[1:39] - Hey, how our hawks, you guys ready to get going here?

[1:42] Okay. Bear with us for a few minutes.

[1:45] We're gonna do some school committee business

[1:46] and then we'll get to you super quick, I promise.

[1:49] Ooh, do you guys wanna lead

[1:50] us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight?

[1:53] You can do it right from there. Say

[1:55] - Yes. Just say

[1:56] - Yes.

[1:57] Okay. Alright.

[1:58] So good evening everyone,

[1:59] and welcome to the January 6th, 2026 meeting

[2:02] of the Bill Ricka School Committee.

[2:04] We have our hawks here to do a student spotlight for us, but

[2:08] before they do that, they're gonna lead

[2:09] us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[2:10] And you can do it right from your seats right there.

[2:14] - All right, nice and loud. I pledge allegiance

[2:19] to the flag of the United States of America

[2:23] and to the republic for which it stands, one nation

[2:27] under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

[2:35] - Great job. Thank you. Well done.

[2:37] So much better than when we do it alone.

[2:41] Marian, would you mind reading the district norms for us? No

[2:44] - Problem.

[2:45] Be present, prepared and focused.

[2:47] Keep all students at the core of our work notice patterns

[2:51] of participation and support all members to be engaged.

[2:54] Have an open mind

[2:56] and agree, disagree with the idea,

[2:58] not the person as a listener.

[3:00] Assume positive intent as a speaker. Own your own impact.

[3:06] - Thank you for that. Next up is our consent agenda.

[3:08] Can I get a motion on the consent agenda, please?

[3:11] - Absolutely. I'd like to make a motion

[3:13] to approve the following items on tonight's consent

[3:16] agenda, the meeting minutes.

[3:17] Those are the regular meeting minutes from

[3:20] December 9th, 2025.

[3:22] We had a variety of bills to approve. Bill number 2 6 1 1.

[3:26] Bill number 2 6 1 2. Bill number 2 6 1 2 W.

[3:31] Bill number 2 6 1 3 W. And bill number two.

[3:34] 6 1 3 V. There are no budget, actually, pardon me.

[3:38] There's some budget transfers

[3:39] that are in our packets that we reviewed.

[3:41] We have two field trips that we need to approve.

[3:44] The first one is A-B-M-H-S student field trip to Costa Rica.

[3:48] Sounds amazing. That's gonna happen on June 18th

[3:51] through June 28th, 2026.

[3:55] And there's another field trip for BMHS again.

[3:58] And that is a trip to Italy. Only gets better, right?

[4:01] The field trips. And that is from June 18th to June.

[4:04] June 28th, 2027.

[4:06] So good field trips for the next couple of years.

[4:09] We do have a donation to approve, that's A-B-M-H-S cheering

[4:13] team donation of $1,000 on behalf of Cummings

[4:17] Properties community giving in Matthew Sweeney,

[4:21] a combined donation there.

[4:24] And we also have a Dixon School Association approval

[4:27] that we have to make for $2,000.

[4:29] Again, on behalf of Cummings Properties community giving.

[4:32] And Brandon Adams

[4:36] - Second - Moved in.

[4:37] Seconded. Any questions, comments, discussion

[4:39] - On, can I just make one comment mark?

[4:41] Go ahead. So the Cummings properties thing,

[4:43] those are pretty regular every year?

[4:44] Yes, I've been on for several years

[4:46] and they do several every year.

[4:48] So special thanks to them

[4:51] and the advocates for those gifts.

[4:54] - Yes. - Great.

[4:56] And just one for me on the transfers, I saw

[4:58] that there were two for hvac, I'm assuming that's

[5:00] because we haven't hired, that's a position.

[5:03] There is a position to do HVAC work in the district.

[5:05] Correct. We haven't hired for

[5:07] that position, so that's right. We need to keep up with,

[5:09] - That's right.

[5:10] So we continue to advertise for

[5:11] - That.

[5:12] And will that, it's probably tough

[5:13] to answer this question at this point,

[5:15] but the assumption is that that will remain budget neutral

[5:18] - For next year - For, for I guess the current fiscal year.

[5:22] - Y Yes. So any, any overages in other lines, that's

[5:25] where an area that we would scrape.

[5:27] So for example, the, the additional hajjar first grade

[5:32] and Parker, it's, it's items like that in the budget

[5:36] that we are able to pull from in these scenarios

[5:39] when they're not filled yet. Great.

[5:40] - All right. That's it for me. Thank you.

[5:42] We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[5:46] Four zero. Okay.

[5:49] Public comment, nobody for public comment. All right.

[5:52] I will remind you all that.

[5:53] We do have an email address

[5:55] that you can reach out at any time.

[5:56] SC public comment@billk12.com.

[6:00] And with that, I will hand it over to Dr.

[6:03] Cleary to introduce our student spotlight tonight. Dr.

[6:05] - Cleary? Yes. I'm so excited

[6:06] to have the Haja Hawks here this evening.

[6:10] We have principal Ron Sanborn,

[6:12] and I'm not sure that you've officially met Mr.

[6:15] Sanborn yet.

[6:17] So he is the new principal at the Hajjar School

[6:20] and next to him is Mary Lee Herrera, the assistant principal

[6:23] who has been a f familiar face

[6:25] for many years here in Bill Ricka and at the hajjar.

[6:28] So I'm going to have Ron, Mr.

[6:31] Sanborn introduce his students.

[6:46] - Good, Good evening.

[6:49] Members of the school committee, superintendent Cleary,

[6:52] and Assistant Superintendent McDermott.

[6:54] On behalf of Ms. Herrera, our assistant principal

[6:57] and myself are Ron Sandborn.

[6:58] We thank you for the opportunity to highlight some

[7:00] of the great work involving students

[7:01] from the Hajja Elementary School.

[7:03] Tonight I'm proud to introduce members

[7:05] of our fourth grade student council for the Hajja School.

[7:08] Along with the advisors of the group, Ms. Andre and Ms.

[7:12] Souther. These students were elected by peers

[7:15] and have been working thoughtfully

[7:17] to represent student voice leadership

[7:20] and responsibility within our school.

[7:23] With the guidance of our staff,

[7:24] they have taken this role seriously

[7:26] and we are pleased to have them share their ideas

[7:28] and experiences with you this evening.

[7:31] Please note that members of the council, we will provide you

[7:33] with the information that coincides

[7:34] with the presentation slides that the students are about

[7:37] to share with you.

[7:50] - Good evening school committee members, Dr.

[7:53] Cleary and Assistant Superintendent McDermott.

[7:58] We are the members of the Hard Job Student Council.

[8:01] We are excited to share

[8:02] with you all the work we do throughout the year

[8:05] to build community with the Not School.

[8:18] The student council for fourth grade students at the

[8:21] beginning of the year

[8:23] and informational meeting is held to explain

[8:25] what the student council is

[8:26] and the qualities that we are looking

[8:28] for in classroom representatives.

[8:31] These include students who go above

[8:32] and beyond school-wide expectations each day.

[8:36] They're responsible learners, respectful students

[8:38] and peers are always safe and want to lead their school.

[8:42] Our positive role models

[8:44] and speak at different events like tonight.

[8:53] Hi, my name is Eva.

[8:56] If students are interested and able to come to the

[8:59] before school meetings, they add their name to the ballot,

[9:02] then the fourth grade, along with any haja staff,

[9:05] votes on students from each class.

[9:07] Typically, we have three

[9:09] to four student from each fourth grade class as members.

[9:19] Hi, my name's Brielle.

[9:21] Meetings are held two times a month before school.

[9:25] At these meetings, we discuss

[9:26] and plan upcoming school activities, fundraisers

[9:29] and spirit weeks, and other ideas brought by peers

[9:32] and admin administrators.

[9:44] Over the years, we have participated in food

[9:46] drives and sneaker drives.

[9:48] We have planned spirit weeks

[9:49] and school schoolwide activities such as guessing the number

[9:53] of acorns or cranberries in a jar.

[9:56] We have received student input on the types

[9:58] of items we would like

[9:59] to have available in the school apparel shop,

[10:09] please.

[10:10] We still have many fun things to look forward to

[10:13] for the remainder of the year.

[10:14] After the new year, we are holding a penguin

[10:17] classroom decorating contest.

[10:19] In the past, we have made snowman and snow globe.

[10:22] This has been a fun whole school activity

[10:25] that also decorated the halls for hard jar

[10:28] for winter classes.

[10:30] And other staff can take a gallery walk

[10:32] and vote on their favorite.

[10:34] The winning class earns a prize such as popsicles

[10:37] or extra recess time

[10:45] in, in February.

[10:47] We participate in the Great Kindness Challenge.

[10:50] The student council kicks off the week

[10:51] with the whole school morning meeting classes

[10:53] receive kindness checklist.

[10:56] Kindness activities take place during lunch.

[10:58] And we incorporate kindness throughout our February spirit.

[11:08] When spring arrives, we will be planning to create,

[11:12] creating the fourth grade memory book,

[11:13] additional Spirit Days, a new event, the Mass Reader

[11:19] and activities for the 2250th celebration.

[11:30] Hi, my name is Valentina.

[11:32] This idea, I've been in the works for a few years now,

[11:35] but we finally wanna host it this year.

[11:37] We'll be asking harder staff along

[11:39] with other community members like yourself

[11:41] to participate in a master reading.

[11:49] We still need to finalize this, we still need

[11:53] to finalize this, but the idea is to send us a video

[11:56] of you reading out loud while wearing a mask along

[12:00] with a still photo of yourself without the mask.

[12:04] We will compile the videos into a slide deck.

[12:08] Classrooms at the Hotjar will vote with a list

[12:11] of all participants on who they think each one is.

[12:16] We will post a, the review photos at the end.

[12:21] More information will be

[12:23] provided as we get closer to this event.

[12:36] This summer will be celebrating 200 years

[12:40] of independence.

[12:41] Student council will be thinking of ways

[12:43] to highlight our town within our school community.

[12:47] Thank you for spotlighting the HHI student council tonight.

[12:53] - Right? - Is that good? Great job everybody.

[13:03] Questions or comments for my colleagues, Marian? Sure.

[13:07] - First off, I'm very impressed. What a great job you did.

[13:10] Coming up here and speaking out.

[13:13] I even, I get nervous

[13:14] and looked like everyone did such a great job

[13:16] and it sounds exciting what you are planning

[13:20] and doing in your school

[13:21] and good luck with whatever programs that you decide to do.

[13:27] - Thanks Mion, Mike.

[13:28] - Sure. So I wanted

[13:29] to say public speaking is a difficult thing to do

[13:33] and you did an amazing job.

[13:35] So everybody came up and was prepared.

[13:38] You are an expert with the microphone, so I know that

[13:40] that microphone probably needs

[13:42] to be pushed forward about six more inches.

[13:44] But you didn't let that stop you.

[13:45] You stood right up and leaned right into the microphone.

[13:49] But I did appreciate the ideas

[13:50] and the work that you're doing representing

[13:53] your school community.

[13:54] I'm a principal in another district, so I'm always looking

[13:57] for different opportunities for my student council.

[14:00] That's fourth grade as well.

[14:01] And the thing that I may be borrowing is the mystery reader,

[14:05] but I might do it with my faculty instead of students

[14:08] or something similar to that.

[14:10] So great job

[14:12] and I can't wait to see how the second

[14:13] half of the year goes for you guys. Nice job.

[14:15] - Thanks Mike. Mark, - Thanks for volunteering

[14:18] and getting involved with your student council

[14:20] and thanks for coming here.

[14:22] And you can watch yourself on TV probably tomorrow, online.

[14:26] See how you look. But thanks for coming.

[14:28] - I know I felt bad. I saw parents taking

[14:30] videos from like behind.

[14:31] We'll, we'll make sure we get you some good shots.

[14:34] You all did a wonderful job. Your voices are so important.

[14:37] You're doing great work for the community

[14:39] and for your school.

[14:40] You did a great job tonight.

[14:42] Now you get to go home, maybe have dinner and go relax.

[14:45] So thank you guys for coming out tonight. Great job.

[14:48] - Nice job.

[14:55] - All right, so we'll take a beat and let everybody

[14:57] who wants to get outta here,

[14:58] get outta here and then we'll continue on.

[16:06] - We'll wait till after.

[16:14] - I want the record to show the house is still packed.

[16:16] There's tons of people here watching.

[16:19] Thank you again to ther, Mr.

[16:21] Sanborn, Mr. Herrera, and everybody, all the students,

[16:28] - Those people

[16:29] to you.

[16:33] - Ready to go? Okay, next up for us is our superintendent

[16:38] and assistant superintendent Update Dr. Cleary. Okay,

[16:40] - Well I hope everybody had an enjoyable

[16:42] break and a happy new year.

[16:44] We had a very smooth start back to school yesterday.

[16:48] I know the alarms in the early mornings can feel like this

[16:51] big heavy fog hanging over people,

[16:53] especially on that first day back.

[16:55] But it didn't take long before

[16:57] we were back in the swing of things.

[16:59] And I would just like to point out, in 27 days,

[17:03] the sun will set at 5:00 PM Good.

[17:05] So that's really exciting to look forward to.

[17:09] I wanna take a moment to highlight a significant achievement

[17:12] by Mindy Cripps, our Director of Student and Family Support.

[17:16] She has been nominated for the Mask a Social Justice Award.

[17:20] MASCO is the Massachusetts School Counseling Association.

[17:25] So this is an honor reserved for those

[17:27] who demonstrate transformative action in the areas

[17:29] of human rights and social justice.

[17:32] The nomination specifically highlights Mindy's leadership in

[17:35] advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

[17:40] So we're so lucky to have Mindy as part of our team.

[17:43] She was nominated by the Masco Diversity Fellows

[17:47] and it certainly matches everything we see

[17:50] and feel in working with her every day.

[17:52] So she's such a strong advocate for students.

[17:54] So congratulations to Mindy.

[17:56] The winners will be determined in a few weeks.

[18:00] I also wanna mention that we have some new administrators

[18:04] that have started as of yesterday.

[18:06] We know that Christina Miza,

[18:08] who has been the assistant principal at the Marshall Middle,

[18:11] has taken over for Mike Rossi

[18:15] and she's the interim principal from now

[18:17] until the end of the school year.

[18:19] And she went through the search process actually

[18:21] with Lori McDermott

[18:23] to hire an interim assistant principal to take her place.

[18:27] And there was a successful hire there.

[18:29] Rick McElhanney actually retired from his position

[18:32] as a middle school assistant principal in September.

[18:36] So didn't take very long for him to get back into,

[18:39] into the swing of things as it typically goes in education.

[18:43] And I have total confidence

[18:44] that the Marshall is in great hands with the two of them.

[18:47] And the official search

[18:48] for a new permanent principle will start

[18:50] at the end of February.

[18:52] I also want to remind you that Bernie McCann,

[18:57] our K to 12 health

[18:59] and wellness coordinator, headed off to the world

[19:01] of retirement right before break.

[19:03] And Kim Fika will have, has,

[19:08] has taken his position,

[19:09] but it's a modified version of his position.

[19:11] We've made some tweaks.

[19:12] So she is a 0.5 K to seven health

[19:17] and wellness coordinator in a 0.5 assistant

[19:19] principal at the Dile.

[19:22] And Lori

[19:24] and Scott actually, Scott Middlemiss had done the search

[19:29] and, and because there's the two parts,

[19:30] there's the curriculum piece as well as the AP piece along

[19:33] with a team of people and ultimately selected her.

[19:36] I met her for the first time recently

[19:39] and she is a ball of energy

[19:41] and I think that she will be a valuable asset to our team.

[19:47] And then lastly, we are putting finishing touches on our FY

[19:51] 27 budget, the document, the budget book, as well

[19:54] as the actual budget itself

[19:56] and the presentation two that we will be presenting

[20:00] to you at our next meeting on January 20th.

[20:03] So it's been a pleasure working with Michelle.

[20:06] This is our first go around at this

[20:08] because she's new this year

[20:10] and we've been behind closed doors, Lori and

[20:14] and Bob Bergeron for quite some time.

[20:17] And we're in a really good spot to be presenting that

[20:20] to you at our next meeting.

[20:26] - Happy New Year. Welcome back.

[20:28] I will just reiterate,

[20:31] seeing Kim here in the district is exciting.

[20:33] Her positive energy is certainly palpable

[20:36] and I'm guessing pretty contagious.

[20:39] It certainly was for us when, when we got to welcome her.

[20:42] So happy she's here.

[20:44] I wanna remind families that access testing has begun,

[20:48] information has gone out to families.

[20:51] This is an assessment of listening,

[20:53] speaking, reading and writing.

[20:55] It's administered annually to all students

[20:58] who are receiving ELL support.

[21:00] Those results are used to measure progress in the program

[21:04] and also used to support

[21:07] targeted instruction moving forward based on those results.

[21:10] The window this year was extended, so it started January 5th

[21:14] and it runs through February 27th, which is awesome for us

[21:16] because we have more students than ever to, to assess

[21:23] and certainly more than in past years.

[21:26] And then I just have a quick reminder to families

[21:28] that already next week we have an elementary only

[21:31] early release day.

[21:32] January, Wednesday, January 14th.

[21:35] So that might not be on people's radar,

[21:37] but it is elementary only early release day next week.

[21:40] And I can't believe it's,

[21:41] we're already talking about January 14th.

[21:44] It's crazy going fast. Thank you.

[21:48] - Okay, questions, comments for the superintendent,

[21:51] assistant superintendent?

[21:54] - Just have one comment I just wanna throw out there

[21:57] that I think that's awesome about Mindy.

[22:00] I've worked with her for many years

[22:02] and she is someone that is very active in all of that

[22:06] and I'm thrilled that she was nominated.

[22:09] So hopefully keeping our fingers crossed. Great thing.

[22:12] But that's it. Thank you.

[22:17] - I think the only thing for me is,

[22:18] is you know, we, we've sung Mr.

[22:19] Rossi's praises a couple of times now in this,

[22:22] in this space.

[22:24] I'll just say, you know, Christina's a welcome addition.

[22:27] She's already made some changes.

[22:29] She's much more digitally savvy than Mike ever was.

[22:32] And he knows that. He knows that, right?

[22:35] But, you know, she came in, we got our first,

[22:38] our first letter home yesterday, Sunday.

[22:41] I'm losing track of the days already.

[22:42] And she's already, you know, it's, it's such a beau.

[22:44] She's using a, a different platform than Mike was using.

[22:46] And it's, it's well organized

[22:48] and it's graphically kind of pleasing.

[22:49] So she's doing a great job and,

[22:51] and that's just a small piece.

[22:53] So excited to, as a family, excited to have her

[22:55] in the, in the school.

[22:59] And I think just looking forward

[23:00] to the budget presentation next week.

[23:03] So I'll leave it at that. Mark, anything? You good? Okay.

[23:07] We don't have a student government update,

[23:09] so we're into the business portion of the meeting

[23:11] and we are a little ahead of schedule.

[23:12] So up next is our grade eight

[23:17] through 12 curriculum coordinator update.

[23:19] - Yes. So we're welcoming Mary Beth Velu.

[23:22] This is probably your first time meeting her as well,

[23:24] right? No,

[23:26] - Came to school.

[23:27] - Oh, right, that's right. We saw you saw her in action.

[23:30] That's great. So she's gonna give us an update on her

[23:33] enormous position of all things high

[23:36] school and curriculum related.

[23:37] So thanks for being here,

[23:38] Mary Beth, I'll turn it over to you. Happy

[23:39] - New Year.

[23:40] Good to see everybody. This I'll wait for

[23:48] my slideshow to come up.

[23:49] Okay. So my position is the eight

[23:52] through 12 curriculum coordinator for just about everything.

[23:56] Everything except fine Arts, visual Arts

[23:59] and Special Education and seventh through 12 world language.

[24:03] So, because it's just the, the seventh grade

[24:05] down at the middle schools.

[24:07] So I get to see everything, which is, which is amazing.

[24:10] So I'm excited to be here.

[24:13] I wanted to start by

[24:16] showing you all the curriculum support specialists.

[24:19] These are the people. Without,

[24:20] without them I couldn't do my job.

[24:23] So I have Jessica Sick as my English CSS.

[24:26] So kind of like department heads they teach,

[24:29] but they help lead department meetings.

[24:31] They answer questions when I need them.

[24:33] We talk budgeting, et cetera.

[24:35] We have Laura Sogan for history and social science.

[24:38] Christine Berry for mathematics.

[24:41] Liz Leonard for science, Ashley S for Wellness.

[24:45] And Zach Bernard for World Language.

[24:48] I meet with them all the time as a group,

[24:51] informally in the hallways, one-on-one.

[24:54] And they are amazing. I, like I said,

[24:55] I could not do my job without them.

[24:57] They're a tremendous help. Math is my background.

[25:00] Science is also a little bit of my background.

[25:02] So I especially lean on the subjects that I'm not as

[25:08] familiar with in the classroom.

[25:11] Okay. So I'm just gonna go through a run

[25:13] through of each department.

[25:14] Can I tell you what we've been working on this year?

[25:16] So starting with the business department,

[25:18] I put these in alphabetical order.

[25:19] So no one felt that they were more or less important.

[25:22] So business department, they,

[25:24] and you're gonna notice a common theme here.

[25:26] We're working on common assessments.

[25:28] That's something that we need

[25:29] to do across the board in every department.

[25:32] I wrote as appropriate with the business department

[25:34] because a lot

[25:35] of the teachers are the only teacher of their course.

[25:38] There are a couple of shared ones.

[25:40] But you know, each of my business teachers is kind of a, a,

[25:44] a master of their particular course or courses.

[25:47] However, they are updating their assessments,

[25:50] they're updating their curriculum maps

[25:52] to make sure that everything is current.

[25:54] Something that we may look into, not for next school year,

[25:58] but for the school year after perhaps

[26:01] is there's a new AP course being

[26:03] put out by the college board.

[26:04] It's AP business with personal finance.

[26:07] I went to a college board presentation on it

[26:09] and I think it's really interesting.

[26:11] It's actually meant as an introductory business course.

[26:13] So it's actually meant for ninth graders to take ninth

[26:16] and 10th grade to get them into the business world.

[26:19] It's also a course that's meant to meet that

[26:22] personal finance requirement that we have.

[26:25] So it would give students two options at that point to take

[26:28] that personal finance course.

[26:29] They could take it with this AP course

[26:32] or they could take our Managing Your Money course,

[26:34] which would be nice to give students options for

[26:36] that English.

[26:41] So we have a lot of clubs that are running in English

[26:43] that we're really excited about.

[26:45] We just announced the winner of our poetry contest today for

[26:48] that club, which was great.

[26:51] English is really excited

[26:52] to bring some new senior electives into

[26:54] the program of studies.

[26:55] They did it a while ago.

[26:57] The senior courses are run more like a seminar style versus

[27:01] a A through 11 is English eight, English nine,

[27:04] English 10, and English 11.

[27:06] Our current English courses

[27:07] for seniors are the adolescent in literature,

[27:10] archetypal literature, creative and expository writing

[27:14] and writing and rhetoric in the digital age.

[27:16] And we have a lot of teachers who are eager

[27:18] to bring in some new courses.

[27:21] I know Mr. Gleason is excited

[27:22] to propose a graphic novel course, which would be great.

[27:26] So Ms. S sick and I are working on a way to, for,

[27:30] for teachers to propose it and to go through and,

[27:32] and fairly select instead of, you know, whoever comes

[27:35] down first with an idea.

[27:39] English is working on editing

[27:41] and revising their curriculum, making sure

[27:43] that we're selecting new grade appropriate texts.

[27:46] They're also working on common assessments.

[27:49] And this year we have implemented more MAP testing

[27:53] for progress monitoring.

[27:55] So English has been doing that.

[27:57] They're on a little bit of a sooner schedule than math

[27:59] because the,

[28:01] the MAP testing has a strong correlation to MCA scores.

[28:05] So with the English MCAS being the second half

[28:09] of March, we wanted to make sure

[28:11] that we've got our progress monitoring and catch any gaps

[28:14] before we get to that test.

[28:19] For our history and social sciences department,

[28:21] we are doing the civics MCAS review.

[28:23] So as you know, last year was the first year

[28:25] with the civics MCAS.

[28:28] So we have no one really to compare it to.

[28:30] We don't have our previous year's scores.

[28:32] The state didn't give us their scores.

[28:34] So we're just kind of comparing

[28:36] to ourselves and to the standards.

[28:38] Our teachers are really delving into

[28:40] how our students did on particular standards,

[28:42] what they did really well with what we needed some work on

[28:45] and revising their curriculum as necessary for that.

[28:49] The eighth grade is gearing up

[28:51] for the Massachusetts Civics Action Showcase.

[28:54] So it's like a science fair except for CVIC projects

[28:57] and community advisors come down to the State House,

[29:00] have conversations with students, give feedback

[29:03] for students on their projects, which is wonderful.

[29:06] We are working on our eight through 12 Washington DC trip,

[29:11] so we're trying to get some more students excited for that.

[29:14] That's in April, during April vacation.

[29:17] And what's really wonderful about it is this being the 250th

[29:20] anniversary, go down, see the Declaration of Independence

[29:23] around, around that time.

[29:24] So they're excited.

[29:26] Mr. Carey is running that and he's very excited.

[29:29] We are launching a textbook search committee for civics

[29:33] and the US and the world courses.

[29:34] We don't really have anything for those,

[29:37] especially since they restructured to the US

[29:39] and the world instead of a US

[29:41] history versus a world history.

[29:43] So we're working on that common assessments

[29:47] and then we're really excited.

[29:49] Mr. Lipsit is excited to add AP Human Geography

[29:53] to our program of studies for next year.

[29:54] So it follows human geography and the history of it.

[29:57] And that's gonna be open as low as sophomores.

[30:00] So it gives our sophomores a chance

[30:01] to get into an AP level class should they show the,

[30:05] the strength in area of history to do that.

[30:10] Here's our big one. Math has two slides

[30:12] 'cause we've got so much to talk about.

[30:16] So we are spending a lot of our PD time

[30:20] working on MCAS analysis and MAP testing analysis.

[30:25] The teachers are not super pleased with

[30:27] what they saw last year on MCAS.

[30:30] I came in and said, we're gonna get to work.

[30:32] This is my area of expertise.

[30:34] And so we've been focusing on the math department this year.

[30:37] So they've been spending a lot of time on

[30:39] where did our students do well?

[30:40] Where do we need to improve, where are the gaps

[30:43] that we need to address.

[30:46] Like I said, with English,

[30:47] we're doing MAP testing three times a year for

[30:49] that progress monitoring to give us an idea of

[30:51] where kids are all year long.

[30:54] We're really working hard on common assessments here.

[30:57] It wasn't really in place before.

[30:59] And so we've been able

[31:01] to make some PLCs like the eighth grade

[31:04] and my Algebra one teachers where they're able

[31:07] to work together during the school day, which I'd love

[31:09] to get everyone to do,

[31:11] but sometimes the schedule can be limiting.

[31:13] So teachers are really working together

[31:15] with common planning time to not only work on lessons

[31:18] but our common assessments

[31:20] and then analyzing those common assessments.

[31:22] What went well in your class, what went well in my class?

[31:25] How did you approach something differently so

[31:27] that we can improve our teaching

[31:29] and the learning of students.

[31:32] Something that some

[31:34] of you maybe got from me today in an email

[31:37] was our updated placement process

[31:39] for Math eight versus our math eight accelerated course,

[31:42] which is the equivalent of an algebra one course.

[31:46] While we're seeing an improvement this year in the

[31:48] appropriateness of where students were placed,

[31:51] there couldn't be some, we needed some refining,

[31:53] everything needs a little bit of refining.

[31:55] And I have a lot of experience

[31:56] with this in my previous district.

[31:59] So I sent out a letter.

[32:00] We are have five criteria that we're looking at.

[32:03] We're trying to make this decision really data driven

[32:06] instead of feelings driven.

[32:09] So we're looking at five criteria

[32:12] across the board for students.

[32:14] MCA scores, their test

[32:15] and quiz averages, their iReady scores from January,

[32:21] teacher recommendation.

[32:23] And there's one more that I'm blanking on.

[32:25] Oh, we have a placement test.

[32:27] We placement test is going

[32:28] to be given in February after vacation.

[32:31] The high school teachers have come up with it.

[32:34] It is all material that students have covered before.

[32:38] So it's nothing new, there's no surprises.

[32:40] It's really to judge some basic skills.

[32:43] And there are some push there.

[32:45] There are some pushing questions where it's like, I need you

[32:47] to extend your thinking a little bit.

[32:48] Something that we're looking for in those algebra students.

[32:53] I'm trying to discuss with families and,

[32:58] and kind of reiterate that if you don't qualify

[33:03] for the accelerated course in eighth grade,

[33:05] you are not pigeonholed out of honors.

[33:07] That's not the case. You are not

[33:09] pigeonholed out of calculus.

[33:11] The eighth grade course

[33:12] and the Algebra one courses are the most important

[33:15] courses in mathematics.

[33:17] They are the foundation for every other course.

[33:19] The algebra is the foundation for geometry.

[33:21] It's obviously the foundation for algebra two.

[33:24] And once we get to calculus, it's not the calculus

[33:26] that's hard, it's the algebra that's hard.

[33:28] So I would rather a student

[33:30] not be quite ready in eighth grade

[33:32] and stay in the grade eight grade level course.

[33:37] And we can, they can catch up at a later point.

[33:39] They will be able to get into honors

[33:40] and honors algebra class, their, so their ninth grade year,

[33:45] they will absolutely be able to get up to calculus.

[33:48] They have the opportunity to double up and take geometry

[33:52] and algebra two a little bit later.

[33:55] So I don't want it to become a, an end

[33:58] of the world situation with we didn't qualify.

[34:01] I need to qualify. I would rather the foundational skills be

[34:04] there, develop those really strong foundational skills in

[34:07] eighth grade and algebra one

[34:08] and then we can worry about calculus.

[34:10] Everyone can get there and everyone can get

[34:12] to an honors level course.

[34:15] So I tried to reiterate that a few times

[34:19] and hopefully that gets across.

[34:20] I've asked that families reach out

[34:21] to me if they've got questions.

[34:23] My email and my direct liner are out there

[34:26] all over the place with the emails.

[34:28] Ms. Miza sent it out in her update. Mr.

[34:30] Garris sent it out in an email.

[34:32] And then I also sent it to the Marshall just in case parents

[34:34] missed it in in the Smore newsletter.

[34:40] My Algebra one teachers specifically have been focused on

[34:44] revising their curriculum

[34:45] and their teaching practices

[34:47] to incorporate more application instead

[34:49] of just rote practice.

[34:51] There was a lot of rote practice before

[34:53] and we, we found there's a lot of application

[34:57] of it on tests like MCAS

[34:59] and we don't want MCAS to be the end all be all,

[35:01] but it's a point of, it's a point of data for us.

[35:04] So we're looking at real world applications.

[35:09] We are also in the middle of a curriculum review for math,

[35:14] where in the past

[35:15] and in other districts, a lot of times you'll see

[35:18] that the math curriculum is homegrown.

[35:22] We really need a curriculum for our math program.

[35:26] So we've had success

[35:27] with Eureka Square down at the elementary school.

[35:30] I see it with my own kids.

[35:32] So we're looking to have something brought in.

[35:35] We, I have a team of 10 teachers, they're eight

[35:39] through 12 math teachers as well

[35:40] as special education teachers were brought in.

[35:43] We met, we identified our priorities

[35:45] and our non-negotiables.

[35:47] We reviewed a whole bunch of different curricula

[35:49] that's approved by CURATE and ED reports.

[35:53] And we are currently meeting with three vendors.

[35:56] So we met with one before break.

[35:57] We met with one today and we have one more tomorrow.

[36:00] And then we are going to meet as a team afterwards.

[36:03] We plan to pilot two in the spring

[36:06] and then make a decision to implement a curriculum

[36:09] for Math eight and Algebra one in the fall with geometry

[36:13] and Algebra two to follow the year

[36:15] after so that we can work that into the budget.

[36:19] And the math department wanted me to convey this evening

[36:22] that they are taking the data from MCAS very seriously.

[36:26] They're fully aware that a shift needs to happen.

[36:29] They're excited to bring in a new curriculum

[36:32] 'cause they've been without one for a number of years.

[36:34] So everyone seems to be on board.

[36:36] Everyone's excited to, to make some change

[36:42] For science and Project Lead the Way, which are the classes

[36:44] that you all came to see the Project Lead the Way classes.

[36:48] They're also working on common assessments.

[36:52] We are looking to add PLTW medical interventions next year.

[36:57] We have the biomedical pathway.

[36:59] So we have human body systems and honors biomed.

[37:05] And so students have really been craving the next course,

[37:07] which is medical interventions.

[37:11] This we also have a common capstone

[37:13] that Marian Dyer had applied for.

[37:15] And we have the training for is going to

[37:18] offer three complete PLTW pathways

[37:21] for our students to choose from.

[37:22] So we will have a complete computer science pathway,

[37:25] a complete engineering pathway,

[37:27] and a complete biomed science with the, with the addition

[37:30] of medical interventions As a part

[37:34] of our grant funding with Mass Insight,

[37:38] the One eight Foundation

[37:39] and PLTW, we are required to submit work

[37:43] to the student industry connects.

[37:45] So coming up between January, middle of January

[37:49] and middle of February,

[37:51] students submit work from specific projects within their

[37:53] PLTW courses and industry professionals review them

[37:57] and provide feedback for students, which is really nice.

[38:01] So that happens starting next week,

[38:03] I guess the 15th next week.

[38:07] So something that Liz Leonard

[38:10] and I also talked about potentially looking into is they

[38:13] just added an advanced manufacturing course,

[38:15] which goes along with engineering.

[38:17] So we might be looking into adding

[38:18] that if we can get the student interest behind it.

[38:23] Wellness is my shortest update.

[38:25] They have common assessments

[38:26] where needed in the, in the health classes.

[38:29] They're updating their curriculum maps.

[38:31] Everything's pretty status quo there.

[38:33] Bernie McCann's been a great help in the

[38:35] first half of the year.

[38:37] I have his phone number. He told me to call him many times.

[38:39] So he's been a wonderful help

[38:41] for me in wellness World language.

[38:46] They're also working on common updates.

[38:48] As an update for you, this is the last year

[38:50] that we are offering Mandarin in the building.

[38:52] So this year we're just running a Mandarin four

[38:54] five course combined.

[38:57] And then Mr. Bernard wanted me

[38:59] to talk about the seal of Biliteracy.

[39:01] So it's a certification students can get on their diploma.

[39:07] We have tested in the past two years,

[39:08] 43 students in 16 different languages.

[39:12] Students can test in any language and they take it with us

[39:17] or any language that they take with us

[39:19] or in their native language at home.

[39:22] It's open to 11th

[39:23] and 12th graders who have met a minimum,

[39:25] met a minimum score on the E-L-A-M-C-A-S

[39:29] and we offer tests in 161 languages.

[39:33] And the test costs anywhere from 2250 to $150.

[39:38] Which makes my budgeting a little bit difficult

[39:40] because MGL states that we are required to pay for

[39:45] the seal of biliteracy tests for low income students.

[39:48] But where we don't know who is going to take what language

[39:53] and what it's going to cost,

[39:55] it can make budgeting a little bit difficult.

[39:56] So we did, we did budget for next year.

[40:00] We kinda had to guess. So early college,

[40:05] this is a program that I'm so excited about.

[40:08] It's formally known as Commonwealth Collegiate Academy

[40:12] or CCA, that's what everyone calls it in the building.

[40:14] They did rebrand over the summer though, so they're known

[40:17] as early college now.

[40:18] Early college at UMass.

[40:20] We have wrapped up our semester one classes

[40:23] and we're gearing up for semester two.

[40:25] Our semester two teachers have met with their

[40:28] UML professors, stu, to just to

[40:34] remind folks at home and you all about this program

[40:37] and why it is so awesome.

[40:39] Students can earn up

[40:41] to 24 college credits in our building for free.

[40:44] Fully transferable, especially if you go to UMass Lowell,

[40:49] they are taught by UMass Lowell professors.

[40:52] So sometimes we have the professors come in.

[40:55] Sometimes the professors like for next semester,

[40:57] our nutrition professor is out in New Mexico, so he,

[41:00] he is in remote, but we do have A-B-M-H-S staff in the room

[41:05] to help facilitate.

[41:07] And then UML has summer programs

[41:10] that students can go to tied to this.

[41:12] So you can graduate BMHS with 30

[41:16] UML credits for free.

[41:18] Unlike the AP tests, you don't need to pay for it.

[41:20] It's, it's, we have grants.

[41:22] It's, it's fully free to students.

[41:24] That's, that's an entire semester,

[41:26] which is a huge cost savings.

[41:29] In order for it to grow, I need to get the word out more

[41:33] to students and families on,

[41:35] especially on why the program is so beneficial.

[41:39] I also would like to more offer more courses.

[41:41] I'd love to offer a pre-calc or a calculus class,

[41:45] but I can't run more courses without the interest.

[41:47] And I need the interest by getting it out to families.

[41:50] And some, I think sometimes,

[41:52] and this is just my speculation, I think sometimes

[41:54] families go between, well, what's the difference between AP

[41:57] and why would I take a UMass calculus class when I could

[42:00] take an AP calculus class?

[42:01] And, and that's something that I need to work through.

[42:05] But it's, it's such a good program.

[42:06] It's such a good program. And like I said,

[42:09] if you're gonna s law or any of the state schools, that's,

[42:12] that's an entire semester that we've,

[42:13] that you've taken in high school, which is amazing.

[42:19] So other updates. I am looking to apply for BMHS

[42:24] to receive the innovation career pathway

[42:26] or ICP designation from DESI next year.

[42:30] I was gonna do it this year. I've done it

[42:31] before it, I just, I had too much on my plate,

[42:34] I needed to prioritize.

[42:36] So it's a, it's a way to provide students with coursework

[42:40] and career experience in high demand industries.

[42:43] So there are specific industries that you can apply into

[42:46] advanced manufacturing, business, computer science,

[42:50] environmental science, life science are some of them.

[42:54] We have the infrastructure to easily apply into

[42:57] computer science, life science, and business.

[43:00] We can easily add a course

[43:03] or an overlay to an existing course

[43:05] to apply into advanced manufacturing and clean energy.

[43:10] I like to think of the ICP designation as like a,

[43:13] a mini minor or a little, a little mini high school major.

[43:17] Right? This is my pathway.

[43:18] I'm gonna take these courses and I have a designation from

[43:21] the state that I, that I had a focus in environmental

[43:24] science or in computer science in high school.

[43:29] They, this designation ties in really well

[43:31] with our PLTW pathways

[43:33] because a part of the designation is

[43:36] that students complete either a 100 hour

[43:39] capstone or internship.

[43:41] In my previous district, we tossed all seniors out

[43:44] after April break and they all had to do an internship.

[43:48] And I'd love to get something like that going at at BMHS,

[43:51] but also the capstone courses, the PLTW capstone courses

[43:55] that we have will satisfy that.

[43:58] It provides us such an opportunity

[44:00] to have more students work with the community.

[44:05] And that's it. What questions

[44:08] can I answer for the committee?

[44:10] - That's - It. All of that information.

[44:13] - Who wants to lead us off? Anybody ready? Mark?

[44:17] - So the first question is,

[44:18] why is this the last year for Mandarin?

[44:20] - Why is, sorry, - Why is this last year

[44:22] for Mandarin at BMHS

[44:24] - Last year for Mandarin last?

[44:26] Oh, I'm sure I came in,

[44:28] I'm gonna guess it was interest and law enrollment.

[44:30] It is my guess.

[44:31] - Okay. Yeah. I I, and I only asked that

[44:33] because we introduced that probably four or five years ago

[44:35] and I thought it was really cool, but I understand. Yeah.

[44:38] - Why it wouldn't, I think, I think it was just an

[44:39] enrollment situation

[44:42] - As far as drumming up interest in the CCA,

[44:46] which I can't remember what it stands for.

[44:48] And I'm scrambling is

[44:49] - Early college.

[44:50] - Thank you. Early college. Yeah.

[44:52] Our most recent student rep and now a select board member.

[44:56] Yes. Took advantage of that. Yes, he did.

[44:57] And he bought himself either a half a

[44:59] year or a year of college.

[45:00] And he's at UMass Lowell.

[45:02] So you may want to talk to him about drumming up interest.

[45:05] And he could do it either here

[45:07] or he could do it at the select board. Yep.

[45:09] - We've got some grant money too that can help. Yep.

[45:12] I just, like I said, I've, I've come into a lot

[45:14] and I've tried to prioritize certain things.

[45:16] Yep. And so that's, that's my next big project is,

[45:19] is drumming up a lot of there.

[45:21] - Yep. And then as far as advanced manufacturing and,

[45:23] and you already have a connection

[45:25] to UMass Lowell through the early college.

[45:28] UMass Lowell is developing this link corridor in Lowell.

[45:30] Okay. With several companies.

[45:32] I know one of them that does advanced manufacturing. Great.

[45:36] So that's really cool to see if we could

[45:38] like, get into that.

[45:39] Yeah. I know somebody like the assistant principal flood,

[45:43] like would roll the sleeves up

[45:45] and probably really wanna help with that kind of thing.

[45:49] So between that and computer science, like

[45:54] I think when they get out in the working world,

[45:56] they would never want for a job.

[45:57] Right. Or a really decent salary.

[46:00] So the, it's really great

[46:01] that you're looking into offering both of these.

[46:06] And, and as far as the math teachers in the eighth grade

[46:13] MCA scores, so we pointed it out when we visited

[46:17] because it was noticeable.

[46:18] But I I, when you think about it,

[46:19] it's really a challenge to them.

[46:21] Right. It's not, it shouldn't be an affront to them

[46:23] because I, I certainly didn't mean it that way,

[46:25] I don't think any of us that asked about it. Well,

[46:28] - I think that they saw the data

[46:29] and like they didn't like it themselves.

[46:31] - Oh yeah, yeah, - Yeah. So yeah,

[46:33] they're definitely taking it as a challenge. Yep.

[46:34] - Good. And really, and,

[46:36] and I appreciate the way that they're doing that

[46:38] and that's really what they should be doing.

[46:39] And I'm glad they are

[46:41] and like we should all take it as a challenge.

[46:42] - They're an amazing - Team as far

[46:43] as curriculum and everything else.

[46:45] - Wonderful. Okay. And they're,

[46:46] they're working really hard. Yep.

[46:48] - That's all for me. Thank you. Thank you.

[46:51] - Thank you. Mark Mion or Mike? Sure. Marian.

[46:57] - So the PLCs that you have, is

[47:01] that just the English department that's meeting like that?

[47:03] Or is it all the departments?

[47:05] - So all of the departments meet,

[47:07] we have department time once a month.

[47:09] And then also on our early release days.

[47:11] The PLCs specifically that I'm, that I tried to get

[47:14] that Mr. Murphy and I worked hard to, to try

[47:16] and get, were our eighth grade and our Algebra one classes

[47:19] because we really needed them to dive into the curriculum

[47:22] to dive into that MCA data to,

[47:24] to dive into common assessment data.

[47:27] Right. And see what immediate shifts we could make.

[47:30] We would love to move to make our schedule so that

[47:33] as many teachers have common planning time

[47:36] and PLCs as possible.

[47:38] So we'll see what scheduling season brings us.

[47:40] - The only reason why I bring it up was that

[47:43] before I retired the PLCs at the high school, they met,

[47:48] we met twice a week in every department to kind

[47:52] of get together because we'd have go over common

[47:55] assessments, go over what was happening.

[47:57] I'm not sure where it kind of got lost in the shuffle

[48:00] with everything going on.

[48:02] But there used to be that during the day

[48:06] we would have at least two of those meetings to kind of,

[48:09] at least in the English department.

[48:11] But they did it in other areas too.

[48:13] - Yeah. Every department and, and yeah.

[48:15] Asked me to bring it back.

[48:16] So once scheduling season hits, I'm gonna see what I can do

[48:19] and fit in what, what powers I can. Yeah. And angle

[48:23] - And what you're doing with the math is great.

[48:26] I know that that eighth grade math wise

[48:30] has always been an issue with kind of like that higher math

[48:34] to how the kids got tested in

[48:36] and how they'd follow and all of that.

[48:39] So that's always been an

[48:41] interesting placement.

[48:44] Let's, let's put it that way.

[48:45] So I'm glad there's some work being done.

[48:48] What I'd really like to see down the line is something

[48:51] with the English, I think that they're another area

[48:54] that curriculum wise, at least

[48:56] with the eighth grade has always been a struggle.

[48:58] Yeah. I mean, I'm hoping, but it's gonna take a few years

[49:02] before what we just implemented at the elementary

[49:06] and then the middle and then moving up.

[49:09] But I think that there is a struggle with the reading

[49:13] at in the high school.

[49:14] Yeah. I think that I agree. Yeah.

[49:16] That that's something that really,

[49:18] and I know with everything going on, you can only do

[49:21] so much in one year.

[49:23] But I feel like that needs to be our focus.

[49:26] Also, I think a part of, with the math, with the science,

[49:30] whatever, across the board, if they're struggling

[49:32] with reading and with literacy,

[49:34] that's gonna impact everything that they do.

[49:37] So I'd really like to see a little bit more in that area

[49:42] to kind of work with some of the teachers,

[49:44] the students just trying to work with what they,

[49:48] you know, to improve that. Yeah,

[49:50] - I agree.

[49:51] We've had some conversations around literacy. Yeah.

[49:53] Across all grades. And so I'm excited to see

[49:57] what comes up with the new program.

[49:59] Yeah. Both the elementary

[50:01] and that, that we're implementing in middle. So,

[50:03] - So, but I'm hoping that when you get a chance that you,

[50:06] they can be a little bit more focused on that literacy.

[50:10] But, and I think it's awesome about the early college

[50:14] and the pathways and everything that these students have,

[50:18] what changes since my kids were at that high school

[50:22] and what they're offering now is amazing.

[50:25] So what opportunities to get it out there

[50:27] to let people know and be aware of.

[50:29] That's great. So thank you. Thank

[50:31] - You.

[50:32] - Thank you Marian. Mike.

[50:34] - So I won't, I think Mark

[50:36] and Marian brought up some of the points

[50:38] that I was gonna bring up, but I think we observed a,

[50:40] an early college class, correct.

[50:42] With a UML professor that was in person Yes.

[50:45] That was there did to science classes. Yes, that's right.

[50:47] Yep. That was, that was a really cool opportunity

[50:50] and cool experience for us to be able to see that.

[50:52] So that obviously there's every, I think every slide,

[50:55] the first bullet point is common assessments, right.

[50:58] So I was are we looking, are we, so there's a theme there.

[51:01] So I, I want you to maybe if you have a chance

[51:03] to expand upon that a little bit, just around kind of

[51:06] what the purpose of a common assessment would be.

[51:08] What the kind of the development of those would be

[51:12] and how that information would be utilized

[51:14] to kind of shift instruction.

[51:15] - Yeah. So we wanna have common

[51:17] assessments for a whole bunch of reasons.

[51:19] One being we want to make sure that

[51:22] everyone's getting a similar experience in high school.

[51:25] That no one student is getting a more rigorous

[51:28] or an easier course than others.

[51:31] We wanna make sure that we are meeting all of the standards,

[51:34] meeting or exceeding all of the standards

[51:36] by all teachers in all of our classes.

[51:38] So that's one reason. Another reason is we want to be able

[51:42] to sit down and analyze our teaching

[51:44] and analyze our students where,

[51:46] what are we doing well in our classes?

[51:48] What do we need to adjust?

[51:51] Is the person next to me teaching the same course?

[51:54] Are they getting through to their students a little bit

[51:55] better on this topic?

[51:58] I love it when teachers go in

[52:00] and observe each other's classes.

[52:01] So if we see that maybe we, you know, have some,

[52:04] some instructional rounds when we've got teachers going

[52:07] and, and observing each other.

[52:10] And also just to kind of follow our students and,

[52:12] and what gaps are we noticing?

[52:13] What trends might we be noticing, not just

[52:15] with a particular class, but with a,

[52:16] with a particular grade.

[52:19] And so kind of moving forward,

[52:20] they're always working on our teaching,

[52:22] always revising our curriculum.

[52:24] - Great. 'cause I, I think for, you know, I think a lot of,

[52:28] you know, the general public

[52:29] or parents of students that are at the high school

[52:33] when we're really focusing on MCAS for instance, really the,

[52:36] that's an end, end of the year

[52:38] or end of an opportunity result.

[52:40] Yep. But it's the path to that point, right?

[52:43] How are we adjusting instruction?

[52:44] How are we intervening with kids that might be struggling

[52:47] with a particular concept?

[52:49] So those common assessments become critically important.

[52:51] Right. And it also levels the playing field, right?

[52:53] So you get, you lose that the, the notion

[52:56] of I have the difficult teacher

[52:59] and I have the easier teacher where all

[53:00] of a sudden a teacher, one teacher has, you know,

[53:02] teacher X has a higher standard than teacher Y

[53:05] even though that might not be true.

[53:06] Right. And it's based upon how are we assessing

[53:09] and how are we pushing the kids.

[53:10] So I think leveling the playing field

[53:11] and developing some of those common

[53:13] assessments, I think would be helpful.

[53:14] So I appreciate the extra information. Thank you.

[53:19] - Thank you, Mike. Just a couple for me.

[53:22] Curious how many students ballpark in the, the,

[53:24] the Lead the Way program, the Project Lead the Way right

[53:27] - Now?

[53:28] Oh, project Lead The Way. I couldn't even count.

[53:29] We have a ton. A ton. I can tell you.

[53:30] I know the CCA number off the top of my head is 33.

[53:34] But the PLTW is, we have so many sections

[53:37] and all of our sections fill up.

[53:38] Okay, great. I've got two biomed courses at 25.

[53:44] I've got two human body systems at 25.

[53:46] And then I have all of my engineering classes as well.

[53:49] So in the hundreds.

[53:50] - Significant. Yeah. That's awesome. Significant.

[53:53] I am curious and,

[53:55] and this isn't a criticism, it's,

[53:56] it's sincerely a just curious, the, the proposed plan

[53:59] with the math curriculum is much more accelerated than

[54:01] what we did with reading. It's

[54:04] - Much more accelerated than I normally do.

[54:06] Okay. Normally I do this process over an entire school year

[54:10] and we, I sat down, I've been talking with Dr.

[54:13] Clary and, and Ms. McDermott,

[54:15] and we need something, we, these teachers need resources.

[54:18] They haven't had resources.

[54:20] They're asking for resource resources.

[54:23] One of the first things I did when I came in is I found

[54:25] money and I got them a, a resource for worksheets

[54:29] because they were, you know, as, as, as awesome

[54:31] as my teachers are like making up

[54:33] worksheet after worksheet after worksheet.

[54:34] Like it's, they might not be hitting all the standards.

[54:37] Like while we're a content expert,

[54:39] we're not a cur, we're not curriculum writers.

[54:42] And so, you know, I've been

[54:44] through this process enough in previous districts

[54:47] that I felt confident in being able

[54:48] to do this in an accelerated timeline.

[54:51] It's also kind of the reason I want to do just math eight

[54:54] and algebra one next year and not an entire department.

[54:57] So that we can see how it goes with two,

[54:59] and then we can roll the rest of the department in.

[55:02] And if we need to make adjustments,

[55:03] then we make adjustments.

[55:05] - Great. Thank you. And

[55:07] - If I could just add to that, and then the other piece too

[55:10] is that these are curriculum

[55:12] or content experts, unlike at the elementary level, it,

[55:16] they're more generalists

[55:18] because they're teaching all of the content.

[55:20] So although you're right that it's an expedited approach,

[55:24] it is typical that the,

[55:27] the process looks different from elementary

[55:29] versus secondary for that reason.

[55:31] And I also appreciate the emphasis on the fact that

[55:35] accelerated math or Algebra one is not the goal.

[55:39] I mean, we, the goal is eighth grade standards,

[55:42] just like in seventh grade math, seventh grade standards,

[55:45] they're rigorous, they're relatively newer in that they're,

[55:48] they're up to date, they're conceptual.

[55:51] We know, you know, parents often complain starting in first

[55:54] and second grade that it's very difficult for them

[55:56] to support their students and their homework

[55:59] because it's a different type of thinking.

[56:00] So it, the expectation

[56:04] for success is regular eighth grade math.

[56:07] And then there's this opportunity for people

[56:10] who need something more.

[56:13] And I, I just think we cannot drive that home hard enough.

[56:16] - Something else I like to share with families at home is,

[56:20] is the jump in the number

[56:22] of standards we expect students at grade level.

[56:25] So if I remember correctly,

[56:26] sixth grade is 28 standards for math.

[56:29] Seventh grade is 35 to 40. Eighth grade is 54.

[56:34] Geez. There's a lot. There is a huge jump.

[56:36] It also jumps from very concrete

[56:38] to very abstract, very quickly.

[56:41] And while a student

[56:43] absolutely could be excelling all the way

[56:45] through sixth grade and even to seventh grade,

[56:48] it is not uncommon to see a pause

[56:52] or a struggle once a student hits eighth grade.

[56:56] And like I said, I can't drive home enough

[56:58] how important eighth grade is.

[57:00] And if you, if your student truly desires getting

[57:04] to calculus by senior year, they can do it.

[57:07] But I would rather focus on the foundations in eighth grade

[57:10] and in Algebra one first.

[57:13] That should be the goal. We have the accelerated option,

[57:16] but it's, it's the, I can't stress

[57:18] how important those standards are

[57:21] and how big of a jump it is in the number of standards

[57:23] that we expect students to do just on grade level,

[57:26] nevermind the accelerated course,

[57:28] which is over 60 standards.

[57:31] - Great. Thank you for that. World languages.

[57:36] And I know you, you spoke a little bit about this

[57:37] and Mark had asked why, why Mandarin was being dropped.

[57:40] I'm curious, how do we determine what we're going to offer?

[57:42] I guess that's sort of flipping,

[57:44] flipping the question a little.

[57:45] - That's a good question. Mr. Bernard

[57:47] and I have had some conversations.

[57:48] He really wants to bring Portuguese in.

[57:50] He's very passionate about Portuguese.

[57:53] I think that it would be like any other course

[57:55] where we would have to put it out to students

[57:58] and see where the interest lies.

[58:00] You know, just going to the, to the history,

[58:02] because we, we did that, Mr.

[58:05] Lipset put out a survey to his students, you know,

[58:08] if we were to offer this AP course,

[58:10] how many of you would take it?

[58:11] How many of you would've taken it?

[58:12] How many of you plan to register for this course?

[58:15] And we were able to gauge, okay,

[58:17] we're gonna put it in the program of studies

[58:18] because he had enough interest in front of him.

[58:22] Whether or not it runs, we'll have to see with,

[58:24] with real time enrollment data, real,

[58:27] you know, enrollment requests.

[58:28] But I would imagine that we could do the same thing.

[58:31] We'd also have to find certified teachers

[58:33] to, to teach the courses.

[58:34] And I'm not sure what the outlook is for Portuguese

[58:39] or German or any other language.

[58:40] I think German used to be taught here years ago.

[58:42] Used to be, yeah. It was a big program.

[58:44] It was a big program. I love German.

[58:46] - The German. But two of the German teachers retired. Yeah.

[58:51] And then once they retired, they had one German teacher,

[58:55] there was a issue with certification.

[58:58] She was let go and then it kind of fell apart from

[59:02] that point, trying to get a new teacher in.

[59:04] But it used to be started a little bit.

[59:08] 'cause they used to give a sampling at the middle school.

[59:10] Yep. And then it went in up to the high school,

[59:13] and then eventually they got rid of it in the middle school

[59:15] and it was just at the high school

[59:16] and then it just kind of disappeared.

[59:19] Yeah.

[59:21] - So, I mean, I would imagine that we could put out a survey

[59:24] to students, perhaps even middle school students too.

[59:27] But right now it's, I don't think it's on our radar to add

[59:30] a fourth language back in,

[59:31] but we can see, we'll see what the future holds.

[59:34] - Okay. Wanna go back to one of the points

[59:36] that you made about the early college courses in AP courses?

[59:40] Are they competing for the same group of students?

[59:43] I think so. How do we navigate that?

[59:45] That's a, that's a great question. Interesting.

[59:47] - It's a great question. I mean, AP has been along around

[59:50] for so long and everybody knows ap

[59:55] and I think just people just don't know about

[59:57] the early college course.

[59:59] And you know, ap, they are wonderful.

[1:00:02] I love the AP courses that we offer.

[1:00:04] We offer some great ones,

[1:00:07] but scores aren't accepted everywhere.

[1:00:08] You know, you could pass with a three

[1:00:10] and it's not accepted in a lot of schools.

[1:00:12] Versus you pass at

[1:00:13] UMass Lowell, you're getting that full credit.

[1:00:14] Doesn't matter if you have an A, B, C, whatever.

[1:00:17] You pass the course, you pass the course. Yeah.

[1:00:20] So I think we really just need to get it out there.

[1:00:22] You know, do I wanna take away from our AP courses?

[1:00:25] No, because I think something

[1:00:26] that's really wonderful about our high school is

[1:00:29] how many AP courses we offer

[1:00:31] and the variety of AP courses that we offer.

[1:00:34] But at the same time, I wanna give this opportunity

[1:00:37] to students that, that's amazing.

[1:00:40] So it's a, it's, it's tricky.

[1:00:42] We need to figure out how to, how

[1:00:43] to balance it and navigate it.

[1:00:44] - Can I just say one thing on that? John? Go ahead. Mark.

[1:00:46] So, so just from my point of view

[1:00:48] and my experience a long time ago,

[1:00:50] I think it's a great thing to expose high school students

[1:00:53] to college professors.

[1:00:55] Because in my mind there's a pretty big difference between

[1:00:59] how high school teachers teach

[1:01:01] and K through 12 teaches for that matter.

[1:01:03] And college professors teach.

[1:01:06] I'm not saying one's better than the other.

[1:01:08] I might be saying that, that when you get to college,

[1:01:11] you kind of realize I'm not in high school anymore

[1:01:14] because, you know, there, there's less

[1:01:19] from my, again, from my experience, there's less kind

[1:01:21] of prodding.

[1:01:23] It's it, it's more, hey,

[1:01:25] you either do the work, you don't do the work.

[1:01:26] Right. Right. So to get some, I'll call it attitude

[1:01:29] and I don't really mean attitude.

[1:01:30] So to get some of that attitude in high school,

[1:01:34] I think would actually help the kids.

[1:01:36] Yeah. Right. To, so they're not going at the college cold

[1:01:39] and realizing while they're in college.

[1:01:41] Oh, you know what I mean? Yep. Absolutely. That's

[1:01:44] - All.

[1:01:45] Great point. And I would just add, I, I think, you know,

[1:01:47] there's a lot of discussion about affordability in this

[1:01:49] community broadly,

[1:01:51] but there's also this, this kind

[1:01:52] of national conversation about college affordability

[1:01:54] and to be able to give students and families what amount.

[1:01:57] I think 30 credits is a whole year, if you take,

[1:01:59] if you're able to fit it all in, what an incredible savings

[1:02:02] for, for families and incredible opportunity.

[1:02:04] - And they fit it in two, two courses per semester,

[1:02:07] junior year and senior year.

[1:02:09] It, it's, it's amazing.

[1:02:10] And they meet every other day

[1:02:11] that you have a Monday Wednesday course

[1:02:13] or a Tuesday Thursday course.

[1:02:15] And then on Fridays the teachers,

[1:02:17] so you, you take them in a pair.

[1:02:19] And so the, the BMHS teachers on Fridays alternate

[1:02:23] who has the group of kids

[1:02:24] and they'll work through study, they'll work through,

[1:02:26] you know, helping them make up assignments,

[1:02:29] work on assignments, that sort of thing.

[1:02:31] So they've got that, that added bonus

[1:02:33] of having A-B-M-H-S teacher to help them

[1:02:35] through the content while getting that college exposure.

[1:02:39] - That's awesome. Last one for me.

[1:02:41] Going back to common assessments. Yep.

[1:02:44] I, I'm curious, I, I think I know the answer,

[1:02:46] so forgive me if I'm leading the witness.

[1:02:49] Do common assessments relate to some of the proposed changes

[1:02:52] that we're gonna see tonight as it relates

[1:02:53] to state requirements on competency now?

[1:02:58] Not at all. Okay, great. And that's it for me.

[1:03:01] Thank you so much for coming out tonight. Thank you.

[1:03:02] Appreciate the presentation. Thank.

[1:03:04] - Alright, - Have a good night.

[1:03:05] - You too. All right,

[1:03:10] next up for us is our Valley Collaborative report

[1:03:15] and annual report and Audit. Dr.

[1:03:16] - Cleary. Yes. So there's not

[1:03:18] a whole lot to present on this.

[1:03:19] I just wanted to make you aware of it.

[1:03:21] We are required to ha make sure this is on the agenda

[1:03:25] so there's no vote needed in your packets,

[1:03:28] you will see two documents from Valley Collaborative.

[1:03:30] It's the annual report as well as the annual audit.

[1:03:35] We met as a board of directors about a month ago,

[1:03:39] and this was introduced to us

[1:03:41] and the administration over there was very pleased to share

[1:03:46] that everything came out very clean.

[1:03:48] There was no managerial issues with the budget.

[1:03:51] There were no budget discrepancies.

[1:03:53] So congratulations to Valley Collaborative.

[1:03:56] So if you take a look at those at some point

[1:04:00] and then have specific questions,

[1:04:01] then Dr. Scott is more than ha the executive director there

[1:04:04] is more than happy to come in and answer any questions.

[1:04:08] - Great. Okay.

[1:04:12] Move on to school committee subcommittee updates.

[1:04:16] This is the highlight of every meeting.

[1:04:17] I know you guys have been missing this agenda item.

[1:04:21] We are gonna do things a little bit differently tonight.

[1:04:23] We have the first two policies are IKF and IKFE.

[1:04:27] The district has led a lot

[1:04:29] of the edits in these two policies.

[1:04:31] So I've asked Lori McDermott to kind

[1:04:33] of lead kinda a high level discussion for us on,

[1:04:35] on both of those policies.

[1:04:37] And then we'll, we'll keep an eye on the time

[1:04:40] and see what other policies we wanna take up tonight

[1:04:42] or punt to the next meeting. Sure, Lori.

[1:04:46] - Okay. So we're first gonna talk about

[1:04:48] graduation requirements.

[1:04:50] So we're talking about two, two different things tonight.

[1:04:54] The first is graduation requirements.

[1:04:56] The second is competency determination.

[1:04:59] They are, they,

[1:05:00] they're dependent on each other, but also different.

[1:05:03] So if you can just think about the, you know,

[1:05:06] we've had graduation requirements.

[1:05:08] The state is not looking for us

[1:05:10] to change our graduation requirements.

[1:05:12] This is just the first time that they're collecting them.

[1:05:16] So we started looking at them.

[1:05:20] Mary Beth and I happened to go through

[1:05:23] the Merrimack Valley's graduation requirements, sort

[1:05:26] of compared where, where Loca was

[1:05:28] and considered making some changes.

[1:05:31] Met with the high school leadership team,

[1:05:35] the other curriculum coordinators.

[1:05:37] And what we would like to do, the, I think the first and

[1:05:41] and biggest change would be

[1:05:43] change the three year mathematic course requirement to four

[1:05:50] that would align us with Mass core.

[1:05:53] And it also aligns us a little more

[1:05:55] with our surrounding districts.

[1:05:57] The other changes we would take away that one

[1:06:01] full year in a STEM course requirement.

[1:06:04] It doesn't prohibit students from taking it,

[1:06:07] it's just would no longer be a requirement.

[1:06:11] Then three full year history

[1:06:13] and social science courses, including US and world history.

[1:06:16] And that is going

[1:06:17] to be an FY 27 requirement change.

[1:06:23] That's, it's expected that we are,

[1:06:25] we're adding US History.

[1:06:31] Two full year world language courses. It's the same.

[1:06:36] The wellness, we kept the same.

[1:06:39] The the next one is just the, a little grammatical.

[1:06:42] We just changed it across our find

[1:06:44] and practical and just said the arts.

[1:06:47] And then one half year course in digital literacy is,

[1:06:52] we took that out as a requirement.

[1:06:54] It through conversations, it's very much built into a lot

[1:06:58] of the courses that are offered now

[1:07:02] and certainly available still.

[1:07:05] And then we kept the one half,

[1:07:07] half year course in business financial literacy.

[1:07:12] And those are really the only, only changes.

[1:07:17] - Okay. Any questions

[1:07:18] or comments from school committee members? Marion?

[1:07:21] - So this would just be from nine to 12, is that correct?

[1:07:26] - Nine to 12 and it would start with the class

[1:07:28] of 2028 and beyond. Okay.

[1:07:30] - Alright. Thank you. - So it wouldn't hinder anybody

[1:07:33] who's graduating this year,

[1:07:37] - Mark or Mike, anything?

[1:07:39] - So I, I have a couple.

[1:07:44] So it's the sophomore class

[1:07:45] that would be the first affected class.

[1:07:46] Right. Do they have, do they have time to, I'll,

[1:07:50] I'll say catch up, but Yeah, I dunno if I really mean,

[1:07:52] do they have time to catch up to meet this requirement?

[1:07:54] - They do. And, and the high school leadership team, like

[1:07:58] over and overstated,

[1:08:00] most kids do take four full years of math.

[1:08:03] Yeah. It's really, it would be a very

[1:08:05] minimal, minimal change.

[1:08:08] - So the extra year of math is really the biggest change.

[1:08:10] Yeah, sure. What, what's, how do they do that?

[1:08:14] Would, would they typically lose a

[1:08:16] study for lack of a better term?

[1:08:18] Or is it just shing

[1:08:20] - Around co courses?

[1:08:21] No, it's just, just, just shuffling it around.

[1:08:22] Okay. Yep. Alright.

[1:08:24] - That's it for me. - Thanks Mark. Mike, anything?

[1:08:27] - So I just wanted to get a little bit more clarification.

[1:08:30] So the one full year in a STEM course would be eliminated.

[1:08:34] That's worth one credit. So what would some examples

[1:08:36] of like a STEM course be?

[1:08:40] - I'm not really sure what they have in the program

[1:08:43] of studies in terms of

[1:08:45] what they've had as their requirement.

[1:08:46] I do know that they have a full load of,

[1:08:50] of science, computer science classes.

[1:08:53] And I believe that's really has been

[1:08:54] a computer science focus.

[1:08:56] And I think it's why the originally,

[1:08:59] and you might remember why the, the four year went

[1:09:03] to three year was to, I think there was some concern

[1:09:06] that they really wanted to, to kind of

[1:09:10] reinforce the opportunity

[1:09:12] to take a computer science course Yep.

[1:09:14] Is my understanding from what,

[1:09:15] what the leadership team explained.

[1:09:17] - But there's a lot of overlap - There is

[1:09:19] - Between math and computer science. So I, I get it.

[1:09:22] - Yeah. That's, that's assumption

[1:09:24] that I would make just only because if I'm looking at like

[1:09:26] the 0.5 credit for digital literacy, it's kind

[1:09:29] of embedded in a lot of other classes.

[1:09:31] I would, as, it would be safe to assume that some of the,

[1:09:34] the STEM coursework is probably embedded in some

[1:09:37] of the other classes as well.

[1:09:38] So, okay. That's all that's, I was just asking it

[1:09:41] for a little clarification.

[1:09:42] Yeah, I appreciate that.

[1:09:45] - Yeah. And I'll say from from our subcommittee discussion,

[1:09:47] I think one of that was one of the things

[1:09:48] that we had flagged, well first of all, it, it took us of,

[1:09:51] of like 15 minutes to wrap our heads

[1:09:52] around the grad graduation requirements

[1:09:54] and the competencies we got through that.

[1:09:56] I wish you had been there to provide some of that clarity.

[1:10:00] And then I think the other thing that,

[1:10:02] that Annette had brought up in that was the,

[1:10:03] the half year of digital literacy.

[1:10:05] So I think she'll be, she's not here,

[1:10:06] but I think she'll be happy to hear that

[1:10:08] that's incorporated in other spaces.

[1:10:10] 'cause she was concerned about losing that.

[1:10:12] But otherwise I I, we didn't have a lot of feedback.

[1:10:17] - Yeah. I think the math is the biggest change process

[1:10:20] - Question.

[1:10:21] Moving, moving out of the, the policy specifics

[1:10:23] for us tonight.

[1:10:24] Do you need a vote tonight?

[1:10:26] 'cause typically what we've done is we've

[1:10:27] reviewed it, we brought it back.

[1:10:29] We don't have any changes on this one.

[1:10:31] So we could vote on this one tonight and,

[1:10:32] and potentially the next one, depending on

[1:10:34] how the discussion goes, is your preference

[1:10:36] that you get a vote on this tonight? I would

[1:10:38] - Love and appreciate that if

[1:10:39] possible, if you're comfortable with that.

[1:10:41] If not, we can certainly kick it to the next meeting.

[1:10:43] - Does it make your life easier?

[1:10:45] - Yeah, I mean, it, it just gets the ball rolling. Okay.

[1:10:49] Sooner.

[1:10:52] - Do you wanna, should we, let's do that now.

[1:10:54] If, if everybody's comfortable with it. I'm ready.

[1:10:56] Okay, great.

[1:10:57] - I'd like to make a motion to approve policy

[1:11:02] IKF graduation requirements.

[1:11:05] - Second - Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[1:11:08] Four zero.

[1:11:10] - Okay. Thank you. - With that, we will move over to the

[1:11:14] IKFE policy, which is

[1:11:19] - Alright.

[1:11:20] This one might make your head hurt a little bit.

[1:11:22] So this is separate from graduation requirements.

[1:11:27] These are graduation requirements.

[1:11:30] Our competency determination used to be MCAS, you had to,

[1:11:34] you had to pass MCAS to graduate.

[1:11:37] - Can I stop you right there? Yes.

[1:11:38] Because I was going to jump in

[1:11:40] between graduation requirement and competency determination.

[1:11:43] Yep. DESI is doing stuff at the state level.

[1:11:45] Apparently people aren't thrilled about. Right.

[1:11:47] So can you kinda like maybe weave that in

[1:11:50] or explain it after?

[1:11:51] - Sure. Alright. Thank you. I can tell you there's

[1:11:53] no need to worry right now.

[1:11:55] Okay. Yeah. It's very much in the works

[1:11:58] and still going out for public comment and feedback and,

[1:12:02] and even if it all was to come to fruition, it wouldn't be

[1:12:06] for a few years down the road.

[1:12:07] Possibly 28, 29 I even heard 30. Got it. Okay.

[1:12:11] So, but these, so, so we were encouraged

[1:12:15] because we, we being Bill Ricka, were kind of waiting

[1:12:18] to see, okay, this stuff is going on at the state level.

[1:12:20] We're not going to jump in

[1:12:22] and then just have to change it later.

[1:12:23] And we were given direction when I was at

[1:12:26] that conference in the fall to say, Nope, move forward

[1:12:29] because we've got a long, a long way to go

[1:12:33] before those graduation requirements

[1:12:34] that are happening at the state level would, would

[1:12:38] become implemented.

[1:12:41] Okay. So

[1:12:44] before you had to meet all of the graduation requirements

[1:12:48] and in addition, pass MCAS

[1:12:54] Because that is no longer a requirement.

[1:12:58] The state has said they've left it up to the districts

[1:13:02] to determine competency.

[1:13:05] And so MASC developed a

[1:13:11] policy draft for districts, a template for districts to use.

[1:13:16] And so superintendents all across the state,

[1:13:19] and certainly in the Merrimack Valley collaborated to,

[1:13:23] to do this work together so that it would, we would be able

[1:13:25] to provide students with a similar experience.

[1:13:28] If you're coming to school in, in Ricca

[1:13:30] and you happen to move to Chelmsford

[1:13:32] or you know, tbo it, it would, you would not be

[1:13:37] unable to meet the competency determination.

[1:13:42] So in terms of requirements, one of the things

[1:13:46] that I think you, you might have been thinking about John,

[1:13:49] is to show mastery.

[1:13:51] So what they're asking us to, to consider is MCAS tested

[1:13:56] math, ELA

[1:13:59] and science, so up through 10th grade.

[1:14:03] And so they want us to have a, a measure

[1:14:07] to determine whether students can meet competency

[1:14:10] and demonstrate mastery in at the same level Right.

[1:14:13] In those courses. And so

[1:14:16] they've definitely given some leeway,

[1:14:17] which we appreciate in terms of being able to show that,

[1:14:21] that demonstration, that competency, competency

[1:14:23] through a final assessment for a course, a capstone

[1:14:26] or a portfolio or an equivalent measure identified in,

[1:14:31] in our policy that was really important to, to most of us,

[1:14:35] that we weren't falling back on.

[1:14:37] You have to pass this test that there are many ways

[1:14:39] for students to demonstrate competency.

[1:14:42] And that can be left up to the, the instructors as long

[1:14:46] as they're using one of these or,

[1:14:49] or any of these three things. Yeah. Go ahead. So

[1:14:51] - Yeah, back to the point I was trying to make, right?

[1:14:54] Maybe I wasn't clear, was, I guess I was wondering if,

[1:14:57] wouldn't it be helpful and, and it's certainly beneficial

[1:15:00] and for, from an equity standpoint, for students

[1:15:02] to have a consistent common final assessment if the course

[1:15:05] is being taught by multiple teachers.

[1:15:08] And so that's what I thought this was tying in with,

[1:15:10] with this particular piece here, that outta fairness

[1:15:13] to students, you'd have a common assessment

[1:15:15] that would be one of the three ways

[1:15:16] that you could show mastery.

[1:15:18] - Yes, sure. Except what we wanted to make sure we had open

[1:15:22] to students is that a test isn't always the best way

[1:15:26] for all students to demonstrate their understanding.

[1:15:29] And so, especially with a lot of the work we're doing

[1:15:32] around universal Design for learning, there are many ways

[1:15:35] that students can demonstrate their understanding

[1:15:37] and a test may not be there their most preferred way.

[1:15:40] So we wanted to make sure that, that there was some,

[1:15:43] some room there.

[1:15:49] Okay. So what we did was we took the MASC policy, we met

[1:15:53] as a team and created a draft.

[1:15:57] We sent that draft to Michael Joyce.

[1:15:59] And you're seeing, seeing the red lines here.

[1:16:02] So moving down just a little bit to the section,

[1:16:05] A student enrolled in the Bill Brook of Public schools

[1:16:08] will be determined to have satisfactory completed coursework

[1:16:11] and earn full credit in accordance

[1:16:13] with the district grading policy.

[1:16:14] And that's in our student handbook.

[1:16:16] And then the following requirements that are outlined below.

[1:16:20] So if you go down, it will show you

[1:16:24] to our bill ricka aligned courses.

[1:16:28] So this first chart was just the,

[1:16:33] we didn't keep this chart.

[1:16:34] This chart was just the draft that MASC gave us.

[1:16:38] And then the state asked us to align our own courses.

[1:16:43] And so we did that. So if you go to Yep.

[1:16:45] To content area and course offerings.

[1:16:49] So what we did here is we listed the course offerings

[1:16:53] that would meet the competency determination for ELA,

[1:16:58] any of these courses, mathematics,

[1:17:02] science, and US history, beginning with the graduating class

[1:17:07] of 2027, any of these courses

[1:17:14] in each subject area.

[1:17:19] Then we had to consider students with disabilities

[1:17:22] and students who are English learners.

[1:17:27] So this next section talks about offering a free

[1:17:30] and appropriate public education,

[1:17:32] talks about students in out of district placements,

[1:17:40] and then looking at English language learners.

[1:17:46] This just explains how we would make sure that any

[1:17:49] of our English language learners would have equal

[1:17:51] opportunity to meet the CD requirements,

[1:17:53] having appropriate language supports

[1:17:55] and scaffolds extended time for assessments

[1:17:57] and projects, alternative demonstration methods

[1:17:59] that accommodate language proficiency levels.

[1:18:02] And then we have specific E ES ESL courses

[1:18:06] that students can take that would meet the competency.

[1:18:11] And then there's a section for late enrolling students.

[1:18:15] So students who enroll here in Bill Ricka from another

[1:18:20] after ninth grade who are coming from a different district.

[1:18:23] And if you scroll down, you'll see the bullets. Yep. Good.

[1:18:28] The bullets for transcript review course completion

[1:18:33] and MCAS exception.

[1:18:39] So if for some reason extenuating circumstance

[1:18:45] their through their transcript review

[1:18:47] or their course completion, it, it didn't align,

[1:18:50] we could offer them to take MCAS obviously.

[1:18:53] So everybody understands MCAS is still a requirement.

[1:18:56] We still do need to take, it's just not a requirement

[1:18:58] for graduation.

[1:19:03] And then there's an appeal process.

[1:19:06] So any current students

[1:19:09] can appeal the determination of competency.

[1:19:12] And in this way with an initial review,

[1:19:14] the principal review can also also make

[1:19:17] its way up to the superintendent.

[1:19:18] And then a final decision will be mond.

[1:19:25] And then the other consideration,

[1:19:28] which is the most interesting of all, is those

[1:19:30] that were in the classes of 2003 to 2024,

[1:19:35] - Who - Possibly didn't earn a diploma

[1:19:38] because they didn't pass MCAS.

[1:19:41] We needed to identify how they could appeal

[1:19:46] to get their diploma.

[1:19:48] And that's also outlined here.

[1:19:50] They have to meet these requirements.

[1:19:52] They have to obviously previously been enrolled in the

[1:19:55] district, met the criteria for certificate of attainment

[1:19:59] and was not previously reported in any

[1:20:03] as a graduated in,

[1:20:04] in any District Sims submission, obviously.

[1:20:07] And then there's a similar review process for that.

[1:20:13] Mr. Murphy doesn't see that as, you know, most

[1:20:17] of our students have have graduated.

[1:20:21] He doesn't see there being a huge influx of people who are,

[1:20:25] are looking to and have that reviewed.

[1:20:29] But it could happen.

[1:20:36] - Are we into the questions? We

[1:20:37] - Are ready for questions.

[1:20:38] - Okay. I I will just say on, on the appeals process.

[1:20:41] I remember that was a big topic

[1:20:43] of discussion at Mae's conference last year.

[1:20:45] Yeah. Because I think that was when that ruling or,

[1:20:47] or some of the decisions had started to come out

[1:20:48] and everybody was very excited that that opportunity

[1:20:51] would then open up for, for previous students.

[1:20:55] All right. I'll leave any questions

[1:20:56] or comments I have for later.

[1:20:59] The one I did want to flag from the subcommittee's

[1:21:01] discussion was at the end as it relates

[1:21:03] to the appeals process for, for previous students.

[1:21:08] I not, I noted above in the, in the appeals process

[1:21:11] for current students, we list which specific roles will be

[1:21:14] responsible for those reviews.

[1:21:16] So the principal will do the initial review

[1:21:18] and then the superintendent has an opportunity

[1:21:20] for review if, if students', families are, are unhappy

[1:21:24] or unsatisfied with the principal's decision down below.

[1:21:27] And again, like you just said there, you don't expect a lot

[1:21:30] of former students to come forward,

[1:21:33] but it just says that the district reviews it.

[1:21:34] And I thought it would be helpful to list out who's

[1:21:37] who exactly is responsible for that review.

[1:21:42] And I didn't know if that was something we could figure out

[1:21:43] tonight so we could get this voted on

[1:21:45] or if you, if the district needed a little

[1:21:47] bit of time to think that through.

[1:21:51] So that was one. And while you're thinking about that,

[1:21:54] the other thing I wanted to flag.

[1:21:55] Yeah. And maybe I'll wait just

[1:21:57] 'cause I don't wanna, it's a question for you guys

[1:21:59] and I don't want to do that while you're trying page Yeah.

[1:22:03] That is the right page. Yeah. So it's the second set

[1:22:05] of of, of, okay.

[1:22:06] Yeah, you are.

[1:22:08] The second question from the committee was, was

[1:22:10] that last note there,

[1:22:11] the district's comp competency

[1:22:13] determination policies required?

[1:22:14] Was that a note for us? And can we remove

[1:22:16] that from the final draft before we approve it?

[1:22:20] It's the, the last two paragraphs

[1:22:22] before the legal references.

[1:22:28] - This paragraph here.

[1:22:30] - Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think we can, yeah, I think we can.

[1:22:34] I mean he didn't, he didn't take it out.

[1:22:36] I think Manny did leave it

[1:22:37] in, but we can certainly take it out. Okay. Because

[1:22:38] - The, the first part I think is, is really for us.

[1:22:41] And then the second part about being posted is something

[1:22:44] that we do consistently with, with all

[1:22:46] of our documentation already.

[1:22:48] So, yep. Okay. That was it from the subcommittee.

[1:22:51] So with that, I'll open it up to committee members

[1:22:52] who might have questions or comments.

[1:22:53] Does anybody wanna lead us off? Oh, I'll do Marian.

[1:22:59] - I'm assuming that if you're putting all of this together,

[1:23:02] that every time a kid sets up their schedule that

[1:23:06] with guidance that they'll be guided to what they need.

[1:23:10] - Exactly. We talked a lot about that to make sure. Yes.

[1:23:14] - Because I know as a parent we used to go through the book

[1:23:17] and most of the time you don't really pay attention to

[1:23:20] what those kids really need for graduation.

[1:23:23] You are just, oh, okay, this is the course you wanna take.

[1:23:26] But I think there is need of guidance to make sure

[1:23:29] that whatever we are proposing that right along.

[1:23:33] And then the same thing with these competencies

[1:23:35] to have them be aware that this is important. Yeah.

[1:23:38] - That's definitely where our counseling

[1:23:40] department comes in for sure.

[1:23:41] - Okay. So they'll definitely be on top.

[1:23:44] That's my only concern, is I hate to see that get lost. Yep.

[1:23:47] - Okay. - Thank you.

[1:23:49] - Thanks, Marion, Mike or Mark? Mike. I

[1:23:54] - Think I, I'll just piggyback John's commentary

[1:23:56] around the appeals process.

[1:23:58] I mean, if it makes sense to keep it for the kids

[1:24:01] that graduated 2020, what, three 20 2023, 2024

[1:24:06] to try to keep it as consistent as possible

[1:24:08] with the review process, if that makes the most sense.

[1:24:10] I mean, it seems logical, right.

[1:24:12] Initial review, principal does a deeper dive,

[1:24:14] superintendent review, then a final decision.

[1:24:16] So that would be my recommendation just to move

[1:24:19] that part down so it stays consistent.

[1:24:24] - Thank you, Mike. Nothing else? Okay. Mark.

[1:24:26] - So on the students from 2003 through 2024,

[1:24:31] even if there's one student that comes back to appeal.

[1:24:34] Yeah. How long do we keep student records?

[1:24:38] - 60 - Years? Yeah. I mean, it's six zero.

[1:24:41] - Okay then well good. 60 years.

[1:24:43] - Yeah. So it it, it's absolutely possible.

[1:24:48] - Although there's a bunch in the basement here probably.

[1:24:50] Right.

[1:24:52] - Know where they are? Yeah.

[1:24:53] - They're all over the place. Okay. Yeah. But

[1:24:55] - It's, no, - No, I wasn't being funny.

[1:24:57] I think they really were electronic

[1:24:59] - At - This point.

[1:25:00] Okay. Good. Yeah. And then this,

[1:25:01] this is truly a corner case.

[1:25:04] When MCM CAS was a grad,

[1:25:05] and this just came into my mind,

[1:25:07] when mcm CAS was a graduation requirement,

[1:25:10] what would happen if a kid moved in to town

[1:25:13] or any district in, in Massachusetts as a junior,

[1:25:17] - They would take it.

[1:25:18] - They would have to take the 10th grade

[1:25:20] and mass. Yes. In Massachusetts.

[1:25:21] - Yes. Even students, ELL students who come

[1:25:24] to this country Yep.

[1:25:27] As seniors have to take it. Okay. Or had to take it. Good

[1:25:31] - To know.

[1:25:32] Yeah. All right. That's all for me. That's it.

[1:25:34] - Okay. Yeah. Alright.

[1:25:36] So we've had a little bit of

[1:25:37] discussion about that review process.

[1:25:38] Is there anything Yep. The district wants

[1:25:40] to say at this point?

[1:25:42] Are we prepared to make some revisions or do

[1:25:44] - You need Yeah, I think, I think we

[1:25:45] could, we could certainly do that.

[1:25:47] I, the only, the timeline I would like to keep,

[1:25:51] I just think it could take more time.

[1:25:53] The, the timeline for the, the current students is,

[1:25:57] is it's a brief window

[1:25:59] and you'll notice that the timeline

[1:26:01] for the previous students is longer.

[1:26:03] And I think that might be necessary to get to the basement.

[1:26:09] Okay. So I would like to keep that extended timeframe,

[1:26:13] but we could, I could certainly make it

[1:26:18] more outlined in terms

[1:26:19] of more descriptive in terms of who's doing what.

[1:26:22] - Okay. I, I mean I'm, I'm fine with all of that.

[1:26:27] I appreciate you all taking that,

[1:26:29] that friendly amendment there on that,

[1:26:32] do we have enough to vote on this tonight?

[1:26:34] Is everybody comfortable with approving it?

[1:26:37] With the edits that we spoke about? Okay, great.

[1:26:39] Then with that, I will accept a motion.

[1:26:42] - I'd like to make a motion to approve policy

[1:26:46] IKFE competency determination.

[1:26:50] - Second. - As amended.

[1:26:53] - As amended. - That's probably a not needed,

[1:26:55] but just to be, cover ourselves.

[1:26:57] Okay. We get a motion. Is there a second?

[1:27:00] Was there a second mark? Yep. Alright, move. Seconded.

[1:27:02] All in favor? Aye. Aye. Four zero. Alright. Thank you all.

[1:27:05] - Great. Thank you so much. - Okay.

[1:27:15] - I think what I'm gonna do if you're all comfortable is we

[1:27:17] are gonna table the rest of these for the next meeting.

[1:27:20] Are we good with that? Yep. Yes. Okay.

[1:27:23] We did, just to give you all,

[1:27:26] just a quick update from the policy subcommittee.

[1:27:28] We did meet twice. We're not giving ourselves any pats on

[1:27:32] the back because I think it's been almost 10 months since

[1:27:34] we've met after our marathon sessions last year.

[1:27:38] So we did get through, I wanna say in addition to these two,

[1:27:41] which is what we spent, I think the bulk

[1:27:43] of our time on this, the second night,

[1:27:45] I wanna say about 17 policies.

[1:27:47] So we do have a little bit of a bank here

[1:27:49] that we can go over over the next few meetings.

[1:27:52] And then we are planning to meet again in January.

[1:27:56] Action items.

[1:27:58] - John, do you wanna go through the rest

[1:28:00] of the subcommittees besides for

[1:28:03] - An update?

[1:28:04] Oh, forgive me. Yes. Just in case they're,

[1:28:05] they're not listed but yes, that, that wasn't agenda item

[1:28:08] subcommittee updates.

[1:28:09] - So finance subcommittee we meeting

[1:28:13] this Thursday at two 30 to kind of go over some

[1:28:17] of the budget items and so forth.

[1:28:19] And then the long range master plan, I will have

[1:28:24] to say has been kind of a disaster.

[1:28:28] Meetings have been planned, canceled, planned again.

[1:28:33] But so far they have made sure that I have not attended

[1:28:37] because they've been on every school committee night.

[1:28:39] So I'm not quite sure how

[1:28:42] that will be working out in the future.

[1:28:44] But just letting you know that I've been attempting

[1:28:48] that, that committee there.

[1:28:50] But it's been a little bit that we've had some,

[1:28:53] we've had dates, things were canceled,

[1:28:56] we got zoomed out one night.

[1:28:58] There's just been a a little bit of confusion.

[1:29:01] So I'm not quite sure how much

[1:29:04] we'll be working on that committee.

[1:29:07] So just letting you know.

[1:29:09] - So if I could just really on that one,

[1:29:14] I do remember I spoke

[1:29:16] with Catherine when she was looking for somebody.

[1:29:18] Yes. One of the offers was you can just go

[1:29:21] through the document and start

[1:29:22] providing updates electronically.

[1:29:23] Have we, have you been able to go

[1:29:25] through it and try to provide

[1:29:27] - Or, so there's been a little confusion with that also.

[1:29:29] Okay. So I do have the document,

[1:29:32] but it was, some of it basically most of it was sent over

[1:29:37] to the planning board.

[1:29:40] We were supposed to be starting with kind

[1:29:43] of doing a new update and working on a new document.

[1:29:47] But since all of that came about,

[1:29:52] we haven't been able to meet as a whole group at all.

[1:29:55] Okay. So it's been kind of a miss.

[1:30:00] Somebody can't make it. We got bumped outta Zoom at one

[1:30:03] of our meetings, then we had a meeting

[1:30:06] and somebody else said, well we need to cancel it.

[1:30:09] 'cause I had something that came up

[1:30:11] and then a la couple

[1:30:12] of them have been on school committee nights.

[1:30:15] So I have not been able to attend.

[1:30:17] But from what I heard,

[1:30:18] not much much has been accomplished as of yet.

[1:30:21] Okay. So I'm ho I, I don't know.

[1:30:24] I think it's just been very slow, slow process

[1:30:29] and everyone that's on there is on a committee

[1:30:32] that meets a certain night.

[1:30:34] So it makes it a little bit difficult to find a time

[1:30:38] that we can all meet.

[1:30:41] I had heard that they did have a certain date

[1:30:45] that they would meet on like a fifth time in the month

[1:30:49] or something that was in between all

[1:30:51] of the committee meetings.

[1:30:53] But we do have a chairperson

[1:30:55] that has not followed that routine.

[1:30:57] So it's been a little bit confusing.

[1:30:59] So there's not been a lot accomplished as of

[1:31:03] yet since I started on this group.

[1:31:06] - And one more for me. On, on, on the long range plan,

[1:31:09] master plan committee.

[1:31:11] I'm probably butchering the name and I apologize. That's

[1:31:12] - Okay. I do it

[1:31:13] - Every time.

[1:31:14] Do you have a full contingent at this point?

[1:31:16] Is everybody that has,

[1:31:17] - So everybody that is supposed to be on this team,

[1:31:21] the problem is there's never been except

[1:31:24] for I think one meeting that we've all been able

[1:31:26] to get together.

[1:31:28] - Well I appreciate you trying,

[1:31:29] - So I keep on trying.

[1:31:31] We'll see what happens. It's just been very

[1:31:36] interesting is all I'm gonna say.

[1:31:37] Okay. But just to let you know, that's it

[1:31:40] for me for subcommittees

[1:31:41] - A little spicy for subcommittee update.

[1:31:43] I, I mean, I honestly appreciate it. I appreciate it.

[1:31:46] I have another quick question on, I wanted

[1:31:48] - To say somebody else needs to

[1:31:50] - Try you.

[1:31:51] Okay. We appreciate you so much.

[1:31:54] Maybe we need to start bringing you baked goods on the,

[1:31:56] on the finance subcommittee.

[1:31:58] I'm just curious, how many

[1:31:59] meetings have you all had this season?

[1:32:01] - So we, we, we've actually had one. Okay.

[1:32:07] And Michelle and I had a great meeting for that first one.

[1:32:11] We did talk over a few things

[1:32:13] and now we have the second meeting just

[1:32:15] because of scheduling and all of that coming up this week.

[1:32:19] Great. At two 30.

[1:32:21] - All right. Any other subcommittee updates from anyone? No.

[1:32:24] Okay. Then we will move to action items.

[1:32:28] I know Marian

[1:32:29] and I have started discussing getting the cell phone

[1:32:32] subcommittee meeting going.

[1:32:34] We haven't, we both have some, some scheduling.

[1:32:38] Speaking of scheduling conflicts, it's been challenging.

[1:32:40] But we will, we're gonna get it done in January. Yeah.

[1:32:44] I'm, I'm hopeful we can get it done this week or next.

[1:32:46] It'll probably be next just

[1:32:47] because we have to post it with 48 hours notice.

[1:32:49] But we're working on it.

[1:32:50] We did, we did converse back and forth on some dates

[1:32:55] - Just to add a little something.

[1:32:57] I do have a high school representatives

[1:33:00] who are interested in serving on that.

[1:33:01] When you are, when you're ready.

[1:33:03] I have some volunteers already

[1:33:04] who have reached out Fantastic.

[1:33:05] And said that they would love to be a part of it.

[1:33:11] - Thank you for that. So we'll need to connect

[1:33:13] with Lori and Yep.

[1:33:15] Expand our, our network here on, on availability.

[1:33:17] But that's, that's awesome. That's, that's some of

[1:33:19] who we need to hear from on this.

[1:33:22] Any other action items for anyone?

[1:33:24] - I think just Mike and I have to get together on dates

[1:33:26] to try to clear, you know, get everything on goals.

[1:33:29] On goals so we can get that started. Great.

[1:33:33] - Okay. And before I adjourned, caught myself tonight

[1:33:36] before I did that, we do have some upcoming events.

[1:33:40] Just one I got ahead of myself.

[1:33:43] I knew there was writing on the back. I did the same thing.

[1:33:45] I looked on the back high school musical six, January 22nd,

[1:33:49] 23rd and 24th.

[1:33:50] Tickets are available. It's from eight

[1:33:52] to nine 30 on each of those nights.

[1:33:54] Come join us. I'm sure many of us will be there.

[1:33:57] And with that I'll accept a motion to adjourn.

[1:34:01] I would like to make a motion to adjourn.

[1:34:03] Second move, seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.

[1:34:05] We are adjourned. Goodnight everyone. Thank you.

Billerica School Committee Meeting- 1-6-26

Transcript