##VIDEO ID:F1o2sl3Om0I## e e e e e e I printed out the Motions just in case this happens you's motion all right everybody we are um ready ohing to wonderful L I'm sorry no wor says join says not say joining again there we go all right all right everybody so we're going to call to order the regular meeting of the Misha Regional school committee tonight uh on November 6 2024 at 6:30 p.m. uh we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance so you can all rise and join this me to the of the United States of America and to the rep stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all all right so uh perhaps we can all see that we have um a complex environment happening right now a hybrid environment where our superintendent and um director of operations uh Ross mcaren and um Lancaster representative Joe G are online that is because they are at the MC um conference at Cape C and so we're happy to have them online with us thanks guys for overcoming Wi-Fi issues to be here and the rest of us will be here in the room with um a large audience in the gallery so we welcome all of our guests I wonder if there's any public comment to start all right see n we will continue on with the next item on the agenda and that is the consent agenda and I'll start with a motion uh I hereby move in accordance with general laws Chapter 30 section 39m for approval of the proprietary item wrong one I Mo to approve the November 6th 2024 consent agenda sorry about that I'm going to second that wrong one yeah that that one is going to come later so prepare yourself I'm ready okay um so I second the U motion for the consent agenda do we have any discussion all right all right um seeing none Joe I actually have a point of order for you can you hear me Joe I don't think Joe can hear me so we are going to hold a um hand vote in the room here and then I will ask Joe if he would like to weigh in and he can say yay or nay uh so for everybody in the room um what say you on the motion all those in favor hand vote thank you and Joe would you like to weigh in if your Wi-Fi is working any post okay everybody so uh that is unanimous m is Joe hopefully you can join us momentarily uh the consent agenda is accepted uh for the school person uh school committee chairperson update I have um nothing new to share with you all so we're going to move on to our student representative report and I will welcome Ava to the room and um Ava will you let us know uh I think Ryan is otherwise occupied today yeah he's at the soccer game in hangam okay so good luck to The Varsity soccer team both of them actually are playing right now so good Lu to yeah okay my report is really long but starting off our next wolf day will be on the 26th and it will include our Powerpuff game p teacher and flatable race we also have the school play coming up and it's a Christmas Carol the French exchange students and their teachers are here with us this week and then there's some news from the music department seven students were chosen to represent nishoba in this year's mmea future music educator Summit this is an opportunity for students in Grade 9 through 12 who may be interested in pursuing a degree in music education someday or an opportunity for our students to meet with other students from around Massachusetts who are in leadership roles in our sports update we will be running a food drive leading up to Thanksgiving which will be a friend L competition with Clinton High School to see which school collects more food and then the playoffs have started the volleyball team defeated lemonster 3 to2 to advance to the round of 32 where nooba fell to the number one seed westbo the field hockey team was ranked number four in the state and defeated Burlington 6 to0 in the round of 32 however they fell to a tough Hopkin team Hopkinson team last night 3 to1 the boys soccer team upset Amherst pelum 4 to1 on Sunday to advance to the round of 32 they will travel to number four hangam high school tonight for their second playoffs game the number seven seated girls soccer team will host Sharon tonight in the round of 32 the cross country teams will compete at Fort devans on Saturday in the MIAA divisional meet the cheer team will be competing in the midwatch league meet on Sunday and the football team is currently 4 and 4 in our scheduled to play at Shrewsbury tomorrow at 7:00 the golf team won the division 2 sectional title this year and then competed in the division 2 state championship on the 21st at brickshire Hills Country Club they play second in the state after having to play a playoff hole as they were tied with another team in second place and the unified basketball team is 3 and0 and looking forward to play against the staff on Wednesday the 13th after school fantastic thanks AA L the high school any questions from the committee I just have one question can you we heard heard about the first wolf day but could you elaborate a little bit more just for anybody who's new to this what is the wolf day can you tell us anything about it from your perspective I thought the wolf day was really fun we' had half like half day were classes and then the second half was like games and activities you could sign up for so I did bracelet making and then the second half I did like walking outside and I thought it was really nice especially when we can't have our phones it was just a way to interact with people and I kind of forgot about my phone for like half of the day so I thought it was really I'm really glad that we're doing it again and I hope that they can bring it back a lot more times next year for students do you have any teachers signed up for the P your teacher contest yet oh no but that's actually going to be really exciting excited for that good luck to them and thank you any other questions as always AA we appreciate apprciate of course thank you we'll see you next time um all right guys so moving on to the superintendent for report um that is for Kirk and Laura kind of tag team I think but who wants to start I will go ahead and open uh Madam chair thank you very very much for the recognition um I am going to read from my script here and then pass it off to assistant superintendent friend because we have a very special guest guest with us tonight in Madison oxar so the Massachusetts Association of school superintendence award for academic Excellence is an annual award giving to high school seniors who Excel on in classroom and make positive contributions in their Community as superintendent I have the privilege to award Madison oard this award guidance counselor Dan Glover is written on behalf of noober Regional High School Educators the following acknowledgement of Maddie's accomplishments Maddie is an amazingly well-balanced and happy person who is the compl complete package of high morals and high energy level she takes a positive approach in all she does she has taken the most rigorous course load that nooba has to offer and receive nothing but A's in every class every year however what is even more impressive are madd's activities outside of the classroom whether it be her co-founding stemies a nonprofit program that encourages students of all ages to use innovative solutions to global global crisis or her role in Project 351 she has used her creativity to help those in the community she has been dancing since the age of three and at the high school level she's involved in the Green Team the youth climate Council and is also a mentor in Project 351 we are very fortunate to have her as a member of our community as she is well-liked and respected by both staff and students alike and at this point I would like to turn it over to assistant superintendent friend to present the award thank you superintendent ding I am so privileged to be sitting in this seat this evening because I have known Maddie since she was in kindergarten um and what an opportunity and a privilege it has been to see you grow and develop and and now turn into what we knew um was an amazing individual an amazing contributor to our nsha community and now you're a seni year and we're going to be so sad to see you leave but you have made a difference and when I when superintendent Downing had told me that I was going to have an opportunity to speak on your behalf I was so excited and I started to reflect on um my memories of you um and the impact that you you had beginning in elementary school and then extending into middle school and I started to jot all of them down and then I stopped because then I read what Mr Glover had said and I said okay that's sufficient what else can I contribute to acknowledge Maddie and so I turned to your own words Maddie which were used um as an opening for the homecoming for project 351 so Maddie's own word words were used as part of the opening um from Project 351 and these are Maddie's words I serve because I'm motivated by the impact my actions have on on the lives of others our planet and the Next Generation I believe that showing someone else's kindness can make a bigger difference than we know I serve because good causes are worth fighting for and because I know that when good people work together they can truly be the change I serve because everyone deserves to achieve their greatness and should never have their potential doubted because of what they look like or where they are from I serve because we are all human and deserve to be treated with love and kindness Madison oxnar Ambassador Lancaster and the Church of project 351 is to build a movement of Youth L service by engaging an unsung hero from each of Massachusetts 351 cities in towns Maddie you are our hero and we are singing your Praises tonight we are so very proud of you we're so privileged to provide you with this award and we know that you're going to continue to do great things Beyond [Applause] MOBA thank you so [Applause] thank you [Laughter] [Music] mad maybe in front of the table or behind the T yeah that's wonderful that's a keeper thank you guys so much [Applause] yeah so um we are so appreciative um of your recognition and your kind words Laura but we're so uh impressed and grateful to Maddie and her work and all the leadership that she has contributed to the noobi community and Beyond the teams so thanks man' thank you so much this is an honor um um okay everybody so that said we shall um keep the superintendent report going and Kirk I turn back to you I think uh Madam chair the sound was going in and out do you have my sound I do can you hear me now yeah and in the event that I lose it uh Miss friend please just just uh pick a pick up where I drop the ball if that happens um you would want to game congratulations to Maddie that was fantastic um included in your packet today's the annual update uh these are regular updates with the aset valley collaborative uh so for our new members we are a member of a collaborative where uh that provides uh services for students in our school system and transportation contracts for those things um so you'll see that uh the first um uh update that's been provided by our executive director cath Kathy cumins is in your packet uh that gets into the collaborative law the guidelines and resources around the C collaborative the participating pwns and then you can also see uh uh pictures of some of our students in action within the collaborative um so uh last year when I came to the committee we were developing the evolution space it's now uh completed and moved in which has allowed the collaborative to also be offering more professional development offerings I know I have a couple of meetings there uh as part of mas coming up uh so they're able to use these spaces which both well for Revenue opportunities uh for the future and I I highlight that as U one of the fiscal opportunities there but our programs like Osa and reach continue to be uh high quality programs for students that have very specific and targeted needs for which those programs meet and so we'll continue with our partnership with ABC as uh we move along and then the uh last piece I wanted to update the committee on today is regarding the nrhs resource officer uh recently I've met with Chief Luke hamburger of the Bolton Police Department uh to discuss the school uh resource officer role in regards to the needs of the town of Bolton right now town of Bolton is experiencing uh some staffing changes as some officers have elected to go to other systems or even locate out of state and while uh Chief hamburger is filling these open positions he needs to make adjustments uh on the force to ensure uh that the town of Bolton continually has an appropriate police force on duty and so for a short period of time um officer Casey McCarthy is being uh reassigned tost some shifts to help uh all the officers in that department share in the responsibilities of serving the people of Bolton uh so she will not be um positioned directly at nooba Regional High School we this is temporary and we'll go back to uh the way that we know our Arrangement is outlined in our mou once the Staffing um um um positions have been filled and um just know that uh the way the structure works as we have a cler for the school resource officer position with the town of Bolton is that she is paid by the town of Bolton and the school district is then invoiced for our share of that um and we will not be invoiced of course for the time in which uh officer McCarthy is not working uh directly at the high school um and then the last part is our update on strategic work Madam chair regarding the school Improvement PL but I will leave that to assistant superintendent friend to do the introduction uh when we get to that moment in the agenda and with that I'll take any questions excellent thanks Kirk so um any questions on the three items in the update all right seeing none we're going to move on to a place where the agenda merges the um strategic work update with new business that is the school Improvement plans and so Kirk or Laura you can cue that up great I I I would you know be pleased to introduce our uh building principles to join us um tonight to share with the committee their school Improvement plans as the as the committee will um remember our school Improvement plans are all aligned to our district strategic plan and our principles coordinate uh the action step and the efforts within their schools based on their School Readiness and where they at all in alignment with one another where are you so we thank them for being here here this evening to share a presentation uh in general about the their the school Improvement plans and then they're each going to speak to their school Improvement plans for their schools respectively so with that I like to introduce Mr Joel Bates the principal of the Florence Sawyer School hi good evening thank you everyone for the opportunity I was going to introduce everyone I have colleagues byans Mr Kyle the principal of the hail Middle School Mr Scott lanard who's the principal of the Mary rolinson Elementary School Mr sha OA the principal of the Burbank middle School Miss Lenor saavik the principal of our the center school and Dr Kate Bon who is the principal of our M Region High School so I think Mr V is anxious to get to all R so thank you everyone for the opportunity to present our school Improvement plans this evening uh my colleagues and I have collaborated closely to ensure that our efforts are aligned with one another and with the nrsd Strategic plan tonight we a to provide you with an overview of our school Improvement plan process share our goals and highlight areas of improvement relative to those goals the school Improvement planning in the nishoba Regional School District is an ongoing and dynamic process that unfolds over multiple years each year we reflect on our successes uh AIA can you go to the next slide each year we reflect on our successes and identify areas for continued growth this reflection is partly informed by our state of the schools analysis which we review with our leadership team during the summer months together we assess our progress while identifying priorities and actions for the upcoming year and Beyond this collaborative calibration with our colleagues is essential to ensure that our plans are coherent across our schools and in alignment with our strategic goals an integral component of this process is our relationship with our school councils and the invaluable input and feedback that they provide at this point we can go to the next slide and I would like to introduce my colleague principal Kyle Grady of Hal Middle School who will share insights into the goals for our k28 schools so uh we have uh a page here that basically encapsulates our four goals and how they're overlaid with the Strategic plan so the four goals that we work that we're work working on are um consistent among the K to8 buildings Dr Boon will talk later about the high school's goals but these four goals you'll see are replicated in each of our individual School Improvement plans um there might be some nuances that are different with within the specifics of those plans but those four goals uh being a communication goal a student learning goal an seal goal and a safety goal are consistent um they are also so vertically aligned with the the nooba Regional School District strategic plan you can see more of the specifics about how those goals are related to the Strategic plan if you were to look into each of our um individual School Improvement plans it has more detail in there and I think I think you've all been uh supplied those so uh by all means you can look into those and if you have further questions that's something that we could answer today or at another time Elita could you go to the next slide what we'll do here is we'll each go around and talk about uh some specifics to each of the goals and then we'll turn over to Dr Boon to unpack her um School Improvement plan um so I'll start here with a little information about goal one our communication our communication goal um currently the district Embraces a bunch of different tools that uh you're probably aware of that we use to communicate out to our families um this might be the use of s'mores it could be our own individual newslet letters it could be the superintendent's newsletter we work really hard to make sure that um we're echoing the messages that are sent out from central office and our newsletters while also supplying specific information that pertains to our individual schools we also utilize uh s'mores that's a great uh tool because that gives us some analytics on how many clicks are um uh we're receiving and How Deeply people are uh looking into the information we're putting out it tells us how much time they're spending on our updat so um it's useful it's useful to know it also can tell us if it's being looked at from a desktop or uh from a mobile device um the teachers will utilize the Google Google Classroom predominantly and websites there's been um a lot of work and this pertains to the the communication procedures been been a lot of work done that's that you all have done to craft the the communication policy we've shared those out with our teachers we're in alignment across the district on a lot of those specific things that pertain the communication timelines um the the communication platform and the content that we want our teachers to have in those platforms there's some deadlines coming up throughout the school year here where um we're going to supply our teachers with some time to continue to work on their uh their websites so that the content is universally accept accessible to our families um and you'll see the same things on teachers Pages pertaining to um you know units um and um you know expect in classes including success criteria that they might have for projects or assessments um finally uh around um student progress you you know we are working with teaching and learning and assistant superintendent friend to pull together a group to review um how we report out on our student progress specifically around grade reports that's work we're doing um this year and I imagine there'll be more um information for you about how that will progress this something that we haven't done in quite some time um and it's needed um that is I believe um that is a k to k to2 um uh initiative um and with that I'll turn over to Mr BL thank you um our second goal is aligned with strategic uh initiative 2 develop a professional Learning Community culture across all schools departments and grade levels um our work in the plcs continues to be anchored by the three big ideas of the professional Learning Community which are uh focus on student learning collaborative culture and Collective responsibility and results orientation in addition within our meetings uh we focus on uh four essential questions that guide our work what is that we want our students to know and be able to do how will we know that they've learned it how will we respond if they haven't learned what we intended and how will we um uh enrich and extend the learning of students who demonstrate Mastery um through this process we continue to partner with solution tree uh in fact last week Jackie Tolman who is our uh solution tree with the aison uh visited uh the district and sat in on PLC meetings um at each school and provided us with uh some direct and actionable feedback which was very helpful um and yesterday she met with building administrators and instructional coaches um in a virtual session to discuss several topics including the importance of a guaranteed and viable curriculum for our students um the importance of clarity for our Educators related to the why behind our PLC work and some potential next steps for each of our schools at the building level our instructional coaches continue to be uh critical Partners in this process uh as we analyze evidence of student learning we group students according to need plan targeted interventions for our Wind Block um which stands as you can see on there what I need now um and develop common assessments to measure student progress our coaches have also been um uh have also helped us establish um PLC structures as a mean to means to support teachers in other areas such as with the roll out of our new Ela curriculum uh in support of math instruction at the middle school level uh and to facilitate the use of star curriculum based measures to track student progress in attaining early literacy skills to name just a few in addition our line schedule has supported uh the work of the PLC by including dedicated time not only for Teacher teams within each building but also also um time for teams to collaborate uh with their colleagues teaching the same grade level or content area across the three towns it's important to note that our professional learning communities also directly support our District's Equity work um for example plc's have helped to align our understanding of tier one tier 2 and tier three instruction as outlined in our uh mtss handbook uh which in turn has also helped us more clearly Define our staff process and grow our staff process um it's also ected to uh the development in articulation of clear learning objectives aligned to state standards and um it's helped us promote a culture of high expectations for student learning as a result and through this process we continue to build our Collective efficacy as we work to ensure positive outcomes for each and every student now I will hand it over to principal o for go thank you um so go three is uh our work around equity and this year we're continuing to uh deepen our commitment to integrating um social emotional practices and Equity work into our daily instruction and overall Student Life the foundation of the work um included the equity audit which you had a chance to review last uh spring uh the administrative team took that in deeply this summer um and then took that work um after our Deep dive into it back to each staff where we um then identified next steps and um uh for each School um now each uh now uh coming up uh this winter each school will um create its own Equity team based on the work of the district Equity team that was led by uh Dr warham uh these school-based Equity teams will bring a district level learning uh directly to the staff um that will also include uh dedicated time at each staff meeting uh for ongoing discussion skill building and reflection on our Equity practices uh we're also advancing our Cal passionate teaching initiative with Larry Epstein he will continue to provide direct support especially for school-based teams now this approach is integral into our stat process where we're focusing on proactive compassionate supports for students uh we want to ensure that each student feels seen safe and ready to learn and these practices um can be reinforced in day-to-day interactions in response to student needs uh uh the Panorama survey um has helped us track and monitor SE progress over some time offering a year-to year snapshot of how students are doing socially and emotionally this will continue to help guide some of the decisions we make as we move forward uh specifically for middle school students this year marks a strength and commitment to our advisory program with the new aligned schedule advisory time is now uh a permanent feature in across all of our schools and it's giving access uh to students uh consistent access uh to students for that support within advisory we're also incorporating the mea Pathways framework uh which is a Statewide uh resource that helps students explore their own strengths and talents and interest this really empowers students to start considering future Pathways uh in a meaningful guided way and that can lead into things such as the Innovation Pathways of the the High School uh um through our Equity teams calm compassionate teaching Panorama and other surveys in The Advisory program we're taking more meaningful steps this year to embed seal practices throughout the school and helping every student feel supported both academically and emotionally emotionally these initiatives align with the district's goals to ensure Equitable opportunities and outcomes for each student by fostering awareness representation inclusive practices and open communication around diversity equity and inclusion I'd like to turn it over to thank you um so I'm going to talk about um our fourth goal which is um safety it's connected to our um strategic goals review of school safety and develop priority actions as district and for individual schools so all of our schools here in the district have worked on strengthening and streamlining our safety procedures and protocol um we continue to train staff train students work with students and um Implement these safety protocols fully into daily practices um our schools are all in our second year now of working um or implementing the Raptor system which is in every school um and that system screens all visitors um who come into the building at any time when there are students including after school um when we have extended day programs going on and um we also have put additional cameras in and around uh various school buildings as needed um in addition to this work our schools have been working closely with always work closely with our law enforcement officials fire and um our police officials in each town to keep up to date on best practices related to drills and protocols um specifically Ty Ally when we're talking about things like evacuation drills lockdown drills Alice um which guidance is often evolving for those things we always have our eye turned towards age appropriate language and age appropriate protocols um when we involve students in these procedures across um all our schools prek to 12 our schools each have uh safety teams they meet monthly those teams are comprised of administer ators um administrative assistants law enforcement officials teachers staff um and we work to align our procedures and our protocols involving all those drills that I spoke of um earlier we also meet as a group to talk about things that might be going on particular to any one of our schools for example if there is an emergency um or was an emergency we work together to learn from that and um always take information from that um emergency whatever form it was in that we can apply to Future scenarios after any sort of drill we collect data including fire drills um we collect data quickly immediately from law enforcement from staff um in order to learn how to best continue to implement these practices um our goal is always to minimize disruption to students and staff during the school day and finally our schools and our um administrators are working closely with Mariah's wicker our student um and staff health and wellness director to ensure that um student physical and emotional safety is at the Forefront of everything we do and now I'd like to turn it over to Dr Boon thank you L you're welcome appreciate it hi everybody thanks for the opportunity to uh to share uh update on the high school goals perfectly way thank you so um our five goals remain the same they are robust um I think I mentioned last year that even though safety and communication are not mentioned on the high school goals they are being worked on behind the scenes having seven goals seemed a little bit too much um so our first goal remains around enhancing and increasing student sense of Engagement and belonging at the high school last spring our departments each individually gave an engagement survey um to our our students um to provide Department specific feedback um there were five core questions that we pulled from the Panorama survey so that we could um have that through line of consistency um and then um freewrite options for the students to give very specific very actionable feedback to our to our departments and it was um it was pretty incredible and the work that we did through the the year um we saw growth in and um and an increase in sense of belong beling and um and engagement throughout um our departments continue to have this as department-wide shared goals um and universally shared goals um I'll share a few um sort of additional um action steps um that that we've created uh and are implementing um look Force focused on engagement um the superintendent and I um had our first meeting of our student advisory Council during uh one of our pilot Flex blocks and students gave us some incredible feedback and that advisory Council will serve um multiple different uh goals here from Equity to uh engagement and belonging to levels um to schedule so they'll be able be able to give us some incredible feedback I have to say that um our cell phones the cell phone policy that has been implemented at the high school we have seen a marketed increase in engagement in the classroom as a result of that um universally practiced and applied cell phone policy and so that has been um that's been a game Cher for for everyone um goal number two uh remains curriculum uh and instruction at the high school uh and we are um continuing to develop and build out curriculum guides and Maps um within all of our departments and sort of wherever departments are in the review cycle um that that dictates uh some of the activities that are happening um departments are also leaning in and um in collaboration with teaching and learning um pulling a way to do some deep dives into their curriculum and instructional practices um we've got a bio reboot that's happening and a chemistry reboot that's happening um English continues to to um work with teaching and learning and we essentially what I call it it's a day away it's a professional learning opportunity where teachers are um working with each other on curriculum and instructional practices at teaching and learning together um so that's happening pretty pretty much um in I want to say four or five U different departments at this juncture and we're timing them out so that's pretty exciting work on the curriculum and instruction Point um Innovation Pathways we are in full implementation mode with um our engineering pathway and our our business pathway uh giving getting some great feedback from our students and then we've completed uh a planning Grant um for um information Pathways to uh expand those opportunities one of the things I'm most excited about is our work uh continued and deepening work with um Kaleidoscope for deeper learning um Laura and I had a planning meeting um with our Desi folks and uh we've planned a fairly robust uh series of activities um getting into classrooms with learning walks uh connected directly with um our focus on 2a2 um which is well structured lessons uh related to engagement and belonging and so we'll be um doing learning walks being able to to collect data um and uh being able to provide feedback with um the intention of seeing um evidence of well structured lessons increase over a 10 to 12 week period so we're working with desie to be able to collect some concrete data around um around that um engaging in learning walks as well our staff are engaging in learning walks with um with department heads department heads are engaging in learning walks um with a supervision and a valuation lens with uh the administrative team those who have been trained in um analyzing teaching for student results that's been pretty exciting actually uh and then another thing that is related to this and it kind of overlays everything but our portrait of an aoba graduate digital portfol folios have launched and they've launched in a couple of um Senior English classes um the products are amazing and that's going to get Scaled up and out to to all of our students next Home Room period which is next Thursday and the students in those English classes will be pushing in to home rooms to model the portfolios that they've created um and all of our students will not then begin to develop and create their own customized um portrait of a nooba graduate portfolios digital portfolios and I'm quite proud of this because it this is home homegrown nooba um we have a strong portfolio team um led by Janine Boule our assistant principal and the platform and the tool was created by Mr stefanowitz um and so it is homegrown nooba and it's the coolest thing ever we can't wait to share it with you at the end of the year we'll have some seniors who'll be able to present in a showcase so that's very exciting um let's see what else on that I think that is oh I will share that um under um the engagement and belonging um wolf day is a direct activity to create um community and also um a sense of belonging um so it's it's intentional on the part of the administrative team um to incorporate that structure um in terms of goal number three well we just had a 3-we pilot that I think went very very well and so we are following our um the process as outlined in the the contract and our staff meeting next week will be a town meeting style format where we we get to talk about all different aspects of the pilot schedule and um move the needle forward I've had uh some great conversations so far uh we got student feedback through thought exchange and the students really loved as Ryan mentioned at one of the earlier school committee meetings they really liked the longer periods um and they love the flex block um so looking forward to updating folks on the the high school schedule uh goal number four um taking a look um at um auditing the process of the of leveling courses at the secondary levels um we are taking information from the equity audit uh and that is informing our conversations and in fact tomorrow at our leadership meeting we're um going to get go back in and dig in to that conversation and um start with the end goal in mind um taking a look at what do we want to see in regards to high school levels and working backwards from there um while Excuse me while utilizing um data from our course enrollments um class size um looking at grades um so this a long process but look taking um an informed and data driven um decision-making process in in terms of looking at our um at our levels uh our last goal uh is around the mtss process and um I I will say that there are some successes there um in terms of our our internal stack process um our self assessment and mtss um we have great success um with our Student Success Center as well as the bridge program um as uh mentioned earlier we're enhancing our our work and expanding our work in calm compassionate teaching uh and we'll be developing an equity team in January um one thing I will say that um the high school I think definitely needs work with and and we explored this during the pilot schedule is being able to have a professional learning community structure um the high school schedule right now does not does not facilitate that so our Educators had the opportunity um within the flex blocks over the thre week pilot um to experience a PLC structure and to try on for size looking at student work protocol um and so that was pretty exciting and uh the high school team also had a meeting with Jackie Tolman yesterday to map out some of our next steps pending approval of the um an adoption of a new schedule that would incorporate a flex block okay that's my that's my piece and I'm going to turn it back over to Joel so yeah if you could go to the next one Al no forward and one more okay uh thank you very much for the opportunity to give us this uh chance to just share the work that we're doing together in support of the Strategic plan um it's I I value not only the the calibration that uh we have together but just the um just the shared experience and uh I think it it um comes together in alignment for for all of our students um in in a show identity we're happy to entertain any questions you might have at this time well that was a lot and I'm sure that the committee has taken time before this to look at the school Improvement plans I wonder if there's any questions yeah I had a few myor questions and it's more I know that school committee meetings are long and not everybody watches all of them um so part of my role here is to also report back and work with Dej so I had a few um Fallout questions around um the equity work that you all mentioned in the um School Improvement plans so I guess the first question I have um there's one reference um principal B mentioned about um rarded homebased goal can you explain a little bit like what that is so I can sure so principal o talked about the the uh coordination that we have with our advisory programs home Bas is the name of our advisory program several years ago we rebranded it uh but it is for all intents and purposes an advisory program uh our students meet every week um we use a uh a research B based um curriculum trails to Wellness uh they're based on the castle competencies uh they're 25 lessons over the course of the year in terms of the the question Dr rard on the um um targeted goals Based on data our students take um a preassessment survey um just to to um you know seek out information about whether or not they have a trusted adult that they can go to and um you know their sense of belonging and where can the school be better for them and um and from that we can use these 25 lessons uh over the course of the year to maybe Target one area or another we then follow up um with an A midye and an end of the year survey uh in addition to the the Panorama surveys that the students do and I know that uh the um and Burbank um curriculum have a have similar assessments you have one more yeah yeah go so I I already know the answer to this question and I think it kind of relates a little bit to what you're talking about um I know that the all of the buildings are working on creating schoolwide Equity teams and that there's this sense of a feedback loop around like the Panorama surveys the um survey that you're referencing um are there any ways other than the surveys that you all are hoping to um include family input into the equity work that you're undertaking this year um yes I don't want to take it away from Doc from um Mr Downing or superintendent Downing or assistant super friend just in terms of the schoolwide equity teams audio un Kirk would you like to weigh in on the school-based equity teams thank you yes I would uh and thank you Dr Rino for that question uh we are at a place right now where uh we're building capacity among our leadership team and our leadership team is going to be going back to their schools and building their school-based leadership team to build capacity within their buildings uh to host these qu to host these questions so these are our next steps and uh we do have plans to be building engagement uh with our community members and our students as you know Dr rers in the committee knows Dr Boon and I have begun that work at the high school uh with a high school focus group at this time so yes it's all part of ucation trajectory of how we build capacity and durability in this work over time because when we're talking about Equity we're really talking about something uh really very basic and that is academic Excellence for each and every student and recognizing that the pathway to academic Excellence for uh each and every student is a Divergent pathway um and so I would invite assistant superintendent friend to offer any of her thoughts if she wishes I was just nodding my head right um that is the work and we're intentionally going we're trying to go as quickly um but as carefully and intentionally as we can and so building up the strength of our principles and our leadership team that was our first step the district Equity team so the school-based team will be the next so we're trying to move as quickly but as thoughtfully as possible because we we recognize the impact that our actions have with all of our work and particularly this work so taking it one step at a time would you guys say it's fair to say that you're not completely sure how you're going to gather additional input because that's just something that you're looking at in January and I think Jackie's question was how how will We Gather family input well yeah go ahead I I would agree Madam chair to say that we have uh if you will orchestrated or put together a road map in terms of a finish to that point is would would not be accurate so what we're doing is we're capacity building in terms of understanding uh the work that we need to do and it's from that work and collecting the feedback from our Educators and from our building based work that we're going to be putting plans forward so uh this is all part and partial with all the things that we're doing around our Equity work in terms of how we're looking at our communication strategies how we use data to understand student learning in the classroom and so uh following the the guidance of Dr amont Jackson uh it's wise of us to take a very deliberate approach in this work to ensure uh durability over time uh in the things we believe in thank you okay any other questions can I just make a comment oh sure um so first I want to say thank you so much for all of the work that you have done towards this and all of the tremendous work that you've done over the last few years the growth over the last few years is just phenomenal um I'm struggling to think of good actives but um thank you for that because the change is is really noticeable and it's um it's just outstanding um and Kate I have a couple of comments for you it's all good it's all good um you mentioned the cell phone policy and um at the open house night uh just in a couple of different situations independently a parents were commenting about how appreciative they were so if you have not heard that yet um parents are very happy that that this has happened thank you um and a question and that is it's so fabulous to hear how you're collecting information from the students and really getting meaningful feedback from them about their experiences and um all the different specific I mean I think there's lots of different ways you're looking for information um and I'm wondering if you have had an opportunity to look back to the students and so that there's the a um closing the circle there saying we we look for this information and this is what we took from this information and giving it back to them so that they are really understanding how valuable their um the feedback is to you yeah we've started we've started that feedback loop to students um we post a lot in our Google classrooms the students rely on the their class Google classrooms um I meet with Ryan and a um and Ava as well um we have uh our administrative team pushing in to our student council um as well I haven't the most recent data related to the schedule we haven't shared back yet um but we plan to share back and um and it it's there's some very compelling student comments that that we can aggregate um and and share out um I actually had an an English teacher approach me as well because um in one in an assignment um and I forget that it's like a persuasive letter uh there's a student who wants to write about his uh his experience in Flex block being so positive and he um he and I are going to get together and meet um so he can um I can share some of the student feedback that he can use as evidence in his his letter so it's it's small little things like that and we're looking to intentionally expand out and and share out you know more fully the trends that we're seeing that's fantastic thank you I feel like Amy vessel had something well I um I just wanted a little if you could talk a little bit more about your work with desie and the kidis I don't really understand that that well and I you want I'm just wanting to get us better sense of it I guess um sure so last year we um we partnered with desie kaleidoscope you may remember that we applied for a grant which provided us access into the Desi Kaleidoscope Network and the focus of desie is on deeper learning as defined by uh ensuring learning experiences are reflective of creativity so multiple modalities identities students see the relevance of the work and can see them s reflected in the learning materials and then and then Mastery right high expectations for each and every student with high levels of support that's kind of the definition operating definition of deeper learning from the coherence guide book from desie and the work with desie um deeper learning caleidoscope and so we began that partnership with a working group that Dr Boon had created a combination of department heads and a faculty small group the work continued through the summer with unpacking um some units using the desie um deeper learning unpacking tool um as as a mode of growing understanding of what are we currently doing that's hitting these marks and where are there opportunities for revision the work had just begun we you know we're gaining momentum with that group and the work and so we had the opportunity because we participated last year in applying again so we submitted another application this year and we were accepted into the network again we're only six schools Dr point you showing me six fingers six um six schools in the Commonwealth um and um we are partnered with um Consultants really high quality Consultants who work with um High performing districts in in varying um spaces along the Continuum and they have have grown to know our areas of strength and our our opportunities for growth and so they helped us this year really hone in on I think and Dr Boon referenced two specific um elements that we're focusing on that's student engagement and um well structured lessons in support of the deeper learning framework and we have established um a plan for this year with the support of our Consultants which includes learning walks with them with department heads with teachers looking at student work protocols and then measurable Target gets for growth of what we're hoping to see in these inquiry Cycles um so it's it's both working to create these um lowercase a accountability measures for growth but also providing an opportunity to work with a Consultants to help us not only identify but Provide support ideas and resource to help our teachers get there so it it it's been a fruitful partnership and I I believe that Dr Bo would say that the Educators who've been a part of it have have grown it's also been supplemented by our attendance at the desie instructional Leadership Institute which we attended with a high school team this past summer and then a team the prior summer as well so we're looking for these opportunities to extend the learning and the framework to to build it out so it becomes organically part of what we do um so it's systemic um adaptive work but um I would say that it's we're gaining traction and Tak I hope that is yeah it is thank you do you build that you said it starts with a small team of people does it how does it build out to become organic and systemic um so over the last two years we've included different folks from different departments so there's more departments that are now involved um and then tomorrow is um I have a leadership meeting and so we'll be talking about one main agenda item for leadership is to talk about the remind folks that um these are our instructional areas of focus and this is how Kaleidoscope is going to be helping and then share um hopefully the learning walk schedule and invite folks in to the learning walk schedule and then it it's becoming part of that um the everyday conversations about teaching and learning at the high school and part of the feedback loop as we grow in our um grow in our learning capacity you know as a learning organization yeah um I I have I jotted down a bunch of notes here I'm going to try to consolidate it into as few words as I can um the first thing I want to say is that I really think the school Improvement plans are super important and it's obvious how much um good work is is like captured within them that I think it's really important to share out some way so I guess one of the things I'm wondering is how how are these how do parents and our community know that this work is is in the work like that these School Improvement plans are developed and that this work is planned for this year are they are they how accessible are they to our parents that's that's one of the things I was wondering and it kind of leads to some of my other questions um like I think one of the things I heard you talking about within the communication goals um in the kr8 school Improvement plans was um teacher websites and making that a goal this year to um build them out so that they are kind of more standardized and include success criteria and I guess um I was just poking around in some teacher websites right now and honestly I I've been a parent in this district for many years and I had trouble finding them so um I just wanted to make sure that that is part of what you're thinking about as you build these out is trying to make sure that keeping this accessible to the people who are going to be using them is for sure that this is why we've identified it as a goal that question yeah Joel Joel was weighing in but Kirk you want to start yeah I just I I think I just want to remind miss colen that that was outlined in the superintendent goals that I presented that to you and that uh the the work and the training that our team is doing and working with our Educators is that we set a target of of getting these things uh built up by the winter break um I just met with them last week and some of those meetings with teachers may take us into uh January but we have to take a very uh uh a personal approach in working with teachers on those things so that is reflected also in the superintendent goals and these School Improvement plans are aligned to that awesome yeah it's definitely I know it's it's not I wasn't expecting to see it done right now I was just noticing that a part of that work is making sure that people can find them once they are built up um yeah our communication specialist is working on that um that infrastructure piece awesome the other note that I made to myself was about um the shared student learning goals that were I think one of the um items included in the high school's School Improvement plan um I think it was regarding like developing shared student learning goals that were coming out of the surveys that each department did last year and I just wanted to give an example of something that's already I Can Has Changed for my students experience um when conferences were just held um this past week um I got an email from a teacher that sent me a survey asking for my input um on how my student was doing in their class in advance of this of the conference and and I completed it and I I forwarded it to to um the principal just saying this was awesome because I really felt like I got a chance to um provide like individual feedback to a teacher who is asking about my student and when I at when I had my conference and I talked to this teacher he said that it was part of the Department's shared student learning goal so plan that like developed and working already is amazing and um so I'm really excited to see how that rolls out for across the high school and and the district um my last question if I am allowed one more has to do with the student advisory Council and I was just wondering if you could explain a little bit about um how how you formed it like where where all students kind of made aware of this opportunity and they can express their interest in it every single student was um was invited um the the target number was um 16 to to 20 uh to kind of keep it manageable we have uh actually now 20 students who are on it and we wanted it to be representative of um all of the students at nishoba not necessarily proportionally um because then it would look like like nooba we wanted every single student group if possible represented all grades um colors religion backgrounds you name it and we have um what I believe is a an extremely representative group we shared um the in in the the Google survey um the purpose of the group was to um meet with the superintendent as well as the the principal um to help our learning um to hear about the student experience um and so survey was sent out I also uh elicited the support uh from a couple of Staff members to kind of tap on the shoulder of some of our students who may be feeling a little bit um reticent to to to lean in to this um and so we got um a shout out to Mr Denson actually because he U was able to encourage quite a few students to um to join and where where we centered the conversation um we got um first did introductions um and sort of why they they joined the group and some of them were like Mr Denson told me I should join and that was fine um but then centered the conversation which was about um 45 minutes it was during one of our pilot flexes around belonging and um asked the students I know I belong when I feel and then they answered that question and um and the the conversation was um was rich um it was thought-provoking um they leaned in they were vulnerable with us um and that's all I'll share right now because um uh the superintendent and I have not yet really fully processed um we're intending our second um our second meeting um to be uh before December vacation um with students so our our aim is to meet four times um at a minimum um perhaps more but second meeting is um yeah I haven't set the DAT yet we just talked about it today to say that we are we wouldd like to meet before December break awesome thank you yeah no it was powerful missen just in regard to your first question all of our school Improvement plans are posted on our websites uh we we want you to to see them while they're still in draft form before I think our school councils have had their final approval and then they'll be shared with our communities as well great thank you yeah could that ever be like a family University idea because I I mean I feel like this is how we spend a lot of our time is like helping people connect the threads of information that are happening in so many different places that would be a fun thing especially for like the transitional times you know from 8th grade to high school that's a great idea and six so I see that Laura is taking note but Kirk were you able to hear what Jackie just said thank you uh Jackie you broke up something when you mentioned the family University for in terms of the school Improvement plans well what I committee is that the school Improvement plans are a function of the governance of of a school and so that committee advises around the plan and they're they're brought together to coordinate it's the activities that are within those plans that are lifted out and how our community learns about those plans so I'm frankly as a superintendent less concerned about if a particular parent knows about a plan and more concerned about are you engaging with us on the important topics and the important elements that are within those plans I appreciate that but we're developing a growing Family University I'm good yeah although um I will say that these things are kind of genuine gold Kirk and so I think they're actually fantastic marketing tools to Champion in the community with the amazing work and I mean of course it lives in the meeting materials but I think that maybe what Jackie is saying and others are saying is that this is a way to really show families all the great work you guys are doing well I I was selfishly thinking about about like I have a fifth grader who's going to sixth grade had I never been through a middle school experience where do I find the Google classrooms how do I navigate Power School like I think that there are these critical transition times that we could help families even if it's just like having our amazing communication Specialists do like a walk through of like here's how you access things cuz I think you don't know what you don't know until you need your I think that I think that's a great suggestion Dr Riner and uh we we will pick that back to our cabinet team on Monday um as I know Miss Hanigan has has some thoughts about how to lift the communication of these efforts um so thank you for that so I have just two quick things on my list here um first thing is a quick question second one is maybe a little bit probing and and I'm not sure perhaps Kirk this is more for you the first question um is about the new pathway I think that you guys were soliciting feedback from the community not that long ago on potent that potential next pathway and forgive me if I missed it but have you decided on the information pathway yes we we we received positive affirmation from our families that we would have interest and we submitted you know there are multiple steps for the application process we submitted the application for the planning Grant we were successfully received it um and we will be moving forward with the submission of the next part of the application with the intention of implementation next fall amazing we're excited about that pathway because that pathway is Divergent it has a broadcast um journalism and an art component and then it has a data science components we're excited about the diversion pack so um that kind of you know illustrates my thinking right now where I feel very excited similar to Sharon um first and foremost your presentations were exceptionally organized they were efficient they were concise they were informative they demonstrate all the amazing things that you guys are doing um Kirk this is to your credit it's to the credit of your entire team including teaching and learning and all of your building administrators but also all of your staff members who seem like they are open to this tremendous work I hope it's exciting for them and they see opportunities to learn and grow themselves uh so I thank you all for all of that I really really do I think our kids benefit immensely from this um I wonder as you all you know you implement these amazing plans I think I saw in there that you are also connecting your staff members goals to all of these School Improvement goals and which then feed up to the strategic plan so as teacher goals are due you know middle of middle of October beginning of November I imagine that they were privy to this these plans and they were kind of either being asked to focus or you know how does this work its way down to the classroom folks yeah and you're getting this information in here tonight um this is a process that that frankly begins much earlier um and you're familiar with our state of Union dresses that we do state of the school addresses we do over the summer and we prep those uh uh the focus and those things so our our principles take that to their faculty and staff very early on and as we are looking to to build on alignment to those goals there deep in those processes right now of working uh and comparing with teachers on alignment of goals great all right so if there are no other questions on the school ement plans we'll thank our principles one more time you're an amazing [Applause] crew thank you madam chair I just I want to thank you for the recognition of our Educators and and the role that they play in this important work because uh all the work that we do administratively is that's that's where the learning happens is in the classroom with teachers and students so thank you for that recognition of our Educators thank you right Galler is clearing that's okay for the girls varsity soccer team it's currently 54 54a wow that's anybody's got a boys update I would love that my kid is clearly not using his phone right now okay so we're going to go forward with the agenda we have um just one more item of new business business and I'm going to let Joe uh ceue us up here because this is um he's asking for us to approve a recommendation of the school building committee so Joe help us out here what is this all right well why don't I start with the motion if you please Madam chair indeed so I have Amy ready to read it are you ready oh okay well pH go ahead although she would love for you to read it Mr you know I love reading my own motions Madam chair um I hereby move in accordance with general laws chapter 30 section 39m for approval of proprietary item specifications list as presented uh which which priority items specifications list having been unanimously recommended for approval by Thea Regional School High NOA Regional High School building committee on October 24th 2024 I further move to direct scans to USA our owners project manager for the construction of the nun Regional High School to include this proprietary specifications list and it's 90% % construction document submission to the mass School building authority as required onor before November 20th 2024 and I'll second that Joe thank you um now we will open it to questions which might be I'm going to ask it for Scott can you please help us understand what is a proprietary list and why do we need to approve it can you talking to me Madam chair yes please oh thank you sorry I didn't hear you um this is uh it sounds significantly more complicated than it really is so um our design team has identified 10 uh controls systems and equipment that are either sole or dual Source uh types of uh equipment and uh controls that we need for the high school build or they are uh necessary for purpos of harmonization with existing systems within the uh the school district so if you look at the list that was presented there's 10 items there um a good chunk of those pertain to the um theater program and the construction of the new theater those are generally single Source or dual Source um equipment requirements the other items on there pertain to about that um they they pertain to um uh security systems within the district that uh require harmonization with those existing uh systems uh just to give you a little bit of background on this this list is required to be submitted with our 90% uh construction document submission uh this month and so you understand that generally speaking we are required to secure bids from three uh providers as part of the uh the bid process but because there are limited sources available for these types of products equipment and uh controls we we have to identify those that don't meet the three uh PR requirement and uh note those in our submission so this is just a perfunctory requirement of state law and of the msba and as I said it's it's just 10 items and um that's about it thank you m thank you for that Joe any further questions so if I'm understanding this these are systems that there are not a lot of options available to for the systems like it sounds like there's either there only one or two options available I guess my concern is is this what scansa and school building committee think is the best solution going forward for these systems because it seems like it's locking us into a situation where there's you know things seem break down in the future there won't maybe the company goes out of business and we don't have any vendors for these supplies so so is this really the best way to address these situations so Joel yeah are um yeah this this is Mr pal and this is based upon the recommendation of our C consultants and in practice in areas some of talk about some of and forgive me in front of me at the moment but current systems that would follow proprietary so this is one of requirement of school committee approval in order to help Advance the project for that has to be submitted to the nsba did you get that [Laughter] Scott's phone was ringing at that moment my phone rais is when no phone calls and I've got two phone calls in the last two seconds fans I thought the owl was scooting um so Kirk I think what you basically just said was that this is pretty standard procedure our theater consultant has made the recommendation the school building committee has voted to to recommend that this committee vote in favor of this motion correct and and I might ask our chief procurement officer Mr R Karen to comment to be has any comment here no nothing further so with regards to the theater equipment where it's either sole source or dual Source there's limited options you have to by procurement law note that so it's not an open BD process where you you're making an assumption that there's multiple products in the market that could fit your specs but your specs dictate that it's either one or two of these available things available um with regards to the building controls so Mr Powell to your point I think you were asking about replacing these across the district was that sort of your question sort of I mean you know I in New Jersey the district had problems when their control boards went out because there was no way to replace them because you know they were basically Scavenging from other schools and so I'm just concerned we're going to have a similar situation here where something's going to go out the businesses aren't in existence how are we going to replace them so with regards to the new build and the things that are stacked here um again so this is the brings upon on the harmonization of our system so our facilities Department any of our security aspects our networking all still continue to work together I will say these systems that are listed here when we have issues with anything related to to the temperature control or um anything else within the district that these are not the issues that we're having these systems typically work just fine for us we don't have issues with them so putting them in place in the new high school makes uh perfect sense okay any other questions or concerns on the motion all right so I'm not seeing any um Joe do I need to do a roll call vote because you're online or can you just do a Voice vote I I would recommend a a roll call vote Madam chair okay unless yeah I I I'm the only one that's voting that's not uh uh president of the meeting room but um as an attorney I always there on the side of caution so I would do the roll call vote all right very good so um Joe start us off how do you vote Yes Jackie yes yes Sharon yes myself yes Amy Cohen obain um Robin yes Amy vessels yes Lindsay yes Scott yes oh I'm sorry John yes ah wonderful okay so thank you everybody for that we're going to move the agenda now beyond that issue to unfinished business of which there is none uh and we will go to subcommittee advisory reports I wonder if any of the subcommittees have anything question that they want to make the committee aware of oh Jackie I just wanted to give an update that dear J Will convene for their monthly Advisory board meeting next Tuesday November 12th here in this room um which is exciting um and that they're going to be looking at a variety of things including leadership positions um and then also looking at the proposed goals and recommendations that were shared in our last meeting so I'm hoping to bring back some of that in additional information to this group for further consideration excellent thanks uh to Jackie and dear J any other sub committee reports there'll be another batch coming policy says there's another batch coming ready I um and uh John and Robin are going to be meeting with me hopefully before the next meeting to first of all get them oriented even though they've already um had a crash course here but also to assign them uh officially to SubCom although Rob and I think you're already active on two subcommittees I haven't met with them yet but I've been assigned you've been assigned okay so John John will um okay so the next item on the agenda guys items for next agenda if you're looking at the planning calendar and I wonder if you have it handy if not no big deal um our next meeting is going to be remote on November 20th and the agenda is there the potential agenda is there anybody have anything that they'd like uh to add either to the parking lot or to that particular meeting it would be helpful to potentially put just an opportunity for us to talk about the recommendations that were oh sorry I got you yeah so hopefully you have some um just put the materials from that next meeting when they approve their minutes and then um we can bring it to the full committee and unfinished business um I have two I don't know if these are parking lot requests um one is enement I did not do my research here but I I have a recollection of getting an update from our guidance Department in previous years on College um report yeah like the college report card the college profile um I don't know where it fit into our year but I don't think we got one last year jod jod presented last year um I'm not sure if last year but Kirk is that something that we can put into the parking lot to have our director of counseling guidance and counseling come absolutely thank you very much I'm going to throw that in the parking lot and then my second request had to do with um could we get an update on what's going on with neasc because I know parents received requests to complete surveys are we in the in an accreditation reviews like self I just I don't I don't really understand what's happening right now could that be in um maybe a superintendent report yes absolutely if you included in the parking lot we'll we'll provide an update on the accreditation process thank you very much wonderful anything else guys what we'll do is uh as we we're going to be getting into budget SE so we know our meetings are really going to start to pack in so we'll kind of e and flow where that comes into play as we're not in a pressed urgent situation at this time but we'll get it into an A so whereas we're cruising at a sweet hour and 25 minutes right now you're telling us to buckle up for future La meetings got it check any other things you guys want on the planning calendar all right so um I'm not seeing anybody uh jump in here so at this point I'm going to move to a journ wa a second second I think maybe Sharon had that one nice job Sharon we're gonna do a roll call vote one more time so on the motion to adjourn Joe yes John yes zachie yes shandor yes yes Sharon yes myself yes Amy Cohen yes Robin Amy vessels yes Lindsay yes Scott yes all right everybody have a great night enjoy the conference guys e