##VIDEO ID:RE2DyGUnza0## I would like to call the meeting to order of the Conway grammar school and I just lost my there we go at 601 on October 15 and the first order of business is review and approv minutes of September 192 make a motion to approve minute from September 19 a second second all in favor I all righty you're all set Financial stat all right I emailed you out the general fund expense report which was through September 31st there's no new concerns to report since we met last there really haven't been a whole lot of changes to the budget at this point just some minimal increased expense accounts but no overages or anything to discuss um 13 warrants were signed since the last meeting totaling 72,8 42.7 uh and I did give you a followup in my email about the building heat oil consumption since we talked about that last time um the budget is 37,000 as it stands that was raised uh to school years ago from 34,000 only gone up slightly um but our consumption has grown a little bit in gallons but primarily we're over budget because of the cost of fuel right now if you look back historically uh six or seven years um we were under budget pretty significantly but I think that goes with the times especially between 2019 and 22 um oil prices and gas prices were a little bit lower there for a while um you know who knows what's going to happen after it drop big time from last SE heting SE it did drop but we're still going to see over the 37,000 based on the projections right now okay so we did budget under last year which was part confusion from the last meeting so we our budget was wellow last year yeah which we are faval could be faval last year and still in faval so the last two fiscal years we've been over budget so 23 and 24 and we found other funds to cover it um I didn't increase it for the 25 budget after three years of overage it might be a conversation we have going into fiscal year 26 and moving forward you know this is one of those expense lines that difficult to predict one we don't know what we're going to lock in at and two it's based on the market so um you know we certainly could increase it I wouldn't recommend increasing it by 10,000 to cover the overage and its entirety that's you know 1% of our budget off the top so I would recommend we be creative about other ways to cover it if we have other funding sources such as school choice which has a really healthy balance um you know and we cover the majority from budget and then a smaller portion but we can talk more about that as we get into aren't there some companies that have a ceiling but no floor some oil companies um so we lock into a rate at a certain number of gallons per year sign okay so last year we didn't even hit we came just shy of one delivery of the 15,000 gallons that we're required to okay so that actually rolls into this year which you can continue to roll if you don't spend it but ideally you should spend four years all right more to come I'm happy to take input feedback help like just let me know in the pr we're getting in the the bid deal is you're lower than your homeage price so we're want to kind of put that out there because we're doing part of groupb they s a whole truck so it's an easy SA 15,000 G isn't an outrageous amount for a building of this size either no remember the administration building in that was 10,000 gallons for one building with like three occupants no and we're now having conversations about internally like what's happening with the electricity now that the building has um many splits throughout the whole building so you know is there an offset there the electric cost higher the electric cost lower so trying to look at all of that is a little bit challenging it'll take us I think a whole another year before we really see what the Electric's going to look like with the mini splits in but we're heating this room with it right now not necessarily oil solar on the parking lot School deals for that come on big conversation working at you m all right any other Financial questions issues all righty Kristen sent us her principal support and give us the highlights just the highlights they gave you the beginning scores um for the Nea the math bit concerning but again that's where we started and we're just starting the some of our teachers did the new Bridges program last year as a trial um everyone's doing it this year um and then the data that we're looking at really exciting news so we're having our first Conway senior lunch in on um October 24th so we have 16 now seniors signed up and they're going to come for a lunch in at school and then do some reading with the students and we're hoping to do things like this the year we'd love to uh do some technology classes with some of our seniors and so we're excited about that um it's a great idea really glad to see you doing that yay uh I have to say Emily Sweet is a big and then rest I'm sure you read we know there's a new addition to the uh new IEP process there are many changes with the IEP process but the most exciting one to me is that the first discussion is us um comments from the student what's helping you in class what do you need more of them we've had a we've had um one so far and it's it's just really amazing the kids nail it they know what's working they know what they need they love coming to the meeting so I think that's a great addition I'm sure the high school kids will really enjoy being part of it and then last year we had Jennifer Lee Native American presentation this year we have Larry spotted proman coming um and he's going to be visiting us on November 14th one of our parents wrote a grant for this year and last year our CGS Fitness and run Club are up and that is up and going with some of our volunteers which is incredible and yeah off to a good start yes awesome that's great any questions for Kristen thanks Kristen sounds exciting lots of good stuff yeah uh public comment you have a comment yeah I just want to add that um to Kristen stuff we are doing um some Farm to school work as well at Conway um and I feel like it's just it's a it's a really cool opportunity and we did a little conference there were uh Sunderland and Conway are both involved right now and um I actually attended the conference and it was it was just really cool to know that we have a lot of potential like at our property for um some connections and Patrick McCarthy is also just really really like into the idea of trying to get the cafeteria more involved and thinking about accessible Foods um just from right here locally so there's there's just a lot going on with that too and I think throughout this year we'll have some more Headway and think a little bit about where this is going for us but um I think the conference was really inspiring we have a coach right now that's kind of giving us some advice about some grant writing and some connections with the tech school and getting some garden and stuff going at Conway and uh Sunderland and perhaps some after school programming so just wanted to share that thank you Jamie I didn't forget I reported out that last month but thank you awesome well my son's college they make their own ice cream so I wow and it's really good University yes University of Delaware has a egg component to it so yeah it was yummy all right any more public comment I see no more than Jamie okay thanks Jamie unfinished V business we have policies to vote on I just SP up the A's and then the I yep good um so you have the A's in front of you the A's are the policies non discriminated basis of sex um and the nonre Bas of gender identity are all updates except the gender identity when that came from our committee the others are coming from our attorney to update toward title n um changes that were in August last one okay so can we vote them as a a group y I'll move to approve the A's which are well written and good policies awesome all in favor I all right now we have an i the I the i1 um you guys are the last this month but to catch you up the frontier school committee um basically voted it down and sent it back to committee um to be looked at to find other solutions to the problems that were discussed um with home school participation in extracurriculars um the other element elementary schools either took no action on it meaning it died by not being a first and second both um weightly was first so they tabled it so they may untable it or not depending on where they want to go with it um but now it's kind of with you that's what they have done I'm all for tabling um the problem with tabling is that it you can it can be brought up with no notice to people that really want to be noticed if it's brought up again not want to hear what's the other Al the alternative is to take no action or to so if you take if you say so you say I move to uh move to policy igb forward and you go second and you wait there's no second get a second youve on okay well I'd kind of like to hear what the revisions would be and then well won't we got to come back full one double read again so so as is if we made a motion and then it died the current version would not be revisit correct we don't change the current policy have to be for first which is what we want y okay I um trying to think of how to phrase it to make a motion please make a motion and then you ask for a second there a second he none hearing none okay I thought when I saw that that might be a little bit discussion it's good to have these discussions this makes a lot of work but sometimes that's good uh new business Capital planning Capital planning so putting it up on the screen um you know I didn't send cop so we'll send you the PDF of this sent them all last week to the Committees we'll send you a PDF where this is at so you can look at it at home um and such afterwards but where we are right now so again um to those who are new to the committee everything in grads are things that we completed over the last few years been busy um and then if it was in blue that'd be something that's um in motion but there's nothing everything's been C completed up here in Conway and the greens are what we're proposing to move forward and then you we'll talk about we have here and then um talk about some of the number twos that are coming down the PIP um classroom floors so we've been in the process of redoing classroom floors and if I show you the map Chris have to call you in the spot but I might have you help um me present this not present it but um sure talk about the rhyme and reason of where the rooms are sure no hang um in on this map we have in the the darker purples in 2000 um the dark purple Media Center was 2021 and then the purple was 2022 as actually written on the map on that um yellow is 2023 this is just down here the otpt um next year in 202 um 2025 I think is what we meant to say um is that the key is off by yeah so looking to grades three grades four in the wings room next year and you can see the little costume for next year and then the following year we'll take care of prek and kindergarten and then 2028 grade five and the language we learning L and what's the rotation of how many years carpet gets changed out we basically based it on oh right now it's being changed over to fin carpet right Chets are so old yeah so that they can do regular so the carpets can be re changed up you know they're throw rugs rather than cars rugs car so kids are still sitting on the floor and gathering on rugs me get up Christ I guess I was able to hand um it's funny I think I've been around I swear this all started with grade five oh yes it did yeah okay that's why grade five will be the yeah the okay all right kind of on a cycle with the carpeting but maybe that changes with yeah yeah my only thing would can we do it faster so we can talk about that let me go back to the other you get carpet something like down better are all involved so right now you know the carpet is at 22,000 um you know you're looking at about it looked like as I was looking at about $9,000 a room rounding up so we can add rooms to that the other things that let's talk about everything and then we can come back to how we want move things around the other thing I think is is got going to be moved up there is the front entry way so the concrete curbing is in bad shape that's that's the kind of old painted red all the way around and as you can see we've done some shaving of some of the heaving of the concrete and really um the plan is to rip out the area in front of the front pad to the street it doesn't include the whole wrap around um it has taken care of the curving but not the every single pad um and so it'll look like a repair job rather than a whole new front entrance if we want we can look at spending more to redo the whole walkway all the way around it's not in dire shape it wasn't turning dark I'd say we take a field walk out and look at it um but the front entry way has been curbed cut so many times almost looks like um not cut curb cut it's been uh yeah cut some different wayse and shaved it's just really in bad shape so that's where that 40,000 is they would have to pull the curbing out then reset it um on long overdue it is it just gets beat up on the plows every you know you know that's still beting up on drivers it's you know sometimes you go through them one time you're just you a little too much you're trying to get that last piece of ice or whatever so um you know and then the final thing is to replace the convection oven and we put a little B next to it in there and that just means that looking at a different funding source and remember show talk about last month um that the lunch funds um we are we have some good savings there and you probably spend it down and we should probably spend things Rel the Ed to the kitchen so um that would be using the lunch funds there so that wouldn't be going after the pool money we've already talked about um the other things that are in two which are you know these again are um you know we make we just make a decision to lead the conversation about what are where where think you know Bill thinks we should do a um a facilities assessment we have an old one from 2013 that was very helpful you know and really I think looking at that I think we could also get some try to find some grant money looking at the energy in this building because we're going to have to look at those boilers soon and whether or not we go to some green alternative we have to really assess what our needs are in this building based where where is at and we don't have the internal ability to do that um I believe green communities grants in the past have have started I think you can start with some starter money on those kind of things um but that's looking at number two which we would maybe work on that on the side and then the second next set of classroom floors which you just mentioned you know it's $20,000 um gets can you draw just a new thing here how do you know that Tator yeah that's a new first down missed the first down by a yard oh I would have done that we going to take the two and then we're going to go and this here all right um home um what was I what was I doing classroom floors oh I was trying to scroll over so that I can see show no that's the two so the flooring map um that would be prek and kindergarten yeah which are larger classrooms than the other ones as well $10,000 yeah so the boiler one is big number big numbers big numbers the and then going on year three is the boilers right so be keeping that just out of in the BMS system again another big number um what is BMS um building management system so basically that's going to get we you have to wire every single one of the um mini splits that would be very much worth it deer field just got a grant from Green communities um for 180,000 or 6 180,000 but a lot of it was go to their BMS system in the elementary school so there's other funding sources out there um that we can look into I kind of got to get the I'm calling it the engine committee they're not calling it themselves up here are they calling themselves the it's not conservation but call the renewable light bulb rbl so yeah whatever the we started having a conversation with them my spring think they have a new chair we get reinduced reintroduced and um continue the conversation yeah they have some very good capable people on that committee right now actually it's a good time to ask now for the boilers don't we have money in the town accounts that been putting aside and how much we have we have the the the purpose of that the original purpose when we set that up was was $250,000 balance in case we needed to replace the boilers in emergency we wouldn't have to close school for a couple months be getting there we're there we've been there for years okay I think we're just shy of it um right now last September when I had inquired we had like 235,000 okay and I'm pretty sure we the we spent 71,000 on warrants over this summer but I think it was fully replenished at town meeting so we should still be right around that 235 and then we'll have uh I want to say it's another almost 10,000 coming back that'll go in from the Min split reates that were done this summer so we're going to be really close to the 250 but the problem is that that's you know that was always the rainy day in case it's a rainy day this is something when it's planned when it's a planned rainy day it's not such a rainy day there's not as much excitement and again that would be the purpose of that again is to in case there really is an emery yeah yeah so I just I'm curious about doing the facilities audit or the what we really need before we go thinking what direction or whether we really need to to do both boil I mean we only use one boiler at a time the other ones there is a spare right backup system and can the old fossil dinosaur one carry on as a backup system well the problem is is that it's going to be um quite the undertaking because I believe they built the the run around the boiler right so you can't just take the boiler up you're going to have to dismantle them and that's going to increase prices and then getting a new boiler in based on the size and some some prices as well so um you're going to have to hire an engineer as being a public school building which is going to be on top of that which will be on top of that so exactly you have to hire an engineer for the schematics to what you're doing and such so the good is the BS are aren't broken yet but they're there's something we're keeping an eye on right the chance of both them going out at once um not you know right now you just did just get the uh new pumps for the water pumps for them to be installed nothing I've been yet but um put that money aside um because they were one one broke and the other one was leaking so it's it's on the for us to kind of look ahead I also think we we have to be kind of responsible and look at what are the options what are the green energy options that we can get for I think so doing that as well so um so what uh brother's been on here for a while what like how many years out was it last year like a threee out project I think it's minus years well I know you so but maybe not right we've been talking about it are original to the building so like my question was more like so was it we talking about a three-year plan last year and in the year for that we talking three years out like and where I'm going is maybe really focus on getting the assessment done now instead of waiting so that we can it doesn't become a a three-year plan again next year right I think the assessment should come first so we really know what the best options are and then look at Grants and and then it's a question of do we pay for that assessment ourselves meeting which we don't have in budget but but I think the other on that one I think you don't have to turn is is there green energy grants for the assessment of buildings every about most of the towns they've already not most of the towns Deerfield and sundland had those studies done first through um energy committees G don't know all their buildings School largest so maybe that's a conversation I can take from here it's not on our one list and then if we later in the year even before well we well before budget season um especially you're not looking for and then you did a warrant you could actually go after your own stabilization counter so yeah well that sounds like a reasonable plan to me others yes you looked at the current 2013 assessment recently and it concur it's no no longer adequate I wonder how much in the building has changed in 12 years um that's probably more the options the world the world around us has changed more I mean there's stuff in there that's not they would probably take that old report to up break the new report and update it um it's a good question Phil in the sense of like how much more you going to get Sometimes some of these reports to what time watch says I mean like yeah you more insallation who doesn't you know um it's a good question but what to do you know energy models for replacing the boiler in the size building and that kind of stuff I don't think that's up to so I think it'd be great if we got the grant to get that money to get that money to get that study which it would be a good first step the grant then they usually do an extension to that grant to get some work done you did the proper background work on it so that might I think it's the thingle do we start the conversation on I can have that conversation over the next few months yeah and then you know again how is in a different compies in a different route in a different boat than the other towns in the sense of that you guys really can control your C Capital request is well into the really mons of spring um whereas the other one the capital committe is one or the school request is from the pool of money because you have your own Reserve it's not the same way unless you're going to the town directly with which always Pro we really don't need to Y I do think we have to make sure when our request goes in that it won't be just to fund the projects from our stabilization fund but that it will also be to backfill the stabilization fund because we don't want to spend 62,000 because there have been a few years in my time where it hasn't either been fully backfilled or backfilled at all so we don't want to lose right 60,000 when we're talking about doing the boiler next five years right I think from my point of view that things like the boilers although they're really high dollar numbers they're actually more digestible for more voters because they're so understandable um you know it's that people just think well yeah of course they need that that the building needs that um you don't there's no there's no you know high level Community restroom partitions which has always been well actually that's that's that's a big deal actually the best one was the lawnmower yeah right the lawn mower because everybody's an expert on lawn or the pickup truck or the pickup truck to pull the laan more oh my gosh that was just like yeah um right and and looking at our request that there's nothing here you know that is on this list that is an emergency which is also a good place to be to right if we have to say you know for some we had a hold up you know which is a has no money not able to back fill any of it we could put a hold on these projects right we this you know con's always been good about St getting ahead of things but none of these are like a safety concern that front entry way there's a couple little trip spots but none of it is you know not it's not crumbling yet we should wait till we just saying that right all right so um kind of we're at is that you don't have to make any decisions tonight I can bring it back to you and try to get some conversations with the you know energy committee sustainability [Music] sustainability you threw me up you threw me up yeah renable is sustainable so I guess you kind but I do think the front entryway needs to be a priority sure it's sort of been one of the things kicked down that hurt for a while we can all observe it yeah what we have to do is um I had come back kick the curb I have to come back with a drawing of what they will replace because I want everybody to be at the expectation they were talking about leaving sections that were good and replacing sections that are bad which makes sense but it's going to have a cosmetic effect that's not going right you know what I mean and then you're going to have aging of one set of concrete versus another so might be kind of I'll do I think it looks worse to replace perfectly good concrete just because it's cosmetically from right but if you're doing one two three and the fourth one's bad fourth one's good and the fifth one's bad sometimes doing the whole front um for longevity and um when they're there it's easier to do more like if they take it all out is it less labor than having to around it is and then as you complemented the what do you call that the display Cornucopia display Cornucopia that's a good word good word on the way in was is amazing if it was on an even better platter that would would strike improve your mood and uh inner students as well as moods all right yes so I'll get you what did all the work in the front of Deerfield cost sorry sorry what did that cost us um know just short of 400,000 wow it's beautiful but the Sunday man the Sunday basketball league gave gave them $10,000 did we did we did not toward that though we're going to spend out good stuff yeah much more so they put in change the water drainage off the roof well it was getting to spend on something curing the so it square footage is probably eight times as much as in fact all right well we won't be that expensive but we still want to look good yeah all right next order of business anybody going to NC I'm going all right looks like y all should nominate me Tove all in favor that was easy presentation I have I'll keep it in the screen fold um I brought with me today Dr so it's my fourth time giving an MC presentation but my first time doing it in front of Shelly who is my model for how to give a good presentation so hopefully hopefully you're entertained I'm ready okay uh when Darius shares the screen I'll start talking um well and I think what they're saying in the very beginning is that it's kind of a tradition I guess to give an mcast report to the school committee and um it's seeming funnier and funnier because there's so many data points we use to look at our students and how we're progressing and where we want to focus our attention and what we consider progress and what we consider um evidence that we need to work on something and we do get really good information from the mcast that we wouldn't necessarily get in other ways but it is by no mean means our data point so I just wanted to say it's fun for me to dig into the data and have the chance to talk it through um but please try to hold it with in that context as we as we talk to me because last year at the school committee conference there was a big get rid of mcast push and it's on the ballot again I think it's number two very big push number two on the Massachusetts not not to get rid of mations it's to get rid as a requirement for graduation um which it really barely is right but if the if that does pass then the requirement to pass the test is gone and then try to get a sophomore to take a test they don't have to pass so that data that data Mar let see let's see how much we value this information let's say yes back to me okay so um there are some headlines from the state that I thought would also provide some useful context which is that um and this came from a talk from the interim commissioner mcast scores show up to or decline in all major categor since the pandemic um and the correlation between wealth and achievement is concerning and student absenteeism remains a challenge across the board for Recovery efforts so those are some of the headlines um and are each of are each of those accurate for our school read on on all right well youed them well done let's go to commercial so the overview here at convey is that um 99% of students participated which is 82 3 through sixth graders um the state trend is a slight different in mcast scores overall Conway performed the same as the state in ela which is a dip overall um for Conway and significantly higher than the state in math and science um our accountability rating this past year has moderate progress toward targets um which is a wide Middle Road we have 38% progress towards targets which are not targets that the school sets for itself those are mcast targets set by the state we haven't really aimed for that but it is nice to find out once a year that we are on within that wide range that that wide Road of On Target um here's some more details still so first I'm just giving you snapshots of what it looks like compared to the state um almost evidence of my data so the green and the blue are the meeting expectations that's green and exceeding expectations is the blue so the higher is on the left which is counterintuitive um the higher scores five scoring 500 is the cut off between partially meeting and meeting so the Brown versus the green and um those are percentages per so 34 plus 5 39% of Conway students met and exceeded in the state 39% of students met and exceeded what we have is a larger portions in La um partially meeting compared to the state which had 21% not meeting so you can see our red number is very small which is great which is great and I have more information about the ELA test in a minute but let's do snapshots of math and science PA there to say just it was consistent with what I remember seeing last year in terms of I we do a great job of keeping out of the red yeah but we also underperformed the state in the both and it happened last year as well which is an interesting observation it is an interesting observation is there more effort being put into bring folks from the red to the yellow than from green to blue just hype that's an excellent question um and I think we should hold that because I do think that the outcome of data hand presentations is to raise raise questions that need to be pursued so that is a good question is more going into moving from Red into brown and green then is going from moving into the highest expectations Sur pass yeah I saw last year and same thought years fig yeah good question let's go take a snapshot of um so math 57% of students are meeting in exceeding expectations compared to the state 41% but I do to your point the trend continues that we have most of our students in the green 56% meing meeting expectations Jared I just want to mention one quick thing um so sometimes students score so high that if they get one or two long they dip pretty quickly I'll look into that more but for example um I'm not making sense growth percent I can follow Che that this is not growth right this is ACH next is science so this is just fifth grade and um 50% needing exceeding years is 45% at the state one thing to keep in mind is that with 82 students taking the test one you know 1% is less than a kid um no wait it's this is not this a science no I was going back to so in general the difference of you know number four she when it says when it when we have a difference from the state we have to think about how many kids that is and whether whether it's a significant group um and I was I was leading up to say this is the fifth grade class and so this is only maybe 20 kids maybe 16 kids last year so um that's what the class look like yeah it doesn't really um tell us that much except we're fifth grade over time might vary tells about the curriculum but it it it goes like this and we're always above State average over the last five years including the pandemic it's even tough to look at curriculum because you have ability levels from classes from strong classes it is I guess you would look at growth which is TP to do there's no marker before that science so there's no grow yeah but science is something that builds upon itself and if if you don't have strong science in K1 2 3 4 it's impossible to achieve this so it's really a credit for the K through 4 coming up that these fifth graders enter and can do robust scientific thinking because they've had it for so many years here okay so close closer dive at Ela um there are some strengths worth noticing and um a concern that stands out so at Conway and all grades reading and language subtest scores are are above the state average so Ela tests are broken into Reading Writing um sorry reading language essay and writing so if you were only looking at our reading and language sub test scores in every category we are um doing very well in 73% of sixth graders and 72% of fifth graders met and exceeded the expectations in just reading in language um and then also in terms of you know are we teaching our genders uh achieving an equal rates um 41% of girls met and exceeded and 40% of boys met and exceeded overall in third through sixth grade so um I think that's a strength wi there especially because it's not typical for boys and girls to be achieving typically girls have Higher Achievement in ela on on the state and even in our district in our yeah other schools their District that was not y wait I'm not done yet y writing is the subcategory of the LA that pulled down our our scaled average score um our say an average score this is consistent across our district and our state writing is an area on which we are currently focusing our attention we have a new Ela curriculum and I have the it it was um piloted last year this is the first year that teachers are teaching it with some experience and familiarity it would typically take three to four years for this complicated curriculum to be um working as it is designed to work but I would say that um having explor some of the questions where we that we didn't do well I can see that there's a match for where this is taught in the curriculum so it's not as though we don't have the resources and the structure for teaching the writing for example um figurative language is a question that was frequently missed so I can check in the curriculum that is new to us and make sure that there is plenty of focus on figurative language another thing that um showed up as a tricky thing for some students is and it could just be the way the questions asked because we don't really teach and talk like this too much but given a paragraph um and a sentence that's separated from the paragraph where would this sentence best fit in this paragraph and then picking like after sentence one after sentence two after sentence three that was a question that we didn't do particularly well in so looking at you know does the curriculum provide opportunities for thinking about structuring paragraphs um but still the state didn't do well on that question either it might just be that it's not an type of question um especially that a question like that would is not is it going to have like a really clear and obvious answer or is there going to be multiple answers that are arguable arguable like I suspect it's really hard to design a question like that was a clear and obvious answer I suspect you're right there probably a best but there's probably not an obvious you could say it's definitely not the topic sentence the first sentence it's definitely not the closing but in terms of stating evidence you have to have a pretty nuanced ability and they're looking for that and a test should never A test should never have a question that has arguable multiple correct answers like never yeah I'd have to get the exact question out but that was the type of question and we do teach paragraph writing so um we will be paying attention to writing and looking for opportunities to um breathe a little life into writing as well yeah and to go back with Jared's comment was regarding the middle to high scoring I believe is probably a major factor not getting four something all those you're definitely right about that don't so the difference between getting that upper category you got to get threes and more threes and fours and it's a fourpoint question we could go through and look at to see how that was Miss but it would be my guess is that we're just not writing either enough or waiting to answer the question as asked just well look at people on job applications you can tell it's missed skill for a l big chunk of our population right about now it is and lower since the pandemic and um lower since iPhones and Technology I mean so at the end of this presentation I'm give away okay we're not going you'll know when I move back to this topic later okay okay um a closer look at math so math has subcategories to just like Ela does such as geometry number and base 10 operations and algebraic thinking um ratios and proportions measurement and data um but no one area stands out over the grades if you look at third grade one subcategory is the is the strongest in a different subcategory is the relative weakest but then in fourth grade and fifth grade it's not the same that rise to the top or the bottom so that's a different kind of information um sixth grade I just made not of it because it was so significant it they stood out with 65% of students meeting and exceeding expectations in M which was 25% higher than State MERS who's doing that teaching that sixth grade that teacher name and in math this is no longer sixth grade but in all of math uh 44% of girls met exceeded expectations compared to 69% of boys in our school which um is not ideal but I would say that the sixth grade group did not have a gender disparity so I did check that status to make sure it wasn't all jacked up because of boys in the class and it is not they had um no gender gap like one or two% or something not worth mentioning in sixth grade but we do watch we watch that over time yeah excellent okay so then this is a chance to show off our new um our new data engine called open Architects which is a byproduct of doing an equity audit two years ago one of the chief things we found in preparing our information for the Auditors was that we didn't have um a simple way of disaggregating data to look at subgroups and it was one of the recommendations that came from dictional company was you need to invest in some data software that will help you look at Trends over time so we did and they could um pull up our data from before we even worked with them so to look at this um the first this is about math and this is about growth so not um achievement my question was are we growing all of our students in a similar way um is everyone being met by our program in a similar way so going back to 2019 you can see um that in the first graph those different colored lines represent different racial categories as uncast describes them or categorizes the um race and ethnicity and the big picture is you see the lines weaving among one another like a braided rope and not ending terribly far apart on the right hand side sometimes crisscrossing so that to me um is good news that we are growing students of multiple races in a similar way to one another um and on the right hand side there's just two lines because the categories are low income and non-low income and the blue line is um low income and you can see that it Trends just below nonl income not as big of a gap as the achievement Gap you will see um but the growth is still a little bit lower um and we don't want it to to close that Gap by having lower growth for non low-income students which is what just happened this year the Gap is not as wide but not because we were increasing the growth of students who come roll inome backgrounds so um it's interesting to see how math growth works and um math achievement is really different according to income I'm going to show you a graph about that in a minute and you've changed how we've changed how we Define low income right we broaden that category now it's I mean it used to be income income now it's what families get Mass health what families that that so that's a there's it's a little fuzzier and there are people whose situation changes and it's not documented by the state in time to reflect here so it's not always accurate or people who you know and I don't mean to it's it's not a clearcut thing but when you look at the disparity around achievement it does feel like a significant um subgroup to look at yeah access to financial participation like just out in the world in for like when you apply math in the real world like how long it takes to get to places or managing your funds and things like that and families have opportunity to discuss those things like this the children and the families are applying math right and is there any type of I know there's like high school and middle school Financial curriculums that exist there's a free one for six seven and8 called uh NextGen personal finance but um like is that a like sometimes canned math curriculums exclude those things they're more like an aside yeah they're more of an aside yeah there are resources that are out there yeah I'm track I think that would it would imply a consistent gap between the two whereas if we're focused on when that Gap changes the disparity this is the data that we need to be keeping for postgraduation for wage growth for for wages earned postgraduation it really is we're we're unique among states we don't keep data of that nature and that's why it will be very hard for us to ever sue the state to get our fair share of Education funding whereas the new jerseys and the Kansas and everybody else have successfully done that because they keep this data how how how income correlates to postgraduate success and it's a huge correlation hint hint but you have to have the data to show it yeah um let's go to the next slide um same types of graphs um growth correlated with race and income so on the left uh race and on the right um income in LA and and especially in looking at the race graph I think it's good to keep in mind that the number of students who are nonwhite is small relatively so um fluctuations can be about a couple of students graduating or entering the school um so just to sort of hold it there um and then here's achievement correlat income in ela and Ma so there's a bigger Gap 23% meeting an exceeding expectations in ela versus 45% and 25% meeting and exceeding expectations dur in bla versus 56% it's really disappointing because that's something that we focus on like that is that's a school population I came from and so that's like a huge Focus for us and Y those are really disappointing num because we feel I feel like we have a good handle on all of our kids but for some reason they're not performing in these high stakes tests well you also can't control the influence that goes on at home in terms of because like looking at the school as a whole I I could say on a daily basis that it's just not accurate yeah right I could happily say that so right I can't control how kids perform on high stakes tests or some of the language that the high stakes tests use that are completely discriminatory against students of experiences people have had and not had you know I I want you know when they had to do the essay I really studied this a lot in my former District because it was a district loome and they said you know if you have a prompt about talking about one of the best days of your life and one student writes about going to a red soot game and tasting the hot dog and the green monster and blah blah blah blah blah and the other student writes about his best day was when he he and his dad just sat down and watched a Red Sox together these two experiences are going to be so different no matter what we teach right no matter what we teach those experien are going be so different so that's how biased sometimes what I say are you going to like better really and it is just a a two-day window it's a moment in time in out of 180 days it's but it's how we're defined no I know yeah well you're right it's a moment in time it's a moment in time you're you can have different kinds of you know the next week you might be having a different kind of week I think that Christian and I do share the belief that school is an equalizer you know it has the potential to bring everyone into their own personal Bas and into high achievement and I'm not sure that this test will reflect that but I know that that's what we think and I know that that's what we care about so we look at these numbers um partly to um stay motivated you know I think to stay committed and to stay curious about what kinds of curriculum and for me you know what kinds of curriculum decisions are going to um improve outcomes for students from different backgrounds and um what kinds of professional development will improve outcomes for students from different backgrounds and it's just a road run We're not gonna we're not going to take full responsibility for the inequities that are broadly in society but we are going to stay hopeful that school is a tool for for making a difference how are these gaps compared to like State average I'd have to look that up to um I will look that up in a minute but I'm not going to stop my presentation say like it could be could be better than the state you know I mean it could be better than this state right I mean it was one of the headlines from the commissioner is um the wealth Gap is extremely concerning that was one of the top three things he had to say overall is that we are not making a change even though we are d definitely trying to I would say that it's good to know that right now Jesse has a new educational blueprint and div vision is absolutely promoting Equity so we just haven't figured out how quite yet next slide okay so some takeaways above average achievement in math and science um there shouldn't be a period there that's why there's no above average achievement in laa because I'm still putting period at the end of sentence out loud um so um above average achievement in math and science similar growth among student subgroups reading scores are significantly higher than writing scores significant achievement Gap correlated to income levels and still not where we were prepandemic Conway never um fell away from the pre- pandemic um benchmarks as much as other districts did but still not quite the same but I would say that the precipitous slope that is Statewide and even in our district and other places is not um con's profile so um of course we're going to focus on closing achievement gaps and of and um particularly on improved writing outcomes um so here are a few thoughts that are still need to be processed by the principal team and then the instructional leadership teams at different schools um but one of the things the commissioner mentioned is oh it's going to be a big summer for um recovery programs because we've plateaued and declined in these major areas but what we experienced at some of those programs is that um teachers really needed a break from teaching that teaching has been increasingly difficult since the pandemic and more teachers than ever this year decided to set what I think for I think is an excellent boundary for themselves and not teach in summer school because they really did need to restore themselves um so the students that we had in didn't have the classroom teachers that they know or the people who are most familiar with their learning profiles necessarily some did some didn't um at some schools maybe Conway more than others but um we also didn't have at some of our schools um the a great number of students who were invited attend right after the pandemic parents were very eager for their children to catch up and were asking what are you doing this summer what are you doing this summer and um I was beating down doors to get replies to these invitations to participate we sent out invitations early because the year before last we didn't get the returns we expected and we wondered is because because we're sending out invitations too late and people have summer plans so we looked at the late January screener data to decide who would get an early invitation and we had an A List and a B list the a list went out early based on midyear um screenings and we still got a fraction of the students that we invited um to to attend so it makes me wonder if we need to think about different models for summer support I just want to mention one thing because I reported with we had an average of 30 to2 32 kids a day come to our programs IED that out the last yeah and that is H yeah that was um I think that we need to have a districtwide review of keyboarding instruction because um I'm working with a group of uh computer science and um digital literacy teachers on a review of the library media curriculum this school year and we just had an expert um um to meet with our group to talk about what she would have on her mind and she were looking at a curriculum review and her name's Melissa Zid and she's developed curriculum for desie on um digital uh digital literacy and computer science and she said um keyboarding for second graders is would be on her mind um and that was interesting because the team who teaches keyboarding instruction had already asked if we could change keyboarding platforms and we did just this year purchase for um first and second grade um keyboarding without tears which is from the same company Start Learning Without Tears is the umbrella company but they did the handwriting program that our children have been doing for a long time it is developmentally appropriate it is um far less commercialized and gamified than other keyboarding platforms and it doesn't begin with trying to stretch small hands across the keyboard it's finding letters which more recent research says is a great way to begin lots of people begin is just by knowing where things are and um so it's interesting we're not thinking of this because of mcast but we were thinking of it anyway through the digital literacy and computer science program and then I was wondering is that going to change writing output if we do move towards more keyboarding instruction but the bigger questions that Loom are um you know what does that say about handwriting instruction and so I won't go into all of that now but it's hard to add without taking something away and we don't want to overwhelm kids or teachers but um there has been an uptick in kids being recommended for either speech to text or going moving to keyboards earlier over the last 10 or 15 years um as an accommodation for disg graphia and sometimes students who are ref writers um are able to put more out when they learn the keyboard because there's fewer um there's few things to process there's more steps in the motor control and the formation of letters than there are in typing so writing output can be um Amplified by keyboarding instruction so it's just something that I think is in the review cycle anyway but if we do decide to move keyboarding instruction a little earlier so that third graders already know how know their way around the keyboard before they do the essays um which have only been online for about five years um we we can watch it to see if that makes a difference teachers will know before mcast does that yes kids are writing more and yes they're more absorbed and as writer and their output is um they have more stamina we we can see that um two more points one is that the impact of new curriculum um is going to be interesting to watch I don't think we can track any impact yet um and I would expect there to be a little dip before things change um because when you are learning a new curriculum as our teachers heroically are there's two new programs that are very um rich and and demanding as teachers they are thinking teachers programs are not plug Inplay so it will take a little longer to be up to speed because it isn't plug in F and to fully digest this it's taking time and things will not be implemented you know on schedule for a year or two it'll take more than a typical 180 school days to move through the full gamit of um opportunities that these programs offer because you don't know where you can cut you don't know where something's going to loop back and you can choose one thing or another and teachers are doing um I just finished grade level meetings last week everyone's working very hard to um be as true to the programs as they can be but it takes a lot of time to do that so I think it'll take a couple of years before we' really internalized the models um they're all highly made but I would expect to see some changes in a couple of years both for writing output and um generally I think it'll be interesting to see what changes you know um and then the data meetings um we have data meetings and now we have this new data tool that helps us um but we always have data meetings um grade levels have data meetings with principles admin have great data meetings on their own and I think um figuring out what we can learn from it and what questions we can be asking will continue to point us in a good direction to explore these Trends or to see if they really even are Trends and I will um look up the income gap for the state and um add to these this document your question about are we moving kids into the you know meeting and exceeding as much as we're moving kids out of the um not meeting at all I think it my first my first thought is maybe yeah seems like we do have a lot we do definitely put a lot into students who need after support that can comes to mind very quickly anybody proposed predictions yet like how I would doubt it actually now saying but like how long it takes to recover from a a learning issue like the pandemic caused like it it it's got to be at least five years three to five years so well I think the question now is um it's one thing to move this wave of students through but a different thing is how is society changed and how were those changes needing to now then schools will have to be accommodating changes in parents work life and changes in family mental health I mean I would say that the absentee issue is correlated to family mental health in some ways like wanting families to take what they need in terms I mean families learn during the pandemic at the most important thing is being okay in some ways and know more families are taking vacations during non vacation weeks or um suggesting to their children that they stay home if they just are struggling a little bit and I'm not seeing that's wrong but I'm saying that there is a correlation between achievement and absenteeism which I didn't BR to present tonight because we're still digging into that but if you don't go to school your achievement is not as high your growth is not as high so you know how do schools respond to these tectonic plates that are shifting so one pandemic recovery is going to be this wave of students going through but another one's going to be how does this reshape education and um we saw that there was a few years back that we talked in this committee about a big study that came out from harbard or whatever that looked that that they can tell from student achievement a single day is absence they can tease out the data one day's absence out of a year and um and because that they recommend that you fold that into your snow policy yeah that that it's much much better to do the twoh hour delay than it is to cancel a day of school um for that reason um but yeah so that that's yeah also teacher mental health I mean we've seen it you know my my agency I work for we're in over 80 schools and 12 districts now and uh we've actually started offering therapy to teachers during school day because it's so hard for them outside of work to get it and we offered it to students during the school day y so we're piloting piloting it in a district to see what if it works for teachers and it's in other fields too I don't know if you've seen articles about um how corporations are trying to get their employees to come back into the office because there's something so fundamentally different about working remotely than working in person with one another that they've created these spas and lounges have you seen the article and so like the things the extent that we'll go to to bring things back to the old normal are so abnormal right like therapy for teachers in schools and spas and the lounges you know these com Comfort bubbles you can go into from your executive suites um oh yeah and I just don't know where we're going to meet meet up again but you know everything's not Saed yet relative of mine works for Boston Robotics and they have actually robots going around waiting on staff super cool different named robots they go around and like like a drink know like a snack one more question did was does the D can you tease out from the data the effect of the adjustment person the adjustment counselor and staff that because I know not all the schools have one right all the schools have one the first year we were the only we were the trend setters though oh you were yes yes that's good it was a good Trend good Trend yeah I'm confident that they make a big difference and yes good good yes we have a lot of new curriculum initiatives that need time to they do be implemented yeah so it'll be interesting to see how that in the curriculum initiatives are not only like new resources they're also um shifts and practice are being asked for because the research has shown that a different way of you know teaching and learning is more effective so um it's not just like how do I read this it's not just different content it's a different different practice and new new ways to get get data on Mastery and things like that yeah any other questions thank you very much for you know the answer to that question about see okay let me to see if I can quickly find it because I have the state theate already full to see if I can find that income piece so let's see um oh okay so our low income achievement rate was 30% in ela for low income and 56% uh no sorry sorry um 42% non low income and at the state level just look at non in weeks it was much it was um 19 22% met in exceeded expectations compared to 30 here at Lo home so worst thank you very much yeah uh reports uh committee chair I do not have the report uh the collaborative we don't have a rep anybody wants to think about it but um they they emailed me ask me but I just do do other grammar schools have one yes um attendance varies so I mean if I hear anything from the previous meetings I will pass it along they share with us yeah yeah they pass on Little Things They yeah well we usually get sent their reports too so we can just share those and Darius I don't know if you have anything else um the only thing I was was the agendas themselves um sometimes my other school Comm me if I don't have the word vote after something sometimes says you can't vote on it and we did get clarification on that that anything on the agenda you is the expectation that you'll be taking action on it but we are going to add votes maybe taken to each section now so that you you don't have to worry about having vote by things in because unfortunately the last couple years every now and then I would miss you know I forgot to put Dash vote and some committees be like we can vote that's on the agenda like oh we can't vote it doesn't say on the agenda well it comes find out if it's on the agenda you can take action on it okay Vote or not vote on it but we're going to add the wording there so so that the public knows in case they going on our old and we also are starting to schedule uh negotiations yes hope we'll get the first meeting in the books and then from there and we have a joint meeting no joint no joint meeting the for oh wow we did originally for a couple years and then the feedback I got was that see that we were as productive certainly during Co we were but then following that they were like so we're just keeping to the one at the end of the year so noral November no December there was a mistake in my report and it's very good it's exciting the actuality is exciting um I'm well I'm comparing open Architects to what the state says about low-income and math because the numbers I just gave you for ELA and if I look at the state dashboard um 5 2% of our low-income students met expectations in math none exceeded 52% met of low-income students and at the state it was 21 wow so that's huge that closes the Gap so I will write to it's the second time I've written to them about something I found but I don't want to wait to tell you that I may be blushing but I'm really happy so look at you yeah it just didn't make sense and it fits more of what Christ says that she SE any guys have the date of November meeting put it in our calendars 5m on the 7th all right what's that your next meeting is November 7 are you going to the confence I am I'm also waiting to see what's happening with field hockey that week um so should we change it or do it be remote I think I was probably to plug remote um is it six or five or seven it's at five at seven remote you be remote too want to move it would just want to be remote mostly I he what is going on the masc conference is the date of our next meeting it's the seven at five those are good those are good reasons to move it goodas to move it how's everybody Wednesday the 13th the 13th the writing over the elections like will be over by then as well right good with me you want to meet now you're we do [Music] okay it can I get a motion for thank you