e e all right um we're calling the meeting to order um this is a school committee meeting of uh Thursday March 14th and we have quite a crowd of Parker and coolage students back there so um let me walk through the agenda then we'll dive in here uh Unice is here as well perfect um great so uh first things first as we walk through our agenda um we will start start with a vote to approve our par education uh Association Mo mo/ contract that we have negotiated with them we will then move to a discussion on potentially co-sponsoring uh the right to read film with our CPAC um May is not going to be when it is but we'll talk to that when we get there um we will have a focus on Excellence um which will be our math teams from our from coolage and Parker and there'll be a little bit of a showdown going on so get your pencils and pens ready Mr Brandt I'm particular looking at you um we then have our consent agenda which we will go through uh and have some reports uh including all of them are listed um at which point we then uh will take out of order E4 to move fee structures forward and we will end with E3 which is our student Opportunity Act plan and review um so with that said we have everybody here so there's no need for remote procedures except our town manager macral is on so he will we'll do a roll call vote for the the par educator related stuff uh when we get there and we're getting there now um so we have um agreed with our par education unit which is our fifth and final negotiating bargaining unit um which will come up uh for Renewal officially um on July 1st of this coming year and will carry us through June 30th of 20127 um once again I think the tone of those conversations was quite quite collaborative I want again to thank Dr mileski and the negotiating team a couple of the members are here but thank you both for that and Sean and Chuck and I were part of that as well um some of the key things that came out of this uh I'm probably the number one key thing is a pretty significant adjustment to the salary scale um we felt a need as we have done with other things to to correct some things course correct there and get get our par Educators much more on target with uh the market um so that happened that's happening over the course of the three years with the biggest step in the first year the second year will be an 8 and a half% step in the third year will be a 9% step um so the first year is a complete reworking of the schedule accordingly um one of the things we did with that is simplify our schedule as well uh we used to have three lanes or three tracks to a degree between our regular education our special education program and our regular special education we've essentially merged the two special education ones together um because we felt like that was just more appropriate um somewhat random at times about where where things would be and it aligned more with the market as well as we look through that um we also added in juneth as a holiday for them uh we the day before Thanksgiving uh they're getting appropriate pay as opposed to having to rework the hours um there's some other key terms that were adjusted as we went through with regards to um you know uh substituting in particular um so substitution related work uh consecutive 45 minute intervals um and then 1 to 3 hours and then more than 3 hours we adjusted the pay scale there as well um there are a couple of jmc's are going to come out of it as we work through and um we also as part of our restructuring of the stru of the overall payment structure we put in into place a stipend structure so we're putting in place stipends for safety Care deescalation at ver at the beginning level and a restraint certified level um Wilson trained and Wilson certified Orton Gillingham trained Orton Gillingham certified um and toiling and there's some definition in the contract about those as well so that was part of our differentiation of some of our program versus non-program related pairs was an adjustment um each of those last ones I just mentioned has a step between year one and year two as we align our contracts to our overall budget um I think that's a a general overview but Dr mileski did I miss any big ones nope nope great job okay um any questions from the committee just a quick comment SE um so Tom you you appropriately credited Dr milesy and Dr pinto and and the team and and the union reps as well for all the great work and collaboration that went into this um we'd be remiss if we didn't also acknowledge the amount of effort that you put in and being prepared for those conversations um and uh ensuring that those were productive collaborative open transparent conversations um you know just want to acknowledge that publicly here thank you there was a lot of work but it was worth it and I think like we said with other conversations I think the the staff really felt like it was Val they felt valued so um that's where we want them to be we want them to want to work here part of having a district that's sustainable and growing is having the right staff in place and that comes to payment as well so with that said um we will do a roll call vote and we'll start with Mr Robinson yes and Miss misso yes Mr brand yes and I'm going to stop and I'm going say Aaron I make a motion oh it's true we need a motion first of all so thank you please correct me and thank you for doing so um motion to approve the July 1 2024 through June 30th 2027 writing par Educators Association contract in a second second second by Mr Robinson now we'll do the roll call vote and thank you for correcting me and now I don't have to be so formal Chuck yes Carla yes Sean yes Aaron yes Sarah yes Mr Canales yes and myself yes and it passes 7 to zero so great [Applause] okay so we're move on to the second topic uh and then we'll bring the fund forward um so before we do so um in the packet is a memo and I apologize to the committee for the fact that it got out today um but hopefully you'll give me a little bit of um rain there um Unice and I were able to connect earlier this week on this topic um the CPAC applied for and received a grant from the reading cultural Council to do a showing of a film called the right to read it's a documentary um that's very much focused on dyslexia but also focused on the overall need of our student population to really be able to read uh it's it's an award-winning film uh as well and CPAC is looking to us to help um as much as possible whether that's co-sponsoring or even just otherwise some of us on this board or arsell CPAC members so we could help in that regard um they're also going to be reaching out to friends of writing Medco Friends of the library um and maybe a few others to see as we coordinate um in conversations with unise um we're targeting more of a September October viewing as opposed to a May because there's a lot to do to prepare for it um the grant does include rental space at rctv so we could do that if it becomes more popular than rctv which I hope and expect we can talk about renting the pack instead as a showing um and the conversation with Unice as well we talked about potentially doing a bit of a um forum for lck for verway uh you know where we could have some experts in the field come in to talk about reading as well um so there's a lot of local experts there could be some including some of the people that are in the film a gentleman by name m Kem Weaver uh who's out of San Francisco that we can talk to we'll see to see if they can come but I want to get some feedback from the committee if if we're willing to co-sponsor that doesn't mean much other than posting potential ially um and helping Unice and whatnot to move it forward um or anything else and Unice if you want to add anything please feel free but I see Sarah's chopping at the bit to jump in as well so Sarah yeah I say enthusiastically in support of um co-sponsoring the event I think I love the October time frame idea of maybe for our dyslexia awareness month and maybe we can have a series of events too that are co-sponsored across RPS um and CPAC as well in terms of awareness about um right to read and dyslexia and learning es so love the idea anybody else John yeah just say so I initially had some minor quals about this not because I have any issues with the content or the or the film and sponsoring the film in and of itself um but you know to the degree that this is precedent setting and do we put ourselves in a position where we're picking and choosing what we do and don't co-sponsor um I I can get past that CPAC is obviously an Advisory Board to the school committee it's not you know one of many student groups for instance that we're choosing among so I I I I can certainly get past that it's also very consistent with what has been a priority for the district from a curriculum perspective from an instructional uh you know uh methodologies perspective um so I I think this fits with a lot of the things that we've already been endorsing and supporting and pushing as a committee so um I can get past whatever initial qualms that I had I think it's also it's a huge Equity related film right and I think that's been a huge focus in our district all really means all we want all of our kids to be able to learn to read as well so I think there was a lot of joint alignment with some of the the key focus it items we've had over the last few years and going forward as well Carla Chuck anything else Ain yes yeah so I I had sort of a similar reaction where I like wholeheartedly support bringing this film I'm thrilled you guys got the grant um I I think CPAC has had some really um impactful film film nights and I I love that you're continuing to do this um and I I agree it like it fits with our mission and goals um it's just it is precedent setting that if we choose to co-sponsor to to in my four years I think the only other time we were asked to co-sponsor something was the black lives matter rally and even that to co-sponsor we were asked to approve really it was no co-sponsoring this okay I thought we were asked to sponsor it we were um it was very confusing we yeah I thought we're as to sponsor it but not have anything to do with the planning or anything so I guess part of what I'm looking for is we would do this anyway if anytime CPAC hosts an event we promote it it goes in all the school newsletters it goes um we help push it on social media um you know I've plugged things as the CPAC Le is on so I guess I'm wondering like what's different if we are a co-sponsor of this I think that's a fair question um I think it's a little bit more of an active involvement right um being one of the four and Unice please jump in if you need to but being one of the four to help um run it move it forward and come on up please yeah come on up next to Graham yeah come to the table um and what you're looking for as well in this regard and how we can help Okay um we also just really want to use it as a conversation starter so it's not just a movie night we wanted to go much further than that um we hoping to maybe we haven't asked yet but we hoping for the learning and teaching Department also to talk to us about um literac screening and bringing in dislexic people who can speak on the topic of Dyslexia and like make it more than just that one movie night it's more to really get a conversation started in the community and for everybody to um understand like what is you know what is our community doing doing um and what is the school committee doing and what is our learning and teaching Department doing to ensure that our kids are receiving you know all the support so I mean I building on that I think as well the I think I think of our role in in the school committee As Leaders as in this in this realm um I mentioned it last time we were meeting that there's been other school committees that have reached out and if we as a school committee are going to put ourselves forward in something like this to me that's a good thing I mean and to your your your points are very fair and very valid when where does that stop and where does you know and whatnot um this one is just you know my passions in this space and so I could also do it as a CPAC member I can help her as a CPAC member Sarah can help her as a CPAC member and we could do it that way um but as if it's I think it's very powerful for the writing school committee to say that reading is so important and the equity side of reading is so important that we want to make sure it's done right right um and that to me is why we would do as a school committee as opposed to just a CPAC it's a step forward and frankly it's raising the bar for other school committees to kind of engage as well we also do plan to include like uh friends of Matco and so forth so it won't just be CAC it there will be more groups involved um is the Hope J yeah I was just going to say uh I'm not concerned about it being pre precedent setting if it is uh if we get that question then we our response would Encompass all the things we're saying here tonight about why it isn't I mean that that's just a something we deal with when that when that comes up and we move forward with it okay any other thoughts Sarah I was just going to add I think that you know as a committee we prioritized you know evidence-based reading instruction you know we prioritize as a community broader you know town community spending arpa funds on that and we're one of the first communities to really be fighting against that so I think or for those rights I think this is another just declaration like this is important Massachusetts let's listen and I think that is also one of the things Dr mileski raised as we were talking about this is okay why now and what when where does it stop and start and I think the other thing that's I think most people know is there are a lot of literacy bills on the state level that are ongoing right now um and so from advocacy perspective it's important that they start to hear from people who are in favor of that as opposed to people that are always against it um so I'd love to be part of that personally or collectively I'd prefer to be Collective because I think it speaks louder than just one person car so I um I I don't think this is precedent s setting because we've done this before right um I do um I do wholeheartedly agree with this um because of the topic right um I am asking I have a quick question about what is the working group is this the Planning Group who's going to put this event together yes so we right now it's really just myself and Lindsay Cony she's um we we just Derek just helped us with the financial SES of things to you know help us um clear it through the school the grant so the next step is to start reaching out and getting more people involved so so you know that's why we're not going to do it in May we're going to do it at the school start of the school year that gives us enough time to hopefully get as many um other rating groups involved too okay you want to do a quick Motion sounds like we're unanimous but it would be good to get that um sure motion for the school committee to co-sponsor or jointly sponsor depending if you get additional groups um the right to read film viewing an event second seconded by Carla any further discussion all right all in favor all oppos and it passes 6 to Zer great thank you thank you very much I just want to say thank you to you all we really appreciate all the support you guys have been giving to CAC and tomeski and Sarah and Derek and everybody on the school board and student services have all just been wonderful to us thank you thank you thank you en okay um so we can figure out which one or more of us help them as time goes on but they're there's there's work to do there happy to engage I'm pretty sure I all engaged myself in fact I already started doing it so that's another story for another day too all right so Dr M chesy you want to introduce the focus on Excellence here yes here we go so um for those of you who haven't uh watched the being in the school committee meeting something we we do at the beginning is we always bring in a a group or a team or an individual who we think is demonstrating excellence in our school community so we're thrilled tonight on Pi Day 3.14 March 14th I see some to welcome both our Parker and our coolage math teams um I have been so encouraged throughout the year to hear about uh both the high levels of participation on both of our teams and the Excellence and performance from so many of our individuals on the team and also the teams collectively so tonight you'll see we both have both Middle School principles here we also have Coach Kane Coach Carter here as well and so many of our of our math team members so I'm going to turn it over to our two coaches to come up to tell everyone a little bit about the kind of the math team and what they've done this year introduce all the students and I think there may be a challenge and a test for us with some white paper behind so we'll see what happens got the white paper set up we can't do it privately so we couldn't be more excited to be here on behalf of our math teams our cool two cool cool agent Parker math teams and they've done a phenomenal job so far this year and we're going to really turn the microphone over to the coaches who are really the ones we are so grateful for and the leaders of this group but we just wanted to be here as their cheerleader so I I will introduce Jennifer Kane who's a parent as well as a parent of two of our math team members as well as our math coach at kage and I am introducing Caitlyn Carter who is our math team coach and also a special education teacher at Parker so hi guys I am uh coach Kane Jen Kane and I run the coolage middle team middle school math team which Yeah my two girls Alison who sadly can't be here cuz she's at volleyball but my Megan is here also so eth and sixth so our team has about 25 kids on it which is like awesome um and when we show at the competitions we're the largest team of any of the towns that we compete against which is pretty exciting and we've been doing really well these kids are really just killing it um we have a large team and they all are gu so we have some questions that we're going to hand out to you so you can see how hard these questions are and every single one of those 25 kids is getting at least some of them right every single time we've been had a zero the whole year which is incredible cuz the questions are not easy they aren't really just like Middle School level questions that are being asked of them I mean it's much more like abstract thinking um High School level type problems algebra and we even have a sixth grader who's getting a perfect score so it's really just fun to see Jeffrey yeah it's amazing and um we're really I mean on as a town I think we should be so proud because a we have to split most towns do not split so our team right we only have to work on like half the size of the town to pull this Talent from both our teams are doing so well coolage and particular I we're literally like one of the best teams in the state I mean we are really doing well Winchester with that Russian math school is still beating us Lexington beating us but I mean we're talking like math Powerhouse towns are beating us and we are half of reading and they're just doing incredible so I'm so proud of [Applause] them um just to add on to that um I'm Caitlyn Carter I've been the math coach at Parker for the entire 10 years that I've been at Parker um and I'm not a math teacher but I kind of fell into this in my interview 10 years ago and here we are um so but we have about 15 kids I'd say um attending practices um we have a smaller contingent here tonight I have some very involved kids on my math team that are have many different other commitments on Thursday evenings as well um but we have five kids with us um from Parker tonight um and I'm really proud and thankful that they were able to come um we're doing a really great job you know as Jen said most of the schools we are competing against are one Middle School schools you know Wakefield stonum um lynfield they all have the entire town on one team if we had the entire town on one team we would literally be unstoppable Tak down wi yeah so I mean they're really doing an amazing job and I'm really proud of them um you know I've I've ridden the wave of math team through Co and back out again and you know it's been kind of been really cool to see uh the progress and the process of all of that so um I think we have some uh or we going to have them introduce that be great go down the line and introduce themselves do the first name last name in in school just whatever just line up just CLE through first name last name school and grade too if you can okay great uh hi so I'm kid asov from colge what grade oh sixth I am Kyle C from colge sixth grade nice hi I'm Amy Ren from coolage I'm from sixth grade uh hi I'm Jeffrey Zay from Co sixth grade hi I'm which one is it go ahead hi I'm Dean Mahoney from coolage sixth grade they going to be a Powerhouse hi I'm Franklin Kate from Cool ID 6th grade hi I'm Megan Kane from coolage sixth grade hi I'm Haley Kaylor from coolage in sixth grade hi I'm nathany pisupati from coolage in sixth grade's next guys come people I'm P don't worry about oh which one is it just oh I'm Pete MSC I'm in colge middle school 8th grade hi I'm Matthew goldner coolage Middle School 8th grade and D um from college eth grade hi I'm Lucas MWI I'm in sixth grade and uh and I'm in coolage next let them through I'm Zach caufman from Parker 8ighth grade William sillers Parker 8th grade hi I'm Ian sers from Parker sixth grade hi I'm Patel I'm from Parker seventh grade um I'm vant baj from Parker eth grade okay yeah so that's everybody we have this is only half or or less less half yeah half or less everybody's real busy cuz they do not just math um so okay so I'm going to hand out these packets maybe you just take one and pass gram is an honorary member of the school committee today you're still you're still the hot seat so the first one we were thinking you guys could work on you can see there's five different sections each of these kids gets assigned three of the five sections and they have to do their section in 10 minutes all three questions the first question is supposed to be the easiest the second question's a little harder third question is the challenging one so that's what we're going with for you guys um we're going to try for question number three um in category not one or two the kids picked they picked category four which is a this is just easy arithmetic for you category four question number should be simple right should be simple um we'll give you one minute do they get to help us some of the coolage kids are going to help you with an answer over can they write up on this yes they can any one of these white white papers are all for them to use great oh there's one we got around and these are actual questions that they faced at the meat in January this is yeah they January these are the actual questions from the meat oh my [Laughter] gosh look at the parents laughing at us I haven't done this math since I fair I have not taken math class since my senior year in high school people am I allowed to cheat hang on okay senior Jesus Christ no the answer is no the answer is no I'm not come on team let's go jeez guys yeah can we use calculators this is a non I have a computer we allow to use are we allowed to use Google you from we do five contest over the year and the last two are calculators the questions get harder cool I can answer any of these do I time them for the 10 minutes Dr M's gonna lead for our team [Music] [Applause] I okay I could do maybe category one [Music] I don't know what's the shortcut something in the code up above but anybody getting feel like they're getting close I wouldn't say close no we're going to need to phone some friends do we have any math backgrounds in the at the table I don't actually even know are we mostly uh English History I don't really know I AP Calculus it's just the last thing that I we did not cover this in we did not cover this in Epi stats 20 years ago put it in front of me right this moment it would take me a take me a bit to get back into it I don't know if I can answer any of these questions all right no I know supposed to be it's 10 how long do I go oh it's 10 I can figure this out I can figure now I'm not you to he yes no what our answers are yeah yes yes give me minute I just said one minute I have an idea 1 236 936 oh they're both wrong what did you get no going keep going keep going slower and more methodical same mistake I get two the dot is supposed to be a multiplication is the dot multipli we have the same same response then what you I don't know to I'm let and Thomas Thomas who has gotten also multiple perfect scores FYI um was it 892 no idea nobody got it right I don't is it 8.92 8.92 oh you're so close oh what did I do WR all right I'm I'm locked in then say all right so maybe talk them through and 10,000 is 10 1 yep so we got that good y 64 to the 23 6 the cube of 64 is 4 of 16 yeah that's what it 32 to 3 fth the fth of 3 is two to CU which is eight okay it was it was the second one I messed up yeah messed up the third one I multiplied 16 time I did it right multiplied 16 time 8 wrong 16 time 8 is what you messed up Tom you did the hard part well I was pressured you said I had 3 seconds 128 872 it's 872 yeah and you want to use order of operations right 128 872 yeah8 nice job right if you want to take one page back and we're going to try one more back to category two cat three number the try question one you could into the third question so let's see if you can do one know what it mean that's what I do every day I don't know what bases are doesn't tend to come up in client strategy session so probably Zer and that is base two so and we have a base 10 system that gives you a little we a little it's about regrouping regroup this is one of my favorite topics in all of it's my favorite I find to be a puzzle I'm going to Google it so give this one a shot and then I this is to me like I'm a liberal arts major ready I don't know do probably the paper working out something yeah this [Music] is did you get the other one right I went too fast and think I made a mistake but I know how to do it so for the five contests the topic is kind of repeat like the first contest the general topics in each of these sections are the same so the kids just practice every week we meet every Thursday they come with their own time after school and work on all these types of problems capping for contest one and then by contest two the topics there's still arithmetic but it's not like faces this time it's exponent to this time so but every year the knowledge should build it's a little bit more familiar easier head our and in a couple trying you and I Parker Austin a can't even feel the team so don't show up nobody's competing here are they all right all right ready Von's gonna show you how it goes anybody get an answer anybody have any idea I have an answer but I don't think it's right 13 13 no 196 194 yeah math teacher and was on a middle school math team he was a math teacher I was on a middle school math team apparently that was 30 years ago a b 10 system which we use it goes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 and after that we go to 11 so it's just a 1 to the 11 but in base five it goes 1 2 3 4 5 and then that's where it ends so instead of 10 20 30 it's five and then like that so the number um 1 2 3 4 written in base 10 is just equal to 10 the 0 10 the 1 10 to the 2 and then 10 to the 3 this is just equal to 4 1es and then this is equal to 3 T this is equal to hundreds and then this is equal to 1,000 so 1,234 then the base system it's so it's um 5 to the 0 and then 5 to the 1 5 to 2 and 5 to the 3 so this is equal to 4 + 3 * 5 which is 15 + 2 * 25 50 plus um 1 * 550 which is 125 so when you add these up you get4 Dr M for the win I'm sure they could all get it so it's did anybody happen to know the answer to number three in that category CU I did the wrong question okay all right well here I have solutions for all of them home and you can do all of that pleas please repair my ego soling ma problem answer to number three in Category 3 spoiled it you even lie you can even lie you will not be able to sleep in Category 3 is 13 close that didn't help I have we have questions that can we tell ask some question um I don't know if you're like if it's our turn to ask or if you want think we're done done I was I was wondering there's nice to see so many of you here maybe those someone who didn't get to share and kind of show your work to I just love to hear a little bit about just what do you think you've been learning being a part of the math team like what are the things the most valuable takeaways from being a part of this group it can be a math content thing or could be something just outside of math content about being a part of the group and if you're willing to share if you just don't mind coming up to the microphone thank you all so the thing that I think that that really important when we join math team is that we get to experience a lot of Concepts that we don't usually do so like it expand are like variety of knowledge and understanding of um how math Works in different ways like probability is different than algebra which is also different than um geometry so like it overall just expands our knowledge about math love that thank [Applause] you the most important ey takeaway takeaway I had was that if you want to learn anything you need to be determined work hard and persevere until you get [Applause] it I think math team was a great like after school activity to like um challenge people's brains if like sixth grade math was or like seventh grade or 8th grade math was too easy for them oh we go one more good um I think math team was really fun because you got to hang out with your friends and do some things you really enjoy and love while at the same time you're learning a lot of new [Applause] things okay great so before you all leave parents we have a tradition of having picture right before everybody leaves that comes comes here so get your cameras out and hopefully one of you will share them your picture with us so we can also have that for the uh The Weekly Newsletter couple more awesome took a minute dust it off I was like okay where do I start if we could also just give one more round of applause and thank you to the coaches who I think did a really awesome job to share with our team okay realize I skipped over public comments you're too excited about math yeah anybody here want to make public comments Chris Chris Nelson no it's like I already how did Jeffrey do back there I know Jeffrey did you get cor did you get the question you didn't get the problem so you couldn't get the question would you like my math set to take home and practice like you can have it cuz I won't we have an extra Jack's like take mine please here please I won't do them later just a little light reading spoiler I will not be doing this this game well how do you know if they're right you could ask Google I guess tell you it turns out you forget a few things after 30 minut it turns out that way you can send them to your daughter no seeing no public comment we'll move on to our consent agenda and let's start with a motion motion to approve the consent agenda second seconded by Sean uh any discussion any points of note I'll just note that $155,000 is good for us to continue to look forward to HQ this one's on science right it is okay yes great all right so all in favor all opposed and it passes 6 to zero and we will now move on to reports and we'll start with graham hello uh should I introduce myself sure all right we know you but uce in case somebody else do know you my name is gr Gman I am a board member on the student advisory committee and here are just some updates of what has happened and is what is happening at rmhs so yesterday night we had the annual college fair where over 100 colleges milit uh we had a couple military recruits uh we had College affordable come and we had the ring Scholarship Foundation uh come and it was a great experience for a lot of Juniors and even sophomores to come and meet guys counselors for across a bunch of colleges that in the local areas and even some there all the way down New York uh this was also a we also wanted to thank the director of food services for his uh catering to the event uh in the pack or not in the pack sorry in the calf uh at rhs the science team also came in eighth place out of 60 teams competing in the Massachusetts uh Science Olympiad tournament on March 2nd and we want to congratulate the metg uh drama Festival prelims that were March 2nd as well and as our drama team made it to the semi-finals that took place last Saturday uh at semi finals rmhs competed in Framingham against five other schools uh and took home the stage manager Choice Award again uh some upcoming events that are happening at rhs are that spring Athletics kick off this Monday uh really exciting and we also have our Robo team having a competition here at the Fieldhouse this weekend on Sunday uh March 21st is National down syndromes day and best buddies program uh is working to raise awareness uh of this day by posting Flyers around school and are also hosting a fundraiser at fud Ruckers uh in reading on the 21st from 4: to 7:00 p.m. uh all the proceeds will go towards the best buddy program and their uh are raise uh raising awareness for Down syndrome the junior prom will take place March 28th at the endover Country Club and over 180 seniors have applied for senior internships uh this past week and their applications are all getting sorted they're all getting their uh internships uh like hours scheduled and they will start to begin on April 1st at the start of quarter 4 great thank you any questions for Graham just since I you know you can leave whenever you want to at this point in time you're welcome to stay the whole time but if you have homework or other things to take care of take off if you need to so no no problem whatsoever and with that said we'll move over to Dr Pinto thanks and good evening I've got a few uh things to share with you uh first I'll start with a thank you to Jeff's granola which is a business uh that uh we work with and they donate 100% of their profits to Chari selected by our customers we selected uh the readings food pantry and so they have donated uh $260 to the reading food pantry so I'm grateful to uh Jeff Scola for that uh wanted to let uh School uh committee know that I have completed 16 uh meetings budget uh meetings with various cost centers just to review their budget year-to date whatever Personnel that they've got uh and then look towards the end of year and see whether or not we've got any unanticipated expenses talk a little bit about closing out POS purchase orders and then coordinating with the central office if they have dollars left the next step will be to send them out uh an end of year memo to just get them prepared for uh closing procedures uh and then to prioritize any dollars that we may have at the end if we do uh I did want to share with school committee that I also as part of my certification in Massachusetts attended uh the masbo law Institute yesterday so that's the professional association that I'm uh affiliated with we covered a number of things uh to include educational stability for highly mobile students uh student Opportunity Act plans in action and then of course the fy2 budget update so I'll be preparing a report to share with you uh going forward so this place is masbo institutes and and events are a great place for us to network with colleagues to do a little bit of problem solving really collaborate so uh I did that yesterday and that concludes my report great thank you any questions okay Dr Dr Hardy hi everyone uh just two areas to update you on um first I wanted to just highlight a Community Partnership that we are really grateful for um we have been working with um Shan so Le from Yale in collaboration with uh Chief David Clark um from the Reading Police Department and uh together we've we through them have an opportunity for a grant that will fund um some more work that is focused on crisis management you may remember this past summer we partnered with the Reading Police Department to um offer a number of of safety and training safety trainings for our staff and so this partnership is going to allow us to continue that work whether it's around seag or um our our protocols um related to school crisis so that is ongoing work and this is a really nice opportunity to partner with the community around that another huge thank you um we have a children's cabinet that is up and running um you may remember that this is one of the um strategic objectives in our districtwide um strategic plan is to strengthen our um relationship with our community and our partnership with families and the children's cabinet is just one of the um pieces of that part of our strategic plan um so a huge thank you to everyone who's participating on that cabinet in particular we have two folks that are kind of spearheading the two call them branches of the uh cabinet right now so Barbara best and Teresa Wiggins um Barbara is leading a group that is looking at relational aggression especially in middle school and they're going to be running some focus groups to connect with Middle School families just to understand some of the challenges that our youngsters are facing in those years and seeing how we can support um and you know what can be done also to support the community and families um with with our students at that age um Teresa Wiggins is helping to lead a group that's looking at the best ways to disseminate resources in our community um the group has some Grand plans they really are hoping to be able to leverage technology down the line whether it's some type of app or um just a way to really streamline um information um currently right now they're working on a more of like a flowchart just to organize sort of how um services are accessed and so these are all things that will be finalized and shared out um we just really want to highlight that um the commitment of the folks in our Community to continuing this work is it's really essential for us and meeting um those objectives in our strategic plan so we're thankful great any questions okay Dr mileski great just going to build off one thing that Graham shared around the senior internship program to just a couple of thank yous uh well the first thank you goes to Meg Rondo counselor here at the high school who is our our senior internship coordinator also to Katie Buckley Jess count in who I think have been working uh really hard to make sure they can keep up with the demand so last we had 80 seniors placed in internship sites this year we have 80 184 students interested with 150 confirmed and 34 still pending uh obviously with out of close to 300 seniors that's a huge population of our uh 12th grade class um I think couple of things stick out one is that over the past two years this has led to $175,000 or will be at the end of this year back in the pockets of our students through these grants which are all $15 an hour for 100 hour uh programs either through these are paid either through grants or by some of our Community Partners who are paying students directly out of their own budgets um some of the Community Partners spaning across different site sectors include milor Sigma Fitzgerald Physical Therapy uh moroi Medical Aesthetics Eagle East Aviation ABC Builders West and Samson Reading Public Schools all that Music Academy YMCA Johns Hopkins University tus universities reading uh University reading Council on Aging and base State financial so you kind of even hear from some of those companies the wide variety of experiences that our students are getting uh really excited about the potential impact on the students in uh career exploration and just you know sort of Readiness for the real world so excited to for our students to launch on April 1st and see sort of what they come back learning and uh a big thank you to all those Community Partners who have stepped up to support the development of our students great thank you any questions okay we'll move on to leaz on reports Chuck no report tonight car um so I'll just give you a quick update with kilum um we have a community meeting um next Monday the 18th uh from 7: to 8:30 it's going to be at Kellum it's we're going to be talking about um traffic um there's been a traffic study done so um the designer and the traffic um company will tell us about that get public input put on traffic and talk about the site and things like that they will gather all the information and then kind of reiterate it back to the school building committee and and to the community later on at another community meeting um and I just wanted to kind of just shout out to our educational leadership working team that um the designer has met with every single employee at kilum and um over the past week or so I can't even keep track of like what's the update for the next meeting um and and really has gotten to know them and just to watch um you know some of the conversations happen even like a conversation with our rise director and our um designer where he's trying to think about how we're going to design this building and he's giving her suggestions and she's telling him no you can't do that our students needs are a b c and d and then he's like thank you and and you can tell he processes it and so we're going to see what happens but um so that just been a huge undertaking our Communications U working group is another team Jane Wellman has been kind of leading that team and she's amazing um you know between our website and our website is growing and we're populating a lot of information into it um people are starting to talk that they're hearing about kilum um the DPW has a newsletter and there's information in there and in um at the senior center and their newsletter and just code red and there's just like hopefully you guys are starting to see it on our our um Instagram page and things like that so um so just kind of shout outs to those to those groups too that there's just been a lot going on sustainability group had you know kind of a rush of work they you know the designers processing that information as well so I I feel like we're not we're not passing the information back to the community as much so that's something that I think think we're going to focus on more just to note we are posted for that meeting next Monday if anybody wants to go that way we can if you want to and if we need a quorum we'll we'll be fine um if you can't go then no problem but we're posted in case we need to it will be recorded and then yep people can watch it later okay Sean just one minor update uh fincom um voted the warrant articles yesterday the most sort of pertinent for us is um pulling the bleachers into fy0 24 um so obviously the next hurdle there is town meeting on the town meeting point only because I learned this last night during fincom uh the first night of town meeting won't be the Monday as planned um there may be kind of a procedural vote but the first actual night of business will be Thursday that week given that Passover is on that date um what I come to learn is the first date of town meeting is fixed in the charter is the fourth Monday in April and that's the impetus for it being scheduled on a major religious holiday so uh that's all on my end okay Ain no report Sarah no report um I'll just add a little bit to the children's cabinet report um in addition to thanking you know Barbara and Teresa Teresa also has created a form that we're going to be sending out to our principles and school counselors um to gather uh semi Anonymous or as much Anonymous to the the group as possible of needs that students or families may have um whether that's clothing whether that's food whether that's housing assistance whatever it may be anything that's blocking their access essentially to education is what that form is going to be for we're going to see how that goes that was kind of the shortterm um from the needs assessment committee this is the short-term thing we can do and then see what evolves from there so almost all of the stuff that Teresa and barber are doing there's a short-term action a medium-term action and a long long-term action and so that's the short one in addition um we will be having a um children's cabinet discussion at our next meeting when we're at Medco headquarters as well just to kind of you know assess with that that Community what their needs are as well so I've reached out to Millie to try and see if there's anything that metco is providing for their students um so that's in process but we wanted to hear directly from whoever wants to join that meeting as well if they what feedback or thoughts they may have so we can hit all of our uh Community as necessary so we that'll be one of the discussion items of the next meeting okay any questions for that nope all right so um Aon let's take a motion to move E4 out of order motion to move item E4 out of order second second by Sean all in favor all opposed and it passes so let's move on to E4 fee structures Dr mileski Dr Pinto who's Dr PTO thanks I'll take this one so just wanted to let you know that we're evaluating all of the fees and tuition that's related to uh through Reading Public Schools and it's become necessary because we need to look at our we need to meet our operational needs needs and we also need to ensure sustainability of the programs so some fees haven't been adjusted since 2012 uh so considerations for uh evaluating those fee increases included programmatic needs Rising operational expenses and salaries and so on uh we also looked at current market rates and the rates that were provided by neighboring uh uh neighboring districts for same Services uh so there are two that are that are being brought forward this evening uh we've already attended to extend a day and ride in previous sessions uh this evening I have our esteemed colleague the director of Community Education Chris Nelson is going to talk a little bit about the driver's education fee adjustment and then I'll tackle the student transportation fee so I'd like to invite Chris Nelson thanks Chris good evening thank you for having me moving the agenda item up appreciate your time uh so as uh drivers as we look at driers Ed it kind of falls under the same um instance as extended day where we haven't had a price increase in Drive Ed since 2012 and we are relatively low compared to some of the private U groups that are surrounding us again a Side Drive uh middlex North Reading um so we did a little um research on that a little price comparison we charged uh 675 for our driver ed program again it's an I drive uh charge over $1,000 and it's the same um curriculum the RMV standard driver's ed program where it's 30 hours of classroom instruction 12 hours of driving instruction and eight um excuse me 6 hours of observation in the vehicle with the instructor uh so we are pretty lower substantially than the programs around us so we proposed u a mild little over 5% increase uh 4our driers Ed program to bring it up to about a $710 uh that money will allow us to maintain s uh sustainability of the program provide maintenance to the vehicle uh the vehicle is 10 years old has over 10,000 110,000 M on it um we actually just had we had a sponsorship where we brought a student to take their road test and the RMV instructor got in and moved the um rearview mirror and it fell off so I think he felt bad I think he thought he broke it so we pass the students no the student actually did well but did he pay for the mirror that's what I actually our our U our awesome DPW Department maintains the vehicle and actually fixed fixed it so but the car is old um and the price increase to the program will help with that uh another issue that I'll bring up is in the three years going on four years that I've been here the dri head program has exploded in enrollment um I think when Co hit the RMV went virtual it hasn't come back it hasn't said all in person you can stay virtual and that allowed us to provide more of a service for the students which showed a huge increase plus the cost of our program being um a lot less expensive uh had a big increase so in turn we are seeing a Fallout now of increased enrollment increased in wait times for students to receive their actually incar driving uh situations for driving and observing and there's a backup so with the increase in cost we'll be able to hire another U instructor and eventually and I know we're in the docket for a few years with the um fiscal for a possible new car an additional car so if we could have another instructor and another vehicle going we'd be able to service the kids that are waiting now and provide better service for the residents in in Reading any questions from anyway Chuck it's not I guess I'm just it's actually probably maybe for Dr Pinto uh I'm just trying to think of this logistically we've already presented our budget why would we be talking about this why didn't we talk about this during the budget process this is a account that's not technically covered by the budget right this is a revolving well it's a revolving account right so so I'll answer that as uh so these fees have come so we did try and look at the Fe fees as a whole there are a number of fees there also a number of fees that are under consideration so these include athletic expenses or sorry Athletics food services and use of school property it was really big to tackle all at once what happened is they started to come up organically so the various departments were contacting me about posting fees uh for the next uh school year and so that's how these adjustments have been evolved so the question that followed immediately was well hey when was the last time we looked at the fees we know that we've got some uh expenses to plan for you know some things have increased materially that we became aware of right an example would be the transportation contract so we weren't aware of what the increases would be and so as that came up we thought that we needed to I just think it would have been appropriate to have that presented to the fincom uh as well I don't I mean somebody can correct me if I'm wrong but I don't Community Ed is not covered by our operating budget at all um we don't we don't there's no offset or anything else like that to the operating budget Community Ed is its own thing I think that's right well but we're talking about fees not just Community Ed you were talking about other fees as well and but other revolving funds that provide an offset into our operating budget that doesn't happen in this case Athletics would so that's a fair point for athletics agree to disagree I think this should have been discussed during budget process that's all yeah I don't think it would have been inappropriate to discuss it during the budget process I'm saying I don't think it's strictly speaking part of what we approved in the in the recommended budget I guess is what I well athletic if Athletics Athletics is related atics yes yeah and some of it I think as we all know is a timing issue how do we get all that done to Derek's Point how do we get it done right and as long as it doesn't if we don't pass it will it negatively imp impact the operating budget for next year no not in this case because it's not an operating budget issue but it impacts levels of service right and in this particular case I would almost argue we probably should be increasing it more especially considering the fact that we have a a new car we're going to have to buy in the next couple years you're going to have to add staff potentially once you do that and so it almost seems like we're taking a bite at the Apple now that maybe it's going to be another bite at the Apple in a couple years and maybe that's necessary to take a a step-wise approach to it um since it has been since 2012 in some way some ways Chris right um you know the demand is one thing I have heard about um you know you there's getting people to sign up for the sessions and getting locked out of sessions because too many people are in there and so they can't sign up for them and all that stuff so the more we can do to assess that I mean to improve the demand is really where my demand processing I guess is the best way to put it the demand is already there but what we can do to improve the demand processing I think is the biggest thing from my perspective in terms of how the community has reached out I'm sure you've heard that especially last fall you heard that yes right so if this is the right step for now I'm in favor of it I do think that it's something to think about over the next couple years is we have to buy a second car and we have a second instructor we're really trying to improve that we're not a profit Center so we're not trying to make any money out of this but we don't make sure that we actually can service the community appropriately yeah just I have no idea what the feasibility is of this is but I'll just throw out an idea you if we're feeling constrained by having one car and you know a new car is not in the Capal I don't remember what year it's in the capital plan but it's you know you said it's a few years out is there is there a possibility of of leasing a vehicle you know to help fill the demand in the short term you know to two or three years whatever it would take to bring a new car online so Chris and I actually discussed that one of those options today we were brainstorming as to how best to meet the demand so so that may be an option uh it may also be an option to uh continue to work with town to move the purchase of that vehicle that's slated for an oute further in so you know one of those things whatever um so the fees will the fee adjustment will certainly help in that regard at least uh just adjustments to the capital plan require a lot more hurdles and a lot more you know lead time than than uh a relatively straightforward leasing Arrangement that might help us fill the Gap so Cara and and the the pricing from the other Auto schools is that some is is that price increase like you said $1,000 is that a recent price increase so so with within the LA I the last year or so when I've looked at it it's actually $1,089 for um aganis and iDrive as their base and then there they tack on other fees um once you complete driver ed there's a $15 fee for certificate uh these private schools will charge $35 um 15 goes to the R&V and they keep it we don't we just charge the 15 for the RMV um they charge $150 for a uh sponsorship for a road test we charge 90 um so we we're a bit lower that's been for like the last year that I when I when I did the research um I'm not certain if they'll be going up I have one in a program and I remember it more in the 700s but that was over I can test that as accurate yeah this is this is correct this is correct um significance $300 in a year is pretty significant I just want to clarify that you said this increase will allow you to have another instructor now we're working on um hiring an instructor as we speak um posting the physician um and we're hoping we can get a certified RMV certified instructor uh to come on board so this fee will allow us to continually have this we we have it in in the budget now to start um and with the increase will help us sustain having three instructors okay is this enough of an increase um I I think it is um I think our account is is pretty well right now and and I don't honestly I don't want to um feel like we're gouging the residents we're you know public school or Community um I don't want to compete with a ganis and cost wise so I don't think it's the right thing to go any higher thank you okay I did just want to add if I could so so thanks for the feedback on this it's the aim going forward to bring all of the fees together for review earlier in the process the next time around and then we're also very sensitive to having increases across the board and so we're definitely going to be looking at policies next help us to accommodate some financial support when it comes to paying these fees okay so let's start with a motion just for this one eron then we'll talk about the next one uh motion to increase the driver's education fee increase motion to approve it sure motion to approve it second seconded by Sean any further discussion all in favor all opposed and passes thanks Chris CHR Mr scar still je Dr cor Jeffrey cor Ridge Road actually the uh the driver's ed vehicle came up last night at the finance committee meeting um it was moved up five years so it's in the fy2 budget for $45,000 so that's the first car you need to replace and that's not the second one that you're looking to get or so my plan would not be keep the current car as okay so yeah I mean the description was the current car is like falling apart old miles um and Sharon had an impression that um a previous Director of Finance for the school department had thought that there was money for that coming out of the adult education to buy it and that's why originally this the driver's ed vehicle had been in FY 29 but it and then it didn't get uh replaced so I don't know you know where okay so the perception from finance committee is that's going to be paid for directly out of the revolving uh so yeah I mean it's now in the so now it's in the in the capital plan there was some thought that it was coming out of that revolving fund but it sounded like that plan had somehow slipped through the cracks in the trans between some of the finance directors in the school department there was a plan for that vehicle which was discussed in August when we did Capital planning with the town uh and the vehicle was out in one of the out years FY 29 I think so I'm glad to hear that it's been moved forward so it was planned Capital plan on on Town side yeah so that's in article four of the warrant that we voted last night um and the other question that I had along those lines is um I know that the town has looked has is Str working to become a green community and there was some part of that that was trying to make sure we get green vehicles for Town vehicles but also I would think dri's add I don't know to what extent it falls the category the category is unless it's a large like van or bus or something like that then we have to first try to purchase a Green Rel related vehicle so yeah I don't know whether the the $45,000 that's in the capital plan for that is going to cover a green vehicle and whether that's appropriate for this you know we do have a charging station over in the the what used to be Imagination Station Parking Lot that might be but you know we might need to going to have to pay for the charge still too right yeah well but you know you might need a you know a charging station right next to the high school you know in order to to better you know not keep that in the way of somebody else who might park there um so Logistics are the best laid plans of M and men here right we'll have to figure those out we get there the good thing is we're not buying huge Vehicles right the car car in F in convers right now is a Ford Focus so we're not it's not a huge car um so you probably can get green vehicles that are that size within that price range but your point about the charging I think is definitely something to think about and we'll leave it to the administration to figure out the best way to handle that I also heard a question there Dr corm that you were asserting that this was going to be paid for out of the revolving fund but if that's the case it shouldn't be on the capital plan at all so so the the thought was that it originally there was some plan to pay it out of the revolver fund but that plan somehow slipped through the cracks and so it now has to go on the capital plan so I you know I don't know if somebody else had thought it was going to come out of the revolving fund and for whatever reason that didn't materialize maybe the adult education revolving fund didn't have as much money in it to buy the car as had been thought a few years ago or there was something else that took higher priority Chris do you have an up if you do come up to the podium so the camera can um so for my recollection uh it was originally on the capital plan for I believe either 24 or 25 it got pushed back to 29 and after it got pushed back we had some discussions um about the possibility of looking at the account to purchase the vehicle it wasn't decided um it was either to look at the account to purchase the the vehicle in its entirety or use funds in the account to make the upgrades to make it green or whatnot um but it it wasn't really like an official decision the account would pay for it um and it was left at in the 29 fiscal um year I did not know about the bump up so I appreciate that that's that's that's nice thank you um and then the increase in enrollment and the wear and tear on the vehicle is just making it if the car goes down the program is shut down so thank you okay um so that's moved and voted so let's move to the second one on this portion of the agenda Dr Pinto do you as well yes this is for uh student transportation so state regulations as your aware mandate that District transports students in grades K to six who live more than two miles from the school that they attend and so reading students that attend kilum elementary coolage middle Parker middle and reading Memorial are offered the option to purchase transportation for a fee based on Space ability availability in Our Roots so the district charges for this optional service and those revenues and fees are managed through a revolving account those fees have 13% and there are escalators also built in for that's 12 13% for this year and escalators built in for FY 2627 so we've proposed a nominal increase to student uh transportation fees ranging single digits from 4 to 6% for one student two student or three students and so you'll find that information table in your packet any questions on this one so I'll ask D do we expect that we're going to have to follow an escalator path like the contract is following for 26 and 27 so at the short answer yes so we we'll have to re-evaluate next year and see whether or not warrants but at the current time as you're aware the as you may be aware the revenues do not come close to covering the cost of the transportation either that or we eat more of it in the operating budget ESS that impacts our operating budget so you know we we want to provide high quality services and programs for our students and so that may necessitate uh a reevaluation of the fees okay any other comments questions this one was brought up during budget we just didn't have the numbers yet okay any um so motion Erin uh motion to approve the fee increase for transportation for fiscal year 25 good enough second second second by Sean all right any further discussion seeing none all in favor all opposed and it passes 60 thank you D okay um this computer shut down on us so I don't have any updates to your presentation but I have whatever's in the packet so if that was the final okay then we can go with that then um so Dr Hardy we will turn it over to you I believe for the student Opportunity Act presentation and um we can jump in from there awesome thank you all right so I'm pleased to share with you tonight the work that's been underway to um create our act plan and this is um it's a requirement for school committee to to vote and approve this before we can officially submit it um to desie and it's due on April 1st so plenty of time um so tonight I'm just going to go through a number of things I want to bring you up to speed on what the student Opportunity Act plan is um let you know just a little bit about how we write it and why and um let you know about the the targets that are set through that plan and um I'm not going to read through everything in the presentation for folks that are very interested in one all the details I tried to include a lot of details and then there's also really comprehensive information on des's website as well with lots of reading materials should you be interested um so the student Opportunity Act is an update to the Chapter 70 um law and and funding for schools and it was aimed at the idea that the Commonwealth wants to do a better job ensuring all students are um receiving access to an outstanding education um and in particular like the students who historically in our state have not um had as much success in our schools and so this was a way that um the state sought to do that by providing funds to um districts who had large percentages of students who were not meeting with success and in particular the plan looks at and focuses on some particular student group such as um students um from low income or economically disadvantaged families um students who are multilingual Learners students with disabilities and then students that are in some of the RIS categories that historically have not achieved as well as other students such as um black and African American students Hispanic students um Etc um so next slide please yeah so when this when Chapter 70 was updated um the idea was that um lots of money was going to be coming in two districts over a period of time um something over a billion dollars would be added into the Educational Funding which is pretty amazing um however the the way that the form formula was adjusted really has to do with who you have in those student groups that I was just talking about um so districts that have large percentages of students who might um be in the low-income category or MLS have seen a significant increase in their chapter 70s uh funding unfortunately districts like reading um really have seen no change um or perhaps very minimal change um next slide um however um part of the law is that every single District regardless of funding you receive or don't receive is is required to submit an SOA plan um so I think that um you know in some places you know this is looked at purely as compliance okay we've got to submit this um it's something desie requires um and it certainly is something we need to comply with but I I think it actually really speaks to the heart of a lot of the a lot of the work that's happening in our district really this concern is I forget who said it tonight but all means all and that's really a shift um in everything that we do and everything that we plan for we think about all of the student populations in our district and how we're best meeting their needs so I actually enjoyed putting this plan together because I think it gives us an opportunity to showcase some of the work that's been underway and to really highlight just a few key things um that we are doing um to try to close some of the achievement gaps in our district which you've heard me talk about those achievement gaps over and over again um so the details of the plan go a little bit into um where the achievement gaps are for students and then what the financial investments are that we're making in in um trying to improve toward approve the improve those achievement gaps but the plan does not ask for like a very detailed level about those financial investments it's really like a broad um sort of ballpark amount that we're spending on different things so if you read through the full plan and you say well that's that's sort of vague um that is um the way that desie asked us to present that information to them one thing I just want to clarify yes sorry should I do the jazz hand just tell me which one you're supposed to be on one thing I just want to clarify because um we do have a number of other types of plans in place that we regularly follow and you know um look to measure our progress on and sort of the biggest guiding document for us right now is our district strategic plan um which has um you know really like a comprehensive look at how we're trying to improve our district um this SOA plan is not meant in any way to replace that it's really meant to show a snapshot of some of the work that's happening where the district strategic plan really applies to all students in our district this plan is meant for us to focus on particular groups of students into call of what we're doing in order to increase achievement for them so that's just something that you'll notice that's a little bit different so I'm just going to quickly walk you through some of the highlights that you would see if you um were to read through our plan um the first step in and what we did was we took a look again at um a lot of our our data our our student academic data and other um data that we have on our students we looked at it in a disaggregated way so that means we broke it out by group and we really started to compare and look for patterns this is on going work that we typically do anyways um but it did give us an opportunity to look a little bit broader across um some different assessments and and pull them all together looking for gaps for students that really um were showing up across the board um and in doing that we decided um to focus this s SOA plan on our black and African-American students our MLL students and our students with disabilities with those three groups we saw some gaps um in their achievement and then we also Al saw that paired with attendance and some discipline rates that we weren't that we want to work on as well so we felt that the combination of those things um was a good reason to highlight those groups in this plan when we went through the data and we considered what we were seeing sort of came up with three buckets of areas where we saw um a need to focus um to improve for these groups of students we looked at um bolstering our seal systems and mental health support we know that that foundation for our students of feeling welcome um and safe in school is critical for any learning to happen and so um when we look at our attendance rates and discipline rates for some of the students in these groups we felt that that was an area that we had to highlight in our plan additionally um one of the key strategies that we've employed is we believe that having the strongest tier one instruction in place we can is really what is going to close the gap for most of our students um and ensuring that that curriculum really is able to support the needs of all students regardless of their background regardless of um their first language regardless of their um learning style um even if they're a neurodiverse student uh we want to make sure that that tier one instruction is going to meet their needs um and then just another area that we um identified in looking at the patterns um for our students was the idea of making sure that our early literacy screenings are exactly where they need to be um and including even preschool another part of the SOA plan that I think is really valuable is it asks us to look at feedback we've received from from families and start to understand really what their concerns are so that was part of our process um we have in recent years established some good structures in our district for Gathering feedback from some groups of families so for example um the families of students with disabilities we already have some good systems in place this kind of for us um put a spotlight on the fact that we haven't gathered in the past some of the data we'd like from our ml families and from our families of black and African-American students we were able to remedy that um through the process of preparing to write this plan um and then that information was used as we helped to select the the components in the plan that I'll show you next so every time um the SOA plan comes out actually I should say this is really like the first rewrite in a non-co covid year um Jesse has continued to tweak what this plan is going to look like um So the plan we're putting together this time it looks very different from what you perhaps voted on three years ago um and even two years ago when we did that little mini rewrite um and that's because desie just continues to refine what they want and they have given us this time it's a pretty structured um plan um with when we when I go into have to go into the gems platform um which is the same platform we use for Grants um interestingly and there's a lot a lot of this goes in as sort of like drop- down menus and and check from this list um so it isn't a plan that we're making from scratch it's something that's pretty prescribed when we go through it um but we did decide um that there were two Focus areas so the um evidence-based programs that we have to select from sit in different Focus areas this the way desie broke them out the two Focus areas we picked I think you'll see match what I talked about a little bit earlier that Focus area one being promoting student physical and mental um health and wellness and then the second being really looking at our um instructional materials So within each of those Focus areas there were a number of evidence-based programs that we um were asked to select from um and you can see on the next four slides are the evidence-based programs we selected this is not verbiage that I wrote this again is was provided to us from desie um and so under the first one is really a focus on continuing that work of um increasing sense of belonging for our students um leveraging the mental health positions that we've added and um making sure that we're addressing The Chronic absenteeism that we see as an obstacle for some of our students additionally um I guess you probably won't be surprised to see that um one of the things that we are focusing on is the curriculum adoption process making sure again that that tier one um instructional material in front of in the hands of our teachers in front of our students um is research based and and then with that with the adoption of the um of new programs comes the professional development um that is needed to really ensure that those tools are meeting the mark this is particularly important when we're thinking about these these groups of students um whenever you start to implement a new program it's easiest for teachers to sort of see how it fits to the middle of the group um the kids that have a more typical profile in their classroom um and so professional development is essential to make sure that we that teachers are able to apply and use use those materials to meet the needs of um their struggling Learners and then of course our accelerated Learners some of those we saw tonight um but this this to me is really a key component of this s SOA plan is the professional development for our staff and then the final area is just that continued work we started this year around our early literacy screener you've heard us talking about this um but as you know a next step for us is um seeing what this looks like in preschool and then next year to evaluate how things went this year and continue um to improve those systems so those are the four evidence based programs that we'll be F focusing on as part of this plan um of course with any um plan that we put forth we want to have a way to measure Improvement in this case desie has set for us three-year Improvement targets um we actually just received those about a week ago um and the way that they do that is they um they select the um bottom um cortile of students so they look at students who have taken mcast and um they put all those students um basically in a list from the highest performing to the lowest performing and the bottom 25% or they they're labeled the lowest performing students and they've set goals for us to meet with with that group of students um going forward and that's how our success on this plan will be measured so I know that was a lot to take in but I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have John go ahead the um the targets that they said is it is it proficiency like what which which metric are they using yes um so they what they've given us is and we're still digging into this we've only had it about a week but what they they took was sort of like that raw mcast score um and they they literally like rank order the students um based on that and then what we see is a percentage increase that they want um year over-year okay sounds proficiency not growth based that's interesting chose I mean you could see you could see growth in the Raw score without necessarily seeing commensurate growth in proficiency depending on where those average scaled score right it's average scaled score right it's the one yeah yeah yeah okay thank you okay other thoughts or questions I'll just say it clearly aligns with the goals of the district um we've talked about almost all these at nauseum for the last couple years so it's not surprising and thank you for taking the time to get it all aligned um I was telling Dr meski earlier today it'd be great to have kind of like a a chart visual of here's the district goal here's the SOA goal and you know this goes to that this goes to that it's pretty clear as it as it already is with a lot of the stuff we have going on so yeah I mean that's something that I'll create you know we create internally for our department so that we can track those together so always happy to share out what that looks like if it's helpful just say one other thing you know you made the comment at the beginning about towns like reading you know we don't see any Boost from these funding adjustments I was just pulling up the math in the preliminary chart for 25 it looks like we're still about $3 million off of what the calculated rate is and what we've been getting so um when we go to full dayk we'll convert almost 300 well however many students it is to full day that's about a million and a half but we're still going to have a Delta so we're still looking at those minimum eight increases annually for the foreseeable future so sh we've been having back when Susan's here too all the way through Derek now too is having continued calls with desie saying how closer we can you run these numbers for us if we're to go full day know Universal kindergarten does that move us over and the answer still is Ben we're you know we're about a million and a half away a million a half to two away like we do yeah we have benefited from student Opportunity Act though with regards to out of District transportation and refunds in that space in a good way so while it doesn't hit us directly in the Chapter 70 funding it does hit us in the On The Backs side with regards to reimbursement rates and stuff so good point okay um all right so we have to vote on this one officially so let's get a motion um is there any more specific I'm just approving the student Opportunity Act it's the is it the 2024 2025 student Opportunity Act or which what is it is it a three-year plan Sarah it's a threeyear plan so 2024 through 2026 or seven or seven yeah seven okay motion to approve the 2024 through 2027 student Opportunity Act plan second second by Chuck any further discussion all right all in favor all opposed and it passes 6 to zero you have April 1st to submited or something like that right yeah get on tomorrow okay I think that concludes our agenda our pre-planned agenda um and any say does that mean there's an unplanned agenda motion to adjourn by Aaron seconded by Chuck all in favor all and that passes 60 good night e e e