##VIDEO ID:akYB5-vdYoc## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers uh good evening everyone we're going to call to order meeting of the eastampton school committee we're going to roll call in Ben Ben hery here Eric Eric here Linda Linda is here Sam Sam here Laura Scott present um I'm asking to be let in so I yeah just keep me sorry um I'm going to sit over there you want to sit here yeah click people great um okay good evening everybody and welcome uh we are going to begin tonight we are missing mayor lelle and Megan Hunter we wish Megan Hunter sincere happy birthday wishes Harvey Megan Harvey what did I say Megan Hunter you've married you've married Megan again nothing but love on this committee uh we're going to begin with correspondence I believe we have three um and one is actually here tonight we did receive two uh pieces of correspondence from councelor Owen zarett um sharing links about anti-Semitism education about webinars to support our Jewish community in difficult political times we also received an email from Sonia oppenheim talking about um some concerns about the eastampton public school music programs um feeding up into the high school so problems that she's identified at the middle school level um we have heard several folks voice concerns about that we are looking into it and a lot of these things um which brings me to the third piece of Correspondence which was from Kira heninger discussing some concerns about um uh of the duties of the school council from their first meeting was to conduct a survey of parents and families here express some concerns about the methods of that survey um and so those are issues that we are aware of we plan to do um uh more of a deep dive into those topics likely beginning in January partly because we have a lot going on in few meetings from now until the end of this year and partly because those are issues where we would really like to take into account um the feedback and the input from the new superintendent who um has yet to be named the superintendent search committee will begin their work officially tomorrow night um so that is it for correspondence and I do not believe we have any gifts to report so we are going to move to public comment if anyone from the audience the East Hampton High School up wait we have a special time for you but everyone else who would care to share go ahead to the microphone share your name and let us know your thoughts understand we don't respond to you we're not allowed in this moment but we take your comments into consideration go ahead hi my name is Sarah Woodard 24 Sheldon Avenue East Hampton I am a teacher I've been a teacher for 26 years I'm also an aunt to two um kids in the East Hampton Public Schools I helped door knock and get this school started um I'm an advocate for education and I have a part-time job with the MTA I'm here on uh yes on question two and I'm hoping I know that you're not voting tonight but it is really important to me as a teacher and as a person um this specific issue um just to make you all aware we're one of only nine states in the United States that continues to have a requirement for graduation based on one test um I feel that it is absolutely outrageous in 20124 that this is true I'm a special education teacher and a reading specialist I work with kids who struggle the most in life I work with some very brilliant and gifted and talented students who will never pass this test um I work with n9th and 10th graders currently who can't pass the test won't pass the test and one test should not be a measure of someone's success or failure there are many other ways that we can show accountability um and this just is not it um I'm hoping you know there's some opposition now to this question that's coming on TV I've gotten some texts about vote no um it seems like a no-brainer to me um I think that most people agree um and as Educators and members of East Hampton Public Schools I hope that you will support this question and that you'll come out publicly and agree that this is not a great way to measure success um and I hope that we could city council voted yes um to endorse this and I'm hoping as an eastampton res resident and educator and someone who deeply cares about this issue um that has affected myself and many others that I know personally that you guys will put your support towards this issue thank you so not in response to that but I want to let the public know who's watching we did uh discuss this at our last meeting two weeks ago and because there are a couple members that are here tonight that were not here last week we will touch on this again when we get to school committee discussion okay thank you anyone else care to share from the audience Owen Zara at 74 Florence Road a 20 plus year resident of East Hampton a parent a city counselor and a member of the Jewish Community I've sat on various Jewish organizations and boards and I've administered Jewish Collective here in East Hampton for the past eight years seeing the worsome rise in anti-semitic incidences over 10,000 reported since last October 7th as well as FBI noting 60 plus% of all religious hate crimes directed towards Jews I'm concerned even prior to October 7th I authored the first of its kind the Commonwealth a municipal resolution to try to create framework about how to address anti-Semitism in the city I've been concerned to see very little action taken in response to the points outlined there furthermore I proactively reached out to our superintendent and our current school chair of the school committee for actions in our schools the responses varied from complete silence to underwhelming but I do thank the committee members who have made clear efforts to recognize this issue and participate in dialogue we are living in a time where our current youth holds perhaps the highest ever anti-jewish sentiments in this country Holocaust Distortion denial is at its alltime high much like other crises of the Corona virus and school shootings we are currently in a crisis in anti-jewish hate one only has to look at the news to see the attacks on Jewish individuals Jewish businesses Jewish organizations and Jewish students every day I have to decide if I'm going to wear this star inside or outside my shirt depending on where I am these messages only have served to make Jewish students feel less safe on campus be barred from public spaces and have had multiple states have to take legal action against universities to enforce safety for Jewish people our students who are here now grew up to be the college students of Tomorrow how do we correct what we see in our schools swastikas anti-jewish tropes and Jewish students being targeted for being Jewish and now there's no excuse recent State legislation requires us to respond to this issue it is now a directive of Desi so each Hamp East Hampton which always claims to be a leader against hate should be proactive in this manner and yet the flaccid response the silence the lack of transparency and the dismissal of a clear and present crisis of Jewish hatred is worrisome to say the least superintendent you may be on your way out but that doesn't absolve you of your responsibility to respond to inquiries and concerns from an elected official a municipal partner a parent and a leader of the local Jewish Community to the chair the mayor and members I thank those who have participated in dialogue we must not yield to the acute and historical evidence before us and show solidarity and initiative to our Jewish Community there has never been a time in history where supporting or siding with the Jewish people has been wrong and there has been every sign in the in history where ignoring the plight or failing to support the Jewish Community has been a failure please act accordingly thank you councelor zaret is there anyone else here tonight who like to share their thoughts uh good evening school committee um my name is Ben Ying I'm at 69 Brigg street I'm the father of a fifth grader and a seventh grader and I um I felt compelled to come here and speak tonight uh as a direct result of a discussion that occurred at the October 8th school committee meeting uh regarding the District's mcast scores I am not here to advocate for or against question two I respect the uh the thoughts of the first speaker but I do have a couple of perspectives that I want to offer to you all on this subject first I feel it is important to explicitly acknowledge the reality of our districts mcast scores in the simplest possible terms they are bad eastampton Public Schools underperforms nearly all neighboring districts as well as the state on average in nearly every subject in nearly every grade I have gone through the data published by the state I would be happy to share some bar graphs illustrating this with any members of the committee who are so interested it's readily available and easy to analyze I don't personally feel that standardized test are the Beall and end all of education but I certainly feel that they provide one type of objective information in my view no rational person is going to look at these scores and draw the conclusion that our schools are performing well academically on average in my opinion the results that we've seen here are not acceptable they shouldn't be acceptable the second second point I'd like to raise is one of frustration with the manner in which in my view school officials downplayed and dismissed this poor performance at the last school committee meeting I heard statements about how we as a community have decided not to place value on mcast how we as a town are somehow on The Cutting Edge as it relates to mcast and I'd like to to be clear that these types of statements are not reflective of my own views as member of the community I don't think anyone who looks at our scores are going to think that we're on The Cutting Edge of anything I personally do think there is some value in the mcast I think that it provides an objective means of comparing school systems and it allows us as a community to hold our schools accountable and our school leaders accountable when falling behind I heard the mayor asked several times at the last meeting what measures or metrics would be used to evaluate school performance if the mcast were not used and there was no forthcoming answer it is the only metric available right or wrong that's what we have I acknowledge that a variety of plans and adjustments were noted for addressing the gaps in math Ela and Science and I appreciate appreciate that and I truly hope that those are successful I did not however hear any specific measurable goals regarding the subject areas that we want to improve and by how much absent any goals it seems challenging to assess whether we're meeting them so here are my closing thoughts on this subject and what I personally would like to see going forward I'd like to see the school administration set specific measurable and achievable goals for mcast improvement in each grade level and evaluate on a periodic basis whether we're Meeting those goals it feels pretty basic I'd also like to ask that the school committee and the superintendent search committee take into a consideration our school's performance as they work through the superintendent hiring process I'm particularly interested in what approaches uh superintendent candidates will propose taking to improve our scores improve our overall academic performance as well as how they would approach holding School leadership accountable for this performance and finally I'd like to thank you all for your time and for the countless hours you all volunteer uh on behalf of our children thank you thank you Ben anyone else care to join remotely by raising your virtual hand don't think so okay we are going to close public comment for this evening move on to the superintendent update uh superintendent Benda uh so first the October 1st enrollment as you know that's really important for our funding mechanism for uh the next budget so we have our uh 242 five numbers I think you all have them to just review uh on that the uh total number of students this is uh for Mountain View school for this year as of 101 is uh 978 students the number of students um in uh they've gone to we have you know Smith vul that we send students to and uh we have 20 49 students uh going to Smith voke and 27 to ctec total for the high school is 377 students so the Smith V students never you know attend EHS but the ctec uh go half day ctec and then half day uh ghs so the total eastampton School enroll um is uh 1,331 students a total including Early Childhood only is 1355 and total including Smith vocational only 1380 so total including Early Child and Smith folk is 1404 but the total that we have um which is the number that we will get our funding on is the 1331 so that is 2425 now you compare it to 2324 so the total number of students as you know right now Mountain View is 978 Mountain View was 1,24 in 2324 the high school had 373 and 23 24 and again we're at 377 so or student different on that uh the total number uh last year was 1349 again this year 1331 so D down a bit um Smith vocational uh students uh as I said last year was 49 this year at 44 and ctec last year was 42 and we're down to 27 and that just uh could mean that we have less student students but it you know could also um mean that less students wanted to go into the vocational trade so therefore uh they're saying PHS um did give you the 22 23 figures so um there was uh 1,1 students totally so we are you know this is that Mountain View and at East High School we're 367 and now we're at 3 77 so again more students are EHS and our numbers at uh Smith voke of course uh was 44 then 49 now and 37 at CC and 27 now so the number that you know our budget uh of course there's other parts that affect the budget but your number of students and the amount of money you get per students uh is going to be based on the number 1,331 yeah um thank you superintendent when um looking at the numbers and the 1331 number um I always get this wrong so that number will be used for next fiscal year and this year we have this year we have uh how much this year well this year we this last year we at 1349 and this year we're at 13 31 31 so we have less students so we had um and I I just want to get this on the record we talked about it some time ago um our numbers the the decrease in numbers um after covid were significant and it would be easy to mistake the funding we get from the state as having a severe cut more than the first year we had fewer students after covid were based on a number that was around I think like 1900 um so just as far as budgeting and going forward the realization is we were very fortunate that minimum aid went to 104 yes um because we are still a minimum Aid district and a minimum Aid District on 1331 really affects the projections for our budget I'm not it's not a raing c you know it's not cutting it's not anything other than going forward we really need to be C cognizant that the funding our budget is more and more reliant on the legislator legislature stepping up and adding to minimum Aid which they don't have an obligation to to do so you know the I that was an extra $60 per kid yeah so and we use it we put it right back I mean you know my hats off to to the superintendent and um to the chair and other school members on finance that that really were did a great job redeploying that money once we found it was available my fear is in coming years I'm going to say it out loud right now is that we will always do that as a community you know um but that extra money just gets smaller by number of kids and as crossing our fingers that the uh legisl uh legislator will add will'll recognize there are too many minimum Aid um districts and and there's a lot of legislation going on right now to to address that you know I think it's like over 200 uh school districts are minimum Aid and and whatnot but that that that's a big number and a big variable for this particular District anybody else have a superintendent ban anything else or any comments on that first part discussing the enrollment then you have any oh she's not on the Eng okay excellent thank you okay we're going to squeeze you in before we get to the proposed goals okay so you don't have to stay all night um Sam did you have thoughts about yeah I just had a question um and I don't know it's hard to it's hard to know like what when you're looking at a lot of numbers it's hard to know like what numbers are worth paying attention to and what numbers are just kind of extra but I just noticed that in our preschool um you know we started out with 20 I think it was if we look back at 20 um 22 to 23 we have 27 students and 23 to 24 we have 8 students and in um 24 to 25 we're back to 24 and I was just wondering since that's typically a you know students who are qualifying for preschool typically stay for 3 years or two or three years I was just wondering if we if there's a reason for that that you're aware of yeah did we restructure the program uh through the chair so one of the things is that um we we don't have um a lot of the typical students in some of the classes right now so that's Mentor the peer mentors right as many peer mentors in some of the classes right now so normally you would have 15 students right and um eight would be age appropriate and seven would be your students with special needs um the number of students in a few of those classes are lower this year for typical kids is that because we've made the choice to do it that way or is that because there's just not interest in the program um I you know I think there was interest in the program prog but I know from conversation um with the principal for the preschool and K1 to that um there was not as much interest yeah they're Limited hours they're abbreviated hours half day hours and so when you have half day programs parents are looking for longer hours for their for their children and that doesn't count in our that in our in what we get for funding right because it doesn't include no because is not mandatory Smith fol okay well kindergarten isn't technically mandatory but that's still factored in is it but Kindergarten is included in this right yes okay um any other questions about the enrollment I want to um bookmark this for the public this is another conversation we're going to be picking up again in January and February everything old is going to be new again after the first of the year because there going to be a lot of things that we um we have some concerns about but we certainly want to um integrate the new superintendent into those conversations during our transition period um we are going to move to our update from our student representative from East Hampton High School hello everyone my name is AA I'm the East dampton High School student council president and in student council our main purpose is just to foster a good community in the school and a few things we've been doing doing for the last couple of weeks to do that is um we've been working on homecoming our first 5k and pep rally for homecoming as I mentioned in the last meeting I attended we had these VIP tickets and our concept for that turned out really good A lot of people enjoyed the mocktail ball that came with it and the add-ons um for our pep rally the n9th and 10th grade showed a lot of spirit and energy during it and then as student council president and um members with it we want to Foster that energy for the throughout their years they're there and to set a good precedent for future classes and then for our first 5k we held for everyone was fun for everyone who volunteered and participated we had about eight Runners and all the money raised went to the n9th grade classes and um we are planning to host it again for next year with hopefully more Runners some upcoming events we are planning is the Tiny Tots Halloween party we will be assisting the preschool teacher Miss Benson with planning setting up and running activities to give the kids a fun start to their Halloween next is our kids night out on November 8th the event gives parents an opportunity for a night out with affordable child care the kids who attend our previous kids night out really enjoyed them and kids night out also helps these children feel more connected to the community and hopefully they'll remember the student council event when they attend high school and are more likely to participate in school activities ities lastly for November we are planning a food drive presented as feather Wars where students can bring in canned items and depending on the amount receive a certain amount of feathers and place them on a teacher photos at the end of the food drive the teacher with the most um feathers on their picture will have to wear this turkey suit and um with this fundraiser we hope to bring the school Community together in a fun way and also giving back and helping the people in need thank where's the food going AA from the drive um I think it's going to the local um food Community Center yeah great awesome um we should point out to the low attendants was partly because they had to reschedule right for weather yes so you're schedule to Sunday and um most of our participants were ninth graders because more nth graders were more interested in it but I think with the outcome of this one we might have more people participate next year great excellent work awesome we don't deny this district has challenges but it is really refreshing every meeting to hear about the incredible students and the amazing Educators that we have it's it's a nice pallet cleanser and lifts us up to keep doing the important work thank you a great have a good night um shall we move to the superintendent proposed goals sure yes I just wanted to add that I did spend a period today in the van class at the high school and they were preparing for their volunteer work at the veterans that's awesome is a veterans event I guess on November 11th so so it was great to see uh them working for 84 minutes actually playing a musical instrument for that whole period of time M indeed it was really or or drums and symbols yeah it was really also an instrument yes also an instrument right that's amazing yeah they're great I want to say that um and we will try to make an effort to publicize it a little better because their concerts are outstanding they will be performing for Veterans Day but they're ALS o be a concert in December just free to the public and just they are incredibly talented um we support our Middle School performers as well but it is incredible to see the progress they can make from fifth and sixth grade up to the high school it's a pleasure to watch was really something so these are um the um proposed superintendent goals um did not include um mcast scores in those because I will be departing before the MC scores um come to the district so it didn't make sense to add them cast scores in there so we remind the public that your transition period you'll still be with us from January through June but that will be a transition period between your superintendent ship and the oncoming superintendent and I just want to say we're like so lucky to have such a long period most districts don't have a chance to have any kind of overlap transition so I appreciate you um being able to do that of course I look forward to that so the how the EV valuations work um I gave a a circle to show is that first you do a self assessment and then you analyze your goals then you implement the plan and sometimes there's a midcycle review but there wouldn't be a midcycle review because um ending on June 30th yeah and then the summit of evaluation so the first goal uh you have a student learning goal you have three goals student learning goal this one is throughout the 2425 school year consistently Monitor and assess student progress to ensure all instructional staff Implement effective and rigorous instruction with measurable outcomes that doesn't directly address you know what are we doing with mcast uh we do use other assessments too um Everybody um in one uh through 8th grade and also ninth and 10th use star assessment that's done three times a year it's done in the fall um it's done in the winter and it's done again in the spring and you're looking uh you can compare yourself uh to yourself to your District or you can compare yourself to the state and it's most effective if you compare yourself to both of those and also we also do curriculum benchmarks and uh there's also every like the reading program has assessment so all along the way we're doing assessment and with stmath it's constant assessment of where kids gools are so we'll be you know in the schools with the principles monitoring and a assessing student progress uh the benchmarks is really through you know observations and feedback setting High expectation engaging all students and accommodating diverse learning and levels of Readiness to Monitor and support principles and instructional staff to use formal and informal assessments to measure student learning student growth and any necessary adjustments to improve student learning the evidence is the walkth throughs observations of the district ilt meetings the Middle School um M we call them melt agendas and meetings St data student grades ST Math data and literacy data also evidence on increased focus on writing in grades 3 to 12 uh when we did the mcast presentation it was evident that uh we need to improve writing from you know third grade all the way up to grade 12 so there is a focus on writing all the teachers goals that they're submitting to their administ is have to have a writing goal in there so that we're able to assess our progress on writing and then also improving of math skills for grades 3 to8 you also do a dist District impr Improvement goal usually two District Improvement goals so my uh first goal was by March 2025 develop a budget with the Director of Business Services that allocates and manages expenditures consistent with the district school level goals and available resources so that's the budget actually start doing that sometime in January but that's when we begin to work with the mayor's letter and also it start to get our budget even though it's not approved till June most of that is all put together uh by sometime in March and in order to do that we have to communicate you know rationale to our own staff to community members um they might be community members that are looking for certain programs like World language for example in the Middle School um municipal stakeholders and the school committee um also obviously uh in the mayor I provide regular updates on the budget throughout the 24 school year to the school committee and identified alternative funding resources as needed which might be grants that are available and the evidence of course will be the school budget and the agenda of the budget meetings the second district Improvement goal is by June 30 2025 provide effective And Timely transition support to the new superintendent so that will re involve review of District doc documents review of District policies review of District staff and roles review of District educational assessments curriculum initiatives in the budget and uh the evidence will be you know self-report of the new superintendent they feel like they've been transitioned effectively uh into the role and then documentation of meeting dates and times with the new superintended and then the last goal you have is your professional practice goal and and uh this is a a really personal one for me uh to work with parents school and District leaders to develop a new life skills program at EHS for opening in August 2025 so exciting this is so exciting it's very exciting uh we had our first meeting uh with the parents that were that have uh children that would be in the life skills program can you just explain briefly I don't know if many people at home might know what that is so that's a special needs program in the uh focus of the work work uh for the children in that program is that uh they are able to learn life skills so that um as an adult they can have Independent Learning so it's basic academic skills in the elementary school to be able to read to write to speak um involves otpt Mobility but when you get in the middle school but when you get to the high school uh as the conversation with the parents um made very clear is that they want their child to VI use a cheap book they need to know how to um grocery shop they need to know how to get transportation from one place to another um they need how to cook it's all those skills that anybody would need to know in order to be independent as much as possible it also involves getting a job providing job coaching for them so they can have independent lives also working in the community it might be a volunteer job it might be a PID job but part of the high school curriculum has to be to teach those skills so that they can be independent as an adult uh so we um already have a we're starting off we met with the parents you wrote down all their goals and what they wanted for their children and um they were all very similar and it was a wonderful meeting and now we have you know our goals that we're going to try to find how we going to meet these needs so we are um taking a full day with the parents and we're we're starting with three school districts and we we got permission to to go into the life skills programs in three district and see what they do and we'll come around at the end to what we saw that we liked that we want to copy and then some of the things that we didn't like we we won't copy so we're starting the tour with parents and that's going to be in two weeks may I ask which districts you're visiting the first one let me TR to tell you right now I want I know the local districts let me see where the first one is I can tell you right now just curious uh let's see I want to say I wanted to say at first one was in P let me see first one is um schools Let's see we just got them set up this week I'll just go to anity hold on here it is Let's uh let's see South Hadley is the first one we're going to so it is at 9:00 on November 14th so we're going to South Hadley right now and there's going be two other schools that are going to be involved but they were all right around here we wanted to see the local ones first before we went out a little bit farther I just want to I really appreciate um the work that you're putting into this this is a huge need in our district but also like more generally in this area um I think it's it's been hard for families to find life skills programs in high school that are appropriately rigorous and challenging and but also individualized and are also going to incorporate the family's vision and the child's vision for the life that they want to have and I'm just very excited to hear this this is um this is great yeah we're excited too and taking excited if there's anything like I this is you know I I I as part of my day job I helped with transition services in particular for kids with developmental disabilities I'm happy to we'll take you up on absolutely I have one more question war and I I just expect it might be a question the public would ask are there will there be any opportunities or no initially to have some sort of Integrative access to this sort of programming I I mean we hear you know it's the constant like meme on social media talking about how kids can't change a tire cook and EG or whatever so is there any opportunity to offer some of that programming as like integrative programming for General definitely um the parents were very clear that they still wanted their students to be integrated in a lot of areas um if there's a you know depending upon what they the class is like the checkbook class they have I I don't know that we're going to have a checkbook class to be we'll see personal finance personal finance of it but that's basically I use a checkbook but I I'm the last one you know you like too so personal finance um also they wanted art music they wanted integration to F of the school also so maybe maybe maybe you're one we can't we don't have but I think I would love to see over time we offer some you know this is the purpose of these programs these are meant to be like the school is a the the um students are a part of the community of the school and what they're bringing to the school and what they're kind of highlighting needs for young adults you know transitioning to adulthood are needs that all young adults and teenagers have and so I that's why I think this is so cool because usually you know when I hear about these programs being developed it's very much like okay we've got these four kids we have to do something with them um and and here's an unused classroom and uh We've hired somebody for it now we're going to do life skills and I really love that this began with like a visioning process with the families with the special ed directory you guys are looking at different um different uh districts and kind of seeing what works and what doesn't work like that's all kind of um that's really going to enhance our all of our students experiences not just our students with with developmental disabilities and I think that's super cool and it's what it's what you know special education should be honestly and we also uh talked about the parents vision for this year about the children being transported over uh so for example um Miss mango runs an after school club on cooking she does and so she got a good name for that she really does and she sends emails when people looking for cookies for the day whatever so the idea is that the parents that definitely said I want my child to get transported over there and thanks to the mail and us use the van we will be transporting those kids over to the high school for experiences this year so the parents were very exact that they wanted the transition to start now great good and um not a full-time program we just have it ready what they're looking for and they were very happy that you know they're giving us ideas of what they want for the transition and we're working on making sure that happens too excellent it's great very excited about this I think it's going to I I think it could be a a program that other districts would want to transition their kids here this I want this to be We the People level I want this to be a benchmark for this yeah absolutely so we're we're excited for that so um what what is the Benchmark connecting families to the resources and services with in the school in the community scheduled meetings with parents parent input and other program observations and this is very important we talked about the job description with the parents of the hiring a special education teacher for this program and so we started to write down what were the what did the parents want for their child for this program it was very clear to us they just don't want anybody they want somebody that has the passion to do this type of unique program so and and we're going to include them in the interview Community because they they know what they want for their child this a special program and so we're going to look for a special person and maybe we can TR if they have that maybe it's There's an opportunity that we can get them C you know if they require special ed certificate like maybe we can do something for the person with the right potential and the right emotional commitment you know bridge that Gap and we have selected the classroom already at at the high school um it actually is the one that has the watch to the dryer the kitchen excellent so you can be able to work out of that class can my kids attend that class anybody can attend okay and the evidence of course is that we're going to produce a written document also for the high school skills program so parents will have a document this is the program this is what it provides and it can be a living document because you know things will change as uh different parents needs for their child are recognized and so we will adapt the program to that I don't want to spend too much more time on this but that document I really like that as evidence because like I'm so I'm my I don't want to share too much about him here but like my child you know participates in some specialized programming in the elementary school and one of the things that has been really hard for me as a parent is to hear like your kid is in sore this year your kid is in leap this year I don't know what those classes are I don't know what those words mean like I've asked and sometimes other people are like I don't know that's just what we call them um it would be really nice to have it like a document written down to say like this is kind of the scope of this program and um as a parent that would be really meaningful to me so I'm very excited that get thatc done the plan yeah so the the next two pages that I gave you really is just a is uh about the description of the student learning goals so you have Focus indicators and you also have goals so the focus indicators that that are connected to the goals are so the first one about the um assessing the student stud Pro student progress is um the focus indicator on evaluation in data informed decision- making the second professional practice goal regarding the life skills program is commitment to high standards and continuous learning and then the budget one is fiscal systems and the one about effective And Timely transition support to the new superintendent would be about sharing responsibility and then the next page um basically just highlights you used to have to do all those goals and then that kind of became impossible yeah so you have to now you get to pick yes you have to pick five and then explains for you on the next page um it's yellowed in the Box about the evaluation like what is that what is the data informed decision making and on the next page what is fiscal systems about and the next one is sharing responsibility just so you know what those are and then uh professional culture the areas about commitment to high standards and continuous learning and it's all yellowed out uh uplo you and uh that would uh be done sometime in June sometime before June 30th right excellent thank you very much anything else you want to add under the uh superintendent update any questions cruising right along um Nick Bernier along with Megan Harvey apparently her name is Harvey have the night off tonight we do not have a finance update or personal update we just met two weeks ago those are typically monthly reports so we are going to move on to the school committee discussion as I mentioned right around public speak I want to give everyone an opportunity um the election is fast approaching I believe early voting has started or is imminently starting in Massachusetts so um the question two is the one that has been posed To Us by many Community stakeholders including one who is here with us tonight um members two weeks ago got an opportunity to respond to that we also offered an explanation why I as chair made a decision not to introduce a resolution but that I wanted to give members an opportunity to voice um any support or opposition or Nuance thoughts they had about it Ben do you have anything you'd like to share are we talking about question question two yes so this is a question on a yes vote would remove the 10th grade mcast test as a requirement for graduating from a High School in Massachusetts I I am in support of that uh question I think we are long past using mcast in a way that um really reflects what students are actually living through I don't know that Test shows us other than like uh ancient uh ideas about what um test scores are good for I just don't feel like um there's much left to study I um as a as a community college professor I've seen like English students committ to my composition courses and they can't write they can't really read and I often attribute this to mcast training over the years and I I think that um it's time to try something new we we've been at this for a while and uh I want to see what we can do without that pressure of mcaps um I'm also concerned just seeing like the way curriculum is constructed around a concern for mcaps um I don't think that is very beneficial to the needs of current students um so I'm I'm all in let's let's let's move on I think we tried it and I think there are other ways we could discover to uh help support students and families thank you Ben so that will be a yes um L oo Linda and mayor I don't know that I you were remote last time and I think I might have forgotten because if it's on a computer so if you wanted to say anything as well Linda do you have any thoughts a sh I certainly do I have had a standardized test business since I've been involved in the standardized test um since n 2000 I have had 26 years of experience with standardized testing ACT SAT M and mcass I think standardized testing in it itself is a plaed system I think that if we didn't if I could not have been a test tutor and showing students how to in effect beat that test if it was the accurate representation of a child's ability so therefore I very strongly against um I am going to be voting yes on question two I have many personal experiences dealing with children who have not been able to pass the incast test despite them going to school despite them attending every single class doing what they're their teachers have asked of receiving grades that were reflective and still not able to pass this test do I think that we need some standards of course I do I just think that this is the wrong solution and that's why I'm going to be voting yes thank you Linda mayor do your thoughts yeah um I came out I endorsed uh question two um in the positive um I am a certified superintendent and special ed director um and and we're in schools like I won't speak for the age of our superintendent right now but we're in schools when mcast got rolled out and before that the big change from Ed reform where we went from mexic 93 maximum feasible benefit to free and appropriate uh Federal That was supposed to smooth the way for uh one standardized a test and in many districts just didn't see it work out that way um I think that it is important it continues it's a one piece of data um but it's one of many I also find that standardized tests um as a piece of assessment data are important but there are just so many other ways that we really need to be looking at it um especially when we know standardized tests over and over over again um have inherent baked in bias um as well as the alignment of standardized test uh to teacher education programs and professional development has never really happened in Massachusetts and I would I would uh Advocate strongly against that happening but you've got teachers coming into the schools um administrators coming into the schools after an admin and their orientation to educate a whole person is dramatically skewed by one arbitrarily Chosen and created assessment um we should have a portfolio of of of benchmarks for students uh so they too can can understand and know their own strengths but also their weaknesses and make some choices about which way to go forward um we expect the same of our teachers you know when I was hiring teachers uh they would come in with portfolios and and they were fantastic I think they're still a thing yes um and our our students should have that um in the same way uh the last is when you look at Workforce training programs and also just general interviews in in the you know untethered labor market uh there is a huge shift from resumés and degrees and those type of qualification um too skill-based and it's not one is it you know it's not dumbing down but what it is is what skills do you really need to apply to this position um and what an employer is looking at that is not captured in standardized testing and I appreciate um our governor and Lieutenant Governor's position on this um and it is an indicator but we know boots on the ground and in our school it is not a picture of our student body and it's not a picture of what our teaching staff and admin staff can do it it really wat set down anyone else that was any I have an update I was going to add to fight to see who goes first I Pap you go goe um I just have an update so last uh week good God two weeks ago when we talked about this last um my so my biggest I've always been in favor of removing the mcast as a graduation requirement my biggest concern has always been the fact that uh there are certain school districts and we saw this during the pandemic where when the mcast uh graduation requirement was suspended um they were um graduating students without providing them with transition um supports which is to be clear against the law um it's you're you're supposed to be able to offer transition services to students who have not yet access to free and appropriate public education despite meeting the district graduation requirements um I don't think this is a problem in East Hampton but it has been a problem in other um districts and this is the thing that really worried me about this um about this um uh uh ballot initiative I asked I talked with folks from the MTA about it I talked with folks from I talked with Dan KY about it I talked with folks from the state agencies and everybody's response was oh I haven't thought about that that's interesting and until last week I had not gotten a response about this but um I spoke with a colleague of mine who is um uh also an employee of the MTA and uh she reported to me that this has been a a conversation at the MTA and there are some um there is discussion about um legislation that will be introduced as a as a fix after this is passed if this is passed um to address that particular issue so I'm glad to hear that it's gotten some that particular issue has gotten some steam I'm still worried about it I'm I'm still looking forward to passing our policy that would just clarify our own graduation requirements that if students are in need of of um transition services that they can um access those transition Services even if they've met um our our district graduation requirements so that is my update which is good which which um which is to say when you have a problem with something um it's worth like talking about it and kind of expressing your your perspective and your opinion because people will listen um which is great I feel like so much in this world is like you're either on this side or this side and that's who you are and there's no um there's no changing there's no in between that's not how policy works in the real world so it's been um actually really cool to get to participate in that and to see that um actually happen hopefully so thank you Eric I just I'll be brief but I just adding that I I I'm in schools and I'm seeing that most districts are moving to more critical thinking problem solving collaborative work where kids are learning how to work with each other work out problems that's the future that we're heading into we're heading into the future where they're solving problems outside of the box and not just in this box where we say read this passage answer these questions um and then also just the negative sides of mcast on teachers I mean if it gets teachers stressed out and it's a bit of a a chess game where the the pieces are actually smok and they're floating and you're not really sure because teachers will be told listen fractions are low we did poorly on fractions and then teachers crank out fractions and then that year they go there was two only one fraction question so it's like you're chasing these moving pieces um and it kind of sometimes pits teachers against each other because you know sometimes teachers will get praised I've been a teacher who's been praised by my MC scores when I know for a fact it was the kids in in front of me who produced those scores and some some colleagues that I've had who just I know the kids that were in front of them I know those kids struggled with the test and so is it it's is a one feeling to say that oh this teacher did a great job but it's like no they're just we had different kids and we knew their needs so I think when you put all this emphasis on this test it it does more negative than it does good and I think that this is um this is a great movement that we're that we're moving towards so just wanted to put that out there too great I want to ask one point for those who might be waffling on this issue I've also heard an increased chatter from the no side I want to highlight that this does it for those who are concerned about how we would assess teachers and students this does not remove mcast CL mcast testing from massachusett classrooms also want to highlight um what this would do it would it would divorce the result of the 10th grade mcass as a an up or down yes or no requirement for a student to graduate and so to just Frost that cake for the public Massachusetts has the highest learning standards for public education grade K 12 in the country they also have the best outcomes by student in the country so we already have incredibly rigorous learning standards when I was a teacher in the classroom there was no way on God's green earth I was going to hit all of the social study standards for grades 5 through eight they are in incredibly um precise and intricate and there's a lot of them so food for thought this doesn't you know all this will do is lower the stakes of that one assessment test and um maybe allow for kids to feel um you know change the pressure and the focus in those first two years of high school can I ask a question of course Ben if uh if a district uh has low scores uh the state will no longer step in on that oh no that's not what we said no it would still yeah so the state would still be able to determine the success of a district our neighbor to the South can test to that um there would still be Stakes but it would not fall there would be Stakes for a district there would not be Stakes for an individual students's ability to obtain a high school diploma right right right I was just thinking like the the receiver ship yep no that's still that's still on the table baby steps okay uh anybody else have thoughts on that all right we're going to move to a policy subcommittee update thank you we uh we don't have one we have okay well done um we a second we do have a second reading of the school council's policy okay and everyone should have a copy of that that was in the packet and we discussed it and had a vote on the initial reading last time Sam would you like to just take a moment maybe um offer a motion to approve and maybe summarize because a couple of us were not here last week when we sure so um let me do a I'll do a motion to approve the second reading of the bdfa school council's policy may I have a second second thank you Eric excellent so for discussion we're going to start with Sam so this is a policy that um uh basically just describes what the school council is in our district and what um what it does um and and what what its purview is um so uh we wrote this based on uh feedback from the community from the building administrators um from some of the staff um just people who have offered feedback over the last year um uh essentially this um sets up the school council so that each of our schools so Mountain View is one School East sampton High is another school has a uh a separate school council um the school council is convened by the principal um and the and then the school council um will be uh the composition of and the group of that of that Council will also be determined um by the by the principal um they will meet regularly we said 5 to seven times per year I think this got left that got left out of this copy but I do intend to add that in um so five to seven times per year um and their their role is to adopt the um assist in adopting the educational goals for the school that are consistent with state and local policies um identify uh the needs of the students attending the school and of their families that's like honestly the when I've doing done research on school councils that's the thing that really stands out to me is like the school council is the way that building administrators can find out like what the needs of the community are and that's a really important role um they will also review the school building budget um and they will also uh participate in formulating the school Improvement plan along with the principal and then that's implemented after review and approval by the superintendent and then we have an additional um question about that so are we going to not require that it be excuse me approved by the school committee um I think I that's actually a good question I think we what do we we present I present it yeah you would be presenting it to the school committe but it wouldn't be approved and it's going to be on a 2-year cycle but we had previous to this it was being approved by this so we'll no longer need the school committee to interfere in the approval of the school I think the I think that thought was to make the process to to make it a quicker process from the time because by the time the school you convene the school council the school Improvement plan you get your data from last year you develop your school Improvement plan you bring it to the superintendent you bring it to the school committee it's already the end of December so I think that might have come from trying to um shorten that period of time but we also the process and we don't have I don't have the school Improvement plan policy here but we did work on that as well um we had also lengthened the school Improvement plan um to two years rather than one year so we could add I mean if if if I'm just commenting that that's one of significant changes um you know I think we were just trying to cut down on kind of Superfluous steps in the process so that we could actually do the school Improvement plan anybody have questions comments and this is also a direct result of the uh the same 1993 law that led to the mcast also led to school councils Big Year big year for Education all right um so we have a motion on the floor if there's no further questions we'll take a vote okay all those in favor of adopting the motion to approve the second reading of the policy bdfa School councils say I I all those opposed extensions motion passes uh the finance subcommittee update our finance chair is not here happy Birthday Megan they we have not met yet uh typically Finance is uh slow at the end of the year and then does 10 times the work of normal humans from January through April so that will commence likely right after the start of the year um CES update Sam have you met um we have not met we're going to be next meeting since two weeks ago since 2 weeks ago we are next meeting at the uh the day before Thanksgiving so excellent we'll see how that goes um the superintendent search update the superint search committee has been named they have been informed they will be meeting for the first time tomorrow evening the 23rd at 6:00 p.m. in the library uh we are not involved in that process directly uh just to clarify for the public their task will be to look through all of the applications that the district received and to select between four to six candidates or finalists to put forward to the school committee in November for us to interview um introduced to the public and then make hopefully a job offer in the middle of December I Believe by December 18th was roughly the working date that we had so that work begins in erest tomorrow night um we want to extend our our thanks and gratitude once again to those volunteers um then and the masc resolution Sam so I know that you love resolutions Laura I love resolutions um I resolve to love resolutions Laura and I are going to the masc uh the mass Association of school committees conference in a couple of weeks um and uh one of the things that happens at this at this conference is that there is a resolutions committee from from masc and they present uh resolutions that the body as a whole um uh participates in voting uh for or against um there's 10 resolutions um up for discussion and I am looking for a direction from this Committee in terms of what do you want us to do um now some committees from what I learned last year some school committees are like very very prescriptive and they say like vote you know they all agree we're going to vote this way or that way on each of these and if there's any changes to the resolutions they can't vote on them anymore um I did find last year that there were some resolutions um that were discussed in in the group and then there were some changes made and um and then people would vote for or against them and so some school committees allowed that some school committees didn't um or you could just you know it's also fine to just say you're leaving that to me and Laura or it's fine to look at these and say um these are the ones that we care the most about and that are the most important to our district and this is how we'd like to vote so uh what what is your thought about the best way to proceed here Laura yeah so there are I think there's a total of 10 resolutions on the table there's 10 resolutions and then then there's the there there's the expiring resolutions which which no it's all good yeah so what I would suggest is the following if anybody we can open a discussion on those first 10 resolutions I would if there's anyone in particular that the committee kind of the majority of the committee wants to direct us to vote one way or another we can do that at the very least we need uh the freedoms similar to like when we are negotiating with a union for example we need the freedom to be able to vote as things unfold at this can I can I just highlight a couple that I think cuz I went through them all last well the first one I think we should talk about I think the first one we should talk about that's a development of an alternative to the high stakes mcast uh test which uh Falls in line very well with what we were just talking about um I I am curious about resolution five aligning taxing Authority with the required local contribution um fully adjusting chapter 78 for inflation that's resolution 7 um Equitable funding for non-regional school districts with high Transportation costs um and uh the hey the expansion in capacity of chapter 74 vocational techical programs I think would be good none of those I think are controversial particularly important to us and then there's you know the other ones obviously you know it's I'm not saying they're not important I just don't think that they're as um some are more pertinent and these resolutions by the way just so the public knows and this is why Laura and I don't love resolutions is that they're just directing the legislature to do various things it doesn't mean the legislature is going to do them it's a declaration of one's feelings it's a declaration of one's feelings um and we get to do it once a year at masc um and it's it's good as a body and as you know to say like this is what school committees like most School committies in Massachusetts these are our values these are the things that are important to us these are the things that we have in common or these are the things that are not our values or that are not important to us um and there were some good discussions to come out of it last time but I don't I want to make it very clear that we're not going to be like fixing chapter 7 right but not to bitt what you're doing it starts with everything starts with a conversation and the more it's conversed it becomes Moree and it goes yeah I think we just don't want I don't want anyone on the committee to feel nervous that like if we don't vote the right way on one of these Resolute it it's literally just a statement of values right exactly um does anybody have specific thoughts on any of these or if there isn't any of that we would entertain a motion to just grant Sam and I permission to use our comment sense while attending the conference second hi so moved so moved and the second is Eric thank you okay all those in favor you don't want to spend an hour going through each of these Eric no that that's me and you in the cave up all hours how much we trust you both really this is the the nerd curse I yeah see you guys are missing out on a great road trip is all I'm saying we do need we do need a vote on the motion on the table if there's no further discussion all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes thank you so much for your vote of confidence um thank you there's also the we're also voting for a slate of um of leaders in the committee and I just wanted to throw out there that Denise Hurst is up for president-elect and she is uh from the Springfield school committee so one of our neighbors so what do we know about her well I guess we'll get you she's super cool I've met her a couple of times she super cool cool all uh moving on to action items um can I read these myself Sue yeah well watch me watch me ready all right here we go um I don't know can you motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated October 3rd 2024 in the amount of $189,800 73 we have a second second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed abstentions thank you uh motion to approve the school payroll dated October 3rd 2024 in the amount of $587 61393 may I have a second that's $587 613 what did I say $587 613 I guess that's okay never mind sorry second am I okay did you get that number yes okay as long as because it was written down right thank you the shade uh second second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions obain thank you motion to approve the school committee regular session minutes of October 8th 2024 with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair may have a second second thank you Sam all those in favor yes I I oppos extensions motion passes motion to approve the East Hampton High School school out of state field trip request to Germany April 15 through 23rd 2026 I know we're very excited can I have a copy of that yes want me to let the people know oh yes go ahead let's talk about it I have to abstain because my child is going on this oh yeah this sounds like a wonderful trip April 15th to April 23rd 2026 uh so they're going to gluten tag Frankford and and heidleberg Lake constant where they'll see black forest and the rinf falls and the cuckoo clock demonstration then they go to Munich and they're going to oh boy see um hen Wango Excursion that's Castle visit they're also going to see Queen Mary's Bridge it's a photo stop in the um brat worth dinner they're going to have a brat worth dinner that night Bavarian brat worth dinner the next day they're going at Munich larx they're going to uh tour a you know Palace Gardens a duess museum BMW headquarters the Olympic site of 1972 Marin plots and uh they're going to daaka concentration camp in Memorial visit then they're going to Berlin by train and they're going to walk the city see Alexander plats beel plats nii quad and Museum Island then other Berlin landmarks on day seven uh Berlin got a sightseen tour Checkpoint Charlie pot stama plats the Berlin Wall Brandenburg gate Topography of Terror visit and Alexander plats treasure hunt and on the last day they're going to pot Stam they're going to be go to the Jewish Museum visit and an optional they always do the optional stuff too optional Excursion is news pet guided visit SSI Palace Gardens and the Russian colony and then they return home after 9 days sounds amazing sounds amazing this is for the high school's World Language Club every year the aforementioned fantastic antoneta mango who also runs the cooking club and advises the yearbook uh takes roughly 30 to 35 students to a different foreign country they tend to bounce back and forth one year will be south or Central America the next next year will be Europe and it boop boop boop you're that's super cool it is wonderful um they are actively fundraising right now for those who are interested and they will be having hosting their craft fair which is a fundraiser for the World Language Club excuse me this Saturday I believe at the high school in the cafe Commons so it's a great opportunity as Miss mango would say for some early holiday shopping they have a ton of local vendors and some fantastic live music and Miss mango Cooks there's food I think they're selling their calendars until October 31st $10 for the raffle calendar for a every day you would have a chance to win a different local gift certificate thank you so much where you pick these up if you wanted to get those of the valley I will fight you we both have a children yeah Julian and my kids so we'll talk we'll talk about that um so there there is that motion on the table yes we have that motion on the table we have a second do second I seconded are are you able to make the motion since your child is going or do you have to obain I think that's getting a little in the weeds I don't even think I need to obain I just choose to do it to cover mine all right I seconded by me then okay uh all those in favor opposed and I will abstain uh motion passes congratulations kids uh motion to approve the July 9th 2024 wow work session minutes that's I'm assuming that was my fault um can I get a second second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion to approve the August 27th 2024 regular session minutes with the with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the September 3rd 2024 executive session minutes with the stipulation to withhold until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair second thank you Sam all those in favor yesst exensions motion passes um our next meeting dates uh November 12th we will have a regular session December 17th will be uh the meeting uh at least a portion of that meeting will or the majority of that meeting will be um the presentation and final interviews for our finalist and if we are not prepared to take a vote that night we have also um scheduled a meeting for December 18 so between December 17 and December 18 the hope is that we have voted on and extended an offer to one of our finalist candidates who will begin their vetting process tomorrow night with our search committee um anything else or I would entertain a motion to adjourn motion toour second second thank you Ben all those in favor good night everybody