e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e oh thank you here's a g Disco e are you all set my friend I will call the meeting back to order um we were just an executive session uh next up is Pledge of Allegiance I'd ask if you stand if you're able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Hello everybody uh next item on the agenda is public comment does anyone wish to speak on anything not on tonight's agenda seeing no one I will move on um discussion items reports from school committee members chess so in light of the Town election being on Saturday I just wanted to take a moment and um wish Zeke uh uh break a leg since we're on the stage for your reelection and to uh thank you Rich for your years of service on the school committee I know that they may have been contentious at times but uh I think anyone who dedicates as many years of their life to Public Service deserves a thank you and acknowledgement so thank you for uh being as involved in this town as you were thank you I appreciate [Applause] it anybody else see just to Echo those sentiments uh you um were a part of the school board when I was in high school just to make you feel a little old um and uh when I came on you were right there to be a mentor for me and I I really appreciate all of the work that you've done especially when I was in high school there was a lot of turbulence back then and um you really helped with that and so I thank you thank you Z I will tell you and for the audience in general I never expected to sit on the school board next to the person who took my daughter to the prom so that's always that's always a different experience but Z thank you for all your help and being there anybody else wish to say anything um with that I will move on I noticed Colin's not here tonight so I will turn over to the MEA co-presidents thank you for having us here this evening we would just like to take this opportunity uh to thank Rich Young with whom we've worked with for many years um we want to uh we're going to miss your collaboration and your support that you've provided us um over the years um I want to Echo that as well um I've been on the eboard for the mea for many many years and gone many contract negotiations with Rich and I appreciate uh his time and his wisdom thank you thank you thank you that's all we have for this even thank you very much any questions for the thank you ladies we'll move on to the superintendent report thank you chairman young members of the committee um my first item of this report tonight is the pilgrim area collaborative agreement that needs to periodically be reviewed um um executive director dipna Thomas is here tonight to talk a little bit about our membership with the pilgrim area collaborative and to talk about the collaborative agreement so I would invite you actually can sit at that table so that you could be a little bit more comfortable I sent you this agreement on in the Friday um the Friday flash last week and executive director Thomas is here to answer questions as well as a brief presentation hi everybody good evening thank you for having me tonight I am reaching out because middle borrow has been a part of the pilgrimmary collaborative since its Inception back in 1975 and so they've always been a part of the growing collaborative the needs of all the services the specialized programming and we continue to work very closely with your special education department Jen Healey as well as Carolyn lions and so our collaborative really you're very familiar with collaboratives especially given reads is right down the street um and so we specialize in providing services to our kids we run all year long because we do a variety of Home Services and we also have our day program as well as consult consultations um and then professional development Etc and so a part of the annual expectations um through deese is that you take a look at your collaborative agreement they don't have specific deadlines or timelines um but we like to keep it in line with when um the six-year audit will be coming out so next year they'll be coming to visit us and so this year we're just getting signed off um from all of our um member districts as you may recall our member districts are ducksbury Marshfield Plymouth stoen Whitman Hansen Middleboro Kingston Halifax Plimpton and Silver Lake and so um that's a little bit I'm sure you already read the document it's already been approved by desie we just now have to have the final um approval of the chair of the committee and Tonight is the last one and then it goes off to the department for the interim commissioner um to sign and then we move forward for another six years um very minor changes um to the document as you will see um in your packets the billing structure have been updated um in the agreement instead of using um it's build monthly um in the past but now it's build at a daily rate which is a better use for everyone involved in terms of especially the districts and then the verbiage with um the changes to Mass General Law chapter 40 and then the purpose really of the agreement is um it's the law that every educational collaborative in the Commonwealth um has have a collaborative agreement with their member districts there is no member funding so you don't have to even think about a budgetary piece um and we have students that we provide services to so any questions questions for Dr Thomas Dr Dr Thomas we appreciate all the work that you put into this and especially the relationship that we've had over the years I've been on this committee for 10 years so I understand how important your program is to us so I really thank you for everything that you do thank you um with that the chair will entertain a motion to allow him to sign the collaborative agreement do I hear a second second discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous so I'll leave that there thank you um and I will proceed to the next item I'll invite director Jennifer Healey up to the table to talk about an item I previewed at last meeting which is regarding our prek tuition rate um for our prek program at the memorial Early Childhood Center welcome director Hy I know you have a slide presentation as well I do thank you good evening school committee um thank you for having me to talk a little bit about prek I'm going to to go through just a quick kind of overview of our prek programming and then talk to you a little bit about what our current tuition is and what our proposal would be going forward so we have two prek programs tonight I'm just going to talk about our integrated program so integrated program is made up of special uh students with disabilities and also our community peers um and the community peers part is really what we talk about when we're looking at the tuition piece currently we have 32 two Community peer spots that are available each year um 16 for students in the morning and 16 for students in the afternoon and this crosses two classrooms the sessions are halfday sessions so two and a half hours per day and you can elect to either be in that 4 day or that five day um per week category each class is capped by the department of EDS so we need to have a balance between our community peers and our special education students so we're looking for about eight Community peers to our seven students with disabilities and those peers are chosen through an open application process and lottery so if you're interested families are um encouraged to apply for that and then we hold a lottery and students are chosen in those 32 spots and then we often have um a group of students that are sort of in in this the wing waiting in case somebody doesn't elect to take their spot um and then the number of applicants has ranged throughout the years so one of the things that's noteworthy is that over covid and the years that came after we did see a decrease in some of our um interest for Community peer spots but we are seeing that start to elevate again and and Rise which is great our community peers must be four age four by September 1st and residents um and they also pass a screening after they are elected into the one of the 32 spots so they do go through a screening process our Preschool teachers are both Early Childhood um Educators as well as special Educators so that that dual criteria is really important for all students involved in this program they have some robust skills that they're able to offer we also have our esps in the classroom who have worked in that program um for many years and really offer a skill set that's unique to prek they also have the opportunity to engage in some of the uh elective courses within the um Memorial Childhood Center so art music library gym they're able to engage in those activities um and Community peers is really important for this particular program to grow because it's an opportunity for our students to be more inclusive to learn from each other to develop skills such as tolerance and resilience and empathy and kindness and teamwork so um it really is a a huge part of our prek development so with that our current tuition for our community peers right now is $10 per day and this has not been updated since fy19 when it was $7 per day um so as you can see depending on whether or not the students participate in a 4 day or a five-day per week program you can see what the annual rate would be there um our tuition payments are flexible we do our best to work with families so we can offer monthly payments if they want to pay the full annual payment that's fine as as well but it is noteworthy that that payment is important um it it funds a lot of our staffing it helps to fund supplies for this program and so using the tuition that comes from the pre revolving helps to offset the the budget um and support this program so in looking um to raise the rate of tuition I we did some local comparisons for towns around the area um and so I won't go through each one of these you'll see some of them are are separated with 172 days that would be a student who would attend all five days of the week the 142 would be the 4 day a week and then there is one program and RAM where they only had a three-day program so as you can see there's a daily rate the annual rate and so $10 for Middle borrow is is significantly below um what the average daily rate in any of these towns would be this information was collected both last year and this year so even some of these numbers may have increased over time um if they were the towns that we collected that data from last year so with that um in looking at our prek tuition and knowing how important our community peers are to to our programming we wanted to look at a gradual increase of this tuition um one because we want to stay we want to be able to kind of keep up with the increase of percentage salaries and also the increase in cost of supplies so we haven't really changed the model for prek tuition in quite some time but the cost of things has increased so that $10 a day actually doesn't impact us the same way it did a few years ago um and so we also want to stay fairly competitive with some of our other surrounding towns um we know that our program is strong and offers a lot of skills for our students both specialized students and Community peers so we we feel like we want to be able to maintain some of the similar daily rates that we've seen in other surrounding towns um but recognize that a change to the tuition is going to be different for amilies and we want to be able to prepare them um and do that in a gradual way so the proposal would be that for next school year 2425 we would increase that rate from $10 to $13 um which would give you that change annually for the 4 day per week and five day per week and then what we would look at is 20 2526 increasing that again to 15 again $15 as you could see from that chart is still relatively below the averages of other towns um but it does get us a little bit closer to what we're seeing um in surrounding towns and then beyond 2026 we'd have to take some more data and see what other towns are doing for tuition increases um and make determinations at that point in time are there any questions chess go right ahead um in terms of the applicants for this year do we have um enough of a waiting list if this increase were to make the option um not possible for any of the current uh lottery winners yes so great question one of the reasons that we did some of this research um last year and so one of the reasons that we didn't move forward with increasing to tuition is because we were still seeing that Fallout of covid and there was a fear that you know with raising the tuition we might we might not get the same um amount of interest for Community peers however after seeing what we got last year at the lottery and then just having our Lottery now I feel confident that we have enough numbers enough interest beyond the 32 slots that we would certainly fill those spots um regardless of the increase were those people who were um chosen from the lottery this year given any kind of notice that this may occur yep so there was a prek orientation that was held virtually for all families who who were chosen for the 32 spots and while the number wasn't um disclosed because at the time truly we were still conducting our research it was shared with families that there could be a change to this this coming Year's tuition and that something that was being discussed with um Administration and would be brought to school committee so it wouldn't be a I don't believe it would be a shock no that was that was definitely discussed question the current families have they any of them expressed any concerns about um paying the actual rate the $10 per day currently the current rate yeah not to my knowledge um but I would certainly say if there was a hardship to reach out to myself um so that we could you know talk further about that but not to my knowledge no thank you 32 how is that arrived how did we arrive to that number how is that calculated if it's calculated at all is it is it a set number and have we thought about expanding the number if possible sure so so expanding the number would would cause us to look at how many classrooms we really need so again those numbers come from the Department of Ed and how many classrooms we're opening so as you can see we have that Am Pm time slot and so we have our 16 for the am and the 16 for the PM because we have the two classrooms and we need to have eight and seven so when you do that math out that gets us to our 32 spots if we were to need to open up a third classroom um because we had increased special education numbers then we would need that much more Community peers to um you know to offset right thank you well along with what Zeke was asking um how can we expand this program like if we have over the last 10 years the applicants range from 65 to 135 we could double and still leave somebody out at the lowest amount of applications you know is it possible to increase the size make this opportunity available to more people it would be it would mean some changes within our programming so you would need to add another classroom which means you would need to add another teacher and um support staff within that classroom um and you would also be talking about you know looking at identifying more students and determining that criteria so while it it certainly is something to consider it would definitely have you know budgetary implications when we're talking about supporting another classroom just to we are required for any any students who are eligible yes for the yes so it would really determine on you know how many students are eligible at that given time do we have space in the building for more than one more classroom well there we've looked at some of the spaces um and we talked about this I think when I did my update because we talked about we could find one more but we did we didn't ask about too and and so when we look at numbers I'm more concerned about numbers with our substantially separate program uh currently than our integrated program I actually think you know numbers right now are not looking too bad um but as far as space goes if we were to expand both programs we would have to get creative I think um but yes we would absolutely be able to do one classroom two would be something we'd have to look at anybody else have questions you have a question go right ahead hello my name is Anastasia Horseman I'd like to um ask a question about how um you classify special education students how do they qualify or just qualify for the program please I don't know if I there'd be a series of evaluations that would take place so it would deter it would be determined on the evaluation material that came out and it would also be determined on whether not the students making effective progress um for our young students sometimes we get referrals from early intervention or we're working with surrounding daycare centers and preschools um to get their information on how students students are performing in in that regard and um so once all of those evaluations take place then there's a team meeting and the team would discuss whether or not based on all of that criteria the student does present with a disability and if that disability does um impact the ability to make effective progress okay thank you and you mentioned early intervention how do you qualify based on early intervention um in that team process so we work closely with early interventions so oftentimes there are um there are planning um meetings that take place with our early childhood special ed coordinator so when Early Childhood sort of flags a student we would go in we would meet with families um typically this happens in their home or virtually and then that's when we you know determine whether or not it really dep depends on the student's birthday and it the third birthday and um and then the evaluations would be set to be conducted thank any other questions chair would entertain a motion to approve the cost um changes to the preschool program to second second discussion just to clarify we're approving both years we're approving two years yes right now thank you hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous thank you Jen thank you table we're going to be um having him highlight the nask findings uh neas is the association that um offers accreditation for Middleboro high school and all high schools in Massachusetts this is a process that's been going on for several months we've received a final report Mr branagan is here to report out on the findings I believe he was here before the process um before they came on site as well so with that Mr Branan uh welcome and great good evening everyone I'm really excited to be able to share with the community tonight our report of our collaboration visit that happened back in November um it has been 10 years are actually longer because of the pandemic of when we had our denial visit and since then that nask has which stands for the New England Association of schools and colleges that they have redesigned the entire process so instead of just having a visit every 10 years they do this pre-check that happens um two years out from your visit so um tonight it is based upon really our own reflection of really what we who we believe we are as a school and really our own research of how we are setting our sites on the standards of nesk and then we have a team come in to actually share um either collaborate and say you're right on point and that we agree and your direction is great or we really think there's some other areas here we may need to consider it's I think it's important for context that in 2013 when we had our Nas visit the last time and when we had our report we had 68 recommendations that the high school needed to address and the high school was placed on warning in this um report there were only five um recommendations and the recommendations aligned perfectly pretty much with exactly what we believed our work needed to be done um which was really quite exciting so I just want to share with you a little bit of just um the overview of this and really just the next steps first and foremost just a thank you to the steering committee you just see the list of Faculty members um from the high school that sit on this committee especially to Candela Mew and to Justin pittsley who serve as the accreditation coordinators um they have guided us through this important work um that ended in November and then we pause and then we start mobilizing again to get us to the desial visit that will happen in 2025 um just to take us back a little bit for the committee and for the community that this whole process began for us in the fall of 2021 um we began to unpack the standards of Nas there are five of them and really um for us to be able to identify really how do we align with these particular standards um throughout the spring of 22 it was the mobilization of the committee and then all of those members that I showed you a moment ago are all assigned one of the standards that they need to be able to dig into to every aspect of our school and to be able to find evidence to show that we're meeting it in the fall of 22 um we sent out a survey to the entire School Community it was three different surveys but all of them were very close to each other there was one that went out to every parent in the community um all of our students as well as our um our faculty and then all of that information goes into nees and they generate a report for us to be able to look at our Trends areas of strength areas of of potential Focus um and that gets all built into our work with our report and then really in the fall of 22 spring of 23 it was really the committee review and bringing it then to our faculty to say this is where we are this is what we where we think we're meeting against our standards and then ultimately writing the report over the summer and finally submitting it last full these are the standards that are um we that all schools that are part of the nas accreditation process much must meet they've streamlined this and the last time there were seven standards that needed to be met and now they've paired it down to five I think the five that they have selected are the most important and most critical learning culture student learning professional practices learning support and learning resources this is also part of actually what we based our own self-reflection but also when the nas accreditation team came in in November they're taking our self-reflection but they're paing in that with really what they're seeing in the days they're here at the high school and here's the ratings what I wanted to make sure as you could see the ratings that we as a faculty had um identified in whether or not we met the standard or did not meet the standard in learning culture it splits it into two categories one is that the school Community provides a safe environment we really felt that we met that standard in in the second one that we have a written document describing its core values beliefs and learning and the vision of The Graduate we felt as a faculty we did not meet the standard and I'll tell you why that is because we were in the beginning stages of the process of writing and designing our vision of The Graduate and because we felt we did not have that completed that we did not feel we had met that standard in student learning the written curriculum is in is consistent formats for all courses in all departments across the school we selected that we were not did not meet that standard now you're going to notice it's that this a consistent form format it's not that we don't have curriculum because we do but we have pockets of the way the math department is writing theirs and The English Department was writing theirs it was very different from each other and so the format is where we saw ourselves that that's the work we need to do is to align all of that curricula into really a common format that is going to be easily used by all of our stakeholders in the building but also more importantly the cross-curricular opportunities that we needed to improve professional practices we thought we met that standard in our self reflection the school has a current Improvement and growth plan between our school Improvement plan the accountability planning that we have as well it as long as as well as the district Improvement plan all of those pieces funneled into the fact that we actually met that standard in learning environments the school has an intervention strategies designed to support Learners we felt with all of the evidence that we were able to collect in our own study that we felt we met that standard and that lastly the School site and plan to um support delivery of curriculum programs Services I can tell you now being in this building it was an easy one to say that we met that standard it's important to note that when we were on warning in the prior accreditation that part of a huge part of that warning was the facility and so we knew the fact based upon the evidence that we were able to collect that we were in a very different place so now comes a visit so we collect all this information we write this comprehensive report we send it into Nas for their review and their and their consideration and that begins is at the stage for the visit on November 13th and 14th um we had a team of Educators from around New England come here to the high school to spend two days with us it it considered it consisted of student Le Tours um student meetings where we had stakeholders of of students from all over our school community be part of focus groups with the committee um classroom observations um it is a charge that they have to observe every single classroom in this building um and I think they had a 99% % um accuracy of making sure they hit every classroom but then you see all the focus groups that they are also with um meeting with as well from all of our department leaders to the student groups um parents and caregivers teachers Support Services the executive leadership team the curriculum team the steering committee and finally the administrative team they spend the first day here really in entrenched in every aspect of our school they spent most of the lunch Block in the cafeteria meeting informally with students and they will go back to the hotel and they spend most of the night writing reports second day they come back in it's a lot of report writing reins and followup of anything they wanted to learn more about now I want to share with you what they felt about their visit um so these next five slides are going to be really in comparison to really that slide I shared with you about how we rated ourselves as a school now this is what the accreditation team felt for learning culture and those two strands of learning culture they felt as as well that based upon all of the evidence a part of their observations as well that they felt that the school Community provides a safe learning environment um also in the second one now this is the one that we felt as a faculty we did not meet the standard they however really um countered and said you almost absolutely didn't meet the standard that we have a written document believing in our core values beliefs about learning and the vision of the graduate because we had implemented our vision of The Graduate we were doing testing with all of our students and really getting that the identity of our vision of the graduate in play because of the work we're doing as a district to make sure that the vision of The Graduate just doesn't start at the high school it starts when our Littest of Learners are entering their educational experience in Middleboro they felt truly that we met the standard in student learning um they agreed as well that the written curriculum is inconsistent in format in all courses this is something that because of the curriculum team that they actually felt as well that were in really good process proc of of getting there that we have all the curriculum documents we have common assessments we have pacing guides all the things you need in curriculum however the one thing that we were missing was the format that was that was equal no matter what content area you went to but also the ability that that curriculum could cross over to each other because we also know that the skills that a student is learning in one particular class can be transferred to another and that was really where that they concurred with that didn't meet the standard um School Improvement plan and the professional practices for really how we as a as a as a learning community they really felt that we were meeting the standards on that particular one as well as learning support that the intervention strategies the designs and the programs we have in place here at the high school for our students they felt that we met the standard and lastly the School site and plant um supports the delivery of the curriculum programs and services they had outstanding things to say about aspects of this building from The Innovation lab to the Arts to to um our academic center they were really quite impressed with the facility so here is really where the two come into agreement so what happens in this report is you have our self-reflection you have their report and then comes out of that is an area of priority areas this is what is new with nas because anyone who's been part of these of the desial visits in the past it is they tell you what you need to do and then you have to figure out how to make that happen it's really putting a round peg into a square hole what this really looks at Now is really how we collaborate and say these are the things that we really feel are our priority areas and then the accreditation team will Concur and say you're absolutely on point these are the ones that we are have identified collaboratively are our priority areas one it is the further implementation of the vision of The Graduate there is work being slated for the summer that would bring K12 people together to really say how do you implement it what does it look like what is the performance assessments that you would create to help students really see the growth of their learning as they transition from grade to grade and school to school ensure that Learners have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning everything from Equitable retake revisions of of Assessments to grading policies across the school this is something that is a body of work for us that's been ongoing and they concurred and they celebrated the fact that we were engaging in this important work written curriculum in a consistent manner we're all on that but the one in Orange is the one that we really were um really surprised I'm really happy with we felt as a school that in all of our data points especially the nas survey that went out in the fall of 22 that it was overwhelming of the amount of kids who identified the fact that they have really positive staff to student connections they felt there were people in the building they could go to they felt connections to to their to their teachers to the staff where we found that we were weak or we for us anyway was peer-to-peer environments and engagements we felt that was something that was really an area of priority the reason why that I highlighted that in Orange for this presentation is that Nas did not find that here um and actually when they were meeting with the student group they were actually blown away about how the students talked about how they support each other how they engage each other and how really they're a community which was awesome to hear as a as a as a school but we still feel as a as a school community that that is important work that we need to be continuing to do so we still identifi that as a priority area and then also the opportunity for professional growth and development really just making sure that we can really create a con a really strong concept of teacher efficacy and in really professional growth these are just really quickly the commendations which I thought is important as a school community that you could hear and see exactly what nias felt about your high school um it's physically safe environment for all Learners the active inclusion of all constituencies at all grade levels in the development of a vision of The Graduate that includes attainment of transferable skills knowledge understandings and dispositions necessary for future success that document is becoming a K12 document which is just so exciting and I'm grateful to the district to embracing that the significant number of programs that meet the needs of all students the individualizing and a personalizing of learning needs to meet the learning needs of our students and the school school Community takes Collective responsibility and for the intellectual physical and social emotional well-being of every student the theater television wood shop engineering spaces that provide exceptional opportunities for students creativity skill building an authentic demonstration of the acquisition of skills that final statement was something that they kept honing in on over and over again in the visit because they could actually see the transference of what was happening in The Innovation lab and in the programs that they identified here and it was transcending into the academic classes as well the support services of the library counseling department health services and academic support are well integrated into academic social emotional aspects of the community and lastly the school's commitment to ensuring that Learners demonstrate depth of understanding over a breath of knowledge um it was pretty cool to see those lastly just our recommendations here's where the important work begins it is really um as we move towards Excellence it's that increase in the format the scheduled opportunities for teachers to engage in that ongoing reflection in formal informal collaboration it's the development of professional learning communities the writing of curriculum in ensuring the fact that our teachers have time to be able to assess their practice and to be able to identify the entry points of their own professional growth because we know their professional growth impacts our student growth as well and ultimately that teacher efficacy recommendation two is that to make sure we have effective curricular coordination with with in among academic areas department and program in the school this is already something that's highly in motion here with the work of our curriculum team and with the leadership of our department heads as well number three is the vertical articulation between schools and sending schools within the district through again the work of our curriculum team this is already work that's in motion there's a monthly articula um vertical articulation team that meets that High School teachers are meeting with the other grade levels as well to make sure the fact that as kids are transitioning from building to building the fact that the the skills are coming with them and lastly this is one that we knew was going to be something we wanted to look at and we've been looking at it anyway but Nas thought it was important is examining the use of our e-hall pass system to double check the process in regards to safety accountability and faculty time away from teaching the e-hall pass is our Hall Pass system where it's no longer the paper pass or the book it is really everything is online however the there we got it because it was paperless during the pandemic there's unbelievable things about e-hall path but there's also some really unique challenges with it and this is something that the administrative team has been working on and it just became solidified in our era of recommendation as well so we were pretty um it kind of confirmed the work we need to do and just lastly um for the next steps we're mobilizing the new Nia steering committee that that self-reflection team that I shared with you at the beginning has now been disbanded and now there'll be a new team that will be created to guide us to the denial visit the assess of recommendations of the prior and the priority areas in creating the entry points that will appear aligned to the district Improvement plan but also the new school Improvement plan that will be written this summer aligning to the school Improvement as I just said School summer work opportunities the engagement of goals for the 2425 school year and Beyond and lastly the completion and integration of the vision of The Graduate and lastly just for save the date that we actually received our letter today just kind of strangely um that they will be coming back um on October 26 through the 29th in 2025 and let me tell you what will happen at this visit that everything we I just shared with you it is expected that when they come back in 2025 that we either made substantial progress or we have completed every single one of those recommendations I can really say to you with confidence that this faculty is ready for this and I think the fact that I'm pretty confident that when we reach this this desal visit in October of 25 that we will have met all those requirements um so any questions and I thank you for your partnership with nesk it's an important aspect of our school that it's important for a high school to be accredited and we were pretty proud of the of the experience that we had back in November so thank you before you go into any questions um I just wanted those commendations by Nas are are superb um they're wonderful to see um outside organization see all the wonderful things that happen in this High School um so um want to commend everyone in in the building for that um I also just wanted to commend you all and the the committee for keeping an item on your priority list that wasn't brought up by the committee but you still saw as an area that the school could improve um I think that shows the the value of the introspection that goes into the process and um that you're doing this all for the right reason and not just because they told you to so thank you for that um for the the E e-hall pass um just to clarify the the time away from learning that you mentioned is the time that it takes the staff member to manage the system that's taking them away from their other responsibilities right so the teacher has to generate a pass so the student generates a pass from their laptop and then the teacher has to approve the pass for them to be able to actually then have the pass executed for them to go um and that is really where it creates some hiccups here and there and teachers have found creative ways of navigating that but ultimately it has been something we've even noticed as well we didn't need them to tell us that but it actually gave this confirmation of like all right folks we need to buckle up and figure out how we do this because as aspects of it we're like well if we didn't have e-hall pass would it be the end of the world no it wouldn't be but there's some really unbelievable things that come out of e-hall pass that we would never have if you had the paper pass or take the book with you as your as your you know hard copy thing you have in your hand going to wherever you're going and that there's really some items in there that are really helpful and useful to a school and to faculty but it's just finding the marriage between what's really good about it but also how do we make the things that really aren't with it much better for our for our stakeholders here so um the only other uh comment I have is um ahead as you gave us a date um it would be I think it would be great for the summer of 2025 to to plan for an update so before the new school year happens and the uh the visit occurs that uh we could just get uh an update from the committee even if it's sooner that's great but I would definitely love to hear uh progress updates on how you're proceeding with meeting the goals that you've set out for yourself certainly uh it was 68 recommendations yes and then five that's pretty damn good I uh I don't think anybody has any doubt that you'll get all five thank you hope thanks I will just say to address the 68 that um when we were accredited in 2003 um that between 2003 and 2013 there were easily believe a dozen or so different administrators that were coming in and out of the of the building but also the district and the fact that it was um that even though we were meeting the benchmarks that we had to within the 10 years that it really became a an element of really just things that we needed to make sure that became the priority even after they leave um and that it just became really a body of work for this faculty to make sure that we never were in a position like we were in in 2013 te um and so we're really quite happy when they left that we were like we did it so I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you the committee and all the staff here at the high school for this it's a Hu I knew it was a huge undertaking and it just goes to show the commitment that you guys always have in the students so thank you thanks you okay with that I'll turn to my next item which you have in your folder is a salary update for long-term there's a it's the salary for substitutes but there's only one proposed change here it's something that we've discovered um you know in the last two years that the way it works when you substitute for us is that if you're going to be in a long-term assignment after the 31st day there is an increase in paid to The Bachelor step one rate we have had the Good Fortune of having substitutes come in and take consecutive um assignments so it would be different assignments but they would continuously work in the district and cover important important need for us but the way this was written that substitute would have to go back to the initial rate even if they were still in our district because the assignment was the same so what I'm seeking is the um the language here that just says with the approval of of the superintendent that a long-term certified substitute teacher who works in an assignment moves directly from one long-term substitute position without any break would continue to receive that Bachelor Step One Rate so it would still be subject to approval but this would allow us to provide more continuous coverage um and consistent consistent staff I mean it would be different assignments but that same person who's now been Road tested covered for us more than once um which has been beneficial to our students so that's the summary of what I'm seeking uh let me know if you have any questions questions with that the chair want attend a motion to okay the non-certified teachers the non-certified substitutes um not having the same Clause um is it because they can't cover for that duration of time or right well long if if there is no certification then that warrants a waiver for us after a certain period of time and also could present additional issues with implementation of programming or special education services that those Services have to be delivered by certified staff so this is a a recommendation for just certified staff but I will tell you that typically this is a certified person that it you know what I'm saying it spend more than one individual but what what tends to happen is we're able to find a substitute who is certified but is looking for something longer term so if you're only covering a brief leave and we can put together more than one leave to not only meet our needs but meet the needs of our of our substitute it's a a win-win thank you chair will entertain a motion to um approve the salary update for long-term certified substitutes he a second second discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous okay and just before I complete this report I would be remiss if I didn't offer my heartfelt thanks to Rich Young I know the committee already thanked you for your time but I figured I would take a minute to talk about you know 10 years is not a short amount of time to serve on a school committee as you all know it's um it's not paid it takes up a lot of your time um rich and his time has served in our negotiations committees various subcommittees and ushered in New Super intendant um and I just wanted to say thank you personally and on behalf of the school district thank you now that completes my report for the evening thank you with that CH entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda d a second second discussion other than it just talks about um fundraisers and meeting minutes all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous um also show on an action item tonight there was uh old athletic uniform Surplus um Ryan had put a note in our a piece about old Surplus uniforms that he wants to get rid of uh CH entertain a motion to declare those Surplus do I hear a second discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I it's approved um I put warrant signing on here just so everyone knows um I have I will be leaving as of of SE Saturday um there myself and Zeke are the only two people allowed to sign warrants by the school committee um so what I wanted to do was uh chair when entertain a motion to allow any member to sign um until you get to the next meeting um and then are able to um decide who you want to sign warrants at that point do I hear second second discussion hearing n all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous um and then On a related matter we generally don't meet the third uh meeting in April because the third meeting in April is during school vacation so um I just wanted to make sure one of two things you either want to move meet on the first meeting in May or you want to set up another time to have a meeting yeah that's what so what we what day would you like that out that third week is so you're okay with keeping it during vacation or you'd rather move it out I am I can be talked out of that which day was that then so what that the the 18th keeping it as scheduled keeping it as scheduled the 18th it's up to the board well I'm traveling the week so that's part of the reason it could be done virtually 25th I like the 25th 25th work for everybody we continue that yes so we can probably have that disc we can have that discussion then and there whether or not we want to start doing second and fourth I honestly the we've typically done second and fourth in the past and all of you were I was very thankful when we decided to go the first and third because of a scheduling conflict for myself that is gone now so there is no conflict between like so if we if we move to the 205th we do the 25th and then we decide to do uh from there on out nine you know or you I don't know what's going to happen to me but you can you can disc decide whether or not you want to do the second discussion with the new Bo yeah okay so the chair will have the superintendent at the next meeting for the 25th um it'll be one request before we um sure in preparation for that meeting um if you would be able to um Carolyn just check the use the use of the space to see if we switched to the second and fourth if that would cause yes significant conflicts with uh what's already allocated in to the space or how many meetings would have to get moved to other locations because we're heading up on that uh time of year where the auditorium gets a lot of use absolutely thank you so we'll set the meeting for the 25th um you guys can discuss the second and fourth at that point um that meeting will really revolve around the um organization of the school committee and any other things that need to be on for that reason U with that I'll move to the next item which is superintendent's contract um I put this item on the agenda as a space holder depending upon our discussion from the executive session um two meetings ago we met an executive session to discuss the superintendent's contract I was um tasked by the entire school committee uh to extend the superintendent's contract um and to create a new contract to add on to the existing contract so what I'm presenting to the school committee tonight is a new contract um that'll run um it'll commence July 1st to 2024 through June 30th 2028 um this will a couple of changes to her old contract um in the old contract she had a a program called inep which is the new superintendent inductions program since the contract started they added a year three so we included the year three in the contract um the superintendent uh um previous contract called up to a 3% raise um we reduced that to 2 and a half% in the first two years um and then the remaining remainder of the contract would be based on the negotiated teacher contract it would be the same as whatever the negot the the uh increase was with the teacher contract we added a pieing longevity um superintendent was uh the only person who didn't have longevity in her contract so we added the piece for longevity and the superintendent uh previously had U Transportation allotment in an IND in town uh piece and the rest to go to uh to plug in per month and we change that count car allowance to a monthly car allowance so I presented the school committee with it tonight and I'll open it up for disc discussion can we just I just want to make clear to the public that the change for compensation um I'm going to read the old contract and then the new one um the old contract the superintendent hereby accepts such employment at the annual salary of $187,500 for the life of the agreement superintendent will be eligible to receive up to 3% increase to salary each year based on the superintendent's achievement of goals and her annual per performance evaluation completed by the committee and then as everyone knows we the committee voted for a 3% raise so that bumped up to 193 125 and this contract the compensation is that the superintendent hereby accepts such employment at the annual salary of 197 953 effec of July 1st 2024 so it's an automatic 2 and half% raise effective July 1st 2025 the superintendent shall receive a 25% increase making her salary 202 903 another automatic increase any increases for the superintendent beyond that date shall be determined using increases applicable to teacher salaries as a benchmark again automatic increases in salary not based off of performance evaluations and as we discussed the when we did her last evaluation um I believe and members of the committee believe that it was automatic that she would get a raise up to 3% it's not written that way but just telling you what we believed and we continue to believe other questions from the committee with that the chair want entertain a motion to approve the new contract move goare a second second discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I opposed opposed nay abstain abstain thank you no public comment we don't have public comment on Personnel matters and we never have so thank you um just a reminder on the next um annual Town election is April 6th the town meeting is April 22nd um and with that I do want to thank thank everybody uh for serving on the committee with me I really enjoyed my time with everybody I do want to uh thank the teachers and staff um for working with them all these years I've really appreciated it especially appreciate ministration having got to know many of you over the period in time I really enjoy um working with you um I want to thank my family um it's you know it's hard when your kids go to school here to sit on the school committee I sat through a graduation ceremony which my daughter gave a speech about how my shaking her hand was less than anything else um and I also uh just want to thank uh the town I've had a really lot of fun and I would leave everyone with this last message um I think the important thing about being on a member of school committee or any um committee is that it's about the ability to have conversations with other people and make sure that you work together because it always takes a majority to make a decision so with that thank you everybody uh CH a motion to adjourn discussion hearing none all those in favor say I opposed thank you