##VIDEO ID:fAakepO27Qk## e e e e e e e e all right I'm going to call the September 23rd 2024 meeting into session for the school committee if everyone will will join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible and Justice everybody oh no just so our first um we're going to do we did our we're going to do this for the first time really excited about it our land acknowledgement in our last meeting we um approved our land acknowledgement so I'm just going to read that at the beginning of each of our meetings and so it's we ackn we acknowledge that we are meeting on unseed ancestral homeland of indigenous peoples whose enduring presence was humbly recognized we humbly recognize we honor the Wampa Noak people as the original stewards and the Herring Pond wampanoags as a surviving tribe indigenous to these lands in our commitment to lifelong learning we acknowledge historical injustices to the native people of this land and vow to educate ourselves our community and our students on the first peoples and the hardships they endured we offer this as a small but essential step towards building a culture of respect truth and accountability so and then our first item on the agenda is our executive session so I need a motion to go into executive session for our collective bargaining I move we go to Executive session for the purpose of collective bargaining discussions thank you Mr preso do I have a second yes thank you Miss Miss geez Miss VNA Miss Haywood um all right we're going to do a roll call vote Miss Shaw yes Miss Haywood yes Mr Morgan yes Mr Bano yes Dr senson yes and I vote Yes as well so we will adjourn um for our executive session probably about a half hour and then we'll go upstairs and come back thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right thank you all for your patience while we're in executive session this evening um our first uh piece of business after coming out of executive session is our contract um ratification for our eapc teachers paraprofessionals and educational secretaries do I um have any um questions or comments from the committee or a motion to move forward from somebody Mr Pano yeah I move that we hold on I move the school committee move to ratify the EC teachers par Educators and educational secretary's contracts for the school year school years 2025 to 2027 per the terms of the memorandum of agreement thank you do I have a second Mrs Haywood thank you so much I have a motion a second point of order y point of order Madam chairman ough you you grouped all three contracts together uh I have been advised by Council not to vote on the teacher's contract but I can vote on the other two okay so then take your friendly Amendment if you will from that okay so do you want to restate your exactly which ones we're going to vote on first yep I will restate my motion that the school committee ratify the eapc par Educators and educational secretary's contracts for the school years 2025 2027 perfect thank you so motion Mrs hwood perfect any additional questions on the motion all right seeing n we should be able to vote maybe sorry this is me I oh I was like I think there's something wrong with my computer here we go process just a question it came up on the screen that's all three did but we'll that'll be noted in the minutes and we'll just we can do yeah the minutes will reflect the the actual motion roll and I can do a roll call for the next one that's all right perfect motion passes all right so that we are so that's the ratification of our parent educ and our educational secretaries I need a another motion for our eapc teachers contract Mr I will move to ratify the eapc teachers contract for the school year 2025 2027 per the turns of the memorandum of agreement perfect thank you do I have a second on that second Mr Morgan thank you so much any questions on the motion no seeing none we will start with Mrs Shaw obain okay we miss Haywood yes Mr Morgan yes Mr Pano yes Dr senson abstained and I vote Yes so the motion passes was that how many of us are here today six four to two thank you everybody it's exciting so thank you thank you for all the hard work that went into this I think it's really important that we do acknowledge the time commitment that was from every member of the negotiation teams both on the school side the school committee side and the union side so thank you for taking all that time out of your summer it was hours and hours and I got text messages going into meetings in the morning and then coming out in the afternoon so I really really appreciate it and I think we speak from every member of the committee about the the dedication that everybody took towards that so thank you very much all right our next piece of business is our community donations we've got Sean CA president of our eapc I mean sorry Educational Foundation good evening this it should be on it's yeah thank you for having me here uh this evening uh Kathy babini is in the crowd our Clerk um I just wanted to remind everyone about the Plymouth Education Foundation the work we're doing in the community um today uh we have raised an endowment of about $1.8 million um we continue to support educational programs that would not be funded uh by taxpayer dollars um on occasion uh such as during covid we step outside of the educational realm and make donations to other organizations so I'd like to to call um Suzanne and AJ up uh with me tonight um the Plymouth Education Foundation is pleased to go gold this year um we want to help uh kick off the go gold campaign with a $2,500 donation um to sore action for Hope um we want to do this in honor of all the children and families who have been touched by Pediatric cancer um in the town of Plymouth so we hope that you'll accept this donation on the behalf of the Plymouth Education Foundation and we wish you the best of luck in your fundraising efforts this week thank you so much get a photo you yeah we'll get a photo you get any close up S your relationship right he's probably asking how you cancer cancer check like that I never s thank you all so much that awesome and such a I know I wore my yellow cuz I figured I knew we were doing this tonight so closest thing I have to Gold finally figured out what I knocked down there we go um so thank you thank you so much for always all the support that the pouth Education Foundation gives the P public schools we are really blessed to have you as part of our community so thank you for all that you all do so thank you very much all right next thing we have is comments from the general public but I do not believe we have oh we do okay hold on before you come forward um have to read our uh public comment uh statement so the Plymouth school committee would like the opportunity to learn about the concerns and options opinions of Plymouth residents input from students and parents gu Guardians within the Plymouth Public Schools is especially important to the school committee public comment is part of the school committee's agenda and is not an opportunity for a discussion debate or dialogue between individuals and the school committee it's an individual's opportunity to express an opinion or concern on the issues within the school committee's Authority in scope each speaker will be allowed up to 3 minutes to present their material and must begin their comments by stating their name and address topics for discussion should be limited to those items within the school committee scope of authority the authority of the school committee PR primarily concerns the review and approval of the budget of the District's Public Schools the performance of the superintendent and the educational goals and policies of The District's Public Schools public comments and complaints regarding School Personnel apart from the superintendent or students are prohibited comments made during the public comment portion of the meeting do not necessarily reflect the the views or positions of the Plymouth school committee or individual comment committee members thank you all right now show is yours Tom Pinto 14 Cooper Street uh I'm going to give my opinion and comment uh on behalf of the Education Association Plymouth Carver I just want to thank uh first of all my team uh Lisa marur our Cher she sitting with me today I want to thank our negotiation teams uh I think as you said Michelle uh it's a lot of work and people put a lot of effort into it I want to thank the school committee for supporting all the effort and work we put into it you know obviously Administration uh we spent a lot countless hours together and uh I think we truly took a different approaches here uh as we as we addressed negotiations and I and I think feel like you know we had comments at meetings last year and I felt we were truly you know heard um wasn't two sides I think like playing Sal tactics or anything like that there was truly open dialogue you know we didn't get along all the time you know sometimes people had to listen to me rant here and there but it happens and a couple you know sometimes I had to take a walk down the seaside Trail to settle myself in the morning morning but we were able to again get to the final results we want so again I just personally want to thank everybody again for their support and you know I'm glad that it's over and I look forward to working with you on other matters in the future thank you thank you so much and Lisa Mari n Luke's way I just want to Echo what Tom said thank you all very much for working very well with us this go round of new contracts thank you thank you thank you perfect all right now we're going to go to our student representatives and we have two new school committee Representatives we have Shay and Anna so thank you so much for joining us and um basically I'm sure you've heard a lot about being a representative from you know your counterparts who are here who have been here for a year at this point but we want you to know that we really want you to be part of our discussions if there's something that you want us to talk about or put on our agenda let us know if there's something you see on the agenda that's of interest to you but you know you have to go home and do lots of homework and you want us to move it up so you can be part of the discussion please do not hesitate like we really want to hear your voice it's really important that we hear voice we're here because of you uh clearly we uh want to improve the education and continue to you know do what's best for our students so we want to hear your voice so it's really important but we are obviously want to hear what's happening in your school as well but please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us on this committee so thank you for being here tonight and welcome to your first meeting so we'll start off this evening with Anna for Plymouth North thank you good evening everyone Plymouth North High School's open house will be held on this Wednesday September 25th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. parents and Guardians are invited to attend they will follow their student schedule and meet with all of their child's teachers Plymouth North High School encourages all students to be involved with the various clubs Sports and activities it offers find something that interest you in become a part of the after school Community or attend one of our many scheduled sporting events and support our athletic teams the Southeastern Massachusetts Association of student councils fall conference is happening on on Thursday September 26th at Silver Lake High School and Plymouth North High School student council will be attending Plymouth North High School will be hosting College visits during all four lunches or during kblock these visits are for students to speak with the representative from the college or university in order to learn more about what each has to offer a full listing of the visiting colleges universities and the armed services can be found on the plumouth North website going gold t-shirts will be sold during lunches all week to support pediatric cancer is $20 to purchase the plumouth North High School varsity homecoming game will be held on Thursday September 26th at 3:30 p.m. the Plymouth North High School homecoming dance is happening on Friday September 27th from 6:30 to 10: homecoming to ticket sales are being sold on go Gan for $15 until tonight at midnight if you were planning on bringing a guest from another school permission slips should have been approved by the end of today's school school day please see Mrs wilcott in Room 331 with any questions Plymouth North High School's Legacy Studios student portraits will be held Tuesday September 24th and Wednesday September 25th during math classes visit shop. Legacy Studios for pricing and packages that they offer lastly we encourage All Families to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and utilize our website for all happenings at Plymouth North thank you thank you Anna now we'll go to South okay do I have to turn this on or it should be on thank you good evening everyone first we'd like to say thank you to our pshs dance team last week they wore a different color to represent different kinds of pediatric cancer and Friday September 20th they began their cuddles for Hope Drive where you can D donate stuffed animals and it goes to the oncology units at Massachusetts General Hospital for pediatric oncology and we're looking forward to new donations as well um this past weekend we had a great homecoming weekend we kicked it off with a win for the football team and on Saturday night we crowned our homecoming king and queen Noah brilliant and Sophia Adams this week open house is at 6:30 p.m. on thurs day and we look forward to seeing many of our families going gold this week is always special at pshs in this year we have many activities but a new event has been sponsored our culinary program will have um burgers with golden bonds that were donated by Cisco so that um they cost $6 but five of those dollars will be donated um and currently we're in our final stages of planning our Nas collaborative conference which will be October 7th and 8th the staff has been working diligently and we're very prepared for the important event and this is really big news for us we're super excited to announce that pshs is one of the 65 Massachusetts schools to receive funds as part of the $155 million skills Capital Grant from the hey Driscoll Administration funds from the grant will be used to support recipient schools and institutions in upgrading technology instructional lab spaces of the $15 million in total funding we received $21,000 the funding will support the Plymouth South graphic design and Visual Communications program for new equipment we also hosted our club fair this week where all of our grade n students attend to look at new clubs and they meet with our older um students that have already been in the clubs before our K block labs are um back to help students that need extra help in math science writing and even art and overall it has been a great September thank awesome thank you both so much for your great reports Lots going on all always anybody have any questions awesome thank you so much thank you right and we'd love to have stay as long as you can but no pressure like if you need to go home and do homework please feel free um all right the next thing I'm going to ask if I can have a little leeway on the agenda from the committee I'd like to move 7.0 with our out of town um field trips up as well as 9.3 but I'd like to which is our um uh Charter Review Committee if anybody if I don't have any objectives from anybody all right all right so we're going to go down to 7.0 and do our out of town field trips our first one is the Plymouth North North High School uh Boston field trip hello everyone uh I am Dave Clark I am a teacher at Plymouth North High School and I am the model un adviser there also and so I am here to request your approval to take a trip to Boston um at the the kind of the end of January I have 40 students that have gone through their whole application process gotten their student um gotten their teacher signatures and uh have already started actually researching their um countries and committees for this um really valuable educational fun uh experience and um I I mean if the question comes up we do have mechanisms in place too for students that cannot um afford the trip we have uh various donations that come in from the VFW um and we also have the student council and the senior class that have helped us assist students that may be uh very interested in the club and very qualified for the club but can't quite make ends meet so we have done that uh multiple times in the past for students but I can tell you that students that go once go again and it is something that students that have come back afterwards have told me that it's one of the things that that they truly remember about their four years at Plymouth North High School anybody have any questions Mr Pano I just want to make sure I was following the application right so it's uh three nights and it's $500 per student is that correct that's correct yeah I'll move the I'll move the uh I'll move the approval of this trip right we have a motion to approve the trip to Boston for the model oh my gosh you just said it Model United Nations do you have a second a second oh perfect thank you Mr Bano so we have a motion and second any questions on the motion all right seeing none we should be able to vote can I you ask for question did you ask for questions yes I did Sor I'm sorry I didn't I want to pass this through you to the administration um one of the policies that I think is effective is that whenever possible and I'm sure it can't be possible all of the time but whenever possible the the field trip should come to the school committee before it goes to the students in this particular case students have had to sign up and he has to find schedules and things like that but I just wanted to bring that as yes I'm glad that you mentioned that Dr senson because in MO with with a trip abroad or other circumstances when there's conditions that are preclude that and and if it wasn't approved they they wouldn't be going but to your point yes do want to get them excited or whatever so awesome so then we should be able to vote now if no one else has any additional questions no okay great that's unanimous have fun good luck all right right thank you dinner time all right and then we have our P South High School field trip for Quebec Canada hello I like the yellow Miss Badger sck I know I like your bright colors today and congratulations to the girls they were so nervous with their out I said you like hearing them much better than you like hearing from us I they're fantastic um I'm here obviously in support of Mrs Kelly um and this trip came up recently and we'd love to have the opportunity to do it and I will say that just a side note um if any of you have interested in I might send you a little anecdote of um one of our students who just graduated will Kenny who um was a real liaison with the Chinese last year and then he was able to go back to China in June on his own and the narrative he sent me was unbelievable that he put on Instagram about what the opportunity trips provided so I'll send an email to Dr Campbell maybe he can send it's just really it's like the world is fantastic through the eyes and I do think he will be an international Diplomat so onto Quebec um Mrs Kelly came to me she's a very strong um French teacher at our school and has organized trips before she actually was one of the leads on the France trip a few years ago so I'll turn it over to Michelle I I I assume I should be doing this in English right please French out there right now um but that that's basically the point I I'm sure you all probably had to take a foreign language at some point in your school and if you don't use it you obviously lose it but what I'm a real firm believer in is authentic learning and trips like this present that opportunity to students it engages them 100% in the target language they learn history culture everything that you can possibly imagine comes up in one of these trips sometimes medical issues you name it it all comes up on one of these trips and it's somebody who herself benefited from two foreign trips in high school um and an international internship at the US Embassy in Paris and then an extensive tour working for a private firm traveling around the world I can tell you that probably 90% of my language acquisition came from those experiences over my classroom experiences and I had great teachers so that's not a slate to them at all um so I would really like to do this particular trip um I have myself never been to Carnival but I have been to Quebec um and we do study it at every single year of our language program at South freshman year they look at the um the cultural differences between Carnival and marra then sophomore year we Loop in the carnival in compare it to Quebec and loop it back to marra uh junior year we look at it in relation to um forto France martinque in Porto France Haiti and then finally in AP they're required to do a cultural comparison pulling everything that they've learned from the frankophone Nations and and more um about this this holiday of of Carnival and comparing it to to something in their home community so it's very valuable experience for the kids thank you anybody have any questions questions I'll take a motion so move the approval of this trip to Quebec thank you I have a motion do I have a second Miss hwood second do you have any questions on the motion all right seeing none we should be able to vote perf have fun it's approved unanimously thank you so much thank you all right now so we have finished 7 okay we did those two field trips now we're going to go to 9.3 if everyone is still bearing with me we're going to bring anybody here is up for the charter committee who's who's presenting perfect thank you for coming we really appreciate you we had our uh meeting two weeks ago and we talked a little bit about our Charter and our feelings and our concerns about the charter and so we wanted to have you all come here give us your presentation about you know the charter changes that as that impact the schools and then we have obviously probably have some questions and some other things well thank you very much for having us I appreciate it I'm Steve bolet and I'm the current Vice chair of the charter Review Committee with me is len Levin who is the secretary of the charter Review Committee so the charter Review Committee was tasked with reviewing our Our Town Charter in order to make recommendations to town meeting regarding some suggested changes the committee reviewed every line of the charter considered each provision on an Institutional level I want to stress that because we've heard various suggestions one way or the other as to how either we functioned or past committees may have functioned but by looking at things at an Institutional level what that means is we did not consider who is currently in office what town policies are what practices are we looked at these various Provisions with without any goal in mind in terms of what policies we or any Committee Member would like to see some committee members may have expressed their personal opinions but for the most part it was made very clear your opinions as far as what you want to see are not relevant to our Charter what we did focus on instead was working collectively to make recommendations for Charter changes to accomplish three things in town government we wanted town government to be more understandable to the residents we wanted it to be more transparent and we wanted the opportunity for it to be more effective through flexibility those were the those were the things that every recommendation had one or more components related to so that led us to a lot of different aspects the most uh most overarching to some degree is the fact that we actually are proposing a reorganization of the charter we're proposing a charter that groups together things that belong together so that anyone can pick up the document and at least have some general idea as to the structure of our government what each body or position entails what their responsibilities are how they get to where they are and what and what happens in the event they don't do their job that was something that just does not exist in our current Charter uh and the example I always use is the town manager right now if you want to find all of the things relating to the town manager's duties you have to go into four different chapters of our Charter you have to read deep into this it's uh it's not a pleasant event to put it mildly for the average person we wanted to change that so that's what we did as far as an organizational structure in terms of recommendations that we're making there are three in particular that relate to the school committee uh I know the one that has gotten the most attention and certainly happy to address it in as much detail as as as you wish uh is to talk about article 21 which is changes to the reordered chapter 2 of the proposed Charter the substantive change that we're suggesting with respect to the school committee is that right now our town Charter identifies four substantive things that the school committee does three of which are dictated by state law and one of which is not the one which is not is the responsibility for facilities maintenance and for I guess it's described as equipment Etc and Furnishings of the schools I want to stress again that the recommendation to eliminate that fourth prong is not a proposal of any type by the charter Review Committee to actually change how Plymouth does things rather what we did was we considered what would happen if hypothetically as discussions we've been informed discussions were ongoing about some measure of shared services whatever that may be between the school committee and the town and what we looked at and said was in the event the school committee in the town were to turn around and next year say oh my goodness we've come up with this great idea we want to create shared services for for whatever it may be whether it's it HR facility whatever it may be our current Charter prevents that from happening it actually stops it someone would be able to literally turn around and say you cannot do that without going to the state government government and getting a charter change we thought well that seems to be anathema to the flexibility that we've been asked to create with respect to town government so we have made this recommended CH we're recommending this change and again I stress all this committee does is make recommendations to town meeting we we probably have let's see one two three members who will be actually voting as they are town meeting members uh but for the most part again this is a recommendation to town meeting and it will be town meeting which ultimately decides whether or not they want the town to have this flexibility in speaking with various Representatives regarding this we've heard lots of comments back and forth uh we heard one comment that this was an effort to force something upon the school committee it most certainly is not again we as a charter Review Committee have no author to do anything we are a recommending body to town meeting we also have not been party none of the members of the charter Review Committee have been party to any discussions we've heard from Mr KY that there have been some discussions but we are not party to those we do not know what is being contemplated what level it has reached nor did we ask because again we did not want to say this is what the town should do so this proposed recommendation is solely about creating the ability of the town to do something should the town and the school committee wish it to occur so no change would occur the moment this is if if if town meeting were to approve it and then if the state were to subsequently approve our Charter as we propose it it still would not change anything until and unless the town and the school committee chose to do so so that's that's the mindset behind the committee think that led to this recommendation uh the other two recommendations are a bit more minor in some instances but significant otherwise in two instances the charter Review Committee is recommending that the school committee have appointing authority to a body which will subsequently appoint people to another body in first instance we are recommending a change to the way the advisory and finance committee is appointed to have it appointed instead of solely by the moderator instead to have it appointed by representatives of five elected bodies in town this body being one of them the rationale behind that again was that in looking at how we organized our Charter One of the things that came up as we were talking about was the executive branch of government and people see seem to forget that this body is part of the executive branch of government you are the executive over the schools not only by practice but by state law and as the body which is the executive over the single largest component of the town's expenditures on any basis on an annual on an annual budget it made sense to have this body as well as others question the understanding of people who are going to be advising on your budget now in response to that I can say we have received concerns primarily from the advisory and finance committee that this body having an interest in anf's deliberations should not be making a recommendation as to who should be on it and that same caveat was given with respect to the planning board and the select board and the copc so it was not unique to this body so no one was singling you out but our thought process again as we continued to discuss this was to say that's an understandable concern but as we're proposing a five body five member appointments committee that also results in balance out we wouldn't expect that any one particular body would be able to appoint someone who was blatantly opposed to something or blatantly in favor of something and ultimately our rationale was that you're elected officials and if you don't have trust in your elected officials then that's a different problem that's not what we're we're we're here to say you're the elected officials the other bodies who are appointing are elected officials if you don't like who those people are putting on the advisory and finance committee say so at The Ballot Box it's uh an additional level of accountability but it's also a greater level of transparency so we propose that we also made the same Proposal with respect to our own committee the charter Review Committee we elected we to recommend that the charter Review Committee both the appointments be expanded and the number of committee members and the alternates be defined that was not done prior and it was somewhat inconsistent in the way it had been done it had been done very uh quietly and without a lot of discussion and again we felt that as important as the charter is and as significant as this body is it should have a voice in hearing out and making recommendations as to who should be overseeing suggestions regarding Charter change so it's a combination as we've done in many instances throughout this proposed Charter document of saying we are asking of each body and we are making responsible each body for their activities we want to make things again transparent flexible and understandable to the community and that's what our proposed changes are so unless there are certainly I'm happy to answer any questions although again the my responses will merely be to reflect the discussions that we had in the committee I I will not offer any personal opinions nor any should anyone else be because again we speak as a committee we didn't all agree on everything that's the nature of a committee as well and sometimes discussions were spirited and we discussed things in sometimes painstaking detail we agonized over every word in many instances over commas as one should commas are very important uh as as this body well knows the the debate over the Oxford comma took us 25 minutes so with that if there are questions happy to do our best to respond do have any questions from the MR sh um in your deliberations um did any other like did did you have Lyn Barrett come in did you have our um business administrator come in and speak on like what it would look like to implement some of these things um that are in the charter or were these just like this change sounds good so we're going to put it in well first of all yes Miss Barrett did come in uh you had your own Representatives came so we didn't do this in a vacuum but again as you say if we implemented this change this is not a change as I said this is merely allowing for a change should it to should it occur we did not say oh in the event that there was a determination that there is a request to do uh consolidation of IT services this is how it work no we did not go to that level of detail that is not our Province to do so again we're making a recommendation as to something that will allow the town and the school committee the flexibility to enter into discussions and actually reach agreement on something one of the points that I I want to make uh and it's something that we discovered in a number of instances is that through many many years of changes Our Town Charter has taken on an unexpected life of its own the charter is more a constitution our Charter with its additions and often lack of subtractions has become more of an operations manual in many instances our Charter is internally conflicted conflicted with state law and conflicted with the town bylaws that's something we've worked very hard to try and address but in in a number of instances for example we cannot change them until we change either our Charter and or our bylaws so to some degree a lot of what would be in the charter what should be in the charter should even be more paired down but we did not make those recommendations because we because we had a lot of people who felt uncomfortable doing so but in many instances the charter should simply say this body is appointed and or elected uh per the terms of the Town bylaws that's really all it should say and the detail should be left to the town bylaws but a lot of members were uncomfortable doing that and felt again and we are making these recommendations to town meeting we are cognizant as well the town meeting may be very uncomfortable with making those types of changes not understanding the ne necessarily the relationship between state law as it dictates Charter as it dictates our bylaws so we Tred to strike a balance in that so in terms of making those recommendations we did take out in a lot of instances the how do you do it kind of things or these are the ramifications if you do this this this and this and instead what we essentially tried to do was Define the responsibilities of positions and bodies but not tell them how they needed to carry those out that was Again part of that flexibility if you have a description in a charter that says you shall have these four people then you must always have those four people even if those four people are no longer relevant to what we're doing or we want to change a job position to say it's now something else and reports to somebody else that would create a conflict we try to limit those conflicts and create greater flexibility anybody have any additional questions Dr senson um I I have to tell you that uh I don't have a complete grasp of this it's it's we have an opinion here from Council and I'm trying to digest the council's opinion with what you said and and the council our Council agrees with what you said that the school committee does not lose any of its Authority with the change that you're what you're recommending however Council goes on to say in many many words that the potential now exists that the school committee could lose Authority by striking that section of the charter it won't happen now but it it it it paves the way for a change that could eventually take away school committee Authority and I think that's why I am or we are concerned about the change that you're making y do Mrs hawood um so though there wasn't an alternative that was given in terms of um the particular language that you uh created there still creates this possibility of something that could occur as per what I've kind of leaned from our um uh from our attorneys and so for us it um it does open this kind of very very gray area as to the possibility so in in the way that you explained it almost as if it's like a plausibility but really the recommendations are based on uh on clear Poss possibility well there's certainly a possibility there's always possibility that's that's one of the things that we're doing is we are changing the charter so it allows for possibilities those possibilities and how they should be addressed and in greater specifics should be contained more in our town bylaws because again the the idea is that should something should the town and the school committee wish to address a shared services we would be prevented from doing that abs absolutely prevented we would require we would have to go through a charter change and as we've seen even basic administrative changes can take up to two years at the state house to get approval so the goal is to state that again our Charter should be a much more open document that is not to say that again that our town bylaws cannot or should not address the process because that process can be changed simply by a vote of town meeting so it is it is a it's a fundamental perception in terms of what each document is supposed to do and we talked about this because again the goal was to make our not to not to inhibit the town from doing things by locking it up in a document where it does not belong things have been put in the charter often as a reaction to something else and they shouldn't be in our Charter they should be in our bylaws there's absolutely and there's absolutely no reason why our bylaws should not simply State this is how the town is going to do this until such time as the town agrees to do it differently in which case you go to town meeting and you get Town meetings approval if town meeting agrees that's the the checks and the balances situation this eliminates to some degree checks and balances by simply locking something in and saying this is the way must be unless you go through extraordinary efforts now some instances there are things that should be included and should be left to extraordinary efforts but this was one in which based upon the requests made to the Charter Review Committee about creating greater flexibility in the ability of the town to function the way it chooses to function this was one we are recommending and again it is certainly up to town meeting to say no this is not something we want the town to have authority to do or yes this is something we want the town to have authority to do through Us in which case a bylaw makes more sense this is this is the start of the process our bylaws need to be amended we have somebody reviewing we have an outside consultant a town clerk came in and she explained to us that we have an outside consultant going through this there needs to be significant updates to our town bylaws regardless as to whether or not we make any Charter changes because our our bylaws in many instances currently conflict with our Charter so it is the beginning of the process but it is not the end of the process Mrs has a question can you um cite to me specifically where our current Charter disallows the what you're saying sure why you're looking for that I think it's important to remember keep keep looking uh important to remember that a couple years ago the town asked us to take over their buildings I was that 5 years ago um because we have a better track record of taking care of our building so I think that's something and what came out of that was that our money the school's money cannot go to operate the town buildings so it regardless school's money the the way it set out could still happen and we have our facilities funds and they have their facilities funds so I mean I don't think I I mean personally the the change is probably um I feel unnecessary uh at this point and I think we're all saying that same thing over and over again uh but it it if we don't have a bylaws change that then indicates what can and cannot be done then this is putting your cart before the horse in my personal opinion that's would and I also think when you talk about the Extraordinary Measures and you also talk about this um checks and balances I think those extraordinary measures in the time that's allotted which is 2 years which isn't a long time is a Checks In Balance it's a balance that that is created at the state level as opposed to the local level and that's why it exists so if there is something that is I'm I'm trying to figure out what is so emergent that we would need to bypass a a process that was created in terms of of like this further extension of the checks and balances that exists Beyond Us in terms of the Town well addressing first the question so where where is it it's in our current chap Charter chapter 4-3-2 subd so that basically says that the school committee shall have General charge and superintendence of all school buildings and grounds and furnish all school buildings with proper fixtures furniture and equipment that is not part of general laws chapter 71 section 7 right which does identify the other a b and c of this particular chapter in terms of again addressing the emergent need no one um can you answer my question I'm sorry I just did answer your question um no you asked you asked me what section would prohibit this that's the section that would prohibit this right I am not understanding how it prohibits it well what this says is the school committee the powers and the duties of the shall include Yeah by saying it shall include the general charge and superintendence that means that it cannot be it can't it can't be left to any other body it can't be shared services I'm I'm sorry just let him finish hold on you can finish but I just I'm I'm not understanding how you coming to that conclusion of those words I'm I'm afraid you have me at a loss because the language of the charter says that the school Comm committee shall have these things right that means by definition no one else may it it actually means the school committee cannot even give them up that is what this that is what that's what I don't understand that's where I think I'm not that's where I think I need more clarification is that so what I'm understanding General charge and superintendence to mean is that that's their the school buildings belong to the schools and the schools can decide what is done with those buildings and superintendent is just a big fancy word for supervision so I'm not understanding why it wouldn't be within the purview of of the school committee or the school department to supervise whether it's a consolidation of services why it wouldn't allow the school to supervise a town HVAC agreed person from coming in like I'm not understanding how that prohibits us from consolidating Services because it just that really just says that the school buildings are under the school committee's purview and who is doing the maintenance is something that needs to be supervised by us it doesn't say that we can't share Services I understand but you're using the word superintendence to mean supervision and superintendence means more than that superintendence means complete control and oversight okay I'm just not seeing where that is that's the it's General charge and superintendence of all school buildings that means that the buck stops with you meaning that no matter what you cannot you will be stuck with that that responsibility even in the event that it is ultimately agreed that some other body should be doing this right but I'm I'm not understanding how us having the superintendence over over the school buildings prevents us from allowing Town maintenance people people or facilities or DPW because currently that's the way it is and correct me if I'm wrong but the DPW does do some maintenance on school grounds like plowing and those kinds of things so we're already consolidating and sharing services with the town with the charter currently the way that it is with those words that you're saying don't mean that but the definition of those words says that so I'm just having trouble finding your definition under Miriam blacks law Oxford any of those dictionaries well again if you look at the statutory construction when you say you have General charge and superintendence it means it means you must be the responsible party for oversight right we have been informed again having discussed this with others that that creates problems as a matter of a a number of things including our Union contracts so to say that one body may be allowed to plow but another body may not be able to come in creates these questions the goal again being to allow the flexibility to create whatever form the school committee and the town feel best as your chair just said the town ask the school committee to take over the superintendence of buildings not because it's in the charter but because that was the practice that made the most sense and we assume again as all of the our elected officials as are the town officials who that the goal is to create the best possible service for the town the town being the residents those who are using the schools those who are teaching within the schools to create the best possible outcome for everyone so again we are looking at this with the open mind that everyone will operate with the best intentions now I understand you have a that F but you know that's the same face that we got when we said oh gee the school committee should be appointing somebody oh really well I don't trust them well again I'm sorry but our charge was again not to say we agree with who's currently sitting or what they may or may not do but rather to create a systemic operation system that will work in the best situations and and again to the extent that this is something that needs to be addressed in a bylaw so that it can be addressed on a more flexible level that is the appropriate level at which it should be and again as I keep saying we are not making a recommendation as to any changes whatsoever in terms of operations that is not our Province nor is it something we looked at we merely said that in the event that something is to change it cannot under our current Charter that was our understanding and again people can debate language it's always always possible I've spent 30 years in courts doing just that what we're trying to do is avoid that we're trying to avoid those types of potential conflicts those misinterpretations those differing interpretations by saying we're going to create something that gives in our Charter the flexibility and allow the town and the school committee through town meeting to create bylaws that are crystal clear in terms of operations because those things can be changed functionally in a reasonable time period Mr Bano has a handful of questions uh first of thanks for the nice overview of the changes is this being presented to town committee as a package this as all of our recommendations and it's all or nothing what's the process no so town meeting it first it's being presented in a chapter by chapter basis okay however town meeting is is free and is encouraged to separate out any individual change that they wish to discuss so no this is not an all or nothing this is certainly something and this is a provision that we specifically expect will be separated out for discussion okay we have five or six that we've identified so far and we expect that to be the case um so thank for that two has there been legal review by the uh on the town s side of any of these proposed changes all of them yes the The Proposal Went to Town Council and was reviewed before it was set forth and presented to town mewn plus all the changes say these are all legal they are all they are all within the parameters of state law Etc obviously we've heard that they do conflict with our bylaws but so do things that are existing in our Charter so we we were made aware of that in a number of instances so we were made aware of 176 contradictions to our bylaws a lot of them are more grammatical than anything else there's aot you know whether it's you know in our Charter it now says select board and our bylaws still say select men things like that but there are still quite a number of substantive uh contradictions that will need to be addressed thanks so my last just regard to the specific change we've been discussed in the provision d by moving it weide that you know removing it doesn't have any real real impact but then where does that responsibility go how does it not create a gray area we're moving it from here now there's nothing written down anywhere that says who has it because to your point that particular responsibility isn't in Mass General law so then where does it magically go it does need to be addressed it needs to be addressed again my my personal recommendation is in a bylaw but obviously that is something that needs to be addressed uh right now there's a there's a determination by the town and by the school committe that's by agreement and that's how you've been functioning whether or not to my again this was not put in this was not addressed because we've heard this is a problem no one has said no one came to us and said oh this provision is stopping something this was again something that was agreed to your current structure was agreed to between this body and I the select board as the methodology by which school committee School Maintenance and Facilities are handled and that would continue to be the case by agreement aren't you just it sounds like you're there's no problem and I don't see how this doesn't create a problem because you're saying that it needs to be addressed if it didn't change it wouldn't need to be addressed so you are forcing a situation where it now needs to be addressed so I'm trying to understand how you're not trying to you're saying that you guys are just trying to make flexible and not impacting policy but this seems like a dire implication to policy and now you're creating a hole which has to be filled somewhere in some instances that's kind of the way it works because we do have instances in which the charter is taking on responsibilities that the charter should not be taking on now I I will again stress that this was assuming again this recommendation goes to town meeting assuming town meeting approves it it then goes to the state we are looking at a probably two-year process before anything is actually adopted we have more than ample time under those circumstances to enact what should be enacted which is a bylaw or other determination or agreement however it is done to establish what will happen assuming this is approved so in the two interim you're assuming that things will just operate on a handshake I guess I to me you're creating a legal no I'm not saying they operate on a handshake then what then what law would govern this this document takes effect until such time as State Law changes it so no this wouldn't operate on hand this is still our operating document until such time as it is approved by the state any changes must be approved by the state until such time this document operates so nothing would change by by definition nothing would change until such time Mrs hawood I think you had a question first I I I did just um going back to the statement that she mentioned in terms of uh the the fact that this particular language that as it exists now Now isn't clear but yet and and just so even picky back it it but yet the language that is now being provided provides Clarity but in a sense it it doesn't I mean I'm just trying to wrap my head around it because if it's if it's as you explained it the language States this is in these in whatever in these instances the uh the Authority is the superintendent that's clear language yes yes the language that's now being stated now opens up to what we're we're we have not yet I mean we H we haven't yet ascertained as to what that opens it up to we just know that it opens it up to possibility so there is no Clarity that's something that will now be H you know now we'll have to figure out whether this is in two years time I don't know I don't know I don't so so that's why for me I'm just I'm just trying to just wrap my head around how this is something that you know allows for a clearer process where it doesn't now I just I'm for example so let's say hypothetically town meeting went ahead in we this doesn't change and town meeting goes ahead and changes our bylaw and says we now have a bylaw in place that says this is how we're going to handle school facilities and maintenance our bylaw would be in conflict with our Charter in which case the bylaw itself would be null and void we can't pass a by law that conflicts with our Charter so you're right we've been caught in a catch 22 because the Catch 22 says we can't change you're saying we can't change this until we have an agreement or something in place a bylaw in place that clarifies exactly what's going but we can't have a bylaw as long as this is in place so you're right it has created a catch 22 so what you're what you're suggesting again and I understand this committee's position and and again we are not advocating for anything but I understand this committee's position is they don't want this to change until such time as something else is determined yeah but our position we as a charter Review Committee were not tasked with drafting a new bylaw nor with creating Town regulations we're only left with what we can recommend in order to address these circumstances and to some instance yes some of the recommendations that we are making are probably catalysts to further change and further issues that need to be addressed it is the problem with addressing a a document that in instances or I should say multiple documents which in instances are conflicting and we're trying to do it we had a very limited parameter that we could deal with our parameter was this document and what we could recommend now we've made a lot of recommendations that we said make this change but by the way you need to look at these other things in order to do that and we've made those recommendations but that is not for this body to to do we are an advisory body offering here's what here's what we're recommending here's why we're recommending it here's what our thought process was in recommending that and it then is up to town meeting to decide how they wish to go about doing and town meeting could turn around and say we're not going to do this we're going to do this subject to a caveat that we're going to take this up or we're going to take something else up and we're going to adopt a regulation even though it conflicts with our Charter and deal with those ramifications as an attorney I could never advise someone to do that uh our Charter takes superintendence over everything other than state law and then even then there's a debate because our Charter is approved as state law so if there's a conflict between our Charter and state law there's always a question as to which takes precedence then the goal was to try and avoid as much conflict as possible and so while I I certainly understand and appreciate the concerns that are raised the charter Review Committee was very limited this was not a revamp of the entire government and our system and how we address all of these things but rather just what we could do with respect to the Charter Mr sha did you have a question um so obviously this is already on the warrant this is already going forward to town meeting and am I correct in understanding that you um as a committee have no interest in modifying any of the language I I I don't understand we we can't modify the language town meeting can modify the language right I just wanted to make sure that we were outside of that range where the committee would be taking anything up to change the language it's already for gone forward to town meeting and it's in town meeting's hands now correct the committee does not have the authority at this point to go back and change anything okay um it's also in our hands as well we can make an amendment I I checked with Steve trifiletti today but we would have to do it on the floor of Tom yes right we can't do it right now today um May I just make a general comment of course um so I I think that we should just stop discussing it then it's clear that it's not going to get us anywhere by going back and forth over and over again and I think that um this is clearly not in the school committee's best interest for this to go forward um with this language uh the current Charter I see no reason and I find it to be a complete misrepresentation that the current Charter doesn't allow for consolidation of services um and I think that we should just focus on um letting town meeting know that the current Charter it is our belief or especially we should check with our legal council but that this doesn't the current Charter doesn't disallow um so if the charter Review Committee is going to continue to um make people believe that it current disallows us from consolidating Services I think it should be our main focus um to combat that message with um the truth that we already do consolidate Services Under the current Charter thank you Dr senson I completely agree with everything you just said absolutely the only thing only thing I want to add to it is you know the devil is in the details we pick up the details they don't have to pick up the details they had a very nice charge change the language and don't worry about the details mhm finally it makes sense when it comes to a board that we now have to pick up the pieces and run with it and I think you're right Ashley that's how we're going to do it no I would agree with all everything that's been said at this table the one thing I would like to consider and this is not a question or maybe it is a question but I have a I run a nonprofit board and we have Charters and we have bylaws so our Charter for each of our committees tells them what they're supposed to do within and we do our bylaws and our Charter changes at the same time that is just what happens like we then say say okay if this passes then this goes in the bylaws if this passes this goes in this so my like I just think it's an interesting approach that you have two documents that are so crucial in running your government and running your your community that they're not looked at at the same time and I understand it wasn't what you're charged with I get that um but I'm just saying that to me it makes sense to look at them both at the same time but that that is all and I don't know if anybody else here has any anything to say this evening but if we have any additional questions or any concerns we'll definitely reach out um but as I think everyone said here we'll probably be talking to some um town meeting members and you know letting our opinion be heard it's nothing against the work that you did you all I know put a lot of hours and time into this so we appreciate your diligence in the you know I'm a big fan of an Oxford comma um and you know in the right word choice and all of that so we appreciate that we just need to stand up for what we think is important and as you said it's not the people who sit here in any of the positions it's the people in 10 20 years who are going to be impacted by Us in the decisions we make today and so that's I think what you're hearing it's not about us in these seats it's not about you in your seats it's about what what's going to happen further for our community and how that impacts our staff and how that impacts our community so but I we really appreciate you coming tonight so thank you thank you very much thank you all right then next now we're going to go back in order oh sorry oh sorry Mr Biser sorry I meant to do that I'm Lawrence piser I've appeared before this committee for 32 years and this is the first time I haven't sworn anybody in um I W I am a member of the charter Review Committee and I was on the losing side of this particular issue um I've learned over many years of being part of town government that losing is one of the possibilities and that's not what I'm talking about right now what I am talking about is the reality of the discussion before the charter Review Committee and I think that the solution if you want to find out is to go to the pack TV uh recording as bad as it is cuz we were in one of those small rooms um and see what it was about um uh I was rather vehement on this subject I did not want to see this section deleted uh the person uh on the committee who recommended deletion of this did not speak in terms of flexibility he spoke in terms of saving money it was very straightforward discussion uh on his part um okay I lost but um that doesn't mean that um going forward town meeting has to accept this choice and I certainly hope that the uh the school committee or a town meeting member or some combination of the two will make an amendment to return this um to the Charter um the argument that can be made um would be reflective of what came before the TR Review Committee and we are a recomending body and the disposing body is town meeting I thank you thank you so much thank you thank you all right all right now we're back to our regular scheduled programming so we are up at our 6.0 program updates and we'll start with our special education director Miss Smith hello everyone hi my name is Christine Smith I am your special education director uh newly appointed on July the 1st um which you'll note is not that long ago and um somehow I've ended up up in front of the school committee to do the presentation how about that it thank you very much pardon you may be able to progress through if it doesn't care of that over there the right arrow oh not the left one there we go okay so I thought that it would be important that you have a little bit of a sense of who I am um and how that impacts the department as we go forward um and I guess uh all be ly impacts uh Plymouth Public Schools um I want to just bring to your um awareness that the Plymouth North High School was just named um a champion of a Special Olympics for their Unified sports program and we have um as a district been looking into increasing our Unified sports opportunities with our elementary school students which is really exciting um which brings me to my first slide which is just reminder that our success in special education is really interconnected to um our families our community um our special education teams the elders in our community um that none of the work in special education happens in isolation of anything that happens in our schools so we are um fully dependent interdependent on each other um oops let me hit that slide and that brings me to remind the the the the town the schools that special education is in fact not a place it's a service in special education we qualify students for receiving special education services um and that those Services um when best provided are happening as close to our peers as possible um out of our 1600 students that are engaged in special education services in Plymouth Public Schools uh 200 of those students about 200 of those students are in our specialized programs um and the rest of our kids are in our schools in our inclusion settings because truly special education if it's done to its best to from its um Origins it is about decreasing the impact of that disability that the student has been identified as having and increasing the students access to education in the Gen EDS in education meaning the life and the community and the culture and the academics of the school that our first priority is and always will be maintaining our students in the least restricted environment their first entitlement is to a free and appropriate public education which really is um where it all begins so if you think back and maybe this is a little bit of a history lesson for you but um I'll take you for just a minute in back to 1974 when special education was um brought to Massachusetts because a a group of very concerned Massachusetts parents got together and said you can't take my child out of you can't restrict my child from attending school that they're entitled to go to their community school and participate with their peers um and from that in Massachusetts we created chapter 766 which then became the foundation for um the federal law in 1975 Public Law 94142 which is drilled in your head and when you're an education major um and that that then became the ground for Ida and which is still stands of course um and Ida changed the face of special education I was a teacher way back then um and I remember not being given any curriculum for my students and not being given any direction for where I was supposed to lead them or take them and when we instituted ieda for the first time I got textbooks and I had expectations from my students and they were all of a sudden expected to learn my my middle schoolers at the time we're now going to be expected to learn geom geometry and other um algebraic skills where previous to that there was no standard there was no um scope and sequence from my students um so it really did change the playing field for students and set some a level of rigor that we had drifted away from in special education so back then in 1975 we thought of um special education as there was a there was a standard in special education which the legal standard was um maximum feasible benefit right so that was language that we used in our IEP meetings and and since then we've we've the this the laws have the federal laws have gone through many um trials and tribulations through the Supreme Court and there have been some changes and now the standard is more um not it's not maximum feasible benefit anymore we now consider fape a free and appropriate public education and we continue to look at rigorous goals and um measurable outcomes that are relative to the students area of abil of of disability and ability so back to back to Plymouth so I started in July and um I was lucky because I received two reports right away which was pretty cool because it gave me a context that typically you don't get as a new person in this position so I was handed the um tiered Focus monitoring report from um from desie that the district had undergone um a number it takes about 2 years to get to that place of getting the report so I didn't have to do all that work and I just got the report that was kind of great and um we also had a program evaluation done with academic discoveries um which looked specifically at some of our IND District programs and when I say that I'm referring to our programs that are substantially separate from their um from the gened classes so that's that's the language give it what it is uh uh that we use so those substantially separate programs that we run in Plymouth were reviewed by um academic discoveries and we ended up with some interesting information about our successes our growth and then um some plans for this year so the TFM that's the tiered Focus monitoring because that's just a lot of words so we have to use abbreviations for everything God bless you um the TFM told us that we are educating again 1600 students um that well that they're receiving services that we do provide a full Continuum of services in special education in our district so that um a huge percentage of our students stay in our schools and are well educated within our buildings um that we are doing an excellent job at identifying students um and that we are writing well-developed IEPs um and we also um have not necessarily been commended but not found deficit in the area of um of Equitable Services so um in Massachusetts if you are overidentifying um a a particular group any of the groups of students you would be found deficit so we were not identified as overidentifying students so those are successes right you have to sort of Look Backwards at what you were not tagged for if you will desie doesn't hand out commendations very often so um in the academic discoveries report we see that we are serving about 220 students in our programs that we do again offer a full Continuum of programs from our prek babies all the way up to our 22 age students we have uh a number of programs with that serves specific um areas of disability we have a strive program that ranges from pre 3K to 22 we have um bridge and navigations that ranges from grade 4 to grade 12 ilc ranges from grade prek to 22 care and possibilities is again prek to 22 and we have our project growth which serves our students in 9th grade to postgrad each one of those programs um again serves a particular um group of students that have similar needs so the TFM found that there are some areas for us to continue to grow in um we found that we had some a number of findings in the areas of um compliance with paperwork so um some of that is the paperwork around found transitions for students we were missing some paperwork for our age of major for when a student turns 18 years old they're notified that they now have to make shared decisions or they're going to choose to make decisions about their IEP Services by themselves we call that in the business the age of majority um we were missing some paperwork around our excusal forums we were missing some paperwork around uh summary of performance which is a report that is added to a student special education file when they finished schooling with us we were missing some paperwork for our out of District monitoring um and then we had some findings that weren't just about paperwork but were around um the our discipline res regulations um we had some funny classroom configurations that we needed to look at um and then our preschool didn't have enough peers in it we were cited for that um and we were cited for our timelines at the elementary level when I took a look at the academic discoveries report and thought deep and hard about areas we need to grow in um we had we we were found that we could do more significant growth we could we could have more significant growth in our um approaches to specialized approaches like in our multi-sensory reading and in our ABA instruction that we needed to have some more PD around our multiple access points around modification and inclusion and making sure that students are being included with a rigor um in the subpar classroom so that they then can be included in the gened classes that we need to establish a vertical curriculum map for our students um and that we need to establish program um entrance exit criteria and um program descriptions and then as I looked at as aside from the um professional reports and considered my own entry some of the pieces that stuck out stuck out for me that I thought um we should be growing in is um our circuit breaker which she'll be glad Adam was dancing um we need to figure out why we're not reaching threshold and claiming more money for our IND District students um and in in fact I led a training just this week uh Thursday with my department heads and we looked closely at eight different students um and found that some of the students with just a few different ways of writing what services they are already getting we would be able to um hit that threshold and really find some money um and then I also found that we really need to look closely and deeply at um the way we are processing paperwork and relying on um like who are we relying on to make sure our timelines are being met and all of those paperwork um findings that we did have are being um addressed oops sorry about that guys left you off there so as we look ahead for 2425 and we think about um the plans for this coming school year um the TFM corrective action is already well underway in fact um on Monday we'll be submitting our our first progress report um towards corrective action on all of the areas of finding um all of those interventions will be completed by the end of January um so when we do this submission we have to write our plan and we have to show progress on the plans and right now we're at the step where we've analyzed all of the findings looked for the root cause and have proposed changes professional development and this kind of stuff to address the areas that we were found um in partially meeting the standard in for the academics Discovery um report this coming professional development day on November the 5th I will host the entire special education department which is really exciting um and we will work on lots of things that day unfortunately it's just one magical day but we'll have to go from there and go forward to finding our ways into small groups to continue the work um we need to increase the rigor of instruction in our subpar classes and establish that vertical map that gives us a map of curriculum for Math and literacy and we need to formulate that task group to work on entrance and exit criteria and the definition of the programs for um my for my other findings you know the ones that weren't a part of the TFM and academic discoveries um again as I would I'm working on the circuit breaker and considering ways to look at the new IEP look at the services that are being provided and make sure that we're maximizing um what we're including on the IEP um and uh I'm doing a deeper dive in the special education um paperwork and of of our work particularly at the elementary level to make sure that we are um processing our IEPs as efficiently as possible and um using the technology and services that are available we're trying to push Aspen as quickly as possible which is like rolling a rock up a very Steep Hill um to getting us to a place where they will release electronic signatures and responses on IEPs if you can imagine we still mail out the IEP uh and wait for it to come back to us which really really does delay the process for so many students I think that's it that's me awesome thank you so much does anybody have any questions Mr Pano probably more comment than uh question one I just wanted to want to thank you for your presentation and for coming to our district I feel encouraged by the direction things are going and hope hopefully our parents and CPAC and other stakeholders are seeing that we're moving in the right um Direction I appreciate you walking through the areas for impr improvement um obviously overall was positive but definitely some big areas um you know uh for improvement need and you have your your work obviously uh cut cut out for you I was very concerned with all the the the range of paperwork issues I was going to ask what you're doing about that but all my questions you address about what you're doing about it so again a lot of I can see all those things would be very concerning if I were a parent of a special education St him but it I mean it sounds like you you know it's an issue you're working on it and you've got plan so hopefully we'll turn that around but you know overall thank you thank you I think that I did re go ahead Ash yeah um I did I reached out to you prior just so you had had some time to compile the information um that I was looking for but I just wanted a little more information about um our paperwork and monitoring our out of District placements um in the past like how often has it been done how often should we be doing it um who's responsible for that type of of stuff if you could just give us a little more information about that that be great sure sure so um we have students placed in about 32 to 35 different settings across Massachusetts um and and the special education um out of district coordinator um is responsible for conducting all of those meetings and making sure that services are being provided I need to remind the committee also that every single placement H is responsible to Desi for the same kind of rigor and oversight of our TFM they also have a TFM process so that's like a double view if you will um during covid many well all of the meetings became virtual and many many families have found that it's important particularly in out of District to continue in those virtual meetings um and so that hasn't put us in the buildings as frequently um however we have a schedule um the two assistant directors and myself have a schedule where we will be before December 1st in every single one of our placements and um and reviewing when we go in what we do is we um see our identified students we see the classroom we look for cleanliness we look for the attitude the environment the millu we look for um any kind of academic recreational food therapeutic we're looking at all of those spaces we're looking at all of the equipment we're building relationship um and typically those um visits are are announced visits however we don't typically give them a lot of time on the announcements so we may call and say I'm coming tomorrow morning at 8 right um because it's expected that all of those things would be in place any single day of the of any day right um so I feel really good about the oversight um I was I've been down to our Cape Cod collaborative I've been down myself twice and um one of the assistant directors has been down twice also this since July 1st that's a lot right um but we wanted to make sure we were seeing what was going on and and engaged with that school directly so thank you yes anybody else have additional questions I thought I saw thank you so much for your we really appreciate that was a wonderful presentation I really enjoyed as Mr Pano was saying just like the the explanation of what needs to be improved upon you you don't have to uh but having been the liaison on Tac for uh years at this point not not anymore but having heard the conversation and many of the things that you mentioned were things that I know have been identified and we've talked about for a long time so I really appreciate you taking the time and effort and I know it's it's a lot of work but we're excited to have you here so welcome thank Youk so there has been a request for a break and it wasn't me but I was actually going to request it so if we could get just a f minute break we'll come back at 9:07 thank you e e e e e e e e e e everybody for bearing with us and our five minute break um our next thing we have our curriculum quarter we have Dr white with our early literacy data presentation thank you good evening evening I don't think we're on the right slide already so I'm going to see if I can Mr gravy I don't know if we're on the right side Mr are we at the beginning isn't the presentation no okay is it I thought there was one before it maybe not oh no no back a littleit there was like wasn't there definitely going yeah she like she was like five fls in H okay we might be missing a few at the beginning we can see them keep going there no no no that it's the other way you're going the wrong way other way it's all right I I don't need the slides I can probably do it without them good for the public at home too yes yeah keep going back going pictur first one has three photos you you'll see it when you get there no Dr White has that's fine we can there we go we're set now so thank you for having me so I'm really going to talk about this in three parts one would be what are the requirements from the state regarding early literacy screening the second is what have we been doing here in Plymouth to fulfill those requirements and then we'll talk a little bit about some of our early data and our ongoing goals okay so in 2018 there was a law passed uh an act relative to students with dyslexia and essentially it charged the Department of Education with um issuing guidelines to assist districts in developing screening procedures to identify students who might be at risk for reading disability so that was way back in 2018 in 2020 the resulting document was the mass dyslexia guidelines that was a document that was put out by the department to basically provide the guidance that was asked for and this screening requirement was to take place effective July 1st 2023 so in 2023 all districts were charged with at least twice per year assessing every child in grade k23 um their reading ability and their progress in literacy skills using a screening instrument approved by the department and then disseminating that information to families as well as talking about what the plan of action was for those students who were found to be uh at risk essentially so that summer of 2023 the department issued further guidelines to support districts in developing these procedures and protocols I actually was um part of the feedback committee for this document to to give the the state some feedback on some questions that we still had at this point in Plymouth we initiated our own protocols we had a committee that summer that really delved into these documents and set forth a lot of procedures and guidance documents that I'll talk about a little bit later in the presentation so what is the purpose the purpose is to gather data on students to identify student reading proficiency levels and specifically students who are at risk for reading difficulties to then determine what plans of action we should put in place for those students and then evaluate what we're doing for those students in terms of our instruction to ensure that all of our students as well as our subgroups are making progress essentially and and demonstrating proficiency one thing that they make very clear in these guidance documents is what the screening assessments do and do not do and I think it's important to to review this so what they do is identify a students risk for poor reading outcomes and they help us as teachers to quickly differentiate students who are doing okay and proceeding as we would hope and students who might need either um some additional assessment to find out exactly where they're having difficulties and or um who needs intervention essentially what they do not do by their very nature they do not diagnose dyslexia they do not identify a disability and they don't act as a substitute for that formal evaluation process so if a student is referred for special education evaluation the the assessments don't take the place of that neither do the uh plans that we've put in action for that they're not a substitute for that so again it requires districts to assess each student's reading ability from K through at least grade three um we do far beyond grade three but that's the actual requirement um at least two times per year we are to use a developmentally appropriate approved early literacy screening instrument and for those students whose results are significantly below the benchmarks we are to determine our actions within our general education program and then inform the families uh of students who are been who have been identified um of the reports essentially the assessment results and then what we are planning to do move moving forward um one thing to point out in the law that was passed there are very few exceptions and even uh people that I've spoken with at the department have said that um this has created some issues for them as a department but this is what was what was passed essentially as a law so the only exceptions are students essentially that communicate with assist of technology or require Braille or sign language and then again in the guidance documents they talk about what types of things we should be assessing per grade level and uh the family communication piece again is that we are to communicate to families that we are doing this we are engaging in this process and why we need to provide an overview of what assessment we are giving and then share those results uh and explain what that means in in terms of our future plans so really this is all in support of what we call mtss or our multi-tiered system of support which is really an evolution of RTI that you might have been familiar with in the past which was response to intervention and that the difference with mtss really is that it is under the guise of regular education and an integration of regular education and special education so it's an attempt to decrease some of the silos that we have seen in the past and Christine talked about that a little bit in her presentation um and really talk about what are we all doing as a school system to support all of our students that we have in our schools so what does that look like in Plymouth so one of the first documents that we created was just an overview of what we do and what we use for those specific um requirements so you'll see that we've identified what a universal screener is um what our Diagnostic and progress monitoring tools are and we then took that information and created additional communication documents so this is a screenshot of a letter that's sent home in the fall that basically says to families everything I just explained to you um there is a requirement from the state this is the requirement this is what we and Plymouth are doing to fulfill our requirement for this and what they can expect over the course of the year so it's really an informational letter in terms of our screening tool currently we use Renaissance star suite and um essentially it's a computer-based assessment that um will adapt to what the student is doing so if the student is um having a lot of correct answers they will make it more difficult if they're having more incorrect answers they will um level off a bit so that you get an Adaptive score so that you can allow students who are coming at this at different access points to all take the same assessment um star early literacy and star reading um just a little way of explanation on those and I'll talk more when we when we get to our data so students start off by taking star early literacy so in kindergarten they all take Starly literacy and predominantly in first grade as they move up the grades they um achieve a qualifying score to be bumped into star reading so star reading they they have to sort of get to a certain level to be able to take STAR reading that being said when a student gets to be older we only start them in Star reading because they're not normed for older students um at that point for Starly literacy so just a little bit of a explanation around the different assessments that we give we also give Star cbms those are uh those are curriculum based measures those are essentially onetoone teacher student assessments they're usually a one minute um assessment where you would be gauging things like fluency or how many um sounds they can they can give or how many letters of the alphabet they can they can give so those are onetoone teacher student but they are recorded within our renon system so they're all in there together along with the computer-based assessment Renaissance is available in Spanish which is wonderful and we as we are getting more and more students who speak Spanish we are utilizing that feature more which I'm very happy to report uh they do not currently have Brazilian Portuguese which is uh something I very much wish they would uh increase their capacity to do and I have shared that um but honestly none of the products right now uh out there have these options they almost all have Spanish as an option so hopefully we're moving in a in a good direction in the future on that um and then there are progress monitoring tools um provided so who takes this all K to2 students take early literacy and reading as I explained um and then they also take computer um sorry curriculum based measures those are those onetoone assessments that I told you about we might also recommend depending on how the student does we might recommend additional subtest from Dibbles and that goes back to um finding out more information for some of our students and then all of our 3 to five students take STAR reading and then we really try to look at all of these results and triangulate the data to make a really robust picture of what the student is demonstrating via these Assessments in addition we also have District level assessments so we also have assessments that we give our students that are just part of our programming so they might be um after the end of a unit they might take a sort of a a post test if you will um we have some other phonics decoding assessments that are built into our phonic unit so they are also doing everyday assessments so again it helps us to build a broader picture of the student The Next Step really that we developed in the district were setting up a calendar of data team meetings and this is something that um some schools had in place prior um but it was not consistent and so we really used this as an opportunity to to develop a more consistent protocol across all of our elementary schools to look at data and so what you'll notice is that in our calendar there are windows where all students will take the assessments then we have data team meetings so all of the teachers at a grade level in a school will get together they'll look at the data and they'll say who are the students that we're we seem to have more concerns about you know let's talk about those particular students so let's look at all of this information then they um meet again about six to eight weeks later specifically to look at how are those interventions working so for those students that we identified here's what we've tried here's what what we've been doing how is that going you know is there any we need to adjust for those particular students so they they're really two sets of meetings there are data Benchmark meetings and then there are progress monitoring meetings and this has really been I think um a necessary addition to our protocols and something that I think teachers have found very helpful and so um we always say if there's a if there's a mandate find the things that you wanted to work on anyway and incorporate those and I think this is a a great example of that in terms of notifying families so we decided early on in the process in Plymouth that we wanted to notify all of our parents all of our families for students in grades K through three even if they were scoring fine um instead of just notifying those that are significantly below the Benchmark we felt like that was the most transparent and so what we have done is all of our K3 families um receive their test reports and a letter that goes home and then in addition to that any student who is significantly below the relevant Benchmark receives a phone call home um prior to the report and the letter going home so usually it's done two to three days before that goes home and the intent of the phone call is to really explain here's what's going to be coming home here's what you're going to see here's what we've already talked about at our data team meetings and here's the plan right like here's what it is that that we're going to be doing to support your child and that being that proactive piece I think has been very helpful and has been you know very well received because again it it's not alarming you not just getting some report in the mail and trying to figure it out it's someone saying I you know we have looked at your child and you know we have a plan and then again those paper copies get get sent home one thing that I want to talk about is considerations for for some of our students um I mentioned the testing in Spanish if available we also try to translate directions at the very least um so that students at least know what what they're supposed to be doing um we've translated all of the family letters um in the home language so that those reports are going home with you know in their language that they can understand um again some students in some of the programs may need additional modification s and there are going to be additional assessments appropriate for some students you know we have had some students who let's say they moved into the country two weeks ago and now it's time to to do early screening um what I've advised the teachers is we you know there is no exemption so you what you have to do is give it a go you know give them a try see how they do um if they can't get beyond the directions then you know we stop there and we look at other things you know what are the other pieces and so the dyslexia document came out with another chapter um after their original document which was very well received by those of us in the field who were looking for more guidance specifically about eel students and they again some of the things that we had already been doing where we were trying to assess in their language if possible and their native language um but they also talk about things like observe the child in meaningful literacy activities get a sense of the child's oral language versus their reading versus their writing in English because there could be differences that you want to observe for that um and again just use a multitude of data pieces instead of just relying on that one screener because there's more information that we can gather on those students so one of the things in the district you've heard me talk about and um a greater length in our in our program updates but really embracing this active view of reading which is uh Duke and cartright from 2021 and this is a model of reading that really examines both word recognition and language comprehension so what we typically might think of as decoding and comprehension um they also talk about what processes Bridge those two categories so things like fluency really are part of comprehens and their part of decoding things like um morphology so understanding how words are put together are really a part of comprehension and decoding um my favorite is graphophonic semantic cognitive flexibility say that three times fast um that's this idea that students as proficient readers are able to both attend to the decoding of a word and the understanding or the meaning of a word at the same same time it's something that fluent readers do we don't stop and think about it we are both decoding and reading for meaning at the same time um the other piece of the model that I really really like is this active self-regulation component which talks about things like motivation engagement executive functioning we know that students who struggle with executive functioning um H this impacts their reading comprehension um in many ways and then there uses of strategy so what are the strategies they use when they get stuck essentially so all of these components we we feel are really important as a district and a department we're always teaching towards the English language arts and literacy framework from the Department those are those standards um Christine mentioned teaching before there were standards I was in that boat as well um these are essentially what should students know and be able to do at each grade level in addition the department a few years ago um published what they call the mass literacy guide and this is specifically for elementary literacy and they talk about ensuring that our students during their literacy blocks have enough time for foundational skills engaging with complex texts and writing and that oral language serves as the foundation for all three of those components and so those pieces that you see listed on that chart are what we are looking for when we look at our literacy block and for students that are having some difficulties and they're showing um up that way on the screener we would be looking at all of these components and trying to see which of these components do we need to tackle first so just a reminder that in Plymouth our K to5 students have between 135 and 150 minutes of literacy instruction every day um there's obviously a little more time at kindergarten maybe then fourth or fifth grade just because we're doing a little more content literacy at that point um but all of those blocks are accounted for in our instructional time so in terms of our data review we have not yet completed our assessment piece for the fall uh for many of our grades our early grade levels um so really I I pulled mostly from last year and then I will show you one four five slide um for this fall so when you look at this chart if you see the um two columns on either end so the kindergarten and the grade three the kindergarten is representing all K students because they all take early literacy the third grade is representing almost all of our third graders because they're taking star reading at that point the grade one and two is where it gets a little confusing because some students in those grade levels have graduated if you will to taking star reading um some are still at early literacy so what tends to happen in second grade for example is the students that are still in early literacy tend to be the students who are not proficient and therefore those numbers are lower if that makes sense to to people I know it's a little bit confusing because the tests do evolve as the student moves through them um but you'll see in general you know what those what those ranges are for four and five from the spring uh that's a little more straightforward because students are primarily all taking the same assessment I wanted to call your attention um to the asteris that I put with hedge because I think you know our population at Hedge School um has very many um multilingual Learners and often those students are learning English for the first time um but I wanted to note that the student growth percentile which is something else that we look at in terms of how they're growing in their in their reading ability um is 73.9 so those that's percentage of students meeting or exceeding the growth that we want to see happening um I did that for the next slide as well this is our current data for 4 and five for the fall and again you'll see that is 84.3 for growth percentile so in some schools we really need to look at both proficiency and growth because often these students are trying to learn English uh at the same time um particularly in these upper grades where a student might come to Plymouth from another country in fourth grade and they're not receiving the same level of phonics instruction that our typical first grade class would all be re receiving and so they have to sort of build up some of those foundational skills at that at that level so just you know again there's a lot of data reports that I could I could run for for people if you're interested but just to give you a little bit of an indication there um they added this new report at the end of last year which we found helpful um the the folks at Renaissance which basically is a little bit of a flowchart for us that takes how the student did on the computerbase assess and how they did on those cbms that I mentioned which are those one toone teacher student assessments and says are they at risk if this then that right so sometimes they may have scored okay on one component but not okay on the other component so it's a little bit of a guide to help us determine which students really are rising to the top as as needing the most support so our ongoing goals um we continue to build our teachers knowledge and support the use of their core foundational skill resources so those would be things like phological awareness phonics and fluency for our tier one instruction we continue to develop those data team protocols that I mentioned um sort of refining that process I had a meeting with the elementary principles before school started and we talked about what worked well what do we think we need to do differently you know maybe it's just the way schedule the meetings who's involved in the meetings things like that uh we want to continue to enhance our progress monitoring tools and ensure that the interventions that we're providing to students are the intervention that's going to move them forward so for example if a student is not making progress we want to look at do we need to increase the time that the student is receiving support or do we need to try something different because we don't want to continue with an intervention that we're not seeing enough growth and then lastly we want to make sure that as we're building these foundational skills that we're also providing the comprehension instruction that students need be because we know that the ultimate goal of reading is to understand and make meaning and so we want to make sure that we're doing both of those things at the same time so that uh we're providing going back to that active view of reading model that we're providing all of those components that we know are really important uh for students does anyone have any questions yes M um thank you for all of the information um the students who are exempt from being assess so students with a devices students um that read inra and students that communicate with sign language um I don't know if this is a question for you or for CJ because I I don't want to assume about people but I would assume that students in those categories are likely receiving um special education services or some other supports how are we assessing those students and their ability to read and right um I'm assuming that the the they are exempt from these specific assessments because they don't exactly fit um with the way they communicate but like are we doing assessments for those students as well and how are we doing that yes I mean I can speak to some of that so for example I have been asked and brought into some consultation about um students who use braille and so we have um looked at some of the assessments that we currently use in the district and talked about you know helping ways of getting the same information from those students um I I always enjoy those meetings because it's not something I have that's not my forte and so um I enjoy talking to people who who work with those students and really sharing what I know and what they know and trying to come up with something that we think think works I think for students with some of the adaptive technology in some of the subset programs I I do think that's an area you know to to what Christine said earlier that we've had some um planning common planning and conversation about but I think probably need more um to talk more about those students in particular perfect thank you yeah Dr sson very very great presentation um and and with very excellent information I had a conversation with with uh Dr Campbell probably three months ago four months ago about you know the evolution from the Lucy Culkin's method of teaching phonics to of not teaching phonics I should say into into where this system is going in terms of including the importance of phonics in the teaching of reading and to look at your slides here and see that it's a found what do you call it a foundation foundational foundational skills that's so relieving to hear that because for a long time you know as well as well and we have had phonics I think the focus has increased on the phonics and it and it should yes I agreed I just want to tell that that's very very uh I'm very glad to see that yeah and I'll I'll reference people um last spring we did a webinar where we talked about all of the different components and had some classroom teachers share what they did we had some videotaped lessons and things so I'd encourage people to watch that I think it it's hard to explain everything that we do in a a short presentation but I think that the video footage is really helpful for seeing how those skills are being addressed I I remember the quote from one of the things that I read that Poland invaded Germany or Poland invited Germany because if you don't understand the phonics correct you have to take a guess at that word correct and so I'm glad we're teaching it yes anybody else have any other questions I wanted to just quickly share too I know um there's a lot of conversation around literacy launch and um I actually was in a meeting about 3 weeks ago um with the secretary of education and and Governor Healey to talk about the literacy launch and some of the funding and um we shared some of our thoughts about ways that that funding could support districts um so I'm hopeful that we will have ongoing conversations about that I think it was a productive meeting and um hope we can move forward with that you took the question right out of my I was going to make sure we address that because I know it is you know everybody it's what everyone is talking well maybe not everyone people who are paying attention to this subject what people are talking about like how and what is the difference and how are we in the schools making sure that what we're teaching is Equitable and you know everybody can have access to it and I know I've had the opportunity to go into um schools and see it in like action and uh you know I don't think there's a one-size fits-all to anything and we had a lot of conversations about how it's not a one-size fit-all and what we're trying to do is evolve it uh and and so hopefully that will be able be able to continue to improve upon what we are doing um because I mean even the teachers I talk to who may aren't maybe huge fans of what they're teaching or how they're teaching it we all know there's not everyone's always going to be happy about something no one says to throw the baby out with bath water it's let's look at how we can continue to improve what we have and so I think having that conversation I think is really important and I I appreciate you being willing and open I know I've talked to you and Mrs Jackson and probably several people on other the rest of the committee have had those concerning conversations where we come running to you and we're like uh what is going on we're not teaching students how to read uh or you know anything like that so thank you for bringing that up I really appreciate it um and and just continue to keep us updated I think that's really important and then my other piece of information I'd like to see is and and I know we only have a like a snapshot of like a couple years on this program but what I'd like to or maybe not a couple years but since Co I'd love to see like a third fourth fifth like I'd love to see where that cohort went and I know they're not always the same students but if there's a way we can kind of look at the same students and look at those students who might be you know divide them out in whether English language is their you know English language Learners or multilanguage Learners and then looking at our special education and see how that kind of population that would be some information that I'd like to see just the data nerd in me would really just like to see how that works um you know and just looking at the end of the year and the beginning of the year I mean the numbers aren't terrible I mean there's not a laot a huge law no we try to look for uh the the key always is is 80% and so we are there in majority of our schools we have some schools who have some more challenges but yeah getting there so thank you but yeah I just love to see some of that data Dr Campbell yeah just your point to both Dr White's point about the video which is an excellent video which really if you have an hour and 5 minutes I think to watch um it's it's it's very informative but also and I've already talked to talked to White about this and we've done walks in in the schools and I would I would love to see if we could do one around content areas we've had some conversations about this so perhaps going in not just to go visit the school but we can go in and see the day in the life of classroom teacher who is who is differentiating their instruction and using all the tools and you know addressing everything that Dr White has you know highlighted here so will continue that conversation as well awesome thank you thank you so much welcome anytime love to show off our classroom we appreciate it all right that thank you thank you all right I think we are at superintendent report I believe want to get back in what 8.1 right uh yes you I just had it electronic School Board make sure I was in the right place uh Pro promised to uh uh be brief so just first of all on the 11th of September we welcomed msba for our senior study visit it was a great visit to hedge and Cold Spring lasted a little over two hours uh um left me cautiously optimistic um but it was a great opportunity to to meet with staff um at both buildings to two of the buildings to have conversations about our statement of interests um and we should learn of our our status as to whether or not we will be considered for feasibility and schematic design which is the first phase after this uh we should know by mid November which is really encouraging uh that will be a part of our Capital request this year we'll be doing Capital requests very soon in October uh to the committee um that's a big piece uh feasibility and schematic design when you're looking at two buildings uh is more costly than one building so um we will hopefully be seeking those funds for that uh speaking of budget we uh have meeting scheduled tomorrow with Town manager and finance director we'll learn more about our existing revenues and projections for FY 26 so we look forward to those conversations we'll bring that um to this committee I Envision this is one agenda item I would like to put on our Saturday meeting on the 5th because that's our next meeting to talk about that then with the with the whole committee um very excited we received I mentioned this I believe before that we received uh master service Alliance Grant uh which creating a comprehensive volunteer program model so we will be working uh with the mass service Alliance and fam Volunteers in public schools program to as a sort of a building year this would be an implementation grant for us to really create the structure so that we get a a very comprehensive volunteer model here in Plymouth uh where we would look at uh Community Partners trainings mentorship internship opportunities and really create those structures that we could implement the following year so excited about that um you already heard about um shayin shayen mentioned the Grant and I think I mentioned that in my last update uh the CCT Grant we're really excited about that we also received uh a year two installment for the com Commonwealth preschool partnership initiative so you may recall from last year we received $494,000 to do um special education and related services in some of our local public preschools which is um great for those students and the families who are need that full-time preschool uh but it also helps our preschool model as well very well received uh we I Dr Rogers and I were a part of the debrief meeting with the Department of Education and our providers and and our partners and it was very very well received very very well received so we're very fortunate and appreciative to have those funds to continue that this year I really think it's a model that could be replicated across the state and I think would help communities and families uh greatly um no place for hate uh Dr Rogers and I met with Peter Matlin the co-chair no place for hate and Nancy Morris who oversees or will be overseeing the MLK celebration which will be a 3-day uh celebration this year Friday Saturday Sunday prior to MLK Day uh so um we had a a great conversation about a lot of opportunities for us for us to engage in activities that are already taking placing but ALS also have our students engaged um in some of the Saturday uh pieces um as well as the Sunday lunch in which is no longer breakfast and and I think we had so so much excitement in our conversations that they're looking to potentially do it at self High school instead of the location which they were thinking outside of the school just for space um hoping that we'll get um a good turnout there uh Dr Rogers is attending the meeting which is scheduled tomorrow evening I believe too with no place for hate committee uh go gold really appreciative of the foundation for that donation and just a reminder that we kicked off The Go gold campaign this week starting today and we'll celebrate on Friday invite our students and staff and visitors to bring any Spirit change they can it's a very very important cause we've raised thousands upon thousands of dollars over the last few years um and just want to exceed our um previous donations um for the special cause um lots of things happening there and then it was mentioned um by uh Christine um and also which I learned today which didn't know previously that North High School also u in addition to South High School North South High School our national Banner recognition recipients uh Mrs fry received that notice as well so both of our North and South which makes perfect sense when you when you attend either one of our high schools and see the wonderful opportunities that that are there and just the life of our our our um our program so really um proud of uh the level of inclusion uh that we see um in in our high schools and and our middle schools because we have we've extended there and as was mentioned in the program update today um and we started um this work at our summer retreat with our elementary principles but extending that into our elementary schools too so just really excited um about that recognition just proud of our staff proud of our schools um and we continue to um um push that uh that level of foster inclusion in our school so that's all I have this evening anybody have any questions I don't have any questions but I did get to participate like I was it like a month and a half ago in an early childhood listening session that the they had like people from all over the state government and I made sure I stood up and told them about like how we really have enjoyed the childhood the what is it called the preschool partnership initiative and other people were very jealous in the room they wanted to know how they could get on that and and you know when I just was like you got to hopefully keep it going and maybe make it something that we can rely on instead of making a grant that you're not sure you're going to have princip at the preschool who did a tremendous amount of work with the support of others um but yes we're very excited about that fingers crossed all right our next piece we have is our Committee Member reports uh does any committee members have do any committee members have anything to share anything like to um so I had the opportunity to go to six and it was mind blowingly I mean they always are amazing and I know I'm not supposed to use the word talent but they work really hard to increase their talent um to develop their skills whatever words I'm supposed to use my cable if you're listening um but they it just was incredible that it was done from souped and nuts by students and I just uh I mean I've seen it in Boston and I really believe it rivaled that presentation so just floored on that piece um just a reminder that if you have anything you want uh brought up in our Saturday morning meeting to please send me an email or a text or something so we can create that um next Wednesday or Tuesday um create that um agenda item so that is posted in ahead of time and if you know hey like tomorrow that would be great too that would help us make sure we have all the material in place um let's see um I just wanted to commend the so the students who are part of the Plymouth North the recycling event that happened in Plymouth North on Saturday I went by and they were having a blast in the soaking sideways rain um and they I I mean I don't one of the girls out at the front I don't know how she was doing it but she was so wet but she was having a great time uh so I just think we need to make sure we commend everybody who is involved in that it was a great event and uh even though it was definitely not an ideal condition so um really important to mention that um and then uh had an opportunity to attend Menat school council and really excited just a lot of things happening at maned I think it's like uh Matilda is happening in December so you save the date uh anybody if you've seen Matilda it's the cutest thing so I'm sure it'll be they do a great job every year um and what they do and then just as um Dr Campbell mentioned we have a budget meeting tomorrow but we also have following that a continuation of the conversations that we've mentioned here about consolidation how how we move forward um with the town and having those conversations whe whether it's a study or who how are we moving it forward we'll continue that we keep moving forward uh those conversations with uh our select board members and anybody who will listen that that's it so anybody else have anything all right moving right on uh we we did not have we don't have a master planning there was there was a meeting but it was more of a listening session correct uh and then so we have Mr Pano we have the school building I mean Plymouth building committee yeah we met on the uh 12th so about week and a half ago so two key updates one our long two-year long Saga of our school roof projects for West fed Fern n brick is finally uh coming to a close um the uh lifting of the uh rooftop HVAC units uh went well our overall contractor did great uh cleanup was good and just dealing with the couple of lingering items at a couple of the uh schools but I don't those might be already taken care of ad I think they we pretty pretty close to being out of clear mat and I Haven followed up on that mat would know best all right yeah but it was like literally minor like follow-up items so overall the the heavy lifting has been done and on the fire station side uh station two out in West is all is truly finally done done they're just working on Final uh administrative closeout and then station five in manat um is progressing uh uh very well however they have pushed out the uh the completion date to the end of October but our PM think will actually be later later than that but overall still on track for this year so that's about it awesome thank you right now we have the Personnel reports Mr chopi yes good evening U I can share with you we had one certificated appointment we had five classified appointments and then we also received nine resignations half of those were prior to the school year starting okay awesome thank you anybody have any unfinished business or new business they would like us to bring up at another meeting okay all right now that brings us to the consent agenda does anybody need anything removed from the consent agenda just have a question about one of the items um when we dispose of things like the trucks the utility trucks um I see that once we approve this the equipment then gets transferred to the board of Select or the select board sure is there any opportunity for us when we're when something is obsolete like as large as a truck are we allowed to like have a scrapper come get it and put the money into our funds pleas the way it works no the money goes It goes to auction and then it goes to the general fund okay all right I love that thinking though you know I got a pretty penny for I'm right there with you I've asked all right all right just want to make sure but yeah no that's all keeping thank you uh any other questions on the consent gender things that need to be removed all right um any have a motion Mr pres I'll move to approve the consent agenda as presented do I have a second Mr Shaw thank you I have a motion and a second do I have any questions on the motion no questions we should be able to vote right that passes unanimously so that brings us to the end of our meeting so we'll bring the meeting to an end at 9:54 thank you everybody and have a great [Music] night e