##VIDEO ID:https://vimeo.com/1035431323## By the Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. How are you today? Welcome to the Westfield School Committee meeting on December the second at seven o'clock. Um, Mme. Sullivan, Mr. Sullivan. Mme. Sullivan. Uh, Jeffrey Gunther. Here. Kathleen Hillman. Here. Bo Sullivan? Here. Heather Sullivan? Here. Mike Terrell. Here. Tim O'Connor here. And Chairman McCabe Here. All rise for the pledge of Allegiance. Liberty Brown. So normally we'd have public participation at this point, but I think, um, in, in light of the folks that are here, I see there's something else afoot. So, um, Mr. O'Connor, if you would be so kind as to handle, uh, the ceremonies from here. So just so that you know, after Mr. O'Connor is done with his presentations and kind words we're, we will have a little brief recess. So for folks who wanna get up and go, so you don't have to listen to the whole meeting, see how kind we are. You didn't say Any kind words, is that what you said? I'm probably gonna have my back face to you guys. I apologize for that in advance. But I just wanted to start off by saying, and I think Ms. Sullivan, keep me honest on this. Last time we had the Chambers is full, I think we're considering cutting freshman football at the high school. So, and that meeting didn't go very well that night. So this one is gonna be a lot, a lot better. But, uh, welcome everybody to the Westfield School Committee. My name is Tim O'Connor. I serve as the vice chair of this great school committee. Uh, and tonight it's really a privilege for me personally and professionally on behalf of the school committee to honor Moose Matthews for all of the accomplishments that he had over the years for the Westfield Public School as hockey coach of the Westfield Bombers. And many of you here are family and friends and you know much about moose, but for some of you, you may not. So let me just give a little bit of background. Moose attended the Westfield Vocational High School. Uh, and you'd think with his size he played football, but he didn't, he played soccer, right? And, uh, but he also played hockey, whatever, right? But he also played hockey, uh, and he played at the Berkshire blades. That hockey career was a Berkshire Blades in Lennox Mass, and then the Bristol Champions in South Windsor, Connecticut, a semi-Pro team, which during which he played from 1970 to 1973, he also enlisted in the US Air Force serving as a load master on C one s and C 1 41 aircraft and Moose. I can tell you that our Westfield Tech Academy Aviation maintenance team is very proud of your service in the US US Air Force. Uh, as we turn the page, you know, we, going back to the end of the 2019, 2020, uh, Westfield Bomber hockey season, there was this thing called Covid that was upon us at, at that point, uh, and in Moose fashion. He, he skated quietly off, off the ice, ending a 30 plus year coaching career. Um, and in Moose fashion there was no fanfare. You know, there may be a celebration with family and friends, but he wanted to stay under the radar. That's the way he always liked it. But that final skate off marked a coaching career that included 13 Western mass titles. It included three, three state championships, three runner ups, and over 30 years, uh, over 300 wins. Uh, and, and that's a, a, a great feat in of itself. Moose also coached Westfield Youth Hockey Program, the District Six All Stars. And he coached at Williston Academy before coming to Westfield High. And earlier this year, clay Moose Matthews was inducted to Massachusetts State Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame class of 2024. Congratulations, All that. We, we know all the success doesn't happen alone. And we know that with coaching, you're spending much time away from your family. Uh, so I know Flow is here tonight and flow. We want to thank you for keeping the home fires burning and allowing moose to do the great things that he did. Yeah. And, and to my pleasure. Yeah. And to moose's, uh, daughter Jill and son Jeff, who aren't able to make it Tonight. We want to thank them for lending their father to us. And I think one of the grand children is here. Yeah. Uh, because that's, that's time away from family. And I think Moose is officially retired now with everything. Is that right? Moose? That's right. Okay. So now, now it's time spoiling, spoiling the grandchildren that that's what your new job is. And he's got plenty of money to do that. So that's not a, not a worry. And last but not least, you can't get through that, that much success without a support system of friends. Uh, and the sacrifices that Moose's friends made. Rick Murdoch, John Bonavita, Albert Mascall, Mike Huber, Franny Liptak, Mike busier the amount of hours in time they put in spending with Moose at the Tavern Restaurant and yeah. And at the Slovak Hall Hockey Talking Hockey strategy. Uh, you know that, that's, uh, unconditional support, right? You can't be taught. But let's not duplicate that either. I'm not sure you solved any problems there, you guys. Uh, but I thought a fitting way to wrap up this presentation, uh, thought it'd be fitting to provide moose with a report card from the Westfield School Committee on your coaching. Thank you. You ready? Yes. You wanna stand up here, sir? I don't think you're ready for this. Always had a warm spot in his heart for Long Meadow High School Hockey. I'm gonna give him a C for that. Never met a hockey referee. He didn't like C minus. Somehow found a way to confuse, atrocious by saying, atrocious with an N. That's vocabulary. That's a C minus. We're not, we're not done. Almost there. Always led by example on and off the ice, even when no one was looking. That's an, a possessed, a great understanding of the game of hockey and was always prepared to make the commitment needed to be successful. That's an a, was a good listener, was always fair to his players and was always straightforward in his guidance and support. That's an a, had a great deal of respect and thankfulness for his athletes and his incredibly talented coaching staff. That's an a, had a great deal of respect for other teams and other coaches even within the group of Longmeadow. That's an a minus 'cause we had long down There In a very unassuming way, was disciplined with a high degree of integrity and an unmatched strong character. And that's an a plus Moose on behalf of the Westfield Public School is the Westfield School Committee. Thank you for your service. On and off the ice. Thank you for your kindness, your leadership, and your commitment to making Westfield High School hockey program. Incredible success. A Hall of Fame career for sure. Thank You. You got a, a small gift for you Brought to you by Mrs. Sullivan. Thank you. I think you can open That up here If you want. Yep. My success revolved around everybody sitting in this front row here. Without them I wouldn't had Oh, you back there. I wouldn't have the success I didn't have. With the support and ability and what you produced on the Ice Marine. I just want to tell the coaches here, right here, 30 years. 30 years, thank you very much. You made, you made me, you guys made me, not me, you guys. And I appreciate it. And there's nothing like Westfield Height bomber. I'm telling you. Nothing proud than a Westfield Height bomber. And, uh, again, thank you very much. Thank you. Good. Yeah, you can tell Him. So if you'd like to get up and take this time to Amray, if you wanna, you're, you're more than welcome to or you're more than welcome to come stay for the rest of the meeting. Tim's going to open up his new late night. So talk Joe. Huh? I think you gonna go to Happy Holiday. All nice to have you want a song? No, thank you. Our pleasure. Good morning. Nice to see you. So at this time I'd like to open up the Florida Public participation. If anybody'd like to address the school committee with a matter of anything that they desire, I guess, uh, you have up to three minutes per person and we'll limit it to about 15 minutes. Anybody'd like to come up and address the school committee. Seeing none. How about the Westfield High School Fittingly presentation coming up? Palmers. Good evening everyone. I'm Chuck Reik, the principal of Westfield High School. Very proud today to have, uh, Mrs. Kagan joining me as well as some students from a variety of our Westfield High School Pathways. In addition to our career center, which you guys all all know, is something that is very, uh, passionate at, at Westfield High School right now. And some of the other programs that we're doing in early college initiatives. We also have a number of pathways that we've introduced over the past few years, um, that our students are very excited about and are doing really great things then. So I'd like to hand it over to Lauren and Lauren will get us started. Lauren's played a huge role in getting especially the science pathways going. So thank you to her. Thank you Sharon. Hi everyone. I can't, uh, express how excited I am to talk to you about something I'm super passionate about and the wonderful things happening at Westfield High School. Real quick, I just wanna set some background knowledge. There are two different types of pathways we are gonna discuss tonight. One of them is a Chapter 74 program, which is your tra tra traditional CTE program. And that's our criminal justice program. It follows a similar model, uh, you would see at a comprehensive high school. But Westfield Tech has it week on, week off. So very traditional to what you see at Westfield Tech Chapter 74. And then the new pathways we have created at Westfield High School are called Innovation Career Pathways. And these are designated through the state as well. They're a mix of technical and academic courses. The kids take in a sequence, um, that build to experiences in the field and relevant experiences in their classrooms as a cohort. Um, and so we'll hear from the students about what that experience looks like. Every student we have here today is a senior at West Hill High School. And so they have been through three to four years of these programs together. Okay, so up first we have our healthcare pathway, formerly biomed, but we're rebranding a little bit. Um, and so our healthcare pathway, we have Liam and Amira and they're gonna speak to you about their experiences. Students in this pathway join as sophomores and they get their certifications in CPR First Aid. Stop the Bleed. CNA Home Health Aid and new this year phlebotomy. So, um, Amira and Liam, do you wanna come up here and tell them a little bit about your experiences? Um, I've been doing the Healthcare Pathway for about three years now and I really like it. It's teaches us a lot of different types of skills for the medical field and it's a lot of hands-on experience. Uh, I enjoy it because it gets us ready and prepared for college and it also helps us in like, the medical field in the long run teaches us different like muscles and helps us with like Ramir. What do you wanna be next year? Where are you going to school? What do you wanna do? Um, I wanna become a medical social worker. And this helps me because in the long run. And you'd like to go to HCC and you got a credit there this year, right? In that class? Yeah. Um, I took a college class called Intro to Healthcare. A professor would come twice a week and teach us different like healthcare, um, Like Different careers in healthcare. Nice. Thank you man. Liam Choice. Hello, my name is Liam McElhanney. I am a senior at Westwood High School. I am happily in the healthcare, uh, healthcare pathway. Um, at a very young age. I've inspired to be a nurse 'cause I've always been around the medical field just with me having medical problems, just stuff happening. Um, and I was very happy to get the opportunity to take an internship at Baystate Mobile Hospital er. And I've been able to do hands-on experience. I've been taking vitals, I've been helping clean up rooms. I've been able to experience real codes like a heart attack, uh, strokes. It's definitely been a very good experience. It's definitely been a lot like very changing 'cause you get to experience. I want to, I get to experience my future career and my own eyes, not just getting told through books or anything. And I'm able to actually do my part in helping people and help pursue my career in healthcare. Nice. Thank you. So the next pathway we're gonna talk about is, uh, the chapter 74 program, criminal Justice and Car Valley's here, the instructor for this pathway. Um, we have two students here. They're gonna come up and speak, but there's several other courses they take. But the, the big courses here, they take intro to Criminal Justice Corrections today, American Judicial Systems and Criminal Investigations. Um, and then they're getting their OSHA CPR First Aid. We actually just completed, we did it together. CPR and First Aid are biomeds and our CJ classes. And they are also, uh, pursuing 9 1 1 certifications, so, or their dispatch certifications. Um, so we have two students here today, Kaylee and Ava, come on up. Okay. Hi guys. I'm Ava. Um, I've been in the criminal justice class for about four years. Um, we were actually like the first students who got all four years with Ms. LaValley. Thankfully she's an awesome teacher. Um, basically we get to learn about the ins and outs of criminal justice and just everything that goes into it, whether it's like law, like crime, anything like that. We get to go on like numerous field trips that are really like hands-on. Um, we get awesome speakers to come talk to us like Mr. Mayor McCabe. And yeah, we took college classes, we're getting college credits. So it's definitely like giving us a boost going into college. And it's also helping us like learn basically what we want to do in the future. Kind of giving us like a head start. So, yeah. Hi, I'm Kaylee. Um, I just wanna talk about how this program has helped me outside of the classroom. Um, so I actually am a Westfield Police cadet. I joined my sophomore year of high school. I actually learned about it from Miss La Valley in our class. We watched videos from their academy and I did go to academy this summer. Um, I also, this program helped me again through Miss La Valley. I'm on the District Attorney's Youth board, um, under Anthony Looney. And I am also was given an opportunity because of this program to have an internship over the summer working in Pittsfield dis, uh, at Pittsfield District Court in probation. And I got to actually work in the courtroom. And originally I wanted to work, um, in as a police officer. And that was why I joined Cadet program. And through this internship I was able to realize, oh wait, I kind of want to work more in the courtroom. And that way I kind of was able to search and find what I want to do for after high school. So yeah, it helped me a lot figure out what I really wanted to do in the end. Thank you. Kay, Mrs. Val, Mrs. LaValley. I can't help but notice that those first four bullet points are like the intro, the corrections today, American Judicial Systems and Criminal Investigations are exactly the same mural courses that you would get as a freshman at Westville State College. Right. Westville State University. I don't know that good for you. Congratulations. Thank you. So our last pathway is our newest. We did these in order of, um, their newness, but we've had like a simulation of this pathway, if you will, a, uh, a trial, a pilot running for six years. Um, and so, uh, we officially got designated this pathway last year and our anywhere engineering manufacturing students, that's why we're able to have seniors here. They are in our engineering design and development capstone class. Um, but current freshmen are now able to be part of a four course project Lead the Way pathway at Westfield High School. And what you'll know, one of the most exciting things to me that we're adding to this pathway next year, I mean, sorry guys, but you know, you got, you got three of 'em. The fourth course we're adding is computer integrated manufacturing, which is an extremely high need for Westfield. Um, but it also is preparing both our students that wanna go into manufacturing our students who wanna go into manufacturing through engineering to be prepared for those fields. Um, and pretty soon we'll be inviting you to our new innovation lab at Westwood High School to come see. Um, construction takes longer than anyone anticipates, but it should be done coming soon. And I'm really excited to be able to show you guys that space. Um, they helped pick the things for that space. I'll stop talking about that space I'm pretty excited about. But, um, the certifications, they'll get, um, all circle around Autodesk, um, fusion 360. Those are computer programs that we use. Um, we purchased a actual, um, CNC and lathe machine for, um, the engineering labs. And they work on higher powered computers than you know, that they will use when they go to college. So I'm gonna let them speak about their experiences. We come on up. Um, hello, I'm Con Gillette. Um, I recently, uh, 'cause the engineering manufac manufacturing pathway has become an official thing in Westfield High School. We've started to take more field trips and that has helped me recognize what type of engineering I wanna focus in on college. Um, I like mechanical engineering because it allows me to work with machines and robotics compared to electrical engineering, which is more of wires and circuits. And I didn't really know the difference be, uh, before these field trips we took this year. So I was glad to have the opportunity to learn about the differences before I went off to college and deciding what type of engineering I wanted to major in and to save me the stress from switching majors in the future. That's cool. Hi, I am Sydney. I brought lots of friends with me today. Um, So when talking about the engineering program, I really don't know where to begin because this was the program that gave me a lot of confidence throughout my journey in Westfield High School. Um, not only did I learn the basics of engineering and coding, but I learned how to walk through processes I didn't think was possible till higher levels of education. Um, I was able to build hands-on projects and machinery on my own and work through the outcomes with one-on-one help from my teachers. Um, I was given the opportunity to learn so much with so much freedom simply with the amount of rooted support and encouragement through our learning system. Um, these classes have pushed me to rely on higher levels of thinking and has given me increased levels of confidence and has given me the opportunity to speak with hundreds of industry professionals over the years. Um, all of this helps to solidify the fact that I will be pursuing engineering and earth science in the future. Um, and especially through the program that we're doing this year through the capstone engineering, we're doing hands-on projects and my project this year is building, um, in class, um, observation hives for some of our local schools. So hopefully those will be in our schools coming soon. Awesome. Nice. Mr. Pleasure. So last school committee meeting, you guys approved a planning grant for a business pa uh, business and finance pathway. We are applying, we're anticipating a fall 2025 launch. Um, so the innovation career pathways are strong at Westfield High School. They're great opportunities and we're just fortunate to have such great kids and teachers behind these um, experiences. That's awesome. Love those teachers. Yeah. Ready? Go. Thank you very much. Good job guys. Thank you Ms. Kagan as always. Sydney, are you coming back up? I'm coming back. Are you bringing a friend? Are you bringing a friend with you? I brought another one. Come more. All right. Hello everybody. I'm Emery Smith. I'm on the Executive Board of Student Council with Sydney. I wanna say thank you to my classmates for that amazing presentation and really showing you guys what Westfield High School is and is becoming. Um, I think these educational pathways are so important for the upperclassmen of our school kind of discovering what pathway they wanna continue in life and the underclassmen seeing what we have to offer. Um, and I think it's really great for us. Yeah. So beginning our presentation today, we're just gonna talk about some of the events that we had before our break. So our student council carried out three exciting scholastic activities. One of 'em was Spirit Week. We also had pep Rally and our homecoming dance. Um, with participation from our entire school during these events, we believe that they were very well received. We had five days of spirit week with days including four seasons, surfers versus bikers and our color horse. Um, our pep rally this year was won by the senior class with 1,173 points at the end of our pep rally, um, following the pep rally was our Hollywood Homecoming dance with over 300 people in attendance for a fun night of dancing and lots and lots of pictures. Um, but before the start of Pep rally, the seniors and juniors competed in two competitions including flag football slash our powder puff game. Um, which has been a great tradition. We loved carrying it on alongside our hallway wars. Both events were won by the seniors and with a great score of 41 to 27 in a beautifully decorated hallway with balloon walls, tape war tape art, and handmade signs. Our Best Buddies program hosted their Friendsgiving celebration on November 18th, and our key club hosted their annual food pantry can drive and we're able to gather more than 10 plus bags delivering them to those in need. We also have one of their bigger and awareness events coming up, which is the Luminaria event in West Springfield. And thanks to the career center who had a huge helping hand in this event, the Massachusetts Col College acceptance celebration hosted in the library from November 19th to the 22nd was held. Throughout this event, students were able to meet with college representatives and get accepted to colleges on the spot. They were even given their scholarship estimates and a positive outreach to the colleges that might, that might be in their future. The career center is also constantly working diligently to connect students with remote or in-person internships as seen performing the class of 2027. Our sophomore class hosted their three V three basketball tournament on November 22nd with over 16 teams signed up to play and it was a great fundraiser for their class and was a fun time for all students involved. Coming up this Wednesday on December 4th is our financial aid night at our school, which will be placed, which will be taking place at our school as well, which parents and students can use as a tool to plan for funding for college. The last month or so has had a, has had a lot of buzz around college planning and applications. Our seniors have been able to attend our college fair in October, which you folks were informed about and many resourceful events in between. Uh, today marks the opening of our winter sports season. Sports include girls and boys, basketball, girls and boys, ice hockey, ski team, swim team, wrestling, and track and field within the classrooms. Over the past few weeks, we've had some few processes and lessons such as career inventories through the through through our school's career center in order to help gain insight into different career possibilities. The criminal justice department has also been involved in some hands-on labs that allow 'em to continue their study in hands-on environments. We also hosted our military information night, which was taking place on November 6th for families and students who are interested in learning more about the postgraduate options that are available. That's all we have for today. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank You. Thank you very much. Alright, so my guest is, we could do this one more time, probably. I feel like we're gonna empty the room here with this next announcement. If you don't wanna attend the rest of the meeting, Westville High School Group, you feel, feel free to get up and take off. Thank you. Go bombers. My shoes are still wet. Practice was today. It Really is unbelievable. Those literal bullet points you have. Were the first four courses you university. There you go. Alright, next up, Uh, Fort Meadow Early Childhood Center update. Yes. So, uh, there are not too many updates today. Um, there are, we wanted to share the total enrollment at Fort Meadow right now is 1 69. Uh, there are 73 year olds, 93 4 year olds, and 90 of those students are in IEP. So, uh, just to give you a general breakdown, but there is no class that is at full capacity and there is no class that is anywhere near full capacity of peers. So that's our current situation. Um, and that, so, you know, last week, uh, two weeks ago when we talked about this, it is difficult to, to project what's gonna happen because we don't know the three year olds that will be coming next year. But we have, the subcommittee has looked at, uh, enrollment for four year olds next year at Munger Hill and, and Highland based on the three year olds that we have now. Right. So at least we're able to do some of that projection and we're still working on that, but we're looking at student needs and of course, addresses too. And then the other topic that we're, we're working on now too is half day versus full day. There's been a few different models suggested. One model that we, I think we wanna look into is, is it possible to do a full day for all four year olds and half day for three year olds? Does that work with the numbers? And so we're doing the work, it's just a matter of not knowing how many kids we're gonna have and, and so on. So, but that is happening. And then lastly, just in terms of logistics, we're gonna start doing inventory probably in January of the current supply starting in January, hopefully before that. But, uh, of current supplies and furniture that needs to be moved and then items that are not going to be moved because they're not worth moving for a variety of reasons. So that's where we are with Fort Meadow. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Sullivan. Yeah. Are you the, the current three year olds that are at Fort Meadow? Mm-Hmm. The peers? Mm-Hmm. Are you assuming that they are going to stay in the program and move to either Highland or Munger Hill next year? Uh, so that's a, we're gonna have to have that, those discussion with parents. But what I can tell you now is, so 10 students of the 1 69 I just read, actually were selected from the lottery to attend Westfield River. So they, those 10, uh, wanted a full day program at Westfield River. Mm-Hmm. And one, because we had an opening pop up at Highland, someone moved out. So we had that and that was filled too. Um, but I think, um, our hope is that, uh, through some sort of combination of the other classes, we will map the peers. There's still more work to go, as you can tell, but I'm trying to up keep you updated as to what we're at, where we're at. And what we're looking at Is, is there a guaranteed spot for each of the peers next year if they don't stay in this program and they don't get picked in the lottery, will they stay in school? Yes. Okay. So that reduces the lottery. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Definitely. You, Um, did you survey the three year olds? If they want the parents, if they want a half day program or a full day program, That's gonna be upcoming. We talked about that, but I know in our past surveys it's been overwhelmingly a full day's program from the families, but, um, we don't believe that we're gonna have that capacity. So in terms of having a full day for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old at this point, but I mean, again, so tho tho those work, those numbers are being crunched now when I see, you know, we'll know as I said, by the end of January, our February meeting, if this is something we're gonna do. But in terms of budgeting, we're gonna start projecting, but we probably won't have that piece available till we present the budget. So we'll do the budget of need, of course, present that as we would, and then we'll have to take it from there, Follow up. Um, will they have day program be at like one school and then so all those kids who are just doing half day will be together. So I think that depends if, if we looked at, so the reason we looked at, um, so there are other districts who are, who reason they're doing full day for four year olds and half day for three year olds. That would make that difficult if that's the model that we just, that we think can make work or if there's another model. So to be determined still, we're working on that. Okay. Just keep those things in mind, please. Absolutely. Thank you. Else. I'd like to make a motion for the approval. November 18th, 2024 school committee meeting. Minutes. Second, Second motion, judge. May the second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a field trip from Westfield High School to Simsbury High School, Simsbury, Connecticut. December 21st, 2024. Second motion been made in second. Any further discussion on that? This is the annual wrestling tournament. Gotcha. Any questions? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a field trip of Westfield High School to Spain, Madrid. Granada, you're gonna have to help me with these Silla and Malaga. Am I right? So are the places to go? April 18th through the 26th. 2025. And it does say here that these are tentative dates. Do you need a, do you need a guest chaperone? Uh, Marlene's here if you have questions. April, 2020. Any questions? It should be 26th. So this isn't going next April. It's The following April. And they're doing this to fundraise, but marlina. Oh, it's, I'm sorry. I'm reading the, Do you need this? Yeah. So it's 2026, not 2025. 2026. So can I amend the motion to say 2026? Yes. Yes. Motion's been amended to, is there a second for the amendment on the motion? Second. There's any further discussions saying that. Okay. Ms. Helman got, I just wanna make sure that you're with the students at all times. Yes, because this one, my daughter got a tattoo when she We did hear that from you last year. Okay. But just wanna make sure for at all times. She did. She got Wanna make Sure. Okay. No, it was not with us. Are there any further questions that A bomber? No. No. It was a butterfly. It was a butterfly. We good? I Just wanna make sure. All in favor? Alright. Opposed. Motion passes. Have, thank you. Thank you. Have a good time. Thank you. And let me know if you need a chaperone. You never know. I always have to ask. Uh, 10 2024 MCAST data. Are you guys gonna leave too? Yeah. Can as well have, I think I can do this. Alright. On the first step. Anyway, Hey, everyone feels like it's been a while since I've been up here. Christine Shea, director of Assessment and Accountability. So tonight I'm gonna be going over some different types of data, um, starting off with our enrollment data, um, accountability results, uh, a s and we're adding iReady data to the mix because we are using it for our goals this year. And just wanted to give you an overview. So To start off with enrollment, um, this is our October one enrollment numbers. We're at 4 7 73. Wow. Um, the other data is from the end of June. Those numbers will be updated probably end of December, early January to reflect our October reporting. Uh, the state just hasn't released that yet, but we are at African American 1.9% Asians, 2.8% Hispanics, 19.8 Native American really stays pretty much stable at 0.1 White is 71.1%, no native Hawaiian Pacific Islander. And multi race is 4.3. Our selected populations, first language, not English. Um, those are all our students that are first, that don't, that first language isn't English. Uh, that's at 15.3%. Um, our English learners are students that are still, um, receiving ESL instruction. So when they reach a certain proficiency based on the access test, they will be monitored for several years and then, um, just become part of the regular group and not receive, um, special monitoring anymore and be part of our first language, not English group. Um, students with disabilities, 23.8%, uh, high needs, which is English language learners, students with disabilities. And low income is at 59.8% and low income is 49.4. Can I ask you a question again? Yep. Can those first two on the right First language not English? Yep. And English. Are those numbers the same? They getting bigger, smaller. We're gonna show that. Good. Okay. Segue. Thank you for that question because, Um, So, you know, in looking at accountability and MCAS results and our targets that the state is setting for us, they are asking everyone to kind of return to results from 2019, which is pre pandemic. So we thought we'd look at, you know, what is our student population now compared to then? And what we've noted is that, um, some of our student groups have increased, which means more services, more needs to meet. Um, for example, um, first language, not English, has gone from 11% to 15. Um, our English learner population, those are the students that are receiving ESL instruction from our ESL teachers, um, has gone up to 7.9%. Students with disabilities was at 18% and is now 23.8%. Our low income population has increased to 49.4 from 37.7. So overall high needs for the three groups, the L students with disabilities and low income is almost 60% if you round up. So you will see that, you know, we have had an increase, um, again, in just the kinds of services that, um, we are providing students. Um, Dr. Chair, can you do me a favor? Can you do this into the, uh, um, into the drive so we can have it some, some these into the, we can read from the side of the room, but like when they go into the grass, can't See. Do you have it in your email? It's already, give it to my email. Oh, you send it first thing in the morning. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I'm in your way. Yeah. Alright. Let see it. Got, yeah, I got it. Excellent. Should we turn? Can you see it? We could turn. It is Okay. Can't the camera set up on the camera? Oh, right, the camera. Okay. So we're gonna go over our accountability results, but just to review what the accountability system is for Massachusetts. You know, every district and school gets different ratings. So we get two, as does every district. One is a comparison, uh, ranking. So all our elementary schools are compared, uh, they get a percentile compared to other elementaries, middles to middles, high high schools to high schools. And then where also every school gets targets based on their MCA results and other types of data, um, that they're, they're getting a percentage towards meeting that target really based on what their results are. So that's a criterion reference, um, component. And then both the normative and the criterion referenced are made up of achievement data, student growth, and I'll show you that, more of that in the next slide. High school completion, um, EL proficiency. And then there's some other indicators like taking advanced coursework. So that's what goes into the accountability system. And again, number three's hard to see, but I'll, I'll sort of show you our results. But that's telling us how much growth are we making towards our targets. And do any of our schools require assistance? So in those components, achievement is mc a scores, ELA, math and science growth. There's a growth percentile for MAS for ELA and math, um, percentage towards meet hitting English language proficiency, um, is one of the indicators. Our percentage of students grades one to 12, missing 10% or more of days, enrolled chronic absenteeism. Um, we'll look at that too. And that's something that with Covid went way up and is coming down. High school completion includes four year graduation rate, extended engagement rate, and annual dropout. So extended engagement is five year graduation. So kids that are graduating the next year or kids who are still engaged, even if they don't graduate in the fifth year, but they're still engaged in school. And then for additional indicators, one thing I wanted to highlight, um, is the percentage of students completing at least one advanced course. And, you know, we offer a number of advanced courses. It's not just about advanced placement anymore. We have early College Westfield Promise Project Lead the Way. Some of the pathways have advanced courses. We have our CTE courses. So, you know, we offer a number of, um, advanced courses for students to take. You probably just heard some of the students talking about it earlier. Um, so our takeaways, um, good news, the high school improved our participation for ls, um, which means they no longer require technical assistance. Uh, Franklin Ave improved our MCA scores so they not no longer require technical assistance. So none of our schools or our district requires technical assistance. This year, um, all of our schools and district made moderate or substantial progress towards goals. Our chronic absentee rate really significantly decreased. Um, and as did our increase in numbers of students taking and passing advanced courses. So those are all things within the accountability system that have, um, yeah. That are worth celebrating. Absolutely. So the, I mentioned there's two different, this is a lot of information. I know there's two different ways that we get ratings. One is a percentile, which is we're comparing our elementary schools across the state. So like Abner Gibbs, uh, and these numbers are, um, from 20 19, 20 22, 20 23 and 2024. Um, the two years of COVID 2020 and 2021, there were no percentiles because we didn't have MCAS one of those years. Um, so looking back to 2019, you'll see that a number of our schools have actually gotten back to where they were with their percentile ranking or exceeded. Um, I mean, just to mention, Highland had a couple like really high years, but they're more typical percentile is around 50. So, you know, we're feeling pretty good. You know, like Ger Hill, um, paper mill admirer Gibbs is getting back there. WIS is ahead. Um, the middle school is ahead, so, uh, south Hampton Road. So we're pretty pleased with that as well. And then the criterion reference targets, this is how are our schools and district doing in meeting their targets? So there's a couple different categories. Um, in 2019 our schools were kind of across the board and we had two schools that did require assistance. Um, 2023, they were more within substantial and moderate progress. And we did have Franklin Ave and the high school requiring assistance. This year no schools are requiring assistance, which is really excellent. And our schools made moderate or substantial pro uh, progress towards targets. So again, you know, reason to celebrate, Um, just to show, uh, some of those measures are chronic absentee rates. Um, it's the green line, so it was at 17.1 2019. 2020. We're now back down to 21.6. So, you know, we're on a very good trajectory and hoping to get back to 17 if not lower. And attendance rate, you know, kind of follows suit. Um, again, we are increasing our daily attendance rate. Uh, we're at 92.5 and we're hoping to increase, I think we have 1.3 in our goals this year. Um, to get up to, wait, let me see. I think it's 1.3. Yeah, it's 1.3, um, to get to 93.8. So that was accountability and the different indicators that go into that. Just to give you an overview of MAS, just as a reminder, um, MAS is on a scale from four 40 to five 60, uh, we'd like all our students to at least hit 500, which is meeting expectations or you know, five 30, which is exceeding. Um, and then students that are not meeting, you know, we're looking at who are those students and what kinds of supports do we provide as well as partially meeting. So, um, that's the descriptors and cut scores. Um, Massachusetts, statewide, you know, they present overall state results. And just to give you an overview, um, this year the ELA results statewide actually were lower in all grades from last year. Um, math results did show some improved achievement grade three and then otherwise results were pretty flat. Science showed improved achievement in grades five and 10 and lower in grade eight. And I mean, they're kind of summing things up is that there's still ground to make up to reach, uh, pre pandemic achievement levels, which is what the state is really looking for. Um, I mean, before we get to our results, just to mention, you know, that's, those are our targets as well. Even though as we mentioned in the, at the first few slides, um, you know, our student populations needs have changed since 2019. I, I just wanna chime in. So what I find interesting and just in terms of DESI, is that the ELA results show lower achievement in all grades across the entire state. Now, when I was a teacher, if I had a test that I gave that everyone did poorly on, I looked at myself. Mm-Hmm. Desi is not doing that. I'm just putting that out sir. Yeah, I mean I do think some reflection is, is needed. Um, we definitely are looking at our results and thinking about where are there improvements and why, you know, what are some things we can learn from the positives and areas that we may not be improving in again and why. And, you know, what do we need to do about that. Um, similar to the state recovery's still underway, um, we did have some increase in our grades three and eight. Um, and then like the state we had decreases in our other grades for math. Um, we had the most increases in grades three, seven, and eight. Grade 10 was virtually the same, literally the same. And some decreases in grades four, five, and six. Um, and grade eight science increased and it was the same in grade five. And we saw some decreases in high school science, which is, um, biology and intro to physics. Um, just to show you a little comparison, so just to mention scaled scores, um, remember 500 is is where its meets or exceeds or above. So that's where we wanna get to. Um, we did a little comparison of some of our regional districts and we also included the high needs percentage for each of the districts because one of the things we noticed is that the higher the needs, the lower the scores, which is very similar. I mean, income and test scores pretty much correlate. So it's just a reminder that, you know, MCAS is a measure that we take seriously, but it's really just one measure and um, you know, it does often reflect the need of a community. And this is our high needs percentage. So like Westfield's at 60% as I mentioned earlier. And that reflects students with disabilities, low income and um, English learner student groups. So this is grades three to eight and it's ELA math and science. So our goal is really, you know, to get up to 500 or above. And here's grade 10, same districts. And um, you know, again, ELA math and science and the science is a combination of the biology and intro to physics. Just a, a note on that. So we, we've transitioned at the tech academy from um, what, what they did, uh, they did an engineering MCA, right? And the state has done away with that. The engineering MCAS made sense for the shops at the tech academy. However, DESI did away with that test. So now they're taking biology or intro to physics. So that's a new test. This that was given to them for the first time. And that actually reminded me, Stefan, that you know, our scores reflect both the high school and the tech academy. And the tech academy has, as we know, you know, innovative shots. Um, and kids are going off to, you know, great careers. However, there's less time for academics. So again, you know, measurement, MCAS is looking at achievement. It's not really measuring the other kinds of things that kids are leaving. Um, the tech academy and high school with, And I've done the math on this. So a a, a student at WTA gets 75% of the academics as a student at a traditional high school. I mean with our portrait of a graduate where we're looking at the kinds of skills that kids are leaving with, um, you know, we're thinking kids leaving with, uh, from different shops. That's a weird Noise. Just gotta get us to find something to eat. We'll be okay. Uh, What, so can I interject clearly, the premise forever has been that socioeconomics is the major factor in achievement on test score and data. 'cause there's a higher need. Might it be better to show a different type of graphic that led with the percentage of special need and then see if there's a bar that correlates with that. Do you understand what I mean? Mm-Hmm. So like I could see Holyoke in the, I could barely, I think it's Holyoke Yep. At some incredible number. 90, 90%. And clearly it's lower if what we're trying to show at some point is that it's, it's not necessarily, um, teaching and, and skill sets and, but it's related to socioeconomics and special needs which are directly correlate to um, socioeconomics. Would a graph that actually led with the percentages in ascending or d ascending order be able to better show that? So we you mean break it out by students with disabilities, low income? We could do that. Um, yeah, I mean So like in instead of showing it by Westfield West Springfield, I think um, if you showed it by students with like a line graph disabilities Yep. As that, as a percentage, would it kind of make your argument to socioeconomics as more to do with lower test scores than actual what we'll say educational abilities? No disrespect for those people, you know what I mean? But so what I think it's not just the economic status though. It's that high needs category that you have to look at. And I think the student, the more high need percentage, what I noticed the correlation is the more high needs percentage of students that you have, it's not just socioeconomic status is um, the lower your scores are and the high needs we're at 60%. Right. So I think if you look at is at 90% so their scores would be lower. So I mean, socioeconomic is a factor, but there are other factors too, including disabilities language, uh, English language learning skills too. I, I'm kind of saying that actually, but yeah, You are. Yeah. I think that a you something that might be helpful for us also to see if we're like, if that's, you know, I think sort of the theory of the how we're doing or part of the story that I'm hearing of how we're doing is it is driven in large part due of demographic change. I think that it would be interesting to see, you know, our high needs students where have, you know, how is their performance for that population? That's 60% of our student population. Are we doing better or worse than typical for the state with high needs students? There you go. Right? I think that that would be a really interesting Yes. Way to look at. We have Some tables that we can share. Yeah, We're gonna share some more stuff with you tomorrow. I mean, I Just didn't wanna get deep when we wanted deep into the weeds. We'll send you the weeds. Yeah. Yes. But we wanted to also consider, We like weed You Em on your own time, not on school committee times seven o'clock You'll get, you can get deep into the weeds. So yes, Heather, We have that. We have another follow up that Christina's already sent me to send you tomorrow. And I would like to see that because I, with the high needs being 60%, I think it's important to be able to see that comparison. We understand the demographics, but I Absolutely, You got it. Um, So you can see, see how does it compare to last year and five years ago and to the state and what's Your projection, You know, what do you see coming in? The numbers are going up. That's my concern. I've heard that Ms. Sullivan, I've heard you say. Yeah, you think We share That? I, Okay, so for spring, just a preview, um, the state's continuing to pilot some new interactive items for science, technology, engineering. Um, and this, they're like, this year kids will take items that are operational that they'll get scores on and then they'll also try some of the pilots and they're hoping to become operational in 26 or 27. So that's science and um, civics this past year we had a pilot this coming year it's going in grade eight. So grade eight is going to have science, uh, English language arts, math and civics. So they're gonna have four tests, which is a lot I think, but it's gonna become operational this spring and we will actually get results in the fall. So, um, that's a little preview. And as you might've read, um, the graduation requirement to pass MCAS is, has been voted out. Um, I guess we'll know soon enough if that. So far it's gonna stick. I, you know, we'll know soon enough if anything's gonna change. So the state is still going to administer it. I do worry it's gonna affect our data in that it could, it could affect our data because if it's not a graduation requirement, so for example, Westfield High School was cited for a low number of participation in Vs. Who apparently didn't want to take a test that they couldn't understand or read. 'cause it's not in their language, which I don't blame them actually. Uh, but the state cited us for that. So now we might get cited for low participation again. So that is a concern that we have in terms of the state accountability system. It would be logical for the state to adjust their accountability system given the new rule. But I don't know if that's gonna happen. And we've heard no talk of that happening. If I may just, sorry, I gotta ask, what's the downside of that? They, they say so Of, of the, what? The, The upside or the downside? The Downside of it. They say you've been naughty, You didn't get the number that you needed. Well your accountability goes low and they can put you into leading assistance. And of course the worst case scenario would be receivership, which is what they did to hold you. But They're not gonna do that. No, we're very far from That. The state's success rate of receivership is very, very poor. True. I mean, I think the upside is some students will actually get a diploma that wouldn't have otherwise who completed the requirements for high school. And we are looking at graduation requirements, which we're gonna be bringing to you soon too, to adjust accordingly, Right. To respond. All right. We should do, so we're gonna take a couple minutes just to talk about iReady since it's becoming part of our goals. We thought it would be important just to give you an overview. So here's our assessment timeline. You know, we have given benchmarks for a long time. Um, right now we are giving, beginning of the year we're giving i-Ready, um, in math and reading to K to eight. And just this year we started a pilot with IXL. Prior to that we were using i-Ready. IXL has a science component, which, um, we're excited about. And so ninth and 10th graders are taking that. They took it this fall. Um, but because it's a pilot, we aren't gonna use it for goals. We're just sort of figuring out, um, what the results are. Like if, right, or if we wanna go back to iReady. So September, October, we're getting our spring MCA results and we are administering the beginning of year benchmarks. Um, October through January, we're progress monitoring. So based on results, we use those beginning of year results for iReady to say, okay, so what do we have? What should we focus on in our classrooms? Um, our, are there kids that need interventions? So it's one measure that helps inform, um, our groupings and things like that and our interventions. And then we administered again in January and February to see how are we doing overall and then again, how are our students doing? Are they getting the supports they need? Um, and February through June is literally different MCAS. We have science in February and then ELA and math and science right up into June. Um, so what we have done is scheduled our benchmarks to be after MCAS, um, which is pretty much end of May into June. Um, to use them for our goals, which is what we are going, we're saying we're gonna do, we have to move i-Ready up in order to have results in time. 'cause you know, we aren't gonna have MCAS till September, so we can't use that. So, you know, we're gonna try and move up, um, iReady so that we have results in time, um, and try to figure that out around MCA. So, um, you know, it's, it's gonna be a little bit of a challenge, but we're gonna make it work. So just so you know, give you a sense of what i-Ready tells us overall. The fourth far over is our district results from beginning of year. Um, the number that we, I mean we look at all five of those categories from dark green down to dark red and figure out student groupings and such. But what we like to see by the end of the year is that green, which is now 7%, and this is for math, um, increase. 'cause those are kids that are meeting or exceeding grade level. So that's the number that we're looking at. Um, the other bars are comparison. The one next to it's Massachusetts. So we had 7% of our kids there. Massachusetts had eight. The whoever took it across the nation was at 6%. And then they have a normed representative sample, which was at 7%. That's math. This is reading. Um, results are actually better for reading. 15% of our kids were at mid or above grade level to start the year. So that's our iReady benchmark results. Um, we are proposing to use, we are gonna use, um, end of year benchmark results. Like what is the percentage of kids that actually met or exceeded grade level. Um, last year in math it was 27%, and in reading it was 31%. So our goal is to increase that those two numbers each by 5%. And then, um, looking at student growth, so not just achievement, but also growth the last three years in reading, um, that's the percentage of students that met typical growth that grew a year's worth. You know, they learned what we wanted them to learn. Um, some kids exceeded that, um, and some kids didn't meet that. So this past year, 58% of our students met typical student growth in reading, and 56% did in math. So we are, our goal is to increase both of those by 2% to get to 60% in reading and 58% in math up big. Thank you for your time. Thank you for yours. Yeah. Ms. Hillman, Are you the only ones that can see that, like all those percentage charts? Or is it available for parents and how is that? We'll Actually put this on our website. Okay. Yeah, that's A great idea. Under, under the data assessment accountability, Uh, because I think parents should be able to see information like that. Parents do See their individual Kids, they get their individual students Scores, not the district necess, but sometimes it's good to see your child in comparison to everybody else too. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. O'Connor. Yep. Uh, thank you, first of all for the presentation. I, I, I think I voiced it, the concern in the past that we sometimes feel like we're always chasing data, um, in terms of getting data at a certain time period and then evaluating it at a later date. So what you said about iReady is that that data is going to be evaluated, um, throughout the year. Well, it's done three times a year, usually in June. But in order to complete the evaluation process for me, we're gonna move the iReady date up so that you'll have that data to go by. Right. Anything else? Go ahead. No, I just think it, you know, particularly with an MCAS, by the time the results come in, let's say it's a third grade, results come in, they're in fourth grade. Right. All of a sudden we're chasing that DEI evaluation system is not foolproof. There's Clause. Well, I get it. Yeah. But I, I just think the more we can, and, you know, the real time data, the more we can get access to that and, and evaluate, assess it, and act upon it, I think the better off we'll be. But It's available when it, that's unfortunate. I get it. Dr. Gothy, Um, yeah, I'm just, I know that you all use this data all the time, even though there's a lag, but you're using that data to inform. And so I'm, I'm just curious, as you all have taken in the MCAS data, like a couple things that you all are taking from that as bright spots that are going forward, a couple places where you're like, you know, next year we really hope to see, So at every school, every ILT has looked at their own MAS data. And so I can, so as I mentioned previously, we are assigned to two schools, right? Every school is different and what they're falling down on, if you will. And so we are looking at that particular spot. So I know for, I can speak to WTA because I'm on the ILT mm-Hmm. They have a couple areas in math where they think the standards are not necessarily being covered, and so therefore they're gonna work to try to cover that. Those are the kinds of things. But for a specific, I don't have one for you. I think just overall, I know last meeting Susan talked about our focus on student discourse and especially students with disabilities. So, you know, based on scores, that's kind of, that we know an area that's an area that we are focused on. And I mean, we think student discourse leads to more learning. 'cause there's research showing that when you're talking about what you're learning, you are learning more deeply. So that's what we would like to see, like raise the boat. Like everybody improves. But we're also focusing on our student group who's, whose growth is the lowest, um, and trying to support them to grow More. And I can, I'm gonna talk more to that on the next agenda item Before I go there. At the risk of making a fool of myself, which I hope I don't do, can you go back to your last slide? Not the thank you one. The one right. Your penultimate slide. Okay. So, okay. Math and reading. 58% showed improvement. So 58 standard, um, typical growth. So 58% of the students grew a year, which is what you'd expect. That's typical growth. Some, so some That go higher, some Lower, some grew more. So, you know, if you have to make up ground. So the flip side of that is some 40 To 45%. So I, I'm not reading it wrong. I'm not reading. 40 to 45% of our students are not making the expected growth in their iry. I do 45, 42. I I'm doing like 44. He's rounding. I'm Rounding. So I, and the math side. So I just wanna ask a simple question. Yeah. Is it good that only 56% are making growth in the other 44% or not? So it's typical growth. So when we say typical, that's what it's expected. Again, there are some that are, uh, experiencing greater growth and some that are experiencing low growth. And we should break that down. We could do that. But we're break That down. No. Now I have clarifying question. That that 50, so that 56% is only typical growth. It's not typical or higher. It's actually typical or higher. Oh, it is. Okay. So it, so it is 40 to 45% of our students are not making a typical, regardless of where they're starting from, they're not making the right amount, the expected amount of progress in a given year. I Mean, based on the iReady. Yeah. You know, I mean, so our goal is to raise that. Yes. Well, ideally to, oh, no, Mr. Sullivan. No, That's the exact question I had was the, uh, more than typical growth. Yeah. But it's all part of that 56%. I hope I didn't make a fool of myself, but No, it just seems, I mean, one, one thing to say about i-Ready, especially end of year and, um, the upper grades like seventh and eighth, is again, like motivation, taking a test. They just took, if you're an eighth grader, you took four, four mc a s tests, and now we're doing i-Ready. So we do see, if you look over the grades, what I test fatigue is test, I think is test fatigue. So, um, that's reflected in all those. Can we break out those numbers? Yes. We can see it by grade, you know, by grade. And that way we can see test fatigue or not, or, you know, whatever. Oh, you'll definitely see it. Yeah. Mr. Tru, Uh, two quick questions. First of all, thank you for, for all this, a lot of data. Um, first one, do we have pre pandemic numbers for this? We Didn't use i-Ready at that Time. We did not. Okay. That's what I assumed. Um, When did we start? i-Ready? 0%. We can, we'll look, I just Okay. Students testing at home probably is not valid data. Yeah. The current Platform that we have doesn't have it, but we can go back and we'll find it If we have it. Okay. Second, second question. Um, I think it's the slide previous to this one. Uh, not then it's, yeah, this one. So the numbers that we're talking about increasing as, as part of goals are the numbers that are on the left, right? The Yes. Students that are meeting or exceeding these numbers. Right. Which I think is, is, is good that we're on the right track. Can you go back to that in a slide though? The one that had the numbers? Because our goal projects that we're gonna increase it by 5%. It's a lofty goal if we're looking at the numbers. So we hope to meet it, but I, they're gonna make it goal. We might as well make it good. Yeah, absolutely. I guess my, my question though is the students that are on the other, that, that are part of the percentages on the right hand side of this slide, how do we, how do we attack that? How, how do, how do we, Are you trying to segue to the next 'cause that's perfect for, Uh, I wasn't, I wasn't the students. The students here. Um, so these are the students that come up on our student teacher and assistant team. These are the students that receive the interventions for the people that we, we provided intervention. So if we know a student is certainly in that lower end, they might receive a reading intervention and they might actually, they not might, they will receive a reading intervention. They will receive math intervention. And we have terrific interventions. Uh, and also, uh, our coaches are made aware of this data and they work with the staff on the areas that where we have, so I was gonna gonna kind of be part of what I was gonna say coming up, but that's one of the things, um, which I'll get back to. Yeah. Okay. Does that make sense? They get interventions that way. Yeah. And, um, hopefully we can catch them up. We have mentors, we have academic tutors, we have all sorts of interventions for students to try to catch them up to where they need to be. I, I think you've stimulated a great thought here amongst the panel, Mr. Solo. So, so let's stick with the color theme here. Um, you want to increase the green by 5%, is is a goal. The next slide is visually for me more pleasing, but yes, 5% we're the next one. Well, the next one is 2%, I'm sorry, the leg. Okay. This one, we wanna go by 5% for people that sold. So in other words, you want to increase the green, but at the same time as to Mr. Terrell's point, you want to increase the yellow because if you're increasing the yellow, that means the red's decreasing red for two, that the red is going down. If you're, so I, I would think that that should be just as much of a goal as increasing the green And that Yeah. Mr. Dr. Gunther. And that is why I do think that I'm really glad that we have goals for both because the way that you get at that other one is by the growth, like the students making growth. Because it's not about just, did you meet like, we can, we can push this number by moving the light greens into the dark greens. Right? That's the easy part, part. The other number is harder. And actually I would correct, I, I don't want to push even further. And I know we're getting into the next thing I'll push even further on the goals, but the, like, to me, the growth goal is the one I'm even more worried about the, like the 40 to 45% who aren't making right adequate annual progress than this. That may be a, a, you know, a built up over many years of student performance. And just one thing to mention, this is one measure and it is, you know, something that kids are taking at the end of the year. Um, when we are looking at this at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and we're also progress monitoring along the way. There are other measures. There's student work, there's teacher recommendations. So I also don't wanna, you know, put all the apples or I, I'm gonna use the wrong thing in one cart. I'll eggs in one basket. That's it. Um, either one, just to sort of keep in mind that, you know, every one measure is not going to encompass everything Right. And what's not measured. It's not a perfect measure. Are the kids that spoke here tonight. Right. And what they're going through and the positive, uh, experiences they're having in school. 'cause it's not reflective on any test, but we know we have it and we love it. Alright. Excellent. Thank You. Thank you. So, uh, Mr. Superintendent, do you have a presentation for us? It's free. I hope. Just put the thank you on. Yeah. So before I start, I just wanna say I was asked a question today by somebody in this room. That was a great question and I really feel like, um, it answers some of what we just talked about. I got a bad feeling here. It wasn't. So I was asked, how are you working to raise test scores? And this ought to be my elevator speech, if you will, right? This ought to be what we're doing here to raise, I mean, we do so much more than just test scores in a district, but that's what matters to the accountability people on the state. And so the first thing is we look at the data that we just showed you and the Ts are looking at it, the district is looking at it, we're looking at the standards we're falling down on and we're trying to shore them up and figure out what's happening. And I mentioned the WTA because their scores are lower. It is not, it is noticeable, but they also have 25% less academic instruction time. You might expect 25% lower results. Not saying that's always happened, but it's a thing. Okay. So we're looking at the data and where are we falling on teaching and learning and we're trying to fix that. The other thing is, is we're trying to increase student engagement. And that's some of the coursework you heard about tonight. But, and our project lead the Way and things of that nature, our, our our students, you know, they learn better when they're engaged and they're motivated. And so that is part of, and it's kind of not measurable, but it is a thing. And I think hearing students and hearing them talk passionately about the careers that they're going into. Um, one of the students who spoke last week, I just got a message, is now past everything. He needs to be an air traffic controller. That just happens. And um, and those are also real things that happen in our schools. We also, uh, again, our student discourse in terms of instructional priority is data and research that we've looked at that increases student engagement the same as project lead the Way. So we're, what I can tell you as a former student, and many of you remember your time as a student, I don't know, well maybe some of you don't, though. I was trying to give you credit here, but were we engaged as students either or did we comply because that was the way it was back in those days? Well, we're trying to keep our kids engaged. 'cause that also affects attendance by the way. So it all comes full circle. And then the other one that we're trying to, so then we look at modifying instructional practices. We put, uh, kids into interventions as needed. Um, and then the last thing is, we are working hard for the last few years to exp expand pre-K because we know that that is gonna help our students. So I've answered that. I wanted to answer that question 'cause I thought it was a great question and I will not say who asked it. So you might have guessed it was me. Um, But it was, it came to me because, uh, uh, I received an email as a result of some of the stuff that we were doing on the school committee itself. And it came to me from, um, a professor who posited that, um, we shouldn't concentrate on either MCA scores or SAT scores or a CT scores based on the notion that colleges are no longer really referencing those. That isn't accurate. That is not accurate. I don't know how else to say it. It is simply not accurate. Colleges still are looking at a CT scores at SAT scores in order to weed out levels, whatever, whatever you wanna call it, in terms of entry into a role. So when we talk about a CT scores and SAT scores, I am concerned that our SAT scores and a CT scores are below the region's number for academic entrepreneurship into colleges and universities. And so long as we continue to be lower in our S-A-T-A-C-T scores, it will mean that we are holding our own students back. Now, respectfully of everybody here, we are doing wonderful work in the socialization demographic work of trying to help everybody. But that still doesn't get us to where we need to be on a different metrics. So what I asked for was, in our goals from the superintendent, can we have a goal that lists improving SAT scores and a CT scores in order that we may better prepare our students to move forward? Now this is not a shot to you, That's not what you asked though. You asked me how we were trying to raise our scores and I feel like what you're, I guess if just To, well let, let me just finish just a second. So I don't view me personally, I don't view the teaching somebody how to take a test as the way to improve the A-C-T-S-A-T scores. It's gotta be a consistent learning process. It starts in preschool, which you are doing a fabulous job of and then moving it forward through the secondary schools. And it should come out as a test result boost. That's what it should happen. But unfortunately it's not happening for whatever reason. So I thought that when we were talking about superintendent's goals, that may be one of those superintendent's goals should include some type of way to help S-A-T-A-C-T scores. And I'm not picking on, I'm just, that's, that has been kind of my battle wick or my mantra all the way through. So that's why you got it. But it wasn't a shock to you. I didn't take it that way. It was how do we get there? And I still don't know. Well, I think all the things that I just read off in terms of how we are working to raise test scores does answer that question. And I think these things implemented will, um, raise scores over time. I mean, preschool being implemented now is what you're gonna see those results down the road. But, and I, what I will say is we, we did add an SAT prep course, and I know you said that, um, that you don't think that it actually does raise test scores. But I'll disagree with you because I know people who take those prep courses get 100 to 200 points higher when they take them. 'cause they are taught how to take that test. It does help. Okay. I should have taken it. Okay. Me too. Okay. There you go. Mrs. Elman, Do we have a list of what our kids are achieving on the acts and the SATs? Do we have a listing of that? We do. We do. That would be helpful to us I bet. Okay. To report that. Okay. But I also wanna, um, and, and I think I still appreciate the, the emphasis that many folks in a different generation have in terms of emphasis on college. But our kids don't have that focus anymore. I do think we have to recognize and realize that they don't have it as much as we did. The drive isn't there when I was a kid, and you probably heard you have to go to college. That's what you heard. What we're hearing from our kids now, and I've seen over the last nine years of graduations is the rate of students at both high schools that want to go to college is declining because they're seeing other avenues where they don't have to go to college. And they could still make a good career, Dr. That's happening. But we still need to make sure that they're prepared should they make the choice to go to college. Absolutely. To go to the college. Absolutely. But what I heard when I came on as superintendent from our business people as well as college folks, but from our business folks, is that these kids are not coming to us prepared to work. They don't know how. So there's, that's why I said there's a, there's a lot, there is a lot that goes into running a school district and a school system and trying to create a product that is both career and college ready. And that is what we aim to do. Mr. Sullivan. I I think to that point, I think in the last five, six years, it's been beaten over everybody's heads that's gone to high school. That you don't need to go to college, go get a job and a trade. And, and that has, you've seen, I i I live it. Um, because that's the questions I get. And to, to Dr. Gunther's point is, some kids do want to go to college or a university, but they're not prepared to get there or they don't know how to do it. And the first thing they see is a price tag in that, well, I can't do that, so I gotta go get a job as a trade, or I gotta do something different. Huge. So I think in the, in the past few years, and I think this is all cyclical, I think the trades became the thing to go get a job right after high school. A good paying job. They're doing fantastic with it. The school here in town is, is outstanding at preparing people for that job. But I think what we're gonna see in the next 10 years is the push for colleges and universities. Again, I think that the, the, the trades may become, I don't wanna say saturated, but much more plentiful. People working in the trades than there was five years ago. We couldn't find plumbers, we couldn't find electricians. We couldn't find all those trades before. Now we're getting to the point where that is, is is much more. So what I think you might be missing is that a lot of our students that go into those trades are also going to college. And I don't think we can take that away from them. And the other thing is, is that by offering early college, I think we are trying to prepare our kids and there's 250 students that are enrolled in that maybe even more now. And I think that is trying to prepare them for college. But in terms of, you know, what, what, what I love about the the trade piece is there are businesses, a good number of them that will hire you and pay you or pay for you to go through school to, to, so you can move up in their organization. Right. I don't, don't get me wrong. I'm not, I'm not saying that taking the trade and doing both is a bad thing. I think the percentages of people that are in the trade school that are going to college versus the people that are at Westville High School, going to college is a little bit different. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing. It's, it's the choice and that's what they get. But I do think that the public relations atmosphere has said trades are a good thing. They are, they're, they're wonderful. Everybody needs, we all need people that can do things. Um, because a lot of us don't know how to do Things well, To be honest. Right. But that's what I mean, I think, I think that that's, that people actually listen to that and said, you know what, I can, I can go to high school, I can be 18 years old. I can get certified at 19 or 20 years old. And I'm sad when I talk. That's true. When I talk with students, the biggest prohibitive factor is cost. And I think, yeah. What people are seeing in these colleges are charging 70, $80,000 per year. And I think that scares the heck out of some of these families. And I'm glad that Westfield High School is having their financial aid I to try to help people navigate through it. But even attending that, um, it's the co i i I fear for some colleges and universities and a bunch of closed is that they're pricing themselves out of business than they need To be. The smaller private schools are in trouble. They are Absolutely in trouble. Yeah. You can't charge that much. That's Why what I heard yesterday, Westfield State is 27% more enrollment this year than they were last year. That's unbelievable. So they are a very good cost effective right place in our community. Right. Absolutely. And I may have graduated from there too. Couple of you Know, you know what they still rely on. I'm not gonna say it, but they do. Okay. So if I can just, so the goal as now reads, by the end of 2024 to 25 school year, the district will improve student achievement on the i-Ready diagnostic assessment by increasing the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade level standards by 5%. And by increasing the percentage of students meeting typical growth by 2%, that's the first part. And then the district will increase the student daily attendance rate by 1.3% to the pre pandemic level of 93.8%. Awesome. Can I offer a comment? Like, I just first thank you for getting really specific. I know it was my push. I appreciate, I appreciate it. Um, there is a different version between the packet and the email. And so I just want to be clear that we're looking at the, the work tonight. We're approving the one that includes the 2% typical growth as well. It's Not, did I read the wrong one? No, No. That what you read is what was in the email, but is not what was in the packet. So vote what was on the email just to clarify that. So, and then I also want to name, I, I think I'm really excited to dig into these because I mean, there's amazing work happening here. And I think to the point that's been made, there's work to be done to grow. Um, I do wonder as we look at this, whether we will see that the ex meeting exceeding is perhaps a bit on the ambitious side and the meeting typical growth is maybe on the less ambitious side. And so I'm just excited to get into It is ambitious. Get into, but if I set number, set it high. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I mean my point is more that the typical gr the typical growth one is maybe even a little bit low. But I know that you're kind of, I would like to continue to keep an eye on those. I appreciate that. Getting specifics that we can calibrate on these Sure. In future years. Um, I think this, that was the first goal change. The second goal, we added a timeline somewhere, Maybe we didn't. Okay. Um, did I send that The transitioning of Fort Meadow, what we said we were gonna do is have that by April. So we're gonna have those numbers and the student needs stuff done. We'll present that with the budget because that's the best we can do. Heather, I was reflect reflecting on what your feedback was last meeting. And then the third part we added, and I know I didn't think I had to add anything, but we wanted to point out that we did and have created a central office organizational chart with delineation of responsibilities because I think that is also gonna help things run more smoothly. And we need to know our roles, if you will, not to find how else you can say that any better. I think we do, but I think and then share that with our leadership team so they know our roles too, so they know who to go to about what. So those are the revisions. And I just want to throw one listening at you and I look at, this is not gonna stay, but right now, as of today, thank you Mr. Rogers. Our total district average attendance rate is 94.08%. So is above the pre pandemic level. But we haven't gone through flu season. We haven't gone through, um, god forbid, covid season again. I don't know. Uh, and our chronic absenteeism is down to, um, 14.08%. So, uh, but again, it's early and we see a lot of illness and other things happening December, January, February. So it will be affected, but we are well on the right track. Any further questions regard? Gold. Mr. Mr. Travis? Uh, not really a question, just a comment. Uh, thank you for, for revising these particularly. Uh, the first one I think was where, um, there was just a, a, a, a measurement ask there and just wanna acknowledge that, you know, it's not just adding numbers to a to a, to a goal. Uh, as, uh, Dr. Shea mentioned earlier, uh, or maybe it was you or I think you guys were both up there. This requires modifying when some of this testing gets done so that the data is ready, um, so that these numbers can be evaluated. So thank you for, for your efforts on that. Appreciate It. My pleasure. I just want to, Uh, follow suit with him. I know that that wasn't easy to hear last week and I so appreciate you taking the time and, you know, even pointing out what everybody said and and acknowledging it. And that is, that's why we tell you because we know that that's what you'll do. So I appreciate it. And you do it well. Yes, because courteous discourse is good. It's a good learning tool. Mr. O'Connor. So these are 2024, 2025 school year goals. Well, the school year's gonna end in June Of 2025. Yeah. But, but the goals that we will be rating you on, we, we get those in by April. Right. I will be doing the superintendent's evaluation, which will be, you've, you've listed some of the standards here that we will be doing the evaluation. So we're just want, I'm wondering if there's, and I, maybe I'm not asking the question. Is there a timing issue in terms of we won't know if these goals I will be completed. So I I will give you an, so I typically send you an update early. What I won't have for you, and I typically send it over April vacation 'cause I don't have the time. I will be able to do that for goals two and three. But for goal one, I won't be able to do that because the data was asked for like that. So until after the i-Ready assessment is completed. So you will not get that until May. May or May. June. May, June. So we won't be able to, it'll be later. You'll have to do my evaluation later. And it will have to be the absolute last meeting in June. Are you? Okay? And you'll get the data in the beginning of June. So the time crunch is on for sure. And I, but I can't do it any other way. I actually would prefer to give the i-Ready exam later because I'm eliminating four to five weeks of additional instruction. So it actually hurts the goal. Chances for success to meet the timelines that I, And we don't want test fatigue of course. So we gotta spread that out. Who wants to take five days of tests? I don't. I'm with you. Okay, Ms. Sullivan, since we called the role the last time, let's call the role again this time. No. Okay. Motion To approve the superintendent of schools revised goals for the 20 24 20 25 school year. Second. Second. Motion Been made and seconded by multiple sources. I'll Give it to call that I'm, give it to Mr. Gunther. Is that to you? Mrs. Sullivan? Okay. Uh, Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bill Sullivan. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. Uh, It's me. Yes. Chairman Advocate. I didn't know what I was gonna say. Is that a yes? Yes. Yeah, I said it's me. Yes. Let's try to help you, Ms. Hellman. Okay. Um, the next ones are going to be policies. The first one is I'd like to make a motion for a second and final reading by title only of school committee policy file DD grant proposals and special projects. Second Motion be made and seconded. Further discussion. Say none. Oh, I would, I got, I got you this door. We get a roll call or we just do it? It's all just do it All In favor. All those are right but it's gotta be recorded. I got all in favor. Aye. Motion passes. Oops. Opposed. Sorry. Motion passes. Next one. Okay, B. Um, the next next six of them are all going to be on Title IX Federal regulations that we are going to include in our policy book. So the first one is I'd like to make a motion for a second and final reading by title only a school committee policy file AC dash R non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation. Second Motion be made and seconded by Mr. Solow. Any further discussion? Saying none. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, the next one is I'd like to make a motion for a second and final reading by title only of school committee policy file a CA non-discrimination on the basis of sex. Second Motion been made you seconded again by Mr. Sullivan. Is there any further discussion saying none all is in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion, Carrie. Okay, the next one is, I'd like to make a motion of the second and final reading by title only of school committee policy file. A CA dash R non-discrimination of the base on the base of sex under Title IX, including sex based harassment. Second Motions been made and seconded again by Mr. Sullivan. Any further discussion? Saying none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Um, the next one is I'd like to make a motion for a second and final reading by title only of school committee policy file, A CAB, sexual and sex based harassment and retaliation. Second. Motion been made and seconded by Mr. Sullivan. Again. Any further? Any discussion? Seeing none all is in favor. Aye. Motion carries. Hold up just a second. Ms. Um, so all of A through a he did it for me. Excellent. Go ahead Mr. He as in Mr. OTA Hillman. Gotcha. Okay. The next one is, I'd like to make a motion for a second and final reading by title only a school committee policy file, A CGA Civil Rights Grievance procedure. Second. Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? A opposed? Motion carries. And the last one is, I'd like to make a motion for a second and final reading by title only of school committee policy file. A-C-G-E-B Title IX Sexual Discrimination Grievance Procedure. Second. Motion been made and seconded by Mr. Sullivan. Is there any further discussion saying none all is in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much Ms. Hillman. You are welcome. Ms. Sullivan. Whenever you're ready. Okay. So, uh, November 8th, 2024 15 batches totaling $348,350 51 cents a November 15th, 2024. There were 30 batches totaling $1,000,073 $301,073,321 and 92 cents. And on November 22nd, 2020 4 22 batches totaling $232 $232,635 and 11 cents. Thank you Mr. Sullivan. It's Harder than your Next Acceptance of Westfield Public School financial statements. I'd like to make a motion to accept the Westfield Public School's financial statements soon to be presented. Second Motion been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Mrs. Barry? Hello, Shannon Berry, director of finance. Um, I'm gonna start with the expense side on page one. I just wanna remind everyone we see some lines that have quite a significant available balance. Um, those are the PD funds for units A, B, and D, um, that their professional development committees have control over. So those will be spent throughout the year. On page three, just an update on our heating fuel and our electricity lines. So we just received another estimate from the g and e. Everything has stayed the same for now. Um, Fontaine, the builders of the new school have turned over the gas and electric to us as of last week. So that's one week earlier than anticipated. So the g and e has been made aware and they will be, um, updating the expenditures to include that, um, in the estimates for next month. Um, but obviously it's only one week so it shouldn't be major. Um, December is looking cold so far, so that could have an impact on our guests. Um, but we obviously know more next month 'cause we get updates every month from the GE. So on page 24. Yeah, were we running ahead? Just the Dose. I'm sorry. Were We running ahead? What do you mean ahead? Like Ate? Well the estimates hadn't changed, so there was really no, I mean we, there wasn't a cost savings showing from the GE so far. On page 24, I believe I talked about this last time, but under the DWTA student athletics purchases of services, we had budgeted for a halftime athletic trainer on the personnel side. We have been unable to fill that again this year. So they've been having to use contract services to fill that position. So you'll see a transfer, um, on the next agenda item where we're gonna move the money from that personnel line to this line to cover that deficit. Page 30 we get into special education. So there are three different lines for contract services. Um, so there are a couple transfers on this agenda. You'll see that a contract service line at the bottom of page 30 and the top of page 31 are in a deficit. Um, but we have funding on page 30 and a different contractual services line. So we'll be doing transfers for that. Um, an update on tuition in state, you'll obviously see that we're in a deficit of about a half million dollars on tuitions in state. Um, I went through all the tuitions again, I was able to decrease those to about 424,000 through some movements. But unfortunately I've been made aware of a couple students that will be going out of district and we still have, um, a few contracts that are not done. So we're running about a million dollar deficit in the tuitions in state, um, tuitions to out-of-state schools. Also not great, there's a balance there right now, but we have two students that are not accounted for yet. So about a $216,000 deficit in out-of-State tuitions. And then not great news on transportation as well as you may remember from last year that, um, you know, I was made aware very late in June that we were running a deficit of almost 900,000 in transportation. So that was clearly after we budgeted for this current year. Um, so I am working with our transportation manager. Um, you'll see that a lot of bills have not been processed yet. She's been going back and forth with our transportation providers. Um, there's been some issues with the billing, so she's going to get those in for payment next week. She has told me, and we're gonna work on forecasting for the rest of the year, but she is estimating about a half million dollar deficit in transportation. Questions on expenses. Nobody has any questions on a million and a half deficit? Well, kind of what can do. I wasn't Ready for that Mean, I got a couple. Okay. So when we're, when we're sending you talk about sending students out district Sure. Right. And ones that we know are going out Yeah. And then the ones that we think are going out. Yes. And then there's population of some that we don't know are correct. Going out. We're not thinking about them going out. Correct. And it's fair to say the state, it's not an even say it here, would the state any monies coming in? Right? Like circuit breaker? Mm-Hmm. Yeah. It's, it's really not covering all the costs. No, it's not. And That's one thing we ask the legislature for every year is to fully fund circuit breaker. So Right. Whenever, if a legislator calls and asks, what do you want me to fight for? And that's what I fight for. 'cause the audit district costs, if you member have gone on 14%, then 3% ridiculous percentage points. Well, our budget hasn't gone up that much. Mm-Hmm. And we're not allowed to, uh, really, it's like we can prepay to a certain degree, Right. We can't. We did. We did. And actually was able to prepay an extra a hundred thousand dollars. But when You see the numbers that we showed with the high needs, and those are increasing in younger and younger students and, and we need to meet their needs With, you know, just a follow up. So with the increased, um, tuition expenses and with the increase in transportation, if Shannon, you had to look at budgets over time. Mm-Hmm. Is this the, uh, the spot we're in right now? Um, we, we've not been there before this time. This year is definitely an outlier. And I I had meant to add too, with the transportation, obviously as we're sending students out of district, the transportation for outta district students is a, a big cost. So every time that happens, not only is it hitting the special education lines, but we're hitting the transportation lines. And Tim, just to your point, the, the money we're receiving for circuit breaker this year is just like 2.6 million, which obviously doesn't cover our cost. And this doesn't account for all the tuitions we're covering are sped to 40 grand. Um, we have tuitions on there as well. And it looks like I'm gonna be able to have room to put one tuition if another student goes out on there. So, I mean, that's good news if someone else goes out. We have a little space on there, but obviously we're only in December. So, yeah. Dr. Gunther. Yeah, I guess my question was gonna be, you know, looking year over year mm-Hmm. What is the, what is the increase that you're forecasting out in, in-state tuitions compared to prior years? Is This, I mean, we've never been in a situation where we're been in a deficit like this before on tuitions. So this is, and I I will say, I mean, right out of the gate we were hit after the budget was approved with a $315,000 residential tuition for one student. So I mean, it, it adds up quickly. Two students, you know, are going out of district that I just found out about the other day a hundred and I think it's $106,000 each. Yeah. And then I guess my second question is the, the contingency planning here Mm-Hmm. Is, you know, I, I assume, if I remember correctly, the part of the plan was to use portions of the school choice funding Mm-Hmm. To prepay for future years or No, Not school choice funding or sorry, I used FY 24 funds to prepay some tuition for FFY 25 And then we had anticipated being able to do that in the future or No, I've always been able to do that. And so this year, probably this year we probably would not Mm-Hmm. Is the, the mean Takeaway and we're using circuit break. Yeah. So we're using circuit barrier from FY 24 this year. So we've never had to tap into circuit breaker for the current year, but that, you know, we're watching what we're accruing on the personnel side. Um, but right now it would not cover all the expenses. Right. I mean, so contingency plans would obviously be having to tap into circuit breaker or, you know, we had talked about school choice during budget time. I did not have to use as much school choice as we had planned to last year. I know, you know, Kathy, we were talking about this at the last meeting, you pointed out the balance in school choice. So we do have more of a balance than we had previously anticipated going into the budget. It's kinda like using free cash on a budget, but that's a whole nother story. Well, can I just add too, I think when you see the increase in number of students that are both high needs, what we've seen in the last five years at 10% jump and 5% jump in students on, on IEPs or special education students, these costs are gonna go up exponentially plus inflation plus, you know, the state granting these schools the right to go up 14% in one year. I'd love to go up in 14% in one year in anything. Um, so it's frustrating. Um, and obviously we have to do what's best for our, for our kids. But this is, this is an issue and we wanted to bring it to you sooner than later. Mr. There's a couple of questions here. Yeah. On that issue, you may want to stay standing. Um, walk me through the process of how a student picks the school they go to out of district. Well, so there are certain schools that are matched up. So I'll give you an example. So a student with autism would likely go to the May Institute, right? Mm-Hmm. So there's not always options for them to go. Right. Uh, they, they, they go to the school that's available to them that meets the need that they have. So, so it's not necessarily a choice. So there's an IEP meeting, there's a team meeting, they'll be, uh, recommend the student is not making adequate progress on their IEP for whatever given reason. Yeah. And it might be because of their disability and it might be that they need more intensive services than we can offer in Westfield Public Schools. So we would have to send them to another, another school. So we, we do, and, and Deb can add to this, but the, they do go and they check the school out and see if it's one that is a fit for them. But with some schools it's that or nothing else because that's all that's related. Well, that, that's, that's part of my question is, is it that or nothing else or is it, there's, there could be two or three options and so They have to have room for our kids too. And that's been, so there's such a huge increase in out of district across the country, but particularly in Massachusetts that these schools are full. So we have kids on a waiting list sometimes. And that is problematic because then a student's needs aren't being met until there's to spot that opens up. Right. We are finding, um, uh, the majority of students that are going out of district and not all, but a good portion of them are going to in a more therapeutic, um, day school, um, based on some of the mental health and behavioral needs that are beyond what a public school setting can, can be. Um, so what happens if we have tried every avenue, every program we've had, but their behavior in mental health is, needs more of a clinical type of setting than a private a public school. Yeah. We will, we will refer them to the various schools in our area that are approved by the Department of Education Depart. My, My question isn't that Okay. My question isn't if they, if if they need to go somewhere else, they obviously need to go somewhere else that Right. Public schools don't offer, that's not my question. Right. If there's multiple schools that they could go to, who chooses the school that they go to? We do. We, we basically say, okay, the team at an IEP meeting has determined that this student needs a therapeutic placement. So there are a variety of stu there are about four or five different schools in our area that are DSI approved that we refer to. Once they're referred, the schools will then review them and determine if there's an opening. They contact myself and they talked to contact the parent to do an intake to see if they're accepted. Ultimately, the parent has to, uh, agree and we agree, we agree by the fact that we referred them it, but, um, there's only so many. That being said, there's a huge wait list. Every outta district school in the area is bursting at the seams we refer and sometimes we don't hear back for two or three months. Okay. Um, so yeah, we, we, we make, we make the referral, the parents ultimately decide which one, sometimes they're only accepted to one And that Right. That happens. And the other thing too is, um, sometimes we don't agree with the placement that the family is asking for. And we do fight that in terms of not fight, but we do push that to, uh, mediation or something with desi. It has been my experience at Desi very infrequently signs with us. And so the the one that, uh, Shannon Koff, uh, mentioned over the summer, that was one of those cases that we actually thought we could prevail and we did not. Objection. Okay. I keep going. Okay. Um, the special ed line on page 30 that you referenced Mm-Hmm. Um, with the transfers coming up out of that special ed professional line Yep. That's gonna drop that to basically $75,000 left out of the 216 that's there now. Right. Are we comfortable with that? Why that line? Am I Comfortable with it? No. 'cause I think there's probably gonna need to be other services and I need some of that funding on the personnel line for positions that we took from stepping stones. Mm-Hmm. And hired internally. Okay. Alright. The idea with that line was that we were going to have extra funds to be able to use to hire people internally and that did not end up being close. Okay. Okay. Thank you Ms. Uh, Have we advocated to, um, John Veli or Kelly PEs and reached out to them? 'cause I know Kelly's on the education commission, um, to do legislation to increase these amounts that they state are Giving us. Sorry, I referenc that earlier. So when I say people reach out to me to ask me what to fight for there, those are the two, and I, my, my answer every year is, is special education the way the formula, the, the, the requirements from the federal, but particularly the state government of cities and towns for special education, the increases are astronomical. And it shouldn't only be superintendents 'cause we voice our opinions, but it should be mayors, city councils. Everybody's saying, Hey, time out. Um, it's, it's outrageous. And their, their form of reimbursement should be a hundred percent. That's what it was intended to be. Not 72, 65, 60, which is where it's been coming in at. And so then it's left with the taxpayers of the locally municipality. So I can offer you something from the MMA. Um, we speak about it a lot. So the Mass Mayor's uh, association or the Municipal Association, um, and quite frankly, um, it's a closed system, which is unfortunate. And what I mean by a closed system is they set their rate and because of the Current, I dunno, wow, I'm gonna oof. Um, yeah. Uh, current view of the world, they set their rate. Here's your rate, no kid left behind. Understand, I get it. Right. Um, here are the rates. So deal with them. So when you're concerned Mrs. Sullivan, about the issues that are going to face us next year, um, and the wash between the need and the proposed, um, faculty student ratio, we'll say, um, these are one of those things that are really going to impact us because it's very clear to us there's no stopping. It's 14% now this year it could be 24% next year. No one checks it, there's No check and balance. How do we Advocate for it then? How do we, How do we, we pushed back on, you know, when, when, uh, it was actually interesting enough Russell Johnston who made that announcement to us in, in a September meeting of superintendents. And so I raised my hand and said, oh, that's great. That means our LEA or, or I'm sorry, your the, uh, chapter 70 funding's going up 14% too. Right. And you laughed at me. See that's not fair because if you're gonna impose a 14% cost, but you're not gonna fund even chapter 70 at 14%. Well clearly we have to make cuts. And it's been eight years of that For me. And he, you know, that Was his baby special ed. I mean, he grew up with special ed and he have the love of special ed. So if anybody can do something, possibly he could we'll just have to wait to see if he gets the job. Yes. Is he, So I guess because you skipped over me before, um Oh, I'm very sorry. I didn't mean that. Actually I didn't No, you skipped me. Oh, I thought it was, no. So, um, uh, number one is they mandate us by law to do this and then don't fund it. So that's number one. So are there any creative ideas coming from districts or superintendents or in our district in how we can, um, provide services I our programming to keep more kids in district? So our milestones program, which is our autism program at Paper Mill is larger than it's ever been. We've just had to add another teacher that was also unbudgeted. Okay. Um, the answer is to try to run your own in-house programs. And I've talked to, I know the chair and the vice chair about my ideas for moving forward with what I'd like to do and create our own program someplace, somewhere, or somehow that will, um, will allow us to keep more students in district. It's about probably a year and a half out or so. Um, but I do have some thoughts on that, but that's the only way that you can do it. And the reality is that it also costs money to start up those programs. Right. Um, and, and then finding, um, adequate staff is another issue. And then paying them because, you know, we lose staff to a, say a May Institute because they're paying better and it's frustrating 'cause we train 'em and then they take them. That really kind of burns a little bit. At the risk of jumping Doc, I just, I I would love to learn a little bit more about what, like the sort of profile of student that we tend to be sending out of district. I wonder if there's some data that you could share with us. We Can, but I think Deb hit it on the head. It's, it's really a, it's a, becomes a therapeutic environment. That's what we're seeing more and more of is mental health, which we know of as a country and, and in an area. So there are other disabilities combined with the mental health resources that we don't have. And it didn't help that we lost eight counselors last year when we, we press our funding. That does not Help. I, I think that what's, you know, it's behind my questions that just as I'm listening here and also looking at stuff, seeing that we're, you know, we seem to be in like the 10 top 10% in terms of out-of-state spend or out of district spending for the size of our district. Which makes me really curious about, You have our own in-house programs as well. Yes. And so like wondering what is it about our, you know, what is it the profile students that we're seeing and needing to send out. Okay. Would be helpful to understand. How about the next set? Okay. All right, so personnel. Um, so just in general, as you'll look through, you'll see some positions that, um, have no expenditures on them, specifically for speech and language pathologists, psychologists, and s LPAs. Um, so those have been reposted again to try to hire internally. Um, so obviously if we can fill those positions, we'll be able to reduce our contract with stepping stones. Um, and we're obviously paying more through stepping stones for contracted services than we would if we actually hired someone. Um, on the personnel side. So those are reposted. Um, on page one, the deficit under the literacy coach, that is a position we are actually funding on school choice through the budget and that has already been fixed. So that's not an actual deficit there. On page four, towards the bottom school leadership building, that is the temp secretaries. So that isn't a deficit because right now we have just a temp secretary working at Abner Gibbs. Um, so there is spending on the Abner Gibbs secretary line to actually transfer to cover that in the at grade line at the bottom of the page. It does look like we have a balance of $55,000. Unfortunately that is not a balance. Um, that was money that was carried over for custodian retros. Um, we didn't know how much they were gonna cost, so I carried over more than I needed. Um, so that is actually last year's money, so I'm not able to use that. Page five, the sub um, nurses line is in a deficit. That is because we have a sub nurse working at the intermediate school right now because when Abner and Franklin merge into the river school, one of those nurses, um, will be cut and moved to wis. So there'll be money at the intermediate school on the nursing line to cover that sub position there. Page can't Remember. On page 18 at the bottom there's a speech professional there. Um, that was unbudgeted. So that was one of the ones that we are taking money from. That contract services line, the line you pointed, pointed out Bo with the $75,000. So that money's gonna need to be transferred there to cover that. Page 27 in the middle. WIS health professional, that's the nursing line that I was referring to that will be able to transfer some of that money over to that, um, substitute nursing line, page 34 towards the bottom, a speech assistant at the high school. Again, that was an unbudgeted position where we will move money from that line from stepping stones to cover that. And Finally on page 47, um, just pointing out that WTA student athletics line, that $26,000 that we had budgeted for the athletic trainer that we are transferring to the expense side. Questions on personnel? Any questions? Personnel Thank, can I just ask one question? So you talked about some of the, um, vacancies that we have in certain positions and how we're managing that. Are there any situations where there comes a point in time during the course of the year where if we have a vacancy, um, we're not looking to fill it If it gets after that we've been able to manage it somehow, but we wouldn't be filling it after a certain point in time? Or is it right not, is it just kind of looking at it month by month? I mean, I would turn to Mike and Deb on this one because I know we are covering the services now through the contract services line. But I mean, I think after this round, like we've had no applicants on any of these positions either, right? So far that we posted recently. Come on down, everybody, Boys from the app. So, uh, we're always assessing when we post whether we should post or whether we can cover it internally. There's been, um, separate from special ed just 'cause we've talked about that a lot. There's other positions sometimes where we've been able to consolidate sections or work on other ways. Um, sometimes, uh, current staff members in a content area can cover a class for a certain amount of time by losing their prep and teaching class. So we are thinking of creative solutions, especially when it's hard to fill spots, you know, world language. It's not always the easiest position to fill. And we've had a couple vacancies there, so we are, we are always assessing. Does it make sense at this point? Should we covered internally? Are there ways that are both cost effective and good for kids? 'cause that's the combo we're always looking for, uh, to be able to do that. So separate from the special ed, I mean, certainly takes place. Uh, the same thinking occurs, but I don't wanna make it narrowly focused on special ed because we have other vacancies that we, we do think about that. It's a little easier at the secondary level to think of those ways. At the elementary level's a little harder to cover fourth grade classroom teacher with just internal people. So it really varies based on the role, but also the grade level and the type of job it's Understood. Thank you very much. And it's for as far as related services, OTPT speech psychologists, um, this summer we were able to hire a couple of our own speech folks. Um, we, we do, we don't have, we don't leave vacancies for those services because we are mandated to provide them. So as Shannon had mentioned, if we can't find our own folks, that's when we do have to contract out. Um, hopefully with these postings we can maybe get some, um, some of more of our own folks. Um, we haven't had good a lot of luck with that. We've had some in the speech over the summer. Psychologists are still very difficult to find. Many psychologists are now, um, if they're not in being, um, employed by a vendor such as Stepping Stones or Solit, um, they're pretty much branching out on their own because they can, they can charge per evaluation up to $2,000 in a V Sure. Whatever they say. Uh, so that's kind of what we're facing. Thank you. Thank you. Anything further? Can I just add one more thing, just looking at the personnel side overall as we're looking at, you know, money accruing. Um, I just wanna remind everyone that we did eliminate the out of grade line. Um, and we have seen more teacher advancements this year in terms of degrees than I have ever seen in all the time I've been doing this. Um, it's been very significant this year. So we don't have that at a grade line to cover that. And also the custodian retros. So that is coming out of the personnel side. Um, so, and then, you know, just the special education picture again. Um, we did have to hire another teacher that was unbudgeted at Paper Mill and we've hired a significant number of one-to-one paraprofessionals this year that were not budgeted already. So, Thank you Shannon Fort. You're doing. You're welcome. Thank you. Uh, how about some transfers? We did roll. No, We need to go Vote. Uh, that's About four. Both Sullivan? Yes. Heather Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. Chairman McCabe Four. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $17,533 and 50 cents from account 5 6 5 2 3 2 3 2 dash 5 3 1 0 0 0. Special education professional contract services to account. 5 6 5 2 3 2 3 3 dash 5 3 1 0 0. Special education, other contractual services. Second. Motion been made in second. Is there any further discussion? He all been explained already through the Last Item. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Tim oconnor? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. You Like to make a motion for the approval of budget transfer in the amount of $123,768 and 68 cents from account 5 6 5 2 3 2 3 2 dash 5 3 1 0 0. Special Education professional contract services to account. 5 6 5 2 3 2 4 4 dash 5 3 1 0 0 0 teaching other expenditures, contractual services like Don been made in second. Is there any further discussion? Already had it, Mr. Sullivan? So there Is, wait a minute, it's just messed up a Little number. Yeah, I didn't have the two blocks either. Heather, Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Uh, Bo Sullivan? Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. And Chairman McCain? Yes. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $26,000 from account 5 4 0 3 1 3 5 1 dash 5 1 1 1 1 0. Westwood Tech Academy Student Athletics part-time hourly to account 5 3 5, excuse me. 5 4 0 3 1 3 5 1 5 2 0. Westfield Tech Academy Student Athletics purchase. They made the second. Any further discussion? Heather Sullivan? Yes. Oh, was there any Discussion? No, there wasn't. Go fire. Um, Bo Sullivan. Yes. Mike au Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to accept the following gifts, donations that have been made to the Westfield Public Schools and require acceptance donated to Westfield Middle School. From Shutterfly Life. Touch in the amount of $1,845 and 31 cents to be used in the, uh, Westfield Middle School Special, excuse me, gift account educational purposes. Donate to Westfield Technical Academy from the Western Mass chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association. Amount of $9,370 and 69 cents from the annual golf tournament to used in the Westfield Tech Academy manufacturing, technology gift educational purposes. That's Wow. Must have been made and preemptively seconded by Mr. Sullivan. Is there any further discussion? Thank you to all the generous donations. Ms. Sullivan. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Mike Re Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. And Chairman McCabe? Yes. My only update is just I was very pleased and I want to thank Susan Gy and Jill Phelan for their efforts. And Christine Shea and Erica Mareli to, uh, man, the, the, uh, Franklin Ave and Abner Gibbs buildings. And I, I was surprised with the amount of people that showed up, so it was packed, people walking through. And when we tear down Franklin, there's a whole lot of bricks people want, so we're gonna have to consider that. Um, but it was just really great and I wanted, you know, the old pictures talking to, to folks that have retired, um, when I first started in the district and makes you feel a little old, but, you know, just a little. Um, but it was just great and I, and I ran into Mike, I saw you at the, at at Franklin. I know. Um, you, I had just missed you apparently, and you, but, uh, it was just great to see so many people, retired teachers from the district, uh, former students, um, former custodians talking to, uh, one gentleman who cleaned Abner Gibbs for 35 years and, and was ju you know, it was just, it was really great. Um, I don't know that, I don't know if I felt people being really like sad. I think they were just happy to be able to go see it. All sorts of people taking pictures in front of the Abner Gibbs sign. It was a great day. So thank you for your efforts and organizing that. Um, that's all I have for today. Thank you. Anything else? Any others? No others? Uh, for me, I also got to join the staff and I want to thank the number of people from, um, the school committee who toured Ner and Franklin. Uh, it was fun to be sitting with one of, uh, former teacher Diane, uh, who was a contemporary of mine when a student of hers walked in with his mother. Uh, she didn't recognize him 'cause he had a full beard and he had his kid with him and he kind of introduced himself as being her former student. I think she was kind of fake it till you make it. 'cause I think you were there. Oh yeah, sure. I remember. I'm like, oh, Okay. But Whatever. So that was fun. Um, I am doing some research. I really have reached out to the Athenaeum to see if I could find that item that you're looking for. It is not located here in the building. We're looking for the, uh, the plans for Abner Gibbs school. The actual plan for the 1914, um, layout. Can't find it. Um, uh, I think that we may have success at the Athenaeum. I've left a message for them. So that's kind of my last ditch effort. Architect, architect or general contractor can't find it. You can't find who the Architect is. Yes. I don't, I don't have it anywhere. So that's what I'm working on now. We'll, we'll get there. We'll, we we'll get there. Okay. Um, I do know that the Abner Gibb was updated in 1960, but beyond that, my research is kind of faltered, but we'll see if we can get there. Uh, the Irish Tenors will be at Westfield State University, um, December the ninth. Yes, sometime. So that's all I have. Um, I'm gonna bring the family up there and so it'd be cool if you don't know who the Irish tenors are. If you remember Ronan Tynan gave the God Bless America at the, um, Yankee Stadium on the first game after nine 11. It was fantastic. So anyway, I'm done. You need a ticket? You can't just show up. You need, you need a ticket? Oh yeah. Apparently you need a ticket. Ticket. Maybe tickets are still available on the WSU website. I, So why. Okay. Anything else? Uh, no. Um, School committee update Items to refer to subcommittee, Old business Subcommittee reports or recommendations, Uh, the facilities and Capital Planning subcommittee met today. Uh, before this meeting to discuss the potential of submitting a letter of intent to the MSBA for, um, the building of, uh, of a new high school, Uh, in town. The, uh, one of the, this was a follow on from our previous meeting in that we needed, uh, we had some financial questions that we needed answered. So, uh, Mr. Barnes, Matt Barnes, uh, city Treasurer was good enough to, to join us. Um, had a great conversation. Um, it was determined that we'd like to bring that back, that conversation back to the full committee, uh, as part of next, uh, our next meeting on 12 16 16. Yeah. Um, to, so that everybody can have input and we can come up with, uh, an overall recommendation from the committee as a whole. Uh, and we would ask that, um, just so that we can prepare in terms of who we need to have here in order to answer questions. If you do have any specific questions, uh, understanding that we may not think of all those between now and then, but if you do, please submit 'em via email to myself and the superintendent so that we can assure that uh, we have the right people in the room to, to answer the questions that we need to have answered. Any questions, comments? I, sir. So a couple more questions did come up on that. I don't know the procedure. So if you can edify me at some point. I don't know if the school committee clearly needs to talk about Barnes in terms of bonding, whether there's capacity and then the school committee I, I'm gonna assume needs to bring up before council at some point. Correct? Right. So is it a good idea to maybe involve council Prior? So that's what we're talking about in the, so that all came up at our facilities meetings, uh, earlier. So we want to bring that to the group because we do think it has to go to the council and, but we wanna, uh, plan accordingly And, and Okay. We just want this group to be prepared for an eventual meeting with, with the council. Sure. Um, you know, 'cause there's gonna be questions about overrides and, and Questions of those natures, right? Correct. Okay. And that just, those are all the questions that if you have, send them to us. We did kind of cover some of that in the facility subcommittee meeting earlier today. But, um, we want to try to have the people in the room that we, we need to have, or at least the answers to the questions that you may have. May I suggest reaching out to your counterparts in ag? Yes. Do Okay. I'm sure you are. I'm just trying to be helpful. I'm not just trying to make sure it's smooth. Anything else? Minutes? Nothing. Hold on. Then I lost my place. That's not five you. Well, that's why there's A problem because it's 10 to nine. Anything else? Not reasonably anticipated within 48 hours of this meeting. The next regular scheduled committee meeting is December the 16th, 2024 at seven o'clock. What I do now? Is there another motion? Motion to Yeah, that would be a motion turn. Motions been Made by Mr. O'Connor. Seconded By Ms. Hillman, the mayor. Aye. Opposed? Motion Carrie.