e e e e e e everybody else set welcome everybody I'll call the meeting to order uh first order of business is Pledge of Allegiance please stand if you're able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance uh next item on the agenda is public comment does anyone have anything they wish to discuss not on tonight's agenda seeing no one I'll move on reports from school committee members chess quick and efficient so um I wanted to start by just making sure everybody remembers that the hbb playground fundraiser run for reset a 5K walk run at Pratt Farm is coming up on Saturday April 20th um the hbb PTA has a goal to raise $90,000 in two years to help renovate that playground you can register for the race um it's really easy to find if you just Google Run For Recess 5K and the race management page will come up they're also looking for sponsors at lots of different levels um if you have any interest in sponsoring or you have trouble finding the registration page you can email hbb playground gmail.com um I also wanted to mention that I was able to attend the fake and fatal um event that was organized um by Josh Porter I wanted to extend a thank you to him for all of his um impetus in getting that event organized it was terrifying but important event to attend um it was a really solid turnout which was wonderful to see with members of the the town and uh School Community represented um but it was a very powerful event and I just want to to thank them for thank everybody who participated for putting that together um Colin's here so I don't know if he's going to incorporate these things so I'm going to just quickly say um the Fine Arts performing arts program at the High School put together a showcase last night I hadn't seen an event like that before it was wonderful we got to see the band and the orchestra and the two choirs perform but also students who wished had gotten a chance to audition um and perform we had classical music we had lot nice to see we had a couple drummers come out from the back and they performed solos all by themselves which was fantastic to get surprised by their talent um so in general it was a wonderful evening thank you to Mr pittsley Mr moer uh Mr suzer for putting that together it was an very enjoyable evening um also want to congratulate the students that were able to um be part of SBA last weekend which was also at the same time that the cas and crew was putting on death by chocolate which was a very entertaining event here um going back a little bit further uh the mkg colonial plays were performed right after our last meeting they were highly entertaining those students were super fun to watch and they had such a great time putting together it looked like they had a great time putting together a a really entertaining afternoon of educational and a little bit of tongue-in-cheek content because pretty sure uh Chick-fil-A was not at the Boston Tea Party um and I will remind Mrs White that if you're going to do the event like that on pajama day again we need the memo so we dress appropriately um and then there have been some fantastic Sports recognitions that Bran's been sending out in the high school bulletin so hopefully Colin has those and that's all I arrowed down so thank you anyone else have anything Alan uh I attended the um the sports awards night the other night and uh for the middle school and the high school and that was uh pretty fantastic to see all those athletes up there up here getting their Awards and everything we have some very talented athletes and uh if you're a fan of wrestling I would keep an eye on the wrestling team for the next couple years because they got a guy there who's uh breaking records left and right and he's in only in the eighth grade so thank you anybody else Marcy um I just want to quickly um the community heard the news of um the Beloved Derek Thompson leaving hbb and I just wanted to put that you know he's been the Principal of hbb for the past 12 years and we thank him for his dedicated service and there hasn't been a single person that you can talk to that hasn't had like the kindest things about him how he was dedicated smart professional kind um Quality principal but an even more wonderful person and um everyone's sentiment is that's hard shoes to fill for the school um and the district um and just on that note um I think as a committee we have to start looking at why we're losing good quality people in in our district um and I think that if we don't start questioning and don't start asking the hard questions then we're failing to do the job that we were elected to do as the committee and that's just basically what I wanted to say for that thank you I heard similar about uh Mr Thompson um and I'm sure we'll we'll get into that in the future uh on the topic of wrestling Middleboro Mania at Nichols Middle School is tomorrow night it's a fantastic uh fundraiser highly recommended I think there's still tickets available um but don't quote me look on the the website also uh last week the the mech um did A Dance Aon so I just want to thank the PTA Mr goil and everyone at the mech I heard a whole lot about that uh raised a lot of funds and was a good time um and on that note uh back in January we did a student celebration of students from the mech and I think we you know I would love to see more uh student recognition on all these wonderful things like the colonial play the things uh Jessica mentioned um at the school committee meetings early on and recognize all the great things especially that the littles and the younger kids are doing that's what I got thank anybody else I just like to add two things one is about Derek Derek was fantastic um I enjoyed doing with them all the time I think um we and Middleboro have been blessed for the most part because if you look the national average for principles is about four years um most principles last about four years and thankfully we have a good crop of principles who've lasted well beyond that and I think uh sadly the way things are now you don't have people lasting for very long unfortunately um and that that's a reality that everyone has to come to especially these days but we thank DK for his service and um everything everything he's done for us uh I've enjoyed his company over the past 10 years and I I know we'll still have conversations um and with that I'll turn it over to you col are you guys um sorry I couldn't make it to the last meeting I sent an email and I realized I didn't have service down in ay so it didn't send um so to begin with uh at the mech uh they have parentage conferences this week uh also the nicer weather this week and earlier last week has given the uh classes and the students an opportunity to outside and learn actually about the rainbow science the science behind the rainbow between the colors uh also report cards we posted an asking earlier this week on Monday and students will will receive a copy sent home on Tuesday uh and the next PTA meeting will be held on April the 4th uh at the mkg uh I was looking over the newsletter I thought this was awesome uh second grade students had a cross curricular program or project uh where the students wrote a narrative about an island or a madeup uh area that they came up in their mind and they actually built a map with clay and learned about the land forms and Landscapes around it which I thought that was really cool um also fourth grade students uh permission slips and money orders uh for the field trip in June are due next Tuesday uh also during lunch uh students were visited by the middle BR Mania wrestling and uh also the school store has been running great and smoothly thanks to the possibil or thank you to the uh volunteers app parent teacher volunteers or the parent volunteers sorry stumbling um they great and thank you for your volunteers um the hbb uh school had a a book Bingo PTA event last Wednesday and also tying into this they had a readathon starting last weekend tomorrow um also I just want to say a thank you to Mr Thompson as well cuz I as a principal he did great especially with uh me with the food allergy I know he put up with a lot of stuff with that and he did great so I just want to say thank you um at the Middle School uh Spring sport trials have begun uh with many students signing up to play the sports uh I know for a fact uh the baseball team has an absurd amount of kids signed up right now they're have to do a lot of cuts but that's great for the uh participation uh also an eighth grade student is part of the project 3 351 uh program and he's holding a cradle to crayons clothing drive at the middle school starting next Tuesday and ending April 4th as well uh also the school is having their stem fair taking place 27 on the 27th next Wednesday uh also the PTA is sponsoring a middle brow Mania at middle BR Mania 3 tomorrow at 6 pm. at the Middle School uh at the high school as I mentioned while I was near for the last meeting uh middle BR attended the masc conference two weeks ago and we did great uh our school is honored to accept uh the a gold School of Excellence uh plaque and also uh Jacob Waterman our own student had won the position of MBC vice president which was great um spring Sports have already started to begin with sports pitches happening tomorrow uh sophomore Ela MC testing will be taking place next Tuesday and Wednesday also as mentioned the high school put on a great musical performance and also uh Speech and Theater Workshop uh performance last weekend and as well as Mr MHS taking place this Friday in this Auditorium thank you guys cool with that I'll turn over to superintendent for the superintendent report thank you chairman young and U members of the school committee so tonight there are three items on my report the first is the St uh student Opportunity Act plan proposal that I'll I'll start with that'll be the lengthiest part of my report this evening then I'm going to preview a proposed prek tuition rate increase um that we will talk about uh at next meeting with director Jennifer Healey as well and then finally just the Reeds collaborative board of directors um that I'll you know form that I'll be at talking a little bit about my role with reads and asking um the school committee to um endorse my continued participation there the student Opportunity Act which you've probably heard about in the news um talks about school funding and and if you remember from the budget presentation we are a minimum Aid District which means the student Opportunity Act money allocated to Middleboro is at the minimum rate of $30 um per student that said student Opportunity Act money has been coming into the district for several years every three years we have to draft a new plan to talk about the allocation of these funds so that's what tonight is I'm presenting our plan and asking the school committee to approve this plan um I sent you an updated you know as late as not that long ago I had an updated version but this is um a pretty dense n page report the format comes from the state if you're wondering why does it look like this and why is it in these boxes and why is it written so robotically um this is a a template given to us that we have to file tonight what I'd like to do is talk about it in a little more plain language so that it's a little easier to understand ultimately this plan is a mandated and prepared plan for the state to make sure that we're using evidence-based programs to address disparities and outcomes so when we say we're going to do something we can't just say well we think we should address it this way we have to use what's called evidencebased uh programs in order to address what we're seeing um the funding must be allocated for this purpose and we have to base it on the data that we've collected so I we can't say it we think this is going on we have to look at data that we've actually the states collected we've collected and then draw some some conclusions this is also not a standalone document no disrespect to this document but the strategy for continuous District Improvement really more more thoroughly and comprehensively outlines our Five-Year Plan to address District Improvement in discrete areas so I I want to make sure it's read in the context of that document as well so I'll begin with what our data is telling us and our our data is pretty straightforward in the sense that our data does show dis discrepancies or disparities in achievement on standardized testing for students with disabilities English language Learners and students with economic disadvantages so what does that mean students without those categorizations are performing slightly better and so that's a concern for us as a district the disparities are noted at all levels so it isn't necessarily just happening at elementary level or the high school level it's pretty evenly occurring across um all levels and we believe that targeted interven with evidence-based programming will address those disparities so while I can feel like Thea plan is something extra or an addition it's really in line with what continuous District Improvement is all along and by way of reminder for the for our community when you're adding up students with disabilities English language Learners and students with economic disadvantage that's 50% of our population so if you're hearing this and thinking well how many kids is that how relevant is that it's 50% it's it's half of our population so there's no scenario where we wouldn't be addressing this anyway in fact none of this work is new um this is the plan that codifies how we're going to address it so ultimately the question is what are we going to do about these things and it's divided into three core buckets if you'll notice one is an elementary Focus one is a middle school focus and one is a high school focus the elementary Focus really looks at early intervention and Readiness through literacy programming using both a systematic approach to phonics and comprehensive dyslexia screening um you know honestly a robust early literacy program targeted at students in grades prek through five is our our best defense to addressing these disparities in turning to the middle school it's really our plan is to look at the creation of a multi-tiered system of support and intervention that includes an RTI block which for those of you at home following along an RTI block is response to intervention it's a devoted block of time um within the schedule so that students can receive interventions extensions emotional support and guidance um this also allows teachers valuable time to collect data through Panorama um examine the achievement data and focus on on well-being um these tiered interventions as well as instructional coaching um you know make up our research-based um instructional practices at the high school level we're looking at boosting our high school engagement and achievement in the student population the most significant way we are looking to address that is through the creation of multiple Pathways um for Student Success so that's really looking at harnessing our my laab which is our maker space our Project Lead the Way classes um and our Innovation Pathways program which is new to the high school ultimately this is looking at programming for high school students and making sure they have multiple Avenues to pursue it's not just one Avenue for some students that'll be a four-year college for some students it'll be a two-year college for some students it'll be employment it's our job to prepare them regardless of the road that they're going to choose um it also involves this High School initiative also involves the creation in the building down into the middle school these same Pathways so that you're you're tapping into our 6 to8 community and kind of peing those interests at an earlier age so that by the time they're at high school they're not for the first time thinking about their future we will have been doing that at the middle school level all along finally the opportunities so if you notice when you look at these you know approaches the first one is really what I just outlined are student facing approaches these are all things we're going to do for students next are really opportunities for staff to engage in continuous Improvement now when I'm this is really staff focused when we're looking at that what are we talking about you know refresher and continued training in administration for Effective evaluation and coaching um learning walks making sure that we are really cultivating an environment um of improvement and growth and feedback working with our mea which is our our association to outline expectations for instruction in the classroom we're looking at teaming at the fifth grade level and I say teaming I'm talking about teaching from a Humanities and stem based approach um as a way to bridge the elementary experience into the middle school experience um the creation of data teams uh professional development as always this is part of our our everyday planning but also the provision of planning time for teachers so they have time to work together to do all of these things and the creation of professional learning communities robust professional learning communities where staff are seeking not just counsel from one another but learning from one another on a regular basis next is how we will address these disparities from the family approach these are all initiatives that don't in I mean of course they involve staff but it isn't really facing students and it really isn't facing staff this is the creation of how we're going to engage our families and stakeholders so that looks at tapping into district and Community groups ones that already exist and ones that need to exist like the creation of an pack so that our families have an Avenue for advocacy getting together um and learning more about this work workshops and seminars um and parent and caregiver Ambassador programs if we know that there are families who have had um whove moved into our community and had good success you know drilling into those families to welcome our newer families as they come along as you know this is a community influx um with a lot of growth on the horizon so in looking at this plan it really explains how we've already allocated those Chapter 70 funds it's really not additional money and I don't want people to to think of it that way um but I also don't want you to hear this and think we weren't already planning to do these things it's really taking the money we have and explaining its use to the state so that they understand that we're making a good investment with those funds um as I mentioned earlier we are that minimum age um minimum uh Aid status and the areas that we're targeting are in fact not new which is why you'll see them so prominently explained in the continuous the plan for continuous Improvement um so that's what I had on the student Opportunity Act plan I know again I know that it was dense are there any questions that you have on this item before I proceed to the other items quick question for the um early intervention I know I know there are parents in the community that um have issue with the dyslexia screeners are there going to be changes to to that and is there going to be new curriculum for children that have dyslexia like how are we going to start catching it earlier to make sure that it's caught before kids are in middle school so that's what the dyslexia that's a great question thank you that's what a that's exactly what the dyslexia screener is designed to do which is why it's now being initiated at that K level um we use early bird which is a state endorsed program we brought that on about a year ago um and it does look at periodic screening because what a kindergarten looks like in October is very different from what they might look like come May the whole purpose of that screener is to start identifying is this a reader with emergent challenges is this a reader um with dyslexia even even the diagnosis of Dyslexia in and of itself is can be tricky to to identify at that age so the screener lasts all the way through Early Elementary um so there is no plan to to move that screener but one because the screener is mandated the particular screener if there are concerns about that particular screener I I certainly think that's always worth a conversation certainly to our director of curriculum Dr Martis who couldn't be here this evening but if you if families have those concerns I would certainly direct them to Dr Martis so we can hear from the parent experience about that the the thought process behind the screener is to identify kids at the earliest age possible so then to intervene earlier thank you I've heard similar about the screener um but it's more of a a comment uh with the high school the creating Pathways um between the work in the my lab and I know it's not technically necessarily part of this but the youth Works program I've heard a lot on the state level about the work uh that we're doing here and they've had quite a few success stories already placing students in careers um so I think this is something that we're going to do in the future but it is already starting to work so thank you for that comment and yes I totally agree the the success we're having actually Kevin avad is in the rim so he can you know vouch for the the youth Works program not only has it been wildly successful we're seeing you know kids getting not just kids getting paid for work also building their resumés I think if anything what we'd like to see is youth Works youth Works expand to to not just select populations all students should have access if that is their chosen pathway they should have access to that so I think continued work through the student services department um is absolutely on the horizon and and certainly our early data is showing there's there's no reason to do anything but speed up on that on that end of things classes added to the high school School curriculum High School courses this year with that goal in mind to to open up some more of those options to more students to to bring that um to the Forefront because it has been really successful so yes with our Innovation Pathways grant for sure we are not only looking to expand but also build a junior my lab at the Nichols Middle School um and that would really be a huge win for our district because now there would be a very clear through line grades six uh through 12 um which would also change the program of studies at the high school because you'd be able to offer Advanced courses for kids who were able to select that track at the middle school level they'd be ready for more advanced content come High School um so that takes a couple of years to develop but but certainly a part of the plan just to clarify those are Grant funds it's not coming from our own budget right correct that's a separate grant that that uh Paul brandan and his team have applied for and obtained I'm very happy to see there's a number of initiatives that uh are centered around family engagement um Family yeah collaborative family engagement all that um do we have plans in place for people for students who may not have as strong of I'm trying to say this politically correct whose family may not be able to have the same level of Engagement as we might want sure that's a that's actually a great point Point how do you engage if there are limitations to that engagement so it's not spelled out in a separate initiative but I think the way we hold events matters if we're holding an event one of the things we learned this year with the um with our title one night was that if you don't provide transportation to the event it's going to impact how many people can attend the event so we're looking that at that through grant money in order to fund you know not just the event but the access to the event which I I think is probably what you're talking about so use of virtual events not having things Reliant solely on in person of course that opens up another access issue because you have to have internet and and a computer or phone in order to engage um but I think transportation is really the next is the next Frontier that when we're holding events we're providing access so that families can attend and then if if there isn't a family member that can attend at all looking at how we can store that information on our website make it more accessible after the fact I don't know if you've noticed but a lot of our events are now recorded and shared out after the fact for that exact reason because if you work for example if you work evenings and our events are in the evenings you're not going to be able to attend those and it shouldn't be an Eliminator for engagement so it there isn't a separate bucket for that but I think that that's something our executive team spends a lot of time thinking about in terms of what should family events look like what does that engagement sound like and how is it accessible to everybody thank you I think it would also be important to look at um you know what kind of translation services might be necessary at some of those events um especially if we're going to look to create a English learner parent committee um you know to make sure that we have the appropriate resources for them to to actively participate I would say that's probably one of the biggest areas of growth this year um is our use of not just Google translate but now pocket talks even you know onboarding an ESP a par professional our district um solely for the help of elll because there is a shortage of people with with multilingual skills um so making that that again it's an accessibility issue um but making that accessible to All Families is is hugely important um which is one of the reasons we use the s'more platform and the website in the way that it is because it's all translatable so thank you so do you want me to go to the next item yeah if you want to okay um because there's there I have to have we have to vote on this issue do you want to vote we have to vote on this one though right so chair want to take a motion to approve um the uh student Opportunity Act plan proposal it needs to be approved by us to be sent to desie do I hear a second second discussion did you have hearing that all those in favor say I I oppose it's unanimous thank you okay uh the next item is really a preview for a prek tuition rate it's a potential increase this is something that we'll be bringing to you and uh director Healey will be talking more about it um on April 4th ultimately the tuitions collected um for the preap program help fund the positions of the program they don't cover all of the positions in the program but they certainly help with the cost this was actually something that came out of the budget subcommittee so I know Marcy would remember that for sure um we talked about this as a group because what we're seeing is that the tuition that we're collecting are not covering 100% of even the positions that are allocated to be covered which makes sense because those positions you know uh with inflation and everything else the cost goes up so at one time they were covering the positions at 100% and now they're no longer um the fy2 budget certainly anticipates an expansion of this program including the opening of a new classroom because of increased enrollment at the prek level um what director Hy has done is collected an area study to really look at comparable areas and just Regional areas what does this cost the subcommittee had that moment when we were talking about the daily rates um and those of us who've had kids in daycare said wow that's a really affordable rate but I will say when you're looking at an increase if that increase is is too aggressive too soon then it becomes comes an accessibility issue to families that may not be able to afford it so I know director Haley wants to come and talk a little bit about what's going into this increase and and why and I know that her proposal will be to incrementally increase that tuition rate over a two-year period I know that she feels strongly that raising that rate too too high in one year alone is too much for our families to to Really shoulder so as I said she'll be she'll be here on the 4th to talk more about it but I wanted you to at least understand uh what what we're going to be talking about and if you have questions let me know and that way I can make sure we're we're prepared for for that next session so the tuition only applies to the the quote unquote role model students correct our right our community friends our community peers the program exists for special education this is why if you notice there are no public options for prek this is an issue plaguing the state of massachus for sure but most school districts if not all of them operate a program like this and it's because you have to to address students with disabilities so those students do not pay to attend the program but the community peers which are peers that you know have a have a range of functioning as well are invited into the program on a you know it's either three or four day a week basis I'm sorry four or five day a week basis I can't believe I just misquoted that um and you know they pay a yearly tuition so we're really looking at that yearly tuition what are we asking um our families to pay and then looking in light of our budget looking and saying is that covering what we need knowing it it won't ever cover the entire cost of the Staffing that's not the goal so I don't want to scare anybody with that but or that assumption that it's going to increase by that much but it is important that we stay current with what the rest of the the area is is charging thank you and with that I'll turn to my last item which is the form that you're holding chairman young uh the Reeds collaborative uh board of directors um is a group that's um alive and well I sit on the board actually I've I've been involved with the Reeds collaborative now for several years because before I was on the board of directors I was part of the special education administrators group The Sea group that director Healey is now a part of um the involvement of the board is in some measure a requirement of our membership we've been a member Paul and I were talking about this before the meeting we've been a member of the Reeds collaborative for decades if not since its Inception I do believe that when it was first established which you know since it's been here in Middleboro we've been a member I am currently Secretary of the board of directors I also serve on the Personnel committee um and I would like to continue in that role um what my involvement in this gets our community is quarterly updates updates from all the programs and departments um I'm also part of the budget process and approving um their budget on a yearly basis as well the yearly vote that we have to appoint the superintendent of direct the board of directors of reeds so chair entertain a motion for that so move D second discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous and I'll sign the form now thank you and that completes my report for this evening anything else excellent um next item on our agenda is consent agenda CH entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda do I hear a second second discussion uh just that it includes fundraisers and meeting minutes all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous we've taken care of the action items uh I put on um today you should have all received in your email a variety of things you will get in information from the superintendent and her administrative assistant an about uh pieces about the evaluation um I sent the evaluation link um I sent a couple things one I sent the physical evaluation to everybody probably around 6 o'clock tonight um included in that is the link to the desie website about the evaluation um also I put a link in to the mass Association school committee websites on evaluations and I also included a link to the actual F page instructional booklet on the evaluation um the evaluation will be due Friday April 5th and that's all I had for that particular piece um and then we put on the just a reminder for everybody annual Town election is April 6th and annual town meeting is the 22nd currently does anyone have anything else before we move on just on those uh notes I know candidates night is tonight and some people who are planning on watching our meeting also want to know where they could get information on that is it on mcam or yeah it's on the it's on the schools cable pieces the school educational television I'll get it right about okay all right it's also on YouTube educational television me and we should note that Zeke is not here tonight because he's participating in that um and um and to be honest we tried to make it short so people could participate if they wanted to and also the re to be honest with you at first I thought of not holding the meeting but the student opportunities act needed to be approved by us by April 1st so that was the piece for anybody who's here instead of at the candidates night um Middleboro cable access mcam record that and they will be rearing it uh leading up into the and with that the chain a motion to adjourn so second D second second discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous thank you very much everybody