##VIDEO ID:QE4okDfon6o## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e welcome to the Monday December 2nd 2024 meeting of the Dennis Jam region school committee please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all great I think we have Ava for our student representative report to start us off hi um so at school we have a lot going on um there's the chus and Orchestra holiday concert tomorrow at 7 winter sports uh started today there's boys and girls track basketball and ice hockey we had a pep rally um and then because the football team won the chatter Bowl um upcoming there is uh the inter CL inter act Club is having a gingerbread contest um it's annual it's the week before break um it raises money for Habitat for Humanity oh sorry Habitat for Humanity of Cape god um there's a winter Art Exhibit starting around December 19th um that's at the Paul Hopkins Gallery it'll be ongoing um there's a best buddies basketball game uh this Friday there's a field trip to 4 C's for students um the guidance department is taking them and then there's also tomorrow there's as fvb military testing as well thank you so much and then next we have an mcast presentations for Dennis shamith high school and Dennis shamith window school and I believe we're going to start with uh the directors Miss Pontius and Miss Santini good evening we're going to start out tonight with math and then Sherry will come up and present Humanities and then I'll pop back up to do some science and then we'll take questions um I'm Betsy ponus the director of stem instruction and tonight I will present my analysis of the spring 2024 mcast results for Math and Science for mathematics we are in the second year of implementation of our new curriculum resources and these results will provide insight into the effectiveness of our implementation plans and will inform our next steps I will begin with a multi-e look at our average percent correct on math standards to identify Trends and gaps across grades I have deliberately chosen to highlight the standard domains that Target on whole numbers and fractions Proficiency in these standards is essential for students seeking to further their education in on a mathematics track or support them in a wide range of future career opportunities historically these standards are challenging to teach since the state's adoption of the Common Core which expects three areas of proficiency conceptual understanding procedural fluency and problem solving our current resources are structured across the following grade spans at K to 5 we have Eureka math squared 6 through 8 uses illustrative mathematics and in 9 through 11 we use Carnegie um in recognition of this unique context I am going to show data from the transition grades 3 5 7 8 and 10 so we can get a sense of how that curriculum alignment is working we'll begin with third grade the third grade average percent correct gun standards align tasks in the domain of operations and algebraic thinking which is on the left and fractions on the right over time you'll notice fairly consistent Trends in both domains with the average percent correct hovering around and above 50% in 2024 there was slight Improvement in these scores resulting in a positive variance in the domain of operations and algebraic thinking as compared to the state average so when I'm talking about the state average I'm talking about the piece on top and when I'm talking about overtime it's the piece on the bottom a multi-year analysis of the same domains for fifth grade reveals a similar pattern with results over time fluctuating above and below an average of 50% accuracy the fifth grade outcomes show negative variance is when compared to the state average in both domains the work on fractions and algebraic thinking come together in the domain number systems in the middle school years there has been minimal change over time in the average percent correct for seventh grade students with the accuracy consistently below 50% in 2024 our data indicates the variance from the state average is widening content in grade 8 continues to deepen in complexity as the number systems domain is expanded to include expressions and equations in order to prepare students for algebra in grade N grade 8 results indicate a trend with the average percent correct remaining below 50% and the 2024 data reveals an increased negative variance as compared to the state average students working on tasks in algebra and functions domain are expected to use their understandings procedural knowledge in various context on the right you see a sample task that demonstrates the rigor of expected for grade 10 students and it outlines the challenge as teachers work hard to ensure every student can meet this rigor the accuracy data at grade 10 follows a similar pattern as our students average percent accuracy is at or below 50% over time with 2024 results showing a widening of the negative variance compared to the state in summary our district data indicates that over the course of various grade levels we notice a consistent Trend in student performance over time with the accuracy remaining around or below 50% this trend underscores over ring patterns and student understanding of mathematical Concepts despite changes in the domain names across the grades while there are slight improvements such as third grade outcomes are generally yield sorry while there are improvements um like in third grade when the variance exceeds the state um are the variances have been shown tonight to to um be below State averages um particularly as our students reach higher grade levels the data suggests a need for targeted initiatives to support teachers in implementation of our new resources to bolster student achievement consistently across these evolving domains now we're going to examine some cohort um data so this is a trajectory of a um group of students they were in third grade in 2019 up to um their eth grade their ninth from third to 9th grade that's eth sorry um in 2019 54% of the students those third graders met or exceeded the expectations um in 2020 the as fourth graders there was no State assessment administered in 2021 as fifth grade students 28% of them met or exceeded the expectations in 2022 as six graders 33% of that group met or exceeded in 2023 as seventh graders 20% of that group met or exceeded the expectations and in 2024 um the eth grade student 21% of them met or exceeded um these students are now our ninth graders and here's the trajectory of a cohort of students that starts in fifth grade in 2019 31% of them or exceeded the expectations um in sixth grade as sixth graders there was no assessment given in 2021 when they were seventh graders 19% of them met or exceeded in 2022 as 8th grade students 24% met or exceeded and in 20 I'm sorry 2022 and then in 2024 as 10th grade students 27% met are exceeded so these are our current 11th graders so both cohorts show some declines in proficiency after 2020 indicating potential learning loss due to the pandemic related disruptions but Trends suggest a need for district strategy particularly in the middle school years to boost and sustain mathematics proficiency I'd like to Spotlight some early successes from our first year implementation efforts uh across the K to five schools this work was bolstered by a state funded project focused on the adoption of high quality materials in collaboration with teaching lab we crafted a multi-year plan for Eureka Mass squared professional learning supports were extended to principles instructional coaches and teachers and the following slides showcase some increases in the percentages of multilingual learners so these are third grade multilingual Learners you can see the increase since the adoption in 2023 and these are grade four students with disabilities and these are grade five students with disabilities these initial successes Inspire us as we advance our efforts and I show you this slide because the instructional core as defined by Richard Elmore comprises a teacher a student and the content with the instructional task kind of the center of that triangle and this is important because it's the interaction between these elements rather than the quality of any single element that shapes the instructional practice so addressing the gaps and Trends identified in our data is a priority for us and we have developed sh several short and long-term strategies to tackle these challenges in the short term we will continue our partnership with teaching lab to build on last year's achievements um we have expanded our principal coaching model to include Dy middle school and high school so now principles across all levels are enhancing their observation and feedback practices to Foster academic discussions that that drive Student Success we are sustaining the use of learning walks to deepen our understanding of teaching practices and identify professional development opportunities that optimize the use of the new resources um instructional coaches continue to receive training to align their support Cycles with the building level goals for the long-term our actions will support the district in monitoring curriculum implementation and advancing in nuanced ways Executive coaching has bolstered my ability to sustain and systemize effective practices as part of our initial implementation plan I was paired with a coach and this has greatly improved my capability to analyze District Dynamics develop a multi-year plan and Lead varied implementation steps throughout this journey I have learned the importance of reflection in order to evaluate progress and adapt plans as needed viewing our curriculum as a road map can steer our students towards success a highquality curriculum serves as a GPS with embedded guidance and strategies offering numerous decision-making opportunities for teachers it is my responsibility to ensure all members of our instructional team teachers coaches and principles understand the design of the curriculum and its potential impact on student outcomes this endeavor requires time dedication and perseverance and I am committed to this project and I will answer any questions um at the end again so now I'll introduce Sherry to begin the analysis of humanities good evening I'm Sher Santini director of humanities um like Betsy um I'm going to show you data in a different way uh we're going to talk about uh some student cohort data and performance over time oh okay in the upcoming presentations by the principals you'll learn more about students how students performed on the 2024 mcass sorry thanks this first slide shows a cohort of students starting with their first mcast in the third grade in 2019 their first time taking the test 36% of that cohort of students either met or exceeded the Benchmark set by desie there was no mcast the following year due to covid so our next data point is when they were in fifth grade where 37% of students met or exceeded proficiency as sixth graders the percentage Rose to 46% only to drop down to 32% in seventh graders and further drop to 27% as eighth graders their next mcast will be as 10th graders in 2026 here we have another cohort of students whose first mcast was in 2017 as third graders but those scores as well as their fourth grade scores reflect the previous English language arts and literacy standards new standards were adopted in 2017 so the first mcast to reflect those changes was in 2019 when this cohort of students was in the fifth grade that year 37% of students were meeting or exceeding the proficient Benchmark then there was covid so the next data point for these students is as seventh graders in 20121 when 39% were meeting or exceeding followed by 37% as eth graders and finally 40% of that cohort of students met or exceeded the Benchmark as 10th graders last spring I conducted this type of analysis for Co six cohorts of students in all in each cohort the pattern that emerged was that student scores took a dip in fourth and fifth grade only to come up back up quite significantly in grade six then dip again in grade seven and eight this trend was typical in every cohort while not a cohort of students this slide represents performance over time for two subgroups of students that have persistently underperformed on mcass from these graphs you can see that we are making gains with our multilingual Learners and students with learning disabilities and we are closing that achievement Gap but for the wrong reasons along with other data points such as the Benchmark assessment and map growth the administration team and instructional coaches began to carefully observe tier one instruction in order to determine what additional learning and support our teachers need to ensure that every student is receiving high quality grade level instruction I really want you to look at this slide it's not moving and it's it's not in our packets so you can watch on the screen we're missing your part so it's not my fault I did it all right so in addition to student co-ord analysis I also studied student performance on the standards over time my purpose was to determine whether or not there were any patterns or Trends within the Strand BRS of Reading Writing and language the next few slides show examples from a selection of grade levels that highlight what I found starting with the third grade writing was easily identified as an area of concern a considerable change to the El cast was that writing would be assessed at every grade level not just fourth 7th and 10th this has been a challenge across grade levels within a student's essay they are being scored in their writing as a mechanism to assess their reading comprehension so while this graph shows lower scores for writing a deeper analysis of the standard showed that within the reading strand there were specific standards that were identified across grade levels that require attention at the classroom Level One S such example would be the standard being measured in this third grade prompt students were asked to read an excerpt and then write an essay that explains the development of the main character over the course of the passage this requires a variety of Knowledge and Skills first students have to be read each have to be able to read grade level text independently they also have to be able to identify the elements of the story character setting sequence of events plot conflict problem and solution and how those elements relate to one another they have to be able to understand what character development is and trace it for one specific character over the course of the passage describing them at the beginning and identifying specific events that cause them to change then they have to be able to convey that clearly and accurately while paying attention to the conventions of grammar capitalization punctuation and spelling in this example from the fifth grade students are asked to explain how the special features of elephants help them to survive this requires that they are able to determine the main idea of the passage choose the evidence that best supports that main idea and explain how and again they must be able to convey that clearly and accurately while paying attention to grammar capitalization punctuation and spelling in this final example from the seventh grade students are instru instructed to read two articles on the same topic about later start times from middle and high school and craft an argument supporting the claim that later start times are better it's important to note that students are expected to pull evidence from both articles and based on our scores for idea development our students do not routinely complete this task as expected in order to be considered proficient students must read both articles correctly identify the facts evidence that support a later school start time and explain how those facts support the claim in order to provide a clear argument and don't forget they have to pay attention to grammar capitalization punctuation and spelling throughout the entire essay these examples are meant to highlight two things first they are examples of the standards that are most often measured in where our students need more guidance and support Second they illustrate the tasks that are designed to measure these standards this is important because it serves as a model for how text based prompt should be should be routinely designed for the classroom we can collect and analyze all of the data out there but what is most critical is that we must use that information to inform our decisions and bring about change our analysis of both state and local assessments led us directly into the classrooms across grade levels and content areas to observe instruction firsthand as you may recall both the superintendent goals as well as the improving plans in each School mention an increased focus on learning walks and observations we are just about to finish our first round of learning walks this year and will'll be planning round two after the start of the New Year during both the walks that conducted last year and the classrooms we have visited so far this year we have noticed some consistent Trends with regards to writing in all grades while there is a significant amount of scaffolded pre-writing occurring in classrooms there is insufficient structured independent writing there are also concerns over the volume of writing students are expected to produce teachers continually Express their concerns about student stamina and their inability to persevere through grade level tasks but what we're not seeing is deliberate practices meant to build that stamina by providing opportunities for students to stretch themselves helping students increase their stamina to read grade level full passages and respond to standards based prompts requires strategic and deliberate planning students need multiple chances to practice every day across the day they need to be given the opportunity to work independently and experience productive struggle in order to grow we will continue to investigate and collect data on instructional practices in evidence of how District resources are being used to inform our next steps specifically regarding literacy instruction for grades kindergarten through 5 the literacy instructional coaches have been working closely with teachers to dig into their fall assessment data in order to determine the necessary adjustments to their tier one instruction and what interventions would most effectively address the needs of those students reading below grade level they have delivered multiple professional development sessions on aligning and improving writing instruction to provide meaningful learning experiences that give students daily opportunities to develop their writing skills and the student work for teachers to monitor their progress towards proficiency additionally they continue to engage teachers in coaching Cycles targeting specific instruction and student learning needs we are also seeing some early s we are seeing some early successes in math with the expansion of coaching and feedback training for principles so we will continue to monitor that practice and determine if if and how it can be replicated in literacy we have just completed the fall assess window and our assembling the data so that we can study not only current performance but cohort performance over time we will be look we will be looking for any patterns that might emerge triangulating the data from The Benchmark assessment map growth and the reading fluency dyslexia screen provides teachers instructional coaches interventionists and administrators with multiple views of students as readers and it the better we are at identifying the strengths and areas of growth for our students the better we can effectively plan both instruction for students and support for teachers as I mentioned earlier the cohort analysis identified a dip in student performance at grades seven and eight year after year learning walks have identified inconsistencies in the resources being used and the instructional practices being employed without a reliable high quality curriculum resource teachers are left to piece together learning experiences that may or may not address the appropriate grade level standards and expectations of proficiency to address this I have assembled a curriculum resource Review Committee composed of teachers from each grade level Mr Rino Mrs Bennett and myself our first meeting is this Thursday where we will establish our vision identify the non-negotiable criteria we will we will use when evaluating potential curriculum resources and determine our timeline we acknowledge that high quality instruction materials alone do not guarantee student achievement it is the combination of a deep understanding of the student strengths and areas for growth and effective implementation of the resources as intended and continuous progress monitoring that is far more likely to result in student gain and I look forward to reporting back to the community later this spring with an update of our work finally we will continue to focus our we will continue our focus on identifying High leverage instructional practices for every student in all classrooms by expanding our learning walks beyond the literacy and math classrooms we will use the observational data to determine the professional learning needs of our teachers the humanities curriculum Leadership Council will also continue to provide teachers with grade level standards aligned writing prompts like the example shared in this presentation ation it is our intent to build a bank of prompts that teachers can use to assess and monitor student progress there are many thoughts out there about the causes for lagging student achievement lingering effects from the pandemic overworked and unders supported teachers lack of student motivation and engagement Rising numbers of students with social emotional impediments the overreliance on technology and social media an unfair assessment tool in mcast the list goes on many of the challenges are beyond our Locust of control but what we can and will continually strive forwards providing our students with rigorous relevant and meaningful learning experiences with appropriate scaffolding that are directly tied to the grad level standards to ensure that they are adequately challenged and sufficiently prepared for life beyond the classroom in addition we will continue to support our Educators with high quality curriculum resources and professional development along with actionable feedback for implementation of high leverage instructional practices and I'm going to turn it over to Mrs ponus to bring us home so we'll take a look at science the importance of a 21st century Science Education cannot be underestimated as our students move towards college and careers it is my responsibility to ensure the enacted curriculum prepares them for their Journey After High School this science data serves as a snapshot of our current state of curriculum implementation we will take a look at the data and then I will outline our District's short and long-term strategies aimed at supporting principles and teachers in addressing State Standards more effectively leading to an increased student learning outcomes as we explore our science data let's keep in mind that the mcast tests in science are conducted at Key Milestones fifth grade 8th grade and in high school the courses biology and physics our first slide offers a multi-year analysis of the average accuracy percentage for fifth graders on science tasks from 22 to 24 students consistently achieved around 50% accuracy in all standard domains the 2024 data reveals a negative 4% variance between our scores and the state average grade 8 results exhibit a similar pattern with the average percent correct hovering above and below 50% in all standard domains and the 2024 data reveals a Nega -4% variance between our scores and the state average students in ninth and 10th grades can take the mcast test for biology this slide depicts the differences in student accuracy by grade level n9th grade results showcase accuracy on questions in all standards hovering around 40 to 50% from 2022 to 2024 with a negative 4% variance from State averages 10th grade results show that students are answering questions with 20 to 40% accuracy over the same time period with the variance from the state widening to - 20% or more by domain in physics we see a similar picture the n9th grade accuracy percentages range between 40 and 50% over time with a negative 6% variance from the state in 2024 and in 10th Grade the accuracy percentages range from 20 to 30% with a negative variance at 20% or more by domain as we look at cohorts of students moving through the science pathway we see an interesting trajectory difference for students who take the test in ninth grade versus students who take the test in 10th Grade the trajectory varies very little by content students who take the test in 9th grade achieve higher proficiency ratings than those who take the test in 10th Grade we've observed consistent patterns in science achievement across grade levels with stable middle school scores slightly below State averages and interesting patterns between 9th and 10th grades the data indicate a need for a closer look at our high school program moving forward I will examine the current model with of science programming and testing at the high school level along with principal Bennett in order to determine a clear path for our students I will support the Dy um High School curriculum development work um with the creation of learning objectives that ensure Clarity and rigor and defining the expected learning outcomes for each topic there will I will conduct ongoing review and inventory of the Dy science curriculum resources in order to enhance district and teacher created materials with science practices and I will review the current curriculum materials in similar districts with higher student performance to see if they can share any um any highlights with us on in terms of materials so now you've heard it all and we're happy to take some questions or comments start with Mr Glenn thank you so much I was very involved in in and and uh the assessment the couple of phrases that I heard you say that I hadn't heard in other conversations um when you're assessing strengths you talked about stamina and and uh stretching kids out and you don't hear stamina a lot in that you know educational format so it was interesting to me but one of the questions I had because I agree with you you know the better we are identifying you know how we Define the problem is how we Define the solution but it's hard to to find the problems because we're looking at straight a state averages and then unique situations here um and so it's it's hard to see if there's natural dips in age groups that are Statewide so in other words a state average might be higher than us but there could be a dip in that three to third grade and fifth grade and and covid happened to everybody so there could have been you know dips there but I'm wondering if we look at the curriculums of successful districts not just districts that are successful that aren't like us but ones that have similar populations and demographics and look what curriculum models they're using and and try to compare them because that's comparing Apples to Apples and and I love how we're looking at the cohort because we didn't always do that and and because we didn't look at at the cohorts all the time we were losing how to define the the issue because we were saying well you know this is what's happening in third grade and then it was a different group so it's it's great that we're looking at the uh thing but you know we're not we're not looking for for excuses we're looking for reasons to try to resolve it and grow and and get better I think everybody wants to do that U we're not trying to make excuses for anything but I'm just wondering if um if we do look at or are we going to it's something that we're going to be doing in the future yes thank you um that'll be part of the curriculum review process um the data showed that those dips have been happening and they were happening before covid so it's not because of that like you said there's all kinds of reasons and they're not meant to be excuses um you know I don't know how many of you um have middle schoolers or had middle schoolers or no middle schoolers but you know they're unique um they're a unique brand um not for the faint of heart but there's some realities around that but um we also know that they're more than capable and it's a prime time to tap into the things that are those burgeoning interests as they start to see their impact on the world out around them so um one of the things that will happen on the Review Committee is we will look at um curriculums that both um the department of Ed and through their curate program and Ed reports deem as being highly aligned to standards and effective um instructional resources and then what districts are using and what their take is on it you know with any luck we might be able to go and visit some schools um to see what it looks like in in practice having um Publishers come to us and give us their presentation but really it's in you know what happens in the classroom and as I mentioned in my presentation um if there were a magic resource every District would use it and we wouldn't we'd be having a party right now um so it's the resource is just that it's the it's the tool you use to deliver the instruction but you really have to know who your students are you have to believe that every student and I truly mean every student is capable of learning you have to believe that you as the instructor can make a difference you can and will have an impact and then identifying that pathway for that those students um in order for them to be successful it's finding their areas of um relevance to them think about how many times kids say what do I need this for when am I even going to use it I wasn't math wasn't always my favorite subject but I use it a lot because I like to shop it's very important for me so you know there geometry it's about the problem solving process right there's all kinds of ways that it's connected but um the resource is it's an important tool because you want it to be something that that um teachers find effective um that meets the needs of the students uh but it's just that it's one factor I think as um Betsy pointed out in one of her slides it's one of the things that impacts student achievement yeah thank you and I just wanted to go to that resources because one of the things you mentioned was there are a number of things a list of things that are beyond our control but I want to make sure that you know our Educators our our District administration and and our teachers you know everywhere at all levels know that resources you know that's part of our job that that resources and support we want to give them as much confence I'll be back okay so but I just want everybody to know that we're here to support you thank you and we want to be fiscally responsible we're not looking to buy something just for the sake of putting something in so Mr n just a question between 2019 and 24 how many curriculum changes were there for none none so You' used the same curriculum across the board for both Math Science and Ela for ELA we have K to 5 uses the founders in panel classro system 6 through uh well 6 through 12 there um primarily teacher created materials that um are aligned with the standards um using our community book list as the delivery method for the instruction so the curriculums by levels have maintained the same program from 2019 through 2024 yeah most part okay uh so looking at your charts grade five and grade seven seem to be the issue uh where they have uh degree of success in grade three and grade six uh they get to five and seven and according to what I was looking at there's a severe drop are you looking at ways to uh delve into why that drop occurred is it is it curriculum at that point is it instruction is it is it the the student pool the cohort should stay the same correct say that again the student the cohort is the same so we followed the same cohort all the way through so that's we're looking at the curriculum and instruction okay and so as you're looking at the curriculum and instruction you're you have coaching processes that are in place I understand correct K to5 okay so you're working coaching the faculty trying to delve into the reasons why there is a significant drop in five and seven is that something that you're doing they're two separate so K5 has its own curriculum curriculum and then right our Focus focusing we're on both the 6 seven and 8 is going through the curriculum review process um because we know we need we know that the curriculum needs to be updated in order to ensure it's aligned to the standards um and represents the rigor of expectations for proficiency right I I understand that but then again as you're looking at the charts grade five and grade seven seem to be the problem and the cohort Remains the Same but for some reason their abil to achieve um lessons on the mcast so at this point you've targeted what as being the problem instruction or or curriculum both both for right now we know in for six seven and eight we're looking at curriculum and instruction for grades K to five we're looking at both as well we're evaluating through the learning walks to determine is the curriculum we have being implemented with Fidelity are they teachers following the scope and pacing guides are they using the materials the way they're intended if so if they are and we're not getting the results then we're going to need to look at the curriculum okay thank you the same with the math then yeah so I just want to respond to the um Fifth and e um seventh grade another piece that's really important when we're addressing that issue is the um you know supervision of teachers by the principal and so that's where the principal coaching um is coming in um through the math so the curriculum resources are new um they're you know rigorous um teachers are delivering them you know to the best of their ability we did identify a training Gap um from grades 6 through eight where um when we gave different supports at K to 5 we saw the kind the data look a little bit better and so now we are working to sort of Rectify that um and so specifically this year in fact coming up very shortly um teachers in grades 6 through eight using the illustrative math curriculum um we'll get some um specific training on planning with the resources and then um in classroom coaching um so that on the use of the new resources which was not really in my original plan that was something I learned through my coaching um along the way and then in addition to that really working with our principles to be able to understand what they're looking for when they go into observe lessons and um to really help them hone in on you know looking at the resource to identify what that performance objective stated in the resource and then how is that in being enacted in the lesson and the alignment between that and then the work that students are doing and then monitoring that work so all that kind of that the principal can sort of then understand can then help the principal have the conversation with the teacher to sort of Target specific things embedded into that resource that will bring out um some increase work so I think that's definitely happening um with our um four five and um 6 through eight principles how do you monitor their ability to achieve benchmarks throughout the year so you have a curriculum in place and there x amount of standards and expectations that the mcast has so the curriculum addresses all of that uh what percentage of that curriculum is is achieved and taught by the time the mcast exams are administered most of it I would want to say um and we can do I know the high school teachers really worked this year on pacing because sometimes as again year one you're just going through it and you're just unsure of what the whole pathway is um but we did do pacing out um K to5 and at those testing grades you can get um I would say 90% of those standards covered um and then it gets a little bit more difficult at the high school and so they really did work this fall to look at the um standards that are covered um in the mcast testing and then look at the way they were laid out in the Carnegie curriculum and they were able to make some adjustments um and I think that answered your question and then uh the last question uh how many changes in curriculum occurred during that time frame in the math from 2019 to 2024 so um I know I've presented this before but I'm not remember the numbers so we adopted um K uh Eureka math squared illustrative math and Carnegie last year but I think we went full we did um so that would be 2023 and then but I think illustrative was maybe one year because we piloted but did a illustrative straight through so ustra is probably on year two so for math curriculum we've probably gone through one okay and then science curriculum has been um teacher created at the high school level um and Kendra has initiated the curriculum development initiative this year with her school um so supporting that and then before that we had the stem Scopes curriculum which was adopted I think the year before um the pandemic so somewhere around um 2018 um so like teachers first year experiencing that I think was virtual or like limited in class um so um that would be we we're in that level and that came from so that was one curriculum change thank you you're welcome thank you both I know oh I was looking down I was looking down no one was looking up back M Landers so just because I H we have the mathematics portion in front of us I'll be more focused on that but my comments are certainly across the board that you know I have to say something out loud that people are thinking and that just you know these numbers are clearly unacceptable to everyone in this room right I mean there's no one here for parents watching community members watching you know I these are unacceptable numbers across the board and you know I don't I have to rely on Experts to tell me how and why end up in a situation like this because this is not my expertise and I hear talk about you know learning walks and curriculum review committees and coaching and I'm hopeful for all of these things and I hope that these are the fixes because you know to look at this grade three this math cohort um that was third grade in 2019 you know in 2019 you we don't have the numbers here but what was it like 50 they were at a 50% about 50% meeting and exceeding in math and then 2020 obviously there's no test and then it goes down from there with the SL bump up in six down to you know 20% in 2024 meeting receeding this cohort and you know we hear about the covid learning loss and I'm not sure I I mean we started out at not a great position to begin with in 2019 with this cohort so after the co learning loss and these dips were down to you know 20% meeting and exceeding and um you know in our district we went back to full full time inperson you know we only missed a few months of inperson learning at least K is seven so some of this is covid learning loss maybe I'm not the expert I we'd have to look at other districts and compare based on who went back to in person and who didn't and I know that there were differences in teaching and obviously we had you know our own cohorts and that was you know there were challenges but I I don't think that I don't think covid explains away what happened here um you know the other cohort here in math that was you know in fifth grade in 2019 again a dip down to seventh and and we're down to um less than 30% meeting an exceeding math um you know I see increases here for multi- lingual Learners and for students with disabilities but I would certainly hope so considering in 2019 we were at 12% for multilingual Learners and 5% for students with disabilities so I mean there was nowhere to go but up right I mean this is these numbers are are are so muchat shocking to me frankly um grade five students with d meeting and exceeding in math in 2019 3% I'm certainly glad to see it's up to 14% And you know certainly what you're doing is working in in some of these cohorts and some of these groups but um you know similarly the the numbers in in ela are extremely concerning that you know kids are year after year losing skill here um is shocking and concerning spe Miss so I'm GNA try not to uh repeat what any of my fellow members have already said their questions were on my mind their comments I sort of feel their their intensity um and I also respect this you know we can look at the pandemic and sort of yes we're aware of that and we do know it affected a lot of school systems in the kids uh and we also know internally that the system suffered two major losses and and then a change in continuity and uh fortunately Dr Smith spent last year really getting to know the system um and in his report which when I'm stuck in looking at these reports I can only look at data and charts so long and I I'm I I have to go back to words and philosophy and vision that's um what I see my role as a school committee policymaking and supporting a budget and advocating a budget and so I go back of what what is the suggestion and I keep coming back to um sort of he challenged everyone here including us to start looking at student achievement because after all that is what we're doing for the kids here um and he even mentioned that there may be some disconnect in the rigor and what we think the kids need and want and what they're starting to tell us they're capable of doing and I think we have to go back and keep looking at that um so that's sort of one I keep thinking about that I also realized that last year we had a very very tough budget season and we had to make some tough choices um but if you really need help in advance in this next strategic plan over the next five years or you really need more than internal coaching and supports and meetings and sort of internal professional development now is the time to tell us be very clear be very specific back it up with an action support I'm not talking about buying fancy curriculum I'm talking about if you are you know I I keep asking myself um and I I applaud both of you you've reported back to us many times since I've been on the school committee but I keep asking myself where are the other disciplines why isn't it school-based why are we looking at literacy and writing across the curriculum you know and at middle school and high school you know where are the other disciplines what else are doing what else do we need uh the instructional coaching model is wonderful but do you have enough are there grants we can support you with and help and you know write a corresponding letter so we get what we need now is the time to let us know we want to help you sort of move this forward um I and and when you come back um any of you come back I need Snippets of little action steps you know maybe it's four months from now and you slip it in you know this is I I the continuity the clarity of your reports are great and each of you keep talking about the reflective piece of it what you're learning and growing and what you're trying to do and what you walk away from but maybe when I want to know uh so then I can inform the community or the community can he what are Snippets of an action step that is working or moving the needle so just think about adding those little pieces to the report it also engages me a little bit more I get lost in data thank you yeah and I know that we're going to hear presentations that are probably going to explain some of that um is what I was alluding to earlier but you know to the point a lot of the you know information we've been given is third grade is the key grade if we can you know the third grade scores High they'll you know the graduation rate will be better but when we look at this data when we look at third grade at 60 and then you look at 10th grade at whatever the percentage is on the thing there's a huge drop um and I know a lot a lot of the stuff uh you've talked about in the past has been of redoing the K to 5 to make sure that you know it will get better in the future um but it seems like our scores have been higher I wouldn't say High um generally but and then they just continue to drop and then hearing the numbers about biology um and the Sciences in high school the 20% drop is it's just hard to hear and I know just last uh our last meeting we had all these students on stage with these high honors and AP and all these awards were given and it's just you know it's such a great thing to hear but it's wondering you know why there's such a disparity between that and what these show um and it's just hard to to understand that when you saw how many people were on there but you think about how many people were so far below um and I think you know there's a lot of great things that we're hearing tonight but it's just the concern of when we get next year test it was like okay we did another year of review and then this is what we're going to do um so I'm I'm glad to hear that there's you know using words like pace so that we we're making sure that we're keeping up with what we need to keep up with so we get there quicker or on time um but you know I don't think anyone on this committee or in this community wants to be on the front page again about our scores um and I think you know to Dr Smith has said you know one of the glaring things he saw was our constant falling in scoring um and mcast and regardless of what mcast is a it is a tool that we utilize to see where we are against other districts and other towns and I I think we just have to continue to look at what we can do and and find out and it sounds like the learning walks are increased in other in another school and we're we're doing everything we can but it's just you know to Maryland's Point what more can we do what are we not doing and know um Miss CI had found some curriculum that we were able to get for free and I know that we've we've done some great things and I know we've written grants and got other things so I know we're looking at other options but I just think we just need to do we can continue to do this and you know I'm excited with what the principles have said before with their action plans and I look forward to the next two presentations but it just has to be something that's a constant that we're all looking at um and it is a team effort right because it's from the curriculum and then to the principles and then to the department chairs and then to see the the point of the learning walk is each individual teacher right so because if if there's a you know one teacher or two teachers who are not following the curriculum or not doing it then of course that grade level could have a huge dip if they're not on Pace and they're not learning the same thing and you talk about the tier one making sure that we're teaching a tier one that all the students are getting the same information um but it's something that we have to be a constant it can't be every six months we'll look at and see what we're doing um so it's great that we've done one learning walk that we have another one coming through but and I know it's a lot of time but anything we can do um we just need to make sure we do it and any support you know as Marilyn and everyone else said and Joe has said whatever support you need from us you know we'll have if we have to fight for it we fight for it we we need to do what's right for our students so that you know the the score our our goal is to educate right and we want to make sure that we're giving the best um foot forward for our students and for our teachers too right and the staff they they need the items that to do this right um and if we're not giving them the support to to know the the the new stuff or we're not giving them the the tools they need to teach it then you know it doesn't get taught so so thank you ladies I know it's a lot of us but it's just it's it's probably one of the most important things we do and the only most important thing we do is the education so when our scores say we're not doing it then we're not doing our job right so thank you and for the rest of the committee we're our packet is a little reversed we're going to do the high school before the middle school so Miss Bennett will present for the high school thank you good evening uh my name is Kendra Bennett principal of Dennis armouth high school so this is the annual High School assessment report the initial series of slides presents a five year analysis of proficiency data for 8th and 10th grades across the disciplines of mathematics English language arts and science historically our performance metrics have indicated a proficiency rate below 50% in terms of meeting and exceeding expectations in response we have instituted targeted initiatives aimed at enhancing student achievement so I just like to say some of those Target initiatives come later in the instructional Focus um and one of the themes is generally we are looking at a 5% increase um again sometimes this is a lot of work we know that and sometimes it moves slow so to move the needle we can identify what is working well like we have already said some of that um administrative coaching the targeted objective for eth grade mathematics is to sustain the ongoing increase in proficiency levels with a specific aim to achieve a 5% enhancement in the rate of students meeting and exceeding expectations with the dip in the number of students reaching the meeting and exceeding expectations for 10th grade math our objective is to achieve a return to the 46% proficiency Mark representing a 177% increase we adhered strictly to the curriculum to determine effective strategies versus those that were not successful this year utilizing the mcast data we prioritize topic sequences based on the insights gained from this data to better tailor our instructional approach for students so again last year was our first full year with Carnegie math um again following that with Fidelity we've adjusted pacing and um prioritized mcast topics um to address this in the second implementation year for 8th grade ELA our goal is to bridge the existing Gap by again achieving a 5% increase in progress for 10th grade ELA our goal is to bridge the gap and recover the 9% decline in performance for grade 8 science here we are very close to the state the goal is to exceed the existing Gap by achieving a 5% increase oh I forgot so so here you'll see we're very close to the state and the goal is to exceed the existing Gap by achieving a 5% increase in progress and then in 10th grade science again the goal is to bridge the existing Gap by achieving a 5% increase um again I'm going to be talking about implementing some efforts but I do want to mention the monitoring of the implementation efforts and we are conducting the following we are having more frequent classroom observation ations in order to provide feedback that support a teacher in delivering standard-based lessons with an alignment of performance objectives student tasks and defined Student Success criteria We are continuing the principal and assistant principle coaching sessions with teaching lab with the teaching lab consultant to strengthen this skill with the Dy High School admin team we're working with the directors of instruction on curriculum development to review Maps support the writing of performance objectives in specific content areas and then frequent communication with instructional coaches Department chairs and Ure to ensure a common understanding of the focus okay so the subsequent series of slides focuses on students in grades 8 and 10 Again analyzing their performance in mathematics English language arts and science alongside student demographics this data encompasses a 5year span of academic achievement last year we concentrated on developing an effective framework and this year we are implementing this framework to gather information on the curriculum's impact on student learning additionally we are examining instructional strategies that facilitate student access to grade L level objectives and best practices so what you're seeing here are students in eth grade in all three content areas who are on um individualized education programs IEPs compared to those those who are not so again this slide shows um yeah exactly what I said okay this slide presents a comparison between students on 504 plans and their peers not on these plans across all subject areas students on 504 plans demonstrated demonstrated improvements from the 2023 to 2024 Academic Year although the trajectory has been uneven there was an upward Trend observable in all content areas from 23 to 24 here we present a comparison of 10th grade students on IEPs with their peers not on IEPs we observe a s similar trajectory in both mathematics and English language arts with science being the outlier the director of instruction and I have developed an implementation plan for mathematics to assist teachers in planning with scripted resources for curricula creat by teachers our focus is on sequencing performance objectives that align with the established standards that was that was one slide behind I apologize this slide Compares 10th grade students on 504 plans with those not on these plans while there was a decline from the 23 to 24 period his historically students in this grade on 504 plans have outperformed their peers not on such plans during the 2023 2024 Academic School year students from low income backgrounds exhibited progress in mathematics however there was a slight decline in performance within English language arts and science this reflects the ongoing Trends we have been monitoring students from low-income backgrounds demonstrated increased progress in science mirroring the established Trends observed in mathematics and English language arts we have successfully hired a fourth English language development teacher this year class sizes for level three students are now 13 students or fewer per classroom given that this is the area where we have observed the least amount of progress moving from level three to level four smaller class sizes will provide students with more focused instructional time additionally El level two classes um those class sizes have been reduced to 17 students or fewer with the addition of this new teacher apologize so this slide is for grade 8 and this slide is the progress for students in grade 10 10 next you'll see the nwea map growth testing for grade8 students in mathematics teachers can use the data from the RIT scores to identify who tier one instruction is working for those are the students in the yellow green and blue and address the students who are struggling and will need tier 2 supports the students in the red and orange there was a 3% increase in RIT scores from the fall to Spring we are strengthening our Tier 1 approach than honing in on accommodations in the tier one classroom so we can more clearly identify and support students who are struggling I go to map growth testing for language arts in grade 8 same idea with teachers identifying the students were tier one instruction is working and those students who need that additional help our goal is to use this data and a have a realistic presentation of student performance that would show no more than 5% of students needing the most import needing the most support and no more than 15% needing the tier 2 support our tier one approach will hopefully impact 85% of students thank you so our instructional Focus some of the steps are similar from literacy to math so I'll kind of summarize some of these and um include some additions from mathematics um but our school Improvement plan is aligned with addressing a lot of the instructional and achievement curriculum um you know concerns that we have from this data so one of our uh School Improvement and objective number one is increase the quality of tier one instruction this has multi- tiers but it begins with having a focus on the admin and teacher level with um administrative student learning goals and teacher professional practice goals so everybody's focused on that tier one instruction our school Improvement plan objective number five is an increase in academic achievement and utilizing um opportunities through Dolphin time we have the creation of the dolphin time committee to review the structure and I actually have a meeting next week with about four or five suggestions on improving dolphin time so that it directly impacts student achievement again you've talk you've heard about the district learning walks um building observations and feedback routine data analysis we have the grades 6 through eight curriculum resource Review Committee and continuing to make data driven decisions um again following one of our um School Improvement plan objectives is to have a structure to address the nas um priority areas so one of them is that we will develop and Implement a range of timely directive and coordinated intervention strategies um you'll see we have put together an intervention team and they are cataloging the interventions um that we provide students and that is all um laid out in our student study team protocol additionally NES priority Ora number two is the school will develop and Implement a written curriculum in a consistent format for all courses this is a loaded task in that it very much closely aligns the um increase of quality of tier one instruction if we're looking at our curriculum we are you know some um in some content areas it's pre-written in others it's teacher generated and we're implementing it all in a the chalk program by Power School it provides us an opportunity um to collaborate um reflect on the curriculum utilize the map growth testing and mcast data to as we talked about pacing in priority areas um and then it will offer us a resource to continually reflect and adjust um once that's in that um centralized location so our instructional Focus for math again I don't think it moved over to math oh here we go um so just to add in there the professional learning um during professional development and PLC structure um provided by Carnegie Learning we have ST Math and Maia for grades 8 through 12 I'm working with director Pontius in the teaching lab consultant on administrative coaching um so again our trajectories have been uneven consistently falling below 50% Benchmark the combined analysis of mcast and nwaa data reveals that while some students are accessing grade level material others are not adequately prepared for this skill level we are priori izing instructional strategies and data analysis to implement precise and targeted interventions early release days and half days have been strategically planned to address two of the three neas Focus areas curriculum development and intervention strategies the vision of The Graduate initiative is being pursued by the leadership team comprising of department shairs and each of these strategic objectives is detailed in the school Improvement plan these efforts are specifically aligned with enhancing student achievement throughout through a targeted approach um with the data driven decision making educators are utilizing assessment data and nwea data to inform instructional decisions administrators and Department shairs have equipped teachers with research-based strategies for tier one instruction additional resources have been offered to Define and suggest tier 2 accommodations concurrent with tier one teaching we have constituted a team dedicated to addressing the nas priority 3 which will focus work during early release in half days the intervention strategies will be aligned with our student study team protocol thank you and I'm open to questions and comments I'll go straight down the line I'll start with Mr Glenn what if I didn't have a question you knew better you can pass um the um uh thank you so much and and a lot of this is redundant or repetitive because you know what we see at the lower levels you know you end up getting um and Mr jenx used to say you're the finishing school um but you have to deal with what you get and and go from there but it I I was hearing RIT and uh and in the fire service it's a rapid in intervention team and I think that's what we need um you know because we can make long range plans but we got to do some things quick we got to identify that problem and and go forward uh quickly with the purpose and everybody understands that you know we're at a a situation here because the community will look at it funding goes with all of that reputation goes with all of that and you know we can try to improve it in so many different words um but you know the proof is often in the pudding um and uh the perception sometimes isn't the reality but uh sometimes it is and uh so we gotta if we want to change a perception we got to change some of the reality so um the same question that I had from the beginning um was looking at successful districts um and comparing them with the same demographics you know because like it was said before the the the the cohorts and the they're unique to our district is one thing you know Co and things that happened Statewide and Nationwide um those are consistent but we're comparing ourselves to the state average in these uh districts but there are districts with similar demographics and populations as ours so when we're looking to solve problems that are unique to our district they're not they might not be unique to all districts and whe we can find comparisons and then look for strategies to to improve but you know I I don't ever question the intention and the dedication of our uh professionals and our Educators I don't question that because I'm not a professional but I I want to always be able to support you and you know that we're supporting you so then you you can eliminate that from one of your worries but as Jenny said and other things we we're not we're not just taking this information laying down we're we really want to make sure that we're pushing you in the right direction so thank you I I know you will continue to to work on it but um you know how we Define the problem is how we Define the solution thank you Mr new thank you are any of the downward Trends potentially precipitated by Staffing changes where you have a turnover rate that potentially is contributing [Music] to the delivery of the content not being as good yeah it could be um you know we're looking at a couple areas could be staff turnover attendance you know if students aren't here um I was just talking about that earlier we've put together an attendance board to address our highest need students um who have had the most absences and then we're going to look at their achievement as well um and then like Betsy Ponte has showed that relationship with the student the content and the teacher you know if it's curriculum or instruction um so I think a lot of factors play into that and you know possibly turn over as one of them do you assign new teachers uh to the eighth grade I mean where how do you sta yeah that's a good question um definitely putting people where their strengths are so you know eighth grade again those standards are align six through eight so someone who has that the Middle School um as their strength content area again in science it splits off biology and physics so that's very specific when you're looking at hiring um so you know certainly you want to put really strong teachers teachers that collaborate well who can have um really effective plc's in those eth and 10th grade um so yeah we look at Staffing and then last question um this is a a short period of time we're looking at four or five years that that you're running the graphs uh going 10 years back let's say you I'm looking at the top exceeds that group it's a tiny fraction somewhere between one and and 5% over those four years is that consistent with what occurred uh 10 years ago not to my knowledge I think think we've had more students in that exceeds you know than than where it is now it's certainly growing in the wrong direction um so you know looking to get back that achievement okay thank you Mr Martin anything I'm trying to I don't know I'm trying to to wrap my head around all of this and it's it's it's very disappointing and it's very upsetting to see to see it all in black and white in various colors all on on a page um just staring you right in the face uh how deficient we we really are and my thoughts I mean I know that you were putting into place action plans and you have um you know you're you're you're looking to correct this going forward but my concern I can't help thinking about the the cohorts that have been um have been studied and the um the eth and 10th graders right now I feel are there's not much time left for them you know before they before they they graduate and enter the workforce and or or wherever their aspirations take them but are they going to be prepared have we prepared them properly to meet that you know to meet life you know um and what are we doing for what are we doing for these kids now um how are we trying to stop the bleeding so to speak um you know I mean we can you know because nothing nothing happens quickly you know we we you know we put together committees we you know we study we collect data we you know all this but in the meantime we have you know five years six years worth of progressive Decline and these kids are missing out you know they're it's just getting worse so what are we doing to stop the bleeding and reverse course for those kids that are not going to be here in five years they're going to be out doing whatever and are they going to be more challenged and have a more difficult time out in the real world than the kids that are going to benefit from from their data and the action plans going forward so can you speak to that yeah um because you know I know same as you this has been unsettling we've been looking at this data since the summertime you know I have some colleagues here with me tonight we haven't sto talking about this so you know your first reaction is to stop the bleeding what can we do now and like Betsy mentioned we have short and long term so I'll say at least for short term getting into classes more identify in what it is that we're looking for so at the high school level we want to see um very specific very strategic objectives that you know span the year of the class you know you learn this today you move on to this very specific additionally teachers going into classes with that criteria for success we're going to move on when I've seen students identify this and it's not going to be through overs scaffolding it's not going to be through giving them the answer it's going to be from the students presenting that knowledge to them um and when and if we're not seeing that right away through the observations and the feedback identifying the highest leverage skill that we can give that teacher to change tomorrow and and then you know the next time getting in so really giving teachers actionable you know items even if it's just a strong stance and you give the directions and you wait you know let's see if kids get to work don't repeat the directions over and over and guide them let's have a little bit of that productive struggle um and like I said have specific questioning and along with that following the data in those daily assessments formative and summative seeing if the tier one instruction is working if tier one instruction is working again the majority 85% of the students are achieving that objective and then strategically planning tier 2 accommodations or interventions alongside tier one that's small groups again questioning specific students um offering them opportunities to provide information to you that you know they're struggling in this skill um so you know things that we can change and adjust dayto day and um something that just popped into my mind um with the with the data showing such decline does that uh what do what do you have any um any data on the number of children who are I mean who are maybe held back or didn't or don't pass their grade and don't move on um so with mcast it's not um a retention data point so a student could perform um you know there is a portion and partially meeting where students in the past have met the CD requirement um even though they wouldn't be on the meeting and exceeds you know they'd be in that red um bar so but your score on mcast isn't going to hold you back you know to 10th grade not yeah mainly 10th grade because you have opportunities to retake it um in 11th and 12th grade so I do have the retention data I haven't correlated to the mcast achievement because again once you've met that CD you know I wouldn't retest a student so that they would get into the exceeding category um because it's kind of been like a bar to meet um but I could certainly look at that all right thank you very much M Landers yeah I mean certainly What Glenn just said struck a struck a bit of a nerve with me you know I'm a parent of a 10th grader and I see this like this is the reality um you know of what I'm experiencing with my 10th grader um and you know you know I want to what Joe said before about um you know supporting everyone is is true I'm not here to question anyone's professionalism I'm not here to question anyone's dedication and I believe that everyone is has got the same goal here but um and you know we have limited ways we can support that as as a school committee um it's you know as putting on my my parent hat I've been asking a lot of these questions you know since my son was at the elementary school and you know I I love this District I support this District I stick with this District I believe in public education and I've never considered you know moving my son out of this District or you know um and then I worry about that when I look at other high performing districts that I could have school choiced him to or Lottery didn't to or looked for scholarships for private schools I want this to be you know the place I know it can be and provide top quality education and um you know unfortunately it is probably too late you know for for my 10th grader um you know maybe not but to benefit from these interventions that you're talking about here you know I feel a little bit I feel like I paid this is my ninth year on the school committee and I feel like I've been paying attention um but maybe the data has never been presented to me or presented to us in certain ways that I've realized a lot of these Trends um so I I look forward to hearing back that these interventions are working and and if they're not what the tweaks are and how we're going to overcome these deficiencies be Miss so ironically you show the All of You The Five-Year Trends and I've been on the school committee five years um so what I do know principal Bennett is you were not the instructional leader five years ago so upfront I just want to say publicly uh for you to take on the principal ship at a time when the school was suffering and go through that healing process and now a couple years later sort of showing so much detail of identifying your problem steps and beginning to take them slowly I applaud you that's a lot in a short amount of time so that's my gas here's my butt and this is something you inherited just as everyone else in this room and superintendent Smith is inherited I did look at the last uh fiveyear strategic plan for I think it was 1917 1918 to 2023 and a lot you know the four different goals and one of them clearly was curriculum review curriculum consistency uh post it publish it find it at every grade level and unfortunately whatever councils or groups are planning you know it was a work in progress that got lost in the shuffle and now you know where you're looking at your next Vision your next well the vision is set it's the Strategic plan you're starting up already behind so I'm going to say it again if it means uh we advancing and supporting something in the budget that helps move that the curriculum review process because that's you know you're you're doing the interventions you're doing the walkthrough you're doing the coaching but the pulling the pieces together and that whole curriculum review um I've heard across the board that there's uh teacher design lessons great but is there consistency across the board I'm still not seeing that coordination if it means realigning staff appropriating staff suggesting a new staff member this is the time to start advocating for it and I challenge you to think about that and consider it and if you need our help in selling that into the community I'll do whatever I can thank you thank you so much as I as I review all this information you know and I see the one you know the economically disadvantaged you know low income I think about the numbers that Dr Smith talked about when he talks about what our Dynamics are and there's such a huge portion of that so when you think about how many students we say are economically disadvantaged and then you say are economically disadvantaged or at 20% that would then correlate to why our scores are so low in the district right so it's you know to me it's like what are we what are we doing for that specific and I know we talked about adding a tier three and I know we talked about having a smaller group so I think we're we're getting to where we need we're identifying through map of where people are and having the group so I I think I've heard the answer of what we're doing which is great um it's just when we think about how many numbers are on that board and I and I see the numbers of that group is at 20% it's just disheartening to hear and then when I look at the the color graph from language arts and Mathematics the only thing I noticed is that in language arts it said 178 students and uh mathematics said 300 so I don't know if those numbers are true I think their eighth grade enrollments from what I heard is little over 250 so I don't know if there's that disparity number of students that took the test or if the numbers aren't necessarily correct um but you know obviously that could sway a percentage of it um but I would assume that most students take them both at the same time or yeah there's a window they take them you know back to back okay and I don't need to know the exact numbers that I just one of those things I noticed when I'm looking at it that you know there was 122 person difference between the two tests so I was just curious if there was that much of a difference of who Took each test or you know that has a correlation of it too but um you know and something that Mr Glenn has said in the past is you know now that again we don't know what's going to happen with the decision of mcast but um we don't want it to be that we don't we're not going to worry about it we it needs to be something we need to have something that we're we're looking forward to whether it's a requirement for graduation now okay regardless of that as a district it's what you know a tool that we utilize to see how we're doing based on our curriculums right and teaching and comparing against the state so you know I know that you know discussion of you know maybe people won't take it as seriously or we won't push it you know I think our Our concern is that we are you know teaching the curriculum that is expected from the state and that where we do have that we will continue to utilize that as a measurement of where we are um so I think that's something that's important to all of us too that we continue to to show the importance of it because we're not doing all this work um and this this is not all work so that we can look look good and be highs scoring it's so that we know that our students are getting the education equally amongst all of the grade levels and they're you know we're doing everything we can to ensure that we have a a tool to um see where they're at and so we can have meatings and have these discussions um to make the curriculum better if it needs to to to Institute new curriculum or to change it or to do the learning walks to see where we're falling the gaps um you know and Dr Smith uses this word all the time the elephant in the room um we probably have seen these numbers but if they're not all on the same chart maybe we haven't noticed it or if we look at you know two years or every other year um but it's it's these discussions that we need to have we need to be honest with ourselves um and you know our our goal is to make sure that we are honest with the community right so you know the point I was mentioned earlier about you know asking money our budget has been an issue every year and we'll probably be continue to be an issue you know we'll do everything we can to make sure it's not but um you know if we continue to ask for more money and every year we're our our scores are going down the community is going to look at us and say what are you doing with our money and what and what are we doing in the schools so you know they've supported us whenever we've asked but we we have to show them that we're you're being smart with what they're you know putting us in charge of right the the the amount of money that we put into the schools so it's important that we make sure that we continue to put a focus on this and like I said we've heard a lot of great things and I think it's just I think we'd all like to be able to look at the Jenny's point the next nine years or many years we all continue to be members that we get to be a part of the thing that has been able to help make it better U and to keep that um and we we see the dedication um but but we have to we we have to ask the hard questions and we have to say the difficult things out loud so you all know how important it is Us in the community and then uh well allow Mr bino to go last and we we won't be we we'll beat you up just as much thank you and as um I know that Miss antini said that you know the hardest level of kids of of hormones and what else is going on between that that Middle School um that there's a lot of factors that get involved but you know how important it is to make sure it's prepared as they as go to the next level so we'll allow you to go over your numbers thank you um so similar to all the other uh presentations this evening um I'll be presenting on a five-year Trend um connecting to the middle school mcast scores and nwaa assessments so again as we look at our scores um we recognize that in mathematics over the past five years that roughly a quarter percent of our students are achieving and meeting or exceeding expectations and that's both in sixth and seventh grade moving on to ELA um you will see uh similar success rates um in sixth grade we are above that uh meet having 35% of our student population students in sixth grade meeting or exceeding expectations and then um in seventh grade roughly 20% are meeting or exceeding those expectations uh sixth grade really did well in the area of student growth percent in comparison to the state achievement levels um we are 11.8% um above the state average so we are growing and moving our students in sixth grade at a faster rate than um our peers amongst the state um and when looking at our seventh grade we saw our unfortunate continual decline in um scores so we're really needing to focus in on what we can do in 7th grade when looking deeper into the scores and breaking them down into subgroups you will see that students in uh on IEPs in comparison to to their peers that are not on IEPs uh 7th grade ELA students are um moving in a in the upward trajectory or the correct direction uh still not really where we want to be um but we are um improving our scores um in reviewing our seventh grade math scores you will see a continued decline um we are looking into what interventions we can Implement to support our students that learn differently in both these areas I'll speak to this more as we get into the action steps later on maybe oh no there we go no there we go all right um as we look at our subgroup of students with that are on 504s uh many of our 504 students are moving in that upward trajectory that we are all hoping for uh this shows that our tier one instruction and our accommodations are helping our students within the classroom we are also attributing this to the hard work and uh continuity and continual tracking that our guidance department does with our um students that are on 504s um the math supportive culture and collaboration collaborative nature of our new curriculum and then in ela we are performing similar um if not better to the Statewide peers so again uh our students that are um on 504s are are moving uh in the direction we all want us to go as we look at our multilingual Learners um students you will see an upward progress in mathematics We are continuing contributing this to the collaborative instructional model in our uh math curriculum and having like peers um that they can collaborate with in their math classes so as we move on to looking at our uh map growth um at the end of last year in mathematics uh you will see that we did a good job of moving our students from um the middle to the upper level in math uh as a school we were able to move 10% points um from Winter to Spring and uh we really need to dive deeper into what we can do to replicate this moving forward so that we can continue ually move in the right direction and then reviewing and looking at our Ela map scores um Ela didn't uh see a similar Trend in growth uh the start off to start off this year we are really focusing on vocabulary and connecting to previous knowledge students may have in their content areas um we are also be uh beginning to process of developing a curriculum review team that you heard about through Miss antini um to review our literacy curriculum uh moving forward so now we're into our action steps so for mathematics um in the area of math we have significantly increased the number of observations and Incorporated a level of instructional uh professional development for myself so I have a better understanding of the curriculum when providing feedback to our staff members during our feedback discussions we are having more in-depth conversations one onone in person and getting to down to the root of the decision- making process within the classroom instruction we are developing a supportive plan uh planning a a model for our professional learning communities that will be starting tomorrow in collaboration with our stem director we have developed a strategic plan for the month of December that'll provide 5 hours of professional development um uh in time learning with our whole math department and then we are also providing real-time uh coaching for six staff members in mathematics uh starting the week of December 11th through 20th to support our class our teachers directly into in the classroom this year we have also continued to Implement additional resources of ST Math andl um these two resources help us track the students progress in live time and see how they are mastering individual skills throughout the um the year and then moving on to literacy um we are working with as as previously mentioned we have developed a focus area in literacy uh in connection to reading the focus has been on root words and content specific vocabulary this has been implemented in three different professional developments with the collaboration of our reading Department there are two more uh professional development opportunities uh this year to come and then we have one additional one if teachers want to kind of get deeper into the learning of this process um Our Hope really is that in the beginning of of each lesson or Focus area our staff are um really focusing in on the language so that students have the ability to understand the concepts as moving forward um we have also implemented ISL in the area of litery literacy um this is also allowing our teachers to monitor on a monthly basis tracking their student skill development throughout the year and that that's my presentation open for comments and questions Mr Glennon yes um thank you Mr bino um I couldn't help but think when we were talking about looking over the number of years uh I've been looking at these numbers from a Community member looking at the budgets as a parent with kids in the district to a parent deciding whether the district was going to be the best for my kids to 10 15 years ago when I could run up and down the court with you at station AV and now it takes me the same amount of time to get across this floor um so you know I if my memory could serve me I could look at the progress when we weren't talking about cohorts we weren't talking about the state average at all um we weren't we a lot of people didn't even emphasize um the testing at all and a lot of that was good because you it wasn't questioned it was more we're we're not and I've always said this we we're not asking instructors and Educators to teach to a test we're asking them to teach to a standard and it's a standard that we set that the state sets but you know the educators agree with and that that we want to get our kids forward so we don't leave kids going out into the community because that's the the the the thing about education it is it you know college isn't for everybody um but life is for everybody hopefully um and and and and that's you know mental health and all of those things that you see every day that that are included in our education and that's why you know our our RS and our psychologists and our other people that don't necessarily deal with the the test um or the mcast all play into this community of Educators and we have to look at the whole picture and we have to support it but we want to make sure that all of our kids are getting our best effort and I think that's what we've all been trying to say tonight um that you know when we see the drop offs we're using it as an assessment we're using it to say this is where we are and this is how we can improve and we're dedicated and you know I I said it to Miss Bennett is is you know it's a rapid intervention team um and hopefully we are because we don't want one kid to go out the door unprepared um and we don't assume that that's going to happen so I appreciate all that you're doing all we're trying to do um that everybody is trying to do and the community knows that we're doing it but I just wanted to say I've been following this for a long time and and I've been looking at it and I'm glad that we're at the point where we're looking at all of these things as a whole that we hadn't been doing in the past and sometimes it takes you know when when a a car company has a recall it's a a a there's a problem there but if you fix the it's how you handle it if you handle it well it says something about your car company that you fixed the recall and now you're going to do it so you know we're not recalling everybody we're not uh making we're not thinking that we're giving up on any one kid or any coher of kids um we're trying to fix the whole problem and but we've identified some of the problems and we're going to we're going to work on that putting that fire out or stop the bleeding as Mr uh uh Martin said so thank you so much yeah I got to agree with two things that you mentioned there Joe you know the first is is the rapid intervention so with Betsy ponus you know our first uh learning walks we went through them we identified some things and we have a plan to be able to implement some changes and possible moving forward um direct support for our staff members that's starting next week so again not waiting for a committee or moving forward we saw a need we've moved forward changed our original path so that we can have that rapid intervention um the other piece is is that we are focusing on the whole student right we're not focusing on just the instruction we have been able to implement many other um protocols and procedures and and processes that really support our students um across the board um tonight's presentation is directly connected to instruction and and test scor but know that there are many other pieces that are going along to support our whole student and especially as a middle school student you know grows and develops there are certain things that um they need versus other grade levels Mr new thank you I'm going to to focus on positive things this time uh so sixth grade 504 students in math had great growth between 23 and 24 7th grade students 504 math had Positive Growth there 7th grade IEP students in ela had positive growth and then sixth grade English Learners had huge growth uh in math have you been able to identify why at this point no to be completely honest we are still looking at more in depthly of what was happening to those subgroups to be able to make them move forward so that then we can um replicate it further um you know do we have a couple ideas sure you know um is it the additional supports and and um small group interventions that are happening with some of those groups probably um helping out those students move forward um but I couldn't give you a pinpointed one answer at this point hopefully you will continue to look at that and figure out a way to replicate it in the other areas because that that was significant growth and whether it was instructional in nature or curriculum in nature or support yep in nature you know I think that's something maybe you could look at and come to a more precise uh definition as to why yep and then do it in the other areas agreed all right thank you Mr new Mr new Mr Martin one of us um I'm just I mean I don't want to I don't want to beat a dead horse but um I just want to um I want to preface by saying that you know I I I think that we have you know a tremendous group of Educators I think you all are very you know very competent very you know very good at what you do and you are all very obviously focused and driven towards improving what's what's deficient um that being you know that being said I mean there are obvious things that need to be addressed and I'm I'm encouraged by the um the fact that you all understand that you're focused on it you've got a game plan you're moving forward with it you know but my my thought still goes to the existing student that's you know where the data is being pulled from right now um so rapid intervention can't be overlooked I mean it it has you know I mean these kids I mean we we're still responsible for these kids they're not data points so we need to we need to to once we identify kind of what's going on like you said I mean you have something going in place next week you know which I mean that and that that I think needs to to happen um is just as important as planning out something that's going to be you know over the next next however long um I think we can't get bogged down in we can't get bogged down in the data we can't get bogged down in um in certain things to where we Overlook what's happening right now and how we can benefit these kids right now um so you know I think I just you know want to kind of throw that out there and have it you know hang so that it's you know it's something that we all kind of think about while we're also planning to you know fix things going forward so that we never have to to have these conversations anymore yeah M lers you've heard what I've said here tonight and I won't repeat myself on those points what I will say is I mean you've got the seventh graders here right which is pivotal right we know we've seen right what happens in a lot of these areas in seventh grade and I know you're working on it and I really want to hear back and want to see what you're doing to turn things around for our seventh graders thank you miss beus you know last year um a lot of emphasis was on implementing the math curriculum and Pro providing teachers the support and guidance and encouragement and instructional coaches I think looking at the literacy as it's posted here I think it's time for ELA to get a little bit more emphasis uh yes I do have a background in this so there is a inherent bias um but I expect respect all subjects but um you know the mcast at the middle school level is much more than vocabulary it's reading it's writing it's language it's listening it's speaking a lot of domains so I I'm looking for more uh either explanation or depth or sort of meet to sort of this proposal just something to think about thank you and I and I I think you know as some other people have talked about and we've gone through all these presentations and we talk about the state average I I don't think anyone here says that we have to be you know the top of the entire state or be above the state average I think what we're all looking for and I know that Miss Bennett talked about you know a 5% increase I think we just need to start seeing an upward Trend not a downward Trend um you know whatever the other state 367 different districts or towns whatever the number is you know they're not all like us and you know other people have talked about the demographics aren't all the same so it's hard to say you know what we're doing but we need to see what we're doing and I think our goal is that us as a district and and the levels that we're we're we're measuring are trending up um and I think that's what you know is is probably most important about you know where we are and I see that we are in certain subgroups but you know to the point of okay take what we take take the winds there but we need to make sure that all of the groups um are are trending up you know from year to year from as the cohort grows continues to grow um and I think that's you know one of the things that I've seen from here is that you know the state is the state but again that the state average is 30 we and we're we're at 30 that that's not to be proud of right it's not to be proud of that we're just like the rest of the state we want to make sure that we're seeing constant growth and I think that's what you know all of us really want is to see that and like I said we've heard some great things today about what we're going to do and I feel very excited about our strategic plan and I the the excitement of the administrators working together um in subgroups and working on these and just constantly bringing them up and labeling them on our presentations or the presentations you're doing so it's just constant talk about what we're doing with that plan and you know the shortterm versus the long term but just constantly doing something every day um you know and that's you know that and that's one of the things I don't I don't love about mcast you know it's such a long time between between the taking it and getting the results and you know how much time is lost for the beginning of year instruction and that's like I I love the fact that we use map and we can get more instantaneously and they always say that map kind of projects where you'll be and being able to do that twice and do something instantly uh rather than being six months behind so thank you so much and I appreciate it thank you and then I'll just ask Dr Smith to any final comments and from the presentations or anything that may have been missed that we did not hear yeah thanks um so just a couple of notes that I jotted down to myself as we were going through um so first just high level and it was sort of talked at a couple different points and then here in this last little bit the the change it will the the high level big change it will take some time right you don't student achievement is complex U to say the least a lot of things that influence student achievement um and I think it was Joe who mentioned that you know we don't we don't teach the test right and it is a measure of what students are learning and and learning as a complex um animal so it takes a while to to move that needle um and you know there are Trends across the state the state is seeing in student learning um that some of that is mirrored in our data and Dy has some some specific Trends right that aren't that AR aren't promising or aren't are't things we want to see um so it's it's it's a it's going to take and we see when you see some of the other presentations you'll start to see that we're actually we are seeing some positive upswings um in some of the places that we did invest some of our energies uh last last year specifically and so again it will take time and incremental change is lasting change right if you see all of a sudden rapid upswing then there's a good chance that that was more of a fluke than something that's actually building for some some sustaining pieces over time part of going back to something that Marilyn mentioned you know part of um part of the work and if you know just sitting as maybe as an observer or at least somebody who's still very fresh and and started last year when we were having these conversations and as as sat back and watched from a district perspective from going through my entry work last year and then where we are at this point today and the level of discourse around this across the entire district and and I get some of it directly and some of it indirectly uh has significantly shifted uh in the sense that you know I reported in my report of Entry findings that when asked you know what was something that needed to really be addressed across the district the student achievement very rarely came up as a as a topic of conversation and that has shifted significantly in a short period of time that that is that is something to be noticed and to me quite frankly from my perspective something to be celebrated the the level of discourse that you all just had tonight around this the the the the I don't know the The Angst while it doesn't feel great you know and maybe it's because I'm married to a therapist like if you don't have any open conversations about what you need to work on you're never really going to work on it right so I think us having as a school district having an open conversation about what it where it is we need to grow that's the only way we're all actually going to start to work on these things um so we're actually now having those open conversations so um that was um one other piece and you know we're building new habits and like muscle memory and strategies as I can speak to the leadership team that's what I have have the most interaction with and you know so things like you know John you asked some questions tonight about specific um data patterns and trends for us looking at data in that way these are new patterns and trends for us as a team so we don't always look at the data that way or think to look at the data or have systems for collecting and that's sort of another a lot of this stuff is interconnected systems pieces so we don't necessarily have all the things in place to even get some of the information that we would want to get so we were able to actually look at some data this year in a way that quite frankly we we might have been able to last year but it would have been a lot harder um so we were able to get it easier this year and hopefully by next this time next year we've got some things working so that by this time next year we'll be able to look at some things in a different way and be able to be more because it's one thing we can run in and just try to do something but we also want to make sure we're trying to do the right thing um like I said student achievement is complex and I think it was Miss Bennett talked about you know we want to be able to look at you know the intersection between groups of kids and the curriculum and things like attendance and you asked a question about turnover you know without a really good record within a good system me that allows us to know who's been here when for how long and what they've done that's a that's not really a student achievement instruction thing that's a business office Human Resources systems piece but if I don't have a good data system inside my human resources department that allows me to easily pull that information and pull that data and tie it back to the high school to be able to say this teacher was here in this building for this period of time and then be able B to tie that back to my student data student achievement data so like those are seem like systems that don't need to be efficient but they do in order for me to get that data to be able to run it that way so these things are interconnected and we are working on on them um uh and at the end of the day um then this is editorializing I guess for my my position but like our greatest resource so and and high quality I I'm a firm believer in high quality curriculum resources and our greatest resources is the are the people that work here um so from everybody sitting in this table to everybody sitting at this audience to everybody who's probably not listening tonight um that they are ultimately our greatest resource and that's where we have to invest and continue to invest um because ultimately I'm not personally going to move the student achievement on a single student that's not my job as superintendent my job as superintendent is to build systems for my leaders so my leaders can be more effective than their job is if they can be better at their job and be more effective to ultimately improve systems for their teachers and so the teachers can be more effective with the students um because and that's ultimately what will move the needle for student achievement because ultimately that's our greatest resource um and so we have to put those all those things things in place um and there are things that we can do in the immediate rapid things that we can put in place but if we're really going to do it like for every kid then it's a big systems approach and moving that needle will take some time and some consistent effort and what they presented to you tonight and what I think it was Tomas mentioned you know the multiple conversations that we have here had had here at school committee is a fraction of the work that I've seen them do in the I don't know 16 18 months or however however long I've been here seems like a thousand years at this point but in the short period of time that I've been here superintendent the amount of work that I've seen the leadership team do um you know I presented them with a vision on where I think we need to go because I agree with a lot of things that have said been said here tonight around the potential for student achievement and a lot of other things inside of Dy um and they've stepped up to that challenge um so they're working their rear ends off um to get us there um so those are my my comments thank you so much uh next we'll move to the subcommittee representatives liaison report uh school committee liazon the board of Selectmen I see Marilyn with notes so I'll start with her so for the dentist tomorrow night uh December 3rd at 4:30 the select Board of dentists are going to look at their fiscal 2526 uh budget so it's the first sort of public discussion of what their annual budget is and a budget message by the Town Administrator and for those of you on the subcommittee you can view it if you want to without going to the meeting just go to the town of Dennis website calendar section and press on select board packet and all of the documents are there for your viewing thank you so much Mr Glenn for town of Yarmouth anything uh uh two things um one we should always especially because of the budget timeline um try to review the town's agenda for the meeting the next night so to tomorrow night um look at the agenda as you can um because the budget is always going to be a topic either in public comment or uh in on the uh selectman's agenda and the other thing was um Saturday uh there is an election um for the um position um Mike Stone who passed away uh his uh selectman seat which is that's one fifth of of uh who votes on the budget is that new uh representative uh to the selectman is going to uh be elected Saturday just to fulfill the end of the term until May but um it it will set at 10 so that's uh the the vote is uh Saturday thank you so much uh next we have on the agenda the Cape Cod collaborative Mr Morris was unable to attend tonight so we'll push that to our next meeting on December 16th um the next one is our school building committee any updates from you or David uh no nothing CH since the last meeting really really nothing with this building as far as it relates to the is still just the hashing out with the um initial quote that we received and whether we're going to going go ahead with that perfect uh policy subcommittee we have a second reading and a vote thank you Mr chair um we'll begin with the um the updated um policy BG Bravo golf uh school committee policy development and I'll just read the um the updated version uh the school committee will develop policies and put them in writing so that they may serve as guides for the discretionary action of those To Whom It delegates Authority uh the school committee will establish and periodically review educational policies for the schools in the district consistent with the requirements of law and the Statewide policies and standards established by the department of Elementary and secondary education and other the regulatory agencies of the various levels of government policy should be reflective of the fact that the school committee has oversight of and responsibility uh for the school system the direction in which the system must go and establish criteria to determine policies are being met policies should be broad enough to indicate a line of action to be followed by the administration in meeting day-to-day problems yet be specific enough to give clear Guidance the school committee accepts the definition of policy set forth by the Massachusetts Association of school committees okay we've have a reading and now for a motion I move that we adopt policy BG school committee policy development as revised and presented to the committee second we have a motion and a second do we have any discussion seeing none do we need a roll call vote Noe okay we'll take a vote all those in favor say I I any opposed any abstained perfect we'll go to the next one so this is Regional School District legal status this will become the permanent AA the legal basis for public education the district is vested in the will of the people as expressed in the constitution of Massachusetts and state statutes pertaining to education Regional School districts are creating in accordance with state law and the regional agreement approved by the member towns the Dennis yth Regional School District exists through an agreement between municipalities under laws pertaining to education and under regulations of the Massachusetts Board of Education the area served by the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District is identified in the regional agreement move to remove policy AA School District legal status from the D school committee policy manual and replace it with policy aa-1 Regional School District legal status as just presented to the committee second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed any abstained so passes honestly as well perfect uh we will move to next the superintendent's report thank you very much uh so starting with recognitions of donations and acknowledgements uh there are no donations this uh week there was one that came in a little bit late but it'll be on the next uh school committee agenda so starting with some recognitions first want to begin uh by recognizing some of our Dy students and staff uh they helped prepare the Friday before Thanksgiving in preparing uh meal bags uh in working in partnership with the Family Pantry they prepared a series of meal bags there were students uh that were present from the student council the National Honor Society the German club and they attended with uh both Rebecca horn and Brian Blake um to assemble 600 meal bags um and then they included cards that were that the students placed in um in the meal bags and those cards were decorated by third graders from em small this was all organized by by Elizabeth dougen who um both works at the Family Pantry as well as one of our teachers at em small next uh also from Emmy small sort of a connected tissue uh so Emy small uh was able to in working with the Family Pantry as well as uh Steven Albright from bright lights they were able to provide Thanksgiving meals and all the fixings for 52 families um and so they want to give a special uh thank you and shout out to some specific staff members there um who helped with the coordinating so uh miss Emily Basset uh Sheila Hayes Katie turgy and Mark sandone um as well as uh Wendy Vera um who all helped in organizing the effort as well as Brian and all the kitchen staff um who helped in both the coordinating and organizing and then last um the mass aabon um honors um several teachers for their 20 2024 conservation teachers of the Year award so they had a press release that went out uh at the beginning of November so just about a month ago and one of our teachers was recognized uh in uh their teachers 2024 teachers of the year so Regina G who's a second grade teacher at Ezra Baker um uh and it states in the press release that uh Regina is known as a dedicated and energetic educator Regina helped bring the science of Massachusetts unit rooted uh excuse me helped bring the science of Massachusetts unit entitled rooted in science trees to her classroom and four others her commitment to expanding Hands-On Environmental Education to students LED them led to them participating in a tree planting at the school which further cemented the relationship between science learning the outdoors and community action so congratulations to Regina for that honor from Mass otoma so that is for uh acknowledgements so congratulations and and to all those and then the last bit was just an update on the FY 26 budget process and timelines um so and sort of update on where we are in the process uh so uh at the last meeting updated everybody on the fact that we had the the meeting with the the groups from the um select board the representative from select board Finance committees and the um staff from each of the Two Towns plus myself uh David Maria and uh Tomas and now we've begun our internal meetings with each of the guess department heads for lack of a better term so the week prior to Thanksgiving we David and I sit on all of them and then depending upon who we're meeting with other folks join Maria joins um on some of the meetings we have special education department joining in um with each of the buildings um but we began meetings uh like I said before Thanksgiving so we've met with a few of the principles already we met with the Athletics uh department and we met with human resources so far um over the next couple of weeks we'll finish up with the remaining principles facilities special education and curriculum I think I've captured everybody uh once those meetings are completed David will work to compile all the asks um so they've basically are have a supply section and a staffing section where are the large two things that they're looking at um David takes care of all the other larger District um expenses plus um we'll calculate all and he's actually already done a lot of the pre-work around the salary um role for boards um and then we'll make a prioritized list of the asks uh as well as the budget impacts of those prioritized asks uh we'll make a presentation of those to the Budget Finance subcommittee during uh December 16th uh which is prior is a scheduled Finance subcommittee meeting prior to the December 16th school committee meeting and then we will move on to which is in your packet uh series of uh school committee budget presentation meeting so you'll see starting right when we come back from winter break January 6th we anticipate giving the committee our first initial look at um high level what the budget is starting to shake out at that time what the asks are what that prioritized list looks like um and any direction we got from the finance subcommittee um in our December meeting by it's by the 13th we should have the governor's no no when do we get the governor stuff Wednesday the fourth Wednesday all right yeah so by that 13th the the school committee will have to take a tentative um vote on um the FY 26 budget um by shortly after that we'll get the governor's numbers which will give us the minimum required contribution um and we'll get our Chapter 70 information so that'll really help us firm up the revenue picture and we'll get a sense the minimum required contribution is really what we need um for those of you going through it for the first time to figure out where the assessments land um and then we'll hold currently have the budget hearings um tentatively scheduled for the 3 um which is again for folks going through it for the first time that's the opportunity for when we open the budget here and for the public to have a back and forth of us ask questions in which either David myself or any of the school committee members can engage in the public back and forth in a conversation around the budget um and then that gives us uh two more meetings for any refining around the budget um and then uh we have tentatively we have it scheduled for the March 3rd for the school committee to take their final vote on the budget but we also have asked the committee to hold the 10th because technically we have by the way the um I just lost the term the regional agreement works we actually have a little bit of wiggle room you'll see there in blue Friday March 14th is the last possible day that the committee can vote so uh we tentatively are holding March 10th as a meeting date it's not currently on wasn't on the original calendar of days but if anything is needed if an extra ex meeting is needed for another look at the budget etc etc we're asking the committee to hold that date should we need a little bit more Runway to get to the final budget um as we come down to the end there but that is um you know sort of how we anticipate getting ourselves through the next couple of months um and where things currently stand I don't know if there's anything you want to add there Mr Flyn but no it was very very well laid out just I just yeah we're just trying to back in obviously as we said before everything backs up from the town meeting date so just making sure we meet all the deadlines as required in the regional agreement Mr Glen you had a question yeah so um I couldn't hear you Mr Flyn when you were talking about the state budget you did you say the fourth Wednesday that's when the minimum required contribution it's either the third Wednesday or the fourth Wednesday I'd have to look at the calendar to see but that's when the governor has to have it out by but but does doesn't that trigger our like going forward dates from there correct because included with the governor's budget not only is it the estimates of the chapter 78 it also sets the minimum contributions which is the first part of the assessment calculation on both towns so you know even though both towns fund us well over the minimum it does directly affect the calculation so we can't calculate the calculation until that comes out from the governor so it's it's multifaceted because it's the chapter 78 is the transportation a it's school choice and Charter School estimates it's the minimum contribution so there's a whole bunch of numbers that all come out on that same date which all in one way or another funnel into the budget and all the assessments and so Dr uh uh Smith um on when you said the March 3D and and and possibly a March 10th uh tenative meeting is that an either or or we would do both based on that I guess is the the 10th instead of the third or would we do both so the way we have the calendar laid out right now is the school committee would take their vote on the 3D now we'll have a better sense as we get through February are where things are landing um so you know David and I talked about if we need some more time between and it's just a matter of time then we could move the 3rd to the 10th but the committee needs more deliberation if we're getting you know we're engaging in conversations with one or both of the towns and we need to have some back and forth and the committee needs time to engage in public session around that then we would need both of those sessions so that's why we sort of stuck it there because we don't really know but we have the available Runway because that vote has to happen 45 days prior to the first town meeting so that's why the technically we have all the way up until Friday the 14th so you know in theory we could we could we could have four more meetings that month that week um as or you all it's your meetings not mine um you could have four more meetings that week um really all the way up till you could vote have a meeting on Friday um and that would be your drop dead date to make um to make your final vote on the budget and would you would that be the period where you would present to the towns individually in between that period um we can present to the towns after that but we would probably just like we did last year we want to get to them earlier right um but with the caveat that we like we did if I remember correctly I'd have to go back and revisit the slides I remember at least being in front of a couple of I think we went to both towns twice last year if I remember correctly earlier and with the understanding that the commit had yet to vote on the budget but sort of here's where what we presented to you all first and then we went and presented to them and then as things got refined we presented them to them the refined information we've also scheduled a followup to that similar um multi I don't I need to come up with a name for it because describing it is just becoming difficult but similar with a representative from each board and and the the the staff from each we're going to have a followup meeting I think late in January as numbers as the towns to to Maryland's point I I'm planning on going to Dennis's meeting tomorrow to see how Dennis's budget plays out and see how yarmouth's budget plays out as well to and continue that conversation Ong going that was you know we promised last year to start the conversations earlier and keep them ongoing so uh when we had the earlier meeting we set a date for a later meeting and the date is not fresh in my head but it's sometime in late January if I remember correctly is that s right yeah great thank you perfect uh next we have the consent agenda which is the minutes for November 18th and I think they were updated to uh revise uh who a motion was made by for November 18th uh and then we have our bills requisition payrolls I don't know if Mr Glenn passed them down or he's been holding them the whole time but I haven't seen them um on the calendars did we vote the consent agenda oh no no not yet sorry I was looking at the move the consent agenda a motion a second discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed any abstained thank you sorry bills requisitions and payrolls we we found um calendars we have a policy subcommittee meeting on the 11th uh Dr SMI talked about the finance subcommittee will'll meet prior to our 16th meeting and then uh there'll be no school from the 23rd to the 2nd I believe they return Thursday January 2nd they return um anyone for public comment seeing none um I think that's all we have for today someone like to make a motion Mr new is ready to make that last motion adjourn motion to adjourn I have second I have a second all those in favor say I I any oppose any abstain thank you so much we'll see you this