##VIDEO ID:2fHUbEVo7KQ## e e all right all right are we ready to go all right good evening and welcome to the Thursday August 8th 2024 meeting of the school committee we are here live at hcam and we are being recorded I would like to call the meeting to order and then invite those here in the Studio to rise with pledge of aledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands Nation God indivisible with and justice for all all right so uh there are three of us from the committee here live in the studio and we will have two uh people Chris Masters and Jamie Rona will be participating remotely which means that any votes that we take here will be done by roll call so want to start uh if are there any public comments I don't see any uh recognitions that people have that they'd like to share oh I'll recognize the administrative team we just spent two days in Retreat and it was I thought they were everyone was very invested and I think we got a lot accomplished so thank you to the admin okay all right then that brings us into reports we'll start with the superintendent report all right thank you so this is the superintendent report for August 8th 2024 um tonight I will be talking about the Hopkins school construction very briefly um the administrators Retreat we have three administrators that were replacing this summer and I'll share with you just today's current enrollment numbers uh so you can see what the Hopkins school uh parking area actually looks like you can see we have some pictures here where we are um working on fire construction on the next slide you'll see that this is the back side of the Hopkins school uh if I am geographically correct this is where the basketball court used to be um and hopefully they are now working six days a week to make sure that this will be open for us by August 23rd the biggest questions I get around town I'm sure it is yes and maybe I should elaborate on that and say if there are parents who are having questions about what's going to happen on opening day they really should refer those questions to Mr cler Dr are we and 7th just this week at the Connor Center in do I think um oh sorry there was a question oh sorry uh are we on schedule for that date we are so far okay yes y thanks uh so we spent our two days in admin Retreat as I mentioned uh August 6th and 7th at the Connor Center and I just have a couple of photographs to share with you here I think one of the things that we do that's really nice is when everyone comes in you just you don't sit by school you don't sit by position everyone is mixed up and so there's a lot of people who are you know just working in different groups as the time goes by um so you can see some of your administrator favorites out there uh but as I said there was I think a lot of hard work and we got a lot accomplished and I think that we are really gearing up now in August to open our schools uh to our 4,1 about 60 children uh here's a picture of the entire group of us out in front of the Connor Center I think we're a good-looking group there managed to get that done in between rain showers absolutely here are our three new administrators we have Rachel Richie she will become our new Hopkins assistant principal sh Kent who is the director of K to5 literacy and we have an assistant principal role to phet Hopkinson Middle School uh the former Pat Nash Middle School assistant principal has moved on to become a principal in Millis all right and this is just where we are in terms of enrollment interestingly we had uh 4,128 students when we left in June and today we have 4,12 9 students and so you can see all of the students who have exited the district and you can see all of the pending approvals which means kids have been added to uh these grades and so as you would expect for example in grade nine we had 20 students who um exited we had 14 enter we had three who are pending approval and so we have a uh a net loss there of three kids and grade nine is always tricky because we have loads of kids who leave us and go to other schools so that's typically the highest number on this list um because it's August we still have families who probably haven't registered their kids they may have moved into town so this is one of those times where um this is pretty Dynamic you know we're really not in a place where we could say oh look it's an even number from year to year and I remember last year when we were having conversations about the projected enrollment uh years out and we were looking at our current enrollment and there were people who are asking will those 34 or those 39 or those 50 anticipated students come into the district and by the time we got to the end of the school year they had in fact done that so we are we budgeted for an additional 34 this year we are technically one student to the good on that uh last year when we left we had 109 students in the prek currently we have 65 but because it's a special education program as kids kind of age in uh they will be being added and we also have students who are typical peers who will be joining um the prek and really that's all I have for you we're really looking forward to the upcoming school year thank you are there questions Chris I'm looking down at you um any questions could you repeat the number of students who are in the buildings now 4,000 uh yes kada 12 it's 4,129 who are enrolled today that does not include the prek okay how many prek do we have enrolled at this point at this point 65 wow and that number I know goes up uh as kids super turns yes okay thank you thank you okay that brings us into the school committee chair report uh and just want to start by saying payroll warrants s251 and s252 have been approved warrants 2 24- 82s 24- 083s 24- 84s 24- 85s 24- 86s 24- 87s 24- 88s 24- 89s 24- 90s 24- 091 s 25- 001 s 25 002s 25- 003s 24- 004s and 25- z5s have been approved and they are included in the folder uh do people have liaison reports and it's a little quieter in the summer um I know that um CPAC is gearing up for next year Abby sent out a bunch of dates so that's right okay and playgrounds are going full that's great that's exciting met with the sustainable green committee on Monday they are very enthusiastic about role school committee U role in that they are interested in um the curriculum that we have that in touches upon environmental concerns they know of two classes at the high school level but they are interested in other curriculum that we might have um that is dealing with that um look at other notes um they're looking to get more students involved in the sustainable green committee if we have any suggestions for that um they're um going to be working on composting they have a meeting with Marathon I guess to start composting oh that's great program there um and they are also looking at um getting EV chargers at the um located at the schools the is it a charger something that how did they get paid for I believe it was through the town they look or they and they've got some money in some sort of grant program with my understanding they were not looking for money from us great and last year during the um not this past May town meeting but the town meeting prior was part of that particip participatory budget there was some money allocated for Ev Chargers absolent although I don't think it's a sufficient amount of money to actually do the installation do you know what they cost a piece depends on the there's several different types like Char a Tesla it's more expensive no it's just uh slower charge versus a quick charge so they're different they're looking at putting two downtown um first I had a question that does that that comes out of a school budget no the money for the EV no okay no no it was it was voted at town meeting as um somewhat of a capital project it was of what they called the participatory Capital request got it thank you all right that's it for everybody okay oh I can add um oh hi Jam sorry Hi I can add one thing about um environmental curriculum so my kindergarteners came home telling me about all the things that we do that can hurt polar bears and the ice caps so I guarantee that they are talking about it in kindergarten I provided similar stories from my two children that have gone through the schools but don't have any hard evidence and I suspect that a lot of this is stuff that's kind of ingrained not necessarily called out is environmental but part of what they're doing in the schools and teaching in different ways yeah actually I I just opened a box of uh uh textbooks for I believe it was Marathon school this week and that textbook but um reading books and uh they the theme happened to be weather and weather changes um so you're exactly right that it's embedded throughout the curriculum all right that's great all right if there are no more invite you up it's nice to see you an hi nice to see you for my yearly trip about Nature's Classroom hi and Ben uh the remaining assistant principal at um so I'm here for find to request find approval for the Nature's Classroom trip which is our sixth grade annual trip I don't know we might be on year 30 on this trip wow um uh we are scheduled to take 350 sixth graders because of the size of the group we need to split them into two trips Monday through Wednesday Wednesday through Friday and current cost is anticipated to be $45 we are just needing to confirm with the bus companies um there's a big football game somewhere in New England uh the weekend before Thanksgiving which has caused us a second year of issues locating buses to bring us home um so we end up needing I think we're currently scheduled for a bus company from Vermont to bring us home from New Hampshire uh but that adds a little bit to the cost um because it's a oneway trip and it's out of their way so but we had the same issue last year so we were $45 last year so we anticipate that that will be the same okay that's great are any questions about either the Nature's Classroom program or the trip or anything related to that I just think it's a really really good thing it is and I you know my kids all went through and it a great opportunity for learning in the natural environment obviously but uh in really Hands-On stuff but also it's a great bonding experience I think for those it's great on so many levels and Nature's Classroom is a great program and where we go which is Camp Cody on oi Lake is really a beautiful setting and and a well well-maintained some of our other sites had gotten a little tired so this is a great location to be that's wellmaintained and the um the director and the instructors are really top-notch it's probably some of the best that I've experienced and this is going on year 12 and I only missed one year for Co so and I there so there the co what there was one grade who that wasn't able to do it if I correct actually there was no we doubled up you doubled up but right there was late so two years took grade six and grade seven but the kids that were in grade eight I think didn't get to go that year but otherwise great but then we doubled so so that was amazing all right so we would seek a motion then to approve the grade six trip to Nature's Classroom in November of 20124 I moved to approve the grade 6 trip to Nature's Classroom in November 2024 okay motion by Susan is there a second on that I'll second it second by Kyla we'll do a roll call starting with you Kyla all Susan yes I'm a yes Jamie yes Chris yes okay so it's unanimous thank you for coming out it's nice to see you hope you had a nice summer so far it's been nice little bit left yeah yeah we're just finishing some stuff up today 11 days till we have teachers walk back wow 11 school days always to do in those M but we're ready for it yeah great great thank you okay and that brings us into the hopkington middle school par professional request Sansum Hello nice to see you you for having me nice to see you uh so I'm here this evening to um request the addition of two par professional level C um staff people specifically for the middle school I know you have a memo and I'm available to answer any questions you might have thank you any questions if you heard any Buzz um with CPAC you guys no I haven't all right I do not see question J go ahead um so we had I think a couple meetings ago discussed about changing a staffing um to accommodate not being able to fill a pair of position but Provide support for students but that was in the high school correct so we anticipate we'll be able to fill these two positions for the middle school that's correct so that was a high school specific request and this um request is specific to the Middle School uh and the solution for the high school wouldn't be able to apply to the Middle School need that helps answer your question I think it does I was just I was like we just talked about something similar but we couldn't find a pair to fill that role so we're feeling confident we can find um good staff members to fill this Ro so I um I think that the ability to fill the positions should they be funded um we would be able to accomplish that for par professional um level C position the just circling back on that the par professional positions that Jamie's discussing were not sea level that um but also the middle school is a different context than the high school as well um but I'm confident that were we able to fill or were we able to have these positions we would work very assiduously to fill them for the opening of the um school year I had a question these these positions are outside of what were the uh plan budget was so this is in addition to what was already approved correct got it Susan do you want to touch on that at all on the funding of it um I believe that we would be using the Ida Grant to fund these positions correct and that's an appropriate use of those funds correct um and that would be um an not only an appropriate use but an available use of those funds which is is um what I'd like to see us do so that it um um is able to respond to the student IEP compliance needs okay thank you what is the Ida fund that would be the special education grant from the federal government under the idda law okay got it thank you and education all right any other questions if not is there somebody who would like to make a motion on this I'll make a motion that we approve the PA professionals 2.0 FTA ABA PA professionals level C for the middle school thank you motion Kyla second by Susan we'll do a roll call starting with you Kyla yes Susan yes Amma yes Chris yes and Jamie yes okay it's unanimous thank you thank you nice to see you both appreciate the committee support very much thank you absolutely it's important yep all right so this brings us into the Super attendance 2024 to 2025 uh goals and just um for people who have not followed this every year this is a process that we start right at this time of year every year uh we discuss the goals and the indicators at length throughout the year and kind of culminates at the end of the year because they're used as the basis for Dr Kavanaugh's evaluation so all right thank you so we will do the goals and the indicators tonight and um as Mrs k just said we'll take a look at these tonight and then we'll come back and revisit them when we're back together here in a couple of weeks I think on the 22nd and I think you emailed them out to the committee as well it's very I did yes so the committee actually has a electronic copy of both the goals and the indicators so the first two goals are both student achievement goals and you know that Desi divides them up into student achievement um District goals and then also professional practice goals so the first one says that over the past three years the district has implemented considerable new curriculum Andor instruction instructional models uh in both Ela and math at most grade levels and so if you've been on the committee for a while you know that I've had those kinds of goals in um two separate goals this year I've kind of combine them because I think that the work has gotten to a place where uh we're kind of just monitoring a little bit in math and and the ELA is I think also in a place where we're pretty sound um but I'll I'll explain more about that uh so this year we are already seeing results of the curricul instructional shifts they are manifest in increased test scores so I think that the community will be interested to see what our mcast tests are looking like this year mcast scores so going into the 24 25 school year I will really be monitoring kids growth and achievement especially in mathematics and then in grades 2 to 12 we're going to start an Ela analysis and that may lead to additional programmatic or instructional or leveling changes this is not dissimilar from the 18 months we spent looking at math and you'll remember all the data we had compiled and we made decisions about grade six um placements so you can see all the process benchmarks I usually put them in there so that you know what I'm doing along the way and then what happens is you'll have product benchmarks and when we keep coming together to review these more and more evidence will be added to those sort of Windows if you will the second one is also a student achievement goal the district will grow its capacity to support students social emotional and behavioral wellness and to validate students identities work will take place at all levels but primarily at the secondary levels to achieve this goal uh a couple of years ago we started to think about the ways to kind of meld the social emotional cultural and um you know some of the behavioral things and we and it was kind of an interesting thing I think because we had different people who were working to those ends and so last year I think we got to a very good spot where we could put all of those things under one umbrella and so it's going to look like a lot of processed benchmarks but I think that's because we've successfully kind of moved them all into the same house so to speak so we will have data from the Metro at MetroWest adol adolescent Health survey we have a survey known as Pags Pathways after graduation and so we uh survey our graduated seniors to see how we did as a k to2 School District um we are increasing our postsecondary trajectories and we will also be establishing a myap program that was originally sponsored by desie um and now we're bringing that into the high school uh we will make sure that the holistic student assessment the HSA is administered at least twice a year in grades 4 to 11 and that harvested data will be used to see how kids are accessing curriculum and fairing in the Aggregate and then also at individual levels uh the high school and middle school will develop cell phone use protocols we will have the cry up again in every building School Improvement plan uh we will be taking black prints recommendations and developing or selecting a tool to vet to vet to vet our curricula and instruction for biases uh we will continue to train our faculty and staff and restorative practices through the work of our director of English language acquisition equity and access Jen suker will commit to parent family and community outreach enlisting the support of stakeholder groups in the district and school Community Jen does an awful lot of work with folks who are just coming into the district and who may need some kind of I don't know if it's an orientation data exchange language history all of those things are covered in those meetings um continue our work with the CAC and the lpac work with the director of student services to address address disproportionality of our white students being overidentified with an sld um and then I will once again start up my my blog work and really think about putting out information to the community on social emotional learning and behavioral um issues and then also cultural proficiency so now we can move into one of the first district Improvement goals to continue to address enrollment growth ultimately building and building use and expansion throughout the district it's going to be especially critical to make sure that the community is aware of our enrollment growth our academic needs our seal needs and the construction aspects of the work require a partnership with the assistant superintendent for finance and operations Mrs rmck and the director of facilities Mr person the enrollment numbers and educational needs need to be articulated very frequently and with transparency in these meetings and then also when we are um with our town partners and this has been carried forth I think it's important to keep it here because we are nowhere near done with that work and um in addition to this work you know that simultaneously we will also have um our regular operating um budget and capital budget to take a look at my second district Improvement goal my fourth goal over overall uh last year it was recommended that we begin a district climate team and um it was very surprising that the work became really validating and I think that given the fact that this year we are going into negotiations um to establish a sucessor agreement with the Hopkinson Teachers Association it really feels important to keep that that climate team work alive um last year we met I think seven times we conducted a 360degree assessment that was completed by the Admin team we had climate surveys that went out to faculty staff parents and students and we had a lot of meetings with that uh District climate team itself and exchanged a lot of I think sort of kind of feeling data between um the administration and the uh teachers and Par professionals as well um so that will continue this year and um I think Jeff and I both have goals to get into our buildings at least twice monthly teachers reported that they would love to see the central office administrators in regularly and not just coming in to you know see a kid performance or to visit with the principal really getting into their classrooms so uh working on students social emotional behavioral needs as teachers report that student needs have increased over the year so that was important to our teachers um presenting the activities of the district climate team to this group periodically and then meeting with the admin team regularly and things so things like our admin Council two-day Retreat we spent a lot of times talking about things that would support kids academically but also socially emotionally behaviorally culturally because those things are the things that often stand in the way to our kids accessing curriculum at high levels and then the last of my goals is a professional practice goal and this is something I've never done before in this role uh but as the district leader I've historically spent time in job alike groups but I've never taken on those kinds of leadership roles and so this year stretching my leadership capacity I am going to be the chair of the accept collaborative board of directors and I am also on the Mas professional development committee so in those capacities you know I'll be kind of stretching myself and then um continuing my work and job alikes of course and hopefully that that will make me a I think just a better leader generally um and this year we have a couple of things that will happen in District I have to do the concussion subcommittee this year because the concussion protocols need to be updated and then we also have to revise our district wide crisis guide so they the work in District does fall um I think in keeping with some of the leadership work happening outside of the district as well and that's what I have for the goals so I don't know if you want to stop there and take a moment before we move into into the do people have questions they want to ask at this point about the goals or comments they want to make I have a couple questions okay go ahead Chris uh just out of curiosity what does the climate team do oh what's what's their role who's it comprised of yes when uh when we first hired anal director we came up with a definition for what is District climate really how are the the grown-ups and the kids really in our district kind of getting along what are the morale levels how are people feeling about coming to work every day and I think it was an especially important thing to do after covid at one point um in the during the pandemic I think it might have been uh November or December in 2020 and people were pretty wiped out at that point in time and we had done some work with uh surveys and uh really people were kind of hanging on by a thread and it feels like the last time we did a a climate survey which was just this past spring it felt like people were in a better place I think emotionally um so it's really our goal to continue to kind of grow that create like that fertile space for people to thrive as Educators and as students and paraprofessionals and really everyone in our district got it great thanks uh this the second one was on point 11 work with the director of student services to address disproportionality of white students being overidentified with anld I guess what's an sld and well our director of student services is here so we can call her right up to the microphone if you like uh before she sits down to describe that what I will tell you is this the department of Elementary and secondary education measures all of sort of your ratios and what they want to see is that say students of color have just as much access to um really competitive rigorous classes as their white counterparts or they want to make sure that students who are on IEPs have access to that kind or we don't have sort of uh discipline data that says that we are targeting boys and not girls in terms of consequences so that's what the disproportionality report does we have never been disproportionate until this past year and Mrs hansum is the person who's dealing with this so fortuitously she is here and she can describe it to you yes so I have a great slide deck that I'd love to share with you tell you all about it we did do what we called disproportionality 101 maybe in April or May I think last spring and the promise was that once we heard if our draft plan was approved from the Department of Ed we'd come back probably September October to the committee and do a followup um and I'm happy to share that we were notified after school ended that the plan was approved so we can kind of come forward to the committee and keep keep you apprised but also start working on it um and I think Carol I remember we got a compliment that our plan was very well put together so we would um begin in September working together um with teachers staff and administrators on the specifics and what for us it would be is looking at our referral process um for students who have a specific learning disability identified sld in dyslexia and disaggregating that data by race and looking at our our outcomes great thank you yep go ahead man I just wanted to follow up on just a follow up on Chris's question on that I think we just lost our Zoom oh there they go okay no um so the in looking at the overidentification of uh our white students being our white students being overidentified with slds are we also considering that it might not be that the white students are being overidentified but students of color may be under identified correct and so in our draft um we addressed kind of all possible um explanation Concepts and I was pleased that the department of Ed accepted all those proposed ways to look at this question we weren't sure that they would um and they did so we now have the latitude to look at that exact question the inverse which would essentially be our other subgroups of kids being under represented and so we plan to do both at the same time which was kind of where we left off with the committee um and we've received approval to proceed in that way and that's wonderful so I'm actually looking forward to that work how do you go about doing that carefully um thinking about parent Outreach and communication on sensitive subjects about the stigma around disability um and thinking together with parent representatives and a variety of constituent groups about how to do that in a way that would help people um potentially come forward to the school district if they had a concern about their child's literacy development um and they were feeling worried but they were worried about what would happen because they said they were worried right and so we're going to work together with some parents and a diverse group of stakeholders to figure out how people would like us to try to do that work you can't do Mass checking that you've missed anybody can do I think from what we've observed this is very personal um to families and to to parents and so I think we're going to have to do a variety of approaches maybe some very broad communication but also some really personalized um you know culturally relevant and thoughtful communication and how does this compare to some of the data of children coming in from early intervention to our preschool program I know they don't have specific learning disabilities at that age but the demogra has that demographic data seems no I will I think that's part of what we'll start to explore is is there a pipeline that's getting interrup or is it not that um yep but we have the green light to get started is part of that also some means by which stigma can be decreased right yes um because you know I you hear famous people who come out now and say you know no one I didn't do well in school of I think of whoopy Goldberg who quit school I think 10th grade maybe and turned out she was dislexic and and she after the fact she learned how to deal with that and that's that speaks poorly of our society that we're afraid to have that we see that as a stigma yeah that's very thoughtful and I I would say that I would see this as a multi-year communication project really and um I think it's good work to be doing so so the goal of this is to I help identify kids that need additional services that aren't getting them yes and also to make sure that our eligibility um practices and procedures are finding the the students who genuinely are eligible and we're not over finding anybody or underf finding anybody so it's like a two-pronged kind of process got it great thank you yes I think that what they're saying is that we are over finding white students but our question is is that because we are underf finding other students thank you Chris did you have other questions I think we all jumped on to your one on that but I didn't know if you had other questions related to no no no no those were the two thank you I'm good thank you we were lucky Abby was here uh Jamie did you have any questions I just want to make sure because I can't see you I do I do um so I'm I don't understand the difference between the district Improvement plan um and the superintendent goals um one thing that I noticed was the district climate survey shows up on the district Improvement plan which I think is really valuable and super important um but that's not part of the superintendent goals and I wasn't if that would be um something that should maybe be double dipped because it's so important um as part of that you know Category 3 standard um under superintendent evaluations that way we can document multiple times how great it's F she's she's looking at the district Improvement goals I think you you're talking about like goal three for example the district Improvement goals is that what you're yes y yeah and why I didn't show up in the superintendent goals I wasn't sure why it I'll Dr answer but this is separate from the district Improvement plan which is its own document yes so may maybe this will be helpful um every district has a district Improvement plan and that guides the work of the entire district and then each one of the five building principles in hopkington will put together a school Improvement plan and so the middle school for example will have something on their school Improvement plan that you know High School may not and that the elementary schools may not but what is in those School Improvement plans will all sort of live in some way under the guiding document of the district Improvement plan so when I do my goals and I have a district Improvement goal one of those goals of mine will address something in the district Improvement plan but it won't address everything in the district Improvement plan and so you did break up a little when you were asking your question so I hope I'm answering it sorry the the Wi-Fi isn't the best in New Hampshire yeah generally um but I know this is only our first pass so maybe I will spend more time looking at the documentation and bring it back when I'm in person we missed the first part of what you said there again because you froze com was through uh since this is the first pass maybe I will just uh try to clarify my question a little bit more and bring it back when we're in person so the other piece that I think can be confusing PE for people looking at these for the first time or even sometimes the 10th time is that you have to take different goals from different categories including the student student achievement goals including the district Improvement goals that you're your goals can't all be from a particular category that that desie actually outlines the categories that the goals come from I don't know if that helps a little bit but I think did I miss remember this but I think Georgette sent out the document the rubric about the goals and the indicators and that might help comparing for people that against this to look at how the two MH hold it's a lot um it's a lot to digest but that will help I think as we go along to yes one of the things that desie asks us to do with our goals is to then take the goal that is aligned to the district Improvement plan and also show how it relates to the superintendent evaluation rubric that has a series of indicators the just in general I think and this is just for folks that are tuning in at home the superintendent evaluation and the superintendent goals are much more scripted than I think people realize in terms of what what is required of them and what pieces you have to pick out yeah and Jamie if you have questions that you want to just forward to me you can and you know then I can work on them and we can talk about them when we come together on the 22nd that will sort of expedite the process so that we don't talk about on the 22nd and then move two weeks out again that's great thank you okay all right so now we can take a look at the indicators and these come just so you also know there's a more recent um superintendent evaluation rubric and those are the ones that don't break it all the way down into elements and the committee a few years ago decided that we would use the one that doesn't break it all the way down into elements so it will do standards and indicators not elements so my first one the first three actually are all related to standard one which is curriculum and instruction so the first one is to empower administrators to ensure all instructional staff collaboratively plann adapt as needed and implement standard baseed units comprised of well structured lessons aligned to state standards and local curricula continually Monitor and assess progress and provide additional support as needed and models this practice for others so on this one I did not choose some of that support curriculum on this one I chose the kind of curriculum that is what we would call tier one things that all of our students are getting and so I broke it into five categories I think and these are all the things that Mr LeBron is really working on uh the first one is to think about what it's going to look like when we have a new 2 to four school and a new 56 school because the curriculum in those buildings are going to need to be altered slightly to match to the changes in the physical plants we also have to develop some Civics curriculum and so Mr leod and many people are working on that K to3 and then in grades for 5 uh we are very lucky that our Middle School agreed to take the Civics mcast test a couple of years ago because even though the data is in the aggregate it's helpful to us to kind of see where we need to be um if we are changing our uh Middle School and High School Civics programming uh we just finished a science technology engineering audit of all of that curriculum and the mcast test is also going to be changing in grades 5 8 and 10 in science asking our kids to show how they do science and they will be completing virtual performance tasks so that's going to need to be upgraded and then also computer science so those are the curricular things that belong to sort of all students and that's why I put it there um just in terms of kind of generalized curriculum in 1B instructions sets high expectations for the content and quality of instruction and empowers all administrators to do the same such an instructional practices throughout the district are engaging inclusive and personalized to accommodate diverse learning needs of all students stats informed of new evidence-based instructional practices and provides resources to support them and support to implement them as needed uh so in this one this is where I am looking at some of our kids who have um uh when disaggregated have different needs and typically they are the kids who are scoring in the partially meeting expectations on the mcast or they are the kids that we would call in the yellow on our star assessments and the and the yellow kids tend to when they take the MCS become the partially meeting kids um so we have Unearthed a lot of data when we have been looking at special education scores and we are seeing performance discrepancies for our students with disabilities and so what we would like to do is to start having greater growth and achievement for our kids who are on um IEPs if we look at them historically their their scores are just very flat uh because we have access to SGP scores through star and through mcast it would be really nice to see our kids in the top 50th uh percent of all of the kids who are taking that test and it would be lovely to see our kids making greater than a Year's worth of growth all right when we were just together at our administrators Retreat we took a look at the multi-tiered system of support mtss and some of the levers available to us that might assist us in working with those struggling Learners and so we have things that are sort of our big six and um among those things are things like looking at how our people spend time in their plc's how we are using the progress monitoring data through star assessment how we are implementing specially designed instruction in students where we have um uh inclusion uh how we are differentiating our instruction in those settings um if we have clearer supports for our LST teams our learning support teams and how is it that we are you know taking a student analyzing what he needs trying it progress monitoring and then coming back to the team and then implementation of the cry up pillars 1 and four and then continuing on with oural data what's a PLC oh a professional Learning Community thank you very much and we are a district that um in terms of time all of our teachers are afforded PLC time at the high school it's a little trickier to do they meet with what we call course Partners um but in the Middle School two periods a week they are in plc's and at the elementaries it's one period a week that they get to engage in PLC so we're very fortunate that our teachers have that collaborative time and it might be part of our secret sauce all right I embedded student learning in there uh because I don't think that you can be looking at 1B instruction without looking at the student learning outcomes and student learning just says that um we demonstrate an expected impact on student learning based on multiple measures of student learning growth and achievement including progress on common assessments and Statewide student growth measures were available and we do look at our mcast scores I know there are lots of people who would say why are you putting so much weight on the scores and I don't think we're putting weight on the SC scores so much as we are using it as our report card it lets us know how we're doing and what we need to do to bolster our instruction when working with kids all right so moving to standard two 2D laws ethics and policies I keep this one on uh I think it's really important to do that to provide the resources and support for all School Personnel to understand and comply with state and federal laws and mandates school committee policies collective bargaining agreements and ethical guidelines modeling this practice for others um as you know a lot of my work is to work with the school committee to ensure that our policies are sound um to guard the district against potential liability to model ethical Behavior to work respectfully with our bargaining units in this year we will be bargaining with not only the Teachers Association but the nurses the custodians and the cafeteria workers so this is a big year I I think for um standard 2D and really it is our hope that when we emerge from these negotiations we leave with very fair healthy contracts that they respect the hard works of our work of our valued employees and that they are aligned to the fiscal reach of our community so um I will add in things as they they go on and you'll be able to see you know when we have things like grievances how we're managing them what when our Labor Management meetings are and all that all right 2E fiscal systems leads the administrative team to develop a District budget aligned with the district's vision mission and goals that addresses the needs of all students allocates and manages expenditures consistent with district and school level goals seeks alternative funding sources as needed proactively communicates the budget rationale to staff community members Municipal stakeholders and the school committee providing regular updates on the implementation of the budget um again I think that this is going to be a tricky budget year I know I said that last year we were coming off the heels of a rough budget season previously this year it seems like this will be a challenging budget season because we just had two enormous U capital projects be successfully passed at uh two different town meetings and I know that the town is publicly rightfully concerned about their Capital debt um so we will have to keep that top of Mind as we go through the budgeting process this year and so it really becomes incumbent upon us as a school department to as we're looking at our capital and operating budgets to really ask for those things that we absolutely positively need to be able to ensure that our kids are learning and thriving in the hopkington public schools moving on to standard three 3B student support provides resources professional de development and related supports that ensure the identification of each students academic social emotional and behavioral needs including students with disability abilities and English Learners empowers administrators to collaborate with families and effectively address student needs and prevent further challenges models this practice for others um so this one I think is just a little bit different from thinking about students who are academically needy in standard one because this really covers the gamut um so we do know that we have our kids who are partially meeting and yellow but we also know that we have kids and this came about last year because had a goal that or one of the rubric indicators that talked about what is really the K to2 experience for our students and what's missing and uh one of the things that we learned is that there's a lot of pressure um especially as kids approach High School to think about um that college trajectory and so what does it mean for our kids if they are not interested in pursuing the college trajectory if they want to go to Keith if they want to do something else after they graduate if they want to go to the military what kinds of options are there for them which is why the senior Capstone project is so important the myap work that we're doing through a grant with desie uh all of those things are important to us but just so much as like the dyslexia action plan for our kids who may not be reading at at grade grade level and so we've been working through that with desie as well so this is I think Super all-encompassing you can read through all of the things that are in there but even differentiated instruction co- teing model all of those pieces have to be there and we will be looking again at the HSA data the vocal data Metro West at and health survey data the um Pathways after graduation data all of that helps us to really get a clear picture of the needs of our kids all right and so moving to standards four I think I have two under standard four one is a commitment to high standards establish a districtwide commitment to high standards of teaching and learning with high expectations from achievement for all including um Mission and core values collaborates with Educators and community members to develop secure and promote core values in an aligned Mission use them to guide decisionmaking um I think I've always been a very databased and high standards kind of superintendent and one of the things that we talked about when we were together yesterday is that you know I can remember doing some of the uh Retreats and we would spend time on leadership things or policy things and the last couple of days have at least to my thinking been almost entirely student focused and I think when you see our school Improvement plans you're going to get that same feeling that kids are really at the center of that and we are all committed to doing the best we can again I'd love to talk about our mcast outcomes for this year because that work that we've been doing where we say there's there's nothing better for us than giving kids the absolute best curriculum and removing barriers to it I I think we're getting there I mean I think the numbers are starting to to bear that out and it's it's exciting and I don't want you to think that it's the people in central office who are making that happen or the building principles exclusively who are making that happen it's every single person in this District the smls the teachers par professionals every single person our tutors our custodians our cafeteria everyone is making that happen for our kids it's probably the most excited I've been about like looking at this data in teaching and learning for maybe the entire time I've I've been here um and then just lastly Communications one of the things that has happened over the last several years is we've been spending so much time on building projects and the elementary school building committee and really tons of meetings about that and conveying that information to the community that I think some of my other communication forms have fallen off so I'd like to get back on a regular schedule doing highlights from the Hill show um getting my blog back in place making sure that you know even um back to school information for families all of that needs to just keep coming out and for a while that waned a little bit or it got a little Slimmer and I'd like to fatten that up again so those are the rubric indicators okay are there questions on the rubric indicators Jamie and Chris I can't I know you can't probably see that I'm looking down at you guys but just want to check in with since you're remote if you have um any questions or comments you want to jump in with I have none okay I have a question I have questions but I don't trust my connection okay so go ahead and start Dr Kavanaugh and um we can look at them at the next meeting sounds great thank you Susan did you I think I have an answer but um I noticed here uh doubling down on the message with the Mantra all really can mean all I always thought this all really does mean all well we started with all means all and then in the next year I think we were sort of ratcheting things up and and really making sure the people knew that we meant that and so he went to all really can mean all and this year we're doing all means all every student every day so we keep with the with the same Mantra but every year when we make some subtle changes or some not so subtle changes just we changed the Mantra ever so slightly I'm glad you asked about that yes I did miss yeah my only question would be so I I understand the the focus on mcast data is looking sure but what other aspects are we really using to measure that because there are so many yes different indicators where um things that I'm particularly interested in a student engagement that you might get measures from observations and of teachers and yes we actually have some plans for walkthroughs and to do that that kind of observation data I think too that when you look at that vocal data through desie and when you look at the holistic student survey data the HSA data uh you really get a feel for how kids are feeling about you know instruction and engagement uh desie go so far as to ask questions such as um I feel like there are times when I have student voice and choice or I feel like there are times when I even get to drive the curriculum and typically school districts will get very low marks and I get to drive the curriculum because that doesn't often happen for kids uh but I think our kids don't do badly in evaluating or our teachers don't do badly when the kids say that they feel like they have some voice and choice so those are are two other methods that we can use to do that with reading things we still vas our kids qri our kids um there's a whole host of of you know reading metrics for us Metro West adolesent Health survey helps us to know how healthy they are um and that's that's typically their health not necessarily um their relationships with teachers or their relationship to coursework the pathway stuff is super interesting um we just sat down with the researcher on that to look to see how uh we were fairing with uh you know what our kids had to say about their experience and their ready to succeed but we also ask kids questions like did you leave College in your first year why did you leave College in your first year are you planning to reenroll somewhere else have you gone to work full-time um you know anything did you have health issues mental health issues so all of that is really covered in there and you don't get an entire graduating class who responds but I think we've got a full enough um number that the the data will be very meaningful all right so we will bring this back on the 22nd I appreciate uh the amount of work that goes into just creating this this step of the way um so thank you for that so the next item on our agenda is the school committee uh minutes to discuss uh regarding minutes preparation and Jamie I know that you had brought this forward as something you wanted to discuss so I want to offer up if you want to frame uh the pieces that you're most interested in discussing on that thank you let me know if my connection fails and it's not coming through um when I was reading through our minutes I noticed that some of our um the earlier ones from mine and Chris's tenure lacked some level of detail that may be useful for us as we move through especially our budget conversations um in that concern I went and checked um some comparable districts on their school committee meeting minutes um I looked at Weston I looked at Lexington I looked up some of West buroughs and I looked back in our own minutes records um from years ago and I believe that George Ed actually increased the detail of the minutes that were before us tonight which I really appreciate um I think that I'm just hoping to come to a consensus that a um more robust level of detail would be beneficial for us as we move through as the minutes are our official record so tracking things like how we're managing the budget how we're watching for cost efficiencies um having a record of that would be beneficial for us so that we can easily look back on it versus searching all videos okay any um it's it's hard to hear because the volume's not that that loud I don't know if is it possible to increase the volume uh in the studio of it it's not a not an issue with your connection but just the volume of it I'm wondering if this we could increase it in the studio if Bob all right so can you just say something just so we can test the volume again can you hear me now oh that's fabulous yeah um if you don't mind repeating that I think not everybody heard what you said sure I'll give it another try um so I was concerned about the level of detail that was in our minutes from early and Chris and I tenure I think it's important that we document all the things that we as a school committee are doing to make sure we're controlling for cost including questions asked of contractors looking for ways to make sure that we're not overspending anything um and initially the minutes were fairly blank on our conversations um and the detail that was being captured I did bring that up I believe the minutes before us tonight are of Greater detail um I also compared our minutes with historically other Hopkinson School committee minutes from years ago um which were much more detailed I also pulled minutes from Westboro Lexington and Weston to compare their level of detail um and I think that what's before us tonight is a lot closer I think having a robust record is beneficial to the entire committee and to the transparency to our community of the work that we're doing easier to look at than going through old videos um so having a good robust record I think supports the work that we're doing in our ability to support the Hopkinson School System okay thank you that was actually super clear uh and nice and loud in the studio there's uh some AI platforms that will transcribe um you know um and and put in kind of recap form um you know any conversation or meeting so I don't know if uh anyone um and you know either on the committee or Dr Kavanaugh um uses that but I was at a meeting yesterday out in Colorado where they use that technology It's very effective and easy and and um low cost as well so I don't know if that's something that worth looking into thank you for that uh so I know we're not doing that currently yeah using AI in that way um I I guess I have not compared the difference like side by side and looking at minutes that we had in the past versus what the ones we have right now are uh I don't I don't think we want a transcription I think that's tedious to go through uh in terms of trying to find the information then but I support the idea of additional um detail to the minutes if that's what people MH So Jamie in terms of action are you looking for to make just sort of a general note of this or what is the what is the action yeah so um like generally agreement that we would like to strive for increased detail in our minutes which I think um Georgette is making that effort which I really appreciate because we hadn't even gotten to speak about it at the meeting yet um and potentially as we approve minutes looking to make sure that any important discussions that we engage in particularly regarding our budget um are captured accurately because I I know that we are under great scrutiny to make sure that we're following fiscal appropriate measures and we also don't want to um drop any of our responsibilities to supporting the Excellence of our school system and the best way to be able to respond to concerns to that in our community is to have a robust record to point to I'd like to so if we're lacking any detail we'd be able to um add it you know when we go to review the minutes sure I would like to see some of the examples from other districts that um demonstrate the kind of expansion you would like to see in the minutes is that possible absolutely um I'd be happy to send minutes around I was guessing at which districts um are usually the ones Dr kavanau Compares us to I couldn't remember um exactly so even if um I pulled Lexington Weston and Westboro if there's another or if those aren't the correct ones please let me know and I'll make sure to pull examples from the um districts we usually compare to that would be and I can send those around by email one other um consideration and I can I know it exists I just haven't looked to kind of look side by side but I know the town also has um guidelines in terms of what they want to see and I think those have been approved by the town attorney um that might be helpful to include in the discussion as well I don't have you seen those or do you want me to see if I can obtain a copy of that to circulate around as well for the next discussion I can send them to you because the town man just sent them to me okay yeah happy to do that yeah okay and did I capture the um communities that we usually compare to I I don't know if I trust my memory on that it sounded like a good representation I mean yeah we usually throw a lot there are about 10 of them that we like to think of ourselves yeah I don't think we have to look at all 10 okay but it sounds like Jamie found a representative list unless anybody has any off hand that you if you're peeking at other people's minutes too I don't peek at minutes all right thank you Jamie for that all right so we will Circle back uh to this at a future meeting that brings us into item e which is policy acab sexual and sex-based harassment and retaliation uh Dr Kavanaugh and I it sounds like the policy working group is Alive and Well alive and well uh yes so we met last week and we looked at policy acab sexual and sex-based harassment retaliation because in Massachusetts the title 9 laws are changing and so everyone needs to change their policies and their protocols Mr LeBron is working on changing the protocols which is how operationally we work in the event that someone is accused of um a sex-based crime sexual harassment sexual retaliation whatever it might be um so on the school committee side acab doesn't cover Title 9 so we looked at our former um policy acab and our former a policy acab was not that um ours was called Hopkinson School committee policy harassment and it covered all kinds of harassment so what we did was we went and we looked at the masc acab policy and we read through it very carefully and we made some um changes to it so for example uh one of the things that our attorney has shared with us in recent times is that when you um look at you all of the protected groups you also have to include um pregnancy or pregnancy related conditions so we added that terminology in there along with sexual orientation gender identity um as examples of discrimination on the basis of sex um then we added in the second paragraph which is a definition of sexual harassment um you can read through all of that and uh it's very long uh we also um had a long conversation about um the ideas of a formal complaint because there are times when someone might say to someone something about feeling you know upset or you know afraid and that could fall under the heading of sexual harassment and that does not have to be a formal complaint for us to be able to investigate it so we we worked on that um and then at the end we spent uh quite a bit of time on the uh section where it says while it's not possible to list all those additional circumstances that may constitute sexual harassment the following are some examples of conduct which if unwelcome May constitute sexual harassment depending on the totality of the circumstances including the severity of the con uh of the conduct and its pervasiveness and so we read through that and we took these examples I think maybe out of the western public schools and put them in there and added in pregnancy or pregnancy related conditions and a couple of other things along the way so what you see now we think is a a solid policy around Title 9 and sexual harassment and even if you decide that you like this policy uh we will send it off to our legal council to ensure that they agree that we haven't um forgotten to dot any eyes or cross any tees and Susan and Jamie were both there as well so I don't know if I missed anything um that you would like to add all right Susan or Jamie anything uh I think we did a pretty good job on it um there was so much that needed to be considered and added in uh was I mean it's we did pretty good work we did all right so in the other pieces it will go out to the community as well before yes that's right so that will come back at a to be determined date yes after legals had a chance to look at it too we were wondering if you wanted to make sure that you were happy with it before we sent it to Legal only because if we sent it to them and they approve it and then we change something we to get back again uh it looks good to me it looks like you guys put a lot of thought into it and I always appreciate I I know that the policy uh group is a a heavy lift so appreciate that uh Kyla and Chris did you guys have anything you wanted to comment or add or question no I'm all set okay right so we are since we are not taking action on that um we will see that again after our legal team has looked at it all right the next item on our um agenda is this norms and protocols uh for the committee and I'm going to ask Jamie since you were thoughtful enough to take the document and red line for us if you would walk us through that sure I um I just got kicked off and back in um so I don't know that my connection is going to be consistent but um briefly I did exactly what I um spoke about when we had our daytime meeting I tried to um remove some of the things that I thought were either redundant or poor formatting I um try to make it more concise including um making all the language consistent with referring to instead of we school committee members I also abbreviated that to SDM um it does not mean sternal plastoid which is how I usually see that um but it is defined in the beginning oh a muscle okay um it it took me a minute when I first wrote that like I thought that looked strange but then I realized it was um referring to a muscle and so um things that we spoke about that I thought were um clear without all the extra words um to make it less likely to be you know read and understood and agreed to in a clear way um I also removed the footnotes that seemed to add layers that were unnecessary that were already captured in the document um and there had been um you know one thing that was removed from the masc that I believe put back in um under the how we community because I thought that made sense um but it's all there in the red lines where you can see exactly what I changed thank you Jamie and thank you for taking the time to go through um to make the changes any questions comments thoughts about uh the document as it looks in front of us today and for people at home who are interested in the this uh Redline copy is available in our packet I actually think I prefer school committee members written out um even though it's longer because I think the SCM is going to throw in through the reading I don't know how others feel I don't have a strong feeling I agree with that since it's a document yeah and that's very to fix just to find in replace yeah is is it my understanding that on this that you're re removing the superintendent from the development of the agenda so the agenda is legally owned by the school committee and um even on the mesc it doesn't refer to the superintendent owning it now the school committee chair and vice chair May delegate it to the superintendent but it is always the responsibility of the school committee to own the agenda and so it didn't seem relevant to have that potential delegation written into the document when it is always going to fall under the responsibility of the school committee um legally all right let me scroll down all right I know I read this but where did you pull that from I can't find it again I um oh it's in the it's in the footnotes is there any um I I do think as a matter of practice that the agenda legally the agenda is the property of the school committee developing the agenda in practice is done as a a collaborative effort that's I thought yep um and I I certainly think that um you say it's down in the small fine print where I saw it is it's the agenda is prob develop the agenda is often delegated to the chair and vice chair um I think that should say personally developing the agenda is a collaborative effort between the chair Vice chair and superintendent I agree with that I think it still keeps in the the piece that the agenda is the property of the school committee yes but highlights the collaborative approach um that we do we have used here um in hopkington for the past couple of years and it originally was the chair in the um superintendent and then as well as um Georgette I mean she's an important piece of the thing too we brought in the vice chair a couple years ago maybe two two years ago uh because it's an it allowed for the opportunity to have two school committee voices in there and to learn and to learn uh yeah it so I think that's a nice thing to institutionalize there as well that the vice chair is a and you know an equal participant in the development of it there really are times when operations need to sort of have a voice I think in the construction of the agenda so a good example is that tonight Mrs hansam came and asked for two par professionals but she doesn't just go to Georgette with the memo and say could you tell the school committee I want this she has to go to Mrs rck and say how will we fund this she has to come to me and explain um that you know we need these because we have children who need two c paers and without them will be out of compliance and so I have to you know think about like the legal ramifications for the district so there are parts of it that I think operationally we do contribute to no I agree with that that makes sense to have it written and as a collaborative effort between and to specify that um piece between the chair Vice chair superintendent now were you thinking that should be in the in are we adding to the footnotes um or putting that into the [Music] document so I mean because a lot of the footnotes are taken out it feels like maybe pulling the pieces that we think are important into the actual document might make more sense does that what do other people think I agree yeah I don't know where you would put it how we govern where does it track you so I think I think that is how we govern is that the agenda is the property I think if we could take that piece out I mean not out but take it out of the footnote and move it up and like make it the seventh item yeah make it the seventh item there um do you want to reread because you had a you had nice wording on adding the it was something to the effect of the agenda is developed collaboratively how did you say it um I wrote it down she said the develop developing the agenda as a collaborative effort between the chair Vice chair and superintendent and so to make that into number seven under the first um how we govern perfect I like that and you can remove the footnote for under while we communicate I love removing footnotes yeah me too um because I I think really then we take we that takes all the this print is very small yeah that would remove everything yeah it's only the CIT the mass law that's down there still which iate to yeah but a short footnote as opposed to a novel foot of a footnote all right are there any other thoughts people have about this um where's the one that says about um communicating with Dr Kavanaugh so I took the language from the masc um and because I think that the idea [Music] of um well in advance of a meeting um made sense and it seems like it almost seems like the expect of you know when youd get information and that is almost more of a procedure and this document feels more like a agreed upon policy um and so that that's you know those details are something that makes more sense to happen in a conversation versus putting in the document as far as the two days prior without expectation of an indidual response like that seems to me that seemed almost too much to be in this document um I am just one person making that suggestion though like this is obviously our uh communal documents but that is under how we communicate number two I you know I like I'm good with that is that yeah captures the spirit of it's fine with me I mean there are most times I'm able to get people the information that they need and every once in a while it might pose a problem and I think that would be the one piece that that as members we would keep in mind is that if we want to make sure that you are able to get the information in a timely way for the meeting itself you may need a few days um yes and that the Tuesday timeline that we had previously had did help ensure that it's not the but there are times when we don't have exactly the right thing but if we strive to get it well in advance I would think that's that's fine it's easy as as long as that you know and that if we wait until Thursday at 9:00 a.m. you may not be able to get the answer the information because you may have to be looking at other staff members or even some more complicated things might take multiple days and even when we had the Tuesday language we would get some Thursday inquiries and we were pretty good at satisfying them so well and I I think it's important to note that sometimes questions come organically out of the conversation we're having yes and that you know it's the expectation in terms of looking at open meeting law and the just the spirit of public meetings is that we're not making up our minds in advance that we're having the information here for discussion as much as we possibly can and that it's important for us to ask so that we can get the information uh and there may be times when if we're not able to we have to postpone things because we want to have the as much information as we can some things can't be postponed um but there have been times when we've needed things that we had to come back to it um I'd like to make a recommendation on number three yeah under how we communicate um I know that it's a is that uh the you wouldn't put anything on the agenda after it was posted unless it was determined by the school committee chair that it would be detrimental to delay the issue until a subsequent meeting but mgl actually also adds that this has to be something that could not have been reasonably anticipated by the chair so I think that language should go in there only because sometimes we say oh we're going to add that because if we get it done now that's great and it might be detrimental if we wait but and the the reality is that um if we can't demonstrate that it would be detrimental to delay it um and not detrimental but that it can't reasonably be anticipated really both be running a foul of the law and Conor Degan our town clerk would never approve it yes to be he wouldn't allow us because um if we could have anticipated it but it's detrimental he still wouldn't allow it yes that's right so maybe that language should go in just to make sure we're covered yeah does that make sense mhm okay did you catch that Jamie are you writing it down I did I wrote it down you're you're super good at uh taking the notes and putting things down and I'm a very quick typist I that is I have noticed that in person yes so appreciate that okay are there other bullet points that people want to pull out for discussion um and or do people feel uh if you don't have things you want to pull out do people feel confident uh and comfortable with the document to be able to move it forward yeah as a vote okay all right last call all right Kyla did you want to make a motion um I make a motion to approve this document the norms and um procedures document thank you motion by Kyla second by Susan we'll do a roll call starting with you Kyla yes Susan yes Jamie yes and that's as amended those two things added right yes right thank you Chris yes fabulous so um we have this and we this will go up um once we get it cleaned up as we discussed up on the website as well all right I believe that brings us down into items by consensus all right as superintendent I recommend the school committee approve the items by consensus as outlined in your agenda yeah goes are there any items that people wanted pulled out before we okay is there a motion uh to sub I move to approve the items by consensus okay motion by Susan is there a second second second by KY start with you Kyla yes Susan yes Amma yes Chris yes Jamie yes okay and that uh is approved and then that brings us down into uh adjournment is there somebody who would like to make a motion to adjourn I move that we adjourn motion by Susan second by KY we'll start with you Kyla yes Susan yes I'm a yes Jamie yes okay and Chris yes okay so we are adjourned at 8:28 p.m. thank you all and have a good night I know we are really almost on the nose time time thank you all and enjoy uh the little bit of Sumer we have left sh