##VIDEO ID:o-arL-AWsnU## e e e super m okay uh good evening I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton wam Regional school committee at uh 7:01 p.m. and I invite you all to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for um and next on the agenda is the land acknowledgement Amy would you be willing to read that sure the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District would like to acknowledge the massachusett tribe the tribe of indigenous people from whom the colony Province and Commonwealth of Massachusetts have taken their name we would like to pay our respect to the ancestral bloodline of the Massachusetts massachusett Tri tribe and their descendants who still inhabit historical massachusett tribe territories to this day thank you um before we get started I just want to remind everyone um that this meeting is um being recorded and also being live streamed on HW cam on YouTube um I am uh next up is Citizens comments do we have anyone on Zoom no okay um CI the opportunity the opportunity for Citizens comments um I'm not I can go through my does anyone in the room interested in making a citizen comment we good okay um in that case I'm not GNA go through my whole spiel about citizens comments okay um all right and it looks like there's no one on Zoom at this time no wishing to offer a comment okay um at that in that case we will close citizens comments at 7 73 um next up oh you know what I think uh Mr Tracy thank your way ahead of me I did not actually print out the mission statement um and uh so I may um maybe I'll just since I didn't ask anyone maybe I'll take it on myself and read a portion of the uh mission statement uh the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District school committee's mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with critical skills needed to maximize their potential the Hamilton one Regional school committee will lead and inspire a district that attracts and retains highquality Educators by acknowledging and respecting their expertise and professionalism um just for those of you who don't know we usually read a portion of our mission statement um at the beginning of each meeting um um thank you next up is the consent agenda um does anyone have any items that they would like to hold from the consent agenda go ahead yes uh I moved at the Hilton oh wait hold on I was I thought you had something to hold oh I do I have something to hold um um I want to hold the minutes from um October 24th sorry y go ahead uh I moved at the hilona regional school committee uh approved the consent agenda as written minus the minutes from October 24th second seconded by Amy kumberg all those in favor that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes um I held the minutes from October 24th I had two um minor um comments or concerns one is that up at the top where it says who is present it says that Jen part Carr departed at approximately 7:20 I actually according to my notes she actually departed at 820 yeah um so that's one and then um the other one is that um on that list same list at the top um David fito's name is spelled incorrectly so typo you think I would have picked that I've had that happen to me where mine is spelled incorrectly and someone else noticed it um uh are you willing to make a does anyone have any anything else on these D are you willing to make a motion uh sure I moved at the Hamilton Regional school committee approved the October 24th 20124 minutes with the edits um brought up by Dana Lara second second by Amy kumberg is there any discussion all right looks like we're ready to vote all those in favor that is unanimous of the five members present and the motion passes okay um I do wanted to just um acknowledge um all the really nice donations um that were on there um exciting stuff for the robotics team for sure thank you thank you um next up it looks like we have a presentation from our Deca students good evening my name is Ken cillo and I'm one of the five Deca officers at our high school to my left I have my fellow officers Gavin Meer Jonas dgo Patrick G and Gabriella jitt not only do we just have our Deca officer team we also have our Deca Ambassador team ambassadors meet monthly with Miss wheeler to work closely with her while officers meet weekly with her to work together so what exactly is DECA Deca at its core is a student organization to develop transferable skills for colleges and careers some of these skills include simple things like eye contact and learning how to speak professionally to pitching uh business members and um presenting your ideas um Deca allows you to try job scenarios and competition build skills through workshops events communication and Leadership Deca was formerly known as the distributive education clubs of America but is now simply known as Deca and over 200,000 High School Deca students worldwide um including all 50 United States four US Territories Canada China and more um so what Deca looks like at our school is over 50% of high school students at our school participate in Deca it's the biggest Club at our school um we have 252 members this year 164 returning and 88 new members um we try to be very interactive with de at our school and we try to get people involved in as many ways as possible and through that a thing we incorporated last year was new member orientation and with that um we've we've really like emphasized how we've emphasized the learning and teaching of the new members and making them succeed better and through that we've seen a huge jump in their success and we've seen like we had like 25 freshmen from last year make it to state competition which we hadn't seen in years before and that's one of our main points of emphasis this year then additionally we have bunch of other ways to get involved including competition prep stock market and virtual business challenge the quiz b and then we also have active fundraises like turkey grams and bingo night and through that it's a way to get interactive with the community as well as raise money and then we also have the speaker series where we um invite business professionals from local businesses as well as just people known throughout town and it's a good way to like learn more about careers and different business paths so as part of our Deca family we have Mentor teams and each Mentor team consists of one Deca officer and around two to three uh Deca ambassadors each year we have a theme for the uh group names this year's theme is business innovators and those are our five groups down there and each uh officer we drafted um every single member from Deca onto our team and these team help uh new members get acclimated to what Deca is like they learn about competition and other opportunities it creates commun communication channels between members and uh us officers and Miss wheeler and it also helps build relationships and develop a family Dynamic within Deca at our school now moving on to the core Deca experience this mostly incorporates the district competition in role plays where we have over 50 categories that most students can pick from when they're in the club so before the actual competition they take a test that is full of 100 difficult questions and then afterwards they go on the field trip and they do a role play this includes getting a slip of paper where they learn about the problem they have to solve and then after 10 or 20 minutes of planning they'll go to a judge and they'll explain their ideas for how to solve this business problem and this is really helpful for our futures if we try do this in the competition because if we have interviews later on will be used to the stress that we might feel beforehand we'll be able to publicly speak better and we'll also have an idea of how to problem solve very quickly on our feet uh so a big piece of the D experience and especially the competition is choosing a category so for especially new members each student will meet with Miss wheeler individually in which they will discuss uh what the student likes what categories they might think would be a good fit or like and what they like might want to pursue and out of the 50 um categories there's like a lot of different fields like marketing Finance Hospitality entrepreneurship and business management and based off this conference with Miss wheeler and then eventually the once the student picks a category and they finalize it with with Miss wheeler she uh she creates a personalized competition plan for each student which includes prep materials tips tricks and a practice schedule that will help them succeed come compet time um our competition so there are three main stages of deca within competition there's districts States and ICDC which is the National Conference districts is held in December 11th to 12th in the Double Tree in Danvers and states is February 27th to March 1st in Boston in the seport district and ICBC is in Orlando Florida from April 25th to the 30th um a majority of students participate in what's called a role play so it's like a face Toof face presentation with the judge you can be in Partners or solo and it's like you're put in a real world situation and you have to solve a problem or present a business idea to them but Deca isn't limited to um role plays there also a written project aspect where you can prepare something beforehand and with that there's a written portion as well as a presentation with the judge only it's prepared beforehand and with that um our school has partnered with many different organizations some of which include aord for ocean new house Institution for savings and the doggy Depot so Deca in action this year me Caroline and Jonas have decided to do a business growth plan project um we have created a company and our goal is to create a fiveyear plan as well as get that company up and running so our idea is mass Comfort Mass Comfort acts as a bridge between a local loal business and apparel producer to make the process of developing merchandise stressfree um we want to work with local businesses and our focus is in the community of Hamilton wenom we also pledge to reinvest 50% of the profits we make back into the town um so far for Progress we've acquired our we've acquired our business permits and we're beginning to launch our business uh the next steps for us we will be attending the the differen maker conference on November 19th at UMass LEL to get feed back from experts and practice presenting our pitch um after that comes the district State and hopefully ICDC conference where we're hoping to win glass um and finally um to bring us back to the business our goal is to form three Community Partnerships with local businesses in town by the end of this school year another group that we have affiliated with Deca is the social Squad that includes Patrick G and I and plus to other members Cameron and Emily McIntosh in the social Squad we have a block during the school day where we can go around the school and figure out what's going on at Hamilton wam High School when we do this we try to take pictures of everything that's happening around the school so that we can post it on our Hamilton wam Instagram and Facebook so that more of the community can understand what we have going on we're hoping that through this we can kind of gather more students from the community to the high school since we have lost some students in the past years so through this we experi with different ways of how to post so depending on how many people we should have in a post or just if we should do infographics more or not um down there on the slide you'll also see that is one of our that is our most engaging post that we've posted this year um and Patrick G and Emily McIntosh are also working on a project to compete during the district conference and hopefully State and National Conference as well if Patrick wants to come up and talk a little more about that so so our project is we take a business and then analyze a problem that that business has and we present a solution plan and then Implement that plan and show what results we can achieve and our business that we chose is the Hamilton wam Regional High School because uh we know that the school has declined in student body over the past quite a few years and for this project so far we have been analyzing um student body count Trends since I think 19 85 and we have and we've been using or we've been explaining the social Squad uh team that we have and we talk about how we're using this uh Team to essentially create more like a more engaging environment for the community so we hope that we can spread the word or spread knowledge of um all the amazing opportunities that our school has and just like the general Community spirit and so this will help show people in the community that the high school is is a school that they should be sending their children to so why is DECA so important for our students as Miss wheeler always likes to tell us Deca is you can't be bad at gaining experience Deca is more than just learning and developing transferal business skills it's about building self-esteem experiencing leadership opportunities and practicing community service I personally joined Deca because I was interested in learning more about the different fields in business and seeing if I would be interested in doing that in my future I what I didn't realize when I was joining the club is that I was going to have such a fun experience meeting new people and figuring out other ideas that I didn't know uh a little about a little bit about my Deca experience um so I first joined DEA with a bunch of my friends I thought it would be fun um and everyone at the school was doing it um and I was lucky enough to with my partner Jonas we were lucky enough to make the state conference that year um and after that I just kind of knew like I had found my footing at the school and like this is kind of where I belonged um and deca gives you the opportunity to really pursue that and take on leadership roles and do thing like do things like this um and yeah I'm just really grateful for the club last year the five of us also got to travel to the International Conference in Anaheim California and I would say it was probably the best trip we've been on we had so much fun all together just meeting new people we met people internationally and just within different states and we also got to go to Disney as a plus um but Deca really is so important to all of us and we thank you so much for taking your time to listen to us thank you awesome thank you yeah I'm always just so impressed by this group I think that it's amazing you all do such a good job and I really appreciate you coming to tell us about all the things that you do thank you um I I'd like to just say the same I um I I learned I've seen deck presentations before and I learned a lot tonight I wrote a bunch of things down um it's amazing the wide variety of things you do I think made it really really understandable to us how 50% of the school can be involved because there's so many different things that you are doing that I can see that there's a lot of opportunities for different different students that was really helpful wonderful um anybody else have anything I know it was just great hearing uh some of the personal projects you guys do excuse me you know year after year we love having you guys in but we sort of he about the program a lot so really seeing what you guys are personally working on is pretty exciting so love to get that data on the attrition attrition RS yeah definitely um okay thank you thank you so much give him a round of applause nice job thank you thank you to miss wheeler for continuing to grow our Deca program thank you on the 50% Mark amazing okay all right um oh and I actually meant to notice meant to mention that we did approve those two field trips today on the agenda so nice work that's a tough act to follow it is they are they are an impressive group very impressive very impressive um tonight we're going to go through our district mcast presentation that we do annually this is uh kind of an overview of the scores across the district um start out initially I'll do a little bit of an overview of some of the Statewide results so you can have something to compare it to and then each of the principles will do the results in each of their the buildings um then we'll take questions at the end uh for we have one principal who does have to leave right after our presentation but we can manage her questions for her if you have some um so initially the Statewide results across the state show lower uh lower achievement in all grades from 2023 that that last school year 23 24 school year um the math results however do show Improvement in the third grade and then that the rest of the math is is fairly flat you know plus or minus 1% not not a lot of huge U achievements improvements and then science has also improved achievement in five and 10 grades and for some reason in in eth grade it took a dip this year which has not done in the past so little bit of an overview of the Statewide results this will give you a look at Statewide results compared from two comparing 2019 to 2023 uh we're still approximately uh two and three and four points behind Statewide not just this is not school data this is Statewide data from the 2324 uh testing results and this is for ELA so you'll see from grades three through seven uh still have not kind of caught back up if you will grade eight is is what they would think the state considers flat negative or positive one is considered flat in that realm and then um grade threes through eight as a as a combination is is down approximately three points uh three percentage points in the meeting are exceeding and and uh grade 10 is again flat in the 23 uh scores Eric Ma sorry could you give me a primer on the um acronyms on the top sure if you look from the left to the right column it's percent not meeting partially meeting meeting expectations exceeding expectations and then they combine meeting or exceeding so M or E sorry it's one of those assumptions we all make right everybody knows so not meeting partially meeting uh meeting and then exceeding and then what you'll see a lot of the state scores are meeting and exceeding is where they group kids to try to say okay this is our Target to get kids into this group and again as as you look at this chart Statewide math results grade three uh had a bump with three percentage points uh which means 3% of the kids across the state moved up to the meeting or exceeding categories and then the rest is relatively flat u in a presentation that was done by the state um they had they had said that anything within plus or minus one or zero was to them flat uh comparatively across across years because they they are comparing kids kind of unusually they're comparing grade third grade of last year to third grade of the previous year to third grade in 2019 so when you start to see these numbers it's it's a bit of a an anomaly how that comparative happens um and I've said this in the past when you um look at the data in that way and I think we would all probably agree you're comparing oranges apples and grapes each year you have different groups of kids you have different um types of kids coming through the system and and uh it's a direct comparison uh we also like to look at it in the cohort style so looking at a fourth grader and saying how do they do versus their third grade score is is more meaningful for us for that child uh when you're looking at growth and achievement and then science uh it's kind of a little bit all over the map science across the state uh in the grade five big jump uh this this past year grade eight went it was was what I had mentioned earlier had gone down two percentage points and then five through eight as a whole was roughly flat in the in the words of the state and then grade 10 was two percentage points uh which means 2% of the students in grade 10 have um made it into that meeting or exceeding threshold across our district in grades 3 through eight 62% of our our students students are meeting or exceeding expectations in ela um grades 3 through 8 57% of students are meeting or exceeding expectations in math and in grades five and eight 65% of meeting or exceeding expectations in science and those are some of the comparison groups that they use at the state level the three through eight and the five and the eight um to to make comparisons so we try to track that as well across the district and now I'll shift into each of the school scores we'll start with uh buer sh am I driving from up here you can drive okay sure all right good evening everyone H my name is Ben sherson I'm the principal here at Beaker Elementary uh we're going to start with an overview um at the school level look at the three tests and then talk about our plan moving forward and it will be that similar format um for the five schools um so looking at broadly what's happening 3 through five um science is looking good um strong scores and pulling away from the state average um similar scores uh in math again pulling away from the state which is is good to see um Ela was not as strong um and I want to go into a little deeper story there about what's going on um Eric talked about cohorts about following those kids who were third grade two years ago to fourth grade last year and fourth grade two years ago to fifth grade um in those Ela cohorts looking at those there was a slight dip um looking at those cohorts across the state there was there was a matching dip um with math looking at those cohorts both of those cohorts increased in proficiency which was great um the state at the state level one of those groups increased and one of them decreased but nice to see those increases um with those cohorts where are following the same set of kids from year to year so looking a little deeper um on the left side uh is averages for all students EP buer and on the right side is for students with disabilities um the steady slow drop is the piece that jumps out of me as I'm sure it does for you um the part that doesn't that isn't in the story um is that we had 15 kids uh in ela who scored a 497 498 and 499 so 15 kids that's 133% who were within two questions of meeting the standard um so many such that when Zack at the middle school was putting him in in his mcast course he reached out to say holy cow how is you have this many kids who are this close and I was like right I know and that's the part that the craft doesn't show they're just right there um there is a drop in scores with our students with disabilities um my first reaction was what's what's going on here um one of the things I try to think about is that with these small schools we start to get into really really small cohorts um and going from year to year all those fifth graders leave and some new third graders come in um that cohort is about 20 kids and a third of them change every year what do the circle with the x's mean I'm getting there thanks um so there is some some moving around in terms of what those kids are actually looking at so the dotted line is a state average we move over to students with disabilities the dotted line is the state average for all students not the state average for students with disabilities if you go and and crunch the numbers the red dots are the state averages for students with disabilities so if we're going to compare apples to apples it's our solid line and the three red dots at the bottom um slight increases in the gap between us and the state in 2024 um and really nice to see a great greater than 50% uh growth percentile um for the students with disabilities U math is looking good um all three individual individual grades had increases so not just the group as a whole um one of our school goals from last year was around math fact fluency um and want to believe that has something to do with that we had a lot of conversations about that um with teachers last year um both cohorts went up so those third graders going to Fourth and fourth going to fifth um for students with disabilities again we're talking about a cohort of about 20 kids um and nice to see us pulling away from where that state averages so doing some uh some nice movement there um nice that their growth the students with disabilities um higher than higher than the 50th percentile um I would love to see it a little higher than the students without disability so they were closing that Gap um but nice to see us above that state average for growth on the science side science is changing we're in the middle of this change um we I just want to give you a little sense of kind of where things are going um in the past we've had this traditional science test the vast majority of it is multiple choice um the moon question is around if I took some pictures over the course of a week which series of moons is it I won't ask you to try and answer it for me um what we're moving on to is more kids performing experiments and drawing conclusions as part of the exercise um so this piece on the left is around erosion and asking kids to look at what kind of barriers in which positions will prevent the most erosion um the other piece is the other side is an ecosystems experiment where they look at two different locations looking at the number of sunny days during a month um and then thinking about how that affects uh fish and insect popul and the energy available for top predators um so a very very different kind of test um kids are really conducting experiments they're drawing those conclusions um and really talking about those results um so we started into that field testing this year um it's rolling out should be rolling up to everybody this coming year um but as we sort of think about science and and where we're going with that that this test is about to change very dramatically um on the science side um um love it yeah um steady climb um to be fair this is just the fifth graders um but I do like to remind everybody that um everybody's kids are everybody's kids and so when those fifth graders do science um it's not just that fifth grade experience it's everybody all the way through um and true for third and fourth for their for their um tests as well that really it's not just what's happening in that grade it's all of the years that led into that um the swings on the right hand side we're now talking two classes and kids with disabilities um that cohort is either side of 10 um and is a number that the state doesn't actually report on because the cohort size is so small um this is an an internal um graph so those wild swings are there because there are some cohorts in there that are two kids and so that swings that a lot so what do we do with all this um one of the big things is writing um if we look at our Ela scores the place where we lose those points is uh is on writing is on essays um we're in our third year with CA um it has a lot of writing of paragraphs a lot of organizing ideas um but less writing those fully produced pieces of writing and no real on demand writing where you are writing stuff from the beginning to the end all in one sitting uh we are adding a Research Unit um as a writing unit in with the fourth grade the lower grades are looking at ways to add writing into their curriculum we're really looking about those essay points um for ID development we end up with about 40% of the possible points um essay conventions are about 50% um interesting about the conventions is that when we get multiple choice questions about conventions uh we do really well on those when we look at conventions in the actual written piece and actually have those applied um that's where we are where we fall a little bit short um we're looking at some writing professional development for coaches and for administrators um so we can support more there we did a lot of work with science of reading in the last few years and now really thinking about um understanding more about how kids uh learn writing um and what the latest research on that is so that we can get the best bang for our buck there um continuing with mathematical fluency um I am really excited as a math person about how Eureka Square deals with fluency um it's a little bit that's brought in every day it's part of that daily practice um we've historically had some issues with fractions on mcast as well that was not any different this year um and Eureka square has some really uh unique ways of talking about unit fractions and working those into number lines and really building that number sense of what fractions actually mean um so that's um exciting for me and then thinking about those students with disabilities we have moved to some co- teing models in third fourth and fifth grade um where we have special Educators who are doing um teaching and supporting of students directly in the classroom um traditionally it's been a pullout model where special education teachers pull those students out um and do those tutorials with them um in a separate space and then it is our esps or our Tas who do the supporting in the classroom um so in third fourth and fifth we have opportunities for those special education teachers to actually be in the classroom um supporting those kids um what's not on here just because our population is so small is our El population um looking at our internal dble scores um our e students are doing fantastic um our El teacher our literacy esps our classroom teachers are doing a great job with them um and it's really exciting to see uh their language developed both verbally um but also within within reading and writing um but so you know thinking about mcast in general um really excited about some about some of what's on there um have some mixed feelings about literacy um but we know where kids are struggling we have a plan to support them this year thank you all right good evening everyone I'm Jennifer hunt the new principal at the Cutler elementary school thank you y um so much like um Ben then I'm just going to kind of go over our scores um have some expl explanations around sort of thoughts as to why our scores are um at certain levels and not um and I do have at the end an overview of a plan to kind of help to um better our our instruction at Cutler around um the subjects of ela and math in particular um so just kind of looking back through um our our mcast scores there here are the overview of the highlights um our absenteeism has improved overall by 4% right now we've exceeded our targets um students with disabilities so we have a language-based program and we also have a moderate disability special education program and we now have a new um therapeutic Learning Center um but our students with disabilities showed good percentage growth overall in all grades three through five all content areas Ela and math so up from the previous year our grade three Ela over overall growth up 11% from the previous year and grade four math overall growth up 8% from the previous year um what you're going to see on the next slide is going to actually speak more to when I start to talk about our mcast scores um and what we kind of uncovered was happening and has been happening at the Cutler elementary school for a couple of years um so one thing is digital learning and Technology what usage was not encouraged under the previous leadership so children did not have opportunities to have devices in their hands um from a young age so you know by the time they got up to the third fourth and fifth grade they didn't have experience using certain digital tools um and therefore there was a you know this mcass is all digital so there was a deficit there in terms of utilizing the the tools in particular in math the math mcast test has a lot of different tools that you need to use like highlighters and drop down menus um so part of what we're thinking the scores why they didn't do as well as the district had expected or hoped um is directly related to this um and also students in grades three and four three through five were not given um time really to practice um the practice test on Chromebooks so it appears they didn't seem to understand again how to use online testing tools and when we look through um student rosters and item analysis summaries and we can really break down those those specific questions and looking at the scores and seeing you know what the full amount of points you should um be able to get we we saw a lot of zeros and a lot of ones um so that's kind of when you get to the next um slide you'll see what's what's been happening um parts of the literacy and the math curriculum so it was a new literacy question oh I'm sorry go ahead um what do you mean by we're not being taught with Integrity so there were a lot of inconsistencies there was a um in terms of like tier one instruction and tier 2 intervention certain things didn't get up and running as as early as they should have um I don't know why they're just I've looked back yeah I know on the ground I know it's just you know when we look back and we look at data and we look at like sort of like the three-year um data assessments and where you know at the first beginning of the year assessments there wasn't data even put into some of the the charts um go ahead but are you talking about our special ed kids or was this overall it's not our special ed kids it was more overall yeah um it was a new coach um a lot of new staff members a a lot of um trying to keep up with certain pacing guides and scope and sequences in CK and then also in the new in the math curriculum so they were using investigations and then in the spring piloted two other separate math curriculum urea math squared and illustrative math which kind of interrupted and disrupted that Integrity component of of continuing to teach in particular the math curriculum because you'll see it's our math scores that really suffered more than anything does that answer your question absolutely okay go ahead do you feel like this has there's a plan to improve this do you feel like it's in a better we've already started it great we got it we're and we're already seeing we're already seeing growth and benefits from it so um so here's Ela all grades three through five um and as you can see if you're looking at those graphs how it has really dipped down um pretty dramatically uh you know we went down 8% in the previous year um 4% average scaled score student growth performance down pretty drastically both 10% the previous year and then we're we're lower than the state average and we're lower than the state average in a lot of areas um we're lower than uh the district average in a lot of areas but there are some small um glimmers of Hope where we actually were above both so um and I I can talk more about that if you'd like um students with disabilities actually did go up if you look at the student growth performance percentage they went up 9.6 from the previous year so that's that's very promising and that's really important especially since we house a variety of different special education programs um math is where we're really some concerning scores and dips in the achievement and the growth so again you know down eight% over the previous year were 3% less than the state average we would hope that our students meeting in exceeding expectations would be higher than a 40% um number but again like I said in my previous slide there are reasons that were sort of uncovering uh that explain a lot of this so it's not necessarily that our students um aren't capable because they are very capable of of exceeding um students with disabilities again you can see that we've gone up from the previous year in the scaled score and also the um student growth performance science we didn't do as well as some of the other schools I I'm still learning about this we have a couple of different science um curriculum that we use Mystery Science and stem scope so still kind of figure out uh where teachers are teaching science fitting it into their day the majority of the day is focused obviously on elll and math especially since we're looking at scores that we we are seeking to improve um so what we started to do moving forward is students are now from kindergarten through fifth grade um with our s with our library media teachers um Linda mastriani who um is our library director of library and technology in in elementary schools has been working very closely with all teachers getting into classrooms kids are getting on Chromebooks um kindergarteners are using their iPads I was in the library this week watching the kids you know have fun kind of playing around and learning about the tools on a very basic level so part of one of my goals this year is to really work closely with Linda and making sure that we are giving students ample opportunities to you know learn on the digital learning platforms to have experience with the devices um she's working really closely with third grade right now making sure that they have opportunities on Chromebooks because they weren't they didn't have as many so by the time they got to the mcast test they didn't they didn't have a familiarity with how to use um even the basics of the Chromebooks um we're working again with Linda to make sure that we're giving kids three through five opportunities to practice using um the Chromebooks and the mcast practice tests we have really um met very closely with my instructional coach myself um in our PLC meetings and our data meetings PLC meetings are on Wednesdays um but we also make time in our schedule to meet with grade levels specifically um we met with third fourth and fifth a couple of times last week and really delve down deep into the item analysis section of mcast and we were able to actually look exactly at what was the standard what was the question um we're going to look at maybe giving opportunities or giving opportunities for you know kids to sort of practice with sample questions from that item analysis summary um and that's what this is yeah we looked really closely at The mcast rosters we looked at who specifically wasn't meeting expectations um and then we took those students and we looked at all the items that they didn't perform so well on and really started to understand that um a lot of it was in math um and we realize that with what's happening now with Eureka math squared um down here the new new math curriculum it is already teaching a lot of those standards standards and math concepts that were missed on those item analysis tests so we're we're we're already seeing growth Leaps and Bounds in kids um math academic performance and assessments um again and Eureka Math also has uh digital assessments online digital assessments that mirrors the mcast assessment so again that practice using those tools um is I think going to be really beneficial um we're going to continue emphasis on the CK curriculum um I myself have have gone to training uh we do have a grant that Jen Clifford wrote that is going to have give us coaches to kind of continue with that implementation through CK as well as Eureka math squared um and we are looking at you know not just tier one instruction but tier two instruction um in our wind blocks where we can really look at the kids who might not meeting be meeting Benchmark um standards at this point and taking time to um really focus in on Intervention intervention during those wind times do any questions yes thank you for that presentation um the digital tools that have been made available are those tools that are already available to the other schools and or and weren't available at Cutler they were available they were they just were being not utilized yes okay thank you I mean typing club for one right there when we looked at the literacy the ELA um item analysis we saw that a lot of the errors came around the fact that that the the children hadn't had experiences typing so they weren't able to do you know the shift key to make the capital letter they weren't able to they weren't doing necessarily the punctuation marks um we looked at a lot of like the the the open response questions um to see you know where we can support with that as well so it's pretty Global that we're looking at all of this but we are meeting on a regular basis we are in classrooms we are supporting teachers providing them with resources um materials uh and I we are already seeing progress and I think people are already starting to feel good about it so I do think it's going to take time but I do feel strongly that we will improve our scores and improve our progress over overall sure first I want to thank uh Miss hunt for jumping into the pile here this is probably you know your new principal and this is this is surprise um but I think it's important to know that the tools um related to even mcast were not known by a lot of these kids so when you look back at their grades there were a lot of blanks uh which kind of tells us they didn't know what to do so when you go into some of these math problem s you have to go up and pull down a tool or you have to reach and bring something down and if you don't know that if you've never experienced that as a third grader it makes it really difficult so uh we had learned that there was um a dir of Technology use in that in that uh in that building uh during that the previous year uh there was some push to try to get some technology used it it didn't uh happen as it should have and I think that's one of the things that we've been able to quickly recover in and get kids uh the opportunities to a be on the Chrome books and teach them about typing skills but also teach them about the skills uh the state gives us sample test questions so that kids can learn the tools these kids just in in our opinion didn't have the opportunity so was it a hardware issue like we did we just not have enough Chromebooks no we have enough Chromebooks we have enough Chromebooks we have enough iPads we had the staff we had um a library media teacher so yeah yeah thank you I'm happy if anyone else has other questions I'm happy to answer um okay thank you so much thank you have a good night good evening I'm Carolyn chediak I'm the principal of the winthrip school and um a lot of what I could possibly tell you Ben and Jenny have covered because there are some districtwide Elementary um situations that we've seen in all three schools and we've collaborated quite a bit on what we can do to um improve our scores for next year but I'm going to talk a little bit about um some of the things that have occurred at Winthrop and um so some of our highlights are that we were above State averages in ela with our scores following the state trend lines we of course want to be above the state averages and so I would like to see us be um you know higher above the state averages but for now we are where we are um the state averages in math there we are still above the state averages but there was a slight drop in scores in 2024 um grade five was kind of a shining star at Winthrop across the board um in all three areas um and they showed really strong achievement in grade five science including students with disabilities it was one of the areas with our students with disabilities actually performed pretty well so that was exciting to see um we also met our Target for chronic absenteeism in our lowest performing student subgroup we met um we got three out of four points for all students so we're um doing a good job in addressing Chron chronic absenteeism some of the things that impacted uh our scores were we had a number of students as I'm talking about absenteeism we had a couple of kids who were AB like in the two weeks following up to mcast when we're doing the mcast practice and getting kids heads in the game um and then the other thing and Jenny mentioned it a little bit about the technology the impact of technology on the scores is that last year at winthrip we had very inconsistent Staffing in our library Tech that we had the teaching assistance last year but we went through a cycle of about four people they would come they would stay for a little while and they would quit and I'd get somebody new and I'd get somebody new so there was really inconsistent Library Tech teaching so the level of practice in the library Tech um model was not great and I think it definitely impacts kids access and comfort level with using the Chromebooks um when they're ready to take the test some of that impact definitely showed in typing skills um essays were across the district so it's we can say some of it has to do with teaching kids kids how to write essays but the other part was typing and so some kids had a low capacity for being able to type a lot and then they just wanted to be done so that was one of the areas where we are looking at how to improve those scores um in ela there were 20 students in grades three to five who were just below that meeting as Ben said um they were within 10 points of meeting in math um we really continued to Prior prioritized literacy intervention during our in intervention and enrichment blocks um so there wasn't a lot of opportunity outside of the math instruction to go back and do a lot of remediation for students who had to fill some gaps so that is something that we're addressing this year and I'll talk about that um later on uh the other thing that impacted some of our scores was the pacing and sequence of topics um in our previous math program investigations in four fourth grade fractions is not taught until after mcast so the teachers did a little primer of it but they didn't go deep into it so that is definitely something that also is going to be addressed um through our new math program Eureka math squared and in math I had 30 students who were just below meeting so those are the kids that we're really going to continue to work on getting them up over that meeting as well as you know bringing all the kids who were lower bring improving their scores also so here's winthrip's um winthrip scores and you can't see the number but 57% of our students were meeting and exceeding in grades three to five um and Ben mentioned cohorts of kids and how different groups of kids are very different groups of kids um and we have a group of third graders who came in to third grade uh with some challenges and we also have um at winthrip school we've got the castle program which is a subpar program and there was a larger cohort of third graders in Castle than we've ever had before so that's definitely going to impact our scores when we're talking about 15 students with disabilities and four of them um are in a subpar program it's going to definitely impact the scores um so you can see we're still above State averages and as Ben mentioned the little X is um the state average for students with disabilities so we were still just a little bit above it but I definitely would like to see those scores improve in math um similar um similar lines we did take a dip and that dip was really impacted by third grade math our fifth grade math fifth grade across the board was the strongest grade um but third grade we had a lot of challenges and some of those challenges were because of the exposure to technology and the comfort with technology our teachers did try really hard to give kids as much exposure in the classroom but that extra exposure during Library Tech I I truly believe had a big impact because those kids had not used Chromebooks in second grade in K to 2 we use iPads so third grade was the first time kids are putting their hands on Chromebooks um and having an opportunity to practice those skills and as Jenny mentioned the new program Eureka Mass squared there are online assessments that really mirror some of our uh mcast style questions and use a lot of the same tools so we are hoping that this new um program in addition to buffing up kids math skills it's also going to be able to give them the additional practice with the technology to help them do better on mcast um and so the scores are the scores are what the scores are at this point um and we are hoping to see a much bigger Improvement next year and science um was an area of strength for us 64% of our students were meeting in exceeding and in uh for students with disability 27% were meeting or exceeding which was really exciting to see and our growth in science for students with disabilities was the one area where we saw some good grow growth and I should go back to say that we did have a number of students with disabilities who did have really good growth but it was offset by some other students with disabilities who didn't have good growth so when you put it all together the overall scores aren't aren't looking so great So the plan moving forward at winr very similar to what's happening at buer and at CA curriculum with Fidelity and integrity um I had a discussion with my three through five teachers on Wednesday at one of our PLC meetings and one of the topics that came up was that there's um CK is mostly focused on non-fiction topics of science and social studies topics there's not a lot of opportunity for True literature and in each grade level there's maybe one unit um in third grade they do an a a a literature study in the very first unit and then it's not done again throughout the school year so we've talked about how to go back to doing read alouds finding other opportunities for authentic literature um so we we're looking really closely at the items that kids didn't do as well on and filling in some gaps that way the new math curriculum has been fabulous so far we are so excited by what we are seeing and the skills that kids are picking up on um investigations was kind of a we'll teach it to you and figure it out and use what strategy you're comfortable with this new um curriculum has explicit teaching so we are teaching kids strategies they are learning multiple strategies but they are explicitly being taught there's a spiral review of topics um Ben mentioned the daily fluency practice and the teachers are really excited about that fluency practice it's super engaging all kids are participating um and then one of the big things that was a problem with um in our math scores was the fractions and fractions is taught much earlier in the year and it's going to be repeated throughout so so we're hoping to see a big gain in our fraction scores um the other thing that we are doing is we are making sure that there is a balance between literacy and math during the intervention and enrichment block and teachers are trying to even find times outside of the intervention and enrichment block to do intervention if there are students who already get for literacy interventions during the week well when are they getting their math interventions they're trying to find time first thing in the morning or when there's a quiet 10 minutes just to be pulling kids and doing some additional work um and what the area that we're really seeing needing the most remediation is fact fluency and kids who are in fourth grade who still don't know their addition f facts so in third grade they kind of learned multiplication but they don't have their addition facts from second grade so we're trying to go back and fill some of those gaps um we are working with uh Julie lener our literacy intervention specialist to um make sure that students are getting structured literacy interventions to supplement um the Lac interventions teachers are also doing some intervention during their um intervention blocks so they might spend the first 20 minutes doing literacy intervention and then the second um 20 minutes of the block doing math interventions we are also putting a big emphasis on keyboarding and Technology use as I mentioned uh we've got the third graders already starting typing club typing club didn't start until probably January or February last year so we've already got the third graders on their um on their Chromebooks and keyboarding three four five times a week if we can get them um so we've got a they're building their proficiency with being able to type their essays and um and through the online Assessments in Eureka squared uh Eureka math squared they are learning how to use those equation editors in math and learning all of those tools that are very similar to what they'll see in mcast and then the other piece um is that I've been working with our counselors and our teachers um and the special ed teachers to really support and encourage student agency and reduce test anxiety there were a couple of kids who we were really really surprised at how poorly they had done and then in talking to the teachers we found out that they just they had kind of given up like this is just too hard and I just can't do it and they didn't put the effort into even trying to read the questions so we're going to really try to look at sort of whole child um remediations this year to make sure that kids are feeling comfortable and it's okay and you're going to try and do your best because we had a number of students who just went through and had zeros on a lot of their questions um and when we went back and looked at it it was kids who had something had happened the week before they weren't in the right frame of mind so we're going to really try to um think about that this year any questions go back thank you question thank you very much all right thank you you're missing the best part conr that was terrible um hey good good afternoon everybody good evening um Zach best principal at the Middle School uh so you know this is a a Great lead and I'm very proud to say that um you know our overview I can tell you that we scored at the 95th percentile of all non- high schools um in in Massachusetts um because schools um in K through 8 are divided up any kind of number of ways k6 K8 um 5'8 they just they lump us all together so we are in the the 95th percentile there um to get there we met or exceeded all of our Improvement targets for all of our students and our lowest performing students so they report on both of those combine those two um scores together to come up with our overall um accountability piece um in fact we exceeded our Targets in all but three areas so we met or exceeded all of our targets we realized improvements in both growth and achievement um and all tested subjects for all students and for students with disabilities a little truth in advertising we did see a bit of a decline in sixth grade ELA and math achievement but we're outpacing St growth so you know we were talking earlier about how this you know last year sixth grade was compared to the previous year sixth grade um which is fine but you know as a group of students they are realizing growth at a greater rate than than their peers at the state level Additionally the state um gave us a title of school of recognition we're one of 57 schools to earn this importantly we're one of three six through eight schools and I think it's important to say that you know this is a whole you know you can be an elementary middle or high it it feels like it's especially tough for middle schools maybe to get this designation um so we're proud that we we are one of three um that designation is for um demonstrating progress towards annual accountability targets and there's an emphasis on U not just the performance of all students but uh in fact the students with the in the lowest performing group so uh that is what earned us that particular recognition so we can look at our Ela overall um and you can see that we are are trending in the right direction um again if you wanted to look at a specific grade grade level um seventh and eth actually had double digit gains um sixth grade you know was was a bit of a drop but when you average it all together we're still um heading in the right direction um our scaled scores 21 points over the state average our growth is 11 points over the state average and then on the right you can see um our students with disabilities that graph is a little bit more um wavy you know when you um parse out the students with disabil as a subgroup um there's fewer students so you know you can have a two or three student differential and and that can be realized with a you know a broader wave that we're seeing over here um again outpacing uh State growth math we have um this the similar story on the left we have an increase of uh 26% over the state average for all students not an increase but our overall um percentage students meeting or exceeding was 26% higher than the state average um our scaled scores above the state average and again importantly our growth is 10 points over the state average uh we had a bit of a rough year a couple years ago with our students with disabilities and you can see that they are um back on on a growth trajectory in middle school we only test our eighth graders in science they get tested in fifth grade they don't see a science test until 8th grade and that test actually covers all of the different um sixth seventh and eighth grade materials uh so because of that we don't get a growth score in science they don't feel like they have anything um that's necessarily they can compare growth to uh but again you can see when compared to the state average we're we're doing um rather well and we're heading in the right direction you know our students with disabilities are performing at the same level um as all students Statewide so we we like that Trend and we hope to see it continue so what are we looking at moving forward um this year we were able to reduce class sizes in ela math science and social studies um anytime we can uh get that number down just a little bit um it allows us to give a little bit more more attention to certain students to all of the students um and and we're realizing some um you know advantage to having that reduction in class size we've been chipping away at our IE block uh this year we are um in a place where every student in the building has access to additional help um as needed uh twice a week in the IE block um we have regular data meetings this year we have historically uh met with our Math teachers and our ELA teachers following screeners which is very helpful and we can kind of get a snapshot of where they're at we have expanded that practice to uh all subject areas um and not just when there's a screener we're looking at um unit tests today I met with seventh grade science we were looking at um CER activities so really trying to get rather than just a a pinpoint here and there and maybe at the end of the year a more regular look at at how students are doing so we can adjust instruction accordingly um and we're excited about a new Ela curriculum we spent the whole year last year um selecting a uh a curriculum that that we really felt met our needs we have a fantastic Ela step that you can imagine um just if if for nothing else the resource Gathering that goes into teaching um a middle school English language arts class but beyond that um you know this is really allowing us to use common language so when we're teaching writing at sixth grade the curriculum allows us to build on that in seventh grade and allows us to build on that um in eth grade so we think those those small things are going to make a big difference um I had a free panel over here and I didn't like the blank space and I thought you know we've been looking at a lot of dots and dashes and lines and I just this is a reminder for all of us that those dots and dashes and lines are people um and children and you know they are it's they're not widgets you know there's every day is a new day um and we know that there's so many factors that go into this um mcast is just one representation but you know it's it's a really good representation of the hard work our teachers and students are doing and I zoomed in those posters are really pretty cool yeah this is so I know this is not on the docket but this is one of my favorite activities when they learn cells they have to make a simile to something else and so the kids will do to a sports arena you know my office is the nucleus and so um it's fun to see what they come up with um this one is a candy P you know it's up to them to decide pretty cool be happy to answer any questions great thank you so much thank you good evening everyone I'm here to talk about uh mcast at the high school uh couple of things I would like to point out uh points of Pride here um it's a strong overall mcast performance compared to some area schools which I can show you a little bit later um I think it's important to do that just to give you a little bit of context um how other schools are doing with respect to mcast and high school um we've seen continued Improvement year-over-year um of our students on IEPs um on Ela um so that's encouraging uh but stepping a little bit beyond mcast mcast is a part of the accountability structure in Massachusetts and we scored in the 87th percentile um amongst all high schools and when you look at the all students group um we met or exceeded the targets for achievement and growth as set by the state uh so those are positive things that I would like to point out um but some things that we need to continue to focus on um would be a persistent Gap uh between all students and students on IEPs how they're performing on mcast um but also looking at the lowest performing student group um you know they are identified as the kids who have um you know really struggled on the mcast both Ela and math um and we want to continue to focus on that because in this uh most recent year we did note a an actual decline in their performance um on mcast um and finally although it's not reflected in the mcast data here um we want to make sure that we are on top of our graduation rate um because year-over-year we do see some fluctuations and being a smaller school um a couple of kids not graduating on time actually shows up um you know and you think about the life trajectory for a student who doesn't graduate um from high school with their peers um I think that uh it's important for us to keep that in mind uh so what I'll show you first here is Ela um you can see that 87% of our students um are meeting or exceeding expectations um and I think that's something to be proud of um all the hard work that the teachers and the students put in um it's very commend mble uh but I also need to point out uh that this doesn't happen just because kids show up in the high school and take the ELA test in 10th grade um it's the work of their 10th grade teachers their ninth grade teachers e8th grade seventh all the way down to kindergarten um so if students have struggled on mcast uh throughout the years um in some ways we can look at that as productive struggle and by the time they get to the high school um I think that they they get better at taking tests that's part of it um they're a little bit better with the technology in their hands um but also they're just I think they're more empowered Learners at that point and they've really started to I think um take ownership of what's going on in the classroom a little bit more so I think that helps push the performance a little bit higher as well just because they're older kids uh but as I noted earlier one of the areas of concern uh if you look at the leftand graph and the right hand graph um you know that gap between all students and students on I PS although you can see that um the last three years or the last four years of uh Ela testing for students on IEPs you see a general trend line in the positive direction we still need to work to narrow that Gap um we want to see more of our students um in special education U meeting or exceeding expectations and I think with more hard work um in the classroom um and designing experiences for those students uh that we can help them help move move them there in math um 79% of all students are meeting or exceeding expectations um and we'll you know be able to contextualize that when we look at some other schools um you know and you see I think a consistency of performance year-over-year both with Ela and math um and that you're going to there's going to be fluctuations from year to year you can certainly see around Co there is a dip there um and there there are going to be ups and downs year over-ear but I think we we see a consistency of performance but again I would want to point out um again that gap between uh the two groups there um and I'll talk a little bit more later about what we're doing to help uh narrow that Gap science is a little weird uh in high school um I think because students first of all takeen in ninth grade um and ninth graders are very different than 10th graders um having worked with them for a number of years um also the science test uh in high school it's really it's about one subject biology and they kind of take the class and you know it it's not like Ela and math where they've had years to build those skills um and those are really skills-based tests this is really a content-based test I know they're trying to move it more towards a skills-based thing which is good I believe but uh you know for right now I think it's a lot of content and you know so year over-year um you may see some fluctuations in and how kids do and just in terms of how they engage with the content or what the test looks like a little bit again you see that gap between all students and students on IEPs um a little concerning though is sort of what seems like a downward Trend students on IEPs one thing I would say is that last year we did adopt a new curriculum uh for our ninth grade biology classes and it's not atypical to see a little bit of an implementation dip as both the teachers and the students get used to um really a new way of learning because this curriculum has has pushed them to learn science in new ways and apply it in different ways as well uh this is the local school comparison because I think saying oh 87% meet or exceed expectations well what does that actually mean in the real world but what I did is I took uh all the capan league schools but also Beverly Danvers and Masco just because they're adjacent to us to to give us an idea of you know how do we perform relative to them um and you can see out of that group of 15 it's was you know year over-ear it's uh you know we're often near the top of that group of 15 there are some fluctuations there we're like well how did you go from seven to one it would be really interesting to dig into that I guess and find that out but you know the one-year things I don't know if they're always helpful it it does help to look at uh Trends maybe over three to five years or something like that but it just gives you an idea of kind of where we sit uh not this is not a competition but I think it gives us a little bit better of context and how we can think about how our kids are doing and the encouraging thing too is that on the leftand side are all students the right hand side students with disabilities and you know in either case we typically are performing near the top of this uh group of 15 schools so what are our plans moving forward um you know our plans are never specifically designed to do better on mcast our plans are designed to help kids learn better mcast is a nice signal um because it's aligned to State Standards but it's it's never the goal of what we're doing here um you know what we want to continue to do in the high school um integrate executive functioning supports uh for our ninth graders you might say what does that have to do with mcast or really kind of learning in general but if kids don't have the skills to know how to operate as students and organize and plan and do all that other work it's really hard for them to engage with the content on a sophisticated level so as we help build those skills um we're able to give kids more sophisticated work and ask more of them but it takes time um and we're working on that this year by having you know a really deliberate structure to the classes making sure kids know what it is uh that they're expected to learn and how they're going to practice it outside of class uh that that's been helpful for students um we're identifying kids who are in need of support in ela and math by using ing screeners at regular intervals um and then aligning them with the different supports that we have in school one of which is the math support block um we have a teacher uh who is working with about 15 students uh during power block uh to both accelerate their learning in the class that they're in but also to help um fill in any skill gaps that they may have and we uh Place students in there partly because of the screening data that we have uh and this year um you know we're implementing reveal math uh which is a new instructional resource for Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 classes um and this helps give some consistency of experience to our students uh but also takes the pressure off of teachers to have to go find all the things that you need for class and instead focus more on how the kids are doing and how they're going to stitch those experiences together and have the kids interact with the content and with each other uh to accelerate their learning uh but also like I said uh the new science curriculum um last year was the first year with it and the teachers made a nice move this year in terms of adopting their own workbook and creating that themselves uh so that way it helps with some of those executive functioning supports that I uh referred to earlier on uh we want to continue to develop though this year um starting second semester we will have a support block for ELA that will be in place and you might say well why did you do it for math first and not for ELA math was the more glaring need I think you saw the the difference in uh meting seeding expectations between Ela and math uh but we will have an Ela support block um starting second semester uh we're also going to start using the Alex platform uh which is an online uh tool that students can use um to help build their skills specifically in math um so we will be aligning that with the kids who we think need that the most um early on so we can build our skill with how to use that with kids but it it lets students really do a lot of independent practice and it will show them how they're building uh their math skills over time uh we're going to be using Study Island for mcast prep um you know again with a targeted group of kids because um you know it's still part of our accountability um structure so we want to make sure we're preparing kids for mcast again it's not really a Target but we do want to make sure that the kids who need the most help uh with that assessment or getting it um you know we have Ela and math specific academic Support classes for our students on IEPs um we need to continue to fine-tune those a little bit that's a newer thing this year um where if a student has um a disability maybe in written expression or in Reading um or has a math goal um they're in a an academic support that's specific for that uh we just need to continue to tune that model to make sure we get first of all get the right kids in the right spot um High School scheduling is kind of complex and it's not not always easy to get kids in the exact right spots so we'll work on that but also giving the teachers the tools they need uh to give kids the proper support in both the ELA and math specific support or academic support blocks um and finally um you know we've been we've taken extra steps this year so far and we're going to continue to do so uh but to monitor all the student indicators that we have uh that really relate towards graduation so yes that is how kids are doing grade-wise uh but also looking at uh some behavioral data and attendance to make sure uh that we're catching kids who may be putting uh forward some early warning signs we'll say and making sure that they're getting the extra support that they need I mean typically our kids graduate from high school but every once in a while you get a year where it's just you know for whatever reason it's tough and we want to make sure that we hold on to these kids and get them to walk across the stage with their classmates so that's uh that's what I have I'm happy to answer any questions thank you question um I this isn't really a question but I just want to say thank you for articulating um something that I when I reviewed this before I tried to say to Eric and I really spent forever try trying to articulate and you said it so nicely and I'm so glad that you said it here which was when you talked about when we're looking at the high school scores that's really reflect Ive of our kindergarten all the way through that and I love that you use the word that it's a productive struggle right because in the in between times even I think a couple of the elementary teachers principles talked about even the timing of like if you learn fractions later in the year it's not reflected in the test but but I don't want this is my judgment but like you know is it really important in the long run because ultimately what we're seeing is the fruits of all that work and I I just want to say that thank you for articulating that and and and like seeing that it builds up and that it may not be reflected earlier on but it is showing up in later on they do grow up yeah that's the good part so thank you um for that um anybody else okay thank you so much thank you give you a quick PSA because I'm sure people are wondering didn't we just vote mcass out um the reality is question two was yes we did vote Yes in Massachusetts but that just means that the test will not be a graduation requirement uh for next year uh what we've learned so far is the state continues to uh use mcast in all the same grades as an accountability measure so one of the things that we get each year is an accountability report a score report by building and and that has mcast scores and a 10 attendance and it Compares growth and achievement uh across different uh groups of students and that will still stay remain in place so they'll be still uh giving the mcast test there's just not a requirement for uh to pass if you will to meet or exceed to to to graduate uh what we've been told is uh they're going to lean back on something we've kind of done in the past if you had a student who didn't pass for example the math uh test in uh High School in 10th Grade they did not for some reason they did not meet expectations um they weren't proficient if you will then uh there they had they went on what's called an EP plan an education proficiency plan and that uh enabled the child to move forward take for example their Algebra 2 class if they got a passing grade in their Algebra 2 class then they were able to graduate that was one of the things so what were what are the early indicators from the Department of Education and a notice they sent out actually yesterday morning um was related to uh how they intended to do that so it looks like they're going to allow each district to come up with those requirements um they just haven't actually labeled them yet for us I'm sure they'll give us more guidance as we move forward but um there's currently a whole group of kids that will still be taking retests in November um the earliest kind of no test feature uh for require for graduation kicks in is December so um anybody who's already passed it you're all set anybody who hasn't we're waiting for some direction from the state so questions on that I want to thank all the principles this is tough digging into this information we go through it from multiple angles we push and shove over what makes sense to present what doesn't uh we're trying to be transparent we want to uh be honest about what's going on out there we have noticed uh some really good growth again in the Middle School congratulations to Zach and his staff School of recognition but as Brian said it's literally all of us they're stepping all the way through and they're gaining a little bit gaining a little bit gaining a little bit and you see the fruits of their uh their labor on graduation day when just about every single kid in in every single class gets their diploma and moves on into the wide world so thank you thank you and thank thank you to all of you I think this is our second meeting in a row you all got to be here late night so thank you very come back thank you whenever you're ready Eric gets back to you Switching gears here okay excuse me um the next order business is uh our invitation into The acceler Accelerated repair program for the high school roof did not think this was going to happen this year um we thought we may have to wait another year but we were invited in to the program uh to partner with the msba and essentially similar to the building project the msba will commit to a percentage of uh grant money towards the uh replacement of the high school roof there is a really specific process to follow um so it's it's this is not a GU guarantee this is really us working with the msba to explore the project and then um to gain approval through uh the next well January through April a four-month process to try to gain approval to uh be invited into the actual program uh which will signal that they'll they'll they'll pay um there there are similar steps to the accelerated repair program as we have done with the building program you have to have a uh project man you have to have a designer you work um they basically get assigned from the state so it's a little bit different in the fact that they they assign them to school districts um which I think is a money savings feature when you're when you're working on a project that's somewhere between maybe three and5 million um so that they're they're really trying to just hone in on getting the project set up and moving forward so this will uh if we decide this it make sense work working with the msba we'll go through the first uh steps of the process and then we'll have to make a decision um to go forward we could also um say you know we we don't want to uh move forward right now because we have enough projects on the docket but I just wanted people to be aware that we were invited into program we don't have to do anything yet um the the kickoff date is January 2nd and essentially just like the school building program The Accelerated repair program the first few steps our paperwork you know getting in certain paperwork uh checking the boxes if you will so we'll we have a commencement date of January 2nd 2025 um we'll work with them to do the uh the kind of the prep work if you will and then we'll have to make a determination with the committee at that point in time to move forward or not all right questions no no okay thank you okay no I guess I don't have any questions other than like what are the next steps there just sort of an FYI um like when were the work happen do we know that or is it too early the work from our perspective yeah yeah it's it it's it's interesting they um do a compliance certification which just means that we're willing to comply I don't know if you remember remember we had a big thick packet that we had to signed for the building project um so you you do that first and then you go through um your maintenance and capital planning like what does that look like in perspective with all the other things that may be on kind of online for us to do and then um we have to just do do follow the process to gain uh funding for the schematic design process um which means also figuring out what that might cost us yeah um you know something right now we're doing feasibility and schematic design for $150 million Elementary School at the rate of $1.2 million so certainly much much less um and that may be something we look at funding through our own budget or going back going to the towns to do so those steps are the the interim steps and then at some point we'd have to get authorization to move forward from the committee and then if if we uh you know do move forward we'll have to get authorization for bond funds uh in order to pay pay for the the project itself is the reimbursement the same rate as the other project don't know yet that's part of that first four month process they'll work with us to figure out okay what is the what is the OPM going to cost what is the designer going to cost what is schematic design going to cost so that's Project Specific so it's very specific to the project yeah they walked our roof with us we were on the roof Curtis uh Whitman our director of uh facilities mainus operations he and I walked the roof with uh members of the msba so they have an idea of what we have what we need what kind of issues are up on that roof um which was helpful to get us in the program as well so okay I know the roof is really leaky yeah very leaky very and has been for a long long time long time yeah the only helping us right now unfortunately is a drought but it's it's still you know once we hit it the winter season it gets really bad yeah all right thank you um next up uh we have the uh TW the school committee protocols um these um the the only um change that has been made to the document that you've been seeing every time we have a meeting um is the date at the top um so so this document is the same school committee protocols that we read a portion of at the top of every meeting um so I think members are very familiar with these protocols um I did put out in an email and um didn't receive any feedback from anyone on the committee um that doesn't mean you can't speak now um uh so can we um David would you be willing to start us off with a motion um sure I mooved that the hamiltonm regional school committee um vote to approve the 2024 2025 school committee superintendent protocols as presented in the agenda second second by Amy kumberg um does anyone have any discussion about any of the protocols anything that you want to no okay um seeing none it looks like we are ready to vote um I will maybe I should just say before um this is a document that actually everyone signs so I don't know if that makes anyone want um okay um all right looks like we're ready to vote um all those in favor and uh that is unanimous of the four members present um and the motion passes um and if everyone is willing at the the end of the meeting if you could just sign this document um thank you um and I and I guess I've asked before but I um would you know appreciate continued feedback about whether it's helpful or not to continue with the practice of reading them at the top of the meeting um in portions I'm open to feedback if anyone has it now or if you ever want to it's certainly not a law or requir it's just something we've done traditionally so okay um okay uh moving on and kind of winding down here um we don't have anything on finance and operations uh Capital Finance the meeting was cancelled okay thank you did you have are you rescheduling do you have a resch there's another meeting the 12th the next week yeah okay yeah Tuesday as well okay um policy um our last meeting was also canceled and we're waiting to reschedule okay all right um yes and as you know you can have all those conversations on email about rescheduling that's fine um negotiations we have nothing nothing new to report um right now um I don't know if we have a secretary report I haven't pulled one a while okay um would you be willing to do that next time yeah that' be great thank you um and back to you Eric all right thank you the uh couple of quick things we are very excited for the upcoming High School Musical um it is the 25th Annual putam County Spelling be should be exciting if you haven't seen me on social media wearing my bee glasses I should have wore them tonight um first show will be tomorrow night at 700 p.m. at the high school and then there are two more shows on Saturday one at 2 p.m. one at 7 p.m. if you have not been to a high school musical I encourage you to go they will blow your mind um I hav been to many many many through the years it's always amazing to see the talents kids have and the way they grow through the system you know you see them in the in plays at the elementary school and the plays at the middle school and then you see them at high school and they kind of burst out and uh super exciting and it's a it's a quick you know two hours of the day to come and see what our kids do and it's really a good culmination of everything along the way as as Brian tried to say these are this is another way we can look at how our kids are doing in school and it can put together these amazing um musicals and plays and you know it's not just the kids on the stage it's the kids backstage too that are Manning the the sound and the lights and the the curtains and the movement of stage and all those things too so lots of opportunities for our kids to get involved and we look forward to the culminating experience this weekend um we are recruiting members of The Wellness committee um we can you can reach out to me or the middle school nurse Mary bating uh they meet four times a year really establishing goals uh reviewing policies and then um managing anything that may come from the state and then they uh they review our guidelines annually to be updated so they are looking for members from the community they have uh student and staff members so they're looking for some outside members I think we also need a school committee leaon for that as well we've had that in the past so yeah okay um their next meeting is on the 14th which is next Thursday I believe they do a 78 meeting at the miles River Middle School um and then I talked a little bit about ballot question to so I don't think I need to go back to that but but um the test is gone but the the excuse me the graduation requirement is gone but the test remains so we are um in the words of the state guidance on certification will be forthcoming that is the note I got from them yesterday so thank you thank you anybody have questions for the superintendent all right I really don't have much on the um CH report I did the only couple things I just wanted to say um Amy and I did go to the Friends of Winthrop meeting on Monday um and they um went to um share information and to answer questions regarding the elementary school building project um and they were a great group they had some good thoughtful questions and it was a good conversation um and I just pulled up the sign up sheet that uh Amy has created and you um have in your box I see um these are not necess will each one will come up and we'll have to address whether it's you know these are we have't each one as it comes up I know Amy just made these sort of as events that are in the district um and so not every single one of them but um I do see um David poo has thank you signed up for some some of those in December um so it's nice so huh but I'll be there anyway yeah and it's I it's um depending on the event I felt like I don't know I don't want to speak before Amy but it was nice it's nice to have two people there um just in terms of answering questions but also just in connecting with different people um it's kind of nice to have different um so um definitely check out the list you have anything works with you your schedule actually got an update the color is not holding the yes yes um so um can we go backwards you want to go backwards sure I forgot one thing all right well I'm done unless anyone has any questions for me sorry all right yes go ahead all right so this is a little bit lengthy I think that's why I forgot it because I didn't put it on my regular notes um I just wanted to comment on our fall athletic Seasons uh as you know our kids are playing kind of all over the place and and uh have been extremely successful Hamilton went I'm a girls soccer team they are the Cal Champs again uh 1 15-0 and four they are uh in the first round of the tournament and they'll start I think the I think Saturday that is their first game at Gordon College um boy soccer they are also in the tournament they 125 and two uh they're in the first round uh also coming up on tomorrow at 4: uh they will be at Memorial Stadium in it's actually in East Boston um volleyball when 8 and 12 they uh defeated Sturges Charter School in the first round of of the tournament uh so congratulations uh to our volleyball team they are playing again um excuse me they played last night sorry and they uh did not Advance uh I switch has moved forward out of that um match uh football has drawn little catholic in their week nine game and now it'll be played at in the shoba Valley Technical High School right now that's yeah so they're they're already there playing um it's weird for football you they do a a playoff type of a setup and suddenly you're you're playing in weird places against teams you've never played before so it's it's interesting at the same time for the kids um field hockey uh they were 79 and two they fell uh in the first round of the the tournament to St John uh Paul the second School uh so they they had a a good strong season so we we congratulate all of them girl soccer fifth consecutive Cal title uh Georgia Wilson named the most valuable player Nancy wadell again named coach of the year uh girls and boys cross country teams they won their third the boys won their third consecutive Cal title while the girls team took the the top spot for the 19th time in 20 years uh which is amazing and then both uh teams took first place this past weekend at the Cal open at at the rentm development center um and Grace Rich came in first place in the girls meet and then I think that's it we have um golf team capturing this second I almost forgot the golf team for capturing their second C cape in uh title championship in the last three years they qualified state tournament finished fourth in the sectionals senior Cooper Miller was named the baker division player of the year so lots of exciting news on the sports front for our kids and um we look forward to the continuation of teams that are uh still going in the tournament and go generals right thank you go generals all right um uh topics for future meetings okay you all budget all the time all budget okay um unless anyone has anything else I would be ready for a motion uh I mooved to adjourn at 8:42 second second by Amy kumberg is there any discussion no all right all those in favor and we are adjourned it is unanimous