##VIDEO ID:L8FNxT962cA## this government meeting is brought to you by eastworks and our local cable subscribers we are going to call to order our second night of interviews for superintendent finalist candidates for eastampton public school um we are going to roll a call in tonight Megan Megan Harvey here Eric here Laura Scott present Sam Sam Hunter present Ben Ben Hy here Linda Linda Marquee here thank you so thanks for joining us everyone um we are here tonight with Mary Jane Ron who is our second of three interviewees um we've let Mary Jane know ahead of time we've offered her uh 5 minutes for an introductory statement we'll then have seven questions that we' have shared with all candidates ahead of time each of the questions will be moderated by a different member of the committee uh we do encourage followup and any requests for specification whomever is moderating that question can just call on those who have their hands raised if they'd like to ask the follow a question or further clarification and we're ready to begin with Mary Jane's introductory statement thank you Mary Jane thank you I just want to thank you all for inviting me back I really appreciate that um I enjoyed my day here with the uh student students and staff it was a very um enlightening day the students really did a nice job asking me very probing questions they had some um things that they wanted to know so uh they were really helpful and they did a nice job trying to um navigate questions to um support um you know what they're looking for so they were they were very thoughtful I met with the admin team today and got a little tour of the building so it was a really really nice day um I was really excited to to come here to talk to you today because the students really emulated the the three uh tenants that you talk about kindness equity and inclusion so they really were uh thoughtful with those questions and those questions really evoked a lot of u meaning to me um so I was really glad that they were able to um support the those tenants of what we believe in eastampton to what uh what you're putting forward here and I look forward to continuing this conversation with you for the next um 85 minutes thank you so much um we're going to begin with question one uh from our member Eric G hi would um M Ron Mary what would you Mary Jane's SP whatever you like so Mary Jane I'm Eric guette um my leading question to start off is now that you've been around our district for a while and investigating it I'm sure what would you describe as our greatest assets and strengths and what would you say are our greatest challenges as a district and then individually as smaller schools sure I was really um first of all your greatest asset is your staff I think that is by far the um the greatest asset of any District I have to say I was really impressed with the buildings the buildings are gorgeous and beautiful so I just want to put that out there and they're very well maintained um as far as working with breaking the information down I want to let you know that I really appreciated how you focus on the Mountain View school and how it's three schools within one school I really liked the breakdown I thought that was a unique way to address each specific area of um grade level the prek I'd like to start with them I was really um interested in finding out how that worked as far as separating grade uh the foury olds with three yearold so I thought that was interesting that you're able to transition the four-year-olds ready for kindergarten to full day program so it's really interesting that you had the two half day programs for the three-year-olds so to get them out of the home and and really do more of um you know early literacy to to help your early interventions and then when they got to four-year-old for make them the full-time um to so that they ulate the kindergarten so that transition was really great what I really thought was um clever is that you have your Early Childhood Program supporting the tiny tot program the two uh to 5-year-olds so I really thought that was a unique way to help the students find what they're looking for at the high school as far as career and college readiness if that's something you're interested why serving the community so I really thought that was a tremendous strength um so it was um I I was very impressed with that as far as challenges um we're seeing a lot of students come in it with the early um childhood and early um intervention with a lot of um social emotional supports that that they're needing so really taking time to make sure that we can help our students be successful by finding the right services for them so some of the challenges we have with a lot of these programs is finding the support staff and the academic teachers to support the students with the that have been identified with early interventions so um those are a challenge not only here in eastampton but other districts as well so um I think that that is something that we're all going to be aware of in the next in the next few years now going on to grades um 3 through 5 um I thought that when I looked around and met with um with the principal there and some of the students they felt really secure and safe and nurtured in their environment and that is a testament to the work that you're doing with within your Dei work so the students really felt that they were supported and that they had what they needed they were very excited to be part of this conversation when I met with them today they felt that they were um um part of a community so and they also didn't feel like they were broken down into into three different schools they knew they were part of one school but they had a part they owned a part of it themselves so that was really an interesting component when I met with them um and I think some of the challenges with the with the three to five years this is when we start the standardized testing with the students so it's really difficult for teachers to um not overwhelm the students with some of this testing we want to make sure that the students get the support they need and learn the standards in the in the um curriculum but not overwhelming them by testing because once they hit grade three we started to test them standardized testing so we can't take away their holistic um education by you know uh focusing too much on the test so I think we have to really try to balance that work with the students in grades three through five because this is when we are starting to look at our data what are we doing to support them and and finding that information grades six to8 um great resource for transition I found that they were doing a good job transitioning from the elementary into the middle school by even how you separate the times the high school I mean the um preschool comes in at 9 the um 3 through 5 comes in at you know 8:35 and the middle schoolers come in at um 810 so really getting them ready for the next stage of of the um transition was was an important component when I met with the students um the challenges with grades 6 through eight I think really is we have a lot of students with again some of that social emotional um support and they start getting nervous and anxiety and really trying to find ways to support their their um their um social emotional well-being at that point um transitioning to a new school is also something that is difficult for a lot of families and and moving to a big school is a lot is a lot different but I do think they've done a really good job um Dr Pas did a really nice job helping the the students transition so I really like the that um and as far as um grades 9 through 12 I was very very impressed with what I saw here with the students and the program of studies um I really was um impressed that you had all kinds of offerings for the students anime graphic arts that you're able to put in some science and Robotics having the opportunity to continue with Arts and Sciences across the district to be honest with you it's really nice to see that there's a real um support from the community to support the Arts and the musics with this with the students I think often times because budgets budgetary constraints you know look for cuts cutting in those areas tends to be a uh tends to be a priority I'm so glad that they did that we haven't done that here um because those types of programs are really important to the students um it's important that we keep them motivated make them engag engaged make sure that we find things that they want to do have them get the passions they have and between you know grade 6 to 12 is when we have to make sure the students stay engaged and having those programs to support them with the clubs and the after school activities and U when I met with the uh middle schoolers today um a couple of them they were interested in a pottery club which is now going to be starting so they're very excited about that I guess there was a Kil in the uh grades three through five and they wanted one in their side so they're going to be opening that up for for them as well so having them be interested in school we want to make sure kids students stay in school and we all know that by the you know when they get to grade n is when they become disengage so that that big area between you know grade seven and N we have to find those interests so when I looked at the program of studies and talking to the students they were very pleased with what they had to offer um it was something for everybody and one of the questions I did ask the students was is there something for everybody that almost every single one in that group that I talked to today said yes they believe there's things for everybody um if you're an athlete there's things if you're not an athlete there's clubs after school um there is a lot I had several a band uh people with me today and so they're going to be here tonight practicing and having their their Big Show so I I have to say it was very um great um meeting them today and again I think some of the challenges will be um supporting the students uh budgetarily because I know that's going to be an issue for all of us moving forward we want to maintain those same programs for the students and what can we do to keep the level services but I also think we need to expand some of programs really offering some programs for more career Readiness for them and college readiness what does that look like what are our programs look like I we have the AP offerings we have dual enrollment we have things like that but what else can we do to make sure that they're getting what they need once they leave here with the work-based learning plans how does that look what what kind of programs do we need to offer them to make them be engaged in in what's happening in the community after all these are students are going to come back here from college or work here and they're going to be part of the the process so we need to make sure that we continue to support what they do and what their interests are I say this all the time um we don't know what the jobs are going to look like or what their careers are going to look like in you know 10 15 years even even 5 years we can say who knew that there was a job as a an influencer who knew that was going to be a profession so you know so you know that's we have to prepare them for this so we need to really make sure that we teach our students how to be better thinkers and you know what can we do to support that in our in in in our journey to be Educators so again I think the district is doing a really good job um I think resource allocation is going to be um something that we have to continue to have challenges with but I think your best resource is the staff that is the number one resource they are a dedicated group they um I was really um impressed that all of your administrators have been here a long term there's not a big turnover so that's a testament to the district many districts I've been into there's a revolving door with Administration that is not the case especially um here while administrators are veterans and and they have a vested interest in what's happening here so that that is good and the staff as well so um that was my um today so I think a lot of the information I got today was from the students and the staff and finding out what works and what doesn't work but I think um I think generally this district is doing a great job and some of the challenges will have to be um how can we expand the programs and what can we do to support that thank you does anyone have a followup question I don't have a follow up I just have a note I'm having a little bit difficulty hearing you you're a soft speaker that's all okay I'll speak that's that's that's more my ears than your voice I so I would have a followup of just um you definitely mentioned the Arts and the extra programs which um so I would ask how would you keep programs that we might look at as above and beyond the Arts and the clubs that are offered when budgetary constraints are in place because a lot of people in the community don't look at them as extra above and beyond but they look at we need to have these these programs so what kind of clever ways um to manipulate the budget in ways that we can keep what we already have the general curriculum but also Al keep those programs and and even look into adding programs when maybe the money is not there that is the age old question I think really finding support from your community is important we have businesses out there we have experts in the field in our particular area um this area has a lot of arts and culture embedded within the community so really using those people as a resource um to help us perhaps fund or maybe volunteer to help you know to help some of those programs bringing people in from the outside to support the students is is is important um I really choose not to um cut those programs because again with education uh you need to use all parts of your brain and I think those music and those Arts programs really help stimulate the brain and having those programs I you know some maying they're extra but um I do think it helps with with development so using the resources that you have in the area you have you know places like Northampton eastampton you have music studios and um you have the the cultural center um lots of places that you can use for a resource um but again people you know if you're going to talk to people you have to build those relationships so in order to do that I have to get out there to have conversations with folks you know what can we do to support our students because ultimately this is what we're here for so I think finding grant opportunities a lot of the grant opportunities now are for stem you know music and um and arts are um not so much a uh a grant as far as the government but there are local grants to support things like that cultural Council and things like that that we could use um but but those are not sustainable so you'd have to look for some sustainable ways to support those programs um and that would be you know uh as a group we probably get our uh Music Association together and see you know what can we do to support and how can we um make sure that our students are continuing to get the services they need and sometimes you might have to you know have a music teacher do band and a couple of other things teachers are wearing many many hats now so in order to do the programs you have to have um you know maybe the course teacher does uh different music class and or or sometimes you have to share services with other towns and that's also a way to do that because there are towns who you know want to keep those programs but can't afford to keep them so maybe they want them a quarter a timeon and we can pay you know split those Services as well without short changing the students so those are a couple of ideas thank you for sure thank you that's it yeah thank that was great um we're going to move on to question two uh please discuss how you approach and deal with conflict in the various Arenas of school management for example Administration staff students and Families how do you define positive culture in a school community and how do you build and support that and just as a programming note I should have mentioned you all have a time of running I'll just give you three fingers when we're at 3 minutes left just so you have a sense of where we are and again don't feel the need to fill all 10 minutes USB M are happy to ask you further questions go I do that um as someone who spent um some time as a mediation coordinator and had some experience with conflict resolution I think I have the skills to um support people that are having conflicts in any place you work conflict is inevitable but we have to understand that conflict is not necessarily A Bad Thing conflict is something that we need to work through every person has different life experiences different opinions and different ways that they that they've evolved based on on what they've learned so I think we have to take that in into account when conflicts arise so it's important as a leader and a district leader and and an educator we have to really talk to our folks collaborate let's see you know let's get to the root of the problem you know why are we here what are we here to do well our job is support the students and support our mission so what is the conflict about is it a personality conflict is it as a you don't like what the curriculum looks like is it a scheduling issue you know let's take a look and have those conversations I expect to have some conversations with my admin team and I have and we always don't agree on everything but we do talk it through and let's see you know um what what we can do to support each other I am a Solutions based person so if you have any conflict and you have a and you have a different idea I'm certainly open to it but you can't do that without having discussion the last thing you want is to have resentment with within your team um having a crack in your Administration doesn't help uh support the mission of the school so really keeping those lines of communication opening and tell them it's okay to have conflict let's talk about it what can we do to support each other and come up with a solution together so I think when we have these discussions we just need to lay the grounds we're here to come up with a solution let's see how we can work together to support it now once you come up with a solution everybody may not always be happy but we have to make sure that we leave the room with it common sense of of what is what we're going to do moving forward so that being said once we come up with that solution you have to follow up with your with your folks and say you know are you okay I know that it really wasn't the outcome you expected but what you know let's see how we can work together so that I hear you next time I hear what you're saying and I appreciate what you do here but we need to follow up and really you know understand why we're here and what can I do to support you in the future just because maybe this isn't exactly what you wanted this time perhaps next time it will be so really follow up with let them know that you value what they have to say because none of us are experts in what we do we rely on each other to work together we're collaborative so it's really critical that we take that opportunity to work together to do that and second of all when we come up with a solution it's important that we follow through because there's nothing worse than coming up with a solution checking with your folks and then letting it not go to you know what you decided as a group so making sure that you do that that is important because if you don't you're going to really sink some of them morale so as far as a min Administration that is what I do and I approach it honestly the same way with staff um but staff you may approach it in a different way um because there also may be uh conflicts with personality or somebody doesn't like um you know um what they're teaching this year or they taught it differently before so those are things that arise so having those conversations with the principles and say how how can we support your staff let's get to the root of the problem how can we solve it and then when we solve it we may G is that something we need to do for PD is it something we have to support through PD with the staff is it somehow further mediation um you know what do we need to do is it is it an issue with they don't understand what we're doing with stmath right now or or do I need to bring somebody in to help you so really um with the staff it's one thing very similar follow up with the staff when they when it's done how can I what can I do to support you we value again what you say these are important conversations because everybody as I said has an expertise and has uh different life experiences so that's incred incredibly important and again being accountable and holding uh folks accountable to what they say they're going to do is important students is really where I did a lot of my work so um not that I would do that at this level but I could if if necessary if the students one of the students asked me today if they had a conflict could they come to me and I said absolutely my door's always open and I will be in the building daily I told them so you know we can have lunch together and and do those types of things so I did let them know that I'm here for them for sure um but they're going to have conflicts with each other and perhaps with their teachers perhaps with their principes but that's what I'm here to listen to what they have to say um and you know it's important for the students to have their own sense of advocacy you know I'm really a firm believer in student advocacy and they need to be able to stand up for themselves and respect what they you know uh we need to respect what they say and we may not always again agree with what they say they may not always agree with what we do but we need to explain why we're doing things and and let them know that they're part of the process and and we value them so um when you do that with students you also need to follow through and and and at some point you may say listen this may be something for the students to look at themselves for you know do I need to look at myself and have some some supports on my own does it call for restorative justice if there was a confli of the students you know what does that look like as far as that happen so really um those are the three for for IND district with families it's also the same thing my door's always open come in and talk to me let's have some communication um I'll have some forums um after school in the evenings I uh have meetings in during the day coffee with the superintendent I've done it with the principal really I keep my door open and I try to do meetings with parents quarterly and in different times of the day some in the middle of the day some in the morning some in the evening and really it's a question and answer period I'm always here to help um and support the parents um you know defining positive culture to me is where people feel feel heard respected and know that when you tell them something you're going to follow through and you trust them I think trust is extraordinarily important with any um relationship um I have to say I usually build that Rapport through visiting classrooms um talking to folks listening to them I know my first um tour here if I get EX um if I was able to serve in the district I will be spending some time listening we have a listening tour and seeing what people want to do so and building that sense of positive culture doesn't happen overnight so it takes a little bit of time you know at least you know a few a few months you sometimes it takes a full year depending on you know what happens so really having inclusive inclusive uh culture um respecting each other kindness and really to me a positive culture if you ask the staff to do things as a group um they want to they want to support the school support whatever initiatives you have you know that they trust that you're doing the right thing but you also have an engagement in the conversation if you're bringing a news are bringing in a new curriculum you obviously you have to have conversations with them so you know you can't do things without their support so really understanding what their needs are understanding what the student needs are and keeping those dialogues open um and really it comes down to trust respect communication is really important sending Communications out to families um in uh multiple languages um different different ways to um uh do what could be text messaging phone calls you have to do multimedia all those different ways to do that so positive culture has to come through different angles in different um ways and you need to set your expectations you know I like having a communication plan put in place so that parents know when you're going to be getting a phone call or you know uh you'll get I'll get back to you within 24 hours so a lot of those things need to be set in place so when you say you're going to do something that has to happen so creating a positive culture takes time but I think it takes patience and it takes a willingness to want to collaborate and it's not um the Mary Jane rickon show it's the East Hampton Public School show and we're here to support everybody Wonder would anybody have a followup um I I have one so sometimes um we and I think this happens more often now than it well maybe I don't know I'm not that old maybe maybe it doesn't um one one thing that happens from time to is there will be something that happens between students outside of school and it really impacts what happens in school um can you speak a little bit to how you manage um that kind of dynamic or that kind of yeah that that can be tricky because things that happen out do carry on so we really need to be aware of that often times I'm told by principles know a lot of stuff um ahead of time and usually we try to you know have the students come in sometimes we have to contact um you know a lot of sometimes it's Social Media stuff so really trying to be preventive calling the students and hopefully um you can you know talk to the students when they come in what happened you know you may have to contact the police and see you know is it something I need to worry about here um or you know what happens over the weekend so you know you don't want to be too invasive to the families you know personaliz but you also have to be sure that we have you know a thousand other kids we have to be careful of so really it's important to have discussions again and hopefully you have a good relationship with with the people that had those issues before after school after school or weekends at the party whatever happened that happens all the time and I have to say for the most part if you get the students in first thing in the morning usually you can see what happened and figure out what happened and as a result I I like to be part of those conversations because we just need to be on um you know on the same page when it comes to how we're going to support each other and it may be as simple as you know we're all set and and and talk to the students individually you certainly don't want to talk to them together if there was a conflict and how we can support them and sometimes it takes a big investigation a lot of this stuff happens over the weekend so when they get to school this is a safe place for them to really feel comfortable talking about it and get get it rectified so because they can't do it at home sometimes there's not this support you at home so sometimes we are the last line of defense for students you know we have adjustment counselors here we have guidance counselors here we have trusted teachers you know we have the diversity room there's a great um person down there who really seems to be well trusted with the students and I think having those conversations with the students ahead of time and and and letting you know that this is a safe place for you and we're going to help you get through whatever conflicts happened over the weekend and that's important thank you anyone else thank you so much we're going to move on L question pleas okay um you spoke a little bit earlier about uh community and having the community involvement and everything so describe the methods by which you engage with students families and the larger community that you find to be effective and meaningful what do you aim to achieve through this engagement how do you ensure Equitable reach across the population and employed cultural competency and inclusion okay communication to me is key with with anything um establishing relationships is is important I can say that with all 100% uh certainty that I engage with the students daily um I'm in the class class rooms I'm in the hallways I'm at I'm in the lunchroom um I take the time to visit their um student council meetings and listen to their concerns um I attend their sporting events and I um attend all their you know those types of things but those are perfering I like to actually have conversations with the students right now in grany I am meeting with the uh students oneon-one they're all gr the seniors are graduating in uh June and I don't know a lot of them so I really trying to take the time to get to know them so when it comes time for me to talk about them I know what they're about and having those conversations with them is really really important to me and I'm starting to meet with students you know all all throughout the throughout the day for doing that I do the same thing at the elementary school I I meet I see them daily I like to sit on the floor with our uh little preschoolers and and chat with them so really being part of the uh Community is important to me greeting them when they come in in the morning uh and when they leave in the afternoon is really important um what I can do during the day is to be here the paperwork and um some of the other stuff it has to happen when school's over because ultimately I'm here when the kids are here so they need to see who I am and they made that perfectly clear to me today they want to see me in the building the students let me know that that is what they wanted and I will be here I'm I'm every day now I'm fortunate now that my building right now is in the actual high school so I do see the kids every day and before that I always did um so I have to say that that is how I work with the students same thing with the teachers I'm in the classrooms but I don't go in there to be threatening I may might oh what are they talking about today I'll go in there and I'll leave a little sticky know hey I really I really like that less than you talked about gee I didn't know that much about frogs so you know things like that I'll say so I really try to make sure that I stay part of the conversation across the board and being in the schools every day is something I I aspire to um you know I say every day but I'm there at least three times a week but you know I I aspire to every day but you know how things get in the way um but you know and I will be making appointments to meet with students I have a as a superintendent and a principal I had little advisory counsil so I would meet with students at lunch we'd buy pizza we' talk about it you know uh the superintendent's Round Table I called it you know and I would have different kids sometimes I would bring in um um same students and oftentimes I say hey um can you bring it I'd like to hear the the 10th grader the sophomore experience or the Freshman experience what can I do um a lot of times you want to bring the freshman because they're a different um they're a little nervous when they first start school so you really have to make connections with them because they are looking for support and they they may not know who the people are so really trying to find people who can help them is what I look for and engaging with families is the same thing you know participating in what's happening outside you know the rag shag parade and the Harvest Fair and and going to the cultural events I know the flea market's opening again I love doing flea market so I'll be doing that and having those conversations and and being part of those community events is what look to do I participate in car washes I like to wash cars with the kids so really just being part of the community at home is really what is what I talk about um as far as the larger Community when I was in grany and and in my other District as well I can let you know that this particular District I met with um representative Dom and representative Carrie because we need those folks in our um in our um communities to help us move forward getting funding I know um representative car's gone and we're going to have representative Gomez pretty soon so um working with those folks is a great way for us to procure some funding um making sure that they can help us at the State House what we're looking for so being part of those conversations with them too inviting them into the schools working with the colleges you know we're right next to mount hoo so um and and you know um and UMass and all the schools that we're next to right now I like working with those folks right now we're working with you in gramby on an early college program so East Hampton gramby and Hadley were all together doing an early college program so you know I talked to um the dean over there the college to uh support what's happening with our students so really engaging the larger Community is something that we need to do to make sure that our students are getting the services they need what can we do for each other so finding not only working with um other districts and the community at large we need to find ways to all work together so that's what I do for for engagement um and I find it be effective and meaningful because when we need supports we have each other to lean on you know we we can't operate in silos all school districts are struggling with the same you know Financial uh burdens and the same Staffing burdens so we really going to have to find creative ways to work together to support each other um it's really about supporting our students and staff so finding ways to do that is is really important to me and I aim to achieve um aim to achieve is really establishing relationship so when it comes time to maybe ask for a little bit more I'm there and you you know and and they know that I'm going to advocate for them I'm not going to ask for what we don't need so I really need to establish those relationships because it comes down to people's pocketbooks and we have to maintain you know the fiscal responsibility because we want to make sure that families aren't overburdened but we also want to make sure our students are being taken care of so really having those conversations and being open honest and transparent is really important to me because you never know what you're going to need and who you're going to need and you might find some experts in something again as we talked about some other programs engaging with that's where you're going to find your Little Gems to help you out so that that works that worked great um uh Equitable reach okay I just get at the next part of the question I think Equitable reach comes down to um your families so what do your families need you know how can they communicate some of them do not have um internet and things like that so that's an issue for some of them so perhaps we have to run hotpots for them and find things to help those families get the services they need so they can access some of the Digital Services we need but if if they if we can't um you know phone calls letters you know I can pick up the phone I pick up phones all the time to talk to parents you know sometimes we need to do that you know newsletters maybe for certain students have to go in their backpacks you we have to find way to do that translate things we had some conversation today about translation services for our families you know what what does that look like um you know audit what what what the P families want what's the best way for them so really try to reach everybody in uh the most Equitable manner we can you know as many ways as we can Facebook you know what you know whatever social media places we have people love Facebook um so so that's what you mean I got it feels like boang forever now that's different so you know um you just want to make sure that you're you're being part of those conversations you know and and and include those things into your into your um repertoire attend um some of the cultural nights that are happening in town you know talk to your uh families what they're looking for have an elll night for some of your L students you know we've done that in some of the other districts I've had nights with um you know with with families so they can come in and feel um part of the community I think some of the El students who who will transfer from other countries don't really have a connection to the schools having a special night for them is also important so I think those are some things that I certainly do you any followup do you have followups anybody that's a great thorough question yeah okay we're going to move on question four uh Sam all right um how would you define the purpose of special education and describe examples of how you ensure that students with disabilities and their families can access the full life of the school in both academic and non-academic content texts um students with um special ed students are students who have exceptional abilities and I like to make sure that we understand that they are part of this culture of the school they are not let's go and and do an afterthought they are part of the school so to me students with special needs are those that should access high quality education through Equitable and inclusionary uh means taking time to make sure that your classes are balanced um this teachers are content Specialists um I love when you have uh inclusion classes with special ed students in there with teachers who actually know the content often times when special ed students go to classrooms they're taken out and put in with a special ed teacher and say for example um some special ed teachers I'm just going to use high school for an example um because they're they tend to be more content content based but if you go to a special ed teacher and get pulled out for math those students should you know that specialed teacher may not know geometry so how can you support that student in that geometry if you don't have the content knowledge of that so I like to have the special ed teacher go into the actual classroom learn the lesson and if the student needs support take them out of the classroom so all special ed students should be taught by content specialists in my opinion um and then the support should be given to the special ed students they should have the same access to high quality education as everyone else that being said when the students are pulled out oftentimes in some of these not necess eastampton this is not the case I've seen in eastampton you guys are doing a great job um I have seen students go to special ed classes and because the content specialist doesn't know geometry they might get a lower level math they're not getting 10th grade math so not only should they be getting the content they need to get the content at grade level they may not get the full scope of what's happening but they need to get that those same Concepts and those same materials and those so those same standards so I am a firm believer in let's get them age appropriate materials for who they are they should access AP classes dual enrollment classes work-based learning they should have the right to do that and at the elementary level the same thing let's make sure that the special teachers are in the classroom students should be part of the community when I walk into a special and when I walk into an um a third grade class I shouldn't see all the special Leed students in a corner with the with the aid they need to be spread out throughout the classroom in grouping student groupings are really important to me you have different levels of students supporting each other students supporting each other really has worked so I think that is one of the greatest challenges and that that causes a lot of anxiety for teachers because that takes a lot of work and a lot of planning but it's something that we have to train teachers to do better and I and I'm a firm believer in that um and I think moving forward um I would love to see students do more inclusionary social things uh for example we have unified basketball in um in our town so the students get to play basketball between um The Fall season and the winter season and you have a student who with disabilities with the students with not disabilities traveling to other schools and working on basketball and and having it's called Unified sports um we had it um I went to the unified basketball game a few weeks ago it was great seeing those special ed students and um these were with some disability making baskets and and the general ed students praising them it was really it was heart it was heartwarming it was awesome then you have the parents in the stand clapping it was it was just a great great day so really inviting them to do you know even though it's a little SE separate those that's an activity they can do with other folks as well I love the best buddies program that is a program where you have mentors with general led students who work with students with special needs as well and they do activities together throughout the year um and special ed students really um are part of as far as I'm concerned field trips I mean everything they should be part of the they shouldn't be an extra so they should be part of the inclusion you should like I said you shouldn't know in the classroom who's the specialist student who's not that is um you know how I feel um and and in an academic context even though students have special needs they may have things that we can do to support them in the classroom to help them out Not only would it just be having a PA or special ed teacher what kind of Technology can we give them to support them assisted technology how can we modify um their tests or accommodate their needs you know what can we do to support them in the classroom so that they can access the curriculum you know perhaps if we're teaching um um Algebra 1 in 9th grade maybe there's a different book they can use but it's still algebra so you know at their at their reading level so really taking the time to support them in those ways so being um cognizant of what the student needs are and making sure that we're including them in the conversations and having those things I'd love to see um students with special needs on student council and those types of things I know here um we have students with special needs on you know justel Ross the board on on you know AP classes and such so that's really important to me um so I I um you want to make sure the families feel comfortable too um and and having those um same conversations and what can we do to support them again reach out to the families what do you need how can we support your student and with the new IEP a lot of the new IEPs are talking about what goals are for each student the students really have a voice in what they want to happen so having that information ahead of time can help us plan their Futures and that's uh one of the new components of the I it used to be at the older level at the transition level but now now it's starting earlier which is great um we all have goals and they do too so let's uh embrace them and see what we can do to support them it's great does anybody have any follow-ups I have a followup I'm not exactly sure how to ask the question I'm sort of formulating as I Thinking Out Loud um we have a relatively large proportion of our students in who are on IEPs in 504s and I just was curious to hear some of your thoughts around um any unique challenges that poses or sort of how that gets into the thought process special education we sit around 27% 27 I think about I think it's closer at 30 it's closer at 30 yeah I think it's closer 30% so can you repeat the question just wondering if you have thoughts around does that change any of the ways you're talking about things does that add unique challenges um no we need make sure that we have the funding to support those because they continue to come in and and we're starting to see them especially as I said earlier at the prek and the kindergarten level they're really coming in with a lot of these um some of these social emotional supports that we need to support so you know I I think just need to make sure that we have the funding to support their needs and some of them may need OT and PT and Staffing becomes an issue too I mean we're fortunate that we do have money that sometimes if you spend over 125% of your of your special ed um spending you can apply for circuit breaker or I mean I'm sorry not circuit breaker extraordinary Rel you can apply for that we have yeah so you know there are there are that is a thing but I think across the country and across the United States and across the state in Massachusetts the numbers are increasing um so um I think it it really comes down to funding and and and and Staffing um and you can be as creative as you want but ultimately it's coming down to the students needs and you have to do what's best for them and you know and sometimes I some districts feel um that um I've been feeling the pain because what's going to happen is because the special needs are going up you're starting to having to cut programs that are not special services and you have to maintain that level I know we had an issue in in uh Grandy um about what we put in for um our special ed funding and so when it came time to apply for Grant we had some issues because we didn't uh wasn't maintenance of eff with special ed so we had to make sure that we continue to do that so really it comes down to funding honestly and and I think we if you let the folks know that this is happening that this is what we see you know I I'm going to need your support helping us get together and and a lot of advocacy and we need to support advocacy at the state level you know talking to our Representatives Dom and K and Gomez and and the town Administration and and those are the people that are going to help us you know I I don't know what the funding is going to look like and we none of us do you know we don't know what federal funding is going to look like in the next few years either so you know locally we have to really Advocate and try to see if we can get more money um from from the from somebody yeah somebody's going to give us some money it's got to come eventually one would hope but I don't think the numbers are going to go down yeah that's for not my impression either yeah thank you I really appreciate that realistic yeah great answer you want to move on to yeah we gonna move on to question five otherwise I get stuff talking I know this is yeah we're being very restrained yeah I you can it's you know I can handle it oh no we'll keep it hour we just don't stop go back and watch will go off yeah that did happen last night that happened last night the lights went off that's hilarious well then I'll just keep waving every once in a while if it's motion detectors somebody just take your turn waving see who's under it uh um so I'm going to ask you the next question um regarding assessment of students and evaluation of Staff what are your preferred tools and methods to gather data for various groups and across grade levels um and please discuss how you would use that data to inform choices around curriculum programming Staffing and specifically how you would apply that in a district such as ours sure um obviously we all um there's different types of assessments we have standardized testing we have I'll I'll start with their testing and then I'll move to the the teachers evaluation um so we have standardized testing mcast testing U which is something that we tend to look at and we don't know what that's going to look like in the future for sure we have no idea what that's going to look like but we have other forms of assessment that we can use Benchmark testing so I'm familiar with NWA which is map now STAR testing which is Renaissance uml Dibbles qu and panel those are those are things that that I'm familiar with so taking that those data points is one data point that we will use to support each student um and then you have and I'll explain it all it it'll come together and then um and then you have your formative Assessments in your classroom which are the teacher assessments exit tickets um you know whatever the doing to dip sticking the classroom things like that to support the students um and then you have a common formative assessments if you have grade level assessments really taking all that information so first of all you have to take all that information together and make CHS I like to make um I like to have a data cycle for each of my students so when I was an athl what we did is we created a data cycle for the teachers um but before we did that I think I probably should take a step back data is really important people are afraid of data they don't know what to do with data um they're really good about pulling it out but now what's next so one of the very first things we need to do is really have those conversations what does it look like you know do we have um data teams what does your data team do you know how often do you're looking at those data teams so when I was an Athol um myself and the other curcum coordinator created a data cycle and the data cycle was assess the students let's take a look at the assessments what do the need for interventions reassess them and just it's like a cyclical cycle so we created something and it happened every 10 weeks now you have to really be cognizant of what the community wants you know some people don't like a lot of testing but it's important that we take a look at that information so that we can make sure our students are meet meeting our standards that we chose and to make sure that the curriculum is being set so what we did is we had um each um grade level put in uh a chart of their students so they would put in each assessment so they would mcast test Benchmark testing you know they would put that in there and then they would look at the data so every student would have their name and this is where their test results and how do they fall within that range would they be students who excelled in something so they would we' labeled all those kids green and then the students who needed some supports would be red and then the kids that maybe need a little intervention would be yellow so then what we did is we took during our wind blocks and took that information especially at the elementary level and say okay looks like these students who are in the green level they're being really um they're they're understanding this content that we're that we're looking at so let's give them some enrichment material or let them move on so in the classrooms your classroom should be get up in a way that you're able to support each of those groups of students then the yellow group would be and the students didn't know this obviously so you know and then you know how you going to intervene with that and then maybe the the the red group maybe need a little bit more intensive work how how do they do that so you really intentionally do some planning during that time sometimes if you're at two grade levels and you know that say Mr Smith's classroom is doing really well in this area and and Mr um Jones is not doing well in this area they can switch so the teachers can be taught by the teacher during those wind blocks so that they can get the content by that other person um which you know leads to say is that other person needs some support as an educator because their students are being successful or is it it's just different way so data does really a lot of things it helps you take a look at the curriculum is there a hole somewhere in the curriculum that we haven't been doing well what have we seen over the last couple years well we're not doing too well in numeracy or our students need some some little phic awareness you know what can we do to support that is that some curriculum work we need to do let's get a team together and talk about what that looks like so really taking a look at that and and or is it the instructional practices as I said Mr Smith is doing a really good job with that Mr Jones not so much so maybe we need to have Mr Jones go to Mr Smith's classroom to see I was teaching that so really taking over the instructional practices as well and then giving that teacher some additional supports so really taking a look at that as far as instruction and curriculum and one of the other ways to do it is you know how can if those students are consistently doing poorly do maybe that student needs some Student Assistance Maybe a referral and things like that so what can we do to support the students and having that so having that data is important but we really need to show teacher how to use the data and once they get taught how to use the data how are they going to translate that to the classroom because you also need to move forward in the crib when you can't keep going over the same things over and over again so how do you intertwine that pheic awareness into the next lesson you know what can you do next time so that you're moving forward so you can't keep staying the same thing you know read The Red Badge of Courage for you know from September to January you can't do that so you have to I just I don't know why I said that but whatever um you walk into classroom and you might say I saw that Romeo and Juliet you know in August why is it still there in March so you know let's take a look at that stuff so you um because they're not getting it well you that's not that's not acceptable so you know those are the things we have to do um so you know those are the tools I use formative assessments um summative assessments standardized testing those are all things I use as as a uh as an administrator um and you know programming again that could be we're seeing a lot of students in the red so do I need to hire another interventionist to help the students and that would be programming or do I need to open a different classroom to help support those students you know so that would be part of the programming um and Staffing for that um as far as Staffing I really like to take a look at in the beginning of the year I would meet with the admin team let's take a look at what our strategic plan looks like like what is going to be our Focus areas this year so when we're looking at our Focus areas um we should be looking at all those data points that we got last year from the students you know okay looks like we're falling a little short here so it looks like maybe we need some support and instruction so when we look in the classroom let's have some PD with the administration in September in uh July and August let's take a look at some sample lessons and let's take a look at some online work and some work so let's let's look at what a classroom should look like and that after that we take we create a tool for ourselves so when we walk into the classrooms we say okay we're going to be looking for these specific things you know and then we talk to the teachers when they come back to school when we go in your classrooms this these are some things we' like you to focus on we really have those conversations so when the year starts everybody knows this is what we're looking for in the classroom we're going to be coming in looking at these things and we're going to keep continue to support you in these initiatives so those are the things I look like look at in the classroom so it's observation tools and I do walkthroughs with the principal so that will be the uh few it might be the leadership team it might be just myself and the principal it might be myself and the special ed director you know what what does that look like in the classroom so really having those uh conversations using teachpoint is really important because you can um have the teachers put their own information in there so they can show you their lesson this is what I'm doing but it didn't quite translate into the classroom like that so having those data points and you know talking to fames you know if if you're getting some feedback from families GE this teacher is doing a great job you know let let get in there and see what's happening you know those types of things so those are ways that I would definitely support families and students so in the end I think looking at the data and training staff how to use data and then training your ad administrative team and what we're looking for and moving forward trying to support the the families and students and and uh making sure that the classroom is vibrant engaging um Equitable having all those those things put in place thank thank you you're welcome I have a followup at first a comment that might be the most accessible explanation of how to employ data in the administration of public education I've ever heard so Bravo um that I think anybody who watches this will be able to understand this is a nerd question meant for nerds and you broke it down so that a parent watching from home can understand why and how we gather data and how we use it to help their students so I just want to piggy back on that that's was exactly my thought because I'm always the person over here because I probably the least involved on a day-to-day basis in the education and most of these on other members of this and you just made me understand data right like that well the it is because I um I feared data for a really really really long time so I think um I had to how how if I'm fearing other people fear me so you know I think yeah I I know my shortcomings were and it was data for a really long time yeah I think that's a common issue so my followup where you really Peaks my curiosity I'd like you to dig a little more if you don't mind just for a minute or so you mentioned wind blocks you mentioned wind blocks um and that is something we're kind of struggling with and exploring further particularly in those middle level grades and you reference I thought it was really great I I think we're doing some of this already you know accessing those for this kind of really targeted so can you just talk for a second about what what's the frequency of using the Wind Block for that kind of targeted support and then when not using it for that how else can you use it you know if it is something like arts or enrichment or something that is maybe activating or supporting students in another way can you just talk to me for a second about Wind Block because I don't know where else to plug this it it really it really depends on what you're looking for for supports I sometimes you may not need every might be doing great in one particular area so you may not need it um there's certain trimesters or semesters that that that may you need to fre Engage The Frequency you don't want to use it too much if you're going to take a special away from the students because then the students are going to be resentful and you want to make sure you don't have that but you could also use Wind Block for um you know other things as for seal so really taking time to support the students in their social emotional learning so I think it depends on uh on the grade level and what you're looking to support you might need more wind blocks at um at the higher level than you do at the elementary at uh you know at grades five and six and then next month you might need grades one and two I mean every 10 weeks you should be doing these data these data Benchmark testings and they they're very quick they're not they they shouldn't take more than 20 minutes you don't want to it make the day you know uh exhausted but and the data should be fairly quickly so you should be able to have within the next two or three days okay what do I need to do now so you could have wind blocks you know twice a week depending on what you're looking for so it really varies um but you'd have to have your team you know your team of teachers make that decision on their own okay looks like we just need a little bit support here um so maybe a two- day and then the other days you can do some social emotional learning curriculum um or you know bring in a you know whatever you need to do so it really varies on what the content is you some content areas are a little bit more tricky you know and and some are not they don't have wind blocks at the high school so you have to kind of weave that in a different way at the elementary school it's different at the high school it's that's much different because they don't have that time so the high school they going to have to take some time in the next day to perhaps do something like that we're going to get the intervention to that you know at the middle and high school because their schedules are a little bit different and at the middle school especially so it's really about trying to weave the time into the day if you have to you might you know maybe we'll do social studies four days a week one one week and and and and then you know social studies and science always tend to take a backseat in the elementary but yes it's something that we definitely need to work on yeah I mean I could talk about this things all right uh question six Ben hello hi good name that's my spons we good people I don't know I don't know she my middle child what's that tell you all right so this is a question around technology yeah um discuss your views on the successful integration of Technology into teaching and learning across grade levels how do you balance the clear need for digital literacy while still maintaining a focus on improving critical thinking and encouragement of creative self-expression what are the greatest benefits of and areas of concern around technology as it impacts education um I'm probably going to say something a little controversial but love it during the pandemic we were all thrown into this technology Abyss that we were not aware of so unfortunately it gave us a catalyst to getting where are today so you know I'm sure the you know pic was bad but it helped us get where we needed to be with technology and I think we're still not there yet so technology to me is a way to help the teachers augment what they're doing and that's an perfect example of when we would talk about supporting the students and perhaps in the classroom so when you're using technology you still should have that face to-face conversation and the student that need extra support maybe would take that time to use that technology in the classroom to get some uml and you know they target their instruction so that would really be good for some independent work so taking the time to use that for um um to students to get um extra help to students who get enrichment and to and to access things they couldn't or ordinarily access for example students have access to libraries they wouldn't be have access to have access to um other people they didn't have access to so a lot of times you can zoom with other schools and really learning about other cultures is really important to me so having that information um is important um in technology technology helps students with special needs because they have different um ways to learn and sometimes they need those that technology to help them in the classroom so to me technology really is to support the students um it should not become a crutch the teachers shouldn't be using technology all the time um I do know that um people are concerned with the amount of screen time that students are um on technology especially if they go home and uh get back on the their phones and their iPads and whatever they're using um so we have to be cognizant of that which makes me come up to we I think we need to start some digital literacy at the elementary school digital lit at the elementary school I don't say I don't say that very well digital lit literacy get worse I just can't do it um so right now in grany we hired a person who is our uh I'm going to just say media specialist and she she focuses on that and we are talking about the students what does your digital footprint look like really trying to teach some digital citizenship so we're taking time to work at that the elementary school and hopefully give them the tools they need to support them in the future um I think people um think whatever they read on the Internet is credible so really showing them what credible sources are really teaching them that because we need to educate people how to use technology so it's not all about using the laptops it's about really what the information you're getting and how can you how can you Source it what you're looking for so some of that is really important and that holds true you know for anybody who's doing a research project or um you know or you um doing a science project whatever it may be you know you can have interactive Labs a lot of um science places are because sometimes some of the tools might be a little bit um not dangerous but something that may not be appropriate for school they can do these virtual Labs those are really important with a lot of some of um some of the upper level classes if you're taking AP classes you may not really want to get in there you can do some of the virtual work so that is a way for people to support um things that they won't have normal access to so that's what I like about technology so um it's going to be something that we have to try to incorporate in our lessons and I like to use stations when it comes down to technology I like to see the teachers doing their lesson having you know having their face to-face lesson with the students and then putting the students in stations one group of students may be collaborating on the conversation that the teacher has another group might be doing independent work on the computer and the other ones might be getting some supports from the teacher and that's another way that can do the supports that the students need from other programs and other uh data that you received before having those tools is really um important for the teachers so again a lot of PD has to take in place for the teachers to understand how to do that in the classroom it's about letting the students do the teacher should be facilitating learning not not you know standing doing the this all day long because kids need to get their hands into the mud they need to Grapple with the with the content and you have to find ways to do that and the last thing we want to do is have students be bored in the classroom so we have to find ways to support them and technology is a great way to do that technolog is expensive so I do know that some of our um Chromebooks are nearing the end of their life so that's something we have to consider when we do our Capital Improvements you know what is that going to look like how are we going to support that because it's not going away what are we going to do to make sure that the kids continue to use this technology in the classroom and techch technology is more than as I said more than laptops it's um I'm trying to think of something else but it is more than Tech it is more than laptops you know it's about you know how can we um use robotics those types of programs and you know and those types of things so um what discussing thinking and and I think the greatest bit I think people are worried about screen time basically you know what does that look like in the classroom and how can how can we teach students that um what they're doing on the internet not necessarily be safe safety security is really important and how do we support them to making sure that they're not giving out personal information and what is credible so those are U digital literacy is really important to me and we have to be able to support them moving forward in that thank you followup questions I have a followup um can you talk a little bit about we've just been hearing a lot about AI in the news in regards to schools um and just kind of what your thoughts are about how AI technology is kind of working its way in terrifies me absolutely terrifies me um but I think it's I think it's actually a valuable tool I think if we can show students how to use AI I think it it might be a tool we have to train teachers how to use it right now um one of the um AI is very beneficial because I I used this example and in my last interview um when I went to an AI conference one of the things we have a lot of students who may not like to write and or especially who may have um special needs or or um may not have um the thought process they're looking for so I like there's programs that you can use for AI where a student could write down you know uh I need you to write two sentences about about uh what what what does it look like at the beach so students say you know uh the beach the water's red the the water's red the water is blue and and I see the sand so what happens is the AI will now reject a picture for the student so the picture can the student can see the picture and say well that's not what I want it to look like so then the student go back have add more information to that okay I see the I see the the blue water with uh the white um foamy waves and then on the beach I see beach towels and and and umbrellas so then they can put the picture up so this can help a student develop a paragraph but it's just things that we have to get them to learn and we have to learn them ourselves and know as far as you know I've been to a couple conferences and they're really talking about what kind of procedures and policies not policies but procedures you want to put in your handbook to support that there's been some litigation especially in Hingham what does that look like because there's been nothing so it's something we definitely have to work at as a district what are we willing to put in there and how are we going to support the students um in in this and you know plagiarism is is is a thing and one of the things they talked about when you do ask a student to write something and they generate a picture is that plagiarism because they can draw the picture so there really is a lot of um um a lot of minutia in there trying to figure out how are we going to um work AI so it is I think as cell phones they terrified us for a long time now we can't live without them we'll get there we'll get there I don't know what it looks like but we're going to get there robot teachers no never robot teachers never never never robot a joke yeah robots can't be empathetic and they nope nope we need we need our staff I got one one just you mentioned like literacy at the elementary school level which is something that I think is going to be crucial going forward what might that look like like I'm curious and I'm sort of thinking of this question as as I say it but um what does that look like in a day that's already prepacked with a you know classes and curriculum like it is it is is a special for the students it is a special students have that is Library so their Library would be um digital media so they have some Library time and then they would have that would be a special for them that's what they do with the elementary school at the high school it's a little different it's something that has to be embedded with your department heads and you know the history Department The English Department you know and and your science department to a certain extent you'd have to really work with them individually but at the um Elementary would it is one of their specials and I I think that's the best way to go and I think they can also talk about it in their you know writing classes as well when they're in there but I think it definitely should be um a special for Library yeah thanks that's that then yep all right on to the final all right this one's I don't know arguably the most depressing of the bunch let's talk about money I'm okay with this question I'm okay with this question ah describe your experience in developing and managing a comprehensive School District budget include considerations for both recurring and capital expenses in a district such as ours which has maintained level services in recent years but has a keen appetite for the expansion of programming discuss how you might access funding for that what that potential timeline might look like I have um done budgets in at least three different districts so I have a pretty um intimate knowledge of how to create a budget um I've done some um budgets starting at zero and I've done budgets um that start you know where we started off before um budgeting starts believe it or not in October so your budget system starts in October because uh you have to start moving into your budget season with the towns in January December so really having those conversations with them early on so you need to look at your recurring expenses so some of the top the vast majority of your budget goes to um Staffing and benefits that is about 85% of your budget sometimes it's 90% although it's probably 85 because special is now taking a big portion of a lot of people's budgets at this point so it's definitely moved up so you have to you know look at those resources so that really gives you 10 to 15% to use for facilities maintenance um um you know curriculum all other types of things so you really have to be cognizant when you're doing this so your recurring expenses aren't going to change you have to embed um what the um Cola wages are or step and Lane changes for Staffing and you have to you know keep that in mind so those are fixed budgets the other things you have to worry about really are again the increased cost of special ed what is that going to look like so a lot of is projections what is our oil going to look like next year what is our gas going to look like you know what is our electricity going look like so those are projections you know everything is going up so we don't know what that's going to look like you know how much is wax for the floor going to cost so a lot of the stuff is projection so you really have to do your best guess so one of the ways I start the a budget is you know even though I have all that I usually then I meet with that other 15% that I have I meet with um my principles and I said principles I need you to go back talk to Department ads dis discuss what you need what are your musthaves what are your wants and what are your dreams so so we really start that process early and when they put that thing when they do that in place they need put justification why do we need these things because ultimately if if they want something I have to be able to justify why I'm asking for this money so um so as a team they would come together and say probably January then we' come together and everybody bring their budget with us okay so looks like we we're going to we're going to need a teacher out the high school next year to support one of our Behavior programs so let's look at the pro do you really need that teacher at the elementary school or do you really need that program at the elementary school we might have to do a little bit of negotiating with each other and that's kind of how that works you know you help me out with I I probably don't need many materials for um you know the the I'm going to use the Wonders I don't know if you I don't think you use wonders but I couldn't think um CK CK L I think you use um I don't need as much money for that so perhaps I can give you a little bit here so it's a lot of give and take between between uh doing that and then you put that together you the budget subcommittee so that's just a basic way to to to meet with the budget me the town and you know what do your projections look like what do you think I can relative what can I what can I afford what what what do you see the tax revenue look like next year what what can I put in for my percentage you know are my salaries going to be 3% already you know what does that look like so how much can you give me and what do we have so having that conversation early um and then you do something separately you do Capital so you know like right now we put in for uh you know some capital for ours we put in something for a new boiler so you know what does that look like what's the timeline look for that well we don't need a new boiler right now we're going to need one in three years so you know we're going to put that ahead so you know year one we're going to plan for it year two maybe we're going to start looking around a little bit and year three we might have to implement it so those are some of the things that we're going to do to to get our new boiler and some grooming tool we need this year for our for our um fields and that's something we're looking for as well so really looking at Capital expenditures and that's when you meet with the town again looks like we're going to need we're going to need a new um carpet up in up in the library next year because you know it's ripping up and uh it's not safe you know what can we do to support that so having those um things ahead of time what building maintenance do you need I've been involved in many many building projects um as far as accelerated um project with Windows and Doors I've been Roofing um I've been in actually new building a new Elementary School in mayor we started that they're actually building it now four years later but you know I've been involved and all of that um so you really need to first of all plan your budget now what then you also need to be a Visionary what what are we looking for for the future you're talking about gr programs now in having conversation with the Elementary staff they really would like to grow the preschool program they think that that's important and I don't disagree with them you know if you take a look at the preschool numbers you have 83 um kindergarten teachers might be a little low this year but what I looked at last year was 83 kindergarten and you have 47 um uh preschoolers were those other 38 tents more because they're three and four so you're right so where are those kids yeah so you know is it because we don't have a full day program whatever it might be so those are something we might want to expand on that how are we going to do that you know again we've already exhausted all of my pleaing and my begging so what can we do to support them in that in that Rend take a look at your resource allocation are you going to have some retirements in the next few years you know because you're having some higher paid teacher are you're going to be able to hire somebody at a lower level you know take a look at projections looks like we have six people retiring in the next 5 years okay maybe we can make the money up there but again you have to look at that again because you're going to have contract negotiations going continue to go up so really it's it's going to be a juggling act you have to make sure that at all expenses you don't want to um create a deficit for the students learning you know I think a lot of it's going to now come down to I think shared services with other districts at this point um and and I think that's what's going to happen um but I do think um expansion would be great but we'd have to plan it thoughtfully what does it look like and how are we going to sustain it often times you can get grants um but when you get these grants you have to be able to prove that you can um sustain those grants and those programs for uh in a lot amount of time and and you have to be able to support that so you know budgeting is um tricky it's a numbers game um and uh I kind of enjoy it to be honest with you and I love advocating for the students so you know I'll be certainly out there advocating as much as I can to to get what we need but again we have to really be fiscally responsible because ultimately it's the taxpayers who who are here to um you know they things are getting higher you know prices for gas and groceries and you know and their taxes go up every year so you know it it it is a struggle for sure it's just we're going to have to really try to find out uh a lot of balancing act and we're not gaining students for sure students um population in western Mass is really declining a little bit so that's where we are does anyone have a phone I want to reiterate what I the comment I made after your answer to the data question similar you have a real skill and talent of taking these kind of complicated Arenas of public education Administration and breaking it down in a way that I think regular people can understand it's really refreshing and adapts well on um anybody else have any further comments if not we we don't know if you have any summary statements you're certainly not obligated to we went we covered a lot of grounds so you may have left it all on the table already no I just want to thank you for again for the opportunity and I and I do know that um there is an appetite for growth in here I do see that everybody is really wanting to um do better and they want more for their students so I really appreciate that and having the opportunity to be part of that would be uh really important to me I think this town and this community is really supportive of the schools and I'm really glad to see that um this is a priority for you and I and I am really looking forward to a continuing conversations whether it's me or I do want to wish you the best of luck but having those conversations in finding ways to support our students is important and uh I appreciate you giving me a few minutes of your time thank you thank you so much you excellent thank [Applause] you need to oh it feels F it's a closure thing we're a very enthusiastic briefly before everybody gets up from the table May entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn uh may I get a second second thank you Ben uh all those in favor opposed exensions uh Mo meeting is adjourned thank you so much we'll see you all tomorrow evening this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers