it being 6:30 on Monday May 13th H call the regular meeting of the gardener school committee to order and ask the clerk to please call the role Mrs Cormier president Mrs Hurst present Mr lefr here he is absent Mrs Leighton present Mrs pen pres Mr Schwarz pres mayor Nicholson pres and Mark pelo pres and the super and the student rep is absent and u a few members of the school department are present Mark Hawk Dr Goen Joyce West and erl Martin all right thank you very much uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and we'll hear from her later in the agenda but we'll note that Melissa Payne is also here from The District staff as well uh Melissa Payne from The District staff is also here Melissa P Sor I'm just you're welcome Terry first item on the agenda is open time for the general public is there anyone here from the general public who wishes to be heard seeing then moving on to item C recognitions by the superintendent for the Gardner Elementary School mtss seel team Dr pelino so um this month I really wanted to recognize um The Garden Elementary School team for um for a few reasons number one I've been talking a lot about mtss and that's how Gardner does school um but the GES team in particular at the elementary school has just done a phenomenal job their numbers have been um unbelievable so typically as I've talked a number of times about and I'm going to just give you some statistics typically you're looking for at least 80% of our students to be um uh receiving enough support with what we do with tier with our tier one services and so that means the other 20% need uh need more so they might need tier two some might need tier two and tier three well at the last I heard and Joyce you can correct me if I'm wrong on this number but the last I heard they were at 93% of our students only needed tier one so 7% of our students um are need those additional supports for social emotional supports and that's again because they're they're doing a phenomenal job in terms of having a system that really works together team members know their roles team members Step Up um and it really makes it so we can um adjust our practices so we're supporting our students fully um and this is all under the leadership um of the special special head uh director Joyce West um Amber cassavan who's our mtss coordinator and of course the principal Earl Martin who help me um with the uh certificates um but I just think they deserve a round of applause for all that they do and I also have to say um uh the team going um I don't know if any of you are going to the thing in Connecticut are you guys any of you going to that one okay there are I guess what's that solution yeah and there are there are 12 states that go to this um program and out of those 12 States um there are only six um districts that were recognized um as a gold standard for p um for PBIS which is part of this whole mtss system and we're one of those six um six organizations so I have to say just the teams are just doing a phenomenal job and I couldn't be more proud of the work that we're doing um so with that said I'd just like to call out some names um recognize some folks um so the first person is Rachel [Applause] Bellamy Sarah Carter calling coin is not um um Alex F fioretti Kelly [Applause] franie Paris Henderson Lauren jeepy yeah we'll do a big round of applause for everybody absolutely Jeff um Shannon [Music] [Applause] Marcado Lindsay Monty Chelsea moan Christine rner and Fina Robertson and Nick Rogers Cory tuchinsky and Colleen coin did I already say that okay all right loed it off I'll give that to you hand out to your team but I just like a round of applause for you pH the committee will be in a brief recess we're just going to go right out there will come back to order at 6:38 p.m. next item on the agenda is item D the consent agenda this is included in your packet is there a motion on the floor so move is there a second second motion made by Mr SW seconded by Mrs Ward Leighton to approve the consent agenda as presented is there any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor say I oppose nay motion carries item e subcommittee reports beginning with the facilities subcommittee Mr Schwarz good evening U sub the facility subcommittee met on May 2nd and if you look at the project list from the maintenance department you'll recall hopefully recall it it's pretty much the same as it was two months ago however the only difference are is now that along the contractor column and an estimated cost those are pretty much much fill in so we're moving forward with that and uh also if you look at the other enclosure with the pictures you see the picture of the Landry Auditorium in the high school with all that staging in it so we're moving ahead with the auditorium Renovations so we're slowly moving ahead we also discussed the line item miscellaneous theatrical upgrades of a price of $500,000 I think everyone on the committee choked on that that title being too miscellaneous for $500,000 so hopefully we'll get more details as to what that miscellaneous means by next month or so beginning to uh upgrade the hbac and the electrical systems as well as the ceiling tiles as indicated or reflected in the photograph again as I mentioned before the ceiling tiles were placed in the in the kitchen during the [Music] summer and we also discussed again the $100,000 dishwasher for the high school kitchen Mr F leeny who uh is somewhat of an expert subject matter on that issue should be maybe 15 or $220,000 so we're obviously going to be watching that GMS the generator was again last month was a problem and it reflected that it may be not accomplished uh due the funding that I I feel that are generated being that of emergency nature that ought to be relooked at and maybe we can bring it online sooner spr point system again it goes along with a contract at the middle school replace the front doors and the walkoff grill as I mentioned the walkoff gr is the strike thing you walk in as you open a door or walk into the middle school and what that Grill does is it catches the dirt off your feet by scraping your shoes as you walk and so you don't carry it further in the school building again on the project replace the lighting system and the parking lot the Again Jim divider I brought this to attention to the maintenance maintenance department I'm trying to bring more attention to it that there I'm thinking that the broken chain has been repaired but the dividers the the the sort of the wallpaper finish on the panels need to be replaced or paint the panels so that looks more presentable again the left flag pole at the middle school the mechanism has been inoperative for years much like the city hall and I think it's time to pay attention to it and get a repated so we can put up the state plan M Street school as I mentioned before we relocate the walkin friezer to the Middle School installing of security cameras on the second floor or the first floor excuse me of the Elm Street School and in the in the project is to replace the auditorium doors and the gym do and the Really purpose of that is to provide more able to provide more security to the first floor and that's all I have to report thank you very much any questions comments concerns for the record City Halls flag pole should be fixed by the end of this week mayor mazerella's company should be out here but they can't put the bucket Tru up if the wind is more than 20 M hour for their insurance uh moving on to the finance subcommittee attorney Clen um the finance subcommittee met on Thursday May 2nd we went over the expense reports general questions were asked and answered um I had noted that there were a few new negative line items that have shown up um and Mr Hawk um assured us that there was adequate funds remaining to cover all those negatives for the rest of the year and um he also informed the committee at that time that there was a spending and hiring freeze for the rest of this um fiscal year to slow the increase in the negative lines and then to process of the um transferring the money between the lines to um you know finish off the budget piece um and then we did talk about the revolving accounts and how they're all doing well and have a positive balance and that was all thank you very much any questions comments concerns moving on to the superintendent evaluation subcommittee attorney fan um we met on Monday May 6th we went over the evaluation process um with Dr pelino he provided us with a PowerPoint presentation to show um his you know to go along with the goals and the data that's provided within that that will then be sent out to the committee um everybody on the committee the subcommittee agreed that it was um sufficient enough to be sent out and I believe it's going out tomorrow MH and then obviously we'll have to complete our evaluations for the next month's meeting that is all thank you very much any questions comments concerns moving on our student uh student Advisory Board member is not here so moving on to item G new business item number 3 616 second reading of policies there was a vote required for this Mrs Hurst uh we have um four policies tonight we have IMG animals in school JF School admin admissions jfbc School tuition policy and JH student absences and excuses um I'd like to make a motion to recommend that um we accept these as presented in the in the packets motion made by Mrs Hurst is there a second second motion made by Mrs H by Mrs Cormier to accept those policies as presented is there any discussion on the motion all in favor say I I I oppose nay motion carries Mrs the second half um we have um two policies for removal ihb g-r home education guidelines and JJ o AA field trips not school sponsored um they've been found to be um redundant and unnecessary and I make a motion that we remove those is there a second second second motion made by Mr second by m word Leon to remove those policies as presented is is there any discussion on the motion all in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries next item on the agenda is item number 3617 director CH director pay sorry about that Hi how are you so I just wanted to provide a quick update on our Early College Programs as we kind of approached the end of the year um I wish we had another week or so I'd be able to have a little bit more of a data share out with you guys but we are waiting on our end of the year semester grades from the college so we'll have um more data in regards to retention rates um atric related credits and perform you know student performance in a few more weeks and I'll share a copy of the annual report with Dr pelo to pass along to you guys um but we were able to add some successful programs this year so this was our first full year that we ran our Autotech program um last year we kind of piloted it with five students and we did a one section class at the beginning of the year and that was the only one that we had run this year we did a two sequence class uh with mtus Community College um we had 13 kids in total participate between the two sections uh most of them did the full year program so they got actually it's a higher credit class they got eight uh college credits out of it that appli to the autot um certificate program with Mount lausett um and then three of them who are seniors will be continuing on and going into the program upon graduation so they were really happy with that um the director of the autot tech facility that was kind of his goal in launching this um the students who are not going on Al did very well um I think it provided them a really good alternative as seniors who end up kind of taking a lot of studies and strategies and Gym classes and it's a full half day they're out of the building and in the Autotech facility so it was able to provide them I think just a really nice hands-on experience so um so that was really successful we do have the same classes running on the books again for next year um with the same Professor so we're excited about that um and then we had the first time we were able to run two separate sections of our nursing cohort so we have one that is running through Mount wuet nursing program um that's nursing 117 we had four students successfully complete that and they are currently waiting to sit for their CNA exams and then we had an additional three students go through their Workforce Development side so this was just through the credited training program um and all three of those completed and have already sat for their exam so we're just waiting on exam results so um hopefully before graduation we will have eight of our students being able to leave CNA certified um and then four of which will atrica right into the LPN program of Mount lausett so um that was a really exciting addition that we were able to add on this year and actually see through and and again we have that on the books for next year as as well um and then our early college kind of overview uh right now we just finished up recruitment so we are in the process of um placing going through the accuplacer and testing process for the rest of the students we have about 15 to 20 left to place um but the projected numbers are about 100 students for enrollment next year so this is a a pretty large increase um this year we had 64 students just in early college and an additional 29 in the pathways associates degree program next year again given placements and this always kind of es and flows some will change even if they place in um we have about 95 set to go into early college and then an additional 30 to 40 seats for our Pathways program so pretty significant increase in enrollment um you know just between this year and next year so um again we'll have more of that data to kind of share out as we finalize the enrollment um really happy with how it looks in regards to the representation of our of our student body though um we've made some really great improvements in our area of special education recruitment um um part of this is because I think the state codes it terribly so I'll cave at that they only only count if you are like on an active IP they don't count you if you have a disability or if you're on a 504 and through a college accommodation plan if we look at all students accessing with disabilities and 504s we're at 13% enrollment for next year which is a huge increase from about 3% this year um so that's an area we've worked really really uh closely with the mount and being able to provide accomodations um and the rest of our demographics very similar to our our population e is still our our lowest area of enrollment that we're working on but we do see I think a 2% increase so um so yeah so that's a general updates I don't know if you guys have any questions about the program specifics or um what next year looks like or how this year went have there been any drop offs during their enrollment there that so that's a great question our our current retention is 95% for this year so we have yeah we have a really high retention rate um we had two students that we pulled back mid year um due to their performance in the program um we will have more data on that again next week once I get final grades I I am expecting that there will be a few who have to leave the program due to GPA they do have to maintain a 2.0 to stay in the program um this year was very challenging for a lot of our students I think we're definitely seeing some of the impacts like I know it's like years later this was the group who had the co online math um so unfortunately college math was a significant struggle for these students um they also the mount had changed their enrollment policies in regards to placement I think they may have over corrected and swung a little too much so in regards to kind of some of the course alignment um we saw some student struggle I I'm going to assume our retention will still be above 88% but I think there will be a few more coming out so we'll see what we get final thank you um when you say placement what does that mean so they traditionally used to use accuplacer and that was the only way to access the program um which is not ideal um because anyone who does test well has to sit for three-hour test so we have moved away from that as the primary goal of placement um and they go to a holistic model so we look at their overall GPA their math GPA their English GPA we do teacher recommendations guidance recommendations um and then if you know if we have like sometimes we'll look at mcast and we used to look at SATs but like we don't really use those data points often um if a student has certain GPA and recommendations then there is 80 80 is essentially the grade point average they're looking for uh slightly under but with really strong recommendations or writing samples then they can be placed in um if they don't reach that criteria then we have a self placement and this is where they had over over cor corrected it is a really not a phenomenal placement tool it's really good if you have that strong student who maybe just doesn't do a lot of homework but it doesn't actually test the students academic abilities so um so we we have that we know if if needed but but we're going to rely more on the active place there if we truly need to assess do they have the math ability to do college math um and then we also offer summer pre so a student really doesn't have those those academic skills but they want to do the program they're recommended that they would be appropriate mature enough we um through the the state grant funding will'll pay for them to take the prerequisites over the summer okay and then is there a cap on how many students can go or what does that look like um we have worked so hard on that this year technically yes but we have gotten away by moving it up and up and up and we have not had to reject or weight list any students um we are really close it's not necessarily Gardener cap um Mount wusd is out of seats I mean if you go on their website and try to sign up for English 101 like they are full um just in regards to just their college enrollment they have you know we are one of five three who are on campus with them so it's a lot I mean English want a One the 61 sections so that's really where the capacity issue comes into play um so we have managed to get all 100 in with or you know projected 100 in with some creative scheduling um partially we are having kids take math back at the high school if they're not meeting that academic math criteria and then we're actually offering the English 101 back at the high school to free of that morning section so we've really worked with them on the scheduling right now the 100 is probably going to stick with where we're at for capacity but that could change next year if they were able to on board more professors thank you yeah we had a flip um we taking afternoon classes we offered that I thought they would jump they did not so we had offered students to take 11 to three like sleep in you don't have to get up like I thought seniors would be all over this I have two seniors opt in um so yeah so we had offered that as a way to do alternative scheduling um but it did work to have math and English back at the high school because our younger students a lot of them have to come back for math so they were plan to take the English back at the high school and that alleviated our English issue at the college yeah I know at the beginning of the semester the mount was seeing a 28% increase in enrollment over last semester after the mass reconnect program was launched um so we're seeing that a lot with different programs not just at the mount but across the state for community colleges yes that has made a pretty significant impact um and they have they have the green light to hire again from you know my knowledge of the outside so they are onboarding hopefully onboarding some English and psychology from the last I heard um so we hope that that'll alleviate scheduling means in the future but yeah it's it's been across the state since Mass reconnect still a good problem to Happ is yeah thank you any other questions comments concerns just I would say that when I was in high school that wasn't even a dream so that students today are very fortunate to be able to participate in such a program took me 27 years after high school to go to college so with this program I wouldn't take wouldn't have taken me 20 that is the goal yes short in the amount of time thank you very much director thank you item number 3618 corre curriculum coordinators update this was included in your packet for information is there any questions comments or concerns from the members of the committee thank you very much Dr Goen item number 3619 elll coordinator update this was included in your packet for information is there any questions comments or concerns a comment yes Mr CL I was blown away by that data in the very first paragraph um that they were able to um have 34 students exit out of the ESL program compared to 11 last year um I think that's just amazing and I think the staff that has worked with those students and getting them to excel so quickly deserves recognition any other question yes Mr Schwarz I want to thank Joyce West uh she provided me a link to the CAC meeting and we had a presentation an excellent presentation about the new IEP form that desie has developed and as I understand it's sort of develop thing is we go along and find that changes need to be made but it was a great presentation so thank you Joyce for that any other questions comments concerns thank you very much Dr Simpson for the elll update item number 3620 the grant administrator's update this was included in your packet for information is there any questions comments or concerns thank you director done item number 36 to one special education update this was included in your packet for information and Miss West do yes come on up go ahead Dr West um well good evening um I'm just going to go over a few updates for special education I certainly wanted to kick off with a highlight for this year which has been the special education parent advisory Council we've really reached some good momentum with parent um volunteers we actually have three officers in my tenure that's the most we've ever had for officers so and they have wonderful energy and great communication with the district and I can't be more than um I can't say more than enough about them and they definitely keep me on track too so I I do appreciate that we have um Lori Davis who's our returning co-chair Lori um Lori Davis we also have Katie Donovan who is a co-chair along with Lori and Shia Casey who's the treasurer so I just wanted to do a shout out and a thank you to them um we do have in addition to um what Mr Schwarz was sharing with the new IEP this Thursday we do have another presentation that the CPAC is putting on around effective communication with schools and that's being conducted through the Federation for children and that will be 6 to8 tonight emails should have gone out to all parents as well as um Facebook posting so certainly if anyone has questions about that I can get the contact information for that the elementary school that that's being done I'm sorry where where is the meeting taking place it's it's it's Zoom oh it's zoom zoom the Federation is conducting it that yeah so it's a zoom yeah you do need to register it's a link I'm I'll provide you a link in regards to special education and what's going on in the district with our students I did want to share that we are seeing an increase in the number of students enrolled that do require special education services while we do have an increase our percentages of students is staying pretty steady which means that our overall student population is also growing however just a 10% increase can mean a lot because it means an additional amount of students that require uh Staffing curriculum materials services so it it does involve an increase in funding um even though that the percentage hasn't changed across the board so I did want to share that um we are also seeing an increase in our students who placed and out of District placement right now we have about 29 students that are placed away from the district those are students that we are programmatically responsible for meaning that we do have oversight of their education we do have about six students who were only fiscally responsible for we still need to be involved and we're still at the table and we work with with the um partnering District around those kiddos having said that out of District um numbers this year for placement are High um we have kind of held steady for the last few years and this year let's hope it was just a an off year our teams work very hard to assist students we do like them to remain in the district because we feel as a philosophy that students that stay with us over time will fear better they have better outcomes they are more apt to graduate um and so that's important and they have connection with the community but overall we did see that we had about uh 12 students placed at a district I did list the reasons for that we always uh this is a a number that always moves in any given day um we can get a student moving in or desie can assign us a student um we just never know but that again we do see an increase in and our our budget around that we also see that higher the number of students at a district the more it takes a toll on Staffing we do have to visit each school three times a year we have to monitor U students placements there and we ultimately are responsible for their education we do write the IEPs and follow all the same procedures as any other student so um that can be time consuming uh I I know my for myself personally uh you know I had a school in Hall you know you just clear off your schedule in one whole day going out for a two-hour visit and it it takes your whole day so on a positive note um we have hired assistant director of pup Personnel Services Tasha gamble she is a returning employee I'm very excited um I feel that with all the work we're doing with mtss on the academic side and really trying to close the equity Gap with our students with disabilities we're going to focus heavily on professional development for staff all staff to really help with instructional strategies as well as more indepth program evaluations for what we are providing our students with disabilities so we'll be going into schools we'll be working with our special education administrators and setting up goals for next year so very excited to to have her join our team um but that's it I don't know if you have any other questions any questions comments concerns great job okay thank you thank you thank you very much director West item H Communications Dr pelo yeah I just wanted to um to mention all the hard work I just want to you know thank my um first off my um central office team who's just been phenomenal um and then you know right behind them is our principles who are working really hard our administrators um were we would we just got out of AD our administrative Council just before we came here um they're working really hard to work with folks and our teachers are going above and beyond for our kids and there are so many data points honestly these meetings could run three or four hours if we if we really started talking about the data but just tonight you know we were we were talking about the high school and how um the the entire mtss team really focused on um uh improving inent attendance um and specifically attendance of students with disabilities um last year there were 31 students with disabilities um who were chronically absent um at the high school this year um working with the teachers working with the administrators everybody pulling together that number dropped to 12 that's a big deal and those are you know those numbers sound like small numbers but they're huge wins behind each one of those numbers is a child who's trying to get their education and so their Outreach their hard work and their dedication going above and beyond is really what it's all about and that's not going to be plastered on any wall nobody's doing that for the money they're doing that because they care about kids and I just couldn't be prouder of all the work from you know from again my my central office cabinet all the way down to every every single teacher and um par professional that's that's working with us we're moving and really proud of the work they've done and I was really happy with the things Melissa was saying you know um uh working again the admission to the the dual enrollment program I think that's a huge win for our entire community and those are all the community oh last thing was the prom was phenomenal and the colonial was such a wonderful venue I don't know if you've seen the the roof there they have an open roof now um not an open roof it's a clear roof um but the the kids were just wonderful everybody had a great time lot of smiles one person did cry so that makes it an official prom um so but it was a great great time and now I'll pass it on all right next item on the agenda item I final comments of the school committee was word Leon um thank you uh just a thank you to everyone for their reports and Dr pelo for the information you provided uh last week for your evaluation just that data um it's I'm like a data geek so like I love just seeing the numbers and and everything and all of the work that's done by by Joyce and by Courtney and by Cathy um and also a belated happy uh Teacher Appreciation Week to all of the gardener teachers thank you for all you do um I know my kids really appreciate it actually Mr Rogers who was in here my daughter had him last year she still talks about him absolutely adores him um and that was all thank you thank you very much Mrs Hurst thank you to everybody in the district for doing such a phenomenal job um when she was given the presentation and she talked about students with disabilities you know and being part of the um the college program and stuff like that of course that's you know yeah that's yeah I also wanted to um just uh say that uh um May is mental health month um um I have a couple of Statistics that I have from Nami which is the National Alliance of me of the mentally ill um 50% of all lifetime mental illnesses Begin by the age of 14 and 75% by the age of 24 one in five us adults experience M mental illness each year and only half of them receive treatment the average delay between the onset of a mental illness symptom and treatment is as high as 11 years so we need to really recognize and take care of our friends and neighbors and relatives and um really really like have mental illness be part of a discussion um I noticed that the trend now with a lot of uh family physicians is it's all about the mind and the body and you know they're understanding how that all goes together and um it's just a really important thing to start really talking about and to never expect that someone's going to tell you their suffering so that's all I have thank you very much for turny bling um I want to thank everyone for their presentations and information um and this past weekend I was at the theme basket Extravaganza for the the music booster club and it was so nice to be there and see the kids that um were performing and then obviously the community um coming together and and taking all the chances the vendors everybody it was a great um a great day and I believe it was one of the most successful I believe it might be the most successful theme yes there was a lot of tickets sold that day and that all thank you very much Mr Schwarz thanks go to uh her and the school staff for GS I think they did did a phenomenal job and uh thanks for Melissa and Joyce for their presentations Mrs cor I'd like to send my appreciation as well to the mtss team from GES all I was thinking when they not all I was thinking one of the things I was thinking while they were talking was you know we're giving this support to our youngest Learners and they're going to have that stronger support as they go through and it's going to make them more successful students in the long run so I think it's wonderful that those teachers have stepped up and done such a great job um end of Year celebrations are happening I think it's a great time to celebrate and recognize all of our students and just make sure everybody's staying safe thank you on my end just a reminder that the city council's budget meeting for the school department budget is this coming Monday uh the 20th uh the time is posted on the school uh the city clerk's site so if you'd like to watch that uh and then just congratulations to all of our Alum who graduating this week from different colleges and universities that are having their graduation season leading up to our own graduation season I just finished signing all the diplomas before this meeting started so it's passed off to Mrs Cory now for her to sign uh but best of luck for the end of the school year for our graduating seniors at Gardner High Garder Academy in the Gateway and pathway programs uh just a reminder that this Wednesday is the gardener High School spring concert but it is in lechance gymnasium and not Landry Auditorium because as Mr Schwarz said that's under renovation right now and the Memorial Day parade is set to happen too with a couple of the high school groups performing in that but the route is changed changed in last year's route again it's from the American Legion downhill to Monument Park uh cuz the Rance Council wanted everything downhill uh in the parade rather than uphill from City Hall to Monument par uh so we are still having a parade the route just may look a little different because of that change and the Uptown rotary construction change but it is still happening so just keep an eye out on Central Street and that's all I have for this evening uh any other questions comments concerns and if not I'll take a motion to ad Jour motion made by Mr schwar seconded by attorney pen to adjourn all those in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries thank you all very much Happy night