##VIDEO ID:u56lNEIrSVY## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers we're going to call to order our regular session of the school committee um we'll roll call in Eric here Megan Megan Harvey here Laura Scott present Sam um present mayor pres thank you okay we're going to start um with a vote to ratify our collective bargaining agreements between the East Hampton public schools and the East Hampton Education Association um it's a three-year contract that we negotiated that's effective July 1 2024 through June 30th 2027 um Moran would you like to say anything about the contract negotiations sure I'd like to say that um I think they were very fair uh we had a lot of meetings uh we we did um have some meetings where we didn't make as much progress as we' like to um however we all came back to the table I think we did a great job of listening to each other and I feel the contract that everybody got was very fair um Megan Eric and Sam and at various times all Megan participated throughout and Sam and Eric also participated anything this three of you would like to say about the negotiations I'm pleased that we've come to a contract I think it's um fair and works for everyone I hope there's good feelings all around it's I'm excited for the next three years Echo same sentiment yeah it was a interesting process to learn and I think that it went as smoothly as it could J um yeah thank you I I think it was a uh from my perspective anyway it was a process that really highlighted some of the things that can be challenging about um working together with different groups of people who were kind of all coming with their own perspective and then some of the things that are also like really exciting about that and I appreciated the energy that everybody put into it and um I'm I'm glad that we uh came to an agreement looking forward to the next three years so I'm going to be a bit of the cheese who stands alone a little bit of a rink Cloud um I am very glad we came to an agreement I think it went on for a really long time I just want to caution that you know the teachers and the support staff advocated really strongly for significant increases in pay and salary and benefits which I can certainly understand as they're advocating for themselves but um being that my job in that negotiation was to advocate for the fiscal longevity and strength of the district um we'll have to watch every dollar for the next three years and be really really smart about how we spend our money and be very very proactive about trying to access outside funding streams um I think level service is wonderful but I think there's a real strong drive in this community to um expand our programming and deepen our programming and um that certainly when you are spending more on labor that becomes an increasing challenge so we're going to look forward with optimism but also um we're going to need to rely even more on our finance director and our leadership team and uh I'll end with that okay so I would entertain a motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement that has been ratified by the EA beginning with the teachers union uh so moved seconded thank you Megan um I'm going to roll call this vote Eric abstain Eric abstains because his wife works for the district for those wondering at home he's not anti teacher yeah I just can't vote anything Financial Megan the teacher is not anti teer yes uh L Scott yes Sam yes mayor yes okay so that collective bargaining agreement with the teachers unit has passed um I would entertain a similar motion to ratify the collective bargaining agreement between the East Hampton public schools and the EA for the support unit so moved thank you seconded thank you Megan Eric obain Megan yes Laura Scott yes Sam yes mayor yes okay so we have approved both uh contracts for the teachers unit and the support staff we began this process in late December or early January I think we are all very grateful to be moving on um that brings us to announcements Megan did you have some correspondence just yes I do um we have a number of pieces of Correspondence to report from the past just couple of weeks um including an email um that was directed from Ellie nagowski but comes from um an organization called educate so I would say they emailed in collaboration with support and resources around um sex education in the district um in support of thorough and accurate sex education we received an email from Shelby I'm really sorry I should be able to pronounce this last name hi in hi in my apologies um as the president of the East Hampton music boosters um writing to us with a really clear email um with lots of um background information about action steps that have already been taken and sort of discussions that have been going on with within the EMB um around the detrimental effect of the um stmath program in terms of How It's implemented in the time changes in schools we received an email from on zerit encouraging a proactive response from um the district to Growing um and high levels that have um been around for a couple of years and longer um around an semitism we received an email from Leah Ying um who wrote To Us in support of two changes that have occurred at the middle school this year um that have worked out really well for her children and she wrote with some examples including um a regular schedule of bells and switching between classes in the middle school and also wrote to us with concerns about how the stmath program is being implemented um and the associated but distinct discreet uh increased time spent um within the school day on music um band chorus and other uh specials and we received an email from Jan Davis um expressing her concern with how the ST math program has been implemented within the school day particularly in terms of the time that's lost on specials in the music and arts um and alerting us to U messages on a social media platform from several U members of the community we received an email from flry um expressing her concern around the stmath program and the way it impacts time spent in specials and particularly its impact on the music program um and we also received a letter um from Marsha Gagner I say that right um who wrote to us about the ST math program um and in particular concerns with how it's being implemented and time that's taken away from specials including music art and physical education okay um I did receive one additional letter from the building administrators having to do with the representation on the superintendent search committee um I'm going to discuss that further when we get down to that point on the agenda um we'll Circle back to that Megan do we have any gifts I don't have any that I'm aware of okay um we are going to move to the East Hampton High School student representative update I know she's coming and I don't know where she we're going to askis this is she Jo this remotely perhaps no she okay so we'll come back when she arrives um we're looking forward to it can you tell me um aa aa I'm going to write that down thank you so much all right um we're going to move to public comment um so it looks like we have um a number of people in attendance tonight so I'd like to remind everybody we're going to try to cap it to 3 minutes maximum so that everyone gets a chance to speak um so if there's anybody in person who would like to line up at the podium you would just share your name and then feel free to speak for 3 minutes I'll give you a gentle nudge if you're getting close to that and do we have a timer I'll watch the clock I can do something to help um and then after just for the people watching at home we'll switch to those who are joining us virtually as soon as we've heard from the folks who came to us in person all right go ahead um hello my name is go ahead keep talking I'm going to come check your mic my name is Leo Coen uh I am a sixth grader at Mountain View school and I would like to address the problems that uh myself and other students have been having with stmath um there was a Gazette article written about stmath published on September 28th saying that there have not been complaints from students or instructors about those 15 minutes being carved out of specials classes uh while many people may not be aware ST Math being in specialist takes away its fun learning potential and has disappointed many parents and students alike uh as of today I have collected 170 signatures of students uh who would like ST Math removed from specials um if this program is continued to be implemented uh I would hope that it could be in a different time of day it's currently in specialist time as everyone knows and this means that for every day for 180 days 15 minutes of specials time is going towards extra math um not to mention it would be simple to put this curriculum in Wind Block uh Wind Block is is a 30 minute period dedicated to what students need to focus on uh students already have five plus hours of math every week um one wi block is used for St Math already um in total a student is doing seven plus hours of math in a week including uh with st math and regular math classes um it's also frustrating uh it can get a bit annoying and just overall frustr frustrating um cuz sometimes it'll glitch or freeze um specials is also the only Block in our day uh we don't have to look at screens for the whole class and some people look forward to taking a break from screens but with this now screens are a part of every single block in our day um carrying our laptops to gym and other specials is also impractical um overall stmath is a good program but its benefits have been overshadowed by the choice to implement it in our in our specials time uh please considering changing this so that we get that time back 3 minutes that was 2 minutes and 44 that well done and I missed your first name when I was fixing your mic uh my name is Leo Coen Leo thank you so much Leo thank you Leo thanks Leo y'all are allowed to clap that's okay we're not allowed to clap but you are support each other yeah um my name is Sasha marks um I'm also here to protest the um unfair um map being in specials um it's taking away 15 plus minutes a day of our active creative artistic time like where we get to be creative is like the only time per day that we get to do that and it's being taken away our superintendent seemingly did not consult anyone about it I have not met a single student that has enjoyed ST Math and it could easily be put in home room or Wind Block and um our special teachers were not not told about it and they had curriculums based on 1 hour which they no longer have time for which means we we now have do not have time to learn our curriculums properly because we don't have enough time and um yeah that's it thank you Sasha uh hello I'm a sixth grader um my name is welcome hery uh and I'm also here about stmath cuz is like uh they call it an enrichment program but I haven't met a single kid who's been at all interested in it like I haven't met a single kid no one seems really been told about it or know what's happening it's like it seems like it was kind of rushed to be implemented like the specials teachers didn't really form a curriculum about it it's like no one really knows why it was put in specials or like what can be done about it like is it a reversible change like can we put it somewhere else like there's not really a clear uh like really plan for it and it is cutting into like creative times that we really need like it's the only place I've heard special teachers say that like this is the only uh like stressfree kind of like relaxing part of the day and if more more math is being taken up by that then it's like what are we doing thank you welcome thank welcome um hello my name is Sierra I am a sixth grader in Mountain View school and um I am also here for the cause of stmath during specials um I don't have anything to say I'm just here for support so thank you thank you Sierra thank you anyone else in the room who'd like to share their thoughts before we move to those who are joining us virtually okay thank Jan if you can unmute yourself um we give would like to give you 3 minutes where is Jan yeah let me see if I can unmute you Jan are you able to unmute yourself should be able to unmute themselves Jan hold on just a second we're going to move to the other hand up which is Dave Kutcher and if you can see if you can figure out how to get that unmuted so that we can hear what you have to say but yes oh Jan is that you that gooder um can you hear us it's yes hi there hello and you I apologize for calling you David that's how popped up on the screen go ahead no that's okay El would like to speak because she just heard her classmates and she has some things to say I agree with my classmates I have not found anyone I have not talked to anyone in um sixth grade I'm Elise um I've not talked to anyone who has enjoyed or found really any interest in St map and I am wondering why we're doing stmath um for specials instead of doing it um during math which would make more sense or during Wind Block and that's kind of all I want to say so thanks thank okay I'm unmuted now great perfect sorry about that Jen go ahead okay the introduction said that that the chair would unmute all right um in tonight's meeting I hope you'll update the concerned parents about what changes are happening at the middle school specifically regarding schedules changes affecting specials we want to know who makes the ultimate decision about scheduled changes at the middle school at yesterday's school council meeting the head of school was asked that directly by a parent and her initial answer was the administration that's an ambiguous response the parent asked again saying she wanted to write to one letter to one person who made that decision the parent was referred to the superintendent we need to know who makes decisions not to be given ambiguous responses initially my concern just started out as a concern about the music program and advocating for the music program but it became readily apparent that this issue is much larger than the music program it actually involves many parents who felt unlistened to when they approached the administration superintendent and the head of school and teachers who also felt slighted more uninformed now I'm also here to advocate from the middle school and the middle school music and other specials because we needed new Elementary build Bill does not mean that we should have forgotten the middle school as a middle school we need to keep clearly in mind that middle school students are different than elementary students they have different needs additionally there is no longer a middle school school council just another another way it's being treated as an extension of the elementary school the music community community is important to the middle school students education is not just math and Ela students experience community Through the music program if you were present at the spring concert two years ago you saw how all of the Jazz Band saxophonists came out wearing sunglasses as a fun way of being in community together these are the students who feed up to the high school this program is now scheduled as an after school program as of September the students who registered for chus is half the number that has historically been because it's now scheduled as an after school program historically there have been 30 students today there are 17 if the music program falls on its face here in the middle school because of lack of time provided for it then the high school music program is going to be negatively affected issues that were raised with the public posts on Facebook this past week and at the school council meeting last night include teachers not knowing ahead of time what their schedules were and some teachers being surprised by the cut in their instructional time two there have been no effort at the end of the last school year to transition the fifth graders to the middle school they went to middle school without knowing what to expect three parents not knowing about the late buses there appears to be remaining confusion about the late bus what time it runs which days it runs what stops it makes who's eligible to take the bus you'll notice a thread here of being uninformed to bring this back to my original concern the music programs all of them deserve to be incorporated into the regular Middle School day as they were before as do all of the other specials you no doubt know the mcast results please please do not let the a three-year grant-funded math program and soon writing programs to take the place of creative arts so necessary to our students mental health and growth thank you thank you J thank you J uh Margaret you're up there you go hi um my name is Margaret bet and I'm here to um officially thank I believe because I missed the vote to ratify but I believe that you ratified tonight and um as the vice president of the EA I'm just here to thank the school committee uh for the good work that we did and um we're thrilled to have our new contract and so I thank you very much thank you so much um anyone else in person or joining us remotely care to share their thoughts seeing Oh yes go right ahead hi sorry I'm not used to this meeting but is this an opportunity to speak to the I'm to ask question to at all yes talk about whatever you want yep thank you're welcome understand we can't respond to you but ahead yep I'll try to make it super brief my name is Marcy Blumenthal I'm a 25 Sheldon AV um I just want to strongly encourage support for a yes on on question two in support of getting rid of the graduation requirement that is mcass I've been in um the field of mental health as a clinical social worker for over 26 years and every single day work with kids that are suffering from Clinical anxiety depression um and a host of mental health needs that are really challenged by the things that they can't control that includes daily lockdown drills that includes the horrific weather we're having all sorts of things that are beyond our control but one simple thing that can take away so much of that stress is to reduce the graduation requirement um I know a lot of kids that are very smart very driven by goals to become many things that they're excited by and they're squashed by the intimidation and anxiety that this um that this standardized test poses for them um last thing I'll say around it is it's culturally biased that is absolutely research proven time and time again um and it just feels like we can still gauge kids academic needs success and be one of the strongest states in the nation around Education Without this archaic form of um ascertaining what the needs might be so please encouraging a yes to get rid of the graduation requirement that is mcast currently thank you Mar uh I think yes uh Lindsay go ahead hi I this is I'm Lindsay Rothchild I live at 73 Mount Tom Avenue in eastampton I just want to support the sixth graders that um spoke up today um like many parents we were shocked when our kids came home the first week of school and told us that they were going to be doing math during music class or art class class or gym class and to the fact that I said oh your teacher must be pulling your leg that can't possibly be the case only to find out that it was then thinking we might learn something in the newsletter that came out and the newsletter didn't mention it at all it was very uninformative and it's just really disappointing because I think as parents in this community we want to have a good relationship with the administration and teachers and when we are not communicated with and then when we do communicate and we're dismissed it's really disappointing I want to say that by taking it out of specials I feel like the school district is saying these specials aren't important it's saying it to the teachers who are doing the work and planning these classes for our kids it's saying it to our kids that art music it's not important and there's so much stress on social emotional learning and these classes contribute to social emotional to the teamwork to the expression so I hope that the administration listens and corrects the path thank you so much thank you Lindsay um anyone else in person AA we'll get to you in a second because you're not here under public speak we can respond to you um but anyone else here for public speak seeing none we are going to close public speak for the evening and move on to our next item which is our EHS student representative update from ausa Patel do you want to you can go to the podium yeah and you may want to adjust that mic doesn't pick up as ridiculously well as these two so just adjust it so it's close to your mouth thank you good okay so right now at EHS student council we are working on our homecoming committee and for that we have um started a new thing with these VIP tickets to fundraise more money for student council and this is just an add-on to the normal ticket having gift bags um Candy and a free admission to 5K we're hosting which is also another thing another fundraiser to raise money for student council as well as the grades to take some relief off from prom tickets and other things like that when graduating um next we have spirit week which on Monday is our 5K and then Tuesday we have pajama day on Wednesday we have um wear pink for breast cancer awareness Thursday dress up as a Disney character and then Friday our usual class colors and Friday we'll also have our pep r/ Battle of the classes where we're starting to go towards this thing of decorating our bleacher sides for each grade and we're starting off by having just banners and having the grades decorate them and then um it's a small thing but for Halloween we're going to help out our Tiny Tots teacher to do a tiny tots Halloween party and for upcoming events we have kids night out in November and a food drive so also what are the dates for homecoming in your 5K um for homecoming is October 19th and the 5K is October 14th wonderful thank you very much thank you uh next up is the superintendent update okay so uh we're going to be talking uh for the superintendent's update about the um mcast results so um Julian is ready to present for everybody hi I uh do you need the ability to share my screen I'm working out I'll give it to you okay thank you sorry I had to find you in my list there you are there you go thank you thank you all right can everyone see it and hear me okay yes MH Perfect all right um I know you're all super excited about this accountability and mcast um I'm back again we do this every year I'm going to first bring it back quickly to our strategic plan goals um we developed our strategic plan 3 years ago it was um supposed to be a three-year plan we not um updated it this year because we still have an interim superintendent and uh superintendent Benda thought it made sense to start the strategic planning process again once we have a permanent superintendent in place so these are still our goals these are the ones we are working towards and um I think for the purposes of today's presentation I just want to have you read goal one um what we are trying to do here is sure that our curricula are aligned with our guiding principles and The Guiding principles are a document you can find on our website um does mcast equal accountability is always a fun question um mcast results are used for improvements in teaching and learning we look at um aggregate data to look at how our programming is what curriculum improvements may need to be made uh mcast results are used at the state level for school and District accountability which I'll walk you through today and then um they are also FC results are also used as a piece of many points of data around student accountability uh the accountability formula for the state also includes student subgroup Improvement chronic absenteeism graduation Dropout rates completion of advanced forew work and then of course the overall percentage of students participating in mcass in our [Music] schools uh so just to remind you where we are um we are in the fall of 2024 and we had our second year of unass at Mountain View in the spring of 2024 uh when I show you the data I'm going to show you some different dates and different times that we've been tracking the data across this period but this is the um this is the stretch of time we're mostly looking at because spring of 2019 was the last time we had a benchmark um before Co and then of course there was no mcast um during that first year of Co and then we had the abbreviated version and then we fully implemented the Next Generation upcast in 2022 so we're going to compare some 2019 data to our 2024 data um but we're also going to look at a little cohort data that brings us right through this whole timeline um overall there were um these are all of the schools in the Commonwealth 1,827 schools um 27 didn't receive a classification we were one of the 1,610 schools that did receive um a a classification and we were classified in the 82% of schools who were not requiring assistance for intervention uh this is a lovely little slide to just remind us um that there are two pieces of the accountability system there's the normative component and the Criterion referenced component I'm going to show you those on the next slide our Criterion referenced um component for East Hampton as a district is that we made moderate ress towards our targets at 41% 50% is what we would consider a Year's worth of progress so we try to get up to that 50% Mark anything above 50% is equivalent to more than a Year's worth of progress so at 41% we are still not quite making a Year's worth of progress towards our Improvement goals each year and then the norm reference is how we compare to the other schools that are in the Commonwealth this year ampton high school was in the 21st accountability percentile and Mountain View was in the 34th breaking that down a little bit I just wanted to share some some good news um for the high school they got all points um that you can receive in the accountability formula for a four-year cohort graduation rate as well as our extended engagement rate which is the students who have previously dropped out and we've um been able to bring back into the school at Mountain View we received all the points that we were um you can receive for our English language proficiency which is how our El students um perform and progress very very proud of that we also earned at both Mountain View and the high school all of the points that you can earn for um reducing chronic absenteeism so really good news that kids are coming to school um staying in school and then the high school this is the first year since I've been in eastampton that we've received all possible points for advanced Court work completion um we worked really hard on that and I'm just I'm so proud to see it paying off um the high school has done a ton to open up more advanced coursework um course I'm sorry open up more advanced courses um as well as really encouraging students to take those courses and successfully complete them so kudos to the high school there all right so now we're going to break down um this is really the the data story want to tell which is where we are we talked a lot about learning loss during the pandemic we talked a lot about like these cohorts of students who um really missed out on one part of their education or another and so I just wanted to give you um a look at where we are and where the state is um in that data story so this is um one of the breakdowns that we do and it's kind of a confusing chart so I apologize um so across the top the percent NM pmme Etc what those are are the percent of students in that grade who on mcast received either in the First Column percent is not meeting expectations the second column is partially meeting expectations the third column is meeting expectations and the fourth column is exceeding expectations and then the state likes to combine meeting and exceed to see if how what percentage of your population is at least meeting or exceeding and so at the state level this is State data this not e Samson data the state data for ELA shows that 42% of third graders are meeting or exceeding um the expectations on mcast that is a 14% decrease from 2019 and a 2% decrease from 2023 does anyone have questions about that so but Julian and you're going to you're going to probably touch on this later but the cohort that we were aligned with in 2019 is not the cohort that we're aligned with in 23 and 24 correct right so this is grade level data this is not cohort data right oh okay okay so the the third graders in 2019 were there were if I can do the math quickly 56% of third graders in 2019 had meeting or exceeding on their appcast okay so the cohort doesn't have an impact on this data it's just it is what it is okay great correct yeah um so this is the state data and then oops I'm not on the right screen sorry I'm actually sharing um here is the eastampton data so same layout but these are only our students now and again this is not by cohort this is just a snapshot of the grade but this is if you look at that meeting or exceeding column the 35% for grade three so 35% of eastampton great third graders had meeting or exceeding on mcast which is a 12% decrease from 2019 and a 6% decrease from last year 2023 what do do you make anything Julian of like kind of like if I look at grade five versus grade six or grade 10 to grade six do you are you able to draw any narrative about that spread yeah I mean so there are a couple um stories that I that I see on this slide and it it carries through to the other slides as well um the first thing is that I I look at this and and see a need for updating our Ela curriculum that's the first thing I'm going to see in in any specific grade range um because this is so inconsistent across the board um we are approaching this as a Core Curriculum problem so it's across it's across the grade levels that said we we have historically seen higher scores in sixth grade see that I can see that should we always sixth grade really I can't um I I I think that there's an excitement um about being in sixth grade maybe you're not um you know too uh I don't know jaded do you get Jaded by seventh grade I I mean I have speculation I won't share publicly about six gr a sweet spot but we'll move on yeah yeah Megan had a question so yeah so I there there's lots of ways you can talk about this I would like to talk about grade 10 quickly because that's um that's a story that I think is really interesting um one quick second cuz Megan had a question and then I want to hear what you say about grade 10 could you flip no no no no problem can you just flip back to the state level slides for a moment just so I can see the comparison oh actually thank you Megan because I I did this um I did a dry run of this yesterday at school council and they asked that and so then I was like well why don't I just add a slide that shows that never mind that's what I was going to ask you can talk you can go back and talk about great 10 if you want that's okay I can talk about gr 10 for this slide too so that's good um so yeah so this slide is just showing those so meeting and exceeding um rate changes from 2023 and 2019 and 2023 and 2019 so that's just up against each other um 10th grade what I think is happening in 10th grade um because we very very smart students and I think they've gotten the message that um the adults don't think that MC should be a graduation requirement and I think they're okay with that message um we just don't see the uh when M started and for the if you were in schools that long ago I'm sorry if I'm aging us all um there was a lot of like celebration and pump and Circumstance around mcast um it was something that we we really wanted kids to do their best on and like we really surrounded it with some um celebration and then for schools that got in trouble with mcast data we did things like um mcast boot camp and we did test prep and like the whole month before the test we would have kids do practice tests and and we would get the scores up that that works right if if you know what the test looks like if it's predictable you know what you're getting yourself into to it's a much less stressful situation and so it's just you just do better um we don't do that any ston we made as a choice as a community we made a choice I mean maybe even before Co I think I think it was really around in terms of of me being here it was really around when high school was level three and maple was level three and then Sonic weapon was in turnaround and I think as a community we were like are we really going going to tell kids that this is the be all and all to get a good score on this test are we really going to waste curricular time on mcast prep and we've said no um really as a community we don't we don't do what other communities do around mcast and so I I just I want to say that like I don't think that our data is um completely a reflection of our students or our teachers I think our data is also a reflection of how our community um approaches andc I agree with you julan I want to layer one thing because I we have an audience tonight so I just want to layer one I agree with you I think that historically we have not held it as a value or a measure in this District like many others do what concerns me is the downward Trend so until somebody can tell me that we care less about mcast today than we did six years ago and I don't think we do I think it's just still everybody just kind of dislikes it but the the trend downward is Con concerning me too okay y me too and um okay so let's let's keep oh I was going to say let's keep going but yeah do you want to sorry the mayor has raised her hand oh I didn't even see that go ahead mayor no um around the approach to mcass and and and whatnot um take no issue um but I am wondering and the downward Trend um but what about other assessments like M isn't that I I just okay because I was like I know when I'm looking at the the screen to be true but I I'm just like I guess to the public but also as a former educator like there are other assessments that show progress and and strength in our in in our and um one might venture to to say that East tampion is kind of on The Cutting Edge of of Q2 so um that was only my comment I was wondering what other assessment data will we see yes so um one of the ways that we were um we we okay so at the very end of this I'm going to show you what our next steps are and that's when I'm going to address that great thank you jul all right so just moving um to the math data I just wanted to show math data this is uh again we're starting with the state data God that is crazy look at that story Julian yeah it's very interesting um math is a very different story than Ela um at the state level yep great three um and then I'll just move us forward to our data yeah yeah um and here you know I think that the story you know so we're not seeing we're seeing like a lot of up and down right like big pluses big minuses um and so to me the story there is not as it is with Ela about really a poor curriculum um situation this is more targeted this is more like grade level work um what's going on in grade seven right that's that's really good data for the seventh grade to be working on um but this isn't a full this is not demanding a full curriculum overhaul this is demanding supplemental curriculum and um and targeted grade level intervention luckily this year we have math intervention at the middle school um so really good news for addressing um the the math data that we see that's just not as consistent as we would like to see and I'll just move this forward one more so that you can [Music] see Julian we have had math intervention at the elementary school longer than at the middle school correct yeah you can tell can you yeah correct um yes yeah wow it's really a lot of it um yeah I I think there were have been times in East Hampton where we've been surprised by data um I think now we look at it enough that we're not usually that surprised by it um and we can really see the um initiatives that we put into place start to pay off um and I I definitely think our our Cent ma curriculum is one of those um and anyone will tell you that no one curriculum is going to meet every student's needs right so supplement enrich that's what our math programming is really asking for right now yeah Megan has a question jul um just as I'm looking at this so we have this sort of comparison of how the state has decreased versus how East Hampton has sort of decreased in these areas it's like the general CH not decreases in every category or every grade level but but if I'm just looking at like flipping back a slide like what percent of third graders in East Hampton meet orc seed versus what percent of third graders in the state meter exceed so not so much about the change over time but more just how we stack up are you going to get to that comparison as well or is that embedded in the change somehow I'm just looking at like there are some pretty huge differences in the percent of students at East Hampton compared to the state does that make sense yeah if you want do you want to look at a specific grade level or um well just cuz it's right in front of me like grade 10 for math um 48% of the state meets or seeds versus 37% of students in East Hampton and if you look like and so I was knowing this about East um Easton about Ela as well like these are some pretty big discre why are we we seem to be decreasing faster than other places in this than the state average and also we're behind in general I don't know I would I would um I would say it's the other way around I would say we're growing slower I say okay correct me yeah and we haven't yet seen the cohort stuff put an impact on these numbers you're sharing with us no know we we'll get there very soon I promise okay um so this is the uh science math I'm sorry science state data okay and yeah we only do science in 58 and 10 and then I just tried to like put it all onto one slide so I wasn't flipping so you'll see the eastampton dat across the top and then the little State comparison is down in that bottom right hand corner T changed science the science test changed right oh yeah I'm sorry the Legacy scale is because the um we went from the the Next Generation science mcast um was one year behind the Next Generation Um eln math so again I think um you know I have thoughts about what's going on in grade 10 um and just the unimportance of mcast um but but to 19 points one year but this also looks to me like um an updated curriculum need just in grade 10 and this is the so 10th grade I believe this is where they choose bio or physics correct and then they're administered one or the other for the mcast yeah yeah but the vast majority of our students take bio bio okay yeah very very few takes should we tell them to take physics instead I'm kidding I'm kidding that's trying to lighten the moood these are this is a little Grim okay sorry thank you can I I'm sorry son I'm stuck on the other I'm stuck on this other comparison right so like if we're looking at grade 10 science right and we're thinking maybe we need an updated curriculum specifically for grade 10 because of that drop I'm also looking at just which grade levels and in which subjects are we really far behind like that's one that we're not all that far behind we went from like above the state average to a little to below it like it's still not I'm not saying don't address it but we have some of these like in ela and math where we're quite a bit even more than that behind can I possibly speak to that yeah yes of course yes I just want to make sure Julian um Bill Evans is going to speak to that Podium so julan can hear you oh I bet he has good ideas about what's going on with 10th grade I bet he does hi Julian um so I do have some ideas and and what I what I would like you to note right and when you're thinking about curriculum is that that deep drop between the 20123 score and the 2024 score that indicates that the year before or that curriculum that same curriculum had that other result right so I do think that when you have a cohort of 85 that you can see pretty big swings between cohorts and within a cohort if you have a core group that is really struggling they can influence the scores of the entire group um I agree with with Julian that we have Smart students that are quite capable and I also have seen um certain groups as they've come through have their own sort of Def defined culture um and I do think that the mayor and Julian are correct in that we are a little bit um ahead of the curve in terms of saying this mcast thing is stupid and if and if does pass you know I I think that there was a general sense of um just do it don't worry about it you'll get over it you know it'll be fine um not coming from me I want to be clear about that um but I do think that you know it's worth noting that the group before them did well enough to make that group look like they did that PO you're saying 23 did well enough to make 24 right correct so I don't think it's a curriculum ISS M I do think we've identified some places like like in the English um I think we're we're focusing very much on writing this year um so yes and and I don't steal the rest of my presentation and I'm not going to steal the rest of Julian's presentation but I want to make that cohort yeah than you insightful thank you thank you I don't want to keep it's not supposed to be like harping on grade 10 cuz there are other examples of it like I just quickly looked like there's a grade seven difference of like 15 points behind the state average in ela I didn't mean it to be about 10th grade at all like why is that I don't know I just I'm more focused on like how far behind are we from other districts yeah um the um can I just say a little bit about that Julian too um is that when we analyzed each of the questions on on the test and uh what was it really um grade three to grade 12 we C we came up with writing it was just that uh there was a lot of now and cast focusing on comparative analysis of two different uh pieces of literature so it might be fiction and non-fiction so you have to look at both of those and you have to write an essay right and it has to be a really a clear essay that shows that you can analyze and synthesize and we have we have a we weakness in that because as Julian had said um the district didn't want to um have kids prepare U have like teach them to the test but teaching to the test and teaching kids how to write competitive essays are two separate things yeah and sometimes people get confused on that and so they say oh no we're not going to teach that so I'm teaching to the test but no you're actually teaching kids how to be good writers and so we have to do some of that test prep work you know for example a simple thing like you're taking multiple choice you know you go through first and you just cross off the ones that absolutely the right answer and then you're left with deciding between maybe two what is the right answer those type of test taking techniques are important no matter what test you take so I think we do have to focus on that and I just wanted to say on the science that um we have had discussions about uh perhaps perhaps we take the uh biology in grade n and take the mcast test in grade n because here you have them taking science English and math and in a lot of places they take the science and they take biology and they take that task with the block schedule you might take biology right first no they take it sophomore year they take earth science freshman that's the that's what I'm saying 10th grade I think there there might be that's the question by the time you get yes so should we be teaching earth science I guess in grade nine is grade nine 10 instead of nine cuz we are teaching it nine don't is it it's a middle school currently currently so we should be teaching by that's something we're going to discuss later but I I'm probably ruining some of jul well that was the curriculum the curriculum question that I was alluding to when I said that there are some questions that I I want to ask about that grade 10 um science yes data but yeah writing are you one little note on the writing I'm more resistant to teach to the test than Moren is Moren has more experience than I do so but I will say that it may really might behoove us even just with my own two kids who are really smart really good students and they struggle with writing that I wonder if we had a better understanding of the rubric by which essays are being graded if that would be helpful for teachers and students to get you know to improve their ability to communicate through writing anyway sorry okay go ahead sorry Julian can sorry I julan can I just um respond oh wait Morin's got no what what I'm thinking is that the AP rubric is an awesome rubric right it's out there it's the Top ofth Line rubric and if we look at the AP scores for English lip um we'll also see that uh writing is an issue for us so you know I think that you're not teaching to the test but we're saying writing is something we got to improve I think that's different than multiple choices I'm trying to draw a distinction between teaching you the test and just coaching kids on how to score well in a multiple choice whereas I think when you're understanding a rubric you're you're genuinely learning more in writing there yes and Julian there is a new writing program correct in the um Elementary School to address that still a couple slides away from that but okay thank you jul we'll get there so sorry jul I'm so I'm happy to have the discussion I really I think that this is really important um conversation so I I don't want to stop anyone but yes we have more okay um I did want to just show um quickly a little of what I do find um helpful in these data is being able to disaggregate by the student subgroups and look at things like how are students um growing and progressing um within their subgroups and I I want to mention that our here uh percentage of students with disabilities in the district is higher than um it's certainly ever been while I've been the district um it's much much higher than the state average um and as you can see here are students with disabilities um if so if you if you're looking at the purple circles those are the average scaled score differences um so if you are low income your average scale score is 484 if you are non- low income the average is 495 so that's the purple circles the blue circles are the student growth percentile and again remember that I talked about that 50 is a Year's worth of progress right and so that's actually what I'm more concerned about is that our students starting from where they are are not making the full Year's worth of progress in a year and that for students with disabilities students who are low income or students who are high needs that they have significantly less growth than their non peers um and so I do that that's for me um that's data that we talk about a lot um and really think about you know what what do we need to do to improve outcomes for these students so this is in 3 to8 Ela those discrepancies this is in grade 10 Ela um it's the same story I mean even with I mean looking at high needs um for that that difference between 39 and 48 yeah yeah it just should it just shouldn't be so we we really got to you know break down that data more and income too I mean yeah the income needs and thinking about how we can offer more support okay yeah absolutely yeah yeah absolutely um I would say a lot of the initiatives we put into place are really focused on that discrepancy um and you know that that's not always like a really popular choice um but I do want to say like we're making decisions because we've said this is unacceptable mhm so that's Ela but you will see the same story in math it's not um as drastic thank goodness that's interesting yeah and then I actually the the really good news um I'm glad bill is there because he can speak to this as well is that that reverses in grade 10 math for those um same subgroups and I would argue and maybe um back on I think that it's because we have um co-taught we have we have students who are in a sort of high needs math section who are co-taught by a special education teacher and a licensed math teacher at the same time and I believe that that is a very effective model differentiated learning at the high school level we also have um and I'll just jump in real quick Julian um we also have five full-time Math teachers and four full-time English teachers so we're able to have much smaller math classes we did put a lot of time and energy because this trend of having our math scores compare better to the state than our English scores is an anomaly I've never seen that before so I think that the concentration and energy we put into the math over the last few years did help that particular sub this particular group um more work needs to be done is particularly impressive because we know the trend at the same time in 8th grade is that enrollment in that eighth grade Algebra is dropping so what it's saying to me is that we're making up all of that ground at an accelerated Pace at the high school yeah it and and I I I'm still that group was really impacted by a pandemic yeah and I'm not you know like so was the rest of the state but they were yep totally well that's that's um whoops oh yeah that's where I'm going next okay so here's your cohort so this is the 10th grade cohort so in 2019 they were fifth grad in 2020 they didn't have ncast 21 they were seven 22 see that and there's obviously no end pass in in nth grade so during the year that we were mostly in remote learning they were in seventh grade and the year that we were mostly Mas they were in eighth grade M I'm going to go ahead and say that um that seventh grade crew at home was the most one of the most unsupervised groups of seventh graders we've ever had and I think that that was incredibly detrimental yeah we just we could and and I'll speak for myself I had a seventh grader that year so I know he was unsupervised and uh it's that's not parent blaming that's the reality I was going to say yeah no not at all I was there with all of them but I know that having those the unsupervised uh educational years probably had a pretty big impact on this class yeah um and then I did one more cohort this was Ela because the ELA data was more um disturbing to me hard to swallow um but I did do also the cohort data for our current um ninth graders so these students were eighth graders last year and it is funny sixth grade we just there's something about current current ninth grade Julian this is the current nth grade yes yep so the last slide was the current 11th grade this is the current 9th grade fascinating yeah so they were um in fifth grade during that remote year and were potentially more supervised than their than the seventh graders during that year maybe not though I mean [Music] it's hard to know so um the reason I show you this is because I can I could pull cohort data like so but the co our cohort changed for this group in 2023 right so that more precipitous drop that we see from 22 to 23 for this group isn't that when the cohort changed that was the Mountain View cohort change or was that 22 no 23 was I'm sorry 22 yes 22 22 oh no I'm sorry the 23 data though right the 23 data was the F because I thought last year was the first one with this new cohort that has us up against a bunch of richy Rich districts yes Sor this have cohort in it or is this the state cohort oh this is cohort this right yep of course Cort it's a cohort yep that last the last column that that state data right so you see that drop yes yeah mhm I see what you're saying yeah we're not doing Wellsley numbers you know shocking are we able to see is the a person in the general public able to see what these U percent M or E scores are for other districts or is that like internal data no you can see it no no no school and District profiles you can you can do that on school and District profiles on the the um Department of Education to oh yes you know what mean like districts yeah yeah okay thank you all right um we are we are done one more thing um so yes so raising the achievement floor we are trying to get more of our students into those meaning and exceeding categories um and just improve their lives as humans so what are we doing about it um and yes as superintendent Benda talked about we are focusing very much on writing when we dug into the item analysis on um the ELA scores I I will one say one thing is that our students are excellent at determining the meaning of a word in context across every grade level every cward um they were just above the state averages every time so so they communicate a lot they just don't communicate a lot in writing exactly so these are we have readers we have speakers we have listeners we got to work on the writers so there are those are some um oh and this is goes back to what the mayor was talking out with um the Communist so assessments that are not mcast that we can use to collect data within the district that's what we're developing for writing this year um we do have them for reading and math um but really having those common writing assessments and and that Universal writing data collection is really going to help us um look at the look at our local data without having to worry about MC's data um the mayor had a question mayor yep so um just as a a what if so if if Q to if question to um uh passes and the legislative intervention after it passes is minimal um how much what kind of what kind of difference are are or time given to different ways of teaching how much does that free up our curriculum mcast because well I feel like we're on The Cutting Edge of like okay the mcast is in be all end all and it's overweighted my other concern is how much are we teaching to mcast or have to teach to mcast and and if we're spending less time do we have the right curriculum and assessments other than mcast so you know in the day you know uhhuh we um so we don't we teach to the Frameworks MH um as a um as a public school in the Commonwealth um we have to um and so we we don't really teach the MC mcast is intended to I'm not going to get into whether it's an accurate assessment of Frameworks but our teaching of the Frameworks is that's what we do so it doesn't really free up anything yeah yeah but we have great data sources in this I'm not worried about losing data I I just don't I guess one thing I would say though is if student are going to take end seriously because it's because the only way as a community we can take it seriously is if we all like do the like bandwagon po circumstance then the data may not be very accurate and one thing we get with the m when it's accurate is these really good ways to look at our student subers you know low high needs like how are we so I haven't worked out yet how to find that in compare like the normed part of the data like how am I going to know how we are treating those subps in comparison to other communities so that's that's where I feel like the Gap is for me right now um yeah that makes sense no thanks it was it was an awkward question but I just trying to and and I'm also I have another screen up and I'm looking at the the dart District uh profile so well you're talking and I'm looking at that looking at yeah Dart is thank you jul that and school and District profiles thank jul jul no sh go ahead Eric has a question Julian and you're cutting in and out a little bit but go ahead Eric are the are the the the things that I see on this for writing for the different grade levels are those programs that are being implemented or those data collection I think it's framing your thoughts I sorry that's why I didn't talk earlier can you hear me me up he was asking if the right okay so yeah I just was asking if those are the those are the programs being used frame so framing your thoughts is K to 5 and patterns of power is a 6 through eight curriculum yeah they're not [Music] like oh jeez Julian hey Julian I don't know if you can hear but your connection is getting worse and worse do you want me to ask Moren to speak to the writing stuff or try turning your video off oh yeah do do that shut your video off and maybe the bandwidth will be better think about no she has I had to talk you did the sah JX it oh no um I'm going to mute Julian really briefly oh Julian she's going she I can't mute her cuz she's a Julian co-host that's right oh jeez uh do you want to cuz I was just going to say Mar you could speak to this but is there a cohesive is there a transition from one to the next that I mean I'm not going to say patterns of power is better or worse or what but we're seeing differences in Middle School to elementary school and I know from teaching that often in districts you know kids go from one grade to the next and next thing you know they have different strategies they have different tools whereas it's easier I mean in my school with fifth to sixth graders we just see that they they use the same you know planning rubric for for writing where they know it when they get to us is there the similar situation because I think maybe whatever is working if we can keep it growing you know that's one of my questions hi Julian do you want to shut your video off you're muted do you want to shut your video off because your bandwidth is really bad okay I'm not well I'm not I don't think I need to share my screen anymore yeah your bandwidth was getting really bad and we couldn't hear or see you kept freezing so um Eric was asking about um the writing curricula and kind of how Eric just wondering if it's coh so if it's if it's a streamline from elementary school to Middle School to high school are or are teachers you know typically reteaching new strategies for kids to learn I think that's a big part especially for writing I think writing they're they're asked to analyze and dissect you know texts that are complicated to read just from the from the from the gate so I think that if that's my Wonder is if is there kind of a correlation between what they're using in elementary school into middle school or is it kind of departmentalized and different um so the I I have a couple answers to that um so first of all framing your thoughts is an approach to teaching writing it's not a scripted curriculum so this is bringing your thoughts as professional development that our teachers are doing throughout the year this year in k um to learn more about um really bringing writing down to the phrase and Word level and building out from there so um that's going to be applied to content area right writing in K to 5 which will be our science writing our social studies writing um there is also a writing curriculum but the idea to get writing not only in ela but to get this really intentional instruction um in the content areas as well is is what bringing your thoughts is doing okay um patterns of power is a um is a really a conventions forward intervention tool um and we've had a A really lovely group of um teachers in the Middle School who are working on looking at conventions and how to teach them better in them for our M schoolers because we see a lot of text language and we want to get those um those structures in place so those aren't necessarily sequence there however the Core Curriculum that we'll be using so right now the um K to 5 is doing a Ela pilot um curriculum Pro they're piloting curriculum um and so whatever they choose will have the writing component as well and then that sequences into the 6 to8 Ela curriculum which also then has a writing component and all of them are aligned to the sequence of skills the skill progression that's in the Frameworks and so the pro and the programs whatever V K to five goes with 6 to8 will use the same curriculum the same just Baseline what they're using to teach with I know these are the the devel the developmental skills that they're doing in the other professional development levels but are they going to be the same streamlined curriculum um I not you mean like just like one 12 writing curriculum or like yeah well from five yeah from 5 K to five and then jumping from 6 to 8 are they is a different curriculum from a different like are they train are fifth grade moving into sixth grade translating the rubrics and the writing tools they've already used are they Translating that directly into sixth grade or are they relearning new tools well use um I we use a common rubric because we use the mcast rubric there you go okay um I mean I think that there I feel like there are a few ways to answer that so there is continuity it but it's not the same programming right and so yes they may be learning a new tool to use in middle school but they're not losing like the the mcast graphic organizer is a is a you know K to2 graphic organizer right the rubric is um consistent so the expectations I think are consistent the approaches are um that's the professional work of the teachers to look at the students in front of them and and you know draw from the curriculum what the approach is um so I wouldn't say it's standardized but I will say is that the the caded 10 Universal writing data collection that's going to be a place where we can look at how students are performing on a consistent rubric over um grade levels and so that's that's really going to be our data collection and focus on where do students need more support or where does there need to be more structured curriculum or strategies or tools um in in writing thank you very much Julian can I just add to that um we have a melt program you know where we all meet with a group of people that are team leaders um in elementary and middle school too and uh one of the things we were talking about is like I think you're talking about srsd kind of how that goes all the way through right so all kids learn to write they know tide right and they that's an example of what you were you were asking and um Julian uh was saying at that meeting also that uh there are um little words like tide that are going to be presented uh through the program uh that they're they're starting now this year Julian so I think the the question was really about you know writing consistently and having those little words all the way through so that even when kids get to high school they and they're answering the the mcast because we still have to take the mcast we a qu question to pass the not the state right now is saying that will be the accountability test uh that they'll use to judge all schools so we still we still have to meet those standards and still take that test so so that answer would be yes it's not um like uh srsd but similar and that that same word would carry through that's great yeah full words yeah yeah yeah that's very helpful do we want to cruise through this Finish Line Julian because I think we we've told um you've heard a lot about um stmath that is a very specific supplemental curriculum we were um lucky enough to have a grant for it and um we actually piloted piloted it in the spring um so a bunch of kids uh started to use it in the spring and then um we went full um in the in Mountain View in the fall we also have Middle School for the first time this year um an interventionist who is working with students who qualify this is our yeah I think we're in year two although we were talking about it yesterday I think it's year two and a half really of having our elementary math intervention in place um and then on the other side um this is the first year we're offering AP preal and we are in planning discussions to to um increase the number of students who are taking algebra in 8th grade so that they can um access that uh those courses in high school I have one quick question about that Julianne I promise I'm not going to prolong it but for the second section of eth grade algebra is that going to be just like a Le a slower Pace because I know they hand select the kids who they think have that skill set so what how are we just waving a wand and creating a second section is it just going to be a little more handholding is it a smaller cohort like what how are we doing that so our um the current math curriculum that we use curriculum that leads into 8th grade algebra 1 so I think what we'll we'll start to do is pull those cohorts um so the incoming sixth grade next year will'll start with that accelerated curriculum I see and then yeah so it'll be it'll be a few years everyone is on that path thank you very much that makes a lot of sense okay go ahead on your St uh yes science Technology and Engineering um so we renewed math curriculum um a couple years ago we're working on renewing Ela curriculum now next up is science Technology and Engineering I'm super excited um as you know and as um Laura mentioned we are tight with funds and renewing curriculum is incredibly expensive um with materials with professional development I you know this is this is the current Ela project is probably a $75 to $100,000 project so that's really a lot and so we can't do everything we want to do every year with um renewing curriculum but we are we are ready and waiting for science Technology and Engineering to be next okay any questions for Julian any more questions for Julian okay great good job thank you so much Julian thank you I'm so sorry about my internet and and thank you no that was great I think we cursed you I think that was The Universe telling us to be quiet and let you do your oh I didn't hear it like that at all I appreciate your your discussion and input and like as I always offer if anyone wants to pull more cohorts with me and look at more data I am on the second floor 50in in a really nice office that you could come visit thank you Julian thank um shall We Touch on that early college math so Mr Evans can get up bright and early for school tomorrow apologies for keeping you here fory sociology hi folks thanks for inviting me the um UMass class the you early college class that we are offering our students is a Sociology class it's called race gender class and ethnicity uh it's a 4un class um we have six students enrolled um which is great because it's the first year it's also combined with um students from grandby and Hopkins Academy is that correct maren I got that right okay um the the class is oh yeah um the class is asynchronous but um so it's done online they they do it in our school but there's a a weekly Zoom meeting where the full cohort meets on Friday afternoons at 1:00 so they have FaceTime with the teachers and with other students and it's discussion based it's not you know you're it's interactive with with the other students and with the professor um the professor recently said that most students are doing just fine um as is typical with a college class there's not a lot of Assessments early on um but what um they noted is that they've noticed there was a learning curve for them taking a college level course but that is to be expected um and good for them for challenging themselves um it's a rigorous and I think really relevant curriculum that they're looking at which explores uh if you bear with me I'll just read this brief paragraph on the course description I think it's worth hearing uh the course explores the historical roots of racial class-based and gendered divisions focusing on how these divisions relate to capitalism colonialism slavery and patriarchy additionally rather than analyzing race class and gender as separate categories this course explores how they co-constitute each other finally this course also discusses how these categories construct the Contemporary distribution of power and resources and their impact on people's everyday lives so yeah relevant and U really important stuff for for students to be exposed to so we're excited um we think it's moving in the right direction um I think the kids will do well and hope hopefully the program will grow yeah yeah my kid is in that class and he's a he's a good student but he has to work hard for his grades and it was at the first month he was stunned it's a huge culture shift to do that kind and now it's you can see it clicked yeah and he's like oh it's fine it's fine let you know which you know really he wants to go to a four-year school next year so it's you know rather you know yeah and and you know high school and college are in high school you have much more time in class and less time out of class and it's the opposite in college there's much more expectation out of school so um yeah that's a shift that that they have to make but glad he's uh he's made it seems to be doing okay any other questions no it's awesome awesome I just want to say that um that's a lot of students that we're lucky so many students wanted to come because of the recruitment that was really done at at high school for the students and that uh we've been told that uh we'll have another course Maybe sociology to next semester so students are going to be able to get you Mass credits which are transferable with any state institution in Massachusetts and also uh they're going to offer um visits College visits they're going to take them on tours they're going to get to meet each other you know all the ones that are in the cohort from the two the different schools so there are many things that UMass is doing in order for this to work yeah yeah UMass has worked hard to it's it's difficult to uh get a college and um high school schedule and a college and three high school schedules to to align um but I will say yes there was some some strong recruitment that happened at the beginning of the year but this is really uh superintendent bende um brainchild she really pushed this forward I think she mentioned it in her first interview with us before she was why my kid is in that class yes Lara you he about this class wow so Laura Scott going on record doing an impersonation of the superintendent and a good one I might add all but yes no this is a superintendent B really did a lot of work to make this happen so great all right thank you so much appreciate it thank you coming from the other side when I have students who come into my classes and they've done this kind of an experience you notice the difference it's huge and it's not in terms of academics it's in terms of their mental health of transitioning to a fouryear college it's huge confidence and comfortability that's great it's awesome let's hope it cat him in m m if you're watching all right um thank you anything else you want to share for the superintendent updates um just just a little bit on the ST Math sure um the you know as Julian Levan said too it is it's an evidence-based program it's been around for over 10 years now um the strength of it is that it is supplemental so you don't do it as part of a math class it's in the additional uh it's grade leveled and it's based on students individual work so as it it doesn't have any language there's no words or directions given it's done that purposely it's about students being able to understand math concepts so you know route learning of how to do tables um that doesn't work for stmath it is really getting to understand math um there are districts around us that that also have um stmath there were well over 100 applicants that tried for this Grant and we were just lucky to have received it uh it's 90 minutes a week and uh it has proven uh over the 10 years that there are a really moderate to high increase of students individual math scores so I think the the challenge was for us uh with so much being offered in the middle school so many opportunities for electives um how do we get 15 minutes a day in and it couldn't go into the math class because the math curriculum requires one hour so all the academic area is are 1 hour so where it is now is in the specials but the students still get 45 minutes of specials um it's just that 50 minutes we have looked into uh we met with some teachers uh last Friday um to the actually the math interventionist uh met with some teachers last Friday uh to talk about whether we could would uh fit it maybe Into The Wind Block that's still um a discussion uh right now that's that's happening so that it wouldn't have to come out of the um the specials however the some of the special teachers uh feel like that they're doing great in math now too uh but we're still looking to see if there's another place that we could put it however uh it is a three-year Grant uh the there hasn't been a place that's been put in where the mask was have not increased and it's a special grant that we're very fortunate to have received so we're going to continue with st math um the question is you know is there another place that it can fit in um it's very difficult I don't know how many people have tried to do a middle school or a high school schedule it's a skill and fit everything into uh a students day that you want to offer them is very difficult so the chorus and the Jazz Band uh we just can't fit fit fit that into the regular school schedule has nothing to do with stmath so those will stay as clubs are for middle schoolers it's really important that the difference between Elementary one of the difference in middle school is that you get to go to clubs uh we were very fortunate that a year ago that the bus company gave us a great deal on an after school bus um I I want to say when I did come for my uh interviews here for the interim job and I met with students in the high school the middle school and the elementary school I was so surprised when I asked what they wanted to see added to their school and they all said it after school bus and so that was one of the first things that we arranged and Wednesday and Thursday because it's the same bus worked for the high school and the middle school so uh that's how those days were put together and it goes to the high school first and then afterwards it it goes to the middle school so that's how the times got set how the places for the bus stops got set is uh where most of uh four places where the buses go that would be good spots so kids can all get uh to their home so and those are published uh for parents if they have any question they can certainly call the head of school or they can call the principal of the school so uh we feeling that stmath is a great program um I am at the school every day now I do stop kids in the hallways and ask them about ST Math and um the students I've stopped everybody tells me they love it so um I guess I'll have to keep asking kids but uh generally it it's a great program uh evidence-based it's supported by desie uh there are several programs that are not supported by desie this program is supported by Jesse and uh we're going to go forward with it and we're hoping that we're going to see with this intervention um a great increase in schooles anybody have questions Megan do a Qui question so I saw a couple of questions coming around about the late bus and how folks could use that for these after school activities can anybody sign their kid up to use the late bus do you have to have already been on a bus route so is there like a registration for it like how does that part work you know get on it I think that just get on and get off The Bu comes and there's H some there's a staff member out there that makes sure the kids can get get on the bus um you'd probably have to ask um either Meredith or Jill you know the head of school the principal of the middle school they make an announcement the bus is there in the high schools um not sure if they make it in the Middle School um but definitely the uh the areas where the buses drop the students off um are published okay so if my child doesn't take the bus in the mornings or whatever oh has nothing to do with that anybody it's not you have to pay for the bus it's free fre and you don't have to you know live two miles from school that type of thing like you do normally like the UMass pvt I just want to make sure every stop anybody can get on no fair so you do not have to have signed up or paid a bus fee foras anyone can arrange for their middle schooler or high schooler to use the late bus on its Wednesdays and Thursdays but if you're in the middle school they may not make an announcement in the building so make sure your kid knows to be out there on time to we can add that we can add announcement we go there we go we can add announce we can add lots of announcements that's easy it should be accessible and free for all kids who want to use this as an after school option yes anyone else have questions thank you good question anyone else I just I just like have some some some things to add which I hope is all right um I think that so I've I've we've heard a lot from the public about this and I've um so I did some research um I I watched um some videos on stmath um and uh talked to some other friends of mine who work in other school districts about their experience with stmath and really I I honestly like I'm surprised at how much I like it um this is I'm not a math person um and well actually I hate saying that I'm I'm kind of I like all things and math is just a thing but I math does not come naturally to me I had a lot of trouble with math when I was in school so like I hear the idea of like extra math in school and like the middle schooler that was me back when I was a middle schooler is like oh that sounds terrible um my son is in third grade and um they've been doing ST math in elementary school as well and he was actually really frustrated by it the first couple of days that he tried it um but he's really into it now one of the things I really like about it is that it teaches and reinforces math in a non-verbal way so for kids who have trouble learning verbally and my son is a child who has trouble learning verbally it makes math concepts a lot more accessible um and so it's not I think there was some miscommunication or misinformation going around about it just being mcast prep it's not sitting down and doing test prep it's an engaging um computer-based game that teaches kids math without using a whole lot of verbal language and that um that is huge for kids who learn differently um and who specifically learn in that way um I think the thing about it that I I think I I appreciate that we got the Grant and I know that you worked really hard on getting it we talked about it as school committee over the summer I think the thing that got a little bit muddled up was the communication about what it would look like um for students um and what how that was going to impact the school day and it sounds like there were some other bigger scheduling issues at the school that coincided with stmath that didn't actually have anything to do with stmath like the like the late bus and chorus and music so I guess I just um I just want to say that I I appreciate um kind of all the work that's got into sort of figuring this out and kind of figuring out where we went you know where where the communication maybe went wrong and where people getting kind of the wrong information I do really wish that there was more clear communication about this from the beginning because um I I have like really bought into this now and I you know when I first heard about it I was not super happy with how it was turning out but I I really like it I'm really glad that it's a part of my son's education I really wish that um there had been a little bit more uh buyin and and better communication about it from the beginning anyone else our illustrious Finance director is what I like to say because I can never remember business director I Director of Business Services Nick Bernier good evening thank you it is 7:34 and we are finally hearing about our finance update and our personel report my apologies this is a long meeting all right it's oh this thing isn't working as it's not as L I think it works it's just not it doesn't boom like these new these are super loud all right I'll I'll talk loud okay um so uh my end of the year financial report was completed and submitted to the Department of Elementary and secondary add-on its due date September 30th um the report is uh required to be independently audited each year um it's been shared with the external auditor so whenever she is ready um typically the deadline is March 31st so I won't hear from her until the beginning of March um but she's got what she needs um once the audit's complete the report may need to be amended it there's always a couple things uh mean you're paying them for a reason um I you know I might have to I might find something myself before she even comes it you know every now and then desie will send you an email you know whoops we have to fix this or whatever so it's it's very common for me to have to do that I just don't want anyone to think it means the report was like done wrong or anything like that um typically there's two or three amendments we do and then the final audit report um was uh must be given to the city council once I I get it so um that's where we are with that um FY 26 special education tuition rates I can't believe we're already talking about FY 26 here it feels like fy2 just started um the OSD who sets the rates for uh state approved private special education school tuitions has released their annual memo uh which provides the estimated of inflation for next year's tuition costs um the estimated rate uh as of October 1st is 3.42% um while the increase continues to Trend downward I mean you'll recall two years ago it was 14% uh last year was 4.69% um you know it's still it's important to remember it's still historically High um prior to this year uh the average rate since fy1 somebody has kept data on this you over the years we just keep adding to it uh was 1.83 and that's including that 14 that big outlier so you know there are some years where it was like under 1% you know and and all of a sudden you know we're seeing these bigger numbers but um you know districts will continue to you know rely on their municipalities for support with this uh as well as on circuit breaker reimbursement um you know the thing with the tuition is every year you get one or two you don't expect um you know and I I think as we move into the FY 26 budget season you know we may want to discuss building a little something in for that because otherwise you're rolling the dice I mean if you've got a Year's worth of circuit breaker you can use that that's great but we don't we use circuit breaker reimbursement to go against the budget to begin with so we we just we don't have the money to roll the dice with at this point so we might want to think about that couple months down the road um number three finally got the summer food service numbers I've been uh promising you for a couple months um the program came to an end on August 16th so from July 1st through the ending date there were 2857 total meals that was that's what double last year more than double yeah um they averaged 84 per day uh and that includes both both breakfasts and lunches um it's an increase of 1,632 so they more than doubled the participation from last year which is really good awesome um I I still think you know as as it you know goes forward in subsequent Summers you'll see more I mean it's just just new to our community it's it's we never had it before we had the grab and go co bags and then we didn't have it and then we had it in a park when it was hot and rainy and mosquito Laden um and now we have it in a beautiful air conditioned building in which summer programming is taking place and you know and an accessible community site so um you know I I I think you obviously trended up positively this year and it going forward I think we continue to um as more folks know about it um overall there was you know there's still a loss of $2,510 from running the program U however you know the reimbursements we get during the year uh with meals being universally free and the increased participation in school meals that it's we have plenty to offset that so you know you might look at that as like a whoa we're losing that much money but I I don't worry about that we the revolving account is is healthy and um it was a good service for the community so and again to just to remind those we can't spend that $21,000 on teacher salaries food money is food money food money is food money which is a good segue to item four the EHS dishwasher uh for which I can spend this on um so the Project's been awarded to singer krid from aguan Mass we've worked with them before on you know various equipment repairs um the cost total final cost is going to be $ 63,65 3.66 pending one more site visit just to fine-tune the details that site visit did take place um between when I typed this and and now is it like a conveyor gu nice yeah it's a Champion brand conveyor which I I think will work in restaurants yeah it'll it'll improve the efficiency in there for sure um so the the site visit took place I got the final amount um I I'm just waiting to hear back from our facilities director um on time frames with uh the electrician because that's not part of this cost we have to get just a little bit of wiring done independently um so then we're going to shore it up and the target date is during the the winter break week in December um so uh the PO will be generated as soon as I get the final word from uh Larry air facilities director so uh and lastly the Personnel report so for uh September we hired uh a network technician uh a registered nurse several substitutes and two par Educators um we did have a special education coordinator one substitute and two par Educators uh separate from us during the month um and that brings us to our current vacancies uh we have one special ed teacher vacancy still at Mountain View the ed coordinators very close um I I believe an offer has been made we're just waiting for you know paperwork and whatnot so you can pretty much cross that off your list uh the speech language pathologist I signed paperwork today so cross that off the list great um lunch supervisor still there and the IT computer technician is still there so we really don't have a ton of vacancies you saw you know a month ago there there were several so uh we've done a good job at at you know filling a lot of these positions which is good but it obviously uh makes things function better when we're fully staffed so it's a great place to learn and grow Nick or so I've been told it is uh any uh questions about anything before I wrap it up go ahead Meg okay thank you so much this is a great update um I wanted to I have three little things I wanted to highlight slash ask a question about one is that let it be marked on the record October 8th we are talking about how we need a fund that we don't dip into for the next budget season our director of business Serv has said it sometimes that gets confused in the messaging around budget season why do we have to have a fund where we don't use the money and we just leave it in there we leave it in there for exactly what you just talked about with special special education rates and unexpected costs that pop up so right we've Now put on the record twice okay the second one I just wanted to really say again how thrilled I am that we do that summer uh food service thank you so much for all that you do to have got that off its feet to coordinate to give us reports on it and make it successful and I noted um that I saw coming home in folders um with my kids that there's also a weekend food project that's going on I don't know if that comes that's power packs I don't know where that comes through but I just wanted to to to note and celebrate the amazing things this district is doing to make sure that kids in our district have food um at meals we saw the mcast data reflecting low income and high needs yeah it's just so yeah I will die on that Hill that $21,000 loss is worth it well I'd like to thank our food service department for all the work in the summer I mean Ken leage our director from Chartwells as well as some of his food service staff you know they they haven't worked every summer since we've been contracting with them but several of them have over the last couple and and you know they're they're really the people you know that that helped to put this together so they're throw a lot of credit can we put a pin into it's been a couple of years since I've seen Ken just speak about what they offer and stuff could we maybe see if he has some time later this year no rush but any time this school year if he wants to come in and talk yeah he's mentioned he's willing to come speak at school committee when when needed sure that'd be great yeah um and then the last question I had and perhaps I've missed this in Prior updates is there an update on that gym floor that thing that happened over I was about to ask about that gym floor is done um it you know they finished it just in time for the uh primary election at the beginning of September uh we were getting nervous the vendor actually uh during a pretty nasty thunderstorm in the beginning of the summer lost the roof of their building uh which you know kind of pushed the timeline back a little bit and you know we started to sweat because I mean Not only was school going to start but voting takes place in the and you know the primary voting takes place in a high school gym and you know it's it's hard to Pivot that I mean you can't just move a polling site without mass communication and city council involvement and things like that um so you know I work closely with our city glerk Barbara throughout the summer just communicating giving her updates of where we were and um um you know the bleacher people actually they they wanted to push things back and and the floor vendor actually ended up moving them so we you know we they really worked with us to get things done even though that you know they lost their roof I mean they they came up huge they were they were excellent um and and so is Larry our facili director and you know just his communication was great working with the vendors getting people in you know even on weekends you know just to to get it done and um the varnish on the floor was you know dri a day or so before the primary vote gorgeous just slipped it in wow well thank you that's a great update thank up anyone else just oh yeah go ahead I just want to say thanks thanks also for the for the food program I know for people in the community who are watching that is like Nick really puts a lot of effort into that program and um it's been really cool to watch it start and grow and um I know the community appreciates it and thank you very much absolutely you thank you so much you're wel uh we are going to move on to school committee discussion um the first uh we are going to have a brief discussion on ballot question two I want to frame this and then I want to Tee It Up and ask Sam to share their thoughts first okay um we've been approached by many people activists in the community um organizations across the Commonwealth um it's largely understood that this November there is a qu a ballot question uh number two which uh a yes vote would remove the grade 10 mcast as a graduation requirement and we have been asked by several people to um draft and pass a resolution in support of a yes onto vote my response was that um I have yet to see a resolution that I believe is worth the the paper that it's written on and our job is to manage finance and policy so I want to be able to give everyone here an opportunity to share uh their thoughts because I think a lot of us have a lot of experience and opinions on this but I don't um we want to accomplish something with our actions and not with a meaningless toothless resolution uh go ahead Sam I'm going to let you start thank you I share your thoughts about resolutions as as you know um I I want to make sure that when we're doing work um on this committee it's actual work that has an actual impact on the community a specific actual impact um so I I think you've all heard um we're I mean I'm going to speak for myself I'm opposed to the idea that we have one Statewide graduation mandate that supersedes the local requirements that we already have that adhere to the mass core standards uh when the mcast was uh as a graduation um requirement was developed we didn't yet have that um we didn't have those standards in the same way as we do now like there's been a lot of work that's gone into um making our educational standards across the state more um more Equitable and more more kind of similar uh and and the same to each other um and that that is one big change standardized tests obviously have um have some place in other aspects of an equitable education and I think the presentation tonight shows really well um the things that we should be using standardized testing for I think those comparisons between like for example the special education um uh students um versus the non-s special education students the High um or the low-income students versus the non-low-income students I thought that was really good example of the type of kind of um Community level uh uh work that we can do with um with standardized test but that's not that's not the same thing as graduation the thing that I'm concerned about um is that there is a small group of students who would be adversely affected by this ballot initiative passing and I want to just like raise awareness about that because I think there is something we can do about that as a committee that's a little bit more effective than passing a resolution um so essentially and for those of you who don't know in my day job I work um with students with developmental disabilities um students with disabilities who are on individualized education plans are entitled to a free and appropriate public education and the least restrictive environment um so for many of those students if they don't pass the mcast in 10th grade um and they and even if they meet all the other District graduation requirements um they can remain in school um up until their 22nd birthday if they choose to and during that period in between ages 18 and 22 um they can make up uh missing some of some of them actually make up missing academic work and actually do manage to retake the mcass and um and receive a diploma um some of them work on in addition to that or instead of that some of them work on other transition related goals such as vocational skills life skills some of them do work on college readiness um or begin um kind of dual enrollment programs uh with uh local colleges um you know you look all over the state there's different transition programs at different for different students in different districts they're highly individualized they are often not 9 to3 every day the way that we think of um a school or or 7 to two I guess the way we think of high school um they they are Bas they are based on what the individual student needs to work on and kind of what their needs are um during the pandemic the mcast graduation requirement was temporarily suspended and the effects on and I saw personally the effects on um this specific group small group of students who had met who had met their graduation requirements but were unable to pass the mcass um and were being served on an IEP um I was I was astonished by how many families found that they were no longer going to be entitled to those four years of education those transition um uh years between 18 and 22 and um and this is really disturbing to me because there are many students who are able to get a diploma through those 18 to 22 years it's not like they were being given the op the option of taking a diploma or not having a diploma um this was this was them not receiving a free and appropriate public education I want to be clear this was not an issue in our district as far as I know um and I don't think it will be an issue in our district but this is just something I observed happening in other districts and I don't know who's going to be here in 10 20 years uh I say that all the time um I've asked a lot of people involved in yes on 2 about this everybody has said wow haven't thought about that that's a really interesting question and then it kind of ends there I talked to um I talked to representative Carrie and and you know he was interested in this and and and I've talked to a couple people at um at various state agencies about it and it was the same thing oh that's interesting we haven't really thought about that um so I want to put it on everybody's radar now because it seems like I have an opportunity to do that um I also don't you know people have been sympathetic but they haven't considered it before and I don't hold that against anybody this is a small group of students it's a significant minor it um but when we make even a small change to a system like this we end up affecting people who we didn't mean to affect um and so I just I want to make sure that people are aware uh of of this concern so our policy subcommittee worked on a policy which will add language to our official graduation requirements the explicit stipulation that students with disabilities who have met our graduation requirements should also be ready to um enter the workplace or attend college or a vocational training program uh when they finish high school with only the supports available to them through the Americans with Disabilities Act um if a student and their IEP team determines that despite meeting other graduation requirements they are not able to work or go to school due to their disability the student will be offered optional transition services that they may opt into until they are either ready for those next steps or until they turn 22 um this is already the law in our state I want to be very clear this is this is the law um but by spelling it out as a clear policy that families will be able to read and understand um I'm hoping that we make it easier for IEP teams to work proactively with students and their families on how to best attain the life that they um that they want After High School so personally I'm voting in support of yes on too even though I or I'm voting yes on to even though I'm really hesitant about the impact it will have on this specific group of students I'm hoping that by putting some of my concerns out there there might be some legislators who are hearing this and maybe we'll be able to um enact you know or or kind of enshrine some of those Protections in this law um I think this is a necessary step forward in addressing our changing relationship with standardized testing um and I believe that all students who graduate from our public school should be well prepared to go to college or to get a job or to go to a training school to go to their next step I think that's really important to me that is what public education is for and um so if if we have students who are leaving school and they're not ready to do those things and they're not ready to to enter adult life that that concerns me so um so what I was hoping to do is present this policy and we could all vote on it but uh we we voted on it in Pol in our policy subcommittee I um I shared it with our special education attorney I heard back from her like very close to the beginning of this meeting and she had some suggestions I feel like they kind of fundamentally changed what we were trying to enshrine so I'm going to um ask her some more questions and we'll take it back to policy and do it again um so that's kind of stealing the taking the wind out of my sales but that's the that is where process that's where I would like to move towards I would like to move towards us taking a uh a stance on this that shows that we're kind of thinking about other concerns um the ways that this is going to have possibly unintended impacts on somebody even somebody who isn't here right now like way down the line when none of us are involved in this I would like to have this um just kind of show what our values are and um go from there so great that's my thought thank you Sam a very nuanced yes on too Eric do you want to share your thoughts yeah I was on I'm new member to the subcommittee that Sam is uh the chair of and this came off as very interesting as I understand that it's the law that we have to provide services for students on IEPs until they're 22 but I also understand meeting numerous families with children on IEPs that the transition after graduation can be intense it can be chaotic and I can see people losing sight of the understanding that we we will still service your child for the next four years if they if they haven't access to free and appro public education but I could just see families saying oh they because of this change to the you know the mcast requirements my kid actually graduated so now we're moving forward on our own when're not understanding that we are still legally obligated to provide supports um I can see that just falling through the crack so I think that Sam Sam presented it she did all he did all the head work sorry good and um it's just a really well written statement that again we could all go look up what the laws are and it take us forever to find out but this is very clear-cut and it's very on the nose of what we're trying to show families which is if this changes it's still going to allow us to provide services for students who need them was just so I don't have anything profound to add I'm a huge uh supporter of voting yes on to I'm thrilled that we're at the point where this is actually on bot and I appreciate um someone who has the nuance and background in this making sure that this district is going to do that in a really responsible way so thank you to the policy committee I don't want to confuse my vehement opposition to resolutions on a principal basis to the fact that I actually am very supportive of a yes on to with the provisions that and anytime you make any change to legislation or to any kind of requirement you need to give it a 30th look because there are always unintended consequences and when those unintended consequences are going to have an adverse impact on um any minority group it's it's your job to pay attention and it fixs you know first Do no harm so um we are definit it sounds like we're unequivocally in support of a yes on Two And I just want to point out that we have just been joined by our lovely member Linda Marquee Linda if you want to unmute yourself I don't know if you want to share any of your thoughts on um the ballot question too that is to remove the mcast grade 10 as a graduation requirement do you want to unmute or no can't hear you girl unmute can you unmute her I can't she just unmute herself does the mayor have any thoughts on mayor would you want to sh oh wait here goes Linda and then mayor because I know the mayor has thoughts on this yes I have thoughts on that I I I do not like the in I have worked in my profession as helping students try to pass the inest the very idea that we educate our students put them through school have them attend classes have them pass classes and then expect them to pass a test that many is set up for many of them to fail is uh very disturbing to me and distressing and I will definitely um am in agreement with the rest of you great mayor thank you Linda um yeah I mean I'm I'm in favor of getting rid of the MC as graduation uh requirement a little bit the test but more um just the inflexibility and non being nonreflective of Commonwealth students I think that there's many different ways to assess students and and we should uh take our time and develop um the toolbox or or even the the assessments that we give our students now um and take and then take those compare against data um and look for progress or gaps um yeah I I have mixed feelings about resolution I go back and forth but on question two it's a definite like no yeah it it's helped the districts who were strong in the first place for a whole bunch of different reasons and it's defl the potential I see of a lot of districts that are just trying really really hard to do their best by their students yeah well said all right with that we are going to move on this is a very long meeting and we still have some important things to take care of tonight next on our list is a superintendent search update folks it's a big one so we this really long meeting it's a really long meeting we're all a little Punchy but we're going to get through this together um so um this past month we had had uh opened for applications for the superintendent search committee just to lay out the expectations we were looking for three parent volunteers one ideally from each grade level meaning elementary middle and high school we would also give preference for at least one of those three to have um a student with an IEP and have a familiary with special ed services uh additionally we were going to have an East Hampton High School student and um three staff members and three administrators um there is a only one slight wrinkle on the staff side we had one staff application um that was Jessica Falcon who is a special a teacher at the elementary school so Jessica will um be on the Slate that I'm naming tonight um uh we will be filling the remain uh the remaining staff and admin slots um that's five slots total over the next couple of days and we'll have an announcement on that at the next meeting but we do want to um what I'm going to do tonight is put forward a slate of three parents and one student these were the competitive slots where there were multiple applicants for a limited amount of slots I'm going to present um the choice that I made so that we don't have to um vote on any individuals up or down uh we're so grateful for all these parents who put themselves out there to volunteer their time it is not an insignificant commitment and we're deeply appreciative um so I will present this we'll entertain a motion and then we can discuss if anyone has questions and take a vote um so I would propose that the elementary level representative would be Jennifer Cameron who um also has a familiary with special ed services um the Middle School candidate would be Drea Marx and the high school candidate as a parent volunteer would be Hannah Sullivan and then for the student Representatives we had two applicants um both are wonderful students very wel qualified great reputations one of them had a couple of conflicts in scheduling so due to that um we I would recommend Walter Baker as our student representative so the motion we'd be looking for would be to nominate um Jennifer Cameron Drea Marx Hannah Sullivan and Walter Baker to serve on the superintendent search committee um the criteria was pretty loose I would say we had a Google form people were um free to share a personal statement internally I was hoping to find people who had not served previously in that role to give an opportunity for newcomers to serve uh but beyond that it was really largely random um and I was kind of happy to look back and see this um list of four and see a really diverse body of thought and experience and um different professions I think you know I'm really pleased um if these names are approved I think they'll bring a lot to the committee which begins its work later this month um oh I should further note that all of this process was run by our professional coordinator from masc Liz leond um who just kind of overlooks the process and we'll also be guiding this search committee through an orientation and throughout the process as they uh narrow down candidates interview them and bring forward finalists uh for the school committee to consider so I would entertain a motion for those four named individuals motion to approve the Slate you just brought forward second second thank you Z any discussion it is I appreciate you sifting through all those applications yeah and to be clear we so appreciative of everyone who um took the time to put in application yes um I did respond to everyone I hope although I need to get in touch with Jessica Falcon but I did respond all the parents who would applied and I'm trying and I'm going to try to include them as much as possible and the process as continues and other roles thank you Linda do you have any thoughts you're good all right great mayor okay so with no further discussion we will do a roll call vote Eric yes Megan Megan har yes Sam Sam Hunter yes mayor mayor yes see yes you're muted it's okay I saw your mouth Yes okay Linda yes thank yes okay motion uh lur yes uh motion passes thank you so much we're so grateful we will follow up with all of these members um keep them up to date and I I look forward to this process again fingers crossed we're going to be negotiating a contract before the winter holidays thank you F thank you volunteers yes policy subcommittee do we have any updates um we had a policy meeting we discussed the uh transition Services um uh proposed uh policy which um I'm just going to review one more time and then we'll bring it to the next meeting is that the ikf graduation re so we're going to pass on that tonight for Action items yeah I'm just going to pass on it because I just want to take some time to reconcile um and then the um the other policy was the uh school councils so we did bring that for first reading tonight um and we can do that later if you want um do that now either way well we can why don't when we get to that vote why don't you just do a brief introduction and then we'll get the motion okay cool um is that it for policy subcommittee do you have another meeting set we don't have another meeting set but we will okay great Finance um I do not have an update for you all we were waiting until this Monumental just signed just signed we have the contract negotiations are finished we have the end of the year report we have all systems are go for setting up a finance meeting at our director of Business Services not Leisure I wouldn't call it Leisure at a time point that makes sense so I'll be in touch and we'll let everyone know when that makes sense great uh CES updates Sam have yes we um had uh our first board meeting of the year and for those of you who are just tuning in CES is the collaborative for Educational Services it's the uh educational collaborative that we pay into uh pay dues into as a district and so we have representation on their board and um I went to their I went to the meeting um last week or two weeks ago it was feels everything is such a blur um and uh we just went through the um the budget for um this year and um kind of closed up last year's numbers and um reappointed everybody to various committees so great I joined the warrant committee because it seemed like the uh the least amount of outside work so I'm pulling my weight but in a way that makes sense for me wonderful we're going to move on to the last guest the action items okay here we go Motion to approve the school payroll dated 8 2020 nope I'm G start that one over motion to approve the school payroll dated 822 2024 in the amount of $389,962 second um all those in favor seconded where's that Echo it's home okay all those in favor opposed extensions thank you Eric Erics go ahead motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 8:22 2024 in the amount of $221,800 [Music] or something testing testing well it wasn't a maybe hit that this yeah yeah testing can you still hear me yay that works can you still hear me Linda no no no you so Linda are you able to Linda can you mute and just nod for a yes cuz we're getting a weird feedback thank you perfect great okay thank you shall I do be over yes okay motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 822 2024 in the amount of $221,800 second second thank you Sam all those in favor I I I opposed extensions obain thank you Eric uh motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 829 2024 in the amount of 11,897 14 second thank you Sam all those in favor I iOS I abstentions abstain motion passes next motion to approve the school payroll dated 95224 in the amount of $582,500 of $ 28,45 one19 second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed extensions thank you Eric motion passes motion to approve the school payroll dated 919 2024 in the amount of $585,500 [Music] extensions thank you Eric motion passes uh motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 9:19 20124 in the amount of $220,100 second second thank you Sam all those in favor I I I opposed extensions thank you motion passes and I have a motion on the table to approve an outof State field trip request for the East Hampton High School senior class to go to High Meadows on on June 2nd 2025 maynd thank you Sam um any explanation we need to give or we good this is an annual senior trip to a campground type place in Connecticut because it's out of state they need our permission they do it every year I will be abstaining cuz my kid will be on that trip you can vote on it I'm I'm going to say yes all right thank you you're the we got to get a quorum you're the Quorum for theow came through all right all those in favor I opposed abstentions is me motion passes lovely all right um do you want to give us an extraordinarily brief synopsis yes I'm going to do an extraordinarily brief synopsis of this policy so we started work last year on a school council policy which we didn't actually have um so it's good to add one um H you know we went through various drafts of this we had um we got feedback from parents uh and um families we also feedback from um administrators uh over the summer um and so we have come up with a policy um I'm just I don't usually I would have something to project but I um didn't bring that tonight second reading we will be have a more fullsome discussion second reading we'll have a more full full discussion um essentially this is just um uh clarifying that we're going to have a school council for each of our schools East Hampton High School and Mountain View School um the principal uh will um will uh have the primary responsibility for the management of the school uh and that um the school council will meet regularly with the principal um five to seven times per year um and will um assist in um offering feedback on ad uh educational goals needs of students attending the school and of their families the school building budget and the school Improvement plan um and so this is just this is just the school council policy we also have another one that's specific to the um um excuse me uh we have another one that's specific to the school Improvement plan but I just we just haven't finished that one up yet so so we want to explain to the public it is this is um we are almost at three hours for this meeting so right we're coming up on three hour so we are um going to put a motion on the table for this first reading and we will we will dig into this in further depth when it comes up for the second reading cannot be um adopted into our policies until then so if it feels a little brief tonight it's because nobody is doing their best thinking I just wanted to get it on I just wanted to get through the first reading so we could get through the second reading exactly right at some point before the end of this school year so perfect all right motion I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh bdfa school council first meeting first reading see what I means we going to adjourn this Sam do you want to do it or shall I uh so moved so moved seconded thank you Megan see we alternate uh all those in we don't have to roll this right all those in favor I I opposed none extensions none first reading passes um we you might see on vote to table I don't I have toot table we can skip it correct Sue yeah yes yeah yeah so um somebody if you're looking online and you see our agenda there is another policy here this is what Sam had alluded to earlier in our discussions regarding the ballot question two um that is going back to the table for some further revisions but we um expect to see it at a later date likely later in October or November speaking of which our next meeting dates um October 22nd November 12th and December 10th um at our next meeting on October 22nd I will lay out very clearly for everyone this um the rest of our master schedule for our superintendent search which will be kicking off in Earnest later this month beginning on October 23rd when the superintendent search committee will begin their orientation entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn seconded all those in favor I I opposed extensions thank you so much everybody for hanging in there and we will see you in two weeks e