and good evening and welcome to the Tuesday May 7th 2024 meeting of the long medal school committee School committees and other public bodies may continue to hold remote meetings through March 31st 2025 under legislation enacted on March 29th 2023 the statute chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 extends Quorum reductions for remote meetings all votes while there is remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded on by lctv and aired live on lctv we'll begin with the pledge pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we would like to open tonight's meeting with a moment of silence for Garrett Holt a senior at Long Meadow High School who passed away on April 26th 2024 Garrett was a valuable member of our long medal community and our hearts are with the Holt family and all of Garrett's loved ones in their grief we'll have a moment of silence for thank you for observing my us we will begin with correspondence and we have none so I will accept a motion for the approval of minutes for our last meeting I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the April 9 2024 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Michaela yes Adam yay and yes for me as well this is a portion of our meeting where we open the floor for public speak if there are any members of the public who would like to speak this is a great time I don't see any online and I don't see any in the room so we are moving on to business with guests we have our student advisory Council here to meet with us today um and we invite you all to join us up here and tell us about what's going on at our [Music] schools want me to start for sounds so recently we held um our schoolwide class elections for your normal treasurer secretary vice president and president and then we also have our four um uh class representative positions which were newly established this year this sort of our second year going into it and just uh to kind of explain those positions those are positions that they're not they're not officers but they get to help out with their class with class activities and it's a great way to welcome more kids into student council and get more kids involved and help make sure that we're planning um bigger events so we had so we had those events um I mean those elections and then we also had our new eboard elections just within student council so student council elected our new um historian secretary treasurer vice president and president and we will Begin work on that um starting over the summer to and then moving into next year we'll work on sort of more schoolwide events you can okay um so so starting yesterday we started AP exam season um which runs until uh Friday of next week um today was statistics and microeconomics I think um so um half of them are from 8 to 12 and the other half are from 12 to 4 so yeah um I can't comment too much on the AP exams cuz I didn't partip in those this year but I can um comment on WC update and news me and a cool ran I ran for president and a cool ran for um blanking secretary secretary secretary and we were both successful um all right congratulations um I think it was very like important to acknowledge you know Long Meadow hasn't well our district hasn't entirely been involved on the western Mass level of student council and I just think it was very important and impactful to have specifically me and a cool go and run to see if we can make it because um I think one thing that I talk about with Miss drack is one thing I value specifically is diversity and so going over there and running for president and all those different positions in office was very impactful for us to interact with those people people and talk about what we plan to do for western Mass cuz we want to help people in any any way that we can so I'm me I think me and a cool can both agree that we are very thankful that we won and now we can begin to thrive with the rest of Western Mass yeah and like in addition to that it builds our leadership skills for what we can do here as well so it's it's ultimately benefiting everyone and then just to sort of add on to what they both had to say I also attended the conference I didn't run for anything but um it was super awesome to sort of come together with all these other student councils from across western Mass you get to learn about different tactics that they may use to help plan their events or just you know in general how they run their student council they have different positions than we might um because there's a lot there's councils there that are huge they have much more positions and it was really awesome to learn about how they're sort of adding on positions to help their student council grow and get more kids involved and it also helps you to sort of plan better events and just learn from other schools cuz it's always interesting to hear about what other schools are doing yeah I think one more thing is that Miss drack won an award that I think we should all take note of because she's a very good adviser and she definitely pushed me and a cool to be growing into very good leaders so I think you know I would be upset with myself if I didn't mention that she won an award so what's the award can we ask um it's in memory of the regional executive director's student council advisor and um it was the inaugural award this year and it was in recognition of taking programs in their infancy and growing them into award-winning councils um so kind of I had one of those ugly cry moments um cuz it was you know with just the students and and celebrating but it was really a testament to the opportunities that I've been given along the way to expand my leadership and then give that to the students so um it was a very successful day for LS and with that also Adele is now also on the state board so we have two students on the State Board who will be working with my mentor of all mentors um for student leadership uh Paul Branan who's the executive director for the state so we it was a it was humbling um in the sense that um it took a lot of energy and their campaigning was amazing and we're very proud of them it was it was a great day for us well big round of applause for everybody for excellent showing high school and thank you to Adele and a for your work and volunteering and Leadership that's amazing thank you so much for that thanks for putting us on the map yes the mass Association of student councils excellent work yeah um last thing that I can really touch on is the music concerts coming up on the 15th and the 22nd so the 15th is going to be the spring concert which is um has concert band um Lancer singers and Jazz Band performing um and then Major Works on the 22nd has um win Ensemble Symphony Orchestra and lyrics performing um and I think these concerts are probably like the most important throughout the whole year just because they're like the culmination of the whole Year's growth so um you see the the result of all the hard work and like the whole progression throughout the whole year yeah excellent looking forward to them um and then just to just a few reminders for upcoming dates so seniors will be out um uh May 23rd the senior picnic is May 28th prom is May 30th graduation is June 2nd at 1 pm. at Symphony Hall corre yeah jary June 2nd 1 p.m. senior piics the 23rd senior socials the 28th oh gotcha okay got um yeah I think that's it all right wonderful thank you so much we appreciate you guys taking time to come out today and telling us all about the going on over at LHS thank you thanks so much and Andrew will be serving again wondering if we knew that along and some other folks who will be coming every so often but angrew will be here through all the school committee meetings uh next year wonderful congratulations Andrew thank you all right thank you very much okay so next up on our agenda is Elementary literacy um the curriculum subcommittee met last week to hear updates on the elementary literacy curriculum Pilots that finished in late April a big thank you to the 35 classroom teachers and six special Educators and intervention staff who stepped forward throughout the year um to participate in the curriculum literacy team um we really appreciate the extra time and the energy that you gave to this process and to moving this work forward week after week in addition to all of the things that you're already doing um also thank you to Beth Nelson our curriculum our director of curriculum instruction and assessment um who tackled this head-on in her first year um and is here with us tonight to talk us through the literacy review process and the ultimate curriculum recommendation of the team and finally a note of thank you to Mary Keane our school committee Vice chair who brought her intelligence thoughtfulness passion and determination to this project throughout May has been an advocate for review of the elementary literacy in her um over the three years that she served on the school committee um and we appreciate her leadership and her commitment to ensuring a high quality literacy education for all of our students so we will turn it over to you guys and I'll if I could just to also uh Echo the appreciation that Nicole extended to uh to Beth Brenda Julia and um our administrators who are here our elementary administrators principles thanks for joining us tonight um they been integral to the process and and we'll be there for the uh if this is approved for the roll out in the fall and then nice to see that Brenda and Julia have some of their colleagues with them tonight so uh who happen to be experts in this area as well so lots of uh lots of expertise I was uh always impressed by um the professionalism the collegiality the um the the professional exchanges in the meetings that that Beth and Julia and Brenda ran so uh we're excited to bring this presentation to you here tonight so thank you chair and thank you superintendent um as the title says we're very excited to be here tonight to present um our long metal literature review and recommendation for a new curriculum um throughout this presentation Brenda maer our kindergarten through grade two literacy coach and Julia Mana our grade 3 through five literacy coach will talk the viewers here tonight through the process um and share a little bit more information about why we are shifting and the importance of Shifting and having the support um of making this curriculum adoption so with that I will turn it over to Brenda okay um I'm hearing a click at my end so we's GNA technical difficulties it's a highlight of our me a sorry Docker I'll Advance it your command thank you all right um try one more time just let me that oh we go so um what I'm doing here this evening is to kind of give you the background of not only why we felt a new curriculum was necessary but actually even a new approach to how we are looking at literacy in our classrooms um and to give you a little background of of what's been happening with balanced literacy and um what we think should be happening moving forward so just to also um let you know this is a this been a very passionate kind of um exploration for teachers and myself and Julia for me learning the difference between balanced literacy into structured literacy was probably like a three plus 4year process of grappling with it and um things that I was teaching and doing and then finding out that there may be other other ways that are better so I'm going to try to condense that down to 10 minutes or so for you guys um anyway uh probably from the early 2000s until the present districts across the entire country have been approaching balance literacy um which is like a workshop model um and it's kind of viewed as an outside in approach to teaching students how to read um outside in meaning um people Educators were observing what students were doing at the point of error when they were reading out loud and recognizing um oh look at what that good reader is doing that good reader is using pictures to help them that good reader is using context clues to help them they're skipping over words they're thinking about what would make sense and they're making a an an assumption of what the word could be and so that we thought that that was what good readers do and what we realized through science and and um the opportunity to know what's happening in the brain um that that's the last resort that good readers are using good readers are actually using their decoding strategies and looking through words SK skimming through scanning through words before they go to those Last Resorts so um as balanced literacy teachers we were kind of encouraging students who were struggling to be looking at those Last Resorts and giving that a try um balanced literacy is grounded in comprehension all reading ultimately is comprehension and understanding but the balance literacy took the comprehension approach first and then um incidentally if um phonics was needed in the particular leveled readers that students might be reading then there was an opportunity to teach a little phonics but it wasn't necessarily systematic and explicit it also meant if you were a really good reader um um then and you weren't in levels where you might see some very basic phonics going on because you were able to move up into new levels you had a gap missing of maybe you could read the word but could you actually spell the word and did you really know why the word sounded and was pronounced the way it was um L A Balan literacy also is an approach where you have a 15minute mini lesson based on a comprehension strategy like finding the main idea looking for the theme um trying to figure out how you can infer um it's a 15minute lesson and then the majority of the time the students are sent off to do independent work by themselves or um work in a small group with the teacher the teacher would be using leveled readers um with um using pictures and giving a picture walk and encouraging students to be looking for site words that they might be noticing within the few pages where they might be seeing them and um and guided and then they would be the teacher would be holding guided reading groups and then writing was very organized very much the same way it was a mini lesson with a mentor text students listened to the mentor text talked about what made this author such a good author such a good writer we're going to release you to go back to try to write that same mode um having modeled what this good writing looks like so a lot of time was spent with students um kind of exploring kind of discovering kind of like trying things out and um then possibly conferring with the teacher about how things were going in structured literacy um we can that's okay not working um so structured literacy um all reading is comprehension but it starts with the approach where um comprehension is grounded in context build content building knowledge rather than in comprehension strategies and skills so instead of trying to find the main idea immediately we build students knowledge about a topic and then gradually those students will discovered that I can find the main idea an even complex text because I have so much more knowledge around what it is that I'm reading about and everybody's playing on the same playing field we're all building our knowledge together um one direct so in in um a balance literacy approach we have a mini lesson in structured literacy approach we have a direct whole group instruction where the majority of the time students are getting exposed to grade level material interacting with their peers discussing um whatever it is that may be that they're knowledge building in or interacting with words and decoding and morphology and there's a lot of focus on that there is still opportunity for small group work um particularly with the teacher but it's much more um specific as to why you're pulling those students up and for how long you're pulling those students up for um oops leveled readers um would be now approached as decodable readers that are aligned with the skills um particularly in in grades K to2 and in grades 3 to 5 we'd be looking at more complex knowledge building t um but groups would be based on their skill-based rather than level based so you wouldn't be saying a teacher wouldn't be saying I want to meet with all my level K readers Now teacher would be saying I'm going to strategically take the students who need to work on vowel pairs um and help them try to you know analyze those words or these particular students are doing great with com uh comprehension but their fluency and intonation could could be improved and so it it's very more specific as to what it is that you want to work on with those students um and in writing in a structured literacy approach the writing has um embedded grammar skills it's directly connected to reading and students gradually build um written passages by sharing their knowledge of topics across all modes of writing so they're still learning how to write the three modes of writing a narrative informational opinion but they're basing it on what it is that they're studying and they're reading um and so by the time they're released to really go back and write about what they've learned about they're chomping at the bit to pick up a pencil to be able to write everything they've learned the other thing we wanted to make sure we did was took into account what Massachusetts was expecting us um to do as districts as we started to possibly be switching from Balan literacy into structured they have four shift they want they wanted us to honor um explicit systematic instruction and the foundational skills for every child no matter what grade level if the student is struggling um with comprehension we have flowcharts to go back to make sure okay if you're struggling in comprehension is it because of a fmic awareness problem is it because of a phonics problem is there fluency issues is there a vocabulary weakness so we actually have the steps to go back for every student no matter matter what age it's not just K to 2 who might need foundational skills um we're building comprehension through complex knowledge Rich texts rather than just pulling a book one day to read as a as your read aloud and then a completely different topic the next day we're building it we're building the knowledge along they wanted to make sure we still Incorporated small group with targeted instruction of foundational skills or complex text and they also wanted to make sure that we were addressing every portion of the literacy block the five components being phonological awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and ultimately comprehension change thanks so we knew that the program that we're currently using had some missing gaps and we knew that we wanted to try to figure out what we needed to supplement with in order to make sure that we were touching all of those components and you're going to do lots of I can't I think it works like back and forth It's like a team team so we realized we needed something that was more specific to pH phic awareness particularly for our K and first grade students and so we purchased hegerty um we also knew that we needed F uh foundational um skills addressed in more of a specific systematic way an explicit way rather than an incidental way so we purchased foundations um foundations doesn't come with decodables however and really for foundational skills to be really cemented in our students they need to then take a decodable text after they've learned their phonic skill go back sit down uh interact with a text and real writing and and practice use reading that skill and authentic text so we needed some decodables we also realized that we had words their way that we had been using so um that was another program that we had purchased for phonics as well as spelling patterns but then we realized that Words Their Way wasn't addressing spelling patterns as specifically as they needed to address um because it was um it's based on word sorts and children are kind of encouraged to explore and what do you notice about these patterns some kids were noticing the patterns some kids weren't so we needed something that was much more explicit for word study so we purchased morphine magic for our fourth and fifth graders from there we realized that um units of study and writing didn't embed um language and grammar and we knew that our students were struggling in putting together some nicely written compound and complex sentences so we wanted some sort of a program that could address that thus patterns of power was was purchased um another weakness was units of study obviously we were addressing vocabulary in the great Rich um text that we were reading to our students but it wasn't it didn't specifically tell us what vocabulary we should be picking so we had teachers picking some words that they felt were very good tier 2 robust words and other teachers were picking other words that they thought were much more robust um so we decided to purchase word love which is a vocabulary program that follows the units of study so that everybody would be teaching the same vocabulary and ultimately even after those seven bullets we still found that we had missing pieces our students still were not spelling or encoding words the way we wanted to see it happening and of course handwriting wasn't being addressed anywhere and it was kind of squeezed in where where teachers could fit it um so the uh what we did in 2023 is in the early spring an independent consultant um Team came in they sat with teachers they went through our classrooms they looked at the materials we had in the early fall they gave us a report of what they felt um was what they felt they could do to help us with our curriculum we didn't get any reports back that we had a curriculum that was that was poor um they felt that we had good quality materials but they did feel that we needed to kind of um condense those materials and kind of make sure that across the district and all of the elementary schools the same thing was happening because it was a lot to maneuver um at that point the curriculum office decided um in October to conduct some more listening tours to teachers and the teachers concerns basically in a nutshell the the concerns came down to um 15 minutes of direct instruction or a mini lesson didn't feel like enough time for for teachers and also sending students off for the majority of the block to be doing independent work while the teacher was doing small groups they felt that um they they could have benefited more for more opportunity for direct instruction um science of reading down in number two science of reading required a lot of supplements all from the last slide with the seven different materials plus more than that it was leading to some major misalignment across the three schools and then um teachers really voiced could we please possibly find something a program that can address these five pillars and be manageable and not have different programs who don't talk to each other you know different all those different programs had different scope and sequences and and different time asks of how much time would be required to roll it out with perfection and they said there's got to be something that we could do that could bring it all together um great so we knew that we were going to have to start looking at a curriculum adoption process so we immediately went to desie site we looked at their timeline of what they suggested as a timeline and um we basically broke that in half and we decided what we were going to do for learn and prepare investigate and select and um so what we did is uh formed a committee the committee then unanimously decided that there was going to need to be a field test of piloting um teachers were fully involved in C looking at curate and Ed reports and making the decisions Julia and I went around to every grade level and every school and in the elementary level had them read through reports um took information from them about what they felt which programs they felt were addressing the way things the way that we wanted them to be addressed we took all that back to the committee ultimately the committee narrowed it down to three programs um and then the committee members observed those programs and neighboring districts and by mid-February the committee had actually decided on on what two programs they wanted to um try try piloting or field testing those that's a a snippet of all the different programs that we considered one for one reason or another um it might have been um because it just didn't fit our vision of a graduate or it didn't fit into our time our our Ela block of time that we had or it may have been that it was just way too pricey but for one reason or another we narrowed it down to intering and CK um after that after we knew we had narrowed it down to there we went to whoops that's okay we're both trying to do the same thing um the second part of the timeline with the launch and the implementation um and monitoring we had stipulations for whether student uh teachers were going to be field testing for us um we definitely wanted teachers to volunteer and as you had said we got 35 classroom teachers and six special ed and interventionists who were definitely on board and couldn't wait to start um field testing for us each field test was three weeks long we had a hard start and a hard stop date um desie actually would recommended that we call it a field test as opposed to a pilot that they they were getting research in that was saying that teachers know within one week if whether they like a program or not they don't need months of trying out a program and then more months of trying out another program so the 3-week thing actually was great for us because we had started the process kind of late um teachers would participate in trainings both before and during the field test teachers would complete daily Google forms um where they would look through a particular lens to consider every day how did my students respond if I'm looking through this lens only um daily data resulted in overall pie charts for each lens from each program and then at the end if teachers were assigned a particular lens that they looked through and so we wanted to make an optional narrative as well at the end so if you were concentrating on student engagement and that's what you responded to every single day we still wanted teachers to have the option to be able to say but I also would like to talk about teacher usability or I would also like to talk about differentiation so it was that last form which was optional where they could have more of a narrative about how they felt about each program and all right thanks Brenda welcome so to kind of move forward in our timeline from uh March 1st to April 30th we field tested both programs so CK came first that was the month of March and in reading came throughout the month of April pilot teachers received training from both programs in person and they also received on-site or virtual check-ins about at the halfway point from the companies um which was really fantastic we got good feedback from all of that support and as Brenda so love uh so perfectly stated we were collecting data every single day from every educator that was participating in the pilot because we wanted to make sure that we had a really strong data driven story to tell you and the Community about the recommendation moving forward so the big question is always What story did the data tell now I just before I start showing you the visuals I want to give a couple of caveats so each of the Google forms had somewhere between three to five questions that teachers were reflecting on on any given day and like Brenda said if I was assigned teacher usability I would be responding to that same set of questions every day after I taught our goal in doing that was to collect data over time to see if there are trends and as teachers spent more time with the program were they noticing new strengths and also just to get that consistency to have the same person looking through the same lens right we thought that was important the most important thing that I want you to know is that there was a very clear story being told by the data that we collected you're going to see it in colorful pie charts I'll give you a little bit of detail around that what you need to know is blue was a yes a resounding yes there's evidence backing this statement orange was a no there's no evidence backing the statement and red if you see it in the pie chart is a sometime so the evidence was there every once in a while but it didn't really seem strong enough to the teachers who are answering those questions all right are you ready yeah great so as Brenda said we looked through four specific lenses the first one was student engagement so as I said we had three to five questions per topic we chose one representative question so the three of us sat together kind of after the literacy committee on May 2nd and we went through the question questions and what I want to make the point of is the data that you see on the screen is very consistent for any question that was being asked so we chose the question for student engagement based on your experience today were most students actively engaged in the topic the knowledge building so as you can see from our graphs as teachers responded and this is the end of pilot data right um CK overwhelmingly yes or somewhat and uh inter read overwhelmingly somewhat there is a you know 20% yes and then a smattering of NOS the other questions for this piece were were students given the opportunity to interact in Partnerships in small groups um participate in discussions for speaking and listening skills and again if we were to look at all of that data you'd see a very similar pattern so the second lens we asked teachers to look through was focus on literacy and the representative question that we chose to share with the school committee and and the community today was based on your experience today does the program integrate practices from the ELA standards in Reading Writing and speaking and listening and again as I pointed out blue is a yes red is a somewhat or sometimes and orange is a no and I think the data speaks pretty clearly when you're looking at those pie charts you know we have 85% yes 15% somewhat for CA and we have 55% somewhat 27 28 I'll round up uh 28% yeah yes and then we have the 17% no for intering the third lens was accessibility and differentiation knowing that Long Meadow public schools has a commitment with their strategic plan to um mtss and udl we wanted to make sure that we were looking at the programs through lens to ensure Equitable access for everyone the representative question that we chose to share with you today was based on your experience today were there opportunities for you to collect data through student work observation and conversation and the reason we pulled that question was if there was opportunity to collect that data teachers were then able to make instructional decisions on how to help their students so it seemed redundant to also present that data set to you because they mirrored each other pretty closely and again when you're looking over at the colors we're seeing quite a bit of blue and quite a bit of red for CK and a little bit more of a split for inter reading um I think interestingly 39% said that there was little to no evidence for our inter reading pilot that uh they were able to collect data and the final lens that we had teachers reflect on was teacher usability um so were the materials easy to navigate were the digital components easy for you to understand um was it easy to prep for the lessons right were the materials clearly listed and was it reasonable and so for our representative question we asked based on your experience today was the teacher manual organized in a way that was easy to follow and use for instruction again those other questions connect right back to this initial question that we asked asked because if it was easy to navigate then we know that the materials were clearly stated that the prep work was you know reasonable right up front and again you can see um it's almost like a reversal in in percentages when you're looking at the data isn't it so you know 86% for cka said yes teacher usability was strong and then we have about 78% in inter reading saying ah kind of dependent on the day and then um noticeably the 18% said no so once we comb through the data and we met on May 2nd with our literacy committee we made the group decision that long meta Public Schools should be moving toward a structured literacy approach with our adoption uh for the 2024 2025 school year and literacy coaches so Brenda and I are currently this is our final week we have been providing half day PD for our grade levels so Brenda in K1 and two and me in 3 four and five across all three elementary schools and the goal of that professional development is to explain to teachers who have piloted or might not have piloted the why behind the differences between the program so knowing that the data tells a very clear story about the program that we'd be putting forward we wanted teachers to have the background knowledge to feel successful and understand the the scientific research um and of course we know that long metal Public Schools is committed to vision of The Graduate so we wanted to highlight the ways that CK um aligns with kind of our our end goal when our seniors walk out that door on June 2nd when they graduate and they get to throw their caps in the air Our Hope in our hearts is that they have these six core competencies accountability Independence problem solving critical thinking communication and collaboration so I'll go through all six of those and I just want to note that the problem solving and critical thinking because there is quite a bit of overlap in my in our evidence for that I combined them a nice little ombre effect for everybody so in terms of accountability cka um holds students accountable for their learning through using decodable readers connected writing through the text really um robust assessments particularly in grades three four and five um and more so that box could have been very very long in terms of building Independence uh the explicit and systematic instruction within this program builds strong independent and skillful readers and writers when it comes to communication something that was noted very early on is there's a very heavy and intentional focus on speaking and listening skills and also utilizing tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary and responding with appropriate syntax in fact starting in kindergarten students are asked to respond to questions in complete sentences orally which then translates to complete sentences when they're writing in terms of collaboration there are many opportunities as we saw with the student engagement data for students to work in Partnerships small groups Etc to cement their learning as well as independently which is always important and then when when it came to problem solving and critical thinking there's a huge emphasis on building content knowledge right we want learning to stick to other learning we want knowledge is like velcra right you need something to stick to so all of the units are organized around Focus questions related to a topic which allow students to work together toward answering these questions by problem solving and thinking critically either independently with Partners small groups or as a whole group and unit topics often also connect vertically across grades so for example um in kindergarten or grade they might be studying one set of ancient civilizations they hit third grade they're studying another fourth grade fifth grade and so on so you can kind of see that trajectory of how that knowledge is building systematically over time and um out of respect for our fantastic Educators who took on a pilot um during testing season like you know at a very difficult time of year um there's no better way to showcase the value of the program that we're bringing forward than using the words of teachers themselves out of respect I do realize these responses are a little bit lengthy I'd like to read them um verbatim if that's okay with the committee so all three of these are reflections on CK I'm going to start green go to blue and then end with purple the program is spectacular from working with this program for only a few weeks it was so clear that through combining knowledge building and research-based foundational skills CK instruction allows teachers to easily develop strong readers writers and thinkers this curriculum teaches skills in Reading Writing listening and speaking and also builds knowledge and vocabulary in literature history geography and science CK will provide our students with such a well-rounded education that do aligned K to 5 I'm a big fan of cka smiley face now moving to the blue speech bubble I love cka and would be thrilled if we adopted it next year it has raised the bar for my students while simultaneously taking a huge load off my planning plate and then ending with purple this program was amazing and really had me excited each day to teach the lessons the knowledge portion was amazing but for me personally having all my students being able to read from the decodable and raise their hands to read out loud from it was amazing I had quite a few non-readers and with this decodable they were able to read it and it was just so heartwarming to see them actually be able to engage with a text from from our teachers thank [Music] you um so what does all of this wonderful information say it says that our literacy Review Committee um would like to put forward the recommendation that we the long meow public schools adopt amplifi CK which stands for core knowledge language arts um for the 24 25 year and Beyond um this decision is based on science evidence teacher and student feedback quantitative feedback back collected throughout the pilot as well as narrative feedback collected through the pilot and that feedback although came through really strong from the teachers who piloted today um it also came through in the stories that teachers shared about their experience with parents and students um that also had the opportunity to understand CK at a deeper level throughout the process so pricing the big question of the day um so CK uh the price for a complete adoption um next year is coming in at [Music] $270,500 and can really begin it um pretty quickly they're working with with us to make sure that we're supported um student assessment and progress monitoring uh student teacher digital access is um included in that price and then shipping and handling and I think we we included that price just to show just how how much material we will be taking in um and so it's pretty significant and that leads to our total price today are there any questions that anybody has all right so I want to share before we into questions um that the um curriculum subcommittee also took a vote at our meeting um and voted to recommend this as well so this um brings us to a recommendation by both the curriculum literacy team and our director of curriculum and instruction as well as the um curriculum subcommittee so we'll open for conversation questions feedback Etc y go ahead oh no um no questions at this stage um I just uh would love to comment that I really appreciate the very thoughtful Daya driven approach that you took um it lays plain the case um and the quality of the program that we're considering for not only the school committee here uh but for the community community uh that is watching as well so thank you okay I just wanted to say thank you too it was a really wonderful presentation and it's so obvious what the data shows um and you know it's been just so awesome following along getting the curriculum updates and seeing how I it's teacher appreciation week and I just feel like the teachers that participated in this and the administrators that gave them the why and put all this heart into changing something so fast went above and beyond and um it was really awesome to hear my stories as a parent and for my both of my children happen to be in piloting classrooms and um I I knew before I saw this data from what my kids were saying in their teachers that there was a clear winner and I'm so thankful that the data also shows that and that you put all this work into it and I'm very thankful for all the teachers and the extra work that they did to make this happen thank you absolutely I'll Echo that but this is it's such a huge lift in the midle of a school year and in the middle of the spring of a school year which is also an extra busy time um and it's the beginning of a heavy lift um is the other point to note so just a huge thank you for all of the work that went into this the whole process um from start to finish the data collection the organization the presentation all of it um throughout has been incredibly well done um very thorough very thoughtful very professional we really appreciate the time and energy that everybody took on this do uh um oh I'm sorry I didn't Mar you say something no you're good go for it Adam um I'm sorry I might have missed this I have a couple questions um go for it and if I'm going off the deep end here just let me know cuz I'm I you know I look at a lot of research um you know day in and day out so there are certain things that I just wanted a little clarification on but this is not that kind of a research approach I I don't want to I want don't want it to seem offensive or anything to anybody um but just being objective um who who was it that collected the data was this an independent company or was this uh uh staff from the long District can I clarify that question Adam so we talked about an independent Consultant Group that came in last spring so March of 2023 that gave us some information about the program that we were using and or have been using um through this school year begin with the pilot on March 1st are piloting teachers so those 34 classroom teachers and the six special Educators and interventionists provided daily feedback through a Google form okay um was there any randomization or blinding that was done with any of the data collection for this which from the teachers so they did they know which programs they were doing or were they given a a you know a program without heading to try to make sure that there was no um bias that that could be introduced here so every teacher that piloted piloted both programs and due to the nature of the manuals and the materials that are included the name on any curriculum um is always associated with the product that's being used okay was there any student assessment data that was collected or was this all done on Teacher Assessment there was a great deal of student assessment collected throughout the 3-we pro pilot field test for each of the two programs so over the six weeks there was a tremendous amount of student data collected because I didn't see any numbers on that and I don't know that we would because that's what teachers use to drive their instruction to move their instruction forward so that's more like formative data that gives teachers information about what skills students are working on and what they need to work towards if that makes sense yeah there was no summited assessment data that was used in this uh you know data Gathering process correct it was it was not long enough we only had the the 14 school days for each of the programs if we had had it longitudinal longitudinal data over the entire school year we'd be able to see that through some of our Universal screening scores but not necessarily in a 3-week period of time okay um as far as the uh assessive that was given to the teachers for evaluating this and I apologize I'm I'm reaching back here here um I don't I don't see questionnaire data that much but was there a reason I I think it's the Liker scale was there a reason that the assessment wasn't stratified using that um Paradigm I not sure that that's something that we used very like in education as a practice I'm sure it has been used but it's not it wouldn't be the norm so like this is the just make sure we're talking about the same thing this is the scale where it says I strongly agree I agree I strongly disagree you know so that you can get that variability for how strongly either way the the teachers are feeling that the material is is being applied so are you speaking to the yes somewhat no that how we yeah yeah so like usually you'd have like when you do a survey data you'd have five choices you have strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree so is there a reason yeah I'll let Brenda speak to that actually because she it was from a study that she the knowledge matters campaign so both Julia and I actually we um delved into the different ways that other districts had collected their data and we leaned heavily on the knowledge matters campaign um for how to collect data when you're um trying to adopt a new curriculum and we actually actually use their wording their scale I'm I'm not I'm not sure if they had five indicators and we narrowed it down or if they we went by their their four indicators or I think um the discussion that we had around having three indicators instead of five is a lot of times when you have the strongly agree agree neutural disagree strongly disagree it's splitting hairs and it's like the nuance and interpretation of strongly agree versus agree and so we wanted um we did use we we wanted like a clear answer we didn't want teachers to have that load of needing to kind of waffle through whether it was a strongly agree or an agree on any given day um but we we definitely respect uh the question 100% yeah CU that just that limits the amount of statistical evaluation that can be done I mean we we used a lot of terms saying that we use science here and that we use data but I mean it's it's I mean pretty just from an objective standpoint it's not very robust data um was there any T testing or anything that was done between uh the group analysis so that we could see some objective statistical discussion between the two uh groups can you explain what you mean by T testing uh T testing is a statistical analysis that's done when you're looking at um specifically something like questionnaire data where you're going to be having qualitative data as opposed to quantitative data so that you can remove biases and that you can objectively evaluate to uh two groups of data um it's it's it's one of the Bedrock statistical I'm sure any of the the seniors if they're still there that we could we could put them on the spot and ask him about um you know uh for the AP test what uh what what it actually means but but it's just it's it's one of the ways that you do a statistical analysis to say that your data is statistically significant or you know can you not say that these results are more than random chance not saying that the results are random chance I'm just saying this is the way you prove it I might offer that the part of the reference to the science relates to the the research that underlies this shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy so I think when when we talk about the you know the science that provides a foundation for the shift I I think there's volumes and volumes of of research out there probably done under the conditions that you're describing that that justifies or explains that that shift from a balanced literacy approach to a structured literacy approach and so you know I'd say that we in narrowing it to to ca and into reading I think they identified two programs that had a considerable amount of of research behind them and had been uh vetted by the curate reports and the Ed reports so from looking at that data when when we were choosing these two programs did we have uh a test group that kind of uh epitomized each philosophy and we evaluated those two to see you know what was done or was this just more a a global big picture we we looked at you know one program and the other I'd say philosophically the two programs were aligned CCL and into would you is there any distinction you draw between the um I think we went with um well definitely was based on the committee and the teachers interest in the two different programs um we tried to find both programs that were structured literacy based um because of data that's been being released and of um Massachusetts um shifts that they were hoping for us for all districts to make and I think we tried to make sure that we picked a program that could feel relatively comfortable to teachers with it had an approach where we were still using small group we still had um materials in order to run small group um and another and also included some knowledge-based learning with it so I feel like teachers would have had the opportunity to let us know if they had a desire to stay with a an approach to literacy that was more structured in a workshop model and we weren't getting that feedback from teachers I'm not sure if I'm answering your question correctly so I would also no it's it's okay um just one one final question um was was any of the 34 teachers that were used in in collecting the data and getting this information were any of them any of the statistics teachers from long of District No we're we're dealing with Elementary literacy so K through five teachers exclusively um and I think also some of the some of the research work that you're talking about some of the statistical work some of that more in-depth research studies work that you're talking about would happen sort of behind the scenes with the development of a curriculum with the passage of that curriculum through Ed reports through cure8 those are the places because they have that larger access to larger populations to larger districts to a multiplicity of districts um are able to engage in more statistical um research over a longitudinal um period of time more so than an individual District would be able to so we rely on those reports as a way to do some of that early vetting um and look for information that helps point us in the direction of what the state of Massachusetts and Ed reports and other research back organizations have pointed towards and then using those kind of on that smaller scale in our district focusing in on K through five teachers and what can we do to make sure that across that K through five that sampling is hitting all of our grades all of our schools so that we have a a truly more random sample within our smaller population and the shortened time frame that we have and these companies submitted those studies and the correct curriculum committee evaluated those before yes so so what did that what did that data say then they all met expectations so the programs that we reviewed the eight that we originally started out with all met met expectations through Ed reports or the Cure rate reports which Cate is the curriculum ratings by teachers that is through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education but there were not any quanti statistics that these companies gave you guys to evaluate those areil those are all included in the Ed report and curate reports okay so let me ask what's the what's the bar to say met expectations was it for student summative uh uh assessment or was it based on on teacher uh understanding or teacher uh discrimination of Student Success nope so this was they were re very very in-depth um Ed reports is a huge huge organization um that has an incredible staff that review curricul um um there's a lot of science involved in the evaluation process and they do look at for literacy specific they're looking at do these programs have the five core um components of literacy instruction or and are they back in backed in scientific research so to meet expectations they would have had to have shown evidence of each one of those components being backed in scientific research and the committee was satisfied with the evidence that was that's correct yes okay all right any other questions thoughts feedback can I can I say I I wouldn't I for anyone watching at home I wouldn't want to underestimate the the role that the committee played in in supporting this um decision this recommendation I think thinking back to last spring when the committee supported the um Athena K12 uh study of our curriculum back in March of 23 and then even before that when when the committee saw fit to add an additional literacy coach um and I think that you know this is a heavy lift and so I'm grateful that we have two incredibly talented uh literacy coaches to uh walk us through this process and to support our Educators both through the adoption process but also next year so that there was a couple of key uh foundational bricks that the school committee put in place that that got us to uh this meeting today so I'm grateful for the support of the committee I know that there's a lot of talent and understanding on this committee we're we're we're fortunate that we have um some Educators who who really understand um the shift that from from uh balanc to structured literacy so grateful for that all right thank you any further thoughts and or possible motions wait oh no is it actually that's a great question um I thought it was for five yeah Cas for five five okay I was like my uh recommended motion I think it actually is also available for sixth grade which might have been the can I mention one more thing um the um there's a a detailed quote that is in your packet that you've had an opportunity to riew I'm sure I just wanted to mention the the um the figure that is before you tonight this is an amount that will carry us for many years I don't know if we can kind of explain that this pricing is it's an eight-year um figure so the student in teacher digital access the teacher digital access is available for 8 years so we are not paying for that on an annual basis so even if we have new teachers come into the district teacher manuals if it was something really quick like they would be able to access everything digitally um the slides that are used for instruction on a daily basis are all included for those eight years um if the decodable texts uh every it's anticipated that um you know if they should last us for about three years those decodable texts but if it is not holding up to their standard then they'll replace that through their Publishers um through their Printing Partners during that time so what is up there that we are getting this is um what we anticipate being our curriculum for the next 5 to eight years um and we feel really excited and confident that it will be the right curriculum for us here in Long Meadow so we're talking about a one-time expenditure that um and and if there are any recurring costs they can be covered by funds that are already committed and already part of your your uh your budget so and grateful to Mr Maza as well for working closely with uh with Beth on the uh identifying pinning down the pricing um and uh because it no small Fe yes sir uh to that end um this is a a onetime upfront cost or are we able to spread any of it out over the course of multiple years it's an upfront cost for the initial investment to get the materials to have available for next school year and then as superintendent said so recurring costs Andor if we need to add a section in grades in future years those would be some costs that we would use out of the operating budget thank you so things like consumables workbooks that consum sections that aren't covered based on the number we're purchasing in this figure all right and could I would we also want to explain the uh the town meeting the potential for town meeting funding of this amount do you want to explain that let's let's do that after this um okay so would you like to make a motion now go for it I move on the recommendation of the literacy Review Committee and the curriculum subcommittee that the school committee adopt CK amplify for use across the district in grades K through 5 beginning in the 2024 2025 school year and authorize the expenditure of up to 27059 64 we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Michaela yes Adam N and yes for me as well all right so moving forward the school committee is now recomend amending this as well or is adopting this as well rather um when it comes to funding we move forward to our town meeting um which actually segue nicely towards the next step of our meeting as well um so this is as some may already know a warrant article um for the upcoming town meeting on May 14th of next week um and the select board has approved this um back at its preliminary um budget request which I think will require a little bit of shuffling because that was higher 450 am I forg about that was the initial okay so 495 all right so the warrant article is for more than it turns out this will actually be um and that will be the um next piece of the puzzle is getting this passed at school uh or at the um town meeting um the reason for this being that the school committee was committed to working alongside the select board um to keep our budget and operating costs for this year at no more than a 3 % increase and a number like $270,500 um increase would have been so as this being a one-time um increase in our budget and a one-time expense that is going to be significantly impactful um to all of our students across um grades K through five and for years to come and Long Meadow um we have worked together with other Town officials to include this on the town warrant and we hope that our um Town officials and town community members um come out and join us next week and help support this as well so that it can be funded and we can have our teachers and staff beginning this important work of updating our curriculum for elementary literacy did you want to add anything else no that's it I just want to make sure Article 5 May 14th thank you did not all right Article Five thank you very much for your time tonight we appreciate you and thank you for everybody coming out we appreciate the time and energy that you put into this evening we are moving on to um school committee announcements and recognitions um chair report tonight is small the first thing was going to be reminding everybody about our upcoming town meeting next week May 14th 7 p.m. um and then as a second note that it is um teacher and also nurse appreciation this week so we have have a lot of people to be thankful for um this week a lot of people who keep our schools running um from day to day um our community is grateful for the many ways that you support all of our children every single day um and you never fail to impress us with the energy your kindness um and the commitment to um learning that you share with our children on a daily basis we have to pause because we now don't have AAR we will be pausing for a moment oh please return I'm sorry no that's a good note thank you um we are without a quorum for the moment so give us a moment and we will return to our business Dian should I redo chair report when we return or that's okay um probably right before okay yeah redo [Applause] is the ALB muted on purpose I do that just wanted to make sure all right we are returning to our meeting um and we are going to recap the school committee chair report um to remind everyone that the town meeting is next week May 14th at 7: p.m. um and also a note that this week is teacher and Nurse Appreciation Week um so a big thank you to the folks who make our schools run every single day um our community is incredibly grateful for the many ways that you support our children on a daily basis um and you never fail to impress us with your kindness your energy and your commitment to learning um and sharing your learning with our children thank you very much for that um we are headed into um other school committee announcements and recognitions anything from anyone else seeing none we are headed to superintendent report no report this evening no report this evening other administrative reports anything for you nothing this evening nothing there student representative report okay so I don't have too much but uh as you all know this week is Teacher Appreciation Week and Key Club and other organizations at the high school doing a variety of events for teachers so when you walk into the main doors of the high school you notice all these huge lines of medals all um put put on the wall and each metal has their paper medals um written on like the the teacher name written on each medal and it's great way to the theme for that geub CHS for this um teacher appreciation week is Olympics so they all have their own medal to honor them and then we're doing a variety of events um to name one to kick uh I I guess to end off the week um we're going to be cheering for the teachers in the morning to welcome them in just has a nice s off believe the teacher appreciation breakfast is was it today or either Tom um there's also teacher appreciation breakfast in the library um so yeah so that's all I have to do say for that and then today being two years since Karina boss's passing the track team along with the um East High School track team at today's meet um did a 400 meter honorary walk or jog around the track and I just want to say thank you to East M high school for helping us put this on it was a great way to honor cat and her memory um and then on a personal note it just really made me proud to be part of the Western masterack Community and to be part of the llodo community thank you that's lovely thank you um other reports lpvec um we do not have a report tonight or do we have a report tonight sorry I a brief one um I'm happy to report that five of the new electric buses are in uh we're still waiting on the remaining 20 that have been committed uh we are also awaiting the electric companies to be able to outfit the transportation garages with charging stations hopefully fingers crossed we are operational by October next school year which is exciting um and then my ride K12 uh which is an Transportation application for parents um is being tested right now with a small circle with the hopes um that we can expand that to a pilot phase for next school year as well all right thank you you wonderful um energy and sustainability Adam anything from you no report all right and see you Michaela there's a meeting tomorrow night May 8th at 700 p.m. and uh it's about knowing your rights and there's going to be a presentation about the new IEP roll out but presented by Nicole Paris crra um she always does a really good job explaining things and answering any questions from parents that come up so you can attend that in person here at the high school or from Zoom there's a zoom link it's been in I think every principal's email I've seen so there's lots of places to find it all right wonderful thank you um subcommittee reports we um have nothing from Finance or policy nothing from Finance correct no we uh have a meeting tended we scheduled for Friday perfect um curriculum sub we kind of Hit the high points of what we we talked about in our elementary literacy review um and evaluation sub um will'll be meeting on May 15th 2024 to that end would you like to give a quick overview of certainly when and where folks can find information about so uh in your meeting packet this evening there's a hard copy at your table tonight a um uh a self a reflection and a self assessment that um reflects on some of my progress towards my 2324 annual plan uh also in your packet is the uh end of cycle Summit of evaluation report and the way we have approached it in recent years is the individual committee members would be expected to submit minimally Pages 1 two and three of that evaluation report and then your evaluations subcommittee will um review and develop a singular summative evaluation to be considered at your May 27th meeting so correct um I'm I welcome any opportunity to to talk to individual committee members about the information and the self assessment if you're um feeling like there's something missing or so you're wondering about something or you have any questions at all about uh what I've achieved this year I'm I'm always happy to meet or talk over the phone or whatever would be helpful to you so um appreciate the the opportunity to uh deliver that self assessment to you and happy to answer any questions you might have all right all right questions first all right so just to recap the process um each Committee Member is responsible for evaluating um the superintendent there are individual forms that will be um found in Google Drive but also we send out copies I can email them as well perfect thank you um and that process um asks you to reflect on a number of different points um and you can use the reflection and self assessment materials that are both in this um reflection and self assessment document and also the things that it links to if you have questions and or need further Evidence um or would like to see further evidence on a point um reach out to Dr OA if you are new to doing this and or have any questions about how this works um you are welcome to reach out to I'm both um chair for our committee but also chair of the evalu um so I'm happy to talk to anyone who might need a little bit of help getting started with this um and then of course Diana is also available to point folks in the direction of where they can find materials or information on how to complete these um we are requesting that all evaluations be submitted to Diane by end of day on Monday May 13th um so please make that a priority so that when the committee gets together on the 15th we are able to review that um typically the process will be that um Dan and I will work and pull together sort of a cohesive document in time for our meeting on the 15th so um by the 13th end of business day anything I'm forgetting that's all no all right great um ongoing business Middle School building project are we going to do a quick yeah we can do um so really looking for every opportunity to uh talk to the committee and the community at Large about uh the status of the Middle School building project and so the building committee had an important meeting on uh May 1st and I wanted to share with you uh the some of the slides from the deck that the Architects presented to the building committee on May 1st so if you bear with me all right so um full screen here so these are slides that were developed by jwa Jones in uh wit IT architects our design team working closely with cers cers serves as our owner's project manager so this was an overview of the agenda from May 1st and you'll see some very important agenda items a review of preliminary options and costs and the the building committee was asked to select from that list uh for some preferred schematic options and those options would be incorporated into what is called a PDP report PDP standing for preliminary design program report to the msba so again um some important information discussed by the building committee on May 1st and I'll try to I'll do my best to represent uh the the discussion so uh these were were some of the uh pre preliminary design options that the building committee considered and I think this committee is aware that some of these options were um were not Advanced by the building committee specifically the building committee chose to not pursue any options that was a a one building solution so options two three and four would have only provided um a 21st century environment for 345 students essentially the population of one middle school so the building committee felt that whatever solution we pursue ought to be a solution for all of our middle schoolers uh that 665 number is the design enrollment that the msba arrived at uh after we had some submitted some demographic information to them the design team also recommended and the building committee agreed that uh Russell field and Turner Park should not be considered as locations for a proposed new school and uh the committee had some informed discussions on why those options would not work Russell field largely related to uh the congestion of that would be created with its location close to blueberry in the high school Turner had some environmental uh restrictions that would have made at a less than advantageous site um I'll move along one of the things that has to be considered is a uh a base repair code upgrade the msba wants to understand what it would cost to Simply uh upgrade the identified middle school and as the committee knows uh Glenbrook was the was identified as the statement of interest that was accepted by the msba although we are pursuing a a sort of a two- School solution Glenbrook was the the targeted statement of interest and so uh The Architects have had to cost out uh and consider what a base repair code upgrade would look like at Glenbrook and so you'll see some of the uh advantages and disadvantages of pursuing that code upgrade uh you'll see that it would involve replacing all the mechanical systems the lighting system systems electrical systems um and HVAC systems at the end of the day it would still leave us with an old footprint in a in a 1967 building the interesting thing that the Architects walked us through was a a matrix to evaluate each of the options and you'll see that this base repair code upgrade option received a total score of 35 points uh there was a number of factors that were considered and each of those factors was was uh given a weight um each factor could receive up to Five Points five being most uh it definitely meets the criteria it's most advantageous zero being it does not meet the criteria at all so 35 was the uh just hold that number because you'll see how that compares to the other options that the building committee considered uh the building committee also considered an ad Renault at Glenbrook and again I won't read the bullets in slide deck for anybody watching this slide deck is available on our website so you can look at it spend some time on it and look at the at the at the bullets in detail but you'll see that the ad Rena uh would involve um a it would involve during the construction period uh that students would have to be relocated over to Williams and that temporary modular classrooms would have to be would have to be installed over there for two years thank you yeah so that's a that was one of the significant drawbacks of of doing an ad Rena frankly at either site and AD Rena for all 665 students when that uh option was put against the Matrix you'll see the total score it's it's a better option uh has a total score of 126 weighted points but you'll see those zeros in the middle which indicate to us that this process this approach would require phasing and would require the modellers during construction and at a significant cost uh the next option that was considered was a new school at the Glenbrook location um the only location that the Architects had identified was on the sort of existing site so this this new Glen Glenbrook would still also require uh that students would have to be temporarily relocated to Williams during the construction period again slide decks available I won't I won't Linger on each and every bullet but you'll see uh the pros and cons associated with that option that received a a total weighted score of5 points based on the deliberations of the building committee the building committee also considered an ad Renault at Williams uh this would uh this proposal would preserve the auditorium in the cafeteria it would require the relocation of students during the construction period uh one of the the drawbacks of this uh possibility is that it would um it would not create the adjacencies that we that would be desirable in other words um it wouldn't NE necessarily allow us to reconfigure the building in a way that situates uh classrooms next to each other that makes sense educationally um and so there's also some other constraints that are are listed on the slide deck here uh when this was put against the Matrix it was it received a total score of 127 the next uh option that was considered by discussed by the building committee was a new construction at Williams for 665 students this would be 137,000 uh Square fet similar size to the uh new Glenbrook uh and you'll see that this received the highest score on the evaluation Matrix 194 points uh as a as an option that would not require the relocation of students it's centrally located uh in the heart of town and it certainly would meet our district strategic Vision uh and so what the um all of these options were placed uh on this single Matrix spreadsheet the options in Gray were previously um not Advanced by the building committee and the options in the white columns were the ones that were still under consideration on May 1st by the end of the meeting uh the uh building committee had decided that the Glen Brook site uh should not be Advanced as a preliminary option to the msba and so at at this stage the building committee with our design team is considering option one which is the base repair code upgrade at Glenbrook you have to do that per the msba and option seven which is an ad rental for all 665 students at the Williams site and then option eight which is a new uh School construction for all 665 students again at the Williams site so those are the options that um the building committee chose to advance and chose to submit to the msba uh this is perhaps to some this might be the most important slide on the deck here and it it shows us that the the options that um that were considered on May 1st would range in price a total project cost of anywhere from $80 million to $13,810 so these are just sort of preliminary design prices that the uh design team has established based on total gross square footage based on portions of the building that might be renovated or portions of the building that might be uh designed new designed and built new and so um we're really just at that phase where we're trying to uh winnow down the list of the best and most suitable options for us here for our middle school project um and I would just caution anyone that is sort of looking at these numbers these are obviously significant uh I think what our design team would say that in recent years construction costs have escalated I think we're we're all familiar with that I think they would also tell us that a lot of the stretch energy codes are you know creating buildings that are ultimately you know operationally more affordable perhaps but uh at the design and construction phase are more costly so those stretch energy codes I would say say explain some of the uh the total project costs that we're we're seeing on this slide deck so again the options anywhere from uh just over 8 m just over $80 million to uh close to $154 million and that would include both Construction and design costs so at this stage again the these are these are preliminary prices and they are not reflective of many decisions that are still in front of us um we have decisions to make with regard to the overall size whether or not we would uh ask for the inclusion of a full Auditorium as the committee knows the msba does not participate does not reimburse for auditoriums at the middle level they they offer districts uh the opportunity to consider uh a performance space located in the gymnasium or a performance space located in the cafeteria so this this is just a list of the of the the many items that are are still in front of us and that could affect that the costs that you saw on the previous slide we are only at the you know the stage where we're identifying potential options uh no specific um design no specific option has been identified we're simply winnowing the list we're we're narrowing the options uh and ultimately the the msba uh will work with us to you know support the path that uh that we deem to be appropriate for us here in Long Meadow and so uh the building committee on uh on the first decided uh agreed to submit the preliminary design program this document is currently available on our website and I'd encourage residents staff to look at it at their Leisure it is a 390 some odd page document uh it's dense uh at the heart of it is a an education plan that outlines our vision for programming in space in a newly constructed middle school or an ad Rena Middle School uh but there's it's it has a a rich amount of information evaluating the various options uh explaining existing conditions and looking at the potentials for each of the sites the Glenbrook site or the Williams site so again once again that is it is on our website and um encourage anyone that's interested in this project to to take a Peak at at that very very extensive report that went to the msba uh on Monday so um it's a very very significant Milestone that we that we hit and I'm proud of the enormous amount of work that our administrative team put into this project the information they gathered from staff staff had opportunities to be involved in the visioning process community members had an opportunity to be involved in the visioning process students had an opportunity to be involved and so uh from that visioning from that input from the staff uh and from the evaluations done by our design team we've submitted that preliminary design program to the msba and we're all super excited and super relieved uh that that has made its way down the pike so um appreciate that the committee I know the committee is familiar with most of the information I presented tonight but really don't want to miss an opportunity to to push this information out to the community at every at every chance so happy any any questions or feedback um happy to take a shot at that all right questions Andor feedback anything El all right thank you very much it's good to get the overview again andk you enjoying our uh updates on this as we Mo to all right that brings us to new business we have a building use request um and anything to speak to that go for it sure just a quick overview the uh high school girls booster club has um submitted a request for an end of year banquet for use of the high school cafeteria on May 21st uh from 4: to 900 p.m. all right perfect um we have a possible motion I move that the school committee approve the building use request for Long Meadow High School girls track booster club for use of Long Meadow high school on May 21st 2024 has indicated on the request form dated April 11th 2024 we have a motion do we have a second second follow-up question the questions in the additional note section were addressed just to draw to attention if they were not yes okay perfect thank you um all right so we have a motion we have a second any further discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Michaela yes Adam yay and yes for me as well all right we have no executive session and that brings us to our last motion for this evening I mooved that the school committee adjourn the May 7th 2024 school committee meeting we have a m motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion see none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Michaela yes Adam yay and yes for me as well have a lovely evening and we look forward to seeing everyone next week May 14th at the town meeting 7 P.M all right thanks a lot guys thank you