##VIDEO ID:svUr0RVTeOk## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I would like to call this meeting of the naret Regional School District school committee to order and if you could all stand and join me in the pledge States of America and the okay as you can hear from all of the voices in the audience tonight we have a quite a few special guests which we're very excited about um and just as a reminder this meeting is being live stream recorded is available to watch on YouTube oh moving right along we are kicking off with a little bit of business before we get into the exciting stuff of the evening um to get started off we have our meeting minutes and I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of November 21st 2024 as written motion by Shan second second by Heather any questions or comments seeing none all in favor and I opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous and moving right along to our bills and payroll I would also recommend a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrants as presented motion by Sean second second by Heather any questions or comments on those bills and payroll seeing none all in favor opposed stained and I say yes that and next we have um some updates from our student representative Amanda um if you can let us know what's going on lots of exciting things lately I'm sure um so all of our winter sports have started I think a couple weeks ago and it'll be started right after Thanksgiving for basketball um all of our clubs are still going strong in all of our societies too uh Ski Club just started and we just got the cast list out for The Little Mermaid today um this morning and then tomorrow in the high school there's an activity day where all of our students get to pick two RS that we get to spend most of our day in and do activities and we have bingo in the morning um also National Honor Society is delivering CS to the nursing home this weekend um we made parts and had them all set and so a group of us are going on on Saturday and then in the Middle School also all the winter sports have started I know student council is continuing to meet same with art club and all the other clubs um and tomorrow they'll also have some activities and that's so we'll see you later great thank you so much for all those updates all right so we do have a couple of appearances and special guests this evening and even extra special guests um you have some students that I see um so first we have our Templeton Elementary folks we have Marcy rasmon our principal and Scott Murphy our Dean and students and how would you like to introduce this evening um that would be great all present the camera present us the camera the same time you will enjoy the show from here um so I would love to introduce to you our student council representatives for this year voted on by their peers in their classroom um you one them is going to introduce themselves to you start so I am and I'm I'm I'm I'm third grade I'm AA and I'm in third grade I'm Annabella and I'm in third grade and then we have a couple of repres that are not here today um wouldn't be here tonight so um this year working with Mrs Pam our assist princi and Mr Murphy our teen of students uh students in the student council have been working on their leadership skills and have some exciting news to share for um all of our viewers um on some recent TS events so starting with the Turkey Trot Eddie and November t ual car control for third and fourth graders schooles physicality team spirit and his SS of community R his namesake his lifelong educator Charles Butch Al 34 years Butch taught grades four five and six at Bald elementary school he especially enjoyed holding an annual science per turkey Char R and coing and winners of the race fourth grade boys first Place Lesley B second place s l third place e fourth grade girls fth place place thir s third place the girls first place t l second place b s third place Eden C good job um our food pantry donations um is not here so I'll go ahead and share that so um the fourth grade ran a food drive this year and asked for donations from all students each grade had a different item that they collected the four graters helped to them count all of the donations and graft the number of donations in the cafeteria for everybody to see and all the school collected 740 items to donate to the food pantry and this helped our school Foster a sense of community and help those that are less fortunate all items were donated to the Templeton food plantroom and an update on our free clothing drive go ahead D that with the help of a few hands we were able to organize a clothing SP dve we had two Dr off and collected all types of clothing for two weeks last Saturday the T the TS cafeteria was open to all to come and free cling including winter here for all e and an update on our Christmas plays Brin and Eva miss m played really fun CH plan really fun Christmas place for kindergarten through third grade they performed at the Middle School auditorium this year so families could attend they sang Christmas carols and told A Christmas Story everyone made out hats and Mouse hats during our class to learn on the very special day of the Christmas play the auditorium was packed for both performances update on the fourth concert this year the fourth graders sang holiday songs from all around the world for their hes students learned that music can cross all languages barriers and bring the people of all cultures together we are able to create mus with ukulele drums and um boom Market as well update on wer railers we have partnered with the Wester railers hockey team and will be hosting a Nar night on Friday February 7th tickets will be sold at a discounted rate students who attend the game will be able to participate in the high five tunnel at the start of the game and last but not least update on our parent teacher conferences that we had this week Annabella this past week the teachers and parents meant to discuss how their childr are doing in school we had 92% of families sign up for conferences it was a great opportunity to share with families how their students are doing in class and what skills classes are working on excellent well that was fantastic you all did such a great job it is super scary to come up here and have them talk in front of people so I really appreciate you all coming to do that um all you know coming in and reading and telling us what going on and I really loved hearing about all the ways that you're giving back to our community so not just doing things for your own school but doing things for everyone here in Templeton that's amazing um do we have any I'm I'll say questions but I really need comments from anyone else on the school committee all right well thank you so much for coming in it was so great to hear from all of you thank you all right next uh did you have comments from theer there next up uh we have folks from our Middle School here as well this evening um do you want me to give them all right we're gonna let yeah it's dinner time for our Elementary School students thank you so much everyone kiss so now that our elementary school students um have made their exit um now I will introduce our school principal Mary the frer and Janet Smith our assistant principal um really excited to have you here as well thank you so much um always a pleasure to be here we appreciate the time uh we wanted to start our highlight wheel if you will with a little highlight within our building so I'm going to invite um Miss Melissa summer who who is one of our music teachers and two of our sixth grade students to perform a little thing on their ukuleles hi everyone just give me one moment to set this up and I'm hoping the Bluetooth speaker continues to work I can do it right here yeah and hi my name is Melissa summer I one of two music teachers here oh I see myself there hi so um I teach grades 5 through S General music and we have a big emphasis on instrument playing my class uh we do bucket drums as well as my two students right here I have Patty wait by Patty hi and I have Carson right here and we have been learning how to play the ukul lately really really fun and today we're going to play the song Best Day In My Life by American a is M sure sh oh what PR one and ho well thank you thank you guys thank you miss summer I invited miss summer and um Bo here to play because I happened to be in the past evaluation last week and it was so good but it does actually L into what we're talking about and that is number one thanking you for your support with our additional music teacher last year that would be miss summer um and I wanted to go through some of and I I realized this is kind of a highlight of our sip but everything about to lead does connect to our sip um and I wanted to start with some of the things that we start our year off with and talk about some of our events and we start our summer our school year off start our school year off in August actually with our fifth grade orientation event every year and this has become a very well attended event this year we had over 93% attend it's by families so we have quite a full house on that night and it's great to see everybody back and it lets everybody learn what the building looks like before that really first scary day of school so this is just a quick uh slide from that uh we are very lucky to have our student council members we call them our nms ambassadors helping out for that event as well as for openhouse and for conferences every week they also do um our recycling they also just finished a very successful food drive uh student counsel did and then our Leo Club had a very successful toy drive recently this fall our fifth grade continued their tradition of their fifth grade uh recognition of local veterans where they present veterans with some collected Halloween candy that they donate as their kind of token for what it's like to sacrifice so they give up some of their candy so miss Damon does a great job with that recently our seventh graders and our students of the month and and our student council members participated in waths Across America we have continued with our students of the month program each month our seventh grade went on their ecology school trip last spring uh as well as their annual Quin field trip this past October uh and if you were anywhere within 100 kilometers last week you had to have heard our thunderous 32 member fifth grade band um we actually had two bands pres uh present at our concert this year our beginner band which had uh 32 kids and then we have a sixth and seventh grade combined band so up we have upwards of the three different bands over 70 kids that are participating in band which is at least double the number of kids that we have had in previous years which we're very fortunate to have um and again largely because of the support of having that second music teacher so these are some slides from there some pics from all of our kids last week and I couldn't help but share this because I saw this online and it's too true as we go into our kids holiday concerts we can give a shout out to the elementary and music school teacher music Middle School excuse me music teachers who put noise making devices into the hands of 32 people with very little self-control and somehow figure out how to get them to make music from it these people aren't teachers they're miracle workers and that was very true if you were at the concert um last spring after I was in for our visit we had a very successful Eclipse party um which also included lots of teachers we had over 210 students stay after school and attend that so that was a great great event um also I highlighted last year in my visit our anti-bullying week I'm going to come back to that because that's coming up for us again and that again always a huge hit last year was our second year this will be our third year coming up and all of these things I wanted to talk about because that you may ask what's the data point for why I'm bothering to do this in desie at the end of mcast certain grades are required to take a survey and they have to answer questions about the their views on um School climate and learning or what they call the vocal data and specific to what I talked about last year as our highlight with our antibullying week one of the statements that students have to decide whether they disagree or agree with um teachers students and the principal work together to prevent or stop bullying and we had 90% of our fifth graders agree which was very very strong and we're very very excited about that so all of these things are due to these very very talented people we have a fabulous staff um none of it would happen without them so I wanted to give them a shout out this is actually from a PD day um and again how this links to our Improvement plan our first initiative this year in our Improvement plan is to create an environment that enriches the overall academic experience of all nms students and staff by supporting the emotional and social needs of all and we do mean all and that includes staff as well and this is done through creating a sense of belonging fostering a sense of community a sense of students wanting to contribute um and then offering these enriching experiences because culture really matters and we have culture in Spades that we're very proud of and if people didn't want to be here that's both students and staff didn't want to be here didn't feel they belong weren't motivated they would not succeed so we think that this is really great foundation for moving forward um we have an anti-bullying month coming up it's been so successful the past two years that we've done it um and it's such a busy week um with five different dress up days for which students can earn their bling and five different kindness challenges for which students can earn their bling um and that's a lot to jam into around principaling at the same time um we decided to spread this out over the month of January so so when students come back on uh January 2nd we will introduce this to them there will be a dress up day and a kindness challenge each week for which they can get brand new bling so those that are um not new to the building will not get the same old charms from last year just teasing that so we're very excited about that and more to come so our second third and fourth initiatives um just as a quick update our second initiative is to introduce and Implement Universal Design for Learning in order to provide consistent research-based practices and instruction this has been the focus of our PD this year and it's been very successful we've had overwhelmingly positive um feedback from teachers as they participate really strong participation really great sessions we're seeing a lot of udl in practice in classrooms which in a lot of cases we already were because a lot of udl strategies are just best practice um but having teachers get the opportunity to talk to each other about what I didn't realize that was udl that's what I do it's just been a great session so far all all year long um and students are responding very well to that as well um our second or sorry our third initiative is to continue to implement and utilize the pre-at and T process as well as our Decap um as a means of closing achievement gaps to determine um excuse me to determine and strengthen tiered instruction and interventions we have streamlined our tat process which happens now monthly at each grade level and we've seen um a much stronger more robust process with that so that's been really great to see how those intervention are being tweaked and students are moving either into or out of them as needed as they're successful or they need to move further um very very uh strongly supported by the teams a lot of Buy in from the grade level teams um and the student specific interventions are showing progress which is most important our fourth initiative in our sip um is to continue to fine-tune the shared expectations program to support students and staff in maintaining a safe supportive and collaborative environment by implementing smart pass kind of twofold our shared expectations program this is a third our third year for that and we've really seen a turnaround in student Behavior because the the expectations are taught expressly taught and then they're implemented and students are held accountable for them so we have seen this year um students use the language with each other students holding each other accountable and that positive peer pressure is far more effective than anything that can come out of these mouths so it's been a very exciting thing the second part to this was the implementation of smart pass which is an electronic program in which students log in and they can sign out from um a kiosk in the classroom so we can actually monitor who's in the hallway so it limits how many students are in the hallway because as you can imagine when you've got 29 kids in front of you and you're trying to teach math trying to keep track of how many kids you've let go to the bathroom that get really really difficult so this helps the teacher in the classroom but it also helps us if we needed to know who was in the on the hallway at any given in time of course we have cameras but it helps narrow down who that might be because we know exactly who was out of the room and when and being in the hallway between classes you know every period I can even tell that the transition the hallways are dead I mean we never had an issue with like you know tons of traffic but kids it really is cut down on kids waiting in line to get into the bathroom so that has been very very successful so we're very excited about that a lot of tweaks to get it kind of moving but um it as you can imagine we're a small school so it took a little bit of time to get into place but we're excited to kind of work through the bugs in case other schools in the district wanted to adopt it later so we're we've had a phenomenal first half of the year it's unbelievable how fast it's gone by um but we're looking forward to a second wonderful half of the year I don't know if anybody has any questions for us about the uh School Improvement plan but we definitely thank you for your support and appreciate the invite for tonight and thank you for entertaining our entertainers Sean I saw you y yeah what is Tad Tad is a teacher assistance teams perfect listening any other questions or comments from middle school um I guess I got one more too um when it comes to the smart pass um is that uh can can parents get a hold of that information just car in terms of how often their student goes to the bathroom yeah if need if need be it's not something you can log into but call and said can I find out how often my goes to the bathroom right you you recorded it so interestingly enough you know my job the bathroom at 9:00 A.M every single day why they're not doing well at you know math today so believe it or not that's one of the data points that's reviewed what our Wellness team meets and you know if there's any um any kind of flag that's gone up about a student who's missing class or concern yep it's really important might seem like kind of an innocuous data point but it's an important one thank you sure follow question sure might that be sorry I I'm so sorry but we can't actually entertain questions from the audience during school committee it's just not but absolutely afterwards if you wanted to connect 100% than no problem um any other questions from school committee for Middle School no all right thank you so much and I loved having the entertainment come in that was fabulous it was great to see what they're learning music class and is a good song and we were all bebing back here so thank you thank you so much for doing that now we do have public input um so during public input Just for information it's a time in which um folks in the public can make statements um they can ask questions but generally those questions get referred to getting answers through other through other avenues um so it's it's you know if I I can open it up and read the full law but essentially how it works is make their statements to us so that we can hear them and listen to them if there's something we wish should add to a future agenda we do that it's super confusing it's all kind of bureaucracy stuff so bear with us but like it's it's just how these sorts of meetings are run and I know that that's unusual and folks don't know it until they're literally sitting in our audience so so yeah so public input is there anyone who wishes to give any public input this evening yes say your name and um the town I from first sure so I'm officially Dr Nicole winter from Templeton but Nikki it's fine these guys are my K and I was thinking as you were talking about the um logging when people are in the hallway that it could potentially be useful information to screen for eating disorders just a b from a family practice phys um something your nurses might want to think about like the data point of are they going bathroom directly after anyway I I did want to put a bug in anyone here about the state of the grass outside of tumbleton elementary school next to the playground um we all know it's a small space and there's 600 kids and it's very difficult to grow a grass being 600 kids today also there appears to be a drainage issue where it's very wet um be more than happy to fund raise or collect Lawn Care people who have licenses and insurance and want to donate some time or something um I can do whatever amount of work needs to be organized and done there I know how a shovel works but I don't know how these things get and I know it's probably not the highest priority the school I'm sure there's building issues and whatever a much higher priority but it's a personal priority so whatever need's doing let me know and I will run around and do it so so what I recommend is you can certainly connect with central office what I can share very briefly is that that is actually a topic during our finance and Facilities meeting that very topic is being discussed and being discussed with the towns so it's already very much so on our radar and thank you so much for raising ex it is something we're closely watching because as parents we all notice these things and care deeply about them so thank you so much for coming and voicing your um so it's on our calendar but if you wanted to connect with Susan Barney after the meeting she could get um give you more details no problem you did fine anyone else who wants to speak this evening [Music] good evening so I just want you all to understand I did leave my ukul home so so I believe you all know who I am okay my name Jeffrey MOX uh for the record uh and I served in the school committee here at Mar gon for six years I'm the parent of four amazing children who all articulated through the district my youngest child has special needs and it was early in his educational career that I was introduced to the world of advocating uh within the education system the education system for our children is highly personal to me as a member of the as as a member of the school committee I had the opportunity to share my professional as well as my life experience um in a way I believe benefit our students I feel the education of the district the education of our students is simply too important not to have the full weight of this committee um advocating for that I'm aware that my seat in the committee has not been filled as of this time therefore I would request if you'll have me to fill this vacany thank I mean I know it's not where we are on the agenda but if anyone has opposed to moving up our vote about our philon school Committee Member it took you so long I would entertain a motion to accept Mr Jeff Mark's application to our by I get a second a second by Danelle um any questions or comments for Mr Marks welcome back welcome back welcome back to the to the to the other side thank you thank you Jeff we appreciate you and I'll just take this moment that as a reminder we do also have an opening for a Templeton resident should anyone from Templeton um feel so inclined all right and moving right along in our agenda this evening next up we have our nde um not much to share I've been spending a lot of time with some of you here we just negotiations um today we had our we had meeting of the NBA after school in the library and then um the both contract supposed to um go off right after the meeting but just had some issue with releasing it I don't know then we had that and she it's out there now but I do have a good feeling about it um contract so that's that's something very positive and then everyone across the district just kind of getting ready for the break things kind of winding down but I mean I speaking for Middle School I feel like it's been a pretty good week kids of I don't feel the beh R speaking SM pass I think one of the best things we've done I feel um bathroom trips like the in the hallway has really um decreased U accountability for kids a lot of kids s tce before as go Bing all six blocks of their day because at this point time they have three pass day um couple little glitchy things that we're fing that overall I think the whole staff is pretty happy with it kids don't seem to complain about they're used to it it's pretty quick um but things going well I think everybody's ready for a week a week we whatever might be so um things are going well thank you so much for those updates any questions for all right um so so it is sort of a propo um at this moment um we were going to ask for executive session tonight um I was going to suggest um should my fellow school committee members agree to move that up um to do that so that we can have our own discussion about um the contract um discussions that happened um executive session does mean that public exits while we have a private session um and um is there anyone is there anyone opposed to moving that up otherwise I'll go in and read the language all right so I would entertain a motion to enter executive session for Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21A for reason number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with the ndaa if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect at mitigating position of the public body and the chair so declares the meeting will return into open session immediately following can I I still have to start with this motion by Danielle second by Heather Sean CH Danielle Heather hi and I say yes thanks everyone we will enter executive session and we will back be back in just a short bit um discuss e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e and I still hear voices which yeah okay excellent all right thanks everyone for your patience while we were in executive session um so how this works is that um while an executive session we reviewed the proposed 2025 to 2028 um ndea contract um but now that we are back in public session we actually have to repeat our vote in public session um and so I would again entertain a motion to accept the 2025 to 2028 ndea contract move second a motion by Hank and a second by Sean any questions or comments seeing none Han hi Sean hi Chrissy Daniel Heather hi and I say yes um and so that is unanimously accepted by the school committee um so so further further discussion on that would be pending the ndea vote which we know is they're they're working on very actively um and so as soon as the vote comes in um we would be able to adopt as soon as comes in all right so let me scroll back up and figure out exactly why they are all right so we are back in the budget update section of the um agenda now um and so I will hand it over to amarine to see where we are with fy2 and I'd say if there's not many updates for fy2 feel free to speak anything about FY 26 um still in a budget free we're not going to be leaving that but on a positive note our rural aid number came in um it's almost $100,000 more than last year so we have 324,000 and change to spend this year so we're Gathering quotes and proposals for different things and we're going to put them all together and see what we prioritize for our one time like spending but one of the things I can say is we hoping maybe we can do something with the Horseshoe driveway out here with new pavement um but we're still Gathering numbers great no thank you for that update um and then in terms of FY 26 um we're still waiting for numbers to come in um the one thing I did want to talk to folks about is we have a planned meeting on January 30th um right now it's scheduled for 5:30 the intention of that meeting is that we get an initial preview of the budget presentation as a full committee um before our multiboard meeting meeting in February uh the reason I wanted to bring that up is um we do know that that is the same night as the Wizards um game and we're sure that some some parents or some administrators superintendent superintendant would love to attend that game if they can and so I wanted to gauge whether or not we could start at 5 o'clock the only agenda item for that meeting will be to review the um the the budget present so it will be a shorter meeting and we're not going to do regular buiness that night what dat um January 30th so does anyone have any conflicts with starting at five o'clock and we can also like recheck following the meeting if right now is not convenient but I did want to put it out there because I know I know that that's we unfortunately coincided last year as well so we'd love to get folks out we're good so far back is good all right um so we can officially we'll work on changing that time to p po so thanks everyone I really appreciate uh accommodating that uh now in case they want to ask Dr C or as Super Chief to uh play in the game maybe we'll have some star players out there well super representing I think I think so the best athletes great okay so moving right along into our ongoing business um we have our business manager's report it's really nothing to report out I just gave you all you gave us the report all right and we already covered our our school we don't I can take the school committee vacancy in philipon off um though we'll continue to seek a a Templeton uh W um so you know this is this really is important work it's a great great working group too and I really encourage anyone who's interested to apply um and next um we do have our masc conference resolutions and so I'm going to hand it over to Heather um to just give us a quick recap um in the interest of time um I I gave Susan a copy of what I call the outco report which is um just each resolution a reminder of what our vote had been um two resolutions did have Amendment that was resolution one it was the amendment we were hoping for on the mcass um test and resolution s on the chapter 7 Aid um for inflation adjustments that we're looking for the Amendments um I've listed them in the document they were in the spill in the spirit of what we were looking for as well in our discussions um all of the resolutions passed um and again those two were amended and passed um with a yes vote and those 11 expiring resolutions were also all passed um so I wasn't sure if anybody had any um particular questions or in the interest of time if we're happy with um reviewing you if you want to look again at particular resolutions and those are posted as public content so anyone from the public can feel free to dive in and read about resolutions should they wish to do so um but you know yeah opening up to anyone any school Committee Member if you have questions at the moment um please do I know that was a lengthy discussion so seeing then will thank you so much Heather I know that that is a lot to sit through that meeting and it's a lot to recap it for all of us so really really appreciate your time on that all right and I will hand it back to miss superchief for updates on curriculum and instruction um and I'll let you sort of navigate through these but just for public um we have a seal of by literacy um that we'll be talking about the saving and then um some desie updates on student competency determinations thank you um yes so I'm very excited to present to you tonight that we as a district are uh for the first time offering for our graduating seniors opportunity to participate in the Seal of B literacy um and so I'm going to present what that is what the qualifications are and some additional information about um the benefits that that offers some of our students um so first to start off the Seal of by literacy um offers two seals a seal of B literacy and a seal of V literacy with distinction um and these are awards for students who are able to attain high levels of proficiency in English and at least one additional World Language um and so the state offers this for a variety of purposes um one it encourages students to study and master languages outside of the board in addition to English um it is um an attainment of B literacy skills um and recognizes the value of language diversity and as you saw in I believe it was our last month's presentation we have a wide range of el students who have um a variety of different languages spoken either at home or um in their in their families and in their communities outside of school um it also provides us um with opportunities for employers um to identify language skills uh for folks entering the workforce out when they leave us and also for universities to recognize students language skills when they're for colleges and universities and there also um are many which we'll talk about in a minute many colleges and universities in the state of Massachusetts who will offer students credits coming in if they have a sealed by literacy or sealed by literacy Distinction on their diploma so we actually fix it onto their diploma as the regulations from Desi require us to do that of students earn this recognition um it also helps to prepare them uh you know for um competition both in the workforce and um as they enter College um and it strengthens the community support around multiple cultures and languages which we talked about um which are represented in our district at our last meeting as well um and so there's a lot of benefits to students for exploring this opportunity one being that colleges and universities recognize and provide credit um another being that some will will enroll students in advanced cour workk um in language studies if they have represented or shown their um seal was awarded um also the state of Massachusetts or desie um provides a voucher for any student who receives the Seal of by literacy or seal of by literacy distinction to take the mtels and explore career in teaching um and we encourage students if they' receed the seal to notify their College University or employer because there are additional benefits that aren't listed here sometimes that are offered to students who um has have obtained the award or certificate so what you'll see on the screen right now are the current um colleges and universities in the state of Massachusetts uh this is changing and and being um we adding additional colleges universities um as the year goes on um just recently UMass ammer was added to this list for example um and so these are colleges that currently recognize and have um um credits that they offer students when they enter into their universities or or colleges for students receiving the seal um any student is eligible um to apply for the seale by literacy um students who are English Learners are eligible former English learner students are eligible um students who are Heritage speakers or signers of World Language um students who are monolingual English speakers however they learn the language either through school or the community can apply um and any other students with multi-lingual skills so this is not an initiative that is unique or specific just to students who are El or former e it is open to any student who has um interest in exploring this because they have um skills or language acquisition in English and any other language including sign language the qualifications for students to receive the Seal of bolacy so this is interesting so it's through the class of 2025 so through this year the current require re Ms that that students must meet all graduation requirements um obtain an mcast score Ela mcast score of 472 or higher on their 10th grade mcast or 501 or higher on their 10th grade mcast with a seal of Distinction um and we will be administering um a Desi approved uh assessment in whichever um Heritage language or additional language student is requesting a seal in um and they have to get either an immediate high or high score on that assessment so they're basically they're assessing on mcast for English and they're assessing in another assessment tool in whichever language U they they're applying for the sealed by literacy and they can apply for a sealed by literacy of multiple languages it doesn't have to be one they could select multiple as well um for the class of 2026 and Beyond The Graduate the requirements for mcast change so they incre increase for the Seal of B literacy to 486 or higher on the 10th grade mcast and it is um currently to be determined what that score would be for students with the Seal of V literacy distinction so we we do know that the current qu the current um criteria for that um is for this year and then starting next year and Beyond the criteria changes I and I anticipate we might see an adjustment or change to that in the future but currently that's what we have for guidance from desie questions any questions Sean uh this is first of all this is wonderful I'm very b r is an important thing it's marketable spoil lot of good things there cost of the district Andor cost of the student that's taking the test $40 per test for student no no and we will provide by so in the in the Desi regulation for this districts are required to provide financial assistance to any students considered low income we have um we are as a district going to fund this pretty minimal cost and and and I and then this and I should say then a slight cost to a fix the seal to students diploma in the printing process it's it's pretty minimal HS in for for I think there's a population that you that this should be pushed for too so thank you we sent the information out to families about a week and a half ago uh with a link to register we've already had um one student register and two who have reached out to our El coordinator teacher um and are inquiring and I believe we're going to have a few more this year as well so we're we're really excited to get this up and running and I should say it um a large thank you to our El teacher Kelly Kari and to our high school principal Mr kby Young Who worked with me to get this up and running here and an opportunity for our students thank you thank you any other questions thank thank you this is this is excellent to Echo to Echo Sean's words all right should we talk about speaking about um so as you may know in the state of Massachusetts um public schools are required public school students are required to meet both local and state requirements um to earn a high school diploma and so what that has looked like in the past has been that students have to meet um coursework and credit requirements by their senior year um and for us as a district in our program of studies we outline that as meeting mass for requirements so four years of English four years of math um three years of lab based science three years of History two years of the same foreign language um one year of an arts program um and some additional um core courses in Business Health and technology so um no changes to that that's our local requirement um and then students also have to under state law show um competency determination and in grade 10 and so until up until the ballot 2 question passed in Massachusetts um competency determination was determined at the state level and it was determined by students passing their 10th grade ELA math um and and science assessments and so with that there were retake options there were educational proficiency plans and there was a whole process if students did not meet that requirement to help students meet that requirement um and then desie Department of Education um for the state of Massachusetts would certify their competency determination so desie would certify compeny determinations and the district would CER would essentially um be responsible for local graduation requirements coursework and and credit allocation over the course of students um High School career and so we're in an interesting place right now because um the new regulations that have changed under that ballot vote mean that desie is no longer allowed to determine or award competency determination for students that now falls on the district um and so desie is providing guidance starting to provide guidance to districts um they have provided what was in your I believe is in your U agenda attached to your agenda is dy put out initial guidance on November 6th to districts then they updated guidance on November 11th to districts and B but we anticipate we'll be seeing some additional updates and guidance um in early January to districts but essentially what this means is that the 10th for so this is interesting because for our current seniors who are graduating uh in 2025 those students who have taken and passed mcass Ela math and science have already met and received a determinated a CD from Desi so they are all set students who did not pass mcass who were slated to graduate in 2025 can now no longer get that by taking a retest because as of January I think it's the 4th but don't quote me on that um that desie could no longer set that regulation and and no longer determine competency so we're in an interesting period this year where the majority of our students already have the competency determination because they pass Outcast we have a small pocket of students who have not that we as a system need to put a plan in place or how we will assess that and determine that um so there's a short-term immediate need for us to do that and then there's a long-term plan that we have to put in place as a system so essentially districts are going to be responsible for um establishing and setting a policy around competency determination at the local level um we will then be establishing a certification process as well once the policies are set to certify students competency determination as their graduation requirement what is interesting is that the regulation still reads as a 10th grade um competency determination around the same subject areas so um we have been learning a lot the last few weeks um attending some informational sessions with desie um and and reading a lot about the guidance we've really been digging in uh but there is a lot that I think we're going to see continue to develop um in the next few weeks to as supports to districts um from the state level and so U you know one thing that's interesting is what we'll have to make sure that our process that we put in place in our policies align with the regulation language um and also that it is approved by the school committee and that we put it out there publicly for parents and put it out there publicly in multiple languages for parents so that's essentially um what we're going to be working on early January we'll be working on a short-term plan for our current seniors and we'll be working on a long-term plan moving forward a lot of districts are going to have to look at sort of an interim plan for students who are currently enrolled in high school but are not seniors we are in a really solid place as a district there because we follow Mass core for graduation requirements so we are not going to really need to put in that middle step because the step we put in place moving for all students will capture any current um high school student who's not a senior and students who are not yet in nth grade moving up so we are in a great place curriculum wise with our program of studies and our Mass core alignment um that we really are really looking at two two sets current seniors anyone moving forward for graduation from um so we I don't have a lot of answers yet because we're just in that gathering information stage um but we will be working with the polic with the um District Operations committee to established policy um to bring forward to the committee um and put some procedures in place follow that um you kind of already answered in a roundabout way a lot it I think the language is going to be the most important piece of that there and how that matches up uh I think my question is who's going to sit what's your preliminary vision for who's going to sit at that table is that going to be decisions that are made here is there going to be faculty that sit at that table and what does that look like in order to determine what what that look so the policy will be set at the school committee yeah um of course um and then um we brought CIA into a meeting with um Rob curtain from Desy just yesterday so we're starting that at the administrative level so we can wrap our heads around what the work ahead is um but that will be um likely something that we draft as administrative team with input from our teacher leader team at the high school I know that Colby has already had some um conversations with teacher leaders and I there's a lot of there's a lot of varying levels of information people have and understandings and it's um not a surprise because it's developing over time you information and guidance is coming out quickly but also changing quickly right now um and so there's a lot of conversation happening across the state um with superintendent assistant superintendent and folks in curriculum roles um as we're trying to kind of all wrap our heads around this because it's a midyear shift uh so it impacts a core hood of students where some are going to fall under this process because they've already received competency determination and some are going to fall over here thank you yeah it's messy watch why I asked I thanks for those updates M other questions okay see men we'll move along and we didn't end up any surplus items this evening um so we can skip that and we do have a policy do you want me to take it or do you want to take it Pap go ahead the first one we have is a first reading for an update to vde subcommittees of the school committee and this is just a little bit of housekeeping um the um policy did not list our current configuration of subcommittees it still had our old one um normally in these docents you would see strike throughs in red for deletions and green um font for additions but the more docs is being temperamental so today the um additions are in yellow highlight thanks to Susan Barney who worked some magic to get anything to show up on the screen um so like I said this one's a pretty straightforward housekeeping one and if we change um subcommittees again we will just have to update this policy again so I would entertain a motion to accept um bde sub Committees of the school committee for first reading as presented motion by Hank second by Danielle any questions or comments about this update seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that was unanimous okay so we have two policies up for second readings um bhe use electronic messaging by school committee members that was an update that removed the um outdated language um about archiving our electronic communications amongst ourselves and jlc proposed update administering medicines to students um this update to the policy we added some required legal references for Mass General law 94c um and just for those for those of you who are newer it is standard practice with any policy adoption that it goes through both ofer not only does the policy subcommittee review it and vote on it but then the main school committee reviews it not once but twice before it gets adopted um because it is such an important part of how the schools governed um so these are the ones these are the exact same policies that we reviewed during our last meeting um and as such I would entertain a motion to accept the following for second reading as presented be H use of electronic messaging by school committee members and jlc administering medicines to students Sean by Han second by Sean any questions or comments about those seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes and so those will be adopted and added and updated rather in our policy okay um next we have our state trip for Washington DC um for our eighth graders um does anyone want to speak to this particular one I know it's one that we do every year I'll speak to it um just quickly U I'm laughing or smiling to myself just thinking about what the form used to look like and what the form looks like now it's almost um like the DMV so um but it has almost every bit of information you could possibly want um we're actually updating it again to make sure that everything is in order so as you see um as discussed last year it's it's a great trip um it certainly hits all the all the Frameworks there are some we're still waiting on a few like quotes like for busing Etc I believe but but the the information the important information is there um and so with that they'll be able to move forward about getting that I think the H quotes will be here in the week yeah go ahead um so one thing of note is that in the process of um sending this to you the school did get three different bids from three different companies for this trip what's unique about this um request this year is you'll see that the um school is going with a different company um so they're going with um world strides um which is not the company that has been used um in the past or last year um the rationale for that is they were exploring the bids and this seems to be a much higher quality trip um than the one that we've used in the past um there's more substance in the curriculum for this um there's better sit down meals as opposed to the last trip um and they have some additional add-ons like photography um that are included in the price so some photo photographs um would would come out of that as well um the trip is looking to run um a week later the week of June 9th um to accommodate hotels available um for the time period um and um because there's a uh World Pride Festival with uh anticipated 2.5 million people in Washington DC the week that they normally attend so hotels were really challenging to book so the change in date is for that reason and the change in um in company is is for the reasons listed above and thank you for that additional context and our I should add our um High School assistant principal has quite a bit of experience from her last District utilizing this company for trips and speaks very highly um of the way that they facilitate safety and just programming for students so great I'm glad we were able to explore new options and that something that worked okay I would entertain a motion to approve the Washington DC trip from June 9th through June 12th for the 8th grade as presented so moved motion by Heather second second by Hank any questions or comments about the details that have been presented seeing none all in favor post abstained and I say yes so happy happy fundraising happy planning um it sounds like a great trip and really exciting to hear that doing something new and different um so yeah it looks like a great opportunity thank you all right Dr C um so the tees concert that took place on Monday um was fantastic and if this was the TW we've done something like you know 800 parents 500 students four buses two plays one day that's what took place between 9:00 and 1130 um here on M day it was awesome um people were just thrilled were at capacity from both of those showings so um again just thanks to the high school middle school and Elementary in central office it it took all of us uh to to make sure it worked we had student uh volunteers who helped just in general with doors Etc the SRO with we had a crossing guard very well planned out excellent parents felt good to see their kiddos um do you know concerts and and then of course is one of you know what the goal so that would probably be the new from here on out um and to include probably the fourth grade concert at given the parking issues just this well just this so um it's it's going to be great and so uh just thanks to everybody and if if you if you if you if you saw it was just the best it was honestly the best um we're we're you know obviously this is the important time of the year we're just trying to sometimes we we say we're just trying to get to to Friday um but we did take stock in the good things just yesterday in our administrative meeting um about some of the things that we do not notice because we're too close and we don't notice until folks who are new to us come up to us and go this is like good or or sometimes this is you know not never bad but something difficult we don't realize how well behaved our students are um and I want to tell you just a very quick story that you have all the you know massive Humanity of parents coming in from both sides was well organized but there was a time when the fifth grade had to get to lunal you're talking about 10 students without without even prompting they all got in a single file on because we we kind of held them up and then they walked quietly without disruption without any type of like you know which which could happen without issue and a woman came up to me and said did you cancel lunches today because it's so quiet in there they just just knew how to be it right so I just I have to point that out we we miss it some times uh we don't realize how lucky we are uh we had a couple of wonderful interactions with folks going where are the kids because there's nobody in the hallways it was Qui and just that doesn't happen by by mistake all right that is the wonderful folks that you saw here today and Beyond so I just needed to point that out and um we we took some we took stock in that um yesterday about just pointing out some of the things that we're very thankful for um what I talk speaking about being thankful the foret scholarship so Leon Paul fet a Resident Life resident of of Templeton passed away mid mid year last year and he left and you voted this just so if you remember he left the district $1 million for scholarships million dollar and and literally just said scholarships for the kids okay so we we thought about that that and we of course engaged the high school and we discussed it last week and what we did is we went through his obituary because none of us knew you know Mr fet well um and we found that he was uh we found out that he was an engineer um and he loved to travel um he had affinity for dogs he loved dogs as well so in in taking what you know the value and the of his life we we have decided that starting this year looking to to make sure I'm saying the right things in terms of this distribution of monies but the monies will be split up in the two $10,000 tranches in the following way $1 $110,000 um scholarship will be for someone who is going into the area of engineering STEM related field and that could very well be broken up if we have several excellent candy C but $10,000 will be um will be allotted to that the other and we just discussed this it will be $1 $1,000 scholarships for students going to on the eth grade trailer because he led to travel and so you know uh it was just a really interesting it was a great conversation to have right to talk about this you know this gentleman who left literally um his life savings you know just to the the high school he graduated in 19 uh 47 class of 1947 and so you know we thought that would be a great um way to um well hopefully for ety right um to thank him for his efforts and just you know put forth into you know Into The Ether all the good positive Spirits he certainly is going to give these kids um um for for the foreseeable future so wanted to make sure that you you know certainly were um surprised of that that will go into the official book that we hand out to seniors and it'll have a description and what it can be but um we thought that the DC trip was a was it was it was appr propo to some of the things that he he liked to um and through enrollment we we increased that enrollment by 12 students in one month 10 10 residents two school choice CU as you approved last SM um we're not We're not gonna we're not going to jinx anything but we think that we're not going to be in health harmness this year we think never know until they tell us but we think we're plus 30ish year over year is and um I'm just I say it every time time I can't believe the number of students who are coming in at some of these times right just number in terms of like we had six in one week I think it was six six in one week and it were just like and they all went to tees like oh my God so anyway um just as an update and just as as we move forward and and we'll be talking a lot about student enrollment when we get to the budget of course but um that is the um we're at, 1468 St um last month we had you know 1456 so we're we're just increasing um are they all moving or um one all about one student who was a homeschool student came back were all movements new H new houses they just they they open they Clos they open their house they closed they closed yeah so these are these are folks have move you know up to us our area and I think school choices something discuss choice at this point so at this point I have one chair it's about as priest as I possibly can be think I can be much any questions for Dr C on the items he presented just a comment I absolutely love the1 $1,000 scholarships for the Washington DC trip um that 20,000 scholarship for someone going on to engineering will definitely impact their life for the better but those 10 students that get to go to DC that would not have had that opportunity that's going to change their life yeah I think so I we absolutely agree and we just and it really was Mr Young Who who thought would' be the the best because you we're trying to get all those kids to to see Washington DC it's B one of the best trips I've ever been on you know it was it was excellent if you if you've never so no it's well received I think it'll be U well received obviously by I say yeah and and I'm G to follow I actually had the same comment uh that Danielle just said and then my only followup question was was there only 10 that needed it how were those things liked it well that process we were trying to stay balanced quite frankly and given you know the rate of return and we won't really know um the the money has been um you know invested so to speak for the last almost a year it will be a year and we we want to see what the returns are we only we're only going to of course use you know the interest so there's nothing saying I I don't believe there's nothing to say that we couldn't expand that if you know if things go well in the market we just don't want to start getting into the principle you know that first year because the first year we're not going to have a probably a full cycle is that about right yeah but no there's no there's no need there's no reason to think that if wow you know we could do this and so I I think there definitely some flexibility and his you know his last R in Testament leaves us the the ability to be flexible or if we can so so to what was the selection base there is it just students of need is it uh Mr Young and his U and the guidance fol will will come up well in both in both of these situations we'll come up with um you know the criteria questions no comments all right on to school General school committee comments um is there anything that anyone wanted to bring up this evening sure I went to uh the elementary show as well and I'm just going to PEB on Dr C comments it was there were a lot of people there it was well run by everybody and it was it was it was really good so that was mine that was the only note that I had as well yeah and I Echo that because I was I was at the same events and I mean they had I I mean you have smiling happy kids you had parents that were you got parents in and out like parents that you know could have been trying to get up to see their little chair up at the front but they listened they did what was needed to do and I think everyone just really appreciated getting to be there and see that work and you know congrats to mck for for getting all of that done and the kids and the kids loved it kids when was the last time anyone if you're if you're a showman there were many many when was the last time you were able to sing for 500 probably four or 500 honestly honestly I don't know but boy I'll tell you they they there was some stars in the making on those days and uh there was oh my gosh it was absolutely adorable so we're glad to made this happen because the parents definitely should and need to see those you only get those you know those moments you know once or you know in terms of their child you seeing your kid and uh your child doing that so we're glad that it all worked out absolutely all right so moving on to subcommittees um finance and Facilities um so we already talked about the moral Aid um we did review a number of the projects that are happen in as well as discussions that are happening with the towns around those projects so you know to Echo our um visitor earlier um absolutely that there is a lot of conversation happening around that green that lack of Green Space um down at Templeton Elementary um you know discussion around you know continued discussion around the the birds um as well and trying to you know figure out with the town what we're going to need to do there in order to address those pieces um financially we're really just waiting on a lot of numbers to come in at the moment um we're sort of in that Prime waiting Zone to see how things are going to net out for um FY 26 um you know what what will we get from the state what will happen with insurance increases you know etc etc um so anything I'm missing from that meeting or any big big notes that I'm missing no um so you know next month we'll really be starting to dig into budget very thoroughly on figuring out exactly what what we need so you know with hoping n DEA is is happy with u the contract as it is written um that will go a long way towards helping us figure out what those budget numbers are going to look like um District Operations you certainly saw the policies that were reviewed the other projects that is cly underway is putting together a handbook for new school committee members that is specifically what new school committee members in our district need to know in order to be successful from you know what training do you need to take to who to go to for questions etc etc um so we review the first I'm going to say half a draft um and we'll continue to review that um then we'll bring it to the full committee for review um and adoption once we get through you know all the initial red lines um but really trying to you know trying to put something together that you know could you know in a lot of districts we see it actually postage their website so Not only would it be a good tool for onboarding new members but it also could be a good tool for people who don't understand what it means to be a school committee member who canot on and look at it and especially where we have several openings we thought that this was an important place to focus our time as well as new committee members who um could use some additional help because it's a fire hose of information as I'm sure you will attest all right um Labor Management committee so Labor Relations Comm see just um so um LMC is suspended at the moment Al the will pick it back up in the new year now that we're through ndaa negotiations we've already the the good thing about having those in place is as you're going through negotiations if you spot something that really is not a contract issue but requires further discussion you can pin it to this other meeting and so you don't spend time during negotiations having conversations that are I'm going to say sidebars to getting the work of the updated contract done so it's great to have this in place we were able to sort of pin a couple of important topics iics to come back to um and we'll continue to do that work um you know with the work environment committee which is with UW um that last meeting was in November so no other no other updates there though you know things continue to be you know good maintaining good working relationships and creating that space for inform conversations is great um so Lea on to nrsd CPAC um that position is currently empty but I have great news um because our newest member Chrissy has volunteered to fill that particular position and help us to bring in updates from NRC CPAC we do have to vote for that so I would entertain a motion to uh I want to say submit and that is another word that I want appoint thank you to appoint um Chrissy Hazlet to do yes to Le to nrsd CPAC and I will take your so move tank second uh second by Heather um any questions or comments seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so thank you so much um for committing to that if you need help figuring out who to connect with um you can definitely connect with Susan and she can put you in touch though I know I gave you some preliminary information as well um we do still have our liaison to PTO open um so should anyone be interested in filling that space please do reach out and let me know absent that since we have had a few months without having the official ease and I am going to reach out to PTO and just put an agential request that should they like us to be reading some updates um here at school committee if they could just email us their minutes then I'd be happy to run through those in meetings uh but that position is still open if anyone is interested so Sean I will hand it over to you as our Lea on the student advisory Council I have no updates other than I will be meeting with Co young Co after the first year excellent great thanks for the update um and then Danielle as our legislative representative I came prepared to talk about any the updates on the student compet competency determinations but Molly did a wonderful job all the updates which are sort of minimal as we all wait for what's coming this okay and we have no correspondents this evening our mam chair add one thing tomorrow is our our lunch our te lunching tomorrow um and we have 93 folks signed up that is the largest uh put on our our aprons and so but we're very excited so we'll be hosting 93 folks here tomorrow no of course of course please please um and I realized that I already have a 2024 typo um our next meeting is January 16th 2025 you're not going back in time um so I look forward to seeing everyone again here on January 16 2025 um for our next meeting that one is at 5:30 pm and we already did executive session so I would entertain a motion to adjourn so oh a joint motion motion by Sean and second by Hank all in favor thank you everyone um and we look forward to seeing you next time