##VIDEO ID:_qzf-u8Jxdw## e e e e e our school committee meeting for today Thursday October 24th um please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance flag United States ofer the stands indivisible and justice for so good evening and Welcome to our meeting um our first item agenda is public comment is there anyone here for public comment please give you your name and address and we have three minutes oh it doesn't say three minutes on your public comment thing it's three minutes it doesn't say it I'm just pointing it out for you because thank you in the past it says 3 minutes all right so before I start Jessica um I have that information you wanted I can run it up after that you had asked me for um I know I ended my um email to you kind of without answering well I did answer you but um you'll see why when you have the rest of the information so anyways I've been bringing a lot of issues oh sorry Bridge urrs didn't introduce myself um I've been bringing a lot of concerns regarding communication to um the school committee lately because I would like to see some um some remedies for the the problematic Communications but tonight I really want to bring some attention to some of the positive Communications because there's a lot of positive um Communications that come um that do occur and so when we only are focusing on the negative you can't always see the positive and really these are the people you should be looking to as examples so in my experience personally at the high school level um I've dealt with three different administrators principal two Vice principles never in person email phone ever have I had um a problem with communication any style any anything I recently I left an example in here um had to email the principal or felt the need um I was met with you know he validated my concerns um let me know that he heard me let me know he was solution focused didn't give me an answer that you know this was going to be taken care of or any any way but he was able to handle and feel that I gave it a A++ in my folder so I'm going to send that up to you um also a parent came to me recently um regarding a concern at the middle school regarding a history lesson she was very upset I was able to kind of walk her through how to kind of um ask some probing questions and the history teacher at the middle school did a phenomenal exemplary job of responding to the parents concerns he validated her concerns gave her the information she needed she didn't have to go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth to get questions about the curriculum she wasn't simply here's the curriculum here's a link to the desie framework on this curriculum she was given a thorough answer to the point that she no longer has concerns regarding her child participating in the history lessons that she was first alarmed about that's because your middle school history teacher did a phenomenal job with communication and then um another parent had sent to me a communication from I don't have it printed out I couldn't print it it um from the mkg it went home regarding a new I don't know if it's a curriculum Harmony I'm not here to speak about Harmony before anybody gets their panties all upset um I don't know anything about whatever the harmony curriculum is what I'm talking about is the communication that came from mkg was done so thoroughly they anticipated based probably on the cmer cmer whatever thing that people were upset about last time um they anticipated that parents might be upset so they sent out an email prior to this being implemented they gave a short synopsis of what it was they talked about why it was tied to the curriculum they talked about um why they felt it was a good thing for the whole child they gave the information including a link about how they could look at the lessons that they anticipated and then they provided them information on if they after doing all of that if they still had a concern they could reach out to the principal so the these also got an A+ thank you Miss Kerns thank you so I'm just gonna run that up thank you [Music] all right our next uh item is discussion items how you doing tonight sorry about that how are you tonight okay good uh if you could just give your name and address hook one L three minutes each okay okay uh and if you'd like you can email us your comment and then we have a written copy of it okay I have a longer thing to email so I'll send that after thank you okay so I just have some concerns at the elementary level I am a parent Miss sorry what that oh Jed new hook I am a parent and also currently an employee for the time being um the behaviors there are absolutely outrageous to the point that staff members are crying in like in tears on the verge of walking out and nothing's being done kids are left in the cafeteria there's no discipline there's no communication with families about the behaviors in the cafeteria I've asked multiple times of what can we do let's work as a team let's come up with something can we have a meeting with principal assistant and all lunch Mar so we're on the same page haven't received that I've been asking mentioning it since the first week of school when it started out as a disaster I get with new admin things change some things needed to change prior to that absolutely but things came in everything's done different and when questions were asked of what we should do there's no response there's there was a along the lines of I'm not sure I'll get back to you we're now in October nothing's been done it's not okay I'm only there two days a week so I don't know what happens the other three days and I can't speak for other people but for me I'm leaving that position because there's no support Court I shouldn't have to beg as an employee for guidance it's not okay at all at any level whether you're bottom of the poll top of the poll in between whatever it's not okay with that I sent my resignation letter to our assistant principal assistant principal principal and I added our secretary on I received no response at all after four years that's disgusting no response is not okay when I left my ESP position a year and a year or so ago when I went to the bus even the superintendent sent me a letter saying acknowledging my resignation of my ESP position so to that not okay the assistant did come up to me and talk to me and said she was waiting to see me in person and apologize still regardless not okay on top of that before I came here tonight I wanted to be able to say I tried everything as an employee and having my children there I sent the superintendent an email last night requesting a meeting at 11:00 last night was not expecting a quick response nothing totally understand she's busy my thing's not that concerning but when I woke up and I was going to work and had an email at 620 from the principal now asking to meet with me because he heard that I want to meet with her is not okay it's now before I came in here 6:16 I checked my email there was no response from her but she reached out to him at 6 o00 this morning and gave him the heads up that I was reaching out to her I don't know why we can't work as a team for these kids because that's what they deserve they don't deserve the back and forth the sneaky talk it's not okay with that I do not respond to his email because I was hoping to get a response from her I knew if I responded to him and said I'm waiting for her whatever it would get back and forth it's not okay thank you hi can you hear me uh treasure Gonzalez fway um this is not my bear with me please I am petrified um so I come to these meetings I watch these meetings I hear about the transportation subcommittee awesome big buses are all set that's great expanding the preschool that sounds awesome I am ride or die for that school that's my program I've had three kids in there in the last four years um my problem is that we need to have the same energy and ATT attention going towards our minius students my four-year-old rides a mini bus home from preschool and he's not the last kid off his bus and it takes him over an hour to get home I called the teacher she did what she could I called the bus Department this morning and the tone of voice that I was given was basically hey life's tough get a helmet you know like it it wasn't really heard so I'm bringing it to you because I don't know where to go to Beyond this um so his uh instructional time in school is two and a half hours he's spending an hour and a half just being transported 20 minutes in the morning and an hour and 10 minutes today just today to get home he is a tiny human he is a developmentally delayed human who worked really really hard at potty training and he mastered it and now he's wetting himself on the bus ride home he's frustrated I'm frustrated um so I'm I'm being told that the reason for the increase in time is because there's an increase in students that's great I think every student should go to that PR school program why are we not increasing the buses along with the increase in students um these are our youngest and most vulnerable Learners they cannot advocate for themselves my son just learned how to say mama at three and a half years old he cannot advocate for himself he cannot say he's hot he needs a drink he needs to use the bathroom and he's on the bus for over an hour and I live 12 minutes from the school um um he is legally entitled to adequate transportation in his IEP he was eligible for transportation the day after his third birthday I tried esy when he was 3 years old it was an hour ride home I changed my whole schedule so I could transport him I tried esy when he was 4 years old it was an hour ride home I changed my whole schedule so I could transport him I'm on the verge of changing my entire schedule again to transport him and I shouldn't have to he should be able to have an adequate quit ride home from school especially in the Heat this week and he shouldn't get home an hour and 10 minutes after he loads on to that bus I have a kindergartener well I don't I'm sorry there's one that lives on my street he leaves the same building 30 minutes after my son his bus goes by my house 15 minutes before my son gets home we think that's his bus we're so excited it's not it's unacceptable um out of District kids I've heard that they're not allowed to be on the bus a mini bus for longer than an hour why is my son on the bus for longer than an hour when he's an IND District kiddo who's entitled to this Transportation thank you Miss thank you uh please send us an email with that with those comments thank [Music] you is there anyone else with who would like to speak under public comment thank you uh reports from school committee members so would you like to stop sure um this is not the the part of the agenda around Oh I thought that the that was going to be agenda items sorry so um we have the two items you requested are on the agenda right so my report won't be that it'll be other things okay just want to make sure I'm following the the plot here um yes I have a couple things uh first I wanted to uh let you my colleagues know that I did a walk through with Jim Hutchinson and Carolyn um of Berkland and um Mary K good uh to uh look at the facility and and hear uh Mr Hutchinson's perspective on different things and I really appreciate the time that they both took uh for me to do that uh and we're going to do uh another time uh where we go to the Middle School I've through the high school quite a bit so uh I don't and also um the mech so and I don't feel the need as much to do that uh and I would just like to U give a thought um it's not a motion or anything but uh I do think that it's something we need to think about um looking at in the future is get uh a kind of a strategic look to the future of how we might want to better uh utilize space in those two buildings and I know um that both Carolyn and and Mr Hutchinson have some thoughts about that but I think that the as a school committee that and along with um the executive staff I think we we really need to take kind of a a long-term look at uh how those two buildings are being used uh and I don't have further you know specific thoughts about it but just something I think we should be putting on the horizon to be looking at uh secondly I wanted to report that in looking uh at different information through the state I I saw and I don't know that was recognized here uh that uh the state through desie uh in our report card that U Middleboro was uh given the designation of making substantially progress to all its goals um including um significant growth in English math science um in both uh high school and non-h school ages for and this is look a look back last year um as well as um significant Improvement uh in caran chronic um absenteeism uh and you know we we talk a lot about things that we want to be going better but I think we also need to acknowledge uh when uh we are moving in the right direction uh through those kinds of Assessments so I I wanted to report that also thank you sir J this week Chris nothing this week nothing this week all right I'm good as well uh Ed how you doing great good so I have a first report for Mech parents the mech will be hosting a PTA meeting Thursday November 17th also Mech parent teacher conferences will be held November 12th to 13th secondly hbb and mkg mkg parents looking ahead mkg is holding holding a PTA meeting on Monday October 28th from 20 from 5: to 6:00 p.m. tonight hbb and mkg parents a reminder for your children the middle high school student council partnered with the midar high school speech and Theater Workshop to organize a Halloween Fest on Tuesday October 29th from 6:00 to 8 p.m. which includes a costume contest trick-or-treating Halloween crafts and games in a Haunted Hallway those students are asked to come in costume the Nichols Middle School will be holding their sixth grade dance on Monday the 28th their seventh grade dance on Tuesday the 29th and their eighth grade dance on Wednesday the 30th of November looking forward nms will be holding a PTA meeting on Tuesday November 12th and lastly MHS Council MHS student council is holding their leadership overload event on November 16th from 5 to 11: p.m. and now will be open to only MHS student council members any questions that's all I have thank you all right superintendent's report okay good evening chair fry and members of the school committee tonight we we have three School Improvement plans that we're going to be going through this is really part two of the meeting we started earlier this month so at this time I will call uh Tracy Lord um acting principal to um the table in order to present for the memorial Early Childhood Center um this is the first time you've met Miss Lord though she has been a teacher here at the mech for many years and um she is here here to present out on the goals and talk a little bit about what's been going on at the mech um our families I think have warmly received Miss Lord along with staff so we welcome here her here this evening so if you just click on that Blue Link think it'll it'll come right up or not the cafeteria the HSS and then having the same I pictures that we gos Focus FOC St are are our screen called early scen early early literacy letter ID and sounds and also focuses on comprehension and vocabulary so we are using that data to help determine groups for intervention both in the classroom and with our reading interventionist another thing thank you another thing that we are doing is continuing regular PLC meetings which stands for professional learning community with that we're having conversations about student work performance data from early bird our Lexia diagnostic our early literacy assessments and just looking at strategies for small group instruction um both in the classroom which is our tier one instruction um additional small group supports or supports with our interventionists um the third thing we are very fortunate to have an instructional coach in our building who supports the teachers and visits all classrooms meets with teachers and offers help with planning modeling lessons working on curriculum and she continues to have ongoing professional development but also helps lead professional development for our staff so they can grow as well um the curriculum work that has been done the vat VAP team is the vertical articulation team the focus on that is to have more consistent language across the grade level so all classrooms are receiving um the same core centers getting the same experiences getting the same academics but also vertically um to the next grade so the transition from prek to K and K to one and one to two um and so forth so just using that common language and practice and understanding of rigor in the classroom um continued professional development and not only planning profession development but getting feedback from teachers as far as what is needed um and adjustments that need to be made another thing that we have developed um we developed an end of the year math screener last year and all of the data that we had at the end of kindergarten went on to first grade teachers so they all got the same math data for all students we are currently working on building a middle of the year um math screener as well as the beginning of the year so our goal is to have it three times a year with math we are also working on some home connections resources Jennifer and Jessica in the office have been counting out counters and dice and did some ordering we're going to be sending some math kits home to All Families Ames and then sending monthly home connections that relate to our math units so that families will be able to practice some of the skills that their children are learning in the classroom and using those materials that we send home and lastly for goal number one just continued progress monitoring we do uh weekly progress monitoring with our youly program and again just using that data in our plc's to determine next steps whether it be small groups interventions or adjustment to our instruction so our goal number two is Foster an inclusive environment for students family staff and visitors so that every member of our school Community feels like they belong and are valued and included the first thing on there our comfort closet we are working with our Family Resource Center to communicate with families regarding needs especially over the holidays we know that students cannot learn if they are not comfortable um whether it be um in their home environment or physically with shoes and and lack of clothing or things like that so our comfort closet in the school has items such as coats backpacks school supplies pants shoes socks and we're able to supply that to students our home School communication just using multiple platforms for communication through our newsletter making sure that any information that gets sent home is translated into their home language and keeping families very informed our PBIS Academy we have a PBIS team at our school that continues to go to training throughout the year and then we bring anything that we learn back to the staff and our team we have monthly meetings at the school too and we continue to work on that common language schoolwide expectations um something that we just sent out last week to staff is a survey gauging as a whole school and in the classroom um how behaviors are managed how supported they feel how connected they feel to staff members and we just had a PBIS meeting today and decided we are developing a student friendly survey to find out if they feel connected to staff if they have a friend at school we're going to do it simply with um a little smiley face sad face or like a straight face um just to kind of gauge where they might need further assistance um and how we can support them calmer choice this is our third year that will be welcoming calmer calmer Choice into the building so they work to give students resources that they have in their own bodies um that it's not things that they need to go out and buy but ways to calm down ways to regulate their bodies when they're upset different breathing techniques um strategies such as taking a color Rock uh and going through the neighborhood and just things that they can use things that they have on their own our school olist continues to visit the classrooms to work on zones of Regulation that is another language that is used throughout all classrooms strategies how to get back into the green zone and get their bodies regulated our use of theal screener the Panorama survey so families can choose to opt out of this it starts in prek and continues through all the grades um starting in grade three the students f out for themselves but at these younger years um the teachers are filling it out for the children but looking at that data too and tracking that um our pre staff continues to work on connecting with and supporting local preschools to Foster that collaborative relationship and identify students who may require special services as early as possible they conduct dropin screenings for families who have concerns about their prek students for our diversity of text we've been continuing to build classroom libraries that are diverse reflective of all the students in front of us all teachers just added books to a wish list for all teachers and this is um through the title one Grant so all of the teachers are going to receive a copy of every book that was on that wish list so that was shared with st and um they're excited to be building their libraries and our third goal is a newer goal this year so we have a unique building where we are just prek in K and with the AM and PM prek sessions and some of the events and things that happen in kindergarten sometimes it has been difficult to unify the building a little bit um and just like I said continuing our work with that common language so our goal number three is continuing to build a school culture that Fosters teamwork camaraderie and shared goals so one of the examples last year we did a holidays around the world event where all students participated and rotated through classrooms our goal this year is to create two more wh school events and another thing that we are going to be doing monthly is having whole school meetings even if it's just for 20 minutes um you know the stamina for our prek and K students for sitting through that but our Focus will be on our vocabulary word of the month could be just a small Story video but the idea is getting the whole school together to hear the same thing um and get used to being in a large Place Al together our classroom visits we're developing a schedule for this year like we have done in the past to get teachers to see other classrooms in action have esps observe other esps in different rooms because they can learn so much from each other get new ideas see how lessons are implemented and different strategies for behavior and classroom management um another thing that we started this year in our Weekly Newsletter is Staff spotlights um sometimes the same staff members would send pictures for the newsletter and you know families are seeing the same classrooms over and over again so uh we created a schedule so three classrooms or staff members are highlighted each week and they are sharing out either a helpful link for families happenings in the classroom pictures and that's on a rotating schedule so everyone is getting their voice heard and getting some information out to families we have our monthly meetings for both Sunshine committee and our PBIS team the focus for both is just again bringing the building together ways to bring happiness and joy and Common Language um some of the things that we have are our monthly Mech mingles we try to get together as a staff uh we've had a treat trolley which we have one planned for next Friday where um some staff members go around with you know some drinks and snacks and stop at each classroom door just something to bring some positivity and in November we have a soup day planned so we made a flyer for that already bring a soup try a soup we have little takeout containers and we'll be bringing crock pots and things like that in and that is all than have any questions yes um I Wasing you expend a little bit on the sunshine comme that's the first I've heard it mentioned we asked staff members to contribute money Sunshine committee does anything from recognizing the birth of a child um giving a sympathy card for a a loss of a family member but also um like we did you've been booed um like a little thing on the door it's just something to spread a littleit a little bit of sunshine um another thing that we've done is put different supplies in the bathrooms like Personal Care items snacks um put things in the teachers break rooms so it's kind of a collaborative effort of ideas and we have those meetings sometimes in the middle of the day we actually just sent out a survey to see because we found that the attendance wasn't great so we're trying to gauge when is the best time um so we're going to try and Vary our meeting time either right before school the middle of the day and sometimes after school to try and get everyone able to attend um at least some of them wonderful thank you anyone else have any other questions um the this reading uh is that is this the first year that that's been done no this is actually our third year um I believe but this is going to be the first year that we're doing it three times um so we have and we have sent home a parent report we gave a clear exp explanation with our first report that just went home that we are not expecting students to master these skills this is just a snapshot for the beginning of the year um to see where they are at so the the parent report kind of rates them on how they did in in comparison to all their peers um but the the idea is to seek growth midyear many of these skills haven't been taught yet so this is kind of just a snapshot of where they're at and explaining that we're using that data to further our instruction and see where we might need to work with students in small groups and and doing it three times is I know that I don't know I believe that I've heard in the past that um picking up students dyslexic um earlier uh is something that the system was interested in doing uh and by doing this three times a year does that uh help to um when they now go into first grade um get more specific intervention for students that uh may be being identified as being dyslexic right so we wouldn't make any diagnoses especially at that young age but what it's going to do is let us notice um Trends and patterns and areas that they're consistently maybe struggling in um it'll give data to the first gr teachers and the interventionists to know students are are flagged but not necessarily that they are dyslexic um it's just highlighting certain areas that they may be struggling in um just to keep an eye on them you know for the future thank you um another question I have I believe use the term emotional zones the zones of Regulation yes um wonderful idea is that something that's uh is the language consistent as they move through the system so that can be built upon yes that's that's so if you don't the Z of Regulation um is from the social thinking Curriculum by Michelle been using it here in middleb I'd have to check with K2 but over 15 years so we keep that language consist and you'll see it all the way actually through grade eight um I don't know how much we're relying on the zones at 8th grade but one of the reasons we've kept that is so that kids come to really understand and they know what the green zone means so you don't have to continue to go over it but um research based have been in use for a long time and lastly sorry um which is always my thing um is how we how we measure success in these improvements and and I'm wondering I know that I saw in uh Carolyn's weekly flash that the data teams are beginning to meet and is part of that to uh Define how we will define success in these Improvement plans through data or is that happening at at the mech yes we continue to meet monthly as a school council so we'll be talking about things that we're seeing through throughout the year to work towards you know what we may need to tweak or change or improve upon um so we're constantly looking at data in all different ways data from staff feedback um data from students to see where we need to go from there and as a will it be used as a as a means of of um measuring growth I guess is my question yes thank you for you Mr so uh the other thing to note is that this is the first presentation on school Improvement plans the teams will come back in the spring to report out on progress and then a preview of next year's School Improvement goal at the same time next week is the first meeting of the districtwide data team so that will also assist in you know starting the discussion around what does what does progress look like how do we um measure it what are the tools we're going to be using and there's representatives from across the district so I see that um happening in all five buildings um by the time we come back for spring we'll hopefully have some you know additional data points I will throw out though that just before the long weekend I happened to be in Miss Lord's building and she was leading professional development on breaking down data in her building um with her klev teachers and um I just want to take a minute to commend her because it was you know really surgically handled excellent conversation she broke out the data review in multiple phases um and I thought her team was really engaged so I'm confident in our ability um you know to look at data and you know when we certify that we're making progress make sure that there's real teeth behind that assertion sure thank you any other questions thank you very much Miss Lord nice to see you again you thank you Miss Lord so with that I will turn actually I'll just skip my slide and um welcome principal Ron Sor to the table who is here to present out on the school Improvement plan for the Berkland Elementary School this is principal sorn's first time here with the committee um to present tonight welcome Mr sorn and feel free to take us away to share some of the highlights um of the great work that had happened prior to me joining um hbb and the work that we will be doing so here you see our first goal which is improve schoolwide achievement and all content areas through continued development and implementation of curricula and the Leed resources uh areas for which I'd like to highlight with regards to development development of the common expectations of high quality instruction for all of our students we are using the district created materials as well as the resources and the curriculum Frameworks that are available um along with a focus how's that a little bit better oh much better I didn't you but it was hard sorry about that so just highlighting some of the pieces that we're focusing on here with Goal one are using the resources that are available to us within the district um the curriculum resources and the curriculum Frameworks that are established for us as well as looking into and leaning into the learning objectives and sharing that information with the students um also establishing the clear expectations within our our PLC uh format and focus on student achievement and well-being um many are of our PL c s are data focused and teachers um by grade level will come to the PLC with a Content area in mind and we will focus on particular standards creating a common assessment that has a common uh scoring rubric with it focus and analyze on what our student successes are followed by our reteaching and then creating an action plan for Success moving forward um ensuring consistent implementation of our seal lessons shared throughout our our from our PBIS committee on various topics with a focus on Common Language and expectations similar to what you heard from Miss uh Lord um this happens within our classrooms but also uh during the opportunity of our community meetings that happen each month as well focusing on the tier one um expectations for all students moving to goal two which was is to ensure the growth and development of each student through the implementation of a robust U multi-tiered System of supports or mtss with a focus on the use of data to identify interventions and supports as needed in the areas of literacy math as well as seal um and we are leaning into our our data platform that is available to us um as a district known as Panorama um which is a student dashboard for all information for which that we could glean from um and use to support uh the needs of our students we um as superintendent Lions had said we are in the process too of having a building based data team which at hbb I'm very excited to say is happening next week um looking forward to that work with the team and what the team really is going to be looking at is taking a more um aerial view of what we see uh from the building level um for grades 1 through five in the areas of literacy and math to begin and then focus on the areas of pro-social as well but taking that information looking for those particular Trends and then from there filtering that information down to the grade level lead teachers that work as grade level teachers in the PLC work and then each and every classroom to further meet the needs of our students and finally to clarify the expectations and to improve the protocols for a child study team um child study has been in existence um at hbb and is is a practice throughout the district however we're trying to re uh find some of those protocols and streamline the resources available so that those folks who are having concerns for students um can utilize that platform with a a series of Educators to be able to provide um some I would refer to as an educational Think Tank where we can talk about what's working what's not working and things that we could try differently and again using the Panorama um platform allows teachers to upload any information and data that they have on students and allows all members of that team to be able to access those resources and be ready to talk about and and to find ways that we can support each of the students and finally to goal three continue to Foster relationships with families that ensure a true partnership while also promoting the principles of R1 Middleboro initiative and Common Ground Charter so focusing on um the establishment of the lit team promoting the MPS Common Ground Charter uh looking for opportunities to organize family events very excited that we have a harvest Blast coming up it's a PTA sponsored event um on the 8th of November provide various modalities of communication to keep families um in the community apprise of school initiatives um we I try to highlight all of the the great things that are happening at hbb each week in um the best of berklyn blast um along with the one middle borrow initiative provide the multimedia opportunities um for parents of uh interesting topics um one topic that I along with Mrs White are very excited that next week we're going to be taking our our taping I should say our first episode of what we refer to as two homes One Roof sharing with families the exciting partnership that we have with the unique opport of having two elementary schools connected and combined and just the work that we're doing to try to um make some consistencies and commonalities amongst all students in each of those grade levels so um I won't say anymore because we want you to watch um and finally refine and communicate the PBIS or Berland's best and approaches to our Pro pro-social efforts uh one exciting thing that we started and launch today at hbb was our above and beyond awards for students that go beyond what we would consider to be the expectations that we're looking for as um part of birkeland's best um and there are members of of the staff that took the opportunity to share these Awards and the brag tags um and to take photographs of the students um who received these awards from from staff members and we're going to be doing that each Thursday throughout the rest of the school year uh and it was amazing to see that the students were so excited for their friends who were rewarded uh for going above and beyond and they were just standing and they were cheering um and it was just a a great great experience so um more to come in the spring as superintendent lion said but that's just what I wish to share with you this evening anyone have any questions hey so um one of the things that I noticed when reviewing the document that was shared in advance um was under your your go two which is very structured on um very focused on instruction you had noted as one of the um the I think ideal outcomes was to look for um increased opportunities for small group instruction um is that something you could just expand on a little bit sure so um at the elementary level we have a lot of what we refer to as the workshop model and so when we're we're looking for opportunities for small group instruction we really want to be strategic and looking at that data to determine who those students are um and and what are those those areas for which that they could grow in or that they have already mastered in terms of what was considered to be grade level expectation and how we could extend so looking at the data and and making those those um conscious choices as to who needs what when and to the level of frequency and so that work as I had mentioned is starting um within our plc's and we're looking for the trends we have our state data when we have our our screening data but then we really drill down to how does that look and break down within the classroom and what are the areas of success and where are the areas of support that are needed and then to strategically um use the uh Staffing Resources that we have for example we have interventionists for eing and so looking at all of the data that we have and really being mindful with regards to the the supports that are needed or the extensions that are needed for students who the individuals that we have available being strategic about what the frequency as I said looks like and the duration and the progress monitoring is key knowing that we don't want students to continue to re receive support we want them to get back into and be able to um sustain what is expected of them in their tier one instruction and so those are some of the things that we're doing with regards to being Mindful and strategic using the data that we have and really targeting and and supporting those students as as needed it's great to hear looking at both ends the the the support as well as the extension sure um are you envisioning these small groups extending outside of a single classroom I know that there's a lot of group differentiation that can happen within a classroom um that a teacher is already doing are these looking at saying like can we take a couple kids from these different classrooms and use a shared resource to provide that support sure um that's always the ultimate goal right um and so we do just to give you a concrete example using our interventionists the focus and priority right now um with um the various components to phonics and reading is really um initiated within grades one through three and to your point yes we are we're deciding we're making the critical decisions as to where the data is telling us that the that that the need is I as a classroom teacher may think that student X and student y for me that's where my need is but the data is showing that the real need in the school is in two other classrooms and so we're utilizing those supports and we are pulling students from various classrooms for very short targeted periods of time ensuring that they're not missing the grade level content and and grade level instruction or the direct instruction as we would call it during that workshop model to see what would be that double dose or what would be that pre-teaching what would be that reteaching so that the student when they come back into the classroom is successful and able to move forward and and and to show their capabilities with their peers in the classroom while also getting particularly what they need great thank you you're very welcome uh in the uh all you know uh the the plan that it's been set up is um is a strong one I believe uh when we heard the implementation at the high school and at the uh nickels uh there was talk about um how the schedule had been modified that allowed time for teachers to collaborate with one another to put together all of these wonderful things that we're talking about is there the same kind of scheduling that allows that at um the Elementary School uh yes but it looks a little bit different uh only because the Elementary schedule model looks a little bit different than the secondary model where things are allow for those opportunities to take place that's not to say that we're not creative enough to make those things happen at the elementary level so we utilize the PLC times that we have available um at in the complex where we're focused in our early morning or beginning of the day plcs to really focus and Target at the data instruction and then we have opportunities in the afternoon and after school plc's as well as during the faculty meetings for folks to be able to have those opportunities to have those extended conversations in and around what we would consider to be grade level business and so what is what is appreciative and fascinating both at the same time is that folks really are utilizing those opportunities very strategically there is no opportunity for down conversation that they're really they're trying to figure out what they're doing in terms of making sure that they're on the same page with assessments and and and within the scope and sequence but they were also taking those opportunities to have the conversations around where are we going on a field trip this year and how is it tied to our curriculum and what makes a lot of sense for our kids and those experiences that really tie into it's really all in what we're trying to do to support and enrich our students as well as making those opportunities um as as resourceful and and purposeful as possible so it's not perfect but we're really trying to gain a structure that's real challenge in the element it is a good but it's a great challenge to have and and and to be fortunate enough as myself to work with a great staff that is always solution oriented and to try to find those ways that we can we could utilize the resources that we have and know where we want our kids to be and go um to give them every opportunity that we can as you heard me say there are opportunities where yes I do have to hold a faculty meeting but if I have to say something that can go in my dayl then I'd rather put in the dayl and give them the time so that they can meet as teams thank you you're welcome anyone else have any other comments questions thank you thank you Mr s nice to meet you you as well and then finally this evening we'll move on to the Mary Kate good Elementary School principal Lisa white is here tonight to talk about uh her school improvement process and present her plan for the other half of the elementary complex the other side of the roof welcome Mrs White thank you very much much school committee chairman members of the school committee Mrs Lions thank you for this opportunity this is always my one of my favorite presentations because we get to show off what we do and I kind of like that a little bit so thank you to our uh members from last school year this plan um represents the hard work that went in so thank you to the members of the school the school councils um and Welcome to our new members uh we have Susie win bottom and leam masado who will be tasked with creating our new school plan that will be working working on so our goal one um and as you know we had a major oval to our W with with Mrs lions having our strategic plan uh for the district uh a major overhaul so our school Improvement plans being aligned to that usually go through major overhauls shortly thereafter so this is you know we're kind of still in that process under the same um strategic plan from the district so commit to academic Excellence through the implementation of universally designed instructional practices that provide rigorous and engaging learning experience for all students with multi-entry points while narrowing the achievement gaps which breaks down for me into three sections curriculum instruction and assessment with curriculum we are um focus on our early literacy in grades one and two and looking at our empowering writers with 3 through five on our early literacy we had the addition of youly which we're really reaping rewards from we're seeing some great uh changes in our data which I'm going to explain as we as we move on um empowering writers is new to us this year and we're looking forward to seeing the results that that program is going to bring us with our writing and the increases in our opportunities for writing how we're writing with with it more in depth for and different reasons for why we're writing different purposes for our writing our instruction we have our grade level trajectories and scope and sequences that are still being worked on but for the the the framework is there we have our instructional framework which um our teachers use to use to create their lesson plans to fit you know it's always how do we fit it into the school day right so we have this framework now that teachers have the bones to be able to add the meat to with their lessons we have our instructional coaching still in place which our teachers get that job embedded time with our coaches to either come into the classroom and observe um have them be observed uh lesson planning time even looking for resources for for teachers to be supportive uh focused interventions this is something this year that is a major shift at Mary kid good that is it it's happening right now and we we had a teacher present at our at our staff meeting yesterday and we're already seeing this work um so our data is collected um through our star early literacy uh through our early birth through our reading math we um even teacher created assessments because they're so important um common assessments are so important we started this process with the data driven dialogue teacher individual teacher looking at their data saying what are my children coming into grade two grade three what did they know and what are they able to do coming in the door from there we took that data to our grade level team me as third grade teacher what are my kids ble to do comparing it to the teacher next door in third grade what are we seeing as um threads of the same what are we seeing is my students are able to do this and and be successful mine are coming in stronger in a different area from there our data team is now going to take that data and what does that look like as a whole school where are we seeing strengths where are we in in what we're doing where are we seeing pockets and areas that we need to get better at well what are we going to do for our kids if we know that we see these data points that are not where they need to be so through our morning PLC time we are really taking the time to align and have these conversations about our instructional practices in our classrooms we know we have students that do need intervention and when I say they need intervention sometimes it's here and sometimes it's here so we've identified students that need intervention on both ends so we have a plan in place for 6 to8 weeks of an intervention families will be notified um if your child um some have already been identified um we're getting the rest of them out hopefully next week um that students will receive targeted instruction intervention and specific skills in which teachers will work with these small groups of children taking progress monitoring data the entire six to eight weeks to be able to skill-based strength and skills we know if we build a house and we don't have a strong Foundation we know what happens so these skills that we're looking at for our students are really foundational skills to make sure that when we when we're now building the house on top we have data is showing us we may have a weak board here here or there so we need to reinforce that before we're adding more to that house uh we had a teacher present she took it on herself and did this for four four weeks and presented yesterday and is already seeing um increases and changes and students being successful with trajectories that were lower than at the beginning of the year the trajectories are already changing for our students on Star 360 um progress monitoring so that's already a a win in that column for that teacher and the other teachers got to see that and that was awesome um our teachers are looking we're using our Lexia data um to really pull off some really amazing things for our kids that we're targeting these these this instruction for what our kids need really really targeting to that nitty-gritty um so that's something I'm very very proud of that we're doing it's very very data focused um the staff will tell you it's it's really a change in mindset every single day I I love to walk down the hallways and I'm hearing people talk about data and what what does your data look like and what does my data look like um we're putting together the report card committee again because of course we know that we need to do that uh we have to update our report card to a line to our current standards so we need to make sure that we're doing that and and Mr Sor and I will be working with our teachers to do that goal two provide an equitable environment that inspires and empowers all students to increase their academic success that's our mtss so our process now as I mentioned with our interventions six six to eight weeks of intervention whether it be with an interventionist who is taking students from many different classrooms with skill areas that that are similar or in a classroom with a small group of intervention with a teacher 6 to 8 weeks we do a progress monitor several things happen the greatest thing that will happen is that the child is dismissed from Intervention because no longer needed as a as an intervention to build skills second sometimes we need a few more weeks we're right on the CP so we will extend that a little longer or we say you know we may need to refer to the interventionist if a child has worked with a teacher or if the data is not showing what we really want we have a referral to our child study team and we look at it from from that lens all of this is is really embedded too in our professional learning our teachers are really learning these skills on looking at data identifying where we need to intervene and how to intervene and what resources are needed to intervene so these data reviews are key of what we're doing our goal three to ensure safe and secure environment for all student staff and visitors at mkg a safe School environment addresses the emotional and physical safety of students and staff by using comprehensive approach that engages engages St School staff District staff students families and the community this begins with our town meetings uh we just uh our school adjustment counselor Britney mchu just this week we'll finish up we did the ABCs of of Middleboro the safety protocol with all of our students at their grade level meeting because it sounds different in first grade than it does in fifth grade so we want to make sure that with our safety protocols we're targeting our audiences by grade level we have Mark coming in with our bullying prevention and from there Mrs McHugh and Mrs rusher also throughout the year do a presentations on bullying we keep having that those conversations in town meeting about bullying and what cyber bullying bullying and what that looks like our PBIS team our positive behavior intervention supports that's for our students and our staff we have a um our team our PBIS team worked with our assistant principal uh Josh Dyer over the course of last year and put a a um a behavior Matrix in place for Litt sometimes they need to know what it looks like so there's a matrix and it's up on our in our school in several areas what does it look like it looks very different actions and behaviors look different in the cafeteria as they do in the bathroom or they do in a classroom so all of those are spelled out in what they look like in in our school Family Support is key always and I and I appreciate our families and their feedback to us um one of the reasons you know with our early literacy we're mandated by the state to let families know we're intervening with early literacy I thought it was important I'm a I'm a mother first and I want to know if I don't want to find out it parent teach conferences I want to know today that my my child is is need of an intervention and what that looks like and so these notes that are going home it's not a time to panic it's a time to say okay we're going to again build that foundation for your child we're housing all of this on Panorama I know uh Mr sandbo had mentioned it in the past when we built intervention plans we didn't house them anywhere so when you went from grade two to grade three it was kind of lost so we now are building these intervention plans in Panorama so from whatever happens in grade two goes to grade three I can see what interventions were done I can see what worked I can see what didn't work we have a way to to look multiple years a a child that will be in high school will be a teacher will be able to look back oh this child received an intervention in grade four five whatever we also then have built our CST referral process through Panorama as well so all the data will be held in one place so we're not looking um all over for important information for our kids our building emergency planning team had um that's Head Up by Josh Dyer he's meeting monthly to make sure that we are aligned to all of the protocols from our dirt team our Common Ground committee um we had a teacher that was leading that and unfortunately she's not in this year but I had someone step right in and and we're going to be meeting next I think it's next week um with get kicking off our um um Common Ground committee and we have a few ideas of what we want to do um as part of that conversation um Harmony for grades one and two um it isn't in the plan because it came in after and it would be something that we're looking to put in um the plan for next year but grades one and two um will be having those um lessons restorative practices um we try our hardest to make sure when when students don't make good choices that you know we we work with them they're learning they're times for learning um if we don't teach children they're going to repeat the same thing so it's really important to have those restorative pieces in place um very important is to have a welcoming environment having families come into our building that all families feel welcome making sure that we have our translations in place making ensuring that when we have outside agencies who want to share things with our families that they're also providing um what you know um information in Native languages for our students and that is all thank you anyone have any comments questions this this might be a first I don't have a question um uh other than to say I particularly am impressed by the intervention um teams that you're doing and targeting specific areas uh I'm very excited to see what's going to happen with that I I I'll be honest I look forward to I had that teacher it it I've been doing it's it's been a a marathon for me the last two weeks i' I've done one-on-one data meetings with every single teacher in the building and we're talking about the who the what the when the why of intervention and it it I had I did not plan for this to happen yesterday when I met with this teacher she's like oh by the way I've been doing this and I love when a staff member can you know we we always want our teachers to to show the Lear to show you know to show their peers and when her name is C Gillis I want her to take the credit for it when she you know presented this to me and literally it was at 1:30 and our staff meeting was at 3:30 and I said oh by the way can you present them she thought she was going to kill me but she's like are you sure I said yeah I I need them I need everyone to see that this is this is the road that's working so it was great was thank just so happened thank you very much thank you thank you and that completes my report for this evening all right just a reminder we have the um Massachusetts school committee and school superintendent joint conference in hyanis uh this coming November 5th through the 8th uh encourage everybody to attend if they possibly can well uh will we be getting information about that by email like what the schedule is and all I've not seen anything so um we got we got hand out um it's all online too I can show you where it is um through you Mr chair it's also all online if you go to the masc website um I will uh send a note to uh my assistant Ann this evening and just make sure to send out all the information I believe alled with the agenda I may have missed it because I can but I don't even remember seeing a confirmation or anything so that's that's why I was asking yep you were all enrolled through through an so you okay the confirmation came to um her email okay just want to make sure I was sure properly in all right um now we're going to have a discussion regarding educ educator retention and establish official retention formulas and Sue do you want to lead this discussion sure thank you very much Alan um from the time that I think that I was starting to look at uh coming on to the running for school committee one of the topics that have come up is around teacher retention and we've had people get up and have thoughts about it and conversations about it and um I and as a result of all of that um I thought it was important that first of all I want to commend Carolyn for including in the Strategic in the district Improvement plan that teacher retention is one of the areas that she's targeted and and I've seen some of the work that's being done and and applaud her for that and uh so uh I think that that as a district we are that is something that we want to improve so this is not so much around talking about our desire to improve teacher attention this has to do with um my bent towards that D data informed um decision making and uh I also have been very pleased to see as I said earlier that the data teams are being gathered um throughout the school system to look at how uh we assess what we're doing within the classrooms and in different areas and it uh really led me to start thinking more about how it is that we are going to assess uh our teacher retention and as a a base Place uh what I did was I went online and I looked at uh what desie provides for uh data around uh teacher retention and I there is a slide I hope um about that um and what I did trying to remember my PowerPoint skills uh was uh on this slide I I put in since 2019 what middle borrows teacher retention has been according to the definition that is provided by desie and I think it brings up a very important point when we're looking at any data is that you really need to make sure you understand what the definition is so that you correctly interpret the data um I picked 2019 for no other reason then it felt like it was far enough to go back and I didn't want to go back any further um to kind of make the point that I wanted to make tonight if you look at the Blue Line uh that is Middle Barrow's uh teacher retention um which started in 2019 um I think it was 86.7 um it increased you see 220 of of notes is 2019 is actually starting in the fall of 2018 into 2019 so it's who's returned into 2 fall 2018 19 year um increased in 20 uh had a significant Spike up to 90 just under 94% in coming back into the fall of uh 2020 um had a precipitous drop the fall of 2021 um began to climb back up in the fall of 2022 and increased again in Fall of 2023 uh that can be compared to the state's average um which in 2019 was a little over 90% significantly well not significantly it looks that way on this graph but um a little over four points higher the middle borrows in uh 2019 stayed pretty steady and uh began to uh decline uh down until the lowest point when ours started going back up uh in the fall of 2022 in the fall of 2023 uh so one of the things that I think as I said before is important to to understand with the definition according to Desi and that's the percentage of teachers who remain working in the very same position from one year to the next so if I'm a second grade teacher this year and I'm a third grade teacher next year that is a drop in retention um but it's the same for us in the state so you can see that Middleboro has has danced around uh the the state average we started lower in 2019 we went up higher we dropped significantly fall of 2021 one and then uh over the last 2 years prior uh we began to increase again uh that is so that is one way that we can look at ourselves compared to the average of this state I think it's also important for us to look at ourselves um in ways that are meaningful to ourselves um and actually Carolyn I Carolyn and I had a conversation about that that I think that we need to start tracking our own teacher retention based on the definition that we want it to be and broken out in ways that that add meaning for us to understand the reason for doing this is just like what we talk with the kids that when you see where gaps are where you see where things are happening and there are interventions that you want to do then you can Target those interventions um and so um developing a methodology that we annually published to our to the school committee that's reported to the school committee and published to the community that that so that we're not all talking about different numbers and different perspectives um of what is our teacher um retention based on a definition that we that we determine and a methodology that breaks out things like how many people retired because that that takes away but that's not necessarily mean that there you know there in different time periods there you can have an aging population where you might have a huge group of people that retired and you go oh so that's the reason why it went down or um the number of people that left the system well then you get to start asking some other questions um and so uh that is my my first thought that uh when we're looking at information there are two different um categories that we should be looking at one is data and then the other is contextual information and so um I'd like to make a motion but uh if there was questions or thoughts before that or I can make the motion and then we do that however you'd like to proceed Alan I have a question on terms of the the data that you gathered um does desie Define what it means by teachers um because if you look at different things teachers sta Educators it it gets complicated in terms of no these are teachers in the classroom uh this yes they do and so they professional staff they do not uh there's different categories for that um they they break those out they have a chart that one that I find funny is they have the retention of superintendents so you're either zero or a 100 I mean how many how many how many tendency you got uh they have another category that's principles and that includes both uh head principles and assistant principles and then there is another place I went to track it back down again but I lost it uh that uh has information on professional staff okay um but this one that I chose was specifically um uh teachers okay thank you because I think that's an important piece to calculate in as well in terms of uh of formula would you like to make we can if you make a motion okay I I'd like to make a motion which I wrote on a pad of paper that I left home um and the motion is this uh I'd like to move that the school committee ask uh superintendent Lions to develop a methodology uh that uh tracks teacher retention uh that will include start and finish time of a given year the capture time of the data um and appropriate breakout categories that would inform that and that that um that that methodology first be presented to the school committee that we approve of and then second that is published to the community on a specific appropriate date annually second for discussion anyone else want to go first uh I can go first too go ahead um there's a lot there yeah a long motion I'm trying to remember all the pieces yeah exactly I would uh I think it may be better we may be better served if we come up with a a tighter framework before we ask the superintendent to come up with it what do I if we're going to ask we want to see this information let's at least put some guard rails on it where do we want to see do we want to see support staff do we want to see teachers do we want to see Administration do we want to see upper Administration those are the things the my first question is Define retention that was the first thing I wrote down was Define retention right because similar to what you were telling us you know a second great Mrs Lord would be considered leaving the district because correct because she went out of her way to give us a hand and took an intern position correct so we I those are that's just one example because Mrs Lloyd happens to be sitting um understood uh so my motion was specifically to teachers uh though I would also suggest a second and that would be for professional staff Carolyn and I did have a conversation about this and I think we were pretty much Carolyn please feel free to speak um that the what you're calling the guard rails there are fairly industry standard definitions of teacher retention that is not similar to Desi's that is about people that leave the district um for one reason or another not people that move or leave teaching it would also consider um and Carolyn please correct me if you disagree it uh it would also for Teacher retention if I was a third grade teacher and I became a principal that would be a negative in the teacher retention but it would be explained in these other categories um I believe that Carolyn felt very comfortable around coming up I think it was more around dates and all of that um but Carolyn feel free to speak for yourself so through you Mr chair um yet we did talk about this and um I think it might be maybe the most helpful I mean you have to vote on your motion but I could provide a framework and bring back to a subsequent meeting to say what do you think of this which might be the best way that way uh retention could be defined and then the guard rails would be laid out there are many reasons that people leave a job promotions one of them uh moves like physical your home moves so you're geographically too far away to continue to work where you are you know um dissatisfaction with the district I mean there there's all sorts of there are all sorts of reasons so I would represent all of them so that we could more easily collect that data um the dissatisfaction one is going to be hard to Define unless we're affirmatively told that's the reason but um I that might might visual help the group to come up with those metrics and then bring them back and see if that's what you were thinking yeah and I'd be happy to work with you on on well and then you can well you could also give feedback and we can make adjustments the good news is that we can start this process um I would also probably work with director ceciliano who's very good with data um and an Milligan my assistant uh who's collected this data over the years so that's something I could do to just uh clarify some of those questions but I have I don't have any philosophical problem with either collecting the data or publishing the data I guess I have uh just a a bit of a question on because you said to be presented annually um and to me that seems a little broad at the moment especially when we need to develop what it means um so I might make a a a a motion to amend to just take that part out so that we can we can decide when we're going to do that at a later date that's that's my one qual with with the motion it's just so that wondering about the date or that it should no I agree that it should be annually I'm I was just like we didn't establish you didn't say like on the first of every year yeah that that would be part of the methodology so part of the method so one of the things that Carolyn and I talked about is that it would probably um it's not until October that it really is settled sure and that's also typical in all education that when we report things to the federal government to the state that they wait until those reports that just came out now from desie in October is because that's how long it takes to settle so depending on how we decide when we're capturing the data that would determine when it would be presented presented all right brilliant anything else I don't think so no M Cur um I don't know if I'm ahead of myself um if that the next part kind of is moving towards that or if I'm a little ahead um how do you make that data meaningful is that part of the next piece so you're going to collect data that's the first step so you have data you you know like you know people are retiring versus people have just shifted positions within the district people um went elsewhere for maybe a promotion like an opportunity or people you know decided to leave the profession move out of state whatever those things are you know once we have that established data how do we make the data that's remaining meaningful may I may I respond yeah um the way that it's typically done and this is why it's wonderful to have the Strate the district improved plan and that it has the um specific goal of improving teacher retention is that you can use that data specifically to build just like you do with a student to improve their reading when you find out why they're not reading you can build the the interventions to address the areas of concern um so once once you collect the data like so in order to collect the data you have to know why the person is leaving right so that's a little bit of a bigger picture than just say saying okay we know this is a retiree versus a resignation because the re you know you have a retiree you have a resignation and maybe you have a within the district just movement those are three easy categories but it becomes the I guess the resignation reason now becomes the data focus and then you can focus Improvement on on that subgroup right um so then that is part of the next part okay I'll sit down then thank you ready so we have a oh sorry you uh so the motion is to ask Carolyn which we reiterated to develop a methodology that she bring back to the school committee that defines retention of teachers and professional staff um for in the middle borrow public school system for the school committee to approve and then Implement and publish annually so I have a motion in a second any other comments or questions all in favor I I I I thank you thank okay um the second part uh that we've talked about a little bit too and Sean if you would put up that uh or hold on one sec let me start before people start look oh yeah just leave it there for the moment so I I uh Bridget brings up uh exactly what I was going to talk about that um for when we want to look at information to to work on anything there are two different PE categories of information that we want to look at one are numbers um data and the other is context and that helps um better understand the information and for us to know um more about when people are leaving the system why I believe that we need to implement a um exit survey for the for the uh public school I understand this is a it's a task to develop and and to implement and I also understand if we had uh in place already HR in our Public Schools then maybe we'd be doing this through interviews rather than through a survey uh that someone from HR would do but without having that um office in our system that this is the way that other places do it and the way that it is done it provides the kind of information that you all are talking about um it lets you know uh why people left we know if they retired but we don't know if they decided to go back to carpentry we don't know if they're just not going to be in the profession at all um we don't there there's a lot of that kind of information that they that we can gain through an exit survey that will help us understand the numbers that are presented to us so I went online and I tried to find just to give uh a concrete example um of a school system that does it and I found somerville's uh I actually tried to call their HR office but they they didn't want to take my call yet they will um uh and these are the kinds of questions uh that they ask to help them understand so uh at the beginning of it uh it speaks to uh why it is that you left so you can find out is it money is it you decided to move those kinds of things um have you accepted another position in doing these where I've worked before and I'm sure that you all have in places that you've worked uh you have these they try to ask the questions in as innocuous way as possible um so that yes there are there are places you just check a box and yes it does allow places for people to give um more um qualitative information uh and so you can focus on both pieces of that the idea of this is not to point fingers at anyone it really is to look at a big picture big trends kind of information to to know why uh people are leaving and Are there specific things that that the system wants to do to address it um and then it also asks things why what would have helped them to stay and many of the strategies that that um education talks about to keep teachers which we're doing um are listed as possible way things that would helped them to stay the purpose of it is to help us get better uh and without that information only going by what one person heard from another person um and not having more systematic way of gathering information I fear that we will not be paying attention to the most important things that we need to do without this kind of information Jess um so the the information that the survey is looking to capture is you know this is a quite well constructed survey um my impression of exit interviews and surveys and those kinds of things is they are the most successful when they occur with someone who is deemed to be a neutral party correct which is why they're usually done through an HR department because it's not who you report to it's not who you've been going to with your concerns all along um so for our district without an HR resource that's my biggest concern with this process is who is tasked with Gathering the data reporting back on the data um because we don't really have a a position in the district dist that is um that kind of neutral human resources department um I did at some point over the summer when some of these things were coming up I did reach out to um some other towns and school committees members that I met through some of the the district events um and as far as I could tell the own the majority of the districts who were doing something like this all had a human resources department or they potentially had like uh an assistant superintendent and they deemed that that person because nobody reported to them directly was a a neutral party um so I guess that's my my first question to you is do you have an idea of who that neutral party would be that would collect and gather and and um be able to provide the um the follow-up interview the follow-up information I I have a couple thoughts but um I guess my my most significant thought on that is that by the time we finish putting this together you know for me an HR person in this next budget is of most high priority and so the HR person uh so for next year we'll have an HR person but without that I I what my motion is going to be is to put together a task force um with Carolyn and some people from within the system and at least one person from the school committee uh to start um looking at the feasibility of implementing a exit survey uh that would bring back a report by March so um with a recommendation I guess my concern is that anytime I've ever worked with anybody in an HR position they're going to start all over again when you bring them in um you know I it I don't see how we create an exit survey without creating the process around conducting the exit survey and that requires the staff and I understand your um feelings of the priority for an HR person in the budget I don't know if an HR person uh having the salary for an HR person supersedes to teachers in a classroom so that would never happen but anyway U understood my motion Remains the Same well you didn't make a motion yet you just brought it up um okay I move so just in okay go ahead I I just I do you want to discuss it more do we want to have a motion before we can discuss it now or we can discuss the motion after it's made I'd prefer to discuss after the motion is made if that's okay I'm I'm happy to Second your motion if you can if you can formally okay uh I'd like to move that we uh ask Carolyn to create a task force that would include at least one member of the school committee and members within uh the district uh to look at the feasibility of implementing an exit survey with the charge of bringing back a recommendation by March I second discussion um I think this would be best left to a subcommittee rather than a task force um and because this is so um involved with I think the the district goals uh I think the best place the best subcommittee to put it would be uh the superintendent of EV valuation subcommittee see I disagree because the superintendent evaluation subcommittee is very specifically oriented this is a district goal yes the superintendent's goals relate to the district goals but creating the survey creating the feasibility of the survey isn't it isn't something that the school committee would execute so why should a school committee a subcommittee be tasked with creating something that we aren't going to execute I agree with uh Sue that if we are going to proceed with something like this it really needs to be something that's done more with the feedback of you know that it's it's within the district it's not a process that would be owned by the school committee to create the survey so yeah a couple reasons first I'd like to be absolutely clear that I don't see this as um directly related to the superintendent's evaluation um it's more directly related to the goal that's on teacher retention okay um secondly I used the term task force rather than subcommittee uh as Jess I guess I'm echoing Jess that I don't know the intricacies of of the system of how it needs to be implemented um I think that the school committee's role is to make sure that there are certain um high level goals that are being achieved but the implementation and how it's done is really operational and belongs within this within the system itself uh the district itself and that is the reason why I um would I would uh suggest that we maintain the language of a task force so that we can have both school committee members and uh uh staff members from the district on the committee Chris any thoughts so would this survey only go to teachers that aren't retained or are you thinking this would go to everybody across the all employees I my first layer uh would be uh teachers and professional staff okay yeah I mean I think it's a way to gather information and that's the only way to really help us move forward um first off I thought the uh the example that you included from some ofo was uh was pretty great to be honest with you thank you um I mean thank them and then I looked up their hii department and I was like wow that's expensive well they're also they are much more right that's a huge School I agree with Jess's first comment wholeheartedly and I loved your response to it that we need an H upon I think those two are hand inand and I was ecstatic to hear your uh your support for that idea um I think there's an opportunity for to gain some valuable information from this type of thing and to clarify a lot of the uh the information that we he um and that I think would be worth every penny that we end up spending on this but this is a budget item and I think it has to be tied to the budget or else we're just sitting here talking about high in the sky things I'd also like to hear car's thoughts on it agreed but we also have to understand that C's not going to be a superintendent forever so we need to make this not only for this superintendent but for all the superintendents who are going to work in this or for the district as a whole should say not even for the superintendent but so that we as a school committee and school committees that come after us can use this as a tool to gather information that's specific to our district um I think that's like the devil is in the details on this and it's in the budget so I think a a good exit survey is awesome but if we don't have an hi Department to manage it then why you know we need it's not a standalone piece I don't think because if we get a survey then and we don't have an hi Department to go through the results or processing information what's the point of it all agreed uh to a certain extent we have to understand that either we get an HR department or we find out a way to take care of our human resources Agreed 100% so your human resources in any organization are your fundamental most important resource and so we need to if if if that's not going to be a priority uh then we have to re we have to figure out how we are taking we are taking care of these kinds of things that's just a little bit of getting on a soap box sorry secondly um that's why I said feasibility I don't think that the work that is going to be done is going to be for not um and maybe we'll will figure out a way that our human how we are using this to support our human resources with or without a a um human resource person and Department I don't know we're making a lot of assumptions about costs and what it would take you know these a lot of these um you can put together in almost in a system that things roll up and a report is given I I don't I I don't know and I can make the survey in Google and you know half a day and that's why I talked about my motion as a feasibility and I don't think that that I don't think that that work will go for not it will give us thoughts about what what and how it is that we want to get the information we need to make sure that we are targeting the areas we need to um and that we're applauding the areas that we are doing so well in um and so that's why I spoke to feasibility okay I guess I need clarification then as to what what your expectations would be if we were to approve the motion that by March you would be looking for that task force to have developed the shallow survey to have just determined how ideally the survey would be executed the feasibility it would come back with a report that would say something like this maybe a totally different flavor but as a group we decided that if we use this kind of a survey tool um and we ask that it be distributed this way uh and we it will cost this I'm totally making things up but it it very vague I'm not saying that there would be a tool that would be ready just a feasibility yes we can do this if we do it this way or no this is not something that we're going to be able to do okay so I guess my hurdle then is I absolutely think this is feasible great if we have an HR person to execute it correct but you've not done any study on it you don't know what it would take you don't know what Carolyn's going to offer us you don't know if there's a contractor we could hire for 5,000 bucks you don't know okay so you're you're looking for more than feasibility you're looking for for the cost associated with implementing this type of that that to me is feasibility okay um is it possible and I'm just spitballing an idea here is it possible that we just that we can amend and I'm not making motion yet um to amend to ask for feasibility for both I guess more specifically a feasibility for both one with an HR department and one without an HR department I I guess that would be in the feasibility that you are asking for but I just I for my own sake I want like more specificity that's all I think I'm okay with it as just feasibility study and then we can have a discussion when we hear what the ideas are okay but before we vote I'd like to hear from car as well yeah well Al so through you Mr chair so the concept of putting together a committee to or task force I think was your word to kind of go through what this would look like I think would be helpful I would strongly recommend consult with legal on this question because this is Personnel so as a rule and you all know from reading my flashes every week I I don't disclose Personnel information that's one of the reasons this makes it so tricky is because there isn't a 100% transparent way to talk about this so I want to be really upfront about that it's never going to be that everybody's going to know every single reason there is a shift so I I want I think that has to be stated very clearly no District does that no employer does that and there are real confidentiality pieces that would prevent us from doing that you're you're actually correct uh the no employee should ever be told that they have absolute confidentiality number one number two that cannot be shared but categories can be created sure and that is the way I've done them in the past um and there is no issue around uh you know so if you say if you say uh I'm going to make up numbers 50 50 teachers left uh and um 30 of them went to uh another school system of that 30 20 said because they get a higher pay and um 10 said uh because they felt better supported they felt they would be better supported it it's that kind it's not because they had this major blowout in the office and you know and she and this teacher now said this this this this this about about the principal um of course not sure sure but that survey didn't say that the survey you put up is is extremely probing with specific factual information that you would be Reliant entirely on an employee to report so all all I'm saying is I think you should absolutely consult with your legal counsel about this that was my first thought my second thought was it's going to be very difficult to have anyone other than me review these surveys and I also want to be upfront about that and that has to do with your structure there is not only no HR there's no assistant superintendent so we're back at the same position that your the employee is in this position where it would they their only choice is to fill out that survey and then hand it to the superintendent so absent an HR but it or or contract someone or contract yeah so this I mean so we'll look at those things right so well you ask for my opinion those that's kind of my two thoughts on it beyond that um we're happy the team the district leaders leadership team stands happy and ready to assist with this I think you'd get good Insight from from the district leaders on this I'd also just if you're able to get the HR department at Somerville to respond to you if they yeah whoever when we get together as a group going have to be looking at when those you had mentioned you reached out to the Somerville uh HR department to get some some information if they have yeah um stats on uh percentage of completion y that would be really interesting absolutely good point m c um I'm wondering who functions as an HR department here currently so you know as an employer with I mean a fairly large employer you have a large number of employees who functions as that I mean the human resources serves as you know the hiring firing benefit you know if you have complaints like in terms of like you know if you have to go to HR over Personnel issues who serves that function in Middleboro if you don't have a human resources person so I can take that question um the superintendent functions that way but you mentioned several different areas for example you know benefits which are run through the town depending on what office you're talking about that could be the town payroll has a its own separate office I function as the district's ultimate CEO so right now there is no independent process for an employee there's grievance process which I also oversee so that's the way this that's the way the district has functioned for as long as I've been here and prior to prior to my uh tenure in the district which is also not uncommon across the state you know the notion of HR departments are relatively new um for public k 12 school systems and until Co really largely except for very large systems did not exist yeah I I I surveyed the ones around us and we're and I think Alan you did also we're about the only ones that don't have one that may be the case now yeah um but that but it's a relatively new phenomen we've talked about it at Mass actually masc is talked about it as well that you know needing this Personnel um but assistant superintendents have been around a lot long time and Middleboro hasn't had one of those either it only took the town of middleb about 200 348 years to get a hi department so for the town which is about half the employees correct is that a resource that the school can uh utilize potentially you know um in terms of Shifting budgets somewhere in which we can tap into some resources through the town to help with this you know this is a really you know this is a performance improval sort of situation right so if you don't ever look at the data you don't ever collect the data you don't know why what's good about your system and what's bad about your system all of those things that you're saying about like oh we're going to improve retention well you can't do it without the data that tells you where your needs are in performance Improvement so to just kind of push off that this is we can't do it because we don't have HR it seems like there must be somebody that functions or can there's some sort of resource that can be utilized to do precisely what you're doing um even if that means narrowing your scope initially um for what you can gather to focus on a certain segment um that can help with performance Improvement and then you can broaden your scope but I'm not I mean it just seems like we're kind of no I you must have misunderstood Bridget that's not that's not at all what we were saying we're that's what we're going to look at how we can do the feasibility would allow you to do this yeah and that's exactly what that's what the group's going to do okay that sounds great I mean Alan you brought forth at the beginning of this school year the the concept of pursuing and creation of an HR department with this as part of the the reason why um and I know as part of that you reached out to the town to query feasibility of use of any of those if uh if the town would expand their hi Department to include the school district and the answer was uh no quite simply no so it's something we're going to do we're going to at least look into it and then uh it's going to have to go to town meeting right as part of our budget and you know people Bridget you know people like you that understand the importance need to help us in that endeavor so we have a motion and a second in front of us is there any more discussion all in favor I I I opposed passes unanimously thank you let us know what you need Cal could for both of those motions could especially where Christine's absent could someone just email me so I have the direct verbage correctly it might not be exactly the same I had it all written down and left it on a pad oh so I'll just use that okay all right our next item is the consent agenda um I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second motion to Second any comments or questions all in favor I I oppos passes unanimously I entertain a motion to adjourn I have a quick question I'm sorry um tonight three out of the four in town ptas are here we usually try to attend the meetings we were just wondering for clarification of when you wanted us to to submit the fundraiser forms and what information you were using um looking for recently the presidents of all the ptas have discussed the forms some of the presidents didn't even know that the forms existed and to when to submit the forms recently um I submitted forums that need more information um and that's the first time in like seven years that that's happened so I just is there like a document or something that we could all have to know exactly how to fill out these forms and what's required and to when to fill it out sure so the green form that that you've that do you have the green form ours is white but I'm sure it's the same form okay um what I can do is email um all of the PTA presidents just so everyone has the consistent message not just the green form but some specifics because sometimes there's information all information's welcome but sometimes there's information we don't necessarily need but missing some information we do need the one of the most important things is the more specific the date can be the more available it is for approval for the school committee so if you know if you don't yet know the date of something but you know it's going to be narrowed within a week you want to submit it now you know that's perfectly fine to bring to the school committee but if you know you're going to know I mean these get approved every every meeting and there's mostly two meetings a month so as long as that fundraiser form is in before the event we don't need it any further in advance that said there's nothing wrong with doing all of the fundraisers at the start of the Year okay but answer to your question I think the easiest way to do that is to email all the PTA presidents under one message with some specifics on the form that help yes absolutely because everyone has different answers so one firm answer would be great thank you we'll do Caroline just a quick question on that y um we do have um some months where where Things fall we have only one meeting in a month yep um is there a process if something comes up in between a gap um just to make sure that if there's something that we would want to approve yes we're not stopped from approving it because of the timeing yes great question thank you for that question yes if that happens where you know there's not going to be a meeting for another entire month but something comes up and it's more pressing send it along I'll find the date and usually I'll seek out the chair the chair can approve it which I would still recommend we at least notify the the team just approve it after the fact officially but easy enough to do so if there is a deadline issue we can usually turn it around pretty quickly so don't be you know too frustrated by that yeah if you're thinking oh no I'm pumping up against the deadline sure anything else I a motion to adjourn so move second motion second question all in favor I oppos pass did you vote to approve the war okay now