##VIDEO ID:-PEH6usfWdw## f good evening everybody Welcome to the Milton school committee meeting for December 18th 2024 we will call this meeting to order and begin with the Pledge of Allegiance IED alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice so in terms of approving our agenda for this evening before we get get started does anyone have any changes or things to remove from the agenda all right then we can approve that and move into public comment which is the portion of our meeting where we welcome members of the community to oh unlik it's um sorry dring something there's just a noise in the hallway um members of the community to come and share their perspectives with us um and we can do this both in person and virtually so um is there anybody here in person to participate in public comment this evening is there anybody online if you would like to participate in public comment can you please raise your hand at this time okay so it looks like um we have an attendee on Zoom who will um participate in public comment um please keep your remarks to three minutes and before you begin just um introduce yourself by name and um local address please you'll be yeah my name is Rini I'm at 26 Cushing Road so uh good evening members of the school committee um I am speaking to again express my profound disappointment and frustration with how the removal of Columbus Day from the school calendar was handled and it continues to be ignored sorry excuse me yes Mr Kini Chini we can't quite hear you can you hold on a moment please so we make sure to adjust the volume try it again testing testing 1 two three it's still a little faint hold on one moment sorry try again testing testing one two three yep that's that's great okay sorry to make you start over but can you please um sure ro pishing road and so I was um I was saying I was I was calling in to um express my profound disappointment and frustration um with how they of Columbus Day from the school calendar was handled a few years ago and it continues to be ignored a few years ago Columbus Day was removed without any Community input um I brought this concern to one of your subcommittees a couple of years ago and it was acknowledged that the decision was poorly handled and would be Revisited um that was two years ago and since then I've not um there's been no action on it but most recently when you put out your survey I was kind of hopeful that um this could be addressed um I realized that the survey was was about uh religious holidays being added to the calendar and what the community thought on that but there was um a form for for submitting comments and I Know Myself and I think some others you know expressed our desire to restore columus day um and so I was hoping that there'd be a discussion about that but then you know there was no mention of it at all at the most recent school committee and so it seems like it's just going to be ignored and um it seems like it's a deliberate omission and to me it speaks volumes and so I just wanted to remind the school committee that Columbus Day is both a Federal holiday and a Massachusetts state holiday um but more importantly Columbus State was created to honor the contributions of Italian Americans which was a an immigrant group that endured significant discrimination in this country and so replacing it with indigenous people's day without even creating an alternative like an Italian Heritage day um in my mind not only erases italian-americans but also sends a har a harmful message of exclus usion um this is not really what this is really not about what anyone thinks about Columbus himself it's about respecting a day that recognizes the struggles and achievements of Italian Americans and by extension all immigrants the decision to remove Columbus State without meaningful input and to ignore it despite promises to revisit the matter is betrayal of trust and so I urge this committee to honor your word engage in genuine Community dialogue and restore a day that celebrates Italian-American heritage or provide a meaning a meaningful alternative failing to do so perpetuates harm and discrimination and in my mind is unacceptable thank you thank you very much so we will be um obviously having the continued discussion um a little bit later in our agenda and uh if members have you know thoughts about what was just raised then that we'll have the opportunity to incorporate that into the discussion is there anybody else um wishing to participate in public comment online I do not see any more hands raised so we will um proceed into our next agenda item do Mark do have to get um thank you um so the next agenda item is the superintendent report great good evening or good morning um a couple things to share one I mentioned our assistant superintendent screening committee was beginning and Amanda has joined the screening committee thank you so much want to give Dr was a moment to share kind of the kickoff last night and and it's going to be happening quickly so we'd be great to hear kind of for everyone kind of the the energy in the room so to speak yeah we actually had a a pretty robust we had a a robust meeting last night of discussion um about characteristics of the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning that we are um looking for as a committee um the posting will close on January 2nd at which time the committee members will have an opportunity to screen the resumés and applications of all of the candidates who have applied um we are anticipating a large number of candidates and so far the early submissions have been um um very um uh hopeful and um lots of talent so that's really nice um we have begun also the process of determining some questions that would be appropriate um and the format by which we will move forward um we will begin qu um interview shortly after the the second week in January I believe um at which point we will interview the candidates that we feel are appropriate um and begin in that selection process and then they will have a second round so overall we're on the road awesome thank you um the second thing I want to mention uh is question two so that was mcast U no longer being a graduation requirement uh there was a we've been getting a lot of FAQs from desie we've been talking about it um in both at the local level Regional level Etc to try to figure out I think desie also has been in the same kind of process of trying to determine how are we going to what kind of guidance are we giving giving because in in some ways the the repeal of mcast as a graduation requirement put everything into local districts as opposed to being Guided by Desi uh we had a a webinar today that I think Mark also attended right in the room next to me I didn't realize he was he was in the same meeting but um we got I think it was it was a really helpful webinar um in starting to hone in on what are the kinds of things we're going to need to be doing I think both at the high school and so um Karen K our principal who's here tonight um I'll be working with directly to to kind of work through and talk through how we want to uh provide evidence of Mastery for students meeting standards the the the the requirement for graduation Still Remains local graduation requirements and the comp competency determination we have to determine locally how how our local graduation requirements are meeting that need in the comp competency determination so there there's work that we need to do to either look at our current requirements and create a crosswalk to the comp competency determination or some other way there were questions um from people in attendance about can we use the mcast as at a local level so not at the the state level as a as a gr requirement but as a local level to to um you know evince Mastery and the the desie guidance was yes you could if you wanted to um but they set to check with legal counsel on that so I'm not sure they that's been fully Ved so I think there were a lot of questions for for people to say like what what how how what Guidance Do you have and they were kind of saying it's on you like we're not going to we're not going to give you direct guidance to say this is what it you need to build or this is what it should look like it's it's on you oh um so so I am meeting I know I've got a meeting coming back from break with area superintendence area meaning like 25 districts um and our main focus is going to be bringing our initial draft thinking it will probably mean one of the suggestions in this from desie is to develop a policy so there's Clarity and I think that makes sense whether that becomes part of our graduation policy or a separate policy I I think there would probably be an amendment to our current graduation policy um so there's more to come on that um okay got we have a a visitor that we didn't know was going to be here thank you so this will be a topic in in coming meetings I think as we kind of go into high gear and figure out what this looks like would you work with area superintendents to come up with something that they would all then use yeah okay I mean I think they they're you know we don't I think it's this will take time so I I think my feeling is people are going to say like let's start simple and then build from there in terms of how we want to how we want to this confidency deter it's a Well attended meeting that's right visit our meeting um for folks watching we do have a radent in in the room right now it's a it's a very small Mouse okay before you start the rumors it's a harmless St okay sorry so would there be interim policy I mean I guess as you think about it so because it's this was past mid year right or part through the year and so there's determining um thank you criteria for this year and then sort of longer term is that accurate to think about it that way I mean I think there could be iterations of it yeah okay I don't think we would call it an interim we would we would take a first move okay and and then we would maybe assess that I imagine just uh at first blush that most districts probably will look at their current cours work and look at the standards and and basically look at the assessments that are currently um within those courses to determine if there's a way to say okay these are the standards that we want to we have to show Mass student has to show master of these standards they can meet them in these courses through these assessments or something like that so I think that's probably what um most districts will be doing do you have anything yeah I agree I think trying to use coursework as the competency determination is probably where most places are going to go some could lean on incast but overall you'd have to be in a community that like kind of rejected question to um whatever the question was two um because otherwise like the voters all said not to do it so then to come back and say well we're going to do it anyways with our we could do but that seems somewhat risky politically um yeah so I we don't at my school we have to do the same thing but I do think we need to figure out we need to figure out something to make it clear for students in 20 graduating in 2025 and we need to figure out something think that doesn't like put them at some disadvantage of like they just don't have time to take additional coursework and so um we're going have to think about that and then also like the future you know it might be like some type of policy that says if we wanted to add additional things like you know what are we doing in 20125 what is it in 2026 2020 and like slowly build it um and create different graduation requirements essentially over the next three or four years to allow people the opportunity to meet it yeah absolutely I remember you mentioned previously that um the MC score also associated with the funding we get from the federal government or the state um how is this going to impact our future funding this won't impact our our funding okay no our our funding will remain the same there's a federal participation requirement around State Testing um so you have to have 9 % of students participate uh in the testing okay but there's no score requirement or anything like that but yeah there's still a high school students will still have to take the mcast they just won't have to take the mcast to graduate oh God it but they'll still I think that's going to be something that a lot of people are going to realize this spring when they think hey I thought the MCAT went away so we're still continuing to use the MC I mean we're still going to be talking about it here we're still going to be looking at it as a metric we'll be talking about it as we start to to build out what our our implementation plan report looks like at the end of the year that summited report that I've been talking about so it's still very Central to and I think a a very good reflection of of where students are in math science and English um but yeah the the graduation requirement is some is an additional thing that Massachusetts did that some other states didn't do so I've also been in other states where it wasn't a graduation requirement so that just seemed normal to me to have it not be a graduation requirement so does that if it's not a graduation requirement would students opt out of taking it or they still have requ to re and that ties back to the federal reality yeah but I mean I think I don't predict that that there's any big change for students in elementary school or even Middle School in terms of this change but when it's no longer a grad requirement at the high school level the incentive is different for students that's something that people talked about in the runup to question to was you know one of the concerns I had too it so um next under your report then ready for the High School site Council presentation okay so we're really thank to have um opportunity to learn about Milton High School this evening from Mrs kahill and Miss Crowley thank you so much for joining us um and to superintendent Barrow's Point we've have been having the conversation at the high school level um with Milton High School Administration in regards to mcast and that is something that I'll also be bringing forward when we present the program of studies um in February so that graduation requirements are part of the program of studies as well so those are conversations I'm hoping to have with superintendent Barrow prior to that presentation as well um and having said that also um I feel very confident in what we hold as standards for our own high school graduation requirements putting mcast aside um which is a great segue into our School site Council presentation tonight um so thank you for having us um Karen kahill High School Pres principal Diane Crowley site Council English teacher um and we're representing our site Council for this evening for our presentation so thank you Mark the rest of our site Council people could be watching at home or they're just we're going to hear about it next week at our meeting or week after I'm sorry we get back from vacation um Deborah Bingham and Kelly SE are two site council members who have been working with us on this presentation providing us feedback um and they could not be here this evening um just some work that our site Council has been doing this year so far um we have been looking at our school Improvement plan and how it aligns with the district implementation plan um that is one thing that a subgroup of the site Council has been doing along with another subgroup is looking at the community service requirements at the high school currently we have 140 hours 35 hours per year that students have to fulfill um in order to graduate from high school we are looking at other districts data um and compiling some information that we would like to present to school committee when we do the program of studies as graduation requirements um and what is realistic in the day and age for our students who are over scheduled have jobs have other commitments um and what's realistic to have meaningful community service so that is a conversation the site Council has been having as well um so I look forward to presenting that to you at um a future date so that is work that we've been doing this year for the site Council um Mark can you please move forward to right here so this is just an overview of our school enrollment Milton High school um on the average every year our school enrollment increases just slightly about an average of 40 to 45 students in the past four to five years have enrolled new student registration above what is rolling over from the Pierce Middle School we have seen an increase in students returning to us from private schools which is something I continue to say um just today I spoke with a parent from BC high who was looking to have their child come back to Milton High School um I am very confident as I said earlier in the academic rigor that exists at the high school and I feel that our teachers do an exceptional job and you'll see in some of the data that we we'll be sharing that what they're doing in the classroom really plays out at the state level and um at the national level when it comes to some of the exams that we are doing um Mark next slide please so just the mission statement um we are a school that just encourages our students to be the best version of themselves to get involved to be lifelong Learners and to collaborate and work um alongside their teachers and their peers um and I hope again that you'll see through what we're doing this evening that you will see that and everything that we're doing Mark so superintendent baros has his um implementation plan go ahead and while we'll be focusing on the implementation plan I'll just also align it to our school Improvement plan the first information that we're using is just the shout outs that we got at the start of this year so one of the last times I was reporting according to you we were under um working with Nas New England associations of uh schools to be accredited and at the end of last year I had to submit a report our first report of progress and planning and they submitted to us at the beginning of September that we are making progress they have commended Us in all of our areas of school Improvement plan academic excellence and um social emotional and mtss supporting so they ask us to continue to do that work I got an email probably an hour ago from them saying that don't forget you have to give a report come May for the three-year followup um to NAS so that is something I'll be working on in the next six months to submit back to um Nas for our continue accreditation here at the high school um Special Olympics unified Champion school we Ser we Rec got this recognition last year we got it again this year and I am proud to say that the work we are doing here at the high school to be as inclusive as possible um it really does blow me away and I am honored to be the Principal we have had three new courses added to the high school we have unified art unified music and unified PE and we have students um peer students who are working with students who are identified as special education to be amazing peer models to be um just classmates and you will see in the news newsletter on Friday we just recently had um a field trip to the Southshore Plaza our three programs of launch achieve and partners went with our students from the unified art and unified music classes to the SRO Plaza for Budget lessons how to buy how I know Katie you'd be happy with that budgeting social interactions and how to do that work with someone else and um the feedback I got from the students was just amazing and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to offer these classes and I hope that the number of students that are enrolling in them just continues to increase over the years um from the College Board perspective we continue to excel with our scores um I'm not going to read the slide to you but we are exceeding in Benchmark college readiness for English and for Math and I still continue to take pride in the fact that we're able to offer the PSATs to our Juniors and seniors sophomores and juniors our sophomores for exposure to the exam our Juniors to be eligible for the National Merit um Miss Crowley is going to talk about that momentarily in regards to some of the recognitions we got through National Merit this year um at the state level and at the national level we also as a school got what is called AP gold status um we're aiming for platinum Mark if you don't mind doing the next slide um what happens at the Platinum level actually it's a few slides down um is if we continue to do the work to expose all of our students to the opportunities of AP um super superintendent maros I believe you had a conversation recently in regards to all of the efforts we're making to um keep access open to all of our students the opportunities that are afforded we hopefully will gain Platinum Platinum Status the gold status says that we are working as best we can for college readiness right now for our students we're opening early college readiness we are offering more courses to more students and supporting them financially if they need that work so next year we're hoping for platinum we got one area of platinum for college credit but culture and optimization we're hoping to get to platinum as well so I am really happy with the work that we're doing um for all of our students and Mark I'm going to ask you to go back a few slides I just wanted to touch upon that um as we move forward the next thing we are going to talk about still under academic Excellence for superintendent Burrows is the vision of The Graduate not necessarily what the words mean but what it looks like here in the building and I cannot stress enough that everything that you're going to see is Dian talks and we talk about the pictures or the comments that are here really tie into the work that's being done every day in the classroom um our our teachers here are phenomenal our students and you'll hear me say that to the students and staff every day um Miss Crowley it's very much under the leadership of principal kahill and other administrators that we've been able to grow our kind of branding of what a vision of a graduate is and the buyin needs to come not just from staff but also from students because we need them to to understand that these are our guiding principles this is how we teach this is how we organize our programs our co-curriculars that we want them to be ready to face an everchanging world but be ready for opportunities that's really what we're in the business of opportunity creating not just educating in content area but allowing students to optimize and self-actualize to understand what their potential is and as we talk about a vision of a graduate and it hits upon academic personal and social growth we're finding this unifying language that helps students developmentally at their state and Adolescence understand what it is that we're doing so these are students um for term one who were acknowledged and it's such a happy moment for them you can see that they're they feel so proud to be acknowledged in front of their peers and we're seeking to grow opportunities to bring the school together by grade or by some other organizational method depending on the kind of acknowledgement that's happening so that peers can be recognized by their peers they're recognized frequently in their co-curricular and sports opportunities but we're in the business of teaching and the students who are excelling academically and in their contributions to our school should be acknowledged next slide please to that end we have a number of students who have received acknowledgements this fall in the first corner you see the national recognition program from college board and this program seeks to acknowledge students who are in varied subgroups who achieve in the top 10 % of the Commonwealth on the PSAT and we're very proud to present these five students with that acknowledgement this is a new program for us the National Honors Society at Milton high school has a requirement of a 3.7 GPA so a student with a 3.7 GPA is invited to be part of and apply for rather admission into the National Honors society and there are two opportunities annually in the spring of junior year and in the fall of senior year the committee reviewing applications looks beyond just the grade point average to see how students are excelling in their leadership their service and the their character those are the benchmarks that the National Honor Society has and while we always have a bigger group in the in junior year it's nice for us to be able to to acknowledge students who have completed their junior year have maybe had a push up in their academics particularly as students maybe in their first goar around in an AP or an honors course and they feel so proud all the time to be recognized by the National Honor Society but especially those senior inductees hold a special place and the bottom corner you see our national our commended students for the College Board these are the top 34,000 students across the country with the PSAT this is a remarkable group of students who have varied interests and Leadership they are athletes and actors and musicians and they excel in different areas of their personal and school lives and it is a tremendous honor for a student to achieve this they have achieved this particularly because of the variety of courses that Milton high school offers I believe very deeply while I'm a teacher of English that it is our elective courses that bring joy to kids most students probably don't want to just sit in my English class and read Hamlet but they're very excited to go to Automotive class or to go to art class or to go to unified music that's that's where their Joy maker is I think of a program particularly our intro to business Business program which is growing wherein these students are excited to learn about the business world they're excited to be exposed to the stock market they're exp excited to understand real world applications and the intersection of their literacy skills and their math skills position students to grow and perform on exams like the PSAT in the SAT and their AP exams and at Milton high school we don't diminish our elective program those courses are just as important and supporting the whole student because it's frequent that our students find their passion their Joy their excitement and their curiosity about their future plans through their elective courses and that's why we we Champion those programs and seek to support them our national Merit scholar semi-finalist is pictured here and Sydney is an extraordinary student she placed in the top 16,000 students around the country in the PSAT that is no small achievement at all these students continue to impress and Inspire us they're the reason that we do our jobs and these students students are leaders in the classroom on the field in the hallways in daily life at Milton high school and they are the best representatives of what it is that we do thank you next SL work thank you and I've said it and Diana said it we're talking about General programs but we can't lose sight of the fact that all of this is happening because of the teaching that's happening in all of our classrooms in every single classroom um National Scholars about 50% of our students who take a courses are some recognized in some way shape per form as a national scholar and I won't read through what the descriptions are but they're receiving qualifying scores and depending on the number of AP exams they take in their life experience at the high school qualifies them to an AP scholar a scholar With Honor with distinction International um we had two students internationally which is when College Board is not just National there are students all over the world that are taking these AP exams um I've been part of an AP uh chat group for lack of better words and talking about when people are taking these exams some students at 11:00 at night because that's when the the exam is being ministered globally that's when they have to take it um so the commitment that we have for our students to take these exams um is quite impressive and so I just wanted to give a shout out to this the hard work that our students and teachers are doing to get this recognition um Mark can you go ahead two slides please to the postgrad thank you and just from our class of 2024 um we're working with our seniors right now as College acceptances are coming out um very proud 92% of our students have gone on to postsecondary planning at at the college level and to recognize the six students last year I recognized them at the national awards night who were going into the military I had two we're having two students come back this week one already came back this week he just finished boot camp um and amazing young man and another student is coming tomorrow um who also just finished boot camp for the Air Force I believe for the air and um we'll be working with our students with local recruiters just to let people understand what that process looks like to make sure our students are aware of all of the options that they have afforded to them um I feel that we are opening possibilities to students and having those individual conversations with students not just about college but what are the other options out there for them um and to Diane's Point earlier the electives that we offer I do feel allow students to explore those opportunities um so I just wanted to share this with everyone as we look at our post-secondary plans um for our students Mark next slide please thank you and just to close out the academic Excellence this is uh part of superintendent Barrow's plan as well 1.2 I believe mtss but the intervention and strategies and supports we have available for all of our students at the high school you know we talk about the students who have um IEPs or or 504s and the individual support that they get but the supports listed here are open up to all of our students the student leaders I want to touch upon what they do with our freshman class and the work that we hope that they're going to do with other students as well um they really support student transitions to the high school for our freshman class we had a conversation in central office today in regards to Transitions grade five to five to six and seven or8 to nine and I do applaud the work that our student leader advisers and our student leaders do to help our students acclimate to the high school and not just for the extracurriculars but for the academics as well and being the role models um that our students really um appreciate seeing um just the program we've had that program in place for about six or seven years now um and I truly feel that for those of you who don't know it's bridge for resilient Youth and transition based out of the Brookline Public Schools is where it originated um and it is for students who have struggled coming to school for medical reasons for social emotional reasons who have been hospitalized and we all know what the past five years have brought for a lot of our students social uh for social emotional well-being and with this program those students have been able to return to school in a partial or a full day transition back and the teacher in that program works so well with our with the students with the families and with our teachers to make individual plans and I'm not saying IEPs I'm saying individual plans for those students so they can transition back into school at their pace and fine success um again I I have to give our teachers major major shoutouts for the individual conversations they have with this teacher and those students to put plans into place for those students still to be challenged I'm not taking taking that away from them but to find success um and I appreciate um the district support of that program it definitely has found amazing success academic strategies is a new course that we've um created or started over the past few years one or two periods and I'm happy to say we have it seven periods now um it is a non-special Ed Course for students that we might refer to case coordination because that student is struggling for some reason and we want to see what can we do to support that student in the class classroom um and this allows us to work with Jenna teachers and those students and put those tier one supports into place in some tier twos to see where that student is going to find success um we've been fortunate that the jenet teachers are asking to teach these courses I have one teacher from each department working with us to teach these courses and they're collaborating with all of the other teachers um and and I just want to um hopefully we'll be able to continue that program um here at the high school um homework club parents still call me when is homework club it's every day after school and um students can come here for an hour and a half and do homework in the library with the teacher supervising them so there's just ample opportunity for our students to get support the students at the high school level we find seek it out on their own um ask for it appreciate it and work with us to find other ways to make make sure that they are getting that help um so many amazing things happening here at the high school but before we go on to the implementation plan section two I do want to give two areas that I know we can improve upon as well and one of them not not necessarily improve upon but areas of concern we're just mentioning um one of them is Miss kley mentioned earlier the amazing electives we have and those classes are over subscribed they're at 28 29 30 and we are turning some students away from those classes because we don't have the sections to do it and so um we are still asking for another business teacher to do that work and um we're hoping you know if that goes through that we can create more opportunities for students to get those non English Math Science Social Studies but those other classes that intro to business that personal finance that technology class computer science class um to those vocational ideas out there as well and while uh tier uh priority area three operations and Facilities I'm just going to touch upon it also space is also an issue here at the high school um teachers are sharing classrooms and they're not complaining about it but we're losing that place for teachers to go when their classroom is being used because those smaller office spaces um are being used those smaller music rooms are being used as office spaces um so for teachers to find that space to go and collaborate with their colleague during the day that is that is a difficult situation at times I'm not saying all the time but at times so I just wanted to give those two areas that those are two areas that we still are working on here at the high school um our teachers always go above and beyond um to support all of our students um but those two areas would definitely um support the work that we do here at the high school as we go on to climate culture and well-being um Mark if you can go two slides yep talk right can you go back one um just climate culture and well-being I wanted to give a shout out to our student leaders again the Freshman Olympics we had um on the left hand side they spent over a week going into every advisory here working with our Freshman Class our our students did it the teachers didn't the students did it door decorating um a game every day a a team building activities finding Pride commitment a a collective identity that absolutely intersects with our idea of a vision of a graduate that capitalizes on our desire to support seal to support academic learning and to support personal Discovery and really so important to many of the teachers here at Milton High School is helping students build their interpersonal skills their communication and conversation skills which for our students who left school in fifth sixth seventh grade some of those seminal moments that they would have had that are incredibly important to their sense of self weren't possible and so the chances that we have to give them in something like the Freshman Olympics or semiformal are in incredibly important perhaps more so than they were 10 years ago please to that end um we want to talk about the climate and well-being and the culture building that happens at Milton High School one of our advisories an advisory is the program where every student is assigned to an advisor a teacher for four years of high school and the idea is that every student deserves to be paired with an adult with whom they can build a trusting relationship outside of an academic setting that while I may be a students's teacher in a given grade for a given period I'm their advisor and I'm their the person who can answer their questions support them help them find a club be a recommender for a job listen to them talk out their ideas about an oral presentation or even just hang out during the time that we have together and talk about life one of our advisories has turned into something called culture cats and you'll see here from this display this word art display that it is a group of students who wish to specifically do work in inclusion and belonging and they work with their advisors to do Outreach to the middle school to do Outreach among our own staff and our own students to build a climate that is one of acceptance one of seeing people people all of us students and staff alike feeling seen at Milton High School is the primary goal of this group we have a number of programs that happen that unify our students around a shared idea or value and I'd like to share with you what my advisory did yesterday we got on the Vans with the Christmas carollers from the music program and after a week of stuffing holiday baggies full of goodies we took the van down to anwy house we had a rousing singalong with the residents during our advisory period we distributed the goodie bags to many of people who may not have family nearby or who are visiting to bring them some holiday cheer to let them know that they are literally our neighbors down the street the students were so excited to do this whether they were there as musicians or as greeters and students who were just going to converse with some of our senior residents it was a point of pride and it was a really joyous thing for me to watch this was born of the students wanting to find something to do in the holidays to think about how they could reach out to others and they worked diligently and they were so glad to know that this community exists they've asked about other opportunities in which they can engage and they were a wonderful face of the Milton Public Schools yesterday going out and sharing their talents time and their treasure but there are so many ways that this happens through the student council through the principal's Advisory Group through programs such as um the historically black college and university visits our school is alive and thrumming with excitement because students want to be here and they find friendly faces in our custodial staff in our lunchroom staff in the classroom and it's not limited to the idea of that person is my teacher it's that person is my person and so I do believe that that is a strength of our school and our students benefit from that culture thank you Mark so in a space crunch we have to find ways to use space creatively but we were using space creatively before our library is the Cornerstone of our school and those of us who love books and love the notion of community understand what a library can be and should be and our librarian is doing a myriad of activities to draw excitement before and after school but especially during the day teaching classes inviting students to submit pictures of their dogs caught reading putting up Student Art displays hosting events never saying no if we can fit one more group in here if we can fit one more class in here for a special program we will we're using the Wildcat Cafe the hallways for collaboration for interacting for growing academic personal and social skills which is really what we're doing every day thank you Mark and just to to close it out we just focus also on everything at extracurricular we we have talked about all of the opportunities here at the high school but to be mindful of everything that our students are involved in I'm not going to open up ask Mark to open up this slide but it's a 62 no you don't um basically 62 slides of all the different clubs and activities now a athletic teams that are here at the high school so I had Milton High School information night last week for grades 6 through eight and I shared this out with the community so those families are exposed to what could their child do if they choose to come here to the high school what are the opportunities available and isn't it isn't my all of them um students are constantly coming to me saying hey I have an idea for this club I have an idea for that club what can we do I just got an email this week for the sunrise Club um haven't read it yet but I can only imagine so um I appreciate the fact that students know they have a voice here U Miss Crowley mentioned something earlier and I do want to give a shout out to a student who was online early at Adam chairs who is part of the school committee um school calendar group he has worked diligently with his committee to give Outreach to the students to get feedback so students have a voice when it comes to the district calendar and I appreciate the work that our students and student government are doing and putting that time in so the students know that they have a voice um there is AP data and mcast data if we want but I know you've seen that a lot of that already as my understanding so at this point I will say this is where we're at and if there's questions or comments we are happy to answer them so thank you very much thank you so much questions I did I did open this I'm there too did open that amazing slide that the clubs and activities well so I did actually thank you great presentation you were very thorough you covered a lot of my question so I appreciate that um I did have one question you touched upon it earlier about um working with uh the transition between 8th and nth if you could just kind of elaborate on that sure little more we we actually spoke about it this morning at our DLT meeting we are really more seeing where we are lacking in the communication so families can make informed decisions when they come to the high school you know um I spoke with Dr fish earlier today and we'll continue to have that conversation our counselors go down to the middle school and I say during course selection time for lack of better words you know in the late winter early spring to talk about course selection process and all of the courses at the high school um so students can make those informed decisions what are the courses what are the high school graduation requirements we will do a program of studies night where all of the department heads will be here to answer general questions about curriculum but also individual questions that families might have on a separate basis um the transition to the high school students are ready to come to the high school they they are ready um they are already exposed to the schedule um at the pierce it is also a 7-Day rotating schedule except they have six periods a day where we have five periods a day they already have the four lunches so respectfully to the to the parents and the adults who don't understand the schedule the kids pick up pretty quickly on how to move around the high school so they're used to that get up and go transition um whereas going from fifth to sixth grade they're not used to that um students are already exposed to the Athletics I see them here at the basketball games and the football games so they they're familiar um what they're not familiar with is just you know you're in high school now and um everything you do over these four years matters to what you're going to do when you leave and and not that it didn't matter in middle school but those conversations that we're having from the moment they in the door making those good choices and be the best version of yourself um that's what we start with day one actually prior to day one we when we do orientation um and this still like I said the biggest I think we really need to work on our communication you know with so the teachers at the middle school and the high school those vertical alignments and having those conversations so those Middle School teachers are working with our high school teachers to know exactly what is being covered in those classes so they can make those appropriate recommendations for leveling and you know the leveling in should it be Spanish or should it be Latin or should it be biology honor or or College Prep Waters and what is that going to look like so thatw and then um I know I think in maybe in a previous presentation you you mentioned like parents have the opportunity to kind of put students in like hey I want my student in this class and so on and so forth yes how do you find that to be like do you feel like the student is typically prepared for it like the academic rigor or is it like are there things that we could do at the middle school to kind of make sure that that transition is seamless I I think overall you know we we teachers make recommendations and that's what we say but students and families have the right to override regardless um but what we do ask we've always asked but we've more formalized it now is that the student has a conversation with the teacher on the why why did you make that recommendation and this is why I want to override your recommendation you know those those honest conversations um yes there are decisions that don't go well you know um and we work with the student and the families to figure that out um again it comes down to people understanding you know students come to the high school and right now and I say right now we do not have a World Language graduation requirement and here what I'm saying it's right now the state of Massachusetts for state colleges expect at least two years of the same language so I always say that and you'll look at our students at the high school and most take three or four years of a World Language so that is something um director of World Language and I have talked about too putting in a world language graduation requirement um so people think when they walk in the door day one they have to have a World Language and for some students who might have executive functioning or what not we say you know what put that off a year get used to the schedule get used to to the rigor that exists at a high school with levels versus you know um and we work with the the families there's not a one shoe one size that fits off so we really try to personalize those experiences for students I think too the attendant Independence that comes with being in high school has to be lived before a student understands how to optimize it to understand that our teachers are in well before the start of the school day to give individualized or group help or review that we're here after school you don't always have to make an appointment you can be in the building you can use the library there is an opportunity for NHS tutoring and there are many opportunities for students no matter what their comfort level is with school or their past success to absolutely meet with success here because of the individualized attention that is put on the person and the opportunity to practice difficult conversations to engage with the student about whatever this issue might be how to go through the lunch line organizing a backpack how to ask a teacher for help when they think that might be weird those are conversations we're having all the time and each Uprising 9th grader who comes to us is as you know as parents and community members and aunts and uncles and out there in the world you know that every student is individual in that and we see that and our councelors see that and they do an exceptional job in helping students connect appropriately with teachers for either academic personal or their social issues so that we can address those in the first weeks of school it's really impressive especially when I click on to this 66 pages of clubs and athletic groups my assumption is that it doesn't happen all the time like the clubs might have been the fourth semester spring semester or is it all these 66 clubs and athle teams are having all the time throughout the school year teams are by season and organized through the MIAA although we do have a weight room program where students can drop into the weight room and use it individually with adult supervision throughout the school year but our clubs Run for the most part year round there may be some things that are seasonal for instance within the theater program auditions are seasonal you try out for the fall play or the spring play but the Asian Culture Club National Honor Society the elephant in the room those are organizations that meet regularly throughout the year clubs meet before and after school and frequently teachers will take a straw poll of that Year's members to say you're all on the soccer team so why don't we meet in the morning until soccer is over there are evening outings and evening meetings there are lots of ways for students to be involved so if a club is on that it's running and there are students involved in it every single one of that's that's amazing and you also mention about the advisory program I'm wondering about you you mentioned that that you the student would have the same advisor for 4 years in high school I'm wondering about the ratio of the advisor and student like one advisor versus how many students it's it's roughly one advisor to 17 or 18 students that unfortunately the numbers are going up with enrollment but we we try to um do that every classroom is utilized during advisory so every teacher has about 17 or 18 students that's a lot of students um and how how long is advisory period 26 26 minutes 26 minutes and within the 26 minute you were able to tell your school of students and go out and have that took a little five minutes on from the principal minutes on the other but yes yes and so what we did in advisory was extraordinary my advisory happens to be seniors and they're sophisticated I've had them for four years they're a fun group of kids but even with freshmen there are lots of wonderful things that can happen such as the fresh Olympics but our advisory program is a product of two things one n ask telling us several years ago that we needed to build an opportunity for students to have one-on-one connections with adults who were not their primary academic teachers and the second reason is our robust group guidance program wherein students are meeting with counselors to learn about the program of studies or the college application process or how to get into the navian platform what it means to take the PSAT in 10th Grade absolutely so there there's a little bit of downtime built into that there's a chance to connect we help students navigate whatever problem or joy that they're having in a given day and how often do you guys meet as advisories advisory is every day every day for minutes yes say the beginning of this day or maybe it's middle of the day it's roughly 9:47 to 10:17 oh roughly roughly not that I have the schedule memorized don't don't ask me what day it is but I might be able to look at the Times well since you mention about the time it is very interesting that our our school starting time is very precise yes right 7:5 2 or 755 and then the end at like 2:25 anyway it's just a little bit hard to remember um anyway um I I really love that you guys have this program and meet the students and every day for 26 minutes because if you tell me like you only me once a week it doesn't seems like long enough to get to know each students especially when you have 17 students in your group but over four years with this same group of students I hope the connection between the adult and the student will be stronger and stronger but what if there situation that people does not click do you ever have that situation and do you have to like advise the student to move on to another advisor so to what Miss Crowley was saying earlier you know when we look at students it's individualized approach so if we find that a student might not be making success with a particular replacement then we do review that and see if there's another place for that student to go we're constantly working with our students for the past two weeks myself um assistant principal Tran and assistant principal maau um along with two of my department heads have been in the hallway during advisory consciously being in the hallway for the entire advisory period just to see what students might not be making it to advisory because I'll be honest that happens and we're asking why aren't you going what's going on what can we do to make sure that you have a place that you can go to um we're working with our teachers to make sure that advisory is what Nas wants it to be um and it's being utilized to the best of the staff in the students capacity so yeah there are times and the teacher the educator responsibility is no different from a class I take attendance I write hall passes I make sure students are seated and if somebody needs to go to their locker or bathroom or pick up a book that they left somewhere else that happens but it it has a framework that is consistent and safe but yet also provides the flexibility we need to build the relationships in a different way than happens in a conventional academic course go um I I got a couple questions on AP and sat um first is like just general framing like I think both those are really important metrics as it relates to like thinking about high school and to the point you made at the beginning rigor right how are we really providing um strong academics for students and uh I think you know there are a lot of ways in which those measurements can be used to kind of falsify rigor by limiting access right and so like you restrict just have a few kids really take the sa to take your APS and then your scores look really good but you're actually not doing a service to kids and so I think that's always like a balance I think when I look at all the SAT data and stuff I just want to shout out Milton high school because I think you know you are a standout within the state within that when I look you're in the top 80th percentile and average SAT combined score but you're in the top 94th percentile in uh SAT test takers uh against kind of your total student population and there's only four other Traditional School Districts that actually like rank higher than you in your sat combined score that have like a similar level of participation so again you are maximizing success with access and I think that is something that we always want to be really mindful of that we're not just chasing a high combined score if that means that we're kind of dissuading kids from opportunity to take the I do believe as a Content area teacher that the support of the district and providing the opportunity for the PSA to all 10th and 11th grade students regardless of their ability their interest in school whoever they are the fact that they are sitting and having that experience opens up their understanding of what it is to sit for an exam of that kind of rigor and it positions our counselors and teachers and even our school leaders to have conversations about the future with students as young as 15 and 10th grade so much of this goes back to the district at large and Leadership of the district recognizing that providing that at no cost to families is very important because when students have that experience in school my students take that PSAT with me in 10th grade in advisory so they know me it's a safe environment it's and testing is very hard emotionally for kids at 15 for everybody but I do believe to your point about our later success in encouraging testing and that risk-taking to consider what the opportunities ultimately are for a graduating student and our vision of a graduate is beginning with the support that the superintendent's office gives us in allowing students to test at no cost for the PSAT twice in their High School career and and to do it during the school day that yes dur during the school day which means nobody is feels intruded upon on a Saturday or kids who are reluctant Learners or who don't always enjoy coming to school don't want to come on a Saturday and that was one of the reasons we also started doing school day sat so all students had access to the exam um and we're honestly looking at and this is the first time you'll be hearing it um offering the school day to Juniors as well we haven't done that yet but we're finding with colleges now bringing back SATs as a requirement the classes of 25 and 26 it's still test optional but you're starting to see colleges saying oh we're requiring the scores again um to offer another opportunity for students during the school day so we know that students have access if they want it so I appreciate you finding that information and sharing it out and I to Dian I do appreciate the district support and allowing us to do that during the school day for students to have that access so thank you yeah I think those are all great uh efforts and completely agree with all all the points you made I think AP is another one right again like how do we get more kids to do AP access I actually found the supporting like AP presentation that was like linked really great uh and so loved loved that again just the amount of increased access that we are seeing more kids taking the tests uh every year again I think it's phenomenal um you know U I think you are at the 92nd and I look at this you're at the 92nd percentile in terms of total number of tests Tak taken uh versus your high school enrollment uh it's just again really phenomenal um I think about the one of the measures you all have within here and just flag is like percent of three exams I think another really important measure is just like percent of AP test AP students who are taking the exam right because research shows that even if a kid takes a one or two on an exam their likelihood of graduating in college increases and so like I think again as we talked about with sat there sometimes schools or teachers or whoever like want to kind of protect their at score and might dissuade a kid that they think's going to get a one or two from taking it I think that's obviously that's a disservice to the kid like we want we want kids having that to the point you made about the the experience of the rigorous assessment rights that they're prepared for the that in high school um so flagging all that I guess my general question on AP to round out like the shouting Y is just like how do we keep doing more of this like how do we create you know have youall thought about AP for all courses like to try and have you know really as close to every student as we can taking AP exams or and obviously the one Benchmark within your gold piece versus going to platinum is like how do we get kids take more not just one exam but five exams right lot exams for their career so any student who's enrolled in an AP at Milton high school has to take the exam that is one of the expectations that students have here if you're enrolled you have to take the exam um we continue to look at what other AP offerings we have and how we can get more students enrolled and again as long as you meet the pr Rex for courses that lead up to AP AP is open enrollment any student can take them um unfortunately I have to go back to you know I think of AP micro and macro we have had to turn students away because those enrollments we've been running those 32 33 34 students in a class so um to answer your question more Staffing more opportunity for people to understand what these courses are there is an English AP seminar course which replaces English 10 when I do the research you know um so there are opportunities we just need the time to be able to really dig deep we offer 23 24 AP courses right now um with open enrollment with open enrollment with man you have to take the test so just exploring what other APS are out there and what students can enroll and we just started AP Government a few years ago AP African-American um there was a third one and AP Studio Art we split up our two art classes so we're getting there to your point I teach AP Literature and senior year and I currently have a student who began High School in a caught and is in AP and is also in a second English class for fun so the path forward is there for students and the opportunities are there and the support of the community and the district allows us to provide these enriching rigorous academic opportunities for students that open up opportunities for them thank you the only thing I would add is um you know as somebody's who's focus is on positive East development sort of that's the lens that I bring to the work I commend you for even though you're not using that language but really sort of approaching the work from a student centered perspective and really looking at young people holistically which I think you know settings that have the privilege of having young people with them for that many hours during the you know for the the course of 12 months if I think more spaces sort of approached sort of their work with young people from that perspective right thinking about the importance of adults in the lives of young people whether you're the teacher in front of them whether you're you know the custodian whoever it is that you're having positive interactions and the impact that that has on the young people is critical and I just wish more spaces sort of recognize that um so I commend you for that because I could hear it all of it I was like yeah it's positive you development positive you development good work you know so I just commend you for all that um and I think even the offerings of all those clubs right it's allowing young people Ser tap into that interest and identify their joy and so how do they then you're shaping more than just just it's more than just Scholars that's important and academic Excellence is is key um but you also want them to be um nurtured in other ways and grow in other ways so I commend you for that I don't think I had heard that story as much as I heard it this evening thank you very much I appreciate that I have one more question on the last slide um which is you mentioned about the fouryear cohort graduation rate because I'm Asian so I'm obviously we look at the Asian number and I noticed that there's none there's no data for the Asian graduates and I know that from the percentage of the students on p on slide number four that out of 1,092 students in high school we do have 7.1% and I remember seeing somebody graduated last year for Asian so I'm just curious about if you have datas for the other subgroups that is not mentioned on here I can look up that subgroup this was from um Jessie Jessie uh so um I can't specifically speak to that right now usually if the cohort is of a certain size they just they don't include it within the accountability like indexes so again it's a table from the Desi profile got it all right thanks Mark we can take up that issue with it Dy outdated data I just want to ask I know in P previous years we've really struggled with kids coming to school right like getting them in the building how has that gone I know you've made some changes to the handbook this year and put in some you know just stricter guidelines how is that it's helped it's definitely helped I one of my professional practice goals last year was looking at the Target rate of students to school or the attendance and it has improved um significantly but there are still students who struggle and we continue to have those conversations um on how to get those students to school and it is not a school conversation where we're engaging the family and the student and um you know to your point earlier that it is a student- centered conversation and if the student isn't part of the conversation then there's no point in having the conversation to be perfectly honest with you um they are young adults and they have to understand the implications of their actions as well but we have to dig deeper on why it's happening and um I mentioned earlier about students being over so of subscribed and there are still students who are leaving here and they are going to work for seven hours after they leave here and I don't say that to be funny that is the reality for some of them and so school is happening but it's not the priority for them so we we are really trying to support the students and being creative in how we can help them get that that work done so I know that was a vague answer but it's it is still something we need to address and we're going to continue to work on it well thank you so much um it's really like moving to hear your passion clearly come through for the students and it's so um you know I think we always are juggling a lot of moving parts and these site Council presentations are a good opportunity to take a pause and really reflect on those experiences that our students are actually having day and in day out in our different buildings and we are here in this building all the time obviously but it's a nice opportunity to stop and think about you know what's going on with um all the people that are in this building every day um and thanks for the work that you do and it's exciting now having had this discussion to look forward to the program of study conversation um and it's exciting to just even know that you're considering some continuing to like evolve the program of study which is obviously always happening in order to um keep providing these great opportunities for students so um thank you for your great presentation and for the conversation thank you everyone have a nice holiday break thank you allation thank you than you thank you um so the other topic that we have to discuss under the superintendent um report this evening pertains to the Massachusetts school building authority the very exciting news that we've received since our last meeting that we have indeed been invited in um and so do you want to give a little sure sort of update on that um so I emailed you all just to let you know kind of a few of the different Milestones over the last couple weeks as we first heard that we were being invited on Friday we attended Friday to the official msba board meeting where they recognized us along with a number of other districts and shared a little bit about what the process would look like we had a webinar today to understand what module one there are different modules that you go through as part of this process they explain it's a 5 to 7 year long process we're in the eligibility phase right now it's a 270-day module um it starts on May 1st but there is work that we can do prior to May 1st to prepare for That official start that's some of what we'll be talking about tonight um I have talked to a lot of folks throughout Milton over the last couple weeks and um I I think there's a collective uh sigh of like relief from I think everyone in town to to have the support of the state and something that we've been grappling with for quite a long time and um kind of a renewed sense of energy around this and as you can hear from every presentation um the the presentation tonight was also stating like the central Offices here and if we ended up somewhere else there would have more space here but that's a separate separate story um but space continues to be a concern it's not that's not going away and we continue to have to kind of work around it and there's an impact on students and staff um so it's from that standpoint too it's just it's uh I I can everyone I think is feeling a little bit more momentum now with this there's a lot of work to do and it's a long process but the the energy is high do you want to talk about the Articles sure so um and I'm realizing I know we approved our agenda already we obviously have a school building committee report on this agenda later um but I also kind of feel like part of this discussion is obviously involving the work that's happened at this School building committee since our last meeting as well so um we are going to look at a couple of Warren articles which are sort of steps in this process that you were just referencing Peter um but Mark and Selena I feel like it may be actually make more sense to kind of talk about the school building committee report in the context of this as well so I don't want to put you on the spot with that but um it may also end up being redundant you know too um the two articles that we have um maybe I'll just sort of frame them out and then particularly for the funding article if either of you would like to kind of chime in on anything I've missed um so the two warrant articles would are intended to um come before the town in February the Fe February town meeting taking place at the end of that month um we have one warrant article which is going to be submitted by the school building committee um that is um an article on funding which is to recommend that the town appropriate uh some um for the purpose of the fees ability study which is as you just mentioned Peter kind of The Next Step uh that will begin in May that's F May 1 so in being able to address this at the February town meeting you know it allows that to be sort of teed up and and ready to hopefully begin moving forward as soon as the um period opens up so that's one thing and that uh is something you can maybe let's pause and just talk about that one first because that is one that you all considered um at your school building committee meeting you voted on that and this is not a binding vote on the school committee's part but rather just an opportunity to make um like an additional recommendation on something obviously pertaining to the project so is there any more information you want to share about that funding article yeah just that the the number came from the owner project manager right our paid Consultants you know we talked about what is the right amount it's funding that's supposed to get us through schematic design phase of the projects before you come back to the town to ask for full funding so just wanted to make sure that the amount would get us through there again that's from our our Consultants who said yes and that they're the ones who came up with that number um so that context in terms of how the number came up and yeah the full SC School building committee voted unanimously and in favor to recommend this warn article and purist towards the site report so that's the fir that's one of the articles that we have the second article that we have pertaining to msba tonight is one that the school committee will submit um because this is an article that addresses the roster of the school building committee um um the school building committee was originally created in 2019 at town meeting um as we all know you know we've been hearing about the fact they've been doing their work for many years already um but that um by uh joining msba for this project from this point forward uh there are some new requirements in terms of the roster or in other words like the roles of the people who sit on the school building committee um and in the language of the article that we have here you can just see uh listed out essentially what positions would need to be added to School building committee to align with what msba requires as you can see here um that includes the superintendent of schools the Town Administrator director of Consolidated facilities an individual with mcpo certification um which is a special certification that I know a couple of our staff in town do have Katie you have that certification uh for example but that that would be appointed by the school committee an individual who holds that um required certification there would be a school principal added that would be appointed by the school committee as well as a local Town budget official uh somebody who has a role in overseeing the budget of the Town um the most straight forward way to go about adding these positions in the way that would support um best support kind of the commitment to this next phase of the school building committee and the work is to add these positions and you know I've had the discussion I've tried to understand this attending the meetings talking to Peter talking to Nick Milano um is to add these as staff positions who are non- voting members of the school building committee so the school building committee is currently comprised of nine members voting members um in order to align with msba what we're proposing here would be to add this additional six members but because they are staff of the Town um they would be there in ex officio capacity as non- voting members but fully participating in all of the meetings and conversations to make sure that the voting members which are appointed by um the moderator select board and school committee in form of two school committee members that um you know they are all fully informed and taking their votes by the district the town um on these key issues so that's my understanding of this and our responsibility um because the district is the you know the entity within town that um is sort of the lead for this project I mean this is a school district project msba has invited Milton public schools into the program um and so that's the reason why it makes sense for us to be the entity that submits this article and the last thing I'll just say is I think there's a shared um like goal of allowing us to just move forward all following the requirements of the process but in as a you know a way that carries momentum and allows us to um sort of build on the progress that we've made to date that sort of red do the parts of the process that need to be redone but that allows us to you mentioned a five to sevene time frame that allows us to like accomplish this project as quickly and efficiently as possible knowing how acute our overcrowding continues to be so by just returning to town meeting to ask town meeting to a and the um School building committee that it established by simply adding these positions that in a very straightforward manner comply with what's required um we feel I feel that that's kind of the best path to just you know move forward and and um be prepared for May 1st to just continue hitting the round running um so I don't know if people have question questions um but we will submit this article if approved and then the select board will have the opportunity to weigh in on it the warrant Committee of course and then it would go to a vote at town meeting along with the one that the school building committee has put forward about $1.5 million for the feasibility study so um we don't have these motions on the floor yet but before we kind of do that are the questions or comments on one or both of these I had a question about the feasibility study and is the the way it's written because it's an amendment to the previous article of 2019 where it says uh feasibility study of an elementary school or middle school for the project for the Cunningham school so that's the part that is um that is the way that our application to msba was written you have to you have to point to the the school of need and then what you're like that's the school with most pressing need and we're doing a feasibility study of that to determine how to address the and that's for example that's why msba did their site visit at Cunningham okay um and so that is the loc you know the school based location that we have uh been invited to explore yeah and I don't I have a second question but I don't know if this should wait so I'll ask it and then you can say wait um the 5 to seven year timeline is there you know knowing that things aren't always built for efficiency is there the ability to impact that timeline at all given the work that's been done or is it um are there things that that because they've been done in that this committee has been working for so long that they can and um that it could expedite the timeline at all do we know or is it just so that's the Hope yeah is that some of the work that has happened already can be uh can help us move through the process faster so hopefully not the seveny year but or the five year work yes exactly but there are some things that we will have to you know redo or revisit and that is just part of what it means to be now part of this process okay thanks but for instance there's a lot of like even just the reconfiguring of the school building Committee in order for us to meet the requirement already it's like we already have it we're not trying to form it from scratch scratch exactly right okay thanks to your question on the article language that's just the article language from the msba just with Milton's information it was more the question about the Cunningham school but that explains it now so I did have a question um the I I mean I like the idea of being prepared for May 1 that makes sense to like hit the ground running um and I did have a question about like can we move the process you know uh speed it up a bit with the work we've already done my question is I know we have a budget deficit in the town so where would we get funding for this in relation to like our 9.44 level service increase or needs-based budget would we have to go for an override in order to make this happen how does that all fit in so the current expectation is that this would be a debt obligation uh through the town's traditional kind of debt okay um that they take out but not require a two and a half override by the full funding will but at a million and a half obviously like the Cunningham fourth floor allocated two million so that still stays kind of under it is likely that that this allocation will impact what other things could be taken out under that kind of capital debt within the current year uh or within future years certainly right because there's still a limit on that that's not an unlimited fund but the amount itself is of a small enough nature that it can just be done through kind of the normal Debt Service not with a two and a half over okay so then the Cunningham third and Kut third and fourth floor because we're going you know we're asking for an increase in that would that be affected At All by this I don't know um I mean I think it depends on not just that but any other Capital request that could be seen as more of a priority than the fourth floor and then just how much all those things so I think all those pieces come together okay um as it relates to like what can fit under our debt service obligation but yeah I can't say exactly it's Capital planning meeting next month we're actually meeting tomorrow oh um at 7:30 in the morning to the dentist forids so that is just a short meeting to commence the cycle okay for this year we have not yet met but that tomorrow is sort of a kickoff right for the yeah for Capital to start meeting any other questions or thoughts okay so I will um I'll go in the order we have them um in the Motions I will make a motion to recommend that the town vote to amend article 6 of the 2019 February special town meeting by adding the following positions to the school building committee established by said article six by adding the superintendent of schools Town Administrator director of Consolidated facilities individual with mcpo certification appointed by the school committee School principal appointed by the school committee and local Town budget official appointed by the Town Administrator and that those would all be non- voting positions is there a second second second all in favor okay thank you so now we can move to the next motion um which I will make the motion to recommend that the town of Milton appropriate the amount of $1,500,000 for the purpose of pay and cost of a feasibility study of an elementary or middle school project for the Cunningham School 44 EDG Hill Road Milton Mass 02186 including the payment of all costs incidental or related theto and for which the town may be eligible for a grant from the Massachusetts school building authority said amount to be expended under the direction of the school building committee is there a second second all in favor okay thank you anything under superintendence report think we got all right got everything covered so next we have then the chair's report uh we are going to continue our conversation about the um school year calendar as we look ahead um not yet considering the specific calendar for 25 26 next year but really trying to move towards some clarity um as you you know Peter and the leadership team go about drafting the calendar for next year which we will look at and vote upon in January so um I guess just a couple framing comments and then um we'll kind of look at some information that um that I pulled together to try to like ground the discussion and then we'll just open it up and see where people are at at this point um so just in terms of sort of making sure that the community or anybody listening um is clear about what we're doing having this conversation um it is the role of the school committee annually to approve the school calendar for the district um and you know we understand as a school committee that it's our responsibility to do that in the way that ultimately best supports student learning and uh one thing we've been really focused on is our understanding that creating inclusive learning environments that Foster a sense of belonging um is one really important aspect of this uh because we know that as we talk about here safe and supportive schools are really what promote academic Excellence for our students um and we want to optimize our calendar as best we can to support students their families and our staff to all be successful um something we also understand of course is that you know um in this country we have a separation of church and state we are a public school district um and so we are not practicing religions or promoting specific religious practices within our schools but we Al at the same time want to be supportive of many of our students their families and staff who um are religious for whom that is an important part of their identity um as well as cultural um practices that um you know in some cases mean they are celebrating holidays that are taking place during the school year and you know we want to be um respectful and supportive of that we also have thought about um through this process the opportunity to enrich all of our students learning by raising awareness of multiculturalism that exists in our schools that includes learning about world religions as well um and there are both academic ways that that you know occurs through our standards in Massachusetts but there's also you know helpful um opportunities to do that in a more extracurricular way that um um we've heard some examples about so I just want to acknowledge obviously for anybody who's been following along this is not a new topic um it's something that school committees and communities all over grapple with um they grapple with it over time and we here in Milton have been directly discussing this topic for the past couple of years and at different points in the past as you know um our calendar has evolved through time um our particular Focus for this discussion over the past year has really um and the community listening process that we undertook this fall was to really think about specifically religious and cultural holidays in terms of how whether or how we acknowledge those with a day off or not um and you know we also though even with that specific Focus know that we can't consider this question in a vacuum and there a lot of other related questions have come up through this process of um of listening and exploring um some of them include you know questions about when we start and end the school year um a a layer of that is how we adapt to climate change and the fact that our classrooms have gotten hotter at the beginning and the end of the school year for example uh We've also been um hearing questions about how we incorporate professional learning and plan thoughtfully for that um and we know that that's important to ensure that our our Educators can be keeping up with things like new technology like best practices um to meet the needs of all of our students so that's an important related piece that's come up and just to name that you know we are all sitting around here at this table like balancing a lot of different perspectives on this topic uh we've heard from folks in our LES listening sessions by emails public comment probably our friends and neighbors people that we encounter just individually um and we know that there's not necessarily agreement within groups um as so there there're just a lot of competing um and you know complimentary things for us to be considering I'd like to just acknowledge my gratitude to all of you for like participating in this discussion because I know it's not easy I think now and then things come before a school committee that just feel really challenging because you know that no matter what you're going to do with the best of intentions you're you it will not be possible to please everybody with the decision you're going to make and I think that's pretty hard to appreciate if you haven't sat in a seat like under the pressure pressure to take that decision so I know that it's not easy um I personally sit here with like a pit in my stomach you know each time we bring this up um for that reason um there are people that I know I personally deeply respect you know who have shared perspectives with us with me that I no matter what like there there will be people I personally deeply respect that I will deeply disapp point with whatever happens that's really not easy um but what this presentation is going to be is just a very brief attempt to kind of summarize some of the key points and themes that have come through um it's not comprehensive it's not exhaustive it's just trying to summarize this for us to kind of like help us have this next piece of the discussion the goal I think of this discussion tonight um is to kind of bring what we've each considered and heard into the into a an attempt to arrive at some type of consensus okay hopefully where four of us at least if not five or six of us sort of share um a perspective on how we can best meet the needs of our students and our community when it comes to Holiday holiday religious or cultural holidays with days off or not days off um we want through this discussion and to take a vote on recommending an approach to provide you with Clarity but this isn't like set in stone we're not making a commitment to anything tonight per se because as we're all aware when it comes back in January is when we're going to look at the actual uh dates so I'm going to try to present some scenarios here not as like options strictly speaking to choose from but really just to try to ground Us in dates for 2025 and 2026 because from our last conversation it emerged that that was a piece we had missed we hadn't gotten to that point yet which is why we took more time to have this discussion tonight um so Mark can you yes thanks you have the logo this I got I I I got the logo so just on the title slide all right um this is okay so you all have this we're not going to like talk through every slide this this is really just a reminder of some of the holidays that um have been on our radar um and just what the dates are in 25 26 so you can go forward please okay there's two slides of some key assumptions that I just wanted to capture um this is not this is not to like limit the discussion in any way so if any of you have like want to push back on any of these assumptions or expand them please do um I think we're having this conversation having arrived in a place where we originally were considering the request to add Eid as a day off but over the course of last Springs conversation last winter spring we began to consider this sort of Trio of days off that we were thinking about adding that included Dali and new Lunar New Year in an attempt to um acknowledge the growing diversity of our population in Milton um but I'm just putting that out as a question you know because I we can you know that's just something I think we've talked about but we can keep discussing it uh just to reiterate we're not we haven't been talking about removing days off for any of the holidays that we see here we have assumed that we would continue to have a winter recess um and that we would uh continue to have February and April vacations which is what the districts around Massachusetts have um I want to really be sure to underscore that any changes to removing currently existing holidays have bargaining implications depending on the holiday they're different ones um as you all know we're at the very beginning really about to begin the process of negotiations for our our Union contracts and so just to keep in mind that you know what we recommend or what we may even ultimately choose to approve in January may be pending negotiations over the coming months um I want to acknowledge that we don't currently have enough demographic information to look at specifics um in terms of numbers of families within our our community who celebrate various holidays and that's a limitation that we've run into in our process I think we've done a lot of good work to try and engage with the community but we haven't been able to go to that level of gathering data um so that's a limitation of our process currently um an assumption I think we have coming into this is that we will be maintaining generally the same amount of PD time so this is just like adjacent to the conversation but again it's connected because uh we heard from our community members that when we end the school year matters and also the consistency of students having days off within the year for whatever reason is a very important concern um and there is a concern with having too many days off too much time off learning within meeting a requirement of 180 days of course but um that's something that we haven't talked about compromising on because we understand how important our professional learning is um on the next slide um these are just some of the key assumptions continued that are a little more logistical um and again they're not set in stone these are just the pieces of information that I think are like in the background of our discussion um and all of this is up for conversation um does anybody have any questions like clarifications I guess about any of these pieces or can we just quickly run through the various scenarios as food for thought and then just open it up so scenario one I've captured five scenarios which I believe are the some of the Alternatives that we have really been thinking through scenario one would be to add days off for Dali Lunar New Year and E all fitter that we would keep um yum kapor and Good Friday as days off as we currently have just to name I have yam kapor listed here but uh we know that when yam kapor falls on a weekend we then um instead are taking a day off for the first day of rashishana um but basically scenario one would um add those days off not remove days off um either for the holidays we curently have or attempt to um remove days off we have the Friday before Labor Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving this is a theme we already looked at within our survey data a lot of questions coming up about those two days in particular we know that those two days in particular are in our contracts if we were trying to change those um and have school on one or both of those days we would have to bargain that in negotiation for scenario one um this would result in the longest school day sorry longest school year um where the earliest we would end school would be June 22 and we always have to account for five snow days that could take us um really late into June the second scenario is um to add additional holidays keep the holidays we already have um but also try to go back to school um on the Friday before Labor Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which a lot of folks were suggesting we do of it again as bold um it's pending bargaining contract negotiations so we're on scenario two now sorry sorry okay so that would you know have the last day be prior to juneth um and sort of roughly similar to what we have now scenario three would be to remove yum kapor and Good Friday as day off can you move to scenario three please thanks um to maintain the current days off um on those other two days but not to make other changes and then scenario four would be to basically not have uh again remove um yam kapor and good Fridays days off not add additional holidays for religious or cultural holidays but to try to go to school on those other days again that results in the earliest possible last day of school and finally scenario five would just be to not change anything which would be a rather interesting place to end up after all of this discussion but that's where that would be I hope that I have not further complicated things here I just I hope that gives us like some parameters to think about and I really would like to just um you could maybe stop sharing the screen and we can just open it up and welcome whatever thoughts questions you all have and I think this is an important discussion so what whatever time we need um you can see you know where I'm ultimately hoping to get in our motions is that you know we can arrive at a motion um that um moves us forward in the process but that is is really flexible depending on this discussion so I'll stop there I'll start with thank you for pulling all this together um and I think the framing at the beginning as well that it's not an easy task to take on um because we have heard so much and there you know there is a lot of um varied opinions um and I appreciate sort of the the thought to the various scenarios that we have before us um and there could be you know an an alternate scenario of course yeah thank you for meing that not a right it's not just yeah yeah there could be others um that could emerge from the conversation um so I do I do want to say that and I'll stop there for now and let my colleagues chime in first well I'm also going to say thank you Lizzie for pulling this together because I think the process that you went through to put this together which I was actually reminded at the beginning of Citizen St today so I appreciate thoughtfulness that you put into this process that hasn't been done before and so I recognize um this was a lot of work on your part to do this but I appreciate it and it's really nice for us to kind of see all of that information compiled here um in front of us and this this as difficult as a decision as it is it kind of makes it a little bit more like approachable like I feel like we can come to a decision um on it so I appreciate that thank you I did have a question on scenario three if um where it says remove young for in Good Friday are those part of contract negotiations or is that not part of that like if we were to go ahead and do that um I mean there are different realities for contract negotiations depending on the day um for Good Friday it's in the asme contract and the Unit D contract as a day off so if the the negotiation around those days would be different that that day would be different than the W the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday before Labor Day because those are for all staff and those are have a different kind of context okay um what we'd have to do for Good Friday we would have to figure out a way to work with both of those units and and essentially give them another day off somewhere else so it would be like a we'd have to look at the calendar I kind of figure out what that I'm going to play the other two are within the unit a contract that you know we won't have school on those days and so and there's a history to the Friday before Labor Day when we decided to move from starting school after Labor Day to before that was one of the concessions that was made in negotiations so I I don't know in terms of engaging in those conversations what if if the thought has changed on those over the last don't how is it a decade can any does anyone know how when when we moveed from pre to or post to pre at least a decade right yeah and I think the Wednesday from what I understand the Wednesday is also something that is has not always been so we did have like a half day on Wednesday at at some point in the past but it could it could be a while ago um I have a question because for February vacation and April vacation is always anchor on President's Day and Patriots Day patriots day but then for winter break is not there's no clear cut of when do we start and when do we end and that is a big question so I'm looking at the next three school years um assuming we started on the on December 24th and comes back on January 2nd it will work for the next three school years to have two full weekends off I think that's generally the goal of the winter recess which is the longest break of the Year MH so it's the only break that lasts for longer than one week and I think that is the general practice yeah not just in Milton but in is to try to provide that as roughly a week and a half off total so my question is yeah should we have some clear wording on when this winter breaks supposed to start and supposed to end so that in the future we will not run into the problem of like oh last year we had like two full weekends this year we only had one well we we think about that so when we're we look at the winter break and we look at where you know essentially have to look at where the holidays fall right and you're G to you're going to bridge the two holidays and then you have to look at is it going to go this direction or this direction to get those times so if you look at this year where we're coming back to school we have a full week off and then we have read it three days off we come back for two whereas next year it falls if you look at the calendar it falls more the other way because it really doesn't make sense to come back for one day for a Friday our attendance would be really really poor and that's one of the other metrics in figuring these things out is if if no one's going to be there you're you're wasting a a learning day right yeah um so it probably makes sense to take off that Friday and extend to the right side andary next year yes yes yep so don't come back Friday January 2 but just go all the way through and then be in school forther and and some districts will take off the full two weeks in that context that's not uncommon but we could also come back for you know I would suggest being in school for the first part of that week and then off for that week and a half I think which brings up that question around Christmas Eve day you know I mean it's not a holiday I mean it's you understand why it's from a convenience State standpoint I guess why people take it off but if you're looking at that like to your point if you looked at next year the 22nd is a Monday right Christmas day is Thursday so you're not going to take that whole week off that doesn't make sense to take the whole week off but then what is the determination of what the what the added day is yeah and I guess that's one of the questions I had in in looking at it from the standpoint of I guess not philosophically I don't know how else to put it but like what is the what is the rational now that you use that we use for what days are off right so I mean ultimately is it is it okay federal holidays are a given and then we are is it then are we do we then say that's that next level of do you acknowledge relid or is it because I think that's where now we get into the if so then what right like to what degree do you do it and so I don't know if that's a filter by which districts do it and sort of do you know what I mean like is there a because then other ways then it just starts getting murky because then it's a we're doing this and then these but not those so that's where I think the conversation it's almost like if you have a a line in it on it I mean I'm saying this as if it's easy I don't mean it that way but it's almost like do you is that the filter is it like it's federal holidays and then well and it is the L you just referenced is um and I mean I think in doing some of the research around other communities that have taken different approaches we have observed that sometimes they do run into challenges when they remove a day off and call that a school day but then cannot staff the building on that school day let alone student attendance so that's where the philosophical which I think is important very valid and important because we do have a a lens on this conversation is about equity and you know wanting to have a fair approach um and also the the question has been raised about Christmas Eve and whether that should be a school day uh knowing that Christmas is the federal holiday along with New Year's Day of course but I think that is a question we would have to confront would be would we be able to staff our buildings on um if we had school on Christmas Eve and chose to not begin winter recess until Christmas day um or if our demographics look different if you have a primarily Latin American you know student base you wouldn't have attendance Christmas right because in a lot of places the celebration happens Christmas Christmas Eve day so therefore you know we would have to sort of weigh that differently yeah Mar is a good word right so I think when I come to this from the original impetus of the conversation which was thinking about and belonging um then I would say that for me scenario 2 sort of hits some of that you know not perfectly but it does start getting us at you know if we that's the lens we're going to use and that's how we're going to arrive at decisions then it would be that or it would be let's get rid of all the celebrations right all of them that are not required federally and then um you know make make it so that we don't have YY poor we don't have good Friday and we don't add any additional and we get to a much shorter school year um but that then starts to you know send another message right um and so I feel like it's you know it's scenario 4 or scenario two um for me scenario five doesn't feel like it's it's really one we should or I would entertain um huh you put up SC so um that's that's where I'm at right now so I just wanted to continue may move the conversation so can I ask a question to see what you or others think to just share that my own main like a a challenge I have in thinking about scenario 2 is just this concern that was raised around the growing diversity of our community and the recognition that we would not ever be able to take a day off for like every holiday that was even shared directly through through the survey um and so I don't don't know what to do with that because I think as we see even in adding these three holidays which I do I feel is a very Noble attempt to try to be more inclusive of more members of our community but to me it also does send a message that like if like we have taken this strong attempt to be more inclusive we don't actually have like hard numbers to know actually how many students staff members families do these holidays represent proportionally we have struggled and that's not our that's a that's a um larger question about you know demographic data that's much bigger than this conversation but it does give me pause because we're lengthen you know we're talking about keeping a long a longer than most school school year without achieving full inclusion we might be closer to full inclusion but I'm I'm just going to say that's something that I'm sort of worried about because I'm also worried about well what happens and you know I'm gonna stop there actually because we can't we can only worry about what we have right now and not future proof it per se but um what are you all like thinking about that piece does anyone have Insight around that that you could share to help me feel better about that so I agree with what you said I mean I think we're getting closer towards being inclusive by recognizing more holidays but doesn't include everybody so I'm going to use myself as an example I was born in Caroline India which is down south I grew up in Mumbai we celebrated Dali in Mumbai we don't in carola it's not as popular we have a lot of other holidays so technically it doesn't represent me if I was a student you know what I mean so I think that's where we run into those challenges right where because cultural holidays are very complex they could change by by region by state in India for instance so I think it gets very and I think I mentioned it at our our lisening session um so I think that's where it's challenging I know like for in in one of the survey answers uh someone mentioned Assyrian New Year right like that's it could be just a couple of members but they're just as important you know so I think that's where we don't we I I don't know if as much as I like this and I think we're heading in the right direction I just don't know if we're completely being inclusive and what's our plan to see those students you know and I think that's where I don't have an answer I I agree with that I mean I think that's that it's a challenge I have as well I think the other thing I look at is like we we went out and asked for feedback from our community and the overwhelming response within the survey and within all the listening sessions I I was at I think what I heard from most of y'all is like not to add days and I when I cut the data too there's there's only one minority group where the majority of members actually want to add days which is the Muslim uh Group which is is you know obviously part the original group that like brought this up and so that also I that I struggle with that a bit of like you know we were doing this to try and be responsive to a group that was asking about the inequity in terms of how we're teaching abrahamic religions that group overwhelmingly within the survey data is asking for us to add days everyone else within the community is you know majority within each of those groups as I I cut it up um is asking us to say just remove days don't add more days don't extend the year so like how do you balance those things right I don't like how do you balance the like creating a a tyranny of the majority versus ignoring the voices of almost 80% of the people that you know we asked and that took the time to share and like to say like yeah we know all of you wanted this but like we're actually not we're not going to do it so like both those things don't feel great uh I agree with what you guys just shared and um one of the Community member also emailed us with a example of Franklin Public School calendar and in their calendar it's not necessary that they recognize all the the religious holidays of their school demographic but they do list uh all the holidays that people might observe like for example what what is um Chinese New Year what is Ash Ash wnes day like what is Ramadan and when is it what what's the significance I think that's more educational and it makes more sense um so looking at the scenario that you you work so hard to put together I agree that if we go back to scenario number five which we make no changes and keep the schedule as this year it does not make any sense after we've have done all those thinking and touring around this District um scenario number four speaks stronger to me because but but I do worry about the Staffing part because I'm looking at the survey data we do have 45% for um Catholic in the district that we according to the survey data that we have um get back so I'm not sure as you said how many of these datas are from um students or teachers in or staff in the district so what if you don't have enough staff to to run the school day right or if you have very low attendance of students on this school day so but we don't know what we don't know until we really going through it right so if if it's really that important people do will still take the day off so for example I do my family celebrate Luna New Year Chinese New Year here um and similar to Christmas we the the night before is more important than the day itself um because the night before is the reunion dinner the day itself we start with like um different area in ch China we we have different Customs but in my area we we eat vegetarian food to start off the new year like cleansing your body to start off fresh um but as a student going through the public school system in Boston I never take that day off because I worry that I might miss some like important stuff and stuff like that but as a as as a working person now a day I do take that day off because I could you know um it really depends on what your position is at the time right so I I if I'm a student in this school right now I most likely will still come to school because I will celebrate with my family at in uh on New Year's Eve Eve right same as on Christmas Eve you will celebrate V family um so but if if it's the staff who are a majority of the data survey from if they are if the 45% Catholics are majority of staff and faculty member in the school district then we will not have enough people to run the school assuming that everyone's pracy that's what I'm that's true we did it what the if you broke the S the data of Staff um down right Mark it was I think the majority of staff were indicating a preference to not extend the school year um but I think what you just raised was is really important it's a good reminder also that each of these holidays is very different I mean we've know for example that for Jewish people who are celebrating yam Kor that that is different that is a day spent in synagogue through the day so that is different from a holiday that's predominantly celebrated in the evening for example um but I like I I want to highlight something you also just I think alluded to which for me is as important if not more important than the discussion about the actual days which is no matter what we decide with the calendar what I hope we can really commit to building a better system for inclusion and accommodation for people who are celebrating holidays especially if we move in the direction of taking uh fewer days off but even if we add days off knowing that we still won't um we still won't be taking a day off for every holiday that everybody might celebrate so I think that other districts have done more and we can follow some examples about having for example clearer policies around no homework clear policies around athletic practices and just very clear guidelines that support our staff in making sure that those accommodations are consistent um because that's a message we've heard very commonly like from me many different places through this process is that it's currently been inconsistent and inadequate um and along with that would be a system of requesting the personal day for if you're an employee like for example you're talking about the example of Good Friday like would there be a system to ask faculty to and staff to like say by a certain time like far enough ahead I intend to take that day as a personal like religious holiday there the point is like we could solve for that I think that there are things that could be put in place to um do our best to like find sub coverage well in advance or to make accommodations to combine class or whatnot as needed for a given day but those pieces are all the things that are like floating in this space of the discussion which kind of will fall on the district to implement you know after the calendar is set and then those new and there may be some changes to our policies that will be required as well um but we can keep looking at that as we kind of go forward yeah in one of following what you just said in one of the district I work before also Public School District the day before Thanksgiving or before any holiday you cannot take that day off you cannot request a day off on that day it's it's by the the contract policy and also like um if there's more than like 20% of the the the building people are out are requesting out on certain day um they will not grant that all all the requests so they they're limiting like each day you can only have like that 10 people out or 20 people out to make sure the school can still function without you oh that being said is that is it Poss is it possible that all those like PSAT task could be scheduled on on the day that a lot of people might wanted to take it off no it doesn't work it doesn't work yeah so I do want to make a comment about Athletics I know it's come up but I think with not having enough facilities and just Athletics becoming so competitive that they get scheduled right so it's hard I mean I just heard of like there's hockey on Christmas Eve so um so I think that's very challenging to actually make happen because there's you know I know like even in the spring when there's like fields are limited and don't have enough um um facilities I think it makes it really challenging to say oh there was no going to be no any no practice or games that day or even to recognize that a student like one student might not show up to practice because of a holiday where others do you know what I mean like to just and have that be I don't know I think there's a definitely a different mentality when it comes to Athletics that it's sort of like okay there's the written policy and then there's the accepted we heard a lot of that heard a lot of it a lot of it concerns around not practices that you know are make unofficial that make a student feel like I can't miss right and there's a lot of pressure at that age like you know all of these are important to you know as an adult like we're looking at this calendar and saying oh my gosh this is so important but as a child if you of like a 12 or 13 year old they have other things that are their priorities not ours that are not the same as ours so along with the policy or guidelines or however that will end up looking to support and um excuse absences and whatnot I think you know the other part of that which is not for tonight but which is conversation going forward is something we had begun to think about um and we'll need to continue you know you'll work with your team about those ideas of um like expanding opportunities for learning in school in appropriate ways but where it's more consistent we available you know across our elementary schools for example or um so just to name that that's like another thing that we want to do including for holidays cultures um that have never had a day off you know but which are also good and important to um raise awareness about and appreciation for so that's a larger initiative and I think that also connects back to our public comment speaker for tonight you know um like what are ways that we can meaningfully like celebrate and raise awareness for all the different ethnic and cultural groups that live in Milton um that's a large that's that's an ongoing conversation and you know I think you'll be continuing to work on that through this year right yeah absolutely yeah something that fa and I have been working on and I think like on that note um I know we had received an email earlier this last week about um the human rights uh celebration of Human Rights you know so something that we might think is with good intention could might not have the same effect on someone so when we kind of look at things through that lens as we build consistency across what is shared across our six schools and uh you know just want to make sure that we're hugging on that just so that everyone feels safe and included you know in our buildings so so what are we doing not sure if this is the right time to bring it up um since you're mentioning about like a districtwide cultural celebrations mut Mosaic I'm part of the um the aapi neighbors group um we are trying to do one celebrate celebration events per month um celebrating all the cultures that we have in this town um so for example in in September we did a mo Festival in October we have the Italian heritage month and November we have that up off November I don't remember but but we do have the Lunar New Year celebration coming up um original planning for January but uh because of like schedule wise we we're doing it early February instead so tentatively scheduled on February 8th Saturday 5 to 7 P.M p.m. at the pi middle school so as a district district w we we do see that different school does different kinds of teaching or education around culture culture and holidays itself and some school does more like for example C has an annual Luna New Year celebration an annual uh cultural Day celebration in June but not all the schools in our town that's that so our student do have different experience coming into uh middle and high school so that that is one reason why we the mut Mosaic wanted to do um collaborations on this part um so we will hope to collaborate with the school district and all the residents in town to make events more successful and more accessible uh and well funded so just just a little plug in here I think it's really great that you're doing that thank you and thank you for letting us know the day hope to be there well once everything is set in stone I will send all flyer so watch out for the emails go back to the calendar I would like to say that I haven't moved from Scenario two and scenario 4 and even taking into account sort of what we heard because scenario 2 does not necessarily make the school year longer than it currently is until Mother Nature does what Mother Nature does and that we can't you know control um and the other in terms of scenario 4 then I think if we can't we're not going to add then I think we need to face a really hard decision which is remove because what's our rationale for keeping y poor and Good Friday um but not add any others um and this one would definitely respond to the folks who say we want a shorter school year great okay we're not going to add anymore the other one add but it also takes away so that we get to a similarly you know end of school year um so that's where I think it's a hard decision it's where do we want to sort of go um and to this question of sort of you know it's not inclusive of everybody it's not and it never will be um so I would I'm not going to use an idiom because I always get them wrong I am an immigrant get them wrong and English is my second language so I'm not going to use that but I'm not going to sort of throw away an an alternative right for just because it's not perfect um and it isn't um but I do sort of and I think in terms of the survey I do sit with the fact that it was not representative of our district um and I do want to sort of sit with those who the minority in that that were sort of encouraging us to add um so I I say with that tens that's more more with that tension that I sit with um but I do still see that those are the two scenarios that I'm contemplating um still I mean I I do agree that I think scenario one is practically infeasible um even just from the standpoint of our student learning experiences in classrooms exceeding 90 degrees for week more than a week plus that would be reasonable to just anticipate that to me that doesn't make sense with our primary responsibility being to like ensure that our students can be learning um and I don't think I don't think it's feasible to anticipate a possible last day of June 29th I mean so I all I I don't personally consider that scenario viable I also agree that scenario 5 is not something I'm interested in um supporting either um the idea of I think where scenario 3 like quite honestly what I think about that scenario is just a way to almost be prepared for the reality of a negotiation process you know in that um scenario two does depend upon the successful negotiation of adding those other two days back as working days um and again these scenarios are not be all end all like it could be possible potentially to add one but not both right you know um maybe we go back to have a half day the day before Thanksgiving but we still have the Friday before Labor Day as a as a day off like these are all possible um but scenario 3 is in there as a you know it kind of does part of what scenario 4 does but it also doesn't it's not as like much hinging upon the negotiations um but it's you know all that's just to say I I'm with you I I I'm really I feel torn between these um two approaches and you know I also in addition to everything you just articulated sitting with which I also it's also what you said Mark about you know when we asked for feedback and we got feedback it wasn't fully representative but it wasn't it was not fully it it was not like totally non-representative it did have pretty good representation of many like elements of our community I also think that in our conversations though in the conversations that we had it was don't add if the year gets longer that's true right so it wasn't just don't add it was just don't add if that means I'm gonna be you know the kids are GNA be there until the end of jun that is how it I think that is something that's important to take into account absolutely and then it wouldn't be going against what we heard it just we heard you we're not GNA add and then we're not doing scenario yeah exactly right that's a really good point another thing we heard too is was about um just the chop right as I was say the and the sort of a lot I mean numerous times it's raised like how few full weeks we have like we have months where we have like one or two full School weeks between holidays and professional development yeah and so that's the other that's another piece to it which um you know is I know you're going to be considering how to possibly make the professional learning time like more predictable or somehow like at least have some um way of bringing consistency to that as a schedule um but that is like as you look at adding for example if we're going to keep um like adding Dali is another day off in the fall um and anyway just sort of that's that's a consideration that's just and that was I did you know that was something that was in a lot of the comments that people made and then I think similarly of the the issue you know obviously it's not across the board but if you think about like the absenteeism right getting kids to school like the more broken up the week is the more days that you have off the harder it is to gain that attraction and those kids coming to school so I know it's not the reason to do it but I I do think these that that sense of consistency and that that as parent and as parents being able to you know have time off like that's those are those are factors as well to consider because these aren't days off oh absolutely like child care for people that's that's yeah I did want to ask I know I think it was at the Glover side Council presentation they mentioned like when you have an early dismissal day the actual amount of time that they get to collaborate and do work is only an hour or so yeah um so is there a way to perhaps have more full days versus these half days and make less like so less Interruption I guess I don't know if there's a way to do that just because I mean right now we don't have I mean I think if you did a comparative analysis to other District PD schedules were pretty thin overall and having two days and then five essentially five because one split over two so five half days um we have issues right now that we have to figure out with our half days that are not working where we want them to so that's like something that we are working on hopefully for next year to make those better um I do think as we hire a new assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and as as we kind of hit the ground with all the work that we're doing in our action teams we start building things we'll have a better idea of what we need and then balancing that with the needs in the community because I I I mean I've always had this this there's a tension between the challenges that parents face with professional development time it's really hard and then the impact on the school district when you have no professional learning time if you want to try to build towards Fidelity of anything like any kind of systems development takes bringing people together to to do that work so it's unfortunately like our our construct is such that it's we're kind of in between like trying to do both those things well so I I don't think I I don't think we're there yet at all and I think I agree that we have to be mindful of not when we have that time we have to really make yeah fly agree um I think from my perspective like there are I think other calendar conversations that can be had should be had as we look at like an actual draft calendar I think and from my perspective within this conversation really addressing the the point around the removal of these two uh religious holidays or the addition of the three religious holidays should be like our outcome of this discussion and that even is a reason why I I think the conversation around Labor Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I think it's helpful to like see the impact within like a scenario and like what happens if we we don't get this but we know those are I think the point you made like we know they dep Bond collective bargaining we can't make that unanimously I think we can assume like we can continue those conversations in the future about whether or not we want to have those days potentially given they don't have religious connotation I always struggle a bit with trading a full day of learning for a half day of learning on a Wednesday but again I think that's like a separate conversation really from like what we're talking about I think the goal of this in terms of the equity conversation here um I think folks are we're like talking about scenarios I think for me it's more a scenario three or four that essentially just kind of assumes one of the two things will occur with Labor Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I personally have really strong feelings at all about Labor Day one way or the other the Friday before Labor Day I should say and the Wednesday I think it's a again just for the conversation but I think for me it comes to like you know I think I think people make personal choices I think cultural and religious practice are deeply personal and really important personal choices uh I think like a decision to have a holiday or not have a holiday is not an indication that those days don't matter and in the same way where I have like conversations with family and students about like who take personal days away from school for funerals for weddings like for really important family uh and personal events that happen and like we say pleas go like yeah this is great um and so I think those things will continue will always exist will continue to exist and there's no reason no way we'll be able to excuse all of them um and I think if we get back to the point like the idea of like currently we're not treating the abrahamic religions equally how can we how can we make an equitable decision um I think it's about like not prioritizing a personal p a particular personal choice within our count as a as a school district and allowing families to make that determination as they you know practice or don't practice certain things um I think the other piece to me is like I deeply like our mission is to educate students and I think students will learn more by being in the building and like developing a more rigorous like curriculum of study around these days and learning about these days versus being off for the days I I just I believe that very deeply I think I think that's also what we heard from our students when we ask our students um and so I I think that is in my opinion the best way to spread knowledge and like that the best impact we can make as a school district um and then again I just think the the survey data is well it might not be completely reflective it's just like eight out of 10 people to ask them to agree on anything is really hard and that's what we have here and over that 84% of all respondents who self-identified in a minority racial or ethnic group uh you know chose to or uh were favorable in the response of like we should reduce the number of days off and I hear you completely Selena around like how we framed it I think that's that's fair potential criticism of the survey I will say within like the question itself that we ask we say just Milton Public Schools should reduce the number of days off for cultural and religious holidays that not federally recognized while allowing for excuse absences for those who do celebrate a given holiday so within that question we don't say anything about like shortening or extending the school year it's just that statement I think we did talk about that within like the context at the top of the survey and certainly within the oneoff or I mean the um inperson conversations I know it came up but um within again within that question I just think the response is is overwhelming across again every group every religious group you cut through every ethnic group you cut through as I said with with the exception um of the Muslim Community which I I don't take for for granted but um I should F upon kind of that broad support I I would be in favor of a motion to remove yam Kor and Good Friday his days off I have a question on this particular one have we looked at any data on if there's a Monday holiday what is the attendance rate on the Friday before just curious about Labor Day as a potential like if we were to go full day um I mean I think it might be I don't have the data off top of my head but I'm not sure different Fridays are going to have different impacts I would think like that Labor Day weekend is I don't I mean just because I'm not like steep steeped in the the culture of this 4day Labor Day because I've only had it a year now used to it um I don't know how strong it is for people in terms of like if they would thing right if it's a thing or not so we could definitely get that data though um was just curious like yeah yeah for instance if there's a Monday holiday for like anything would people take Friday off just because if they're traveling or make a long weekend out of it like what is what is the attendance um data the I mean the other option I do like scenario 3 um I think that makes sense um I would like to see like a scenario 3B that says half day before Thanksgiving the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and still maintaining Labor Day the Friday before Labor Day is a day off just as another alternate if that you know so as just so that we can shorten that day one more one complication with those two days yeah with the Friday for Labor Day and the Wednesday for Thanksgiving is that we're going to have to build something into the calendar in January when we when you all through the calendar yeah but the negotiations may not be that quick right so this may be a long-term thing not a shortterm y yeah and then I think I think in order to be Mark you made some really good points about scenario great which definitely could I add a a 3 b.2 I guess the same question would be about Labor Day because a half day still counts if you it's a school day correct so if you did that Friday before Labor Day is a half day because then people are still because I think that was the thing like I know as a parent you're like oh great we're you came back we're there for two days then we're off for a day then we're you know at least then if you got you can go you know you can go you can still go away for the long weekend you're if it's a half day for people um it doesn't feel like you came back from whatever vacation you were on only to come home for two days and then you know I don't know just makes sometimes it just having that extra bit of time feels a little bit wor worthwhile but again that's a that's a nuanced piece of the conversation um but I think I'm in that the same camp as scenario three but in that I just I do struggle with um go to your point you know the survey did that was pretty overwhelmingly people saying they weren't looking to add days um so all I you know I don't need to belor what you said but so that's where you know I do struggle with the the reason why the we were asked to go through this you know was in order to do that but um I think having done the survey and getting responses from people is helpful so that is where I'm going and I do really like what Franklin did with their calendar with having those explanations because I think that's another part of that original request to be seen and I think that's a good starting point to what we would like to see as a district do in terms of recognizing cultures right but I think that's a good step in the right direction where we're identifying and maybe maybe there's a way to kind of track student data to see like make sure that all the holidays and it could be really long but I think it's important you know and I think it it really having that explanation is also helpful because I'm like wow this is great you know even for me looking at it you know so I just I just think that's it's really helpful I know it doesn't make our calendar on one page anymore but it's just design second page I will effort to do better with that P that you know which is something we've talked about we just haven't done it yet but you are saying that we are doing it so yeah so that um to me that makes a difference and that it's only with confidence in that commitment that I feel comfortable to contemplate scenario three or four I don't feel comfortable with the idea of removing days off and not right responding to the request for additional days off I I would not feel comfortable for going down that path no with status quo elsewhere like I think the only way to contemplate that as any type of a meaningful step in a good direction for for equity and inclusion in our diverse Community it it's only with the commitment undering it but that's a leap of faith um because we don't know what that will end up looking like and I think that's a commitment that all of us need to make too you know to make sure I mean it's it's so great that B has taken the lead on this you know her efforts to create things and I think we as a district and us at this table should support those efforts and expand on them and see how we can incorporate more of that you know um CommunityWide and you know with Peter's help districtwide you know I think that's um so I think we have to commit to that so it's not just on paper but we are working towards that I think so I'm going to voice something that I'm struggling with and I'm thinking of our Jewish population and how we got to recognizing yankapur and rashash how did we get there and it was an effort to try to be inclusive to see the diversity in our town and it's I feel like just we're taking that wind away yeah and so I want to name it and that doesn't mean that there is sort of like the perfect again scenario that's going to add and I and I hear sort of this comment of like you know Mark's comment of personal choice Etc and I I'm struggling with that I'm I'm really struggling with sort of just turning our eye away from inclusivity and sense of belonging and I I just I just want to voice that I'm I'm really wrestling with that because it's almost like we're undoing work that some of our you know fellow residents did to get to the point where the high holiday for the Jewish Community was recognized and I think there must have been a compromise along the way say okay you get yours and I get mine um and maybe I'm simplifying it which I'm sure I am but I just I'm struggling with that yeah there's a sense of um like you're saying taking away a win or what was act what was prog meaningful progress actually um because of a sense that it's not possible to extend that same win or progress to other groups and I do think that you know with the original for this round of the conversation requests regarding Eid you know that was that was all that was requested that was one that was Milton Muslim neighbors that came forward with that request and they were not concerned with devali or Lunar New Year they were concerned with Eid um and that was framed as the question of the you know the abrahamic religions that three sort of similar um Judaism Christianity and Islam that should be similarly recognized in our calendar um and I in how I interpret what you just said I felt that in that request in that conversation it was not a a request to take something away from someone else but rather to just extend the same recognition of of one day off and then it became more complex last year when the question then was raised well what about these additional two holidays right which go beyond abrahamic religions and extend to two other cultural ethnic groups that you know are growing in size within Milton and that's how we're here now but I think in articulating what you're struggling with that's why this is so hard I don't want to sit here and be in a position of like making anyone feel disrespected certainly not and I appreciate how you just said that so listen I'm not sure what where we're at with this I would like to remind us that it is um again the goal is is just to sort of recommend an approach and it definitely may not be that we all agree on that um the goal would be to get to an approach that then you are able to sort of consider in your taking us to the next and you know the next phase of this process which depending on what happens relating to negotiations like May actually not be resolved in in January um but I think it is a it is a fair point that like even if we were to say we're leaning towards scenario 2 for example if that's really what we're leaning towards I guess we need to be prepared to accept scenario one on some level right yeah right because it's in no I mean I think that you also just named something right we could just add eat well that was where we started out honestly that was where we were a year ago that was where we were a year ago and then I think in a totally well-intentioned like progression of that discussion we looked at like well if we're trying to be inclusive let's not stop with Eid well I let's continue to and we did receive some feedback from our community about that not a lot um but we did get we did get some so yeah but that that's like again these scenarios are not the be all end all and if that's if that's something that that you know someone can put where we're ending up here is someone's going to make a motion to just put forward what you want us to do you know that's kind of but I guess what I struggle with that is I think it's really okay a group needs to come forward and request a holiday and then do we do it or yeah you know and that's challenging because it might not be a big group but like how are we recognizing right like so um for instance like B's doing a celebration for Lunar New Year she's not coming before us and saying we need a holiday for this so does that make her holiday not less important right no right exactly that's right um I just found that on desie they have a Statewide legal holiday list I would suggest that we just follow those legal holiday list for the days off which does not include um rashash Shana y a good Friday or eat is Le is Labor Day Columbus Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving Christmas New Year Martin Luther King's Junior's day President Day Patriots Day Memorial Day juneth and Independence Day yeah it's like the federal holidays plus Patriots Day yeah yeah I couldn't hear what that's U Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education I guess that's where my question started in the sense and not not saying that it was the right or the wrong thing but it almost I guess that's the the it does become difficult to your point I mean there's the there are the holidays that have religious holidays that have been because they've always been in there right and then as a community as a country we become so much more diverse and I think that it and this isn't me saying one is right or wrong but it's almost like to avoid the murky like do you have just is that is there a policy that is just these are the holidays you know the federal holidays are the ones that we going to follow and I I recognize you know that's where um you say like the ability to have Staffing you know but even within that I feel like there were comments from people who and it's going to range but even like with Good Friday lot you know there were comments like yes I I'm Catholic but good I you know I can I I don't have to have good Friday off or there so so you know is that too strict and then that's pulling more away but just I think it feels like I didn't realize I'm so much this person but like sort of like their rule Like rules or like their guidelines for it and then it does become it's just like if it doesn't fit the guidelines does it then it's then to your point if somebody asks for something to come forward do we automatically Grant it or you don't you know I mean I and I know I'm I that might be too strict but it just it's well and I think there are districts right and it doesn't mean it's perfect and I don't know enough to say Brooklyn's working perfectly but brookl Brook brookln has categories of it's so it's by categories right and it's the what they're doing is category one category two Category 3 category one it's because absences by staff and students impact the ability to conduct classes on this date and during this time therefore it is a day off right whereas if it's lands in Category 2 School remains in session because the holidays are not considered to be a day of low attendance however they are still celebrated by significant portion of the school population so um if we had that level of data right to look into it then we could categorize the holidays by that and then determine right and then yeah I didn't I don't understand it um obviously that's a different way and we still need to give some guidance I think for 202 for the next school year doesn't mean it's going to be the perfect right um so I almost yeah because it almost takes the the how's to put this takes the religious component out of it Andre makes it about it's an impact right learn impacting Lear yeah yeah I really like those categories like the brook line though has both Jewish holidays off and that's also something that came up in a listening session of like why one not the other and it's because of this bargaining that occurred at some point right that none of us were part of but like but that's another piece too that we are not talking about Within These considerations but right there's also two eats um I mean could we do a trial run and see what the feedback is and collect some data and revisit it I mean I don't know so I think I would put a motion to say that we amend the calendar for 2526 and insert Eid um and REM and do not remove any other holidays and pending negotiations listen to what this a lot of folks said which is have us come in on Thanksgiving half a day and labor day was kind of I think it was somewhere in the middle I think folks who were like you know three days of school would probably be better than two days of school um and then that would get us to a an earlier end of the school year I don't have it perfect the motion's not perfect yet but is part of what you're saying then to pursue the Brookline pursue data Gathering so we can see you know um you know we might find that Eid it doesn't really get you know I mean Eid I just feel like we need to listen to that but good Friday if we all of a sudden got rid of Good Friday I don't know there's just different ways of looking at how would you collect data though if you don't if there's like if those days are holidays you would never be able to track attendance on those days yeah no you're right no that doesn't work we already have it I think again I think we talked about this last year when we talked about this and I brought up the whole idea of like yeah we shouldn't have a day of school again point you brought up here shouldn't have a day of school nobody's going to show up right that's just that it's against like what process here I think a point that was brought up I forget by who but very valid is like well should it like if we limit it just based upon like there's enough of a population within town right how what does that mean right and then you get into a little bit of the tyranny of the majority right and like I think we have a very important Muslim population in this town I cannot find any data on the Muslim population built and we don't that doesn't exist right we know what it is within the state right which is like under 2% we know what other populations are within the town to like I would not guess that the Muslim population is like nearly the size of the Asian population which is almost 6% of the town right and like other communities if that's what we're thinking about and again impacts of things attendance but like those are the things again I just I struggle with again like then you're doing you're doing math around like what is the size that matters within the population I think these are all conversations again we struggled with last year and talked about and like are coming back to because they're that returns to the question of the the abrahamic religions as one point of consistency and then maybe the data around impact of attendance for holidays that go beyond yeah yeah my thought is like I like I agree I like the categories I like the idea of like not necessarily saying what we're going to do is absolutely the right thing and like let's collect data on and we can look at it but I do think if the only way to collect data on student attendance is to have students in the building and so in that case that's in my mind the only thing that would make sense would be to remove the two days for next year look at what the attendance was across kind of any and all of these holidays and say you know both staff attendance and student attendance and then say like hey was this a problem from an attendance perspective which again it's only one lens it's not doesn't necessarily get to kind of some of the other I don't think they neighbors was coming and saying hey there's a real attendance problem within your school district that's why we need to stay off it was again about the recognition and so it does not get to that raising of awareness but there is like again we could creade these different categories and yeah I'm mindful of time yeah I am I strongly believe that we have invested in this discussion it's not something to rush through right now so I think this has been a good discussion we do still have things we need to get to a few other agenda items so I'm wondering you started to I don't have one okay um yeah I don't know folks want to table this for next meeting I won't make a motion but if like folks would like a motion I will make motion 's I'll make a motion and we'll see somebody second go ahead I will make a motion oh let me pull the language I'm sorry uh I will make a motion to amend the development of the 2025 2026 calendar as follows to remove yam kapor and Good Friday from the calendar and to have conversations with relevant contract within relevant contract negotiations related to the Friday before Labor Day and Wednesday before Thanksgiving just trying to capture this sorry and so to remove those two holidays to not add additional holidays to remove those two holidays yeah then talk with groups about the other two which again I don't think we're going to have a decision on by the time we need the calendar from that lens for those other two I think that just provides if the collective bargaining groups are open to it it just provides the district more flexibility yeah long term whether or not we keep them or remove them also think that it really gives us an opportunity to collect data on it and kind of track it for the school year and see what makes sense so you just seconded the motion so yes I seconded the motion long way sorry I didn't I wasn't sure if I heard you say that or not okay so there's a motion made and seconded is there any further discussion of this specific language before voting on it in the background of the of the motion in the background of the motion is the in the goal of collecting further data on student attendance and the commitment to building out um yep inclusive calendar the curriculum or framework system for excuse absence framework for learning about holidays it just feels like a lot of ifs do you know what I mean like I just it's it's it doesn't it like if it's a decision but with I guess I'm trying to understand that piece of it so it would be to remove them in order to see the impact of those days removed on I think we could do that I mean I'm I'm proposing we remove them in order to create the equity across the three Abraham R religions I think as a school committee next year we could look at from an attendance lens as to right the concern B brought up right if there somehow is some unknown impact of us doing this right these are days people have just we have no data we never had data on been off forever so like it's possible we're making a really bad decision from just a like student learning and again operational standpoint but I I personally don't think like that data is going to give us more insight into like the equity element of this of like what what decision do we want to make to better reflect like the cultural diversity right is it to add more or remove more and again my motion is to to remove them to create that consistency and and try and acknowledge it in another way I think the if is all the curriculum stuff but I think that's an if if we add or remove them either way like again they're not going to learn it just by not being in school we need we need that regardless of the direction okay thank you any other last comments and I think it also gives us an opportunity when you look at like you know time on learning and you see what the data is across like not in addition to religious holidays but any other days we can kind of figure out you know and have that data point to make decisions going into next year's calendar so um but without kind of removing everything in starting from scratch it's hard to um collect that I think um we might not have as many days off people who take Good Friday off you know without having it be an in in school day it's hard to tell yeah from an equity lens this one doesn't work for me but I'll vote accordingly how so how do you mean well I just again I go back to my initial point right we're removing something again I can't help but think about sort of what came before um and that's fine that's fine I mean if that's the way we go but I just can't support it okay so the motion's been made and seconded so are we ready to vote on it yes it's a recommendation it's not you know I'll be voting on the calendar too so if anybody feels ambivalent about this you know you're this isn't your last chance to vote on this okay all right the Motions um made and seconded is um all in favor post so that's a recommendation for you thank you for sitting through this conversation you know and sorry this is going to be our latest meeting of the Year sorry about that thank you everybody for all your participation and we will keep going and you know we'll keep um working this out but I just again thanks to every member of the community that took their time to weigh in to whether they completed the survey contacted us some other way attended a listening session that was um meaningful and important so thank you I don't have anything else under chair report so I'm going to Quick um move to the finance subcommittee be very quick uh we uh did not since the last budget discussion here we uh we did have a budget conversation we talked a little bit more just about the um proposed needs based budget um nothing really significant to report on that um we also had further comment ation about the fees schedule you see here the proposed fees we are not voting on those tonight but that's just a conversation we started to look at the student fees and what those where we might make changes for f26 um we do have two vendor warrants to approve which I shared out previously and so I will make motion to approve vendor warrant 22 in the amount of 74387 53 payable on 12224 as well as vendor warrant 23 in the amount of $558 18661 payable on 12924 is there a second second great all in favor that's it for finance report thanks so the fees that will that come back in January I don't know we we still have to discuss I don't know if we'll vote on it in January there's competing interest of like we got to talk budget and then we also please please might get pushed thanks okay policy okay um we met sorry let P my notes um we met yesterday um for policy we went through sections JK and L um there is in your folder um you will see a kind of um outline of each each of the um sections With The Changes um that were recommended um some is for language um some are um you know some we don't need anymore some are old NASDAQ policies uh which we used to have before um masc um there is like for instance like you can look at um uh jib student involvement and decision- making which we discussed yesterday with um uh we're updating it to reflect the current law but uh we're also simplifying it not to include the final uh paragraph um as that is um an MPS policy um that's jibb um we are also um and we can I I just want to say because section J is really long uh we can either just take Section J tonight and bring back KL at our next meeting in January or if you um if you guys want to do this is there's no vote tonight it's just a first reading of these policies um and then you know as um Glenn is always so thoughtful to create um create kind of an overview for us for each of the sections he took us through um each policy and kind of most of its like language some of them are specific to um to Milton which we would keep some of them uh we are adopting masc for better language and so on and so forth so um that was our meeting yesterday and going from jkl will take us through all of our policies and now we can go back and kind of pick certain ones and discuss them further and so on and so forth it's amazing how many old policies there are like really surprising yep so it's really just been the process of cleaning up these policies and just getting rid of ones and then obviously we can tackle take deep dives into I can't remember for the first reading do you need to say the names of all the policies or is this good enough for first reading that you you said you said want me to say it well no you just said that like do we only take one or the others I mean my thought um was just trying to be sensitive to you guys because it's a long meeting so I don't know if you want to like skip through all of it read through all of it um yall did the work um I can pull up the motion um but this is this does conclude the yes full review of the whole policy book yes so um these are the final three sections there's notion yeah yeah that's it's true we don't need a vote here it is first reading which is a chance to ask questions or clarify for understanding and then next meeting is another chance to discuss but then to take a vote next meeting on these recommendations thank You' all for your work on it thanks Quinn nobody's watching yes he's watching our meetings even though he told me he does not I know I'm hoping he does no that's it so anybody else anyone any discussion under any of these okay are we deciding to move so we're moving forward this is the first reading of those three sections and next meeting will be the second reading on those three sections so everybody's good with combining all okay AES um so facilities yes so we had a couple of meetings because we weren um we I wasn't able to give you guys an update at our last meeting sor um so it's it's really just been General housekeeping um at our November meeting um we had you know just got an update from Tom McCarthy our uh consolidated facilities director um he kind of um created his uh Capital request list that um he ran by the Town Administrator and we kind of prioritize what that would be like for the next five years so year one year two and so on and so forth so um you know they things like um the Tucker generator which would be a priority because there are a lot of parages in that area um and um then would also look at like you know aiming um to replace the Pierce generator and um and in addition like we also was looked at like you know putting in uh money towards having kind of um look at the overall like maintenance of all our um equipment and just kind of figuring out like when do things need to be replaced and kind of prioritizing it that way um uh that was something and then also making the list more General so that as needs arise something breaks we can put money towards that and just kind of prioritizing it that way so just trying to streamline um I think if you know if um one of the comments was if you know funding was limited that we get from Capital um we would prioritize the Tucker generator and the LED lights for the fields because I guess during the games the lights go out so it's it's tough to um play in the dark play in the dark yes exactly and then one of the things that came up in our conversation was um Outdoor Learning and open space um Improvement um so we had one member uh Matt morang who kind of took the lead on it um met with um you know Community member to try to figure out like what can we do to make improvements what is like kind of our overall VIs Vision in terms of those faes and making improvements so that they can um you know um playground equipment can be replace and as well as like hey how can they you know function as like for instance like there's this um outdoor Garden at Pierce that's kind of just it was it was used at at at one point as an outdoor um classroom but then it's kind of the once the teacher um who kind of started it was no longer there that it could just kind of went into um it's been kind of abandoned so it's like like you know how do we how do we fix some of those things and create opportunities for students to have more space um so uh that's something that um is kind of being pushed through our committee um and then I'm going to get kind of get into uh what we discussed on Monday which was um we had this committee that's been around for a very very long time um facilities and bed members who've been on for a very long time but we don't really it's an it's it is um a school committee advisory committee uh we kind of had discuss initial discussions on membership and you know creating some sort of policy maybe around it so we had um some recommendations from the committee in terms of like what type of members would you like to be part of this committee um and then kind of bring suggestions are their term limits you know uh what are like what would the task of um is there like an annual goal for the facilities advisory committee or do we just kind of look at what the Consolidated facilities director puts forth and we kind of vote on things or do we have you know we took on the third and fourth floor of Cunningham kic Cott last year as like that was our goal last year and we kind of you know got it to a point where it got voted out of our committee and uh is now with capital so um I think so if we were to come up with something each year you know so we discuss things like that um and then so um I have some data and you know uh Peter mentioned that we that could be brought to our governance where we can talk about our advisory committee I think it's our one and only advisory committee now so it's like how do we go about appointing members or reappoint reaffirming members um and so on and so forth because right now we don't really have any process that we follow for that so just kind of yeah so that was mainly our discussion um there was a possibility of doing a site visit um at the end of uh last month but unfortunately it was tabled so hoping to have that in the New Year looking at all six schools in the outdoor spaces and seeing what we could do and coming up with a vision for that so that's really it was there anything else under School building committee that we need to Circle back on no everything we covered already okay it's your turn all right so um we have one set of minutes to approve and that's for um December December 4th sorry wait I just had them December 4th 2024 I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of December 4th 2024 school committee I'll second the motion did anyone have edits or changes them minutes okay so Val you were not at that meeting so I have um so all in favor of approving the minutes um yep okay so that's five in favor um yeah B is abstaining all right so um next meeting agenda items um you just referenced governance and I just want to say we had had a kind of a hold on January 6 for a governance a winter governance meeting uh be given how our fall one kind of had gotten pushed and we only met in late November and given where we are right now heading into winter break and having another meeting on January 8th our next meeting on January 8th I would like to propose that we postpone governance um and I was trying I'm going to follow up offline about that I'm looking at a date in February a week in February um that's like on a week we don't meet so the second week of February I was tentatively yeah the 10th February 10th I don't need you to tell me right now if that's possible for you but I will follow up with an email and if that does happen to work that would be the the next CH uh Choice um so that means our next meeting is going to be January 8th um regular school committee meeting and so far we have I believe we'll have colic hot site Council presentation we'll have the superintendent uh midyear evaluation checkin um we'll have Finance I'm assuming and policy we'll have a second reading of um the many policies that we just looked at J we'll have a student rep report um because you're going to be meeting with the student reps later this week M as I mentioned I the capital does meet tomorrow I don't you know if there's anything substantial to report back I can bring that um will facilities be meeting again before it's January 8th okay so that list of things might be most of our items um so is at that this point we can just um I'll make a motion to adjourn there second B seconds okay all of dor okay thank you everybody he sh