##VIDEO ID:NhhCHcI7KN8## that [Music] [Music] [Music] I [Music] B [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I got [Music] [Music] to slid show then we won't see oh look yeah not just [Music] [Music] look like [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm sorry uh are you collecting these this came from yeah just hold for now absolutely oh you had some gra that's good the perks of schol exactly [Music] [Music] bet I have to leave a little bit early today like around 7 this time I have like a college interview so yeah tomorrow that is today oh today remotely remotely it's yeah the whole thing like they email like like like this whole like abely good that's [Music] right how are you good you're going to an interview you say yeah second College interview season but yeah know just one more day and then April or and then Christmas break so I know this [Music] close yeah [Music] it bety you do a great [Music] job to you okay [Music] so you're like a tree are are the three remote members uh all on now that not there yet okay [Music] [Music] [Music] so yeah yeah I know she told me she was kind of Tau too okay and so I kind of [Music] just uh I don't know what what that is all right um shall we get started it's [Music] 602 recording in progress all right good evening and welcome to the December 19th 2024 meeting of the Brooklyn school committee uh I apologize for the condition of my voice and for having to wear a mask I hope that um everyone can still understand me um and we have two um remote members right now um May brega and Helen charlupski in addition to the members you can see in front of you all right uh let's start with our administrative business I'll begin by moving the consent agenda um do I have a second for that thank you Suzanne does anyone have any questions or comments on the consent agenda we have a pass records acceptance of gifts and grants uh student trips and change order for the Pierce school project I'll come I'll mention that sorry because I'm just getting settled so the consent agenda is the minutes from last time acceptance of gifts and grants um Driscoll student trips yep okay here VHS um student trip and the Pierce change order any questions or comments before we vote on the consent agenda um Jesse does it again I'm trying to get settled here um Does it include the minutes it does from last time so I do have a comment about the minutes but I need a second to get my notes thank you I'll just make a comment while we're waiting oops um I love the um Farm school so I'm glad that we're back on schedule and and sending our students there it's a great program so yeah okay so um being um new to school committee I'm not sure exactly what a process would be if um there's something in the minutes that needs that's that's [Music] um accurately transcribed but potentially still something that needs a comment so is that acceptable for me too um go ahead and mention it yeah you could also just um talk about it with uh with Betsy um yeah with I'm sorry with Betsy before the meeting if if you want so would that so would that mean if Jesse has something that he wants to say about the minutes that we he would Mo move to not approve them right now um it's that you could do that um usually it would be fine to if if you if you'd like a revision like if once Betsy has circulated the minutes to us you could just uh write into about it and normally if it's not anything controversial uh she'll just amend she'll just amend it before we vote but I think he's I think you're talking about the minutes well I guess I guess yeah I'm saying is that in read in reading through the minutes there is a um section that is um about something that happened at the last meeting that is um accurately transcribed but I still think needs a comment okay and so that's so it's sort of propose an edit to oh is that you propose an edited version for a vote if you like should I do that now or do it at or or do we feel free to do it now okay yeah um so I'll just you know read a sentence or two here um so um this relates to the Preamble that was um introduced by the chair before public comment at our last meeting um and I wish um to note that those comments were made solely by the chair and that those comments were not necessarily representative of the entire school committee again I'm trying to be truthful you know 100% here so there's no confusion and um furthermore uh in my reading of again the accurately transcribed um minutes there are two references within those minutes that should be noted as potentially problematic in the import uh the first reference in the statement is and I'll quote as part of an organized effort to pressure our staff and silence one of our students end quote it is important to note that no evidence was provided that all the speakers were part of an organized effort unless by organized the Preamble uh before public comment had prior knowledge that some organization had organized all the speakers the only other common denominator was that the speakers were all Jewish I don't believe the chair meant that all the speakers were organized by religious affiliation the second reference in the statement is that quote the public comment contributed to an atmosphere in which uh BHS leaders were not certain they could keep their staff and students safe unquote there was no threat stated by any speaker at public comment and no assessment by anyone stated that a risk existed the linkage between the public comment in the prior meeting and safety was not and to this day has not been substantiated thus this statement left alone in the minutes leaves somewhat confusing Trail in our official records so I would ask that if possible these comments be added as a addendum or revision perhaps to the public comments summary of the minutes I wonder if um your comments could be part of the minutes of this meeting rather than amending the minutes of the last meeting perfect thank you I have a question actually on that Jesse um was it not stated by the BHS head of school that there was some concern I thought that was stated to all of us that there was some concern about safety perhaps I'm mising the order that those statements but I I do recall there being some statements statement was made and has been documented there was no substantiation nor proof evidence of any potential risk it was just a statement that was made uh in the context of postponing the scheduling of the doors event so so to your point Val this is that would be the second time or potentially a repetition of the same statement that was made by uh BHS leadership at the time but again without any evidence um in any way that a true threat God forbid to anyone existed all right um so thank you Jesse so that so that's now part of this meeting's record all right um I don't think we ever move to a vote on the consent agenda I think maybe we're ready to do that now unless someone else has um has a comment all right uh Jesse how do you vote Yes Sarah yes Steven yes Suzanne yes Carolyn yesel yes Mariah yes Helen yes and I vote Yes as well all right the second part of our administrative business is simply um as we've been doing for the past several meetings uh posting uh draft uh School District calendars um the four that are posted this week are the same as what we had two weeks ago um they range all the way from adding adal fitter as a new category one holiday to removing all category one holiday um this is just to uh comply with our own policy of posting calendars uh for the meeting before the one at which we might vote on them um so we're going to be discussing these uh later this evening uh under Section Five uh no vote is scheduled U but the discussion will happen then all right um let's move on to Karen for the student report um all right thank you Dr Lou um so this is this month's December's School uh school committee report for life at BHS um just as a preamble I think that you know I can speak for most students or all students when I say that besides the month of June December is usually our favorite month um just because you know we do have 11 days off uh this year at least um but to begin um one of the biggest things that happened at BHS in the last month was our annual Powerpuff game um between girls in the class of 2025 and the class of 2026 um and I'm happy to report that the class of 2025 has reigned Supreme once more um on the Powerpuff field um so the Powerpuff game was held a month ago um on November 26th um which I believe was just a day before we all departed for Thanksgiving break uh the seniors defeated the Juniors 9 to7 UM with both teams uh both Nick rothin um who an English teacher and the coach of the Juniors and Clifton Jones a guy's counselor and the coach of the senior team um both actually remarked that this was one of the closest Powerpuff games we've ever seen um in school history um so you know I am proud to be on the The Winning Side if you will um um and you know just as an aside seniors actually made history this year uh the class of 2025 as one of the only BHS graduating classes to win as both Juniors and seniors um so as you can see from some of these pictures um Powerpuff is always a very spirited game um it can get physical um and everybody really gives full 100% effort um you know on the field playing and it's always just an amazing environment to watch um to take part in um at BHS for example uh on the third floor we kind of sort of plastered out blue everywhere um for the senior class and red on the second floor for the junior class um but one of the biggest things about the Powerpuff game is that it really brings all BHS students together um I can say that one of the biggest themes um of of the game is Unity um and Beyond just seeing the whole you know junior class and senior class United in red and blue respectively everybody can really come to together to just celebrate you know both the the players both the school and both everybody who contributed took part in um and won or lost the event um but it's really always a a big highlight of the year um yesterday actually was one of the biggest um events as well we hosted our first day of assembly of the year um and this was the day of disability education um so this assembly took place from a c and T blocks the first two blocks of the day um and really it was dedicated to informing students and teachers through lessons developed by students and teachers about what it means to have a disability at the high school and how we can better support students and teachers with disabilities at the high school um for a and C blocks which were the first two blocks of the day uh the lesson's really centered around telling our stories um so students with disabilities uh ranging from physical disabilities neurod Divergent disabilities uh as well as teachers um who had such disabilities told their story said what it was like to you know have disabilities both at the high school both in life um and really what we can do as a student body as well as just a school Community to continue supporting continue making our school more accessible to all students and faculty uh T block uh the lessons diverged um depending on the grade as a senior we learned about accessibility at BHS so how we can make the building more accessible um you know what aspects of the building what aspects of the curriculum are inaccessible to students with mental or physical disabilities um and other grades learned more about you know for example they learned sort of they had information sessions about various types of disabilities that students and faculty may have at the high school uh so for example you can see from this picture here that one of the stands um which actually took place during d& block uh these weren't mandatory blocks for the day of disability but certain classes were able to attend informational boots in the atrium dedicated to um you know for example an informational slide about autism uh you know what it is how it impacts um you know people how it impacts the brain uh and the these were actually put on by as you can see um from it's hard to see on the picture um but this particular stand was put on by the Neuroscience Club so various student organizations at the high school were actually able to develop presentations about uh or that related to disability education at the high school um which was another way that really the community was able to come together um and finally the latinx club a few weeks ago hosted Ed their annual latinx Fiesta um it's an event that's always attended by dozens of students parents as well as just general community members um I for example actually met the grandmother and grandfather of one of my peers um so really when I say that you know it brings together all people from across the community it really does bring people together from across the community um there was dancing there was Music My Favorite uh highlight of the evening was limboing uh and a musical chairs competition um you know that was certainly a a spirit a game um and then there were also speeches by Club advisers um as well as students who are part of the club um that really just spoke to what it meant to be Latino at the high school um and also you know how we can see our heritage or how we can see Latino and Latino Heritage represented in the curriculum um as well as just coming together dancing you know singing uh just in service of community um I also wanted to just before I um wrap the student report up for the month uh is just that in a few weeks when we come back back from break the Brooklyn high school student government is actually hosting a student government assembly um this is an annual lesson uh during T Block in which various members from the VHS legislature student council and Judiciary um which is dedicated to supporting VHS student rights in the handbook um can all come together and can answer any student questions um about their rights in the handbook educate them on what their rights actually are what BHS government does how you can get in touch with them and that's coming up on January 9th um so Mark the calendars um happy holidays to everybody um you yeah and that concludes the student report thanks Kieran happy holidays to you too are there any questions or comments and if you're remote just speak up because I can't see you SAR yeah Sarah yeah just thank you for that as always it's the tone that's so right when you speak you talk about Community you talk about sort of joy of learning thank you all right uh we'll turn it over to Dr Giller for the superintendent report awesome good evening everyone can you hear me okay so as we begin I don't feel like I can my mic is working as we be there we go as we begin tonight I want to take a moment to um acknowledge um some of the press that we're seeing about uh the district and uh Financial or fiscal mismanagement as such um the district will be taking um or sharing out some information about that um I'm sure right after the first of the year our uh when we return back but I do want to acknowledge um that presence as well as share out that we have an internal working group I'm calling it a cross- departmental uh group that has come together that's made up of uh diverse members uh of our organization including student services teaching and learning uh as well as Administration and finance and it's uh also has principal representation there and the the initial task is to come together to identify um ways to um look at our alignment of our um some of our larger grants right now um and then the group will expand to also include uh more diverse members as well when we start talking about how then do we close our structural Gap through the remainder of the school year while we also prepare for a very tough FY 26 um budget as well so I just want to begin with that Val is your hand up it is it's about this so I before you went to the rest sure is the Deputy superintendent for OSS on this working group uh she both she and I are advisers to it are um in an advisory capacity okay and all the other Deputy superintendents sit on this uh two of them do um and it depends on um the bodies of work so the idea is to then reach out and expand um and so we're actually talking about that we had a communication today and we'll be expanding it a little bit more given the volume of work that needs to happen thanks Andy um just wanted to ask how do you envision the school committee interacting with the members of this working group so I think at um as we get into January at our finance um there have been an opportunity for them to report out on the work that's actually happening there so that's the way I see that happening but certainly open to uh anyone wanting to engage with them as well just one more follow follow up on that just a question on the Mandate was it was it related to the allegations of financial mismanagement or was it related to structural deficit issues or both structural deficit okay yeah because again that's the challenge that we presently have right now is um we're running hot and we know that we're running hot now so how then do we start course correcting uh right now um and so there are some things that we have to work on internally to get that clear up but our commitment is to get that rectified and at least communicate what the Delta is between what our uh approved budget is versus what our current expenses are all right so our superintendent update for tonight kindergarten registration 20 for 2526 the online registration for students entering kindergarten opens January 8th kindergarten is an important milestone for everyone involved and our students and our staff um is here to support families in this transition the office of registration and enrollment is committed to ensuring that all of our families have a smooth and successful transition into their first day of kindergarten All Families will have multiple opportunities to engage with our staff throughout the registration process and are happy to work to support each and every family with the specific needs that they have our pre-registration for all other grades opens March 1st 2025 discovering Justice mock trials Dr jod funa our Deputy superintendent of teaching and learning was summoned for jury duty at the discovering Justice mock trial event earlier this month discovering Justice is a civic education nonprofit that works with students to introduce them to the workings of the legal system and to help them explore the ideals of Justice discovering Justice is an Afterschool partnership at Hayes rle and F frr Hayes and rle had their trials at Mockley uh the moley courthouse and F frr had its mocked trial across the street at the Brookline District Court this year's case concerns students First Amendment rights and of peace and peaceful assembly the student attorneys did an its outstanding job pleading their cases line C uh CPAC summer camp Fair the CPAC is hosting a free summer camp Fair January 11 at the Florida Ru and Ridley School cafeteria this Fair will feature a camp and program repres feature a variety excuse me of camp and program Representatives who specialize in supporting children with special needs providing families with valuable resources and opportunities to explore a meaningful and fun summer option uh platform for their children a parental Workshop navigating the cyber world uh We've um I'm pleased to say that a number of our uh PTO have engaged uh with a variety of professionals uh in and around the Greater Boston area as it pertains to cell phones uh as well as technology and so this again is another opportunity um for our families to um engage deeper in this notion of navigating the cyber world so on January 15th from 7 to 8:00 pm the office of student services has organized this Workshop um again the notion of challenges and dangerous situations that may arise through the use of Internet social media and smartphones it's an opportunity for staff and parents to become aware of popular apps social media sites and programs that are used by youth online and Corey mbor is the um featured speaker so we'll have we'll make sure we share out the link and information for that as it gets closer last but not least we want to Welcome to the um District Johnny Reed to the PSB as a Harvard Graduate School of Education superintendent fellow some of you may have met him at the um curriculum openhouse where you were looking at the finalist uh looking at the choices for selection so um many of you know that uh students that are pursuing their doctorates from Harvard often do internships at uh variety of districts around the Commonwealth and we are fortunate to have Johnny with us working in our teaching and learning Department there so with that that concludes our superintendent's report and like Kieran I want to wish all a um festive holiday season of Rejuvenation and relaxation as we speed forth into 2025 thank you all very much all right thanks Dr Giller does anyone have any questions for the superintendent all right I see that oh I do see one uh Jesse go ahead there I got it um question for Dr Giller um the school committee received um a fairly large number of letters from parents about programs this year especially in Special Needs area that um you're probably aware of in terms of funding and continuation of those programs um one came up recently about music therapy and others is that a prime concern of this new Financial working group and how quickly do you think they can move to bring some of these programs that either started at the beginning of the year would have been stopped because um bills didn't get paid or uh didn't never happened this year but parents are still waiting um I say it also because there's a CAC meeting tomorrow and they're going to ask me absolutely so let me let me equip you with it so there are number the music program that you mentioned specifically um that contract has actually gone to the vendor for Signature so um OSS and OA have been working to um unclog the Q on some of the contracts uh that have been outstanding and so with with the procurement process it requires vendors to have insurance um statements of work um all of those types of things and so as those come come up the real challenge is going to be for us is is identifying the funding source uh to pay for those because right now as I said our budget is running pretty hot so um as the funds become available um those will start coming back on on line okay thank you all right this takes us to public comment uh we have tonight 19 speakers uh signed up for public comment um so we'll follow our usual we'll follow our usual procedure of um hearing from the first five speakers um right now and then the rest um we'll hear from toward the end of the meeting I'm thinking that we can uh forego our subcommittee and liaison reports which are scheduled for 8 40 so that's if we stay on track that's when the remaining speakers uh would be heard um all right our first Speaker tonight is Lily glickstein and everyone has three minutes hi my name is Lily glickstein and I am a fourth grade teacher at Driscoll school I'm here to appeal to the school committee to open up a new section for next year's fourth and fifth grade classes this is my seventh year at Driscoll and I am teaching the largest class I have ever had at 24 fourth graders the other fourth grade classes have 24 and 25 students our third grade has closed one of their three sections due to low enrollment and those sections are already at 22 and 25 students and only set to grow fourth grade parent Carl belloit did some digging and learned that at least two of these classes have already exceeded the limit of the building code maximum capacity teachers are often hesitant to press the issue of class size because in doing so it looks like we're claiming a incompetence rather than advocating for fair working conditions but with such a pressing issue affecting not only the quality of the education we provide but also the sheer physical limitations of our room I on behalf of all the third fourth and fifth grade teachers feel it is critical to speak out we are all reaching the cealing of the district guidelines for class size and there has been no discussion with staff about how we will be supported now or next year we have been told that according to District guidance when a class is between 22 and 26 students you may ask for support in the form of an extra Pera in your classroom anecdotal evidence suggests that asking for that support will be fruitless with that said I can assure you that the last thing that would help is putting more people in these rooms maddeningly the classroom right next to mine is in fact empty I send student groups into that room as a quiet space however during the blocks that I do not have Paras support it is a gamble to allow students in there on their own and trust that they will complete their work independently the irony of spilling my enormous class into a completely empty classroom is not lost on me and I hope it is not lost on you this year I am unable to use my rug space for lessons 24 students cannot comfortably sit on a classroom sized rug we are losing valuable connection time during morning meeting because several students must sit at their desks and therefore outside the group The sheer number of desks in my room means that students are constantly on top of one another bumping into chairs and desks knocking over their aluminum water bottles dropping their belongings or getting into small arguments furthermore bigger class sizes mean the amount of students that need social emotional support is higher this of course takes time away from academics and overloads our staff not only that but the space outside our classrooms is becoming a challenge as well for some reason I only have 12 cubbies in front of my classroom which is not even enough for a regular year I am forced to commandeer my neighbors Cubbies across the hall thankfully she agreed to use some down the hall next to yet another empty classroom this is a risk risk for her as a teacher because those students are less supervised during transition times we teach in this big beautiful four-section school and yet we are not utilizing the space in any kind of logical or efficient way while this is a very pressing issue in the third and fourth grades this year it is not limited to dral specifically I have heard of other schools in the district which are being pressured to collapse sections as well this means the quality of Brooklyn education as a whole would be diminished I am aware that the budget is the driving force in making the decisions that lead to large class sizes but there has to be a way to cut Corners that does not directly affect children's education and teachers ability to effectively connect with educate and grow their students Brookland staff is amazing I may be biased but I think the driscal staff is particularly incredible all of us teachers are making it work because that is our job and we do it well however there is a limitation to our staff's scrappiness and to the classroom square footage on behalf of the entire Driscoll staff I want to thank the parents for working so hard to support their children and their children's teachers My Hope Is that the upper Administration and school committee show the same support and dedication to the children of Brookline by addressing the class siiz issue immediately thank you very much this letter is co-signed by over 45 members of our staff so at the risk of sounding like an Oscar speech just know that I'm supported by the third fourth and fifth grade teams along with many members of our support staff will be working with these large groups of kids in the future thank you so much thank you very much Miss Glick and next up we have Max eagle and Oliver Rose hi hi my name is Max Eagle I am a third grader at Drisco School in 3s our class has 25 students it is hard to have that many students because it is a small room and we barely fit we only have one teacher oh we we have to spend time waiting for our turn and while we wait we read a book our classroom can get really loud sometimes I take my work out to the hallway because it can be hard to concentrate with so many kids in one space especially when there are a lot of questions since we have to spread out in the room kids who have desks in the corner can't see the screen so we have to sit on the rug and not our desk our teacher Miss 70 does a really good job of teaching all 25 of us at one time it also gets pretty loud and PE and because our teacher has to stop so many times to get kids attention we end up not having lots of time to play the game learning in our class and going to special specials with 25 students is really hard it can be very loud and we end up losing a lot of time on on different activities our our grade really needs another class so that we can all learn better hi I'm olly I'm a miss 7's third grade class at Michael jco school we have 25 students in my class that is too many students for one teacher to have I think this because when our teacher checks our work they are there are so many students to check sometimes she doesn't have enough time to get to everyone especially if kids need extra help it is very hard to concentrate with that many kids in one room it can be very distracting when you're trying to do your work the room is very small too too small for this many people because of these reasons I think we need one more third grade class thank thank you for your time all right thank you Max and Oli takes a lot of courage to get up in front of a room full of people so thank you for coming to speak with us okay one more hi I'm Laura I and I think the that the third grade class needs three more three classes because for number one people don't get called on as much and the teacher has to handle all the kids and it's really hard if there are kids fooling around and with all those kids it can be extremely hard for the teacher and the kids that are learning English might need a little more space and same for the new kids they might need more space and that's why we think the third grade needs three classes [Applause] all right thank you Laura right our next speaker is husna abdurahim husna can't speak so we have another student I was notified it will be um Mariam kesik um okay and we have another student whose name I don't have in front of me so if you could introduce yourself please huh just talking okay good evening all and thank you for allowing me to be here again I appreciate the thought and discussion that went into decision to recognize Eid as a school holiday I understand various concerns raised but I'd like to share why this is still an important step worth considering first education isn't just about what happens in a classroom it's about learning to respect and value the different cultures and beliefs that make up our school Community recognizing Eid isn't just a day off it's a powerful statement that all students are seen and valued that kind of lesson is is as important as math or science because it helps build the understanding and unity we need to thrive together second canceling other holidays if the E holiday is made a category one holiday feels like turning in this into a problematic US versus them situation but we're all a part of the same school system and recognizing Eid isn't just about dividing us it's about showing that we value everyone equally while it's true that we can't have endless holidays fairness means making room for diversity if we can recognize holidays like Christmas Thanksgiving yam Kor or other significant days we can also find a way to honor Eid without sacrificing valuable Learning Time finally I want to remind everyone that diversity is one of the school's greatest strengths when we recognize each other's Traditions we're sending a message that everyone belongs here that kind of that kind of inclusivity improves our school not just for Muslim Students but for all of us thank [Applause] you would you mind introducing yourself to start with pleas hi I'm Mariam KES and I'm a freshman at Brooklyn high school for as long as I've known I've counted down the days until Ramadan and when that arrived I'd count down the days until Aid when I wake up on Aid morning I feel relieved and excited it's a totally stress-free day getting together with my Muslim friends at the mosque early in the morning to pray wearing my new clothes going to festivals for hours listening to Aid music in the car with my mom it's the best day the thing is though I'm in high school now and my academics are a huge priority to me but I shouldn't have to choose between my religion and my education when I found out that we would be getting Aid off I was really excited then I found out that those plans might change and I was really disappointed it is the one day of the year when I truly feel closest to all Muslims ac across the globe all two billion of them and I'd love to take the day and celebrate it with the people I love most and also share it with my non-us Muslim friends I hope you decide to stick to your decision to keep Aid as a category one holiday I know that the Brooklyn Muslim Community will be very appreciative of of your decision thank you thank you maram our next speaker is sadoff KMI hi everybody I've been closely watching the ongoing discussion on the school calendar and I have several concerns that I want to share with the school committee first when the community members requested that eeve be added as a category one holiday it was never Our intention that our requests would put all religious and cultural holidays on the table to be removed these holidays are incredibly important to so many members of our community and this would be a truly tragic outcome of this discussion second the district has cited this idea of low attendance as criteria for category one but based on the conversations in this room this Criterion has historically been applied either inconsistently or not at all that is of course because this data simply doesn't exist for existing holidays we know that we just don't know how many people currently observe a holiday when schools are closed but when a holiday is not a category one many families especially minorities immigrants or members of disfavored groups unsurprisingly do not feel comfortable missing school for religious observance or asserting their right to accommodation when it conflicts with the school day out of fear of discrimination so in the case of Eid to use this theoretically neutral criteria of low attendance but to apply that only to this one holiday for this one particular group is at a very minimum in direct conflict with brookline's own historical precedent and is therefore inequitable because of this I ask that the school committee adhere to its original vote from October to add eil fither to the 2526 calendar as a category one holiday going forward I urge the school committee to adopt an updated standard for holidays that can be consistently applied and Based on data one approach is to adopt category one holidays that a are recognized by and advocated for by critical mass of our community and B in the case of religious holidays to consider whether observance of those holidays conflicts with the school day Brooklyn could also reassess assess the town's needs periodically to ensure that holidays are aligned with those needs other districts have addressed similar questions in different ways Cambridge chooses to celebrate one holiday from each major world religion for a total of three hopkington and Lexington recently added Eid as an incremental day off Welsley which has a much less diverse Community just ratified a plan that combines permanent and rotating holidays including Eid capping their holidays at 4 incidentally none of these districts use low attendance as a Criterion and brookline's Muslim population is anecdotally similar or larger in size than these communities I firmly believe that we can find a solution that honors the diversity of this community establishes a criteria Based on data and consistantly applies the same criteria to all holidays in the district my final concern is that this conversation has at times felt incredibly divisive a comment was made in a recent meeting that people are watching and you're right people are watching our children are watching my children are watching and your children are watching and I want to show them that we can solve problems and that there is space in this town for all of us thank [Applause] you thank you Miss cosmi and our next speaker is Don fly hi my name is Don um I get music with mine my name is Don uh and I have a daughter in in kindergarten in the Brooklyn Public Schools growing up I wasn't familiar at all with Eid I was raised Christian even attended a Catholic School uh though I had friends from different Faith backgrounds my community was mostly homogeneous but when I met and fell in love with my future husband uh a Jordanian Muslim uh I discovered I had a lot to learn he also introduced me to his amazing daughter uh from a previous marriage who also attends Brooklyn Public Schools and is Jewish when we began having our own children we decided to raise them as Muslims but actively celebrate holidays from the Christian and Jewish Traditions my children decorate a Christmas tree they hunt for Easter eggs they recite the 10 plagues of Passover they dip apples and Hala into honey on harana they attend the Moss school on Sundays and they celebrate the end of Ramadan with a large Feast surrounded by their loved ones each day each of these holidays holds a special meaning in our inclusive family so when the announcement came came that Eid elur would be recognized as a category one holiday in the Brooklyn Public Schools we were elated through my own experiences of meeting people from different faiths I've witnessed how recognizing others beliefs Fosters communication and understanding in Brooklyn I feel fortunate to live in a community that allows us to freely learn about and respect others cultures and religions watching my daughter navigate these differences in a safe open environment uh and discovering where she fits in has has meant the world to me so when I heard that Eid might be moved as a category 1 holiday I felt really saddened I knew I would have to explain to her while one of the religions that she celebrates doesn't warrant the same recognition as the others when she asks and she will how do I explain that to her I understand the time off for multiple holidays can be a challenge for families and I gener but I generally believe in our diverse community that representation matters if uh it for Fosters compassion especially among our children and lays the groundw for tolerance and Equity when students feel included and safe in their school environment they invite others peer others others of their peers into their Social Circles deepening their understanding and connection to others while some argue that there may not be enough students absent on this day to justify the holidays category one status I wonder how do we measure that were past decisions to add category one holidays based on documented absences or was it based on how many families identified as a certain religion or cultural group if so how would our family who hold several fa a dear uh be categorized how many like us live in this town I don't seek to take away the holidays my stepdaughter or or My Christian or Asian neighbor celebrate I want to encourage my children to respect and honor those holidays and communities from which they arise all I ask is that my children be afforded the same [Applause] opportunity thank you Miss fly and that concludes our first segment of public comments we'll move on to our other business and get back to public comment hopefully around 8:40 if we manage to stick to our schedule all right next up we have presentations and discussions of current issues um our first presentation is from the Brookline High School Innovation fund it'll be a process overview about how the fund engages to drive ongoing Innovative curriculum at BHS uh so I'm honored to turn this over to head of school Anthony Meyer and co-chair Rob Lawrence of the Innovation fund my can everyone hear me okay okay prer yeah I'm live perfect awesome I will do that thank you okay um well thank you everybody thank you to the school committee for allowing us to come in uh and share a little bit about the work we're doing at the fund um my name is Rob Lawrence I'm one of the co-chairs of the Innovation fund um I'm about to start my third year being involved in the fund um I have a uh a junior at the high school uh I also have a sixth grader at the Hayes school and we also have another daughter that went through Hayes that is actually not in the district um so I guess just to start maybe we could just move on to the agenda we want to we want to move along here and and and provide the information that you're looking for and answer any questions that you have so just quickly what we're going to cover tonight um um we what we do and and how we do it is essentially and who we are that's that's really the first uh topic of conversation um a little bit about how we Source um our ideas how we evaluate them and how we ultimately select um courses to support uh in the high school um and then we're going to talk a little bit about um how we permanently adopt um courses or how the district permanently adopts courses because we typically will fund something for between one and three years and I think a big question that the committee has is what happens to that course at the end of that that funding period what is the process for deciding whether or not it actually enters into the permanent course catalog or not so we'll get into some of those details uh and also discuss a little bit about what the financial implications are for that um and then finally we'll get to questions so um I would also say if you have a question uh interrupt us I'd like this to be a little bit interactive that goes for I guess people in the audience as well um but I guess we can start by going to the next um slide so um we are a parent-led nonprofit uh we're 501c3 um within the high school but we work independently of the high school uh and our work is solely um supported by private um constituents private funding so we raise money from parents alumni local businesses uh members of the community um we have a couple of large fundraising events every year we just recently had our annual Gala I think we had a couple School committees uh we certainly invited and I think we had a couple in attendance I saw I remember seeing how there that night um and uh it was a great a great evening it was held in the stem building um and um every year we have a tradition of celebrating a teacher or a teaching team uh for excellence and Innovation and so this year we honored the uh the Freshman uh physics team that approached the fund about five years ago with a proposal to reimagine 9th grade physics uh turn it into a more applied course a more sort of experiential learning course and actually to make physics fun for freshmen uh it was a great uh a great celebration of of the work that they've done and I we're now at a situation where every freshman class in the high school has now taken the new Physics course and we have now been indoctrinated into this kind of freshman year um adaptive physics program and it's been a it's been a it's been a wild success so just an example of some of the things we do um and so that's how that's how we um that's how we raise money through fundraising and whatnot um how we actually fund courses mechanically um we we we provide grants um to teachers to develop to to develop and teach new courses and or uh Andor or initiatives that tend to be interdisciplinary tend to be Forward Thinking um and and um we're soliciting these ideas solely from um High School teachers and administrators these are not parents coming to the table with an agenda with money that they want to say I want my kid to go get AP English support so we need a course to go do that we are soliciting ideas from teachers uh and the district this is that is it's teacher generated um we evaluate these we have a program committee we'll get into the governance of the fund in a minute we have a program committee that consists of both parent volunteers as well as a a couple of folks from um from the district so Anthony Meyer our head of school sits on the program committee uh we have a program liaison I'll explain a little bit more what that is in a minute but our program liaison is also a uh a PSB uh teacher she's a um high school Spanish teacher her name is Erica omahi uh and then we also have um on the program committee Gabe McCormack who is I believe our senior director of teaching and learning for the district so it's a combination of volunteer uh parents who have been uh involved in the fund for a number of years as well as uh as well as District professionals going through a robust set of evaluation criteria to decide is this Innovative enough is it a fit um can we can can the funds support it do we have the budget to support it and is it's something that is really relevant in the district things that were were you know what's what's relevant in today's in today's education um the way mechanically we do it if if you think about offering Grand funding we're essentially um reimbursing the district for a for a fraction of a of a teacher's time so if you're a if you're a history teacher and you teach five courses and you are part of a team that is uh proposing to teach a new course we would fund a point2 release for that teacher to go teach that course and we effectively reimburse The District in those funds and um we're WR we're effectively writing a check to the district twice a year to to reimburse them for those for those funds um next slide please so um a couple things so uh I I should say we typically fund between one one maybe two in an extreme year we might fund three things it all depends on how much resource each of these courses is required or or programs um other things we might only fund for a year if it's not a course if it's like a a teaching fellow or something like that that's spanning on multiple years of or multiple courses um but so if you think about on an annual basis the the course catalog at Brookline High School is roughly 300 courses give or take we're funding between one to three different courses a year it's just a little bit of innovation on the margin um so not a huge impact on an annual basis but when you look at in the aggregate over the last 25 years that we've been working with the fund with with the with the district um we've raised some towards upwards of $7 million that we've pumped into the high school with new coursework um and new ideas and roughly 25 courses that started um as ideas through the Innovation fund are now a part of the permanent um course syllabus at the high school so pretty small impact on an annual basis but when you think about the aggregate impact almost 10% % of the courses in the in the course catalog came out of work um and on funding that the Innovation fund provided not at all Jesse it looks like you had a question yeah so you're saying that the curricula developed for these courses becomes part of the permanent teacher base in most cases yes so the courses we choose to have them live on in some cases no it may be Innovation that Brookline lens is an example is a really unique interdisciplinary course that happened during covid and it really didn't take off with student interest so after the years of the fund funding we decided not to move yeah we pulled it um so I just wanted to speak to um you see that as Rob said over the last 25 years an incredible number of high quality courses that people recognize as key parts of our Brookline High offering some of those are programed so you see African-American and Latino Scholars there's also a teachers mentoring Teachers program that began when the Innovation fund began and was led by legendary BHS teachers Margaret Meer and Gail Davis supporting new teachers as they acculturate to the high school you see interdisciplinary courses like climate science and social change anyway lots of terrific work by The Innovation fund and not all of the ideas fly in the end or over time they sort of we might have student interest lesson and so make decisions about what to run each year given student needs graduation requirements uh and course requests have a question sorry yeah I have a question I might have missed this earlier but um is the point 2 release that you fund always for actually teaching the course or can it also be for collab time to plan a course for example good question it it has come in both forms um so for example the physics team I believe had 6.2 releases over three years um so two teachers in year one I'm for three teachers in year one um and then two then one I think and those were pure course releases because what they were doing is taking the really good work that the lesson plans that they had co-drafted soliciting feedback from the team making changes republishing and so that was really incredible teacher leadership of that physics change um but sometimes we have folks jump right into a course um without that planning time provided by the fund okay so just just really quickly on fun governance um I am one of two co-chairs as I mentioned at the outset um the other co-chair is uh his name is Ben Stern uh Ben has three sons all in uh all in Brook line schools um one has already graduated from the high school another is a junior at the high school and also has a sixth grader I believe at Lawrence um I'll call your attention to two boxes up there there's um the blue box on the Le hand side of the chart which is um which says um it's it's our administrative director her name is Stacy Zelo um that is a paid position so part of the money that we raise each year goes to fund that role it's about a 6 FTE role that that we just PID directly it has nothing to do with the district uh the other um the other uh role that we fund that is not in the classroom I'm as I mentioned earlier is the program liaison uh which is the far right box on the on the on this chart um and that is Erica omahi just to just to talk a little bit about what the fund liaison does so starting in September um we are out um so yeah let's let's go to the next slide because we can come back to governance but um I think talking about like the sourcing and selection process I think is is is important I'm going to get a little closer because I can't see I can't see read it um so it's so the program um liaz on Erica she um in I'll just tell you what she did this this September because it's just easier to describe exactly what she did um she set up meetings and went to every dis every departmental meeting over the first couple weeks of the school year and basically pitched the the teachers and the and the department chairs on uh The Innovation fund and what we do and this concept of a quick pitch we are out soliciting ideas for new Innovative courses that um that maybe you've been thinking about for a little while I think most teachers know what the in Innovation fund is in fact a lot of teachers that come to Brooklyn come here because there's an innovation Fund in place so Erica works with these teachers to help kind of firm up the ideas she'll she'll give immediate feedback well I think that's a pretty good idea but you might want to think about this um we then go through this quick process where it's basically we don't want anyone to do too much work before they get a yes or a no into like sort of a in like a stage gate process so we ask them to um create a quick pitch which is basically like a onepage or what's the theory of the case what's the idea um and then the program committee will engage and review all those quick pitches provide feedback back to um all of those teams you might want to think about this um Erica may actually do like a little bit of you know I'm not sure this is going to fly but if you want to keep working on this because we're we're evaluating each of these along a set of criteria again is does it fit is it Innovative is it Forward Thinking is it something that is really core to what that we're excited about as an innovation fund and can we fund it all of those all of those criteria go into deciding whether we're going to move these quick pitches into the next step which would would then turn into this year we had 11 quick pitches for example those 11 quick pitches are going to turn into four full proposals that's where again the program liazon will work with those select teams that are going to move forward into creating a full proposal which is a much more uh robust um you know set of requirements it's a you know it's it's a larger It's a larger ask we want uh details on on funding what what people are going to be doing the activities uh understanding some of the less PL just getting into more of the depth of like the content um and then there's a series of back and forth there's some feedback given to they come in they'll do like an initial pitch they'll get feedback we'll then have one final sort of presentation uh in the in the in the Janu January that's coming up that's coming up right after the New Year where we will hear the final pitches from I think we have four that are that are going in front of us um program committee will evaluate all of those we'll spend four or five hours evaluating the merits of all four of those and we will decide which ones preliminarily we will decide which ones we think we want to fund and then in our February board meeting we will come to our board meeting um as a program committee and make a recommendation to the entire board as to which programs we would propose the fund supports uh for the next calendar the next academic year um so that's in February um our budgeting cycle really starts you we're on the we're on the same fiscal year as the district we don't really know because we have a couple spring fundraisers we don't know what our budget is going to be until about April and so we we can't actually confirm with our teams which programs we're going to fund until that April time frame when we just have a little bit more clarity on you know the the final tally on the amount of money we're going to raise over the course of the Academic Year to be able to fund programs the next year so in the roughly the April time frame we will so teachers don't know whether or not their their course has been selected uh for funding in the in this in the next year until April when we tell them and then um we tend to send a letter out to the district um in the May June time frame um with um basically announcing these grants uh and the sub and and the dollars that we're going to put towards uh supporting these programs and so that's largely the process um you know again um this is say um the program the we have pretty robust like the it's too much detail to get into the evaluation Criterion in here but we have Educators around the table that have worked with us on these EV on this criteria it's a it's a robust evaluation and and we do spend a lot of time evaluating the pros and cons of each of these each of these programs because we we're not going to be able to support all of all of these great ideas in a given year here oh I didn't even see that just happened Carolyn go ahead if you're making the Selections in April are those for classes that then kick off the following September or the coures then developed through both C sorry go ahead no I just curious yeah do the teachers just cram and then also how do students know if course selection has already happened good questions the second one is probably easier we will list courses saying pending approval so you'll see like a little Innovation fund logo and it it's both pending approval and pending interest and so we put it all we put everything and the kitchen sink in our course catalog and we love to do it as many courses as we can but then determine what resources we have available a from The Innovation fund and B more importantly from from the district given our financial pict piure uh in terms of our teachers are they planning to launch a course in many cases yes and there's sometimes can be support from The Innovation fund around summer money Workshop money I might try to work with the office of teaching and learning also to find Workshop money in order to to help them be ready to launch a course um good questions other I think we might move towards yeah I think the the the a a big question and concern for the district I think and rightly so is what are the financial implications of innovation fund funding and and what happens when that funding ends um and so I want to give a couple concrete example examples there are bullets there um several years ago maybe four years ago Roger Grandy a longtime social studies teacher and Brianna Brown Dr ban Brown now our interm science chair but then a biology and environmental science teacher launched the course climate science and social change and they worked on that course together for three years and teachers in the room know that that third year tends to be the magical year when things come together years one and two you're pulling it together you're improving you're iterating um and as Roger and Briana were preparing for that third year they were engaged in discussions supported by their chairs and ultimately by me in thinking about what is this going to look like if it lives on and we knew it wouldn't be I mean the the fund very generously supported a course of 25 to 30 students at 04 FTE two teachers in a single course in a single block that's incredibly generous that's not something in most cases unless it's a an explicit co- teing Arrangement that were really able to fund and so they made the decision that Roger would live on with the course and it happened to be that Briana eventually landed that interim science chair so the course lives on at 0 2 FTE and to put it kind of um I don't know generally it competes with other senior offerings in science and social studies and depending on interest we determine whether to run a section or not a more complicated example where I think it will be more challenging is some of the FTE and the queer student program is devoted to an administr not an administrator but a a coordinator I'm not even using the right word but but uh a release to provide leadership to the program a question for us will certainly be can we continue to fund that when the Innovation funding goes away and that will be a a serious discussion with the office of teaching and learning uh with lonus and his team Dr Giller and his team to determine whether that point to whether we have that given all of our other needs um so those are a couple of examples of where courses can live on or program components um might live on uh or not and those are decisions that we make in the context of what we call sectioning and that's essentially where the budget comes very alive at the high school and we're determining how much FTE do we have who are the you know who are those staff members what can they teach and how are we going to staff the high school um so I want to make sure I want to see if there other y Helen's hand is up okay great perfect well thank you guys for this uh presentation it was great I mean I remember I was at the founding of the Innovation fund when it first began and I think one of the the difficult pieces is how do you continue a course when there are two teachers and 25 students we can't afford that and I think you've very clearly put forward what you ended up having to do um that's not to say we shouldn't be Innovative then shouldn't find ways to make it happen my question was just I don't know about reimagining the restaurant and I'm wondering how that uh what that's about and um what what the support is now for that sure that's a great question Helen so if people who remember the high school from before we had a longstanding restaurant program I believe it was restaurant 108 it was named because it was in classroom 108 and it is Imagine exactly what you would imagine a sort of dark somewhat dingy but clean enough to serve food uh classro and as we imagined the renovation and expansion we very much wanted to support the restaurant program it supports all types of kids at Brookline High School and more importantly pulls them together in a work environment um where they're laboring together and learning together uh and so as we imagined the renovation we were thinking it would be really great to support a new location for the restaurant that is Prime real estate uh and really signals how important this program and the students in it are to uh our school community and so the Innovation fund agreed to provide funding um for an additional teacher for a period of time I want to say we did just two years of funding in that case and we did so knowing the whole time that we were going to need to make up a gap um as the restaurant rolled off the fund that we were going to need to find an additional point4 FTE in order to support um the restaurant having two teachers longterm so we had some support and financial relief for a period of time during that Innovation and as it was going to return to The District budget we began sectioning with the pre one premise among others that was we need to find 04 FTE in order to continue to float um the restaurant so that's Helen that's the example of the restaurant and that happened right around well during the renovation and um I think the funding ended a year a year ago not this school year but last school year thank you and actually it's very visible the restaurant and the work that goes on in there if you walk in you can see the students working in the kitchen it's really wonderful that's great thanks alen Stephen I see maybe a question right go ahead I also see Mariah's hand up so Stephen then Mariah see Mariah U Mariah yeah maybe your hand was up first I couldn't tell so go ahead Mariah thanks um I wonder given the challenges that we're just sort of talking about about programs if there's some way to given that all there's things that Innovation funds does they're all amazing and they're all this wonderful collaboration with staff and some of of them are really easy to onboard like the courses and some of them are really hard to onboard like the programs um when we're having to I mean I think people think it sounds really small but like last was it last year Anthony or the year before where we had a couple of them come to their conclusion at the same time and it ended up equaling like a 6 or a08 or whatever it was and it it is impactful on the overall balance of of um of FTE and what we can offer especially when we think about you know it's one year it's 0 2 the next year it's 0 four and then it's go back to 0 2 they add up as as a cumulative program over a long time and it's amazing that this program has that history but it does have this impact and so I guess what I'm wondering is is there a way to either Focus The Innovation fund further on the curriculum Innovation um or somehow um plan for the programs in some way that make sure that they're not going to accumulate or Stack Up in one year or maybe that there's fewer of them so that we can have a a slower impact of those programs on the overall FTE at the high school yes in short I think that that's an ongoing challenge that we need to continue to address um I'm blanking for a moment I have um an example see just am I I just need to refresh my memory because Mariah as you were asking your question I was thinking about an example so just give me one minute not a full minute 30 seconds yeah really very much so if I could help out maybe yeah please a little I think if the class is run with one teacher and 25 students it the the budget implication is those 25 students aren't in another class the the question becomes when it's more than one teacher I think for the most those are but Helen those are temporary during The Innovation fund period those the double teaching does continue past the the period of funding so that's not what asking about it's really like I'll um I'll give an example there's some of the Affinity programs that have started more recently so like the aapi affinity group um career student program and these are important aspects of ensuring inclusion our community ensuring welcoming and belonging and those are great and um it leads to a challenge when a couple of them Stack Up in one year right and so how do we make sure and and like the example Anthony just gave I think a couple years ago it was maybe aapi plus the restaurant both on boarding in one year that turned into a0 2 plus a04 so it was a 6 um that was the fall where we had large class sizes not that that six was you know the like the the reason the thing to point the finger at but it's one contributing factor and so I guess my question is how do we make sure that those things don't pile up yeah and that we really emphasize the course Innovation which is budget neutral great Mariah thank you sorry everyone for my senior moment I think the example that I wanted to cite was last year we had a social studies teacher Mark wheeler come and pitch a course and it was public memory and he wanted to run it as a senior course and we found that intriguing and in the end where we steered him through the very process Rob described of the back and forth between the Quick Pitch the program committee and most of all the educator and his chair we launched it instead as uh Innovation fellow funded for a single year with the idea of creating curriculum that can be us use at the junior level to satisfy our District's Civics requirement um and also provide really engaging curriculum that every Junior so Rob's example is is the best one of the work that I've been a part of with the Innovation fund and not not speaking to the quality of the program but the size of the impact of experiential phys physics that's golden where it's not additional FTE after the Innovation fund funding ends it's every kid is impacted through ninth grade physics and this newly bolstered curriculum so I think throughout my tenure we've tried to balance the dangers of the additive quality of the Innovation fund with widening impact and how do we look at programs and courses that in can impact more and more students so Mariah I do think it's an important part of that work not only within the program committee but work that Gabe in his present role and I are doing with Dr gillery with Dr Fortuna and saying scanning for what are in the future are going to be potential budgetary impacts uh and how do we navigate those can I just add one more thing Andy on that which is I think that it's really important and too that as these programs in their year one or whatever that we're adopting them that we at least also have that visibility into that future potential impact because that way we're avoiding surprises and everyone's on the same page so we don't end up at the third year you want to add them and there's some sort of surprise and hesitation this really just makes sure that everyone's on the same page early so that that there's all the all the pieces are in place to make sure that whether it needs to be something that we consider in just the multi-year budget process whether it's through override considerations or other that we're just all sort of like counting those in and on board with that early on that sounds great thank you Mariah Stephen thanks and thanks for this overview and this presentation um another sustainability oriented question um now that we have a district strategic plan has there been any consideration given to uh requesting that or given priority to proposals that look to align with the Strategic plan so that a sustainability pathway for that course could be more easily borne by the district since it would already be in the works essentially for PSB to adopt coursework in that area I that's a great question and just to be candid no is the short answer and I think that we can do a better job especially given that we have both District a district leader and a high school leader sitting on the program committee I think that that can that that that feedback which is important can be part of our Outreach early on and the sourcing of things to say how is this related to The District strategic plan in addition to key high school goals yes I think I think that's a great that's a great piece of feedback we will incorporate that into how we're thinking I it's the new strategic plan was not on the on our radar but it's something we should certainly be considering as we're evaluating yeah I would never want to suggest that it should be a required category for all submissions because I think one of the great things about the fund is that it's uh it sources Grassroots based ideas and it doesn't require that top- down Vision based thinking to Source The Innovation but I think maybe a category for some because it just seems like it's a readymade sustainability pathway for some of the the coursework that's emerged from this anyway thanks thanks it's good feedback um Jesse Yeah I have a question um it seems and I remember a conversation I had with Bob wiar about this I don't know two three years ago um who was involved in get starting it and um it seems like this is a wonderful like valve for allowing expressions of desire to improve something in the curriculum and in the offerings to occur my question is what other Pathways do does the district take to like improve curricula that I don't know my question is like how much higher does this get you beyond like of course say coding for example I saw it on there coding is sort of a um ever evolving AI is another one ever evolving even faster than coding it codes for you now so you know um we don't have to know how to code anymore exactly exactly so so so so the question is let's just say for example that you you uh that we um you know get a a really strong new um science related or computer science related uh faculty member who already sort of is aware of many things that he or she could teach that are not currently part of the curriculum so the district sort of sort of miraculously ends up with a person on staff who's very strong in that newish area right they're come in and teach that right you know you give them the flexibility to do that that doesn't cost you anything right because you're they're not going to pitch anything they come in pitched already I mean they've got the background so is there that other Avenue does that occur on sort of a yeah I guess more for Grant um over the space of say three to four to five years are is there is there that e of new hires that or someone that on their own took a course over Summers or whatever and has some area that they like they're not asking for the funding but that continuously sort of improves the curricular offerings it's a great question and point and I would say yes we have that and and I think it somewhat depends what are graduation requirements and sort of what is core what are core pieces of work that need to happen within a department but I would say our department chairs working with the support of Gabe and jod in particular do an amazing job of saying what is it that we're teaching what ought to be ought we to be teaching and you know what are kids need and what are we good at and so um not to get into too many details but our former science chair Ed Weiser is now teaching a really interesting combination of courses Medical Careers and Woodworking and he hasn't we have an opportunity to launch a new course related to him that would be FTE neutral that takes advantage of some of his incredible Knowledge and Skills and frankly meets a really important need in the high school in a population we don't necessarily serve well uh in terms of postsecondary options so I think in some way like The Innovation fund is a guaranteed partner for 25 years in supporting the Brooklyn schools and our ongoing commitment is to say are we recruiting and retaining the best teachers are we putting them in positions to be successful and and I think that our chairs do an amazing job of noticing those talents and making those shifts a business teacher who has another CT and maybe that's another needs of of Brits and you'll hear a little more flexibility in that in the um in our electives or our so-called electives because there are fewer graduation requirements thank you Suzanne go ahead yeah uh thank you very much um there are more comments than questions that I have I just two big ones there's so many pluses to this but two that I really want to draw out as one is retention for teachers I just think it's so critical that our teachers have opportunities to try new things you know right about 15 18 years of teaching you start to say can I do this for another 20 years and if you have the opportunity to create to rethink things to be Innovative I think it it helps them to keep going and and gives them new life so that's one and then the other thing I want to come in on it helps keep us fresh right like new ideas are coming all the time will AI what will AI look like in the classroom in a course you know in another five years maybe two years I don't know but this idea that you offer the opportunity for uh for all of us to stay fresh and to stay on top of what's going on and I'm thinking too of um Pathways that you know we're starting to talk not here necessarily but other places but maybe hear a little bit about Pathways in the high school and I could see this as an opportunity to explore some of that so I just want to thank you for uh Innovation for the Innovation fund and uh thank you for the time and you you would not be shocked to know that um more than two of the 11 quick pitches we had had to do with AI and I'm pretty sure at least one or two of the final four pitches are um are AI related so keep an eye out for it okay we have a couple minutes left here and um there's a question from the floor so would you like to go ahead yeah oh I didn't see okay ready so so if you view if you view the the curricula as sort of like a distributed effort over the entire time that the student is spend is spending in the classroom then it seems to me that there's like a a natural uh like a budget friendly from your point of view um way of of basically trying to optimize um what the students are learning and getting the maximum bang for your buck in terms of what you know if I'm teaching some something let's say in math like linear equations or something like what is a student getting out of being taught this what can they actually do with it and then thinking about well there's a lot of different concepts that you know that student is learning in this particular class okay can I uh you know in collaboration with you know teachers or by strategically thinking about this particular class let's say it's math uh can I come up with you know better ideas that give more bank for the buck like and I can give you a an example that actually if you want to wrap up your question we like we do need to move on so yeah so so basically my point is instead of trying to create a whole new course you can just focus on a small portion of a course that already exists like a math course or a Physics course and you say not all of the ideas being taught in this core course are essential in essence I can I can strategically think about better ideas that will give more bank for the buck and it's still a physics class it's still a math class it's just this idea is Arcane it's not used could you could you please wrap it up is there a question that's it okay that's basically the yeah well thank you I I think that's a really important point and some of what that that we have done with the Innovation fund and in other areas it's not create a whole new course but rather this piece needs tweaking or this piece needs to be an addition maybe we need to pull out this older piece and I what I like about that is not only it it refreshes the curriculum um but it also is cost neutral which I think is important so I want to wrap up we do have our vice chair here also Mona moafi who we didn't recognize so she's here as well um and as Rob said Ben um Stern is isn't with us tonight so and Caroline actually has a has one last I'll just wrap up with a quick because I can't I always have to do this sloppy BHS is an amazing institution it is the jewel of our town whatever criticisms we may occasionally have about one thing or another and this is really indicative of what is we are so lucky to have here it's a large school there's something for everyone um and when you have kids in the school you really feel that and they feel it and they see that there's this world out there of ideas and learning and so thank you for this thanks for the time go BHS thank you so much thank you guys thank you Carolyn I haven't heard the criticisms about PHS so that that's ver that's dramatic verbal irony um no great thank you so much thanks everyone appreciate the time thank [Applause] you all right this takes us to uh our second discussion of a current issue which is the uh draft 2526 School District calendars including the possible addition of it Al f a new category one holiday or the possible removal of all category one holidays from the calendar um so I want to note that there's no vote scheduled for tonight so that's not on the agenda uh what we do have is a discussion so a chance for uh members to give their thoughts and ask questions um associate Town Council Susan Harris will be able to come down in a few minutes to join us she's upstairs at the advisory committee meeting at the moment um so so you know if people have any questions about legal aspects of anything they might be consider considering uh this would be the time to ask um just to start things I I wanted to read a couple of I think key sentences from the memo that we receive from Town Council see these are things that we should all be keeping in mind so one is in considering adding or removing school holidays now and moving forward the school committee should rely on criteria tied to the learning needs of PSB students that are one supported by evidence and two non-discriminatory and the other sentence I'd like to point out is low attendance is not the only possible evidence that may support School closure based on the particular learning needs of a community students to the extent that designating adol fitter as a category one holiday is a deviation from the school committee's past practice however the school committee should think through and preferably articulate the substantial evidence underlying its decision on the record okay so the that's the written guidance we've received and you know both of both of these sentences uh the application may not be clear in particular cases so this would be the chance to ask um once um Susan Harris can join us so uh anyone have any comments that they want to start off with um yep I see Val's hand up um I was waiting for Susan actually if yeah um yeah we can we can either just hold until Susan comes or if people want to comment um I think I can prob I might have a couple comments okay go ahe don't require Susan thanks um so just in terms of we've gotten lots of different emails about this [Music] um some sort of and this is kind of just housekeeping clarification we had another discussion about this that was a little confusing maybe and then we have some people saying don't reverse your vote but we also have a letter from Town Council saying we didn't actually vote so not necessarily asking you to clarify but just pointing that out I guess that um sure my understanding is a vote we did take was to ask the superintendent to come back to us with a with a revised calendar it was not a final vote to adopt a calender or to add a holiday [Music] um oh and I also wanted to say responding to a a few things that I think we heard that the idea of having a I'll call it sort of a clean slate academic calendar where we only have federal and state holidays as no school days is not a response to this current discussion about adding a new holiday that's been on the table at least since August um when we discussed it as a group and I think it's in the sort of in the chaosphere anyway um because of just Community concerns about inconsistency in the schedule and what that means for continuity of teaching and learning um so just wanted to kind of throw that out there for us too all right thanks Caroline um val did you want to I guess you wanted to wait for me I mean I can I can start and I can I guess ask it again when Susan's here I y attempted to ask her earlier in the day and then got called back because the judge was making a ruling in any event um so my my thought after reflecting on this isn't really in any of the calendars in front of us which I think is okay um actually one of the the speakers at public comment mentioned the wells the option and from my perspective it seems like one we should consider um it would take a little bit of work for us to to get there um they did a survey of their staff not of their families but of their staff uh to see which holidays um staff would be unavailable to teach on either because they observe the holiday um but I think also largely because the school district where their kids went to school didn't have school that day um so they landed on uh rashash yam kipor and um Good Friday because well I don't know the the breakdown but because they either were celebrating those holidays or because the district where their kids went to school or had Child Care had those days off and then they rotated um I might get the the holidays wrong but my understanding is they rotate a fourth holiday and they landed on four as the the maximum um for a five or 10 year period without review uh and I believe it's Lunar New Year um Eid dwali and maybe one additional that it that was it just those three just those three that they rotate um every third year and then if something falls on a weekend they you know go to the next one that year and then and and sort of rotate that way um which which seemed to me to address needs of um needs of the community in in both the ability to um celebrate diversity in the community but also to um have an understanding of when it would just be too challenging to um have school because uh you wouldn't have enough staff to teach students regardless of how many students there were so am I understanding right that the for the three permanent um holidays the rationale there was not day of low attendance but day of low staff availability and then for the rotating one the rationale was just the desire to recognize certain communities and who who who live in the district it was recognizing right the diversity of the community was rotating and um also establishing that there'd be no more than four so the four was a fixed which I think you can have a sort of rational basis for why um four is fixed and um that they wouldn't sort of add on an ad hoc basis they would reassess I forget if it was every five or 10 years but they'd reassess every five or 10 years with the community um so that you know they weren't having to redo this every winter or every other winter um they put it on a schedule to reassess and just re-evaluate to make sure that both the standing and the rotating holiday still made sense in their Community okay thanks I see Mariah and then Helen um oh yeah and also Susan is here so um you can any questions uh she's now available thank you for joining us in the this is maybe a question for Val but I'm not sure in the in the scenario you're mentioning though essentially that says communities have these holidays off and so therefore it's like a catch 22 no one can ever change because these holidays are already enshrined in Brooklyn or other districts and so that is am I understanding it right it's Essen Val is that the way you would interpret it like other places have it off and so therefore we cannot make any decision independent of that that's not how I would um that's not how I would describe it I would describe it that that particular educator or staff member just has either their own religious affiliation that day or they or or or yes their school district or the you know the child care center where their child attends is not changed um so you know in that regard I guess Mariah it would have to be like some wholesale change in the state as opposed to a sort of regional look at this but I think that's why places like Welsley are looking at it on like a sort of like a census interval right to see where things are um every 10 years I'm sorry I thought you were Mariah I thought Val was saying that those three holidays you were proposing them as permanent not because they were historically permanent here but because of potential staff availability I thought that was your propos is my proposed rational but the point is that other like that places are closed therefore for we can't consider them because places are closed but if everyone then stays in places are closed imagine Welsley is polling their teachers in five years and and some of them live in Brookline and they say well brookline's closed well then we're just in this sort of standoff where no one is able to make decisions because they're only being driven by um other places uh uh opening and closing decisions like it just it seems like a recipe for not making change if that's what the district wants to doy Helen and then Carolyn and Val did you also I think you said you had a question for for Susan when she did did arrive the question was just if that rationale satisfies um the memo Susan is this working okay great thank you so I came in a little bit in the middle Val so I'm sorry about that but I think you were talking about um a rationale based on staff availability kind of on one hand um and then the interplay with a goal to celebrate diversity on the other hand yeah I was I was essentially floating a similar model to what Welsley just adopted so the the three um fixed holidays that they based on the staff availability and then a fourth and they kept it at four um where that fourth holiday was rotating um for various um holidays where where they wouldn't have uh an issue with staff availability and um or students in large numbers perhaps being absent um but that it was in a celebration of diversity of their Community yeah you know it's it's a little bit difficult to answer kind of on a on a hypothetical basis for Brookline because I think part of you know part of what went into Wells ley's decision-making um with however they ultimately ended at at their decision um involved you know surveys and Community input I believe they had a task force um so certainly I think um every Community is going to want to take a look at what makes sense in that community and um base it on the data and input from that Community um but on its face something like staff availability and something like um you know the input from the community about what's what's important to them um could could seem to satisfy you know a non-discriminatory basis and and have some evidentiary rationale to it thank you um Helen go ahead then Carolyn so I really think we need to come to a decision and I think we need to to I would suggest for me I would like us to keep what we have include IID one holiday of IID for next year because parents need to know what's happening next year it's already almost January and we still don't have the calendar out there um and so it's just I think we're going to go back and forth and try and figure out all sorts of machinations I remember at one point what What can you you hear me uh you're breaking up a little bit I'm sorry um at one point I when I first came on school committee I thought well why don't we just have one vacation in um March as opposed to a February and an April one so we get better learning and it's impossible when you look at the other districts and our teachers who live in other districts same as what you're talking about now um so I you know we're talking about one day more in the year this year um after juneth next year it'll be totally different because of the way the holidays fall because the way everything else Falls you know I think that we need to move forward and I would I for one would like to do it with what we have and include Aid Caroline and then Suzanne thanks um so a few things so I was listening to Val and and interested in um what you knew Val about how Welsley came to their decision I I printed out their calendar because it was mentioned a few times um so just so people know at this point Welsley is teachers showing up August 21st um if all goes well last day of school June 18th potentially June 26 27th um so it's we end up with stretching out the school year which I think kind of comes back to you know we're talking a lot here about diversity and inclusion and religion and we have a fabulously diverse town and there are many ways that our school district can and does recognize celebrate diversity and culture but legally a public school district can't celebrate a religious holiday that's why it has to be neutral it has to be secular our our rationale has to be secular and based on some amount of data that I'm not sure Community feedback I don't really know what that means and I I think we want to keep in our decision- making here should be driven by our purpose as a school district this is what Dr gillery said in our conversation in August and our purpose is to provide 100 180 days of effective instruction ideally with continuity for our staff for our students for our students receiving Services especially perhaps um so I think that should be our driver um I think surveying staff is probably important and we maybe need that information we really need data and we talked about that I think at the last meeting I've made some data requests um I've had a couple conversations with building leaders um about what our actual days of low attendance are and what makes sense for our buildings for delivering instruction um one of the building leaders said to me we know because because teachers tell us that we have a window within which effective instruction can occur and it ends in June um so I just think whatever we do it needs to be driven by our purpose as a school district in terms of Education um and we did have feedback from building leaders that um Dr Giller read some of to us in August and I would like that to be distributed to the school committee um and if we're considering other options including having only state and federal holidays I would love to get the building leaders feedback on that um and I think the reason to cons I mean if people are concerned about fairness and status of one culture or religion versus another the fairest way to do this is the tight tidy legal way which is we have regulations that say we have to provide 180 days of school we have accommodations that we have to provide and we do anybody who wants to be absent to celebrate religion can be absent and we have to accommodate them with an excused absence and homework accommodation and if we're concerned about fairness that's the fairest way everybody gets the same thing um so that those are the things that that I'm thinking about um and being really careful about what we do legally I don't think that this is a school district that should be pushing the boundaries at this point in terms of making ourselves vulnerable to Legal challenges is so those are a few things I'm thinking about all right Suzanne and then Mariah yeah I want us to go back again to our August discussions and our October discussions and we did vote I believe it was 7 to one six to one to uh have the superintendent put Eid as a category one holiday on the calendar for us to vote um and I think we were deliberate in that conversation and I think that uh for next year we said for one year because we know that this is a really challenging and difficult decision and it will have impact for a number of years and so I still go back to that October vote and uh I would vote that way again if we voted tonight which we're not but we will in January and I think that we need more time to talk about what we're going to do about our category 1 Category 2 Category 3 holidays it's involved with homework and testing and assessments it's quite complicated and uh I don't know how we'll fall on that I think we need uh lots of input from uh administrators teacher staff we are getting a lot of input from the community so it's good to hear from people I sure we will continue to hear from people but I think that's important this is an important decision I don't think that we are um trying to isolate or we're try I think we're trying to be fair to those to everybody and and and by doing we do that by recognizing what is important to our our various groups and our diversity here I will say that we're not being a leader other places have been a leader in this before us so we're not outfront uh other places have Eid as a as a holiday category one so it's not like we're going out there all by ourselves other people have already done that and it's been accepted I will say that I'm not worried about one day extra in June as learning um I will tell you that there is good learning that goes on in June it may not look like what you see in March but it's actually more fun so by time June comes around testing assessments are done and people can do fun projects do presentations they do field trips June is a good month for learning and so I'm not worried about that so um I mean those are the things I'm saying that's what I believe and I am sticking with my vote when it comes up uh to do Eid for next year and then to do a longer conversation and a deeper dive into future years thanks okay Mariah's hand is up I agree with Suzanne all right uh Stephen um I just want to make a couple of comments so first of all I just want to thank Susan for the memo that was really helpful to help us think through what are the what are the legal requirements for the rationale for declaring category 1 holiday um I just want to make three points um one is that um I think the calendar as it is right now there is a discriminatory status quo I I don't think that we've effectively used um a day of low attendance to determine category one holidays as it stands right now certainly by not revisiting our category one holidays we've effectively let them uh We've grandfathered them in to the point that we just don't know any data behind whether these days are would indeed be days of low attendance and certainly when we looked at Lunar New Year we didn't scrutinize it uh as we're scrutinizing e Al fit so um I think it's we're right you're right Susan we have to articulate our our standard our rationale but I would just point out that by doing nothing by staying with version one that would be abating our duty as well so I think either way we have to we have to articulate what our our rationale is uh the second I want to make is that um I I I think learning I I would like to more broadly conceive learning in this conversation first of all it's going to happen 180 days whether it happens in June or whether it happens uh in continuous blocks or whether it's split up by religious observances um and I also think learning includes um how we divide up our calendar it can include um it can include uh a district choosing to celebrate the cultures and religions of its students it can also include something that's very different than that but we can conceive of learning in a number of ways other than the specific content of what's learned inside say a math or a science classroom um and to and to conceive of learning other than to conceive of learning so narrowly I think is to do a disservice to the idea of what a student learns through PSB at the third point it's just very technical I I I like where Val is going by trying to articulate what our what our rationale should be and I want to propose that there should be some kind of population threshold or some articulation of community enthusiasm for for a day of um religious observance it could either be teacher availability or Community enthusiasm or something like that I I don't know I'm I'm interested in this community's opinion on that um combined with uh that requirement that one of our commenters made I think that the day would have to be uh celebrated during the day during the school day and not during the evening could could not otherwise be observed I thought that was that should be part of that um that rationale as well so those are the comments that I wanted to make I I agree um with Suzanne and Mariah and Helen that we we did take a vote I feel bound to that vote I'm open to revisiting it uh along the lines of looking at C version 4 which I think is also reasonably up for discussion but um I I am very much in favor of the version that we voted uh previously thank [Applause] you thanks Stephen have Jesse hi thank you um chair I have um six comments not in any particular order first is that the vote was not a vote to add the holiday the vote was a suggestion to a a suggestion or proposal to the superintendent to add a holiday to the calendar for a later vote so it doesn't commit the school committee at all okay that's first point second thing I'll call it the school engine and this gets back to some of the discussion that we've had about data um it takes a threshold of staff faculty and students all three have to be at sufficient threshold in order to run the school if you have too few of any of those not enough staff to open the building and clean it and get everything done and cook the food for the cafeteria and everything you're not going to have school if you don't have student students who really can't have school if you don't have enough faculty you're not going to have school right and so it seems pretty evident to me that some quantitative measurement of where we're going to have to um determine when we either don't have enough staff on a certain day when we bless you whether we don't have enough uh faculty on a certain day or we don't have enough students on a particular day will drive whether we should have the school open or not takes a tremendous Financial um commitment of the district to run the schools on any day and to stop them and restart them is is the same thing so if there's a a population within the district either of many students perhaps correlated with faculty perhaps not probably in many cases correlated where you don't have enough of one of those three that would be the clearest quantitative determinant of whether or not school should be open regardless of what's happened in the past I mean I that's coming up um so I think our our discussion should Center more on let's understand the quantitative aspects of what we need to run the schools for the town um before we make decisions about adding more days or less days um that's sort of second Point third point is about the summer um similar to what happened I guess um uh recently when there was you know a short vacation parents um I know throughout many of the school schols decide on their own when they're taking their kids out of school and missing instruction days whether it was the day before Thanksgiving whether it was the whole week of Thanksgiving and then coming back later because uh airplane fairs are lower you know after the Thanksgiving weekend parents in the district who are going to drive to see family or going to fly to wherever people go um are going to do that regardless of whether school's in session they may not be days of low attendance but people make their own family plans they may align with other kids and their families who are in private schools there are many many variables in how people decide whether they're going to have their kids in school or not but that doesn't get to the question of whether or not school should be operating school should certainly be operating um but if there's some parents who independently determine that they they don't um they they they won't have their children in school because they are off from work and they're taking their kids with them somewhere it just happens and that's just part of um of of Any of of any organization on the summer plans it's the same thing if parents have their kids in Camp Camp starts um the third week of June or the middle of the third week of June and school's running late there's no fun learning happening the kids are gone they're in Camp especially if they're out of town or something like that you know out of town camp or something so parents you know working parents are paying for their kids to be in a summer program and when the summer program starts if school ends up getting delayed that just basically just causes a tremendous you know upheaval and Chaos for all the summer planning that people have done so I don't think it's fair of us for us to discuss well we can always shift our instructional time deeper in the summer I think you had mentioned Stephen at one of our other um meetings about uh building temperature and in terms of climate change and keeping you know uh faculty and staff and students sweating it through the last couple days I don't see that as um and in a hotter summer I don't see indoors or Outdoors that being a really good instructional solution so the summer plan thing I I don't think is a very uh solid argument um the next has to do in general with religious holidays within the public schools and that's the con the idea of interruptions there are a lot if any you look through any of the calendars and you know which I have and circled all the different interruptions you can hardly go through any month but I think March um and this is not anything about e i just saying March I think before we had our other meeting was the only month in the entire 25 26 Calendar with no PD no half days no early dismissals except for maybe the Friday afternoon thing um and and uh and and it was um unique in the fact that it was the only month in an 180-day season in which we had no uh no other breakages and I think for you know families with single parents that are working uh young families where both parents are working and they don't have grandparents or uncles and aunts to support them the constant interruptions from September through June impact people very strongly so if you have a religious holid that comes along in the same way and I'm not minimizing God forbid at all in the same way if you have a vacation planned and there school on that day but you have a a flight to take with your family you go and so the instructional engine keeps running and we do the we do an amazing job of doing that but on the days in which we uh make a personal decision that we cannot attend um we don't attend and yet School keeps going um the the um the final point I guess I wanted to make there uh is about um Heritage months there's been some discussion tonight and in some of the previous meetings about the fact that we need to show within the school system a uh respect and dignity for all uh students across all the diverse religious and philosophical backgrounds from which they come 100% nobody's disagreeing with that I think one option rather than having uh a single day or two days for any religious holiday during the school year that comes out during the week is to also remember that while we're teaching about diversity all the time in many of our subjects within the district that we have Heritage months one for every month of the year right that are um that are that are available and so when we say well we need to close school in order to teach students that their peers observe holidays I think that's certainly an opportunity however another option is just to say gee September October November December right through till you know may being both I think a a combination I think of um of of of um Jewish American heritage month and I think there's a second one that that either latine X or um or or Muslim Arab population in in America are sort of overlap in that period of time it's wonderful but that gives us like 20 instructional days in which things can be up on walls things can be discussed um students can talk about you know we can focus like a month fund students during the year it gives us a wonderful opportunity to share about what it's like to um to grow up in a different culture and how to um and how to uh understand the the other so I think you know that's a just a another set of um suggestions I'm making about how we might want to take a look at this it is as Suzanne correctly said it's complicated there are a lot of you know decisions we need to make um I believe in discussing this with community members um I think stepen mentioned it in terms of um of some of these uh days off that we have today root back you know um decades and that was situations in which we spoke to people who were in the system 60 years ago or 50 and 60 years ago and the uh direct answers we got was those were days in which you'd collapse two or three sections of an elementary school into one room with seven children in it and the reason was everyone else was out for say Jewish holiday at the time has that population shifted over the last 50 years probably but to Carolyn's Point without the district providing specific quantitative measurements about the demographics and then some survey that will tell us there's no rush I mean we know where we are right now the calendar can say the same another year without seriously affecting anyone in my opinion um but perhaps as well we can advance it by getting the data from the district so that we can actually make a quantitative measurement thank you okay so I I would like to wrap this discussion up pretty soon um I think we'll be voting on January 9th one way or the other with a large variety of calendars before us um so Carolyn yeah if you have something to say that hasn't already been has already come up then yeah well you know what we have this on the agenda till 8:10 so we have five more minutes right and I have a question for Susan fine that's fine so I'll continue thank you so um just to thanks Jesse for talking about data the data I asked for um is about our actual days of low attendance since that is the legal language that we have um so I'm hoping we'll have that and I just want to confirm with Dr Giller Dr Giller will you share with us the building leader feedback that that you have or will we be getting more feedback from building leaders I think Carolyn is asking is that working it is Carolyn is asking about the um the feedback from the summer so I'm happy to share that okay um with the committee um and then in terms of getting more uh information information from them I'm happy to if that's the will of the committee to get more uh feedback from the principles about that I'm happy to do that as well thank you and Suzanne I just want to make sure I'm understanding you you're you are um suggesting that we add Eid alfit for one year only that was what we had suggested at our conversations both in August and October no that's not what we talked about in August it was inconclusive but I just wanted that's what you're suggesting that's what I'm suggesting okay thank you and had a question I do have a question for Susan um sorry I just want to make sure I understand this so your memo which is super helpful thank you um says a couple of things so that we would want to articulate on the record the substantial evidence underlying a decision so are you advising us that something like Community enthusiasm which was a phrase Stephen used would pass muster as substantial evidence that a public body celebrating a religious holiday is secular and new neutral so thank you for the question Carolyn I think there are maybe a couple of pieces to that I'll try to take um in terms of the suggestion that substantial evidence be articulated on the record we're we're suggesting that's helpful to do because that's the standard of review for administrative bodies taking any decisions so where you have discretion anytime you're exercising that discretion um it shouldn't be arbitrary it should be supported by evidence so that's what we're reminding you in the memo and and suggesting that it's helpful to have it articulated on the record um what the decision is based on um I think in terms of the the question about what is what is the rationale and what is what is an appropriate rationale is it is a complicated question to answer kind of on hypothetical terms I know we've talked a little bit about how other communities have approached that question um you know taking into consideration data and Community input looking at I know some different fact s including Staffing or other logistical concerns you know the importance of having the day off to those who observe the population size affected um Community interest in acknowledging the day or both um I know and I think you've also mentioned you know this question of whether the rational has to be secular um so of course you're you're familiar with The Establishment Clause um you know our view is that closing to acknowledge a religious holiday is unlikely to to violate The Establishment Clause where it's not coercive or an endorsement the way that we're perceiving it um certainly the school can't um coer anyone to observe a religion or engage in religious exercise but um generally government speech is not coercive where the purpose and effect is to acknowledge institutions rather than exclude or course non-believers and then furthermore I'd say you know closing on a religious holiday in the context of closures for other religious holidays is likely to be seen as an acknowledgement rather than endorsement of any one particular holiday okay and thank you and I just want to note in that respect that we have a public record full of requests to close in order to celebrate religion so my concern is that it's it's pretty clear that it's an endorsement it's pretty clear that that's not the rationale that we're considering though I think none of us are well we're responding to the public record and the public record are explicitly proposing to celebrate it though all right I think it is time to wrap this up for can I ask a question Andy of su yeah if if Susan hasn't addressed it please go ahead yeah hasn't addressed it um it's following up on something that Caroline said because I I don't think it's accurate um Susan can you confirm that day of low attendance is not a law it's not a statute it's not a regulation of Desi it's not an anyway we need a rationale that that um passes a a rational review and not heightened scrutiny but that day of low attendance is not a term of of legal art yeah thanks thanks for that question um that is my understanding um sort of how you've said it I know that day of low attendance is how it's been phrased in certain materials used by PSB um that term also comes up in um some guidance from desie that's giving it as a sorry the department of Elementary and secondary education or Jessie um that's giving that as a a possible reason why a school might adjust their their calendar um but that's not the only in our view that's not the only possible non-discriminatory rationale to to close for a particular holiday it's just uh it's a good example of one and it's certainly a quantifiable example of one but not the only one all right thank you I have one more thing it's important sorry I we need to talk about this this is what we're here for I would like to suggest that if we're if we're going in the direction of acknowledging everything and closing for everything that we have another calendar that also includes d wall when we come back in January that will push off the vote because um we will not have been able to post it on the docket uh for the pre for the meeting previous to the one where we're going to take a vote um so before closing this I just so our member Sierra had to step out because of an emergency but she does send word that um she um agrees with uh things said by Suzanne and by Stephen all right so um I don't think that that's where we want to go um all right so um so much for tonight um I I would plan to put this on for a vote on at our next meeting on January 9th one way or the other thank you very very much Susan for joining us thank you happy to be here yeah all right this brings us to our school committee actions uh there's just one tonight which is the purchase of a new K5 literacy curriculum program um I'll hand this over to Suzanne and to Deputy superintendent Fortuna oh and to uh Michelle Herman hi Michelle I have the easy part tonight I am just introducing Michelle Herman and Kristen Gray who is our interm um coordinator of literacy she's joining us online I believe hi Kristen um we have just finished a very extensive review process of several curriculums for ELA to bring us further in line with the science of reading and tonight Michelle and Kristen are going to walk you through the process that we used and make our big announcement about what the curriculum is that the majority of our teachers have chosen um for us am I am I able to share okay Andy question if possible um go ahead Jesse um this might just be a procedur thing but you can illuminate it for me um as a new school Committee Member I'm confused about something here and that is that normally at least I think say I'll give an example in policy um we um would discuss a either existing policy or the need for a new policy it would be um it would be discussed at the subcommittee level for some period of time might circle around there for a while and at some point the policy Comm subcommittee would make a recommendation to the full school committee by docketing it and then there'd be discussion again in another and then another vote um in my reviewing uh the minutes of our last curriculum subcommittee meeting it seems like the process that we're following is a little bit different because we never we have not had a this presentation nor a vote or recommendation to the full school committee on any particular program and yet here we are talking about a potential vote tonight so can you explain why this is being sort of handled differently than this maybe the more Standard Process yeah I mean the short answer and maybe Suzanne can elaborate on this because you have the documents in front of you uh policy is actually one of our statutory responsibilities curriculum is different right so um I don't know suzan if you want to say exactly what the status is of the vote that we uh yes so in our in the policy uh manual it says the legal responsibility for the selection and purchase of instructional materials rests with the school committee the process for selecting materials is the responsibility of the superintendent or his designate within the following parameters and then they they talk about the adoption so we are they are going to present their choices to their choice tonight and then we will vote on that so that is within the policy it is different from the policy subcommittee right so I guess my question not to push this too far is what [Music] um what's that well I get thank you um what I'm thinking is what is the school committee's role under the legal step that you just read at all because if we hear this tonight and let's just say um feel we need more information because essentially we're being rushed because the final votes already been taken we've just heard that and yet we haven't had a chance as a committee to discuss really anything about well we haveen it so I we haven't taken a vote yet so sorry we have not had a vote yet no no I'm saying but in the in the agenda it says discussion and vote on recommendations so that's the vote I'm talking about right coming up like soon like half hour I don't know right so that's my question what is under when you read that maybe you could read that phrase again that says legal that just to me that means we have the authority to um to confirm the recommendations made to us but how do we make good agreement how do we align ourselves with what's been done if we haven't had a chance to discuss it so we have had presentation we had Fairly lengthy presentation at the last curriculum meeting and we saw the three separate curriculums to take a look at and we were given an opportunity to provide feedback as well as community members were invited right uh and there have you will see tonight that in fact many many staff and teachers have had input so it has been a fairly long process they're going to review that process tonight and then yes they're going to recommend a curriculum and we are going to either approve it or not approve it we will vote it is expected that we would approve it because it's their recommendation with our vote with our with our feedback okay thank you okay so we're going to proceed um I want to share an agenda with you that oop that will walk you through the process that we're going to look at so that um you can follow our steps and see how we got to this particular program for our instructional uh materials it's hard to hear you uh at home how's that is that better much better thank you um so we're going to start by reviewing the rationale for selecting new materials what was the reason behind it why now we're also going to talk about the instructional priorities and selection process for identified identifying these materials and throughout the process we're going to throughout the presentation we're going to call them high quality instructional materials and um Kristen will talk a little bit later about what it means to be a high quality instructional material but it is part it is what we are uh recommending for purchase and then we will announce the program and look for next steps which includes the vote so as always um you've probably gotten used to I always throw these two slides in and I think they're important because everything that is driving the work we've been doing around um literacy instruction is in support of our mission and vision at for the district and our district um core values and so anything that doesn't align to these is not something that we've considered through our process so um I guess this sort of pertains to the questions that came up just before we began so how did we get here this is not something that was just done this summer and make a decision this process has been going on for almost two years and one of the things that's really important and I want to highlight for you is that although tonight we are um recommending a particular program this is really about our instruction and our process um of our process for the instruction with students so about a little over two years ago we were asked to uh put out an RFP for a literacy study of the district and so in the uh fall of 20 three the number fell off but I will add it back in and send it to you in the fall of 23 we really um worked at getting a group in here who we knew literacy who knew literacy instruction and so we put up at an RFP we went through the RFP process and we hired Hill for literacy and they have been doing uh literacy studies throughout the state and the country and they're one of the top providers of that so they came in and they did a analysis of our work and then in the winter of that year they provided surveys they gave teachers opportunities to really um look at what was it that they gathered what are our needs and they called it A needs assessment so what we're really going to start to talk about is what happened last spring after spending that time doing the study so last spring we brought together what we called the District literacy leadership team and included Ed teachers uh administrators community members and it really spanned prek through 12 and we talked about the results that we received from hill and through that process we also looked at what would be our next steps and then the data analysis really helped us know what were our needs it was A needs assessment it was an asset-based assessment so we spent the rest of last year deciding what it was what steps we were going to do to move forward as we came into the summer and we'll talk a little bit about how specifically we decided to identify a program we also did a ton of learning there was a leadership team that went to a conference called Unbound Ed and that's a a program that helps uh leadership uh Implement programming in specific content areas we provide a research-based professional development there's a team participating in the Massachusetts dyslexia Institute we immersed ourselves in the mtss for literacy uh program through the state we engaged Educators in the selection process and stakeholders so this this past fall has been super busy in preparation for this shift and then finally we also have been working with NTC and something you should know and I'm not going to tell you the name of the program but NTC the new teacher Center they are actually sanctioned by the company of the program that we've chosen to be implementation Consultants so they're going to continue to help us along the way as we Implement and then finally as we work into the winter of this year we're going to secure materials begin PD ensure that teachers are really ready for the fall full implementation so two things were happening at the same time um and this is really around the why we're doing this so at at the same time um as we were working two they were two big blocks of work and one was that Hill study that I just talked about and the second part was the um the building of our strategic plan and one of the things that really worked well was the what hill found was the nature of our current literacy program not all of it but parts of it weren't meaning the needs of all of our students and it wasn't research-based and it not completely standard lines at the same time the goal for the Strategic plan was developed to increase achievement for all students by establishing implementing and regularly assessing consistent high quality and challenging curriculum using evidence bed practices so the finding from Hell really fit into this first goal with the Strategic plan and so one of the things that because they married so well we were able to build our action steps to help us reach the the benchmarks in the Strategic plan and we'll talk a little bit more about that later when Kristen is talking about our process so in addition to the Strategic plan and the study we have a lot of research and data that really has led to this work so so the science of re reading research has really opened up um a field of study that that actually dates back to the late 80s but it really helps us understand how students learn in a systematic way and when we talk about the science of reading we are not just talking about phonics and phonemic awareness we are actually talking through the comprehension process our district Ela data has highlighted a persistent gap for certain student groups that we have not been able to close or make more narrow and what we're finding is that is true with our students that identify as black and African-American it is true of our students with with uh who have IEPs it's true of our eel students and we should note that most of our El students are a level three and above which means that they are at a place where they are ready to learn and continue their reading I mean not ready to learn learn when they get here but ready to move their reading skills forward and we haven't been able to find a way to do that in addition our K to8 students were were not having a consistent experience from school to school so when they got to Brookline High depending on what school you came from there were certain emphasized skills the other thing about making this shift is we know we have a need to accelerate learning for students who have already met their learning benchmarks and so we have to address that as well so that was the rationale that brought us to this process which brings us to this next piece and this is like my favorite slide to present because I'm really excited about this part so as I said before it's we're not only talking about the um materials but we are talking about our model for instruction and so our model for instruction and you'll see this model that we've used this is one of the newer models that the state is using and it's the same thing for the tiered instruction sometimes it looks more like a pyramid but now they've created an elongated um triangle and what we want to do is um really talk about the fact that we need to in order to use any program effectively we need a model for our instruction so what is all of our instruction do and we've we've are working towards the mtss model and what we've been doing is preparing for this implementation of materials by articulating our instructional model and the materials will be a great uh vehicle to allow this to happen in the classrooms so there are a couple of things here that are a little bit different than we normally talk about this instructional model that I just I really want to call out because this is what is exciting I think for educators for students is that this this think model is going to work towards proactive and prevention so instead of instructing students and then finding out they don't know something and then putting them into intervention we are addressing all students um from their assets and using those to push them along from the start we believe that all students are capable of grade level learning with adequate support so this is going to guide us for that adequate support we've talked a lot about evidencebased practices so we're relying on the research to support the work that we do in order to meet the needs of all students um I think what's really important is that decisions and procedures are driven by the school and student data so we will actually be spending more time looking making sure that we are looking along the way at what students know and are able to do in order to find what they need to uh to to learn and then finally this is about maximizing our resources so that implementation occurs schoolwide and requires all of the stakeholders in the school or in collaboration and frequently when I talk about that I think about like when I walk into a building and I'm working with a group of students I own all the students in the building not just the small group I'm working with pushing all students so tier one is what we're really talking about today that's that centerpiece with a little bit of tier two and the idea is that we want to make sure that that core is there for all students and that everybody has that access and those tiers are the supports that we give to students as we move out the really nice thing about this model is this isn't just talking about supports that students need if they need longer or I call it more at bats to learn the material it also is to look at students and say they've met a benchmark so let's push them higher to the next Benchmark so one of the really nice things is that this is pretty much these decisions are going on Statewide I actually got two emails today from assistant superintendents and other districts asking about our literacy process and are we moving to a new curriculum because they are just beginning the process so because this is happening all over the state and I'm going to pass it to Kristen in a minute but the dis the state desie has provided us with um some guidance around what shifts we need to make an instruction in order to have this proactive model and then how do we get to the right materials to support that and then just the last thing I'll say about the this model of instruction when we need to address things with students it's not always um academic so this takes into account academic behavioral and social emotional because sometimes we have to address the social emotional in order to see the achievement in the academic so just to keep that in mind so um I'm going to pass it to Kristen but here is the model that I was talking about that desie has put out and I think we've used this multiple times to consider what it was that was important to us in the instruction so I'm going to pass it to Kristen hi good evening um so yes so this is um the four shifts have like Michelle said has been guiding our work to make sure that we're using evidencebased practices um in particular the I'm going to start with um shift one by providing explicit systematic instruction and foundational skills to every child so um Michelle do you mind moving the ne thank you yeah that's perfect okay so our work for um with Hill for literacy allowed PSB to take inventory of our current instructional materials um like Michelle has just said and um foundations in Integrity will continue to be used in grades K to2 um because they um are both programs are rooted in the science of reading foundations provides explicit systematic instruction to establish foundational skills such as concepts of print pheic awareness phonics and word study vocabulary Auto ticity fluency and comprehension through the use of um decodable texts that we've purchased over the last few years um hegr boosts our explicit instruction of phic awareness which re research has shown that pheic awareness is a strong predictor of reading success and it is essential for decoding and encoding words so foundations and integrity partnered together provide a robust explicit and systematic instruction in foundational skills for our K to2 students um in terms of um 3 to five we will continue to use spelling connections in 3 to five and we are currently reviewing um the materials for um foundational skills and word study in grades 3 to 5 um in the next year so when we go through um going through this process of selecting a new Ela curriculum we knew that we needed to focus on shift 2 which is to build comprehension by engaging all students in discussion of complex knowledge Rich Text sets students must have the opportuni to build knowledge and language comprehension by interacting with the ideas in language and complex text they need to be able to critique ideas and experiences represented in texts and tasks that meet grade level standards so the Implement ma Mass process um guided or is still guiding are select selection well it guided our selection and implementation plan in PSB um it will continue to guide our launch and Implement and monitor but I'm going to just tonight I'm going to share with you um what we did to learn and prepare and investigate and select curriculum materials so um Michelle you can go to the next slide thank you okay so we began to process of uh learn and prepare by understanding how desie defines high quality instructional materials which includes the following components it is content Rich it is fully accessible to all of our students it is culturally and linguistically relevant so the culture and identity of our students are viewed as assets and valuable resources it's free of bias it is research and evidence-based it is aligned with our state standards there is a clear purpose there are a variety of Assessments to use within the units and um it provides opportunities for students to GA engage in deeper learning we also look through des's curate rubric um to have a shared understanding of the criteria our Ela curriculum materials should include and we shared that um rubric with you this spring where we looked at the organization of the materials some academic features such as the texts that were being used making sure there was representation um that the writing there was um included narrative informational and persuasive writing um and then we also looked at um professional development for our teachers and the assessment materials Michelle you can go to next thank you okay so then um we began the investigate we kind of transitioned to the investigate and select process in the spring of 2024 so first um all the literacy team members from across the K to8 schools um and um myself the science and social studies curriculum coordinators explored the high quality instructional um curriculum that meets expectations on curate and Ed reports we met with each vendor and reviewed the um curriculum materials as a team and our goal was to narrow down the choices to three options to bring um to the PSB community so we spent a few days on this process and um at the end the team unanimously chose the following three options to move forward um arore El education and fish tank Ela um so that process really felt um pretty solidifying and really um that we were heading in a positive direction and um unanimously because we there was no um wavering between the group and CHR can I just add to that um that those three programs not only met the state uh the state review but they also met all nine squares um with high recommendations for what for a high quality material thank you um the ELA Department sent out initial communication to inform our Educators and other stakeholders of the um K to 8 but we we're really focusing tonight on K to 5 Ela curriculum selection and implementation plan um just so that they understand what our goals were coming into the school year 2425 great so when um we returned um and okay to ask a question or you want to save them all to the end um yeah if the if the presenters are okay with taking question yeah on the prior slide if you go back one slide we go back y yeah so um are how many other options fit the nine desie standards you say you chose three but what were the so we were there five or six others that all meet there were seven yeah there were seven yep and so we we brought in all seven oh and we had all seven vendors here and the the team had a long time to really dig through the materials and and also contact the vendors again after and talk to some other districts before that narrowing really happened thank you anything else okay okay okay so um when we returned this uh September uh we sent out um communication again to inform our educators of our K to 5 Ela curriculum in selection um um plan and how they could be um how sorry excuse me so they have a clear understanding of the process and how they could be involved and have their voices heard and valued all K through five staff and administrators had multiple opportunities to engage with the curriculum options and the process and to process the information as both an individual educator and with their teams they could attend vendor visits where representatives from the companies presented an overview of their curriculum um over Zoom meetings so that everybody could join um and the Educators were able to ask um any questions that they had about that specific publisher administrators and literacy teams set up opportunities for grade level teams to review the materials in person during um faculty meetings professional development day um and they could share team members could share their thoughts and opinions about the curriculum options with their colleagues um it was really invigorating to go in and see some of them um have the opportunity to work together as a team to see oh I could see this fitting with this um area like across like science social studies Etc and what they've already been doing the ELA Department also asked our staff to complete individual feedback forms for each of the three curriculum options to capture their initial thinking after they viewed the curriculum materials um so we just the feedback form included like are the materials userfriendly clear and well organized do they think that this curriculum is a good fit for public schools of Brookline what are some of the strengths that they noticed about the curriculum and what are some potential concerns that they might have about this curriculum after having an opportunity to research and review the three curriculum options the ELA Department sent out a final feedback form at the end of November so that all k to5 staff were asked to rank order their options OTL and the ELA Department also hosted the ELA curriculum openhouse which Suzanne talked about earlier um for our community stakeholders and so was another wonderful opportunity to interact with our community members and share the three curriculum options and answer any questions that our community has so now I'm going to share some of the data from the feedback forms so this round one data um was collected um but before I begin going into this data I do want to like um shout out to our and thank our classroom teachers literacy Specialists special Educators El teachers and administrators for taking the time to review the material attend the vendor visits and for sub submitting their thoughtful feedback throughout the process they truly reminded me of why love working um with them and alongside them and I feel really privileged to work with such a talented and reflective group of Educators so the next this um slide um is the first round um and um Michelle do you w to sure this is like this was the first round so this is just like initial thinking from folks after they viewed one of the um the curriculum materials yeah and this was more around like the vendor visits and the initial look yes so this was the data so as you can see I if you can see I don't know how big it is or if you can see it but um the initial feedback from folks was that there was um trending more towards fish tank um and um the no was trending more towards El education can you can you remind me is the fish tank one the one that's the online one it was like in the back of the room Jody when we were there that yes yes thank you um okay and so this is the round two data and so this um was um taken before um we went on Thanksgiving vacation so the this is the feedback so the first choice for pb's ELA curriculum is fish tank with um 69% of um the staff saying that they would like to move forward with fish chank um do you want to move on to the next I want to share also these next couple slides just share some of the Educators um feedback that they wrote so the lessons are well organized and connect to key themes that are important to our core beliefs in Brookline the text materials are engaging and grade level appropriate the timing framework and goals for each lesson are clear and logical the next one is like we're more aligned to State Standards um I like the online component because it's easy to modify if necessary the books are interesting and highly reflective of our student population there's more support for El students and students with special needs the diverse birth book selection is manageable in straightforward lesson plans topics and alternative topics are accessible and connect to other subject areas and this one um is we love this one this is the only Pro program we could really see working with in our classroom and our schedule I remember seeing this when I went to um actually from Pierce so I remember going in and they were really into fish tank which was awesome um this is the curriculum seems flexible enough to add explicit instruction for students based on what the teachers are noticing from data and trends of their students this is from taken from a teacher at Baker um fish tank provides um both provides a clear structure and celebrates teacher autonomy which is a good fit for Brookline especially and actually Suzanne we were talking about this at our um Community openhouse the units are well connected to science and social study standards books are relatively new and it provides opportunity for Teacher choice but also gives us a thought out sequence as well as materials to build knowledge materials are easier to adapt to student needs than the other programs and it helps students building knowledge and develop CR critical thinking skills teachers are able to differentiate lessons and it has the whole package of basically what we're looking for but also leaves rooms for us to integrate what is working like he hegr I truly think this curriculum is the best fit for Brookline which I definitely agree the fish tank's goal is to develop critical thinking readers writers and thinkers through authentic engaging texts that affirm students experience and expand their perspectives each Ela fish tank unit support students and this is quoted from their um website is building their knowledge of themselves the world around them and their power to create change which I think strongly reflects our values a core values in Brookline So based on this feedback from our stakeholders we would like to recommend fish tank Ela in grades K to5 for the school committee to vote and of course we'll take questions before uh yeah um before before questions let's have a motion Suzanne you want to do that yeah I'd like to move that we approve the um ot's recommendation that the school district purchased fish tank learning as the new K to5 Ela literacy curriculum hey do we have a second Helen is that you seconding or wanting to ask a question I can do both all right there we are um all right so it's on the floor now so I have Jesse and then Helen can we take down the yes yesie then Helen then Mariah um I guess my question is um the survey represented what I have a couple questions um the survey what it said all teachers and capital letters is that actually all the 100% of the teachers responded or was just a percentage of the teachers and the survey results are obviously from the people who responded yeah so all teachers all staff were able to have the opportunity to um to respond this is a percentage so do do we know whether it was 20% or 80% or any Kristen can I weigh in on the first so on the round one data we gave uh class we gave opportunities for uh grade level teams to respond as groups or independently and so um we were able to collect from not a not 100% but if and I can look back at the percentage but we had a very high return rate on the on that and that's why Kristen had a lot of feedback that she could pull from and on the second one we also had a high return rate and it it trended exactly the same as as the initial dat responses um when people were making these um when the when the staff were making these um following in on the survey to what extent did cost play Factor the cost was not revealed to any of the survey participants this was cost agnostic only um Michelle um Kristen and I knew what the cost was of the program so the decision is not based on what it'll cost cost the district it is not okay um are any of these programs like uh newer or older in terms of the track record they have in moving achievement forward I mean vendors will tell you that obviously theirs is that you know can do it but is is it borne out by other districts experience or other information that you were provided yes and um all three of them have proven track records one of the nice things about fish tank is that they're constantly updating their materials and in line with new research and we will have access to that as part of our um subscription and purchase of the program and that was actually one of the things that um teachers liked that they didn't have to wait for a new addition to come out um they literally are getting um the any shifts or re revisions of the lessons and units um in real time did did this um uh align in terms of the results with the teachers as a whole where they different grades grade teachers like I don't know third grade ELA teachers or fifth grade ELA teachers that had different responses or was it pretty much consistent all across the grade levels in terms of the like likability to the curriculum um that's a great question it was it was consistent across um I literally have people like texting me saying hope it's fish tank and I've been keep my mouth quiet yeah not not not surprising I don't have a poker face so I was like I can't see you right um when we when we looked at it that afternoon at the at the meeting Suzanne referred to you know I'm on the committee too so I was there with you looking at stuff um I think all the stuff we saw was like printed off the computer or something like that because there's no real text um is is the idea then that the students will be learning most of this on screens or is it going to all be provided in print if you place as new stuff comes out you'll if you recall there were some books there that were samples of the books that we'll be buying with the program students will not be learning all online it's actually a very tax based program okay yeah um are there other you know in terms of desie this is on the list of like an approved meets checks all the boxes okay we only looked at ones that were approved by desie all right thank you thanks Jesse um all right we've got Helen then Mariah then Stephen sure first of all thank you for this presentation I think it was really I I like the way that you made it inclusive of all teachers having the opportunity to weigh in um and that you know it it seems like everybody came to the same conclusion which is usually a a good thing if that's the case um my question is what our responsibility is what are the costs of each one of these and well let's Sor that Jody take it away and I asked this question ahead of time so Arc core was $2.4 Million El education was $1.2 million and fish tank is about $350,000 but I'd like to yes I'd like to draw a line under the fact nobody knew the prices as we were looking at this so price is not the fact it's okay you answered my question thank you very much that's a onetime cost or is it like an ongoing subscription that is our cost for 18 months um and the ongoing subscription will be $42,000 um after that for 18mon in increments so that's still that really SP is that inclusive of any PD Jody the initial um expenditure is inclusive of PD there's um a train the trainer model which we're going to be taking advantage of which we we can come back and explain our larger rollout plan to you but we're really that's included in the initial 350 it is and who does this program again um it came out of Matt Charter School um it's their program the author is actually a Brookline resident um one of the main authors all roads lead back to Brook line right right um Mariah then Stephen then Carolyn thank youve to a vote can you hear me okay no you can't okay hold on can you hear me now yes okay thank you um just a follow up on the cost question I have three questions my first one is does the cost does the pricing that you cited Jody include the cost of materials themselves like the student materials or just the subscription to use the program the um 350,000 that I cited includes the student materials um plus actually an extra set for special education and El teachers in each building but what about like disposables for the students and stuff like that there aren't really many consumables with this particular program um so that cost is negligible okay and then um my second question is if there are if you know of other districts around what they're selecting because it would seem like it' be nice to be to have something that is where other people are using as well so that if there are educators who are coming to Brooklyn from other districts they're familiar just curious whether you know that already I know Newton and Cambridge Newton um just adopted elel Cambridge um has adopted fish tank for grades 6 through eight yes okay and and has Cambridge not selected yet I don't remember what they had for their K to 5 Mari I'm sorry five is they they do CK yeah okay so not not one of the three we have connected with schools that have already have it implemented um there are schools in uh Boston and East Boston that we've connected with and also Chelsea has been doing it for a few years um so they um Chelsea Public School so they um have been a really wealth of knowledge of like how they've rolled it out and how they implemented it in order my last question is just that um you cited a lot of educator quotes that were enthusiastic I was wondering if there were educator concerns that um out there and how you plan to address those if you feels that they're valid there are um some concerns out there um Mariah especially um from the people that really liked Ark the programs are quite different in structure um and how they're um implemented I think after we go through our professional development and people have a chance to actually interact with materials more that that'll help resolve some of those concerns thank you all right we have we're Fallen about 20 minutes behind schedule and we still have 15 speakers waiting to be heard Stephen then Carolyn um I'll just say thanks then Carn um of course I was also going to ask about the cost so that's going to be $350,000 in FY 26 fy2 we've set aside the money to pay for it this year that was part of the budget discussions with school committee okay so that's already in the budget correct and then sorry if I missed this PD cost it represents a savings I believe mhm yeah we had originally thought it was going to be half a million PD costs are included in that 350,000 okay and then um maybe this is similar to what Mariah was asking there's already I I believe I think but maybe you can explain you've already done some PG and then that was paused and I'm just curious sort of what that was and what what the concerns there were well whenever you try something new there's concern and this was the first time we took advantage of the Tuesday afternoon um PD that the contract allows us to take so that created some difficulties for people in scheduling um we also didn't do um and I will own this we did not do a strong enough job of differentiating for the teachers in the room who may have had more knowledge what we were trying to do was build background knowledge on some of the science of reading and we didn't differentiate um a rately for teachers that already had a vast amount of knowledge compared to a novice teacher who was new to this all right I think we're ready to move to a vote um motions on the floor Jesse how do you vote Yes Steven yes Suzanne yes Carolyn yes Mariah yes Ellen yes El yes and I vote Yes as well so thank you for all this work and for the presentation thank you for your [Applause] support oh I'm sorry um I didn't notice that Sarah had rejoined so would you like to um record a vote on this one sirar no it sounds like I'm too late that's fine okay um you should make a historic vote Sarah I'll make a historic vote of yes thank you all right and sorry Andy I I'm gonna have to my coach leaves at 9 so I'm gonna have to okay scoot okay well um I think in in place of subcommittee and on reports so let's resume our public comment uh so we have 15 speakers left in the queue and the first one up now will be Beth Miller floor is yours for three minutes you have the timer there bety too so that we stay on track can the timer be used so that people know how their times go good evening can you hear me uh my name is Beth Miller I'm a 30 plus year resident of Brookline a Precinct 5 time meeting member and a um parent of two daughters who a while ago graduated from the Brooklyn Public Schools I wear a couple different hats here tonight one is I spent my career in research on public education as a research practitioner in K12 focused on k12 and I also obviously bring a parents perspective from the researcher perspective I just want to summarize really quickly what we know about how important a sense of belonging is for Student Success and this kind of topic has come up a little bit tonight and other comments on other topic so I think it's something you're somewhat familiar with but as a Jewish person who grew up in Pennsylvania in an area where my holidays were not recognized where I did feel different I didn't have that sense of belonging I think and I'm sure many of you had different but similar experiences of not belonging and thinking about how that affected your school experience is borne out by the research which shows that students who have a strong sense of belonging do better they have higher test scores they have higher GPA they're more likely to graduate college and persist in col enroll in college and persist in college they try harder they have higher motivation they apply more effort they're less likely to not be attending schools and they act better they have less behavior problems this is high quality research I'm not talking about correlations here we have a pretty deep body of it now and why is that what researchers have come to understand is that when you're worried about whether you belong as a student you're constantly scanning the environment when somebody's a jerk to you you have to ask yourself is it because of bias against my religion is it because of my hijab or are they just a jerk students who feel that they fully belong can apply all their cognitive resources to learning and that the differences are just powerful in ways that are kind of mind-blowing really I think as a parent I also want to say that I don't think my daughters my Jewish daughters were well served by not understanding more about their peers about the diversity in their community and about this major world religion and one of the ways we do that is when we have holidays and special months we do a lot of talking and thinking about it in school I was lucky could my daughter studied Arabic and college lived in Egypt for a year and then got a Watson Fellowship to travel uh through the region so we all got an education through that but we shouldn't have had to wait until she was an adult to have that education so I just want to commend you for the thoughtfulness and care that you've given to this topic I know you've already approved e as a as a um category one holiday does it solve all the problems of islamophobia be an anti-muslim bias we have obviously not but it's one thing you can do in addition to your longer term strategies related to you know teacher relationships and peers and curriculum and so on that will make a difference and really have an impact for students thank [Applause] you thank you Miss Miller and next we have Cecilia Martin hi my name is Cecilia Martin uh my son is a fourth grader in drisol school you already heard multiple comments about the class sizes my son's class is at 25 kids there is enough room for everyone to sit but this is pretty cram and I wanted to suggest well support the addition to these two SE and I wanted to share something that uh a conversation that I had with my son last week on Friday there was a lockdown alarm that was triggered by accident and it lasted only a few minutes but it was enough for for him to and the classmates to feel it so feel it that it was so real they were visibly um upset and and anxious about it and they have to be like trying to walk in between all these small spaces and they finally got to the safe wall and they barely fit my son was worried that one of the classmates that was in front of him and it's uh in the taller side that he might the kid might be kind of spotted in case that an intruder will come again this happened in only few minutes but this is just kind of giving a sense of how the um if the the school has this additional space why wouldn't be uh reasonable to find the budget to support teachers to add these two sections I know that the budget is a a tough situation but also I feel that uh the kids deserve this attention um they deserve this high quality of Education that Brooklyn provides and also one one quick thing about the literacy that these classrooms they have a third of these kids that they need additional support the kids are not monolit and the way that they learn they need this attentional spe uh attention and this something that can be done if it's a smaller group where they can spot this kind of literacy issues like these are the kind of things they are picking up when they are in second or third grade and this something that need to be others right away so then these kids can Thrive so so that's my two SS and hope you consider that thank [Applause] you thank you Miss Martin next we have esel abdal diam hi everybody um members of the school committee thank you for giving us this time um and for your thoughtful and considered vote in October uh to move towards recn izing Aid as a category one holiday um and announcing it to the PSB Community um your vote brought um so many of us a profound sense of joy and Community Connection and I was personally moved by your story Mr hefter about your grandchild's school experience because I recognized within it the experiences of my own family um the vote you all took felt like a Beacon of Hope uh at a moment of Joy at a moment of joy that we could all share together and that's why it was so disheartening to read the oml complaint that was filed soon after for many of us it felt like more than a procedural issue it felt like an objection to Aid's recognition and by extension to our presence and visibility in this community it left us wondering are we truly accepted here or just merely tolerated many of us were feeling that perhaps for some folks in this town were only welcome if we and our children remain silent and unnoticed without this complaint we wouldn't be revisiting this matter in this way and yet here we are discussing how to impose a standard onto Aid that has not been applied to any other category one holiday the Optics of resending this vote because of this oml complaint are extremely troubling consider the message this sends to our kids and as we said earlier our children are watching as Town Council said you have relatively wide lead way to choose your own criteria for recognizing holidays and creating the calendar as long as your reasoning is articulated pb's published values emphasize the importance of providing an education that reflects the diverse perspectives cultures and experiences of our community recognizing Eid aligns perfectly with these values Islam is set to become the second largest religion in the United States before 2040 Brookline has the opportunity to join other communities in being ahead of the curve to lean into this diversity and to teach around all of these holidays to create an educational environment that reflects and leverages the unique richness of our diversity these holidays are not burdens but they're Treasures opportunities to lift us all up and give our children experiences that go far beyond textbooks and classroom learning last week my family attended our neighbors Bar Mitzvah as we sat on the pews we were moved by the similarities of the verses to our own scripture the shared language and prayers and the Gratitude we felt that our children could have this experience together as friends and next week we'll be off for Christmas and though my children are now too old to wait up for Santa we'll exchange gifts we'll visit our Christian friends we'll wish them peace and joy this Christmas and we'll likely order Chinese food with our Jewish friends celebrating these differ these different Traditions humanizes us and in ulates us against the worst instincts to stereotype or vilify the other celebrating together sharing meals and opening our hearts to one another makes us stronger as a community and the time and the spotlight provided by category 1 holidays helps us do that these different Traditions don't diminish our faith they enrich us they allow us to celebrate the universal doctrine of loving Thy Neighbor this is why we choose to live here and I hope our presence here as Muslims adds to what makes Brookline a special place thank you [Applause] thank you Mr Abdul diam next we have isan lucky Salam alaykum um that's okay that's okay that's okay I as I said Salam alaykum peace be upon you thank you so much for all the work that you do to take care of our little children I really appreciate the trust that you have in us as a community to represent us and the trust that we have in you to to look after our little ones today I decided not to come prepared with written notes because I wanted to come as I am and how this day has presented itself to me we do live in one of the most difficult times of our lives and what we are are going to leave behind us for our children matters upon what we are going to do everybody's life is finite we know this very well but what we do here in our time is just a little bit that we hand over to our children to deal with what's next and so one of the things that I say to an Uber driver yesterday I was coming back from Washington DC advocating for children survivors of domestic violence is that in the darkest times it is time for us to lean into our light to protect our light and to influence others to lean into their light that is the work we're doing here today my daughter Nora who's 12 years old attends the Lawrence School at 7eventh grade has for her whole life celebrated the Jewish holidays the Christian holidays and the Muslim holidays because her family construct is of all those three abrahamic religions that's who we are she has a Irish Grandpa Eastern European Jewish grandma and a Muslim grandma and we honor all three the same way but when we decided to live in Brookline was because it's a community that is open to Bringing on more identities and to growing in recognizing us all in the ways the unique ways that we are yet since kindergarten through seventh grade when it's a Nora has to catch up on schoolwork Nora doesn't get to have her Jewish friends and her Christian friends to come and celebrate with her the same way we go to the synagogue across the street on Marshall Street and celebrate with our Jewish community so what I am asking you here is to not look at this issue as unique to the Muslim Community this is an issue that is unique to Brookline and to all of our children and so I ask that you Center the child the whole child the social emotional learning of each one of these children so that we can help them Advance even more more academically please vote Yes when you're ready I would love to have a with you all when you're all from school thank you uh thank you Miss Ley then our next speaker is rayya Khan hello um my name is Ria Khan I am a BHS graduate now in my second year at um Miami as you may remember I spoke at the October meeting during midterms my midterms about why I think we should get the day off for eeve so first off I just want you all to know that um when originally we thought it was decided to give us the day off even just as a trial it meant so much to me I mean I was proud of my district and my town my mom took a video of my comment last time and she sent it to my whole extended family and let me tell you my nana that's my grandmother was like thrilled first she called me then she texted me this whole long paragraph about how she watched the video many many times and was so proud and that she sent it to all her friends so at a time when it's very hard to be Muslim in the world it's these small moments that bring us joy and give us a sense of belonging in this town um so before I talk more about Eid I just want to address the motion to remove all other religious holidays which to me as a former student sounds a little bit crazy because I as a student did not want that when I was at BHS getting days off whether they were for a holiday I celebrated or not was a huge break for me they were honestly like mental health days so I think we should keep the holidays that we already have off off and also so many people work so hard to get those days off so I don't see any point in Brooklyn going back at the end of the day granting a day off ensures that students and their families can fully participate in their religious Traditions without having to choose between their education and their faith for years this district has been able to accommodate other faiths and other cultures yet now when Muslim families and students request for our holiday to be considered it's become a question of whether or not we should even have days off period providing a day off for eel fither or any religious holiday isn't just about low attendance it's about fostering a school culture of respect fairness and inclusion that benefits all students regardless of their backgrounds on the PSB web page the district lists six goals that we strive to fulfill one of which is a goal to celebrate our differences we say we strive to include the full range of Brookline voices not just in our academic curriculum but in all school-based activities another goal of ours is a commitment to equality taking back the decision to give us e off next year seems to me like it goes against our ethos as a town last time I said Point Blank that giving Muslim Students the day off for Eid sends them the message that they are a valued member of this town and that they are a part of the fabric of our community you listened to our comments and made a decision to give us the day off it was like you said yes you are valued yes we do matter yes we can make a change so now despite however it is packaged taking back this decision is like taking back that message that you sent us so I'll leave it there thank you so much for your time and for staying this late to hear all of our comments happy holidays [Applause] all right thank you very much Miss Khan uh next we have Mona maafi thank you for having us I've gone back and forth as I'm sitting here I did prepare some comments for this evening um and I've gone back and forth about whether I want to use them or just respond to things I've heard I think I'll email my comments um I do want to just say a few things um the first is this notion of what is education and your role here as school committee and the trust that has been brought up and I think that we trust you to have a broader Forward Thinking Innovative I'm also on the Innovation fund creative view of Education in Brookline I don't think we are here counting minutes and seconds in a classroom realistically and we're talking about one single day this feels like something Beyond this day is what we're talking about it feels like an issue about identity about who are we as a community what do we value how do we uphold what we value and I think that this is a real opportunity for us to send a message that we value one another in this difficult world we have many years ahead of us that will probably get more difficult we can be a role model just not just in our schools not just with the Innovation fund and breaking ground in new classes and and you know thinking in new ways about how to educate our children inside the classroom but we can also be breaking ground as a community in a difficult World in how we deal with one another how we deal with issues and how we role model that to our children and I want that to be part of my child's education others including my husband have discussed our children engaging in other activities with their classmates it's not just religious the idea um that was brought up this is not we're not nobody's forcing religious obligation on people um or even and this is not just celebration either this is part of our commitment to global citizenship ship we have two billion Muslims in the world and we have hundreds of households in Brooklyn represented in all of the schools of Brooklyn if we don't have enough Muslim teachers maybe we should hire more to represent the students that exist in the schools so that would not be an accurate measure um of relevance and data is important I agree with Carolyn on that I agree with you I agree with the entire committee I'm an epidem ologist by training looking at population data is like that's my jam I love that um but I would like to remind this committee also that how we choose our data also reflects our values what measures we choose reflects who we are and low attendance data it's neither relevant nor can it be used to accurately do what legal council has asked us to do which is to equitably evaluate all of the holidays in the same way and so I would ask us to work together yes in partnership with the community we have a brilliant community and we would love to partner with you and bring in whoever you would like to have these discussions because I'm sure that we can crowdsource some great ideas about how to be Forward Thinking with the measures that we take to figure out which holiday should and shouldn't be on the calendar um Dali was brought up by the way we had lunar calendar Lunar New Year with with our Asian-American community that has pushed hard for that I am all for it I don't think that these should be Scare Tactics talking about slippery slopes I think that when there's a will there's a way and we will figure out how to make it happen because we're Brookline and we can do this thank [Applause] you all right thank you Miss maafi next we have Hager delshad good evening everybody um so it's it's kind of surreal and somewhat disappointing to be back here act advocating for something that was already debated voted on passed and announced it's really disappointing to have to do this um again but it's not nearly as disappointing as it was to explain to my sixth grader that the Eid vote she watched pass with her own eyes was somehow being redated and just for the record I'm going to read the transcript of the meeting that on a motion by Suzanne and seconded by Mariah there was a vote of six in favor and one opposed to express to the superintendent their desire that be designated as a category 1 holiday on the 2526 school calendar that was already a vote that happened we were there we watched it happen it is truly unbelievable that we're even having the debate that that was not a vote that happened as if we didn't witness that event happening with our own eyes as my daughter Maya she's here she could not understand how this came to be that adults are playing games with her identity and something that she holds dear and our family holds very dear this same Maya is also the one that makes us watch endless reruns of the Grinch to the point where we have to tell her we can only watch this in December because it's just too much Maya also watched her best friend from kindergarten husna get up here twice and ask for this holiday off and share what it meant to our community at Baker where Maya attended school and our other daughter also attended School Maya started in her classroom KC with four Muslim Students out of 20 every time the classes are reshuffled there's still three to four Muslim children in every section of her grade when Eid came on the very first year that they were all together a quarter of the class was missing and I sent a photo that I'll send to you by email to miss curlyy saying sorry I don't think you can really run class today because all the kids are here at this Festival these same kids are now middle schoolers they're regular kids they're they have friends who celebrate Christmas they start decorating after Halloween and they make fun of them for it they do Secret Santa exchanges with our multi Faith friends they have friends who celebrate Hanukkah and they light their candles many kids celebrate multiple holidays in their own homes as we are becoming more Global and more mixed and that's a beautiful thing in our home we bake Christmas cookies and distribute them to our neighbors and we make honey cake to I give to our Jewish Neighbors on rashishana one of them knocked on our door and asked for the recipe because she said that my daughter made the other daughter made it better than she did we make it a priority in our home to teach acceptance love and equality for everyone but what are our Brookline neighbors learning about us as Muslims is it what's in the news and the stereotypes it's clear that some people still have a lot to learn about Muslims what do they know about our endless capacity for giving helping and serving others what are our Muslim kids learning about being Muslim in Brookline as they watch their friends the ones who ask for summer Fridays lip gloss to be in their stockings and the newest Lululemon leggings celebrate their holidays at home with their families while Muslim Students have no recognition of their own how should we explain to them that even when a quarter of the class is missing it doesn't make up the enigmatic criteria for absences that we're chasing what should we tell them about the power and meaning of a vote and what it means to give your word on something are they learning to trust the adults in the room when they make a decision or are they learning that certain members only care about interruptions to the calendar when it affects someone else someone in a disfavored minority just Muslims actually thank [Applause] you thank you Miss dad uh next speaker is Akiva libowitz hi um I'm an Israeli American Jew parent of current former and future BHS students like others here today I'm here to say that is our duty and privilege to be able to recognize the special holidays of dear members of our community within the framework of our school calendar it's unfortunate though that we need to stand in front of you here tonight people of all walks of life religions cultures and backgrounds to advocate for something that should be so obvious and natural in a community that values and cherishes diversity and multiple cultures one must ask whether there is a not so hidden agenda behind this attempt to resend the initial vote I am encouraged though that the vast majority of the school committee members have had this intuitive understanding initially and chose to vote in recognition of ID as a class one holiday embracing their liberal values I am hopeful that this sentiment will be upheld I'll avoid repeating the compelling arguments my friends have unraveled here tonight and would like to share a personal anecdote and just one other point of view before I begin I would like to respond to the claim I heard here several times that we cannot commemorate religious holidays if so then what are Christmas y Kip if not religious holidays but I think this argument is at best void if not disingenuous and must remain off the table many years ago when I was involved in establishing a joint Jewish Arab School in southern Israel it was clear to us that our school calendar will look like no other school in our area despite the inconveniences of being dis synchronous with the vacation structure around us which was based mostly on the Jewish majority holidays and and obviously who wants to go searching for child care on a day that for everyone else around is a normal workday it was clear that to truly Embrace diversity equity and multiculturalism we must observe and recognize the different holidays in our community the initial deterrence of potenti potential candidate parents in this to the school when they realize that school will be on vacation on Rana and nood and Sh and and Christmas and and Passover and transformed into deep appreciation and gratitude when they discovered how enriching this experience can be for their children as well as a bridge connecting the diverse members of the community so many have spoken here about why it is important to recognize e as a class one holiday I would like to draw your attention to what would be the consequences if we now at this juncture deny this change failure to incorporate this into the school calendar now after it has already vot been voted upon would once again be exercising the privilege the dominating M majority it would be the uttermost expression of discrimination by recognizing the day is valuable to some people AKA Yer Christmas While disregarding others me my family my community benefit so much from the ability to celebrate our holidays without having to make the choice between preserving our culture and maintaining the scholarly routine it is only natural that we want the same for others in several days many Jews around the world will be celebrating kanuk a holiday that in some aspects commemorates the restoration of religious cultural and personal freedoms of Jews who have been persecuted by salid Empire let us keep this in mind as we relate to the religious and cultural identities of our own community members we ought to not only recognize their holidays but also seize the opportunity to celebrate with them thank [Applause] you thank you Mr libowitz our next speaker is Chi-Chi woo hi uh good evening everyone um just wanted to say to the members of the school committee thank you for all of your work and for staying till 9:30 and later um every uh every two weeks so um I think I know all of you but just in case chi chi woo and I'm speaking today as the chair of the steering committee of the Brookline Asian-American family Network five years ago um I stood before you um in person that time before the pandemic um to advocate for Lunar New Year as a category one holiday um I stood with my fellow bath members with community members with teachers and most of all with the students the Stu Asian-American students who led the effort to get Lunar New Year designated as a category one holiday and so obviously it's with a bit of distress that we heard that Lunar New Year could be up for consideration that the idea of taking Lunar New Year as well as other cultural religious holidays off the calendar was on the table when we had only had it as a holiday for five years um and I I want to read from a letter that you should have uh if you or should be getting soon from Ashley Ang who is the student who led the efforts um to get Lunar New Year designated category 1 holiday I can personally attest to all the student L hard work put into advocating for Lunar New Year as a category one holiday removing these holidays would not only be like erasing these efforts but would be like erasing these students cultural identities it would be sending the message to our school system that does not see students as individuals with nuanced and identities instead it would be telling them that their cultural responsibilties should not and cannot be prioritized frankly it would hurt them you know we felt such Joy when Lunar New Year New Year passed as a category one holiday and I imagine that the Muslim Community felt such Joy at your last vote about Ed Al fitter and the idea of taking that away from our community from the Muslim Community is heartbreaking um I would urge you to bring joy to these communities and not heartbreak um I also want to say just as an aside this idea of using the Welsley option and surveying the teachers as to when they're not there um as you Pro as you know Asian-American students are one in five students 20% of the school system we are nowhere near that percentage of teachers and staff Baffin has been asking advocating begging and pleading for decades now to increase the number of Asian-American teachers and staff in the Brookline schools um and the idea of entrenching holidays based upon the portion of Staff would be to penalize Iz those one in five Asian-American students for the fact that we have not been able to increase the numbers of Asian-American teachers and staff um and is a perfect example of how structural racism works and I I would strongly Advocate against that um so please um I I Baff and asks you to keep the Lunar New Year year holiday um we support the idea of adding Eid um and thank you for your time and service [Applause] thank you Miss woo uh our next speaker is Susan Park hello hi there hi everyone good to see everyone tonight uh like Chichi said I first want to thank everyone on the school committee for your hard work your dedication to uh really being there to represent sound reasoning and to think about uh the student Community all the families that are represented in the brooklane schools and really all the uh the beautiful blend of cultures all the beautiful blend of um the different countries that are represented in Brooklyn so I I'm really proud to live in Brooklyn um I don't think I said I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 17 and I'm also a board member on the Brookline Asian-American family Network and so when I heard about the motion to remove all holidays in Brookline I nearly fell out of my seat I I kind of had to do a a a triple take like what what do you mean all the holidays would be removed I've I've never heard that in all my life I used to be head of the English Department at an international school and I taught um English in 11th in 12th grade and in college and you know when we celebrate and honor uh different countries and the holidays that they that they celebrate it's it's such a a wonderful way to celebrate life and to celebrate each other and and as a global citizen I mean it's I want to be part of that Community where we do such a thing so to to remove all the holidays it just I mean it's it's really sad and it makes me feel like we would be mourning something um you know it just it just it really does sadden me just to think that and also uh being korean-american and remembering you know the the years and the passion of the students at Brooklyn High School who really voiced their opinion voiced their feelings about the importance of Lunar New Year I remember very well um many students coming before the school committee coming before the the different leaders and saying how the reason they wanted so hard for Lunar New Year to be a category one is because it it it impacted their family life they had to you know Luna New Year you you celebrate you eat you see your uh grandparents you celebrate family and a lot of these students who came before school committee they had test tests reports homework and they would be really missing out on uh celebrating Lunar New Year and so when it finally passed you know it was such a celebration because our Asian-American students were able to then um celebrate this thing that was so important in their culture you know in their identity and um to to think that after this passed and we've been celebrating this as a town that this would be taken away it just really seems violating you know so I really um I I wanted to come tonight to express that you know I'm just really curious you know how we got to this place where now all holidays are going to be taken out because you know I I just love hearing about the different cultures the things that we celebrate different um celebrations different you know like and and it's just really sad and even I mean I'm a Christian and if you could please wrap it up soon thank you Andy Good Friday Also that that being taken away that that really uh sad saddens me as well so I'm just here to say would you please really think about this think about uh the the decisions you make it it has ripple effect and it sends uh a message of walls it sends messages of taking things away that were established and it kind of it destroys the trust that's been uh been built in this town so I just wanted to say that tonight thank you all school committee for for all that you do [Applause] thanks all right thank you Miss Park our next speaker is Nicole mcland okay yeah I saw her in the room earlier this evening but she's not here now it seems um all right our next would be Marina radua hi I'm Marina um Brooklyn resident pring 8 uh speak up okay yes please because H can't hear you oh okay is this better okay uh so thank you for U letting me speak today to be honest I don't even know where to start start and how to end this so much has been said and I appreciate everyone who spoke before me um I wasn't supposed to be here my whole office that is in Brooklyn and my co-workers are now having good time in U one of the best restaurants somewhere I don't but I don't get to go with them to celebrate uh this beautiful season but I'm it's okay I'm I happy to see all of you here so um again I don't know what to say but one thing I know exactly that last time we were here the night the W took place I left this building with a joy in my heart believing that Eid had been added to the calendar as a category one holiday we celebrated that happy moments with our family because it meant so much to us it wasn't just about a day off from school it is about recognition belonging and feeling at home and I thank you all for that opportunity it took me until yesterday to talk to my youngest child about the complaint filed against the wo I had hesitated because I hadn't I didn't want to see see the disappointment and frustration it would cause to my surprise he took it calmly he simply said can we file it back in Reverse please I said okay we'll see um I won't go into too many details about why this is so important to our children and our community as so much has already been said but Al me to give you an imaginary example of the impact the complaint has had on my family personally and probably on many other families imagine a child who had longed for something let's say a bicycle for years then finally he receives one he is filled with excitement and joy cherishing the gift he had dreamt for so long but before he can fully enjoy it someone comes along and says sorry boy there's a problem with this gift some of the other boys don't think you deserve it you don't have enough friends or family to join you on your rides so we're taking it back imagine the sadness my son Will stay home on Aid day and we will celebrate he will enjoy himself whether it's a category one holiday or not there's no doubt about that but the sadness of having something given to you and then taking it away that certainly hurts thank you so much okay thank you Miss Redway um Nicole mcland is now on so let's hear from her thank you um my name is Nicole mcland I am a dris scho parent and on dris scho site counsel I also want to Echo the thanks to school committee as always for your tireless late night work um I see you and I really appreciate you um I want to preface my comments um about class sizes at Dr school by saying I know the budget and financial management at PSB is always quite complicated and we always have multiple competing priorities um and it's very tough job I don't envy anyone trying to balance all of that um but I am here to talk about class sizes um as someone who has supported every override since I've been participating in town government um I was one of the people who worked to get Driscoll ped at The Ballot Box in Brookline in 2019 I remember what we uh campaign folks school committee at the time District Town leadership what we told voters and taxpayers of Brookline and it was that we needed to build this large new four-section school in order to relieve overcrowding at Driscoll and uh the larger District by being able to absorb more kids into dris scho um that was the plan that was the message that was the promise and that was the main reason for asking taxpayers to foot a $125 million bill and for the Driscoll Community to go through four years of construction and disruption and we're here five years after uh the override approval and with our third and fourth graders in the largest classes in the district by a significant margin um they are crowded 24 to 25 in a class every day they pass by brand new unused empty classrooms on their way to their very crowded loud um classrooms that don't properly accommodate a lot of their learning needs you heard from three of those awesome really cute kids earlier tonight about many of the negative impacts that this has on their educational experience their ability to learn their ability to forge connections now imagine 140 more 7 to 10year olds before you just imagine it for a second because that is truly every single day the kids that are being negatively impacted by this um as someone who's been involved in a lot of this in the town I am concerned that we made a really big important promise and we have not delivered on that it's so important to ensure that the people who lead our schools and our campaigns have credibility that's critical it's extra critical now in moving forward in this climate we're in and I think we owe it to the Community to deliver on the promise I think we owe it to the kids in these classrooms I think we owe it to the teachers managing a workload far beyond their capacity um you know there there's a point at which even the most incredible teacher and I will say this year we are blessed you know my daughter has one of the most skilled teachers I've ever met in my life they have a limit and they are certainly up against that limit right now these kids are in fourth grade they're they're nine they're 10 years old um the good news is in this case the solution is very very clear we need to hire two more teachers so we have another section in our Rising fourth and another section in our Rising Fifth and we need to manage enrollment so that we don't absorb beyond the capacity of the sections that we have at any given School the discrepancies are quite huge um there was a slideshow several weeks ago that showed that and I can email that to the school committee after this um last point between now and whenever this sort of next year solution I hope is implemented I'd really like to ask the school committee to pay attention to what's happening immediately um as I understand it after winter break there's often a bit of an enrollment bump Driscoll keeps seeing more kids coming and I'd like to know specifically how the district will be placing students to ensure we're not going even higher um Beyond sort of these already maxed out classrooms what is the plan if we get more kids coming in where are they going and how are we managing that this year before we have a solution for next year thank [Applause] you thank you Miss mcland uh our next speaker is Kevin McKenzie hello my name is Kevin McKenzie I am a six I am a brook resident chair of the diversity equity and community relations commission as well as a sixth and seventh grade social studies teacher at the laurren school I'm speaking my personal capacity only I want to remind you of my thoughts on category one holidays as I previously shared them once more I am fully in support of category one holidays such as rasa shaar Yan kapore and Lunar New Year along with the addition of e aler for the 2025 2026 school year I encourage you to reinforce the decision previously made and widely announced to add Eid as a category one holiday it is before you again due to a procedural issue which has now been corrected walking back this decision sends a stark message to the students staff families and other members of our community who observe this day they will be nothing short of othered and singled out having something given to them and then immediately taken away and why why is there so much passion to reverse this decision all arguments made against the inclusion of e offer as a category one holiday or category one holidays in general to impress me as an educator the one I most sympathetic to challenges for working parents is address by producing approving and publicizing the calendar far in advance to allow for families to plan running the school year late into June does not compel me either I teach the same set of students in March that I do in June both are the most incredibly challenging months for me to deliver instruction from the entire school year March because very rarely do we ever have a single day off from school we have a long grind full of weeks that weigh on students burnout for students is just as much of a challenge it is for the adults in their lives myself included if we do not want to extend the school year further in June there are plenty of alternative Solutions all of which in my view are far more effective both considering that as an educator I have to deliver effective instruction as much as possible and also ensuring the sense of belonging in our schools our students both need and deserve I spoke to some of those Alternatives in my previous letter to you and I'm happy to share additional Alternatives with these later as to not take up more of your time now the department of Elementary secondary and Department of Elementary and secondary education says quote we view the school committee as the publicly elected or appointed equivalent of a board of directors of a corporation which in this case is a school system that may be something a very small handful of you need to start considering as you conduct yourselves going forward thank you to the members of this body who continue time and time again to engage in the critical work that is needed and to those of you who also model how who committee members should conduct themselves to the small select few of you who are struggling to do this I want to note that while you are elected officials you must not view yourselves as politicians I encourage you to embrace the mentality of being a lifelong learner and accept the learning curves that comes with your new role as a member of this body you can still learn and grow into the school Committee Member your students and staff you need you to be I will conclude by speaking to the deep and pressing need to ensure students feel connected to their school and their school Community we know that students do their best learning when they feel that sense of belonging study after study has shown this reversing the decision to include eat as a category one holiday or the elimination of all of them just because of air quotes Eid would have a disastrous impact please do write by your students and stay the course thank you for your time thank you Mr McKenzie and our next speaker is Arad Ahmed theed to speak had a family emergency there was a um all right three minutes which we think is a great part of their learning advy hi my name is n and my name is Tas today we're here to talk about how we think he should be off I personally struggle with the days that I miss and I think I can also speak for the other people who are here today um it's really hard um cuz it's the days that um is really close to mcast or on mcast and that's actually it's really hard to do um because I miss it and that gives me an automatic zero and I really don't want that and last year I almost missed but it would be my amazing principal helped me and I didn't miss it but I just want to make sure that the people in the future don't haveen them and I just think it would be so much easier if we moved it and it would just solve so much problems thank you N I also feel like a lot of Muslim kids would be disappointed because everybody was so excited to have a off some even think that they're still getting a off because they weren't told me and R were talking about this and I wanted to talk about it on behalf of both of us both me and her are taken out of school by our parents for8 but I understand that it will get harder to make up the work as I get into high school and moving forward as a Muslim I feel that it's disappointing that even though it was a very clear majority in favor that I have to stand here today and further prove why I believe in my opinion my conclusion is that we should get a off because it will bring joy to Muslim kids and they won't have to have the heavy workload the day after thank you so much for listening [Applause] thank you for speaking with us and our last speaker of the evening is Sarah Griffin and I promise to be as short as I can be thank you to the school committee for staying so late uh Sarah Griffin I'm the parent of two children who have attended um the Brookline schools one is still at Brookline High I'm also the former co-chair of the baker school equity and diversity committee I have been a member of the local uyu church and in my daily work I focus on improving government policies and practices for Children and Families First I'd say I Echo all things H has said at the beginning of this meeting she was eloquent in naming all the reasons each should be a category one holiday and I appreciate the words of many of the school committee members tonight and the members who stayed to hear the public comment one of the things I have valued about Brookline is the openness among students faculty and families to the rich diversity of our community while not always perfect by any means there have been attempts to ensure Brooklyn schools are welcoming and its policies reflective of our diversity eat is as a school holiday is an important step for the district to communicate support for the Comm Muslim Community from an equity perspective recognizing the holiday is essential to maintaining that equity and ensuring we honor the growing community of that faith in our town educationally the importance of being seen and that sense of belonging can't be understated learning only happens when students feel safe and seen and learning happens in so many ways not only in the classroom but also as students learn about each other and about how to be in this increasingly complex and diverse world as they grow adding Eid to the other observed religious holidays would be Equitable encourage a greater sense of belonging for Muslim Students and Foster greater learning across the school Community I encourage you to include eat as a school holiday and thank you so much for staying to listen to everybody thank you [Applause] thank you very much Sarah Miss Griffin rather and uh thanks to all of all of those who stayed with us till the end here um yes well um does anyone want to raise any new business I see none which means that I will adjin the meeting now there's no executive session so we're adjourned thank you okay