##VIDEO ID:kxdeDW3E46A## okay uh so we'll reopen our public session after executive session for Tuesday November 12th please join me in the pledge i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for okay in accordance with M St meeting law I remind everyone the meeting is being reported if any member of the public would like to make an audio or video recording of the meeting please notify me first uh by raising your hand either in person or remote state your name and your purpose of recording and also please remember to mute your microphones to minimize background noise is anyone recording today online recording no great done um mission and vision Mike FPS Mission the FMA Public Schools creates worldclass student learning experiences our Clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity integrity and resiliency Vision Clippers are creative inquisitive and engaged Learners who participate in their Community as socially responsible citizens Clippers effectively communicate and solve problems that impact the world around thank you so much um at our seats today we have a couple things that I just wanted to mention Margaret and I brought presents from the masd conference for you um Margaret brought us parliamentary procedure and executive session handouts and I brought a handout from um the dignity index which was um a presentation by Timothy Shriver on the um importance of dignity in public discourse and assuming the importance of assuming U positive intentions when ever communicating about contentious topics so brought those for you guys too and uh public comment um if there is no objection again we'll take all the comment on navigating the future at the start of the meeting um as we have been doing recently I REM my members of the public that comments should be limited to 2 minutes in length and due to open meeting law the committee cannot Act on public comment for items on the agenda the chair May accept comments following the committee's discussion and additional comments and feedback can always be submitted by email to school committee at. k12.us and I'm betting we have public comment Who's going first just a point of order information because we may possibly be voting on navigate in the future or some aspect tonight I believe it is against protocol to take you know the committee canot act on public comment for items on the agenda the chair May accept comments following the committee discussion so any comments on navigating the future should happen during that time in our agenda that's how we usually do it but it there's no objection I was going to allow speak now if you don't want to do it that way we can do it um I would wait for the I would wait until we have our discussion so I don't know what they're all going to say if anything but at least that way ties into our discussion on the agenda item point of hon please if if there's a motion on the floor if you could only talk to the motion they can't talk about other things I correct so you are assuming that you know what people going to talk about and we don't yeah so my limit what they can actually say Okay point of order the motion was never seconded so my no she's saying when we once we have a motion on the table later on in the meeting they would only be able to speak on that motion they would not be able to speak about anything else related to navigating future would have to be relevant to that topic and since we don't know what everyone is going to say okay we might be limiting what they're able to talk about we want to be able to have everyone say whatever it is they'd like to say we just didn't want to make them sit through our whole meeting to do so okay especially with all the kids out there yeah although this sounds like they're having fun so they might not mind but if you object no problem talking I was just okay you can't object to a point of no no no if he wants us to vote on whether or not we move public comment I'm happy to do so okay so we're going to do it as we have done for the last couple meetings we will take public comment from anyone who wants to be heard at the start of the meeting and you're welcome to stick around um for later as well all right who wants to go first come on up to the table and make sure you state your name for the re we have kleenex this year I'm already [Music] [Music] tou no nor my name is Julie Weldon and I'm a parent of an East Elementary student this year has been extremely hard for my son to learn in a safe and he is complained of headaches stomach aches and having a hard time learning I met with this teacher in early October and she mentioned that at times the class needs to just drop what they were doing and move outside I later learned that these were class evacuations to remove the children from one or more children who have been having behavioral EP episodes I also learned that there had been fights in my son's class and that the principal had to come in and discuss with the class what happened my son also told me that the class was super loud a child would kick the wall another child would put his items on his desk and it was just too white I purchased noise cancelling headphones and sent them to school to help him concentrate and expressed all these concerns with his teachers through email and she forwarded them to the principal Kelly just 3 days later on a Wednesday I received a call that my son had been involved in an incident during recess Julie I am so sorry to interrupt you but I'm really worried about student privacy because there's no children's names or anything she didn't mention the teacher's name either only the pr I could not say the principal but I'm I'm only speaking for my side and what's happened thank you so at recess he apparently was walking and kicking leaves up in the air alongside a group of children one child pushed him down and jumped on his back once he got up another child picked him up and threw him to the ground and the whole group started hitting and slapping him after all this my son had to go find a teacher there were no teachers around and no teachers saw what happened my son told me one child was sent home after school and not allowed to come the next day I requested an immediate meeting with the teachers and the school um and the meeting was 2 days later when I arrived for the meeting no one had anything to say and nothing was presented to me at all the only things I learned was that my son was hurt more and what I had heard before and principal Kelly implied that my son was H because he was persistent in wanting to play with this group of kids that he lacked the skills to know when to walk away my son is in third grade and has no IEP or special ed plan you're welcome please you're welcome goodness I had a backup plan just in after this meeting I never heard from Kelty until I reached out the following Thursday my son had been missing his friend and wanted to walk in the Halloween parade he still didn't feel safe and even expressed that he was worried one student would be there and what should he do I told him that if he didn't feel safe to come straight back to me but I was informed that in administration said he could not walk in the parade as this was not a drop in event after talking to my son he said I don't understand because we went to picture day and I didn't go for the whole day it doesn't seem to make sense he said I emailed back with great disappointment and expressed how deplorable the situation was especially with never receiving a safe re-entry plan for my son principal Kelly called me midm morning and said she must have dropped the ball or there was a disconnect she assumed she was not he was not coming back to school because she had received a request for my son's transcript I exess that my son was still a student at East bouth and I had not withdrawn him from FMA schools that I was looking into other options and when you apply for other schools they request transcripts she then said she had a re-entry plan and would share it with me in this re-entry plan she misspelled my son's name which to me is not taking this seriously at all to go back to the day I took my son in for pictures we arrived and once inside we were rushed to the gymnasium and I was surprised and even said out loud to the secretary oh how I don't have to sign in or get a visitor sticker when we ran it right into the gym and my son had his pictures taken we were leaving and we were rushed out a side exit next to the m music room after getting outside it was brought to my attention that the same child who had hurt Wesley was having an episode in the hallway and the hallways were in lockdown and the principal was trying to reason with this child I filed a police report on Sunday October 27th to have an officer look at the footage this report was sent to the school resource officer and after speaking with him Monday October 28th he asked me to call him back Thursday and remind him to look into this in case he got too busy which I did and he said he was handing it over to a new school resource officer and he would be going to the school Friday Monday came and I called the F of police department to see if I could be assigned a regular officer as it had been over a week without any information she said that it couldn't be transferred and that she would give him a call he called me and said that he went to the school Friday and no one there knew how to pull up the surveillance video and that he was going back today it has been over a week and I have not heard from him after filing a complaint on October 30th with desie about this situation they had still not heard back from F Public Schools as of last Friday the investigator was trying to again reach them and set up a phone conversation I would also like to say that the superintendent and school committee were made aware of this incident and have also done nothing What Hurts the Most is watching my 8-year-old son be afraid to go to school he's been afraid AF to do anything without me he misses his friends and his teachers he has not been back since he was assaulted by a group of kids on the playground as you have just heard the school has not made sure it would be a safe environment for him I refuse to send my son back to a school with one of the abusers still in his class what is the point of making children wear no Guff t-shirts each year if the fth district doesn't show support for children who are brutally bullied you have shown me that my child does not [Music] matter any else anyone oh I'm sorry I miss to [Music] okay that was difficult to hear I'm just going to preface it um my name is Yan I come to here tonight as a taxpayer not as an voting I ask you to consider many things tonight and base your decisions on facts and figures I believe that over the past two months we have been exposed to a plethora of presentations meetings and data but I'd like to put emotions to one side for a moment and speak to some facts fact every one of these proposals is connected they should not and do not stand separately from one another fact any Consulting agency should be given a clean slate to work with no preconceived notions let them suggest to us what might make sense in our situation fact no submission should be made for renovations of Lawrence as an educational building as there seems to be no restriction of use listed on the deed for this centrally located Town building fact you should not be under any time constraint other than it takes as long as it takes fact you should as members have asked speak to other towns who have used NASDAQ or are going through similar situations like sandwich which is used in NASDAQ and barnable with Tams fact the allowed occupancy of a building and its usage are two very different things given how we keep and the needs of our population building utilization should not be left out of any studies being done to have collectively expended this much energy thought research and discussion in such a short time is a testament to both the passion of our community members and the dedication of its elected officials and apps we are indeed all looking for the same result and that is what's best for the children we should not forget however that it behooves us to present a fair reasonable and Financial sound proposal to our taxpayers as well thank you thank you anyone else hi I'm here speaking for myself as a parent of a child that is found in the school I know I look old but I actually have a son and he saw in school he's 8 years old um you just have to tell everyone your name so Emily gold thank you and I am also here speaking for someone who could not be here cuz she was sick so I'm going to read her email her name is Jen Brian she has a son at he found at school uh we are here because we're concerned about the safety of our children at East BMA school um and she writes she wantes me to say that I want the safety and the way that issues are communicated East bouth Elementary School to be discussed the fact that there's been incidents that parents are not informed of there have been problems with students and parents find out days later or longer she has not been able to find out incidents that happened with her child at school without um she finds them out from her child not from the school um she her child has been bullied by others nothing has been done when parents approach the school with concerns it feels ignored um she's being told that that's being handled but nothing seems to be being handled uh why aren't we being informed about what's going on with our school school um why our concerns not being heard when does our children's safety physical and emotional well-being matter instead of being brushed under the rock so that's from General Bri uh for myself I have a son in IEP at East Bist school and I am concerned for his safety when I'm in the parking lot of the school and I see children fighting there's violence in the schoolyard this is shocking to me I never imagined this to happen we are watching children beat each other up in the pal the school you want to merge these schools this school is out of control we are not being told what's going on my son is a shy child my son could not handle being exposed to this violence I want to know what's going on at these FMA schools and I want us to be heard thank you [Music] last my name is um Gala cus I'm a mother of two kids at East found Elementary and I have nothing prepared I'm just sing off the cuff so I'm sorry but whatever I think we're all here because at one point or another like you're sitting in those seats because you wanted to a see a change in something that you didn't like or you wanted to ensure that the kids of our community got a great education like I don't think you'd be sitting here otherwise any single educator any person that is involved including me right now I feel like I've been with as a student I was with the school but also my kids are at the school of n years um within the school system one is currently at East and I'm worried I feel like this is my minor child that I'm sending to school and I don't know what's going on and luckily my son is open and he's emotionally intelligent and he'll tell me what is happening at school and I guess I'm shocked that I'm hearing it from him and not from someone that is an adult and I feel like this lack of transparency is across the board it's with our merging of schools like these are just discussions we should be having first before taking strikes if there's problems going on within the classroom it shouldn't be my son coming and telling me it should be someone reaching out and saying we're having issues we have some challenges this year in this classroom we're working on it I I didn't want to bring this up but my son came home last week with with a I am a Clipper card that said um you're a Clipper because you advocated for yourself and the way that he advocated for himself was there was another student who was screaming I'm sorry thought yeah um who was screaming within the classroom and um he didn't feel safe and he asked to to see if he could go sit out in the hallway and like that's not what it means to be a clover like that should be handled by administ adults my 9-year-old third grader should not be the one who's like hey I don't feel right I got to go and that is all like we need to talk we need to talk we need communication everywhere I feel and that's all I have to say as a resident thank you thank you any last comments okay great thank you we'll move on next item is an update by our building needs task force reps um at your place is are the notes that we taken for the November 6th meeting as well as the 1023 meeting thank you to Sandy foring this um also at your place is a Dr of discussion purposes from Bob Anoni you got the estatus report to the superintendent the school committee on po plans um within the meeting the task force discussed and agreed that we will not take action of proposals 1 and two until the school committee makes the decision and plan for taking Wan offline moving forward um within the task force reconfigured the grade structure serving 5 to8 moving forward within the task force and the task force agreed to all of the actions oh excuse me as well draft proposal for the renovation of Lawrence moving forward in the task force agreed on all the actions above I know sorry yeah I know everybody just got the the hand out is there any question about um minutes or the recommendations this was included in the P yes yes it was all right great thank you guys thanks for the report um next up is the um presentation discussion act on navigating the future um together proposals um I did have the opportunity to attend a great Workshop over the weekend at masc on parliamentary procedures and um I I'll read um the recommendation that we have for how we need to proceed tonight so on September the 5th um the committee voted unanimously to send a letter from the school committee and the superintendent that outlined the proposed plans and our intent to consider the plans and then solicit feedback to take an action that would undo our vote of September 5th for example if we wanted to end any one of the proposals um we must do the following we must first vote to resend our September 5th vote in its entirety and that's because you can't have two competing things that we voted on if we have our vote that we unanimously supported on this on the 5th that says we're going to have discussions about the proposals we can't also have something that says we're not talking about certain proposals so we have to remedy that um but using Robert's Rules so since we have such a broad topic I shared this with the committee ahead of time and asked them to send um any motions that they might be making um the first thing though has to be the vote on resending so does that make sense to everyone are we all clear on the on the rules okay great uh is there a motion to do that um I make a motion that we resend our vote on navigating the future together from September 5th in order to have a conversation about the need for feasibility study is my reason second second is from Mike um any comments um from anyone or discussion on whether or not to ascend sure um I think that the building needs task force has been tasked with a charge to do the research and although uh the chair of that task force of which I am a member um has suggested that we take no action at that at this time until we get the um consultant report back and the feasibility study I think pulling everything off the table is a little disrespectful to the people that have um put their time in for the task force and I mean that as respectfully as humanly possible I understand and I hear everyone that um one and two is not an ideal situation for a lot of people and I've taken these last few months into consideration and I've taken my charge rather seriously and I think that the building needs task force has a job to do perhaps we could let them finish their job before we decide we're canning everything um I think that there there's people on there that have dedicated their time and you know from the community parents uh staff members community members have dedicated their time have put a commitment in to this District and there's also a consulting company out there that we've hired that perhaps we should allow them to finish what they're doing I don't think throwing the baby out with bath water is a good idea currently I do hear um the proposals one and two um again are not ideal for everyone and that's why they are on hold until we have to quote myself an inform decision um so I guess those are my comments surrounding resending the whole thing I think throwing the baby out with the bath water is just not a good plan it is it completely disrespects again as respectfully as possible the people that have put the work in the task force the people that continue to put the work into for the task force the Consulting the there's a lot of people hours involved here and I don't think I think that we should be we should finish the job and hear from the consultant to hear an outside unbiased opinion what where found lands I guess thank you um I can lay out why I think we should start over um I don't think we're throwing the baby out with the bath water I think we didn't draw a bath in the first place and um sorry there's going to be a couple metaphors I'm sure um I don't see it as a disrespect to the hard work and the volunteer time hours of the people on the task force I see it as it's honestly a disrespect to ask them to do this job without a full set of information and what we have right now is a narrow scope um set of proposals and without a feasibility study that looks at every single option that we could possibly have in our community all of the challenges all of the possible solutions we haven't given a full set of criteria for them to look at so it's not fair to ask them to do this job at the moment because they can't be held accountable for what they come up with because they haven't had an opportunity to have a fully informed start to the process um I also don't think that it's caving to pressure or backtracking or somehow um a loss of anything to start over um when I've looked I spent the last week looking at feasibility studies in other communities and I looked at the West Parish School in loster I looked at Taunton I looked at Wham I looked at with the gun sandwich I went to Pennsylvania and looked at a district there Austin Texas every single place I looked at the first step was a feasibility study and part of a feasibility study is a visioning process where you really have this Consulting team not just do architectural work not just do a demography study or an enrollment or capacity study those are like toolbox and here's another metaphor I feel like the nezda study right now is like we've asked we're going to spend $18,000 on a hammer and we don't have the nails or the boards or the saw or anything the other parts of the toolkit it's just one part of a feasibility study that fits inside of ite the speaker is um delving into the particulars of the process we motion on the table is to discuss the resing resending well I think I'm trying to do perhaps I'm not doing it as best uh as I could but what I'm trying to do is explain why I feel like the sending is not a capitulation it's not a loss it's starting over with a full set of information which is what every other District that I looked at has done it's the first step I don't think it's a bad thing to go back and start over and if that means we're sending like as Kelly has said we might end up with the same set of proposals at the end but at least we would have a full set of information and unfortunately our our wonderful team who has they've done a lot of work and I really recognize that I want to recognize and acknowledge the amount of work that Paul has put into bringing these numbers together that laan's done putting his plan together but it's a hard you can't present that information to the public because it's they're not demographers we need to start again the way every other district has started from a feasibility study and work forward again and we might end up in the same place would be same proposals but it's not fair to the building needs task force or to ourselves or the community to start from the place we're at that's why we need to Res any other comments on whether to Res hello your ceiling is beautiful what sorry your ceiling is beautiful okay can I am I allowed to talk now please go ahead okay well in my opinion um my time is worth a lot too and in the last two months I have spent Monumental energy backtracking backtracking backtracking um looking for information that should have been along the way so I think if we put it at a clean slate if we um stop everything and then as soon as we're done with this motion we can say Okay a new motion is to work on the Lawrence School which is what the um building ECE committee told us to put our energy when they came to our meeting if you remember they said the word take a Hiatus from this stuff and the thing they they thought was good to put your energy on was the Lawrence School I mean maybe not grade configuration and all that but just getting it ready for um you know to submit for U borrowing money anyway I just think if we had a clean slate it would be refreshing we could start we could all do our work along and then whenever the report comes back we can put all the stuff we've learned together but going back and forth and back and forth is has really been exhausting okay thanks thank you so I am for this motion as I seconded it this is just wiping this discussion off and then immediately after we can discuss those same five proposals this does not kill it this just pushes us to the next agenda item so I think that we should vote this to resend and then go to the next agenda item the navigate the future and figure out what we all want to do I would like to have the opportunity for the task force to complete their job mainly because um during my tenure on um school committee and the time I was even off we've got a problem in this town a major problem in regards to the decrease in enrollment and as well as the fact that we are so far behind and surrounding communities in regards to what is offered to our preschool children I'm feeling that the task force is taking um having the appropriate conversations and whether these options are viable or not they'll let us know based on um conclusions they come to that and then bring to us um but I don't want to kick it down the kick the king down the road any longer this has been going on in the town of th since the '90s in regards to having over 7,000 kids in the school system at that point and there there a task force all the way through there and we added on to all of these buildings but now we're down 40 40 something per. and we have to take a look at our building alignment thanks last comment can I no we're going to make sure everybody gets a you sorry Mar I'm going to vote against the motion I know that's not popular and so you vote against the motion you should say why first reason this is when going on this community for 20 years I haven't lived here for 20 years but this has been going on um for 20 years the whole notion that we should start with nothing so we can build it seems to be confusing what our jobs are we're the school committee we're not the CEO of the school system okay um not every because we were at the I was at the conference and in fact um one of the school local schools has just done this revision and they said it is horrible everyone was miserable everyone was upset and then it happened they didn't do a feasibility study they did they looked at all the information they did it and people can't believe how wonderful this is one of the things that's very upsetting to me is we've been talking about buildings for how many months now but we have not talked about how this affects our children's education and isn't that what we're about isn't that what we really care about is what is best for your children's education not buil what building yes in fact buildings are important I'm not denying buildings buildings are important but it's our children's education it should be foremost and I've not heard one word about that yet not one word I want to say I'm sorry we're not we're not going back finish your Mar and the other the I I lost my fa thought if they people speak I'll I'll speak you hopefully I can get it any comment any comment can I make another comment no we're still on first comments okay nobody anything I'll be quiet till they're [Laughter] done um Madame chair um my colleague um who just spoke said that we need to speak if we were voting against the amendment and I would voting against the amendment first of all nzda is highly guarded um and the proposal that they submitted is to review the Four elementary schools there is no specificity in that um to review the East Val te ticket merger um it's just a blanket looking at before elementary school so it is not um pre- stacked the deck is not stacked this is a blank slate and this motion to um resend our our vote that we took last week really has no uh practical effect on what we're what we have already accomplished as my other colleague um as adesta said we have a dwindling student population as much as people want to grasp onto other data points we don't have a population to support the building in this town we also want to um preserve quality education I believe that the superintendent has listened she's modified her proposal she's contracted with a consulting firm and we need to let the building needs committee um give us their results um you know since this kind of process has started you know I felt like I was I was on board um without really having given it much thought um and I feel like throughout this process I've and throughout the emails that we've gotten conversations with people um you know I I I kind of feel a little stupid for not asking some of these questions in the beginning and I've had this unease in the pit of my stomach for since this whole thing started um and I just wonder you know when we get through this we decide to go through with this with the amount of push back and that we've had and and the amount of people that are upset with this is it worth it is it and I'm sorry it's kind of hard to put my thoughts together will will we be able to come out the other side of this and say you know this was this was good we did right I we did this a way that was supported by the entire Community you know I feel like right now we have an opportunity where we have a tremendous amount of community engagement um and we have an opportunity to move forward and do something that's really great for this town and a chance to really collaborate with the town with community members to do something and to solve some of these problems you know I kind of picture in terms of the in terms of a outside consultant where we tell them our vision you know our vision is we want a universal free pre- program and we have declining enrollment and we have what do we have four elementary schools a middle school a junior high and a high school so seven buildings I feel like we should go to a consultant and say this is what we have this is what we want we have declining enrollment do we can we afford to keep all seven of our buildings and if not which ones are the best ones to give up to the town and I feel like that's a conversation to also have with the town in collaboration to to decide which building would be beneficial for both the school and the district and the town and I'm just not sure if it's going to be painful is it going to be worth it even if it's just for a short period of time would it be worth it to go through this to push through right now when we're we're I think we're all trying to find the same goal where we have this where we want the same goal and what's best for our kids and I'm just I'm just not sure I don't have that feeling that this is at least not the best approach to it um can you clarify whether you're speaking in favor of or against I'm in favor of the motion to ascend thank thanks I just want to make spin in my wheels there wor um so um Pard me I haven't spoken yet I'm sorry no worries um so I um I am not in favor of uh resending our previous vote um I think you know I do think that we have learned some some interesting and useful information since then but I agree with the statement that I don't think it has any um I don't think it has any real purpose to resend our our previous action because we have not voted to do any of the proposals we are still in the part where the building needs is taking us on where we're still considering it where we're hiring outside Consultants to dive deeper into the data and um and I I don't see I don't see what purpose it would solve um and I do really value the the work of the building needs task force that they've done so far um and I value what they gave us for our meeting tonight that says look we think that we should pause and take no action on one and two and we should continue to move forward on 3 four and five and um I value that opinion I I also I I understand the argument that there might be things out there that we haven't considered but I do think that our administrative team probably kicked a lot of those things around already and have already rejected some of them them because they're not feasible and so uh I think that staying the court as I've said a million times before and I will continue to say I trust that you set up a process and you follow the process and it has not let me wrong um it's sometimes very messy and um and bumpy along the way but I trust the process that we set out on and I would like to see it all right now we'll go to Second comments and then we're going to vote Mike all right so first things first on September 5th we never voted on navigating the future we voted on releasing the timeline of community events to discuss navigate the future we have never had a formal vote we never voted on we we voted on okay hold on hold on at that meeting we voted on the content of the letter and to release a joint letter from the superintendent and the school committee that's what we voted on the content of the letter was all five proposals with a listening session in the timeline of where those would be we we voted on the timeline of the proposals being released we did not vote unanimously on the proposal CU I sat right there and I said to you as soon as one parent says something I going to fight this tooth and now that's what I said I am very upset that two of our four goals are trans parency communication and data driven decision making and these proposals have neither I also concerned that I have tried everything in my power to stop this and every time I do there are little tweaks of the agenda to stop me last meeting I had asked you several times to put in the agenda vote to stop prop one and two and the agenda item was to extend I made two motions ignored and when I made the amendment I was told it was against the agenda if you're trying to show these folks and the other thing as far as children with education these people have better stuff to do they don't want to be here this isn't about buildings it's about all of these people on their kids who come here every single meeting and you're like oh we do a lot of work it's disgusting to all these folks to me to everyone in this town who cares and last meeting a member asked for anyone to reach out with positive information about this zero we got zero information we've gotten dozens of emails from these folks and people at home saying that they're against this and talking about their children now as it will affect their education this is not transparent there is no data two of our four goals this is I am for this motion to resend this and we should start from scratch with actual data and listen to the public uh Terry you wanted to say something else yes um I want to emphasize that nobody that I heard asked to resend this vote wanted to stop trying to find an answer for declining enrollment nobody said that it's just that instead of spending time holding on to these proposals in the back of our mind mind I that the reason I would like it to be blank is because there's two major things too that we haven't discussed that I think need to be discussed in this process and one of them is redistricting when have we ever touched on that that should be part of the discussion too so while things are stopped for a while why can't we look at that and also I want to say again how many kids are going to be in our preschool to me that's a very important thing we should be as Katrina said looking at barable looking at um match Fe these people have preschool you looking see how many numbers they have or something so there's other energy that could be um spent in the overall project which I think everybody on our committee knows that we have declining enrollment we have to work work on it but um so just having things neat and clean we're going to put in all the things you look at I want everybody to reconsider we're not saying we don't have a problem we don't want to deal with it I'm just going to say again I personally have spent two months going backwards trying to dig up data that wasn't there to begin with and it's just exhausting so a clean slate again that's my vote I mean that's my suggestion all right goodbye don't don't don't leave thanks Terry any last anyone want to make a second comment Katrina yeah I think um maybe what's miss here is that this is an opportunity it's not um I think there's like a negative connotation to saying we want to resend our vote to release this proposals to the public it's not a loss it's an opportunity to give the building needs um task force a a full set of cards and to give them all the information because there's opportunities and options that are not in these five proposals and so they can't consider them because they're not in there if you can't consider something then you're you're missing a piece of the puzzle and I I know I just keep saying that again and again but it is an opportunity to create a vision we all agree that we have a problem but the conversation is about why Morse was chosen to give up why Lawrence was chosen to renovate those are conversations that I was not part of and there's no documentation of them so it's very difficult for me to understand the pros and cons why was this rejected off the table what led you to these five proposals I understand that the proposals are great and you know on the surface level it would be so much more relaxing for me to just be like this looks great wonderful let's just go with it but it's not our due diligence and so the opportunity is there for us and I heard Kelly say what purpose would it serve um the purpose it would serve is if Lawrence is so expensive to renovate and the reason we're renovating it is because of the size of the auditorium can't be duplicated and the auditorium is needed by the town why would we renovate that as a school we don't need a huge Auditorium for middle school perhaps we can make a state-ofthe-art building that's brand new we love Lawrence I don't I don't want to say that I don't want to renovate a beautiful historical building but it might not be in the best interest of our school students to renovate an old school that might be in the town's best interest would it be a good idea to put the preschool into the high school where there's empty space and a lot of vacancy these are ideas that are not on the table there's already a prek program at the high school that's just two examples I'm not saying that they are correct or not correct but if we don't have a feasibility study at the outset of the project we're limiting ourselves and we don't have as many opportunities to look at the huge big picture and find the best Solutions and also for the taxpayers if we're going to ask them to spend $30 million renovating Lawrence or whatever the number is we want to be sure and I want to be sure from transparent data that is collected in front of all of us by a third party contracted firm that that is the correct thing to do to spend that amount of taxpayer money to ask the town to renovate that building for school at the moment I don't have data or documentation or anything to support that and like Terry said I've spent the last couple months just researching and backtracking and trying to like look up articles in the past and it is frankly exhausting I think we all feel kind of exhausted and the missed opportunity is that this should be a joyful process this should be an exciting process it should be invigorating we have a big opportunity to make things better and in conjunction with the town with through feasibility study we really could find the best answer and I can't I can't say it more than that I just am so excited that if we start with a feasibility study we have everything we need nobody's going to question that data because it's not internal it's totally transparent it's a professional company it gives us good foundation and then we can move forward to solve these issues because the declining moment is real and the cost of keeping all these buildings open is real and we can't probably afford to do that but I want to see it I want us all to see it I want the town to see it and I want the building needs task force to be given the respect we deserve which is to have all the information that they need irrefutably put in front of them in a way that we can trust thanks any last second comments uh and again I know this is not popular but I will go back and actually a couple things you said are actually very true the first thing that's true is that school committee should have had a retreat and should have really listened to what the project was about and had more information all of these questions that are coming up now are quarterbacking you know um and so that's a concern to me um I agree absolutely with Chris that we should have a serious conversation with the town but they do not want to have a town a conversation with us so that is off the table okay um the idea that this should be a joyous process if you've done research I'm not sure there is any school system in the whole United States that found this as a joyous process it is no well no it's very and I and I think this is an opportunity I have always said this is a proposal and some of the things well well let's let's clear the slate and make it new why don't we have children at the high school why do we not do laws why don't we we could come up with all kinds of proposals this is the proposal that we work on this is not a plan this has been something I've said from the very beginning you have to have something you work with and make discussions about instead of saying let's just open it up let's leave it blank and let's start from nothing and so I really um and I know this is unpopular you know and I'm not grandstanding I'm just saying I'm sorry I really do care about the children here in their educational process and I have read every email and I really care that buildings provide the best environment for our children and that's what I care care about and so in conscience I can't say that a proposal should just be dropped off and we start with all kinds of uh chair if you could right here it says the chair May accept comments from the public uh mad chair everybody has to have a chance to he spoke twice I know know I'm just talking about asking if the public can speak after our discussion so I've got Chris Glenda Sue Melissa and myself if anyone wants to make a second comment you don't have to but I'm throwing it out there as an opportunity yeah on me I've said do you have anything you want to add just had a clarifying question uh when we um when the consulting company comes in and looks at the four elementaries would uh redistricting could that be part of the conversation do you think that that would be was that part of the conversation did you have any conversation with them or was it all through Dr an I was I was with Dr he did all the to he did was redistricting of the four elementaries part of that conversation or we were careful he didn't give yeah we didn't discuss anything that we've done we did not want to give them any direction sure as what to do but you know it was it was wide open so they please come back with that that recommendation and it's part of what they do an organization is super go ahead um redistricting is part of the conversation that would come up with the task force okay so does that help Katrina not not in the way that I think you're hoping it will I I every time I say something to you there's like a Snicker myself Sor we not we're not going back and forth between the tabl any we going to everyone has to have a chance to speak twice before a third go round if and also we need to address the chair and not members directly we need to um use titles colleagues but we do not address each other as chairs as um by name you can tell we went to the same training we're both working on it okay um I'm not quite yeah finish your question okay um the comment that was made about the uh Auditorium potentially not meeting space the town uses the Lawrence School auditorium for town meeting and those of us that are on town meeting do remember that when it was tried to be held at the high school it didn't fit the time eating body didn't fit so while I appreciate um the conversation about a potential new state-ofthe-art building here we are with a found of picity thing that in my opinion I don't think that that would work kind of thing um Chris a couple things that Chris said kind of spoke to me about um feeling stupid for not asking questions and having a pit in your stomach for the last two months same I feel the exact same way I feel uh like I haven't asked enough questions however I feel like although there have been excellent questions uh brought up by the by the public that I have since asked um as well as other committee members have asked um at times it feels like we're not working together and I find that extraordinarily frustrating um I again look forward to what the building needs has been charged with to complete that task and go from there I guess is what I say I have one and two on hold I just I just want to finish a thought I just want to finish what we're supposed to be doing doing I want an informed decision I want to hear from the consultant I want to you know have conversations with the building needs task for after the NASDAQ comes in and gives us their recommendation and maybe at that time then we come back and have this conversation again I don't know I feel like we're like ripping the Band-Aid slowly slowly and I hate that um but I I just I just want to really make sure that we're doing that we're having an informed decision and by shutting it down it just doesn't feel like it's a informed decision and I say that um with trepidation and um I don't want anyone to think that I'm not hearing them or um I just want to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence lendon ch a final thought or are you [Applause] passing um so m i just we a motion on the table is to resend the vote that we took at our previous meeting some of the conversation is from the point of view that we are voting if if we vote this down to go ahead with proposals of navigating future we are not voting that we are not um supporting that we are supporting doing research Contracting with the consultant working with the building needs task force and then making our informed decision so I I'm I'm a little concerned that there's lack of clarity on some of the comments about what exactly we are doing the motion on the table is to resend the vote that we took last week that's it not last week September September 5th I appreciate the clarification okay so I'm sorry so let let me um back up we did not vote to go ahead with the proposal we voted to send out a letter and to have forums yes so the we did not we what we are proposing is to go along with the research and that's that's where we are we're not we're not posturing to go ahead with this we're researched in the research mode in research any last one um I I think for me it's more a matter of in terms of just talking about the process in terms of um you know if this is the only consultant that and I don't know if this is part of kind the building needs task force discussion if you know we get to Define part of the scope if we get to you know put out multiple bids for a proposal um just from reading the initial one I feel like there's a lot more information that we're looking for or that some of us want to see and I'm not sure if that and and I guess it is just kind of trusting the process or not having a full understanding of the process for me um you know I'm I'm kind of not sure if if it if there's still an opportunity depending on how this vote goes if we can present the consultant with what our our end vision is where we have a universal free prek program we have you know do we do we have um do we not have a need for all seven of our schools right and have the consultant determine looking at all the factors you know everything in terms of town engagement Town needs district school district needs student needs um figuring out okay you don't need all seven of your schools these are the schools based on our research that you don't need and then to have so it wouldn't be really starting from scratch it'd be starting from what an independent consultant would come up with in terms of okay we want a universal free prek program uh building or or whatever where where could we put that where could that go and I would assume they would have the expertise to come up with this is where we think this would go so we would be starting off with these are their suggestions their proposals and then we would essentially analyze those and vote on that um so I guess that you know I'm not sure of is moving moving forward from this point are we just looking at this one Proposal with this kind of limited scope or do we have the opportunity to expand this into something bigger into into putting out a scope to multiple bids and and really really trying to get a lot of data to kind of make a really important decision I guess is my question okay thank you um I'm going to pass on my final comment we're going to stick to Robert's Rules we all spoke twice and um answer to your question Mike we took the comment at the top of the meeting and we're not could I request you ask if if the folks you would like to speak is as you may if you'd like to and I'm requesting that you let these folks do and I am going to decline because I said at the start of the meeting we were going to take public comment on navigating the future out of order so that people didn't have to stay through the meeting that's what we I move to close the debate okay uh can is there one thing one Ive a motion on the table is I move to close the debate and we need to vote on that and um pass that by two3 so Glenda I think can I just one I'm sorry not Glend because school committee member I moveed to close the debate so we have I wanted to have another motion and that's why I brought up all that stuff and you didn't know what my motion was we can't deal with it we can't have another motion until we close on so if there's a motion to close debate is there a second second okay has to pass by 2/3 all in favor of closing debate which is not going to matter because we were closing debate anyway but it's fine um say I I question point of does that need to be roll call um it doesn't need to be we can if you would like to request it um but I show hands up I need to count one two three four it just not passed so debate is not closed however I'm sorry K like I I'm so confused right now like I there's so much happening so let me let me step back and okay so we there was a motion to end the debate on the motion and so we took that up it did not pass the motion did not carry that's fine we still need to vote on the original motion that we were discussing which is to resend the vote from September the 5th that's where we're at can I request again the parents can one second so Blendon made a motion to just stop stop stop talking about all that okay yeah but that failed so we're still moving on we still have to vote on the main motion of um sending resending okay time we're in town meeting then you'll be like this the exact same thing can I offer a clarification sure okay I think there's a little misunderstanding of what I'm trying to accomplish here I don't want to scrap the proposals I don't want to shut them down I don't want to have a freefor all I don't want to do any of these bad sounding things the thing I would like to do if we can get to the next stage if we say that we're not bound by these five from that original September 5th vot vote it would open us up to be able to have another motion saying can we now start the process of securing a feasibility study to address the future of the entire District including but not limited to a physical needs assessment of all current buildings a study of enrollment project Direction future Housing Development study of capacity demographic analysis operational impacts costs and Community impacts that is what we all want and it's what nesda is doing the problem with nezda is that it's limited by the fact that we are only allowing them to look at our five proposals and then within that only to the K through five they're not looking at the proposals they're not looking at the proposals but their specifications of what they're looking for are limited and I don't want to shut the process down I want us to carry on but I want us to start with a feasibility study that does bring a feeling of um Goodwill and informed consent to the discussion I don't want to backtrack or delete anything I just there's like a misunderstanding that I'm trying to start from scratch somehow I'm not I'm trying to start from a better place than nesda canly get us and the issue that we have is that on the advice of council and masc in order to stop the process that we're in we have to resin that vote before we can do anything else which is where we are right now which doesn't mean we're like against the proposal I'm just saying that you know I'm I based this I took the exact language that Mike sent me for the topic for tonight's agenda I ran it past legal council I talked to parliamentary experts at masd I got their advice on how we have to move forward and that is what we're doing Mike we never voted to approve approve this proposal in this early September meeting we voted on only the timeline of the community hearings therefore resending a vote that never happened makes more sense and I will ask again I re request that the parents get to speak they're here this is your kids education right here let them speak so we did not vote only on a timeline is September 5th we voted you seconded it it was a unanimous vote to on the content of the letter we went back and forth we word smithed we talked about all the proposals we agreed that they were going to come in conjunction between the school committee and the superintendent because we were all in this together that is what we voted on September 5th and that is why we have to resend it I agree with you we voted on the content of the letter and we voted on the public hearings we never voted on proposals 1 through 5 they were in the letter we voted on the content of how the letter was written I did not vote no one voted on proposals 1 through 5 moving forward okay I'm going to just read I ask the parents can talk you you can but we need to settle our discussion we don't move to anything else until I'm going to keep on asking you don't need to keep asking in the letter it says we agree the time has come to address the letters in a thoughtful data driven way way with input from the community specifically and then it goes into what those things are in the months ahead oh wait hold on where's the line no I'm on the wrong page I no wonder I can't find it sharing five proposed plans that we will be discussing over the next two months with staff family and the broader community and then it lists out what those plans are that is what we voted on we voted on discussing them we never voted on approving those prop we're not voting on approving them then why why what were you sending we were sending the vote on the letter on what the five proposals are we have to go back we never voted to approve any of those proposal we voted on the letter when we resolve this you're welcome to challenge the chair on what we actually voted on can I ask a question okay let the folks talk we are not going to let the folks talk they talked at the start of the meeting as we discussed at the start when I said is there any objection to allowing public comment at the top of the meeting then we held public comment on navigating the future at the top of the meeting we are not handling it now we're voting it's going to be a a hand vote because I'm not going to be able to count the motion is to resend our vote from the September the 5th meeting all in favor of resending the vote say I and raise your hand to to resend the vote from September 5th all in favor of resending the vote from September the 5th it's uh oh has to be a roll call sor sorry I forgot Terry was here roll call Terry will you start us off on the roll call yes yes resend it yes yes yes keep no no Welch no so the motion does not carry we're not resending the vote from September the 5th all right moving on to the next item uh update on the capital plan no you you're more than welcome to ask for a brief recess um there's a request for a brief recess is there a second thank you parliamentarian we'll take five minutes e e e e e e e what's going on e SCH will have a have a seat we good okay thank you Ryan thanks so much okay um next up is an update on our Capital plan items process um and we're going to turn that over we're going to turn that over to Paul to fill us in on the capital plan process um so essentially as people know have seen in the uh bar for the town meeting uh that's coming up uh we have about 15 items on the list of capital projects for approval uh and uh so the process if all those capital projects are improved then uh immediately there after those fund become available to do uh the work that's outlined in each of the capital articles however practice the work on the on the capital articles actually takes place in the summer because we can't have construction work going on in the building as the kids are in class Etc so um what happens between you know the passage by the town of the Articles and at that and uh when work would begin is that we would while we've used estimates from contractors for each of these projects would go out to B um on all these projects to get three bids uh and then once those bids was uh in we would then U you know specify which contractor would be at to do the work and set to schedule for the first week of July so with that um simple process to the July I think that's helpful to mention because it's such a long period between fall and and when we can actually start um so I the only other thing I would add is that um there were no questions about any of the capital items at that Rec meeting which I think um cles well for us um but if there are questions at meeting we'll answer them then uh any questions about the process on the capital items I remember that there was funding request a of Morse back in February and we were maybe going to hear about it around now but that's not on the warrant we we haven't heard back about that no we we actually pulled the msba application in light of the CLI okay we uh we and it wouldn't be a capital item anyway because that would have to go to the to the referendum for the it's so much money something that big would have to go to the voters to approve okay last questions all right thanks Paul um next up is update by student services so I have a couple of um updates for you uh the first of which is the health fair so everyone will notice that freethink flyer in your handout that was made by the nurses so this year there's going to be a uh District healthare on March 27th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m at the high school and our hardworking nurses we have a couple Representatives here tonight um have plann this educational event which is going to be open to all students and families um and you can see there on the flyer there's going to be opportunities for people to learn more about our Community Partnerships um resources that are available and there will actually be some opportunities for the attendees to participate in some pres pres presentations um things on concussions and EpiPen training sun safety nutrition um there's also planed to hopefully have some support the families who need to um either update or um put the information into power school for some of the um emergency information plan so we're hoping everyone saves the date for this fun educational event and we thank the nurses for putting this together it's obviously a huge project but very I'm so excited I've to one at other districts and they're amazing another um update we uh did a training about a week ago uh the first of two on psychological first aid so we had about 24 staff members attend the training and a few community members so um a representative from fet Human Services and the two social workers who are part of the F of police department so we had a training actually similar to this about 5 years ago from um the same organization Riverside trauma center and um it was a great opportunity for um some the veteran staff maybe like myself who actually did this training five years ago but for you know obviously we have a lot of new staff so a lot of the um information that was covered is part of our comprehensive emergency management plan um and we have the second part of the training is tomorrow and that's the um post-traumatic stress management and then last but not least I was just going to update everybody on the communication goal which is one of the district goals that we're working on with the principls um our instructional leadership team met about a week or so ago and um we kind of just went through the updates and progress we've made on the communication goal so the consistent use of the messages to the staff and families um if anybody's attended some events they are using the QR codes with one to two questions so if you've been to an open house or meet your teacher night they've using it at the band concerts um and fundraisers so that's something new to try to improve the the two-way communication um we're really looking at those automated um messages so using the feature of the connected message that's not only you know phone calls or emails but also the text messages as reminders um for communication and then um talking points which we've talked about a lot over the past couple of years but this is also turning into a tool that um teachers are using for for not only for families that might need a translation but for the entire class to keep that um communication lenses of communication open so um and then another important thing that we're also looking at is just um making sure when we do send out messages through that con feature that we're looking you know to export the file and make sure that the uh information that we do have is correct for families so you know making sure that it does really get to the correct phone numbers and emails so anyways those are the little updates from student services Fresh Market I was gonna ask that question with fres Market yes that's like Fresh Market yes hi one question about the fresh market are there any more coming up and then my second question is can you send that phone message out like two days early CU I always get it and I'm like oh I can't make it I'm glad you brought that up not everybody wants the phone message all the phones go off people call here and say can you take me off of the I'm going to say that I'm doing that yes I certainly do it two days before that's no that's no not off we were in one meeting when everyone's phone went off at the same time like must be fresh market this yes well we do have one more set up um for this school year and then there has been feedback people with um in the Community would like to have the Fresh Markets be at different times and locations and I've talked to Karen Delaney and it's difficult you know they're they have a limited number of um volunteers and so a lot of the volunteers want to be finished you know their day by like quarter or five so um for people who are working it's obviously difficult to get to a fresh market if it's all closed up by them so but they're really working hard at um the service center to try to come up with options um to increase options so maybe the school committee will have to be the volunteers one night okay some weight going on that's all right we can handle bro should um any questions for is I'll get that date for you in a second okay all right we'll come back to you all right thanks so much um next up is oh sorry Terry sorry no no no you you I'm going to leave the meeting because I'm over here in Seattle Washington so I have some things to do so I just wanted to be on the record how late I stayed at the meeting so you got it 7:58 We Appreciate You by Terry oh right right right right she just probably like no I'm not there it's only 4:00 okay um um Sandy just wave at me when you find the date um next up is our presentation on mcast who take okay you want you want to go for it thanks December 5th at 3:45 at the East Alou elementary school so that's the the third and last one for this year well for I think um I'll be meeting with Karen for the new school year and we'll see what we can do for the the spring great thanks December 5th all right MC all right um so this is our annual look at achievement and growth data um so I'm going to begin with English language arts so when we look grade by grade um we begin testing grade three it continues each year through grade eight uh Ela testing skips grade nine and then students tested creeks and um so you can see that the darker color bar is f the lighter uh I guess it's pink muted maroon however you want want to see it is the state is Massachusetts so you can see across there um third and fourth grade are just under the state and then after that you can see that we pull ahead um in each year and then grade 10 I'm going to speak about in a second um but relative to grades three and four I I think some of the the key pieces for us to kind of think about in our instructional response is that we have changed our literacy our early literacy screeners beginning this year and we have a high quality instructional materials HQ that's the the language and the protocol that the Department of Education gives us for evaluating new curriculum and we're in the process this year of evaluating uh new curriculum that we will uh be looking to put into place um beginning next year for ELA specifically and responding uh not only to our students needs and shifts both in the research and in um approved high quality materials but also um to the data that you see here and so not only are we using that process in the department of education but we're also using their curate tool which is the curriculum rating system that is developed in part by the Department of Education and uh Consultants that they work with but then they recruit teachers who are currently in practice across Massachusetts Public Schools and together they review and rate curriculum and so um things have to have a certain level of rating in order to enter into our conversations so right now we're looking at four different programs and that's for uh foundational literacy up through grade uh grades five and six right now gr five and six when we drill a little bit deeper than looking at all students by grade um the way that the first of these reports is generated is that it looks at grades 3 through 8 uh together as a cohort and this is how we look at it each year so the first set is looking at a comparison of all students and then we look at our three most commonly reviewed student groupings uh lowincome students with disabilities and we can see that there are some shifts here and again that process that I just mentioned uh our curriculum review and then our new screening tools that we have um allow us to have the ability to tailor in and look specifically at standards where students um may need some additional uh attention instead of looking broadly across um Concepts we can dig into each standard and then respond there and so same um in looking at grad 10 so again it repeats from the first Slide the all students on the far left and then you can see each of the three student groupings low income students with disabilities and high needs um low income students uh this year year for found that we gained 6% of students needing and exceeding so pulling ahead of the state um as compared to the previous year students with um disabilities are still performing below the state um High needs increasing by 7% and closing the Gap relative to the state um same here in terms of um some of the considerations you have in reviewing and drilling into the specific standards and responding looks a little different um as a the attention to some of the curricular resources we're using some of the screening tools that we have and some of the the um lesson resources we have for personalized learning plans for students and the the primary platform we're using is called no red ink and we've been using it for the past few years and so one of the things we did was we isolated some of the standards that students are um working on in their Personal Learning Journey relative to some of the standards that we saw represented in um the gaps here and looked at the students performance over time and our students are making growth they're just not making growth at the same rate as some of their peers in the state and that was one of the things that we looked at um through this cohort making sure that they are making significant growth or moderate growth each year Well it may not show up here it is showing up for them over time so same here this is this is that other view so achievement when we talk about achievement we talk about um I we look at a test at different cohorts of students each year on that grades test when we look at growth if the same group of students each year comparing their progress um across grades so growth is not reported until grade four because they need their grade three and their grade four tests to make that comparison um so across the board we largely see moderate growth and we do see uh grade seven and then in two instances grade four and grade 10 for students with disabilities low growth um and again responding to that through the work that we're doing in selecting new curriculum and responding to the personalized learning so can we do our questions on English language before to M there any questions on the English language data oh okay it's just me then sorry oh Chris I've got one too okay good um for the kind of the achievement um so for like third and fourth grade is there a way of separating that by school like to see what the what it looks like for each of the elementary schools and and just out of curiosity I don't know if there's a way of kind of if it's too granular like checking it by student like as they go from third to Fourth and then they enter fifth grade where they're kind of combined with the rest of the population is there a way of tracking each individual students kind of progress just to kind of see how they compare with especially at the elementary school level like see how they compare with their peers teachers have that ability is that what you're saying or in general yeah yes yeah um our when our teachers receive uh data they have the ability to see their current students in front of them for that year how they had performed and then they can see their previous year student and how they had performed in the spring so they can see that impact but also plan for the current okay do that make sense yeah yeah is that part of like the new curriculum or the current curriculum like was that those are some of the resources we've been able to work with our it team uh just as a way to provide the data um so my question I think it's weird that we lump three through eight but then we look at 10 all by itself so why do we do that so that's one of the ways that the state writes a report because at each grade level if you don't have at least 20 students in a particular student gr thing you can't talk about it publicly and so you would see some years we could talk about some grades we can't consistent yeah um weed this one to to make sure we can capture and report on student groupings every year um data our our administrators our teachers have okay um and then my second question is I just want to make sure I understand what we're doing the 10th grade is concerning um especially for our students with disabilities so if I heard you right you were saying that teachers are going in to make sure that students are still growing they're not growing at the same Pace as a state but then overall what else are we doing besides just because it's encouraging to know that people are the students are growing of course we want them to be learning stuff but if we need to not just be learning we need to be catching up so what else are we doing so um so there's two parts one is that the not meeting number is lower than the publicly presented threshold so I want to be careful how how much we talk about some of those numbers um but we are responding not only in the curriculum in the first Lin learning plan uh but we're really working to make sure that we understand all the influences and impacts one of them being chronic absenteeism right and so working and talking about that um there's a relationship there to how we approach Credit Recovery how we approach uh prioritizing time that student have for example in Clipper time um and then also looking at um when a student may have uh significant absence in their returning how we're helping them to uh prioritize their learning and and not feel like it's just overwhelming coming back at them um but chronic absenteeism is is one of the the bigger challenges that we're trying to work through with that U but then also maintaining um the the personalized learning plan where we can set up personal lessons for students it's not credit recovery but responds to their specific skills and and needs okay um along with Chris's question I am very concerned about the student with IEPs in our district I mean there's only one category where they're equal or greater than the state average so as far as the focusing just on student disabilities could we break that down by elementary school because I think that would be very interesting data to have as we move forward to see if we are serving every student in our district the best we can and if those four elementary schools is discrepancy and why that might be and how we can address that and I'm just looking for the breakdown of the IEP student in the elementary schools I think Chris wanted more yeah I mean taking into consideration those both numbers um is there an effect um on these um scores for our school system when a family decides not to allow their child to participate in the impass so when we're looking at the entire aggregate if because there is no opt out Massachusetts is very clear there's no op out it's it's an exercise of refusal so when that happens they count that student is is not testing or is you will show up in then not meeting expectations because they were eligible to test we don't have a reason for them not to test I mean I understand the the parent or the child May refuse but we don't have a permissible reason right we can't report them as medically excused or something of that nature so therefore they're expected to test so they generate netive effect so it can it shows up in our in our aggregate counts and if the student is also a member of one of the student populations it'll show there too okay um just follow I kind of think we need to know about that like how many there are if that's a lot that's going to skew it's going to skew everything I would think right if we have a high percentage of kids that don't take it um any I would like to Melissa um I would like to know that also that isn't why I but I thank you for that uh also how does the vote of last week affects this moving forward and and I purposely ask you that very broadly because I want all of the information don't hold anything back so as of right now it has not the law has not gone into effect so we're waiting for for that to happen um I think that you know just from the initial information that they sent to us which is pretty brief and then the call that um Dr and I were able to listen on with the commissioner today what they want right now is they want to know what our questions are um what how we are sort of prioritizing our concerns or our needs in our district so that you know as they figure out when it'll go into effect um they can give us information and I think be able to Prior prioritize that um we still have to have a competency determination so we have to decide right we have to wait for their guidance to determine what that would look like for us so um right now they're they're advising that we continue as we normally would the particular piece right now is for high school students so we have high school students that are slated for the November retest and so that they would continue with that because until the law goes into effect right it's they're still working to meet their competency determination so we're just waiting for more information to really know can I ask a follow question sure I think we all want to know how this is all going to play out so as a as a voter I found that um a little alarming that the people have spoken um that the state get passed to not have mcast be a graduation requirment and it um it feels like we're dragging our feet a little bit like the commissioner of Education as far as um and I I'm sure I'm wrong on this and I'm sure um perhaps people that work in Boston will let me know conly how long I am but um I personally didn't I voted to not have it Thea graduation requirement um I would like out Park my comments on that but um what did we do before we had mcast as a graduation requirement as a unit of measure for our uh how our students are retaining information because I I'm careful when I ask that question and I guess I'm not going to park my comments on it because I don't think that how I don't think that it should come on the backs of children and I don't think it should come on the backs of students when we're relying on our teachers who are doing a great job and we're asking them to get Master's plus and we're asking all of these things of our Educators and trust our Educators and then we're not allowing our Educators to do what they do best and we're still just teaching to a test that doesn't matter so when what's that time and I feel like I mushroomed out a little bit um but what what do you think what's the vibe of the timeline because if I had a kid that was a senior and perhaps was on that cut I'd be a little nervous like is my child going to graduate and I I don't have a child graduating this year or next year but I what's the what's the vibe of the state I think it's I think it's going to take them a few months to to at least to figure it out so there's a couple things in what you said um one is that we're still responsible for the competency determination and what they're saying is that that will be uh for districts to consider right now and they want to give us guidance so that each District to make an informed decision um but that's written into the federal law so we have to have the competency determination so if it's not in pass we need to to thoughtfully figure out right what it is so how did we do it so I think that when federal law came into place with the competency determination we had M pass and so those two things came together um otherwise you know prior to that to determine if a student was going to receive you know be awarded their diploma um we were looking at our local graduation requirements but I think you know even within that there were times where we were still looking at standardized tests the cat test the right there were other things that we were doing to kind of gauge our progress along the way I think they weren't necessarily married but they were kind of coming along each other um so I I think for us right now the other part too is we've had opportunities um through the Department of Education the past three or four years um to be able to certify classes and I think you know that's something that we've been able to do uh for students who you know may have been somewhere in their ncast Journey moved in from another state you know need to have that that process confirmed for them so I think there's some different examples that they've had and we're just waiting for the guidance on how exactly at this point we get to move forward thank you okay M oh sorry yeah I think this notion about students who um refuse to take the test to which uh I think it'd be important to know what schools they come from and what categories they fit in so that we have statistics about that so we understand cly how it affects um the overall achievement rate okay let's talk now let's talk m so um in math again um same color coding system so that the darker uh maroon is Sal with the lighter color um is the state you can see uh that in each year we performed above the state grade four we were with the state and then grade 10 is where we have the outlier for very similar reasons to what we just um discussed so looking at the achievement by student group uh grades 3 through 8 we can see um again you know sort of a similar uh Narrative of Performing above the state students with disabilities uh did make a a gain of one um now M of the state so working to close and then move above um The Gap with their peers across the Commonwealth in grade 10 um we can see the impact of all students does not necessarily match uh the student we BS uh the exception of high needs it's about where the the difference is a little closer to being the same and again it's the same cohort of students that we had just spoken about for the ELA grade 10 um and then when we look at them from the growth perspective um here we see that as much as we're working to close gaps the growth uh at grade 10 was lower growth um some of the things that we did talk about again they repeat from grade uh excuse me from Ela impact of um chronic absente and being one of them um for students but then also we were looking at um this is the the one cohort of students remaining that shows up in this this data outline that did not have an opportunity to have um their curriculum through I ready and then have the personalized learning of my path so so combination of factors hard to isolate one of them but when we look at the cohort really just trying to understand the different pieces that impacted them um I just want to call out grade six and seven again um six seven and eight I think were the years last year that we had crushing math scores we have them again and so I just want to give a shout out to those teachers that are obviously doing something really really right cuz those math scores are consistently um you have some yeah you guys go first um essentially same question that I had for the last one but um how do we compare or do we know how we compare with other kind of schools like surrounding schools in terms of like do they also have kind of low like I I'm just not sure what does what does like a good score look like is it like in the 60s is it or or are they all kind of that low so one of the things that so we've been caution in a couple of ways about the types of comparisons we make right now as we recover for the pandemic and this is this is through Desi and it's not just through the commissioner it's also through their their um data analysis um director comparing across years going too far back because the test itself has changed in some cases and the impact of Co is is hard to isolate they tell us the same thing about making comparisons across districts uh because everybody's response was different the timing of that response and then where they might be in selecting new curriculum um and then the resources that they did or didn't have um to be able to respond to the pandemic so it's hard to make some those comparisons and then know the story to make sure we're making comparison right right along Christmas Point can we get the five towns around Falmouth BN mashby sandwich Martha's Vineyard and compare us with those four to see how we're doing in the area because that I understand what you just said but that would be tellings a lot of people do have the chance to school choice and our school should be on the top of that heat so I don't know if we can get those five towns or five region whatever it might be but those are the other four closest to us geography and then I like to compare us with neighboring communities who them we're all going through the same Co stuff too so Le some similarities between like and I'm sorry can you say no the DAT I asked for the previous same thing same thing okay y got it oh in terms of I ready are you I just can't remember from our presentation I ready begins at first grade now starting last year and it stops at 8th grade so you were saying 10th graders didn't get that because last year they were in high school and they didn't have that okay and it's too soon to see any effect from my ready or has there been any noticeable data shift in the last year we're seeing it show up in their Diagnostics fall winter and spring which I I believe they um Karen is here I think right with Lori gatel and uh Robin empowerment in they will a bit to it and then seeing some of the gaps that we starting to close um each year and I think over time you we hope to see right those continue to widen with us outperforming the state but we are seeing indications okay and in terms of mcast I mean I know it's just one year of data is there anything noticeable about any of the elementary school grades and middle schoolers for starting I already nothing nothing I mean we're seeing so consistently we're in the moderate growth across cross um all students right in the student groupings where we had some some yellow in a few places um we're starting to see um one of the things we're trying to measure for right is is then um where students are placing right going into High School the courses and the level of Readiness that they have and so of getting at the upper students which then ties back to the point that Kelly was calling out right the impact of in performance the high performance in gr six seven and eight and indicating that level of readiness thank you great let's talk science all right so as we're moving through um the different subjects uh and having an opportunity to get to science um there's a couple of things that I want to call out in particular in science and I think they're pretty exciting here for us so the first is that again I'm using the same quoting for this subject and you can see that the connections between all students will look at F in the state they they're pretty close and it's a high school um and this is so Fifth and eighth grade It's a combination so the fifth grade test looks at grades 3 four and five the eth grade test looks at grade six seven and eight so it's life science physical science um at the high school it isolates biology so it's just looking at that subject for that year um because that's their competency determination um but what we saw when we dug um further in and looked at the student groupings is the impact of our partnership experiences um in what we have often refer to as living classrooms getting students at the ponds at the coastlines um and in various areas of the community so in grade five when we look at the comparison um I recognize that they're they're pretty close but for students with disabilities found was increase by 7% meeting and exceeding the state increased by three so we're at at an equal level um so so definitely closing that Gap High need students um we increased by 4% uh over the previous year the state declined by 4% so making those adjustments so we can be ahead of the state so this is looking at grade five and so what I had included in here for you um this is the students are then coming back and not only they doing they so they're doing the pre-learning they're going out so this is um the example from the keset river Greenway grade five students uh following a phenomena they've learned about particular phenomena that are supposed to happen in the river reconstruction they go so they pre-study it they go out they conduct their experiments um and then they come back so as part of their report they write thank you letters to the volunteers that are at the um River them and so they they actually call out something very specific that they learned and they remember this is just one of the examples but we're thinking about they learning how to follow that phenomenon in science so we look at grade eight um we think about the number of experiences um that the students have had um we can see here the um outpacing against the state so in found the students with low income uh grade 8 test they gained by 5% um over the previous year when the state declined by two students with disabilities in fman went from 10 to 20 so they doubled the number of or the percent of students U meeting and exceeding the state declined by one and then for students with high needs and fth on the grade8 test we increased by 7% and the state declined by three so um and just further indication we have not changed our curriculum other than to build up the experiences and situate the learning and have our students follow these phenomena but the Rippling impact and in some cases we've evaluated where we thought things might be great culminating experiences at the end of the year moving them to the beginning or middle of the year so that they continue to build on and are able to discuss those and um our grade eight students um we've now completed they've all participated in the cutting hun steam Academy so um taking the boat ride going out having the experience in the estuary and on the coastline there and coming back sorry I missed grad so so looping that in and then being able to refer back to that as they continue ahead instead of using as a culminating um is what we're we're trying to follow that that impact over time and then Katrina back to your question right hoping to see that translate or transfer into the math learning as well right be able to have that into display connection so then um I put I put mine but I didn't flip the side so grade 10 same thing so we looked at grade 10 for all students we saw that we were a couple percentage points behind the state but we look at the student groupings uh for low-income students in filment we gained by 16% over the previous year the state only gained six students with disabilities we gained 9% the state gained four and for high need students again uh we gained 12 and the state gained five so that opportunity to pull ahead really see the the impact of of some of those experiences um showing up in student learning and having an opportunity to have that conversation um with our teachers um with Carmela as our learning partnership specialist and you know we really we want to spend more time studying impact but that stood out for us as it's a major influence on maret it's sort of interesting that um in all the other categories um they've gone down in grade 10 the and maybe you don't have the answer but the uh they've lost points when in grade 10 they gain in in a state is there any reason why that would have happened do you know that is one of the things that we are really working to to better understand and digging into M um you just talked about the student with disability I'm going to focus on this whenever I ask your question student disability gain you said six points or whatnot and the State lost a point or whatever do you have the same gains and losses for just student disabilities uh grade 10 math which is below the state uh grade three through 3 through eight math which is equal and then the biggest one is grade 10 Ela uh do we have those numbers of like how many points we went up or down and how the state went I don't have them with okay asking that because in the categories we increased we have the numbers I think we should be focusing on these categories that last year I asked the same question are IEP students in English and math are not doing what they should be doing and they're not even close to the state average so I would like to know if they've increased I mean if you look at your little green and yellow chart student with disabilities are low growth the majority of the time so and I know I sound like a a broken record or whatever but I would like to know if we've made any increases at all with students with IEPs for English language 3 through 8 including 10 which is our worst and math 3-8 including 10 because it's great that the science technology went up and we have all those numbers and stuff but we should also be concerned with the numbers that are pretty poor compared to the state average with the IEP students only I'm talking I asked the same question last year as well about the IEP students and why there's no growth thank you yeah sorry um High need students and students with di disabilities High need students are IEPs and students with disabilities would be tip or what are those classifications High means is membership um in either low income multilingual and or student disability so it's it's a more broad representation so students with disabilities are students who have I Fe um and high news is is a little bit more inclusive or broader however we so I and physical disabilities would be multilingual student or low and or low income oh wait that's in highes and then and then students with disabilities is not I it is yeah oh so we have them in two places I'm just yes this the state has a broader category of high needs um priority attention to students who may be in one of those um often more vulnerable right population um do do students with a 504 fall on students with disabilities yes okay they do I'm certain they do but I can look that up and confirm yeah I would like to know let me just the St has changed I'm not going to explain it I'm really you explain it because I'll butcher it I'm [Music] sure oh Sandy you should I'm so sorry s will really not it's an accommodation plan so it's it's a little bit different then an individualized education plan where students have um identified area where they need specially designed instruction um the 504 plan's a little bit different somebody may be identified as having a an area of need but where they just need accommodations to be able to um access the the school curriculum like physical accommodations or behavioral could be any of those things but not like specifically designed instruction to help with something they just a support right support will be in place thank you just just a quick question um just to clarify so is high needs essentially lowincome students with disabilities and then also Ells is that kind of students who have membership um historically it's been students who have membership in two or more of those groups two more okay gotta thank sorry I'm trying to remember what my question was oh um okay so it's it's sort of one comment one question so the comment is you know these experiences for Science and Technology it doesn't go unnoticed to me that it's a time where those experiences like field trips and walking trips and uh those are often being cut because they're not because schools are cutting budgets and so those are on the chopping block often so it doesn't go unnoticed to me that we're having these giant growth gains um in years that we have more of them um which is sad for other districts that are having to cut it but the other thing was if we think that these experiences are the driver for so much growth how can we replicate that in other content areas and maybe that's something that teachers are already trying to figure out like if if you can do science in a field you can probably work a lot of math into that too so how do we I guess I'm not asking for answer to that question because I don't know that there is an answer to that question but it just seems like if we're pretty sure that the experiences are the driver for such growth we need to figure out how to capitalize on that in that too y awesome question awesome U thank you so much um so I'm guessing that we might have a followup or mcast round two where we can talk about some of the other um questions that was a great conversation uh next up first read on policies policy subcommittee gurus who wants it or Lori are you taking it who's taking it go for all right so I is a student sub educational surveys uh and uh research um we um revised um because of the new federal requirements that parents must be notified and allowed the opportunity to opt out of any time a survey uh analysis or evaluation is going to be administered um so we uh we had the policy so you can see we just um couple uh cleanups we just you know change respondents to students um and at the um bottom that we would annually um uh well the person was there annually and each time during the school year when a student um analysis or evaluation is going to be administered so we we had it annually that we would put notice out but each time what's that there a quick question so um I'm just curious if there's any examples of what this actually would be like what are surveys analysis or evaluations for research purposes like what would we do is this like the um the risk behavior survey kind of stuff is it okay so it's that kind of stuff okay you know we did did theity a make sure parents so could be anything teer wanted to put a survey up just to ask a random question that's why we changed it from annual to um before any surve went out because we didn't want uh teachers to feel like they were bound to know every single thing that they may ask throughout the school year once a year we didn't think that was fair yeah it makes sense thank you I was just curious uh any questions on I all right IGA IG and igd what we did was we um all all we did was combine those two into one and so it was the curriculum development and then the curriculum adoption and we just made it one policy then changes just combin any questions on igig GD and this we're not voting on this anyway so if you have questions you can follow this policy this is just our first read and then ibf about agitation um the change here is that um you can a duy licensed nurse practitioner can sign off as well as uh a medical doctor and that came from yeah yeah so I'm so glad to see that in there because we have it's such a pediatrician shortage so we need other people that can sign off on this stuff so kids can get what they need that's any other questions on IHF I kind of wish the state also just included all mid levels like including position oh yeah P aren't included no way it's written so um yeah petition our legisl get on that so you don't have anything else right I'm okay great these will come back um these will come back at actually will it be our next meeting do we have yes yes we do okay it's short so um next is acting on the FAS High School Ski Club trip to Waterville Valley like to make a motion great awesome uh any comments on this other than how awesome it is that they're doing it again it was awesome last year I can seeing it uh we happened to go out the same day that um one of our kids was on this trip we just happened to be skiing water the valley at the same time and uh it was the kids had so it was freezing cold it was colder than cold the kids had so much fun they um talked about it for months afterwards it was well organized I kind of not really hovering but kind of was offering support that's needed Mr Campbell is a well oiled machine he knows the mountain very well he knows the students very well there were as far as I know there were no [Laughter] [Music] casualties it's okay uh we have Motion in a second any last comments on that one uh we lost Terry so we can just vote so all in favor say I any extensions any nose Okay passes unanimously great y uh next up is uh update from the superintendent away so um just I'm continue to follow up with [Music] um sorry was um navigating future updates these are the feedback um um the last one will be given to the building needs so make sure you have the same information this is the same information building yes okay thank you yep and let's see so to what's next oh oh yes so I know that other people will probably give updates on the um Mass mask um conference but um I have to do a little shout out for our own presentation um so our team um Dr Teller and carella um and you were there part of the presentation uh and then we had two partners with us which really is very fitting because um you know the presentation really is about all of our partners so we had nobody knows you got tell them what we were talking about yeah getting into oh I'm sorry I just want just want to give a shout out to the people but anyway all right so um you know that we have uh we you know won the green ribbon um award and so building upon that um are the three pillars we centered things around the reduced environmental impact and cost improve health and wellness of students and staff and provide effective environmental and sustainability education so reducing environmental um you know we were you know we were out ahead of the town on the plastic so we had a gear ahead of um single use um we had stopped that our Clipper composting which is absolutely I still have to give a shout out amazing that our 2-year plan was able to be implemented in one year um and all uh all schools are participating um and our solar project that um we're working with Stephanie um um the um sustainability coordinator in town um and looking at still looking at our first project the solar um at uh North found and then we have our electric van we did have a picture of our students with electric van which is kind of cool because that's how they got to one of our conferences and so um just I'm going to be quick because honestly this was an hour and 15 minute presentation I just want to give some highlights um and then in our Wellness um health and wellness our Wellness committee has worked um hard over the last few years we built the wellness policy uh we uh this past year we worked on making sure it's our website and everything's up there's lots of great information um for staff and families um our health curriculum curriculum uh includes at the um High School uh uh the unit um on um our outdoor um Adventure project Adventure uh and then we have our social emotional learning uh line throughout all of our grades uh and then our recent um is um in addition to our uh free breakfast and lunch for all all of our Clippers um we've had guest chefs last year and now this year we have our school Community Chef um and I'll a little bit more update on that in just a bit um providing Effective Education and I think this was the the connecting um through line is that our partners that we've had now for six years um the amount of opportunities um that um all of our students uh get and so when we're looking at going green and and and going blue um you know we looked at um we have a lot of opportunities for students so like our law students are teaching our grade one students about seasonal ecosystems um through the vermac cold and this is just a few that were mentioned um our grade three is studying erosion um our grade seven uh is looking at healthy uh Marine environments um the trip to penes uh and our grade eight through cutting hunt which was mentioned earlier um you know is is ecosystems weather and the oyster um aquaculture uh grade nine uh is the biological and environmental issues including um all their work around Hydroponics and um grade six and grade eight are both studying our U many many boats and Drifters um the uh um the grade six is studying the turtles and what happens when the turtles kind of get uh in this Loop and and get stranded um great eights look um studying the the wind uh and ocean currents and those are just a few but it it all involves Partnerships and those are some of those uh activities that Sonia had mentioned earlier um and then I just want to uh shout out here on the becoming blue um really looking at um our healthy ocean ecosystems our marine careers um we are in the the process of looking at a new opportunity and we're working working with U Mass Maritime um an group of 8th grade students went um over and visited uh and we're looking at a dual enrollment for our high school um students there's a you know studying the uh um oyster aquaculture at a much bigger and deeper level but remember at Oceans um our ocean day for our kindergarten kids we actually start um learning about um the oyster filtration clear through third grade earth Grit um day some of them I just mentioned at the upper grades um but this is definitely at a a much deeper uh level there's also the opportunity um that you can get your um the your license um to operate um and launch tenders but uh at 16 and by 18 on getting your captain's license and so there's lots of opportunities through um through this potential partnership that we are working with mass Marathon so that's really exciting we announced that so I wanted to make sure um that you have heard about that and then just it this entire presentation uh is on um our website uh in two places at the green ribon uh District um portion and then also Our Winning Partnerships because we would not be where we are now without our without our Partnerships and so we're very fortunate to be in in town and be so close to to all of our scientists and and our you know our oceans coastlines our um Kun um the B Reserve we just we are there's just a wealth of resources here for our students and I am very happy that the school committee supports um all of these field trips knowing that they really are educational they're tied to our curriculum um before activities there's the field trip there's after activities there's continued studies um you know but it's um handson we said it from the beginning hands on for our kids makes a difference I I do wish that more members had seen I wish or had taken a picture at the end you know you've had a good presentation when people are like hovering around to try and get the ear and be like here's my business card can I follow up up with you can you help me we want to do what you're doing and um and it was definitely like that I mean people were like following us into the hallways so um it was it was really nice it was nice to see um other districts in awe of what we have was really ni so in regards to the mass military and Mass martime Academy um do you have an expected timeline in regards to that would be a very incentive thing for our present eighth graders before they make decisions so it was our eighth graders last year that went on the trips of their nth graders this year and I assume we're going to continue um with the eighth grade trips so that they they have that um as far as the do enr do we have a a start date yet I don't think so I think we're still putting it together right i' to more later yeah we'll definitely keep you updated I had that same question um and then I was also hopeful I have the pleasure of sitting next to you where I can look over your shoulder at your green and blue hand up can you email them to the committee because I feel like there's some really great things in there yes there are that um I think 6 some slides no I'll send the link to so you can see all of it and then getting back to the Mass Maritime real enrollment um to what Sue said it would definitely be helpful not just yes the eighth graders that went last year and the ninth graders that's great but just for eighth graders in general that are looking to make a decision I think it just makes another uh draw to so what can we do to ask um well I mean that's what I was saying we we're we're hoping to take every early over because I'm sure there are freshman that would would be interested in that especially thatting okay and then I'm going to come and ask you if we can purchase a Bo yeah have C we voting on the [Laughter] boat all right well I got one vote I got one vot I have two well a question and then a point of white Persona Terry's not here I miss Terry but she has asked there was two students who went to that Mass Maritime Summer Academy can we get them in here to do something like we did with uh Mr Anderson of last month was thank you for reminder and then my one other question about navigating the future because we're now on the current timeline my The Early Learning Center would that be exclusively for f students would that be open up to a broader Community I'm sorry the Early Learning Center would it be oh sorry because we're still timeline back to yes I was I was still on my presentation here okay I get so um so would that just be for fman students or the preschool be for for anybody it could be if it's going to open up to school choice it would be a uh school committee vote cuz School uh school committee votes on school choice so it it could be um I just now that the other thing went away I just want to focus on the navigating future timeline yes that's a question right thank you very much all right uh author visit well can I'm going to skip around for just a second I um I wanted to pass this out this is um the Harvest of the month which through our uh kind of because of it also goes with the presentation uh so our Chef um uh uh Laura and working through the um the farm to school U project that we're working on this year um we brought Harvest of the month to the uh to the table and you can see November uh is kale and so she created a so we're introducing potential new new um uh produce to to our students so she created a kale a sunflower seed and um SE something else um I'm sorry what garlic and olive oil um so it was a dip thank you and then the P chips and um I have to tell you it seems like that went over very well and uh if I if I could can we get the recipe for that on the and I'm not joking good suggestion so oh we could start eventually but I um I think it was a big hit um yeah try it homee I like that and then later so on November 19th she's going to do a hot lunch with kale sweet potato and pinto bean to Molly pie so that's so and then carrots are December as you can see so every month there's going to be recipes around our Harvest of the month so we're just trying to get kids to eat healthy and try so this is so this was I just really want Sher who kind of on the and then I'm going to end with this is like my new favorite book um we were fortunate to have um Cherry um uh Mo the author and illustrator so I'm going to pass the book around so you can see it but you got to get it back cuz it's [Laughter] um but she was here and she met with students from moris pond and Lawrence um and our English language Learners and um and really this book is so precious when you read this and it's all about belonging and when you you know when you first come to a school maybe you don't feel like you belong and how um Through The Lunchbox through food and I'm just going to show you this well that is so precious so um that once they started talking about their food and sharing their foods from different cultures and how it brought brought students together so the I'm going to pass it around so you can look at the illustrating but through an FF Grant we were able to have the author here met with the students um and it was just um and this one is special if you can see um so the the student that was new all the story has the break so you can tell this was communicating through through um food and food does bring us together so I'm going to pass it around um becomes everyone's favorite book anyway and it's uh an so written and I just want to illustrate it and there's so many so much emotion right but we're that's just what we have a lot of authors in our district um we're very fortunate that um our teachers and Librarians really value that that opportunity and FF um supports it in such a big way across our schools and for different ways but um it it connects our students to books in a different way and to each other so so and that is all I have tonight okay great thank you uh next up is routine business approving the minutes from October the 22nd and it's the gray copy at our seat it just had spelling um correction yeah it's the same content as the one that was in the packet but I found a spelling um is there a motion to approve thank you is there a second second thank you uh any questions spelling yeah it was on um the policy section oh it was on act on policies and nutrition is okay scho I don't remember now okay great uh all in favor of approving the minutes from the 22nd of October say I any extensions any opposed great since we're in a routine business I just um wanted to point out that we voted on the um field trips on 11225 um behind that was also a field trip request from the same group for 3925 oh I didn't even catch that I know and it's not on the agenda that I feel like it's included in the packet I think that it would be in my opinion okay to approve it now but if the other votes don't agree we could put it off I just think that the um the group would like to know I thought we voted on no yeah no let's take let's will you make that I think it's fine as well will you make that motion please i' happy to make a motion to approve hold on it was originally for 125 it is for 112 it is just one field what about the one that's in the packet that says three9 two field okay since we're not sure let's not approve it until we know no it's definitely the okay but if you want to wait we can wait what I just um we're meeting do wee okay let's and we'll be sure that it's happening but thank you for that I'm going to pull te up and then um another routine business question or is this yeah we're in routine business what else you got uh I I can wait for request information but it was more of in the past we heard from the athletic director after each season will we be doing that uh this school year as well okay so under information I'm just going to mark it request for information okay they're on schedule and then not to Pi the scab but when Mike brought up the question of um uh prek being open to other towns and Dr D you mentioned school choice I wondered I didn't know that school choice started at the prek level it does not the state okay or first okay K so I suppose we have some work to do um on that right if we wanted figure that right but we couldn't call School can't you're allowing students from right I'm just um just pointing out that I didn't want it to be viewed that we were uh not being forthcoming with exactly what school choice is when the state recognizes it at K but we used that verbage when speaking of prek I don't want to be accused of not um or say something that we shouldn't say I think that's just I appreciate that I think we're just going to have to take that up when we get further along it would be a consider right and I only mention it because it was mentioned this evening and again it's just on the verage and nothing else okay uh committee reports request for information anyone have any reporting or it's okay we could yeah I went to the uh several uh sessions at the um Di and um I'm going to recommend that we have a school Retreat uh I think that we need to look at operational protocol and a lot of other things that we need for a school Retreat I have a whole list of things I would like to say I got at that meeting but uh I don't think you want to SC for that so you must have read my mind because I actually um emailed masc after the session this weekend as well um and to see if they would come and do another do workshop for us so more to come on that thanks Mar but but I I'm not saying what a workshop I do I think that's great but I also say that we need a retreat in terms of a variety issues that um need to be surfaced and discussed got it uh Katrina um so I went to to The Advisory student advisory um Margaret and I both went and um that was a very interesting meeting it was the first time school committee members had gone to them and so we started the meeting by saying oh why are you here what do you do and they ask the same thing of us and um we went through and sort of said what are some good things and some bad things in your experience in high school good things they all agreed Unified sports are beloved and unifying that's my understanding was it's special needs students and not special needs students competing together everyone loved that school lunch has improved um hallway procedures rules are better it's less crab this year they wanted more unifying events like the pep rally they really liked Spirit Week who thought it was a success um on the bad side they thought the bathrooms are gross dark and weird um homecoming was disappointing they wanted more more things to do than just dancing um and they I we I suggested or one of us suggested maybe they needed a committee of staff to hold continuity and suggest um ideas for them for each Years big turnover of who's running it um we talked about Dress for Success at Lawrence they all kind of looked back at it and thought Oh actually you know I hated it at the time but it was kind of great to have that stress of what to wear taken away but some of them felt it would have been great actually to have a uniform that you have to buy so that it takes the anxiety of trying to find something that fits the dress code and also fits your body because some of the girls were saying it's hard to find something that's going to actually fit and look good that um complies um and then we talked about screen time we all felt it have gone up since Co and some of them felt they worked better on paper um and then the other one I went to was uh teach for learning that was really interesting um because it was Andrew's first time um mediating that that I think it was his first time it sounded like he was saying um he started it by asking for Thoughts From the Past for people who had been on the committee for a long time um what are your takeaways of things that worked really well what would you like to see us carry forward and um people had some interesting ideas one of them was having some non-staff members on the committee and in the past I guess there have been members of the public who have been on the committee um they all thought that was was helpful there was a lot of conversation about AI um they wondered whether mask has a policy on AI or whether we are going to put together a policy on AI I told them that Mary has is aware of it and we had talked about it in one of our policy meetings and she's into it um so that was a big topic because they had all gone to the mass cue conference and I don't remember what that stands for but oh Mas Q yeah I don't remember what it stands for but they all the keynote speakers were great and they talked a lot in those um they us to give a little presentation about whatever breakout session they went to um and there was a lot of conversation about programs that have been used in the past and that maybe they've are really great programs but um some of the teachers and staff have kind of PTSD from when they were used during Co and so they're not being used but we're still paying for them um and and that they are good programs um but just in general a lot of conversation about Ai and I'm sure that's going to carry on into the next meeting next week thanks any M what did you say first Katrina about you and you and Margaret had met some students student advisory at the high school sorry I didn't explain what that was yeah at the high school along that can we ask if Molly or or whoever the student advisory person is now to come in I missed I just asked her last night sorry can I I just asked her last night she's waiting to hear from Mr fi who organizes everything okay so I'm wondering if um he has his hands full with trying to find M holders for town meeting next week um but she she has lots to say all saying we do I I agree it's nice having them come itent uh any last U committee reports or requests so I um for the f I am the FDA fison and I went on a field trip uh that was FF sponsored on the 30th to New York City and it was a um art honors English honors and biology honors combination class and um FF paid for the coach buses from the high school that left at 5 a.m. and um to New York City we went to the uh Natural History Museum and then walked over Through Time Square uh over to uh see a Broadway show also paid for by FDF uh it was and Juliet if you haven't seen it it's also playing in Boston and it's a really cute show if well if Juliet didn't uh unive herself in the Shakespeare um tragedy so any it's a it's got some today's music it's really cute anyway um but FF for those of you who do not know is an amazing amazing asset to balance and they like to say that they pick up where the district um either leaves off or cannot afford to do all the things that the teachers want to do um I can't recommend it enough we are so lucky to have them um we should thank them often over and over and um promote them often and if you have an opportunity to volunteer or uh donate your time or your funds in any way I think they are fantastic and it's not just about this field trip they do so much more we hear throughout the year of all the things that FF uh sponsors and uh gives students opportunities for and you know some kids this is going to be their only time that they go to New York City and see a Broadway show and to know that you know F got them there and got them there for free and safe and Back Again it's very exciting um so a huge shout out to Lauren penny at the high school Jane Baker and I think I think as well so um thank you for writing the grants thank you to FF thank you for having me volunteer um I'll follow up on that and say that I just saw they announced their Gala yes um so I can't remember what it is but March something I think or February something so it's on their page March March mark your calendar last week in March I so late and the other announcement is um that electronic recycling um is this Saturday so get rid of all those miscellaneous weird things and help family parents make some cash at Lawrence at Lawrence I don't know the hours it's always in the morning and it always rains so this will be like a treat that it doesn't rain this year KN on everything oh sorry just going back to FF they're celebrating their 20th year um at this scall and honoring the founders of FF and at the time it was um three members of our school committee Tom Kirkman jamy McDonald Judy Fenwick and Tom Stone that's awesome fck leg he lives on all right thank you so much everyone let's H have a motion to adjourn and thank you was your second all in favor thank you guys