a second thank you Wendy uh is there any discussion about the two sets of minutes are the drafts acceptable is pretty much it if there's no discussion then we'll take a roll call vote again Heather pulus yes and John iringer yes Wendy Thompson thank you Wendy Laura Lee Adams I think she said yes Cliff spatcher yes and nice yes William tone thank you all if there are any agenda requests I have an agenda request already that I should have had taken note of before tonight but John want uh John wants to talk talk more about um what is it John Labor Management get together right uh yeah jlmc uh for unit a and if unfortunately I'm not going to be physically able to make April 9th so if that could go onto the April 23r that would be great yeah that's my plan is to put it then and uh I just wanted to announce to everybody that we would be putting that on the agenda in in the future two meetings from now thank you and I'm sorry I can't always uh get behind acronyms but slowly I get there um dates of the next meeting are April 9th and April 23rd 2024 is there any other comments from the board or anyone else that wants to congratulate us for getting through another meeting and great fashion with that I'll accept a motion to adjourn I moved Heather moved is there a second I'll second thank you John all in favor Heather catulus yep John heringer yes Clifford spatcher I know that's a yes Wendy Thompson Y and Laura Lee Adams and I'm not seeing you but myself William to with the meeting Jour thank you all I appreciate your attention yes Wendy oh she was I think she was waving goodbye or what