oh no no just come Eary old kindergarten I look familiar yeah good how are you good to see you because she welcome to the school committee meeting for Thursday June 27th please join me in the pledge of [Music] allegiance to flag of the United States of America the indivisible andice for good evening welcome to the uh school committee meeting for Thursday June 27th um we will start off with public comment does anybody on the board have anything on the public comment anybody in the audience have anything at the public comment okay I would just ask that you start with um you give us your name your address and if you could if you're reading a a statement could you email that to us as well so we have a copy of that sure thank you I I apologize you have three minutes thank you can you hear me okay yes all right um Kristen Phillips 29 Fay Avenue midaro um hello my name is Christen Phillips I'm a Minar native and I have twins entering the second grade this fall about 48 hours ago I made the choice to step out of my comfort zone to come here and speak tonight regarding the number of resignations the district has had I made a general post on my social media account as well as the parents page letting others know my intent and if they share the same concerns I do to please join me it is alarming and overwhelming with the number of emails calls text messages and private messages I have received from parents current staff and former staff what troubles me the most is current former Staff feel more comfortable to direct their thoughts and concerns with me as they feel they cannot express themselves elsewhere one person States they went above and beyond their job title many times and as our current superintendent walked by them visually seeing the hard work they were doing outside of school hours at a school event they didn't even get as much as an acknowledgement or a hello another person stated that they walk on eggshells and they feel that they cannot express their truth as they are fear of losing their job another person expressed the chaos they feel within the special education department and how they have no support someone else stated that they have continuous meetings with the superintendent but they've had no resolution she refused to see any other side that wasn't hers one staff member stated that there have been involuntary transfers within the school district and although they have expressed their concerns with this many times they were stating it would not be a good fit they were forced to do such I could go on but you get the point the morale appears low in our staff when we trust to care for our children fear to speak up I'm concerned with the superintendent's goals and her evaluations the superintendent currently has no teaching experience nor principal experience it is crucial in any work at atmosphere to obtain staff input and I feel that especially in education we are so lucky to have caring teachers with an abundance of experience and ideas on what works and what does not this has to be a collaborative team effort in order to provide our children with success this is not a oneman show we need to hear from people that are actually working within the district directly with the children as they deserve to have their voices heard some of these staff and Educators have had their Roots planted right here in town and have had wonderful success within their positions but yet they're making lateral transfers we need to ask why now it's going to be understanding that any job will have a turnover rate but this rate in the past two months with more anticipated raises red flags moreover the constant turnover can damage the school's reputation making it challenging to attract and retain talented Educators in the future this could lead to a vicious cycle of instability further affecting the quality of Education our staff our children will receive but we need to ask why we need to conduct exit in interviews for the staff that are leaving we need to provide the staff that are staying with Anonymous surveys to freely Express themselves without fear of losing their jobs because we continue to lose top-notch Educators and staff Miss philps yeah you 3 minutes are up okay at a select board did you say that you weren't going to time anybody or is that I just haven't been on select board for a number of years Oh I thought you said that to the select board that you weren't going to time anyone I don't remember saying that um okay I said I'd allow anybody to say what they need to okay so I just have another paragraph This we're going to have a discussion a little later on you're more than welcome to regarding this topic you're more than welcome to stick around okay thank you does anyone else have anything under the public comment all right uh discussion items uh reports from school committee members anyone Mar I just want to say that I share the same sentiments um I've had plenty of Staff members coming up to me they're afraid to speak out um they feel unsupported and I'm imploring this committee to once again please have staff input when we do the superintendent goals and evaluations it's critical and vital to know how this the whole entire School Community is functioning we need their input anyone else so we're going to talk about their resignations later on you said the discussion under retirements res yeah okay the only other uh report I got was um in response to the 630 start time I had a number of stakeholders reach out uh that it was a little it might work for the summer but come the actual school year when kids are getting up the bus after 4:30 it might be a little too early for a lot of parents and families who either want to tune in or come and voice their opinions so just something we should think about maybe re-evaluating and Clos it at the start of school we did we did have a public discussion regarding it yeah you know so people who are surprised by that I'm not sure what else you can do besides have a public discussion but I'm more than happy to revisit it at any time okay anyone else have anything uh for school committee reports just want to uh the meetings will be posted if they aren't already um but we are beginning the uh Personnel meetings with the superintendent related to establishing next year's goals as requested uh we're starting the process sooner so that we can get those hopefully um on the agenda for discussion and approval before the school year Z I have a report I'm just asking uh besides I had gone to um Sten uh subc commmittee and it was very productive um we are going to meet again I believe just before the start of the school year correct well I I don't have that I think I have down the calendar but I don't want to take too much time away from today's meeting to go but we do have another meeting to through otherwise very all right um superintendent's report thank you um okay so tonight I'll pull up my actually have quite a bit to discuss tonight um including the the progress of the strategy which I think is you know a very important topic before we do that um at last meeting um we the three items tonight will involve the proposed handbook Provisions the update on the progress monitoring of the strategy and then just a brief um description of the Summer Conference I'll be attending in mid July um so to begin with at last meeting we had three handbooks that were proposed and I have representatives from the high school middle school and Elementary School here tonight to go over just some of the topics that we talked about last time if you recall there was some conversation just about the gender verbage of the dress code um that I know you know our team got together to discuss um the bus rules and conduct in particular that that messaging around communicating that student behavior in the classroom is what's expected on the bus um technology and smart watches whether or not that was included in the language and then some clarifying language around access of chewing access to chewing gum at school so uh principles and I got together to align language were appropriate we made an effort for example in the in the language of the dress code secondary both Middle School and High School thought it was appropriate to align that language so the expectation was the same and then not something that has to be relearned at at the transition period um but there were times when the where information is slightly different because it's developmentally appropriate for it to be that way and that's for example um less rules at the elementary level the rules you know not that the rules are different they have to be explained in a slightly different way than than older writers so the school committee was provided with three memos to just talk a little bit about what you can you'll expect to hear tonight I would invite all three principles you know up to the table so we can just go through that information briefly and we'll be looking for the school committee to approve the handbooks as as uh revised tonight here is um principal Jeremy goil from Mech principal Dr Checker from the Nichols Middle School and Mr Paul Bron principal of the high school so with that why don't we begin with the high school because I I believe the only the the discussion about whether or not um smart watches were included in the verbiage I believe principal beran found that that was already in existence in the handbook so U Miss ber if you want to take us away touch on just those few topics hi everyone good evening just there were two item um you were looking for clarification in the draft document of the high school handbook one of them was the inclusion of smart watches which was in the handbook in the school year and will continue to be in the next school year and it really fits in the same path as cell phones or any other electronic devices that they're powered down or silenced and then put away um during the class time and that it aligns with the rest of the policy when they're in common spaces passing from class to class and the student Commons and all of that that they're able to access those devices to check messages whatever it may be and the last one was that is in indicative of the um inquiry about making sure that the um that The Narrative of classroom rules it extends onto the buses and that in the policy that was developed by the bus company with collaboration of the schools that um number um on page 14 and 15 of the high school draft it states it very clear I think it's item number six or 13 of where it states that it is an extension of the classroom so that is languages in there that we'll be able to build upon as well so I think those were the two areas the high school handbook that You' been looking for clarification and I hope that helps great we'll turn to all any questions for the high school handbook before we go into middle school with that we'll go to Middle School um first uh for the middle school was clarification around the access to chew income and um we expanded the statement about um CH G not being permitted with the exception of um students with you know those written identified needs of disabilities for 504 and I so we were able to be inclusive of understanding that that is an accommodation that students do receive as part of you know their disability process so we just expanded that to make sure that there's an allowance with um the population of students that needs it uh the Middle School updated electronic devices to include smart watches we had not we had missed the smart watch memo so we added that to our handbook as well um wanted to identify that on page nine our existing statement um about the the way students conduct themselves on the buses to match that as expectations within the school and in part of our vertical alignment of handbooks and discussion during our meeting we actually added some language to number 13 to match the high school um which spells out a little bit more of the lary um procedures for non-compliance with school rules just so that way we are in alignment and the Middle School can feed into the high school without different expectations um for the Nicholls um dress code uh again um in ter to be uniform with the high school we aligned our language to match that of the high school so as part of our discussion um the middle school is um propos in to make a change to the language to match that of the high school which is um to be gender neutral and to you know um not be as specific but still have um expectations as to you know appropriateness of covering um so that's all that we had for the ns are there any questions no question okay no so we can move to Elementary um principal go and I spoke just about we were clarifying some of the bus rules and I wanted to know in all three sets of bus rules there is a bus rule it's actually about halfway down on the list but there is a specific bus rule that um talks about the fact that the be that was there before this week um just that behavior is expected to match what's in the classroom while riding on the bus and I think that you know really answers that inquiry but there was something else that we caught principal go bill as well there were two other other things one of them small thing um anywhere the class tag had been referenced in the student handbook is now going to be referenced as school stats connect there were a couple places that we hadn't found it when we we went through the review so we'll make those changes and then the student dress we also did align with both the middle and the high school just for consistency across the board um so we basically are going to adopt the the dress C policy U that they that um they have at the MD school high school any questions on any of the handbooks no questions with a statement I just want to thank you all for going back and and reviewing the language I very much appreciate the the clarifications and the specificity I think the more um alignment we can have the better we are and I think this goes a long way to the the mission that um Carolyn spoke about of trying to create what are district policies so that you all don't have to keep repeating and revising them and they're kind of kept distinct and the same across everywhere and then where we can have differentiation across grades we maintain a a level of growth in those rules um that's appropriate by age so thank you all very much um for going back and just uh taking that one last look at these types of things thank you V do you vote on this now you vote this at the end and entertain a motion to approve as presented the uh handbooks for the schools so move second a motion a second any comments questions all in favor I I oppos [Music] pass okay thank you I'll move on to the second item um which is which is likely so at the beginning of the year I presented the strategy um for continuous District Improvement this document is the document that the entire district will use to and is using to make forward progress in all five buildings across levels in all domains of student life this document is only as strong as the system that's going to monitor its progress otherwise it becomes a stack of papers that sits on a shelf and a lot of effort went into not just collecting information to draft the strategy but consultation with stakeholders districtwide teachers PA professionals related service providers parents caregivers students so the strategy is not the product of any one person but actually a team of collected input over the first year of of um you know the first year that I was superintendent the challenge with the strategy is creating a document that's easy to understand a strategy that's attainable something that the district's going to achieve in a 5year period and a document that creates buyin and when I say buyin you know anytime you're setting goals for a system every member of the system has to see their work within the document otherwise the document doesn't have meeting and people don't feel attached to it the way the system works or it's supposed to work in Massachusetts is that your strategy should inform your school Improvement plan which should inform your even your goals as Educators so this document is pretty important but so is the progress monitoring process so I'm going to be talking about that tonight the first thing I did was develop along with consultation with the entire leadership team a progress monitoring plan this has to be monitored continuously over a 5year period what I used was the model this a lot of this information was in the drop box that I included um before tonight's meeting and actually I think I included it in March so you've had it for a while but the planning for success model is the esc's sort of approved way of monitoring a strategy so I adopted that because it's a model that works for other districts I think it would be appropriate for us you know to adopt it here there are elements of this planning for success model that are important a description so this you know you how are we going to monitor how's that monitoring going to occur and you know by whom so I indicated that we'll be reviewing the strategy roughly twice each year and it will be reviewed with the cross-section of stakeholders across our district the leadership team which are all your principles your directors central office building level meeting review which is happening at each individual level building led by the building principal professional development time so that there's time where you can consult with everybody in the district on the plan and that progress school committee presentation something like here tonight and um the summertime as well including the administrative Retreats Last Summer administrative Retreat the bulk of that time was spent developing the strategy the time frame and frequency so how often are you going to do this it is a yearly Pro you know once a year I'll do a presentation like this but it really you know you have to monitor it each year in at intervals in between and then who's responsible ultimately the superintendent is responsible for the implementation of this plan but it's broken apart through the executive committee that's the director of curriculum instruction the director of special education the director of uh student service um and the communications director Chief technology officer as well um participants really includes a a wide variety of stakeholders it has to not just be every administrator in the district it has to be every employee in the district which is the reason the districtwide focus the Friday leading into Memorial Day weekend um that session was devoted entirely to the progress monitoring of the strategy it was an effort to solicit from everybody um and we'll talk a little bit about those teams um and then it talks a little bit about some of the reporting you know the F the specifics on what forms what kind of information gets reported and then any recommendations and I think that part's really important too because you know whenever you're setting up a document for Progress you have to be ready to look at it and ask is this working is this still worded correctly Does it include everything that we need to and when I get into the need of the progress I'm going to highlight something that was missed that I'll be proposing we add in um and finally it you know progress just really has to be something that is jointly owned um to create a strategy is a great idea but if nobody's really behind it and if nobody truly believes that that's what has to happen that the vision is not universally shared is not going to be successful so the progress monitoring plan um if you recall the strategy was presented in in September actually technically in August um at convocation we had an entire school meeting where we unrolled the strategy and I presented it here at school committee um and it is a 5-year plan but there's a year-long calendar that we adhered to this year for the first year which I'm going to model for next year as well um that ran from uh November really November of 2023 through June of 2024 that includ uded um leadership team meetings where it says X4 that means times four so at four different intervals the leadership team sat down to look at the strategy talk about the progress that we're collecting the leadership team let our action teams so I'll talk about those action teams in a minute the action teams are the real grun workk um those teams met three times this year that's the meet behind well okay where did you meet this particular tenant of the Strategic initiative what's your evidence that you're making progress um administrative Council unpacked all of this information at about the Midway point in um December of 2023 and then the districtwide professional development in May this way this plan covers not just the entire school year but multiple stakeholders throughout the year okay so before I launch into the specifics you know I think it's natural question to hear this and think well what does progress monitoring look like I'll go through each strategic initiative and we'll talk a little bit about what the evidence of progress is but is it is very important to understand no one initiative is completed after year one none of them were drafted to be because it's a 5year plan if you're dra if you if the strategy you draft is achievable in the first year then it's not an appropriate strategy um we divided into action planning teams and because there are four strategic initiatives we divide it into four teams and those teams are made up of Administrators across the district which includes all walks of life coordinator of nursing director of facilities Food Service principles athletic director it was deliberately designed to include a wide variety of Representatives in our district and buildings didn't work together so for example if you're a building principal you assistant princip principle was not on your team and that was deliberate so that each building is represented on each team and I I gave you the team so that you have that document the goal would be for these teams to rotate each team took one initiative and spent this year collecting evidence of progress looking at okay does anything really need to shift within the language of the strategy and then anything else we need to know um so each team each action team took one strategic initiative and next year those teams will rotate so for example if you were on strategic initiative one this year you will be moved to strategic initiative to in the coming year this way every single person has input on all aspects of this of this plan you're not just talking about the same thing year after year um I was a member I did not lead one of the action teams I was a member of one of the action teams I can tell you the conversations were really important I was with you know Elementary principles in and our high school principal hearing hey we haven't had this conversation you know ever and that's important it it matters that the team understands what's happening at each level that's how you align not because we don't want identity in all five buildings but because all of this boils down to the expectation for students and we need to be really clear about what we're expecting in students as they progress from K all the way through gradu prek really through uh through graduation so those are our teams I wanted to just talk a little bit about what that meant um and as I said they reviewed the plan itself because it's created by humans so it's of course prone to error um collection of data where are we on the individual components and then alignment it's an opportunity to say well you're doing that that way you know why are you doing it that way why aren't you doing it this way um and for and for buildings to trade information that included coordinators curriculum um you name it you name it there was involvement um and I think it was successful so in looking at the strategy and the monitoring of the strategies I've referenced there are four strategic in initiatives and here they are number one is personalized success for all students I'm going to talk at length about all four of them but I just wanted to kind of reiterate there are four different buckets if you will number two is engaging in collaborative data informed problem solving because while it's well and good to think you know the answer rooting your belief system in data that you collect will calibrate our response in a much more effective manner it makes it a lot less prum to interpretation strategic initiative three is the creation of innovative responsive and safe learning environments for all and finally strategic Initiative for is the establishing of meaningful family and Community Partnerships I'm going to present on the progress in reverse order and the reason I'm going to do that is because four and five quite honestly are I think one they're shorter two they're a little easier to discuss and three I'm a little worried I'll be too boring if I start in order so I'm the first the first one's very lengthy and I'll explain why when we get there but if you'll indulge I'm I'm going to go backwards for a reason um so when looking at strategic initiative 4 there are five different you know sub points within this plan that does not mean that 4.1 is year 1 4.2 is year 2 you would not be correct to assume that so in looking at that first one 4.1 creation of family nights and events to increase Community involvement knowledge and investment there's lots of evidence that this is already happening that doesn't mean it's done when you look at K orientation in the prek process you're seeing that the Future Ready program at MHS Awards nights Sports nights uh senior events all of Senior Week to be honest with you completion events that fifth grade mkg does a you know completion event music performances drama performances these are events that absolutely engage families involvement and you know kind of further this this position but this work is not done um actually I forgot about a couple of more the Elementary career fair is an example of progress of this this one the k um K events like the K you know special someone dance there's things like that that may seem small but they're actually you know thoughtfully planned in furtherance of exactly this the fake and fatal Community event and family strong events we're looking to build on this in the years to come and I've actually talked about it in the flash a little bit um and we'll be talking about it more as we get into the new school year but one Middleboro learning together is going to be the next initiative to bring families together with our school system so uh that's the evidence of 4.1 what I'll do is go through each initiative and see if you have questions on each one before going to the next 4.2 is about District communication this is something that we've talked about here at this table quite a bit newsletters handbooks that we reviewed tonight and last meeting Calendars our school website and then school-based Communications and very similar to the previous this is alive and well this is not new work but it's also not completed work because it always always warrants a degree of refinement at the school-based level we have weekly newsletters that go out year long um but a Twist on that is whether or not the information in those newsletters is succinct enough is it the information parents need every single week is there a way to align our practice to save parents' time rather than sifting through a likier newsletter is it picture based is it information based these are the refinements that we make in order to better communicate at the building level districtwide we've established a new website that also warrants additional refinements actually um chano and I were talking earlier today about you know collection of feedback that will be making ships over the summer not not massive shifts within the you know uh infrastructure of the website but more userfriendly qualities of the website so that when families start back up again in the fall they'll see those improvements um we've created communic ation guides um annual handbook reviews um and I was working with our dirt leader Andy dael our assistant principal at the high school and one of the things that has come out of the safety audit process is should we unveil and we are spoiler alert we are new Communications newsletter that's safety based it's not going to go out every week it's not going to go out every month but is there a way we can engage with our community specifically about school safety in a more pronounced fashion so again these communications there's evidence of progress but also evidence of needed continued progress it's kind of like the laundry it's never done right um so that's 4.2 and looking at 4.3 further develop student services Outreach initiatives and wraparound services for the community now when you've heard Kevin AB the director of student services present this is a Hallmark of work that's on that's happening in in this particular office um we do have the establishment of the student services department the common ground work and the establishment of those building based teams were a big marker of progress in that domain this year the establishment and the continuation of car Solus that's the coner service available to all staff all staff families all students all student families so that when mental health support is needed to help finding a counselor we have a free service that we can refer um or have even you know take that feedback from from families in order to to assist in matching service you know with the need food programming The Early Childhood Outreach process I don't know how familiar you are with that but the obligation to identify students with disabilities begins at age three and the preap the preap cohort has done a really nice job of Shifting how they are identifying it rather than passively waiting to find children they now host drop in hours they're engaging with head they're out in daycare settings taking the affirmative step to identify students with need um alternative Pathways and the you know Workforce uh development our partnership with youth works this is all evidence of Outreach Outreach initiatives it's all wraparound Services it's easy to think about school and think well it's just these curricular areas but we know school to be much much bigger than that and kids outcomes for students are much more positive when we're comprehensively planning for them so these are areas that that's the areas of progress that that are noted but but certainly more you know more more to come 4.4 is reviewing the district continuing education opportunities and Platforms in order to strengthen and expand the educational opportunities for students yes I'm aware these areful there's no succinct way we tried very hard to be more succinct it's actually a lot harder than than it looks um but this is looking at what are the opportunities and the educational plat forms that are not just the typical course how are we meeting students needs when we know that students needs are so varied so it begins with that teams which is the vertical articulation teams aligning our curriculum across all five buildings but also the growth of our community evening school and you've heard some of that progress this year um in working with Heather all Britain and taking a look at you know a program that's really been in existence for 40 years without too too much change to it uh Futures Academy which you've heard uh mrad present now a couple of times about Futures Academy um their engagement with youth Works placing students in in jobs school to work model that's where the my lab and you know coming this year a junior my lab at the Nichols Middle School this year the evidence of progress in this domain was using the Innovation Pathways Grant to create the curriculum in order to create a blueprint so it's great we're we now are going to have a teaching position in the my lab and and we um are actually more than full in those classes but what's more exciting is creating that pathway all the way down to really grade five we're really looking to get it all the way down to the elementary school you have to again fiveyear plan you have to start um incrementally so creating a junior my lab will give the opportunity to create a position there and now students when they reach the high school level and the my lab up here will be able to take advanced level courses if they've had exposure to it this is how you build an alternative pathway um so that includes my cap and our future ready work we do have a focus a continued focus on tier one and tier 2 instruction and that's instruction that's happening in the classroom when students are needing some degree of intervention okay that's still a body of work and we'll talk about that when we get to to number one but that's still a continued area of focus for this area and finally 4.5 is creating stronger relation ships with State agencies in order to bridge systems for students students Aging in or graduating and aging out of the public school system so I want you to think about our visualized bookends what we're talking about here is partnering with agencies so that we can make the path smoother to enter our system and the path for our young adults to enter adulthood when they're exiting our system on the front end of that early intervention and Head Start are longtime Partners um but there's more that we can do with state agency to not just identify young children but make sure their access to early intervention is as early as possible all of the data is very supportive of the fact that the earlier you intervene the better the outcome on the other end of the of the spectrum at kids aging out of the system we work with DDS which is the Department of Developmental Services DH the Department of Mental Health MRC the mass rehab commission and we have robust planning for transition planning for students who are eligible for special education none of those agencies are involved with students if they are not eligible for special education and it begs the question why it's not like all students don't need help making that next big step that's where Mass hire and youth Works comes into play and there's more work that can be done so I would say we're at a more beginning stage of 4.5 than perhaps the rest of this particular initiative um we're certainly seeing some progress but it's it's by no means done now in number four in looking at the verbage and the strategy language and the action steps the feed there was no major feedback like hey you missed this thing or you're not really capturing work that's ongoing that's in line with this that's important for you to talk about so there's no proposal for change but as you can tell there's continued work that's going to occur in years two through five two through five feedback from families and caregivers caregivers will be particularly important as we gather data on this particular initiative because it's about engagement all the best efforts to engage are not helpful if we just think they're helpful and our families never give us you that hey that that wasn't really helpful to me or I didn't even engage with it because you scheduled at a time that didn't work for my my work schedule or whatever the feedback is but that will become important for four um before I go to three any questions on four or the progress collected okay I'll move to three sorry I'm scrolling in both domains as you can see the German prob just like to make Z tell font just got smaller and there's more text on the slide um and priority goal three looks at Innovative responsive and safe learning environments so I'm going to break this up um similar to how I did for four so looking at 3.1 identify address and narrow Equity gaps okay first this is we are in the I would say early stages of 3.1 um we are we did align Elementary report cards um we've revised them to adopt learner Behavior standards and that's great progress of a first step we have increased our restorative practices you know throughout the district and we have realigned the schedules at both the Middle School school and the high school they're not aligned together but we've recalibrated both schedules and that's great but we need to do more work on identifying exactly what the what these Equity gaps are when you're looking at our data across the district that means looking at well how did students with disabilities perform compared to students without disabilities is there a Gap when you're looking at discipline data are certain groups of students disciplined more frequently than other groups of students you have to create the system we've spent this year creating or trying to create cre systems to start identifying um that data and analyzing that data but there's more work to to to go including vertical articulation um okay 3.2 3.2 looks at providing staff with support to be able to engage in culturally sustaining practices and to develop the pedagogy to have these conversations because talking about Equity gaps is a sticky subject you have to you have to be you have to have data behind your your position it can't just be based on your hunch and then once you have that data you have to be skilled in having those conversations our Common Ground group that has been um established over the last two years is is beginning this work and that also includes professional development this year we engaged with um a deib consultant Jal Adams he presented to the entire District in March was very well received his work work will be he also consulted with the Common Ground group but that work will be continuing in the year to come um he has a strategy called lit which is love inclusion and Trust um and so looking at um how to engage this conversation as part of the training he's provided he gave a a PD to all of the administrators um actually just a couple of months ago on how to engage a difficult conversation and what does that sound like and how can you respectfully disagree and you know see eye to eye at the same time while not agreeing you know it's kind of a bit of an art form this is an area of continued need in the year to come I anticipate seeing Common Ground lit teams formed at all five buildings the purpose being to have a place to not just discuss these topics but talk about what kind what does that work look like here you know the last thing anybody's looking for is um you know some methodology to to just push it should be work that's already occurring um an example of that was our holidays around the world at K that's an example of a common ground activity that was inclusive it was celebratory I think it's a fan favorite and it was also beautifully aligned throughout the building the nice part about something like that is that it isn't different if you go into a different classroom which is how it should be every child should have that same access so that's 3.2 3.3 is developing leadership programs for student students um to develop student agency and community so what am I talking about there we're looking at that middle school and thinking about a web program we all belong where everyone belongs um which is kind of modeled on Mr bragan uh strong program if you notice here at the high school when kids start as freshman they come to the start strong program and um they're able to get a flavor of the culture of this building and it carries through with them um through all four years of high school so a program like that is something that would be great to grow at that Middle School level this year we saw evidence of that through the mark per leadership group um we saw some work with um I'm drawing a blank I always want to call it um it's Erica's Lighthouse I was want to call it Veronica's Closet I don't know where that comes from but it's Erica's Lighthouse and also the uh Playbook initiative so you saw some some evidence of that progress this year um and there's some that's already ongoing if you look at the high school student council actually student council is alive and well at all three levels um rise up is a group at the high school level there are Round Table groups there are San supporters there's Best Buddies the unified athlete Partners the athletic leadership programs GSA youth works these are all programs where kids have opportunities to lead um and I think that we're going to need to continue to find not just avenues for student voice but ways to show kids that you can be successful in a multitude of domains yes of course we want everybody to to be high achieving um but everything isn't about grades and numbers 3.4 is support staff to ensure they're able to function at their optimal level in order to support students it is oh did I move that yeah no it's there um it is very important to understand the task that is asked of Educators today specifically classroom teachers although not exclusive of other Educators in our district that they have to kind of operate from a place where they've put their oxygen mask on first before they're helping others so our evidence of this involves our Wellness committee our Wellness fairs car Solace and um EAP but this is an initiative you know we'll be seeing in the year to come all efforts of educator retention are we creating Pathways for teachers to become leaders in our district and what does that look like how are we engaging there there are pieces of you know evidence every year like our staff strong program our mentoring and induction program which is a robust program begins in August lasts the whole year long but are there ways to further support that are we checking in with new Educators um frequently enough because as you know when you first begin you have you're often overwhelmed right away so it's important to not get too far a field from our newest Educators whether they're new teachers or just new to Middle bur in order to best support them um some of the feedback we received on this was to think about how might we feather in those opportunities as a teacher it's difficult you have a lot of professional development and you know um pdps and cus you're responsible for in addition to all of the things you do on the classroom side so it can feel hard to say make sure you take time for yourself the the obvious feedback we get is well when when is when is that time so we're looking at how to to you know provide opportunities that don't cut into learning time and don't cut into other time will obviously be optional all of the initiatives have to be optional doesn't help but we also know that um you know pizza parties and ice cream cones aren't going to cut it either this has to be hard-hitting one of the things that um we I was just talking actually I was just talking with a teacher about this before this meeting I just got notification about um public uh loan forgiveness for for educators um that's due it has to be turned in by August so I was I'm working on a communication to send to all staff tomorrow to remind them not only that this exists but this is potentially money on the table for them so now that there's time now that school's out hey focus on yourself if there's a way to get your loans repaid you know contact us at central office so we can try to help you um things like that are what you can expect to hear going forward 3.5 is develop a comprehensive system of Mental Health health support for Community as a whole and again this is something that Mr evab has come and presented on I think more than once but we have cultivated a comprehensive mental health system clinical teams access to counseling support outside of the day um you know pairing families with resources both financial and material Our Family Resource Center is a big you know component of all of this including now an Outreach counselor districtwide so um I think there's you know pretty robust progress of this particular tenant um and the progress made on it I do think we need continued training for staff um Mental Health First Aid is something that was undertaken this year which again is not meant to train our teachers to be mental health professionals but they are often our first line of seeing any type of change in a child's life so arming them with the toolkit to manage those mental health needs is an important initiative of the student service department that PD is something that we can expect to continue in the year to come and Beyond because you know the as staff comes in you want to make sure everybody's trained on it um 3.6 the last part of this initiative is engaging all staff in professional development to ensure students have um Equitable access to curriculum as well as an understanding of how a disability May impact that access so our evidence of progress districtwide is looking at our updated Decap our district curriculum accommodation plan those are all of the things we're going to do to intercede when we see a student not meeting with the level of success we'd expect at their age um it's not an I it's not a 504 plan and it's not just best practices these are specific interventions that we're trying for a set period of time to see if the child is responsive um there's new IEP training that has been been going on all year because very helpfully the state has decided to change the IEP document which I think the state believes will be helpful but truly only time we'll tell if it really is helpful um rise training is our training and co- te co- tees a methodology when you pair a regular ed teacher and a special ed teacher in the same room and they both share the content so that it's differentiated for all Learners in the room that's training that's gone on this year um special ed has also provided understanding disability beyond the label so that's looking instead of just assuming you know because a student carries a particular diagnosis let's really peel back what does that look like in this classroom how might the how might that look behaviorally in my classroom and what might I do to respond to it um work to continue is aligning our forms and tightening up tier one in tier 2 intervention so that's the progress on strategic initiative three any questions about this one um a lot of the PDS you discussed all sound very important and um do the the organizers I know it kind of shifts responsibility of who's organizing each PD is there like a survey process to the attendees to to check in about the applicability of the topic to what they do the you know just the overall sense of benefit of the session um I mean I know PD is one of those things that gets a bad wrap from you know I don't want it to be a waste of time sure sure P well here I'll tell you the first thing I learned which is that it's very difficult to please everyone because you have many different stakeholders so what is appealing to one group is not necessarily appealing or helpful to another group um we do have a PD Council and I think the establishment of the PD Council they met periodically throughout the year actually Mr Go's um part of the PD Council and um that's really important because that includes teachers par professionals we're we're we're asking directly can you tell us what training you'd like to see we're surveying after PD happens what did you think did you like that did you not like that was it helpful did it give you pvps you need for your license I mean there's there's all the things that you want to learn as a teacher or an educator and then there's also the list of things the state tell tells you you have to have in order to get that license again so it's a tall order for educators to make sure they're maintaining their license and getting high quality PD um I see this as a continued area of need this came out of the last round of negotiations um I talk with the NAA presidents about this at at length and and pretty regularly and I anticipate that that will continue um the only thing I I can say for sure though is that I I'm still not confident it'll ever be perfect um the needs really are varied so for example if you're a school psychologist trying to find professional development there are only five School psychologists in Middleboro so there's really unless they're learning something totally new it's very difficult how am I teaching five School psychologists to be a better school psychologist um so it begs the question you you have to be creative we have a platform called Mass partnership for youth mpy um which is an online platform that offers this is across State a whole host of training in a in multiple domains we onboarded that with essr funds and we've been able to maintain it because it offers PD that's a little more bite-sized and allows a degree of choice that would be the other thing I would tell you about professional development is that most Educators like a degree of choice it's very frustrating to be just told what to do each session so we're working this year on how can we better incorporate voice and choice so that you have a degree of control over what you're going to learn during professional development time and I actually think I have another slide just to I wanted to make sure I shared the specific feedback there was a proposed change to the verbiage at least with respect to the reference of physical safety the group gave very important feedback when looking at this particular initiative they said it's kind of funny you really didn't mention physical plant safety there's nothing in here about school safety um which of course was not the intention the the the concept is safe learning environments but we're going to um you know include the existence of not just a safety audit but the steps taken to address recommendations from that safety audit will embed it within the verbiage which I was saying um I was going to hold on let me just get let me go back a slide in looking at supporting staff to ensure they're able to fully function at their optimal level I think that's really where school safety goes um it can go in multiple locations but what's important is that this is a good example of something where you you you draft something you think it's going to be effective until someone says hey you forgot this so that will be an amendment that we'll add and I'll highlight the next time I come back to you with the strategy I'll highlight where you can see it um so that you can see that we're working on it as you all know from from the flashes the safety audit work is ongoing it's not not new and the progress is definitely there we not just completed the safety audit but there's an entire system we're going through in evaluating you know each individual recommendation and implementing those in lifetime um so I'm I'm confident that it's there but the document doesn't reflect that it's there so I want to make sure I made that clear um with that I will move to two unless there's more questions on three as you can see the text is getting smaller this I do believe well I the next one I did because it's quite frankly just too long but uh strategic Intervention number two is collaborative data informed problem solving this one is particularly big along with number one because none of these things are things that are easy to attain in one year's time so when looking at 2.1 review and employ current structures such as PLC CST and data teams to examine multiple ways of monitoring Student Success including academic and social skills what we learned is that at the elementary level we've made excellent not just progress this is ongoing the PLC system is alive and well and robust at the elementary level but oh I'm sorry PLC is professional Learning Community um and that's where teachers are are working together it's not professional development professional learning is when they're looking at the art the craft of teaching is it effective what's happening how can we better use our skills to to better you know benefit students and how can we work together in that Venture um CST is alive at all levels but we've worked on aligning those and data teams are still needing to be established um they are happening you know data teams happen in Pockets but there is no Universal system of well what data are we looking at and when and what conclusions are we drawing about data um middle middle school and high school have elements of PLC um in the data teams but warrant more work element has those systems in a much more established way um lack of time within the current schedule in school day was a pretty big barrier particularly at the secondary level when looking at this so both schedules are being amended and are amended really effectively um for this coming school year we'll be talking about the middle school schedule at next meeting um but part of the impetus behind that change was making sure there's more time for opportunities like this to exist you can only accomplish what your schedule is going to allow um we do and we will be focusing we're actually starting this summer with the leadership team on the creation of true PLC protocols professional Learning Community protocols at all levels so that we're all in agreement with what we're talking about and what we're referencing before all five buildings try to align um those those communities um but rooting the work of analyzing data and then making decisions upon data is not a one-year process it's probably not even to three-year process so that's just 2.1 2.2 is looking at the revision of report cards to align with Curriculum maps identify learning Readiness skills and pilot that standards based report card at that Middle School level reviewing grading practices and AP grade C correlation all levels report you know a need for review with regard to grading practices grading is a is a very subjective process and it's very difficult to have teachers within the same grade level agree which is why standards based grading is so much more beneficial quite honestly it takes away what's an A versus a b standards based grading is could the child do this thing um as you can tell it's it doesn't it doesn't work all levels you can have really standards based grading at the high school level so you have to be thoughtful about how you might approach that same with promotion and retention what is the criteria for retention and are we in agreement about what that looks like um looking at elementary as I mentioned they've updated theal and learner Behavior section but there still needs to be more work done on the alignment of those report cards on the academic areas um middle school has focused on improving the comment section of the report report card which is a great start but more work needs to be done there and then High School's working to deepen that understanding across content areas on what grades actually represent as you can imagine this is not just this is not just predicated on understanding and using data but then being this also now evidences okay now that I've learned the data how am I going to shift my practice so if the previous tenant was going to take a while this will take even longer one of the things to look at is AP and grade correlation okay if you took an AP exam and you got an A in the class what did you get on that AP exam was it a five was it a three was it a two and why so you have to really have systems in place to look um and you really can't do that without the creation of a professional Learning Community otherwise it feels threatening and it's important that we're doing this work incrementally 2.3 is creating supportive tools protocols and processes that guide decision makers in regularly reviewing progress towards goals and making appropriate adjustments to plans refine change and AD mechanisms to achieve better exchange of data information and ideas among school and District leaders and more explicit connection to timely decision making structures we've spent a lot of time this year putting structures and protocols in place but it's not enough to just cultivate a protocol or devise a system part of what's Happening Here is creating an environment where it's safe to say hey I'm not sure this is working let's shift gears um we do I spend a lot of time with uh walkthroughs and being in buildings and um we'll talk about that when we get to one but instructional rounds will be the next logical step where multiple administrators are in and out of classrooms again not to criticize instruction but to make sure we're not just we aligning what we're doing but we're in agreement on what we're seeing Panorama is implemented um but an area that we need to continue to push to utilize its full potential um I'm I imagine seeing this work continuing in the years to come and um I would say that this work is really predicated on the previous tenant just like the one before it uh 2.4 is examining grading practices across content areas and grade levels using data to determine the experience of marginalized students and staff and ways to address inequities through additional data collection review of research from the broader field and consultation with other experts um as needed um this is a very big area of need and I would say the area of the smallest progress to date again because so much of this initiative you this is a more incremental initiative than the rest of them one is well to some degree you can see the kind of cascading waterfall um the common theme is definitely using data to draw conclusions about what's happening you really can't do much until you've taken that first step and agree one you have to train everybody and how are how are we interpreting the data because not everybody no two people will look if there aren't parameters around that they'll interpret data differently um so you have to train and then decide what are we going to do with that data um we we've discussed the need to disaggregate our data better um to better identify those those Equity gaps and use make better use of the platforms we do have like Star 360 um we've also talked about making use of other available data such as Dart data and US data that's State driven data that they collect on our school system in order to give us more information um we've also begun the process of implementing mtss and which is multi-tiered systems of support and PBIS the um positive behavior intervention systems there's a lot of PBIS going on at three buildings this year be increasing to four buildings next year um and that's really looking at how are we intervening not just at tier one and two but behaviorally with students how are we managing that behavior and coming alongside of them um and finally we I've already talked a little bit about it but we um need to do more work in correlating test and grade cours work in AP um and also mcast grade performance the same argument can be made with respect to how you do in your English math and science classes and how you're performing on mcast right in theory you shouldn't be getting an A+ in those areas and then not passing an mcast exam that's an example I'm not saying that's you know the case or anything but you you have to look at that and say how correlated U is it and looking at number two there's there's no proposed changes to the language but certainly Contin continued work is needed um and there are many components um of this initiative that are anticipated to take multiple years to complete it's really important that data analysis becomes something that's happening regularly and universally understood before you can move to any Next Step so I'll I think that the team will be particularly slow and deliberative about that because I I do think it's that important um which is why you assess this year and we have a conversation reg basis about how the progress is going any questions about number two okay finally you're going to want coffee because number one's the longest um all right this I did break into two slides you're welcome um In fairness number one was not designed to be a catchall but it does encompass multiple areas and that explains some of why it's the L so looking at number one employing uh 1.1 is employing multi-tiered systems of support for all Learners to minimize barriers and improve student outcomes if you're thinking hey that sounds like number two that's because they are connected this is the PBIS implementation I was just talking about um we also have some mixed progress on stages 1 through three of curriculum documentation that's happened this year but going to continue next year as well um that also flows into assessments that show develop and Mastery of knowledge looking at our assessments are they common and um are they effective so that's 1.1 1 point2 is creating tools and structures self assessment rubrics and provide professional learning to support Educators so they can review resources and interpret data they use to evaluate students um at the elementary level the progress made to date is that plc's are established and common plc Time Professional Learning Community across the complex is necessary aligning those schedules which is something that's happening this summer will allow that to more fluidly occur it has not occurred um to date implementation ofal screeners that's the panoram screeners that are happening um and focused some focused PD on data in the past year understanding the disability training is an example of that um at the middle school the professional learning communities are established but still need an increas inreased focus in data and calibration of student work we have seen the implementation of those umal screeners in some focused PD on data along with understanding the disability training um and that's really the same story at the high school level as well so our Focus for the coming year is a common PLC time across the elementary complex um and then for all schools topics and products would be developed with the Strategic plan this strategic plan in mind and the school Improvement plans in mind um we're looking at the implementation of the PLC model at the secondary level and like I said earlier our uh leadership team we'll be unpacking that we actually begin our summer work on July 2nd um 1.3 is instructional rounds developing a practice of observing analyze analyzing And discussing teaching and learning that informs our leadership decisions as well as a common Vision instructional rounds are um you know something that is started um right now there are rounds that occur with the principales and me or with uh Dr Marite as our director of curriculum and instruction and the principal but it could be bigger than that and it can be uncomfortable to have a bunch of people walk through your classroom so it has to be done carefully and I think that we're still building that track educators I want Educators to know and I tend to reach out to them um before we begin to say remember I'm not here to criticize instruction that's happening in your classroom we're really trying to calibrate are we agreeing on what we see as instruction here and um we need to expand that but it it it requires a degree of trust to allow that many people in and out of your classroom you have to know okay if you're going to come in you're you're not only going to be respectful but we're going to talk about this from a certain place and perhaps not in aalu of place um rounds with some at the high school arounds to some department leaders have occurred um with some regularity but increased focus is still needed at the high school um and at the at the middle school as well so rounds are in place I don't know that I would call them full-blown instructional rounds yet but this is the work that began really two years ago we're still we're still inching forward we're looking in the coming year at more consistent instructional rounds and more learning walks in debrief with teachers I think the debrief part is really helpful because it gives the opportunity for the educator to say oh you liked that or oh I didn't know that's what you were looking at or I thought you were watching this instead um and then finally creating that connection between the rounds and student outcomes because that's kind of the whole point of of doing this process at all everything should be flowing to improvements for students uh 1.4a there are three parts of 1.4 is uh revise and refine the curriculum review process to include steps to evaluate and design curriculum with the lens of MPS core values as it relates to deib and student agency and ensure alignment to State Standards so this is the work you've heard the curriculum Department Dr markes come and Report um out on this the progress made involves the foundational literacy team that's been established um the participation in common ground um the training with our deib consultant janal Adams at the high school there's been ongoing review of curriculum with Focus some core value um as well as deib some re-engagement of elements of teacher 21 um vertical articulation teams across the district curriculum teams starting to review and deconstruct curriculum the focus for this coming year will be continued VAP uh meetings for vertical articulation teams and continued deid training um so that's 1.4 a 1.4b looks at identifying budget drivers more than one year in advance to facilitate long-term planning and implementation of projects in support of a broader definition of success aha now we're into budget this is a now you can see why this gets lengthy in a hurry we've just spent a lot of time talking about teaching and learning and now we're also talking about the budget it has to this should Encompass all aspects of our district and budgeting has to be something that happens year long and is driven by the data that we're collecting you know our we have a robust budget it shouldn't be one person's decision about how that money is going to get expended um there's plenty of conversation to date but with the onboarding of our new director of business and finance our new process in meeting with the finance committee and the select board over the summer last year we actually undertook a budget process that lasted from really September through through the passage of the budget um I anticipate maintaining that Cas I think it's important nothing's more important right now than making sure we can afford all of this very important work um and basing it in data so that's 1.4b 1.4 C is leveraging technology to improve our approach to student assessment and instruction that's better aligned to a broader definition of success and to include authentic learning experiences as we've talked about here before during Co computers became the thing but computers alone are not going to solve our problems nor do I think all instruction should be happening on a computer we have to be not just embedding our technology but leveraging it to create better experiences one of the reasons we've pushed touch pannels is exactly that that's still a screen but it's not an individual screen for a student um we're looking at professional development on how to implement technology in the classroom in the initiative by reference earlier one middleb learning together we're looking at a unit on talking with families about there's a lot of Technology thrown at your student how are you managing it what do you think of these platforms if you have a child at the middle school and the high school and the mech how are you navigating all of the different platforms and what's confusing how can we make that road smoother for you um again at the high school and you know principal Brandy and I have talked about this pretty you know pretty regularly all throughout the year but um using technology in the classroom versus overuse and over Reliance you know as a as a bit of a crutch we've engaged in some conversations with staff above it too um at the high school level so again um the focus for next year will be again the the vat teams to develop those authentic learning opportunities but also embedding um you know more targeted professional developments in this area through the technology department 1.5 is reconsider the scope of the current curriculum design curricul with depth of learning over bread and attend the elements of our vision so what am I talking about first of all this is clearly a curriculum based tenant okay and again you see it so much further down because the other work really needs to happen first this is looking at your standard and saying how deep do you need to go do you go all the way through all of the standards and and then Knee Deep or do you get even deeper um what we want to do is focus on Project based learning and in-depth assessments so we're covering you know not just material that they have to have for an MC exam but material that they're going to actually need to become conversent in the subject student agency and authentic learning um are evident we're seeing it at the high school level with uh the teacher 21 tools that are being used um but there's more work to go I think leveraging that um vertical articulation team process in the year to come um will be helpful but as I said this is certainly further down on the list and I anticipate that being you know a long-term sort of curricular based Focus 1.6 is identify prioritize and integrate into the into the curriculum key attributes skills and knowledge students need beyond the graduation um from MPS there's actually quite a bit of progress in this domain and some really exciting work to come in the year to come on this for one we talked a little bit about standards based report cards at that Elementary level the career fair is a good example of that at grade five um Nicholls the middle school had participation in youth works this year and and that's evidence of progress um when I look at high school this particular part of the strategy is where I see the vision of The Graduate work we're going to be talking a lot about that this year the vision of The Graduate is what are those essential skills we want every child to possess by the time they walk across the stage and get that diploma and it begins at Mech um so it is a massive undertaking between all five buildings to really talk about what what are the essential things we want that our our kids to learn and at each at each level um vision of graduate work was actually happening earlier this week I had the Good Fortune of being in that training with uh folks from across the district I anticipate seeing it continue we're going to be focusing on that as a leadership team during the retreat this summer The my lab and youth works are also good progress of this work um and I antip ipate seeing those Pathways continue to develop um the simple truth is there is no one path for success and it's very important that we make sure our children understand that success is defined many different ways and there are many different doors for them it's on us to make sure they they know to walk through them number seven is uh the last one I think it's the last it is the last one 1.7 identify and incorporate social skills into the curriculum prek through 12 and ensure they're reflected in the design of lessons in standards based report cards and employed throughout students time at NPS so what am I talking about social skills social skills like problem solving like developing a sense of self um you're seeing that that was the impetus behind the change in the report cards but that's also what commer choice and mindfulness is that's why you're seeing it at the elementary level um this year we're going to be onboarding circles a social skills program it's an actual program that we've purchased but it's been alive and well here for years years under the name of social thinking U Michelle Garcia winter is the one who came up with that and the special ed Department's been using social thinking for the better part of the last 15 years um at NHS which does not use standard based report cards we are still asking how can we show student progression towards Mastery of skills you're seeing evidence of that work Mr bran does um The Daily conversation I don't know if you know about the daily conversation when you're walking through the building you can kind of see it's one question to get kids talking and it's not like what did you think of Beyonce dress you know what I mean it's like a it's a real question um and it's an important step for teens to engage with this material as they're becoming young adults um there's significant work within the clinical team and the counseling department and some focus on social emotional work through child study team and pdis the positive behavioral intervention system so we're still looking at in the coming year reviewing our grading practices at the secondary level and again adjusting those Elementary report cards to Encompass um even more revision um I think when looking at number one yes admittedly this is a b of all four of them it's definitely the longest one um it includes curriculum assessment instruction budget and Technology none of the other strategic initiatives do but this was also a bit of a calculated decision how many initiatives before it becomes unwielding is it seven is it five is it three so I mean admittedly this is how we ended up I think there could be an argument to be made that one's too long but I think what's important is we're chipping away at that incremental progress and less important what what they're numbered um all components of this initiative are are anticipated to take multiple years to complete so with that any questions about number one or progress that we elected on the strategy to date I have question not specific to uh uh sorry sorry initiative one um but I do have a question you had mentioned um obviously for good reason that you have separate teams and each of these teams focuses on one of the initiatives and you help them out um and that makes sense to me but I uh also want to ask the question why swap them out because you also said that calibrating the data is absolutely essential and key so how do you continue to calibrate that data when you have these teams that are swapping out every year would not would it not be more prudent to keep the focus with one team it's a good question I'm glad you're asking it um one of the reasons I didn't keep them on the same team for a 5year period is I thought it would get sale um and and more importantly that won't confer ownership of the whole plan if I'm only tasked with one for my 5 years as an administrator here in the district then I'm not going to be thinking about I'm going to be so focused on one that I'm going to get the wrong idea of how the breadth of this document and the importance of all four one of the things we did throughout the year was calibrate together so just because you were an action team one you had not just multiple opportunities to be together and learn so like our that's what we did in December you know we shared we Gallery walked I think I sent you that information in that slide deck that was our first opportunity when we presented to the entire staff in May you were not with your group from number one you were now in your building based team so for example I was at the Berkland with the building based team at Berkland and yes I was part of goal to I was part of you know action plan two but every body there was there to report on their own part so that way you keeping the consistency I'll always be a member of number two because I've already covered that but now as I move to number three I'll be able to shift my focus you know admittedly there you could do it any number of way sure but the design the concept behind that design was to make sure we're universally owning all four parts that's one of the reasons it was four and not like six because it's a 5year plan so I wanted to make sure we had enough time to get through um that rotation and then uh one last question was uh you mentioned the stakeholders that are part of that team so you said the leadership team you also have mentioned the building Administration now is that to say the heads of different departments within those buildings correct okay so anytime I'm talking about a building based team I'm actually talking about the whole building so take Nicholls Middle School I'm not just talking about the administrators in that building when I'm talking about the strategy each building you know needs to be consulted for their feedback when you're looking at this plan you know you're looking at it as a Nichols Middle School employee and you're thinking about your own School Improvement plan at the same time so what what is this work look like in just Nichols and they need that opportunity to do that because yes District districtwide progress is important but not the job per se of a nickels employee right I want them thinking about it from just the lens of grade six through eight and just what's happening in that building so when the district leaders or the building based leaders bring that to the building they're leading and facilitating the conversation but they're specifically seeking the input of people who work in that building every day anyone else have any other questions M Marine hello thank you um I just have a quick question being on three of the different PT here in town a lot of times um staff is they're coming to the meetings asking for funding for PBIS and I I notic that you talked about it a lot in your plan is there funding available for the staff members to utilize for their PBIS incentives um for PBIS incentives yeah a lot of come to the PTA meetings and ask for whatever it is we tend to to say no due to it being tied into the but I just don't know if they're aware of that because we feel guilty saying no but they keep coming back so I just didn't maybe we could share that with the staff funding yes thank you thank you one thank you for the feedback two if staff are coming and saying hey we're looking for funding on something whether you can say yes or no you can always feel free to always reach out and say hey do you have funding for this sometimes teachers are not aware of it's like that heavy scale like we don't want to say no but if there is other funding for it that's great yeah no there's definitely funding for that and something that's funded pretty regularly I'm I'm surprised by the request but that all all that means is I didn't I wasn't aware of it so if you bring It Forward you know we'll get that funded for sure awesome thank you sure um okay well any other questions before I move on and then finally I have uh sorry I have just a quick update the um annual Paul J Anders executive Institute that's the mass conference that's where all all the superintendent in Massachusetts get together July 16th through 18th this year's theme is empowering each other sustaining conditions for all to thrive um I don't have a ton of information I mean I have some they're uploading an application and kind of talking about the sessions but it this conference involves a mix of keynote presentations breakout sessions conference wide presentations there's uh presentations on legal matters project 351 is that student driven initiative they often show the 351 students they're the students who were at every conference actually a really nice part of the conference um we all get to kind of hear about the you know inspiring work they're doing um I'll come back to you in either in the July meeting or the August meeting depending on the length of the agenda but I'll probably the July meeting because I I will just come back actually so I'll I'll make sure to come and kind of give you some more specifics on what was in the conference but I'll be going to that um and that completes my report for this evening all right thank you item number five superintendent gos yes if you want to sure so um as I mentioned earlier the um superintendent evaluation and go subcommittee um has set up um two meetings um with the superintendent to begin talking about uh the goals for um next year and the the the metrics and the benchmarks for measuring progress towards those goals um we'll also be reviewing um it's already actually Incorporated in the projected yearlong uh schedule that Carolyn showed at the last meeting but the where we want to have updates on progress for the goals like a midyear update and that kind of thing so that um it's not something that we only talk about when we create the goals and when we do the evaluation so continuous um kind of quarterly touch basis on that process um so we will have more uh once we've gotten to the point where we have those goals ready to bring back to the committee um again at some point this summer is the goal um also towards that end um Carolyn sent us all information um in the Dropbox related to just an update on the kind of an end of year status update on the goals so one of the things we discussed um was bringing your feedback Marc that you know we're doing the evaluation um based on kind of the Town calendar and um how things kind of sort of happen in the academic world of doing those evaluations before the end of the year but it doesn't mean that that last quarter shouldn't be touched upon so um we ask Carolyn to just give us a summary of more progress towards those goals for this last quarter um and that's something we want to continue to establish as we look towards updates of I'm not forgetting that if the annual uh evaluation happens before the end of the year that we kind of tie it everything back together and we we um assess that progress to make sure we don't have any um thing to um add into discussions so uh thank you for providing that update um if anybody has any questions about what they saw I think that would be a good time to um speak on them but I just have a couple questions for you which is um those meetings will be public no the setting of the goals are considered Personnel like the discussions for drafting the goals are considered Personnel so those are not public meetings the discussion of the goals when they are presented to the school committee is a uh for the approval is a public meeting okay and that will happen at the regularly scheduled and so only the the the chairman and the vice chairman of that committee will be able or not um it's a three person committee so it's Sue Allan and myself so we will be um all there with the superintendent working through those goals thank you very those goals like just said they discussed and voted on in public session they formed at the subcommittee meetings so just to be clear um anyone have any questions for guest all right uh consent agenda do we have the for June 22nd anybody see those I can't remember the date a motion to approve the minutes for June 22nd so yeah we do have those all right have a motion and a second any comment questions all in favor I I oppos passes unanimously I I didn't motion for approval of the May 22nd minutes so second I have a motion a second any com questions all in favor I I oppos pass all right we voted on the handbooks already um all right so retirements uh the donation oh I'm sorry uh we have a donation to the noar high school my lab from uh McDonald spray entertain a motion to accept that donation so move second have a motion in a second any comments questions just like to say thanks Mt yre all in favor I oppos passes unanimously did that all right so retirements um so we have what one two three four nine retirements anybody have any com questions should I read that out I don't know if I need to be just quick question for the res we just time first or the whole session well it's two different and now now for uh the retirements just thank you um I see that as a you know a win for the district that we have all these find folks who are um they put in their time and now they're able to hopefully enjoy themselves and you know of the labor that they put in so thank you agre resignations m would you like to stop just question um I've been asked a lot are we conducting exit interviews when people resign currently I don't believe so is that something that would be looked at just to glean some sort of feedback of why people leave the district to see if there's any to keep them to retain them because I know in that update on the continuous dri of improvement there was something mentioned with the retention plan so I don't know if that would fall into retention plan what that looks like so when we were setting the agenda and somebody asked me and asked if I wanted to put the re and resummations on the agenda um I was like yeah sure and then I saw the amount of them and I realized that this was not going to be uh a very good look for the district and Miss Phillips you can feel free to jump in anytime um so I I started looking at a couple of things and the average um rate for people to leave a school district is about 23% of the teachers so we're actually a little bit below that and it varies depending on the district more affluent districts have less um resignations the more uh the school districts that have a deal with a higher poverty level a much higher resignation rate um now that doesn't mean I mean I personally I think you really want a as low resignation rate as possible um so I spoke with carollyn about it I spoke with Jess about it I spoke with some other people in school committees in different districts about it and everybody kind of had you know it's not easy nobody likes to see anybody leave especially the good ones we hate it when the good ones leave some of them you know you them a nice way and wish him the best of luck um but I also I I have for the last three years if I can get a uh internet connection internet connection so in school year 21 and 22 we had 16 retirements 57 resignations 15 of which were teaches um and five non-renewal dismissals and the total staff was 545 people in 22 23 we had 11 retirements 39 resignations 10 of which teaches um three non-renewal dismissals and the staff was at 653 uh for the 2324 school year we had 15 retirements 47 uh 46 resignations 11 of which were teachers and for non-renewed dismissals so we're kind of in the same line that we've been in for the last three years I don't have information before that I could get it but I have to assume that well I I will assume that it's similar so it's you don't want to see 11 teach's lead but it's not new it's not what this isn't a huge increase or a huge decrease um more importantly I think is we have a total staff of 625 people in in the school district and we don't have an hi division in the school for the district the g& has anhr Department the town now has a hi Department after 350 years of being in business but the school which is the largest employer in the in the town doesn't have an Hi Dep we don't to your point do we ex who would conduct exit interviews if we don't have that's my question that's what so I so I would that question and I think what we have to have is we have to have a discussion about creating an hi division so we can answer these questions and we can have the exit interviews because you don't want me doing them and I certainly don't want to be doing them nobody here should be doing them I I think it'd be counterproductive to have the superintendent doing that not car I'm talking about just because I think this is something we need to set upend to do we need something set up for the district and take the personalities out of especially when it's such a personal Personnel issue you know but I think that that's a discussion we're going to have to have very similar to what we're just going through with the school improvement district if you want I mean I absolutely think an a department would improve the school district quite a bit but it's budget driven so when we ask for this we're going to have to go to the select and we're going to have to go the town and ask for more money to fund this department so that we can function more efficiently I'd be more than happy to leave that charge if you guys would so Empower me to because I can't really do anything unless you ask me to or give me the authority to um but I think that that will answer most of the questions and most of the concerns people having with these resignations but I want to be clear that this is not a huge spike in resignation this year it's the second out of the last 3 years 10 and 11 3 years ago it was 15 pandemic was a little bit different but it's also below the average for for school districts so keeping those things in mind I think we could move forward Jess um so I attended a an masc I guess they called it a virtual Round Table Monday night it was something that got emailed around um that I just figured I'd give a try to go see and there were um school committee members on the session from it was maybe about 10 different uh towns or or Regional School Districts um and I actually posed the question of did any of them have a HR department for their school and many of them it was the same as the town some of them did have HR specific to the school um but the responsibilities they had were um you know paperwork for taxes and payroll and benefits and that kind of thing very few of them had anything in place that they were aware of related to exit interviews and that kind of um Personnel uh conflict resolution and that kind of thing um not that that means changes anything for what we can consider I just um um it there wasn't anybody that I could talk to about you know how did you go about establishing the department or or do the process um I did hear from somebody that they did have an exit interview survey kind of process but it was something that was uh sent out by members of the leadership team so assistant superintendent superintendent principes um so I've asked for some more information just to be able to share what another district is doing um in case it's helpful to us if want to look at implementing something in stages as we investigate options and handle budget needs um so I'll come back with any more information I can gather um but it definitely was um something that um other districts were not really doing either um so I think it's a it's an interesting topic for for discussion and contined review excuse me I also had a very interesting conversation with Alis and PR who is the hii director for the town and um she thought it was a fantastic idea considering again with a lest employer a department employer in town and we don't have an hi Department um and she sent me a text I'm more than happy to share it with you guys um just talking about the benefits that she's seen already in the year and a half two years that she's been in HR but I I honestly I believe you know we don't no offense to anybody but third party stories about what's going on and all that is very difficult to proceed on that type of information you know there's not a lot we can do I don't think it's part of our charge but we don't have right now I don't think we're set up the district doesn't have an opportunity for something like that to take place so why don't we implement it you know I think it will only help I'm not a huge fan of increase in budgets and increase in staff size and things like that but I think this would take a lot of the guess work out of it a lot of the conjecture out of it and we'd have an opportunity to actually have somebody who's trained in this field take Exit interviews you know resolve disputes you know things like that I it's just absolutely not fair to ask one person to be in charge of 625 people and do their job you know so I agree and I I think when we do our evaluation as a committee of ourselves and setting our committee goals I think ultimately the buck stops with us and even though this might be below average I still don't think that's good enough for Middleboro I think middleb is an exceptional town we have exceptional students exceptional families and we have exceptional staff and I think we should do our best to look at what we can do and not just with the exit interviews but I mean we heard from great administrators there's great staff here tonight who are coming back so why not reach out to them and try to figure out what works what what is keeping them here so we can build off of that and see if we can replicate those experiences and those feelings to the rest of the staff and and make sure our kids are getting the best experience we just heard about a whole bunch of great initiatives um and the leadership team and superintendent have those and they can try to implement them but if we don't have the the best experience people who are with the kids from B to Bell uh it's going to be really tough to to give them the best possible education so I I think we should incorporate both looking at what's working and then maybe you know going down that line of exit interviews I think an H would allow us to do exactly that I mean I agree with you 100% I just the implementation of it I don't think it's fair to ask us to do it I don't think we will do a great job we're not hi professionals but if we hire an hi professional then we can use them to best Advantage anyone else I just wanted to add I don't disagree with you that the um across the board education is losing great Educators in every District every state but if you look at this list we're losing a lot of our Administration staff and a lot of the District staff so I do think it's a question to ask you know why um and I as much as I agree with hiring HR our budget is tight as it is so maybe a different a free option whether it's surveys whether it's having school Community talk to staff members um to to see what's going on or you know being in the building but as much as the nhr sounds amazing where's the money going to come from I'm going to ask you to help us with that I'm going to ask every single person who's invested in this District to help us with that to go to the selectman and ask the selectman to proper from the district I can't imagine any other corporation that has 625 employees that doesn't have an HR department and for the record this was Sue's idea I just thought it was a great idea and she's not here to advocate for it could we use the town's HR we it's definitely something we can talk about to of middle yeah yeah definitely something save money but also yeah fix the problem I'm all if you have any money saving ideas I'm listening I have fundraising ideas not money but this is so this is the first conversation I'm aware of that this districts had about an AG department so it's the first conversation I I don't think we're going to hire someone tomorrow but we have a lot of hiring to do but let's stop having this conversation because this is this is going to answer the questions who because who like who would conduct the exit interviews right now right and you know we can't who's going to analyze we also can't forget like maybe these people are working closer to home or getting a better pay somewhere it might not be all negative things so it would be great to have that exit to know it's definitely information that would be useful to us we we right now we lack the ability to collect that information good end that you know info is info yeah we need it actually kind of said what I was going to say I was just standing there awkwardly so I really don't have much more input than that but do I think HR is a great idea I'd like to see the the positive and the negative and to improve for our children I mean that's really what this is all about right like our kids like that's why I'm here I'm out of my comfort zone in front of you guys saying things I don't want to say but we also have to understand that there are people out there that fear losing their jobs they fear being you know speaking out um so you know I I would ask that if we did implore that option of an HR department and just Anonymous surveys maybe throughout the year and um you know that would be something to discuss with them but um also maybe looking back at a couple years and having them reach out to former employees and saying hey like you know we just want to know why you left at that time um and then maybe we just backtrack a little bit because we don't have the access right now and it may take a long time to obtain that but maybe also looking back um you know a couple years to see maybe what if there's like a common denominator or just good or bad can I can I just ask your your thoughts on who's the right person to compile the anonomous surveys you know they got to go to somebody somebody's got to tabulate the information and well I'm sure there's a AI type of thing I know but you're right no it's going to you you said I don't know how many employees you said are employed in the school district I'm not aware of that but that would be ultimately the job probably of the HR department but it would the staff would need to know that that these are Anonymous you know I I my company does it they send out Anonymous surveys that me you can freely speak on what's working and what's not working and I think there's just always room for improvement and we just need to find that that spot and just you know make sure that the staff and the children can drive in here in in thearrow um that's all thank you I do just want to say from from my experience um again it's corporate world so it's different um but there is there's such greater value in the conversation and the surveys can get you certain information but it's very hard to follow up with some of those questions you might want to ask for getting to the root of certain things that don't always come up in an anonymous survey they can give you certain trends that that people can can look at and um but I do like the idea of of having um the ability to have more of those conversations and get to the the heart of things and and have um the the safe conversation I guess um and you know I know we've we've heard people say that know teachers have said to them and things like that um and you know I I know that um those of us on the board are not taking on an HR position um but we can do much more more to have a discussion if we have direct conversations than if we get I've heard this from someone um so just to put it out there you know maintaining an anonymity and we can protect our source kind of thing um but I do just want to note that you know we're we're we're safe to talk to if there are concerns that people want to to bring up um so that we can have a little bit more ability to to get follow questions and firstand information can I say one more yeah no I I understand what you're saying I understand that it's a safe spot but I'm just letting you know that in 24 hours nine staff and former staff who I don't even know messaged me with their concerns and I highly doubt that they're going to come to you with them and I'm not saying that disrespectfully I'm saying that but why wouldn't they come to us probably fear of losing their jobs being targeted uh many reasons why many people don't speak up about a lot of things but I I hope everybody understands that taking a third party a third no but she's saying come to you guys directly and I and I this is what I'm doing but I'm just saying for somebody that works within the school I don't work for the school but somebody that does they just may not feel comfortable which is why we're exploring the option of like an unbiased HR type of thing and I and I I respect that the the doors always open for you guys and I hope people do come to you with their concerns but the people that I've spoken to did not feel comfortable so I'm just saying that you know there's a mix of both so even if they were to sit down with that third party that unbiased person they still might not be truthful because they're not entirely sure people are paranoid people might not feel you know comfortable doing that they might feel more comfortable just submitting an anonymous survey with some feedback on it no I I I see the value in both I think that there's yeah I hope they come to you but I'm just from what I'm just told and and and being discussed with I just don't know if that's what's going to happen maybe with other people but I mean I'll say to anyone who's employed by School District if you're not talking to me I can't do anything about it if I'm not aware of an issue I can't do anything about it no absolutely I'm not I I haven't had people tell me anything but but they might not also feel comfortable saying it to you there's nothing I can do about that no of course not no I'm not going to take a third person no no and I don't expect you to take anything say for it has nothing do with you personally no of course not you know no no I'm just saying what I what I'm just delaying what I was told that's all and I'm glad that the door is open but they just I'm I'm I'm just putting up they may not feel comfortable and we maybe have never had the opportunity to say you know yeah absolutely we are will free to come to us at any time I I have to fully full disclosure our school committee emails are uh public you know anybody can ask for a record request but a hey I would like to have a conversation doesn't have to have all the details in it you know I I'd like to have a conversation on a Personnel matter we can we are open I don't know if we've had the opportunity to say that before so would like to add that I've had teachers and staff talk to me and and voice concerns and say they don't feel that they're supported and they have a fear of speaking out and I brought it up not only in the evaluation notes and I also brought it up in a meeting in which I was told by the former chair that I'm it's only my friends complaining which kind of writes off that these are actual important staff members that are with our children day in and day out that have these fears it's not my friends they are not my friends they are important members of the school community and they do have fears and because of comments like that from the former chair they're afraid to speak out they don't want to speak out and so we need a way of capturing there's no way to make sure that the education for our children is excellent unless we can listen to all viewpoints the good and the bad and they have a right to be able to have input and I I think an hii Department would be a very efficient and good for lack of a better word way to do that because the one person tells you want if somebody else tells me something else and then you and I are arguing about two different viewpoints and that's not effective at all but if we have an hi Department that can take all the comments good and bad disseminate the information that we getting and work on Solutions and that's what I think that would be the best way forward I also think that soliciting staff input on the evaluation is critical good and bad like I think they the fact that the us sit here and write the evaluation is in my opinion ridiculous that we're not taking input from the people who work in the school district every single day so the evaluation is set up it's it's a form so that every person every superintendent in the state has the same metrics for the evaluation well those we're following we're following the state guidance for that right but there are different goals that you can Implement and one of the goals could be how does the staff feel about the school environment and how would we solicit that information they can fill out Anonymous forms so we're not allowed to as as the school committee we're not allowed to but we are allowed to request that the superintendent gather certain metrics that are presented to us that is the the uh the guidance that we must follow doing that so I mean Anonymous is anonymous and and we can have that and we can discuss some of that in the upcoming meetings about the goals and you know what kind of of metrics we want um but it is as alen said it's a a state dictated process and that is not allowed to be a 360 evaluation all right does anybody else have anything else actually stand a motion if uh the school committee would like me to pursue a uh an HR position or Department talking to town manager and things like that fact finding you yeah yeah like looking into what it would cost and I can't I can't make I can't make any decisions looking into just as a general I'd like to start having conversation on behalf of the school committee with other people in town or having maybe the US go the Town to each other as we disced yeah yeah it's such a complex issue I mean it could be any number of reasons Financial you know it's important for us to look at y so would someone like to make that motion I will make the motion to allow the chairman to start the process of looking at data and collecting information from uh Town members in regards to in regard in regards to establishing an a department sove second Motion in second any other com questions all in favor iOS thank you um C did you have anything you want to add any of this no I mean I I mean not substantively these are Personnel matters so I I really can't speak on Personnel matters I will say this year we saw a principal U make an exit from our building anytime a principal leaves a building creates unrest in the school community that's one of the reasons we so aggressively pursue the search and I'm proud to tell you that we are seing the Top Choice the unanimous choice of the committee and you know that uh that candidate is not under contract until Monday and I would hope that when the candidate comes in as all new candidates when they come in should be welcomed in this community um because it's important when someone starts a new job to make them feel welcome and that they're qualified and that we have faith and trust in their leadership um certainly you know our new leader will have some hiring to do that's part of the job of being a principal um but I'm excited at the at the idea of being able to work with our new candidate Mr sourn and talk about events that would help um you know smooth smooth really the process in his transition um into our district so you know more more to follow on that I don't want to speak for his time or he here you know really affirmatively but um I have been in contact with him he was winding up a job in another District um he's very excited to join in uh here in middleb and I'm excited for the for the future can we um extend invitation to come and uh meet us at one of ourm absolutely yeah absolutely I mean we can you can anticipate communication from Mr sbor and more information I just don't I just don't want to speak for his schedule just yet um but I do know he's in District on Monday and um you know I'll be there to to greet him it is an invitation not the demand sure sure yes all right does anybody anybody have anything else I a motion to adjourn so move second motion second any questions all in favor thank you very much fol