##VIDEO ID:PffIM0jsYmQ## e e [Music] all right uh let's call the school committee meeting of August 22nd to order I'll do a quick rundown of the agenda then we'll just Dive Right In um so we have right now the call to order we then have public comment uh we'll go through the consent agenda and do a couple of quick reports um from the superintendent and any liaison reports that we have um we'll then move to uh review and approval of the rmhs student handbook and the districtwide student handbook we'll then do new leadership introductions we have two of them here in person with us I know one's to join us as well via Zoom um and we'll go from there uh and then we will jump to Old business and that's reviewing superintendent goals that's a result of some of the conversations during the the uh formative session just where some the superintendent himself and some committee members were talking about one of the goals in particular so we'll see if there's anything to do there and the last uh step is going to be uh new business update for the beginning of the year uh including a discussion on the middle school metco coordinator okay so with that said let's start uh with any public comment sometimes I get in trouble because I skipped past that there's nobody here today so we'll move ourselves forward um consent agenda uh eron do we have a motion motion to approve the consent agenda is there a second seconded by Carla any discussion seeing none all in favor all opposed and it passes 5 to zero okay so we'll move on to report reports Dr mileski no report I'll be giving them entire the majority of my comments during the uh beginning of school updates okay great uh we'll do Liaisons we'll start with Carla do you want to give it no you should you should do it I won't take the credit for your work um so big news with kilum we had the um a big milestone a big submission to the msba we had the um preferred schematic report which included the design option that we going to the bids with which was really awesome um if you hear the dut shaped one there is a um the classrooms are like in a dut shape if if you hear that um the the second option was some people are calling it The crawler it's a longer holl always about the food so um so that submission was made to the msba yesterday so that it was a huge like undertaking um the designer and the OPM did a great job um we've just been having multiple meetings we also a group of us went to um Oxbridge High School um and we met with they have tons of different Innovation Pathways and different things that they're doing so um Chris Haley actually took a video of it if anybody wants to tune into it it's it's like a half hour video but um it's on the Kellum website so killum school.com and you can go and see the stuff that they're doing they had the the virtual autopsy table and a bunch of other different things so it was kind of cool to see and the purpose of that was so kilum isn't just benefiting our kilum students and our kilum community it will benefit the entire District so um we will the decision was made to put to move the full preschool Under One Roof so we will be freeing up space at um wood end and we'll be freeing up space at the high school so we're looking at those possibilities in Dr meski and and people here have been looking at that what does that mean for the high school and the opportunities for students um as we know just in the past four years between Innovation Pathways between internships offered to seniors between um um dual enrollment like our high school looks a lot different so if we had extra extra space what could we do with that so we just went to see xbridge who's um who's leading the pack but I have no doubt that we'll be leading that pack soon with e with extra space opening up here okay just like to add two quick things on that first on the PSR submission there was a a big document for us called the budget statement and i' just like to give a shout out to a couple of team members in our office Who Behind the Scenes uh worked extensively to try to put that together uh Michelle roach Kristen Cohen Olivia Lun Mackenzie buo and Kate finnean helped push that over the top for the last few days so huge thank you to them and also just to piggyback a little bit on that uh visit to xbridge I think that my big takeaway there was the amount of Hands-On learning opportunity for our students maybe some more of the traditional vocational opportunities as you would think then also merging some more of the what maybe traditional a uh Hands-On learning opportunities with what are some of the new and emerging technology particular particularly in the sort of the engineering field so I think it gave us a lot of they had a space probably you know half the size all dedicated to sort of their carpentry engineering space which is really encouraging so uh we're walking away with some ideas of what it would look like to make sure that kids you know with a variety of interests and for a variety of future roles could get some of those opportunities we know are so important with their hands on so and then you saw throughout the the building um different carpentry projects that were done and and used so there's a lot of cross pollination too with it just it was you know they had an embroidery area where they embroidered you know t-shirts and all different stuff and and um and they it just was really cool so there's a lot of cross-pollination with that too great yeah now the rest of us have to beat that report so good luck Sean um I want to just add on a couple comments Carla covered I think all the content stuff really well just a couple of observations I'm I don't know three meetings in now on on the on the school building committee um there are three things that I think I've noticed um one is it's a really functional collaborative committee it's really is operating really well which is you know great to see and really important for a project like this which is very encouraging um two is the designer and the OPM are really responsive to our needs and to things that might change from one meeting to the next you know when we um when we landed on the preferred schematic uh we kind of landed on in one meeting and then sort of needed to formalize it another meeting they were maybe a week apart but even in between those meetings they took feedback on you know the things that people had reservations about on the design we did land on and had integrated that into a you know into an updated design that that still offered everything the original design did but addressed a lot of the you know a lot of the concerns of the committee so um that was really good to see and then the third thing is um I've been really encouraged that sort of the sustainability of this building is at the core of everything that everybody's doing and everything everybody's thinking about um you know the uh there's an assumption in all the estimates that the building is going to be engineered for solar on on the roof for instance there's um you know uh the early read is that the um HVAC system is likely to have a heavy geothermal footprint right so um it's really encouraging just to see that the starting point is let's develop a green building that's going to have low operating costs you know uh into the future it's not wish list items that are never going to pay for themselves it's all the things that sort of make sense and have a good return um it's just really encouraging to see that that's very much part of the process and part of everybody's mindset with this and that's the main focus over the next few up through November that's going to be the main focus is the sustainability piece and picking up the systems and stuff like that so cost benefit analysis of that though too right all of that all of that stuff okay great Erin anything on your side no report okay Sarah no report Tom no report uh actually I wouldn't one report um policy subcommittee wise I have gone through and cataloged what amounts to an enormous amount of policy work um probably on the order of 150 plus policies that need review and update go ahead and laugh Sean yeah um and that's before some feedback I received from the central office I know uh Michelle in particular has a few that she wants to really Target um I think Jen mentioned one or two last year as well so they they might correspond appropriately but there's going to be quite a bit of work there and so I'm working with Aaron and Chuck to try and get that schedule going as much as we can so a lot of work to come in that space but we'll have to figure out how we get some of it done there's no way we're getting 157 or 150 of it done this year um but masc has been very busy some of them are uh important from most recent legal updates there's whole slew of Title 9 updates that have come out this year as a result of some of the most recent legal findings uh in Kansas I think in particular um and a few others that are happening so more to come in that space But we got a lot of work to do okay can I I forgot um apartment building committee um had a meeting and they um they are in the process of selecting an owner's project manager for that um they are trying to Target um for the senior center to be out at the same time going to the biders at the same time as killum so they have to get the um owner project manager on board to help them pick a site and then take them through that schedule piece of it too so that meeting was on Monday okay all right any questions on that no all right so moving on to new business uh we'll start with the rmhs student handbook review and approval um Miss Callen and are you or Dr Miles you kicking off yeah I'll kick it off and then I'll miss K can uh can jump into uh and I think everyone can see her online correct yep perfect um so couple couple of things you're going to see that there is a the uh handbooks both the districtwide handbook and the armhs handbook that were published earlier the week in the uh and the packet are slightly different than the one that was updated today in the packet just want to flag a couple of things that will be different uh six things one the language you'll see where it says parent caregiver is now replaced with parent/guardian that's to align the conversation I think we had three years ago around like legal implications of both of those terms uh two replacing policy G jic in Jr with the updated versions from 2022 uh we added links to the policies and some of the policies that were like similar the way that we did last year in the district handbook it wasn't as consistent the rmhs handbooks we made sure that there was links to the policies instead of actually including the entirety of the policy in there um we updated the language under the illness documentation to State illness communic ated by parent or Guardian instead of the original language uh which didn't align to sort of the committee policy and District procedure and then last but not least we removed a uh duplicative section section n which is previously on page 71 oh and last but not least in the district wide handbook uh we also add the rhs Meco program the T of contents and put is a heading in the district uh handbook so just wanted to flag you'll see those all in the updated um uh packet but just want to make sure we flag those before we dive in as we dive into kind of both handbooks we since we see Jess on screen i' just like to thank Jess for her leadership in the last couple of years and I think moving the handbook uh forward pretty significantly over the last couple years with the the collaboration and support and teamwork of her school council which is a as we know pretty high performing school council they spent a lot of time on that this year it is still not perfect it's never going to be perfect I know we were some of us were saying it's like a constant Improvement and iteration but I know Jess you put a lot of time and and energy into this document and just really appreciate your leadership ship on that and then similarly before Jen comes on appreciate Jen's work over the last couple of years in collaboration with many members of the committee too to really improve our districtwide hbook uh and also working extensively with our district legal council so just want to make sure both those leaders were recognized for and the respective school councils and would uh chess is there anything else that you'd like to share before we open up to questions or concerns feedback um no Tom that was great but yes I my school council worked diligently the entire school year this year to update our hand and did a lot of work to align it with other documents the school publishes like the program of studies um which you know I I'm being suct but it it that it takes a lot of work uh to make sure everyone agrees and um that we move forward and I I truly appreciate the commitment of my school council in making this made it so we were able to vote on it in that in June of this year to approve to move forward and then I can take questions is that way that Tom that sure Tom's fine two of us one of us will say yes anybody have any questions or feedback any other points of note I'll just make a quick point I guess then um Miss K I want to uh reiterate the thanks that Dr mileski was saying there I know it's a it's a hard job especially for the document that's this long and this hard and that's been out of date for quite a long time um to continue to move it forward and make the progress I've received uh very positive feedback from the school council about the whole process this year and and your engagement and and and working through it in the way you did so I just want to thank you for that and this has been one of those things that's been a be in my Bonnet for quite some time so I appreciate the effort and and uh the focus on continuing to get it better day by day step by step so thank you again on that regard thank you um you want to start with a motion Aaron for us um motion to approve the rmhs student handbook second second by Sean no further questions all in favor all opposed and it passes 5 to zero thank you again M Mrs C thank you everybody have a good night too hi thank you okay we'll now move on and I think it's already been introduced but we'll move on and uh change the spotlight here to uh Dr stce so uh Jen you're there you want you want to add any comments on the district handbook and share any updates or anything um I just really wanted to take a moment to thank Olivia leune um she has been working very hard this year to make sure it was all updated um we've spent the last few years as you know working with our attorneys to make sure that um it's aligned and all of the links are working correctly with the right information so I'm just really grateful for the support of central office to make sure we are getting it done in the right way so thank you great any feedback or questions on the districtwide student handbook okay I'll I'll jump in again um I know we started this a couple years ago Jen so I appreciate the continue work on this one as well um it's going to be I love the fact that there are links to it that it's it's like a live document now as opposed to a static PDF as well and the way that you've worked through it some of the simple stuff that often gets missed formatting so it looks professional it's clean Etc so I just want to thank you for that as well um and as we transition some of our other handbooks this is more the model that we want to go to um and and where we're going so I just want to thank you for that work and and the effort there so and Olivia for all the support she's provided as well okay we have a motion on this one motion to approve the district ride student handbook second seconded by Sean any further questions seeing none all in favor all opposed and it passes 5 to Zero thanks again Dr SCE thank you all thanks Jen okay so we will now move on to the next portion of our agenda which is the new leadership introductions uh we have one that will be joining from her school committee meeting that's happening in haal right now so she'll be joining on Zoom shortly and that's uh Jill story and we have a few people here in the audience and we have one more already on Zoom as well Alana is already on Zoom so Dr mileski you want to get us started great anyone willing to go first Perfect all right well we're thrilled so I think the committee has met uh Barbara best before and if you hav't Barbara's right in front of us too uh thrilled to have Barbara joining our leadership team this year uh I think uh people probably get to know Barbara a little bit over the last few years where she has uh jumped in with an initially with an internship which is supposed to be like a semester long uh kind of couple of hours a week supporting the district leadership team uh supposed to be a semester on Barbera State on for the full year and then end up staying last year in more of a you know Consulting support role for us in launching our children's cabinet after two years of having her kind of foot in the door in the district has now stayed on with us this year and committed to serving or completing her doctoral residency uh with us for the year to come which is super exciting a little about the program uh for those in the community who are interested with this is a uh barbar is in the third year of a of a doctoral program in Harvard it's a joint degree between the uh Harvard Kennedy School um the uh Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Barb will graduate in May uh in her third year of the program uh she's required to uh serve on a in as a residency site for fulltime come on out Barbara and uh and is also then required to complete a Harvard's version of a dissertation in this program is a a Capstone where she's going to be uh speaking about and and writing about a strategic project that she's leading within the district so there's one project that she's going to focus on for her Capstone that does not mean she'll not be having you know involved in a variety of projects in the district she's a member of our senior leadership team and is with us day in and day out on the work um something that we've been really excited about un fortunate about is that the the intern The Residency is fully funded by Harvard for us this year too which is normally close to $100,000 so for us to get that uh without any cost is a huge uh lift for our district too I've shared Barber's background I think many times with any anyone who have talked to a couple of things that six out Barbara has close to 30 years of experience in the education and Community uh leading uh sector she has been the uh president uh and the executive director of the children to fund spend in Texas and also of the uh SE of the uh Center for Public leadership at the Kennedy School at Harvard um she's also a a parent herself her student who graduated the brid Public Schools is now a sophomore at Yale uh Barbara if you don't know is also fluent Spanish speaker uh speaks both English and Spanish at home uh with her family um and her child went through a b Bilingual School in Cambridge um if you've had any time with Barbara you'll see that she's an incredibly her not only her experience is incredibly impressive but just you know her leadership and her skill brings a a new element to our team that we think is going to push all of us to be better and push our district to move forward in some exciting ways so a huge welcome to Barbara um Barbara I want to give a minute just to for her to be able to share a little bit about just her work thus far how she's approaching her entry and anything she's learning about the community and then open up for any questions thank you so much Tom I'm so deeply grateful Dr mileski and the school committee for your leadership and to serve this amazing Community I am so passionate and energized to write My Capstone this year and really focus on reading public schools was is such a a magical place and one of the things that really strikes me is this model that you have of a school district RPS serving as a vibrant Hub of community engagement it's really exciting and so I'm excited to uh build out the children's cabinet and strengthen School connectedness through a a CommunityWide strategy to cultivate school connectedness and so thank you all for your leadership and truly honored to serve this community I'll happy to answer any questions you might have any questions anybody or statements you are quiet tonight what's what happened you know cat's got your tongue it's been six weeks and you forget how to speak we're glad to have there you go grateful to be here I've had the the opportunity to work with you a little bit on the children's cabinet and I just I'll I'll Echo a lot of what Tom said and I've seen it in action as well I think you the word I keep thinking of is empathy I think I see you lead with empathy a ton throughout those conversations um as we're trying to really kind of tie the community together and help all of our all of our students rise and I appreciate your effort your focus your your energy your passion that you sh you show in that environment I'm looking looking forward to seeing it in this greater environment as well so thank you for joining us thank you so much Tom thank you Carla we we had a great coffee and um and she came with a bunch of questions and we ended up veering off and and did our own little um conversation about what students need what teachers need what just the emotional impacts and and just what people need to be present so they're able to learn and so it was it was very enjoyable and so I I know we're all happy to have you here thank you KLA thank you so much we have Jill on and since she's jumping out from the school committee do we want to go with Jill next sounds good is that okay Beth you with that that's what we cleared up on by text message just now so I am prepared to be on the ready okay hello can you hear me yes we can Jill thank you all right excellent thank you I'm sorry I could not be there in person I really would have loved to be there stepping out of my own school committee meeting um but I'm very story inter room principal at Parker um I'm so excited to be leading that school you know my second year at the school last year was a really positive experience for me um I met so many wonderful families I love love working with the kids there and with the amazing staff I'm so excited to have Beth on board we've been getting to know each other better over the last few weeks um and just figuring out how we we're going to come together and make this an amazing year I what I noticed I'm really excited about this year is the energy so we had our welcome to Parker event for some sixth graders this week who were able to attend we had new to Parker students who are in seventh and eighth grade who came and did tours and there's a great energy and staff have been in are getting ready um we have some really experience returning veteran staff and some real some new faces and some some new energy so um last year was a great year in terms of being able to provide some real targeted interventions for kids and you know I think we saw the results of that work it's our preliminary um assessment scores and so I'm really just excited to build upon the successes we had last year and I think it's going to be an amazing year so thank you very much for having me and I'm very excited right Dr chesy do you want to add anything about Jill I was going to introduce you Jill but you a wonderful job to know Jill last year a little bit too so uh really excited for Jill to step into this role and I think I don't know what else to say outside we're ready to roll right we're ready yeah schedules schedules was the biggest thing we have some changes which I think are going to be great for the kids um so it was a little bit took a little bit extra time but um just a few minor tweaks that we had to do but we're we're ready to go next week it's going to be great Jill since I didn't take the time to introduce you in that way maybe I can ask you a question because you and I have talked about a lot what is something you think like Parker family should be excited about you've talked a little bit about like changes to schedule or changes to programming what do you think are some of the like the headlines of things that families might want to know if they kids go through Parker a couple years ago that may look a little bit different so I think one of the biggest changes is going to be we have the World Language exploratory happening in sixth grade and so I know I've gotten a few questions from um parents of sixth graders what is this my kid wants to take Spanish there in French so what we did is that's happening during what was their team time so they're going to have still team time it's going to be called project block now um for half the year and then the other half of the Year there'll be one quarter of a of a Spanish exploratory one quarter of a French exploratory all the kids who are who works in their schedule are able to take those as many as possible and it's really just exposure to the culture and and the Traditions um not the language itself but it'll help hopefully help kid make a little bit more informed decision when at the end of sixth grade they're choosing their world language for seventh grade um and then some of the biggest changes are happening in eth grade so we are offering um some of those electives that used to compete against our arts and our music program we were able to pull those out so they're no longer competing so we're preserving the Fantastic music and arts program but also giving kids options to take every eighth grader is going to be taking computer science financial literacy digital leadership and information literacy which I think are really going to be helpful for preparing them for high school and then we're incorporating C exploratory courses during that Project Blog period so they'll rotate through each quarter Civics the Civic Action Project which they were doing in their civics class and now that's going to come out of that it's going to be pth fail um that's why they're exploratory uh Clean Energy Engineering and then a um Public Health um exploratory so those are going to be fun and that's also going to be an opportunity for us to provide Mass Ela intervention as well as enrichment opportunities for kids so they'll be able to sort of move in and out of that those Pathways exploratory so a lot of changes but I think overall some positive changes we still will have some electives for kids who aren't in band course as well so aded new a few new offerings there um we'll be explaining this we did explain it to kids in the spring but we'll be going over it again with them next week at our grade level meetings and I'll be including just the blurb on that um in the newsletter of families which should be coming out tomorrow great awesome Carla so how how do those exploratory tracks happen is it just during like a um I know they knock call Flex blocks in middle school but is it during like one yeah sorry it's a little so it's during what would have been the team time walk and so we have essentially a project block which is just one period we have a waterfall schedule as well which is a new schedule so kids will meet at different times every day in their classes so there's one of those periods that will it kind of rotates through this waterfall um which is the project block so three of those periods are for an elective band report or an art or we have media production and animation are also offer during that time and then on the off periods is when they have those Pathways exploratories so it's three class periods out of the six they would have that pathway exploratory and then the other three periods they would have that elective which is band chorus or or a different elective so if you're in band and chorus you still can participate in that right yeah you would do it on the off on the off periods great that's awesome awesome thank you you're welcome I'm going to say thank you we've been asking for Middle School schedule related things for quite some time it's great to see that the fruit of of many people's labor for quite a few years is coming to fruition and I love the vertical alignment as well that we've talked about a little bit in the spring but to hear more about it now uh that leads into the high school Pathways um is is great to see and always always one of my questions when it came to the pathways was how is a kid supposed to know right how do they know that they want to do this and some kids know when they're like born basically and other kids still don't know like me when I was 22 um but you know it doesn't at least you're given an opportunity to learn a little about some of these things before they you know make a decision to go into one of those Pathways but um thank you and thank you to all the the staff and people that came before as well that help made that possible too so thanks Jill thank you so much yeah exposure was the goal so I think it'll be really good I think everybody's gonna all the kids are going to really enjoy it okay thank you you can go back to your own school committee meeting now thank you everyone we have a lot online we have Beth here how do you want to proceed we can continue on with Parker I think as we continue on with Parker I think it was um I've heard some people ask does it it's like a feel like year of transition for Parker what's interesting is two of the three you know uh administrative leaders in the building are still the same next year I mean Jill's returning Kimberly is returning so the one new member of the team is Beth Simpson and I think uh Beth will be serving in the inter assistant principal role we are really lucky to have Beth joining our team especially so late in the game with that open position to have a leader of her caliber joining our team was a something we did not expect and something that we are all absolutely ecstatic about um many in the community uh you know kind of have known Beth for you know for probably for a while Beth had been a teacher stting career in North Carolina but then had taught uh for over a decade in Wakefield and then had gone on into a principal prep program uh and then had also moved out into a core uh faculty and uh and uh lecturer role at Harvard has been there for over 12 years now um and she's also LED you know many student facing programs while she was there too so it wasn't just a role where she is just focusing on instru you know instructing of you know graduate undergraduate students but also directly involved with K to2 students uh mostly in Cambridge too uh most of her work at Harvard has been around teacher prep teacher leadership which if you're in that field you know a lot of that you have to have a strong understanding of teaching and learning and I think that'll be a huge lift to any any middle school and I'm excited what that's going to bring to Parker too uh Beth also is an avid sports fan which we know is a is a exciting this community too Beth has been uh a assistant varsity girls basketball coach at I can't remember the name of it I'm just kidding the T one of the towns next door uh Wakefield EXC teasing you um where her family is very Wakefield proud it's tough than never to see them come to reading um so com I never thought I'd be a rocket here we are rocket get you the right color red right um but excited to have you joining our team and uh to bring a leader of your caliber in so I also laughing the day that we found out that Beth would be joining us Barbara was you know said like we're like Barbara we're having somebody named Beth Simpson you might know her from Harvard be and she went on to say how well respected she is in the community both locally and at htsc so we're thrilled to have you uh excited that you're back in the halls of a kada 12 school consistently as here R and love to hear sort of what you're thinking about with your entry uh joining the park Community okay I'll I'll be really transparent thank you for that thank you for that opening and thank you to chairperson wise for the invitation the committee members uh for welcoming me here I feel this is both a responsibility and an opportunity um so it comes with a little bit of weight and a little bit of pressure but uh I'm glad that I have it in front of me um the platform to have a voice so I appreciate that um I will be fully transparent that I would be more at ease right now this room was filled with 500 middle schoolers and I am sitting in an empty library with adults um but uh but that that being said I'm still grateful for the opportunity um what what Tom um what Tom said is true I am from a family like PE people have asked me before you know you see people and they're like what do you do what what did you end up doing for work like people you went to high school with or what did you end up doing for work and I'm like oh I family business family business and it's kind of like you're a plumber you're electrician like what what and um um I I'm the daughter the proud daughter of two Public School career Public School Educators um who when Tom referenced the Wakefield Pride they both were career Educators at the um Middle School well it was a junior high in Wakefield um it's actually how they met how they fell in love um for better or worse and um are probably watching the school committee night tonight because they are very proud that one of their children became an educator um and I'm grateful for that I still think of them as my first and my most important teachers that being said this August started my I just started my 25th year in the field of Education um and uh most of half of which has been spent as a middle school teacher Middle School teacher leader um an instructional leadership in Middle School um and half of which has been spent really in teacher prep and teacher educ at the um university level a space where I never thought I would end up um both because it wasn't a goal at the time and because it actually pathways through careers in education aren't really clear for educators um so I wound up as a a faculty person teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education which I was also a graduate of Tom talked about the principal program I had gone through it was there um and I had the opportunity to teach teachers which at that time felt right for what I was passionate about what I cared about what my vision was for how I impacted the world um administrative level at the in the at the school administration at the school level despite going through a very expensive principal ship program did not feel like the fit at the time but the moment I think has arrived um and it arrives suddenly and sort of unexpected quietly on a Saturday morning and um and it's here and I I am very excited I am very grateful and I looking forward to the challenges and in the work that's ahead um I had the opportunity couple two weeks ago might have been my third or fourth day uh here in Reading to participate in a restorative practices um Workshop that was held at the police station here in the reading police station and the the person who was leading the the community Circle that we were we were doing asked the question of like if you had to describe yourself of like what kind of vehicle you're in right now like at this point in the sum at this point in your work you know and people were like speedboat I'm like that sounds fun other people were like blimp floating through I'm like that sounds fun and it got to me and I'm like what I wanted to say Jeep Wrangler because I always imagine myself in a Jeep Wrangler but I said I'm on foot carrying a backpack that's getting heavier and I think that's good news not bad um because I do not feel like I'm alone in that Trek um you know Jill has been working incredibly hard under very pressure circumstances because I can barely log in to plus portal or whatever it is and I'm switching from an Apple to a Chromebook and I'm keep hitting the wrong keys and I'm still very new to this and she's carrying a lot of weight without um like without it interfering with our developing a positive relationship as a team and I think that's a tremendous that tells me a lot about Jill and a lot about what um what what we have here in Reading um on the personal side of things I would say like as like a just a personal story I can tell you that one of the things and it might sound a little hokey but I think it is true um that uh the thing something I'm looking forward to is in terms of being here now is just really actually working hard on behalf of family and kids in Reading um and in Reading Public Schools and I say that as someone who um with my wife decided that we before this job came along school choice our own child into Reading Public Schools um we believe in Reading Public Schools and uh I talked to eron the other day I got home from a particularly challenging day and I said today was hard and I know it's going to get harder but I I feel like it still feels right I'm not discouraged I'm not frustrated um I I'm just starting to Wade further into the water and see more and it it is things are hard people are tired people are they're frustrated by change all of that is normal and to be expected given the circumstances of our like of our political environment and our social environment and the um challenges that kids face now um and the labor that it takes to be a teacher to give of yourself at work and at home um but we believe in Reading Public Schools and when I said to Erin I said you know it feels like the right place and we talked about a little bit more she and I one of the reasons why we are a match is because we are line around the Deep care and concern we have for all children all children not just our own and I think the opportunity here for me now and for her um as part of the reading public school system too um and now Evan is that we have the chance to continue to care about all children professionally and count our son in that all children so it feels like we're living our values that's what we said which feels really good as a family and um onward so thank you for the time tonight any any questions or comments for Beth you're really good at this for somebody who feels as uncomfortable do I imaged you know how they say imagine everyone naked I just imagined you as 12 I'm sorry I was just like a 12-year-old a 13year old like a widely 11y old we got it all right here I just imagined you a little differently so you want us to start acting up yeah we could do that too we could do that too give us a few minutes and we can act up IED you as middle schoolers and it it all worked out I'll just say Beth welcome um I I think a lot of what you said resonates with pretty much everybody here um you know reaching all kids not just our own that's why the five of us are here and I'll count Chuck as a sixth person who's not here but he's doesn't have kids in the district anymore and he's still here because that's he cares that much so um I think that resonates loud and clear and I got to say especially hearing the Wakefield introduction the fact that you all chose to bring Evan to reading must have been an interesting pill to swallow but one that shows that we're going the right direction with reading so I just want to thank you for that trust as well as a parent that you're you're putting out there so thank you anybody else okay on to Alana mileski you want to start there yes can Alana there we go good evening I think the community has met Alana shown over the years who's been was in the ready public schools from 2016 to 2023 took a one-year break from the reading public schools was thrilled to be back with us I think again really lucky to you know given the circumstances of a late transition have a leader of Alana's caliber who knows the community reading community and also knows the rise Community deeply uh prior to coming to reading Alana was a special education director a teacher and a educational Advocate and then also had worked in a variety of roles particular team chair roles during her time in writing public schools and then ended her time in writing as a team chair in Rise so she is someone who knows the program really well um if you ask people you know kind of around the reading Community about a lot of the two things that come up to me most consistently or one she really loves kids like your kid is going to go to under school Under Alana's leadership they're going to feel loved and they're going to feel supported which we know is so important at any level and especially at our prek level two is someone who is deeply knowledge about special education I think that that's something that we've heard consistently from the rise Community is having a leader who understands special education and the needs of students is incredibly important in those formative years um really excited to to have you join our team um and really lucky to have you uh in the rise community so aot anything that you'd like to share with the community as you kind of you know now just a couple of days back in and quickly a couple days away from students yeah thank you Tom no it's been a whirlwind um for sure but I'm so excited I feel like reading is a a magnet and I am just pulled right back in and I was so excited about the opportunity uh when Jen and Allison reached out to me originally um I am so excited about reconnecting with the families in the last couple of days I've been reconnecting with the staff and um the the uh District leadership as well as the team chairs so I'm I'm really um so happy about that great any questions or comments for Alena no welcome back welcome back got to play welcome back cter yeah great to have you back Al and I'm great I'm glad the the video got fixed for you too so so we actually see you too so excited um you know my I'm just so excited to to be back at a preschool and um connecting with kids and while I wait for my future grandchildren I can really just delve into that 3 to five age range and I'm so excited great hopefully she'll be with us to open up a new preschool at a new school as well right few years so have them all Under One Roof be wonderful well Alana is committed to the year and we'll see we'll see what happens from there we like to keep great leaders so we will we see see how the year goes indeed thank you again for for jumping on and I know everyone is I've heard nothing but positive and excitement from uh from the rise community over the last couple of weeks so thank you thank you okay that concludes this portion of the agenda thank you all for coming and for joining us we very much appreciate it and good to get to know you more and more day by day thank you have a good night I always like L isn't it great when our leaders speak and they talk about how much more comfortly they are around kids isn't that what you want I can just see it like can't you just see them in front of the school it's awesome okay so um moving on to the old business and the superintendent goals and um as we were thinking about the agenda for today one of the things that that I was recalling from the formative review as I mentioned earlier was both Dr mileski expressed some questions or res reservations in his own feedback about the one basically remaining outstanding goal of um cataloging and capturing research based practices and whatnot um and some of the committee thought that might be an a daunting goal too so I wanted to make sure that we had a chance to talk about it as a committee to see if we wanted to make an adjustment and I've asked Dr mileski to look at it and see what his thoughts are and uh you know kind of lead the conversation from that perspective then we can go where we need to go so um Tom if you want to jump in it just says host is disabled screen share let me make you are you the which one are you newad I this is laptop I'll make you I'll give you this the co-host go for it now let's see go for it now now we're in business all right great um so there's uh I'm not going to go through the entire presentation here which is the 23 to 25 goals given that these are the same goals that we had or two-year goals I should share um see but I did want to just quickly mention go up to the goal that Tom had mentioned which is our district three goal around data so the the conversation last year was around this section where um let's see um develop a first iteration yep number five Benchmark number five where it says develop vment of a first iteration of a system to capture research and best practice by June 20 uh June 1st 2024 and expanded version by June 1st 2025 I just I the reason I had some hesitation on that after reflecting on this year is I think that that's a a pretty lofty goal in terms of having what is a you know a database in a way in some sort of way to capture like what's working so is a way that we can continue to replicate that moving forward as we have Transitions and leaders or as we can you know scale to different sites scale different levels but I do think that this is a lofty but it's also an important goal and I also think the idea of it's stating development of a first iteration gives some leeway to say that it's okay this year if it's not the fully fleshed out system of where we would want it to be but instead makes progress in that direction so I I feel comfortable with the way that the the language is is written uh and as the year goes on too you know I keep the committee informed to if there's certain areas of that goal where we may be focusing on to capture research in what area or best practice in what area on that and refine that as the year goes on other than that I think the goals are uh pretty straightforward and we've gone through them pretty extensively over the last you know year plus Sean so I I hear the point I mean system implies you know like a database or something like you suggested like a you know a software implementation which isn't probably what we intended what if we change that word to be process right and really you know this is more focused on you know creating a repeatable process for the district to follow to ensure that you know we're holding ourselves accountable to evalua the data systematically identifying best practices ProMag gating those throughout the district like if we thought about it that way in the instead of you know instead of like it's a particular deliverable of a software you know software solution or a database it's I mean not only achievable it's something that we're already starting to do now then we could formalize a little bit more and sort of you know document it but um I wonder if that gets more like sort of the intent here Sarah exact same thought of changing that workk process then I wonder if we also put um continuous cap continuously capturing resources is an ongoing iterative process for continuous Improvement as the uh one who I think created that I'll take those both as friendly amendments I think the intent is exactly that right that we have a a way that we're we are looking at things we're finding what works and what we want to propagate what we want to you know expand out on um where we may have cases of of micro success that we want to make mic macro success instead of you know one classroom we want to make it a school or a grade instead of one school we want to make it you know an entire grade across the district so how do we how do we learn from that and then continue to move forward okay great yeah any other thoughts or feedback on any other goals gos that I think was the one that was highlighted in particular um I guess Tom number two is also one that we should just make sure we're we're hitting on the key points of the central location um for storing key student level data we talked a little bit about kind of a a data warehouse type concept that Liam was thinking about do you have a chance to look at that and see how far or any concerns you have with that one as it stand I like the goal as is I think we need to have like I've talked with committee members individually too of just some of the ways that where the specific metrics were measuring internally our own sort of you know dashboard of data and our leaders need able to have access to that data you know in in a clear organized uh comprehensive sort of location and I think that that's perfectly aligned to what we need to do when we're trying to go think it makes sense okay I guess I'll jump back to five again I'm looking around since there's no hands um I when I drafted that I was initially thinking spefic specifically early literacy y um but I do want to make sure that we think about it more broadly as well as you go through it um whether it's sense of belonging related research and how we can continue to make our student populations feel like they belong um and that they can Thrive and grow um you know literacy at the middle school level we we heard some great things at the end of last year and there's movement happening this year but how how do we continuously look through that and is there uh literacy research in particular that applies to that like level of population from an age perspective um and then I can't leave out math in particular as well um as we continue to make progress with regards to math Pathways and any anything else we can do to continue to bolster that kind of access and and educational support great okay all right let's um sounds like we're in general agreement think we need to vote in the at all but good all right so um go ahead and stop the share Tom when you get a chance um and we'll move on to the last topic which is U new business the beginning of 2024 school year updates including U Middle School metco coordinator discussion great so this is going to be more of a of assortment of random items as we come back that may be of interest in the community uh couple things first start with the big one probably on Comm communties mind w stand with Staffing so we are down to four open teaching positions and all of them are ones that have opened up in the last couple of weeks one is a speech language pathologist and that's at Birch one is a uh or two special education teachers would end in coolage uh a Spanish teacher at rmhs and a one-year math teacher at rmhs I would say actually on all of those we have candidates at this point and are in like in interview processes uh some are sort of in the offer stage as well so that's well with two special OB that's five positions that we still need to finalize in the next couple of days but we do feel optimistic on all of them and then the only other open positions are four five PA positions two at rise one at Kellum and two at rhs again most of those were late resignations as well uh all of our other bargaining unit uh and non-unit positions are all fully staffed um on the building front a huge thank you to our facilities team uh I think we have the absolute best facilities team in the area buildings look great are ready for enter to welcome students staff back on Monday students back on Wednesday so just a big thank you to all of our c staff um quick thank you to our summer food service team who launched a variety of different offerings over the summer and pleased to share that uh our summer food service program has been nominated by the usda's annual turnip the beat you guys get it turnip the beat turn yep award uh this uh recognized outstanding programs offering high quality appealing nutritious meals uh it was like they said was an elite group who met this criteria and now we're going to be entered in the running to potentially win the kind of be one of the national uh re too but I think Catherine and her team uh tostand some of our summer food offerings is really exciting as well huge thank you to them and they're ready to launch this year uh breakfast served in all of our schools uh every day which and I know a question had come up before around protein smoothies they're also that you're going to be able to crab protein smoothies that add protein in as well may not be ready for day one but adding wayy in sort of to add a little bit more nutrition and protein is uh in the works uh some people maybe to we're going to start the most of our elementary schools offering breakfast in the classroom uh in the classroom for our kindergarten students just kind of ease transition as well but that's kind of something that is a little bit of a uh a work in progress for us too couple of summer highlights we had 180 158 students attend esy out of the 238 that were referred um just welcomed back a new successful new staff induction for about 40 staff members across the district uh and then teachers have been in and out throughout the summer on all sorts of you know projects work groups safety care training updating K to2 literacy indicators to the report card uh K to 5 creating a system for sharing literacy supports uh grad 6 through eight working on the amplify scope and sequence so there's been teacher teams working sort of here throughout the summer as well summer math work uh there's also been as you know a variety of things we've talked about over the summer from our summer geometry course uh I'd like to give a quick shout out to uh Janelle Chui from uh the Middle School level who Janelle had been working with a lot of our seventh and eighth grade students Rising 7th eth who wanted a little bit more of a push Sarah Hardy was able to look at sort of the the portal the Google Classroom that was used to engage with students she said that she was able to track over hundreds of comments that Janelle had between her and the students uh so students would be able to ask any question that came up and Janelle would be able to respond in a timely way she looked over their work proactively and saw areas that needed help and would also follow up with them um we are kind of going back to that datab b or that system processed database we're really eager to find out look at their I ready scor from the uh from the spring compare those to you know where you know kind of run a a little little sample study on how that compares the students who are not enrolled in that summer course and see how that plays out um but a huge shout out to we had a pretty good amount of kids who are engaged over the summer and a huge shout out to teachers who supported them and went above and beyond um we've talked a lot about what's ahead for this year just a couple things to flag for the community again we're excited to welcome the deaf and heart hearing program from seam which is about right now looks like 11 the 14 students grades K to four at wood end and they still are committed to offering free sign classes for anyone in the wood end uh in larger RPS community so more info to come um families should expect to hear from principles about some streamlined Safety and Security processes and protocols based on an I love you guys training we went to uh this is a training with us the police officers and fire chief norming around different uh language and vocabulary around different safety uh plans and processes in the buildings uh couple of trainings and op is coming up CPAC and school committee co-sponsoring the right to read film coming up the date to be determined sometime October 2nd or October 9th we just got to finalize it just okay there we go Lyn Lions on September 19th around school avoidance 6:00 to 7:30 and then Sarah Ward to families on uh October 23rd from 6:00 to 7:30 about executive functioning and then I think we've talked at length around a lot of the curriculum work that's happening this year around amplify partnering Hill for literacy uh continuing you know our our PD around our core did also want a flag for the uh community that also some happy the high school level in around instructional Improvement is our partnership with the modern classroom project if you want to just quickly you know you can Google uh modern classroom I believe it's modern classroom.org uh 16 rmhs teachers are participating in that program which is a model that allows teachers to develop a uh kind of a different take on pedagogy which involves Blended instructions uh self-paced Mastery based learning as well um and there's if you go on their website it is modern classroom uh.org there's a lot of you see a lot of their research study on some of the impact that this model has had across the country too but excited to see what that looks like for the rmhs community as well um I'll pause there and just that assortment of updates and then I'll go into just kind of talking about one position that I want to highlight any questions on any of the stuff he just talked about exciting it's the theme of the night excitement we hope excitement op I mean we should feel that way with return to school return to school right y um you'll see on the agenda there was also a late ad for us to put in a uh position which is the the uh metco coordinator position I would like to ask the committee for support around adding a metco coordinator position a one-year position for the year to come to tell you a little bit about what that kind of our current model is you know is that at all five of our elementary schools we have a metco uh sack so it's a licensed mental health clinician who supports all students and also serves as a metco coordinator and counselor at the high school level we don't have a mecho Sac we have a Meco coordinator so our coordinator is not a licensed Sac uh but provides day-to-day support you know uh and connection with our students and our families at the middle school level we have one sack we split between the two we still feel like at the middle school level is the spot where we feel like we just don't have as much support as we have as some of our other other other grade levels uh and also feel like that's the time where honestly our students really need that additional support so our team has constantly talked about you know over the last couple of years in our you know in the school committee of wanting to get to a place where we're able to have a Medco saac or high level of support in every building uh we feel that there's been some positive shift and some things around the budget that we feel that next year we can invest in a one-year met coac who would be uh full-time or fulltime Neco coordinator who would be full-time at Parker uh given what Parker Title One school school who has had a larger Meco population uh and that would allow Jericho or Meco sack to be shared amongst the schools with three days at coolage so an additional day of coolage and then two days at Parker uh while the we would have this role serve predominantly at Parker especially to start the year the door is open for also for this leader to also be able to support the coolage community depending on student needs and things like that as well um we have seen when with our metco roles our counselor and coordinator roles really be a game Cher for us and for our students in terms of like level of support student experience uh and we think that this is an area that we need to continue to invest in and I'll say what Curtis always will say is that these roles in the program is all about supporting not just our boss and Resident students but these roles are roles that truly support every student in the building we've seen Luke have a tremendous impact through his coordinator role at the at the high school and we think that we're going to see something similar by adding this position at the uh Middle School level next year in the budget I think this should be a priority whether it's to continue with a model that we start now or whether it's to try to convert that role into another uh counselor we can see the budget process goes on um last piece around the uh kind of the budget for it this would be $225,000 uh from the Meco budget $25,000 in the operating budget it would be funded from the operating funds through uh salary differential which has been a little bit you know more favorable than what we had budgeted for and then in the metco budget using what is the carryover which we know was closed to around $100,000 uh as well and eating into that a little bit uh to be able to help us what we think is more of an urgent need right now too so would like the committee support in that and to be able to answer any questions that you have you know as we move forward with that uh I'm thrilled you have my wholehearted support you know I advocated for this um I think this FS a big need at Parker um in terms of you know our commitment to sens a belonging for for both our Boston residents and and I just think for the whole Parker Community like you said to to see someone in a leadership position of color we we need more of that so I celebrate this wholeheartedly anybody else well said I think she spoke for us so you're good thank you okay all right well that was our last agenda item and it's 8:00 intend to go forward well I don't know if we we'll finish every meeting at 8:00 but I will take a motion if there's one that is on that somebody wants to present to adjourn motion by Carla seconded by Aaron all in favor all opposed and it passes 8:00 we [Music] adjourn e e