##VIDEO ID:5o67vEuWOnQ## online at this point so we're going to begin uh let's call to order the regular meeting of the regional school committee uh tonight at 6:30 p.m. uh welcome everybody we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the of the United States of America and to the repblic for stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all all right everybody so we're going to get started with our agenda here first item is um citizens comments for which we have none um I wonder if we could potentially change that from hence forth to public comment that's we were talking about right yes I I had sent um um Leah and email just asking about that change we just change it CU it it would be reflected by policy public comments um what we'll call it from hence forth thanks for she had you had actually said that to me probably a year ago I think it just keeps calling through the crack yeah yep all right so on now to the consent agenda and I will take a motion from our vice chair I move to approve the consent agenda of October 11 2024 try a second okay um I think Jackie raised her hand so I'm going to give Jackie the second there thank you very much Jackie uh is there any discussion for the consent agenda I go um it's regarding the Middle School uh career connected partnership Grant M and so I just um I have concerns about um additional pressure and raising anxiety for children when we know that they already feel enormous pressure and levels of anxiety and I hope that we can always remember that our children our middle school students are are children first and foremost and I'm wondering if um you can share any insights around how the um what the developmental considerations are as this program is implemented I know who I'm addressing it to um and so do we have to pull it out to have discussion on it no you can discuss it but if somebody wants to object because there may be an issue I guess the issue is no if you want to you have an option we can discuss the motion but the the approval of the consent agenda is a bundle of approval so the motion is to approve all three items oh so did I I out of order I not but if you are worried if you want to vote on the cons if you want to vote affirmatively on the consent agenda but not on that one item in the consent agenda and you'd rather have them pulled apart so that we vote separately on them you can um raise an objection that will pull the grant out so you can vote no on the Grant and yes on the consent the rest of the consent agenda but it looks like you maybe just want some clarification on this information I'm not trying to pull it out excellent okay so I just wanted to make sure okay so I'm going to turn to our superintendent to give us maybe a little bit of clarity on this grant I think I'll just ask Miss friend to come in at this point um sure thank you if I may uh so the title of the Grant I think is potentially misleading uh the title of the grant is associated with our Innovation Pathways uh opportunities at the high school and the intention there I think from the state is to create opportunities for Middle School students to start to begin to develop a sense of self-awareness based on their interests and their passions so that by the time they enter into seventh and then eighth grade they have an opportunity to have maybe a stronger sense of self and maybe some potential interest before they enter into high school so the way that um we have written the grant really is intended to support advisory at the middle level and so you'll see in the breakdown um it's going to support our advisory curriculum um which focuses on sense of belonging and sense of self and uh interest uh interest elers learning style profiles and really working as student will work through a mea Pathway to saying I'm you interested in art and so if you're interested in art then maybe you're interested in this and then they're going to end up with a portfolio a digal portfolio different than the high school portfolio but through the advisory platform which they can share with their families and then just kind of walk away from middle school with like okay these are potential interest for me uh other components of the grant um that we have written um the grant to support includes stiens to help work to build out this pathway so it's developmentally appropriate and specifically um as a grant in front of me um sixth grade will focus primarily on building the competency of self-awareness uh as they've participate in activities designed to develop their confidence and emotional awareness seventh grade will focus on um continuing to grow their knowledge of self through the completion of learning style inventory all is a part of the larger advisory and then in e8th grade um they'll continue their self exploration through open open ended Journal prompts and learn about careers potentially related to their own passions and interests in subject areas so we're excited about the grant because it is is supporting um a cost that was in the operating budget for the advisory curriculum so that's reallyy exciting uh as well as supporting uh an opportunity for student for our staff um to provide um be provided with some extra Duty compensation to work to build out the lesson so meaningful for our students and our portrait of anber graduate and then the third element of the grant request is relative to supporting guest speakers to come in and talk to our middle school students and families um just about um like on Middle School I as as a as a middle school educator at heart I I see this as um incredibly developmentally appropriate um for where our middle schoolers are at is beginning to see themselves in the large larger context of us and figure out who they are so I hope that that provides a little bit more information in detail about how the grant will be utilized if approved thank you can I actually say too yeah Jackie it's going to crosswalk really nice too with the roll out of the new IEP that for students who have special education services cuz they're asking a lot more directed questions around like who do you want to be when you grow up and like having I think something like a foundation to be able to look to is really strength fa and exciting so any other questions on the consent agenda all right see none all those in favor of the consent agenda raise your hand all those against no exensions all right so thank you for that and we will now move on to the next item here which is a school committee chairperson update and I am happy to share with the committee that we have our new Bolton representative present with us everybody Welcome Robin PMA to the school committee welcome Robin we're really excited to have you we're so grateful that you've stepped up to volunteer here and if you want to just give a brief introduction to the committee and say hi sure so I'm Robin FMA I am a 8-year Bolton resident I have a child in the sixth grade in e8th grade um and you know I my great neighbor Amy Cohen mentioned to me that this position was open and I thought you know now is a good time uh to get involved you know I've been kind of letting all of you steer this ship for many many years and everyone doing a great job I've always been very impressed with Amy's knowledge of the bus stop and I said geez I'd really be interested in learning a little bit more about this so here I am and uh I'm just happy to be be here and very um excited to learn alongside all of you and I'm already very intrigued with what's going on thank you awesome thanks Robin welcome um another uh ancillary update we do have a person from Stow who has submitted a letter of interest for the vacancy for the Stow seat and the sto representatives are going to be attending this leard meeting on October 22nd to um advance that process forward so we might have another um new member shortly uh so moving on guys we're going to head over to our student representative report and we have Ava here with us and Ryan so take it away guys so tonight M field Hoy is hosting their pink KN against al gonin when I left the game it was still 0 to zero but I'll keep you updated and this week we started the pilot Flex schedule Thursday Tuesday and Thursday we have Flex block and then Monday Wednesday Friday is just longer classes so in in our first um Flex block block the Juniors like um went to set up the PSA to make sure everything is ready to go which it was and that all went smoothly on Thursday we're going to be doing the nas student survey in that Flex block and then the rest uh the next four um we'll give the students the opportunity to meet with any teachers they want and then um take care of any extra studying and things like that and then once the plot closes students and staffs will have the opportunity to provide feedback and then it'll end in a staff vote see how that goes and I think there's like personally and like the people I just talked to around like they're liking it a lot they think um the drop is kind of beneficial to steer their focus to like less classes with more time so that's that's all awesome um I wonder if the committee has any questions for the students yeah that's exciting thank you so much for persevering through that pilot of the new schedule we look forward to hearing uh at the tail on what we are all going to do next than sure and to a Ryan uh Dr Bon and I finished our planning for our Advisory Group yesterday and we're aiming for October 25th fourth during Flex block to bring that group together for the first time and ask the two representatives of the school committee you'll be those Representatives on that group as well that be perfect thank you thank you all right so that's it you guys are always welcome to stay but you're also welcome to leave it is up to you but thanks for being here guys thank you so much you have a great night all right so on to our next item here and that is the superintendent report turn over to should I share everybody my business coming up at leave this evening yeah that's probably um just so you guys know we'll go through our report this evening at 7 o' um uh attorney GLE and I will be exiting to attend the planning board meeting in governance sometimes we have uh conflicts in our meetings but this is an important thing as we're getting some permitting processes done for the high school building project so our attendance is necessary there at that time so um that we'll dive into the report so that we can then get to the goals hopefully mam chair um the first part I'd like to share with you in the report is around uh generative AI guidelines we're providing some generative AI guidin for digital learning and Innovation director Jud stefanowitz um so that we can uh explore the potential of AI in the educational setting but do so um in a responsible balanced approach as we know this can be a very valuable tool to leverage learning but it also comes with understanding best practices and so um in doing so uh we're going to be putting proper safe cards in plan to do that uh Mr spanitz is going to talk in more detail at the November uh presentation digital learning presentation but we I asked if uh to bring this forward to the committee now that we're working on this with our uh teachers to demonstrate we're going to proceed forward safely and monitor it closely so prioritizing student D privacy for all AI related activities um evaluating the tools for their learning experiences providing the PD to staff on responsible use um and uh supporting we also want to support personalized learning and creativity with applications and that those AI initiative is aligned with our district goals and learning standards in bringing it forward to you tonight it also gives me to an opportunity to sort of solicit some participation I I know Mr Simon has uh expertise in this area and I reached out to Mr Simon but wanted to um publicly acknowledge that we would love for you to participate with us in sort of the development and crafting of these guidelines with our teachers while we already have the framework designed uh your lens I think would be very helpful particularly uh since it's such a immensely Speedy advancement in in the impact of learning in in the classroom so if Mr Simon wouldn't mind joining us we'd love to have him all right so thank you thank you very much and uh Mr stanitz is excited about that possibility as well and so I'll be connecting you both uh tomorrow via email so you can schedule some times together um the part of the update that you didn't have initially when this packet came out was Project 211 because that happened last night um project 211 is an advocacy initiative through the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools the 211 represents the 2 100 and 11 districts in this past year run the hold harmless category for funding of state aid thus we got the U minimum increase per student for our Chapter 70 funds Mr W Caren has free permission to jump in if I uh need any assistance in Chapter 70 is as it's a very complex formula but basically stated it's this Chapter 70 was a formula developed in 1992 and there's been some adaptations to it a couple of times um and it is the best system we have today that doesn't necessarily always work for funding schools and the chapter 7 formula impacts Urban suburban and Rural schools differently and so that's not to say one over another because each uh no matter what setting you find yourself in there are challenges that come with funding schools but we know it needs work um I currently sit on the legislative committee for Mass the Massachusetts Association for school superintendent and um I spoke with our executive director Mary Bor today about the Mars presentation last night we have our Task Force at mass that is working on this issue as well so through both of those Avenues we'll be working with our legislators and Advising on uh restructuring for that because it's going to be important for um superintendents to be at the table with any guidance to the state and our legislators are saying yes we know there are some fixes that need to be done so for instance our foundational Aid comes in at a certain dollar amount and while it may increase per pupil year-over-year it doesn't close the gap of what the cost to educate is year-over-year so there's complexities to that we'll be coming back to the committee um as things develop with that but I think you all know that with adjust adjusting legislation is a difficult long and arduous task uh but coming out of the budget season we had last year I want you to know that we nooba are uh in the arena with having the conversations to work on that for the future um so with that I'll take any questions before we move on to the MS mtss update yes Scott with respect to the AI do you have intentions to require that all the teachers allow it or not allow it to be used you know are you going to call for a consistent approach a CL across classes I think that's the whole point of what we're trying to do is to get some some groundwork laid on that and to develop and have some standards around that it's accelerating so quickly that this is why we need to memorialize these things and provide that teacher to our guidance because frankly for many of our teachers for me as a superintendent it's like this is kind of scary because it's so unfamiliar to me how how do I get it into a place where I can use these tools in a very effective way that helps me do my work so that's kind of the aim and I think um Mr spanitz when he comes uh in November um will address some of those things as well and we'll will key him to your question any other questions um just well while we're on the AI topic it's amazing and scary at the same time but are there are you guys also looking at how do you um you know I hear stories about kids who can go online and write a paper through AI right and and even teachers are having difficulty identifying a paper that was written by a student or written by AI there any kind of um guard rails or anything you can kind of do to prevent I mean I don't know if I'm using the right terms but do you know what I'm saying like it can be used for good and it can be used for bad are you looking at it all in or this is what we're diving into it's funny you asked that question just last Thursday um I went into an AI generator and said uh give me all the key characteristics to tell if a student paper has been produced by AI so AI was telling me how to look out for AI right I use that to sort of illustrate we recognize the Paradox that we find ourselves in uh right now and how do we embrace it because this isn't going anywhere so like there's no point into saying well we can't use it can't use it is it and I think very level conversation is is this cheating or not cheating is like one of the examples where we got to be higher up above that the digital learning presentation in November we'll address some of that um just as a quick flip side to that I can go in and say give me a college level reading on imperialism and now give me a ninth grade reading level reading on imperialism and so it actually can help with differentiating instruction it's incredibly powerful and can be used for so much good so I'm glad you're on to it that's good news Madam chair if you don't mind my request would you um be willing to take um to go out of order and um interrupt with the superintendent's goals uh to afford attorney GRS opportunity to get to the planning board meeting so if there's no objection from the committee we can advance the sub goal agenda item to right now and then we'll go back to the MTF report because L I think is the one who going to present that correct yeah I I just want to say they've got you on the agenda they got us on the agenda for 7:00 so we're first out of the gate so all right so yes that is correct we always like a 10-minute presentation cirk so um great on to the superintendent's goals if you wouldn't mind pulling up the goals document because we're just going to speak from the goals document um as you all know but I will repeat myself for new audience members and new members to our community the superintendent goals as part of a process it's outlined through the Department of Elementary and secondary education that we follow here in nooba it also is reflective of a collective effort it is not the superintendent sole effort in developing and refining these goals as a matter of fact we were tuning uh our professional practice goal my professional practice goal uh as late as yesterday morning to get in some of the specific activities that we'd be working towards there so there's a lot of people to go into these efforts and I want to thank them all for being a part of that process including the members of my team that are here uh today so that being said if we can just uh there are three sections the superintendent goals the district Improvement goals which are the four strategic objectives that are in um our strategic plan and then the third piece of this as part of the evaluation process and that's the performance standard we include this in the presentation of goals as a way to forecast to to shine to the community the areas that the evaluation subcommittee have brought for forward as these are the areas the committee would uh like to see a focus on moving forward in collaboration with the conversation with me so if we can scroll down to superintendent goal number one the student learning goal this goal should look very very familiar to all of you because it is a repeat of last year's student learning goal and uh we're in a two-year cycle now I would anticipate we continue to have this goal because it builds upon itself as you are working on growth and acceler ation over time so this is an annual goal for us that we're hitting the 70% Target rate in our uh Universal screening assessment measures in grades uh K through 8 and so in order to to do that we need to continue to maintain this goal so that we can monitor that progress over time it is uh an area by which when we work with principles and we have our state and school addresses in the summer our midyear updates we're coming back to this sort of static point to get a general look but then we bring it in with other assessments to to get an understanding of what learning looks like in the system so that is a continuation of a goal that you saw last year and we'll continue to see the second goal is the professional practice goal and uh at the workshop we talked about this a little bit and uh we talked about disproportionality and when we talk about dispropor portion ality we're thinking about uh students identified through their race ethnicity income status English learner status their or possibly disability how they're placed into our courses and are they proportional to the representation within that school system so in the school system so as we looked at that the statement reads each and every student has Equitable access to challenging high level experiences that Foster engagement and academic growth with the goal of eliminating dispropor forunate enrollment in advanced courses among traditionally marginalized subgroups race ethnicity income status English learner status and students with disabilities I have been struggling as Miss friend can testify we've been going back and forth on a word enrollment right um and struggle to find the exact word to find there but it's basically to say students who are in class challenging rigorous courses whether that be in middle school or elementary school or Beyond we know we have a differentiation model through our elementary and middle school years we begin to specialized courses with uh accelerated math placement in the middle schools so we're going to be looking at all those systems and practices and how they impact ultimately how students um enter into advanced coursework at the high school level and so you can see some of the activities that I'll be doing this year with the high school leadership team around launching our student advisory Council uh looking at the course leveling process The Accelerated math process at the middle schools uh reviewing prerequisite requirements aligning criteria B for Teacher recommendations looking at National Honor Society criteria with the faculty Advisory Board as you heard we're already piloting the model schedule that is going to open us opportunities for there particularly with the flex clock to accommodate some of those things and then uh deeper work deeper learning through ccope we're in year two of that so these are some of the activities that are tied into that goal of eliminating disproportionality in our courses based upon those identifying factors so if we're doing that what that means is from a statistical perspective can we reach the place of the predictability of courses students will be enrolled on based upon those factors and and that's just something we're doing deep study of and have to go into to work on that but here's what it comes down to and it it's in the upper part of the planned activities is the actions that are happening in the classroom around strong equity and differentiation practices meet the needs of all students each and every student so as we look at for instance the look Force at the um in the Desi uh walkthrough and evaluation tools those look fors are best practice look force uh a very uh obvious one I might put out there would be like um the success criteria for student learning is clear and apparent to the Learners in the classro would be a look for so um anyway that's where we are in terms of those two goals those um are the pieces that I think the I should just say for a moment the other goals are around our four objectives that are in our strategic plan that I think you've heard a lot about and in depth about with each one of those activities so we're on the progression the timeline of advancing those objectives as well and then um I'm going to skip straight down to the identified uh performance standards so uh this was feedback from members of the committee that were able to participate in in providing the subcommittee their that information and these are the standards and the superintendent evaluation rubric that came forward student engagement being um uh very strong and I believe that that's one that we should always have because that's what we're about engageed learning in the classroom um for those of you that are new to this document again you can see the descriptions in the categories so when we come to formative time and at the end of this year and then ultimately summmer of at the end of next year this is the language and evidence uh throughout these two years are presented in this forum uh to show work towards that uh adjustment to practice is tied to student engagement because it's when we learn what students how students are doing it relative to those things we then make adjustments you can see uh management and operations uh the social and emotional well-being so this is around uh developing the different by culture and support in these areas as being very important so we want that to be a focus family engagement continues to be a focus of ours has been in the past um as well as supporting our students and commitment to high standards so um you have the document here in the detail there we are on a two-year cycle and so this is something we continually come back to a meeting so if there's detail that we need to bring forward I'll always be happy to bring that forward so we'll take any questions mam chair all right I'm going to go in first um are you sure you have time for questions yes okay my I'll try to make it quick my the question about are the goal related to the traditionally marginalized groups um and enrollment in the advanced courses I was wondering if you had given any thoughts of tying that to the groups identified in the equity on it yes as being under enrolled instead of traditionally marginalized if there's a way to just TI that more specifically to the equity audit great thank you but that's where it came from right exactly making that exposive I think would be important Amy yeah I had a question um the student learning goal I know it deals mainly with K through 8 and I was wondering if there was something at the high school where you're kind of tracking kids progress or like looking at how cuz I know all the the star stuff that's all like k through eight and I didn't know if there was something kind of at the high school that connected with that goal we're be we're embedding that into the professional practice goal um around those practices so we're going to be looking at the leveling of our courses students enrolled in their AP courses the performance of students in those courses as bench marks to that so as we're diving into that information um we'll be bringing that information for as well okay just to to on to what Amy is saying so I appreciate that we are trying to get these kids enrolled and that we're trying to make classes more representative but enrolling students is really just like the lowest hanging fruit how are we going to ensure yeah this is why I was tied up on enrollment right once they're sitting in in the chair that they are actually I mean are they are they prepared are they are they being given accommodations and these are the questions that have to surface from the examination of this this area and that's why we're diving into it uh that's the direction we brought out of the equity audit is you need to look into these things so to have the answers to those today I don't have deep answers to that today that's I think the driver behind getting into that with the professional practice core and I like the look fors and all of those um practices you're going to be instituted yeah any other questions the goals do we take a vote next we have to approve the goals of the next meeting if we have if we like Ponder this as Dr says and come up with more ideas in between now and next time we should email you and then yeah if you guys want to send those to Me Maybe by this weekend I can send them to meaning like Saturday morning so that I can send them to Kirk and like compile any concerns you might have um and any duplications that I can send to Kirk and and we can even have a conversation if need be thank you okay all right everybody so U more on this next week um we're going to move the agenda now to the mtss update but we are going to say goodbye to our superintendent thank you for doing that good work over in Bolton okay all right so everybody um on to the mtss update and I'm going to turn to our assistant superintendent friend for that you want me to you want me to drive yeah I'm I think just to the update I hope I don't have anything odd on here no I'm just kidding I remember okay here we go there are a lot of words on the page there and and the committee um will note and has already likely noted that there's a hyperlink slide deck providing more information at the end of the update so I I I am not going to speak to the slides but the slides are there to provide more details um and I'm happy to answer any questions now and moving forward about mtss if anyone on the committee or even moving forward any of our family members have any questions relative to mtss so I'm going to do my best to provide an overview of what mtss is and how we have worked to build some structures and systems here at nooba to implement mtss so over the past two years we have been working to build the systems and structures at nishoba to build out a multi-tiered system of support and it is just just that it's a system it's not an initiative it's not a collection of strategies but it's a system that involves multiple interdependent components from high quality curriculum like our high quality curriculum we've just adopted for K to 5 literacy to strengthen our phonics and phonic awareness and strong foundational literacy skills for our students to scheduling work um where we have now built in time time for wi time hopefully Flex time at the high school um time for professional learning communities so teachers are engaged in conversations about student learning in collaborative teams with Administration and coaches every week our Universal screening system um and um just building a data um literate learning community with with that I will say our teachers are incredibly strong they're incredibly dedicated uh and um the intent here to build out this multi-tiered system of support is to really make the system stronger so that it's not relyant uh on uh the teacher to um proactively identified student need um to create interventions and structures to provide students with additional uh targeted support or intervention or even enrichment uh and acceleration it's really intending to build a system but that's just what we do because the system is there so over the past 2 years we've been working on building out this system the work is ongoing it is not perfect we are not there yet but we are committed to continuing to strengthen our system um to not only help our teachers but to really make sure we're proactively identifying student need at the earliest moment possible is critical so as the committee is aware when um teaching and learning is talking about high quality instructional materials or curriculum review cycle or alignment of scheduling or the new pilot at the high school of the new schedule and tandem with the high school team it's all in an effort to create a systemwide approach to build these multi-tier systems of support So mtss in mind mind is really the cohesive structure that really supports larger efforts that we're engaging in to strengthen the learning experience for our students every state has its own version of mtss so if you were to search for multi-tier system of support you will see different diagrams different images different Reliance on different elements of the system Massachusetts has a framework for mtss it was uh updated in 2018 and Universal Design for Learning was added along with um an equity lens and so that's the framework in which we have uh implemented and developed our framework here at nishoba for mtss the framework has three tiers uh tier one is first instruction tier one instruction high quality tier one instruction by our classroom teachers um that is differentiated and responsive to student need in the classroom it also includes Universal screening which as you're aware we've implemented star um the star Suite uh for Universal screening so tier one strong found Foundation of learning for all students tier 2 uh is uh intended to provide additional targeted support for students who are demonstrating need who maybe are not um um responding to or just maybe need a little bit more uh in addition to tier one so tier two support comes in the form of small group instruction or targeted instruction by the teacher maybe during independent or group practice time within a lesson um our win time which has been built into the K K8 schedule since is an excellent time tutorial it's another excellent time in a middle school schedule to receive tier 2 instruction and hopefully um at the high school we'll we we will see um tier 2 targeted support being available for students during the school day with a flx flock the professional learning community model is critical to tier 2 in that teachers are taking a look at our Universal screening data they're taking a look at classroom assessment data they're having a conversations problem solving conversations with one another in the team and talking about students who are ready for more students who are needing something extra and how those students can be regrouped during these pockets of time to receive what it is that they need and then tier three is the most intensive uh type of support and intervention that's delivered oneon-one or one on two um um this is where students um with IEPs could be serviced but I would also say mpss is not uh a special education model it's a general education model so we may see students who would benefit from tier three who do not have an IEP um and so I will say we're work we have built out the system and the structure there's work to be done but the structure exists K to8 and it's underway um at the high school which we're excited about as we step into this school year we are prior prioritizing several key initiatives um we're going to continue to build out um our um HQ in identified areas at high quality instruction materials continuing to strengthen our units our curriculum units uh as it relates to high quality learning experiences using the desie unit unpacking tool the looking at student work tool and there's also a lesson internalization tool through deeper learning Kaleidoscope those are tools that we'll be using with our 6 through 12 teachers um internally teaching and learning has built out a mtss website for teachers so that teachers can act access access that internal site to say say for example I'm a fourth grade teacher and I have a student or a group of students who are struggling on X skill or concept and then it provides this suggested list of interventions or targeted supports that the teacher could use our literacy Specialists and our math and our literacy coaches have been incredibly helpful with building that out we've also developed an mtss handbook which I know was linked in the materials at the end of last year and then finally we've been working I should say finally this is finally at the end of my sentence or my paragraph we've been working on um building just overall data literacy um districtwide which continues to be a need whether it's interpreting the star data and all the diagnostic information that we can glean from Star being able to interpret that as a classroom teacher explain it to families and explain it to students when it's developed ly appropriate to celebrate their growth and areas to work on to develop their meta cognition those are all areas of need and areas of continued work that we're engaging in over the summer I had mentioned that we had a just about 30 Educators enroll in our data wise course through Harvard at X and we are continuing to offer that again this school year and and it's an optional professional learning goal for staff and we have another I think 34 staff who have enrolled in that again just helping to build our Collective efficacy and then uh in January um Miss Dean and I are going to be updating revising and redoing the Decap um and that's our district curriculum accommodation plan that's long overdue um for a review and an update and she's bringing um to us incredible knowledge around that so you'll be seeing an update to the Decap this year from shni and then um just in summary I've included the slide Deck with more detailed information about what mtss is all about what it means for us here at nishoba and then our next steps by grade span that's linked in the slide deck as well wow thanks for it's really great um huge undertaking does anybody have any questions about the system that is being built first thanks for all these materials in the slides it's quite comprehensive um the slides mentioned a stat process and a stat team and I wasn't entirely sure what those were the stat team is the student teacher assistant team and that is a team um representative of different Personnel within the school building administrator um special Educators related service providers um counseling team representative and the stat team is convened when um a team of a grade level team or a a teacher team of teachers has been providing these targeted supports these intervention and the students not responding um as um would be expected and um and so they bring this differentiated team together to do further problem solving to look more into it and parents become uh incredibly engaged in the staff process as well thank you any other questions um I had a question okay um so I guess I was curious at the high school so the Continuum is kind of like the first step is like the flex block is is kind of the like if students are struggling they can get more support through the flex block and then I know they have the student support center if they're struggling more than a little bit I guess but like kind of what's I guess I'm wondering what's in the middle is that that BLC where the teachers are coming together and talking about what's happening on assessments and stuff in in court like in like say a math class or whatever do you know what I'm trying to say all teaching 10th grade math or whatever and then they talk about strategies and and Implement them or I I guess I'm trying to figure out the middle ground so we're definitely leaning into it um the proposed new schedule allows for two important components uh to help lift mtss at the high school and you speak to one of them this Flex block certainly right providing students an opportunity to seek out or teachers to collect students and say Hey you know I want to review this with you again or let's retake this assessment hopefully um that kind of thing um so that's an additional time that's not already available to our faculty um the compliment to the flex block are BLS and this is leaning in new for the high school this idea but the idea aidea is that teams um teaching the same content area the same subject area are coming together focusing on the four to four questions what do we want students to know what are we going to do if they don't get it what are we going to do if they already know um they already know it and what does it look like um that the goal is that those teams will be focusing on those four questions right now with the high school is piloting again new right brand new in is um using the Desi looking at student work tool for deeper learning and um they're trying that tool out as the foray into talking about student learning in the plcs at the high school so those are two new um additions that um focus on student learning that support ntsss the academic support center uh is is an incredible resource for students but we're we're really trying to bake it into the cake um and and just make it part of part of the structure of the schedule itself so they can do that during that pilot time but then those plcs are they then meeting like after school or something or during professional development time since you're only piloting that so we're piloting the plc's during the pilot schedule right um the work will continue um in department meetings um that are led by by the department heads um during that time but it would um you provide maximum opportunity if it was we were able to again hopefully you know we we'll we'll pivot and whatever happens with the new schedule but really making it part of the cycle would be incredibly powerful for teachers and for students two High School teachers here with us no great uh Lindsay had a question yeah actually so that just answered my main question but then just a follow-up note um I also was just reviewing the materials and we might want to check the mts's flow chart because it's no longer working the one at the end of the document does yes that's thank you ly just I want to make a comment oh glad you can go and then I'll go oh I just wanted to make a comment um about there's a sentence in there let me see if I can find it um there was a sentence in there that says um proactively identifying and addressing the unique strengths and needs of each student and I just want to say thank you thank you for that um I know that that is something that um teachers have worked on with some more success than others for a long time um but I I've never seen it stated so directly and in such a clear across theboard commitment um and so thank you to that for that and to get to that place of really knowing kids thank you for noting that I know one an in an area that um it's I'm passionate about all areas but one area that I am passionate about is ensuring that those students who are demonstrating Readiness for enrichment or extension that we're also capturing those students along with those students who are meeing um some part support and and Readiness looks different right it doesn't just have to necessarily be academic interest so really opening our minds to the possibilities there and understanding a whole child is is there are so many possibilities um that again you know as I said to um special for leaning into it but it is directly aligned with ensuring that we're really working to try and create spaces for each and every student thank you for that yeah my question also has to do with the wing time and the flex time um because I don't know if those are named differently because they are different things at the high school and the K through levels but um I have two high school students right now I saw that they looks like they'll be using an app during their Flex time to kind of request meetings with teachers during that time at least that's how I'm am envisioning it um which sounds like what I need now right like the same kind of concept but the k38 schools um where wind time is is already kind of built into their schedule do they also have an ability to I know K through five might they might not be ready they might not be able to handle that kind of thing but in the Middle School levels do they have any kind of ability to request what they need now during the wind time or is this something more where it's pushed from the plc's coming together and identifying like okay this is a need this group of students have let's focus on that is it is it do you see what I'm trying to say like do have I do see what you're trying to say and I wouldn't want to answer because I'm sure um it's varied at you know by grade level and space and um teacher I do I would argue that that would be a model that we we should consider and think about particularly as students we're wanting students develop their own sense of agency and Independence and advocacy particularly at the middle level those are really important skills so if if it's always at the quest of um it's maybe a last opportunity for us to um provide students with an opportunity to say you know what I I I need another goal at this or I'd like to set up an appointment with you know Mr keany um um I know that our our Middle School teachers are incredibly responsive to making sure that students are getting what they need and um pulling them when necessary but the idea of trying to figure out a way that we could maybe lessen the scaffold there would they already be happening but um would be something perhaps we could talk to the principles when they present their school Improvement plans in November too thank you great all right everyone I mean this is the good stuff right here so I'm glad we had a good discussion thank you Laura as always for your very thoughtful presentation but seems like we are going to move on all right everybody so um on to new business we have a very exciting um couple of special guests uh today that are here to talk to us about some Deca field trip requests and so I'd like to invite them to the the front table there Mr a and Miss Norton welcome to both of you guys good evening guys thanks for having us again it's a Laura Isle maybe turn to or Ross to C this up um so I uh I didn't practice Mr A's last name I usually do Mr andreopoulos and Miss Norton are here to represent as always uh and talk to us about uh potential approval for a DEA related related events yeah um we have a couple events we have an our overnight States field trip uh that we I mean both of these are annual events that we have done since I mean at least I started here 15 years ago so our first trip uh that's overnight will be my this is what February 27th so we leave nooba February 27th in the morning it's so Thursday we will return March 1st generally midday and that is a Saturday that we do return so we're in Boston for 3 days two nights um students get bused back and forth through Debs or um mode if you guys are familiar with Deco we start uh this the DECA season off with a district competition um usually that's in usle they moved us this year we're going to Nicholls College uh we joined a new District this year so we're excited to work with some new schools um States is the next level up um we're anticipating around 100 students last year we had 104 um we're going to be optimistic go one0 yeah they they did make the requirement the the qualification process a little harder this year but we're keeping that number at 100 for now um then the other trip that we're also requesting tonight is our Nationals trip which we have the dates on as well that is April 25th May 1st um that will be in Orlando Florida um it's a trip that we've done quite a few times I think this would be my sixth time going down to Orlando so I feel like I know it pretty well now um last year the last two years in a row we've tied we've set and then tied our school record with 26 um students making it down to Nationals um hoping to have the same type of turnout this year those are two really healthy numbers and one of the best in the state um that is a much longer trip as you could probably tell by the dates it's uh five nights 6 days um it's a much longer conference um but also there's a little bit of fun in there as well as we go to the the park and there's leadership conferences and create opportunities for our kids to to grow and apply their business knowledge um if you guys have any questions we'd love to hear from you guys so I'll start off by saying this is one of our um high-profile programs at the high school it's a program that so many can take advantage of and um actually energizes and inspires them to do great things out in the world so we thank you guys so much for continuing this tradition year after year after year um not all high schools do this and we have a gigantic program that it performs really well so thank you for starters uh so the this travel is part of the is part of the gig so um they're looking for our approval but we are not going to take a vote until next meeting just so let you guys know this your opportunity to ask some clarifying questions or probing questions if you have any um I had questions about the cost for I know you said to be determined but like what was it last year for the um Nationals so Nationals last year was around $1,300 um I actually just put a deposit down for some flights um yesterday cuz as you guys all know that earlier you book them the better so there're looking at flights are about 470 a person right now even when you book this early so that was kind of concerning um we have a lot of to be determined costs like the hotel we haven't got that information from Deco we don't have a choice of where we stay we stay where Deca tells us to um the only really choice we have um in the matter is our flights um and then our shuttles and how we get back and forth from the airport um those all have to be figured out but roughly it's it's around $1,300 for Nationals and that's with like cost defra from fundraising so we fundrais quite a bit um we had 260 members in our club last year um I think we fundraised raised in between1 or $15,000 last year um if you divide that up by the amount of members it it doesn't go very far as you can imagine uh what we tend to do with our fundraising dollars is save them for students who need financial assistance I'd say two years ago we had an extraordinary amount of students who approached us for financial assistance and we were lucky enough to have that and have that covered last year I'd say um it was a little more reasonable we had just a few students who approached us so we we've we in better shape last year um but we tend to help those who need help U rather than help all if that makes sense um just because of it it I think I actually just calculated this morning I think we're projecting to spend like all and all in all over $100,000 $120,000 this year when you think about all the costs between states and districts and Nationals so if it's quite the undertaking I mean I think I you guys know a little bit about Deca takes a village to run our program like it's it's it's far beyond Kate and night now um it's our building principal it's our admin team our our co-workers are chaperoning and and I know I work with Ross quite a bit lucky Ross um but it we we have um a lot of people supporting the program and it it takes a lot it's a wonderful program y all right looks like that might be it for the uh questions so we thank you guys for coming thank you so much yeah we have a mock competition on December 5th we'll we'll send you guys an email we'd love to have you come judge if you're available that would be wonderful that you can experience Deca for yourselves that' be great thank you so much thank you all right everyone so um more to come on that next week if you have any questions please uh direct them to me additional questions um so moving on we have um an exciting opportunity the motion is actually oh it is yes um so we have uh on our next on our agenda under new business is the appointment of our Bolton Town Administrator Marie so varu um to the nrhs building committee so um with the exit of Don low from the position and Marie being hired to the position she now is the Town Administrator representative and she collaborates with the other two Town administrators to kind of represent that voice on this committee and so um we're looking enough to have Marie step up and agree to do this work um but we need to um conduct this kind of perfunctory vote to approve for membership on the committee because then it gets sent to msba they take the committee composition very seriously uh so without further Ado okay I move to appoint Marie Sabo Bolton Town Administrator as an advisory member of the NOA Regional High School building committee and I'll second that is there any discussion all those in favor oh was that I just wanted to ask a clarify question um you said an advisory member so is that not a voting member right okay just clarify that's correct and just to clarify I think that Kirk is our only nonresident voting member y but there are I think maybe eight advisory members in including Rob freeswick Laur is on the committee and others all right all those in favor any post all right thank you very much for that everybody's unanimous um so we already uh conducted the superint tendal presentation so we're going to move on to the main event taking up much real estate in the agenda from for now and for a while so uh you guys know from an email that I sent out that um the masc has been quite busy updating the the model policy manual which lives on their website there's the model policy manual and then there's the policy Manual of every individual School District who has adhered to this we are one of them and so Amy and her subcommittee over the last couple of years have been trying to get their arms around all these crazy updates there's also some policies that just need to be deleted there's some brand new policies so they have built the mother of all spreadsheets yes Sean thank you so much um that spreadsheet is going to kind of act as our guide as we go both the subcommittee and the school committee that will remain in meeting materials so that the public can um kind of track what is happening on the policy front much of this is incredibly mundane but um what we're going to basically do is bring Amy's going to try to bring about 20 policies at a time to the school committee over the course of the next year um some and so by our policy by our manual we have to do a first reading of every policy that gives the committee an opportunity to ask probing questions then the subcommittee presumably meets again they discuss and manage all of those um considerations then they bring back a final version to the school committee for a quote second reading so what we hope to do procedurally is to have the first reading look exactly like this where you are going to be given the opportunity to fire away Amy she will take notes on anything things that you have concerns about and the subcommittee will manage it on the second reading it will be captured in the consent agenda so that we can just vote them all into existence at the same time and then she will have 20 new ones um you know later as a first reading in new business so that's kind of the process that we've established to try to manage this as best we can so that said I'm going to push it over to Amy she is going to guide us through this policy first reading for the following I think s team policies so I just wanted to actually bring up two the rest of them we felt were pretty minor um the one the first one we wanted to bring up was the ACR Red Line um so one of the things that we talked about was um if you go if you scroll down under resources we put the name of the current director of human resour like we put in the contact information and we assume that's okay but we're wondering if you just want them to us to put the title in and not put do you know what I'm trying to say right there I don't know how you wanted to do that but that was like a question that we had for this one and wondered what the committee wanted to do any thoughts I don't like it it was that your edit well only because I mean I because that means if the person changes we have to revote the policy again yes that's true we talked about that y think that's appropriate so can I get any um I know they're so mired in it can I get a straw vote would you guys how many of you guys would like the name to remain in the policy how many of you guys would like the name to come out of the policy can you give me a thumbs down it's okay there you go what is the other one you wanted to oh yeah the only other one that I wanted to say something about yeah before we go on we we just want the title for ACR and yeah it's the phone number Tak out staying the same if positions change or I usually go in the same office with the same phone okay so the phone number should be fine I think it's Mak sense to put title and the phone number and then the if the POS the person in the position changes an update doesn't need to be made because it is still sending them to the correct person maybe just the district number instead of like an extension yeah there's a there's a uh there's an operator that answers the phone you don't have the extension so we'll leave the address and the phone number and take out the name yeah everybody's okay with that M okay all right um the other one was um BJ um there was so that all that in all that in red um Shandra you want to talk about that CU you noticed that change uh hold up pull up yeah so I think it's like you said it wasn't in the like it was it was a it was in the masc like yeah so this first paragraph in red that is texted is current ly in our policy manual but not in the sample language from Masa so I'm not sure if we're just out of sync with the sample policy language or if some previous version of this committee thought it was important to add this language so it's basically saying that we would be we should be respons responsible for working vigorously well this is what I told this I was surprised by this policy I never uh yeah so this whole policy is about a legislative program um the school committee as an agent of the state must operate within the bounds of the law we will keep ourselves informed of pending legislation is number one we will work with our representatives and other groups to develop a legislative program to seek full funding um the school committee chairs the designate this person will be authorized to speak on the committee's H behalf with regard to legislation being considered so we added that in too yeah the draft language says that the committee should appoint yes someone as their designate yeah and in our discussion we thought it made more sense just to have the school committee chair hold that role so we don't have to update this policy every year yeah or they designate if the chair uh wishes not to do it so I'll speak first and say that I think it makes sense to delete that first paragraph red text only because I don't actually know that that is the school committee's job to actively root out laws that are not our friend and work to get rid of them that would almost be like me advocating for ballot meas a ballot measure I don't like laws telling me what to do or in this case policy this might lead back to something that was relative to 1995 based on what I'm finding on dese so it could just be something that was retained and should have and should have been rid of I think it's I agree it's a weird thing yeah all right so can I get a thumbs up for anybody in favor of the policy subcommittee removing that red text in the first paragraph anybody feel that all right great anything else Amy that you want that was it the rest was pretty minor stuff all right but does the committee have any concerns on the 17 policies go ahead Scott policy ba a No ba um number four us as an acronym I think we should say what that acronym means did you guys insert smart is that something that masc wanted they had they have it yeah yeah okay okay so maybe just articulate that okay anything else anything else guys just a question do we want to make it smarty go since that's what we have adopted or are we happy with smart and then it's our prerogative to add the e or not so inclusion and Equity is are the two words at the end that we have been using in our Personnel subcommittee training of the committee on establishing goals it is something that we value in our school committee goal setting process can I get a thumbs up if everybody's okay changing that to smarty give me a thumbs up if you're okay with it you're in the middle well I wonder if we need to specify what kind of goals whether it can just be establishing practical goals like if we're going to we could change our kind of goals in the future I I'm just a little feels a little weird to be prescribing a format for the goals but I don't have strong feelings on this one so you went to andate Smart once again I'm just throwing it out there so I actually I would argue to keep it in only because it's um kind of indicative of the the whole educator evaluation process that we set smart goals we hold cirk to smart goals it's a is it so I felt like I had enough people to say yes to smarty you've convinced me all right question I just have a question about the last sentence in the second paragraph of this policy it says it I think it's referring to the school committee must carry out its functions openly while seeking the comments of public students and staff in its decision making processes um and I just wonder if we should amend that sentence to say while providing opportunities for comment by public students and staff in its decision- making process I would want you to think about the Precedence that we set set every time that we make a change to policy and knowing the volume of policies coming through so like I guess that would just be like masc is making recommendations and we're following them yeah but this says we're going to seek the comments of public students and staff in our decision making process I mean our current policy says that mhm yeah I actually think that's appropriate whether we do do it or not it's another matter but it actually is appropriate for us to se those comments I totally agree but I'm just I think what I heard Jackie just saying is that we don't want to editorialize too much in this process because we could get really bogged down if we start word smithing which which is like kind of taking conversations that we've had as a policy subcommittee and reminded ourselves like what is what's the spirit and [Music] responsibility of this policy like how would it look like an implementation so it's really trying to use that as a way to think about the on that we choose is everybody okay keeping the language as it is can I get a thumbs up if you're okay leaving it the way that it is you can live with it yeah no okay uh question I think a comment relating to this I I wonder if if like there's value in not straying from the Mass C reference version of the policy unless there's a strong compelling interest to do so just as we're about to go through 100 Mumble of these uh that might be useful framework to think about when we should change language and when we CU we're already having those issues right we'll come across the policy and it's like quite a bit different from what they suggest the revision is and we're like how did it get from this to that like there's stuff that's been done and why is it different from the I don't know yeah there there's some of that going on already so sticking to the model policy is what we're trying to do as much I think as we can yeah I just think we need to be careful about approving [Music] policies I think we just need to think through what we're approving that's my only point and just rubber stamping MH I agree yeah right and so I guess a comment to that would be like that is exactly what the policy said is bringing to you all which is why like when you look at the tracking document that's open for anybody on the school committee as well as anyone with the link we're really talking through like which ones require major revision and and input from school committee and is there a way provide input on this we strategically chose at the those because we need to flush out as a policy subcommittee the ones that we comparing existing and recommended Redline versions and then what we would want to bring to you all and really balance how many of those larger conversations would we have every single school committee meeting until budget so I would just say that um this spreadsheet is going to forever be open to everyone including the public um we never want to be collaborating outside of a meeting on a living document just to um wary of that if any of the school committee members want to weigh in at the subcommittee process or level you can go to those meetings um or if you wanted to you could send an email to the chairwoman to Amy about something if you can't make the meeting I'm sure Amy would bring something up with too all right so any other discussion on uh the first reading here of all of these yeah super nit picky but if we're going to use smarty to relate to the superintendent goals his goals say smart where are they they're right at the top of his goals yeah it just say smart so just got it and that policy is about our goals right our operational goals and so smart is taken from Desi nooba transformed it into smarty um and so maybe it's not as important for the superintendent cuz he doesn't have the I and the E on his but we do and that's in our spreadsheet which we'll see next okay good pick up all right guys we're moving on this will fall into the consent agenda next time assuming that all any makes all and the subc make all the changes that we just discussed so thank you for that guys and then I assume you'll bring 20 more next time is that's what we're working towards yeah Shar thank you so much for all of that and putting it in that spreadsheet because it it was just it was so easy to look at the spreadsheet and say you know this is a minor revision or this is something that required requires a lot more of your attention and that made it a lot easier to weed through all of the um changes in all those policies so thank you thank you for that yeah and those colors that's going to show you like the yellow ones are the ones we're going to talk about right so we that's what the yellow means is like we need to bring that up and talk about it the key on the red no the red is like we're not ready to doing like stop there's an issue with this color coating keeth on there gold blue what's the blue the blue is like in progress that's what we're focusing on right now yeah y awesome y thank you for that well done guys well done excellent chel um so let's talk a little bit about our school committee goals which we discussed at length at the last meeting we presented them all um I'm hoping Alita are they in the last meetings materials thank you so much so Alita is bringing that up um we are so good at this at this point there's nothing terribly groundbreaking here um because we're just really trying to elevate the same work year after year to do what is within our purview uh is there any well let's start with a motion I'm I move to approve the school committee goals as presented on September 25th 2024 and I'm going to second that um do you guys have any further discussion on the goals sh do the members need to be uh updated reflecting new members um in particular the vacancy shandor yeah is that what you yeah yeah I can do that um and I think that I mean do we know what our new member can you just swoll a little bit Alita so I think that is um so Robin and our new member from sto will need to be assigned and so I think that communication and policy are where the two new members are going to land and I'm trying to create balance by town and so we have Bolton Lancaster Bolton yeah so our Stone member is going to land on Communications and Robin is going to land on policy I think is the way that that shakes out I'll need to think about it more now okay question I wonder if we should in the same way somewhere we were going to put what smarty is I guess in one of those policies or smart is should we put that on here too just for the benefit of of the public yeah whereas you know roll on and need to figure this out isn't the policy linked at the top is that the policy yeah actually so that covers Us okay cool any other discussion all right all those in favor of the school committee goals yay un name thank you very much will these go on the website they will go on the webbsite not in this format but ala and I will work together to put it in that nice format that she always does on the main page that's just like unir it's more narrative style or bulleted yeah all right guys so on to subcommittee or advisory reports I wonder in all of your travels if anybody has anything that they would like to make the committee aware of I do yes thank you um so Dej met for their onboarding and first meeting of the year on October 1st um it was really exciting because we will be convening as a team in person here on November 12th um it will be the first inperson meeting in well over a year um I gave a recap of the proposed goals that we would be voting on today and uh subw working group of dear J is working on the ask for the presentation for for the October 24th meeting yeah that's right so they're working on that and representation will be available for that fantastic thanks for that Jackie and thanks de your J for continuing to work so hard any other uh subcommittee or advisory reports all right guys so we are moving on in our agenda uh let's talk about items for next agenda um you have the planning calendar Lita um as you guys can see on the planning calendar our next meeting is an is on October 23rd it is a remote meeting so we have a few things that are listed there it is loading that um so the policy first reading that's on under new business you will make us aware of what that will be if you know I mean obviously you guys are cranking but if you can't get something to us every single meaning that's understood you guys don't meet every other well we already fleshed that out for next time so we're just still we'll get back to you all right yeah Wonder wonderful uh anything you would like to see on there or anything you want to see on a future date I do want to remind everybody that um the school choice update that we thought might come at this meeting Kirk thought it would make more sense to roll that into his his annual projected enrollment presentation and so he's going to kind of bring those two things together for us to make put it in context so that's next meeting there's nothing that's none finance and operations that that's normally something that you guys build on the go so the enrollment will inform the budget but it's not necessarily A financing operations agenda I but relative to school choice one thing that I would like to see happen is maybe get budget and Warren put an agenda item on cuz we used to do the operations reports and that's what I was wondering and Ross you would give us is that still something that we're going to do yes so we will so I have a meeting next week with Kirk to go through all of the finance and operation items that should be on the planning agenda for the calendar year or for the the school year so um I did share a draft with budget Mor at the last meeting for the end of year report of last year's budget and then a preliminary for the first two months I won't get into the detail why it's not as explanatory as the first three months of the school year we can talk about that but it'll end up on the agenda for the second meeting in this month so next meeting we'll be looking at those reports y all right so Kirk will um he's always actively updating the planning calendar so you guys can refer back to it if you want but you can also send to me anything that you would like to see on there anytime anything else on the play calendar just like that um all right guys so that is that for the items for next genda if something comes to you can let me know uh and our most exciting bullet point of the night I'm going to make a motion to ader do have second thanks Sharon Sharon's got the second all those in favor any opposed good night everyone