##VIDEO ID:9JDwbF5Ov-M## 6 calling theint school committee meeting to order for Wednesday October 23rd 24 first United [Music] States Nation uh media is being recorded by media and public schools if anyone else is recording pleas let us know um just a quick thing before we get to the agenda um just want to uh got kind of for our first true meeting uh since the traffic lost one of our students lilyan Costello a seventh grader nor Middle School which want to invite everyone to join me in honoring her with a moment sence uh in facing such a tragedy I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our superintendent Jennifer O'Neal our director of counseling and therapeutic services V CC uh North Middle School principal Vinnie Hayward and our entire administrative team uh I also want to extend my thanks to Chief of Police Brian Clark and our dedicated school resource officers Jake denn Mark Rivers Our Community Partners at Health and Wellness Center led by Nicole Forin Victoria and Linda and also the community counselings of first sorry community counceling of Bristol County and Riverside trauma who have been invaluable in providing essential and ongoing support to our students and staff special thank you go out to our teachers staff and students who came together during this very challenging time and showing that everyone had a space and support to grieve in their own right I recognize that there are many others who have also contributed and I want to send uh thank you to all of you as well I'm immensely proud of our community in the school district have United in such a difficult moment please continue to reach out to one another your support is valuable truly can make a whole difference thank you all uh f up on the agenda is to approve the minutes of September 25th 20124 open session meeting has anyone got a chance to review the minuts yes any concerns anything to go along with them a motion to approve the minut second all those in favor [Music] uh warrants I reviewed and approve the following warrant School expense warrant September 25th 2024 $ 36823 181 October 9th 2024 512781 School payroll warrant September 19th 2024 1,346 7369 October 13 I'm sorry October 3rd 2024 1, 23930 36 I wish to enter them the public record good evening everybody um the JCS the students at JCS are looking forward to a Halloween celebration next week in all 3K the third grade students are invited to bring their classes to school and participate in grade thir grade levels one of our teachers Jen and ouro are organizing a group of JS families to walk as part of this Sunday October 28th finally the JCS Community is planning to have a flag ceremony to celebrate and commemorate veterans veterans day on the morning and Friday November 8th we have invited family members and JCS students who may be veterans to join us and we are hoping to also includ members the high school uh it's a very busy time in our high school fall Sports of wrapping up the regular seasons with every team plac to make the postseason tournament golf is already wrapped up there prob the most successful season in's history the golf team was sectional Champions and placed seventh in the D2 state championship congrats coach L October has been has been and will finished as a key month of future planning and high school juniors and seniors attended the col more than 60 schools and universities two years bads this week to give everybody an exposure to tests necessary for postsecondary Education next week's next week sophomores will have a career day and an opportunity to give about 25 different Lo of businesses and organizations about potential careers although all through the month various local businesses and Military recruiters have been set up in the cafer during lunch providing job applications information gr hey we just finished up our hey PTO sastic book fair which was a huge success this fall help to refill and keep filling our book Ving Mission exciting book choices for our students on almost a daily basis we give out about five points with the students which the students use in the H Mach a students ear hashtags by showing our expected behaviors of being respectful responsible and safe work at by adult being CRI supportive incling them amazing eff students are always doing such great work in faculty and staff amazing point of see this Behavior knowledging it and celebrating it how giving these students hashtags when students have accumulated their first 50 they hand them in for a coin for every 100 after students can get a coin a little over a month students have earned over 100 books it has been Sensational and has shown how POS our students are we have also continued our practice of hasood news call the day where any adult can nominate a student for going above and beyond and be deserving so far this year we have already done 60 good news calls students also automatically call by bur coin for a book our vending machine so as you can see our students are doing sensationally earning a lot of books on Monday October 28th on Monday October 28th our p is bring in Author George Chen to do two presentations once each grade on how he comes up with his ideas with his books and how he develop uh opening of school remarks evening everyone Thanks for allowing me to to do this tonight I appreciate all your hard work obviously for our school Community uh so little school big heart is off to a great start this year uh so here I am in my 30y year north public schools and despite obviously the obstacles we sometimes face in the school Community I could be happier to be here at lgn and in ort uh I had a superintendent years ago told me I was a new principal and he said sometimes takes five to seven years to really get going as a school to for people to buy in believe in you as a principal to trust you uh we've worked hard over the last two years going into this third year to build that trust as a team and it's really kind of showing its its fruits uh at this point uh we're really getting going as a school Community it's a testament to the unbelievably hard work of our teachers and staff here at lgn as well as the continued support of our students families uh we've had a lot of District initiatives over the last few years as you know new math curriculum Stepping Stones new Ela curriculum and Inter reading uh a new social emotional learning curriculum program and character strong uh and we continue to build on the efforts of imss that we started 3 years ago even if it's in small increments at this at this point uh the adoption of and implementation of these programs depends on the dedication as you know and the success of our teachers um I can't speak highly enough about our team here uh backed by popular demand this year or maybe I'm just crazy our school's video morning announcements um one of the few good things that come out of the co shutdown I continue to record a 3 to five minute video each morning uh to start our schol day uh we recite the Pledge of Allegiance the lgn pledge which includes our PBIS language and and expectations of being respectful responsible and safe Marty would say hash respectful responsible the daily happenings of our of our middle school so we aim to include as much student voice as possible with segments um as part of the digital Equity team last year I uh wrote a program in terms of our morning announcements and trying to get our kids more involved each day last year we took some steps with our tasty tidbits segment uh Mr place our Music Teacher was kind enough to write a jingle for it um I encourage you to go on YouTube and watch watch our videos they're pretty hilarious at times um and this year we have segments such as ha pink this is hwi's second graders um do a rhyming middle every Wednesday we have uh funny Friday jokes brought To Us by siblings here at our school um so a lot of fun things are going on each morning uh we also celebrate birthdays each day uh each student receives a book of their choosing to keep in order to celebrate their special day uh our PTC or parent teacher connection Works to support this initiative as well as many others uh we have many new board members this year who are bringing fresh ideas and energy to our already robust parent group they hosted a very successful fall Scholastic Book Fair two weeks ago and even invited the pil Brothers ice cream truck to be here in our parking lot during family shopping which um really helped our our our s and our teachers love the ice cream um PTC is also helping them kick off our booster Thon fundraising on Monday I'm excited for that booster th is actually going to come and run that program for us because our PTC board is fairly new and hasn't seen it in operation uh but the fundr run is such a great event for our school brings in a lot of money in the fundraiser and that will be held on Friday November 8th kids are always excited for that I'm excited for that we make a big deal of it um a couple of other important initiatives that we started this year include our critical attendance team uh newly formed after The Chronic absenteeism committee did some important work this summer to improve our students attendance our school team meets twice a month at this point to discuss working through the tier supports we have in place for students and their families um we hope to see an improvement in that as the year goes on and the years go on we've also beg a really fun morning movement program thanks to our Wellness physical education teacher Mrs Kenny called ease e a e which stands for early activity starts education Carolyn put together a slideshow with an introductory video for our our faculty staff and students I've shared it with our parents it includes a wide variety of movement activities and games that teachers can use to start their day moving with their students I know for a fact that Mrs Lion's class uses it every morning because I see them through their window as I'm on bus and car duty UHC and I'm there acting like a a crazy person as cars are passing by dancing right along with them uh it's just a fun way to get our students moving in order to settle their brains and bodies for a day of learning the kids love it the teachers have enjoyed it um and thanks to Mrs keny it's one one more thing that that we're doing here that's a just a positive thing for our kids and our families we are looking forward to a really great year at lgm and uh again I'm super happy to be here and thanks for the opportunity to share this information with you thank you very much administrator she I'm Gonna Stand because I don't want my back to everyone at the podium but I also don't want to sit down um the college boards ADV danc placement program app high school students the opportunity to take college level courses across a wide range of subjects including Math Science History languages and the Arts these courses are designed to be as rigorous as first year college classes providing students with the opportunity to earn college credit or advanced placement if they score well on the corresponding AP exams the benefits of taking AP courses extend beyond potential college credit they help prepare students for the academic challenges of college strengthen college applications by demonstrating students ability to succeed in challenging coursework and can even save on College tuition by reducing the number of classes needed in college AP exams which are offered annually in May are grading at a scale of 1 to five with scores of three or higher often considered passing for college credit the exams typically consist of a mult combination of multiple choice and free response questions Norton High School enjoys a robust participation in the AP program with about 155 students enrolled last year in courses across multiple subjects tonight I wanted to take the opportunity to recognize some of our current seniors for their outstanding performance in our AP program uh so this is actually acknowledging the work that they did as Juniors which so when you really think about it um the information and the scores that I'm going to share with you guys tonight are all from um when they were juniors in high school well Sho took three tests and she receives a five in US history um which is amazing and I will hold on to this aort um Amar oh that's okay Amar took two and received a five in English language uh Jacob Barry Jacob uh Jacob Barry actually took five AP classes as a junior and received a score of five in three of them AP language statistics in US history so incredible I don't know how you're going to top it this year Jacob but here you go congratulations how what are you doing this year for fores uh AP AP site AP economics H literature and H what do you say oh homs is two t all right congratulations Alex Alex uh last year Alex took four AP exam and received a score of five in her US History all other great great scores as well here you go Alex congratulations how's your first this year Alex great I want to see what all right thank you congratulations James not know where he is so um this is gonna be like the gramys when someone does up oh that's wonderful um sorry I'm going to use my Shi here for uh AP last year a five in BIO and a five in statistics so here is the award but I of course Zoe Sant H last year I did Junior Zoe took four exams all of excellent excellent scores and a score on thee five on a pre Health exam so congratulations [Music] Zoe gradulations and then finally we have not noris and who's not able to be with us scheduling confence four exams and a five on the AP stats assessment so um I we'll hold on to this and make sure that our students that we're not get their award I think you know we try so hard to make sure that we're recognizing a lot of different things um sometimes it's Athletics um I love to bring them in for academics as well because that's so important for all that we do so thank you all so much for your coming out tonight and um um just a few words unbelievable it's uh it's always great for us to kind of see what kind of goes on behind the scenes if you will seeing our students with such high level exactly congratulations job uh I don't know if you people here I'm certainly not what's that two levels before it's really amazing and um we had a number of students that graduated last year that also would have been recognized um unfortunately we don't get the scores until late in July so um I think it's really important to note that these guys were Juniors and and what an incredible um success story for all of them super proud um keep working hard are all going for great places congratulations anybody else thank you you don't have to say I just mentioned that in addition to his AP um test and scores Jacob also presented at the M conference last week for adults um so like just phenomen awesome thank you all right next up is s [Music] presentation so uh we appreciate the opportunity to get in front of you guys once a year and just give an update on what we're doing with our so here to give you an update I can hand it [Music] [Applause] I said it was just [Music] a again I'm presid mark and um for those of you who don't know we lost our daughter in 2017 she had a mental health B A we CH of her life so in our honor we set a foundation um so our mission is to promote wellness and to eliminate stigma Associated withal right [Applause] okay some trying to make us a little interactive um so we have a couple questions so how much um is the grant that we have provide each year and and start it out go 16,000 [Applause] well that's you guys how we willing to provide we didn't provide 20 yes and then for how many years have start yeah we did work with nor in the fourth year didn't provide a grant that is correct so just we wanted to go over some of the impact that um we've been working together on and we meet with Dr O'Neal and with Vinnie to decide what what we want to do and then uh move forward so the very first thing you know and that's why the Cole came out to uh to join us tonight is um two years ago he's like if you do one thing please pick up the grant for so uh that was our opportunity and so over the two school years so far not so far this year 44 students uh 274 counseling sessions or a total of so some real impact helping kids out where they need it and uh the program is amazing and Nicole can give you a little bit more insight from the ground up where on the front lines so we just gotal for our 45 student um prior I want to give you guys prior to the two years weing groups for us with school providing Man groups in the school we're doing it again this year but so we're not Works um but yeah we just started with our 45th referral and it's been great we they've provided us with 10 sessions per student that's referred some students use the entire Grant some don't use it the entirety of it we can transfer them over to under their insurance or we've had situation where maryia to extend the grant for students where there's just a crisis or dire need and we're not able to do the transfer over to very helpful I have to give Erin Shay major credit she's picked up a lot of the grant students for us I want to say one of the other impacts um is that the families and the students especially the older students are talking about each other about this so I know you've received referrals I've received questions um sometimes we use that in the brand other times we're able to go straight to insurance or not able to do that you go other agencies but point being is because of this you know really matches the impact you guys have which is The Stig right because like oh no no go here call and Co talk to Mr cers talk to your guys counselor talk to your Jud judment counselor they have you got it's been so beneficial so it goes beyond just 274 students and families really has gone out into the community stock about on the so it that stigma is break down so I mean that's that to me yes we want 74 students but was feeling good last one so um so the the grant for the counseling is any school so I can come from anywhere but also is focus sometimes in high scho we've also looked towards the middle school we brought in a speaker who engaged with 590 students and she uh talked about her own lived experience with mental health when she was an athlete excellent student and she just talked about not wanting to come out and and sa the struggles that she was going through so it's couple of grade sessions well one for each grade and just really love what you are worth fting that was really since you get to have old home week back then I a rockar but uh and then nms started a peace of mind Club so we have the active Minds Club at the high school and Lisa da and tinero wanted to do something in the middle school so they started a peace of mind but again something peerto peer students talking to students about um it's okay they not be okay and uh reach out I think what other impacts in May I need to talk about is that um because of the work that these folks do we have these Community connections right and so the work that that we did with the folks here led us to Jed high school and we received $225,000 Grant directly because of the connections that they made to our high school um and when we talk about those 274 kids I want to make sure everybody understand that's at all levels P up so um there's that pie but we also were able to use it for for other grants we've got some desie grants pretty significant um desie grants around this work that I think have a lot to do with our ability to really say hey here's our connection within our community um with you know philanthropy groups and so forth so it's it really has a larger impact than just what they're presenting and the last slide just says any question but uh one yeah so this is our fourth year and 100% of the money we rais we put back into the community so we're primarily supporting nor 20,000 and when we call they answer the phone we we they they reached out folks are here off support to teachers and staff school right now two of them five sessions folks want it so that's one way um my other crazy idea was you were approached by Medway that they're doing working with a a group that's doing AI coun support so it's a new kind of artificial intelligence program that they're piloting there they ask us if you'd like to be part of it it wasn't free believe not um so I went these fol said what do you think let's try it out that's they always are they're like all right give it a shot let's see what happens so um they really are there different things and whatever we need than do you have any fundraises coming up that you can share with us or yes yes Saturday yes Saturday nights are uh so we um initially when we started the foundation we just asked friends and family the we probably have about 400 450 people that engage with us either through social media or our newsletter our uh daughter-in-laws our director of communication she gets paid in hugs thank yous and then our son does the website so we started with that then last year we had a one of our board members is one of Sarah's friends so she said Sarah love to dance let's do a Zumba fun all right was a good sweat but uh so we did that combined with a small gathering last year and then this year we did Zumba a month ago and now we have this gathering at eastn Country Club uh on Saturday and so there as lots of people from Norton coming at two tables worth so on board right yes yeah L yeah Lisa and da board so yeah so that's it but at any time anyone can just go on to our website Sarah's Village and uh someone in this room did go on recently and make a donation so appreciate but um so yeah that's that's a great way to do again 100% of what comes in we put back into the community any cost that we have with like the Gathering or whatever that simply as um by all means though what I'd like to you know enhance the partnership is as you have these events you know please reach out to us so we can kind of get it up to our community as well I know we have a pretty good intern in superintendent's office I think I went out to the entire staff the staff yeah [Music] did it's been a great partnership I know I've had a guys since you know started so I'd like to see you know more engagement hopefully with our get Sarah's message up there and support you guys support us as well our students so um it's a commendable effort by you guys I've always been um you know amazed that work things you do us so definitely we can try and and get awesome of course I have more that I want to say I'm typically the one that cries every time so I'm just gonna say thanks thank you me I just so grateful for this tremendous partnership um AR Andia have been so wonderful to us to our community to our students um and I we can't say thank you enough because the impact that we've had you know 40 44 45 students the counseling sessions the um pres that come in the support that is given to our staff in times it's it's really incredible we thank you for taking this opportunity to share s message with us without come [Laughter] who misses it awesome thank you so much next on the agenda um thanks to for our this year was 35357 um the additional um funds only 35535 um report that I you um tonight just shows an additional 802 um for our extra7 funding that we received um we have not included the additional am 31 yet all those lines weoc to homeless Transportation UMES and um The High School St salary as well reach1 292 next week or two we have any expenses those are like Sears that we [Music] reive so it'll be a totally different account instead of funds that way but we are just to say publicly thank you to the town foring out capital projects as well um one was the second set of payments for mm boards that we that we purchased last year for the Middle School uh the second item was the replacement of the two hot water heaters at high school which definitely happy that's going to happen and then the third was um a new athletic bus so it's a smaller Mini Bus um we currently have one which is red will refer rocket um not any colors at all but it was only good board at the time um and we saved an incredible amount of money um on um athletic trips for smaller teams shorter distances field trips Special Olympics everything so we're super excited to have um this other small bus and um yeah we ex so thank you to the CH for that um we were also approved for the $50,000 for schem out of sign for the nor and Middle School group so um we will hopefully find out late next week if we were selected as part of um this year's program so fingers crossed all around um I did want to mention a few things to you about the additional Staffing the [Music] 321,000 um dollars that was there so we are going to posting the permanent building Subs with the start Fe of 114 um so those will happen hopefully tomorrow um and I know that I met Elementary principles earlier today and they all have some people in mind for the most part so those positions will get buil pretty quickly um we will also start with the elementary Specialists returning them to their 2324 FTE for November 4th um the one position that might be a little bit tricky as our librarian as she is currently um working the other half of week as a reading specialist so I'm going to work with her um and then I'm working with the nor Teachers Association program the teacher leadership said what makes the most sense in terms of um reinstatement and how can we do this in a way that make that makes sense for um roles and things that need to be done so um hopefully we'll have um an agreement with them by early in November as well finally we have the art the music at nor middle school and then the um reading and math positions um after conversations with the nor Teachers Association I'm actually going to post those as long from some positions for January through June um and the rationale for that is um number one it allows teachers that are in classrooms um you know as a classroom teacher to staying in their room for the year and um one of my biggest hesitations was disrupting learning for children that um have a teacher we want to make sure that we're trying to be as consistent as possible um but having a long-term um position that way at the end of the year for are able to maintain these roles as we all hope we are um it will be posted um through our regular Union process if were interested um can apply them our current transfer process for the September of 2012 um from my perspective I felt like that was the best option for us as a district to as I said maintain teaching and learning for all of our students and also um give our staff opportunity to move into those roles if they so choose is that January yeah January second start y um and then we also have some ideas about like if we can't find we've got some IDE how we can back in other ways done um there was a time when our Title One Grant was a little bit heier it is now and what we did was the hired tutors they were um either retired teachers or perhaps teachers that were had left the fields and were home youngers children and wanted to work three hours a day a couple days a week and it was great because you know lgn teachers arrive at 7:30 um but you really don't need to get started like pulling groups until 8 till people would start at eight they might work till 11 get benefits um so we're trying to be really creative about how we're going to do us this year so um as I've said to all of you I will never turn away money we're throats Happ it we just want to make sure we're doing it in a way that is um that meain teaching for our students but super thankful all of youy and any questions concerns [Music] my I got two things one I think someone mentioned it nor veterans Council doing the vet day parly promote obviously it's on V day Monday November 11th um and any one March great going out School kind of out the secondary entrance of nor high down to uh Memorial here for you turn right on to um that's that and then just kind of about obviously to meeting on Monday night um you know thank you for the community OB coming out voting and giving us a little bit of positivity and hope going forward um I think the schol commit is you know see was trying to you know you know with the free cash that we did have was trying to come back and you know bring back to positions that we kind of uh thank you for Community Ando kind of help help guide that process as well good to see think a good any other other business