##VIDEO ID:CfrndWb5N9k## call the meeting of the derfield Del school to committee to order at 7 o'clock uh for the record this meeting is being recorded not my agenda my agenda while I look my agenda the first order of business thank you is uh reviewing the minutes from last month got it thank you would anyone like to make a motion to approve approve the minutes of September 19th 2024 second all in favor 5 okay thank you next up we have a financial statement and welcome L thank you uh yes so since the last meeting we have processed eight warrants totaling $ 17,488 uh Shelly sent out expense reports earlier this week I believe any overdrawn accounts have already been um reviewed but if there are any questions or something doesn't look familiar I'm happy to take questions on that now that was easy perect all right thank you you guys if you're done with Mike S what if you guys are done with Mike oh yeah unless you really want to hang out now as tempting as that is I think I will take the edit thank you very much good IED that can't confirm but I think okay next principal report all right so um um well our grand opening was celebration was a success um we were it was wonderful to have the performances of the marching band and our red hot mascot showed up I didn't know so thank you whoever may be curious that um thought of that um and it's so nice to welcome the students in a more safe and accessible entrance we also had our first all school meeting where many classrooms shared and um had performances and the diversity and leadership team introduced our first whole school read aloud book Amazing Grace which ties into our October theme of identity um now that all of our uh District assessments and screening tools have been um what's the word I'm looking for administered thanks we've um launched our first round of RTI which is our response to intervention um they help that helps us to identify those struggling Learners and in our school we we have RTI for grades K through six it focuses on math reading and social emotional um development data is collected weekly on these and we closely monitor students to for instructional adjustments and RTI Cycles are reviewed every six weeks to evaluate each student's progress in RTI we really strive for the find uh to strengthen the foundational skills and Foster academic and social emotional growth and catch students early um also we recently today completed our first round of data meetings for the year at Deerfield uh so three times a year teachers meet by grade level with intervention and special Educators to review um detailed data sheets um these data sheets include multiple data points like RTI SS attendance um teachers bring informative assessments to this is Guided by um our our meetings are Guided by Hat's 10 mind frames and um visible learning this year our primary focus is on mouth it aligns with our new Bridges curriculum uh through the Suns we're making targeted adjustments that strengthen students mathematical understanding um I've included a data on the next page just a data meeting agenda so you can kind of see what the process is that we follow and then I thought it would be important to talk about open architect versus data chart so you might remember that our um so one of the key recommendations that came out of the equity audit was to have a system that we could look at data efficiently um so to support this the district has secured open architect which is a robust management system and you're not going to see how robust it is but that little picture on the left we'll show you like some of the platforms on it um this is really exciting because the picture on the right is uh a look at our Excel sheets that we've been implementing on our own so we take all that data and put them in an Excel sheet so there I cut off student names on the other side but we manually right now put data into an Excel sheet so that you can see where students are and color them so we can analyze it visually so we're excited to kind of dig in a little bit more this year that'll be our work um looking into the um open architect and just so you're aware on the other side is um an overview of the assessments and screeners I talk about it in the RTI I didn't read it but I talk about it in the RTI just to give you an idea of what those screeners and assessment tools are um that I refer to in the report thank you you're welcome there's no questions or comments okay so good all right next up we have public comment um and people who uh signed up I think we'll just start with that and if there's anyone else we can move on to them so we'll just go in order of the meemes I have Holly hi my name is Holly Johnson I live in wle and I'm here representing the CPAC the special education parent advisory Council for the district and we're I'm here to um oppose the changes to the potential changes to the homeschooling policy um the responsibility of the CPAC is to um advise the school committee on matters that pertain to um the education safety of students with disabilities so that's not just special education law that's any matter so that would include this policy that um will affect disabled students in our community that are homeschooled or families who are considering homeschooling there are many reasons a family decides to homeschool their disabled children it can be hard to get our children the resources and individual is learning they need to thrive in school disabled children are also more likely to be bullied there are bull bullying policies in place but are not always effective in these cases families choose to homeschool to keep their child safe this proposed policy change could potentially force them to choose between safety and their child's desire to participate in school sponsored activities which are not just the sports at Frontier but socializing in in elementary schools music art programs recess um there's been some discussion that homeschool families are not part of the district community and I respectfully disagree legally the school district has to approve and provide oversight of homeschooling with a focus on whether instruction and progress equals that to that in the public school in addition when a Disabled Student is homeschooled the state still requires the District to provide evaluations and IEP services to those students they are also included in the number of eligible special education students for federal funding IEP students come to the school for services including socialization whether they are enrolled in the school or not all students including homeschoolers are a part of this community and deserve the opportunity to participate in these activities thank you Mike um my name is Mike D from Deerfield um I'm a father of two children one is a special needs child who we homeschool and the other attends the local school it was suggested in the school committee meetings that homeschooled children may not be held to the same academic and behavioral standards as school kids my homeschooled child gets up early he completes academic work every day including Reading Writing Math and Science he has never made this much academic and social progress until we began the home school it was not an easy decision but it was a necessary decision he did so well that we have continued to home school he loves to be active in the community he went to a school activity last week where he met a local author read and ate pizza with other kids he plays soccer and loves to run I could see him joining a track team in the future he attended math night and family night he goes to the school PR playground and knows many of the kids he is an active member of this community there there are potential extracurricular opportunities not even yet established in our district our family is working with Deerfield Elementary School to establish best buddies which is a student run club that creates onetoone connection between students within without disability if our child was excluded this opportunity would not be a current potential and our community would lose the opportunity to be to be enriched by it our other child is enrolled at the local school we have had to reach out numerous times to alert the school about behavioral concerns of other enrolled students some of which were very upsetting most of these disrupted children participate in extracurricular activities we have discussed the prospect of homeschooling her so she may have a more productive academic life and a safer social experience I don't know how I can justify to our homeschooled child that he can't participate even though he once did my child will be affected by this polic by this policy change but the school did not alert me involve me or give me the opportunity to ask questions or have discussion the district did not give any objective reasoning we pay our taxes we homeschool lawfully we reive permission and authorization from the superintendent we meaningfully educate our child my child is a well- behaved now academically achieving homeschooled child what part of our scenario warrants excluding him and limits his access to important opportunities the department of education's website States the school board is a legal agent of the state and must therefore fulfill both state and federal mandates at the same time the board must be responsive to the community it serves homeschooled students are legally recogn recognized by the state and certified by our superintendent they are our community's children I urge you to oppose this policy as the board works to fulfill its responsibilities through the community it serves when weighing this policy out it appears that it will hurt more children than be of benefit I urge you to consider this and oppose this policy change thank you thank you Ashley hi um I'm Ashley um I'm a mother I'm also a nurse in the community um I I want the committee to know that in family informed me their student was told on three separate occasions this Academic Year that he could not participate in an extracurricular activity because he is homeschooled this highlights a potential bias underlining this policy proposal and raises concerns to me about the ethical implications of school leaders practicing policies discretionarily um as the superintendent spoke of an US versus them mentality at the frontier meeting it became clear how our community is establishing a precedent for exclusion if we vote this in if you vote this in lacking diversity of thought and consideration for others as well as for Community enrichment as a family affected by this policy we have taken our time to review the handbook and policies and the commitments of the district my opinions are not meant to be NE nefarious I want to share my informed reasons for opposing it first the district's justification has been minimal it and it also lacks the conrete objective rationale needed to justify a drastic measure of full exclusion of an entire group of children whose parents are within their legal protection second it negatively impacts a group of community's children yet stakeholders in this decision were not made aware or invited to engage in discussion most notably the CPAC while CPAC his parent LED its District required and set forth by the Department of Education with regulations mandating cpac's participation in the development and evaluation of District initiatives that impact children with special needs mine being one of them there are current special education students who learning whose learning needs do not have not been fully met by the public school system particularly those whose neurot types do not align with a singular model CPAC represents these children and and again our child is one of them although we planned for our child to attend Our Town school he faced significant challenges each year due to disability despite the support of caring teachers and therapists his progress was limited and bullying was a concern homeschooling was not our original plan and it's not easy but it was necessary even with the special education support at school although my child is no longer enrolled in public school the Massachusetts Department of Education still recognizes him as a lawful student and our superintendent our superintendent does certify that our home education plan is UN quote from the application is equal to the education provided to students attending Frontier Regional and Union 38 in thoroughness and efficacy and moving forward with my points of opposition the district did not explore less drastic Alternatives or even proactive options that would better preserve our commitments and what this means for the stakeholders I believe it's an extreme solution to a hypothetical problem I was made aware that at the high school level there are only two children who are currently receiving um who are participating in extracurriculars who are homeschoolers both have met the standards and are authorized and considering the speculation of unmet Behavioral standards we have a handbook that outlines a resp response in which the district makes Case by case excluding an entire group grossly goes outside of the district's own behavior and disciplinary procedures we have an equity an equity commitment signed by by our district in which we believe part of it is we believe in the importance of having accessibility on every level and every location to all students in our school Community for equity and inclusivity while Frontiers committee discussion focused nearly on high school sports I want to highlight that extracurricular activities Encompass a wide range of opportunities and not just at the high school level they provide social engagement teamwork communication emotional intelligence and resilience as well as skills essential for a future Community it leveled me to hear our kids my kid reduced to a homeschooler who is choosing Al theart options as if it were a wreck department suggesting that he is splintering the fabric of the district I am hurt by this bias and it doesn't describe our family and it weaponizes extracurriculars for my child and others we are a district who is turning towards inclusion and yet this policy does not model this for our children I would remind us that the department of education does not promote the exclusion of homeschoolers from extra curricular and thank you for time I don't know if I can follow that up she said pretty much everything that I needed to say my name is Nancy I'm a Community member and in my home one child is enrolled in the district school and thriving and one is Special Needs who is homeschooled both children are involved in the community and extracurricular activities I oppose the policy chains that will impact homeschooled children for many reasons first our homeschooled child is allowed to participate and has done nothing wrong and there is no way to justify this change to him second our family followed all the required steps to have the homeschool plan approved and authorized by the district I oppose the change because it impacts children in the community and there was no time or space created for prior discussion I oppose this change because it goes against the district's signed commitment to equity I oppose this change because no other Alternatives were explored or discussed I suppose this change because a district educated children who can't meet the academic and behavioral behavioral standards go through a tiered approach to disciplinary actions and remedial opportunities I oppose this change because there has not been any objective reason given this leaves a lot of unanswered questions finally I oppose this change because unjustified exclusion of a group of children feels discriminatory thank you I ask to thank you for everyone for um speaking and being here tonight with us and apprciate okay um moving on to unfinished business we're going to talk about policies I think it makes sense for us to talk about the a group of policies um and vote on those then we can move on to the princi schol policy that make sense anyone has any questions or comments on the the a group that those policies covering non-discrimination and harassment regarding sex and gender right does that include the new policy uh that's ACA ACAA acab ACA R AC yes yes uh I just wanted to refer to ACAA page two on transitions names and pronouns and transitions um is there it's not clear what parental rights are within uh these two areas I think some clarity there might be needed specifically when we look at the last paragraph or the last two paragraphs um excuse me the last paragraph some transgender and gender non-conforming students are not openly so at home for reasons such as safety concerns or lack of acceptance uh here is where um the school's action would then step in school Personnel should speak with the Student First before discussing a student's gender nonconformity or transgender status with the student's parent or Guardian um and then for some reasons School Personnel should discuss with the student how the school should refer to the student uh EG appropriate pronoun use or written communication to students parents or Guardians so in that section I'm just not sure what the school's action plan is so a student approaches the school says um I'm transitioning but it's un safe I don't feel safe to communicate this at home what is the is their notification still sent to Homes at that point I think that's not clear in the the policy good question um in the sense of it the school doesn't want to be in a place between the family and the student but it's going to support the student's decision um and I think it's also again you're looking at a policy that's looking at you know prek to 12 it's also going to be a difference of you know how old the child is um so I mean I think it's a good a good point in the sense of you know we could probably get greater Clarity um within that t put on the spot do you have any thoughts on that having at the elementary level um typically we work with families around as I say most of the time the are part of they're part of the conversation they not it's a good question it's a sensitive that's a real sensitive moment right there and I don't know if it's been there's been an instance that here in the district at large but in preparation for such a moment I think it's probably wise to look at U what clearly is communicated with homes uh and then I mean we know it's clear the policy is clear about what the school will do to support the student but at at a certain point you I think that's just how does that get sent home in in those more delicate circumstances so I'm not sure being being new I'm not entirely sure about how the policy then gets um how we look at that change that get discussed it it makes I'm just thinking through what you're saying and I'm wondering if it should be be a policy or if it needs to be a part of this because this is about how the school supports the student and then that home school communication um by leaving out clarification I I wonder if it's okay to leave out clarification on that so that there's flexibility among grades and among in terms of reading a situation around child safety um because policy about hom School communication about personal things is so delicate I'm afraid that a policy might not capture everything that needs to be captured in a individual situation and then I wouldn't want to be going against policy in one of those wild outlier situations um but I think that it should be thought about and practiced in advance like everything you said about Advanced thought makes sense to me everything you said about um how important it is to not be caught by surprise in the situation but I I just wonder if it needs to be a policy since this is about how we support students not about homeschool communication yeah would in that situation would it fall more under whatever policies and practices you have in place regarding any situation where a student is struggling or you have concerns about what's going on at home or a student has some kind of emotional thing they're dealing with it to me it would be the same as anything like that it'd be a judgment all think so exting to tell a parent that you're concerned about their lots of things yeah yeah yeah yeah it it said this is desie saying when determining which of any staff or students should be informed of students gener identity this de from assigned birth decision should be made in consultation with a student or in the case of a young student student's parent or Guardian but it doesn't say what what a young identifies as a young student um the question is whether or not how sharing information will benefit the student and it gives an example but the example is not super helpful I think this is such unchartered territory that I mean in thinking in reading the policy prior to the meeting and and trying to think of examples that might be helpful guides it's we don't necessarily have them and so that's a challenge um in and up itself I I guess I bring up the point because I I and Darius you said it very well we don't want to get in this back and forth situation we want to support the student but we also have a responsibility to not uh we have to communicate to to homes yeah and so maybe the language looks something to the extent of um you know that the school you know to the best of their you know legal responsibilities and and ability will work with homes during you know the communicate fees uh the the support that the child will receive but again if it's a really hostile home environment it's it's it's hard to say so but that's why I want to bring it up because I I don't know necessarily what the answer is for that case scenario that that we're using here in those situ you know I'm just thinking like a principal wouldn't be making that decision on their own they would be talking to the psychologist or like a an adjustment coun who's very trained in all of these things in terms of like assessing for home safety and what you know making that call like so what would be or an administrator making that decision in a vacuum I don't know if it makes sense to clarify the role of a different School person to help make that call in conjunction with the student but um ultimately is this a better policy than what was there before I guess is a question right like is this something that can be this is a new policy does not ex we don't have anything now so ultimately this is still maybe better than having nothing at all potentially a work in progress I mean it's big you know I just kind of read read it before I walked in the room again so you know so I just kind of read through it again but basically you know it's talking about working with the student um throughout the process you know um the schools will consult with the student before discussing student gender Conformity or Transat status with the student's parent or Guardian so it's it's a you know it says that in page three so you know it's talking about working with the student and through that there's no um there's no emergency timing on that you know and so I think depending on the age of the student and the other factors that you tough to put into a policy it's not it doesn't Define it I don't know if if we need to Define it is the is what kind of saying it's saying that we're going to work with the student and and so forth and if the student has such a home life that they don't want to discuss it do would we rather them not be fearful of sharing that at school and creating a safe environment at school in fear that school have to tell their parents um if their parents you know the school working with them you know it's a tough call but I I think it's a tough call and I stand in the kind of in the the side where uh we the communication has to take place to the parent uh and the support has to be there for the student and so it's it's trying to thread that needle uh so that we're doing our DU diligence on both sides and so if somehow this could say we um notification to parents is essential that would be that would do that because then everything else in there would is supporting the student so you're having U you're doing your due diligence from a parental responsibility standpoint but then everything else is laid out for the student as well so if you want to you can propose an amendment to the policy which we could vote on it would make us an outlier with the other schools that I think has so far voted well and I think the right right in the other layer in this and I'm not saying you you could also not vote the policy and ask for feedback would be probably more more appropriate than amending the policy because this was put together by a group you know they talk about the last meeting a lot of hands touch this including student or student body um reps um from lgbtq plus um Club um where they are looking at from their lens as well and for us to take it and make a significant change like that I would want to get at least their feedback before switching it again on that kind of thing they had a hand in the development of the policy as well as the people from the A&E committee that were you know put on it and it also see what the standard is you know I can get you know this went through legal they didn't seem to have any problems with it but we didn't ask that question just think if a student discloses uh sexual orientation to a teacher there wouldn't be any feeling like we would need to reach out and this feels the the same the same situation unless it gets to a area I it might be the child is not presenting as gender fluid or trans except at school and this is their safe space kind of see that just from the teaching perspective is that it's not really much different M all right um so maybe what we should do is um look to vote on that one first then may take the other ones as a group could take some of them as a group right vote on can when we're ready vote on this one and then right on the other four but also know that the community has to agree will as well so you know me in a sense not put against you but you know I mean you you're looking for the change and you guys have to agree that you want to do a change or you want to table it as a group yeah no I'm just thinking logistically we vote on this one then we vote on five together just up we don't have to vote on each of these individually I don't think unless there are other discussions I I think before that happens I just want to say that um the some of the guidance that the AE committee used to write this did come from the state and the goal in like reading the text from the state is about how do we support students it isn't guidance they didn't offer guidance on homeschool communication and so I do think that that's an incredibly important issue but I don't know that that belongs in the document that's talking about how do we support students I just want to be clear that not wanting to change this doesn't mean we don't want to think about homes School communication this this does though handle that topic when we talk about communication with parents or Guardians when we um back to the the section on transitions um you mean the second paragraph uh in both the the from the from the bottom the second from the bottom and then the the last paragraph it it does it does discuss um how parents will be communicated with I um well right so the school shall offer to hold a meeting with the student and the parents if the the parents are involved in the process to develop a transition plan so that this child's comfortable at school and then so that offer that's like an offering process not like a not not a notification but to offer a support process so that nobody alone trying to figure out how this is going to work and then in the second part School Personnel should speak with the student first before discussing the topic with the parents in other words letting the student know I'm going to be bringing this up with your parents is what that says so that the child isn't surprised that the parents have been informed um that saying that we should let the student know that that's our line of communication before going directly to the parents without the students knowledge and so I I think that that's all all about supporting the student and having a comfortable experience but I don't I don't think it says exactly like the thing that you are looking for is not in here and I just keep wondering where does that kind of clarity belong if it you know maybe in another document my thoughts are I don't think I would like the policy to lay out specific when and why the parents are contact I think we should leave it to the schools to maintain flexibility in a case by case basis help fam contact or if I would agree with that I don't I hate to tie you know or use the word like essential and really box box it in because I think there are enough professionals and psychologist and school adjustment counselors principles all of you that would a team make a decision like that and help help in supported the student and desie actually reading on um some trans transgender and gender non-conforming students are not opening are not open so are not openly so at home for reasons such as safety conser lack of acceptance School Personnel should speak to students first before discussing to us the students gender non-conformity of transition transgender status with the students parents or guarding for the same reason school Personnel should discuss with student how the school should refer to the student each G appropriate pron now use in and WR communication with the student's parent or guardan so they leave it compling so they're saying no they're saying it goes right we fortunately have not had that issue where we had worked with families but um they're saying it's in the power of the doents so we can make a motion to make an Amendment to the policy you can do that yes would you like to do that or should I look for a motion for approving the policy I don't want to Mo i' would like to make a motion that we table ACAA for further review of Parental communication surrounding transitions just because we don't have that necessarily the case studies but it's just a lot we don't know and that's I know it's a hot button issue and I and I don't mean to slow down the policy train that we have we have some good stuff but that's just an oversight that whether it belongs here or somewhere it's it feels essential to this process is there a second to the motion okay there's no second the motion does not pass and we move forward to the back Me original motion further thoughts okay then I would be looking for a motion to approve policy ACAA a motion to approve second any further discussion right all in favor all against thank you the motion passes 4 to one you probably should do them all individually for all righty got it you ready to start typing yeah all right uh would anybody uh like to motion to approve policy ACA move to approve um any discussion on that one hearing none all in favor motion carries 5 move appr policy AC AB Mary there's no discussion on that one all in favor motion car 5 motion to approve aa- R second all in favor and motion to approve AC c-r second I'm good pattern Mary makes it easier not all right all in favor all right thank you okay that I think that got us got us to one two three four all the A's all right okay uh now I like to move on to policy IBG which is the proposed changes to uh homeschool involvement in extracurriculars uh I would just like to knowe that Frontier voted on this on Tuesday and after a robust discussion uh they voted down the policies change so they vot a note on that so in the interest of keeping policies across the district and this affects your fi lesson Frontier so think it makes sense to I would qu that we also vote no for this policy I would like to open the current discussion any I have I just have some rock paper [Laughter] scissors oh okay how so I just we might have to um how many homeschoolers do we have in the district 25 25 for the whole District No it's 25 for Frontier okay Deerfield has you know what's my other folder but uh de Frontier is 25 de has like 16 I think I'm going off of memory on that let me see if let me see if the digital copy it's that's not fames that's students correct students not families and for Dees what um how many of those students have I or 504s is that data we have access to we don't have that data we only have those who are using Services unless there's there many there are some families that have never stepped building we don't even know um again if they have an education plan or that kind of thing so it would only be those receiving services and I don't have that number in front of me I can get it that's I would like that at some maybe after the meeting at some point you could let us know that you might serves one home school student that we are providing services to okay one of 16 can you define extracurricular because I feel like I'm I I'm really like I am hearing like sports and like club and drama but then like things like music and band like so I'm I'm cuz I thought those were part of the school day okay extra C events they happen outside school hours they're responsible okay so that's what we're talking about when we're talking about extracurriculars outside of school hour so we're not talking about band or art or like an art class like a specific art class that's part of your that's part of part of school day okay co-curricular instead of extracurricular curricular thank you so the policy says uh not be able to participate in inter Scholastic athletic program student government and student activity program what is there available at the elementary school level what is is there anything that is actually there's nothing currently included here there was concern about what about the future if we were bail have after school let's say we you say we created a basketball team that was de elementary basketball team instead of the rec program that would be if we do that in the future that would you know this policy would Lim those students so for students who are non 504 IEP if they want to access something like gym or art or band like a one class here and there kind of thing is is there a process to ask for that or is it kind of if if you have an IEP then that could be part of the IEP team they would have to request that through to me okay so there is so that's but that's separate than extracurriculars that's co-curricular separate from extracurricular right what about a program Like Girls on the Run it's not run by the school directly it's run by parent oration right is parent org grouts gr Scouts so it's house on so yeah things are things happen on campus but it's not run by you know it's a lot like all the uh again looking at the sports but the recreation sports that are housed here the basketball leagues all that stuff all the announcements go through the school system but it's run by deerful wreck and private school students are playing on it and that kind of stuff anyone has access to it anybody lives in town and they L that's good choice for the I think they pay if you're not a res I think they pay a little more yes they are alloud if there always that wait we doesn't say that on there true this is okay if there's no further discussion I would just like to add so there were a lot of emails that were sent and Communications that went out over this process and um it's been a pleasure to hear from the community in such a robust way that the emails were thoughtful but respectful uh at no point did it become uh at least from where I sit um hostile and I I'm just uh grateful for the community to be able to come out in this way uh and support their children their students uh and uh and I I've learned a lot through this but at the same time I also just want to uh reiterate that um this this um I I stand with the The Homeschool parents and with the decision to align with Frontier so yes I would just like to say I um actually thank Darius for bringing this forward um with the intent that you did it's it's um we heard it at Frontier the other night his perspective on the on the equity and fairness for all students um and defining who is in our school community that kind of thing which made a lot of sense and you know we I thought about some things that I hadn't thought of from my perspective you know I don't want to exclude any child um but you brought up some excellent points I I hadn't thought of um so I I applaud you for bringing it forth you saw some you know maybe unfairness inequities for all the students things that ought to be reviewed and just talked about and I think that certainly has happened we had great conversation with some of the some of the same folks the other night so I think it's been good be as well I agree Mary I think there are uh things that the decisions that could be made things that could be changed um and this is a good conversation to be having get this out where so is there um I don't know what our what our vote is going to be if we like vote on this policy or if we table it as a result of my understanding as Frontier is taking it back to their policy subcommittee is that right they voted no and it will be future okay so it's possible we will sort of be revisiting this in a different capacity once that other policy comes out so do we make a motion and vote on it or do we withdraw it from you can go do it either way so it's not a new policy you're amending a policy so by if you table it um it would refer to the old policy if you you vote it down it goes to the old policy I recommend voting it down it's a little cleaner than having something on a table that's sitting up there you're you're kind of saying that you want it to go back and be revised based on by voting it I think it's a a little cleaner in my my opinion Al that we were just at Sunderland and they chose the opposite what they did for what reason Jessica said that I'll never put it on the agenda so don't worry about it it was kind of that so it was like okay Happ one the other but it is technically tabled and could be unted at any time so I think it's it's just cleaner to say you know what it's we we don't like the way it currently is and um we disagree and if the subcommittee so you're member you you're we rate policies as a five School District so um your membership will be on the policy subcommittee because when we reviewed all the policies when which this one came up it was part of the policy subcommittee whoever I forget who's on just can't remember so we will have a meeting you know to review policy and this will be on the agenda ideas there we'll take it up or not you know I mean the policies up can say no it's working fine or or you have to have um procedures that are different than policy right so you know what does the that kind of thing do you feel Darius that there's a need to keep this discussion open to um to hash out some of the points that Mary talked about in terms of um you know what some of the thinking that brought the changes from the first place in terms of I think I think what ended up Frontier ended up saying is that exactly that that there are that they disagreed with the um with well with there were a lot of different opinions that came up with it but um and in the end they they disagreed with the language the new language that was proposed but they did say that there's there is a issue of um that things could be done to to solve some of those concerns of inequity amongst public school students versus home school students so and then perhaps they could either put language into the policy or create something to go with the policy I think is is that sound about right so um I don't want to make a motion to approve it I don't approve it can I make an motion to not approve it that's what I that's what I said did you say that no but I thought you said I would either vote it down to make make a motion and then we'll vote it down make a motion to vote it down but I don't want to use the word approve in my motion can can you move to can I move to not not to vote no okay I guess you're ready make a motion to discard no that's all right I I'll do it see what happens see what happens I move to approv policy IBG oh it's last a second oh Mary I got you I'm already on the second train okay right thank you for your can we do that this is hilarious I think so now we just voted down just voted we get the idea can we state it for clarification purposes though um U so I will asked for votes of all in favor of the motion is that what you mean yeah just what Mary's motion was so there's a lot of cross talk she made it a motion to approve policy ibj I seconded so can bring it to a vote Mary you're right you just removed from the table you shouldn't make a motion I don't want you should just remove it from the table that's how Robert RS would work you wouldn't take action on it that's true and it would die it yeah because because I don't believe you can move a motion and then vote against it why not for some reason my dut says you're not allowed to do that okay I don't have a okay so do I have to make a motion to remove it yeah or can this a motion to table is that tbling now that what you were trying to avoid you can actually just take no action and it dies that way too oh so no one no make no it just like there was an amendment that didn't go you just say if no one if no one brings it forward it it dies well I think there's like a symbolic I think there's a symbolic voting but I think you would have to retract your motion there a motion on the table right now okay okay boy motion approve no you don't have to approve a motion to move in Robert rules word so sorry I screwed up the whole it it says though you do not have to proove a motion to move it in Robert's Rules of Order right so you can you can shoot it down but it's been detracted I think we could if I will call for a motion and no one will make a motion okay would anyone like to make a motion for approv policy IBG no okay no motion all right so it's off of our table okay all right moving on thank you everyone all right new business Capital planning update all righty so I shared with you today the pdf version of that um of what's on the board here so you can kind of look through but no we're not s we so again an ongoing list of all the things for those who this is the first time seeing it we kind of show everything in Gray what we've completed through the past three years and you can read through the notes of how things were funded and what things cost so you can get an idea of the amount of um improvements we've done in the school um in the past basically since we started this docum in my first year of superintendent so the past seven years um L is the things that are still in progress um in progress may also mean that we didn't pay the bill yet um which would be in the case for the um entry project um we Haven made the bill yet and the side engines project we waiting on um the addition of a handicap um accessible ramp to be um added on so um and then the playground engineering I we capability so basically um the last few years we've had um we used some school choice money we've used some ARA money we used some grant money um and we use some Esser money to take care of a lot of different things around the buildings we've done a lot the last few years um looking ahead um we started calling ones and one B meaning that the 1B is like if we can get funding elsewhere we're not going to look to go to the town as part of the capital capit this year but 1B is like it's on our radar and we might find another way to pay for it um and um you know I'll go to one B's first the replacement of the convention steamer convection steamer rather you guys remember Shel was at the last meeting and she talked about how our lunch proceeds are a little bit high in in our collections a little high that we're going have to spend some of that down so we may be able to pay for that steamer I you got to buy lunch things with those those funds um we may able to buy a new um convection steamer with those funds so it's on our Capital list but it's not something that we're going to go looking for funding for um hallway painting um could be done in phases you know we're talking about you know doing you've seen so in the front entry way how wonderful that's kind of um Tina wants to continue that throughout the building jump in if I miss pict um but we also could do that in phases with some IMM year money so the whole thing would cost about 25 that's a round number that we threw at it based on you know the other kind of the other painting we've done but that can be broken up into parts to Wing at a time to $5,000 or $7,000 just to jump in it's not just murals it's just repainting right yeah but I was seeing home like yeah no yeah Catherine or teacher do some of the mural oh so you're see she didn't sign up to do the whole building she did not sign up for that sorry I don't think I have the skill but I was right we're gonna ask her but she didn't sign up for all right um so the uh things that are ones um there are two that are um very clearly we we can um we can probably go after um from the town the first one being um so our so we have boilers that we've been replaced recently the boilers also have pumps that pump the water from the boiler throughout the building um they both of them are at 30 years old and the parts of them are Obsolete and the idea is to replace one each year and there's two years so that they get those up to speed so that if one goes down and they always go down when freezing out it's probably because there's probably a greater strain on them um we're doing the same thing up at um Conway as well actually they didn't mergency order because one of theirs broke they couldn't get parts this is why it's on our radar here and the second one started leaking and so we did actually an emergency we the select board up there to get to get a new circular pump because they're all at the same age that's the only thing nice about our building in the same age We R in the same problems at the same time um so we're looking to do that the second thing um is to continue are flooring um and La said she had enough she left um does this I'm see if I can get the maps an idea person do to the maps so basically going back to um I'm a pdf version I was trying to show the flooring map but it's not the uh I'm in this PDF what's that are you on the PDF I'm on a PDF no I was on the live one it wouldn't open it up so anyways the we basically are doing um like three classrooms a year we've been making our way through the building um a12 and six would be the next one on the map um I'm trying for some reason I didn't know that so that would be the other one that we bring forward the big thing that's left over is that parking lot across the street is in is getting worse and worse every year um it's the same problem FR it's probably in the same kind of disrepair as Frontiers is um the good news is there are less structural issues than what Frontier has um but it's the town's parking lot so it really the question is whether or not we should probably have a conversation with the select board whether not the select board wants to go through for funding for that or does the school go through funding to try funding to pay for the school parking lot and the reason why it's slightly different is for the most part yeah but how can you share it with me yeah yeah sorry yeah you're right that not great um late thank you the uh for being about it so the question is whether or not we should just asked the town to put it on their list and they they fund it and come up that time because basically the way it has worked the school's taking care of everything the school the town plows it the town pot takes care of the potholes we don't even have to request it they've been very good while staying on top of it for the most part um and so the question but it is under our kind of purview so that's kind of in our conversation tonight as well um so and then as soon as I get the thing I'll show you the map so you get an idea with the floor what we are on the floor questions on what I shareed I just wanted to share something about the parking lot and sidewalk I myself have almost broken a bone getting to that parking lot just kind of like twisting ankles and I'm a little clumsy so I realize that might not be but I have seen other small children like really wipe out pretty like bloody wipeouts um walking to school because it is a little treacherous and then like the sidewalk area it is even more treacherous there's like huge divots and um there's like a lip between Where the Sidewalk is and then to the grass so like and there's tons of traffic you know crowded kind of going to and from so it's it's great um yeah does the 296,000 cover just repaving the existing parking lot and sidewalks in the exact same layout would that involve any changes same same layout that is actually exactly that it's not changing anything it's um the quote was made by basically having coming in looking at the amount of asphalt that's needed in the general cost of ripping up and putting down so that's an envelope number we'd have to obviously put it out to bid you know depending on the price of asphalt and contractors that year that number go up or down yeah but so that would be our starting number usually it's concerned so we'd probably be able to get a pricing less than that um and just because we're bouncing around so well together here the gray area is the area that's been completed um and then um yellows installed is what we're proposing no which was happened this year what happened this year purple the following year so you can see we're we're getting pretty close we're getting pretty close to finishing the building questions right thank you so I guess but well within the conversation we do need to kind of talk about do you want me to reach out to the select board and talk to them about the parking lot and directly say do we want to put this on the town Capital list instead of the school Capital list because it's a major expense and we're going to and we're going to talk about the playground in a minute which is another major expense which we're going to go the Town FL to and that's been the problem with parking lots both at Frontier and here where I'll be honest it's not my priority I'm sorry you tri and fell W if we get a different playground It's Kind like you know it's like I got bandaids yeah it's like new playground or parking lot I'm going to pick the playground tennis courts or the parking lot I'm going to pick the tennis courts you know what I mean like so you know unfortunately that's how I that's why Frontiers has gotten really bad because it's just it's a Frontiers look dollar job like it's going to freeze everything else I know it's necessary and eventually have to get to it but that's why I was kind of going after program things first because you know kids programming comes first in my mind but eventually parking LTS aren't sexy they got to get eventually get done and same thing with roofs roofs aren't sexy aren't sexy either and they have to get done unless you're a roofer then you think roofs are amazing but what is your sense of are there different funding sources available if that goes through the so the question is whether or not they can use chapter 90 money for a parking lot I don't know what the rules are on that but that they get different funding from the state and that's why it would be good because if we do it through the town I think we strongly recommending that you tell me to go ask talk to the select about this because the town also could do it themselves right and so with that they can do it if if the highway department does it um they can do it for far cheaper they can put it in for another job they they can put it into their bidding at the beginning of the Season where they they basically you put a bid how much Road you're going to do and someone bids the amount of Roads so they can get a lower price on ass well they could maybe somehow put into there so there's other things that they can do that we can't do we would have to go out to a you know a contractor that kind of stuff and um and I don't know what's in their queue for Town Projects in the sense of um and they only can do so much as you saw with the sidewalks they contracted out for part of it they did part of it so um you need a motion darious no just conversation fine as much as I'd like to get a print for a redesign over there and think about traffic flow with everything else on the docket it seems like that's does have to go to the bottom of the of the list and and so I would you know recommend that we look at it see if the town could you know help cover the cost or handle the project the amount of use that pring a lot gets from nothing to do with the elementary school is pretty yeah that's really true so it was completely full in town meeting alone so football I mean any time that gate is open the well during town meeting there was the boy soccer game that was was a big one was funny left time me I walked out there and there were 700 people there yes it was a they were playing two number regularly full on the weekends when absolutely Dar who funded the when the re when the walkway was refinished six years ago they used um arpa money they used their covid money because and they were able to justify that because they had to have their meeting outside and so they used they paved the whole thank you the town of Deerfield they paved the whole walkway from the back of Frontier to the stadium so to speak was paved using that money because they need to be able to get um you know you know folks with mobility issues to the because they had it the first one on the football field and they were like we're not walking out there all the way so the second time they had it right on right behind the building um but they they Justified that money there so it's kind of a win-win okay thank you just because I want to get moving on that to put on their list well it may not happen this year you want to get on this year if to having a phone number thank you for taking up the town anything else we need to cover here playground renovation so um we so our I think we took a this group took a tour of the playground last fall last fall last spring were you would you part of that were that was it last started so so I'm going to right now what's happening is that so we went and um used I believe school choice money to pay for um burer design to come up with new schemes to make our playgrounds more handicap accessible in the prek in the K4 playground when that's the playground when you face the building on the left hand side um the structure in the K4 playground the big one is still in great shape it's only 9 years old um but the ground is washed out uh they didn't put in proper drainage when they put when they did the originally the porm play is covered with um wood chips and the design of it has wood chips on both sides of a porn play with kids running back and forth so even if you go out and blow it and sweep it the following recess again anybody who's in a wheelchair that kind of thing is it's impossible to get through the wash out has created if you haven't walked out there you be careful but the um the POR and play surface has sunken in um we probably can do some repairs to bring that up like cut holes in it to put sand in we have to do something like that in a different playground but um overall um and there's a lack of ADA accessible accessible um devices on that playground so with that in mind we contacted ber design and had them give us some layouts so I'm going to share those on the screen here we have a subcommittee that's working on this uh made up of teachers and um Annie um where' it go oh there go um really hard to see on this but let me try to orchestrate this for you this is the has everybody been on the playground well you didn't see that really confidently but this is the um if you walked out this doorway walk straight out the door it will take you out here and you would walk straight out and this is the soft the baseball field or softball fields way out there the big ditch Wetland storm Basin is through here um the basketball courts are over here and this is the big play structure right here all right so the idea is to put in um P play the whole thing right now um using uh wood chips and such is every year we have to spend thousands of dollars to bring this up in you're supposed to have one foot of wood chips under followable structures keeping that there after it's been knocked Away by swings kids doing that kind of stuff it's a constant it's a constant mess um so is to do form play through the whole thing add a um handicap accessible wheelchair acceptable accessible um play structure this is adding a new climber structure and remove uh the individual one that's out there the little pod that's nice it gets kind of like it but it's one it's like single use and then moving the current kind of diamond climbing structure over so that is the current so what we did is we divide this project into two parts the K to K to four playground which is this one which we think is first in line and then the prek so just talking about the K to four one and then um oh [Music] sorry on here there sure this is the other side of that map um the pro just so you know what why I struggle over here is that you present it but it's I can't touch it I'm anyway this is the edge of that the big play structure these are the basketball courts repaving those if you ever walk on those now it's covered with small stones that get Dragged In from the side um and when you know kids obviously are falling and that kind of stuff and can't dribble basketball without having Stones stuck to it um so um repaving this and then we have an ad alt I'll show you some numbers in a minute but this is the current swing set again keeping the structure but putting um wh in play this is all within the Wetland area the entire playground is in the W Wetland area so we're going to have to go to conservation um to get um allowance to do work within the Wetland area the Wetland area actually comes right up this line here almost up to the side of the building within a foot or two of the side of the building so um it's okay to do things within the Wetland area especially if you're doing improvements so um and you're not changing we're not changing our footprint so it shouldn't be a problem but there is a series steps that we're going to have to go through with the town and then also with the state um because anytime you're doing that kind of thing in Wetland area they may have a state agency look at our prints as well okay questions on what we're putting together so right now the I asked demon looked to see if there was a question he kept on talking excuse me um we have a subcommittee that's looking at this and um right now getting feedback if there's any changes and we have a meeting next week so it could be slight changes but I want to give you an update where it's at and the reason why is that we want to look at CPA money um Verge Recreation um to pay for the majority of this project and the question is and we're working on like can we get donations um what is the realistic of that the school budget um BR be a little bit tighter school budget this year and we got to be more and more careful with school choice so I don't want to throw it just at that as the answer this playground is the only playground in town for that age group and um when the other playground fell apart that they were going to put together next to Frontier um I think it's time we can I think it's aair to say that we can go back to the CPA not back but um you can go with again another playground idea um to fund it it's used all weekend long um anytime you drive by in the weekend on a nice day there car is parked out people are using that um in the other hang I'm go back to back to the other way out sure the other part is so we have this broken up in the sections so whether or not we break it up into sections is one of the decisions we have to make but the other part is the elementary the pre the element the preschool playground um again if you haven't been to it so you know you walk up the walkways the first playground there's like a there's like a shed right here sandbox right there but basically the majority of those play structures are well out of date excuse me the main play structure is falling apart um you know we've had a rebolt if areas it's starting to rust you know it's it's it's starting to fail especially for that um age group so the idea is to put in a lot of new pieces except the swing set is still in good shape um and um put in all again Po and place surfaces right there right now any preschool with mobility issues doesn't really have a playground they can access the area over here off this walkway through here it's it's a dirt ground not great um staff members will try to get them two different object they can't do do so unassisted so the this plan here would have you know being able to roll be able to roll out here uh ramp down into the playground area and have access to all all pieces so um again those pieces are being reviewed and such by the our subcommittee um and so we'll have an idea let me share the um the hard part right because they ain't cheap so I got to go here DS playground estimate why is it doing that right so we basically had it broken up into three parts um the first one that you're seeing there is um the pre playground and as you can see some reason everything's really slow my computer you're looking at a $300,000 cost um we already our sub our uh our group is already our subcommittee has already talked started doing reach out and the town might be able to help us with removal so we're we have to meet these numbers will come down but you can see where the costs are in the preschool the play equipment at $180,000 and that's that's a number that's going to be tough to move um we can remove some of the play structures and then you have the rubber pling surface at $80,000 um those are the big costs of the thing everything you know bidding and and you know removal and that kind of thing can go can move around um but you're looking at those other two numbers um even though the rubberized surface we did Conway at 16 per square foot we've hav been to Conway playground pick a drive up there with your kids if you got little ones um because that's kind of the idea that we're trying to replicate down here um they were able to get it for 16 the number has gone up to 20 he seems they can come back down so there may be thousands of savings there but but um as you can see it's a very big price tag the you called it the one to six playground but it's one to four playground again you're looking at a number that is at 360 386 with a much higher number for rubberized service because of this the amount of it and the new play equipment so that play equipment is extremely expensive and I made a joke and it's probably not funny but I could park my truck out there and have the kids play on it for Less um with the music going you know the uh the structure the ada8 structure the play equipment is $85,000 um the second structure is the difference um of that and whether or not we keep that structure in there is one of the discussions the subcommittees have to make because you start with what you want and then you have to reduce to um what you can afford and then the third area we we we broke out would be whether or not the swings in basketball court would be an all add-on um again the rubberized surface is you know a lot cheaper obviously just under that particular swing set with, 1400 square feet um at 28,000 you know and um again asphalt paying at 10,000 if we had the town involved with this that number this particular one could come way down because they could actually asphalt that very easily do the uh basketball court and the walk around to it so so the whole total of the whole cost of the project um on the high end is just under $900,000 um realistically given where CPA just um you know just made a big movement you do the 1888 building and is also using money well they use the money to purchase I don't know if they're pry money into the senior um area as well um the idea is to write up our proposal and then have a conversation with CPA about how do we go about requesting that money you know how do we because I asked them do they want it well in advance so they can plan multi-year in a row and they not set up that way so I want to be able to request the entire amount and then go in and have a conversation that says we can break this into the parts we can cut this down like where the appetite of which they where they want to go um but that's where we're at exciting right Dante can you talk about the benefits of doing it all at once versus splitting it up yeah so if you do it all once you're probably going to get a much lower bid um because someone who's going to come in set up for asphalt sets up once whoever's coming in for the poor in play is going to set up once um for contractors that's a big part of it is that a lot of their a lot of their fee is um their labor is the setup and breakdown of whatever machiner they bring in so um however if we get the town to do the demolition um you know that might there may not be as much saving for the setup breakdown the town does the Demolition and the asphalt because I I also think they could do the aspht the basketball court you know um but you know I think the saving might is definitely worth it versus you know we're juggling getting different groups to coordinate to get the job done would be more difficult but um I think realistically to get through a price tag that's that high that makes more sense are you looking for any guidance from us right now or no it's an update so the reason the only thing that is also um untimely is that that you know that it's we're going this route um in that I am going to be making a request to the CPA or they go by CPC cpic each Town calls CP CPA money differently and the committee that oversees it um but I'm going to be making a request from the sub after our subcommittee meeting to the town that's due to November 1st so I'm going to be doing it on behalf of the school committee that we're going to be putting some kind of package together um and I want to do it in a way that says this is the full project we can break it into parts we want to have a conversation about it I think that's I think it's a a fair way to do to approach it than if we go in if we go in with a million they don't have the money I think they're only at a 900,000 right now it's GNA they're going to get another 500,000 next year they get about that much a year so it will re they'll have more than enough by the time the project needs to be funded but uh um I don't know there's a lot of projects out there right now and then would have to go to town meeting as well um so doing it in Parts might be more attractive that way but if you do one part and then lose um momentum that's the size there or M or support from town they do not one but two give them that kind of thing so yeah so I guess it's kind of an I that ideally you would have another school committee where you would vote to approve what we're putting forward so I'll send you a copy of every way materi I'll see you aware what's going on but there's no um and then we'll talk about November meeting D We There were some side conversations about private fundraising um what has has the district and and Tina thank you Tina shared some previous private support that thees has received has the District do we have any data that would be helpful for that planning for a fundraising campaign that that we could use to because the challenge that we have is since we don't have a lot in terms of like a spreadsheet of these are the folks who support us or have in the past being able to determine what could be fundraised and I know that would be helpful for your your your case with you know in the community um I just I I I that say a certain number could be fundraised without having any backup data um no we don't have a database or a good way of tracking what's been donated by whomever and you know that's the one thing I've always you know I've worked in private schools as well that do that very well you know what I mean um I think you know G Academy has more people on alumni relationship and donations and I have administrators in our district you know I mean so they got they you know there's a if you have a lot of resources for that you can develop those plans um and um other people are going to people other people all the time for money right and so if Frontiers doing something you know they're going to your you know the Polish Club who's been very generous to things you know the you know other kind of um you know institutions in town and I had a short conversation with um um select board member regarding um you know should we go after deerfi Academy or the other private institutions in town about maybe donating a portion of this there but it really should be planed out because it's a big it should be discussions with the town because they're having conversations with SE and they're having convers with everything there really should be a planned ask and um when I look at De for the Academy they should be giving a continual donation to the elementary school for the amount of students we serve and so those kind of conversations really should be more coordinated than sure you know we'll give you $50,000 where that number you know that we'll take it right and then fundraising I question whether or not the school playground needs to have $50,000 of parent fundraising when we pay CPA taxes is is my kind of you know so we've done two playgrounds um in our district already um Conway did it and and Sunderland did so Sunderland did a prek playground that's the one the right in front of the building if you ever pull in there um they decor and play and you know different everas it took them about 7 years to get the project done um they you know took donations for everything and it was a labor of love in ben barfy who lives in town here hat off as principal he did all that year after year getting different people to sign on and eventually they were able to get I think they use CPA money um to pay for it Conway had the idea and then they had a uh someone in town made a donation to town for the betterment of people with disabilities and they were able to get a big chunk of that and I believe some CPA money and they paid for it all at once and just got it done um it I mean it's a lot cleaner a lot easier obviously um so I I I know we're supposed to talk about fundraising talk about that but I I I I don't want to do bake sales for a playground you know what I mean like bake sales should be for you know smaller events and smaller kind of up things and or go to the pizzeria in town and ask for money you know what I mean like I think this is a lot of money um and whatever we do the CPA is going to want to see what are we providing on our end um as part of their application um I don't know I I'm taking feedback on it that's yeah no you know I I I we don't want to be uh knocking door too collecting dollar dollars for this project you know a structured Capital campaign of sorts is what you really are looking for it's just a matter of what scale and what we could pull off um the dollars are definitely there it's just a matter of you know identifying U who has the who who would like to support this project it's a good project right um and and so it's it's worthwhile thinking about but it's a big effort at the same time to yeah um put the the case together and then to schedule the meetings to with those donors so right right so it would likely be a separate committee that would would need a form to oversee it and then we would need ambassadors obviously in the community as well right and so oh I was just going to say something that um we spoke about at length at the subcommittee meeting with some of the teachers and which was very helpful and there's an occupational therapist also on the subcommittee but you know it would bolster our case to the CPA and if we have to stand up at town meeting to sort of really advocate for this if we have shown that we've attempted to raise dollars from potentially some of the private schools or some of the if there's some bigger businesses in town who might get a tax write off I don't know how all that works you maybe know um it would definitely bolster our case a little bit more given all of the projects that are happening in town that we've covered that and it's not just like we're funding the whole thing you know yeah and you know I also there's got to be some I haven't found it yet but there's got to be some Ada money out there as well you know um the fact that we're doing all this really um to meet those students needs yeah um but a lot of look the uh a lot of the grants have dried up so you know keep keep looking and maybe sometimes you look for a grant that's not through desie for Ada accessible kind of things you look through somewhere else like foundations or like that's my my problem is that I I go through desie for everything you know I mean that's the area I know I don't know the area outside of that so anybody's watching and you do know please feel free to shoot me an email um sometimes the vendors for like the playground equipment can recommend grant granters that they have seen or worked with it's good it's a great idea you see that a lot with steel case steel case when you use their classroom fiture if you call one of their reps they can connect you with some some leads for Grants right right that's a great IDE there's nothing else in the playground our next topic is to uh point to the masc delegate um so the uh masc conference in November uh contains the um delegate assembly at which point delegates vote on proposed um resolutions um with other members from around the state uh so we as a committee have to appoint a delegate I am planning on attending the committee sorry the conference will is planning on attending I don't know if anyone else is going okay thank you um so it's Friday afternoon I'm planning on being there I've have done it before and I do not mind doing it again unless you really wanted the opportunity to be the delegate can it be a joint effort no there's one one delegate from each committee well I will be there to support you if you will be there and I will I will learn from from your experience okay uh and you uh anyone can you can come and sit in the back and watch if you wanted to Great okay so I will appoint myself as the delegate uh and your packet includes uh text of the resolutions um as your delegate I am voting on behalf of the committee so if anyone has any feedback this is your opportunity to share it uh we sponsor one I just want to note that we are our our school is a sponsor along with Regional on um y School number I'm trying to find it we we voted this spring The Joint meeting I think the sponsor resolution so the way uh the delegate assembly works it's a lot like town meeting uh who sponsoring each resolution gets up uh reads their what they propose speaks their case for it and then anyone who wants to have speaking about it uh for or against it or have questions they get up and talk and then everyone one member from each committee votes so it's uh it's very informative there the conversation can be very helpful um to be on SC there have been times where I read the resolution and thought I have no idea what this means I don't know I wouldn't know how to vote but after hearing the conversation about it um I do feel like I have an OP you can vote all right if there's no discussion there we can move on the mcast presentation okay it's a great time of night for an mcast presentation warmed up we're having technical difficulties um I'll start anyway without my visual a well you know what you know what we'll do is we'll run it straight off of this and since you're presenting your face hasn't de BP on it so yeah for some reason it just stopped working um all right so you want me to share so we do an annual mcast report and it's really interesting to prepare for I like talking about it but I like to preface it by saying that we use so many different kinds of data to inform our teaching in our Direction and um Tina's uh principal report talked about the data meetings that happened at Deerfield and she named about I don't know 10 other data sources that are important when we're looking at individuals groups grades and whole school um um Direction um so please keep that in mind this is just a presentation on one data point and I always like to say that data does a better job of raising questions than answering questions um the mcast actually should be seen in my mind as a living document it tells a lot more over time than it does in one-ear snapshots um because we have I think 170 something students who took the test um and those students change if we really want to learn about how we need to um continue certain things to grow strengths or change things uh we have to look at it over time so the headlines from the state came from the interim commissioner the interim commissioner uh held a meeting um and these were the headlines and I they don't um necessarily parallel Deerfield but um it helps to know the context so Statewide um mcast scores from last spring show at Plateau are a decline in all ma major categories since the pandemic this um seems to have come as a surprise things were looking like they were Rising a little bit and then they have dropped off again um I'll come back to some of the Commissioners um narrative about that in a little while the correlation between income and achievement is concerning Statewide and that is true in our district as well um student absenteeism remains a challenge across the board for Recovery efforts that's from the inum commissioner that's not something that I'm bringing to about tonight but I want you to know what the headlines were um so the Overview at Deerfield is that 179 students participated which is um 99% which is great um in terms of our ability to um reev review um as many the more people we have in our sample size the more accurate it is if we have students electing not to take it for all the good reasons that people would might like to not take it it could skew our feedback over time so so I'm glad that we have high participation those are third fourth fifth and sixth graders um Deerfield hovers around State average our accountability reading is moderate progress towards goals or towards targets and those targets are set through mcast it's not related to our school um Improvement plans but we are up from last year according to um cast so 46% accountability up from 29% last year um so here are three snapshots showing how dear feel and the state are um compare so for ELA 37% of Deerfield students are meeting an exceeding um versus 39 for the state the way to look at these bar graphs is that blue is exceeding expectations and those are percentiles and green is meeting expectations and the cut off is um a score of 500 so um students in green and blue uh 37% um scored 500 or higher um on the on the yeah a little late um in math the green and blue for Deerfield is 49% meeting in exceeding expectations versus 41 Statewide and in science the overview and this is just fifth grade so it's a small sample size compared to the state but 55% meeting in exceeding versus 45% and over time our fifth grade has exceeded um has surpassed State averages around science so um part of what I get to demonstrate is how open Architects the tool that danana mentioned earlier um which we prioritized I I think it had been in conversation for a long time but then Equity audit really said to disaggregate the data and get a better sense of how while you are serving all students and different subgroups you really do need to have this kind of an engine and um so some of my slides will show you what I was able to learn fairly quickly the scores only came out on September 24th um while the Deerfield Ela scores are slightly lower than the state average overall if you disaggregate reading language essays and writing um uh in every grade level Dees is uh above State average and reading in language so it's writing that is our relative weakness um in reading and language 70% of fifth graders met and exceeded expectations um and in the categories of essays and writing um girls performed higher than the state average and I don't mean girls at Deerfield compared to girls in the state I mean above the co-ed average um and overall 30 while the boys performed lower than the state average in those two subcategories and then looking at the overall um Ela scores 30% of boys were meeting in exceeding expectations versus 45% of girls so this deeper dive helps us look at a gender um Gap in terms of achievement and it also looks at domains of ela and helps us focus on particular things um reading and language scores have been higher than writing scores across the state um since the pandemic so that is also helpful to think about that it's um when we try to figure out what's the feedback is it local is it more generalized a closer look at math um in subcategories of math um there doesn't appear to be one particular area of strength over others some of the subcategories in math are um geometry measurement and data numbers and base 10 algebraic thinking and operations ratios and probability um but grade to grade different subcategories were the higher achieving or the or the um relative weakness um and then we see that in math 49% of girls are meeting in exceeding expectations versus 48% of boys which is close enough not to be a significant disparity um we will be watching the next three years worth of data um on because we have a new math curriculum that is being introduced this year um for prek through five we're using Bridges and a sixth grade illustrative math um it will take time for us to see um the impact probably three years I would say until we are implementing it the way it is intended as we learned the program and um in the first year the pace will not be um as it will be three years from now when we're more fluent with the program and able to um match our students because we know exactly what the resources offer and we can make more agile decisions so I would expect us to have a plateau this year um but I would expect it to go up um over three years okay um uh I was able to look at the growth of students with and without disabilities in our district as measured on mcast there's lots of ways to grow of course but the student growth percentile measures um how much did students improve their score compared to students who scored similarly to them last year um and also had disabilities in schools with similar settings so a rural school with about 200 students taking the test um so at Deerfield 47 students out of 179 participating in mcast for students um with disabilities and in ela the student growth percentile was 54 not 54 students so that is awkwardly written but the growth percentile was 54 and um for students with disabilities and 56 for non-disabled students and so that is um good news that it's that close that our students are achieving differently but they are growing at a similar rate that we are serving both groups of students with equal growth measurement um and then in math um the student growth percentile for students with disabilities is 47 and 52 for non-disabled students and again that's relatively close not as close as I would like but still a 10-point spread is where it starts to seem significant given how small our numbers are and how our student groups change over time is disability defined as IEP and 504 or yes okay y okay so this is another type of graph that the um open architect platform makes possible so here are two pictures of How achievement is correlated with income and Ela and B so um this is Ela and that's math and um so um this is achievement so over time you can see that the um income disparity after the pandemic ah sorry Darius this one okay so um the achievement was much closer before the pandemic and then in ela the achievement dropped more precipitously for low-income students and then has been following a similar Trend but not closing the Gap since 15 of income pardon the lines are showing 15th and 45th percentile of income oh uh um these are low income scores and these are non- low income scores in ela and the years are 2021 22 23 and 24 15 oh this year um students were in the 15th low-income students were in the 15th percentile in ela and non- low income were in the 45th this is a 30% difference there yes yeah huge um and in math it's the 27th percentile achievement for students with low income and um 58th percentile for students without low income in math so um here we have um precipitous drops for both groups but more of a precipitative drop for low income and then not the recovery we would want to see not the closing of the Gap um it's still wider now than it was pre pandemic um it's a very helpful yeah I think this tool is very helpful okay and then this is another type of graph um and it made more sense to look at the correlation of race and achievement um with this type of graph um partly because there are um multiple categories it's not two lines but every dot represents a student and we don't always have enough students who are nonwhite to become statistically significant but we can see patterns when we look at the this type of plot so while the um average scaled score is not is not dramatically different the fact that there are high achieving students who are white and not so many dots up here um is something that I think we should pay attention to over time and of course these are individuals and there's not that many individuals um so you don't want to make generalizations about kids in particular but if this were true for a long time I mean there's not that many dots up in this range either but I would want to look at it over time this is Ela and this is math so we have just a big white space here um that I would want to so some takeaways that I want to offer is that um well the big picture there's a slight dip in the LA scores a slight rise in math scores and high scores in science that within the LA reading scores um are significantly higher than writing scores that um we have a significant achievement Gap correlated with income levels and we have similar growth among students with and without disabilities so um some of the next steps we can take would be focus on closing achievement gaps among student subgroups um that has been a focus and will continue to be a focus for a district but I'm uh have some ideas about that and then focus on improved writing outcomes um so some of some very uh what do you call it big thoughts because this is in conversation right now um could we be looking at a different model for summer support one of the things that the commissioner said in his address was that um because of the um plateau in Decline he expected to see robust summer programs being offered to help close the gap um to offered to students who um would regress if they didn't have um the consistency of school instruct and academic instruction but we have been offering um robust programs in the summer um for the last three years and there's been a lot of attrition from people from students being interested in signing up or families being interested in signing up my interpretation is that after the pandemic there was some anxiety about being behind and that families were excited to put their kids in school for summer and kids were excited to see each other in summer if in school settings but that's kind of tapered off and everybody's exhausted because um school is harder the world is harder than it was before the pandemic and vacation is very much needed and playtime is very much needed so we invited um probably four times as many students to summer school programs then chose to attend and we couldn't pull people in L students in who we wanted to be you know um um supporting also uh it's really hard to ask teachers to come in in the summer now and teach it's um it it's school life it's very important to take breaks and we're not seeing the same eagerness to teach Summer School from highly qualified teachers that we used to so um Staffing it is also more difficult so I think that if we want to Target some support for students who are at risk or um I think we should think about tutoring models or um vacation camps or pairing Robotics and writing something that has more draw to it um and I don't know that offering three week or four week summer camps is the best model this would be something that would be discussed by lots of different teams of people so I'm just saying my idea but this isn't something that anybody has agreed with me on or has weighed in on yet um it just felt like really work a lot of work and a lot of money went into the summer school programs and for not that much of a turnout but again we could look at more data we could look at um some of the Fall scores that we have and compare them to the spring scores for kids who went to summer school and see if it did make a difference I haven't done that yet so we might find out that it does make a difference another thing is that um I think that we should do a review of keyboarding and figure out where that fits into our school system and into our vision for students and I don't know where that conversation will go um this is the year that our school reviews the um digital literacy and computer science program so in a recent meeting with all of the library um and media center teachers we had um the state expert Melissa Zees come and talk with us about what she would recommend we focus on it in terms of an instructional Vision in that domain and she did bring up keyboarding in second grade as something that she advocates for um you don't need to have little hands on big keyboards some of the programs um support hunting and pecking but just gaining the fluency because kids are using digital tools anyway so promoting some good habits and some um knowledge about how to use the tool correctly is important and it seems like when you you look at the students writing scores um this would take more of a data dive but um more students are being recommended to use speech to text or to use keyboarding at early ages to accommodate executive function difficulties or disg graphia and um of course there are incredible benefits in handwriting I'm not advocating for not doing handwriting I'm just saying that I think it's the next question because the students have to type their essays in third grade on mcast and um you get points for how long it is so being able to sustain writing is part of it mcast would never drive our instructional decision but it might point out to us that there's a level of frustration or not a level of fluency so we would look at it but we wouldn't let mcast drive our curriculum it would just say well what's going on here why is writing so much lower and why is it lower for boys and what are we what are the other correlations with that population um but we would want to do a full research and have a lot of teacher input into that kind of a thing um we have new curriculum in ela and math um it it will be last year was the first year for ELA um and this is the first year for the new math program and actually there's even a part of the ELA curriculum that we staggered so in some skills this is the this is the first year for ELA part of the reason both programs were chosen was for their um rigor and for their ability to um reach all students equally um to have culturally responsive not just content but the way that students are engaged in the classes the way that teachers are encouraged to teach would be ideally um meeting all students um and not privileging uh the learning style of a majority population or of a dominant learning style that it would be more um diverse more Universal Design for Learning so we'll see how that works and then I think that this data tool is really exciting and the the data meetings at every level um grade levels and um admin levels and instructional leadership teams um to keep learning more about what we have just started to peel back thanks to this tool so questions yeah at the beginning you mentioned the scores had plateaued or dipped was that at the elementary level or say that again the scores that have statewide plateaued or dipped is that Elementary level or high school as well state level that was a state comment not our yeah yeah that was um Statewide all levels yeah okay I was thinking the kids who were I was wondering if it affected the elementary schools more the kids who took the ELA last year were young elementary school kids in the pandemic hit and I would imagine that they would struggle more to catch up rather than kids who had a few years of schooling under their belt they were older it even happened in the high school levels between 8th grade and 10th grade okay thanks thank you thank you yeah I really uh appreciate the breaking it out by student groups and being able to see that information she this some ideas room for Focus areas of focus okay right um next up we're talking about the uh donation the men Funday basketball group that's you T you get the t Okay so we've received a donation from the men Sunday basketball group um Bill Hayes said that he collects um a few bucks every game from the men that play and he invested it and he ended up with $10,000 so he donated it to school and um he would like for us to kind of earmark it to support student recreational activities such as field trips or um PE related activities and materials playground or playground classroom or W student recreation W that is a very generous donation wonderful not a wonderful story super generous is what's the background of this the men's Bas is it do they play in they use our um gym on Sundays and I guess he's been doing it for years before I came aboard um and he said I met with him and he said um we were going to donate it but um a couple years years ago but then Co hit and I've just been investing it yeah great thank you for doing that yeah amazing was a surprise phone call so that was a little nice little gift yeah nice phone call yeah all right um so do we have to uh accept the donation formally I believe so okay so anyone like to make a motion to accept the gift of $10,000 from the men's Sunday basketball group I'll make a motion to accept the $10,000 donation from the men's Sunday basketball group to support activities such as field trips or P related activities and materials great thank you second by any all right all in favor of accepting ration eing one motion passes by right thank you for great news all right reports uh I have no report tonight collaborative so I forward everyone the executive summary from the collaborative um I also attached what I thought was an interesting um piece that they the collaborative put together it lists all of the services the collaborative covered offers and how our district I mean all the districts in Franklin and Hampshire are utilizing the services and just kind of interesting to see what what they might offer and how we could use them so um if you have any questions or are looking for I have lots of other summaries from the collaborative I could forward to if you're interested inform thank you superintendent report I don't I don't have a report I just have an update that um there's always throughout the last seven years there's been whether or not the word vote is written after anything on our agenda means you have to vote on it if it's not written there do you have to can you vote on that um we got clarification from masc that anything on your agenda um one can expect you to take action on so you don't actually have to write that but we found another posting where they said we let Moes may be taken on ahead of each section just to avoid any confusion so just letting you know what the legal side is if it's on your agenda you can take action on it because that's the Assumption um but we also added as you can see on your new agenda this time votes may be taken for anything on each area so um we're going to add that because people we're transitioning from having always right you know vote taken um the only thing that would be different is if it's a first read we would add it's the first read no V something like that sounds reasonable y all right okay there is nothing further that anyone else discuss I would be looking for a motion to adjourn motion to Second all in favor call the meeting HST meeting at 8:57