I not even on camera that's great um good evening hollon welcome to the May 16th 2024 uh meeting of the hallon school committee um we have uh a few important or two important presentations tonight um and so with that what I'd like to do is uh take a motion to to approve the consent agenda as amended by and pull out the the minutes which we have uh some we were trying to figure out exactly what what happened discrep last week but I want to approve the warrant so U motion may just a motion to approve the warrants moved by Cynthia second by Don all in favor that is a five to nothing or five Z zero um next we will uh move to our reports from the representatives student representativ apologies uh so this is the last week of AP testing so tomorrow will be the last day um tomorrow's also prom so a lot of seniors and juniors are very excited for that um and then senior's last week of actual classes is going to be next week with uh AP or uh finals for those classes are going to be on Thursday and Friday and then this past Wednesday seniors had Futures day where they got to show off um their college gear or other uh plans they have for the next few years yep and the induction for NHS uh the ceremony for that will be uh this coming Tuesday and we currently have Arts uh art saves lives right now so we have artwork from uh students from like our school um and yeah you should go check them out and then for um our TV track boys came in Sixth and girls came in second in a recent competition thank you thank you thanks individual com from school Comm members yes today I do have so uh this is possibly my last school committee meeting we could have another one but I don't know if I can make it but I just want to take this opportunity to thank the community and the committee for giving me this opportunity uh to be here to be a part of this wonderful uh committee uh there's a lot of talk about equity and I have seen firsthand how much effort the committee and everyone else associated with it put an effort so that everyone can have a voice as much as possible so I really really want to thank you for that and it's an ongoing effort it's an ongoing process a lot of time a lot of dedication a lot of research is going behind it so if something doesn't happen right away please be patient it's getting done trust me we just have millions of meetings to get it done um I also want to thank for one more thing um the commitment that I have seen from the committee members uh especially school committee members is incredible it's truly inspiring considering that this is a volunteer position this there H there is there's not truly anything that anyone is getting out of it to be very honest other than the fact that we are sometimes here till 11:30 in the at night walking out in into the dark rain and just praying that we get reach home safe because people have been up since 4 4:30 in the morning and just want to go to bed so that they can again get up at 5:00 next day so the commitment is incredible yes it's a lot but it's incredibly rewarding so I really want to thank that and especially because the effort is towards a common good it's not driven by any state or religion or region or language it is truly driven by the the the core fundamental of wanting to do good and that cannot that can never be taken away so thank you so much this is something I I don't know about other countries but not even in us maybe everywhere but from what I have seen here it's incredible so thank you so much I really want you to thank thank you very much me we definitely miss you I have nothing more thanks um just want to Echo the um statement on the art saves lives um it's really an excellent uh show and I do encourage people to go got lots of really amazing artists here at the district and it's great to see what they have done so thank you um just a a shout out I guess we we had the Rams concert yesterday um evening and then art saves lives is going on now Touch a Truck the touch truck event in um over at placentino is this Saturday um next week next Tuesday evening is the NHS induction um just a really busy next two weeks and then our um monory showcase over at the elementary school is on Wednesday evening of next week so and Minnie thank you very much for all the many hour you put into this and your dedication and I've learned so much from you and you really have you know been delightful to work with so thank you I just want to add that the learning has been all mine to be very honestly I have learned so much in these three years and I feel that I've not even learn one tenth of what you guys have been doing some of you have been in on the committee for I don't know 9 years 10 years I I don't even know how much how you have done it but this is incredible I would have continued it's just that my work timings do not allow me to like commit any more time it needs more time and the the time that it needs is the time that I work so it directly clashes with my work hours that is the only reason I'm leaving trust me otherwise I would have stayed than thank you can I just add one thing sure um elections is on Tuesday so please come out and vote there are contested races um including school committee so please come out to vote at the high school polls are open 7: to 8 7 to8 7 to 88 p.m. 7:00 a.m. to 800 p.m. yes and I'm counting so yes and I would also like to add that people who are in here in New in the community if you can vote please vote if you cannot vote come and join the process in some way there are lots of uh opportunities at the town hall for you to volunteer so take that opportunity be a part of of the community and have your voice heard thanks good so yes Tuesday's election day please come out and vote and um I also got was able to get here a little early to see some of the art saves lives exhibits it's a truly wonderful thing that uh the students put on and uh with the help of their teachers so um it's uh still going on until believe 8:00 tonight so if you're if you're watching this and you want to run on up here please do uh with that uh we will move to uh public comment and we have one person who would like to make some public comments if you just come up to the uh speak into the into the microphone so those at home could hear you all right just state your name and address and I'm Arian Gupta I live at 92 Pilgrim Road and I am a hallson high alumni I currently go to Iowa State University and I'm a third-year mechanical engineering student uh I came to speak on something that's relatively small but I think is a bit of an important matter so a physical education covers a lot of both knowledge we need to know about our bodies and a lot of introduction to basic sports baseball basketball tennis bat mington uh Etc and one thing that I realize now I didn't know back then is that there's not really much coverage for uh students who are left-handed uh for reference I'm also left-handed uh and I found that this causes a bit of a it's a bit of trouble uh as if you're using the wrong hand for any sports in the sort you have a lot more trouble actually participating uh what your positioning is mirrored your strength is different because dominance hands tend to yield more strength when actually using and your hand ey coordination is also just generally better but it's never really addressed within the education system you're just shown the position and told to go and there's no real address of it uh like personally I uh because I learned to do baseball uh battington and Tennis all with my right hand and normally I thought I have pretty good hand ey coordination except I was terrible whenever I participated in uh PE at these Sports and I have a feeling the same would be the case for any other students who are also left-handed and don't realize this it's a small detail but it's like really important especially for interests I personally lost interest in sports a lot because I couldn't really contribute and I imagine same would be for other students who want to do something but find themselves unable to contribute in a meaningful manner great thank you thank you very much thank you thanks and um I I can't believe I forgot but I want to go back to school committee confer for just a minute and just to to thank the community for showing up at town meeting on Monday I I I think it was a month ago it feels like but it really was just was just three days ago um so so thank you so much for for I mean the the um the turnout to to support the schools uh was incredible I think I I think there were over 440 people that attended I think so um and by the time they got to one of the bigger articles later after the the school articles there were only about 250 260 people still there and so you know a huge number of people came out to support the schools and and luckily there it wasn't you know a contested uh vote but um you know we really do appreciate that support and unanimous and unanimous support so um so thank you very much and uh apologize we didn't I didn't think of that earlier but uh it uh it it's very important so thank you I left it home be I left it home and uh so with that we have a couple uh presentations from uh Jerel about uh his his work with and EI and safe and support schools and the equities hearing committee so floor is all yours for for 40 minutes all right um good evening everyone um time flies you know I feel like I was just here a little bit ago um I will tell you that today my presentation is going to be focused on progress going to be focused on the work that's happening um as I put together the presentation I really was also thinking about I didn't want to steal the Thunder of our schools because they have still yet to present right our buildings will be presenting on some of the work and my work really is isn't siloed work it's not like it's central office work it's work with our schools uh so a lot of what I'll be sharing I'm sure the schools are going to add more depth to that just as well um today what we're going to be chatting about um is a couple things I'm going to just share about the anchors we utilize here at work when I mean anchor what are the things we refer back to um I'm going to talk a little bit about the system building specifically around um and also I'm going to start sharing a little bit about what is it we're doing where we headed towards when it comes to data dashboards um and looking at data I'm going to throughout my conversation share where we're going and then when it comes to the equity audit um update we're actually also scheduled to actually present a more formal presentation June 6th so today is almost like if you can imagine um the movie trailer like when you watch um a movie and you have like come to the theaters and they give you suspense that's kind of what I'm going to share today it's not I'm not going to go in depth with recommendations I'm going to share what we've done up to this point because really that's going to be the essence of the June 6 presentation um and you know we've been doing a meaningful work there so with that why don't we get started in the presentation um you've seen a lot of what's on this screen so far you've seen me do presentations on safe and support of schools I brought uh advisers from the high school we've had students you've seen the schoolhouse we've talked about the different tiers and what we're building across schools um you've also seen the the template on the right which is a description of what a safe and support school is um you've also seen um this that language around uh belonging is an outcome and and lastly you've seen kind of the visual of the heart and the mind which is really what this work is but when I think about what's the work that I engage in the work that I engage in is a purposeful and intentional trying to bring these two things together and what are those things it's the concept of belonging is an outcome to have in the same room in the same space with Equitable access to resources how do we bring those two together the experience of belonging and making sure our students get what they need when they need it that's what this work is calls us to do I don't know if we'll ever arrive at a place we're like done we've checked off we're perfect this work calls for ongoing Focus ongoing intentional work so I just wanted to frame that because in many ways when we think about our roles and Equity it's really trying to bring that concept of belonging as an outcome and access to resources and supports and and how to do that in a meaningful way so um I just wanted to share this I think that um I'm now entering right the end of my third year right so time flies and when I think about that um really one of the things that um I learned in working with our schools is that there was a lot of amazing awesome work happening but they were siloed by school and in many ways it looks like the picture on the left in which there's a lot of meaningful work happening but when it's not coordinated we they can get in each other's way you can head out in a different direction you can often times not be sure where you're part where different people are headed right and any one of those circles is the effort in the work that we do and what sometimes that can lend itself to is project itis right like oh not another thing not another initiative not another project and really what we're trying to get to and really what this work calls for when we think about that Schoolhouse it calls us to use the very same work we've been doing but align it in a way in which we're headed in the same direction I call it almost like rowing together it's how do we row together now that doesn't mean every circle on that chart on the right are at the same place at the same time but it does mean that we have a vision of where we're going and I do believe that as you hear um the conversation or what I'll share today and as you hear our principles when they present I think you're going to hear that theme of rowing in the same direction and that's really what what this work calls for and it's really what a central office um what a central office uh administrator does is try to help across our schools head Us in the same direction right and what we what research has told us is when we do that it just builds efficacy across our district and feels more rewarding when you see across our district where we're going so that's really the emphasis of the work but as we as we say that let me jump into kind of some of that system building so when I arrived um some of our schools had been working on something called open circle and open circle was our open circle was our uhcl tier one approach at our elementary schools our middle schools were using second step in our high schools were doing embedded something else when I arrived open circle actually closed and it was a model in which you had to send people to go get trained through open circle every year so as you can think for efficacy right um that means every single year you're sending people out to get trained and then you're not building a bench of people who are experts in your building to be to support that work so in in in that work and I shared with you last year we had built almost a a study group that looked at the different pieces and we landed at ruler and if you remember recall when we first present Ed this year was the year one of ruler and what is what do I mean by that year one of ruler was PD for educators there's ruler really believes and I really believe that that Research indicates this is that in order to really think about how is it we want our students to build social emotional learning skills we also want our teachers to be able to wrestle with what that would look like to wrestle with the concepts around social emotional learning to think about how might I embed that into my practice and to get a chance to just get to know the resources and that what that's what this year has done and I'm going to show you some of that work that our schools have been doing to get to know ruler this year this year was about learn it it was about trying it it was about plan for it um we also a newsletter just went out um maybe about a week ago two weeks ago where I shared resources because as we head into next year we're going to be offering um zooms or inperson meetings for parents so they can get familiar with What ruler is cuz we would hope that as we build ruler uh social emotional learning approach across our district it could be similar language that they hear at home because this language is transferable it's not just School language right um teaching emotional language teaching students how to problem solve teaching working with students around how to think about expression emotions that's C that's crossover into all the work that we do and to be honest it's crossover into what we want graduates to walk away from col and high school with as they enter kind of the next step in their Workforce so that's what we've done this year next year for ruler what's this going to look like um our teachers are going to start to embed that at the K to8 at the K to8 level in their classrooms um there's going to be direct instruction happening at the very least K to K to 5 U at 678 the same um but they have different structures so they're going to happen in different Pockets within um what that looks like um and what I have what has been um one of the proudest pieces in my role is to see the schools own this so a lot of what I'm going to share in the next couple slides are going to be examples of schools owning this work and making it meaningful for them part of my leadership hasn't been to say we're all going to do it the same way part of my leadership is to say this is where we're headed how does this make sense for you and let's make it authentic to your school but we're headed in the same direction we're rowing in the same way PBIS you've heard about PBIS and I'm going to share some of the stuff that's happened um uh around in that piece and what PBI is in the essence is and I know sometimes we can get lost on Paws and stickers and and celebrations but really what it is is the school coming together and deciding what are the things what are the pro-social behaviors we want to see in our building and how do we support that and then when students are struggling to meet them how do we support that and PB calls us to have data to look at to say how are we making decisions about this work that's really at the core of what this is so next year um I've worked with all of our schools to kind of get us ready to this point next year is going to be about alignment My Hope Is that as when I report out next June we're not sharing here's what we're doing in ruler here's what we're doing in PBIS here's what we're doing here what I'm hoping we're sharing is I'm just for example at placentino um the penguin way is one in which we talk about emotions and um are open about the emotional impact we have with each other and in which we support positive behaviors and not be about we do PBIS and we do about ruler this work caus us to integrate this work and that's where we're headed as a district um so that's going to be the summer Focus as we head into the summer and for the next school year the other piece that I just wanted to highlight and I shared this visual before uh but if you could see that yellow uh the yellow highlight and what it says is that this year we had a new revision to the health and wellness standards uh and the health and wellness standards call for Direct instruction right it didn't call for that level ofcl instruction before but I was recently in a meeting uh with des and one of the things they said to me is instead of coming out with almost like a a framework of all the standards kids have to learn as they start to revise curric as they start to revise the standards for math for science for social studies for all the standards that they have they're going to be embedding seal Frameworks into them so down the line when we get a new for instance um math standard or a math framework in it there's going to be standards within that right because the concept is that should not be a separate thing it should help us in everything we do throughout our building group learning project based learning um presentations group work individual work that calls for social emotional skills it calls for the ability to work with others it calls for ability to uh conflict resolution it calls for us to have that skill set so if we can imagine um this as we headed into ruler and we didn't know that this is where the state was headed but this is aligning us perfectly for what the state is going to expect the districts to do which is embed social emotional learning into all the curriculum pieces that you do so every so as we move forward as we start to get revised Frameworks from the state they're going to be naming the standards within that and all of the indications tell us that ruler is going to help us meet all of those so this is one example um that I wanted to share that um I was so exciting to to see the other day one of the things that ruler calls for is called a charter and what a charter is is a at the school level is a school comes together and says at this school how do we want to feel so one of the things that the Miller school has been doing during professional development is working with their teachers to understand and get a learn ruler but they really went in deep to really identify as a staff how do we want to feel at the Miller school and here's where they arrived at we want they want to feel respected supported connected and safe and then they went and articulated how is it that they're going to feel respected as a staff how is it they're going to feel supported how is it they're going to feel connected and safe right so they're really putting the rulle of work into action they're defining how is it they want to have feel emotionally as a staff together and then at the staff meeting um the assistant principal uh Brenda Maro asked staff and said has anyone have examples of us living up to this already and they just came out with this and there was two Educators who were able to point out examples in the room of seeing these pieces being lived in the building right and to me as a leader it was it was such an enjoyable moment to see a school living what this is meant to be because what research tells us is that if staff are part of a school where they feel respected supported connected and safe retention improves enjy of coming to work improves this has direct correlation to the work that we want to do when it comes to hiring so just wanted to share because this is just happening right within within a last couple weeks at Miller school and they're doing amazing work there as well and then as I Le I transition out of ruler um one of the things I wanted to share and and I think this quote speaks to the work I've learned that people will forget what you said people will forget what you did but they'll never forget how you made them feel and when we think about the lasting impact of Educators when we think about the lasting impact of of of the work we do with our students it's about how we made them feel but that's not just for our students it's for our staff and for our families right so ruler is going to be where we go into theut future years across all of those stakeholders uh to build that out um I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate 16 Educators so just yesterday and you've heard me talk about the trauma sensitive learning we've been doing with Leslie University so as part of the the work we've done with Leslie University after you complete four courses you actually get a certificate from Les University on trauma and learning we had 16 Educators who just received their certificates yesterday with some 2024 tassels with some certificates um and this this to me was actually what blew me away right these Educators right here what blew me away was I thought they're going to be like thank you so much we're done right we got our certificate and they said hey Jal I heard there's a course five when are we doing that and I said do you guys really want to do course 5 and they're like absolutely and course 5 is actually the cross-section between trauma and equity right so this to me are champions within our building and I wanted to list the names and if you wouldn't mind me I just want to say the names um they may or may not be watching but I just wanted to give them uh I just appreciate all the work they've done uh Adrien Beaver Finch Bowen uh Erica kle Susan C Linda sabrowski Briel Chatzy Julie day uh Christina jya uh Michelle Dupont Carla Gavin Katherine Jackson Caroline Johnson Nicole Marchand uh Kendra sisen Laura Ryan and Alissa Sanford um I know there's no one here but if we can give him a a round of applause I think it'd be great so that's just one of the celebrations um so what else is happening right I think in many ways when I when I present as a central office person we present these high level presentations and then we say is this really happening at the school so uh this is one of pieces that that that I wanted to share when we talk about mtss this is happening at Ram School they've actually designed three different structures within the building that are leading these different pieces and and one of the pieces I'm actually helping uh the Rams lead is a school climate team and that school climate team is focused on issues around PBIS counseling ruler crisis teams uh Wellness the work with kickboard saf and supportive lessons Etc this to me tells me that there's active work happening at Rams and trying to organ organiz the supports that they have Equity calls us to do this it calls us to be organized in our approach that we do and to be able to think about what is the work that we need to be doing uh for that work to come true this comes right out of um a professional development that happened at Miller in which Miller and the title says it um our tier Fidelity inventory which is like a TFI it's a Fidelity Tool that we use with PBIS in school climate School climate data identifies the need to grow our Core Curriculum te interventions and they spent they spent the whole PD session looking at their own data and coming up with conclusions and thinking about what that what this work needs to be that to me is light years from where we were there was data work happening but to build this into your structure of your building where we're reflecting on data and thinking about Solutions around what we should be doing this is Meaningful work right and this comes directly out the profess been happening at Miller um I would say about a maybe about a month ago maybe two months ago at pasano they did a care celebration dance right just celebrating the students this isn't about this isn't about trinkets it's not about pause this is about students enjoying having Joy at school right but because they collectively came together and were working uh behind the care Mantra um at at Miller um at Miller when it comes to PBIS they did rise olutions so when the year turn when they turn the year all the kids almost did like new Year's resolutions but they did rise olutions so they set goals for how they want to live up to rise this was a piece that I found really and these come directly from the school care cards right so this is for instance at placentino um if a student was showing cooperation you might check off cooperation but they also have cards in multiple languages right for accessibility that's not a mandate we didn't tell them they do this because they want all their students to access these supports that they build this was another meeting at Rams where they were doing professional development where they are again looking at data making decisions around the behavior data around what things do we want to see happen differently in our building uh at placentino and at Miller they've involved students in in at even at Miller they have a student voice group that actually provides feedback on the data they're collecting around solutions they can come up with that screens Youth Empowerment that screens student voice this work when you think about um the charter that I showed earlier that actually comes from this concept of a mood meter in which in our language we have so many words for the emotions that we feel but often times when we think about just even in Stu with our students or even as a staff we tend to use a small select group of emotions and one of the things that we've said um and this was like a joke but it's real when you ask an adult how's it going often times in education educators will say ah everything's fine everything's going great and one of the things we're saying is Let's Be how's it really going and it could be I'm exhausted I'm tired I'm excited I'm anxious about this this new curriculum I'm roll right all of those things are true and we need to be able to speak to that in order for us to be able to come with Solutions together and then uh one of the things one of the activities that did at milit to arrive at the charter is they went through those those emotion words and were able to select as a staff what were the ones that most were meaningful to them and this is where they landed also here at the high school um the high school has done a lot of partnering with h and family services and one of the things that they did um which I thought was was such a cool activity um is they almost they did a game show uh in which um students were in the auditorium and they had a game show and kids were into it they had music but here's the thing kids were into the game show and they were learning about substance abuse they were learning about um The Dangers they were learning about the science they were learning about all of the the the health piece connected to substance use but they were doing in a way that they were enjoying that time in there and they were and and they were enjoying and listening to music and they were dancing on stage um and I just thought it was such a great way to kind of um partner with our Community Partners and do things in a different way additionally also another partnership with housing Family Services all their student leaders they had a training around inclusion and diversity because our student leaders in many wise lead conversations are in our classrooms and they brought in a a a a presenter to have our our student leaders think about what does it look like for me to think about inclusion and diversity when I'm leading conversations in the classroom right meaningful work so just wanted to kind of share um these highlights and I know our schools are going to share more but this is the real work happening in our buildings right going back to the visual those circles headed in the same direction it and it's okay for every building to have a circle that might have a different label or a circle that is is further along or not there yet because it has to be real for that school anytime a a if I were to go in mandate schools you have to do this by this date it doesn't feel authentic and real to them what feels real is when they arrive there right because they owned that work that's so that's what we see happening so you you heard me talk about data you heard me you've heard me at times talk about a data culture what do I mean by a data culture a data culture is one in which when we talk about data it doesn't feel judgment judgment e it doesn't feel scary for many people it does data elicits um feelings of of um evaluation of of judgment but here's also what Equity calls us to do we need data to tell us if headed in the right direction or the wrong direction we need data to tell us if if if if keep going forward we need this um so one of the pieces of of that is to build a a culture around data that is that builds trust right so as we start to head into next year and we think about our dashboard that we've talked about in here that we're building uh with an organization called open Architects part of that work has to be let's collaboratively work on this data together let's talk about this data not in a way that evaluates the person sitting at the table with me but but in the way that says how do we solve this thing here right and one of the things that I'm going to talk about is attendance and I know just VY about maybe a week ago two weeks ago talked about an attendance committee that we put together with our administrators across the board um also our state um and Across the Nation this has become a big issue so uh and I'm going to just reiterate this data just as well uh since 2018 to today what we've seen nationally is that students who are chronically absent has doubled right so we have 16 million students in the United States who are considered chronically ass that means missing 10% or more of the school of the school year and as the district hasn't built out that mechanism to really look at data in that way we haven't been able to have real meaningful conversations around what do we need to do here because here's the other piece around this here our conversations around attendance need to shift and here's what I mean there is a state law that tells us about School attendance but also when we had co co also changed the way people feel about the importance of school because we went to an online version which meant Oh I can learn through my computer and it shifted for many people The Importance of Being in the seats in school and so to me I see that as like a a a direct driver to why I believe we've seen this increase um but I just wanted to share this data because I don't I don't think we've grasped it here and I think when we think of attendance we think of urban spaces but this is our data in 2019 7.3% of our students were chronically absent last year 16.7% of our students were chronically absent that's doubled so holet is no different than what we're seeing nationally but what I believe what we're going to do differently is have different conversations about attendance and that's where the dashboard is going to come in handy I'm going to show you a little bit about the dashboard so our dashboard is not it's it's still being built right but this was kind of um their first share out with us and I just I need a picture of this to share because it was so exciting so here's what you see on this screen on all the way on the left I don't know if you can see it where it says numbers of of Miss education days I can literally go in there and type and put 15 days 20 days and it's going to tell me based on the average of our students their expected mcast score wow so a student who misses 30 or more days that's the projected M score and one of the things that we see nationally across the state and even in hollist is that we see lower achievement scores in math for the higher the days of absenteeism go so the more days you're absent the stronger impacted math we don't see as big of an impact in the there is one but we see a bigger Gap in math for days absence so as you can see on the right same data but what it's doing is actually showing me the impact on proficiency and of course as you can extrapolate as you uh as the days Mist increases you have more and more students at the not meeting proficiency and then if we look down at the Benchmark data The Benchmark data isn't M it's the actual benchmarks we do within our building same way as the days myth go up you have more and more students at the not meeting and I've had conversations with families around attendance and sometimes they'll say but they're doing fine but I think what we're not seeing is there's a cumulative effect that we see especially coming out in in the math space so as a community as a district that really wants to see our kids Thrive and for some there's different motivat and I know for many they want our kids to be as successful as possible everything from career trajectory to to where you want to go there's direct impacts even though you may not see it in the moment the DAT is telling us that the direct impacts into achievement longterm and those conversations to be honest weren't conversations we were having not just in hollist but in the districts that I worked in we weren't we weren't there we were just having conversations about the law and saying You must be in school the law says you're in school and there's these legal ramifications but there's a deeper level um that research has tell us that often times parents aren't aware of how many days their kids have missed or the impact they might be having so this is just one example of how having data at our hands and and creating a cross-section with a chibit as how it's going to shift the way we talk how it's going to shift the way we work with families and how it's going to shift the way we we share with the community about the impact of some of these things right this is a perfect example of what we mean about some of this work can I ask a question sure about that last slide yeah how are we able to delineate this is hollison public schools data to to something else AI you know this dashboard is being built is directly coming from our data from our power school so if that number was Zero days absent we should see that go yeah yeah but it would be different from a different District yes based on only be our data it's it we can ask it but this data is not comparing so this is going to tell us how are we doing and for us to make decisions here cuz remember when we did the um presentation earli we had to pull everything from but it wasn't specific to individuals we were able to like just and overall we couldn't dig deep into that data because it's coming from multiple sources and then it's aggregated aggregated so we'll be able to pull in all that data and then add our school data and it will really give us a triangle is this like a 10year like look back to to find to figure right now they're looking back 3 years okay that's um but this literally was like their first show to me of like here's what we're building right and when I was in the room I was like I need a screenshot of this because this is this is going to shift the way we talk about the work in in a lot of areas and and I think the other piece too that that this is going to allow us to do and and you you can see at the top here right just alone on this dashboard I can see summary data I can look at daily attendance across my schools I can look at groups right so I can look across you know our different student groups Community groups I can look at tiers how many kids are what tier of attendance yeah and what for most of the things we see here I'm going to be able to drill down to the student with the same lens so yes this is going to give us overall piece but I'm also going to be able to take similar looks at the student level too this isn't just about District Trends it's going to let me see how have our students been doing for instance in a cross-section between behavior and achievement yeah how how are they doing on it to huh can you set alerts on it too like so it can kind we're working on all that absolutely cool yeah yeah so um a lot more to come right but even the way we just talked about attendance we didn't talk about it from a punitive space we talked about a way around educating our community to understand the impact of attendance even the conversation we just had has completely shifted away from where the we were um as a state in as a country so more to come on that um wanted to kind of give a few updates on some mental health supports that we've been working on um in the last year so Caris Solis as we know um we went we shifted to K last year um and since last year there's been 110 direct counseling SE direct counseling supports match with our hollison students right and they're also giving us data and as part of their data um they're also sharing with us for what reasons are people being referred and some of the pieces and this is going to drive professional development for next year it's going to drive the way we start to think about the work anxiety and depression are the two highest but one of the things we've seen and I think this has been the shift in the last 10 years is anxiety is skyrocketed right and I think there's all kinds of reasons and we could do another session for that another day but um they're also sharing data about that too and the other piece too is if you can see at the bottom they're also sharing with us demographics around who's using these services and these services are available for everyone so part of the conversation just Bey and I have been having is that as we look at these uh at these demographics we're going to want to look at to make sure all of our community groups know how to access this and if not if not let's make sure that we next year Advocate and do that and reach our community groups and have make sure that they understand that this is a service that they could utilize so um so a care solices have an impact and through data we're coming up with ways on things that we can do better next year as we move on to next year as well the other piece that I wanted to share with you is as part of the SEO Grant last year this year I piloted something well I didn't pilot I pilot Ed with a partner called cartwheel and cartwheel um is a they only work with schools it's a mental health uh organization and their role is it's tella Health only but what what we do is they guarantee for instance I might have 30 slots at the holl public school they guarantee that those students who we refer will automatically be connected with a therapist and under that one referral their psychiatric medication if necessary family therapy if necessary and for the younger kids who may not be like second grade and under who may not benefit from direct um tella Health uh uh counseling the family gets the support and as we head into next year um uh a piece they're adding to that is family therapy because as we know as our kids get older uh sometimes there can be disjunction between or or relationship struggles between home and and the family and also and I'm really excited about this this is going to be another layer that our staff also next year can utilize these Services as well and there's actually no limit so for next year um a staff member could make a referral through cartwheel be guaranteed a direct match no matter the insurance and have access to family therapy individual therapy um in all of those pieces it's six months so it's it's short-term based therapy I mean technically when we think about mental health counseling and therapy um often times it should be right it should not be like you jump into it it's forever um it's a it's a shortterm six-month support uh that we put in place but also at the end of those six months if any of our students or any of the families need support they make the referral to connect them with a longer term resource and as of right now we launched this in January and actually I just got two today we're at 19 uh direct referrals who who are receiving counseling so if we think about what we built it in Cartwheel and we think about what we've been doing over the last two years with K solid uh that's close to about 117 about close to under 130 families or 130 people receiving supports that could be student that could be family that could be staff but 130 people have a ripple right so someone getting support has either Ripple within the family Ripple within the structure um Ripple within their school community and we know that in any school there's gaps right we have councelors in buildings but we might have two counselors for 700 kids right so these to me and and sometimes people might think so is this replacing this isn't replacing this is adding to our tool belt this is adding to the to the to the resources we have to connect families with different pieces that's what this is about is this a grant funed I'm sorry and is the 19 people from just from Holliston or is that within our Community Partners okay y so um I have a question here so for this card we uh do people have to be a part of the Hollis public school for that right and then they uh who do they approach do do they go through their counselors the school counselors put in the referral so this is a program that we' built that's directly connected to our school counselors um and often times those referrals have come from counselors meeting with families for either for whatever reason and they'll say because the other piece too is tell health is not for everyone right some people really just benefit from in-person counseling some right so this isn't for everyone so in many ways um that's why I said it's part of our tool belt right for some this might be a good connection and for others not because it's a tella health approach um one of the two there's some of the things they don't cover is Extreme kind of at risk for suicide or inactive um uh substance abuse um because that requires a different level of support and a different level of connection but anything within that uh that that that is Meaningful and and beneficial would fall into the ability to do that and if tella Health works for them and everybody has may have the space in the home to be able to engage in tella Health right or the ability to do that within their life and and so for that maybe care solid and we connect them with it in person right so that that's where the matching of the different resources really comes in handy and that can only be done at the one-on-one level have we looked at other wraparound services that would be in person right now well I just had a conversation with one who's trying to build that there isn't one yet and family is one but they also have capacity just as well um and the other piece too is uh Medway and Ashlen are also working with cartwheel so we've started connecting around making sure that we can kind of learn how to best utilize this service the other piece I forgot to mention is they have over eight languages and direct counseling support so available for our students English Spanish Portuguese French French Creel um and then there's several others and then also um they can engage other services to make sure they match the language Services which is often a struggle um is finding counselors in our local community that speak other languages um so sorry I have another question so I just want to make it like just clarify so considering the time of our counselors like we are we're always very hard pressed right so it's not often possible for uh parents to meet the counselor sometimes kids are too young so how does the connection truly happen like if a child is suffering or say a child's parent is suffering yeah so and as we said right everything is a a a learning process the the piloting was first launching to see like do we have a need in the answer is yes the next step is going to be especially as we turn in the corner to next year is how can we Outreach this into the community more meaningful way because I agree not every family is going to is going to is um has built a relationship to be able to go engage with a counselor although most schools do funnel usually the any need that might arise to a school counselor if it arises in the classroom or whatever but we don't want to leave it to just that so part of the approach for next year is going to be some Community Education and and do it in different languages so that our community understand that there is this resource but the entry point will still be the school counselors um because we also need to make sure that it's an appropriate referral right we want to make sure there's T Health available and and access to those things um but next year we're going to continue to build this up because we definitely see the need for this got it thank you so that's kind of the the some of the stuff that's been happening across our schools and I know our buildings will kind of share a lot more um I want to transition a little bit to the equity audit um as I said this is going to be almost like a movie trailer not so much of a um presentation on the equity a because that's actually scheduled for I believe it's the 6th of June um so you know what what have we been doing I I shared a presentation about two months ago um in which I had two students and and a parent with me who talked about the work we've been doing um we just wrapped up our fifth session um which was this Monday May 6th we're having our last one Monday June 3rd um and I have to tell you that in these three years this has actually been some of the most enjoyable facilitation that I've been a part of to be in a to be in in a space with diverse voices with people who range from an educator who's been in education for well over 20 to 30 years to a student and for them to be able to engage in a conversation about um advanced placement and to have a conversation about Equity is is has been amazing and the energy that I leave with it it has been through the roof the other day when I left um I if I would have sat down I think the students would have sat down and not left right they they're really enjoying the space so much so that part of our recommendations as we head into next year is to build a structure for this and what I mean is that um we feel very strongly that after we present our preliminary recommendations that this shouldn't just be a report that could end up in the corner somewhere that a this gets embedded into our strategic plan as we make updates for next year but then also that a a group continue to meet and provide feedback to the district I think if there's anything meaningful that we can continue to build is a a feedback loop that provides feedback to the district on how are we doing on the goals that we say we wanted to do um and when you bring that up everybody's like yes we want to keep doing that right um so some of the recommendations are going to be structural not structural in the sense of like you know change this but structural in the sense of like let's make sure we have an ongoing feedback loop that happens the team wants to continue to meet next year we want to see this work embedded in our strategic plan every year uh in the summer we go into a retreat we update our goals and we actually present those usually around September October but we're going to want to see our recommendations in the Strategic plan right and and naming them on on how they're going to be infused in what we're doing right we don't want a separate plan um of recommendations what we want is to see these recommendations built into what we're doing um and then equally um we're going to want to uh uh build the same accountability so the hope is is that for instance when we have presentations next year for the mid year and the end of year they were also reporting out on the on on the move items we're moving around the equity audit right and as we head into next year it's no longer be the equity it's going to be our our Equity goals right our Equity Benchmark they're going to be what we own so we're going to want to see that that gets built into what we report out so unfortunately we might have to plan those meetings differently because AS school committee members they might extend meetings but the reality is is that they should be just as I report on goals when it comes to achievement we should also be reporting on how I'm moving the equity workers in my building and how we're moving the equity work across our district so that's the kind of movie teaser for the June 6th um and and I've just been super excited um Sarah I don't know if you want to share anything you've been a part of this work as well um I I just I Echo everything you've said it it's a they're really great meetings and I think everyone's engaged and there's lots of different voices and I I yeah the I mean the students are wonderful additions and have great great voices and it's really great to hear them so I always leave feeling very hopeful which is just nice there's it's um so I'm thankful for being a part of it and so that's that's where we're going so June 6th um or when I reset that date if it's not the 6th but uh hopefully we're going to have an opportunity and I plan to bring some of those committee members with me to to speak about the work and to speak about the recommendations cuz the recommend ations that we came up with weren't recom weren't jerel's recommendations they were recommendations that lived in the equity audit report and we decided as a group what what should we raise because to be honest there was over 50 recommendations there's no way as a district we say where do we start with that so like a lot of things we had to wrestle with the fact that we can't do all of them Where Do We Begin and that's hard as as like teachers and parents and students to wrestle with like what is the most meaningful thing to start with and why and if so why why should we start there um and that's what this work has been about so it's been a great pleasure and then with that I'll kind of open it up and and just say thank you and um see if there's any questions one thing I'll say about what as we're going through and prioritizing it's interesting because it is I think starting to really represent some of the values of our district it's like we're naming them and claiming them which is um it's just it's it's great [Music] um do we have any preliminary report of the youth risk behavior survey data and where does that factor into any yeah sorry the Met yeah so um we we just got I'd say in the last month or so um the first preliminary report um we're going to build some sessions as a school to look at them um but one of the things I would hope right and and everything we say it's like that's another presentation to the school committee um but I would love to share that data in a public way um because these are our kids right and seeing that data around what are some of the risks that our students are struggling with um not only impacts the programs we should be building at the school level but also as a parent I'd want to want to know some of those things because it might also impact the way I engage with my children or engage you know my my grandson or right whoever you're connected to it will definitely impact those conversations um so as we head into next year a if you remember in year one I did a community uh meeting in which we invited stakeholders and and that was the first time for I think almost 15 years that people had a chance to look at that data we're probably going to do some of that again because I want I want our town people to look at that I want our town hall to see that data I want our health department to see that data because this work should not just be school work this is how our kids are doing in our community um and so I want everybody to engage in that work as we head into the future great thank you [Music] yeah thank you very much all right thank you and we do like your presentation huh we do like them no I know you like them but they could but you know what's what's hard about this work is that every one of these ripples could be a thing within itself right the data piece or the or the Metro West Health survey data or a school climate presentation on how our schools are doing so one of the things that that for next year I'd love to talk about is are there other ways that we could do that and share that um because right um you know this could tie up a whole meeting yeah perhaps there way distribute information then find ways to if there are questions about having sort of presentation based on sort of what we see I'm open to all of it right I'm open to all suggestions but definitely I want to increase the way that we engage all those pieces I think I would like to hear more about how that's progressing yeah over the next year cuz I feel like I what we're hearing from you isn't quite enough at least for me okay so that's yeah and I think I would like to add that what this is one of the biggest pieces that you know I think we have had in hariston since you have come in because this was something I think we were truly missing before you came in and I think this also goes to Susan you as well for bringing Gerald on board and Incredibly it's just not when when the students are happy the effect is really longm so I'm I'm just so glad that all of this is all coming together so thank you thank you very much thank you J oh do I need to get out can you kick me out I can should be able to it's still [Music] um so up next we have central office updates Dr Gus um we've had a lot of updates in the last few weeks so the only thing I I know you all added the art sa SL but I am wearing the lovely shirt that Flora kill um our student artist has created it's beautiful she had her a pomegranate with a P sign or something I guess what's the flower is it a [Music] yes ly there's a lot if you want if you see the display from Flora there's a whole um a lot of artwork that showed the progression of the the art that she was creating and then um I do also want to thank dougl for taking this is an immense job for him to put all of this together and one thing that I thought was really nice this year if you went to the studio 365 is it called studio room and um down towards the cafeteria our our staff put together tons of art this year for to present and it was I they've done it before but I felt like today when I went the quality of that art for people and you look at the names I'm like oh I would never have known that that person has this cuz you know they might teach some other content and and just to see that come out I think that's been something that's really been highlighted this year um in inviting staff to participate in this so it's been great so thank you to Doug and Flora and all of our other staff that participated great um let's see uh Dr I just wanted to thank the for the community for coming out in force and supporting the schools especially with the capital expenses we're going to be able to do a lot of important work so thank you very much okay and uh Mr rud is uh at mazvo at mazvo this was a an addition to the calendar so so yes um so moving on to to personel I think you said that you guys need a little more time to working on the the evaluation yes we still working on the draft sorry about that but yeah we are still we are getting there okay so we'll we'll we'll move that uh uh to the the next meeting um reports from the subcommittees of communications Amanda is not here we have to figure out the uh committees yeah um py um I think I was trying to schedule a meeting for the 22nd but I think it is already filled with something else so you and I said okay but I think Dr Kusa has something else on the 22nd is that right so I have to reschedule I have something else okay so I'll get back to you about policy okay sorry we've had a million other meetings that we're trying to pack everything in so at least at least you still have a Corum on the 22nd to be able to yeah that's true fair enough um budget uh no additional meetings since yay yay check just to wait um and then superintendent evaluation you guys are still working okay um I just added back on here because I don't think we we talked about it for a while I know Amanda's been our been our sort of Representative there s were you also a representative to the Coalition so is there is there any update yes so we have sorry just for the Coalition against ha B so we have the next Coalition meeting is on May 22nd and we have um I met with um Carlos Hoy and Travis aarn our to administrator Lieutenant Barrett and um Jackie Wier and Kathleen Buckley and jerielle were with us for a meeting the other day planning for that um meeting next week and Carlos is going to um come help us put together some kind of a road map for some of that work CU we're really trying to plan about get the whole year next year planned out so we'll have our um meeting with the him and the team next week to move some of this work forward and really dig into what the progress is going to look like Le next year and get that schedule on to people and then over the summer our smaller team is going to really put together all the plans for next year to see how we what we can do to invite other voices into the room cuz that's where we haven't gotten to that point yet because we have to figure out where we're going and what we can produce and what we can sustain and that's our hope with this next meeting is that we can kind of plan that road map of what people want to do and then start to do all that over the summer so I'm excited to kind of move that work to the next step and the next level as well okay any questions okay so I guess um as we don't have a newsletter so our the the last thing on our agenda for for this evening before we go into an executive session is just finalizing a discussion on the 20 24 25 calendar last week we voted to add eat as a holiday to the calendar um but then there was sort of I I thought the it seems like there was maybe some miscommunication whether we were officially moving whether we officially moving for it again yeah no no I know but I'm saying whether we officially moving the the last day to the 20th or I think you had looked into potentially finding some Alternatives if there were any yes we did Joanie and I looked into it I you know we have we really couldn't come up with any other solution the only solution would be to back up the first day for staff to the week before which would be the you hate to do that on a Friday because it's a long full week that first week which is always hard so it would be the 22nd would be a Thursday and I would you know staff aren't ready to do PD then so they've asked us not to do it right before school when they're anxious to get you going with their students so we have moved the first PD to September 13th and then we have esy so just you know it would really cut our time for staff short and um so that's really the only alternative we have at this point just don't plan any final exams on that last day of school cuz it's the day after holiday and summer do they do them on a I would assume not yeah just don't put any finals there yeah that's true it would make I doubt especially people people who go to China India and Korea and all of those countries they will thank you a lot the we the holidays lineups I was going over this with Lisa delusio um yam kaper I believe is the only holiday that falls on the weekend so there are I'm going by the 12- Monon calendar so but there are 20 holidays throughout the year that our 12- month staff would be off and then um I don't know if it ever gets to 21 because I don't know how from year to year it's different but we had um the most we've had is 20 now the Maxum be 21 with the current schedule we have so are you good with I don't think what does that actually mean if you don't mind ask match 31st will be a day off for all all members yeah really appreciate some backup sorry sorry if we weren't clear about that I it was I just wanted to Y no no doing that we really do appreciate it you see because I was born and raised in England my name is Arena Basher you want to go up to the mic 185 Washington Street being 25 26 years before that I was in England and um growing up it was very tough because we besides Christmas we weren't allowed to have a holiday so I really cannot thank you enough for doing this for us it's really appreciated so that's about it hats off to you all thank you thank you thank you um so with that I'll I'll entertain the Motions officially just without without any kind of doubt move the last take a picture of it we all know hold it up the LA the last day uh to of the planned last day of the school year to the 20th with the official last day of what what is the that would be the 27th the 27th if we had five if we had have any inclement weather but I believe we actually have to do that though anyway you would have to revote that next year we cane the last day anyway by cythia second all in favor okay car thank you thank you um with that we've come to the end of our um uh public portion our next uh meeting will be actually on Monday we're going to just sneak one more for you for you guys who are uh you know doing that one some of the main events is just trying to settle up on on minutes so so that would be the 20th right not the 23rd correct correct you will not have to come on the 23 that's exactly what I'm asking AB exactly what I'm asking you can show up with a black sure with a blackard those are the same those are the same seats you have to anyway um so um ex session and then we're going get into executive session but we do have minutes that we need to approve next week um some so anyway so now it entertain a motion to adjourn from Open Session into executive session from which we will not return for the purposes of conducting strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel um and to discuss strategy with to collective bargaining if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares and that's really collective bargaining with the hft do I have move by Cynthia my do okay that requires a roll call vote you're not Amanda you are mini um yes Cynthia yes Sarah yes Lisa yes Don yes Dan yes thank you very much uh we stand adjourned e