e e e e e e e e e e e e e I would like to call this meeting of the narrag Regional School District school committee to order if you would all pleaseed IED United States of America naice and just a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and recorded on the live stream is available on YouTube and Facebook Okay um so just proceeding through our our business um we do have U we are going to skip U meeting minutes um those were not quite ready yet um there's only um there's less than a week um which being the last meeting in this one um so we'll move on to bills and P roll there isn't any we didn't isn't any so it looks like we can skip as well um so we have a number of um annual business items to get through um but they should be pretty quick here um so let's start running through those um so our first point is to appoint our fy2 marence access officer um so I would entertain a motion to appoint Susan Bernie as the records access officer for fiscal year 25 per Mass General law 66 section 6A second a motion by Danielle and second by Jeff any questions or comments I have a question if Sue would like to be the record access officer never asked try to do it thank you see no other questions all in favor opposed abstain and I say yes so that is unanimous the only reason she gave she gets so excited for it every year Ste her Joy so moving on to our fiscal year 25 positions contract agendum um that is attached for your review um so give you a quick minute um were there any notable changes or anything to call to our attention here no just just a renewal okay so I would entertain a motion to sign the physician's contract agendum with Cornerstone Family Medicine for fiscal year 25 as below the district agrees to pay Cornerstone Family Medicine a stipend of $6,000 for the 2024 to 2025 Academic Year District also agreed to pay Cornerstone Family Medicine a stipend of $150 per away gain for the 2024 2025 active year mot second motion by Danielle second by shaa any questions or comments about this seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous okay moving on to authorization to borrow and anticipation of funds for fy2 any updates you want to give on this am before we move to a motion um this is just standing procedure to allow the treasurer to borrow y thanks so I would entertain a motion to authorize maret Regional School District Treasurer the provisions of mass Massachusetts general laws chapter 71 SE section 16g as amended by chapter 13 section 4 of the acts of 1972 and with the approval of the chairman of the district committee to borrow money from time to time in anticipation of revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 1st 2024 and to issue a note or notes therefore payable within one year and to renew any note or notes as may be given for a period of less than one year in ordance with General Law chapter 44 section 17 motion by Danielle second second by Heather any questions or comments seeing none all in favor opposed abstained I say yes so that is also un us um so review and appointment of legal council for fiscal year uh 25 um any I'm assuming we're continuing to recommend I know they've been great partners for us y excellent um so I would entertain a motion to continue using miror o Connell Law Firm for fiscal year 25 motion by Danielle second by Heather any questions or comments seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous we also have review and appointment of our auditing firm for fiscal year 25 anything to know here excellent so I would entertain a motion to continue using roselli Clark and Associates CPA as a District's auditing firm for fiscal year 25 motion by Danielle second by shaa any questions or comments see none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous um we now have our treasure treasure appointment um hold on my computer is struggling to load I would entertain a motion to approve Felicia hu as District treasurer for fiscal year 25 motion by Daniel second by Han um any questions or comments seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous um and then finally now my computer is cooperating I would also entertain a motion to appoint Lori Reed as the assistant treasurer for fiscal year 25 motion by Danielle second second by Jeff all in favor I question I just don't know employ she our person start thank you I'm sorry about that nope that's okay all in favor I oh wait did I do a motion Jeff second all in favor opposed abstained and just let make sure the record shows that was absent for that particular vote she will be back in a moment all right um so now we come to our appearances and we will start with our student room all right um not a whole lot new has happened in the last week um but just kind of to refresh everybody's memory um it's may now so the end of the year is coming soon especially for seniors three weeks from today is our last day of classes um so Senior Week is coming up all that fun activities that come with that the chicken barbecue prom is coming up that's a week from Saturday at Hidden Hills at ring um and then tomorrow of course we have Gap day which is a prom safety day for all the students who are attending prom um it sounds really fun from what has been given away not a whole lot of details about the event have been disclosed to us but from what has been disclosed it sounds really fun everybody's looking forward to it um and yeah graduations ear around the corner and AP exams end of the year testing all that fun stuff good Lu everything W sure well I'm looking forward to seeing everybody in the Gazebo I enjoy driving by and seeing everybody sure all right and we have another special presentation from our Middle School Mrs King and some students and if it helps at all you've got at least three parents sitting up here who have students in the middle school right now been in sixth graders um so really excited to hear from you the floor is yours thank you so much for making time for us I know every year we talk about finding reasons to come visit school committee and let you know what's going on within our buildings and across the district and it's usually easiest to pull some of the more distinguished honors that we receive or big notifications or Apex you know championships or such that we win um across the district I thought this was especially cool number one because it's just cool when you'll see that but number two it's just another day inside the middle school and it was that cool so when Mrs King shared the project that she's going to present with you I immediately thought of bringing it to school committee because of of two things number one what our students do at the middle school level isn't as obvious in reaching the outside world just because they're not at that point yet where we're launching them but number two when we were here in the fall talking about our anti-bullying week one of the slides that I focused on to start and end was how we want to do and have kids do what is right and not just what's easy and I think this project also links to that so I'm very proud to present Mrs Jennifer K who's our literacy and action teacher uh it's an extension of our elll program or Ela program I should say um in seventh grade and she's brought some of our students to explain what their project is so I want to let them do the talking so Mrs K where um you can well if they're in front of the TV they're not looking at us that might get awkward um so thank you so much for letting us join you we're very excited um for those of you who don't know me my name is Jennifer King I am the seventh grade literacy teacher here this year um and I have brought some great kiddos with me and just a few of them I should say um because they have all exceeded my expectations and or blown us away this year with everything they've accomplished so for those of you who don't know literacy is an extension off of our Ela program we talk a little bit more with the ELA standards but we break it down to their everyday life we relate it to what they go through as middle school kids and then get them ready for high school eventually um we focus on on their social emotional learning as well and we started this year with leadership we moved on to book studies with um in regards to social issues and then we started our our last unit was about change agents and if you couldn't tell all of our units kind of Interlock in some way and so I don't want to take too much of this floor because these guys did all the hard work I just set the set the stage um but really quickly um we were talking about what it means to be a change agent why it's important for youth to get involved not only in our community but eventually in the world that they live in and these guys were amazing an opportunity from a former Templeton uh resident came to our knowledge and he runs a beautiful business out in Nashville Tennessee it's now called monoun um but it was originally called the col Manor and this Manor hosted presidents other leaders trade arguments and settlements um along the history of the United States and it's kind of one of those things not many historians really talk about so the airport wants to knock it down and take away this part of History rightfully they have what to say because they oh proud of the LED but the students thought how is that fair it's history why would we erase history so they really started digging deep into why is history so important more why is it important to us when it's out in Tennessee and with many conversations with the owner himself he did video messages with the kids they came together created posters letters and we sent them out there in our support what can we do to help what does it mean for us to be a chent and these guys like I said I couldn't have been prder um they got recognition from the tennis local news station uh I wish you would have aired here because it was it's such a big deal I would love for them to also tell you about their project inste coming from them than me um so guys why did we talk about change agents what does it mean and how do we benefit from this so since we're talking about mon nails and all the change agents uh I think it would be good to tell you what a change agent is like so a change agent is a person or group of people that strive to make a positive change in society and or our whole entire world we are involved in this to not make a change here but again at mon El's safe uh piece of piece of history now it's one thing for it's one thing for us to send letters over and get a little recognition but not have anything come back it's another thing for stuff to come back and for us to see what we have done does make a change it does bring people help so receiving um feedback on our work has also it's not only shown us that we um that not just what we've done is right but we do have a big effect on people as you can see I think my lesson I hopefully got across to them but I it it's going to carry with them through life and that is another big part of this unit and why I thought it a big deal for them to not only get recognized in Tennessee but here the owner sent them all t-shirts all students um he sent many videos of thanks and like I said it also made local news in Tennessee these guys fully grasped what it means to be a change agent and I can't wait to see what they do for our future and our community any question so um now that you work through process and you realize how important your voices are and you witnessed some of the changes that you were able to you know put into place in Tennessee have you started thinking about what you can do in your own Community are you inspired by anything locally oh I definitely think so there are a lot of like other old um not museums per se but there are other old buildings that I think would be very cool to check out since really this is it is a restaurant but it's also a piece of history and I think it's very cool that even in town we have parts of history and if anything were ever to happen to those like towns or not towns buildings um we already have experience of what we can do to help so it was it's very it's a good experience EV if something were to happen can help after seeing what we were able to do just by sending little letters over I think it would be good if I don't know maybe we try to help with other maybe smaller things in the community community maybe helping a certain I don't know organization raise enough money just to get up on their feet start a new business Global business um just little things doesn't even need to be a big U historical monument just thanks well you guys are certainly inspiring thank you thank you thank you so much I know it's really intimidating to come and talk to a bunch of adults that you've never before especially when they tell you you're on TV and I will tell you firsthand the number of times I've had to read through emotion and messed it up so it takes a lot to have to sit up in front of a room so I not only commend you for this great work that you did but also for your bravery and coming and talking to us that's awesome we love it we love hearing from students it really makes our day so thank you so much for taking the time and Mrs King what a great project that's fantastic all right thanks very much all right any other questions before for our students before we let them go no I just like to say that I think what you did was excellent and I love the last comment about the little changes I think it's very important and I think you guys are not only great example for your KS here in the school uh but the entire community and just keep up the good work thank you you're very welcome well enjoy your evening you're welcome to stay or you're also free to go we have more exciting voting to do okay so the next item on our agenda is public input um and do we have anyone that's looking to speak tonight so if you want to come forward a little bit just so we can make sure we can capture your voices and just make sure that you state um your name and your residence oh okay are St um my name is Hillary long Martinez um I have two daughters here that are both in the school system um I am a Templeton resident my name's jaff gold I'm also a Templeton resident and I have four children within the school school district um ranging from elementary school to high school right so we're just here to kind of touch Bas so we were here last week um kind of excited to kind of venture out into the track and field World um and kind of touch face about what is kind of The Next Step um certainly show our face again showing that we are very interested um certainly my daughter Hannah is in track currently um and she knows that that track is in rough shape and we're obviously looking to raise money and um in the last week um Jackie has started um already like um the booster page um we've looked in I've spoken to several people about uh 503c um and I've also uh contacted a couple businesses local businesses if they would be interested in donating whether um it's just donation to the track or if they want to do some sort of fundraiser within the town whether it's you know get discounts like oh if you buy pizza on this night we'll donate um things like that so we're just kind of here to kind of continue and we did hear maybe little Rumblings that there might have been a quote received within the last week uh sorry goe um there was not it's not it's not going to be an official quote so they can out but what they did do is they gave us um an over the phone quot on which uh the tracks are generally the same size um they they generally can quote at least a rough quote over the phone so the number that we were see we contacted four track companies we've only heard back from one in the last I think 10 days since we've contacted them but it was around $850,000 if you were to redo the you know the whole the whole coun and I granted that was sight unseen we have some staining water Etc but the fact is to make um to put in a new track would be 850,000 um and also we do have another philipson Resident too because I know that uh some of the recommendations were that we would get people from obvious both towns it's something that we're going to have to bring to the Forefront and that we're just going to work together and we just kind of want to touch Bas and certainly moving forward we know that um I believe on is it May 15th the town is also going to be having a meeting and we know that it's something that's been in the works but we just want to kind of be here again and just um show our support to you guys and the support that we've been given to just kind of start this um I know we have a long way to go but certainly um we want to touch Bas with people who are also like I said to grant writers within the town to seek out if there's any possibilities there um other businesses too if they're willing to make donations um certainly talk of reaching out to the Senators we're getting a list together of some of the parents that are not only um the parents but if they're registered voters um and just kind of put our word out there and we're ready to start rocking and rolling with us did you want to say anything additional yeah we're just ready to back the school committee so um in voting with the school um we did have District relays this weekend um there's over 20 schools uh our boys placed first in Javelin they also plac I think fifth on relay and the girls placed F and six which I mean they only recognize six places so I mean we run a great program with what we have imagine what we could do and we can do better um yeah and meeting with a bunch of parents and we're going to the town because that's what's right that's great um and I can just share our school committee update um a little bit early but we did talk about this in finance and Facilities um we understand that central office has been kind of giving you some information about that 503c and getting registered and how to get things started um so that's a great place um as well as getting you know getting multiple towns involved so um it is going to get it is um facilities and fields are an item that's regularly on our subcommittee meeting um and that meeting happens the first Wednesday of every month um outside of summer months when schools are a little lighter um but but yeah that it's continuing to be on our agenda as well and it has been for some time so excited to see parents involved thank you so much yes thank you sure my ask a question um you can ask it um I am from Goldston but no way represent the town obviously but would there be a meeting that I could go to in Goldston that be suggested to spread words about this or is this you know the place to be for that so so because we are a district we we operate through we work with both towns and anything that's related to budgeting and especially with a big ticket item like this we'd be working with both towns so what you should do reach out to um your your town um administrator or to you know anyone who works within the town offices and ask them to help you navigate who to engage with specifically in philipon to start these conversations they'd be much better place than I would be um to to guide you through that okay um but yeah yeah showing up to um Philipson's town meeting is May sorry Wednesday May 9th um that's also a good place to um you're not going to be able to bring up a new topic like this but to go to the meeting on May 9th you get a much better sense of how Templeton government I'm making an assumption that maybe you haven't been I have before okay so if you go to town meeting on May 9th that's also a great way to get an idea of how the town government operates 2018 may24 I apologize we're not going to reference 2018 on you well thank you so much thank you for your T appreciate it thank you oh if any Templeton residents want support we have a Facebook page narit uh track and field booster if they would like to search it they can find it great thank you both okay um so moving on um ndea is not here tonight we know they were at meeting um so I'm sure they didn't have any updates after just a few days um so I'm going to hand over both fy4 and fy2 budget updates to you an Marie I don't know if there's anything new to share to share so okay um business managers didn't excellent um so we're going to move on to school choice as I understand from my initial conversation with Dr C just before the meeting started we're not actually ready to do a vote right now but we are going to talk about some numbers yes M I mean um thank you what I want to say about that is that prek and K are still in floods you know so we what we know right now is that our prek we have 60 prek students rolling over so u meaning that there are 60 that are I believe are going to stay Within just going to stay there um and not really have to go on to k um and then you know what comes after that it's really kind of a rolling admission once they get up you know up and moving but that is that's a high number so far in terms of uh kindar we have a rough number of 87 students put that in perspective we have 98 in kindergarten currently so you know we're again we're it's never it's never over over but we'll know more you know as we get closer to June and um so those numbers look like they are trending to be a little bit higher in the prek and about the same right now for kindergarten so just to kind of give you a because we that's always a that's always a great um sign post like you know what was coming you know but we never know until we know so um but I think that that's interesting and all the packets were taken so we don't know again it's about the census and not the census is not often very accurate so it's it's all about when they finally get the packets in to be very ke okay so the philosophy of school choice we've been doing this for well now we going on on year in general what we tried to do is well back nine years ago we would just take as many kids as almost humanly possible that changed um for a lot of reasons and simply for for a lot of one we started uh receiving or having a lot more residents and it really has been the matter of what I call maintenance so what we generally do is look at the your class look at that and okay senior class currently has um 62 students in it and that will be the very last time you'll see that unless something unbelievable happens over the next four graduating classes because they are at over a 100 kids um but in terms of what we look at is that there are 12 school choice students in grade 12 so at the very at the very minimum what we try to do is is we look at that number and we look at the number of students um whom our school choice with us write this man but may be going to mon Tech so we just try to kind of stay it's not it's not an exact science we never know people move in people move out Etc so what we what we did is we looked at all the we looked at you know where the numbers are um for every grade um where could we if um it was so voted where could we take students the the the easiest answer when I say the obious answerers the eighth grade well than next year the rising ninth grade right so class of 2020 gosh 28 yep so the class of 2028 has a 126 students we know that we're going to um at the very minimum to lose at least 22 students to uh M for example so we we know that there is um we know that there is a room you know in class of 2028 um when looking then gets a little bit harder um to find some Loom but the grade seven currently has excuse me um has 113 so the rising class uh rising in seventh grade which is the class of 2030 has 113 students okay which is lower than the other two classes um and if we were to bring it up to the 120 number which we generally shoot for you know uh at these in these situations you know obviously that leaves us seven there I don't know if I said this 10 the rising eighth grade 2028 sorry I didn't say that before but we would we could see that there was be there'd be that would be um appropriate we thought a little bit outside the box because then it it becomes not possible with the class of 2031 which is the current fifth grade they have 134 kids um grade seven is right at 120 um Etc uh we we have some opportunity in the high school but generally like you said we depending on how the budget goes we don't want to put too many students in the high school at the earlier um grades because that's where the that that we need the mo that's where we need the staff the most so in any we looked at the current uh first grade um well no pardon me the rising first grade which is the class of 2036 which is the current um and you know we think that there would be five seats there um the third grade which is the class of 2035 I mean pardon yeah 20 35 probably could see use like five students if if it became you know uh if we so wanted to um depending on how kindergarten again we're just talking about school choice depending on how kindergarten um you know comes out you know we won't know that till the end we often don't know that till the summertime just we just don't know and by that time even if there were openings there if that was would be something that you'd want to consider we generally um would we notify parents way too late they've already made their decision by that point quite frankly you by the time we're like okay we've got seeven whatever I'm making it up we've got five seats there no problem by that time people have already committed because they they need to figure out where they're sending their you know where where they want to send their student part of their child so short of the elementary you know what we're looking at is the class of um the GL the class of 2028 would would see the 10 in the class of the 2030 would uh would be able to fit of seven for a grand total of 17 yes I said the number 12 before is a couple kids who are school choicing we have school choice in and going to gu Tech least they've been accepted um you know the uh that just Hedges the vet because we generally when we do open them up we don't always fill all the slots that we do make available in the first place so manager that's that would be my recommendation a grand total of 17 school choice students 10 for the class of 2028 which is the rising ninth grade and uh the rising uh seven grade would be a total of which is the riseon 7th is 2030 um for a total of seven okay so right now as the number stand right now you're recommending 17 but 12 are seniors so there's 12 right um and there roughly for depending weight list and all this other stuff so we we just rounded up to five um for the Cur in eighth graders um or you know Rising ninth graders because I you know who stayes who goes who doesn't I don't know that honestly I just won't know that but safely can take you can take that me okay okay now is it better for you if we vote on this and then potentially do another vote next time around or is it better for you if we suspend until the 23rd and wait until we have an idea of the picture for school choice well we've had a lot of people requesting requesting so we did open up the application so they hav the committee hasn't voted on it yet but you'd like to be your child on kind brings a little bit you know knowing that they at leas on the list okay we opened it two days ago there's 20 people out already wow okay so the majority is probably Elementary though and we think there's some opportunity there we do um you know uh as I very very targeted very very you know minimal um you know again we have not we have not um accepted school choice student the elementary for four years um for all the obvious reasons we've discussed it you know at life so I know I said at the beginning of this we didn't think we were ready for a vote but it does sound like we're ready for a vot as it Rel pertains to the rising seventh grade and Rising ninth grade so is there any objection moving forward the vote that was on the agenda just to get these these couple bits settled okay great um so I would entertain a motion to approve the school choice openings update as recommended the details for which are hold on 10 students for the rising nth grade and seven for the rising seventh grade um for school year 2024 to 2025 second motion by Danielle second by Heather any questions or comments before we move to full vote I just like to say something okay school choice has always been something I've been I always look at as a parent and as you know now on this board and it's just it's just always a tough thing because it's a balance of seats and then money and all of that and I think what I'm struggling with this year is that houses are being built in this town in both towns there is still permits that haven't even been pulled yet for housing developments that are coming and so I always just and it's not that I'm against school choice it's just that I really want to take care of the Templeton and philipon students first and so I I I guess I'm just an for opening up any seats this year and and I you know I hate to to really say that um but that's just that's just where I stand and I completely respect that and respect and massive respect for you speaking up and and talking about um the why because not everybody has to do that yeah um I would say that one of it it is a challenge um and the one of the biggest challenges is that we are actively funing positions through school choice and so when we lose those seniors um we have to replace them or we we could we could put us in a position of going south on those monies and those monies are a critical part of the budget that we presented for fy2 so completely understand and respect um where you are coming from um and you and everyone is welcome to vote exactly the way that that they feel uh um but are there any other questions or comments before we move on to vote I just want to sit back to what I I I completely agree with everything you said I also think when we take in a school choice student you know to educate them because each student comes with their own set of what they need it could quite possibly be more than that 5,000 or whatever that amount is per year for that student and everybody that sits on you know that in this room knows how important I feel special education is but whatever student we take there ours there ours until they graduate and so it's really hard to put a number on a student and so again any students that we accept we accept them wholeheartedly with all of the educational needs that they have and so again it just goes back to my point that I want to make sure that the students in both of these towns are getting there needs met first M chair if it if it yes you know that is the issue right it's a it's a it's a variable how I put it that way um there is you know there is special education offset monies that come with um with students so in other words I would be the town but if if we you know if we if we got a student from Boston school choice in here um and they required special needs Services we would um basically basically charge for those type of services and it's not dollar for Dollar by any stretch it's only $5,000 right so it's only $5,000 per kit but when you go through through the process um which the special education department does you know you could easily you know whatever whatever the cost is I would say that um you know things numbers change things things change um if folks don't feel you know confident with it that I I get that it's you can look at the 12 and say it's only roughly $60,000 right I mean you took if you just replaced if you just simply replaced the uh the uh the seniors the only thing I worry about one of the things I wor I worry about but one of the things I worry about is the fact that I don't know how many kids I'm going to lose school choice out so our our our our differential right is we have the lowest number of students who school choice out in since I've been here in nine years there's a lot of great reasons for that um but also the differential has never been um closer and that's because we we're we're not taking in the number of uh school choice kids as we've done in the past because we don't take anything the elementary um and pretty soon things keep going the way they are we won't be able to take anybody to middle school we won't be I mean we'll start running out of options and one could argue that that that's fine because that's what the town should the town should fund anyone um because we are funding teaching positions out of school choice um you know that's not a secret we also do a lot of other things professional developments um one of fixes what's that you said user fees user fees excep you know so there's there is a you're right it's almost a gamble sometimes really is roll the dice um and so I I definitely appreciate that uh because because it sometimes it's it's not a it's not an it's not equal right and if I may um Dr Cass to your point I know in the past years you and Amar have talked about moving positions out of that school choice revolving account but we're not always able to do that because if each budget Year we're voting down a lower number then we're not being able to move those chest pieces if you will to get to what we're really you know striving for so that's also another piece of this puzzle that we keep wanting to move along but yet we're as we all say kicking that can down the road so there are nine positions currently um in in school choice and I those points of Taken I don't yeah um and I that's what's hard for me is that I respect your recommendation um and I think the other part too is as I sit here as a as a member of the committee I have other Comm people in the community and parents that you know second to um class sizes this is the other topic that they talk to me the most about and I you know so that part weighs on me as well it's certainly a juggling act that we go through every year we've done a pretty good job I think over the years so yeah it's we been I'd be very I'm not you know it's fun there is there truly is I don't make I don't make any any bones about that you just you don't know um and it's only Chris it's only $5,000 you know per kid and it's true it really is true um what we're just trying to do is you know we rely on school choice quite a bit we doing you know a lot about it there I mean we're not you know if you ask me what grade i' be worried about the most well you're talking about the seventh grade right because you know you're talking about middle school students um and just you know just you just don't there's they're going to be here longer so if there was you know if that was a concern You' you know you'd worry about that right or may' be um that's that's certainly part of the puzzle um again I don't know that we will Ex I don't even know if we'll have enough and I don't have the list I haven't looked at the list I don't have time to look at the list um you know I don't even know what the shear numbers are people who are applying for those particular grades at the elementary if we wanted to we could take well if there's 20 on the list right now i' I've been called at least 10 times about K with without that's on an exaggeration so that's not they're probably not the noral list quite frankly uh and so you know it's it's yeah it's it's worthy of of of thoughtful reflection because it it can can come bad it's always good it's always good to hear the different opinions as well as to bring up what's being talked about the community so thank you Sean okay um had a motion a second and yes remind me for re worse I'm sorry all right so we've made our motion second and comments um so all in favor opposed no abstained and I say yes um so that is five in favor and one okay um so then moving on um we now have have an update on our Middle School history curriculum and Grant update great thank you um so you may have heard me referen this earlier in the year but we we've um done some work to update our curriculum in our Middle School particularly around history and social studies as well as Ela which you heard a little snippet of our new literacy action courses uh earlier this earlier this evening um so one of the things we do is we've taken advantage of some new resources that have been developed in professional development um from Desi to really focus on um grades five six and seven uh history social sciences curriculum so I'm here to give you an update on that um and so investigating history is what is it um it's a set of open- source resources that were built to directly align with the uh 2018 Massachusetts history and social sciences Frameworks um so it's not only textbooks like we're used to kind of adopting and bringing in um but it is primary sources for teachers to have access to and student facing materials um it includes videos it includes um pre-made tasks and activities that are very Hands-On for students and so all of the design of the materials and instructional materials and student facing materials for investigating history um were designed and anchored on the four principles that you see um on the bulleted list on the screen now um they're designed to promote historical inquiry and investigations for students um to really develop skills around historical empathy and human connection Civic engagement and current world relevance and culturally and linguistically sustainable pedagogy for teachers um and so we've really been really lucky this year to engage in a grant to help us bring these resources into our district and help our teachers navigate through what are they and how do I use them with my students um one of the reasons we looked into this opportunity is because we we have a textbook in place for our teachers uh which was student facing and a lot of the work to develop activities and tasks with students was put on the shoulders of teachers so our teachers didn't have a lot of access to ready-made student materials that were more engaging our Hands-On or strategies for how to engage students in discourse and conversation around some of these topics and so this um this program essentially brings those all together from teachers and allows them to pick and choose from a wide range of materials um that are pre-made for them um or adapt those to meet the needs of their students um and and the curriculum needs as well so this for us happened through a grant that desie put out um called the investigating history implementation Grant and so we wrote this grant actually in collaboration with two of our neighboring districts so we worked with Gardener and winchington um and we received the grant for this year and the reason that we worked with gardener and winchington on this grant is that a lot of the work designed to train and support teachers around these practices and these materials is meant to be collaborative and our teachers work in silos in grades five six and seven and what I mean by that is they work great as a tea but if you're the fifth grade history social studies teacher you are the only teacher who teaches that grade level content if you are the sixth grade teacher you are the only teacher who teaches that content and similarly with our second grade teacher so while they are a strong team they don't have counterparts here that teach the same content that they teach and so with this grant we were able to um fund and purchase all the printed materials both for teachers and students um that go along with this curriculum program we were in we're able to kind of cross District uh support collaboration and networking so one of some of the feedback we're receiving from our teachers is oh my goodness I can sit down with other seventh grade you know social studies and histories teachers and we can talk about what we teach because we all teach the same thing um that's been really helpful we've been able to provide extensive ongoing professional development for our team um with a with a professional development provider who's educurious that's the name of the company um they have been part of the full design of this curriculum since Inception and so they have been through the iterations and changes and one of the reasons that we leaned into this particular PD provider um is because they not only have the PD providers provide PD but they have Master Teachers who are still in the classroom teaching the grade level and subjects that come out for a few days um to help work with the grade level teams that they uh that they teach so a real real live seventh grade history teacher comes and leads the group of seventh grade teachers through some of the training and our teachers have really enjoyed that because they can talk about what their struggles are what their successes are with certain units or lessons um and so for us this process started with um with a few summer days where our team came together our teachers and our leaders to get an overview of the um overview and introduction to the curriculum what are some of the pedagogical practices that we use how do we navigate how to access materials you know all those sort of nuts and bols pieces um from there each grade level team and again are the cross District so all the fifth grade teachers all the sixth grade teachers all the seventh grade teachers um got together and they had what we called Unit launch days so before they taught a unit they got together with the team they were able to unpack the unit look at pacing um look at some of the misconceptions students might have um with some of the content and materials and they were able to collaboratively plan out that unit and some of those lessons as a team um in addition to that we designed professional learning communities that were teacher developed so they were grade level across the three schools those were less structured and what I mean by that is um the teams got together on a schedule but they designed the agenda together based on where they were with their pacing or what they wanted to support each other with some additional um you know focus on for collaboration we also had an opportunity to have um some of the folks from educurious come in and actually provide model lessons and coaching for our teachers um and similarly we sent our teachers out to another District to observe uh Master Teachers who have taught with this program for a long time they recently did that during one of our last half day PD days and they raved about having the opportunity to go and watch somebody teach what you're going to be teaching next week as a get um and lastly we also built in some training for our administrators so that they knew what are some practices we should be seeing in classrooms and how do we support our teachers um especially in this first year of implementation where things are new you know how do we access resources for them or how do we find supports for them both within our system and outside of our system so with that in mind um this is what we teach I know this this a lot of text up here uh but this is a summary of what we teach because this is aligned to the Massachusetts frbs for uh each grade for history and social studies so our grade five is focused on United States history Civil War modern Civil War Rights Movement you can see there are four units that they they um go through in throughout the course of the year um and then our grade six students and grade seven students engage in classes on um world geography and and civilizations um and cultures and you can see the outlines of of what those Topics by unit are um so grades five and six have four units over the course of the year um grade seven has a fifth unit and so when we designed our PD with um um with our surrounding districts we have a little bit more going on in grade seven just to support that additional unit that they have excuse me um and again we've got great feedback from our teachers of course some challenges along the ways anything new presents presents you know challenges particularly pacing um because they're learning some of the practices as they're teaching students but um one I should say and one of the reasons we really lead into this is two of our three teachers in our Middle School social studies Department and are brand new one was new last year one was new this year so we have two of our three teachers uh you know who are in their first two three years as Educators and so this also timing of this was great for us it really gave us a chance to provide additional support and training to them on their content um so this is um every unit every lesson is founded in these four big um design principles and so I could talk about these briefly earlier but students are engaging often in questions and real historical sources so looking at primary source documents um they're constantly thinking about um why and how people did things you know what was the thought process and and why the people act the way they did why did they do the things they did um we are constantly building connections to real life their you know current events their own um activism as you heard uh today um and again we're also building relationships skills and the ability for them to reflect on their own identities um and diverse identities that may be different from theirs as well and so as we finish this year we have an opportunity to um write an expansion grant for next year and I we um you know we really met with the team and asked them you know are you interested in the second year of professional development because the curriculum is in place we're going to keep you know honing in our practice and working on our pacing um and they all said yes you know having one year was was exciting but also it was a lot to take in so we've written the expansion Grant which we didn't write in collaboration with the other districts um because it's set up a little differently this year and that wasn't an opportunity for us so we wrote it as a uh as a single District but it gives our teachers an opportunity to go to additional unit days this coming year to really with teachers that have already taught this as well so they're going to now focus on revisiting and owning in or kind of revising um anything for those upcoming units so that's going to now happen at the state level so instead of it happening with our our small three districts out here they will go likely to the Worcester area but who knows um and we'll be they'll be grouped with a larger group of say grade five history teachers from across the state and they'll be unpacking that um kind of as a cohort now um and so we're really excited about that opportunity um Lisa Lisa D who you see in the picture here is our Lead Teacher uh for the Middle School social studies she and Janet and I went to a grant uh Grant convening meeting um recently so we could hear a little bit more about the long-term vision for the grant and for the training for teachers um and she walked away already with like six ideas I feel like that she could bring back to her class she was very energized and excited at that opportunity and the reason you see the one8 um up in the corner here is that uh desie has now partnered with the 18 Foundation to help manage this Grant and if you are sitting there thinking I think I've heard that before 18 Foundation also overseas Project Lead the Way they're an organization that is very passionate about Hands-On applied learning for students and so if they are picking up a project it is going to really be Project based learning focused um and so we were really excited to hear that one Foundation picked up this Grant from desie with desie because um it's it's going to strengthen the applied learning component and so we're really excited about that great so any questions about that do you have any um I mean I know students don't really understand the curriculum has changed or updated or anything like that but uh are you getting any responses from students or any indications from students that this at the success of this move because it sounds like it was definitely success in in terms of the teachers and that that engagement and you know building curriculum I'm just curious I I don't even know how you would gauge that to be honest so it's a little bit of a shot in the dark um I can say from just being in classrooms and but what we're seeing that's different is we're seeing a lot more group work and student collaboration and collaborative problem solving or collaborative um task so we're seeing less um sort of Stand and Deliver where the teacher sharing all their knowledge we're seeing kids more more uh inquiry based where they are delving into sources and trying to unpack and uncover um because that's the way their tasks are structured um so we are seeing a lot more engagement from students in the classrooms we have not done any surveys or anything like that to get to gain formal feedback um but I think putting together you know a little focus group and and kind of digging in a little deeper would be a great idea great thank you thank you so much okay jumping back into our agenda um we do not have any surplus items for tonight great Susan okay excellent so we'll move on from that um to the superintendent report just a couple things I'm hopeful that um we're able to see the play this weekend um I I do not know how they learn those lines sh I do not I'm going to tell you right now I I sit there and awe to listen to them and it's Flawless it really is um so it was a great it was a great opportunity just to see our kiddos again up their kiddos their young adults but kiddos to me always so it was fantastic and and just congratulations to participated was fantastic um UniFi track you know we don't talk about UniFi track but you know they had a big meet today in Ash West and I am just confident that they've won um they are not I'm just confident I'm confident that they that they want uh they are fast they are Fierce um they are competitive um and so if you have a if you have an opportunity to see our UniFi TR our team it's it'll make you day it'll make you honestly they're doing a fantastic job so um just want to throw a shot out there so I know that they've had a couple meets um and it's principles week day month it's just all about principles today so um we've we showered them with praise and then sent them right back to work um because that's what they do they are honestly they make this District move make not Mist think about it and we're very luy to have three wonderful principles and principles but it's not nice principal when talk about um but uh principal's day last week we're just not don't don't try um and but they are great we we're very lucky to have a great team and U so we we uh we did we spoke very nicely to them about them this morning so that's really it for the you know just for the the stuff of it um any questions about one I want to show you so we have done it again um honestly I I mean that in a positive way we this is my I want to show you the evaluation report that we've um uh that we've that created but we certainly have engineered um if you're familiar this is the form that the state it's on the State website and everyone is ever evaluated the state of Massachusetts knows that this form so uh thanks to Molly's honestly reverse engineering um and expertise to this because we were able to put a lot of information into this form and I and I personally I think it's it's it's kind of you know it's really going to um receive the dividends of this because it's all in one place so I just wanted to quickly go over it you'll you'll obviously have time to look at it before the next meeting but um as if you were to scroll I'm just going to up here not on my screen so that way but there is though the the goals identifies the type of goal the goal um description all of the evidence which um is they're all linked um first off and just know that the standard and um you know all the the focus indicators are also linked so if you're look you're looking at this and going what is standard 2 C well you can look at that and see what that what that standard is um and not only the standard but of course you know the indicator um the evidence that we've talked about um so it it goes to it's the same all the way through and at the very bottom that is what we were trying to honestly figure out as where to put the um the narrative itself so we limed it um it just did not make sense to put it in real time or pardon me in print because it would have been another five more of these pages and so we've linked it um if if that is problematic certainly we can print it out out and do with all that but it's there um so there's a narrative for each of those and I think um honestly you know again thanks to Molly we really did sit there for quite a bit of time to try to improve uh not only the Aesthetics of it but just to uh make make it easier I guess um to review and and to review any of the U the information that goes with that so Molly will also not that it it does matter of course but Molly and I shared not only the same template we shared made the same goals and all so so her evaluation also looks exactly like this so that way um in terms of it consistency also identify what indicators um you know were agreed upon last year um and again the link so again any questions please let me know um oh there we go so it's pretty self-explanatory done all of this again on the sheets before but generally it was four different homemade homemade sheet or something to that effect so this now is actually in the form itself so um for the cycle um we need to have our feedback in and review it and vote on it um in a meeting in June um and so in our agenda meeting it was discussed that if if we're looking at junee and we want to make sure that this is in in enough time for uh Molly and Dr C to turn this around and submit it because they have to submit it um then we really need to do that in early June not late June um so we will need that first Thursday June meeting so um Susan if you just double check that everyone's going to be available for that meeting that would be the June 6th um and so what Danielle and I will do is we'll get get together like we did last year and and figure out the best way to get the feedback into this form or otherwise um what I do want to emphasize is we had a really good conversation around you know we have a lot of new school committee members and giving feedback in the superintendent evaluation cycle isn't like doing a review in the corporate world so in the corporate world world there's generally like some goals and objectives for the business and you present what your evidence is your boss says whether or not they agree with your evidence um but it's very open like you can kind of put anything in there and and it has some really broad interpretation superintendent evaluation is not like that it is ultra specific um and so what we have to make sure we're doing is when we give feedback we need to give feedback specifically to to the goals as they're presented or the goals as we voted on them the relationship that those have to the rubric and the evidence that was agreed upon to those objectives um so if there are if there is feedback that if you have a piece of feedback that doesn't fall within the goals that does not fall within the rubric do not fall within the evidence that can't be submitted is part of the evaluation we'll try to figure out a different way to maybe capture that because it doesn't mean like you could have really great feedback for Dr C on I'm just going to use this example because it's prevalent how he presents on the track um and and maybe you have really good feedback on that but it doesn't actually fit within this rubric it would be inappropriate to rate him on that within the rubric and so that's something I want to challenge everybody to really think about as you dig into the evaluation this year and and as Danielle and I figure out exactly how to how to collect that um thank you for all the improvements you makes it is a very confusing document to look through um even if it's your second or third time to be quite Frank um so we appreciate that um so we'll figure out how to collect that um and how to it will be do a bit before that June 6 meeting so that then we can collect it and bring together because we don't you know yes we can go through our's individual feedback but really we're we're looking to present a collective the collective feedback of the committee as a whole um so any questions about that I just wanted to open that but um we we talked about that a lot in the the agenda meeting so I wanted to make sure that that got through to the broader broader committee because I do know that it is we're all there's a lot of us on this committee that are I mean I'm technically haven't even hit three years myself yet so I want to recognize that we're all learning and growing um and this is one area where we as a committee have work to do to improve what we're giving through to Dr C um so that it's it's usable and that it truly reflects the way that a superintendent is Val I just like to ask in terms of the timeline so June 6 that's about a month from now and so there's you know all the work to be done beforehand so I don't know how soon you and Danielle are going to get together to talk about the timeline I would just for myself appreciate to know sooner than later you know like the timelines of when you want it how much time you have to work on and things like that um just so that I have enough time to work on it because I know last year I would have appreciated more time but we're all new with that so I guess I'm just asking to know you know we don't have a bigger meeting until till the like 3 weeks from now I guess so you certainly have until the again I know that we don't have meetings you know throughout the summer um we generally have to upload all everyone's um evaluations District um through EMS but it's generally sometime in July just to got to give you a sense of when it's the physical piece of it is done you know like oh no we've got to get these things up there so but the are right we don't go all summer so that's the the the part of it y so I want thank you that is why we're talking about this now is because last year um I I'll just take the ownership of it I suddenly became care I suddenly was in charge of the superintendent evaluation cycle and we realized when we looked at the upcoming dates we went oh canoli um this is was just it was just there was a lot of contributing factors so that's why we're presenting this to you tonight so Danielle and I will get to this as soon as we can and give you all a timeline I can guarantee that you will at least have a couple weeks to put your feedback together but what I would say is you now have all of the evidence and you have the rubric and you certainly can start right now thinking about how you would respond to it so you have all of the materials except for the exact format that Daniel used to collect it or I will use to collect it um so there's nothing stopping you from using this immediately um so I think we're going to stick with the the June 6 um and then also the June 20th is actually right after the end of school so I want to make sure we don't bump up against anything else that might come up okay um in May 23rd we'll we want to leave open for Budget as well as it is that first meeting after votes toos so there's a lot that happens in that meeting um Jen are we meeting on June 20 so right now I scheduled us for June 6 and June 20th okay thank you if we do so the 20th would be the 3 Thursday which would be our typical meeting date and then we always say hey we would kind of in mind that we might need the first Thursday we are predicting that we definitely need the first Thursday because I also know that Molly's not actually available to attend the June 20th meeting is that the one you weren't able to attend we ironically we have a two-day investigating history conference the 20th and 21st in West West right business done so that there would be no interference so okay um so just getting those dates on your calendar and then um Susan and I also need to meet to send the fy2 meeting schedule and we will work to get that to you as well so that you can start reserving dates the good news is that the summer is generally quieter um so there's nothing crazy to expect during that time frame right any other questions about the superintendent report or what was submitted at this time um and what what I can do is at least leave an agenda item on the May 23rd meeting so if the questions do come up as you're starting to dig in and remie things you can have an opportunity to ask those shs directly all right um so we did have a matter come in um to P I'm not sure who I'm going to be hearing from you thank you madam chair so much do we have as the attach um is really board's minutes of accepting another District the Caps um family and it's going to be air sh so uh what what happens is that the charter requires that all sending districts you know um are okay with them and and so we're we've already again accepted it from the uh we voted as the as the board C but it needs to also be signed by the chair and it obviously has to be acknowledged you might say no I don't want air you cash for whatever reason and then I would have to report back that back you know so that's ultimately it's just the um it's part of how we you know how we do business as the board for Cs and I recommend my recommendation you accept you accept thoroughly obviously that is my recommendation Sor I was looking for a transition no that's my all right thank you thank thank you glad you read my face uh so I would entertain a motion to approve the attached addendum to the Cap's collaborative agreement allowing a Shirley Regional School District to be a member of the collaborative so move second so motion by Heather and a second by Hank any questions about this particular Amendment M so my only question is when we have another District that joins the um the collaborative or the family what are the benefits and what are some things that you would be concerned about well I think that you know one of the things that want to consider on the negative side of The Ledger is that you know that all these sure the kids are got to take our sponse um but what good side of The Ledger is that they very well may have space um to u to offer more programs because what caps in every collaborative is always looking for are more is more space more opportunity to serve kids and and really in some of those uh you know hard to find especially areas Vision hearing Etc so um they have a multitude of programs and you know I know that for you know that they reached out to all of us to see if there was any rooms or anything that they could you know utilize and basically they would Brent you know but many of us just do not have the extra space so um we you know when C when they look at that from a programmatic standpoint they do look at kind of the capacity so in other words like well you know can we just keep all pleas that we can take all these towns and still provide this same type of services you know Etc so um you know their ratios are still they know what their break evenings are so they they when they go through this it's pretty thorough they just don't you know they just don't take towns kind of willy-nilly so to speak they they did it and a shley was was part of them a long time ago so is a history so yeah and Daniel to your point I know currently they have caps program I'm not sure which if it's a Elementary or a middle school but it's current in the Angley District so as Dr C said they might just be renting that space but it doesn't necessarily mean the kids the other kids that are part of that District can enter that specific caps program so maybe this gives them the opportunity to to do that any other questions or comments okay I kept track this time so all in favor I oppose obstain and I say yes so that is unanimous okay so moving on to school committee comments is there anyone um who would like to share anything today see that we'll keep on moving through the agenda um so subcommittee reports finance and Facilities we actually met this evening um just before arriving here um really focused on um we have a a chairs meeting on Friday so we talked about what are we looking um to discuss during that meeting um and what are we hoping to leave with um really for transparency what we're talking about is um we're trying to better understand in listening to the uh Templeton meetings in particular that have taken place um advisory finance and uh SL board uh there's a lot of different conversations happening about the school budget that's proposed and so the hope is to better understand what exactly all of those very different conversations need um heading into um town meeting so um that was a big part of the discussion was just discussing what we heard you know coming out of those meetings Etc um so it's so it's a bit of a stressful time knowing that uh you know we did we do have a significant budget Mas um so um hoping to um just better understand the lay of the land um as it is right now um and we know that philipon um is planning for their meeting as well uh so looking forward to connecting with them um the other piece we did discuss um field uh and we already went through that so I won't go into great detail um District ations we did not have a meeting in April we're still trying to reschedule that but obviously not going to happen in April so a second one in May or just go with okay okay um and I know that you already talks about Labor Management as of the last meeting and there hasn't been any meetings um any any updates from CAC in the last five days Sean no just a reminder we're meeting on Monday it is open to parents Guardians grandparents um whether you're on an IEP or a 504 or you're looking to get on one just please come join us um we'd love to have any oh that's my in excellent and then I also cat is uh doing jury duty right now but I know she gave a PTO update last time so thanks for your H your fulfilling your civic duty um PTO tonight I believe I think so I know I got okay so so great they're meeting tonight right yeah um I am the Leal student advisory Council um I'm afraid that um we intended to talk about Athletics and kind of how athletic funding works and things um we did meet Amar and I did meet about that have some discussions um we realized that we weren't really ready to have that conversation with the students yet um there were still some additional details we wanted to pull together so we're going to give ourselves a little more prep time so we got sucked in we it was poor timing on our part because we thought that we could go right from budget into talking about Athletics and then realize that the budget had sucked up all of our time and energy and we didn't get to all the things we wanted to get to as it relates to athletic and really extracurricular in general um so our plan for next year is to talk to um Mr Young about doing a session ontic and doing a session on extracurriculars um and kind of talking about how both with those work how they get funded Etc um with the idea of you know the games the games don't fund the programs um and so how can we help show like how does how do these different activities get funded and where does that money come from and where does it go um what do the games contribute and that sort of thing so I'm looking forward to doing those for next year um but I did have a quick convers or quick email from Colby um just updating me on uh for this so they're working to um reform elections this year um for school advisory Council to elect the ex officio student council member to serve on the school committee um so we we should have some updates there soon um so making some changes so you're gonna graduate real soon are you excited I have a countdown on the homepage of my phone it's like a little circle and we'll close at some point I love it I love it well we really appreciated all the time you spent with us but this is an effort to make sure that whoever that street is is selected kind of knows what they're what they're coming into going into next year so looking forward to that okay um and then any new legislation in the past five days who knows the only thing that I forgot to report on last week was that there's some updates to title n the Department of Education put out updates title n that Focus a little bit more on teaching students and protecting their you'll see school districts everywhere updating en titl n policies and their handbooks and August goes into effect August first August first effect okay well we will look forward to that um there's no correspondence tonight um so as a reminder our next next meeting is Thursday May 23d and as I previously mentioned um we did at least want to get the June meetings out there so please um school committee members put June 6 and June 20th on your calendars advice thank you very much I appreciate that Susan Okay do we need Executive session this evening no we don't no we do not all right so seeing that we do not need Executive session I'm a motion to J by Hank uh second by second by Danielle all in favor