##VIDEO ID:47hBXwuVf2E## good evening everyone and welcome to the hoolio school committee it is November 12th and the meeting call the meeting to order at 6: PM roll call please miss Feliciano yes presid here Pres here here present all rise for the pledge of Allegan flag United States of America stand na indivisible so I'm just going to do some household stuff here real quick so on March 29th 2023 Governor Hy signed into law and act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations which among other things extends the expiration of the provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st 2025 specifically this extension allow allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meeting the ACT does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary Provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st 2023 to March 31st 2025 pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 38 section 20 I am hereby informing all attendees that a video and audio recording is being made of the meeting and the meeting is being live streamed and run live on the city's Community TV channel Miss Fano is there any public comment okay we're gonna anybody in the audience that wants the public comment signed up please come to the microphone make sure that you sign up and oh there's the microphone and um state your name address and is it an item on the agenda uh my name is Richard peek I'm from West Springfield Mass I don't believe the item is on the agenda for this meeting there is something pertaining to it that I believe is uh or a subcommittee meeting on Wednesday today but I just wanted to comment generally on the issue so um one of the our rules and again I can somebody wants to set a motion you know what motion you would have to do um so um the school committee rules is that um it must be part of the agenda I did just see your email right now my apologies I wanted to get back to you um the policy sub committee is meeting and that will be on the agenda and that's where you could speak up on it now if somebody wants to suspend the rules make a motion to suspend the rules second it so I have a a a motion by Miss Wilson seconded by Mr isasa any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed okay motion passes you may speak very good well as I said my name is Richard P I'm from West Springfield uh um I'm actually uh I would like to to urge the committee to consider naming the new Holo middle school after William arpc as it's been known for some decades now uh William ARP was actually my great uncle he was my grandfather's younger brother um he uh he was a towering figure in the development of the ho Public Schools uh he was superintendent for some 43 years here uh he was a progress he was a leader very Progressive for his day U he was hoo born in bred uh he was like many Holio students uh he the first in his family to attend college and though from a modest background his intelligence was obvious so obvious that he was uh though young the city put him in charge of its public school system while he was only in his 20s uh something that would be very uh very very rare today um uh I just also would say that uh the story life would make a great example for the young people of Holio to emulate and to follow we would love to have graduates of hok's public schools uh go to be the first people in their families to go to college go to college accomplish something and and come back to Holo and serve the community for their careers uh something we'd love to see replicated and that's an example that we would love to be able to hold up to students from all backgrounds in hoo as something that they should emulate and follow um I just wanted to say to let the committee know that I don't want to take up any more of your time I know that's an issue that's being discussed in the city of hok right now and I just wanted to I guess put in my two cents worth I I I don't live in I realize that I don't live in the city of Holo my my my my grandfather left hoo about a hundred years ago and moved to West Springfields but hok's still very dear to us and uh we love to see good things happen in hoo so thank you very much for listening to me and uh I wish you all the best going forward thank you so much you and that if you choose not to to uh name the building after him please commemorate his his legacy in some way because I already emphasized it's a it's a wonderful example for students coming up through the ho public schools to follow I thank you so much for coming this evening and and speaking to us as all of you know we can't talk on on the subject but it will be heard at the um policy sub committee and and it's going to be the what if the city council doesn't approve correct the naming of of the middle school but again you can you can be there as well and there's still a process so thank you for coming and thank you for allowing me to speak have a good evening thank you you SE no further um public comment I'm going to go ahead and move to communication reports and I see here I got Miss Samantha rud hi um okay starting off we have our Holio theater company is kicking off their performance of Miss Nelson is missing on Wednesday it'll go through Wednesday through Friday at 6 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. general admission is $10 and I recommend that you go see it because I have friends who are in the play and as far as I've seen they've done a very very good job I'm seeing them on Wednesday opening on opening night so I'm very excited excited to see them um college visits are coming to a close in the next few weeks our last few visits our last few visits are on the 25th and 26th with celebrations for mcac Massachusetts College accepted celebration um on the 26th we will also have the credit for life for juniors and a reverse job sadow for n9th and 10th graders um if you don't remember I was a part of it the last few years and I plan to be a part of it again this year um and then for schoolwide we had our Spirit Week on October 28th to November 1st this was like one of the most noticeable weeks that we've had people participate in the school Monday was pink were pink for breast cancer awareness day Tuesday was pajama day Wednesday was orange to prevent bullying and on that Wednesday during reach block we had a schoolwide walk including kids from just about every class coming to join the walk and we ended on the third floor with thinking of ideas on how to prevent bullying that was very fun Thursday we had Halloween costume day um I went as scream from Ghost Face I went as Ghost Face from Scream um and then Friday was flannel day we our next spirit week will be not next week but the following week and it'll stretch throughout that full weekend Monday Tuesday before Thanksgiving break as well as our uh prep proba that'll be on Tuesday and then one more reminder that the student Summit will be on 12 125 student facilitators have been engaged in training for the last two weeks and have one more session before the summit they are focusing on belonging and the categories of questions that are grading and assessing ment navigating high schools and support and engagement in the classroom there will be a survey that'll go out again for uh this this Wednesday tomorrow and that will happen during reach block thank you so much are there any questions for Mr Rodriguez nope thank you so much for oh wait I do have someone no I just said Thank you thank you thank okay all right thank you okay Miss T Rose tensley Williams will have a class on how to prevent bullying it's not a class it was more of a discussion during our reach block on how to prevent bullying is later no we came up with um because I don't know if you've seen on Instagram McKenna definitely posted some pictures when we were up with posters of preventing against bullying and we thought of definitely speaking out and making friends um not leaving people out which is a big thing um and just being nice to people is the biggest thing so not asked because I was willing thank you so much again Samantha M Rodriguez sorry forg getting on a first name basis I'm meld by the no moving on to new business because there's no report from the uh receiver superintendent nor myself new business uh Holio receivership provisional exit do I have a motion so I have a motion by Mr Sheen second seconded by Miss Wilson and this is for us to receive and accept the communication from acting commissioner Russell Johnson on the provisional decision to receive the hoio public schools from chronically underperforming designation at the end of the school's year with return to local control on July 1st 2025 any discussion seeing no discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed great motion passes un iously um approval of minutes I we can either take them as make a motion to take as a package take as a package so we have a first by Miss Wilson seconded by Mr Shen and it's to take the following minutes vote to approve the meeting minutes of the 819 school committee meeting 99 school committee 923 school committee and the 722 local control minutes is there any discussion Mr wallan thank you yeah uh the minutes from August 19th um motion on here that said it was unanimous um the establishment of the accountabil accountability committee and I voted no on that say it's unanimous hold on one moment 819 I don't happen to have that one okay so the 819 you're questioning the unanimous um so with that being said because we'd have to go back to the to the videos do we want to reconsider how we take it as 819 I'm going to withdraw my motion okay so then and then I'd like to make a motion to uh accept all of the M uh package except for the 819 second okay so then we're taking a vote so I have um Miss Wilson with the new motion that we take it as a package only 99 923 and the 722 local control you have a second by Mr Sheen any further discussion all those in favor I any opposed any abstain oh wait one moment any abstain so you're abstaining from all of the above so abstain two votes okay so it's what Mr Colmore I'm going to abstain on the uh September 23rd meeting because I wasn't we took them as a package so you're abstaining then completely no just just on uh the the action is it's either you're we're voting on all three as a package I can't say that we're going to un unless we go individually so now I'm going to ask the committee are we going to point of order there's a motion on the floor you called for the vote finish the vote so that's you want to obstain for the whole package yes no okay so going back take this vote again all those we have voted let meot recorded four five six so it's seven y to obstain okay and you got you are you and Orlando U Mr Sasa sorry okay now going back to the 819 school committee meeting table move to table second second all those in favor any oppos any abstain you're abstaining you're abstaining so to abstain and that's Mr isasa and Miss LeBron Martinez and it'll be seven days okay moving on to the community advisory team that the school committee vote to receive and approve the proposal from Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to facilitate meetings with the community advisory team like to make a motion I have a motion by Miss Wilson do we have a second second have a second is there any discussion so Wilson so I think this is um enlightening for me um to understand the costs um I find it um it it it's much more expensive than I would have envisioned for this process I find it to be very beneficial process so that's why I would be um but I'll be voting in favor but um it is a costly Endeavor for the city any further discussion so I just want to be transparent did you all reive the updated version the corrected version was sent at 12:02 p.m. it's right right there did not receive it Mr Shen so the only change this went through the committee today and the substantial change that's in the document that you received um previously previously is on page the highlighted page where it says on here down at the bottom in Orange Elta time m much there is money that the Piner Valley Planning Commission received this this $2,000 is no money from the city it's money that they receive so they can start the work um between now and the contract being executed so it's at no additional cost to the city it's additional money they have and their their grants and planning money that they get that they're putting towards support of this project so they can start it so that is the the major change the only other change that occurred in our meeting today was that up at the top it's the city of hoyo and it's in say hoyo school committee um that's the agreement but it's also known that this still has to go to the city solicitor's office I mean we can approve this but there still could be like legal language that the solicitors pull out from that so uh and there were some ve grammatical changes and such that were made um in it um but other than that unless has any notes of any major changes I don't think there was nothing changed the intent nope it was just a date and the written format um Miss Lio Martinez thank you for the clarification so just for the people that are watching at home because a lot of the concern is where money comes from from the city at a lot of times um you're saying that for some of the work that is going to be done for this particular process that this $2,000 is going to cover some of the cost that is not coming from our at all or is it so because because of the lengthy amount of time it can sometimes take to go through the procurement process and the fact that this work needs to get started right away the biner valley Planning Commission was able to put additional resources towards it so we're still going to use the full 31525 at 125 and so they can start right now they have money they're going to use start right now that 2,000 so that 2,000 is money in their account that will not get built for that is going to cover staff time is there any further discussion so um Mr uh wahan thank you um what company did we use when we hired Dr haaz back in a day was it this company I forget so no but th this has nothing to do with the search so this the charge of this group when dealing with the um transition plan it too prong it was one to advise the school committee on what they want to do in terms of a superintendent process and the second part was advising the school committee on the current receivers evaluation and some of the data collection or evidence collection that's used for the super receivers um evaluation so this report is community or this work is community engagement sessions to meet that first prong of it and it's to advise the school committee on the search process so with that being said it's one thing that we talked about too like the school committee really not really cannot make any decisions regarding the search process until we get this report which is what we agreed to with the state in the transition plan um so then we'll be able to make those determinations then thank you so any further discussion no all those in favor I any oppose any abstain motion passes unanimous okay moving on to ongoing business policy revision um policy DGA authorized signature this has to do with the reviewing of the warrants now I know here that I put down for the rece superintendent receiver to adopt said policy I've been informed that it's been adopted by the receiver so I am going to withdraw that motion so that means we have nothing to well we do have somebody that wants to discuss something there I'll discuss it Mr wellan thank you yeah the only question I know we've um the committee has bantered this back and forth for over a year with various members of the committee some are not some are no longer on our uh uh full committee um the committee was really unsure of um our main focus was what does this full board want from us in terms of um uh the signatures do they want a majority of the finance committee to sign them or would this body be okay with just designating one member of the finance committee to to to um sign the warrants so I'm kind of throwing that out there to to the full full body Miss Wilson so the policy was adopted um in April 23 uh April 23rd 2024 it was the second pass by the school committee um as written that um any member of the school committee uh policy I'm sorry Finance uh subcommittee could sign the warrant and in the event that someone was not able to sign that the chair or the vice chair would be able to sign in the absence so that was the policy that was approved that's good thank you so now I'm going to come back and ask are we going to implement it that's what it calls for in the capacity building plan we've been talking about that yeah for at at link on just the the protocols in terms of who's it sign first um um is it going to be signed um electronically is it going to be signed um weekly so those are those are the questions that we're um we're bantering back and forth but it'll be done I would just say with order of signing like I mean would first of all is any warrant in the city signed electronically oh they are there no more on them have a bunch of wars that we sign still do some paper but okay P up electronically then all right so I'm I'm then when we're not in receivership it should be superintendent then school committee signing it that's the order go from the lowest common denominator to the highest common denominator and uh we need to clear I'm the I'm going to need the local control to then clarify with the commissioner because when I read this as if to already start the process so once you've developed because it clearly says this is the action poio school committee revises and begins implementing protocol for reviewing warrants and payroll you're already implementing the protocol this was supposed to be done in September 2024 so now we're saying that we still ain't there here we're still thinking about how we're doing it okay receiver so yeah the the policy is the policy and that will be implemented you know that you guys all reviewed that for implementation post receivership as part of the capacity building plan what's what's said in there is is a protocol for reviewing warrants so there's still a discussion during this provisional period about how this school committee is going to get involved with reviewing warrants what we in our office have said is that the warrants are available for review on a weekly basis anyone from the committee can come and review those warrants at any time and that has been the case all year we started that last year we've we've made warrants available for review of the school committee whether or not that is happening that is up you know that we we've made it available for for review and then post receivership the this policy has already been reviewed so that it's ready to go day one so going back to what he just said just want us to think to move along because we have a training and I don't want to hold up our students that are here I need everybody to think about especially the finance subcommittee when are we going to start implementing the review process because and develop that protocol because the receiver stating that for over a year it's been available but it hasn't so I need some sort of decision by our next meeting school committee meeting because this is just piling up as we don't continue it keeps adding up and remember we're on a provisional exit we're meeting on the 20th so um should be uh the the members kept kept having questions on this so okay you know and again past members that are not on the on the committee are not here anymore and they had a question so they're not they're not here to respond to your questions they're just they're not here so now you have the new me you have your new member members yeah that that that's been changing okay so hopefully we won't have to change anymore I'm the only one committee from the last two years that's still there so we've had numerous members come and go and again some of them are not on this body anymore so it's been a it's been a uh discussion through various members so it's not just the will of one which is me so again we're going to be hopefully putting this to bed without any further questions from the members which is their right everyone has a right to question anything right okay so um hopefully we'll have a answer for the full the full committee thank you so much Mr Wan Mr colore the qu the question is at our meeting before excuse me was a signature must by the members of the finance committee before it goes to the mayor's office period it's got to be signed a warrant authorizing the mayor to approve this before anything else can happen and that's that's the major decision here is I think we're all in combination that uh one of the members of the finance committee will come down weekly and sign the warrants but make sure that the warant are all signed before they're sent down to the mayor's office otherwise he has a right to reject those if no one's approving them okay but what we're talking about is reviewing them now that's what's on the capacity building plan that we were supposed to implement that that's what I was just asking about are we going to start that process mayor Garcia can we just start so a member of the finance committee you have a primary second second person and just maybe you don't sign it but just put your initial on it or something just to get into the practice and the Habit so we could just start that soon as soon as possible by the next warrant well they're going to be meeting on November 20th to discuss what protocol they're going to be doing and then they're going to bring it back to the full board because we have to vote on it as a whole so there's no reviewing yet they have to come up with that protocol okay I'm going to move on from the subject and do I will entertain a motion to move out of order and have our student showcase motion to go out of order second second okay any discussion all those in favor any opposed great I am thank you all for waiting I am so sorry you guys have been so patient thank you for waiting because we do want to hear from you this evening I want to welcome to dunu school a program hi I'm Asante Esther I am one of the kada 2 Al teachers here at Donahue I have one of my co-workers this is hello I'm Jonathan Torres I'm in the AL program as well I teach third through fourth grade and these are some of our students that came they're been waiting so patiently I'm so proud of them what's your name Cyrus nice to see you Cyrus and my name is Kina your name is Kina so for our showcase we just wanted to um exhibit some of the ELA lesson that we have we know you guys have something schedule so um I'll skip actually through my no it's okay um because I'm pretty sure they're tired it's a school night so I'll show um just some of our routines that we go through for our Ela um structure just to see what goes on in a sub separate classroom and I know their parents were excited to see it they're going to be presenting as well the students it's a routine they're going to follow along I wanted to make sure thank you yeah can you go to slide four please my friends what lesson 23 23 my friends can you go to the next thank you yeah so you guys can see ready my friends let's do some blending our word is what word nice job Sai our next word is s a what word Catalina the a the nice job that is our word can you say m is Miss nice job say Catalina know what word Miss Miss nice job so we're practicing some of our blending and our next slide my friend can you say rats rat can you sound rats rats rats nice job my friends my friends can you say sand sand nice job can you sound sand and S nice job and these are just some of the routines that we do to help our friends with phonemic awareness the blending and segmenting to help them increase their fluency for their reading and their writing um as we go further in the presentation I have my kids go over their sound recognition we do some reading and our kids are actually doing some of the guided writing this is a show that our kids are actually able to be very vigorous and um handle very structured classrooms something that is a tier three for the general education we're using as a tier one for our students and they're doing very well and they're showing so much growth so we just wanted to come in I know my friends are tired so thank you for allowing us to come and just show you some routines that we have my friends can we say thank you thank you a you're welcome thank you so much I would like it if they're able to come back again and really be able to do a full presentation I'm sorry for the miscommunication um but I'm happy that they they were able to be here and thank you again for being so patient thank you but hold on there might be a question anybody have a question or a comment I know Miss tensley Williams always has one I do if I could I would hug every one of you thank you so much for coming we love you welcome we'll set up so that you can come back again thank you so much thank you parents bye thank you so much yes bye she's like I did it I know I'm so excited we are now go we're now going to go back into our ongoing business and move right into our masc training which is the superintendent evaluation process Glenn do you want to seat you could sit over there if you'd want um Samantha you want to scoot over one with Miss Wilson so he can use your microphone oh you found the Dunkin' Donuts didn't I know I know help yourself for the process is flexible enough for the school committee to adapt it to meet your own needs and I'll explain that as we go along the evaluation process requires that the district goals be in place so that the superintendent can develop the superintendent goals and so that you the members of the school committee can then determine which criteria and indicators of success you'd like to use in evaluating the superintendent so the first thing that the school committee needs to do is to set some ground rules for the process you evaluate the superintendent each year but if the super attendant has received a uh meets expectations or proficient uh standard you can go to a two-year superintendent evaluation also what's very important is what your contract with the superintendent says regarding the evaluation for example does will your contract require that that you consult with the superintendent to establish the evaluation process or that you will meet a mutually agreeable evaluation process now the difference is huge uh I will give you an example in one of our districts about 15 years ago they hired a superintendent and realized they'd made a very serious mistake and before the first year was over it was clear the superintendent had to go but the superintendent said you can't fire me until you've evaluated me and you're required to have a mutually agreeable evaluation process and I'm not agreeing to anything that you suggest so they had to buy this person off and pay three years worth of salary for one year which is why we suggest that you consult with the superintendent respect the wishes of the superintendent to the extent that you can but if there's disagreement then the school committee gets to break that tie don't look for trouble where no trouble exists but the lesson of that former U District is very instructive and I and I don't want to uh I don't want to embarrass the people of uh of Amis by telling you where it was uh but it was 15 years ago so the first thing the school committee needs to do is set the ground rules and the first of the ground rules would be what your evaluation cycle will be it's obviously every year but many of our school committees begin the process with they with a cycle that starts in July or September goes through the schol school year and ends when the school year ends which would be June or August depending upon how you calculate it there are other districts mostly towns who run their evaluation process around when the town meetings take place and when the town elections take place uh then there are those that are usually cities that often use a calendar the calendar year year January to December whatever it is you decide what works best for you that's number one number two you work with the superintendent to establish the district goals and the superintendent's goals now the superintendent well well let's say your I'm going to make this up but your let's say your District goals include closing the achievement Gap uh improving scores in certain places uh making sure that all the principles and administrators are evaluated uh mastering your policy and make sure all your policies are adopted uh but the the superintend the district goals then follow to the superintendent and the superintendent will need to have a an an education goal in other words a district Improvement goal student Improvement goal and personal professional goal so if your goal is to close the achievement Gap the superintendent's uh District goal might be to close the achievement Gap and to do it in specific ways maybe in certain places maybe uh in certain Str strategies but but can work that out uh the uh student achievement goal might apply to individual student cohorts where they might be for example our left-handed students will improve by 10% uh I use left-handed people because as the only right-handed person in my household uh I'm constantly being told that the minority is bullying the majority so but but no one's offended by talking about left-handed people so that that makes it easy so let's say you wanted to do a student achievement goal that might be uh middle school math scores will improve by a certain figure uh High School advanced placement uh scores will improve by a certain figure uh earlier for the for the district goal you might have more advanced placement classes put into place you might have special goals related to Vocational Technical education uh one of your goals might be to deal with the well of course the enrollment issue is it's not going to be a problem because you are a vocational technical program that serves Holio I'm assuming most of the students are from Holio so you'd have your your superintendent goals your District goals and the personal profession practice goals for the superintendent they can be anything some of our superintendents with master's degrees are getting their doctorates as their personal practice goal some are learning a second language some are just purely personal professional I will read all the works of uh an expert in the field of whatever it might be personal professional practice you'll get those goals and you'll and you'll set them out number three step three after the goals the school district needs to appoint an aggregator who will be the point person for administering the superintendent evaluation someone for example will need to get the evaluations that you submit into the central area review them and develop a composite evaluation that's the aggregator we'll take all the comments from all the different score sheets that you'll turn in and we'll do that and that can be that can be anyone that can be the chair it can be the vice chair um I've been threatened by several School District board secretaries that if I suggest they should do it they will come to my house and get me I don't think it's well it's a very challenging task and it's not something that your board secretary is nonpartisan and doesn't take sides and uh if there's a tension in the search process you may not want to put that person uh in the difficult position so it's usually the chair or the vice chair who does that but it can be anyone yes ma' so I know pre-re receivership we had and we have it now the leadership accountability and measurement subcommittee okay and it was the chair of that um of that subcommittee and at that time I remember um Miss Brunell was our aggregator the subcommittee can act as the aggregating group if the school committee designates them so let's say for example you do appoint a committee of three to aggregate all the data uh and and that's now that you've appointed them you know who they are number four you determine certain special ground rules that you want to set for the the the evaluation process let me tell you what I mean uh there are some districts that have said only someone who's been on the school committee for six months can participate in the evaluation process for example it might not be fair to somebody who joined the school committee uh uh right in in January as as a newly sworn in member you've been on the school committee now for 10 minutes and suddenly you have to evaluate the superintendent who you just met an hour ago uh that might not work so there are those who would say that the evaluation would be done only by those people who have been on the committee for at least six months you could also accept evaluation responses from someone who who has just gone off the committee but served for the previous six months it's a protocol it's a rule it's up to you some use it and some don't um other uh other reasons uh you might seek evaluation feedback from others if the superintendent is is agreeable to that uh we have things that are called 360 degree evaluation where you might ask for feedback from members of The Faculty uh basically employees of the district or from parents I don't know of a district that does that in Massachusetts yet so it's an option and uh it's something to think about I'm not encouraging I'm not discouraging I'm just saying it's another option uh another question what process will you use to rate the candidate the the superintendent well uh everyone will be submitting feedback to the aggregators on each goal and for all the different criteria that you select to evaluate the superintendent you will all give the superint the superintendent a rating and those ratings will come into the aggregator and some many I should say some many districts say that comments that are extreme either in the negative or the positive will only be considered if those comments are repeated by a second person in other words um if somebody believes that Satan brought the superintendent to Holio it takes two people to say so before the agregator would do that now I I'll will give you an example of another District uh several years ago in Stoten there was an excellent superintendent but there was a member of the school committee who liked nothing there was nothing this superintendent could do to win anything other than negative feedback from this member this member said that the superintendent was so stupid that the superintendent could add a column of sums this goes into the evaluation well the search the search committee the the the the uh aggregators rules the protocol for the district was those comments needed to be repeated by another member before they could go into the summary so there were six U exemplary evaluations and one unsatisfactory evaluation and because it was a lone you know Singleton uh the comments of the maker were not included in any of the aggregate reports now subsequently when the aggregated evaluation came to the school committee for its approval our friend the negative voice came up with a series of proposed amendments to be critical of the superintendent and they all failed six to one but the negative person's Voice Was Heard and since it's all public the negative voices may have had an impact so the system is designed to make sure that there are majority rules minority rights but that there's an element of reason that the school committee can control now another uh by uh Special Rule in some cases uh members would be encouraged to sit with the superintendent before they turned in their evaluation forms or after they turned in their evaluation forms depending upon how they felt now there are occasions where superintendents have said uh member Smith here um I think you were misinformed when you said that I did a terrible job communicating with the community uh I have six Exemplar and I have you telling me I can't communicate uh is that fair so the superintendent gets an opportunity to get uh their words in if that's one of the the protocols what you never want to have happen is that a member of the school committee gets called in to the superintendent's office for a personal uh lecture that's not a good idea it's not a good way to do business it's a bullying tactic and and it doesn't happen often but it does happen from time to time so I throw that out uh another uh rule that you might have you may if you wish by mutual agreement tie the superintendent's evaluation to a contract extension or salary increase but you're not required to do so that's specifically those two functions compensation and contracts and evaluation were separated in the development of the evaluation process that doesn't rule out that you can't come up with something by mutual agreement so you may have other specific bylaws or rules that you want to impose upon yourselves that's up to you now step number five the superintendent's goals and the evaluation criteria will be established by the school committee if you could I've given you this 17inch piece of paper here uh we talked about the student achievement goal the district Improvement goal and the personal professional goal for the superintendent now as a second set of criteria you need to come up with indicators of success for the superintendent and there are four standards that must be included in the indicators that you choose as you can see there are four columns here instructional leadership because the instructional leadership of the district reports to the superintendent management and operations because ultimately the superintendent is responsible for all management and operation functions family and Community engagement which didn't exist before this process was created so the the ability to work with the community and communicate and standard number five professional culture kind of an example does the superintendent leave now those are standards that were set by the department of Elementary and secondary education underneath those standards are separately defined indicators that demonstr straight success so for example if you look at standard one instruction leadership a does the superintendent have curriculum indicators to help map curriculum or B does the uh does the superintendent um do walkthroughs observations get aggregated data or number three uh does the superintendent report to the school committee on assessments how well you're doing are there data presentations made to you uh number four an evaluation indicator uh is there a comprehensive system for getting feedback to you goes down a little further e informed decision making does the superintendent use data in making decisions and is it done well and number uh and F student learning uh indicator means that do to do the superintendent use data and inform you how you're doing in those categories now just on standard one alone you have six uh categories and within the six you probably have another 15 indicators that's six that's 21 so far we're up to 21 elements to evaluate the superintendent on you don't want to do that what you want to do is take one or two from column a well column one one or two for management and operations one or two from family and Community engagement and one or two for professional culture and the best way to do this we found is for a couple of members of the school committee to sit with the superintendent and say you've set your goals and we've set our goals which indicators do you think are the most important ones for us to look for and instead of picking all 65 you might pick a dozen you might pick eight you might pick 10 you might pick 12 uh one District that I'm aware of picked all 65 superintendent provided this much documentation nobody read it and they never did it again that way but you know a reasonable numbers will will will be very effective so we suggest you do is look at the standards look at the culture uh excuse me look at the standards and look at the indicators and sit down with the aggregation committee and figure out which 8 10 or 12 you might want to use to evaluate the superintendent so I I I making this up but let's say that you uh you took something that dealt with u data compilation and using data to evaluate the students maybe there's a couple of them there management and operations uh let's say that you're looking at uh uh scheduling and maybe uh fiscal uh indicators there's two there uh for family and Community engagement you've got communication you have addressing family concerns you have uh all kinds of uh engagement with the Community Options that you can select and number four on professional culture this is the kind of uh uh example that the superintendent sets now this is something that's very interesting that I'm going to point out to you this came from the Department of Education you also can can come up with your own indicators if you like things that may be Holio specific uh lead the district out of receivership into a successful transition for things that might be related to the soon to be former receivership it could be almost anything but there are two words missing from this uh list of indicators anybody guess what the important two words that are missing didn't it be student Improvement how about school committee you see the department of Elementary and secondary education during this period didn't have much use or feedback from the community or the community's representatives so some of our school committees have added relationship with the school committee as a measurable criteria now a very important question how do you measure this stuff what criteria do you use uh to to measure the success or fulfillment of the goals that you have established in the uh in the guide book here which is a reference book for you there are examples of what success and uh proficiency look like so that you can see them uh we suggest very strongly that the uh school committee and superintendent agree together how the superintendent will demonstrate success how do you demonstrate success well did you or did you not see that all the principles were evaluated and if you did you're not you're not entitled to see those evaluations by the way they're confidential Personnel documents but you can see that they were done and assure that they were done did the principles evaluate the teachers uh did you gather the data that you said you would gather did you make as many personal appearances in the community as you said you would tell us give us a a a one-page report on how you demonstrated your vision for the district and how you demonstrated your values for the district it's up to both of you as as two parties to figure out the evidence that you want to use when you are evaluating the superintendent now there was I think on this uh in this cycle here uh I don't think it was a uh one of the one of the things that we do suggest that you might want to look at are School Improvement plans did the were were all the school Improvement plans turned in were they presented to the school committee uh did the school committee engage the superintendent in a discussion about the the school Improvement plans th those are evidence or otherwise known as indicators of success so now that you've got all that stuff set out and it's all formally approved uh and the evidence that you will use has been agreed to your evaluation period begins many superintendents will do like a daily check-in say you on a log here's what I did uh this today or this week to move along my evaluation uh so that they can give you a report at the end of the period but usually about six months into the process the process recommends that you have a midyear temperature taking how are we doing and this is where some superintendant are told we're doing real well we can see that from the evidence this is great keep doing what you're doing we think we're in great shape sometimes for a brand new superintendent you might hear a lot of constructive criticism we're not moving as fast here as fast there uh we think that part of your personal professional development plan might be to retweaked will focus more on data or focus more whever you think it might be but and some of the uh midyear evaluations uh are not pleasant and it's indicated that we just don't think you can do the job and uh um we're probably not going to renew your contract yes so all of these discussions are happening in a public forum correct just wanted to verify that thank you okay yes man I'm sure then let me let me just clarify um because as we're going through this process and I'm looking at even the steps here if we're saying that the leadership accountability and measurement discusses it first then obviously then it comes back to the full committee for acceptance and approval but I think the discussion would first start there and then obviously we put in our two cents after the fact which then goes back to the the issue of the length of time for the process say that again now it even like right now we're we're working with time here Y and as we're waiting for these meetings to occur and to really start implementing this process in this one we have the community advisory team that's going to be about um part of it how do we create these timelines that should have been already created M wison we don't have a superintendent right now so we wouldn't be creating a timeline we have a receiver um and I know we're supposed to be evaluating the receiver uh based on that so I'm not sure you know this this what we're reviewing now is for a superintendent which I I think would be could be a potential different evalu Val ation tool because I know the state doesn't even use um these indicators for receivers they have a different uh process based upon what you're charged to do based around the turnaround plan based upon um so so so we wouldn't be using this process for the receiver I think that I think that when you regain the full authority of the school committee and when you have a superintendent selected I believe the state will probably work with you to guide you through the process and give you as much time as you might need to get started on putting an evaluation in place and you'll be relying on your evaluation and assessment subcommittee to get a lot of this work done now if you are an efficient group of people who can do this and uh people do not feel the need to um parse the sentences on every evaluation criteria uh if people are interested in getting it done expeditiously you can do it quickly use your midyear or mid period evaluation to see what changes you might need sometimes in the mid period they will say yeah to a new superintendent we gave you 12 criteria to be measured uh we're thinking maybe that was too many and maybe we need to cut them back or conversely maybe we need to add some more to a veteran superintendent but but uh you you don't want to have to spend unnecessary periods of time group editing or arguing over the minutia the the the small stuff when uh your your committee May advise you quite effectively uh now when the cycle is over you have question can possibly Clarity I don't know if it's for a minute but question um so the the school committee really in reality did not had a lot of weight on the receivership it mostly was from the state right am I correct yes or no so how much of our our evaluation really is uh I don't know um has any any uh uh weight B compared to what the state may say comp you know because there were the ones who directing the the receiver when when you are working with a superintendent and not a receiver right it will all change the dynamic will change and the weight will be with the school committee now um there may be a uh um uh there have been there have been receiverships across the country where the receiver becomes the superintendent because that's what the school board wants not because they've been not because they've been told you don't get out of receiver ship unless you do this they did it because it was what they wanted in that case uh you would probably just start a new evaluation for the superintendent as opposed to the receiver start it at the at the beginning of the period set goals from there and go from there your goals may already be in place if you elect to keep some of the same goals from the period of receivership so what we're doing here is going to create an evaluation format am I am I clear about that okay thank you that's that's it thank you um um now yes so real quickly I just need to has the new members received the capacity building plan so I think we need to have an understanding of what this means this when this was created it was for the school committee to to build the capacity needed to take over the district once it's exiting out of receivership in here it and it and it says like we have to start and I just want to kind of give an example I just don't want to just talk and that's it so we have action steps that we were supposed to be going through in kind of a fluid manner so like in October should have been the gold development and it wasn't the expectation is that we are going to evaluate the receiver right now but then we already have to come out with the plan of what evaluation process we're going to use for the 2025 2026 none of us want to be sitting here on July 1st now pulling out our hairs trying to figure out okay we need this right now we need this right now we that's why we're doing this all in a process because although let's say it doesn't bear weight what what we feel our evaluation is of him you already need to know what you've got to do when you bring in a new um superintendent or if you keep um receiver the receiver who would then be considered the superintendent um so I suggest I don't know I've asked like if everybody can bring this with them to every school committee meeting um Miss Feliciano if we can make sure that we have even extra copies here when we are not your typical school committee we like those that are not in receivership we are expected to have to do a whole lot more cuz there's a lot of learning um to do so that we know what it is to be in local control but we also have to be mindful that we have to go with the process and we have to follow the process we're we're trying to stay positive that we're going to get out of receivership but again always remember the word provisional I try to stay positive but I am when I see it happen is when I believe it and I think that's the mentality that I'm going to keep um because sometimes things sound too good to be true Mr wahan thank you yeah I'm I'm staying positive too okay um yeah I mean I this is all familiar to me um when we um we we did the um uh evaluation on the former superintendent uh Dr Dr pz I remember we completed it the fall and then by the spring he was basically dismissed by the state so I I mean this the formula here I'm it looked very very similar we all participated we all gave a good um uh due diligence in terms of um you know making the goals and having our uh to say in the process so I think we did a good job at that time um so hopefully we can just um pick up where we left off thank you Mr colore and then Miss Wilson and then so that um Mr coocher can continue just a reminder to the new school board members that behind you you have your own cabinet there so Miller you said bring a lot of this stuff home and bring it back every week well it's very important that we make sure that they're kept here if you want to take them home but get them back here and then in your cabinet so that you have them every single week so make sure be maybe before you leave you can someone will show you where your cabinet is I've never used one just saying Miss Wilson so I think there's two things going on right now I just want to clarify when we're doing a training um on how to evaluate the superintendent once we have a superintendent and then the other is our capacity building Document Speaks to evaluating Our receiver and those are two separate independent things uh because just so you know so one thing we're creating an you know our uh capacity building document talks about creating an evaluation timetable and um who's going to you know participate um you know with the goals and evidence and create the schedule of review um whereas it's similar but it's not exactly the same so we are getting trained to um and we could use the superintendent document if we so choose as a school committee um to review the receiver but we have not established that yet right so that's what the community advisory team and this is like it and when we're talking about with the process this year like these are some the the indicators you would kind of be using that too when because once he provides his goals at our next meeting then we have to figure out what are the indicators that we're going to be looking for and working and technically it's the local the leadership accountability measurement what are we going to use um what indicators and what things are are we going what data collection are we going to use to get that information so that then we can write our review that's going to go to the acting commissioner so you're still going to be using some of this stuff um but I just want to make sure that everyone's you know it's like there's some of it that has to be done already but I if I could I just want to make sure that we're not creating two separate and distinct documents that um that Mr SoDo has to collect data for because he has to collect data for you know for one with the state I just don't want to overburden him with this data collection process um seeing that if we are we're not in agreement with what the state's using I just don't want him to have to you know triple the work well that's that's what the state is telling him to do it's on here what he needs to do so and then how we're going to do it so that's for him to ask his boss so as you get down to the end of the process you will be given evaluation sheets and an opportunity to rate the superintendent on with regard to his personal goals did not meet made some progress made significant progress met the goal exceeded the goal for each of the superintendent uh professional uh District Improvement and student Improvement goals on the criteria from the chart you'll rate the superintendent as uh unsatisfactory needs needs Improvement Prof uh proficient excuse me proficient and exemplary how you elect to go there is up to you uh sometimes the aggregator creates a point scale and uses the point scale sometimes they develop a an alternative system but the process is designed to allow you to have flexibility so when it comes time to taking everything that comes in the aggregators will come up a report and recommendation and give it to the school committee you will then have the ability to make changes to the report and even make changes to the ratings so we've seen situations where the numbers add up let's say you had one two three and four criteria for uh you get one for showing up two if it's uh needs Improvement three if it's proficient four if it's exemplary and let's say that the scores come up to 3.2 but you feel that the superintendent is exemplary overall you can give him an exemplary you could give the or her an Exemplar in other words the scoring system allows you to use your head your heart and your gut in raing the superintendent all of the feedback that is provided to the the assessment committee the working group that you have those are all public documents when the process is over anybody who wants to read them is entitled to read them there is the superintendent and the receiver and the mayor and the school committee are public figures meaning you do not have the expectation of privacy in the performance of your duties so if somebody wants to say terrible things about you uh they can pretty much go ahead and do it and that's what makes the work that's why you get paid so much to do this work uh in the case I gave you of stoen uh when they came to evaluate the superintendent school committee voted six to1 to give this superintendent an exemplary rating which the superintendent deserved but our friend on the negative side was able to have the voice heard and it's on the record interestingly enough the media in that town chose not to cover his comments so you know that's part of the process right so members of the public that have been paying attention can then at the voting booth that's true decide of whether or not they want that kind of representation that and you know sometimes when we have school committees that that can't even get through a meeting because of the presence of you know somebody who's disruptive or out there sometimes the solution is let the voters help you deal with that that's one of many options that you have that's another workshop for another time for which the cameras will not be turned on but that's all right talk about that uh and you issue your final evaluation for the superintendent if the superintendent's evaluation is proficient or exemplary then you don't have to do it uh every year you can do it every other year if you wish to use the rating as grounds for saying great job we want you to stay here we're going to extend your contract that's up to you we're going to give you a raise that's up to you and I think what you'll find mind is once you've done it got the Kinks out you'll feel more comfortable about about how to move forward and remember as I said you do have more flexibility than you might think provided your flexibility is is used um carefully and appropriately and you know the system was created in 2008 and there were a lot of us around the table who helped create that system and we all said to ourselves I wonder what's going to happen in like 20 years from now or 15 years from now people going to look back and say whenever became of that thing we were working on in 2008 it went away we never heard from it again or they might say it's still in place and I have to say it's it's if it's done right it takes time but it's a fair system like everything else in Massachusetts there's a lot of process a lot of Hoops to jump through maybe too many but we're used to it because we're from Massachusetts those are the that's the end of my gratuitous editorial assertions I'm sorry Lyn um so you said we can decide to evaluate the superintendent every year or every two years that's well it depends if the superintendent's rating is proficient or exemplary you can go to a two-year system okay if it's needs Improvement overall or unsatisfactory then you have to do it every year thank you or if it's unsuc if it's unsatisfactory you might go to an expedited system to try to expedite the Improvement we don't have many of those uh most of our superintendents are proficient the state indicated you back then that they never intended that any more than 10% of anybody would be exemplary uh I think we probably have more Exemplar than we thought we would have and rightly so and and a good number of proficients a few needs Improvement Mr colore ju just a question on longevity or whatever you want to call it uh is it the school committee's decision or is it negotiated whether it should be a one year or twoyear uh contract that would be the school committee's decision but you could have a contract with the superintendent that provides that if he is rated or she is rated as exempt or proficient then the evaluation would take place every other year but if there's nothing in the contract you could do what you wanted you have the option of going to a two-year system all right are there any further questions for Mr coocher we're available for any technical assistance you need going down the road thank you so much thank you for every oh wait wait we have a question Mr well I just want to thank Glen um he's always been here for here for the committee and I appreciate that thank you very much thank you so much again so going back um just the announcement but it already finished there's no class today um so with that being said I'll entertain a motion to adjourn second motion toj motion and second okay all those in fav favor I I I know none oppos so 7:27 we end the meeting thank you so much next meeting is November 25th