in the room or on Zoom this is your first shot one of two we do not have right close that portion of the meeting then and we'll take this as an opportunity uh to hear some recognition I'll turn it over to superintendent clenchy for recognition this week student representatives are busy this evening so correct I'll uh try to fill in for for them uh last week March 19th we had another connections uh evening series on Universal Design for Learning uh want to thank our staff for organizing that event and also for the parents who were able to come out that this time of year it's really hard to find a night that doesn't have five or six going on and I think we we did hit one of those nights so would like to see more families out but sometimes we that just happens this time so very worthwhile and it was nice to be able to touch Spas with our community members that were there uh every year rotary the Rotary Club of Lind or Littleton sponsors uh a Leadership Academy called Riya and uh happens uh last weekend in June and uh every year I have an opportunity since I am a member of the rotary to interview sophomore students we had 18 applications this year incredible young ladies and young men you know wanting to uh have an opportunity to hone their their leadership skills the people around the table that were interviewing the students had a real tough time having to uh P it down to 10 students they were just all worthy of going so I just wanted to uh you know let you know that we do do that each year and and uh very proud of of of the skill sets that our students have at high school and know kudos to our students and and teachers and families U when you interview students in a set like that their their knowledge their their competence and their ability to sell themselves comes out loud and clear credit goes to everybody to to have students at that age have those kinds of skill sets high school has changed a lot in the past 20 years and we really you focus on developing those those skill sets so that uh they'll be uh prepared and ready for their next Journey we also had our annual literacy in in math fair at Russell Street School that was ped full it's always nice to to see that event happen every year and this year we invited the grade 2 family from sh T Edition so again thanks for the staff and administration for organizing that event it's a lot of work to put that event on it's very worthwhile for for our our students and Community our LS LHS uh drama club uh put on another musical Su susal the musical and uh it was uh another great performance our drama program is really strong in our school district and you know special thanks to the cast and crew and and to the uh directors of the play and that's it for the toy excellent thank you for sharing you know welcome that's okay um so next up we've got a um the choba Valley Technical High School District representative interview appointment um we have uh members of the select board with us this evening as well as moderator Tim gard and our applicant uh for reappointment Charlie Ellis with us um what I'd like to do is at some point I'd like to read uh Charlie's letter so well done but I'd like to turn this portion of meeting over to Tim to run it allow the select board to open their meeting and then Tim will tell us exactly what needs to be done thank you Mr chairman evening members of the school committee long time here in Litton uh for review some of you have done this many times before and other others this might be the first time the town of Littleton has two seats on the district school committee at Mel Technical High School a voting member and an alternate and done by population and other towns have more members but it's a three-year term and the term that's up now is the one that Charlie has SP holding down for the past 14 years with Don wi which is a long time and speaks to his commitment to education in particular vocational educational was a member of this very board for six years as well uh I think the board has his letter we do in the packet and it's very well done and I want still Charlie Thunder you could speak speak to it himself the nominating committee for the reappointment consists of the members of scho committee five members they present five members of the select board and the town moderator so it's a committee of 11 the cor of six so there have to be six members of those various bodies here tonight I think we have that now it's four school committee members and two members of the select board present and I understand there's one other member of the select board Ken Morris who Who's online looking to participate remotely which uh she can do because there's a Quorum of the nominated committee president those are the rules of remote participation if we didn't have that quum in the room you couldn't participate promot but Karen can and we will call on her at the appropriate time to uh you know hear what her her vot is but Mr chairman you know i' I'd like to hear from Charlie as much as everyone else and you know he's got a he makes a very good convincing case for why he should be reappointed I think we're lucky to have him so great Alice thank you thank you to the school committee superintendant select board members of the Town appreciate it um serving six years on the littleon school committee many years back and I was talking to Steve this evening and we reminisced about the amount of time and the last 14 years at the I've now reached the 20year mark which is a milestone for I think anyone who devotes time to a c or a town or volunteering through the years I've seen the shch row and expand this year will be at our maximum of 800 students well uh which is another Milestone we no longer can accept school choice because everyone in the town gets first a seat because they go out to school choice students I've seen us grow uh over the last 10 years we've written as a group and received almost $10 million in Grants which has enabled us to rebuild almost every single technical area to state in the art capacity uh but also it's taking away the burden from the towns the eight towns that support us the four original which is Littleton gron Westford and chelsford the four that have joined Through The Years uh air surley towns and be so we're we're doing well this is going to be a difficult year for us though not sure everybody understands or knows but four of our towns are looking at overrides unlike when I was on the Littleton school committee we only had one town to get our budget passed in and we have eight this year and four are dealing with overrides so this could be a very difficult year for the show we're hoping that it'll be a smooth transition and outcome but just so everybody knows where we're at what we're looking at uh I can tell you that uh working at the show Tech also being a past student there on the first graduating class that um it really takes more than just an indp committee it has to be committee that United in working for one purpose and that's student achievement and as the chair and show the fact that's what we've been doing for the last six years and I think we've been very successful tonight I'm looking for your support in being reappointed for another three years thank you excellent thank you so much you have questions for Mr Ellis anyone make performance at you I just want to thank you for your many years of service 20 years is incredible and uh you know when I enjoyed reading your letter and you know when you see all of your accomplishments all put down in one place it's it's so impressive and I do appreciate the the perspective and wisdom that you bring to this position all the many of years so thank you for continuing to be willing to do all this I thought this year you should know what I'm really involved in too so it's kind of expanded quite a bit well you're pretty famous around town so I'm glad to know thank you Joy um I was going to read the letter but between Mr gard and Mr Ellis most of the highlights were were covered um so I Echo ela's comments and just thank you for your service doesn't go unnoticed and SS like you're doing excellent work over there thank you Mr G with my understanding that the interested parties were asked to submit a letter of interest and I believe Mr Ellis was the only person thankfully for us said he was willing to sign up again that's the case superintendent don't know any other no okay so we we we can do a quick vote on this except for the fact that we uh do have one participant who's who's uh remote so unfortunately the boards will have to vote by roll call and so if the chairs of each of the boards would call the role of their members to uh nominate Mr Ellis to a three-year term on the district school committee I think that's that would be in order it it would expire I think April 1st 20127 it's a three-year term and I only know that because it's my birthday April 1 I believe ex Mr chairman if you want to uh certainly would you uh School Comm motion will um cover all boards yeah it will yeah because we're we're we're a committee technically a nominating committee with a you all the RO for the vote appreciate so uh I'll move that we reappoint Mr Alis for a three-year term um for the school committee at Valley Technical High School second okay so we'll ask Stacy sty yes V yes Ela yes Justin votes yes as well yes Karen can you hear us hi this is Karen Morrison hello Karen can you hear us I can hear you can you hear me says I can hear you can you hear me no we can't let's try again still trying how about now we could hear youant we have we're looking for vot we have a um ter mariss votes I all right so the vote's unanimous then to reappoint Mr Alis want to thank the board for taking time comme arrange this Triumph of appointment so thanks [Music] again thank appreciate it very much CL thank you yeah yeah thanks for coming out than got thank you very much thank you Mr moderator select board close their portion of the meeting so we will get back to our regularly scheduled business we've got four presentations this evening um the first of which I'll ask Hillary bridge to um join us at the podium but the high school band trip to Florida February 2025 uh music teacher hilly bridge will give a presentation on the high school band trip to Orlando Florida thank you hi yes thank you for having me tonight um as you can see there we have taken this trip four times previously and you can see some of the highlights in these photos of the things that we do on the trip um I did submit some paperwork there we are on the plane heading out there um that was in 2022 you can tell because we're all wearing masks interestingly while we were there Disney lifted their mask requirement so it's like the second that we were there right after our performance that was us gathering in our hotel they call it earning your ears Disney makes a big deal of calling you all cast members while you're there and you have to perform before you earn your ears but then everybody gets their ears at the end we always have a meal at the Planet Hollywood if you've been to the Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs they have a huge screen and they always do a good job of highlighting each of the groups so they spend some time like focusing the cameras on our group and playing little Snippets of our performance to the rest of the restaurant and see what we've done too so they're watching us on the screen that's part of our Workshop um where we get to work with Disney professionals learning Disney music learning about Sound Engineering um what it's like to be a professional musician rehearsing music with new people that we've never rehearsed music with before um and it's a two and a half hour Workshop but it passes very quickly that one was at 11 o'clock at night Disney runs 24 hours a day I learned that very quickly yes there we are on the bus that was the 2019 trip I believe y yes um after we had earned our ears some of our performance highlights uh we typically travel in February so the weather is far nicer usually in Florida than it is in Massachusetts so we're absorbing some of the sunshine there again at the Planet Hollywood that was our Workshop in 2019 in a much different facility and that was 2016 in our workshop and our performance in the same Hotel you'll see it's a bigger group the second time so and that is the very first trip only 21 students that was in 2013 many years ago so we've had a great time going over the years so it's time for us to ask for permission to travel again um you may have noticed in the paperwork that I have two proposals um because we have been able to expand our chorus through chorus Club students and chorus have always wondered you know well when do we get to go to Disney and Disney has a 15% limit you'd have to have at least 15 people in your ensemble in order to be accepted and I haven't had 15 people into in chorus until now so um you have to make the plans very far ahead of time so I had the travel company give me two proposals just in case you don't have enough students willing to commit from Chorus so they'll see that there are two proposals one is if just the band travels and the other is if I'm able to bring both the band and the chorus um the trip itself would remain largely the same for the students it would be a little bit more busy for me um but that's okay and uh the price is is only very negligibly different between the two different um numbers of students traveling so the trip does include the um travel agents that um we have all of our meals covered Hotel flight Workshop Disney tickets um just about everything students really only need to travel with spending money if they want but all of their meals are also covered we perform at Disney Springs um if you are familiar with Disney Springs there's the water side stage that's across from the Lego store and then the Rainforest Cafe is right behind it so if you that kind of scenario um we get to have a performance there and every year that I've done this I've always thought I can't imagine spending time on my vacation stopping to watch a high school group but I'm always shocked at how many people actually do come to watch the performances um we also get the opportunity to watch other groups too while we're there last time we were there we watched a band from Hawaii that came and performed um I just couldn't think of the logistics of how on Earth did they get all their instruments from Hawaii to Florida uh that is a certainly a logistical issue but it was really interesting to get to see other instruments and other groups perform um so we we have that performance Disney makes a really good um scenario about students becoming cast members and they give them like official pins that they're Disney members now um we have our performance and then our Workshop typically not on the same day and the workshop like I said includes Disney professionals that come in and work with the group um but the surprise that the students don't know about or they will now um is that there is a sound engineer that's present but doesn't get introduced until about halfway through and the engineer records everything that happens to that point so he surprises them by playing back things for them that they had no idea that they were being recorded for and then the workshop switches over to sort of a Sound Engineering perspective so that students get to learn about live recording and where the microphones are and why we do what we do and the final result of the workshop is um we perform Disney music to attract of the movie playing in front of them so um the last time we went forget what it was maybe it was The Lion King um we we played for some songs for The Lion King and watched the movie while they were performing it in the end we get the screen of The Lion King with us performing the music in the background um so yeah that's always very neat I haven't done the vocal Workshop yet so I don't know what the vocal Workshop will be like but I imagine it would be very similar to the band Workshop um Disney also has a lot of great opportunities for college students so it's a good time for outreach if kids are potentially interested in that they hire a lot of college students to work on their campus and offer scholarships they have a cruise line where students are can perform and earn money for college by performing in the cruise line so there's a lot of great Outreach information and then of course there's also Disney so um so hopefully uh with your approval we'll be able to take this trip in February of 2025 that would be over February 30 so students wouldn't be learn missing any instructional do you have any questions for me did the um students do any fundraising for this so we typically have a fundraiser every year we have a sweets and sweets performance in November that acts as a fundraiser and that gets held every year and we run traditional fundraisers also um we haven't done one yet this year I've been a little bit behind the ball but we've done everything from we've had mattress sales to we sold socks um we've done a donation drive all of those different scenarios so we do have fundraisers that that's why we also only travel every three years so we can kind of build up enough money to have a good cushion for the trip what portion of the of the fee are you able to fund raise the families come out of pocket families come out of pocket the money I typically set aside for any students who can't afford to come I've never had to say no to a student excellent so um every single time every kid who wants to go gets an opportunity to go great no I have no issues with the out of state travel it's a wonderful experience thank you for doing it sure um every three years is nice because everyone gets a gets a crack at it and like you said the fundraising efforts build up over time so nothing for me do you have other adults go with you that oh yes that's a lot to take on no I try to keep it to one adult per 10 kids yeah so if we have about 60 traveling there'll be six adults yeah I feel better for you now thank you the trip itself runs very smoothly the airport is really the only time that I need that many adults yeah but once we're there Disney I mean if you've been you know they run a very tight ship you must also be exhausted when you come back oh from vacation eating another vacation there's also a reason why I don't make it last the whole February we come back usually on Wednesday or Thursday so they still have a few days to settle back in and for me to settle back I'm smart um question want to make that or you want me to make itend yeah I move to approve the high school band trip to Orlando Florida February 2025 to participate um sorry in principle based upon the information provided second motion made and seconded by Elaine all those in favor DEC by saying I I unanimous great thank good luck good luck with the fundrais thank you Yes the band would be very happy to hear this tomorrow morning awesome thank you so much for continuing on with this trip I mean it's a huge commitment in terms of organizing and you're going during part of the February break just wanted you to know that we really appreciate that you're do thank you thank you right next up uh presentation two uh de diversity inclusion of belonging update we're going to hear from the principles got 40 minutes scheduled for this so see we do um any order you like anywh I like any order we're gonna go together because we did last year great you have it so um we when um we put this presentation together we were really thinking about deib in terms of Elementary so um sugarlane and um W Street got it together so suar Lan first there we go um so de at Shaker Lane and the connections to Shaker Lane first and foremost our Pace integration I don't know if all of you are familiar with our PACE program um but what happens with the PACE program is our children bu of substantially separate classrooms and they are integrated into our G general education classrooms different amounts of time depending on the needs of the student and their abilities um but what that really does is it really offers a sense of belonging for everyone and acceptance of other children even if they may be different than the rest of the children in the group um we're very proud of that um and as we get more children in that program the more the kids are integrated into all the classrooms so we're very proud of that um staff Le diversity reading PD uh there was a couple first grade teachers I believe it was two first grade two first grade um staff is staff can sign up to have to teach professional development to the other staff members and so there were two first grade teachers who taught a professional development on building a diverse classroom Library so the teachers really um have been spiffing up your libraries with lots of texts um that show different cultures um it was a great PD um divers Diversified staff I think we've really been um starting to hire um a lot more diverse staff um in recent years um and it is a they are more than welcome um morning meetings closing circles and I don't know sure might have the same things but morning meetings and closing circles at Shaker Lan are really that time in the morning for children to be together they are talking about themselves they talk you know they get to know one another um it's building that Community um you know a sense of belonging for the kids um it's really a beautiful way for kids to really get to know one another um school mission statement I'm not sure if if any of you are familiar with uh this year uh Sherene really has been focusing we've done a lot of work M Mrs Kan and I over the summer with creating a mission for our school um where the staff all got to get together and come up with all these sayings and then we took everybody's thoughts and put them into one mission statement so our mission statement at sherlan is we are building a safe caring and ready to learn environment which directly ties into deib um and I do want to say last week at the districtwide deib meeting we all got the chance to work in small groups and we were talking about the word belonging and we were talking about what does it mean um to each of us and so we all put it on a document and then Lynn went through and she highlighted words that popped up from everyone and one of the biggest words that popped up in everyone's definition was the word safe um so I think that is that is a word that across the board preschool through High School Community everybody that was there that's what comes to mind when you think about that acronym um connecting heart and deib if you guys are familiar with heart um especially the a for acceptance we're really focusing a lot on the A and acceptance and trying to build in the diversity Equity with our acceptance um motto school-based cultural committee that's been ongoing for a couple years now monthly diversity readings uh Michelle and I go into um classrooms each month we choose a different book Cheryl brought one too so these are just some of the titles different a great thing to be this one is Michelle help me soulway sway I I actually wasn't here for this story I was on medical league but this is actually one of Mrs Kane's absolute favorites um so we choose a different story the teachers sign up we come into class and read it is amazing what little friends come up with because we always say to them by the end of the story what is the message that this author is trying to tell you and kids as young as five years old come up with the most beautiful messages um so we will continue that um weekly affirmations just for an example this week's affirmation Michelle and staff who do morning uh announcements we have a a weekly affirmation every week and this week's just happen to be no one better to be than myself so we announce it we all say it together and the teachers in the classroom really highlight that throughout the week um and then I think I already touched upon the diversity titles in these classroom libraries that's where we are connections at Shaker thanks when we were first when Michelle and I were first um sitting down a bit ago to really talk about what we wanted our slides to be I think one of the things that we chatted about was you know when de Dei and then deib um first came on on like really what we're doing in terms of this and I think the intentional connections was really important when we are talking about this this is these are the things that you know these may be things that we were doing prior to deib but now there's intentional content around them and I think we had a long discussion about that when we were creating our slides um and I think you know the connection between Shaker Lane and and when students come up to russle street is important too so um in terms of at Russell Street um we have had this um several MERS on the Dei committee since day one they have attended every single meeting and that really helps um with the continuity um at brussell street we have schoolwide meetings as well similar to Shaker Lane where students are able to demonstrate different talents and their knowledge um we have intentionally been attending to diversity in Staffing so really looking um this has been conversation in the Dei meetings but really looking through um and with the goal of having um staff in our buildings that represent the students that we have in our buildings um and that's you know that's something that we really are intentionally working on um attention to um all of our individual subgroups just um Tuesday of this week in our admin council meeting we um were looking through um all the different information um in our subgroups from mcast testing um the I can't say enough about the cultural Council and LEF and also the ptas at um our schools I think all four schools have amazing PT but they are instrumental in helping bring um you know presentations and presenters and um really culturally Rich experiences to our schools um and and bringing the suggestions and the funding so um really shout out to all of those groups um I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago but Leah bodco our um food director has um brought um to our monthly menus different food choices that um are are a little bit more cultural or attending to the differences in how students eat so I wrote some examples so meatless Mondays for example she's added chicken beito bowls Masala if I'm saying that right a ffo with hummus um and a chicken enchilada and panata that I had for lunch last week that was delightful um and so she's really is being conscientious about um having kids um try things that might not be something that they ordinarily um eat so really kudos to Leo we and the kitchen staff we have um Pace at our school Pace classroom at our school as well as well as um a case classroom Dr Cluny talked about the program several meetings ago um and opportunities for students to be included um at Russell Street in class to the greatest extent that they are able as well as in um unified arts classes out on the playground um and it's really rich experiences for our um students as well as for the pace and case classroom students um and really the focus is on building Community you know I think we have added um we added um it sounds funny but um the change to the rectangular tables that you've heard about in the cafeteria really um changed the way our kids are able to sit together versus the round taes with eight kids that you know when I think back on it was really quite exclusive and there was lots of arguing and fighting around who were the eight and if if if it was nine who would go sit with the other one and it it was this sort of really problematic now that I think about it in retrospect and the rectangular tables everyone just kind of sits and there can be little spaces and and kids you know can sit across from each other there can be large groups or small groups and it works perfectly we've added picnic tables to the outdoors so that has created some spaces there and also um I think um Steve for the gate um the Gated off space in front of Russell Street that has created additional safe space where kids can bring their Lacross sticks in the spring and and toss the bottle in the driveway area and it's created additional space all around um building Community I think I go next I go next then educational activities um at wrestle Street um similarly we have our a book A Day program and I um I've SP spoken about it before um I have a whole bunch of examples but I picked this one um K in the city this is about a little boy named Miguel who um moves from Puerto Rico to the United States and all of the um his concerns about coming from Puerto Rico to the United States and what his um coming to school is like um and this and we actually have a new student named Miguel um so this is a great book um that we have shared but it really you know we have hundreds of titles like these and like those that really share with um kids the perspective of another child um and so sometimes it's a book that we pick specifically because we want we want to focus on something and sometimes it's just a random book that gets picked out of the book a day um for discussion these even at our level three four and five these are books that take you know a handful of minutes um to read through it's a picture book not a whole ton of words but there's a lot of meaning behind all of these books so it's a wonderful um program we've had cultural presentations in programs um colors of Mexico dancers was um something that fourth grade um had and that was funded by um the the LEF and PTA I believe we did um we and the middle school did these so many of you probably brought these had these come home to you these um this lamp painting right before Dali um this was an amazing project this one's not all the way finished but um this was a wonderful project that I couldn't believe how beautiful they they came out just with a couple of colors and a little beautiful um and every single kid in our school brought one home so it was a I don't know who this is I think this might be an adult spot um that was a wonderful um project that um Jason might talk about too um some other educational activities our fifth grade does a a project called lacks of hopes and dreams and it's really um connecting with other classmates just people's similarities and differences and um what we appreciate app about each other our classmates um just last week we did um our first annual door decorating contest that was um really quite interesting the classrooms got together and figured out all they had to do was um decorate their door with the theme of spring um and it was kind of amazing um how the doors came out and then we invited people to come in judge and um Lynn and Beth both came as judges and and then and were telling me at the end how hard it was to pick um because they were also good so um kids had a great time with that um and that again was to build classroom community and then Community throughout the building the classrooms toured through um to see what the other how the other doors came out and it was it was really great um thinking about the larger Community we um like other schools do a food drive in November it's always a really popular thing hundreds of pounds of food um gets delivered over to Loaves and Fishes and it's really um for kids to understand that they live in a larger Community where people might have need um fourth grade did birthday boxes um in the past and again that's you know I think it's hard for most of our students maybe to think about um not being able to have a birthday party with a cake and you know fancy plates and the tablecloth and all that and these birthday boxes are created to make sure it's really a birthday party in a box with um you know a cake mix and a Frosting mix and all of the fixings for someone to be able to have a birthday party for their child um and they created I think more than a dozen of those that went out um this year um we have recently a bulletin board that's created um that was for Black History Month that students worked on that was just a wonderful Edition in the month of February um like most schools we do a random act of kindness week um and that was something that was went throughout the school building Community as well um addition of some specific curricular materials um fifth grade for example has added um two tittles esparon arising is one um and the story of Jackie Robinson is another that kids focus on esperons arising in the fall and Jackie Robinson in the spring um and then some collective activities the art show that's collected between um Russell Street and Shaker Lan has been absolutely wonderful to see um that the the the work is stunning and it's to to see the trajectory from Young up to grade five is amazing and certainly a credit to um our art teachers in the district um the townwide B concert of 5 through 12 um activity that has you know again we talked about it a few meetings ago but to be able to hear what fifth grade band sounds like versus 12th gr band and to give students the perspective of you know this can be me in a couple of years um is really great and also um Dr clenchy mentioned our um Spring Festival for Math and literacy added grade two this year and so um it wasn't just a Russell Street event it was a two through five event and I was commenting the other day that it would have been great to have a video of the very beginning of that when there was students clustered outside the door before I unlocked it and I was telling them you have three minutes to wait and they were jumping up and down like you're literally cheering to come in and do math and reading and they were banging on the door let let so it was it was just a wonderful wonderful um Community event you there it was it was it was packed it was awesome yeah I know I saw Mr M um but anyway um sherain so if any of you had the pleasure to come to our very first cultural fair that U Mrs ke she put a committee together um she was the the leader of that and they put on the very first cultural cultural fair at Shaker Lane in the fall um where families actually signed up and they came in and they set up in the gym and really showcased their culture whether it was food or dance or art or clothing um and then everybody was able to come through and get a really nice sample of different cultures that are families from shaper um I'm pretty sure that's going to continue and I really see that getting bigger and bigger and bigger and there was a really nice turnout too for our first time so that was wonderful um just this week uh we did the whole the the first grade team especially they all do the beautiful holy celebration um we've had families coming in to do lots of presentations of different things in the classrooms um Day of the Dead the volley and then just today we had an Italian family come in and I don't know if I'm going to say this right because I'm Portuguese but um pizza De Pasqua I think they call it it's Italian Easter and so they came in and talked all about the traditions of the Easter holiday but in the Italian way and they um Shar yeah they shared a celebration um the little girl came down to share she had brought in these these um I guess you'd call them little pizzas but they actually had cury Mini Eggs in them instead of real eggs so they delicious um but um it was just wonderful for her to be able to explain you know her holiday you know it's going to look a little different probably at her house um so that was wonderful um at the beginning of the school year we actually have several teachers um that send out family surveys to their families obviously but it it just doesn't ask about the child but it asks about their culture um and what is special about you and your family and what are you willing to come in and share and a lot of times that's where teachers actually gather a lot of their information from and invite families in to share about their culture um Community meetings at sherlan are huge um we have one every single month we just had one today um the entire School gathers together every pre you know preschool through grade two every classroom is in the cafeteria sitting participating of belonging um everyone feels welcome um and each each community meeting really has a focus um it focuses on heart predominantly um but we also we also have a a compassion uh I would say compassion projects that get linked to it as well to show Heart to our community um and to show that there are people who who may need our help who may be different than us um and so our next one coming up is actually our wish wish project for Mother's Day um and that is the kids and the the parents are going to donate um supplies for I would say battered battered and or homeless women who are living in a shelter and so we gather all these supplies and then We Gather in the library at shaer Lane and we create Mother's Day bags for these women and then they are shared with them um trying to get the children to really understand about empathy and compassion in a way of accepting others I think is our goal at sh growing um anything came anything up we've done a Veterans Day um compassion project the Anton cleaners won the coat drive was unbelievable then I don't even remember how many I was gone by the time that finished but 200 and something Coats were were donated um that we gave away to you know children and women and men of you know um just f with a coat for the winter so that's where we are so far in the next slide um we really want to next is really if you look down in the presentation just a continuation of what we what we are doing now continue to have the staff focused on dvb um attention to community obviously at both schools um concentrate on diversity and Staffing continue to do that and also to continue with cultural presentations like we have been doing and kind of um make those Rich experiences for our kids think the bottom your yeah um so uh Mrs rer she's actually the bottom one uh she's our first grade teacher she's actually spearheading um a a new program where it it's just going to it's probably going to be focused more next next year really kind of getting off off its feet but um where she's going to actually be having families record read alouds and then send those in and then those will be shared we have we don't have all the details yet but the families will actually be recording read alouds that they're doing and then that's going to be shared out electronically obviously where other families can then join in and listen to other families reading stories um and then we're also going to be looking for family presentations to come into Community meetings um so it's not just always Mrs Kane Mrs gari you know doing the presenting at Community meetings but offering for other people and other families to come into our community meetings and share things with the whole shering Community diversity read and newsletters did I miss that one wanted to start that next year we're g to start putting out you'll see it there's one coming about this week we're going to start sharing what we're doing for diversity classroom and a lot of the teachers are actually putting newsletters together Miss is one of them who putting newsletters together with the diverse reads that they're reading in the classroom if you walk down the first grade Hall you'll actually see a poster like what the Highlight is this week um just get in real time and not these meetings that's that's sh R stream you are doing so much with so much passion and commitment I'm just you must have been amazed yourself when you put it all down in one place sometimes you know and then you hand it off like Michelle hand it off to me and then I'll remember things oh yeah we did that right or you know you don't realize sometimes how much you really are focused on doing really good work yeah um until sometimes you have to actually write it down right though I'm sure the families are very grateful as well thank you you Stacy questions or comments no I I just want to comment on the the books especially because I think it's so you know literacy obviously is like so crucial in early childhood but every time I've walked into the library I was there at the literacy and math event and I'm it's just the the educator in me I look at the books and it is an incredible collection that really like represents and shows each child that we have in the building and the ones that are not and that's really important to and so Librarians and to you all I just there's a lot of intentionality there thank you came up a couple times in the slides the diversity of Staffing so sort of like a self evaluation do we feel that we have a diversity among staff that matches the population of the students shaking our I still think there's work to do yeah there's still work to do I I mean um I think one of the things that we talked about at the very initial Dei meeting is really how to um put that out when we advertising um for stuff that we're looking for a diversity in our um in our in the in the people that we hire um and you know and so I think you know that is something that we talked about as a committee and certainly for those of us who look through all the rums and see who's applied I think um you know the intentionality is to really look through and see um who we have and who might be a good fit in in the building obviously we want to take the best candidate obviously but I think that's up another piece we talked to with Dr clinchy sorry a I think there was an AB Council actually at the end of last year maybe was the beginning of this year but we really talked about how do you spread the word too right about hoping that diverse populations apply for these jobs right because you can only select from who applies right um and so sometimes you have a very limited pool but I think some you know hopefully it'll just grow um so that our pool becomes wider and so then we can be we can be more selective and or less I less selective more I don't know what I'm looking for but the more people that apply the more diverse we can hire so that becomes that becomes a challenge so and every district is looking for divers I would agree I mean just us hiring a male gym teacher this year was I mean just it's a game it was a game Cher I mean the the relationship that these children have formed with a male teacher is is amazing as as the diversity continues to change in our community our out pool will be good to change as well I think so probably lags a little bit yeah I think so definitely getting people from the community and sometimes parents right of of students um you know hopefully we we just continue down that path the people we' hired are wonderful wonderful people can you just speak about the um the bullet point here attention of the subgroups I think you mentioned it was the subgroups within the within the testing what sort of work is being done there um sure I think again it's just something that we're doing in a conscious we've always looked at subgroups but when you're but really to look through all the individual subgroups in and to compare how everyone is doing and really to be able if there's something to focus on to focus on it I think it's just the intentionality of that task I think is was why I put it there um is just to look and see like do we a subgroup that's not doing as well as another subgroup and what do we need to do about that um you know I think it's an important thing to to focus on for sure and that'll come up in a couple of presentations now we talk about student opportunity good right can I just said I really appreciate kind in second grader and he does really leave the DI into the curriculum in a very like natural way that doesn't make it seem like it's it's something that's different um that out to the kids so I really do appreciate that so I think that's just a really great foundation for the kids we have so thank you very much made some really great progress thank you thank you thank [Laughter] you before I begin I just want to thank school committee for proving providing The Parting gifts for all the presenters I'm going to take the insta clot with me um so a lot of what I say is gonna is going to mirror what what uh just talked about so I'll cruise through pretty quickly uh you know in terms of the intentional things that we're doing at the middle school the playbook in initiative which we've talked about a number of times um continues to thrive and go and so that's something that we want to continue to do as we move through the years and really build that up and I'll talk a bit more about that in a second um I wanted to touch on Cheryl mentioned the Diaz was a great activity it was something that that one of our PT members had brought up and PTA actually did the work to connect with the the cultur Litton cultural Council and they set up everything and it was it was fantastic we didn't really have to have to take care of anything they came in they put the tablecloths down they brought in the Diaz they brought in the paints and the tealights so is just a little clay you know lamp um that are used not just for dwali but in in in a number of in a number of uh uh of areas and so it was a great opportunity for kids not only to learn about the the holiday but was more of a cultural connection than just we want to understand a holiday and so getting the kids to actively participate I think was key and it was it was fantastic to see kids who normally you would not think would be interested in something like this really get into it it was it was quite quite impressive what what they were able to to come up with their flying motor skills are clearly better than mine because mine did not turn out anywhere near as ice but it was it was great and they came in and they saw all three grades and we were able to process them through given our schedule it was it was it was a real a great opportunity and something that I forward to doing again and we'll talk a bit more about that in a second as well um one of the things that we're also doing you know we we we put a lot of time and effort into our advisory and one of the things that we did this year is to have student focus groups one from each grade so myself and adjustment Council we've met with students from all three grades uh separately to talk about is advisory working for you is there a sense of belonging are we creating opportunities for everybody to be a part of something like this rather than just those that are most talkative or those that um you know you know want to dominate the conversation and so it was really helpful for us to be able to get it from the student perspective you know in terms of like what's going well like you know I often do this thing keep stop start like what should we keep doing what should we stop doing what should we start doing and the kids were great in terms of providing the feedback and there were certain things that they said yep we really like you know the circles and we really like the conversations we want to you know add certain things and certain things to stop and so it was really helpful for us to be able to bring in more of that more of that convers ation and really to help tailor this to what the kids want because really at the end of the day this belonging is about the students belonging and we want to create a program that that certainly allows us to do that and so the first step was to create these focus groups and we'll continue to do so periodically throughout the year and the years to come and addition to that student surveys just we want to hear from the students our goal is to get as much feedback from the stakeholders as we can I know as Educators we plan a lot of things but at the middle school you know for those of you that have teenagers or have had teenagers you know how hard it is to get that investment and so what we want to do is find out from them you know what's what's going well where are the areas the problem areas where are the things that that you really do feel included and so wanting to continue that use that to inform the the next set of of things that we want to do to to make sure that we we keep up with the diversity of Cl so like Sherl and and Rebecca some of these things are just a continuance of what's already going on we're going to continue to update the school library um and have more of these books that represent our population um I know Julie Weir who was one of our Tas who also has a librarian certification has been instrumental of this working with Paul orig at the at the library and with best steel to help build a collection of of um readings that really are able to reach out and continue to do so and stay at the Forefront of some of these titles so that we're not just circulating books that are 15 20 years old but really you know in line with what kids with what kids want to read obviously continue to review our curriculum and find those opportunities to present inclusivity when they when they arrive so doing that through the advisory program as I said taking those those surveys and those focus groups and really tailoring it so that as we move forward it becomes a living thing not just something that's a can program that we just roll out every year we want it to be different every year we want it to be reflective of our students as well as the implementation of of udl practices and I can't understate I can't overstate the the the amount of inclusion that comes with udl when it's done right right because now we're taking students experiences we're taking their their cultural um values and we're and we're and we're weaving it into what we're doing and so that it becomes Flawless so that it's not an effort to reach out and include it's just part of what we doks so what's next at at LMS one of the things that that I would like for us to do is we you know Lynn and and Matt leanie worked really hard to to do these to provide these training for kids and have kids working together I want to see us take that next step where now we start having those those ambassadors working with the rest of the student population rather than just keeping it in that spot and I know Lynn has a greater vision for it as well and so that's what what I'd love to see as we start to end of this year begin the next is how do we bring those learnings and those understandings to the to the groups at large and how do we train our students to lead a group of students that normally an adult would lead and what does that look like how do you facilitate that conversation with people who haven't been F TR with students who might not be as open to share so the long-term Vision that I have for this is to be able for the ambassadors to do the work to include each other rather than the adults working obviously we want to support that but I think it's going to be so much more meaningful if the kids are working to include each other the second bullet enhance our outreach program and this gets back to um you know some of the things that we've talked about in the past with udl and two you know two-way communication what I really want to focus on we have so many families who we email We call we don't receive that that information back and so how do we how do we reach them that kind of belonging doesn't just limit to the students right because if the parents aren't supported or feeling engaged we really can't have the the you can expect the students to fill that so what we really want to do is figure out how do we do that we've done outreaches where we've G in community we've posted potlucks and we've done that kind of stuff but I want to do more so for examp example one of the things that I'm pushing is really working on families and it's not a new idea but I think sometimes we just have to reintroduce it when you catch a kid doing something right not to send an email email so personal so we I had custom postcards made and we send postcards I sent two yesterday and a couple last week to families just to say you know what your kid did something great and we wanted you to know in the moment even though it might take a couple days for the postcards there's something about I think tangible holding on to a postcard that can put on the refrigerator and it can be a source of conversation rather than an email that may just only be half read Because somebody's checking through the work and so it's those little things that aren't like I said Reinventing the wheel or creating something new we're just we're just reintroducing old Concepts but but hopefully applying a little bit more meaning to them and then finally the the cultural experiences I was so impressed with the Littleton cultural Council and so it's on us to reach out and find these places we were very fortunate to have PT da who already had a connection but we as a school have to do a better job of figuring out what's in our community who are those groups that we can reach out to rather than waiting for somebody else to bridge those gaps for us it's important for me and my admin team to start to look in our community and see what's available so that's something that we want to do you know as we as we end the year we geted it awesome principal everard coms um I love the postcards that you're sending fastic all up to the parents I think all of this is great but that is a really good personal touch that I really feel like you're kind of engaging with the parents in a different way that is a little bit more personal and I probably think the kids probably really appreciate that too that getting that Personal Touch I think that's a really really good idea and for families that just had poor experiences when they were kids in school for kids that the only time they hear from admin is when it's you know it's that phone call every time I call home there's a pregnant pause because they know it's coming and sometimes it's not and so this this disarms that and if we can do that enough hopefully we can start to work because we work on the kids and we work on the parents the goal is to meet do and so rather than com in with something radical let's do what we know it works but be consistent about it and so every once in a while we just have to to remind ourselves sometimes the simplest things are the best things a great idea um I think one one question that just came up my head is Middle School is a really great time for kids to start participating in clubs and creating your own clubs are there any type what are the type of clubs that the middle schoolers are exposed to that can kind of exemplify the diversity and equity and all the different things that they're starting to deal with in those Middle School ages right you know our Middle School doesn't have um we haven't really had an opportunity to focus on you know clubs that that who primary focus is diversity and Equity but rather trying to bring groups into things that all kids can enjoy rather than finding traditional ways and more than just like video game clubs or or or other things but finding things like it's it's again it's a simple thing but it sounds but it is it isn't starting a chess club this year right most of us when we went through school had chess clubs and it kind of fell away whether it's the Queen's Gambit or something else there's this Resurgence chess but it that's something that goes across all cultureal backgrounds like mathematics right it's not something that's limited to a certain experience anyone can can experience that that connection with chess so it's it's going back to those things uh we have students who want to start a debate club right so there there will be opportunities for platforms to be able to discuss these topics with other students and now the kids are Happ to be thoughtful and mindful about it so as we as we begin to expand our reach hopefully that will be start to be reflected in some of the clubs that we offer so usually it's something that's student L like just a little more organic as to what the kids are interested in or that's generally how it goes I mean we have some clubs that we do every year archery club for example draws huge numbers and and so there are some things that we do every year but we also want students to to come up with ideas and so when they do and we get a teacher to sponsor it we put that in there so we don't just provide students here's our list you have to pick from that if they have something they want to do that they would find valuable especially something like this you know one of the things that we really love to see is you know like a gat straight Alliance or other or or other clubs that we just haven't had somebody willing to to take that on yet so those kinds of things what are what I'm hoping that we can get somebody to to take that risk and take that chance to to do something even if it's just even if it's a you know a student or a group of students who want to run it I'd like to see more of that yeah I I would love to see a little bit more of that too that might be something that needs to be like staff engaged first just to lead that as opposed to wa for the kids to do it because it is this just kind of like iffy right thing uncomfortable thing potentially for the kids so I I would definitely love to see it like at least maybe like try to throw one Club out there and I think we talk all of our committies like one committee ends up initiates other subcommittees and stuff but it's just kind of like initiating that idea that and the key has to be mindful what I don't want to do is put out a club for the sake of being able to check a box and not have kids get anything out of it because that's first experience it'll be their only experience participating in something like that so for me it's about taking the time to do it right so that these things become you know their own entity and and and don't need necessarily the adults to guide it because something yeah yeah great um love the idea of the The Playbook ambassadors that that was my favorite school committee meeting of two years so far and so I'm just really excited to see sort of how this initiative grows and the idea of them at this age taking that leadership role and something that's so challenging is is probably a little bit scary but exciting I think and and the way that you're guiding and thinking about that um there's a question that's just been formulating in my head recently because I have two girls and I've been thinking about this a lot and I think you know when we think de there's sort of this the diversity right and we're talking a lot about cultural and bringing that in can you talk about like do you have you thought about or are there ways that we could bring in um um what's what I'm looking for like in in terms of gender girls doing you know being encouraged to do things that they may not typically be seen in like leadership and engineering and um you know bringing in speaker like strong women leaders that are speakers or maybe boys that are in theater that's again not something we typically so like have we thought about that a little bit of I think it's a great idea in years's past we've had like you know women in science clubs and women and and those are important but I I as as you're talking about it just thinking about the the ability to break down barriers stereotypes that go along with Yeah you mentioned theater right there's huge stereotypes that go along with that and some kids really love it and some kids are just they want to do it but they just are afraid of what that might look like they're not comfortable so if we can break down those barriers so that that's not a thing I would be a great opportunity so you know what I appreciate the suggestion something that will definitely you know look to entertain yeah thank you yeah I um I just wanted to I think we're focusing a lot on belonging which is awesome because it's a real through line we hate it well that um it's such an obvious Focus um but I want to um H it a little B maybe the E the equity that um you know students need to also know the history of different groups and I noticed that you're reviewing curriculum this year um and so you know grades six and seven is when they learned world history and it's it's such a it it's mostly US History up until that point and then it is again until high school so it's it's really a like a a moment you know to go through the regions of the world and and make sure that you know the students that are representative in our student body have opportunity to learn the history of their own culture um so it's you know it's all in the standards but you know it's finding but it also but that's where a district can really tailor that so for example for my you know working where I worked previously you know we would sit down and talk about okay what are what are the histories that we're not addressing right because we covered the basics right be you know all of those things you cover you know early American cultures we never got to Japanese history Korean history Chinese history and if you did did Chinese history was the last three weeks of school when you're just trying to rush through it so who's really investing in um the adoption of of the history of India and South Asian cultures is something that I we are doing and I would love for it to become something even bigger because not only does it represent our our population but it also pushes our teachers to to really think about how to connect those things and so even within those standards we can find ways I don't want to speak for Beth and put more work on her but but being able to look at like so is the what is the curriculum and how does it represent and are there ways that we can find outside of the standards to to include these histories that we might not otherwise and then also looking at it from that perspective too who's telling the history and which version of it are we telling and so how do we how do we incorporate the other side of things too so that that kids are getting a well-rounded um experience and and and understanding of of some of these history awesome I'm glad you're thinking about that already oh yeah always do thank you perect thank you much thank you oh hello everyone good evening so building off my colleagues you'll see the you know the B themes and thread line right through with intention and purpose in terms of design perspective um start off with just mentioning again you have yourself EX on today um The Playbook initiative um you already heard a lot about that from the MS students and we had two high school students who are serving as mentors they will present that evening as well proud of them and their continued partnership with the middle school and sponsorship of that as you've heard in previous updates and I'll move pretty pretty a pretty good Pace because some of these things you've already heard from previous presentations and they just s captured in different category but worth bringing up again tonight implementing a new curricul focused on belonging and his character strong in our advisory we have another upcoming strong session leader next week we're incorporating as been mentioned several times throughout the year and by other principles are incorporating spanning Universal Design for Learning inclusive teaching practices I think you may may have already heard this but Special Olympics once again recognized Hilton High School as a unified Champion school this is something we've been able to accomplish year after year and I think I I wanted to capture something that they expressed to us in a letter they not lhs's commitment to fostering a socially inclusive School climate that emphasizes acceptance respect human dignity for all students that's just as a principal you know representing our leadership team here at the podium that's just a wonderful thing to hear from and outside organizations very Val for the work we are committed to and we did a recent me survey of parents um for families and and faculty and students and that a student survey um conveyed that 96% of students report feeling welcome and 98% of students report feeling safe of course we'd like that to be 100% but we're proud of those results given on challenges that you know students face in today's society in school at large we and we work closely with kids who don't feel um as welcome to safe at times at different intervals during their schooling next slide please sorry that's little to high school students that fill that survey out they selfreported 96% you know it wasn't a complete enrollment you know in terms of participation not sure exactly what the ultimate sample size was in the survey but for those who completed the survey um LHS students uh as with other schools LHS continues to update the school library to include books representative of our student population Paul or is it librarian is doing a fantastic job with that we have Unified sports all for three seasons bowling basketball and have more of an inch mural one in the spring we have had track in the in the past the return of the pals Club they were just playing this week in the gym after school and having aolv really great time I want to thank Tracy Turner for her work and sponsoring that club Eric Arnold has been a coach for Unified sports so I'd like to recommend also special educator in the building he's also the head of our PA program which a personalized academic comprehensive education which also exists the other schools um certainly at Russell Street at LS2 pace so um it's now all the way through um so that's a wonderful program for our kids with really significant developmental cognitive challenges and they get a really comprehensive personalized approach in education uh you've heard about this before this I think this was on a different slide uh previous presentation for climate and culture we participate these are things we participate in annually great kindness challenge with great kindness District great C recognized school um calling exp inclusion so you can see the purposeful tension to the topic and having themes of course stop about bullying may but with October is also buling prevention month certain few things to that topic of that month next slide please more educational activities Paul Orek was kind enough to share with me several of the displays that he had has put on outside the library and through in the library throughout this year like History Month Asian America Pacific R the Heritage Month women's History Month human rights Awareness Month lgbtq history mon so that's just the you know that starts to capture it and I'm sure that will continue to build um we have continued professional development curriculum updates that emphasize lesss and practices that Bost University belonging we have um CHR mcmanis our history teacher has hosted uh three guest speakers this year Facing History Holocaust survivors from Bosnia Cambodia um so we're happy to report that it's it's a you know certainly a a difficult topic and but very meaningful and important it's Holocaust you know genocide education is now a requirement for the state and Litton High School is certainly attending to that next slide please but what's next um well this might involve you folks a little bit we have an upcoming uh voluntary survey of students about their experience with race at LHS I just sent a notification out to parents this um survey is willing to H it's being led by students many seniors as part of their legacy Le they had seen a documentary was called traces of the trade and it exposed racism and the effects of racism and slavery even you know still today the legacy of that they were really moved by this they wanted to do something to really attend to the culture at the high school uh and you know we've talked about some racial things you know incidents or occurrences or incidents of racism maybe it's a a comment in appropriate comment by a student I've spoken to new folks about that at a previous school committee meeting and they they're sensitive to this and rightly so and they they want to see what what um student perceptions are about their experience with race at LHS so this will happen on April 8th uh superintendent and I would like to meet with the students and beb brief with them the results um and then what would like they'd like to present to the faculty at high school on May 15 and then they would like if if you're willing to have them they would like to come forward on May 16th I haven't worked this yet out with the superintendent but they would like to be added at some point on the calendar that they're on a tight timeline because of their graduation on May 31st um but that's something they would like to do and if that's not possible perhaps we can arrange and we've done this before with school committee members uh come and visit them at the high school go to the classroom maybe it's a representative group of this sub group of the school committee um because I know they have a lot on your your agenda so but certainly they're going to present they're going to present the faculty at the high school their findings they already discussed it with super and I and we're going to try to learn from this experience together and see how it can shape some school Improvement mission particularly as it relates to the climate culture at the high school but I'm really proud of these kids for stepping out and and being Kristen mcmanis has done a wonderful job as their history teacher this year to facilitate this have to process the other thing I've mentioned the previous presentations that we'll do at the high schools we've be conducting focus groups with students focused on the and climate culture we're going to use some survey items that from other from surveys that have been administered over the course of last two years there's a vocal survey and there's a panorama survey that we want to use that's specifically I think related to character strong so I'm GNA take some of those items and and ask the kids about it in person you have that sort of shape the discussion and also just listen to them see what representative group across grade levels um and pull that together that's that's been a goal of mine the year and I want would like to accomplish that by June and then follow up um next fall as well with students just to kind of monitor continue to connect with kids it's another way forers to connect with students but also here directly from the students what their perceptions are how they would like their school to be moving forward um not too much to say yet about this but it is sort of exciting news if it comes to fruition bton Public Schools I think it was leg director of teaching and learning that steel had applied for a $40,000 rant side education grant which we we've been approved for but it hasn't been funded yet but it is exciting because it will have ramifications probably six to 12 right you know likely where they'll they'll help to shape some of our genocide education initiatives over the next year if that is funded so that was exciting I wanted to share that with you tonight um and then something I I don't I think I don't think this was the Forum I mentioned I've been talking a more and more about this and even with student leaders to really boost our new student or ation and have follow followup activities we do a nice job in August of welcoming students but then to follow up again with them check in end of September beginning of October and see how things are going that is the freshman and anyone new to Littleton high school and that it put an explicit focus on connection and next year we'd also like to do an assembly presentation October seems like the right month to do this particularly as it's a bullying prevention month we talk about how students could be upstand rather than a bystander and it's not just about bullying but it's about you hear that comment that's inappropriate and having it's more powerful when another students sometimes calls a hero than teacher or staff M and says hey that's not cool and I certainly would give a couple I could list some students this year who I know have done that in our in our stands I've heard about it later and I made sure to go and connect with those kids where someone was being loud obnoxious and one of our Junior students talked to a freshman students had you know told them to knock it off that was effective enough it didn't require any adult intervention so that is happening I want to encourage more of that like of course in an appropriate Way kids are not getting you know where they're not being too um tough on the younger kids but just it could be just even a freshman you know sticking up for sticking up to a or to a junior saying it could be the opposite and saying hey that's not cool that's not okay and looking out for other kids and how they're all treated and creates that positive welcoming culture that we want for high school so that's those are a few highlights um you know the high school happy day and any questions make any comments um and this maybe for you or this may be for f also I think there's a lot of activities about what we do with students and families I'm curious if you probably have talked about this when we talk about professional development like anti-bias and like stereotype training for teachers is that something that we do sort of regularly or is it something that's offered at PD day that they can well there has been um actually a PD on um implicit bias okay and so I know that that's happened districtwide for us that was a couple of years ago so we have attended to that with the staff but something like if staff change is over though it's something I have to continue to pay attention to as we you know offer to new staff there's a bit lot of focus and opportunities I think with faculty L PD for cultural proficiency some book study groups and as a whole list that probably Beth has already could provide but there's a lot of that happening and it has been going on for a couple years now well I I was so happy to hear that the um Facing History and ourselves class is alive and well with um Christen mcmanis because I know that was um some worry when Susan Harvey retired that it was uh it was continue so I'm delighted to hear that Susan doesn't have to worry um and I would I really hope we can see those students at a school committee meeting I'm not sure how after the schedule is hard but I would love to have those students come in May and I think you know whether this is the form here to like on a Thursday night I think the point would be to make a connection yeah and have them they would like to have you hear what they have to say before they graduate um whatever venue they're they're comfortable yeah they've asked I think they they just they said connection with the school committee and I I think it was here yeah we'll find a spot yeah great and I'm I'm so excited about the the genocide education grant that's a it's gross right so there was a a law passed um by the state legislature that every Middle School in high school student has to have an opportunity to learn about genocide so it's a heavy lift to make that age appropriate and I think that's one of the the purposes of this grant is to help districts find ways to introduce that difficult topic to students um so it's you know middle school and high school and it's so I'm I I'm I know a lot of districts are ringing their hands trying to figure out how to how to deal with this um requirement that it's in place now you know districts are expected to meet the that standard now so the history curriculum already talked full of to many talk right so it's you know it's finding how to how to teach it within the curriculum um so that's that's a huge yeah well we're doing it high school and you know there's ways we can build upon it and make it six to 12 it's not just facing inst yeah great work thank you very much [Music] job thank all right next up uh moving through the agenda we have a financial update by business manager Steve Mark good evening thank you uh so reporter is in uh your packet and on the screen um I'm happy to report um as I have been all year that our budget is in good shape this year uh we don't anticipate uh any uh budget shortfalls we have enough funding to cover all of our obligations uh we do have some savings some small savings some onetime Savings in the budget this year that are is allowing us to to move forward on uh some small onetime projects um the radios at shaolan school the handheld radios we're experiencing some difficulties with those radios working so we're upgrading those radios the digital radios which will help the sholan staff communicate better uh the sidewalk at the high school uh we received Capital funding from the town uh two years ago we did some sidewalking stairs at the middle school however like like all the construction costs the costs of through the roof and so um because of the savings we have in the budget this year we're able to move forward with the high school sidewalk repairs uh and cover that small shortfall uh without having to delay that project a year and go back to the town and ask for distal funding so our budget's in good shape this year um so I'm glad to answer any questions me than you thank you very much I'm thrilled that the town and school department work together to include encumbrances a few years ago that's something that's really important to me as a superintendent see what's out there still committed to and it's nice to see that of your monthly thanks Steve for advocating as well yeah great job thank you all right our fourth and final presentation for this for this evening is a presentation and vote the student opportunities act director of teaching and learning that's Ste will present the district's updated threeyear student opportunities act plan thank you all right we were just talking about how we should have walk up songs we'll make sure that c up there's a lot I mean maybe a t Swift I'm totally I I am a Swifty at heart uh yeah I I'm have to not us one might be hard every time I um if you don't mind putting the plan up because I I will draw our attention to the the data table just momentarily um so as um chairman McCarthy said I'm here to present our new three-year plan for the student Opportunity Act um it was another law passed in 2019 that required all districts in the state for three years to create a new plan that targets specifically disparities that exist within our students and the subgroups of our students and so which is why when Justin asked the question earlier about subgroups this is really the SOA is diving into our data looking at our subgroups and finding the disparities that exist and so at the state level the state has acknowledged that Nationwide we are a high functioning a high achieving State when it comes to our ation and so it's important to dig in deeper right and see really where can we target to improve and so at the state level they identified there are particular subgroups of students where the state is working to enhance their um performance and their achievement and so this the student Opportunity Act and the plans that each district creates really encourages us to do the same type of idea of diving in deeper looking at our subgroups looking at where the disparity exists and so every 3 years years um we develop an evidence-based plan um that supports reducing persistent disparities in the achievement across our students um across our student groups and So the plan is in the packet I'm not going to read or go through the plan section by section I'm going to kind of give an overview a high level overview by providing context and just highlighting a few pieces um in particular points so in order to create the plan like I said you really have to look at the data um and find we know we think we know what the disparities are that exist and the data can either confirm or deny that for us fortunately I feel like we do have a good handle on our um our data on our on our students and our subgroups and so the data was able to kind of affirm where we were thinking that we needed to Target this support um and so to provide context this is the second plan that we are putting forth the first plan was in 2020 it lasted 3 years so this is now just the second plan it is still relatively new to talk about education idea of having to do this every three years so when we looked at our data um we noticed or it was affirmed for us two disparities in two areas that we're really focusing in on for this plan one area is the academic progress for students with disabilities and a second area is attendance for our multilingual Learners which for the state's sake of of reporting they're continuing with English Learners spells um while a lot of the other languages Chang into multilingual Learners and so when you hear I'm I'm training myself to transition to that multilingual learner um but the state still uses English learner so you will see both of those titles um an English learner specifically in the plan as um we are required to document thatting so attendance for our multilingual Learners and for our students um that are identified as Hispanic or Latino and so our goal is to see accelerated progress for these student groups in particular by implementing evidence-based programs such as continuing to implement a multi-tiered system of um supports and by implementing high quality and engaging instructional materials that encourage culturally and linguistically understanding practices so when we look at the actual data thank you um this data chart here is um demonstrates our mcast data and so to point out a few things because when you first look at it it's there's just a lot of numbers a lot of shorthand which were known for in education so just to provide context to the Chart um s swd is stands for students with disabilities all the Colum colums that are blue are Littleton specific data all the columns that are white are the state level data so we're able to compare ourselves against ourselves but then also ourselves to the state there the table is broken into two pie the left columns are 2022 mcast data the right columns are 2023 mcast data so we wanted to provide um at least one more year for you to see that data um to provide context to that so if we're looking at this and we'll just look at grade three for example um you can look at all the grades that are there but if we look at grade three specifically across that top so the first column on the left for the blue column is the percentage that meets or exceeds on the grade three Ela mcast and so you can see for students with disabilities in last in 20122 we had 46% meeting or exceeding in comparison to the state if you jump over a couple of columns to that first White column we had 15% Statewide so we were above the state last year when we were looking at this this is where we want to be we typically are um and then when we look at all students it's 64% meeting or exceeding on the 2022 grade three Ela MC that is the disparity right we're looking we're not only the we have a better dis it's in our favor we compar to the state in 2022 but it's not as it's not equivalent to all students right if you look at the 2023 data you see that disparity actually even stronger um so in 2023 we had 5% of students with disabilities meeting or exceeding on the grade three Ela MC whereas at um for the full district for all of our students we had 56% so that's the disparity that we are noticing that is is from year to year varies because year to year the cohort is very significant and will change those numbers can change fairly significantly but we want our students with disabilities to be able to um meet or exceed those expectations as we expect all of our students to what is and you can see this straight down through all of our grade level columns right um what I do want to point out and what we did point out during our mcast presentation right is that a lot of of our students with disabilities you'll see end up falling into that middle that partially meetings column and so our goal is to provide them that support to get them over the line so they can be into the meeting category um and so we talked aot a lot about that during the mcast presentation this year and it is not it was not the first time we talked about it either right so this is a theme that we knew existed the data is affirming that which is why for our SOA plan we are putting putting a a spotlight on it right we're acknowledging this is an area that we need some growth and we need some improvement and so we um for that reason have included that in our SOA plan the other area uh with regards to the data there's no table for it um but our absentee ISM rate and so for the 2223 school year 37.9% of our L's or our multilingual Learners were chronically absent across the district um and 39.1% of our students identifying um as Hispanic or Latino or the district whereas for all other students it's 14.8% what's the definition of chronically absent over 10% um so it's it's pretty significant to be missing um that many school days and so for those populations to be oh double or more actually more than double all students we really want to dig in and part of that is asking more questions kind of figuring out why right of why is this happening so that we can figure out how to support right find that root cause to be able to support that and so considering the data right we then had to look at um the evidence-based programs and Jesse Jessie comes out and lists because it's part of of their process of listing what are really solid evidence-based programs that we could Implement at the district level and so we determine um what really is going to best support our students given the situation that we are currently in so for that we focused on two different evence Bas programs um really their focus areas and so in the plan in section five it outlines those two Focus areas the first of which is um 1.2 so it involves implementing a multi-tier system of support that helps all students progress both academically and in their social emotional and behavioral development so here we're really focusing on creating um and and making it sustaining comprehensive tiered supports in order for all students to attend school and engage in school and so that's where we're really looking to to bulk our mtss which we've been talking about for a couple of years right an ongoing process but really ensuring we find out the why in order to make sure that we can put the proper tiered supports in place to have our students coming to school um the second evidence-based program that we are are looking at for the academic achievement is focus area 2.1 and that specifically speaks to high quality curriculum um and professional development that that comes is really required with that and so 2.1 is selecting and skillfully implementing high quality and engaging instructional materials that support culturally and linguistically sustaining practices and Foster deeper learning so there we're really digging into supporting curriculum implementation we are specifically uh part of our last plan something that we've been working on um for a couple of years is the elementary math program and so we're continuing the implementation of that we have seen really nice progress with regards to all students learning with that within that program so we're continuing the work that we are doing there and we are also looking um at implementing a new comprehensive literacy program Ela program for Crea 5 in order to really bolster those supports um and make sure that the programs that we are that we are implementing and the practices that we are using are of high quality that are going to have the best supports for all of our students especially our students with disabilities who we identify as needing a little bit extra at the moment to make sure that we can have them have accelerated progress um towards their achievement so in doing all of this work um we also have to set targets for oursel of by the end of three years or within three years where do we want to be what do we want to try and hit right so desie automatically requires every District um to agree to one target which is improving The Stance of our lowest performing students and so Des is able to calculate we are able to calculate that group and make sure we focus let's know who th those students are and let's make sure we provide support for those students um in addition to that we have committed to two more targets that we are looking um to improve upon for ourselves and so we are looking um to make progress towards Desi sets a three-year Target of where they want us to be for increasing performance of students with disabilities in math and Ela so we are looking to make that progress that they are setting forth for us we're also looking to make Target um make progress toward the target that is being set for us with regards to decreasing chronic absenteeism rates specifically for um the subgroup that we have identified as being high when it comes to Chronic absenteeism and so those are um the three targets So the plan kind of lays out right we've identified an area of concern we're talking about how we're going to provide the supports to improve that and then also how we're going to measure ourselves for that and so that's what the plan fully lays out and what we have had several conversations about is that what is nice is that we're not coming to one to one Outreach to find out what the problems are to your point to get to the root cause and provide supports we do not have an individual like a family leason we have talked about that um it's not within our capacity at this point in time however there are individuals within each building that do that Outreach whether it's the principles it's the assistant principles it's our adjustment counselors It's Our psychologists um that try to create that connection with the family and whoever is able to create the connection with the family does a lot of that Outreach I'm glad to hear that I think the Personal Touch is really important so the plan looks great to me I don't really have questions about the plan I just kind of more of context of um some of the data that you shared so when we're looking at that slide with all of the percentages on it um when we look at the all students category does that all students include those with disabilities as well or is it all students excluding those with disabilities all students including all subgroups okay so the disparity is actually even potentially greater it's got to be greater because we're um and I'm maybe I missed the presentation on how our previous three-year plan concluded um um but I would be curious what like what our self- evaluation was of the work that we did over the last three years because well this plan looks great um what really makes a difference is the implementation of those of those efforts and the money spend so if I missed it I missed it but perhaps we could learn more about that or learn what maybe we could care report on what we learned over the last three years and what we're doing differently to try to close some of these gaps because this is something that I do hear about from the community just you know I think it's we probably all do yeah but as school committee members we certainly or I certainly have heard um about this disparity so I believe the work's incredibly important um I'm happy to speak to our last plan briefly and then if more information is needed so our last plan we submitted in 2020 we really did Target math specifically and our student subg group that we looked at was um our high needs population and so when you look at High the sub the subgroup of high needs it's actually inclusive of students with disabilities of our English Learners of um our lowincome subgroup and so it's a combination of subgroups that forms another subgroup called with high needs um and so we looked at that subgroup during our first plan and we really wanted to hone in on on math um and we knew that we had work to do in order to create better foundational math skills for our students in order to be more successful and so we had even had conversations at the high school level with our high school teachers simply about like fact fluency needed to be strengthened and that really should be coming out of a strong elementary math program and so um we focused there we had heard from community members right focusing there and so that was the plan of our first threeyear um so plan we feel that it we were successful in getting to where we wanted to be with with that area um for the plan that was put forth so we were able because our plan was to implement a high quality curricular resource in math we were able to do that we were able to increase our math intervention support at the elementary level um our high needs our high needs subgroup overall improved um which is why this for this plan we're digging any more specifically right so the students with disabilities as a group within that high needs group so what's nice from the the last plan to this plan is that we're not and what I feel is really important is that we're not fully dropping off this idea of supporting our students in math right we're continuing that on and we're digging deeper as to who who now needs more support you also have to remember that was uh through the co well we saw improv it so that comes to mind immediately right a plan gets put in place and boom we have at least one year if not two years of interrupted learning um so that was a curveball that really no one saw coming it was difficult to navigate through um and then also the demographics the town continuing to change and out of Co also there were some um some additional challenges as students reenter the buildings things like that that that made a little bit more difficult um what percentage of our student population is considered students with disabilities I mean it doesn't have to be exact not to the decimal but I'm just curious probably around 18% exact I was going to say 820 so I feel like 18 to 20% inacurate we had this conversation so our identification there isn't a significant disproportionality with our identification um and sometimes when you have to put back the layers of the data you have to compare that against District that might have disproportionality in other areas so we are identifying students with disabilities impacting their ability to access the general curriculum appropriately um some districts that might have over identification you might see a larger um a larger portion of those students you know meeting um because they're um it's not actually compa their AB do um do factor into as well as um our efforts to the programming in District so we are serving a larger proportion in District that does um with significant challenges which will which will replace that at cont so to to meet the definition of student with disability it's a disability that prevents them from they're on an i they're on an okay that that provides good context for me to try to process all of this um plan plan looks good I I uh I look forward to not hearing about this just three years from now but potentially a check in along the way to um chart the the improvements made associated with this plan and the spend of the money and the continued focus on uh the subgroups and I think you're right about the absenteeism like it's trying to find out why because once we know why we can try to solve the problem right we do have to provide updates Pro progress reports to the state every spring um so we can plan to share that progress report here when we do that as well when we submit that to the state just have a quick question about the mtss I know we've been talking about that for a while do you have some new strategies for targeted interventions for students with disabilities within the mtss structure so that's part of this this work specifically right um and then even more specifically within this is when we're looking at curricular curricular materials ensuring that they have the intervention in place right the based on the udl framework so we're eliminating those barriers so that it's accessible there's an entry point for all students um and so and the other piece that Lyn and I have had several conversations on is kind of creating that visual so that we and our staffs can all see oh these are the supports that all students are can have access to right or here's a little bit extra that certain students might need so really kind of compiling that I think we've done a lot of work and it almost feels a little bit jigsaw like and so trying to piece that together so everyone has a full picture that's so important a document like that is so useful something for all teachers to be able to access for all different kinds of leers yeah are we left to try to figure this out on our own or are there like Flagship communities that have done an excellent job with this that sort of model these strategies that we then look to implement does the state provide any assistance there with um the state has provided some plans in the past that they view as Exemplar plans um each because each district is so unique that it can be tricky to pinpoint exact exemplars for us to be able to model after um I will say the state is helpful in the sense of if we were to reach out to them say what's a strong model of mtss within the state they'll be able to point us to a district that will have strong components of the mtss what are what's the top couple challenges that come to mind as we try to implement this plan it is it funding for these resources is it not enough staff is it not enough um work that's gone into identifying the udl that this particular subgroup needs so I think the one of the greatest challenges is time right which we can't create more of and I say time because we all say there's never enough time right but time is we have what we have right what I'm referencing when I say time is that we are we need to live in this area for a long time in order to fully not only process it digest it but then be able to do it and model it right and so I think a challenge is at times it feels like we we've been doing this for a while like don't we get it now can't we move on right and so being able to kind of hold up that mirror and really reflect on are we really implementing it what does it really look like right and having those conversations and good practices strongly in place at all levels so I do think that is um a big challenge because it also relates to individual mindsets right and changing an individual mindset of whether you've taught for five years or 25 years can be difficult and so that's why time to kind of sit in it and be able to collaborate with others um and go see others and that is that is tricky right Subs are hard to come by and so for me to be able to say like hey I'd love for you to go see this in action in this classroom down the hall um it can be tricky and that feels like a lot to our educators sure um time made me think of something so we only have so much time in the school day but we have time after the school day do we do anything as it relates to an after school program for any subgroups to say hey there's a study hall after school we're going to be reviewing this material or you know I know these students get additional support throughout the day and there's some pull out and there's inclusion but perhaps they don't get the support they need at home um so do we have a formal life process for something as generic as an after school program where folks can work with them to help them get the work done review the lessons and then you know by their choice their school day might be a little bit longer um but they don't have to think about it when they go home and then they re-engage the next day so previously some of our schools have had like homework clubs or extended right like a study hall after school particularly for um sports teams that their practice might not start till later um others could certainly take part in that um it depends on if it's formalized in this moment or not that's something that we could look at doing if we do that then we are looking at Staffing right because it would have to be staffed appropriately right um support exists at the varying levels within the school day right Elementary levels we have the wi time the high school has an acem support center adds to Middle School um so we also want to make it Equitable in the sense of if it's offered during the school day our students are there they can access it if it's after school a job might come into play um rides home right there's those factors that we have to consider too so at times we think we're offering this wonderful beneficial support and then we need to make sure that it's actually accessible to all students a couple of things here I can add we're looking at reviewing Service delivery models at this point in time and what I mean by that is when students are on IEPs depending on the the academic challenges that they have they may have more pull out than they're integrated into regular classroom we're really reviewing that so it's a philosophical change we we uh are Advocates of inclusivity as long as it's a better environment for them you can do a better job of that as District uh I just want to be cautious here because when we're we're we're looking at this subgroup the uh ability levels VAR significantly and we have Tak we have created a number of programs in our district and we're we're we're providing Educational Services to students that five years ago we were sending out District so we're we're dealing with a A Wider range of ability levels as we're we're we're looking at this data and trying to move as many students across that our should have need SL as possible but as we're doing it we have a different population as well so every student is required to write mcass or mcass Al depending on it doesn't depend on ability levels at all so I think you need to keep that in mind it's a small group of students in pray so I guess those are the things I can add to the conversation where we're very methodical about this and and you know I my ask of of of L many times is is been moving forward in that is let's really review our philosophical approach to inclusivity with these children I always believ and I think everybody in this room believes that we want to put our kids in front of the the most qualified individual teach so at assistant for example should should be deployed to assist but they shouldn't be teaching when we we have a teacher that that is 10 ft away that uh has a master's degree in in many years experience as well so we're really looking at this things Clos can I just circle back to something that that that said um it really comes to individual mindset I think that's a big component and I think the work that we've done as a district we out paed with building out a strong ntss model um those two pieces together are really going to move for our team so that there's individual I think there's absolutely um there's growth that needs to be made for each individual student and and through an mtss framework developing very specific targeted interventions and passes like that tells us it's one data point it's one it's one point that being said it is a data point that we need to look at so we need to to develop targeted interventions so that we are moving that needle for each one of those students whether it's from not meeting to partially meting and partially meeting to meeting for meeting to exceeding there is um growth that can be made in an accelerated way we have strong ntss model thank you very much sure thank you oh we need we need a motion I I move that we accept the student opportunity plan for FY 24 through FY 27 second motion made in second all those in favor keep by saying I I I perfect thank you thank you got it all right um we can probably move through the rest of this pretty quickly um this is our second opportunity for interested citizens so if we've got anybody that wishes to be heard now's your final chance for the evening right we'll move right through the subcommittee reports you've got nothing to present that's quite all right um but if you do let's hear from you pmbcs up first uh nothing other than the high school work was done CL that out right yay which section yeah right for the administrative room we're working on the rest of it okay little little winds excellent have the study done so I had to turn the results of that study over to bnbc now look pnbc on what the next steps are start over again that's good luck with the new roof uh budget subcommittee does not have anything to report this evening um policy subcommittee we're good for now good for now perfect Shaker Lan building committee update do you want to update since you were able to go the meeting on sure we got a uh dry run meeting on Monday or the real meeting on Tuesday to take a look at the uh two design firms that that we move forward to msba uh during that meeting we were very passionate about requesting opportunity to to interview these two firms and have a passive understanding of who they are anyway we know that both firms are reputable they've done a great job they impressive projects that they've completed but there's a there's a personal element of this as well we're going to be working with this firm for four years or five years make sure that we had a chance to to talk to these people and uh get to know them a bit having said that MSP has scheduled another meeting for April 9 we don't know what time it is at this point uh at that meeting their team and the three Representatives M sh and bu will interview those two uh companies and then at that point in time uh they will entertain a vote as to who uh the group that select including every everybody at that Mee we can make recommendations to them but in the end they may go same that's where we're at right but I have to say I feel really comfortable about the two firms that we have and it's nice to be able to say that I mean it's not it's not as if uh oh we have two I'm not excited very excited about we can't go wrong whoever we it's just a matter of hopefully to to get to know them a little better and and see what our what we're hoping for matches with with what they they have to offer we can work with great it's a great position to be in it is sounds wonderful um CPAC basic rights Workshop yeah so I have an announcement from CPAC there's a um a zoom meeting coming up April 8 from 6 to 8 on basic rights for valuation and eligibility and um the the program is in the um the packet but I think it really um it looks like it's going to do a great job of outlining the IP process for parents which can be a very daunting thing if you're if you're new to it so this is a great opportunity offered by CPAC um again that's April 8 from 6:00 to 8 on Zoom so the zoom link is on the the bulletin and I also wanted to give a call out to um about the caregiver connection I went to the Kelly had mentioned it a little earlier tonight that on um March 19th we heard about udl and um it's that and and the upcoming one on Dei Dr kis warnham is coming on April 30th and that's going to be at the high school at 6 o' but I I find these are just so important I think for parents to learn about some of these um programs and strategies that we keep talking about in school committee you know like you know mtss and Dei and udl and you know all of these are are things that you know we didn't have when we were in school you know so I think for parents it's it can sound like alphabet sup tun sometimes you know so these are really awesome opportunities that are being offered to parents to um to learn more about it and the UGL one was incredible I was really glad that I was there so highly recommend April 8th April 8th 6 o'clock on Zoom for the basic rights evaluation and eligibility so what's day it'll be over it'll this will be desert right uh let see there's no other business before the school committee this evening I'll just announce that our next meeting is April 11th 7 o'clock police station and I'll ask for a motion to adjourn to adjourn by Elaine second seconded by V here's the first all those in favor Cas by saying I I thank you everyone