##VIDEO ID:ppPb-ZC0wgI## y yep hi Jose how's it going Joe hi everyone hello hello and Julia I'm not sure if you heard from him but I think Steve Miller was a possible know for tonight I may have heard from him that rings a bell but maybe not but we do expect Carrie and oh there's Carrie and we do expect Curtis right yes yeah we've got Griffin school committee nights are are the they are nowadays the one time where I think about drinking caffeine at 5 o'l which sounds like a good idea until about 10 o'clock Brewing the day then you just get the second guess every word that you said during the thing that you took the caffeine to help you with uh Steve you jumping in yes um yes it's uh reminding you that I have to jump off at 620 I'm at a conference right now that's right that's right thank you right Julia every administrator is on the call that we were expecting um and I think Joe Johnson will join us a little bit later for that Argentina item all right so why don't we it's six o'clock why don't we call this meeting to order uh we are meeting remotely via Zoom it is Thursday January 9th 2025 and it is six o'clock um so if we could do a roll call please starting with Christina hry here Constantine here Elfen Bine here green here Malloy here Miller here and Bowen here excellent um next on our agenda is the mission and I in an effort to keep us all on our toes and thinking about the mission and remembering um the you know each of us really engaging with it I'm going to actually ask folks to rotate reading it and Jose is kicking us off this evening um by reading the mission thank you Julia at Mount gillock Regional School District our mission is to create a community of Learners working together in a safe and challenging learning environment that encourages restorative based processes respect inclusive diversity courtesy integrity and responsibility through high expectations and cooperation resulting in lifelong learning and personal growth thank you Jose I and it looks like we have Sarah here for the student update uh so Sarah you are next on our agenda all right um yeah Sabine wasn't able to make it tonight but uh thank you for having me um things have been going good this week week after like very refreshing break people are just getting back into the rhythm of things so it's been good um basketball is starting up I went to a game on Tuesday there was a good turnout with that um the musical is also starting and they got their cast list a couple weeks ago but they've just started everything and I've heard that that's been going really well student council is planning a pep rally I haven't been able to go in a couple weeks so I'm not really sure any of the details about that but I think they're going to do like a winter themed thing so that'll be exciting and um in terms of the phone policy there was a an essay written in the Echo and it kind of it it shielded like a light on how students felt there was a there was a poll sent out in an email a couple weeks ago and the question was has the phone policy improved your experience at Greylock and they asked students to rate it on a scale of one being um one being definitely not and five being absolutely and it was pretty it was like a good 40% said definitely not so I thought it was interesting to read I thought that that shielded a good light on how students felt but besides that everything's been good excellent thank you um I think Steve may have a question for you let's start with Steve yes um so you said 40% said it didn't improve do you have data on how many said it improved how many said it was neutral how many said it made it worse yeah yeah um I have the I have the chart here so one being it did not improve was 37% and then the two was 20% three was 21% four was 13 and five was 6.7% and I'm not sure how spiled it out but that was right I'm just trying to understand these numbers so you know frequently three might be there's no improvement there's no worse of and then one might be it's now worse five might be it's now better yeah and so it it's tough to understand exactly what that number means because we don't have any way of saying it's made things worse for me yeah it it was definitely a pretty straightforward chart there w't w't any that was just the picture that she showed in the in the essay they didn't this is just me as a you know mathematician talking that when you're sending out a poll like this it's worth talking to some people who have experience to make sure that you're getting data that will be useful so in terms of as a school Committee Member trying to decide is this policy worth keeping well 40% of people are saying it's not making their life better is it making it worse or if it's making it worse for nobody and it's making it better for some people then it's clear that this is a good policy but if the 40% are saying it's making it much worse no I definitely agree I think that forever I think who Amelia madreal sent this out and I think that it would be really beneficial if she sent out a follow-up email asking like asking for more details upon why so many people don't like the policy that would be helpful right and and again I'm happy to volunteer either myself or my colleag who have a lot more experience in doing polls in terms of how do you want to formulate the questions so that the answers you get because people will only give you a certain amount of time so that the answers will be as useful as possible thank you yeah thank you Harry um I was just wondering if you could tell us what the musical is going to be oh the musical is Greece this year so that'll be that'll be very exciting I can't wait to see it sounds fun thank you yeah of course thank you Sarah for coming to represent the students and for sharing your um update uh we really appreciate it and we especially appreciate the reminder of why we are all here uh and and you are a great reminder of that so thank you yeah of course thank you for having me um we now have public comment I don't see any public here for public comment I haven't received any requests for public Comet so I'm going to move us on from public comment I and move to the approval of our minutes from December 12th 2024 do I have a can we start with a motion for approving those minutes they moved in a second I'll second thank you Ursula I any discussion about the minutes hearing no discussion um let's move to a roll call vote starting with Christina hi uh Christina yes approved Constantine I Elin b i green i m i m i and Bowen I so that is approved unanimously so now we have our principal reports uh with Nolan from lboro up first good evening um so I'm here to present the school Council budget request this process starts back in September we meet and we talk about what information we want to look at to help make our decisions help guide our decisions of what our school needs budget wise we put that information together looking at attendance mcast scor fastbridge um teacher input then we you know drill it down in November and December so I can come here in January and talk with you all so we had kind of three requests and then one kind of something think to think about in the future kind of just put that out there um so the first request is level Staffing we currently have 14 classroom teachers four special education teachers four Specialists that are different full-time education full full-time equivalents six service providers you know ptot SLP sax Psy elll again there are also different full-time equivalents and one reading interventionist as well as 12 classroom pair professionals and four one to1 pair professionals and I think right now we're at a really spot to be fine-tuned in what we're doing our smallest class size is 13 and our largest is 18 um or 19 now um and it's really allowing us to have some really impactful time on learning with our students um this the PA professional staffing allows us to provide support at recess and lunch that is you know keen on safety and has enough adults with the children at recess and it allows us to F fill fulfill our I AP and contractual obligations um so that's our first request the second is our math curcum I ready um we have two teachers currently piloting it are grade three and grade five teachers they both like the program and they think it's a much better suited fit for our school than what we're currently using I've been able to hop into a couple of these classrooms during my observations and the program is developed in a way that allow that has structured critical thinking to help students understand some complex Concepts like I was watching third grade learn you know multiplication and the way they break it down is appropriate and past well for a thir grade student and while and when I'm in there the students are engaged and they're talking to one another and when they're doing this you know side by-side work they're talking about the math they're talking about their ideas and it's really just fun to watch this program in use it has an it has a internal Benchmark Pro um program that allow that's easy for the teachers to use um so when they have their intervention blocks they are the grade three and grade five teachers are like changing it up they can look at that data quickly adjust their groups and adjust their instruction to meet their needs um and then as I talked to the teachers like this is easy to use it's easy to implement and they're ready to get that in front of students and another thing is our current curriculum is kind of old um I'm not saying it's abicus old but it's it's up there noan can I just ask for clarification yeah you said grades three and F five is that the full grade or is it a teacher each grade it's a teacher in each grade but we are departmentalized so we only have two sections in each grade so all third grade students are part of it and all fifth grade students are receiving gotcha thank you of course and then our last request is I think something you have seen before short throw projectors I think I asked for this every year and I had for the last four years I'm it's to the point like our projecting system is I would say it's like having a talk board in the classroom at this this point uh we have these big chunky projectors that take up the a big section of PR primary real estate in the classroom and a lot of our curriculum is now digit digital so teachers need to take that Concepts and get those Concepts on the board and the whole process of having a comers some projector we have different projectors in every room um is is becoming a hindrance to our education uh and right now we have four and they're spread out we have one in our Media Tech room one in grade one one in grade three one in grade five um we we need probably like 20 more to make it Equitable so everyone who's using our weight and wisdom and who's using our new math programs um have access to that the work that needs to be done um and I don't think we need to get 20 all at once I would really like to see a pro a set up that's like four in a row for for a year for like five years so that way when things get old again we can cycle them through without it having to be a big burden um or big Capital hit each time we do that and then one thing I've been thinking about lately and this is not for next year but a down the road thing I would like to expand our prek um we are seeing a huge gap between those who attend our prek and those who do not attend our prek um Miss Chris our prek teacher does a tremendous job um but she can only touch so many lanes of residents in by having one prek and having two half days um so objectively down the road I like to see us get more lboro residents in at a younger age maybe a three-year-old program and then a four-year-old program so that way they have such a better backbone to build on in kindergarten okay that's all I have what questions do you have for me Barry oh thank you Nolan um could you just explain again what we currently have for prek yes so right now we have this hybrid model we we focus on our four-year-olds and the majority of our four-year-olds are in for the entire school day and then we have and that's 12ish students and then we have an AM section and a PM section and that's just try and and they're smaller I think there's six students in each and our objective is to get as many kids in to be part of our curriculum as we can without having you know without the extension of another prek teacher we want to have like our Pro our programming is robust and give kids give students what they need to be really successful day one during uh kindergarten so you have a full day and then you have two half days but it's in it's it is in one classroom so it's it's 12 kids Al together it's not like they're it's so in the morning I think it's 20 in the afternoon I think it's 18 and there 12 yeah that are there all day and others who are there in the morning and others who are there in the afternoon and what's the ideal IDE I'd say I think if we could have 18 full day in grade four and then maybe two sections of half day in for three-year-olds that would be a really way to get them in early and get them you know in a school setting learning how to you know attend to tasks for you know 5 10 15 20 minutes thank you that's very helpful of course that's down the road that's not this year that thanks Nolan um this question I think uh it's it's uh related to this this topic that we're on at the moment um but I think it might Joe who I'm uh framing this for um you know I I understand and appreciate that you know in our two communities lboro and Williamstown there's flexibility for uh you know our elementary schools to be run differently you know in ways that reflect opportunities challenges values you name it um while at the same time I understand that um it's really our mission to ensure that you know all of our students regardless of which Elementary School they um they're learning in are equally prepared for the curriculum in the middle school high school and I'm just just curious Joe um thinking about uh potential disparities between you know the prek support that we we have in Williamstown um and comparing it contrasting it to to what we currently offer in Lanesboro what what's the what's the current setup how how might we compare and contrast the two two schools I think it's important to also look at so um Nolan described the current prek structure at Lan Elementary the current prek structure at Williamstown Elementary is uh two classrooms each one has a teacher one is a full day program the other one is a pair of halfday programs um so it is able to serve more students than the Lanesboro program in total um that said Williamson Elementary School is a little bit more than twice the total population of lboro Elementary so on a on a per capita basis the amount of capacity isn't as large as that discrepancy isn't as large as you might think that said I think it's also important within the prek World um because we are not operating Universal prek that is available to any student who would like to attend um we also need to look at the other pre options that are Avail either start moving in the direction of universal pre which would be a very different conversation for both towns um or try to be careful about evaluating what other prek options exist for people who live in each of the Two Towns why they choose those options um oftentimes within the prek environment um where where people work what their lives are like whether or not a partial day can work for them you know a halfday model is um it provides a big boost for the student it's also a very difficult thing for working parents to try to to try to work within um so I I think it's a little bit more complicated than just should we um create equity in terms of number of teachers but but I do think that what Nolan is calling for is based on um based on years of observation and and and the the sentiment that by providing any student that we can with the prek experience that we're able to offer um they benefit as they move into kindergarten and and Beyond and that that's that's the Crux of the of the topic and and it's one that we really need to I think dig into in the coming years um but expanding that program I think for for many people within our member towns is also um going above and beyond and we need to formulate that movement pretty carefully make sure that it's very well explained make sure that the other prek environments within our towns understand um what the impact on their businesses their their lives R too um and how that has a cascading effect on if if a prek environment needs to can't function without the without all of the students that are currently attending it that might start to attend an expansion of a program we we're going to need to tread carefully be pretty thorough with our research um and I think what what Nolan's expressing tonight is it's it's a good starting point for understanding that it is a place to spend time and to think about inv illa yeah so I have uh two questions and then a comment So when you say Universal prek Joe that would be that everybody who wants to gets to go and it's right now it's a lottery system right based on the number of kids yes uh Universal prek would mean that just like kindergarten and up um anybody who who is a resident who wants to register will will be accepted and and we would just have to sta to that yes if that were the case Y and sorry go ahead I actually can't remember what your what the second part of your question was I I didn't ask it yet no I I was waiting I think that uh if you get picked in a lottery and you're in are you people aren't paying for prek anymore that's correct and and and the lottery environment within our prek is that um students are identified as as uh needing an IEP yeah they are they are in they are guaranteed they are not subject to a lottery um it's as we move beyond that that Lottery becomes the way to um in an equitable manner admit that we don't have the capacity to take every every child right now who who uh wants to be a part of it right so then my comment relating to that was just that um I fully support expanding the preap program if we can I know it costs money um when my kids were this age in lanbo it wasn't free and I wanted to send them there um but in 2013 the year my oldest would have gone there weren't even enough kids to feel the program in Lanesboro uh so it wasn't offered and we wound up at A Private Preschool which was great but I would have loved to have gotten them into lanb Elementary for preschool and gotten them started so I wholeheartedly support that if it's something that we can do um keep the program open for everyone Jose thanks Julia and uh this is just a a brief follow-up Joe on um what you shared with us and and just I think I'm if it's okay I'm just GNA try to say it in my own words to make sure I understood what it is that you were communicating um first off it the uh in terms of prek Staffing and um in terms of what both schools can provide Community they're they're it sounds like they're comparable in terms of the number you know as a percentage of of the student body that that each school can can support um and in my mind I just wanted to flag you know that that both are comparable or seemingly equal doesn't necessarily make them Equitable and I'm just just curious about um if we were to start down the path of exploring what the challenges might be in Lanesboro with regards to to prek education or availability something that might inform whether we wanted to invest or encourage the community to invest in expanding prek what is that something that um if there were a timeline for that is that like a could we do I don't know you know the the proposal is is um you know no Nolan has proposed this to us um but how quickly could we respond in a way that you think makes sense what what I think would make sense would be that that if the sentiment of the school committee was let's let's explore this let's figure it out um then I think over the next year we would probably the administration the the school would undertake um the task of evaluating where every three and four yearold that we can find is um what kind of experience they have what kind of options that they have what options they don't have um and and what what family sentiments are around if if this type of opportunity was available what would they take it um and I think we'd also want to just because we we would be impacting the local economy potentially somewhat significantly we'd want to make sure to have meaningful dialogue with people running prek environments that Lanesboro residents are attending um so that so that we could we could find a way to make that make that something that that that worked u noan i I don't know what I missed what I what I didn't say but I think if we want to do it the right way I don't think we should force it I think we should build a program take so this is based off off of a lot of observational data um from the last few years of just going into our kindergarten teachers and saying ones who had Miss Chris got this and they they come in running and those who come in from other programs whether no program other programs in the area they don't have the rigor or School Readiness um that is necessary and it's it's a gap that is something that we need to address so that way when they get to kindergarten that we they can everyone is taking up right I don't know if that answers any questions or I'm here to answer anything I can Carrie um yeah I'm just wondering I know Massachusetts has this like um Community Preschool partnership initiative or did at some point where school districts are supposed to or have the opportunity perhaps to work with local uh preschool providers to um ensure that students going into kindergarten are coming in at Level Playing Field and is that something that we've looked into um I don't know if there are still grants for that kind of work but it seems like it it might be something that we should at least explore if it's still available I have not spent any time on that topic recently and I know that it's also an area where as the state and federal governments have made a push for Universal pret as well um probably a lot has changed fairly quickly um so I think so this is kind of a bridge to Universal prek and I thought it was meant to be you know that that you know to work in that capacity so if there is still funding available and If it makes sense to do it as we're exploring you know these other options if it you know I just wanted to put it out there thanks based on the conversation tonight I I think we we will make this uh a process and a project to try to understand um the landscape as best we can and and try to figure out how we can um how we can incorporate that into into our work over the next year any other questions for Nolan why don't we move to Griffin great thank you hi hi everyone um we're having a great year so far in Williamstown I definitely appreciate all the support that this group parents Community have given me getting started this year but we're definitely having a a successful year so far um we have a lot of similar uh Visions as as lboro has um with with I guess some little tweaks for our school um we are we do have a current staff level that we are operating uh very comfortably with um we we have support when staff need to be out we have support at all levels whether be par level PA support all the way up to classroom uh and specialist support um so I guess looking into next year we would be looking to have uh the same Staffing um always looking to have more if possible um we have we're seeing an increase in students needing either Ono one or classroom support so though that Staffing is coming from our pair of professional staff which takes away from our general um grade level support so many of our grade levels many of our classrooms are operating with uh only the teacher and while that is completely doable um having another body in there to run small groups to circulate throughout the classroom um to make copies to run errands to watch the class while the teacher going to the bathroom it's it's all just helpful um class side like Nolan mentioned we're we're about 14 at our smallest and about 20 at our largest um ideally we would keep class sizes in in that range um just to allow for our um the instruction uh the close nit instruction we have so far so uh if possible keeping the same staff numbers that we have for going to next year um we are no one mentioned uh the pilot for I ready we are piloting it at the k124 and six level um and so far it's going going well there's good feedback from the classroom teachers and the students on um the work they're doing and so we have we have one one classroom in each of those grade levels piloting the program and the other classrooms um working in our our current curriculum um we we rewind we had we had a math interventionist um I think once if we roll out I ready uh in the years to come layer layering in a math intervention is would be helpful to support uh the math needs in our building um as we are doing for literacy but um may be helpful to to roll out I ready and see how that that goes in the years to come so not an ask for the coming year but I guess a thought in years to come and then the last category is uh kind of like like noan mentioned our technology we we are lucky uh that our classrooms do have smart technology in them um our preek classrooms do not have any smart technology and as kids are coming into our our prek teachers are seeing our kids coming to them using technology at home uh being comfortable with it with with using using devices so our prek classes would love to have um some type of smart prometheum board Smart Board uh in their classrooms that the students could interact with and uh enhance their work in their classroom so that would be in our uh like Joe mentioned in our two prek classrooms our half day room and then our full day room um and along with projectors our Auditorium currently does not have uh a smart technology projector in it um we're still we're wheeling in a cart with a projector and as as a school we're increasing the events that we're hosting the uh evening programs for families the fundraisers through our um FS for West group um having a projector in their uh would make our ability to hold community events in the evening and events for students just both much easier and uh expand the opportunity that we could we could present movies or or hold or hold grade level lessons and instruction in there um so those are our our outlooks for next year um happy to answer your questions I just want to say it's nice to meet you over Zoom I think this is the first time you've been uh that you've been able to join us so yes welcome thank you go ahead Jose no I I uh Griffin I I'll just speak for uh parents of of Williamstown Elementary School kids we we are all grateful for you I appreciate that thank you thank you okay if there are no other questions for Griffin we're gonna move over to Jake for the program of study thank you Griffin thank you thank you uh good evening everybody just GNA share my screen get going here okay so little little change of pace from Griffin and and Nolan I'm going to be reviewing our updated program of studies for for next school year so just to start off I want to touch base on sort of an an overarching view of what's going on so right now I'm presenting our and I'm going to work from the bottom up so this presentation is about our program of study um lot a lot of our input and the program study comes from our school Improvement plan and our feature goal or our priority goal as you all were briefed on last month was the academic goal um and then looking up at the school vision and District Mission just doing a quick text comparison you'll see how um these are nested in in one another so from the district Mission talking about a community of learner Learners a challenging learning environment down to the vision um being a community of engaged Learners and mentors challenging ourselves academically so you can s of kind of see how this this Nest sort of in a in a a broader view um specifically what I'm going to be hitting on over and over is going to be the um how the effects of our budgetary implications specifically for FTE um could affect our program of studies so just hitting the wave Toops the program of studies reflects the possibilities of offering should we hire those for uh additional FTE and that was Wellness math Spanish and visual Arts nothing was cut from this program of studies other than an mcast remediation class and we'll uh talk about that a little bit later on uh should these positions not be filled the schedules would just be adjusted um accordingly before um or during the reg right after registration um when we go to build the actual schedule student interest is gauged during the year um during the registration process and now that process fully uses the aspects of two platforms Naviance and power school and those are things that uh we have invested in over the past couple years in both software and and training so this this top bullet here again we're just hitting the wave Taps this is um the new graduation requirements when it comes to mcast so as outlined in the new new law students who have not yet earned a CD or competency determination um which was passing the 10th grade mcass now must demonstrate Mastery of a common core of skills competencies and knowledge by satisfactorily completing coursework or the coursework outlined in this handbook that is to be certified by the district as showing Mastery of skills compet competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum Frameworks that were assessed um in the 10th grade by the mcass um as of last year so this is there's still guidance coming out from the state as far as um M mcos but however the the bottom bottom line so far is that students do not need to pass the mcass to graduate they do however have to take the mcass as an accountability standard and um we need to we need to certify that the standards or skills competency and knowledge that was gauged by the mcast is accurately gauged through the coursework that our students uh our students take in meeting our all our graduation requirements um and last but not least um just as a as a guide we talk about we're talking about courses we don't typically don't run classes that have fewer than 10 students registering in them um this includes um because it it creates conflicts including connecting classes to teachers uring teachers have the time and space to instruct the course and ensure that the schedule allows the course to run based on both student and teacher priorities so normally it's just not possible for us to offer classes with fewer than nine people for multiple reasons so now we're going to get into the possibilities so this is um an a slight review focused on the addition of those um four requested positions first getting into Wellness the goals of um adding a wellness teacher would be to dedicate teachers to their assigned departments decrease class sizes and focus on the new Comprehensive Health and PE standards so some of the possible additional course offerings excuse me that our um excuse me and I believe you all have a copy of the draft program of studies so depending on when Joe pulled that for you all these courses um it is all updated now but these courses are um additional courses that we either plan to run or have run in the past and haven't been able to so spor to Advanced PE and additional social emotional Wellness electives um for our current course offerings we have seven sections of uh or for wellness 7 through 12 we have eight quarters of gy for both eth and Ninth seventh and eth grade we have five semesters of Health for the 10th grade 17 semesters of gy so that's gym 10 11 12 that's your your standard sort of uh physical education and then 18 quarters for gym nine our um effect on class sizes again is to um adjust the ratio that has jumped up uh currently 1 to 44 um back down to where it was uh two three years ago to um one one teacher for 21 26 students and then for the ninth grade back down to 1 to 17 so on this slide here if you look to the to the right first what this reflects are currently we have an English teacher covering a gym class for one period we have a history teacher teaching a gym class for one period we have a biology teacher teaching two periods and two social workers um each teaching a period so that's equivalent to more than one one FTE so the idea would be if there were a additional um Wellness teacher there could be there's there's a lot more um leeway not just in Wellness but in in English History and biology and and in our mental health uh counseling counseling office depending on where we use that that person and then if you look back over to to the left some of the possibilities would be um to run again some of these classes that haven't been offered um or that we um have offered just haven't been able to run so elements of English creative writing film studies intro to theater in BIO it would be um we'd be looking at smaller smaller um College PR biology classes and um adding additional computer science classes and again freeing up our counselors to actually be with um working with our our students on their social emotional well-being moving on to Spanish similar goals to decrease class sizes and add additional courses um so over just recap over 50% of our Spanish classes are over 20 students several near 30 um and we have two teachers working on extended contracts some of the the possible additional course offerings would be Spanish for Heritage Learners a survey for culture and language and additional Spanish one classes um I think I did hit on this but just to make sure the slides read for Staffing the idea would be to not have any extended contracts and to add that one full-time FTE so those the two bullets under Staffing that's um what that is trying to say is um if we do add a full-time FTE we would actually only be we're already paying for a 02 FTE so we're really just looking to add financially add a a08 because we're already going we're over already above and beyond what we we actually have for Staffing because two teachers have agreed to to those extended contracts um just to hit on a couple other numbers for the seventh grade this is seventh grade Spanish we have three sections um with 22 students are higher in Spanish 2 we have three sections um at least two of them um are over 23 Spanish three we have three sections some of them over 23 Spanish 4 is in the 20s and um AP is at 18 which is which is a healthy number all right moving on to math similar goals decrease class sizes add advanced level maths increase opportunity to um and access to all students and add college prep and remedial courses we do have oh let me go to the next slide here so some possible additional offerings would be our BC Cal which we haven't been able to run or was we're not able to run this year but have in the past we'd like to add an intro to CL uh class which is really after the preal but before AP Cal an intro to model math an integrated geometry integrated algebra and we'd like to split up our elements classes right now our elements class is a mixed seven and eight class ideally those should be separate U current course offerings are algebra geometry pre-cal ma for business stats and then our two um AP AP classes we we do also have our AP Computer Science which um sort of it falls under our math and programing studies as well as our computer science sections uh just to point out some class sizes here a lot of our AP classes are AP Cal I think is at 26 AP stats are 25 um and a lot of our algebras which are you know our foundational class for for math there's um out of five sections I be I believe three of them are high 20s and finally for visual arts um the goal is to offer Visual Arts electives to all our Middle School students for consistent electives for middle school students so right now are these electives often fall to teachers who have free periods um when we build the master schedule and then we have to um rely on teachers to either fall fall in on what we want to teach which may not be their expertise or to see what they would like to offer and see if it it lines up so it's definitely not ideal it' be great to have consistent electives for middle school students um and you'll see at the bottom there possible course offerings it's really an increase to what we offer specifically um and adding those to what is available to our middle school students uh and a lot of this is the same that was expressed uh in more detail a couple years ago um there's also been an ongoing discussion about the possibility of adding an Arts requirement uh to the graduation requirements so we do not have one right now um I know as the mass core I believe does recommend that um but anyways that if we were to do something like that um an additional visual arts teacher would would be essential uh some takeaways just to go over the process in developing the program of studies um pretty much in order there's departmental review where teachers and curriculum leaders review then the curriculum leaders in administration review the program of studies and suggested suggested edits um then the counseling department and administration does the same counseling the counseling department uh routinely reviews with both student groups and individuals so during that the registration process is when you actually sign on for classes that's just a short window but the counselors have a schedule throughout the entire year when they're meeting with either groups of students um or entire grades and then eventually when it's the registration process it'll be individuals and then the school council reviews school council wasn't able to get a vote in on this prior to um it being presented to you there was discussion and then the um the the approval will probably happen at our next meeting which is in the uh middle of the month and also the bottom line for the financial implications would be the requested for positions pending pending your questions that is all I have to share tonight questions do people have Jose thanks Julia and Jake as always really appreciate all the hard work you and your team do for uh for our our kids um the question I've got I guess is is thinking about you know the the needs that you've expressed for um the middle school high school now in terms of new FTE and this is probably another question for for Joe to apologies or or for for either of you honestly um if we were to think about you know um some of the concerns that we we've raised in the past about declining enrollments you know there's just less less kids in our district how how would you see these needs evolving in terms of priorities moving into the next five or 10 years you know whether it being um Wellness math Spanish or Visual Arts do you see if the enrollment do decline um that certain areas might experience more relief than others I don't know what that might look like before Joe answers probably more thoroughly than me I would say that I would say that the need is definitely increasing um and I think um that Wellness position gets more sort of bang for its Buck um and I mean because you can see how that that affects multiple different a different uh subject areas and gives us more leeway to sort of put resources where the need is so i' would say overall the need is increasing and that Wellness position um sort of had would have the greatest impact overall just because it it will influence multiple different areas um and I'll just follow up with a part too on that Jake and if Joe wants to jump in as well um the you know if we were I guess a concern I have about the so there's the concern about you know how and I I hope this doesn't ever manifest itself but if if declining enrollments is our future um how that might uh impact what we offer or how we offer it uh but the second part is the commitment to potential commitment to a a new Spanish FTE uh even though it might be only 0.8 of a of an FTE it's clear that there's there's need right the uh our Spanish instructors are um working over time to to kind of Meet the demand um I guess the concern I have is if we commit to um Spanish even further might that limit our ability to offer up a different language uh in the future whether it be French or you know a language that might um we might think might have some popularity or need within our within our district um does that does that limit our flexibility in terms of moving forward in terms of the languages the types of the types of language as we offer so that that was a fairly wide ranging question I I'll I'll I'll try to do it justice but um first in terms of population uh there certainly have been projections indicating that our population our student population will decline um thus far I believe at every turn at every data point um our actuals have not lined up with those projections um and part of what has come out of that and I believe there are State entities that have also echoed that reality and um it's it's that we have ended up having employers that are far more stable or growing um then I think the the inputs to their models really took into account um and and the other side of it is that thankfully both of our members towns um are highly desirable places to live and that and that that has really booed Us in an environment where Berkshire County generally certainly population um has declined and and it is on some amount of decline um so I I I I don't want to say that the projections were wrong but but I do think that building our staffing building our schools based on those would do our current students a real Injustice and it would also potentially make those projections more of a self-fulfilling prophecy know but by having strong schools by having communities that are stronger um that's a key part of being able to either preserve or grow what we have um so that that's the way I view it as a as a leader within within our school and and and I think it is a healthy and productive way to go about it um as Jake I think alluded to First Student need is increasing meaning making sure that we meet students where they are that we provide them with the with the path that we need to is more difficult now than it was 20 years ago 30 years ago and that and that that's something where where we like all school districts we we need to to keep a close eye on that um so our our ability to meet students where they are um and to bring them as far forward as we can as well as to address many of the new course offerings that that didn't exist 20 30 years ago when when you might have had um highs in terms of total Middle High School enrollment at Mount GR Regional School um I I think we need to look at the here and now and and some of the numbers that that Jake was putting up tonight in terms of um classes with intense discussions and and that are ideally suited to small groups and differentiation being at that really high 20s hitting 30 um that's a challenging environment to try to fulfill your mission um and so rather than saying we really want to keep courses keep our course catalog as diverse as we possibly can and yeah our our typical class size is is 10 students that that's actually not what we are advocating for additional Staffing for we're advocating for additional Staffing to be able to address those classrooms that are 27 28 29 um and where that also creates scheduling limitations so that we we cannot have an additional section that means that all the students who want to take those courses can take them and still take the other courses that they're already committed to as well um so uh I am learning very quickly that High School scheduling is one of the darkest Arts that exists in in education in that um attempting to navigate and pair needs and wants doing it with in a reasonable schedule and making it so that um you you end up with all of the course offerings that you need to many of the course offerings that you want to with class sizes that are of that are reasonable um and with students being happy with what they're able to to take given given all of their wants um it's it's a real challenge um and and so I think some of what you're hearing out of out of this are are echoes of um our students want and need more from us and and and and we need to come up with ways to ways to do that um if enrollment declines um we had also looked at um within within data earlier this year um I can't remember which meeting it was specifically um but when you look at the highest performing schools in the state um we are an incredibly small on a perg grade basis middle and high school given what we are doing what we're able to do and and how our students are performing um there are certain advantages to that but there are also real disadvantages in that trying to offer the breadth that high- performing students want that that can be tough when when your step function when your total student body and what happens when you want to open up some new opportunity like French it's a difficult path to path to follow um and and so addressing the need that exists right now within Spanish and and embracing where students are headed and and why um is I think a definite yes and then how to navigate how to add additional languages for the future that's that's its own problem um and I I they're related but I also think we need to we need to act now in situations where um where the student need is so great and the and it's so obvious that we just we can't we can't waffle about that I don't think that that's the way I view it for this year and and as we look at next year did that answer all of the yeah no no it was poetically put Joe Harry so it sounds like class size is an issue with math and wellness right and wellness has the um additional issue of affecting other departments um and the what the course off ings uh and what courses they can offer Spanish isn't a class-size issue but only because we have so many faculty teaching um um Extended contracts right am I correct in that or is it still an issue it's still an issue it's still an issue with them teaching extended contract okay so class size is an issue for all three with and we're straining our faculty in in Spanish okay um and then visual art um I I understand the need I guess one of the questions I have is um is there any way I mean it's not a class-size issue because we don't offer it right so we can't we we don't have data but we might have data on why students are leaving Mount Greylock right to go to uh prep schools where they offer you know significantly More arts or you know other things um we also have data from guidance I would imagine of students who really want to take classes in the Arts but we don't offer them or this schedules don't permit I mean is there anything that you can tell us um about and again this is going to kind of Steve's point about surveys this is a there's no way to really phrase this well the level of unhappiness around the fact that we do not offer Visual Arts in the Middle School um I don't have any hard data for you I would refer back to you know two years ago when there was that ground swell of of support for specifically the Middle School Visual Arts um and I I forget who the parents' name but she had an amazing presentation that that she did and I would that's something I would see if I can find get a hold of and um you know give give to Joe to maybe share with you all this is each of these topics will um I'm really thankful for the questions and the conversations we're having tonight each of them that could have budget implications will be primary topics in our February meeting um with with me having the benefit of of all of the work that the principals and their school councils and and the schools have already done um but also the benefit of a month to consider the the types of questions and the ways that we're considering this now so I can I can certainly come back in February with uh with a whole lot more detail there and the the other thing that I want to make sure that we um pay some amount of attention to is currently we have a performing arts department within our middle school that is it's incredible the the opportunities that our students have the the ways that our that our pair of teachers who are who are within the music realm um have taken that program it's it's really remarkable for for any school for school R size um and and how we think about adjusting a program of study and and the opportunities for students it will also impact that program too um and so trying to figure out how to how to navigate this how to offer students all of the opportunities that that they want um and and not harm ourselves also in the process um and stay within aggressive budget means um you that that's I think all going to be the balance as we look at February and and late February and then early March um but we'll we'll definitely bring a whole lot more a whole lot more back right and I don't I don't want to redo the presentation that I mean I would love to see it again um the presentation that was done I don't want to reignite that Community conversation I I will stipulate that I abs absolutely agree on the per the value of the visual arts I in the middle school I'm I am not questioning that and I know we will have more information um to weigh these you know these cons you know these I don't even want to call them options right now I mean I would love to have just a checklist of menu options with a price tag next to each one of them right but that's not how budget season works s um but I just feel like I I need a little bit more detail on um the visual arts as a reminder of of what that conversation was um so if we can pull that up and and send it along um that would be great thank you I I the tomorrow I will share that presentation from a couple of years ago but but I'll also pull the the key aspects from it um and and bring them forward in the in the meeting for discussion in February can I just ask a couple of clarifying questions about the visual Middle School Visual Arts position um I think you said if I that currently other teachers are teaching Middle School Visual Arts electives and so hiring somebody would be consistent and those other teachers could go teach within their departments um no sort of the opposite because of um scheduling constraints we we have middle school and this this is like the um trying to sort of connect the dots with the schedule it's sort of like one of the lowest priorities trying to match up middle school students with their um preferred elective and so what often happens is there's not a visual art teacher available to teach that course during that time when those middle school students are able to do it so then it falls on some other teacher who does have um a Time availability to teach an elective in what whatever so whatever we decide whether it's hey we still want you Joe who's a history teacher to teach this this Middle School Arts elective or uh why don't you do a current events class and so they're not necessarily matching up with what they require and because it's such a low one of our lower priorities it often doesn't happen Okay so so kids if if you added a visual arts teacher there are teachers who will now have space in their schedules to do something else right much much like the wellness position we were talking about how there's all these secondary inter tertiary sort of effects and so yes that that is how it would work and those kids it's not like you have to make room in their schedule for these arts classes this the room is already in their schedule they're just not necessarily taking visual arts classes they might take be taking current events orever with fit that teach into that hole for that student's time got it that that's a good it's it's a hard like Joe mentioned it's there's a lot it's very complex but that's a good summary thank you so as um Joe mentioned we're gonna um this is the kind of intro to the program of studies but we have time in February and you'll see on the agenda we are suggesting a uh budget Workshop meeting um as well to go deeper into this um before we do our budget hearing I I would also like to know whether the fincom can be put to any good use around the budget I mean normally the fincom would meet quite regularly during budget season We're not scheduled to do so um we're you know in mid January almost now so I I just want to put it out there that um you know we have used the fincom in the past to um try to Workshop some of this stuff even before a full school committee Workshop just if I can jump in there I I think the answer will be all of the above so the finance subcommittees meeting next week um that is the point where I'm I'm hoping to have some of the some of the upd down allaround math in terms of what some of these FTS mean um because as Jake had indicated um for instance within Spanish it wouldn't be a pure 1.0 it would actually be an increase of 08 over over what we currently have um so the FI the finance math around that we're definitely going to start to get into next week um we are hopefully also going to have um the governor's budget um by sometime next week um if not it would be the the week after because it it needs to be in by the fourth Wednesday of January I believe um and and so um I think next week when we meet or perhaps we start to set it up before it would be great to have the finance subcommittee meeting meeting every every two to three weeks um if if we can squeeze that in and I think the the idea of we have a regular February meeting for the school committee and then um have another budget Workshop type meeting between then and the March public hearing um it's something it's something that we've done with the full school committee in the past and I think that when we do it it's a good chance to really um air out all of the different options hash through things in a way that's very conversational so that by the time we're in the hearing um we kind of know where we're headed it's it's it's just the last rather than it being a chance to recombine a lot of different options and potentially vote a budget that where the math was done um on the Fly you know that's what I'd love to avoid especially given that there's only only one person within our within the superintendent assistant superintendent world right now great with all of that said are there any other questions for Jake before we actually go to the finance subcommittee report and talk about the preliminary budget draft thank you for your time thank you Jake all right so you may have already um given a good amount of the uh preliminary budget development um update uh Joe but do you w to move us into that on the agenda yes and the finance subcommittee did meet last last month right before the holiday as well um the we we started to talk about some of the ramifications of of the Mount Greylock requests um from the school council um and and I think you know we were also having having trouble digging in too deeply partly because we we don't know any of the revenue side things yet um along with some of the larger cost drivers um like health insurance so as of right now now um on the revenue side the state's numbers will come out over the next couple of weeks um they haven't come out yet so um that will be that will be a big uh big aspect of what we do um going into February um in terms of uh other forms of Revenue Federal the the federal funding and Grant picture um we're not currently expecting a a large change so we're probably going to budget um in a way that's fairly similar to um to what we had for this year um and then locally we are meeting with our um local Town Halls uh I believe it's next week um to and and so part of the finance subcommittee meeting we'll be taking what what is discussed within that meeting and bringing that to the finance subcommittee to then start to process it and and figure out what it means for next month um on the cost the expenditure side um one bit of good news that just came in Brooker County Retirement System um our our assessment for next year um actually is is going down a touch from this year to next year um that's a result of the uh Brooker County Retirement System updating its Actuarial uh calculations um and and I'm thankful that they did it because I think that some of the ways that we saw massive increases over the last few years um were driven by that that set of calculations not really being fair to us to be honest so I'm I'm pretty thankful that that this year we're seeing that line um pretty flat um health insurance will be voted uh in late January um as of last month when Burkshire Health Group uh met um the cost picture for this year was was not pretty um it it was making it look as though um the Consultants that that really run all the numbers and and present um scenarios to us um we're we're looking at 9 10 11% as far as the types of increases that that they would be saying we needed to um we needed to approve so we're going to have to see um what happens in late January with that um everything else um we're going to start to get into in in more detail uh next week and then and then pretty pretty tightly at a clip after that um so what I'm foreseeing is finance me Finance subcommittee meets next week um hopefully we can get a meeting on the books for the finance subcommittee for a couple weeks after that um so that so that we meet every couple weeks um we have full school committee in February that will be um the first opportunity that that um the the district office will use to um really bring forward synthesized um requests balancing them with um with what we're seeing within the possible Revenue picture um we we will I think just given the the number of FTE that that Mount Greylock is looking for we're going to need to look at um and and and do it in a way that I that I hope is as respectful but also thorough as we can in terms of is there anything um that we can give up in order to gain what what we need um some of that needs to be looking at the areas where um we don't have enrollment um nearly in the numbers the way the way we do and say Spanish um and so I I I bring that up because I want to be um I want to be transparent in saying that I know that we discussed Latin last spring um as an area um um that was potentially not seeing the kind of participation the kind of interest um that it had many years ago and I think there are a lot of drivers there um and so I do want to to signal that we're going to be I think discussing that again this year um and I want it to happen in a way that is that is thorough and gradual so that by the time we hit March um everybody's had a chance to to express themselves and to ask all the questions that they need to um so that March or sorry the February meeting um you're going to see synthesized requests coming out of more of the district office in draft budget form um you will see um some some area or areas where where we think that that that we can um go through some pain but but in exchange uh gain what what we really need as a district um we are going to bring forward um an update on the literacy instr construction um work uh that that we've been going through over the last year that's a part of the district Improvement plan um as well as as well as one of my goals for this year so you'll you'll start to see um the work that we've been doing there that might have some budget implications as well um and uh and then I think based on all of the content that we'll be going into that meeting it will make sense to to start to plan a budget Workshop so that we can have a chance to really then um dig into that in a round two before we we move to uh be ready for for final words and a vote in in March I think I covered all of the ground that I was hoping to there but I know that probably just raises more questions um than it provided answers I see some head nods um all right we have a we have a process in place uh and there will be a lot of questions but a lot of time to ask those questions as well okay um thank you Joe I Jose policy subcommittee report thank you Julia um you will see in the agenda that there are quite a few policies listed as information items um these then will you know expect them to be scheduled as discussion items at our next full committee meeting uh and if you can um fellow members of the school committee and uh members of Our member towns and and stakeholders um you can take a look at each of these policies and uh revisions that are being recommended to some of them uh and be prepared to engage in thoughtful discussion at our next full committee meeting great thank you where Curtis will read them great thank you um next up we have uh from Mount Greylock the Argentina program I don't know if that's Joe who's leading that discussion which Joe is leading that discussion I will happily hand it to the expert W within the field and I can I I can just be here as as the peanut gallery great thank you thanks for having me um I don't know whether I'm really happy to report that I'm very Rusty on Zoom I didn't think that day would ever come but um can I can I share my screen I have a a slide presentation I'd like to show it is that ye yes hold on one second I just need to turn you into a co-host and as of now if you click the share button that should allow you to actually share a window okay does that work yes okay let me then I'll probably have to mute the videos once it starts but um I'll just let this Loop once I get it set and there we go and loop and play okay so yeah I've got some prepared Rems here um there we go so good evening I'm Joe Johnson curriculum leader of the World Language department at Mount grock and I'm here tonight to talk about our cultural exchange with the faculty and the students of St Paul's School a private English language immersion school in labri Argentina an exchange we initiated last spring with a trip to laum duly approved by this committee on which a good number of Mount Greylock Spanish students spent their April vacation uh I'd like to give you an idea of what that trip was like something we probably should have done in a formal way on our return and I'd like to make it as clear as I can what our plans are for this exchange going forward um as things stand now we are in the midst of stage two of the Mount Greylock um Lum exchange uh we've got 30 kids from laum coming to Mount Greylock in April of this year and the trip that we would hope to organ organized for 2026 would be the third leg of an ongoing program alternating visits from one year to the next this is what we school committee approval back in 2022 at St in St Paul's School we feel like we have found our ideal partners for an exchange like this um the school is small its staff are incredibly dedicated and skilled and the school community and the town of lumbre are safe and beautiful and welcoming during the school year prior to traveling The Exchange inspired much of our curriculum for the trip eligible classes we worked with paa pelas our partner educator in Lum to introduce our students to hers through a curated exchange of emails um as part of our Spanish four and AP classes which consist almost entirely of Juniors and seniors although there can be of course no travel reir for any Mount Greylock class um 25 of the eligible students decided to come go and meet their epals spring the day we arrived in lumbre was a Saturday the teachers and students of the upper had assembled at the school to receive plotting cheering our arrival nervous and blushing Mount Greylock students stepped out of our vans and into the warm literal Embrace of kids they had met online had seen pictures of but who were now actually in front of them the reality of it shocked and moved them so much that one of our Travelers used this precise first moment as College most of the nerves quickly washed away replaced with laughter and the excited chatter of young people sitting with new friends at one of the best Argentine assados for traditional beef barbecues I ever had prepared for us by the kitchen staff of St Paul's School who had come in on a Saturday uh to make sure that our first impression there was special um page two starting on Monday of that week in multiple classrooms our students gave the St Paul kids slideshows and talks uh about Mount Greylock and about the burkers and our school the times were fascinated and peppered them with questions then the tables turned and the Greylock kid spent days absorbing life at St Paul's they sat in on theater literature and art classes enjoined the fun at breaks and during PE playing soccer and basketball on school grounds that felt different but also very familiar we did spend a few days seeing the local sites riding horses and touring historic or cultural attractions but the Undisputed highlight of the week for all our students were these days spent together at St Paul's School shadowing their friends and attending special events arranged just for us for example on Wednesday the whole school accompanied us on a daylong hike to the top of the local mountains Guided by Richard Boi a graduate of the school former Headmaster and current math teacher who is coming this April as one of the three chaperons um we climbed pleasantly for hours and then sat in the Sun and listened as Americans and arent 's traded songs on guitars that they had carried all the way up for just that purpose and every evening from the moment they were free of their scheduled activities until the minute they were expected back at our hotel our Travelers spent every second they possibly could with their new friends touring the town arm in-arm as safe and secure as they would have been at home our time in laum closed with another barbecue life in Argentina is framed by barbecues this time a CH panada or a pork sausage cookout thrown by the parents Association on the gorgeous grounds of the lumbre country club as the evening closed paa penela spoke beautifully in Spanish about how deeply touched they had all been by our visit and how grateful they were that we had come something that kept happening over and over they were Thanking us many were moved to tears and a few minutes later I chimed my own glass class and parents students and teachers applaud Whoever has made the Assad for the evening parents student and teachers uh gathered around to listen to my return toast it was one of the most memorable moments of my teaching career the Argentine boys who know the drill where toast are concerned and who wear their hearts on their sleeves much more americ took a deep breath and assumed the position throwing their arms around the shoulders of the nearest boys and drawing them in tight bracing themselves emotionally like a soccer team watching a penalty kick shoot out our boys went with the flow and embraced the boys on either side of them even though they weren't quite sure what they were getting prepared for but they were used to One Thing by now do as the lumbre kids do and before you know it their way but there were tears and then Applause and after the Applause came an incredible number of long sinere joyful Embraces it was one of those nights and it was one of those trips that you wish would never end and that really is the point in a very true sense none of this has to end but it does need to be supported and prioritized by our own community and our own Institution we've done most of the necessary groundwork already for this exchange to become a permanent fixture of our Spanish curriculum 30 kids from lumbre as I said are coming to Mount Greylock this April to stay in the homes of Friends new and old and it's now on us to try to make their leg of this exchange as memorable as they made ours it is a tall order but practice makes perfect none of these trips theirs or ours should be thought of we think as a one-off we have found the perfect partner Institution to offer every Mount Greylock Spanish student that same Journey time and again deepening our relationship with St Paul's School and keeping cost Low by coming to know each other so well that we are more like family coming on a visit than tourists paying strangers for their services no school dollars have gone into supporting the exchange we have found Community collaborators among Williamstown families and businesses Berkshire County touristic and culturalist institutions the Burkshire tonic K The Berkshire conic foundation and any number of similar friends and supporters in laum we fund raise and we arrange our own travel and I without any stien support specific to the program um what we would like to see happen specifically concretely tonight we don't know to be honest but we feel that this program is already something truly special and enormously beneficial to our community and our students we believe it's emblematic of the mission of our school and we think it deserves to be recognized and supported and I would love to take question Jose thank you Julia and and Joe um I I uh might embarrass myself by saying how how moved I was by your presentation there I think um we are so incredibly fortunate that you and your team and our community have been able to to pull that trip off and are proposing um this to support you sustain this incredible relationship and collaboration that you've all developed so carefully I think what was clear in the images that you know that experience for our students was so was meaningful that there was a genuine cultural exchange and an appreciation of of cultures and experiences um I would like to offer you an opportunity if if you like to to express some concerns that you shared with us as a school committee in terms of how we have made decisions regarding uh potentially competing trips and and and if you could just just share with us how how that decision or decisions like it might be impacting your ability to you know uh to run this particular trip yeah thank you for that question and and for your comments that's really great to hear um we we I it Mount klock is a small community and I think just the market as it were to put it in really terms that I don't really like to use but the market for school-based international trips is just necessarily going to be limited um and when I taught Atlantic we had the experience of trying to start a similar ongoing alternating year exchange but there were there were a lot of trips there were with at Linux that didn't have the same sort of requirements to them they didn't have requirements that people take any particular subject or or that it wasn't limited to Juniors and seniors which we like to do for maturity and safety reasons these trips were just to anybody in the school Community could go and they happened every year and they just they took all the oxygen out of the program and we couldn't we couldn't muster enough kids for the Spanish program to go um and it it I didn't quite understand it because those trips were typically quite a bit more expensive than the ones that we were running to to um Latin America but you know they would go to the Eiffel Tower and they would go to you know lots of lots of very typical tourism attractive type places and um yeah it was difficult to compete with that so I I really my vision our vision always has been that this would be as much an exchange as anything and in fact I when I organize these trips I think the kids kind of don't know often until they've done it how amazing it's going to be uh but the great thing about this would be if we could make this in every other year exchange I was talking to Joe buron earlier today and the way he put it was great he said they would know in sixth grade that when they've when they're an upper classman they have a chance to go on this trip and they would hear all the people coming back from the trip saying oh my God it was incredible it was amazing it was so great to this place that they've never heard of um and I think that's part of also what keeps it so safe and so inexpensive is that it's a small town that takes a good little while to get to uh and there's you're the only game in town we we gave a uh we gave an interview to the local TV station we were such big news there they were amazed that this group of us had come so it it it really feels like a little a little um I don't know paradisical kind of secret spot that we found and I almost don't want to you know talk about it too much because somebody else is going to want to go go ahead Jose thanks Julie thank you thank you so much Joe for for that and uh um I think this question and and maybe request U probably goes to Joe um and and perhaps you Julie as well as as uh our chair just just thinking about the lack of a means for our school committee to evaluate the proposals that we receive you know the the fact that we don't necessarily have a rubric by which we can evaluate um what's coming before us uh and then in addition we don't have a sense of of a schedule of of of how things are going to get proposed and so um there are knock on effects unintended KnockOn effects of of decisions that um that you know that that had we known might affect how we how we go about um making our decisions so just just curious about what um maybe Joe if you could maybe speak to some possibilities that we could Envision to help guide our decision-making as a committee um I I will express some concern about the for-profit travel companies that um our district is working with and is planning to continue working with um I think those experiences you know contrast quite sharply with what we just uh what Joe just shared with us in terms of experiences that um Joe and his team in our community members can provide and and um but without a rubric without some sense of some careful and and thoughtful means for evaluating these proposals I I uh it would still I think I I think I find I worry that we we'll find ourselves struggling knowing the right decision to make just to to respond to that because I I have now had a little bit of time to to to think and and plan a touch but um from a process perspective I think it makes sense to to through the policy sub commmittee and then coming back quickly with the with the full committee really do two things um one is Mount grock has never to to my knowledge in its history had an exchange program like this that has been considered a an every year alltime thing um this is really different what what what Joe presented tonight it's very different from a field trip you know it and and potentially it's it's the type of opportunity that that the school itself could could be investing in you know that that we could come up with ways to um ensure access to all students um who are eligible who want to participate um if we plan ahead if if we really put ourselves into it um so so I think in many ways it makes sense to dig into what does it mean to think of this as a part of the program um I I don't have answers um but but I think that's the opportunity so uh look at that as as process number one uh process number two is something that that we started talking talking about um after after the last school committee meeting um which is bringing to the policy subcommittee that field trip approval policy and trying to understand um you know what the the trip that was recently approved is very similar to trips that have been approved regularly for for many years um that said that doesn't mean that that it's something that we necessarily want to want to keep doing um and I think that looking at the field trip policy um is our best path to um to re-evaluating that and trying to understand what what parameters are we comfortable with what are we not comfortable with is there a different set of um is there a different form is there a different process is is there a rubric that's there where only if a trip meets certain certain uh um expectations in terms of what it's going to offer students and how um is it even uh available to be approved by by the school committee you know I I think I think those are the types of things that we need to we need to talk about um and it needs to happen through that subcommittee in order for it to then make it through to the full school committee as an amendment to the policy um so I would suggest we pretty quickly go down two paths one is what does it mean to um to create an expectation around a program um that that that exists uh like the one that we could have with St Paul's um and and the other is just generally for all field trips what what is a process and and what are expectations that we feel comfortable with moving forward Joe are you um the second one I can see how that clearly Falls to governance um policy and governance to just discuss the first thing what does it mean to create um expectations around a program what does it mean to build a program like that that feels like something that perhaps the um administrative team and the um Spanish Department propose it like present something as a program is that is that how you're seeing it as well I I think it's got to be a blend um because at the end of the day our current field trip language really makes it look as though what what you what what we have potentially for April of 2026 is a standard field trip for approval by the school committee um whereas what I think Joe is saying tonight is that we really want that to be something that can be more baked into the the schools culture the program and by extension it needs some kind of policy carve out um so that so that expectations are there so that the the ways that it's structured need to be met through uh need to satisfy the policy requirements and so on um so that it's so that it's there in a way that that's a little bit more permanent um so I I think it's a blend if that's a fair answer y yeah if I could throw in one more little comment quickly which is just that benefit of it that I was reminded of by a colleague that I didn't mention so much in the the presentation is the benefit to us as a faculty to um form these relationships very tight relationships um there they were you know partners and colleagues but they're friends now um and we are hoping to just deepen those ties in a lot of different ways we consult with each other professionally um it's been it's been a real gold for that just the best PD I've ever had great Curtis did you have a question uh not a question so much as AA kulpa when we were talking about uh the the travel learning opportunity to Honduras uh my brain knows that those that Honduras and Argentina are over 2,000 miles apart and vastly different uh in terms of cultural makeup and there's more uh more of a uh what's the word a myso population in Honduras and a more of a a European Latino population in Argentina and the various cultural differences between the two so when I was thinking about this trip my brain wasn't thinking of The Limited pool of able and willing participants uh to put different language to it than the the the corporate language you and I both try to avoid uh uh that just didn't occur to me in my head when I was thinking about the possible uh outcomes and merits of the Honduran trip uh or uh uh Ecuador trip uh I just uh I my brain didn't hold those two thoughts at the same time when considering uh the possible negative outcome of having both of these opportunities uh in what is thousands of miles apart but is the same part of the total planet that we live on um and that why I think in in the policy subcommittee when we take a look at this and look at the what are the metrics of evaluating uh both the academic uh quality and the true cultural exchange and this is the most genuine cultural exch like when I think of the definition of cultural exchange this is what it looks like in my head like every fiber of it um that when we look at this in policy and governance we should definitely keep an eye to to not just the metric of the value of the trip but what the the population of our school is capable of supporting as options at the same or similar times so uh Maya kulpa on on that in terms of uh how we went through with that vote of course we'd love to vote Yes on all trips everywhere all the time and have everything universally funded and have half of the defense budget dumped into the public education system uh but in terms of what this can do I look forward to digging into that with the policy and governance subcommittee uh to see how to make that smoother uh more Equitable and more uh deep thinking and thank you so much for the presentation about the trip that was awesome and the trip itself thanks Curtis Carrie thanks Julia Joe you mentioned um that the students had met each other virtually do you have regular um Zoom meetings or like what's how does that relationship um play out over the course of the it's uh it's interesting because we have some students actually who are for whatever reasons emotional reasons or family cultural reasons not especially comfortable with getting to know someone outside the community like that um but mostly everyone we we get together with paa ahead of time um and I've got we've got our lists of our you know eligible students the students in the levels that they have to be the advanced levels to be able to pull this off and she's got her students and we match them up fairly randomly and then we have um a series of curated email exchanges that they are required to do for homework now the students who don't actually want to be in touch with with students from another school for whatever reason well they write the emails and they just don't send them uh you know they they follow the rubric and they send them to me and they get it great and it's fine but mostly everybody really wants to uh and you know it'll be the subject this week will be this and the Mount Greylock kids will write in Spanish and the Lum kids will write in English uh and then the next week it'll be a different subject and they will they'll reverse uh the opposite calendars school calendars because their summer is our winter our winter is their summer kind of make it so there's a big gap in the middle right now they're on their summer vacation so we we sneak in what we can in the fall and then we pick it up again in the spring but it's mostly just that it's a it's a series of of some target language and some english exchanges back and forth uh in email and we don't prohibit them from sending each other their Instagram and then just becoming Pals but it it it's kind of great but it's also a little frustrating when like round five round six of the email exchange becomes very you know they're doing the bare minimum because they're they'll tell me it's like well I mean they already know everything because we're talking all the time so they just they're I'm we're just doing this one for you Mr Johnson because they I've already told them everything which is great great thanks Joe thank you so much Joe for coming and sharing that presentation I will Echo Jose's point I was also choked up um thinking about that connection um and really appreciate you sharing that program with us I and big conversations ahead with policy and and governance so thank you for taking that on and we'll we'll have more to talk about in the future thank you so much uh Carrie you get the awesome opportunity to follow that presentation and talk about the masc division report yeah I don't actually have one so it's easy um the next masc meeting is actually this weekend I have to drive out to the cape it's a president's Retreat and um I think there's going to be some strategic planning going on for the association itself and there will be U more discussion of the Dei training which I mentioned last time so I'll bring it to you all next month um I just wanted to add um Jose and I received an email um that raised concerns over safety in the various countries where these trips are happening and and Joe mentioned um you know safety several times in his presentation that the students felt safe and I would just suggest Curtis that policy and governance um you know also uh consider whether the certain safety factors that the school committee should consider um for international travel um and I did forward uh the the person who submitted the comments requested to um not you know share their identity I did forward those comments to Joe and Jose of course has them as well so thanks great thank you Carrie for representing division six that is a um major commitment to go to the cape this weekend um so and I'm sorry it's not July when they it's G to be bitterly cold but it is here too so right um thank you so we have a long list of upom upcoming meetings with Finance subcommittee next week January 16th at 5 the policy and governance subcommittee meeting January 30th at 5: we have our regular school committee meeting February 13th at 6 and somewhere in there there may be additional Finance subcommittee meetings per the earlier discussion um and then we have this proposed budget Workshop that if we could while we're all on the phone and we can follow up with Steve afterwards but um try to identify if we could do that on February 27th or March 6th um and ideally we were thinking in person just because it's a more comfortable way to have free flowing conversation um and then of course we'll have our budget our school community meeting and budget hearing on the 13th at 6 so are folks able to look at your calendars now and share if the 27th February 27th or March 6th at 6m at Mount Greylock would work for you either of those dates work for me thanks Christina with with uh fair warning I I should be able to manage it on either dat I can also make either day work I see thumbs up from you Curtis yeah I can get Clos so that I can unmute myself but yeah uh those uh both work me too I think probably either is fine wow all right so I will follow up with Steve and unless he names you know particular one I guess the question will go to you Joe is it better for us to go earlier or later where do you want the extra time Curtis uh given given the propensity for weather events in late February and early March I say schedule it earlier and that way if we need to push it back because of weather event we have more flexibility that makes a lot of sense that that works for me and and I also like spacing that the every two weeks spacing I think feels more Humane yeah or appropriately torturous depending upon how you how you think about it like just keep the just keep going okay all right so why don't we why don't we that's a great Point Curtis why don't we plan right now that it will be February 27th and if that ends up being a you know weather issue we will have a backup of March 6th okay yes Curtis hopefully that makes up for me calling Ecuador Honduras about 20 minutes um uh so tired uh was I there was mention of fincom going to meet with the boards of the towns uh oftentimes select uh uh school committee members from those towns will also occasion opt to attend those meetings if possible in their schedule is that something of benefit at this stage in the process so I think you're oh sorry go ahead Joe I was just chis are you talking about the presentations of the budget to the town's fincom after the budget's been approved by the school committee I was specifically referring to these upcoming meetings that you're going to that stage of the process I definitely want to be at the the later stage with the presentation of the budget so these meetings are something relatively new and they've been requested by the fincom in Williamstown just I don't remember if they started last year or the year before in an effort to improve communication between the two towns and they had actually meant to meet um earlier than this just amongst themselves but things got late and they decided that this would be a good thing um it would be good to involve The District in this one um but it right now the plan is to have the chair of the finance committee and the chair of the school committee at this meeting um and then Joe as the you know leadership of the of the district so um even though we're not representing the towns we're representing the leadership of the school committee in the sense that they requested the chair of the finance committee and Julia and I both felt that it was important for her to be present as part of you know her learning process um so that's where it stands now if anybody doesn't feel comfortable with that we could certainly reconsider but that's that's the plan and that makes thank you for that and that makes sense to me I think they fewer fewer voices saying more things at this stage and then later on it might help to have the backup of more voices so uh thank you yeah and these things you know there there has always been the practice of meeting with the finance committee just not necessarily the two Finance committees together and the protocol has been well protocol is not the right word the strategy has been different depending on who's on the various Finance committees and who's on the school committees and I've seen any number of things over the years sometimes the finance committees just want to tell us what they want and what they don't want and that's it um I what I'm what I'm hearing more of late is tell us what you what you need and then we'll talk amongst ourselves as well as with you to see how realistic anything is um given everybody's budget constraints so it's I think we're all in a good place communication wise I don't think we're all in a great place fiscally and that's just the challenge that we all recognize um so I offer that as a good news bad news all right um so we have other items for discussion not reasonably anticipated by the chair 48 hours before the meeting this is one of those times where we may actually have something that has come up within 48 Hours of this meeting um and I asked Joe to just be ready to share sh any updates or answer any questions about the power school um data breach uh as that that he can share that he hasn't already been able to share with us I unfortunately do not have new information which is in of itself an issue to me and I'm going to be frank that um Power School has not provided districts at this point with the kind of concise and actionable information around what it is preparing to do in terms of um assistance and um longer term support for for anybody who is impacted um in particular the the the small group um where Social Security numbers were a part of that breach um and so uh I think the whole world is putting a lot of pressure on power school right now thankfully that it's it isn't just us um to to have next steps um but what I'm what I'm expecting is that at some point within some small number of days they come forward and say here are the concrete steps that we are taking to make sure that all of the regulatory notifications happen the power school really is is required to provide us that we then provide you know the Attorney General's office the Bureau of Consumer Affairs things like that um but also you know more important to me what they are preparing to do to support any families that say what happens next how are you going to help me make sure that my students in our case I mean thankfully in our case it's our students soal social security number um potentially being compromised um or or in in the public domain at some point even though right now it's not and Power School really strongly feels that it won't ever go into the public domain um there are other districts within our country in Canada right now where all staff all students all Social Security numbers and um and a decent amount of medical information in in in some cases thankfully we're we're not we're not one of those districts um but uh but there there are a lot of eyes on it now and uh we are trying to be as um on top of it as as we can be but that's all I've got for tonight Joe is there any way that districts all the affected districts are they all speaking from only their own voice or is there any way that people are collaborating in terms of their messaging to power school do you do you know what I mean yep there there are a few different levels um I mean there already are class action lawsuit okay elements that are that are coming up um the the dpre is the majority of their school districts our legal council the majority of uh the school districts that they work with are are involved here as well um the Massachusetts state of Attorney General's office is is certainly um aware and I think trying to figure out what what role it needs to play if any um so there are there are a number of levels the contract that we have with power school is actually technically the Massachusetts state contract um so you know the state of Massachusetts and and the operational services division that deals with bidding and things like that is is present as well um I think really right now everybody is waiting for power school to to issue the the structured resolution that it is supposed to issue so we're all just waiting for that so that we can then know what how to respond next or what we should respond to next Curtis um as a teacher in another District that was also uh impacted by this as we're so many um different districts utilize different functionality of Power School uh in some districts all IEP and 504 information uh is on Power School uh accessible only by the faculty and administration by the parents of those students and the students themselves um does our district utilize that portion of the functionality of power school no no um not for not for iaps for 504s yes but we have I'm I'm it's kind of I was thinking earlier today about whether to say this I I uh I'm incredibly thankful that we have Rob wook and Ellie cops on our staff um the speed with which on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning that they were able to in my opinion be well ahead of many districts in the country and Canada in terms of really pinning down at a very low level what data was was accessed when and exact I mean our our ability to say 52 Social Security numbers um pretty clearly and accurately in less than 24 hours is it's a testament to their ability to um their knowledge of the system and their ability to to respond quickly um which is a real I in some situations people might call it a luxury I think in this case it it was you know it was incredibly valuable and and necessary for us to be able to be as accurate with our statements as we could um so we know at this point what data from our district um was accessed and we were able to state that unequivocally um yes yesterday it was just yesterday yeah so that that's the that's the answer thank thank you uh go ahead Carrie can I just say I'm I'm thankful Joe that you kept us up to date and informed um both on that issue and on the conversation that was going to take place tonight at school committee I really appreciate you taking the time to do that it was super helpful in being able to formulate questions and thoughts ahead of time and thank you also for dropping um Jake's presentation into the packet which you did like right at the beginning of the meeting and I did make use of that so thank you thank you we're we're trying to continually improve thank you do we have any agenda requests I think a number came up through the meeting that we'll make sure we follow up on but any additional agenda gend requests okay um great then I will look for a motion to adjourn no moved thank you Curtis is there a second second thank you Carrie and we will roll call vote out starting with Christina conry I hentin I Elin B ey green I Malloy I and boen I well done Julia well done Joe thank you well done Joe for keeping I already