##VIDEO ID:J9JwzQXDFOw## e e all right welcome everybody and thank you all for waiting while we were meeting an executive session uh members of the public who wish to watch our meeting May do so online and use act and TV's YouTube channel to do so and as a note for everyone in the room this meeting is being recorded on Acton TV uh by acent TV and it'll be on acent TV's website as well so you can relive your recognition in perpetuity on Acton TV's website we will start this evening with some wonderful recognition of both our girls swim and D live team and the ab marching band Peter all right good evening everyone welcome thank you it's awesome to have such a crowd at a school committee meeting I'm sure you were here anyway for the meeting and not just this part of it um you know when I I'm gonna first talk about the marching band so uh maybe I could have George Arseno come up and then I have uh five seniors including two of our drum Majors two co- uh band presidents and one of our Color Guard captains I'd also like to ask come up uh Obi Uma EV Bartley Alex H Sarabi sin and Aubrey Marino so we wanted to bring in the representative of the marching band because they had a absolutely tremendous year this year um I know I get to go listen to your pre-show um before you headed over to the big competition it was awesome to see um just really really well done um but they were named the group 5A state champions at the US bands finals competition in Stoten this year um they performed their amazing Visions in blue show and so congratulations to George and all of the students in the marching band and thank you so much for coming [Applause] congratulations congratulations I will say that as a a former musician and high school band director it always gives me great pride to be able to recognize the awesome music department that we have so thank you um now I want to talk about the girls swim team and you know everyone thinks when we say like sports Dynasty we think of like the Patriots but I would actually argue that the Patriots have nothing compared to our our swim and dive program here at back in boxboro um really just absolutely amazing program so consistently over such a long period of time um and so I'm going to invite up um let's see and I'm not reading the marging band portion of this anymore um yeah thank you um I'm first going to invite um athletic director Jim scanland and Coach Turner up and then we have four senior captains tonight Katie Baxter Isabella tashera Carolyn Terrell and Emily jeu along with a whole bunch of members of the swim team that are not on my list and I apologize so just congratulations this and school committee members if you don't know um this team won another state championship this year which is another in a very very long line um of just absolutely outstanding performance um sustained for a long period of time so we we wanted to have you into the school committee meeting and thank you um coach Turner for everything you do but really congratulations to the whole team on just outstanding performance year after year so congratulations and thank [Applause] you e oh actually quite honestly and I forgot about this I apologize I was so concerned with the fact that I've hit the age where they now give me one contact to see far away one contact to see anything I read and they work sometimes um that I totally forgot I wanted to invite Gretchen and George to just talk about your programs a little bit um because I think you know both of you have been so tremendously successful it's just a great opportunity for the school committee and members of the community to hear a little bit more about what you've done so Gretchen I'll turn it over to you first oh and thank you um Peter light and the school committee for having us um and allowing us to say some words because I think there are some community members and business businesses and parents that we wanted to thank um for all their accomplishments and getting us to where we are um so again my Gretch and Turner um so this group is no stranger to success as they've won three state championships in the last four years truly something to be proud of but their success and strength go far beyond their trophies they are a cohesive group a group that has tremendous family and friends support and a drive to not only succeed but truly enjoy each and every moment together so so much so they did really did not want to finish this season at all um a new fundraising effort this group started last year was reaching out to local businesses for sponsors they advertise these sponsors in their home meet programs and throughout the website I want um I want these Community businesses to know how much of an impact they've had new training equipment has been helped everyone get to the same access to achieving their goals funds have helped give much deserved recognition to the team through Banquets and new banners and assisted supporting team apparel fostering Revolution Spirit um beyond the massive Talent these girls possess and incredible work ethic they bring every day there is an immense Foundation as Peter light um attested to in the program of actum boxboro going back over half a century those years have instilled fun Traditions lessons in team before self and provided a sense of purpose for everyone those that came before set the example and tone for these girls to carry on and be so successful our seniors have continued that energy and given the tools for underclassmen to shine after they're gone so again we thank you for having us here today um it means a lot to us and it shows how proud you are of this team so we're extremely grateful for the support by the entire Community thank congrats thank you [Applause] hi everyone uh my name is George Arsenal I'm the director of Performing Arts for the whole school district and as one of my very favorite parts of my job I still get to direct the marching band um we have a tremendous group of students and we're really fortunate this is kind of a time of year we talk about gratitude a lot and what we're grateful for we are so grateful for a community that supports the Arts the way that it does and the marching band I hope you see it I hope you can come to a game come to a rehearsal go to a parade there's lots of them uh and see this group of kids working it's a tremendous thing to see uh they're working really hard it's not always easy and they achieve in an extremely high level so I'm so grateful for my students I'm really really grateful that one of them offered to speak and say a couple things tonight as well so this is Obie one of our drum majors and he was going to talk a little bit about our community and far beyond the music and the achievement and the accolades what the band is really about at [Music] AB yeah so hi everyone my name is is Obi um I'm one of our senior drum majors at AB and uh yeah Mr a said it's it's not easy sometimes it's definitely not um most people don't know much about marching band but we actually start two weeks before school right so we put in around 40 hours something a little higher okay okay it it goes by pretty fast right but we put in a lot of work just to make sure that when we hit that school day and when we start school the school year starts we are we are reduced in the amount of time that we can spend on our instruments and working on our craft and learning new drill where to be on the field what to play on the field and when to play on the field right so we spend a lot of time in the offseason working really hard so that when we're in season we already have like a jump and so this year was a new year new circuit right we traditionally perform and compete at Micah but uh this year we chose to bring out to a circuit called the US bands and so this year we we actually won we won uh we are the biggest band in the land we won Class 5A so we are the biggest and best band in all of our like New England states and it was uh it was welld deserved it was very very welld deserved I was I mean and it was it was a great feeling I mean a lot of blood a lot of sweat a lot of Tears lot L of tear and uh but we did it and it was it was definitely something to reflect on but even though it's such a great feat that we accomplished like just knowing how much we worked to build up to that feat is what made it all that much better we had countless parades we have parades coming but we have we had some parades we had some performances at games um and we had some like preseason like we had a we had our like our trial run at Mass Amherst where a lot of things went wrong but we still were able to go out okay um but yeah it's just it was a it was so nice to reflect on the work and like the immense group The like immensely talented group of kids that we have in this marching manand we're marching around a 100 120 strong and it's it's great we are such a diverse student body we've got over I don't know 20 30 clubs uh double digits and sports too it's like we're we're not just band kids right so there's so much to each and every one of us and that's why it makes us such a special and awesome group and yeah thank Peter thank you thank you all very much all right next up we have our high school student rep uh nikelle I believe is here this evening nikel we have changed it up a bit please uh come on down have a seat at the table turn on the little red microphone and we'd love to hear your update testing there you go hi I'm nille and for today's update I'm going to be talking about issues relating to the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade but first for some quick updates related to the student body a lot of students are excited for the start of winter sport Sports and a lot of students feel refreshed after Thanksgiving break but are still an to nth grade I'm a junior and junior year includes a lot of reflecting over what you could have done better in high school a lot of my friends and just people I talk to point to how they wish they were better prepared and manag themselves better during freshman year particularly the start of freshman year this includes myself too however I do not think it is all our fault I do not think the school adequately prepared us the academic rigor increases a lot from middle school to high school you have more homework and tests there's also a lot more activities in Avail available in high school making schedules even more busier but the school does not prepare students for this change making students unprepared for the start of high school and causing them to have less than an ideal start to the year this is why I and a feel like the school should hold mandatory sessions either at the end of 8th grade or the beginning of 9th grade teaching students tips and techniques over how to properly manage their time and workload this will lead to better prepared students and will set them up well for high school thank you for that's it thanks for listening thank n anybody have a question or comment for n Peter so nille that's fantastic that's something I've long been interested in are there certain at if if we expanded a transition program from 8th to 9th grade are there any certain things that you look back and would like to have seen as part of that transition program that would have helped you I think learning how to like manage time properly cuz like when you go into High School you get more like freedom and choice but you're not really like taught how to manage how to like manage that freedom and utilize it like to the best of your ability and you kind of have to learn it yourself but by like the time you learn it yourself it's kind of already too late Tori than I really appreciate what you just said and I want to provide the feedback that I've actually also heard this from a high schooler just this week we had a lengthy conference That was supposed to be focused on some other things but started talking about the challenges of managing exactly that clubs Sports academics um and I think it's a really useful proposition that you bring forward and a really great idea thanks for sharing that thank you Rebecca and then Ben and then laxi hi um over here uh I wanted to ask if um that was a topic that you all discussed in your um advisory meetings um especially if you had an opportunity to talk to like some upper classmen and see maybe what they were doing um we never really discussed those things at advisory so I'm the parent of an eighth grader right now who will be going into the high school next year what can an eighth grader do now and if you were to give my son a recommendation or guidance what would you say to him right now as he sits in Mr B's class for example um I feel like when I was going from 8th grade to 9th grade I kind of underestimated like how much different High School is and I thought it's like not going to be that much of a workload but I think like a tip is to like probably listen in class cuz then that takes a lot of your workload out Le me okay hi ni hi um I have I have two boys who have gone through high school they're done a long time ago uh so you said it's too late so I want to understand what does that mean um sound like a so if you like have to figure out how to manage time yourself you're going to be in a hole like early in the year and it takes like a lot of like work and time to come back from that and you have to do more now than you would have had to do before because now you're in a hole and like I feel like junior year is kind of too late to make that comeback but isn't that a journey rather than a kind of point in time skill to master yeah but that you have to like master that skill on your own but like the school can help you through that and it like better set you up for high school thank you viam yeah I think this is a really important thing that you're bringing up um I I wanted to ask you I mean certainly it's important it should be addressed if there were to be workshops around this do you think it would be more beneficial like towards the end of 8th grade or sort of in the beginning of nth grade when you when one arrives at high school I think it'd be better for beginning of ninth grade because over summer you're not going to really remember good point very good point all right nille thank you so much this is the most engagement that any school committee rep has gotten from the school committee so it was a great topic and I look forward to having more school committee reps come and bring engaging topics to us so thank you very [Applause] much okay now we're on to the public participation time in our meeting so per our school committee policy bedh the members of the public are welcome to uh speak for up to three minutes each um public participation only takes place during this time in our meeting um so if there's something else on agenda that you want to speak to now is the time to speak to that if you would like to escape because you got your recognition now is also a great time to go do that thank you all very much and congratulations um anybody wishing to address the committee uh please come forward to the mic now I see you back there Amanda now plenty of seats down front now um all right seeing nobody here for public participation um we are going to skip our superintendent update because we'll get an update later and we'll move on to our guests and presentations uh for goal number one which is around our social emotional learning update uh so Heather stash is here to present this evening welcome Heather thank you um good evening my name is Heather Stout I am the coordinator of uml and um mental and Behavioral Health for the district um I wanted to present to you some of the things that we've been focusing on this year through our work um that pertains within go number one so and I've never used this but I'm sure I can figure it out maybe not here's my tech guy thank you thanks um um so just as we start to talk about this work I just want to bring it back to the multi-tiered system of supports um this is something we've talked about frequently over the last couple of years at the district level um and sort of the framework in which we do all of our work at school um it's a databased problem solving and decision-making model with tiered interventions and instruction um as you've probably heard tier one focuses on the universal access points so the schoolwide initiatives the classroom level initiatives uh Core Curriculum things like that tier two is focused on targeted interventions um and tier three is the more intensive supports and needs that a uh group might have or a child might have this is the current District goal as stated um for the social emotional and mental ability heal Health the six bucketed areas are the areas of current Focus underneath that goal for us um we are doing a lot of work and focus around the evidence-based practices the targeted supports um expanding the mental health supports that we have here in District and continuing to work with families and Educators around access points for the both the staff and the students within that realm um what I would like to focus on today is more of the tier one curriculum which is new for us at the pre it's pre to 12 and also the Desa screener tool which is new for us at the elementary level in order to help support the database decision- making that we're moving toward in this space um and also uh just a brief high level overview of the youth risk behavior survey results from last spring so starting with the youth risk behavior survey this was is this is an anonymous survey that's conducted every two years uh this was our fourth time in District administ ing it is a national survey put out by the CDC we are part of the Emerson Consortium with a group of 10 districts that do this survey the survey is administered to students in grades 6 8 and 9 through 12 some of the trends that were pulled out of our data from this year um we did have a lot of positive trends that I just wanted to highlight for you the family and school support came out um High this year than it has in the past so in comparison to 2022 results um the students feeling like they have a trusted adult adult at school also we're seeing a positive trend in those reporting reports um and when I say positive trend these are statistically significant Trends not just a couple of points up um the Stress Management the ability for the students self-reports on their ability to handle stressful situations um as well well as decreased rates of self-report for depression self harm um and Suicidal Thoughts while all of those have trended in a positive direction we've also seen a trend down in the self-reports around some of the risk-taking behaviors in comparison to our 2022 data um so substance use uh driving safe driving practices sexting um all of those have either remained stable or trended down since two years ago then the areas for growth so while we did have a lot of the protective factors have increased which is great um and have been areas of focus for us in terms of you know focusing on relationships and students feeling supported in a part of a community across PR pre- to 12 we did have an increase in reports of bullying at the sixth grade level also the eighth grade level they're self-reporting that their access and use of social media is too high um and then we did have a we did have reports and this was true of the entire aggregate as well across all 10 districts uh we had an increased reporting and access to pornographic material um I would just use a word of caution with that we actually from previous administrations changed the wording on the questions related to this because what we finding across the 10 districts was um students asking questions about what pornography meant um so we Ed different language to try and pull out whether or not the student was accessing some of those materials um so while there may be an increase it's also statistically difficult to really say that there is because we actually worded the question very differently um what I will say though is our data in terms of the student self-reporting of them sending and receiving their own sexting messages or um personal images things like that did Trend down and that question remained the same so the other thing although our depression rates um have declined according to self-report they there are still those pockets and this is across the aggregate the number is too small to measure at the individual District level but there's still pockets of um um demographics that are experiencing greater rates of depression um including uh our transgender youth or not our binary non-binary um also some of our South Asian population um as well as our native Hawaiian and our Pacific Islander populations but th those data points are from the aggregate across the 10 districts in terms of the tier one um programming we did start Second Step this year this is a prek to2 curriculum um which I believe is a first for the district to take on something of that magnitude um this work came out of the task force that was created last year it was a K12 um task force to identify ANL program and also a bilding prevention program um the decision was made to move forward with this evidence-based program they focus on building students seal skills um and relationship skills self-management um self- advocacy the work Works to increase um it's uses evidence-based practices and materials to help increase the students own personal skills but also to create there's evidence that it creates a more positive School environment and classroom environment as well as we work through this um the other thing that it does is as you can see it's pre-2 program the program is divided out at a very developmentally appropriate level for um what that work looks like at those different access points in addition to the SL program um we also have either integrated right into the Seal program The Bullying prevention units um it's integrated for through 8 um or we have an additional add-on at the elementary level for K through five K through five they do five explicit lessons on bullying prevention um and 6 through eth they do six explicit lessons on bullying prevention the focus is on do providing a comprehensive plan that works to help students identify and recognize when bullying is occurring uh how to report it when it does occur and how to stand up to it when they are the recipient or see somebody else U the other thing that it works to do is to build empathy and compassion um leave some space for understanding others perspectives Foster positive relationships and also works to uh teach the students how to resolve conflict in a way that is productive and peaceful and respectful the Desa 2 is a new screening tool that is being implemented this year for the first time K to 6 across ele elementary schools this is a way for us to start to use more databased decision-making when we're talking about a tiered level of supports for seal and behavioral mental health at the elementary level um it is an evidence-based tool it does focus it does take a strength based perspective um it is Castle aligned you can see on the screen that there's actually the five Castle competency areas the tool is broken in down into those five Castle competency areas and then with the addition of the optimistic thinking um Castle is the framework in which the district K pre 12 is framing all of their seal um work and using that language in order to have a more cohesive approach as we move through the district um the research the reason for the strength space model with the Desa screening tool is really founded in the research in terms of building skills that our students already have and also aligns with our best teaching practices that re that revolve around um Universal Design for Learning culture responsive practices trauma informed practices we use this data right now um it is the first year so there's a definitely a growth period um and we're doing a lot of professional development with this right now but but we also we use the data at both the school level so look taking a look at what our Trends are at the school level to for schools to identify what their targets are and what area of work they want to do as a school Community but also at the classroom level to look at our tier one and inform our tier one instruction what needs to be bolstered what what are what's going well and at the student level as well to help identify the strengths um and areas of growth at the students the other piece um We are continuing with cartwheel care this year this is our third year under contract um cartwheel continues to expand its services and so I just wanted to give an overview of sort of where we are at this point in the year with this work um they do provide the onetoone uh short-term targeted intervention and therapeutic services they are doing parent guidance they also do psychiatric evaluation if their clinical team determines that that was is a step that need is needed for the student um they do medication management this new this year they are doing the Intensive outpatient program so they can actually refer to out patient hospitalization programs directly from their work um same thing with family therapy that is a new component that they have expanded their services this year so if we have a family that is in parent guidance or the student is in onetoone therapy and the clinical team believes that family therapy would be um a good addition to those Service delivery models they will do that as part of their programming there are no weight lists um we are averaging and the metrics are updated daily we are averaging about 40 hours um between the time that we make a referral and it's approved at the district level to the cartwheel Care's first Outreach um several languages are available we do have students and families that are accessing right now in Spanish Portuguese and Mandarin in addition to English um they provide wraparound supports to some of those bilingual families they also do school supports they do clinical consult with either school-based teams or with clinicians individually um they do skill building webinars and that's what the QR code is there they have 12 I believe it is scheduled out over the course of the year um for and then they also do um they have a portal and work closely with our school-based mental health clinicians if we have our sign release in order to do that so it it allows us to carry through and support the students within the school environment some things that are working at being worked on outside the school environment these are this is data pulled from um the end of November so at this point in the year by December 1 we had had 59 57 approved referrals we have a 72% conversion rate what that means is is that of those approved referrals 72% of them have gone on to care at this point it does not mean that the rest of them haven't G will not go onto care there are some still in process that's why the conversion hasn't happened so the insurance and and setting up scheduling of appointments we are averaging our students our students are averaging about 13 sessions for those that access individual therapy this year we also expanded access for our staff in the district and as of December when we had 28 staff members that are seeking and receiving therapeutic services through cartwheel care um our rates at the high school it's High School referral is about 30% uh 60% are Elementary student referrals and about 10% for the junior high our largest reason for referrals in District is anxiety and um self-esteem related concerns um the metrics it have been consistently positive from family feedback that's an aggregate from um all of the districts they serve but it's a 95% positive feedback from both students and families that receed the services they also see and again this is an aggregate on average a fiveo increase in the anxiety and depression scales that they use from start of treatment to the post treatment which is a clinically significant Improvement in reporting just anecdotally our um highest rates of referral at in this District are grades five seven and uh nine so what does this mean what what are our next steps um we are working to continue with the evidence-based programming um and moving in that direction implementing second step with increased Fidelity providing the sports in order to do that um to the Educators that are doing the work on the ground also providing ongoing professional development opportunities using continuing to expand the use of our data to drive some of our interventions and our planning and our programs and systems um with the Desa the yrbs schools culture and climate surveys tracking Trends over time to inform some of our initiatives that we're working on at District level and then providing updates and adjusting our plans accordingly um um in terms of the areas of growth identified in the yrbs one of them the the biggest outlier was the bullying at sixth grade so we are looking to see what the implementation of the new pooing prevention program has on our data in the next data cycle which would be administered again next year to see if there's any Trends um to the positive in that work um and also in terms of the depression and we are expanding our signs of suicide screening at the secondary level specifically the high school um to try and catch more of the students who may be experiencing some of the depressive or um suicidal ideation at that level um we hope to continue with our cartwheel care and continue to enhance access to Mental Health Services it's been very positive for us um and also continue to engage with families around the workshops and the webinars and also expanding our partnership just working at the student level um when trying to provide supports for individual children so I don't know is there any are there any questions or anything that you would like me to go over thanks Heather yeah great presentation all right questions Becca and then Vicor hi um I've been enjoying getting all the the updates from the district about what different webinars are happening I think the sort of spectrum of um topics has been really nice to see and um it's great to see a lot of positive U Move and you know a lot of different areas um I've have got two questions um one is uh can we get sort of an idea around how um the cartwheel care referrals are decided the denials since 57 out of 200 seems like a low number but I don't really know how to sort of measure that um and then my other question is do we have the ability to sort of tailor the language of the youth risk behavior survey um or do we have to kind of use what they Supply um because there's two parts that I sort of Wonder uh the question around porn usage and um the uh high schoolers feeling like they spend too much time on social media I wonder if questions like that could accidentally sort of reinforce some like shame and stigma so for the Youth risk behavior survey we do have so it's a Consortium so the survey is designed as one survey for all 10 schools that are part of that Consortium but we do have some input into the development of the survey um we also work with the the Consortium works with a team of data analysis team and the marketing team in order to be able to help guide us in terms of when to change survey questions when not to what what does that mean for our data how can we use it um once the Consortium has decided on the local questions we can't individually as a district change those questions what we can do is drop a question so we can make a decision not to administer it does that make sense okay um in terms of cartwheel so the 57 out of 200 so the two 00 is the amount of um referrals that we have contracted that we can make over the course of the year so 57 is where we're at in the end of November so we will likely hit that 200 it's not and at this point we're on we're not denying referrals um if we got to a point where we're going to run out of numbers we may be in a situation where we need to like think a little bit more critically about who where what re ref are going through we're not doing that at this point what we're actually doing is taking a look at the referral making sure that we're doing what we need to be doing at the school level to meet the students needs and then when it rises to beyond what that may need how we can meet that need as a school district we will make the referral Beyond to the cartwheel care team yeah did we exceed our 2 200 last year we didn't um we somewhere I have that I feel like we were close we were um and we had contracted for a little over 200 last year um hold on I do have it hold on last year we hit 186 um and the previous year we hit 206 and then we made the decision to go in with 200 contracted vows with the budget we had this year great thank you I'm I think I already know the answer but I'm assuming this is free the cartwheel stuff is that right so it's actually um covered by insurance we do whose insurance I guess is my question the students the families insurance so cartwheel care is a referral to an outside therapeutic agency um and so it's built through Insurance like any other medical and mental and Behavioral Health Care when we have a family that does not have access to Insurance um we do have have 10 um spots slots that the district has set aside funds in order to support the family accessing so followup question is then why is there an upper limit of 200 if it's the families ultimately paying for it because not all of the there's a lot of the structure within the actual program that is not covered so what they build for is the one-on-one session but all of the the the webinars the clinical consult all of the um the access that the families so the reason we had started with a different referral agency um and we switched to cartwheel care so that we could provide our students with direct and our families with direct access to care what was happening previously and still happens outside of having access to a program like this um is that the weights are months in order to access care so that's a piece of it too it's a direct line to care where our families are not waiting thank you 40 hours as opposed to 16 plus weeks correct or never or never um and it also has direct access to family therapy and psychiatric care um which families struggle with as well so to access outside thank you for everything you've been able to show us and for being involved with this and bringing it to the district a couple of times you mentioned the levels of anxiety and depression and stress that exist within the community I'm curious about the drivers and how those drivers are managed our student representative spoke earlier about the transition from 8th to nth grade and the stress that he was dealing with um do we look at how we manage that source of stress or how we manage the reaction to that stress through the curriculum you're talking about through the curriculum through the yeah so the SE program is that what your second stop yeah so this is our first time like in using an evidence-based program and doing a systematic instructional practice around this work so before it was more supporting um challenges that we were seeing coming up within the population so now we're trying to take a more proactive approach to teaching the skills at the outset in order to help um hopefully mitigate the level of Stress and Anxiety that builds in students over time or could potentially build in students do you see a role as well in defining a way to manage that cause of stress like having too many tests or having too many things going on so we have historically in the past used some of the yrbs data in order to inform some of the policies and practices that we shift here at the district and in school committee actually too so we use the ybs data and the stress levels around that to help shift school start times and um our homework policies and and our testing policies at the secondary level so those are the different access points that we do look at thank you yeah so I really appreciated all I think it was 88 slides that was awesome no actually I really did um because one of the things that jumped out at me is that at the end of all the little tables that had the the aggregate for all of the districts and as I understand it that aggregate includes Us in there correct which is interesting because we make make up 28% of the Aggregate and so what I noticed is that on all but two of those measures we were at or doing better than correct aggate so understanding like that's it's already influenced in our direction that seemed really striking to me and something I think we should all pause and appreciate because I think there's been a lot of hard work as you just mentioned on doing this it struck me there were two places where we were out of line and I kind of got a chuckle because they feel a little bit related um one was the number of students who reported a social media account their parents didn't know about so parents we should all pay attention to this and also that students 8th grade and older felt they spent too much time on their cell phones so I don't know what that tells us but it was just interesting to me that those were the the only two of the how many things we looked at um my question is I'm curious if and how we use this to validate other data because this is all self-reported right and we have things that we count from things we have observed um and if there were any any surprises that you saw in this things that you didn't expect I don't think surpris I was just I think it's reassuring to see that a lot of the areas that we focused on are the statistically significant shifts so I think that in itself is validating and I think it's good for the Educators to see that all of that work and that effort that they're putting in is turning around and actually showing us um some statistical significant shifts in what our students are experiencing um I don't know if it was a surprise I just think it was more of exciting yeah thank you for this presentation I think it's really helpful to get a presentation about ybs data in particular um I am biased because I get to do the ybs for um Springfield Public Schools um and one of the things that stood out to me while looking at the data was the part around using cell phones while driving and that being about one in five students um and so not that necessarily we're an outlier but just a note um and so my question was around like are there opportunities or maybe I'm just not aware that families are getting this information shared out um maybe not frequency tables but something that like the average person can understand um and then also in my work it's been super helpful to talk to students to make meaning of the data and think about like where does this feel like it resonates where doesn't it what might be helpful um and just wondering if any of that is happening or if there are opportunities to do that in the future so they are so building buildings are taking it back it's more to the adults though right now to talk about the work that they're doing we also it is posted our district website and we had had a conversation about sharing out a um communication from the district level that the information is there to view on the website now um it is the full 88 slides and so it's not like yeah so maybe there's opportunity to do something different and make it a little bit more accessible um we've not done that in the past not opposed to that um yeah I think that's a I think that's a good idea if I can just add to that um Leela that was a great opportunity to slide in a little Public Service Announcement um you know thinking of opportunities to talk to kids about the data um on Monday Monday we are actually kicking off our first um student superintendent school committee advisory Council um and so that has been in the works it's been delayed because we've you know had a number of other things we missed the first meeting but we're we're on schedule for meetings two through five I think for this year um so that is a group of about 22 students across the district including you know the five student representatives to school committee as well as um the remaining students were chosen half from individuals who applied um and were selected and then the other half uh we actually randomly selected students across the district to try and get a better cross-section um of opinions from kids and then we reached out and invited them and so we're excited to kick that off um starting on Monday um one of the goals of what we're doing Monday um we're going to actually um frame the first meeting around a restorative Circle um that is meant to build some Community within that group um and then also seek from students what they might have as some goals um that would make them feel like that was a good use of their time over the course of the school year um but I do think Leela that might be an opportunity for us to think about um bringing up some topics from the youth risk behavior survey and get some additional student input around you know what we might be doing with it and you'll be there we also did have um a very preliminary discussion today about um the potential for some students that have self-identified an interest in moving some work forward around cell phone use and exploring that um a little bit and maybe we can use some of this data to inform some of their work um but that is very like the conversation just happened two hours ago so but it's discuss Heather I have a question about Second Step um understanding it's a new program is it something that is going in and replacing maybe what the elementary schools have had in place before like PBIS is it supplemental is it replacing and are there I think particularly at the elementary at the lower levels is there materials going home about maybe some of that curriculum that helps carry the language and that that through in the home life as well so Second Step does have a pretty robust like family access point and that they can use to be honest it's a new curriculum of and the educators are trying to navigate several new curriculums right now and so that's part of the work I think over the long term is trying to make that a more robust um Communication System some are using it some are probably not right now um but the materials are there and it's encouraged and it is part of the programming itself um in terms of the replacement piece there wasn't it doesn't really replace anything except that there was one school if you go back a few years ago used to use open circle which has sort of um you know the the curriculum is pretty outdated at this point um and the school wasn't using it any longer with any level of fidelity it more complement the other work that we're doing um in terms of the positive behavioral supports that this each individual school is doing also our responsive classroom work which I talked a little bit about last year it all aligns with it it doesn't replace it thanks and and I had another question about the bullying so we saw a report of increased bullying at some levels in the yrbs does that bullying or do we see an equal sort of reporting and maybe it's too soon um but you know Jen came two two meetings ago and talked to us about the incidents of hate and bias and some of the bullying reporting that we're going to see there do we see an alignment between maybe what's self-reported and then what gets followed up in the dashboard that she's putting together I don't know the answer to that actually great I'd have to ask I stumped you you did I so good the last is more of a a commment that as a question which is um you talked at the beginning you sort of covered all of the the um theal topics um and advisory being one in there yeah for several years we've talked about advisory the sort of evolution of that at the the secondary level um and I'm curious not not necessarily how well it's going but are there entrances again for topics like um Second Step and maybe some of the topics around around y RBS and like we asked our our student rep today like some of those challenges you're having are there are there Avenues to that to come into advisory are we starting to see those opportunities now yeah we're starting we're starting to expand those dialogues really is what's happening our our shifts in The Advisory program at the secondary level to this point um two years in have largely been driven by student reports and Reflections um for restructuring for the following year what we did start this year though is to integrate more of the castle language and also the Second Step language as an ask to try and expand some of those advisory programs and access points um and so the junior highend particular is structuring around the same castle framework now that we're trying to integrate at the elementary level um so that's sort of how we are moving in that direction excellent all right one one last round around the table here anybody else have a last question or comment vickram um did you said this just started this year did it really just start this month in fact which um The Advisory yes no so advisory started um at the secondary level um two or three years ago oh did I it's work that's been ongoing and evolving it's evolving all right thank you so much yeah thank you all right thank you heather we are going to move on to our ongoing business um first item on the ongoing business is a uh update and request to uh change the elementary budget task force membership so I'm going to hand this over to Tori Tori I'm going to give you this time to give us both a a quick up date uh from your task force meeting which was two nights ago and then a quick overview of what we're asking the committee to vote on here cool so um yeah we met on Tuesday night and it was probably my favorite meeting thus far because um we actually got everybody up out of their seats and talking and writing things down and figuring things out so basically we went through three exercise one was to um take a look at all of the recommendations that have been given and identify potential benefits concerns unintended consequences and other issues um and so there will be a very robust list of that coming out and then a couple of exercises to identify some areas of initial consensus and they were a little bit painful because the first one we got handed was a list of some potential options and what savings might be there and we just been through consequences and concerns and so everybody was tasked with figuring out if you wanted to save four thou $400,000 what would you do okay now make that seven now make that a million and so going through and making some of those hard decisions so had some good discussion around that and then closed out with um a spendu exercise which was basically if you had $100 and you could invest it in all of these different recommendations which ones would you invest in and how much and so it gives you a really good sense of kind of where people are at with what they think is really important um where the room feels about a number you know is there a lot of consensus around something being a direction we ought to go Etc so it was a good discussion um I think probably the biggest takeaways there is that um we could hear some some pushing for some budgetary savings and some shifts in the things that we're doing and also um realizing that there is no recommendation we can can take that doesn't have consequences there are going to be changes there are going to be hard decisions there are going to be things that if we do them differently um there will be second and third order effects so that was really good we were added again next Tuesday to figure out what the priorities are going to be and then to put together what we bring forward to this group I I think we should take your foreshadowing to just imply that those consequences and difficult choices are going to come in front of this committee because the task force is only tasked with giving us recommendations in the end it's going to be this group that has to make some of those tough decisions so be prepared yes and then um kind of an update to our membership um we had a staff member come forward and raise a hand and say I have something to contribute U Marin Gulliver who's one of our coaches definitely want her on the team so we've brought forward an updated list um also formally removing uh two members who've not been able to attend due to time conflicts because frankly I want to be able to make Quorum as quickly as possible and get on with the good stuff so is there a vote to approve the elementary budget task force updated membership list so moved second that was vickram and then Leela all those in favor I any opposed any extensions unanimous thank you very much all right so a quick note here you're all going to be very happy that our meeting is going to go slightly quicker this evening because in in having finally an executive session on our agenda we were focused very much on part that part of the agenda and totally forgot got to put all the member reports and communication goal update on the agenda realized that yesterday at 3 p.m. which was too late to add it to the agenda so there won't be member reports or updates uh this evening um but as the chair I just want to highlight one item because I can do that we're not going to debate it um that uh you know I think there's some been some really good discussions at the ALG uh and that process seems to be moving forward really well ALG is different than the the boxboro leadership Forum which doesn't really exist right now in its current incarnation that we have reps there and those reps are uh yansin and Tori they're there really to speak for the committee as a whole and so I think there may be some topics that they'll bring back to us at some point where we'll need to um discuss and give a sense of the committee so that the the ALG can understand where the committee stands on some of those topics that come in front of the the ALG um with that let's move on to the consent agenda um remember items on consent agenda don't require uh discussion typically and are approved with one vote unless any member would like to hold them uh for discussion or separate vote I'll read each item and if a member would like that item held you just say hold members don't have to be present at a meeting to vote on the minutes item number letter A approval of the absc meeting minutes of November 14 2024 Item B approval of the absc meeting minutes of November 21st 2024 hold and item C approval of warrants as presented in the packet 125 2024 all right so we had an item held I'm going to look at my cheat sheet here on the agenda which says the following item has been held and will be voted on separately and that's the meeting minutes from the 21st of November um is there a move a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended so moved second all right I got I got a moved from over there from Ben and then a second from Tori was it great thank you uh all those in favor I any opposed any extensions none great that's unanimous Becca comments or some amendments to the November 21st yes I'd like to make a Amendment to the meeting minutes from November 21st um it seems that my vote for the boxboro mou um was incorrectly documented I was a nay vote thank you so is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes as amended so second okay so uh we're going with Leela on that and then uh VI for the second all those in favor I any opposed any extensions none that is unanimous I will just add in here that after that vote on the boxboro mou I now have a handy spreadsheet that calculates votes for me with the waiting so I don't have to look like a fool anymore with that I would like to just coule oh I shouldn't have paused wait you had your opportunity for an update earlier this evening all right Peter what do you have so this isn't so much a superintendent update but um one I've appreciated and it would be nice you know as we go through the year to get some feedback about how we've structured meetings over the last couple of months because we've now settled into our groove where the first meeting of the month is focused on educational topics and goals of the district and we don't do a lot of business during that meeting intentionally to provide more time for questions and answers back and forth and then the other meeting of the month third the third week of the month is focused on the business of the committee where we don't put a lot of heavy educational topics on so that we can spend more time digging into different topics so I'd love to hear feedback as time goes on on that but that I believe is a primary factor is what's Driven the total duration of meetings down um and yet I feel like the dialogue around issues has been actually deeper um so hopefully you're feeling the same thing but as I said we'd love to get feedback about that as we go um I want to prepare you though you've had a couple of meetings in a row now um where they been relatively short duration next meeting is going to be an important meeting um I just want to share you know one we have the elementary budget task force findings being presented to you um which I'm sure will be a healthy topic of discussion and it also will probably involve a pretty detailed presentation so um we have that we have an overview of the capital plan um coming in which is kind of the refresh of our you know 10year Capital plan um as part of that some of the late breaking news and I talked to to Ben who is the chair of the capital subcommittee just before this but we ended up having um a meeting with train who makes you know HVAC systems um what if you recall you know I've updated you I think at least once that the rooftop units at Parker Damon are past the end of their useful Life by about five years but they're also failing um and we actually have an opportunity to um upgrade all nine of those rooftop units um and pay $0 for the actual units based on uh um rebates that are currently available um if we sign on to that program through you know by December 31st the only thing we'd be responsible for um is the actual installation of the units and upgrades of the infrastructure that talks between the control system that we just purchased last year so that's good and those rooftop units so that would save us probably about $300,000 um if we move ahead with that so we will probably be bringing that forward even despite the fact that it didn't make it to Capital sub this morning because the meeting with the the company was this afternoon so my apologies for the timing of that but we decided that that was important enough to to try and move forward um we'll also have the fy2 24 audit report available in the packet and be able to answer some any questions that you have about that and at least give you a brief summary of that um and then we want to give you a very brief summary of the opep trust at that point um as well just so you know where that stands neither of those are really long talk topics I don't think um and then we might have you know potential policy updates uh depending on where policy sub stands at that point so you know I just want to have you plan ahead for that um you know bring sleeping bags you know whatever you need to do um but but that will be an important meeting next time and I'll just say thank you to those who filled out the the attendance spreadsheet please if you haven't completed it for next meeting do so before the end of the meeting and if you think you're going to have a conflict please check in there so that we do make sure that we reach Quorum that's the important part with that is there a motion to adjourn so moved seconded all right so that was Leela and then Ben all those in favor I any opposed exensions thank you have a wonderful evening