##VIDEO ID:VezIxfH5Pd8## e e e e e e e okay I love doing that all right um welcome everybody to the swans school committee regular session meeting for Thursday November 7th 2024 uh we are at swk High School uh 200 essic Street room b229 I call meeting to order and if I could ask if you are able please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all okay um do we have love of learning we do not we do not okay Okay so we've uh changed the schedule a little bit and we're now going to committee chair which is me we're going to discuss the superintendent search uh part A on the agenda uh discussion review school committee interview and Community conversation with Mr Jason kalishman um would anyone like to start any discussion or comment about the last couple of events anybody I can start please feel free Mr Janis so I I took a few notes just from our interview from kind of after the community event just memorialize some thoughts and I just want you to share some of those um publicly and sorry thank you so I think um you know part of part of what we do you know we listen to everything um Jason collegan had said to us you know our job is to evaluate and take take what he said into account take what others have said into account and at the end of the day I thought uh I thought Jason presented himself and his vision extremely well um some specifics that that I had written down um I thought Jason had demonstrated very strong leadership skills um I thought that um his years at the high at the middle school sorry at the middle school um showed someone who have the capacity to make decisions um to stay on top of things immediately and get satisfactory resolutions um his years in education I thought played a big part in my my thinking getting to this getting to this point in the process um as far as another thing I thought was a plus was uh Jason's effective communication skills um you know the way um the way that Jason talked about you know his experiences at the middle school as as the principal what he thought as um potential superintendent you know how he would deal with you know certain situations the the questions we had for my thought um the way he communicated that um was very effective um also on Just for collaboration and teamwork uh I thought you know again some of the examples that that Jason had demonstrated um you know showed showed his leadership capability his his ability to build strong relationships um one of the other things that I that I had noted um this this actually came out of the Monday session that you you were you were willing to empower others to kind of go and do their thing and um basically giving them the tools and the autonomy to to do what they want but under your kind of under your overall guidance I thought that was encouraging to hear um again all pluses um some I'm not going to say they're minuses but I I think they were I think we all agreed they were areas for Improvement were um kind of budget and finance you know I think you you even admitted as much uh Jason that you know that's an area that um you you've been um kind of perly plugged into but um you know there's you know as as the super that would be something that you would have to jump into the deep end and and um and and be able to deal with that um again not a negative just just an area for improvement um another another thing I thought was uh that stood out to me was uh again it's kind of flip side of what we talked about but your problem solving um abilities again some of the examples you provided some of the um statements that were made on your behalf um demonstrated to me that um you you're able to think kind of Outside the Box in certain situations be able to solve problems in a satisfactory manner um and lastly um your your community engagement uh came through loud and clear to me as far as um you know as the principal at the middle school you've gone um you know you've gone out of your way to be at events to to talk to parents and I think one of the most important things for me has been um you know as part of that engagement um your your capability to listen and if necessary do a course correction um you know I think for me that was a really important attribute that stood out that um you know if something's not working you're willing to take a step back have a discussion and say hey is is this a direction we really want to go or do we need to do a course correction so you know I I thought again and that pointed to um you know strong leadership capabilities and you know something that gave me great confidence that um you know as problems come up as they always do that you know those tools that we're demonstrating uh would suit you well so Glenn that's I'll stop there but uh you know I I'll reserve the right later to Absol add additional comment absolutely thank you John Karen sure um I would say that coming off the formal interview that we had I was very pleased um I thought that it was a thorough discussion I thought we had um really good uh answers that were well thought out and that were very meaningful um what I thought was interesting is that going into the community event um I thought a lot of the comments and questions were actually similar which means to me that we were hitting all the Salient points and that we were um asking the right questions and that we were getting to the meat of what's really important to us and to um our district and our community so I think that the process was meaningful and I think we were really able to learn learn from it um I feel confident myself um um both in the sense that I think we're very lucky that we have an internal candidate I think um that we know someone who is dedicated and competent um and that we can feel good that we know this person after not just the the interview and the community conversation but in my case over a decade of working alongside this person so um I personally feel that Mr kishman is uh the ideal candidate for the next superintendent um because of all of those reasons great thank you Karen Suzanne um I'm GNA lead off with I think um I'm happy to have an internal candidate I'm happy I'm happy we have a district that has a a a deep a deep bench and um you know I'm going to lead with I think Mr kishman is going to make a wonderful superintendent I think that I was um I think I think with the strong thing and I think this is what a lot of people want to see is is a presence in the community and you certainly have that and I think that I think that that presence is really important to people and your approachability and um and through all the all the letters of support we we got from you there was just a a theme that ran through them all of of your ability to listen and communicate about your ability to give people agency and um to be creative about problem solving or to you know do do course Corrections and and I mean all those things just came through um just about with every with every letter so I know you're I know you're going to be well suited for the job like like John I have some areas where maybe there's some opportunities for for more growth and and budget would be one of them I think um figuring out um your own voice and how you're going to create your relationship with the town because um we've had varying success as as this committee and I think that at the leadership I think you're going to find it's just a really important way to for you to figure out how how your voice and your strength um is going to come across in your relationships with people in town and right now um it's a little tumultuous and I just it's going to be like that and I think that you're you're going to be able to do it but I think that's just an opportunity and I think the other area I kind of worry about is sometimes you're you're too approachable or you're too or I think that it's it's a strength and a weakness at the same time and and I and I applaud your approachability and your communication and then also you just want to be able to like pull back and have your Authority and and and that sort of stuff and I think you're going to figure that out because I because I'm pretty sure you you know that and so I think I'm sorry I missed the community conversations but I like Karen I think we did a really good job on on on the night where we had our discussion I think we hit on on most of the all of the points that I thought we wanted to to so great thank you Mr it's hard to follow up I have a lot of very similar things written down um so I'm just going to start where sort of at the end for me um some have asked why we didn't open up the process to outside candidates I think we've talked about it a little bit but I just want to say this swamp Scott is a unique town with only three square miles and it's the kind of place that people choose to come back to this wasn't the kind of town that I grew up up in but it's the kind of town that I very intentionally raise my children in when I joined this committee our district was in the middle of a great up uh and nearly the entire leadership team has transformed over the past decade most small towns like ours tend to be stepping stones for bigger and sexier positions when we hired superintendent angelakis it was with intention intention to smooth the waters intention to have someone the teachers and the community could count on to make their career here um with the average superintendent tenure of two to four years I believe we chose we because longevity provides an important thing that education needs which is stability so what feels like forever ago the school committee looked to our superintendent to develop her staff um and prepare swamp Scott for the future and really create a succession plan uh it's taken time but in nearly every key position superintendent you have developed bench strength to not only do a particular position well but to think broadly as a team and about our district this broad competency within our district is something that I'm personally very proud of which is why there really was no need uh to do a broad search and that I really appreciate the work that you have done not only in developing your team but in in you know coming to us with a very well thought out um recommendation when we ask that for you um in addition to what I thought was a pretty difficult night for uh Mr kishman for two hours um uh I thought you did very well um I'm not going to repeat the things that that my colleagues have said but it's you know leadership Community Building course Corrections confidence leadership style um in addition there were I I have to say I really appreciate all of the letters that we received as a committee um both the ones that were strongly in support and the ones that uh registered some concerns they were all really important for us to hear uh as well as for the people who filled out our survey um certainly not as many people as we would have liked but it was helpful um I want to say that there were three people in particular whose letters and statements really helped me to make my decision principal sorn uh the dean of students Mary powers and vice principal of the Middle School Emily AO in the role of superintendent Jason will transition away from the day-to-day interactions with students much of his time will be spent with his leadership team and getting these three different perspectives from these women was really critical uh one a seasoned educator who was lured back after retiring she has seen it all with decades in the district one a teacher who developed into an outstanding leader uh a principal partly under Jason's tutelage uh she became his peer uh and then a third educator who transitioned into leadership and is also on her way uh with a fantastic trajectory having their thoughtful and distinctive endorsements codified what I have seen in Jason kishman his leadership continued growth dedication to doing right by his students and staff forward thinking strong collaboration and his term and humility there's always a human element here with such an important decision and I know personally that I like there's moments of like am I getting this right um but I really have no doubt and I enthusiastically endorse Jason kishman as the right person to step into this position the benefits of developing professionally within the district and then moving on to lead it is really a win for our kids and our community and I'm confident um that if people in our community don't already know him that they're going to come to view him as the right person for this job as well thank you Mr thank you everybody um before I make my words I just do want to say that um the school committee did receive a very lengthy well-written letter from uh Mr Andre um of course it was while R um and very long um but uh I'll just write just I'll read the first paragraph um dear school committee members I have written this letter in support of Jason kishman for swamp's next superintendent of schools I had the Good Fortune of being a science educator for 36 years years in Swampscott and in that time worked under several superintendents I also had the unique experience of having Jason as a student in my classro and then many years later as my assistant principal and principal and it's from this perspective that I share my thoughts and hopes that you will approve of Mr kishman so to Mr Andre thank you very much um for me first I want to thank the entire school committee for their assistance with this process as as Amy said it was a deliberate process we spoke to many many people to gain an understanding about what we should do uh for me personally um I just go back to when I was first on the committee many years ago and we brought in a superintendent after a lengthy worldwide search that um was problematic just just factually was problematic um so I'd like to thank a few people uh first of all to Mr kesman thank you very much for um your enthusiasm for raising your hand for uh meeting with me personally a couple times to discuss this to answering our questions for nearly two hours and then at the community discussion um I am confident that you know what you don't know and I agree with both um Karen and Suzanne there are definitely room for grow growth um and I am confident that if the committee votes that way you will achieve that growth I want to publicly thank superintendent angelakis who uh assisted with um just listening to when I was talking about you know process and about answering questions of uh parents and uh I appreciate that thank you very much um I also like to thank Glenn coocher of the mass Association of school committees uh Glenn has done this for a very long time and he guided us on again process uh what to do what not to do and to not be afraid to take a step uh I also want to thank Mr howerin who moderated um the community conversation really the important part was so we all could pay attention to what was being said um I know we were up here for a couple hours asking Mr C from questions and I think we're all taking notes and sometimes it gets hard to listen as you're taking notes um to the community to the vast number of emails and letters that you sent please stay that engaged as we start to talk about budget whether you had questions about process whether you had uh concerns whether you had accolades thank you for sending those emails and letters thank you for stopping me at hoods a couple times thank you the school district is the community the parents and everyone else it's your school district we're here for a very short time so if you have questions you have comments don't stop today please let us know and we promise we're working on the email issue that we have um so I've known Mr cman for a very long time um I have been sitting in his if I'm repeating I apologize I was sitting in his office with a twin a twin a on one hand twin a on another hand and Mr kalishman telling their mother and I what's what and it's not an easy thing to do to tell us what was what and it was done professionally and at that point those many years ago it was very evident that Mr kisan was a leader um through this process I have gained a greater Insight of those leadership abilities uh yes there is room to grow I think that's a good thing it's not an easy job as superintendent angelakis will tell you it takes a while to gain an understanding as Miss Wright said it's hard not to be too involved but can't be too involved it can't be too macro that's why you have this great staff that has been put together for you and we say that all the time if someone sends us an email you have to follow the steps um I am confident that you will meet the goals and responsibilities of the position and I appreciate you raising your hand and throwing it into the ring with that unless there's any other discussion can someone please make a motion Miss o uh I will make a motion I move that the school committee appoint Mr Jason kalishman as superintendent design effective immediately and that effective July 1st 2025 Mr kalishman be appointed as the superintendent of the Swampscott school district for a period of three calendar years and that the school committee begin negotiations with Mr kishman on an appropriate Employment contract thank you is there a second all second thank you uh I do want a roll call vote please I will start with Miss okon yes Miss Ray yes Miss Marshall yes yes Mr jantis yes I will also vote Yes with that the motion to appoint Jason kalishman as superintendent desing KN effective immediately and that effective July 1 2025 Mr kishman be appointed as superintendent of swans public school district for a period of three calendar years and that the school committee begin negotiations with Mr kishman on an appropriate Employment contract passes unanimously congratulations Mr [Applause] pass [Music] Vuitton I think I'm a proud mama I want to say the biggest smile came from our superintendent and I just saw I just saw this giant relief I think you just honestly I think you just reversed aged about I just have to say one thing um I heard everything you all said in terms of areas for growth but I also find it a little comical that every year when you evaluate me after 11 years I still have areas for grow so um if he came in in his first year and didn't have areas to strengthen I'd be really concerned but I I am a proud mama I appreciate the committee um listening to me and then going through such a thorough process but there as I said in the beginning there is a passion there is a commitment there is a dedication to this district and it'll be 11 years when I set sale in June and that's something I look forward to watching Mr kishman have longevity here and he does have this amazing team around him so um I I I'm I am proud mama sorry uh Jason if you'd like to make a couple comments I know that um your other commitments this evening is this on okay no I just want to thank everybody for the opportunity I am so proud and honored that um this has come to fruition and I'm not going to let you down thank you very much all right thank you everybody really uh I really appreciate it again um committee comments Miss o' Conor I uh I I got nothing after after this week that is just I perfect perfect way exactly very happy um Mr Right I feel same way it's like mic drops so yeah right um Miss Marshall nope I'm good thank you m j I'm good thank you GL um I have nothing myself to how about our student I'm sorry Noel I'm I'm sorry it's okay very impolite of me um I have some updates from the high school um the girls have started practicing for Powderpuff it is November 23rd If you would like to come it is a fundraiser um it's very exciting it's very nice bonding everybody's very excited to face Marble Head on November 23rd no no well just because I'm a little confused of who's playing where now you're home home this year home this year and Matt botch is coming to the high school on November 14th which is very exciting he was here last year he have a beautiful presentation about the effects of like drug drugs and alcohol in someone's um life and then I think he's also doing another session at night where the public can come and I think it's a very um it's such a inspiring story and I think you if you would like you could go and listen to it because it's it's just very powerful and going an activity about in PL sight where there's um I think it's a simulation or he takes parents through what's in plain site in your bedrooms of your children and are really signs of that um we worked uh with the I'm Miss Conor can speak to the opioid money if you want to talk so thanks for bringing that up I have to say um this represents the first uh set of money that the town uh is giving to is using to sponsor um opioid uh education uh it comes directly from the settlement with uh the state and uh I think in particular this is a like a $10,000 spend um and there is more in the works uh thanks to Mr cohut and team uh particularly uh Miss Hatley Woodfin uh and yes there is a second piece of second component to this which is in plain sight this is actually um uh Something That We're purchasing so it will live in the town uh can be used at all kinds of events um but a way to help parents understand sorry kids uh when they head into your room that uh you know that what they think might just be uh benign uh is in fact uh drug paraphernalia so uh sorry kids we blowing the uh the lid off of that can I ask what time does it start on I think it's 6 o'clock um it's going to be here in the library but importantly the biggest piece of the puzzle is that he's here all day with Miss Woodfin and the students um it was particularly compelling when I was helping uh kind of just work through the imaginations of this that Miss Woodfin has data uh that that speaks directly to sort of the before and after that that her students had last year and really how effective this is so um the uh the health department was very excited to on this and um we we hope to grow and spend more money because we're going to have you know million bucks plus over the years so it really is up to us not us I'm just helping because I like to grab the money but um it is up to our district to um identify the need and ask for it so that they can fund it so thanks for thanks for bringing that up anything else no no I'm and I'm going to excuse Noel at 7 o'cl tonight because she has band practice practice so when she sneaks out me for concern great um I look forward to attending that event good okay um that is community comment I will turn it over to yourself Miss so my superintendent's report tonight contains um many presentations um from facilities director to Director of Finance and to our director of teach our um director of teaching and learning and our assistant superintendent of student services but we're going to start tonight by celebrating a student and so I call Mr cohut down each year um the Massachusetts Association for school committees School superintendents not school committee sorry interchangeable um Awards a student a certificate of AC of academic excellence and this year I'm going to have Mr kohot readed so that we can honor this student little biography good evening everyone good evening the Oro Goen is an exceptional scholar activist and simply a kind human being her dedication to making a positive in impact on her community and the World At Large is truly commendable she exemplifies our big blue bees leora's passion for women wom's health and equality is evident through her involvement with the pad projects ambassador program where she has demonstrated leadership and initiative she is highly empathetic with a clear sense of Duty for helping her community her commitment to addressing inequalities and supporting homeless women and girls through initiatives such as the pad drive and film screening demonstrates her character and her values furthermore Lor's academic achievements including excelling in 10 advanced placement courses 15 honors courses as well as a dual enrollment course at Northshore Community College and her hands-on experience at the plymate lab showcase her exceptional intellectual capabilities and dedication to making meaningful contributions in the field of Public Health Leora has explored Global cultures by spending time in Israel through a teen Initiative Program as well as in France via a French Exchange program during her very rare Spare Time Leora likes to bake and enjoys perusing consignment shops Leora is the epitome of making a difference and she gives all of us that's the adults in the building tremendous hope for the future congratulations leor come [Applause] on so I'm going to read this certificate to you it says Leora regen having duly qualified under the standards prescribed by the Massachusetts Association of school superintendent is hereby awarded the certificate of academic Excellence congratulations come down and get a picture please okay go ahead say something um I do if any of you had know any um teenagers grades 7 to 12 there is a community service event on on November 24th we will be making lasagnas for LifeBridge and um snack bags for elementary school kids this is on Sunday November 24th um from 1: to 4 P.M so if you know any children of that age teenagers of that age um please let them know of this opportunity than you where's he it is at Temple Emanuel in Marblehead so wonderful wonderful congratulations pict we can put it on Instagram yeah come on you want to come down and take yeah Mom and Dad come on come on down really take a picture mom and dad come down I know I mean you rais such a slacker W behind you well one with one without one with one without I think exciting for you I agree I agree in [Laughter] it okay let's get the parents yeah me too I had like laundry I didn't get done today and like do you so Leora Leora can I be Leora can I be The Annoying adult and ask you what everybody else is asking which is where you're applying for colleges and if You' heard anything or um I have not heard back yet but I'll let you know when I do oh good all right we follow up thank youat all right on to a couple of field trips um I am going to reverse order because we have a couple of guests here tonight would you like to come down and sit closer and talk speak about your field trip sorry Joe I've got it anybody want to record on no pressure you guys present oh okay as you have wow look at that that's pretty cool that's pretty cool what is oh I know um so yes we have a field trip presentation tonight thanks uh we have Mr McKay and Mr Wildman here to talk about their uh field trip application for a trip to Kennedy Space Center so I turn it over to you men here consider ourselves the astronomy team of swampa high school um when we started the astronomy program uh I had this idea I wanted to grow the program because astronomy I found is actually quite popular at the high school level My Hope was one day we could do a field trip maybe to Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the help of Mr Wildman we've kind of FastTrack this we have all the groundwork together to do it this very spring so we're going to propose this to you and see what you think and um yeah we'll show you what we got uh so we're going to C Space Center uh Cape Canaveral uh Florida any You' gone a cruise out of Florida you've gone to there anyway so that area um we're going to go February uh vacation of 2025 um we're going to go from Sunday to Saturday um just the way the the calendar would work out that works the best uh gives a couple days after when we get back for the kids to readjust before school um so that that was a plus we're looking at 23 students five chapon it might shift around depending on numbers uh with the final numbers uh but that's what we're proposing right now um we're flying from Boston Orlando uh we're going to rent a few minivans uh it was just the cheapest option and the easiest option to be able to get around uh point A to point B we're going to stay at the there's a Best Western right outside of uh can Space Center about 20 minute ride away uh it's probably the closest hotel in the area to there so we chose the Best Western in Coco Beach uh it's literally right across the causeway so uh you could go up the highway and I'll actually pull the map up for that uh quite literally it's just straight up the highway which is uh pretty nice pretty convenient um uh so it's right nice thing about this uh stay here is right there on the beach so um amidst doing anything with County Space Center we uh incorporated as well a day in um at the bravard zoo in Vieira so I am I lived in this area for about five years so I'm pretty familiar with the area and I know this was a good experience this uh they have manity watches here this will be a nice addition to it just um four days at Kennedy get you know gets to be a lot plus our hotel will be right on the beach so that's a nice thing for the kids in February to get to the beach and uh it's very easy to supervise kids on the beach Beach versus trying to go to like Disney so yeah it will uh downtown will basically be time of the beach shopping they have a pool there um so it'll be some downtime sprinkled in around the feature which is Kennedy Space Center so we're looking at approxim cost right now of 23 27 uh depends on how many students go how many sha runs go that will fluctuate but our goal price was LE something less than 25,000 we've been working with triaa and they were able to get down to right Now 23 um it's Peak Travel season so we're we're going for six days it's uh it's a pretty penny uh I saw the price and I I thought I was going to faint it was bad and um after talking with our agent she was able to get it down considerably we went from a starting price I think it was like 2600 base um so she cut about $300 off which um which is good we're going to do some fundraising to try and get down to 2,000 a student um even lower even better um we're going to give them optional Insurance uh through AAA so uh if they need to cancel they can do that and get the full reimbursement so that takes the liability off of us love um we wanted that insurance option to be there because we know it's flu season things happen um and it just kind of you know gives them that option so it's not we don't end up in a situation where someone's not able to go but they paid for it and what do you do right so that is the gist of it um we are essentially uh presenting you to see what you guys think and um we have your approval we uh can go forward with it this February so do you have any questions I think I love the itinerary as we always do with these trips room just for club club members or will could other kids go to it's we're opening so we're opening to the astronomy current and past students and then if we don't fit the the 23 student Mark we'll open it up to uh another group of students it looks like we're going to open up to the soft the junior physics cohort in senior electives first and then it should fill up by then this about what 200 students in that cohort that are eligible from that um but we ran a just like a just this test the waters we just ran a survey to see like hey if this field trip ran the future who wouldd be interested and we got about 25 students who were very very passionate about it so um can you go higher than 23 yes but we'll have to get more sha runs right okay we're um this this is something we may do in successive years so like um this is our sort of kind of first run with it if it's something we can grow then it's something we would do so that's why we're going to kind of prioritize the seniors and juniors because if we run a successive years this would be their only chance right well you all know where I stand and I don't have a vote out of curiosity how many astronomy classes do we have what what what do we teach three sections of uh I think the average size is 15 so it's about 45 students just like General astronomy yeah yeah it's kind of curious like who knew I know exactly oh come on you guys approve the I know butr studies you just I just think of it as a college course I do think of it is wow that's great um uh from my perspective it sounds amazing and so your I saw your list of chaperons like it looked like you had five male chaperons like any thought about um having a woman kind of jump in the mix we were asking around on the third floor with all the Science and Technology teachers just who we have available to talk to during the day and all of them are are busy so we're going to expand it outwards just to see if we can get a six chapon um from somewhere else in the building it's just one of those uh the school day gets very busy and no I just think it's important to sort of balance that I agree we did think about that um and that is um we just don't have a confirmed um sixth one but yeah we did think about that and we are we are working on that our hope is to get to get a woman involved and and um and so if you if you have fundraising goals is there um are you looking at trying to maybe um I'm trying to you know lower everyone's cost but then if there's a kid with a particularly a hardship case or someone who really wants to go I mean do we have we do have opportun for either direct fundraising or something to sort of help help certain students that we have ways to offer financial aid or scholarships like you know fundraising like targeted fundraising to for great for Kitty thank you s I was going to ask same the same question um do you while the gentleman here would you like us to vote on this now yes please okay any other comment from anybody about the trip other than we I'd like to go categorically yes all right um then can I please have a motion to approve the field trip by the astronomy trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida I will make a motion somebody second thank you all in favor say I I all oppos there is none the motion passes have a great time come on back and let us know how it went yeah make sure no kids going to space or some kids got one thank you so much appreciate your time thank you thanks for doing it and Chris my condolences everybody L um the next field trip that I need the school committee to consider is the ADL um trip to never is now convention in New York City um Hadley Woodfin and Emily McDonald are the advisers to the ADL club and the field trip is for the ADL Club um and they attended last year with 29 high school students the never is now convention welcomes high school students from across the globe with the goal of educating students on combatting hate I know that once it's approved out of state we don't necessarily have to bring it back to you but I do like you to all know who's going out of state so I ask that we bring bring it before you and I asked for a positive vote on this field trip as well okay um why don't we just vote on this yeah no anyone have any thoughts comments I I'll make the motion to approve great second second all in favor I I'll oppos none the motion carries for the ADL club to go to the never is now convention in New York City the first week in March thank you I know that was a really big hit last year so great um was that the one that they we were well represented for high schools among a lot of college students no that was the um no that was ADL it was ADL the model un where we were so where we had like the biggest team going no no it was ad ad yeah they've really done a great job um and then a highlight of our evening um we have our mcast presentation with Dr bacon and um assistant superintendent Raymond and I'm going to turn it over to them can somebody bring up the presentation all right we got here we're working on it we we've never done this before I should laugh I can't do it at all so John was taking so long Zoom is new every time well as opposed to the Educators we aren't necessary I know on it all the time I know very true it's not like one of your teachers is doing this I completely understand no no judgment we're on it all the time at the upper right upper right hand corner yeah slideshow perfect perfect great well thanks everybody for having us um this is our annual trip to to share with you some information about our mcast and our school accountability results so the presentation is divided into two parts we'll talk about mcast first and then we'll talk about the the um accountability system that that reflects not only our performance on ncast but our performance on a whole range of indicators that tell usort of how we're doing as a district um in terms of our Improvement goals go to the next slide all sorts of things on the screen there of that um so today in our presentation you're going to see a comparison of our 2024 mcast results to our pre-pandemic for performance in 2019 and our goal really has been to sort of reach back to you know recovering from the pandemic and getting our students back to their performance levels before um before the pandemic and it's also important to keep in mind that this uh Desi accountability system was introduced in 2018 so and it was suspended during covid so we're only a couple years into our postco performance in the accountability system Mo to the next slide so this is our first part of the of the presentation on mcast and we're going to do three different takes on mcast the first one the question whoops the question we're going to be asking ourselves is how we're doing um compared to before the pandemic so now you can move to the first graph oh there we go okay um so in this graph we're looking at our Ela performance over the past several years and you'll notice in the first set of bars in the elementary schools we've had a decline in our Ela performance over time and also since last year and that decline since last year is a is at the elementary level is something you'll also note in the math and we attribute that to a lot of disruption during the last school year getting ready for the move so there were a lot of things that people were dealing with um during that year but happily at the middle in high school we saw performance growth over our 2023 results in ela with 6% % more students meeting the state standards at the middle school and 16% more meeting the state standards at the high school and at the high school as you can see in ela we've now exceeded our pre-pandemic performance which is great news for us the next slide on our math performance and so you see the same little drop in performance at the Elementry that we pointed out on the ELA performance and improved performance again at both both middle and high school levels um but only at the elementary level have we exceeded our prepandemic performance when you look at the Orange Line compared to the Blue Line in each of the graphs and recall that we introduced a new highquality math instructional program um at the elementary level in the 2122 school year so putting aside the dip since last year you see a pattern of continued growth after we int introduce that new math program go to the next slide science so in this year in science in grades five grades eight and in the high school biology exam we did outperformed ourselves um in terms of comparison to 2023 which is great news and uh one thing I do like to point out in this graph it says mcast 2.0 there in the sequence of scores from the high school biology exam that's because in U 2022 the the state introduced a substantially different high school biology test um much more rigorous much more application of skills rather than memorization of facts and our performance is sort of un it's like apples to oranges you really can't look at pre-pandemic performance and performance after 2022 in the science mcast but you can see that um after the introduction of this new science mcast we've grown every year since then so in summary when we look at our performance pre- and post pandemic across all these we see that we've now exceeded our our pre-pandemic performance in high school Ela in elementary mathematics and we are very close to exceeding that meeting and exceeding our prepandemic performance in middle school science as well so last year it was just elementary math now we have more and more grade spans and subject areas meeting our pre-pandemic levels so that's great news for us will you just remind me when you're looking at these numbers and it's it's grade five or grade eight for example it's it's really a new cohort each time not you're not following that same fifth grader into the next year correct that that's it's a whole new group of kids it's a whole new group of kids right but they're still all our kids yeah right and so you're going to see annual variations and and actually take two perfect segue if you go into the next slide um you'll see why we also look at it in a different way so take one is just comparing our performance over time so take two every year I'd like to look at how we're doing relative to the state because again every year it's a different cohort of students but there's also larger factors that are affecting the the variation from year to year pandemic certainly affected variation of our own trajectory over time you know other things are happening that are affecting all of us so this is a way to say how well are our students doing in comparison to the general trends that we're seeing in the state which may also be reflected in our own data if you move on to the next slide so in 2024 um our students met or exceeded State Standards on the m at rates which were across the board about 10% higher than the Statewide levels of students who were meeting um Statewide or state expectations and this pattern has not been the case in any year since I've been here and since 2009 so over the last five years what we've seen is that there are certain subject areas or grade spans where our performance has been either very close to or at the state level so and there's always been some that exceed but not everybody was exceeding so this is the first time where we see across the board all subject areas all grade spans we generally doing 10% better than the state in terms of the the proportion of our students who meet or meet or exceed the learning standards so can I ask you a question would what do you attribute that jump to right that's the next thing I was gonna say so we attribute this um to things like uh you know the things that we've been doing for the past five years adopting high quality curriculum materials in various subjects giving professional development to staff in various not only in general teaching but in subject specific things sometimes but also in general teaching teaching um teaching skills and we've also really enhanced our multi-tiered system of support for struggling Learners so you put all those things together professional development for your staff high quality materials support for struggling Learners and you can really boost achievement across the board those are the kind of things we've been working on um but even though this is great news for us in the next series of graphs what you're going to see is um an argument to be made that we could do even better so I'll go on to that next series so these are always a series of graphs that's a little bit hard to look at again it's tiny for people who are viewing it there but hopefully you guys have it up on your see a little better um so on this graph what I'm doing is looking not just at you know in the in the previous graph we looked just at 2024 by how much do our students exceed the state here we're looking at the trends of that over time over the last five years years so um to start at the middle school and high school if you're looking at the red and yellow lines on this graph you can see that our performance in in ela relative to the state after we took a big dip during covid has rebounded and has in fact in exceeded our performance relative to the state um in 2024 with the middle school being 12% above the state and the high school being 177% above the state whereas before the pandemic they both been in 2019 at 6% above the state so big growth relative to the state in middle and high school Ela and at the elementary level you can see our our very strong pre pandemic performance back in 2019 and then you know a considerable slip in our advantage over the state but still sort of hovering around that 10% level for the last few years and our hope is that in um adopting the new Ela curriculum which we just started you approved last year and we' started implementing this year we'll start to see our Ela scores at the elementary again grow grow back toward our prepandemic levels um and another thing I wanted to point on in this graph if you if you look at sort of the the the stuff at the very top you'll notice that Elementary performance in 2019 was 18% above the state um high school English performance in 2024 was 17% above the of the state they're edging up toward 20% so just keep that in mind as we go through the next graphs so the next one is our math performance relative to the state over time and again there's a lot going on in this graph so I'll just draw your attention to one line at a time so Focus first on that yellow line which is the performance of the high school relative to the state so you can see sort of where we started in 2019 at 14% And we dipped a lot during covid again everybody was dipping right but we were dipping more that's how to interpret that because everybody's going down but we used to be like this and and we're all going down and now we're like this right us and the state are much much closer together and you can see a big Rebound in 2024 again now exceeding our pre-performance our pre- pandemic performance and up at I think 16% now above the state in high school um mathematics so that's good news um if you look at the red line line that is our middle school performance right so we started before the pandemic about 8% above the state and then we've had you know again State's going down we're going down but we're going down more steeply than the state for the past few years during the pandemic but I put in there you can see where we introduced the new high quality math program between years 22 in the in the 2223 school year It's Not Unusual and and you you'll see this again in the elementary when you in a new curriculum there's often a little implementation dip that first year as people are getting and you see that twice on this graph but then you can see now the difference between 23 and 24 that investment is starting to pay off pay some dividends so we hope to continue to see that growing um the blue line at the elementary I did want to point out especially for school committee how that has changed over time so in 2019 we were actually one point below the state in our performance and then we hired some math coaches and between 2019 and 2021 our performance relative to the state increased a lot and then we introduced a new math program and you saw a little implementation dip between 21 and 22 and then it started to take off again as people got used to the new program and then um at the end of the 2023 school year we eliminated the two math coaching positions to support the implementation of that new curriculum after only two years of implementation and you can see what's happened in the past year so I encourage um this you know the school committee and the and budgeting to keep that in mind um especially as we're starting a new literacy program this year with one coaching place that we hired specifically to do that so these were not the coaches that were that we eliminated at the end of last year this was it wasn't the end of last year it was the end of the year the year before okay right that that were those were those last year wasn't it were these the coaches that coach the teachers the teachers yes that's what I mean so when you know so it's important to have support um to to improve instructional practice in an area that's why we hired them in the first place even before we got a new curriculum we said like look at how everything else is going elementary mathematics we performing below the state average that shouldn't be the case when we know that you know we can perform at this level we shouldn't have anybody performing so that we made the argument we made an investment we said let's get some coaches in there to help Elementary School teachers who are often not trained in mathematics who are teaching you know three four different subjects let's give them some support to build their skills in teaching mathematics so you have any do you have any data on like on is that drop because we lost some teachers and got some new teachers that didn't know how to teach that program I mean because which which drop the the the the 23 to 24 math when math coaches were eliminated uh I was just thinking you know we got a whole bunch of new teachers that don't know this program or because you if you're coaching teachers to be better teachers and to know the program like I don't think the drop shouldn't be that it doesn't seem like it should be that precipitous right it seems like it should be it should I mean it I know it looks like that because it's you know together but it's still it's still um 10 points almost right 14 to to eight seven yeah eight right yeah about eight or nine probably nine 14 to 14 or 15 to n i just like you know is there do we have anything in place to um like did we to support new teachers with this that's I mean not not even necessarily the math tutors but is there is there is there materials or Mentor teachers or something because it just seems like you know you can't just keep hiring Math teachers to coach teachers to teach at some point the teachers take accountability for that right it's just the new teachers that are the issue right and in that year in I will say between the 22 and 23 years um a lot of the focus of Math teachers was on getting the new teachers up to speed they spent a lot of time in new teachers classrooms and then that resource isn't no longer available us um yeah and I mean this is not something that samp Scott suffered alone I was at a a conference last week and the presenter at the conference was talking it was about instructional leadership and instructional support and the the presenter at the conference just made the general comment about the year we all lost the coaches so it wasn't it wasn't anything that was unique to swamp Scott but in that tough budget year coming out of covid when the eser funds were going away a lot of districts said where can be cut and a lot of people said instructional coaches and the point that this presenter was making is like it's there's a cost to that right and if you really want to you know there's you have to think about where you're putting because instructional coaching is really a a a big lever we can push to improve the quality of teaching and learning in in more so than professional development because well it is professional development but I'm just saying because it's not like going to a lecture and coming back it's like in the classroom it's right is right it's ongoing and and having somebody to model and help with like especially when you're learning a new curriculum two years isn't enough so it takes three to five I'm going to make that point later but it takes like three to five years to really get a new curriculum solid and you really need to support teachers through that whole process you can't do like one year of PD and then say okay you're all set on your own it's it's not going to you're not going to realize the return are these coaches for the most part full-time employees or are they uh Consultants different districts do it differently um it's you know the experiences I've had in the past and why I push it there I think that people who work full-time for the district are the most effective in in other districts that I know of um the problem is that it's all consultants and it's a different kind of and it's hard Harder They the district I'm thinking of it's harder for them to see the return on investment when they contract out when they what when they contract out I would imagine also for the teachers having a peer teach coach it would feel different than having an outside person come in and Coach maybe I don't know I I would just chime in here relevant or not that I think we have a very successful coaching model this year in our um Ela program and I'm C curious if it's because the entire Elementary staff is together and that they're doing it um together and it doesn't seem as threatening or is judgmental as I feel like the math coaches felt it felt very judgmental from the feedback I got um and so I think it's a little bit of the personalities and I I do know I'm hearing rave reviews of this um English language arts coach that is helping implement the inter reading this year so and I I do think a bit of it is having all three schools together yeah because they're all talking through it working through it so I'm curious to see that I mean so instead of like two on one or that it's nine on you know nine but I think it's more collaborative they have those Flex spaces they're meeting and I think it's style too so I think I I would really love to spend some time this year um watching the model that's occurring and trying to duplicate that if we go back to coaches in other areas so I I think there's a lot of factors going to say yeah you guys are going to have a little bit of a hard time you did two things or more than two things at the same time to tease out which where that came from that's my life story I always do two things never know which one is yeah right but it is I mean it's just it's just interesting but I I just wanted to say we see a coaching model really working well this year and I and I I do like to think it's BEC a little piece of it is that everybody's in the same building I think there a number of factors right I do too making it more successful we the way weet yes exactly it's not it's not called a coach called A literacy implementation specialist right I think there is that at the same time is a new curriculum so there was kind of like a an ability for I think teachers to say like yes please give me help on implementing this new thing versus the other versus I don't stink why are you coaching me I know how to teach so I there's a there's a lot of things there's a lot of factors that I think made it more more sucessful this year um okay you go on to the next one um so this is the science oops we missed there so this is the science and again you see that um the it grades five and eight the red and blue lines we're on the wrong page La one might want to go ahead there you go yeah y um five and eight um the red lines and the blue lines we're kind of now meeting and surpassing our prepandemic advantage over the state as you sawar graphs and uh again on the high school one there's a year that it wasn't given no continuous green line um but you can see that high school is running around 20 to 25% above the state in high school biology since um the new introduction to the new test and um our return from the pandemic so again if you remember back in the first slide we talked about like our students at certain grade levels and certain grade spans I mean certain grade spans in certain subject areas they're able to outperform the state by about 20% so this year we're 10% across the board but I think we can do better because our students can do better they they're shelling us they can do better when the circumstances are right and we have the right curriculum and the the you know the right instructional techniques and the right supports they can really um do even better so if I recall 2022 was also the year that our biology teacher quit a week into to school right don't remember that I I feel I I feel like that only because I know I think that was my kids you're in biology um so but interestingly it's still 20 20 points above yeah so we're doing well yeah we're doing very well I think we can do better huh okay so that's that's part of this area okay all right so now when you look at when you look at um comparisons I know um the state provides the the comparison to the state do we do you ever line us up against the other um districts that we line ourselves up to like when we're doing um negotiations negotiations do we ever do that does it matter it doesn't we're talking about our students okay I think that's I do with students of disabilities yeah so I'm actually G to turn over to Martha now who's going to take us through third okay so um one more SL a real positive yep so more two more on guys having trouble with the mouse here that's sorry it's okay there no keep going other way this one yep so students with disabilities did not lose ground during covid I think I've reported out to everyone on that um I do think that was really attributed to how hard we worked to bring our students in person learning um but that was pretty critical right to not have that big drop um that did happen in general education able to stud which is pretty miraculous from where I'm standing but and this is where I do look at other school districts um I do believe that we should be at 20% for students with disabilities meeting and exceeding in English and Mathematics and there you're seeing there are some gaps that we want to take a look at um I know when Dr BAC came in she talked about the student Opportunity Act um students with disabilities are the subgroup with the greatest performance Gap that's not um atypical for our district that's is common across um the whole Commonwealth um we are focusing on that subgroup in our SOA and that's part of what we're talking to about tonight despite the fact that students with disabilities Remain the furthest behind compared to other subgroups which would be students of color multi- multilingual Learners students from low income coming out of the penic we are in that better position because we did not lose ground during that compared um to other districts so that is a good thing um and that is again because we were the whole time and thank you superintendent for working with us to do that um I do still remember how hard that was yes but you were Relentless and look look at the results I will but this is the part of the part we were just talking about um we when I do look at other comparative districts um and where I think we should be striving for is to have 20% of our students with disabilities at meeting SE and we are not quite there yet um the nice thing about working with Dr bacon is when I see that and actually I did my um project in my first year that I had I don't know how long ago now that was 20 three years ago years AG 2016 2017 um that it was on mathematics and students with disabilities with needs and exceeds and I think when did you come in when did you say 2019 2019 so when we initially I looked at it I'm like oh something's something's going on in mathematics but then when you look at it in general education you're like oh something's going in mathematics for everybody and that is really really important because I have to know what lever am I going to push this a special education issue and at that time we realized well it was not it was actually a general education issue because as general education goes so so will our students with disability so our first you know one of our major goals in Thea is we want to continue to close the gap between our students from displ and of all of our students but there is a go all right so if you look at if you go to the next slide kind of take a look at what you know how many students with disabilities are at needs and exceeds and you could kind of look at um at the elementary level in 2019 like we do see a drop um with the pandemic we're at 19% right now but that is close to the 20 and that that's really where we want to be um we'd like to get higher but I always want to make sure we're hitting that 20% threshold if you look at the middle school we're actually consistently been low and so there I know is another lever I've got to take a look at why is that go back to the um high school we kind of where we would want to be probably could go higher but right above that 20% threshold um Elementary got to 30% with math again like we attributed to the um New curriculum which is great so as as um J Ed went so did special education again Middle School is holding lower so I know that's where um my lever that might need to push and then high school again Ela um looked okay math is another area of need at the high school um algebra and um geometry those those um for and it's again likely also attributed to some general education curriculum issues that we have to look at at the high school so it's important to note that um why do we do this well I need to know you know where's my focus need to go and if you kind of think about it at the middle school um elementaries had a lot of focus on their curriculum High School gets a lot of focus on their curriculum in Middle School we've got the new math new math curriculum but they have not had the benefit of math um implementation Specialists um they are going to be getting a newa curriculum which is good but I feel like they haven't had some of the attention the middle the middle child maybe that they deserve um and we're also investing in I know you're going to talk about it I always feel like I'm not going to give you bad news to tell you that we're not doing anything about it um we are we're investing in co- teing um this year professional development for our special Educators and our general Educators to really see if we can get that number up to where it should be because it should be at 20% and it's lower so that's something we're going to look at can I ask you a question sure um do these numbers include those students who are outplaced yet take the mcast and those mcast scores are tied to swamp Scot that I don't know I can't I know theyed out separately in the when I get the report but to be but that might completely change your data yeah there's not there's not many students that we have okay that are that actually would impact that to be honest with you their scores most of them would be where I would want them to be also so I'm not I don't think that would be the outlier I mean one thing we do that we have very the state does want us to keep this low number extraordinarily low which is the alternative assessment right and we really do encourage all of our students to take M bcast um pretty rare so that's also not an indicator and 20% really is the mark that we're looking for and we're above it in some of the areas but we're just too low at the middle school there's no reason for that because those same students then when they get to high school come back up and those were the same students that were also in elementary that were above 20% so it's not a cohort issue right there's just something that's depressing it down and the the data for this particular chart comes from the school level reports which do not include the kids who are out there great okay thank you I curious so remind me again I know that this is what when we talk about closing the achievement app that it includes a a a much bigger group of kids so they're not just kids with disabilities are are we talking about kids with disabilities yes or are we also talking about you know kids who are um English language Learners so in this case this is students with disabilities now that doesn't mean either are students with disabilities who also are Learners um but our our number of students for multilingual Learners is small also so it compared to this number of students we have 500 students on IEPs currently so it's a big group of students okay um but we it's good for us to look at we need to see you know where where are areas of opportunity and right now I know where it is it's at the middle school and it's at the high school for Ma so that's where we have to focus our attention which is good that's why we do this and the the growth will happen if again we invest in um good um and it and those interventionist I know that you know that is the area where we end up cutting but in in a way it comes back the money gets spent just in a different area yeah it's like it's easy to special education which actually is more costly than it would be on the front end yeah so it's easy to say Well they're not they're not student facing so it has to go but in fact it's education has really changed I mean the neurological the you know the understanding of the brain in the neurological developments understanding of research and evidence-based practices this is not the same um profession that it was you know 10 20 years ago and I you know and that is to me the the greatest thing about education is every single day I can do it differently and do it better that's also the hardest thing about education I will never ever be able to say I've got it all now never so that kind of question I think Suzanne maybe you said about oh you know within oh two years we should have it down that will never happen there is new information coming to us all the time about different ways that we have to work with students and develop them so every teacher we have here doesn't matter how long we've been teaching can use professional them always all of us and that's the field it's a great field but it's hard it's hard you never you're never going to be able to say I've learned it all so but a good piece about do this with Dr bacon is like I said is it a special education issue is it a general education issue where do we invest and so that's why it's not as important for that single student mcast is important to look about the health and wellness of the district as a whole that's why I like it do you want to do okay I think we're on to next did I miss anything that you wanted to to to talk about um I I do you did mention that the high school we only you're only testing one grade um so that does lower that does mean the numberers it's a little um the sample yeah the sample is small so it is a little more volatile yeah so like at the high school we've seen the drop of from 18 to 10 over the over this fiveyear period but like each student at the high school that takes the math mcast is worth three or four percent so because there's just so few of them only testing one grade right so it's very small but we expect to get to 20 I want to be over 20 those are some of our compar when I look at our comparative districts who are at 20 Marblehead lynfield they're at 20 I look at daners and Beverly we're closer to them I do feel like there's probably another co-actor in there and it's our associate low we have a greater um socieconomic um incre there's an increased number of students who are considered low socioeconomic in swamp Scott then Marblehead or lingfield and that could be one of the players that's lowering us a little um you know all the research all the investment that I can do in prek um you know Head Start and everything that we do we know that L those all those gains are lost by sixth grade depending upon your your economic status right so that is a huge impact for students for language that they're exposed to and opportunities that they have and so that's something we always have to be really thinking about so one of the things that came up in um in Jason's interview week ago two weeks was um was about uh he was talking specifically about math in the middle school and the fact that there are more kids now taking algebra than there have been in the past and so that this is a cohort of kids who are not practicing for the test practicing what's on the test so I get my my question is I like I extrapolate that and I look at the your students who are um special ed students and thinking are are you are you putting are you looking for how do I say this do you how how important is it to do this are are they excelling in other ways that just aren't um reflected in mcast I mean I know that the state is saying close the gap well I mcast is important that it's a universally given assessment that the entire State takes right so it helps eliminate variables that might be a play somewhere else it is though one assessment so yes when you look at it from that one students perspective it is not the only measure that I would look at so mcast to me is important for the global picture not as critical for the inate single child picture that makes sense y it does but you know because what other measure we we do have I ready fabulous and do m is a huge cor it cor you're looking at it if you're looking at it the way that you are then it becomes about who we are as a district in terms of how do we educate and not not your well more like how am I how am I going to allocate the resources of the district like we have to be very critical about what am i g to ask you for money for what are we gonna you know what are we going to put forward and so this helps me understand okay where is my focus need where does it need to go and my attention has to be at the middle school and the high school those are the two areas right so we're not you know that's important we don't we have a fin amount of money we want to make sure we're allocating it to get a difference well it's helpful but it is one measure so for on the student micro level I don't it is one measure on the global and it's something that every District's giving and everybody went through Co how do we do right it's not like and everybody has kids who come to school sick that day and everybody like everybody has those special right circumstan circumstances it is it is helpful for those big picture items that that especially for a doctor pH a new curriculum that's huge right where do we where do we attend where do we put our attention it's helpful for that so the good thing things are starting to improve before we move off this slide um you talked about trying to get to the 20% some of these categories um is there a time frame you have in mind or just well our student Opportunity Act three years and my goals my goal for I think my goal for for the superintendent I had to put my goal in there and that is my goal my my goal for my student learning goal for being evaluated against is to get us there do we have a goal like that for our non our general ed kids again I would say that we should be striving toward getting all our kids to be 20% above the state across all grade levels and across all subject areas mind's not about the state Minds to get to 20% of our students for meets and exceed different but I want us going above the state we can also look how we're performing against the state too we actually perform fairly um similar the state and students with disability interesting if you want to go ahead so the next slide is really just a summary of things we've already communicated to so I know we're getting along here so maybe I'll just skip over this you can read it but we've made all these points um in what we just said so maybe just go ahead and then astha what are we doing about all this so one of the things is we are implementing this new K top literacy curriculum with coaching support um we're hoping that the fifth grade adopts that curriculum for next year to start to work into the middle school um we Martha mentioned expanding professional development on co- teing which is the Maj major model we use at the middle and high school to support the um success of our students with disabilities and our multi-lingual Learners and we're beginning to work with the middle school English Department and the high school math Department to investigate high quality curriculum materials and see if we can move those levers um and then again I would just reiterate a recommendation for the building leadership that you know our office doesn't really have whole ton of input on but to make sure that the new math programs are really being implemented with Fidelity um because we haven't been giving them the professional development that I think has really been necessary and that the Bell schedules need to provide time for mathematics instruction so that's a challenge as well building leadership to keep in mind okay um and then we were going to pause for questions on this section before we move on to the accountability which I promise will be quicker um if you are you satisfied with your mcast questions we'll move ahead um I do have a general mcast question I want to wait till the end okay that's my your choice okay so we move ahead to accountability just go straight to the second slide one more slide so this new accountability system that was introduced in 2018 um it's not just about mcast there's a couple measures around mcast mcast performance which is how many kids are meeting our student standard M cathol growth how much are they growing to compared to academically similar peers it also considers the rates at which our students complete High School the rates at which they progress toward English language for our multilingual Le earners our chronic absenteeism rates and our completion of advanced cour work those are all things that get um considered in this formula that desie has for their accountability so we consider those six measures we consider them for all students for our lowest performing 25% of students and we consider those two things separately for the K8 grades and the high school grades there's a lot of numbers in this system and ultimately there's a weighted aage form and it all boils down to one number at the end which is your your performance toward your target goal so each year they set targets for improvement for us in all of these measures at all of those levels for all of our subgroups and we either you know how much do we progress for those targets so if you move to the next slide this shows you our annual progress toward targets for the last few years since we've had this new system so you can see that in 2024 as a district over all those measures and all those subgroups we received a performance percentage of 71% right we were 71% of the way there toward all our targets and so that's great and you can see that that's the highest we've ever done since they introduced this new system our performance in 2024 water you can definitely have some my I hate when that happens I got one right here you got one it's all right want me to talk for a minut like you talk you talk far more no you got theok on this this is a complicated complicated uh a whole lot of information yeah and so um overall so you know now that we're in like this cycle again again it was suspended during mcast what they do is they do a weighted average of your last two years which is our accountability percentage of 62% overall for this accountability year which is an average of the not a straight average but a weighted average of the 47 and 71 and you can see then the ratings we've received based on our accountability percentages and this year we made it into the substantial progress towards Target category which is again the highest that we've performed since um since this new system was introduced and when you get to se 62 p in that substantial progress if that weighted twoyear average had been 75 we would have been in like met met our targets so that's what we're ultimately aiming for you go to the next slide um and this is the question that you were asking Mr h a little while ago about other subgroups of students so you can see that over the last two years we've per we've improved our performance against all these measures both for all students over all and for our high need students which includes our students with disabilities our low income students and our English language Learners all taken as one group so we're pleased with those results um the things that when I looked in detail at the data there's a link on the previous side if you ever want to go investigate it when I looked about so what are the levers where have we been particularly successful in the past year in terms of our Improvement um so the main drivers have been our great Improvement chronic absenteeism particularly at the high school which exceeded their Improvement performance Target for chronic absenteeism in 2024 um we also another Big Driver of this was Advanced course taking at the high school specifically by our high need students that also exceeded the the Target that Tessie had set for us in terms of our achievement um overall academic performance at the high school exceeded our targets as well as the large gains um by our group our high need subgroup at the highest um compared to all all students over all the indicators that were in there so and they were recognized and I had mentioned that a few meetings back that they had been recognized with a big certificate for right yeah so the high the high school was a big driver in our um our our very good performance in theability system over the past year and then finally one more slide um so are closing those gaps particularly at the high school with our high students so we have some good evidence for that um and then the accountability percentiles for each individual School are listed here from last year again and you can see as I same thing with the pattern the year before that um there really was good reason to consolidate those three elementary schools to provide an equitable educational experience to all our swamp Scot students so that's you any questions about the accountability or any other questions we be happy to answer them it's going to be fascinating watching data going from three elementary schools and especially those kids who were maybe displaced for a year and then a couple years from now looking at the data where every you know K of four was together that's going to be a fascinating Deep dive in into into all this um and then for me I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about MCAS and um I have a question for both of you I'll start with with you Dr bacon where do you think this will go um I mean as far as what is being put out there from the legislature where do you think mcast goes in this state well mcast itself and having a having a metric to measure student progress right and a metric to hold districts accountable for performing well for their students that's Federal so the Federal legislation goes away then then there'll be a state discussion but Massachusetts you know as you all know Massachusetts is the highest performing state in education in the country right Massachusetts seems to have an extremely strong commitment to pursuing that for our students right and so I would I would think that the Department of Education if it continues within Massachusetts if it could it continues to function as it has right um they will maintain their commitment to to doing the you know really pushing districts to do the best we can for our students and you can't know if you're doing the best if you have no way can measure how students are doing so there'll be some sort of measurement that will enable the state to hold us accountable this districts for how we're doing with our students I would imagine great even if the federal government decides not to care about anymore very well stated um and Miss Rond I will pass on the question I was going to ask you so actually just a quick followup to What Glenn said so that recent ballot initiative that that won't impact anything you guys have been covering here right that that only has to do with right now the state requires to pass mass in order to receive a high school diploma they can either pass it in the traditional way by taking the mass exam or if for some reason that's not the best way to demonstrate what they know they can do a portfolio of evidence to say that they've met the MC the state standards even though they're not able to show it the exams there's always been those two groups um the only thing that was voted on was whether to continue to have that as a graduation state that ini suceeded so that seems like it's also in line with how you approach mcast anyway that it really is about resources and about you how we are looking at things big picture not IND kids um Yes except for I think one of the reasons mcast had develop originally was that we were pass you know we were graduating students who did not have the skills that the that people thought they had with that diploma in hand and it was like another area of accountability for the district and for that student I do think there are other ways to to prove that right which Dr bacon kind of talked about um so I guess now that we are I think I think that measure it passed like it's it's valid today so our current graduates will not have had will not have to have passed mcast to get their diploma but I do think that doesn't mean that we can't also have what our what we think that diploma means and that there's different ways to demonstrate your skill set so I I but the part about mcast or I ready is that they're universally given tools it's there's an equitable Equity issue when we leave it up to just a person and that part's hard unless you have a really systematic structured way that that person is going to go about if that makes sense so we leave it up to a a one person or one teacher to say hello did this student do you believe that this student has met all the requirements of of a graduate whatever that may be Ela math science um Civics um you know but what is that measure how is that person evaluating and that's where you have we have to be clear what is the rubric what are the measures what is the standard you know we have to figure out what that is mcast was just the one thing that people universally did any other thoughts and comments no thank you so much for the so much I actually have a question for you superintendent the uh accountability measures are those worked into your the way that you review your staff it hasn't been tied to that you know like you know Miss Raymond was saying that like in her that you've got you know bringing these kids to 20% you know it is you know chronic absente is something that are there measures that youve set for our leaders no everyone it's part of our the plan that we're working on chronic absenteeism family engagement all of those things are priorities for the district but we are not connecting them to teachers directly not teachers I me leadership oh leadership yes yes yes yes they're all goals that and priorities us that we're working on yep appreciate it ladies thank you thank you so much thank you uh I believe we have Mr Casper on um Zoom so if we could let him in or at least let him speak uh the next two items on the agenda are just updates there's no votes necessary tonight um so I think he just needs to be allowed to speak as a participant I think Mr that's going to handle the Dirty Work there oh he's got his hand raised so we just say view there we go hello can you hear me yes thank you superintendent um yes we're going to speak briefly on two items tonight uh they're not uh likely looking for a for a vote um just with where they are in their in their process but uh we did have them on the agenda so so figured it would be a good idea to give a brief update and and uh allow discussion if desired or or answer any questions um the first is anou uh for the use of the Clark building the the main Clark building not the Portables um by the town um we've we've been working on this mou to allow the town to use the building likely for recreation and uh potentially some Senior Center uh and other potential Town activities uh in the short term uh the initial mou is likely to track this fiscal year and then there would be considerations for future uh years um the one of the critical pieces of this is for the school district to retain control over the building long term uh with unknowns in the future with the middle school and you know likely need for for swing space um so this mou uh again we've been working on it it's it's it's in place um the select board met on it last night and they didn't take a vote uh so they didn't take action on it they had some additional things that they're going to be working through on their end so we think it's probably most prudent to to let their process play out a little bit more uh prior to the school committee uh taking taking action so that's why we've uh decided to not recommend a vote tonight but if there are any questions on that I'd be happy to answer them I uh I watched last night's meeting and um I was interested uh particularly Mr Thompson said something about you know why just why not just leave it as it is and and let the schools um you know continue to manage it um and appreciate the fact that uh I don't remember who it was who who brought it up but said like we don't we don't want to be in the business of um renting out property you know I think that it's really important that our superintendent and her staff do what they do best which is educate um so the idea that we would come to uh an agreement where they would take over it makes all the sense in the world from an educational standpoint good in my opinion your opinion is a valid opinion as long as it's temporary as long as it's yeah I mean look you know I I I I trust that like you know when we went through the process with the new elementary school that that the teams come together and figure out what's for sure more more than anything else financially responsible for take care of Sir um any other questions comments from anybody no okay next item on the agenda is the Clark Max the big blue Bargains Max correct yes yes um so again this this is at the Clark property as well this time the the Portables um big blue Bargains an organization that previously ran a thrift store out of the middle school and then at some other locations in swamp Scott has expressed an interest in utilizing the the Clark Portables uh we think this is a a good opportunity both for them for the town and for the school district um we're simply still negotiating the agreement at this at this point um working have some good progress just we we did think this iteration just with how the last process went at the middle school with them it would be it would be best just to have a a more formalized agreement understanding the responsibilities of the parties um so we're productively working through that um we thought it might be ready for tonight um but it's still in process and there's no reason to to rush it so um we'll we'll keep working diligently on that um uh finalize that I think shortly and bring it to a to a vote but um still thought it would be good just to to bring that up I think the board likely aware of this developing um item but again if there's any questions relative to that we'll be happy to answer them yeah I just want to chime in that we all know big blue Bargains over the years has given a significant amount of money donated a significant amount of money to the schools and we do know that the Middle School space was less than conducive to what they were running and for the last several years we've been trying to find a spot to bring them back into the schools and when you talk about the Portables having taught in those portables for probably 11 years um it's it's almost a perfect setup they pull right up you know there's a separate entrance they're not going into the a school building it really is a great space it's air conditioned accessible visibility it's handicap accessible with a ramp it's got a bathroom so um it's got two handicap bathrooms so I feel like um this is a real win because I I I think we've been villainized a little bit that we don't support them and we do but the priority has always been student needs and student space and so this is another opportunity to really partner with the town but partner with an organization that has done a lot for the schools and so I'm excited by the opportunity to partner with them and appreciate Max's work on this agreement super do you think that it's um valuable to have a school committee person as part of that relationship or do you think it makes more sense to keep that working through the superintendent's office and and your business office I don't think there's anything wrong with having uh liaison from the school committee to I mean do you think it would bring value for you definitely currently Mr Casper is handling this and so I haven't had that involvement but um and I don't know Mr Casper how you feel about that if you feel like you can manage this um and he's just brought it to me so I haven't had my time hasn't been taken by that he's taking it on but I I'm really excited by because I think that like we've in the past I know I think that we've sort of stayed away from it because it it was funding the PTO ptas PTO what ptfs um which we don't have oversight right so I say keep the relationships the way they are right now as it develops if if there's a need certainly knowing there's a willingness from the committee we can involve you but at this time I I think we'll keep it as it is I appreciate that thank you Mr Casper you're welcome great uh and then as we continue through the superintendent report we have our director assistant superintendent of Finance giving the first quarter fy2 budget update me Memo um thank you um so you know as usual I like to provide the committee quarterly with an update on our projections on and where we stand with the budget um I'm grateful that this year as we're looking at the first quarter projection we're not in the same place we were last year um things are looking a little bit better for us overall uh that being said um while I'm not projecting a deficit so early on in the f schol year um the amount that I'm projecting that will be under budget is less than $10,000 so um it's still tight um and something that we are closely managing um but we're not in that same position that we were in last year so that is good news uh we do have a few out of District placements that are lingering out there not finalized um and should they um come down the pipeline um those would be likely coming uh eventually out of the special education Reserve fund because we have fully committed our operating budget we fully committed our circuit breaker and our um Ida funds um thus far so that's really the that would be the other funding source to fund those should they they come to fruition um so the administration cost center is projected to finish under budget by about 35,00 ,000 um really the driver of that is we have two times throughout the year with which lane changes are approved uh there at the beginning of the year and then in February so when we budget for the next fiscal year we build in what we think might happen for Lane changes um and so you never quite know exactly what um what actually will get approved and and um completed so right now we have a little bit of uh money still in that account uh the district y cost center has projected the finished under budget by 25,000 there's really no significant one thing that's really driving this it's just a lot of little different um accounts that right now we're projecting to finish under uh general education is projected to finish under budget by $162,000 um as you know we have kind of a different model this year for SCS as it relates to the administration team um with one principal one assistant principal and a part-time DEA students um and so that is some of the cost savings there as well as we've had some retirements um and we have some cost savings as a result of those retirements school facilities is projected to finish under budget by about 179,000 this likely will change um just because there expenditures for small repairs and things like that that come about um I am pleased to say that thus far the expenses related to facilities at the new Elementary School are tracking a little bit under what um the facilities director had anticipated so that is definitely good news that being said um even as we look to budget for FY 26 it's going to be really hard for us to project utility costs because we didn't take the utilities over until end of August they were being paid by the construction company who are missing summer months um and the building is just starting to ramp up so this is still going to be a little bit of a guessing game for us for the next next budget cycle um and then special education is projected to finish over budget by about $400,000 we've had to add additional St due to student needs um as well as um some of the savings that we thought we'd have with our IND District um transportation there were certain U meets with students that they couldn't be on the Big Bus we had to have a van um but we've had to add AB tutors additional esps we did restore a special education teacher here at the high school again it's all student need driven um and then we have a job coach here um that is supp program at the high school so overall like I said much more positive than we were last year for sure um which is great uh but still running thoroughly tight so the the sweeps where we're under does that get funneled into the special education at the end of the year it will if necessary it would be good if we I mean I know you track that kind of thing you know but it it it's interesting because like I look at that and I see you know a $35,000 Savings in administration cost and you think well that would be great if we could roll that into like a a stabilization fund for um uh for you know for like things as opposed to taking out of um General General funds to pay special education that we knew were going to be out in a you know it's just frustrating thank you very much you're welcome next item is also under the assistant superintendent of Finance Student Activities memo I learned something new with this um so I first want to just thank uh Janet Higgins she works in the business office she's our grants and financial reporting accountant she started uh last not this recent June June before and this has been something she's been working on quite literally early since she started it's been quite the Monumental effort to really reconcile our Student Activity counts clean them up get people trained up work with Town Hall um and she spent a lot of time and we're finally in a good space with our Student Activity counts we've transitioned to a new quickin as well too um and now that the elementary schools are Consolidated that's also helping improve this process uh one thing which I don't know if this committee has has done in the past um but is required by laws you are every year supposed to set the checking account limits for all of the checking accounts we've never we've never done that that's what I learned that's the second thing we've learned tonight about we didn't know what we were doing um so the that's my main purpose for for putting this memo together and coming before you is to make sure that um you do that uh this year and we'll continue to make sure we do that every year here um so the checking account limit I'm suggesting for the high school is 50,000 Middle School 40,000 Elementary School is 15,000 um and this is really in line with kind of what other districts have for limits and based off um how much money Flows In and Out you know there's not as much activity at the elementary school at the high school you know there's all kinds of senior activities and a lot more going on so they need to have a much higher um checking account limit uh the other piece of this is it's not required by law but it is just good practice if nothing else to recognize um which accounts uh we need to have open or remain open and those accounts with which we need to close but I've never seen a list of these accounts ever in in place I mean like that we still have a class of 1999 account yes so so is there money inside of these accounts that's my question so there is and so what happens with so with um non-class accounts if it's a student activity that has ceased to exist and has been and and these have disbanded quite some time ago um the money then goes into um every school has a um principal's account and so um superintendent Angel has talked about how we have ways to um give scholarships and so that is how we pay for those scholarships when students need financial assistance for field trips um and so some of these are very I mean like 50 bucks $30 I mean there's not very large balances in these but there's all these small balances that we need to close and move into that account could I ask then could you for the next meeting give us this list but the balance of the account and then if you could the last time it was used sure because just to your point the 199 and I see like sad steam Against Drunk Driving that that's something doesn't exist anywh there I mean do you need all of them or just like a a total I'd like to get well both I'd like to see what really well I mean if if if we have all these accounts open right and you're got to close all these some of these accounts are so would you just want the total amount of the accounts closed like whatever we're whatever I me just taking the total of the High School closed accounts and middle school closed account you know that that might be helpful I mean personally the Harry Potter Alliance I'm all in for that well I I just I don't even know what I am that girl you know I I don't know what some of these are I this is an amazing list and I did learn that this is best practice because in my 11 years we've never brought it to you so but you all the class funds that are left those so that that's a what about yeah what about so that's a little bit different process um and actually school committee policy speaks to that um all right EXC yes it does yes what is what does our policy have today so um and we're changing the process a little bit this year so we hopefully don't run into this where we have these old accounts but um within three years you send a letter to the treasurer of if it's still sitting right I mean technically once they graduate The Treasure of the school of the class of what whatever um should be withdrawing those funds and putting it into a class of right like their own bank account right right right right and typically they're used to reunions in this case we have some very old ones we have no idea if letters were ever sent they're supposed to be sent we're sending we're trying to track down these people and at least sending the letters notifying them that it's gone past the three years if we don't hear from them by X date then at that point it reverts back to the school and it will go back into that uh principal's account oh great could we could we send that letter and ask them if they would like to donate it into that account that's a great question rather than saying yeah we we certainly take it and take it or not just say like but as a former class officer you have reunions I get it so but as a former student I know I'm happy to pay for my own drinks so like it doesn't hurt to ask yeah like just just to say like it's a nice small way you know like obviously you know Joe duet's class made this gargantuan gift to us that's wonderful and this might be just another way to start saying great way to give back yep absolutely yeah if they've forgotten about it and true and it's like 50 bucks no I know I know I'm teasing might be I was going to say do they have large balances in them any any of them um I there are a couple maybe not I mean large being a couple thousand nothing I mean but like that's enough to send one person to Florida sure absolutely yeah we can certainly add that to the letter and so what we're the change in the process this year um is the letter is also going to be handed to the um treasurer of the class in the fall so that they know what the process is so that you know we're not you know that not doing this again in 10 years right and just so that they're aware as they're going into their senior year you know if they want the funds then you know they need to set up a bank account or what better way to start being charitable than to donate it do that I love it Amy I love it yeah so do I so there are some votes requested on the second page third page I mean like I said the the one vote you I I do need you to make is the uh checking account limits and then I do just ask that you I me you don't have to name all these counts um but it it would be nice for you to approve as listed in the memo the opening and closing of the accounts as listed can I have a question so the the the Student Activity checking accounts that so does that mean that each individual account so like the the boosters that that that doesn't get higher than $50,000 or is this I'm I'm confused um so these are all these are called sub accounts and that we keep track of this and Quicken but there is one checking account for the high school all Student Activities oh okay so like when I go and I pay my AP exams that goes into the student account or maybe that's a bad example when I go to play pay for the Powder Puff right that goes into the high school checking account it go well it Tech first goes into the savings account okay and then they transfer the money from the savings account into our checking account what this allows though is that for us always to have a balance in that checking account so especially um it's it's especially important at the high school as they're just writing all these checks yeah uh the town hall isn't having to constantly be transferring the money from the savings the checking savings through checking so um there's two different accounts associated but the checking account is where we write the checks for so is it a is it a a limit or is it a minimum sounds like a balance minimum yes yeah I was going to say it sounds like a balance that has to be maintained correct 50,000 in an Ideal World right I mean obviously that if there isn't the money that we're not going to put money into itre but that that and and it protects us from bouncing checks yeah which um unfortunately has happened in the past um and creates problems for Town Hall so that's expensive yes plus also to manage ping money back and forth all the time do it right right and so I I Envision they'll likely periodic whether it's monthly I'm not going to prescribe to them how they're doing it whether it's every two weeks or monthly they'll make sure they're moving enough money so that we have Mone checks off available kind of the same thing that you know you couldn't write a check bigger than 50,000 that's what I what I saw limit that's what I right right right okay thank you for clarifying yeah all right would you like us to vote please all right so we we'll do it in two stages um Can someone please make a motion for the school committee to set the limit for the 2024 2025 school year as follows in checking accounts total checking accounts by the way high school 50,000 Middle School 40,000 and the elementary school 15,000 I'll make the motion will someone second to that motion I'll second it I'll in favor no no no I have some so this is for just 2024 every year you have to vot oh so okay so I'll be back again next year okay for the 24 25 school year okay yep right I think that's all my question I thought I know I it's just this is a lot to take in since we've never we can certainly now it's going to be routine business next year you'll say you know what we needed a little more or whatever it's kind of like town meeting when let's say you vote to approve like with the recreation department yeah okay okay yeah okay then okay um all in favor anyone oppos it passes unanimously um and I'll also ask for a vote um of the school committee to approve each student AC hold on what's the second one you want me to do I'm I just vote to approve the opening and closing of the student there we go I was read the wrong line okay as described in the um can I have someone make a motion please to approve opening those accounts to remain open and those accounts to close as is dictated in this memo I will make motion okay someone second please second all in favor all opposed and unfortunately we all passed but the Harry Potter Alliance account is going away go away I I do want to point out not to make everybody feel old that at the at the elementary school there is an account for the class of 2037 wow just to throw that out there and yes I know each and every one of us here is doing that math okay uh anything else no that comes is does that mean are there checking account EES associated with each one of those subs or no did I just ask that two minutes ago so I no there's no fees okay so it's not like for you know okay because it's really just one account it it's one account for the whole school okay that feeds them okay um all right um I do not have any general comments anything on a subcommittee point of view policy anything to chat about just I think just a general update I think next the next agenda should have the vote for the cell phone policy on the 21st sure EXC can we just can I ask that they that we link it on the agenda so that we can all access it thanks great and uh I guess just the second thing is um suzan and I are going to begin kind of scoping out which policies need updating and set a schedule to do that and pulling the appropriate people as needed great so you've got the uh comment policy whole bunch of there's a lot of them yeah yeah I bet just only because I was part of that conference Hall yeah maybe we'll move that to the top all right anything else John that's it that's it can I just I'm sorry to go back um I did receive an email just a reminder to a in the community that swans High School is playing Marvel head high school on Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving tickets are now available please come out and support your community your players at Fenway how do you get those tickets that is it is online that I'm happy to send you the link thank you you are welcome maybe you could also announce the girls yes flag football the flag football game right as you have taught me the flag football game will be on I'm assuming it's a Sunday it's a Saturday Saturday uh November 23rd here in swamp Scot it's a great take it's a lot of fun come on out we'll continue to of that okay um we do have a few attendees anyone would like to chat say hello tell us your thoughts your thought your opinions of any public comments I see no hands raised we will then go to actions and votes on a couple of donations um okay the first one is the Packer family uh ecology School field trip scholarship um okay the uh the individual submitting the form is Heather Everett um and it is donation of the Packer Family U they reside in SW Scott um they are making a donation of $400 the donation for other students to attend the E the ecology school um scholarship to help with the cost of the trip for those requiring financial assistance that is incredibly generous of you the Packer Family um someone make a motion to accept the donation I'll make the motion someone second second all those in favor say I I again thank you to the Packer Family that is incredibly generous of you uh next we have the I'm hope I'm pronouncing this correctly the nler family um also of Swampscott um they are making a $200 donation towards sixth grade field trip also at the ecology school again the scholarship for students to attend the ecology school who require financial assistance um thank you to the nler family again that is incredibly generous of of of you thank you can someone please make a motion I'll make a motion Noone second second all in favor I passes unanimously again to both the noler and the Packer Family that is incredibly generous so I just want to point out this ecology School field trip happened yes it did and it is beautifully documented on social media they were there during the Aurora Borealis oh check it out wow oh the photos are incredible fabulous wow that's great don't have to go to Iceland they had a point of view amazing okay um so now I have to turn the page sorry hold on consent agenda uh um you know what excuse me I do there is I miss was on the other page um we did have on the agenda a the to vote for the uh memorandum of understanding of Clark School uh we are going to table that as Max has suggested um the consent agenda the consent agenda is designed to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous business of the district the school committee May adopt the entire consent agenda with one motion at the request of any Committee Member any item or items May be removed from the consent agenda and place on the regular agenda for discussion there are two items regular session minutes from September 26th and regular session minutes from October 24th will someone please make a motion to approve I'll make a motion someone second second all in favor I got all of us and then lastly um we will adjourn someone please make a motion I'll make a motion anyone second all approved we are done thank you very much have a wonderful evening thank you thank you e