[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.