[3:52] meeting. I call this meeting of Westboro
[3:54] School Committee to order. The time is 6
[3:56] p.m. The meeting is recorded live on
[3:58] Westboro TV. All those who can please
[4:01] rise for the pledge of allegiance.
[4:05] I aliance to the flag of the United
[4:08] States of America. and to the republic
[4:11] for it stands one nation
[4:14] indivisible with liberty and justice for
[4:17] all.
[4:22] » Thank you.
[4:24] Um we're going to start our meeting with
[4:28] citizens request. Is there anybody here
[4:30] that would like to speak?
[4:35] Okay.
[4:37] This
[4:39] Good evening.
[4:39] [laughter and clears throat]
[4:40] >> Good evening. Rod Shepard, a Parkland
[4:42] Street. And I know the last thing
[4:43] >> and uh sorry, I just got to read
[4:44] something real quick here. Apologies. Uh
[4:46] so before we begin uh begin, we will
[4:48] remind everyone of the school committee
[4:50] policy regarding citizens request. Uh so
[4:52] you must be a current resident of
[4:53] Westboro. Speakers are allowed to
[4:55] address the school committee about
[4:56] issues within the school committee's
[4:58] purview. Each speaker will be allowed up
[5:00] to three minutes to speak to the school
[5:01] committee. Written comments longer than
[5:03] three minutes may be presented to the
[5:05] presiding chair before or after the
[5:06] meeting. You are welcome to hand the
[5:08] chair additional comments in writing now
[5:09] or send them via email and the chair
[5:11] will share them with the other school
[5:12] committee members. Public comments by
[5:14] residents at this meeting is not a
[5:15] discussion, debate or dialogue between
[5:17] individuals of the school committee. Is
[5:19] an individual's opportunity to express
[5:21] an opinion on issues within the school
[5:23] committee's authority. Our role is to
[5:24] listen carefully to what you have to
[5:26] share with us tonight. Clapping,
[5:27] sharing, calling out or any other noise
[5:29] during the following uh a following
[5:31] speaker is not allowed. At the close of
[5:33] citizens requests, school administrators
[5:34] may address what the sh what was shared
[5:36] by the speakers if they wish to do so.
[5:38] State your full name and street address
[5:40] and speak directly into the microphone.
[5:42] >> Thank you. Rod Shaper, 8 Barkman Street.
[5:45] And I know the last thing you guys want
[5:47] to talk about right now is roofs, but so
[5:49] I'll make this very brief. So I
[5:51] understand from the agenda today that uh
[5:54] one of the things being considered is
[5:56] your capital projects for next year.
[5:58] within those capital projects, there's a
[6:00] number of roofing uh uh proposals. And
[6:04] you know, I've cautioned the school
[6:06] board that uh over the last several
[6:10] roofing projects,
[6:13] the person who's made the recommendation
[6:15] on what to do has been the manufacturer
[6:18] that's provided through roofing systems.
[6:20] And I'm not saying that anybody's trying
[6:22] to do anything uh illegal or anything
[6:25] like that. I just said I think the
[6:27] system is set up right now that we're
[6:30] really limiting ourselves to a
[6:31] proprietary system and I know Jacob has
[6:34] agreed to look into this. Uh but before
[6:37] we go forward with any capital project,
[6:39] I would strongly recommend that we get
[6:41] an independent roofing uh consultant
[6:45] involved.
[6:47] Candly, I'm not even sure that sealing
[6:49] the roofs is the right solution versus
[6:52] uh putting in new roofs. One of the
[6:54] arguments for putting ceiling as opposed
[6:56] to putting in new roofs is you can't
[6:58] reuse the material from the existing
[7:00] roofs. I'm a contractor right now using
[7:04] the insulation that's been taken off
[7:06] roofs as the insulation under the slabs
[7:09] for new buildings. So there are
[7:11] opportunities for recycling, reusing
[7:13] existing roofing products. All I would
[7:15] say is let's do a little more further
[7:17] investigation before we commit ourselves
[7:20] to what's currently being proposed.
[7:22] Thank you. Thank you very much.
[7:26] Okay, I think that concludes our citizen
[7:29] request. We're going to proceed with
[7:31] superintendent update.
[7:33] >> Great. I'm um happy to invite Tammy
[7:35] Castella who comes here every year to
[7:37] give you a little overview of what's
[7:38] happening in terms of our staffing uh
[7:40] particularly after the kind of final
[7:43] push in the summer and uh to give you an
[7:45] update about the start of school. So,
[7:46] thank you Tammy.
[7:48] >> Hello Tammy. Welcome back.
[7:50] >> Thank you.
[7:52] to this. So, I want to hit you point the
[7:54] thing if you point it at me. But yeah,
[7:57] you [laughter]
[7:59] think
[8:00] um thank you for having me. You do every
[8:04] year. I love staffing. I love hiring. I
[8:08] enjoy my job. So, I'm just going to go
[8:10] through um some of the things that have
[8:12] happened since about April, since hiring
[8:14] season. hiring and recruiting and hiring
[8:16] is just one part of what we do, but um
[8:19] it's a very crucial part to get us ready
[8:21] for the school year. So, I will bring
[8:23] you through the slides.
[8:27] Okay. Um one of the actually I sorry
[8:32] there we go. Um so just some hire hiring
[8:35] highlights for the year, things that
[8:37] shaped how we did things. The biggest
[8:39] thing that happened this year was the
[8:41] elementary redistricting. And so what
[8:43] that allowed us to do is to transfer
[8:46] staff from two elementary schools over
[8:48] to fails where um students were being
[8:52] moved. So that was a big big part of our
[8:55] hiring this year, how we did that. Um we
[8:57] had a very large year of administrator
[9:00] hiring which I'll get into. And the
[9:01] other thing that made this year a little
[9:03] bit um different than in previous years.
[9:06] So we have six of our seven um unions.
[9:09] We have new contracts and the unit B
[9:12] which is our para educator unit which is
[9:14] now called ESP which is our educational
[9:17] support personnel. We recognized that
[9:19] there were um different levels of
[9:22] positions within that group. And so we
[9:25] created a two-tier system. So we have a
[9:27] tier two and a tier three. And because
[9:30] of that um how we hired we had to be
[9:32] very specific about which position we
[9:34] were hiring for. So that was just
[9:36] something that was um a little bit
[9:38] different this year.
[9:40] So as I just alluded to, we had a very
[9:43] um gang buster year of hiring
[9:45] administrators for no real particular
[9:49] reason that I can think of with the
[9:50] exception of um I think we've done a
[9:52] good job getting our administrators um
[9:56] very skilled at their crafts. So, we had
[10:00] three of our um longtime administrators
[10:03] leave to go on to other places and be
[10:08] promoted within their um disciplines.
[10:10] So, that was some of what we have. Um
[10:15] so, these are the new administrators we
[10:16] hired this year. Scott Connory at the
[10:18] principal, Mark Levida who's our
[10:20] athletic director,
[10:24] Ryan Dewolf, director of fine arts,
[10:26] Christopher Kitell and Andrea Ostroski
[10:28] are our new student service
[10:29] coordinators, Katherine Faria, who is
[10:33] our um literacy and data coordinator for
[10:36] grades four to eight. and Lauren Dbor,
[10:39] who is one of our high school math
[10:41] teachers, has stepped in the role as a
[10:43] one-year interim assistant principal,
[10:46] which was part of our plan for replacing
[10:49] Brian Callahan. And there's one other
[10:51] administrator I didn't put on here. He's
[10:54] um
[10:55] he's a he's an upandcomer in education.
[10:57] I think he's going to be excellent. His
[10:59] name is Jack Foley and he's taken over
[11:02] um at the high school and I think um I
[11:06] think he's one to watch.
[11:10] » So I usually break down our hiring into
[11:12] classroom staff and everyone else. And
[11:15] so this is the bulk of our um hiring for
[11:19] the classroom. We had 40.2 FTEEs and it
[11:23] was just about half and half. We had 19
[11:26] teachers that we hired which was 18.2
[11:28] two FTEEs, but 19 teachers and then 22
[11:32] PAR educators. You can see that the bulk
[11:34] of the um hiring or the higher uh hiring
[11:38] was done at Mil Pond and Gibbons. You
[11:41] also see that there was more hiring done
[11:42] at fails and a lot of that has to do
[11:44] with switching staff from those
[11:46] elementaryaries to fails. Um and then
[11:49] also having to to beef up staff a
[11:51] little, but all of our staffing was a
[11:53] onetoone. We didn't increase any FTEEs.
[11:59] This is um something I like to go over
[12:01] every year which is this the analysis of
[12:04] the new professional staff unit A. Uh we
[12:07] had nine internal moves which again is
[12:09] mostly because of that redistricting but
[12:11] we also had of those nine we had two
[12:14] special educators transfer within their
[12:17] own schools to general education. So um
[12:20] I have to track internal moves because
[12:22] we have to then backfill them. So, it's
[12:24] considered a hire. Um, we had a Gibbons
[12:27] tutor promoted to a computer science
[12:29] teacher and we had a fails par
[12:31] profofessional promoted to a special
[12:33] educator, which I love when we're
[12:35] promoting our own staff. And we also had
[12:38] an elementary long-term subteer at
[12:40] Armstrong who we recognized was an
[12:43] excellent teacher and she was hired into
[12:45] a permanent position at Mil Pond. of the
[12:48] 18 um teachers new to Westboro, we
[12:51] actually had 19 new teachers that we
[12:54] hired, but one came back. She had been
[12:57] here about five years ago for five years
[12:58] left and now she's back. So we have true
[13:01] 18 new teachers to Westboro.
[13:04] About three of them, out of about three
[13:06] of them are in their first year, which
[13:08] is great. About 60% of them fall in that
[13:10] two to
[13:12] nine year range. And then we had four
[13:16] that were um 10 plus years experience.
[13:18] So that's the breakdown. I like to see
[13:20] that sort of even level of experience.
[13:23] So we're getting all different levels.
[13:25] And um of the 18 that we hired, we hired
[13:28] three educators of color.
[13:34] This is um the teacher retention rates.
[13:37] This is something I started tracking
[13:38] when I got here. Uh 2021, 2022. I wanted
[13:43] to see if we were keeping our teachers
[13:45] and I also was trying to figure out the
[13:47] teachers that left why. So I've been
[13:49] tracking this for a number of years. The
[13:51] important thing about this is that we
[13:52] had really good retention this year. Um
[13:55] we, you know, we lost teachers due to
[13:58] resignations, retirement, and
[13:59] non-renewals. Um and this is a lower
[14:02] than average turnover rate. I was doing
[14:04] some research and DESI's most recent um
[14:09] reported percentage is 90.1% is a
[14:12] teacher retention rate across the state.
[14:14] So we're at 95.4 for this year, which I
[14:17] was really happy about.
[14:22] This is all the other people we hire
[14:25] besides unit A and unit B. Um we don't
[14:29] hire interns, but I like to put that
[14:31] number up there. 34 interns. These are
[14:34] people that might and in some cases do
[14:36] come back and become teachers for us. We
[14:38] also we hire interns for um educators
[14:42] who were in their last year of teaching
[14:44] and so they have to come and do their uh
[14:47] student teaching here. We also hire a
[14:49] good number of school nurse interns. So
[14:53] these are people that are potential for
[14:56] the future that we do tap into. Um,
[14:58] we're always hiring on call substitutes,
[15:01] extended day, uh, partial year long-term
[15:04] subs. We have that for our leaves of
[15:06] absences, most notably maternity leaves,
[15:09] but there are other childbearing leaves.
[15:10] There are others. We've hired five
[15:12] custodians, five coaches, seven new,
[15:15] two food service workers,
[15:18] and a partridge in a pear tree. Mhm.
[15:22] >> Um, I wanted to go over just a little
[15:24] bit about stuff coming up in human
[15:26] resources.
[15:28] The normal dayto-day is hiring and
[15:32] taking care of employee issues and
[15:34] benefits, um, things of that nature.
[15:36] However, this year there are three
[15:39] bigger things going on. We will be
[15:41] hiring a permanent principal for
[15:44] Westboro High School. That will be um a
[15:47] very big hire that we'll be working on
[15:49] and we'll probably start that process in
[15:50] December and hope to have that wrapped
[15:52] up by February.
[15:54] We last year
[15:57] renegotiated uh six of our seven union
[16:01] contracts. So it was an extremely busy
[16:03] year and this year we only have to do
[16:05] one which is our administrator contract
[16:08] which is great. So that is on the
[16:09] docket. We hope to get going on that
[16:11] soon. uh for our administrators in that
[16:14] union. You have your assistant
[16:15] principles, your student services
[16:17] coordinators, and your curriculum
[16:19] coordinators.
[16:21] And then there's also, which you're
[16:22] aware of, the efficiency study that the
[16:24] town's doing just to look at if see if
[16:27] there's any redundancies between the
[16:29] school district and the town.
[16:33] And that's all I have. So, I open it up
[16:36] to you for questions.
[16:38] >> Thank you. I will say that um
[16:41] well I already said it actually so
[16:43] there's more than just hiring that goes
[16:44] on but this time of year I'd love to
[16:46] come and talk to you about the hiring
[16:48] because that's what's been the main
[16:49] focus since about midappril to pretty
[16:52] much now. Um we just landed the plane
[16:56] about a week and a half before school
[16:58] started and we had all our unit A
[17:00] positions filled which was great. It was
[17:02] a very very um tough year for hiring
[17:06] special educators which continues to be
[17:08] the trend of our 19 hires. 10 were
[17:11] special educators and I'm happy to say
[17:13] that we hired them all, but at the end
[17:16] we had two that we were really pushing
[17:18] for. We actually got two excellent
[17:20] hires.
[17:22] >> Thank you. We'll start our discussion
[17:25] questions, Steve.
[17:26] >> Well, I think it's well put together
[17:28] presentation and in fact has all the
[17:30] pieces that we normally would be
[17:32] interested in and you've you've uh
[17:35] defined them very well. Thank you.
[17:37] >> Thank you.
[17:38] Jane.
[17:39] >> Yeah, thank you so much for the update.
[17:41] Um, and it's very busy. Um, one thing I
[17:45] was thinking about with the special
[17:46] education, you know, this is a
[17:48] persistent
[17:50] uh challenge it sounds like. And I
[17:52] wonder, do we ever have um special ed
[17:56] teachers who were on one of the
[17:57] long-term sub type roles? And then, you
[18:01] know, that might be a good person to try
[18:03] to hire.
[18:03] >> We do. We do, but um more often than not
[18:08] the long-term sub, we have we actually
[18:11] hired someone at the high school that
[18:12] started as a long-term sub a couple
[18:13] years ago and now she's permanent at the
[18:15] high school. Um but special education,
[18:19] the actual special educators, I'm not
[18:21] talking about the SLPs and the OT's, the
[18:23] specialists. I'm talking about the
[18:24] actual special education teachers
[18:26] continues to be a dwindling group. And
[18:29] um it's like this. We have a greater
[18:31] need for them and they're dwindling. And
[18:34] so this summer there was lots of emails
[18:36] between myself and my peers at other
[18:38] districts saying, "Do you have any
[18:40] special educators? Do you have any
[18:42] special educators?" That was maybe your
[18:43] number two or your number three. So it
[18:45] wasn't just here. It was pretty much
[18:47] everywhere.
[18:48] >> Yeah. I mean it just seems like if it's
[18:51] something that's a issue for us that's
[18:53] ongoing strategizing um maybe with the
[18:57] student with with Meg Garvey too about
[19:01] um how we can and and I know sometimes
[19:04] we have student teachers maybe come in
[19:07] and or or um you know when they're doing
[19:10] their rotations for school things like
[19:12] that.
[19:13] >> Yeah. And one thing, it doesn't sound
[19:15] like a great number, but for the past
[19:18] four years, every year we've had one
[19:19] pareducator become a special education
[19:22] teacher, which is excellent. They
[19:24] they've gotten the schooling and
[19:25] >> they've the best part about that right
[19:27] now. Um this year, the one that fails,
[19:30] she was there all last year as a par
[19:32] educator. She was, as Maryanne put it,
[19:35] sort of homegrown and then she had an
[19:37] opening and she hired her. And so that
[19:40] happens um often enough here. We've had
[19:42] a couple at the high school that were
[19:43] PAR educators.
[19:45] So, that's
[19:46] >> Yeah, that's great.
[19:47] >> Our sources.
[19:48] >> Thank you.
[19:49] Tim. [clears throat]
[19:51] >> Good evening, Tammy. Thank you for the
[19:52] presentation. Uh, just a couple quick
[19:54] questions. I know we were talking about
[19:56] the uh the 34 interns. I'm curious, is
[19:58] there a budget um that we associate with
[19:59] the intern program or
[20:01] >> No, we don't pay the interns. Um, so the
[20:05] only real expense is what we do in HR to
[20:07] on board them. We just make sure that
[20:09] they're coreied and that they're
[20:11] fingerprinted and we make sure they I
[20:12] have them sign a confident
[20:14] confidentiality agreement and then I
[20:15] have them do some staff training just to
[20:18] make it that much more
[20:20] get them ready and they're in the
[20:22] classroom and they're always our interns
[20:23] are always with someone. So we we don't
[20:25] allow interns to be alone with the
[20:28] students. Not that it's overly a
[20:30] concern, but they're always with
[20:31] someone. It is mostly um teaching
[20:34] interns and nurses
[20:38] >> sense. And I was curious as well, you
[20:40] know, Jane was just asking about the
[20:41] special educators. I'm I'm curious if
[20:43] you could talk maybe briefly just a high
[20:45] level of like how long we've been seeing
[20:46] this going on for like the upward trend
[20:47] and like are we seeing anything from the
[20:49] state or like anything that's giving you
[20:51] hope that that might end? Um,
[20:55] I think that there are more people
[20:56] leaving the field than they used to. So,
[20:59] you have two of our own teachers went
[21:01] from special education this year to
[21:03] general ed. And um,
[21:07] that was great because we got to keep
[21:09] them and they didn't go elsewhere. But I
[21:11] was like, that's two more special
[21:13] educators we have to hire. So, I am
[21:16] hopeful that it'll turn around, but I
[21:18] would say this is year three. Last year
[21:20] was very difficult. this year was more
[21:22] difficult because we had to hire 10
[21:24] which was a lot and uh two years ago we
[21:27] started to see the trend. So
[21:30] I think I think there's just a shift now
[21:33] where you have more people just
[21:35] migrating towards general ed but I'm
[21:37] hoping that'll change.
[21:40] >> Um I know I don't think any other
[21:42] questions. Um I just do really
[21:43] appreciate the the number from Desi.
[21:44] It's great to hear that we are doing
[21:45] better than the rest. So
[21:46] >> yes yes we are. Thank you.
[21:48] >> I think we're, you know, I always say
[21:51] that we're a great district and I think
[21:53] there's word of mouth out there and we
[21:55] do get teachers from other districts and
[21:59] we get really good comments from
[22:01] teachers saying, "Wow, this process was
[22:03] great and everyone here's so nice and
[22:05] you know, it's just a small thing, but
[22:08] it it's always nice to hear."
[22:09] >> Yeah, it's awesome.
[22:12] >> Sarah,
[22:14] >> you Tammy, this was great.
[22:15] [clears throat] Um I have a couple
[22:17] questions. One is regarding um so the
[22:20] new hires you have you're showing as 18
[22:22] new hires. out of that. How how many of
[22:26] those were went to bails?
[22:29] Um
[22:32] the
[22:35] I want to say
[22:37] four the bulk of the hiring we did
[22:40] wasn't so much at fails as it was for
[22:42] givens in the high school because what
[22:44] happened is it's a it's a little bit
[22:46] skewed because you have teachers from
[22:48] Armstrong and from um Hastings that got
[22:52] sent over or vacant positions got sent
[22:55] over and I can tell you let me just pull
[22:58] it up and
[22:59] So is that not included in the internal
[23:01] moves then?
[23:02] >> It is included in the internal moves but
[23:04] every internal move still is a hire
[23:06] because we have to backfill the person.
[23:08] So the person that moves from Armstrong
[23:13] well we had someone that moved from Mil
[23:16] Pond to fails
[23:19] then we had to backfill at Mil Pond. So
[23:21] it's technically it's a mil pond hire
[23:24] not a fails hire because fails we had
[23:26] already calculated the numbers of
[23:29] teachers but when I say 18 hires um or
[23:34] 19 hires
[23:36] we had 19 vacancies we actually had 21
[23:39] vacancies and we hired 19 people because
[23:41] two positions we didn't fill. So, we
[23:44] hired 19 people and I would say I can't
[23:47] get online for some reason, but I'd say
[23:48] there was about five or six that were at
[23:50] fails.
[23:51] >> And then, so then would you say that the
[23:53] internal moves were those mostly to
[23:56] fails?
[23:57] >> Mostly to fails.
[23:58] >> Okay.
[23:58] >> But there were two that were internal,
[24:00] meaning within their own school. So, Mil
[24:02] Pond and Hastings each had a teacher
[24:05] that went from being special education
[24:07] to general ed within their school. So,
[24:09] those are internal moves. And then we
[24:11] had to backfill and hire the special
[24:13] educators.
[24:14] >> And then I'm just curious because the
[24:17] numbers match, but are the third the
[24:18] three first year hires are they of
[24:21] color? Are they is that where the 17%
[24:23] all three of them or
[24:24] >> No, none of our um three of color three
[24:28] teachers of color are they're in that um
[24:32] one was six years, one was 12 years, and
[24:36] one was nine years. And have we done are
[24:40] we doing anything different or you know
[24:41] I know we've talked about this a few
[24:43] years.
[24:43] >> Yeah, we actually had a a really So last
[24:46] year we hired four teachers of color.
[24:47] This year was three but the percentage
[24:49] was very comparable. Last year was 19%
[24:51] this year was about 17%. Um but we did
[24:54] have a really successful we're part of
[24:56] MPDE which is the Massachusetts
[24:58] Partnership for Diversity and Education.
[25:00] And every year I go with some staff to
[25:03] their job fair. And this year we hired
[25:05] two people from that job fair which I if
[25:08] I hire one person from that job fair I'm
[25:10] over the moon. So we hired two which was
[25:12] excellent.
[25:13] >> Okay.
[25:13] >> So we do that and you know we very much
[25:17] look at the applications that we get.
[25:19] The biggest thing that we do is look at
[25:21] applications and and make decisions
[25:22] based on the totality of the experience
[25:25] they bring to the table.
[25:28] >> Yeah. Diversity being one of them.
[25:30] >> Right. Right. I don't know if we've done
[25:31] anything further. um you know than what
[25:35] we've been doing. Uh I know we had
[25:37] talked about different
[25:39] avenues to try and recruit more, but I'm not sure if there is. So I'm just
[25:43] curious. Yeah, I mean one of the things
[25:46] I do with the principles often
[25:49] pretty much all summer is I look at all
[25:51] the applicants that come in and so I
[25:54] will recommend and we did interview a
[25:58] few teachers and the reason why I say a
[26:01] few is because it was about the number
[26:03] that actually applied not that we didn't
[26:05] extend interviews. So, um, we hired
[26:10] three, uh, not those same three, but,
[26:13] um,
[26:14] it's it's a work in progress. I'm I'm
[26:17] happy the direction we're going in. Do I
[26:19] think it could be better? Yes. But a lot
[26:21] of it, um, some of it has to do with,
[26:24] you know, getting the people to apply.
[26:26] It's not it's it's once they've applied,
[26:28] we have a good system
[26:29] >> for, uh, reviewing applications and and
[26:32] interviewing, but it's it's getting them
[26:35] to apply. And a lot of that has to do
[26:36] with our location
[26:38] >> and the makeup of this location.
[26:41] >> Okay. And lastly, um do you have a
[26:44] timeline for when we're going to be
[26:46] starting the principal search for um the
[26:48] high school?
[26:50] >> Yeah, Allison and I have just started to
[26:52] talk about it, but I think roughly
[26:54] speaking, we're going to get the posting
[26:55] up by winter break, probably, you know,
[26:59] mid to the December the break. We'll
[27:02] have a two to three weekish period into
[27:05] January where we're collecting
[27:07] applications and then we'll do the whole
[27:09] um first round, second round site
[27:12] visits, community forums and we'll have
[27:15] a very um multidisciplinary committee
[27:19] which will probably start
[27:21] reaching out for committee members I
[27:23] would say mid December to get that set
[27:25] up so we have the committee ready to go.
[27:28] This is a all hires are big hires. This
[27:31] is a very big hire and it's probably my
[27:34] top priority this year.
[27:35] >> Yep. Okay. Thank you so much.
[27:38] >> Thank you, Gary.
[27:40] >> Thank you so much. Um, two quick
[27:43] questions. First is just regarding the
[27:45] um Westpro High School principal. Um,
[27:48] you mentioned that uh there would be
[27:50] they would be hired by the end of
[27:51] February. Is that what you said?
[27:52] Ideally,
[27:53] >> ideally it would be great. I mean, in my
[27:55] mind, again, Allison and I haven't
[27:57] finalized it, but I would like to think
[27:58] we would have someone named by February
[28:01] break.
[28:02] >> Okay. Thank you.
[28:03] >> Our goal, I I I think we're hoping that
[28:05] the February 10th school committee
[28:06] meeting um we will be able to make an
[28:09] announcement. That's my sort of target.
[28:11] Um you know, sometimes uh the candidates
[28:13] themselves make it so we have to have a
[28:16] little bit of um flex in the process,
[28:17] but that's really the hope before
[28:19] February vacation.
[28:20] >> Awesome. Thank you. I'm just wondering
[28:21] what the like uh what you see as the
[28:24] student involvement in that um decision.
[28:26] I know that students have served on
[28:27] committees in the past and um I'm just
[28:29] curious about the process for gathering
[28:30] student input on that.
[28:32] >> We will have a student forum. It
[28:34] actually it will mimic um what we did
[28:37] for Gibbons which worked out really well
[28:40] and we had a student group of about 13
[28:44] uh students and I'm sure we're going to
[28:46] do some sort of student participation
[28:48] again. There'll be student forums,
[28:51] parent forums, teacher forums, community
[28:54] forums.
[28:56] Those the big ones.
[28:57] >> In addition, uh we'll have student
[28:59] representation on the hiring committee.
[29:01] Um that was I think very effective in
[29:03] the case uh particularly of the athletic
[29:05] director and the director of performing
[29:06] arts. So we that having a student voice
[29:09] at the table when we're doing
[29:10] interviewing. So we'll be seeking a few
[29:13] you know probably a couple kids.
[29:15] We had a student on our hiring committee
[29:18] for the director of fine arts and she
[29:20] was fabulous and she was very nervous
[29:22] and they said, "Don't worry. Nobody's
[29:25] going to nobody's going to call you on
[29:26] the carpet. You just, you know, you just
[29:28] ask your questions and we're all here to
[29:30] help you." And one of the very first
[29:32] applicants turned to her and said, "Now,
[29:34] I'm going to put you on the carpet here
[29:35] and I have to ask you a question." And
[29:36] I'm like, "Oh." But she handled it fine.
[29:39] And I love when we have students on the
[29:41] committee because they have a different
[29:43] lens that I think is for obvious reasons
[29:45] very important. And um most of the time
[29:49] the students we have we we choose people
[29:52] that are um not shy which is what we
[29:55] want people who are going to give their
[29:56] opinions.
[29:58] >> Uh and then last thing regarding the
[29:59] Wester High School principal um is that
[30:01] open to internal um promotion as well?
[30:03] They would uh go through the Okay. Thank
[30:05] you.
[30:05] >> Yes. I I will say that just regarding
[30:08] the principal search,
[30:11] the word is already out that we have
[30:14] this position coming because of the way
[30:16] we um hired Jack Foley, this again this
[30:19] newcomer to cover at the U high school
[30:23] people that are already reaching out and
[30:25] are interested in the position. So when
[30:26] we um post for it, I anticipate a large
[30:31] response. we will do very similar to
[30:34] what I said to the uh middle school
[30:36] principal last year at Gibbons where we sort of jumped out early and we got a
[30:41] really good pool and I anticipate the
[30:42] same for the high school.
[30:45] >> Thank you.
[30:46] All great questions. Uh Tammy
[30:49] just a few short uh some of mine were
[30:51] already uh asked and I was wondering we
[30:54] had the new contracts uh signed earlier
[30:57] this year. Do you feel like they had any
[30:59] impact on the hiring process for you? Do
[31:00] they help? You know,
[31:02] >> the biggest thing that helps is, and I'm
[31:04] always anxious once this contract is
[31:06] signed, I want to get the salary grids
[31:09] on the website. It's the number one
[31:11] thing teachers would look at when
[31:12] they're looking at other districts. I
[31:15] when we're looking at hiring teachers, I
[31:17] will guess what their salary is by
[31:19] looking at the salary grids from their
[31:21] district to get an idea.
[31:23] >> So, um it's extremely important. Lynn
[31:26] has been my partner in crime all last
[31:28] year getting everything up on the
[31:29] website. Lynn Hurley [snorts] Allison's
[31:32] assistant and as soon as it's up I
[31:34] wanted the teacher contract grids up
[31:37] right away because we were already in
[31:40] starting hiring season. So it does have
[31:42] that impact. Um I do think you know
[31:45] teachers are more savvy if they're if
[31:47] they're teachers that have been teaching
[31:48] a while. They're looking at the benefits
[31:50] within the contract. A big thing right
[31:53] now is FMLA and maternity leave. I'm
[31:56] sure that that was looked at, but the
[31:57] number one thing people are looking at
[31:59] is salary and they're not looking at,
[32:02] but they're considering commute. Those
[32:03] are the two biggest variables I think.
[32:06] >> So, at least one of them we can control.
[32:09] >> The other quick question just I'm uh how
[32:11] many tutors do we have right now in the
[32:13] system?
[32:14] >> Nine. [laughter]
[32:14] Nine.
[32:15] >> It's still okay. Um that's all for me.
[32:19] Thank you very much. Thank you for your
[32:21] update. Okay, thank you. Feel free to
[32:24] email me if you have any other
[32:25] questions.
[32:29] » Thank you. Moving on, we have uh on the
[32:31] agenda district strategy.
[32:35] >> Reorient myself here.
[32:41] I'm gonna load this up.
[32:50] » So, you know, you have seen this in
[32:53] draft form and we've been sort of
[32:54] refining it as as we go along and I'll
[32:57] speak a little bit to process. Um the uh
[33:01] leadership team does a summer retreat
[33:03] and really the main focus of that
[33:05] retreat is to take some time kind of
[33:08] carve out time when it's it's quiet to
[33:10] do some thinking about what is the
[33:12] district uh what direction are we
[33:14] headed, you know, uh kind of reflect on
[33:16] where we've been and where we'd like to
[33:18] go. And um in the case of this district,
[33:21] there are a lot of things that work
[33:22] really well. So it's an exciting time to
[33:24] be able to reflect on where our needs
[33:26] are for improvement and then where we
[33:27] can innovate and get out um and address
[33:30] things similarly to in prior years. It's
[33:33] really oriented around sort of four main
[33:36] um uh strategic objectives. One is
[33:39] academic excellence. Uh the second is
[33:42] caring and supporting school and caring
[33:44] and supportive schools pardon. The third
[33:47] is connected community and the fourth is
[33:49] financial and operational stability. So,
[33:52] those are unchanged from last year. I
[33:54] think what changes is sort of what are
[33:56] our goals year-over-year. And then, um,
[33:59] you know, the back end of this document,
[34:01] if you want to dig back in, has all the
[34:02] sort of more detailed action steps. I'm
[34:04] going to sort of stay high level tonight
[34:06] because it's an overview, but if you
[34:07] have questions about any part of it, um,
[34:09] I would love to hear about that. In the
[34:12] academic bucket this year, we are really
[34:15] looking at um, sort of actions that
[34:18] strengthen our instructional core. We
[34:21] want to make sure that our our work
[34:25] builds a foundation for students to have
[34:26] really strong outcomes as they head
[34:28] through the school. And two places we're
[34:31] thinking about that are early literacy
[34:33] curriculum. You've heard about that last
[34:35] week from uh Matt and Aubrey and Kathy.
[34:38] And then uh robust curriculum maps for
[34:40] our high school courses. This is
[34:42] something that came out of the NEAS
[34:43] report as a need. And you know, it's
[34:47] more than just a documentation issue. I think it's actually a really
[34:52] interesting and substantive exercise.
[34:54] When the departments take time to come
[34:56] together and map out here's what we're
[34:58] doing and how we're doing it, it sort of
[35:01] is an opportunity for reflection and
[35:03] alignment. Um um we are also looking at
[35:06] ways to enhance support for all
[35:08] students. Um and particularly we
[35:12] identified math instruction that is
[35:14] specifically designed to support our
[35:16] multilingual learners. Um that's work
[35:19] that kind of builds on the work we did
[35:21] last year for all students um all
[35:24] multilingual students in all areas. We
[35:27] sort of did this more general work and
[35:28] now we're deep diving into math
[35:31] instruction in particular. Um and
[35:34] [clears throat] math is surprisingly
[35:35] language intensive. you know, you don't
[35:37] think about it that way, but um in a
[35:39] math class, oftentimes students who have
[35:41] a lot of interest or ability may get
[35:44] kind of held back if we're not using
[35:46] really careful instructional strategies
[35:48] to help them kind of get through the
[35:50] language and get to the math part. Um um
[35:53] we're going to continue to look at our
[35:54] co-eing practices um uh strengthen
[35:58] executive functioning support for our
[35:59] middle-grade students. And then the big
[36:01] one that you've heard a little bit about
[36:02] and we'll be reporting out on this year
[36:04] is is my cap, which is an initiative in
[36:07] grades 7 through 12. Um, this is part of
[36:09] an alignment with uh new state
[36:11] graduation requirements, but it's also I
[36:13] think it's just really kind of cool
[36:14] work. Um, it's essentially focused on
[36:17] helping kids think about what is next,
[36:20] you know, what's coming down uh after
[36:22] high school, after college, and doing
[36:24] some early thinking about what are the
[36:26] different pathways out there for your
[36:28] career and your life. um in helping
[36:31] expand their thinking so that they can
[36:34] really tie their academic study now to
[36:36] something concrete which makes it I
[36:38] think more um more motivating in some
[36:41] ways you know um
[36:44] I'll pause after each bucket if you want
[36:46] to or should I just blast through the
[36:47] whole thing
[36:48] >> maybe blast through the whole
[36:49] >> I'm gonna blast through the whole thing
[36:50] okay caring and supportive schools we
[36:52] have these three big buckets one on uh
[36:54] digital wellness and uh school
[36:56] connection and that's really building on
[36:59] some uh work that we started but also
[37:01] focuses on some of our our
[37:03] implementation of the bell to bell p
[37:05] plan um structures for support we really
[37:09] want to look at chronic absenteeism in
[37:11] particular we've um it's been an issue
[37:13] that's sort of burbling out there around
[37:15] the state post pandemic you know some of
[37:18] that I think is um
[37:21] you know that the norms around coming to
[37:23] school have changed so there is that
[37:25] phenomenon right it used to be we would
[37:27] tell you unless your child is really,
[37:30] you know, coming apart at the seams,
[37:31] please send them. After the pandemic,
[37:33] that did shift. However, this is really
[37:35] referring to kids who are missing uh 10%
[37:38] or more of the school year. So, that's
[37:40] 18 or more days. Those numbers have
[37:42] ticked up and what that suggests to us
[37:45] is we have work to do around what are
[37:47] the systems and structures of support
[37:49] that we need. Um, and that's going to be
[37:52] exciting work that we'll report out on
[37:53] this year. Um, I think uh we're looking
[37:57] to implement new timeout and seclusion
[37:59] regulations. You heard about those from
[38:00] me Garvey last spring. Um, we'll be
[38:03] reviewing our SEAL curriculum and and
[38:06] supports and also updating something
[38:07] called the DECAP. Um, we we love uh
[38:11] abbreviations in education. There's all
[38:13] these mysterious sets of letters flying
[38:14] around. So, the district curriculum
[38:16] accommodation plan, the idea behind it
[38:19] is really simple. It's um a set of
[38:21] things that apply in any classroom at
[38:24] any time for any student who might need
[38:26] them. And maybe a concrete example that
[38:28] everybody can get their head around is
[38:30] if you think about if you're given an
[38:33] assignment where you have to fill in
[38:34] blanks for some reason, having a word
[38:37] bank is an accommodation as opposed to
[38:40] having just to pull that language out of
[38:42] your head. It's it's an accommodation
[38:43] that some kids might need and other kids
[38:46] might not, but it doesn't truly impact
[38:48] learning, right? Um, you have to know
[38:51] enough about the words to put the right
[38:52] word in the right place. It doesn't
[38:54] undermine your kind of long-term
[38:56] learning process, but what it does do is
[38:58] it helps students who have word
[38:59] retrieval issues or um or who just have
[39:02] memory issues to be able to actually
[39:04] complete the task. So, those are the
[39:06] kinds of things that happen on a decap.
[39:07] you identify what are the types of
[39:09] accommodations that are out there and
[39:11] available. Um, ours has not been updated
[39:13] for quite some time. Matt's going to
[39:15] spearhead some efforts along with Meg to
[39:17] look at that. The trick to it is making
[39:20] it um, authentic. So, really working
[39:22] with the staff at each building so that
[39:24] they know what's in there and so it kind
[39:26] of gives them permission and and also a
[39:29] philosophical grounding for doing things
[39:31] that help students and and and are clear
[39:34] about what your learning targets are. Um
[39:39] on the connected community front, we're
[39:40] talking about student and family
[39:42] partnerships and school family
[39:44] partnerships. Um we really are working
[39:46] on the transition for families as
[39:48] they're moving from the high school to
[39:50] the burrow program as well as um those
[39:53] entering kindergarten. The kindergarten
[39:54] work, the bulk of it was last year, but
[39:56] there are some things we're going to
[39:57] continue to refine. Um we we got a great
[40:00] start especially with CPAC and
[40:02] revitalizing CPAC. Um, and we want to
[40:04] kind of continue that work into this
[40:06] year. I'm really pleased to let you know
[40:08] that the CPAC leadership along with um,
[40:12] uh, our student service director, Meg,
[40:14] myself, and I think one or two other
[40:17] people are entered into this um, uh,
[40:20] program called Apple. And I, it's
[40:22] another abbreviation. I'm not going to
[40:23] remember it off the top of my head, but
[40:25] um the Federation for Children with
[40:27] Special Needs runs a program and it
[40:28] really is about strengthening the bonds
[40:31] between the parent community and the
[40:33] school when it comes to special
[40:34] education. Um so it's an institute you
[40:36] go through a bunch of work together as a
[40:39] group and set sort of a vision and goals
[40:41] for that for building that sense of
[40:43] collaboration. Um which I think is is a
[40:46] great thing.
[40:48] Um we are looking to promote more parent
[40:50] engagement districtwide in in all sorts
[40:53] of things. Uh we've been talking a lot
[40:56] recently in a bunch of different places
[40:58] about how do we how do we do that
[41:00] effectively? How do we reach the parents
[41:02] who are not typically um involved as
[41:05] much as other parents in the school day
[41:07] and school environment. We're really
[41:08] kind of focusing on our communication
[41:10] tools and you'll see that reflected in
[41:11] my goals when I get there. Um, in terms
[41:14] of infrastructure and long-term
[41:15] planning, um, we are looking to
[41:17] integrate our capital planning process
[41:19] to clarify it and and also work closely
[41:22] with the town. Um, I've been talking
[41:25] about updating the budget structure for
[41:27] a while. Uh, we finally, this is the
[41:28] year I think um, we had to sort of hold
[41:32] on until the town was ready because in
[41:34] order to do it, we have to work through
[41:35] Munis, which is the shared software that
[41:37] both uh, the town and the schools use.
[41:39] But they are doing it and we're doing it
[41:40] right along with them. So, we'll be able
[41:41] to update those budget categories and
[41:43] I'm very excited about that. Um,
[41:47] and we are doing this internal um
[41:51] operation review that kicked off this
[41:53] last week. Um, we actually had our
[41:54] initial meeting with the consultants uh
[41:57] Christy Williams and myself just to kind
[41:59] of get a sense of process. They are
[42:01] starting to gather information and will
[42:03] begin um interviews shortly. So they'll
[42:05] be doing outreach to um uh a lot of the
[42:09] department heads in kind of both the
[42:11] municipal and the school side to sort of
[42:12] understand how things operate. Now um
[42:18] finally um kind of safety is is a piece
[42:21] on here that I again I've been talking
[42:23] about for a bit. I had had this great
[42:25] plan. I was going to hire um Jack Foley
[42:27] to help out of retirement to do a help
[42:30] us with a safety audit and then I came
[42:32] up with a better thing for him to do. So
[42:34] this is now coming squarely in my
[42:36] bucket. Um but we'll be doing an audit
[42:38] um this year of our kind of manuals and then also building out the schedule
[42:42] for um uh training and structures. You
[42:45] know, part of it really is with an eye
[42:46] to having this turnover and
[42:48] administration um means it's even more
[42:51] important that we get things sort of
[42:52] updated in terms of documentation. We
[42:54] have relied on institutional knowledge
[42:56] and that's um it works great when it's
[42:58] there, but once we lose it, we lose it.
[43:00] So we have to get it written down. Um
[43:03] and then finally, school committee
[43:05] operations. Just thinking a little bit
[43:06] about, you know, how does this group
[43:08] operate? How can the work of the
[43:10] district support the committee and vice
[43:12] versa? How do we make sure the work here
[43:14] is thoughtful and transparent to the
[43:16] public, too? So, that's the final bucket
[43:19] there. Um, this hasn't been blasted out
[43:21] broadly except on the school committee
[43:23] agenda. Um, but I will send it out uh
[43:26] after tonight and after you have the
[43:27] chance to review, ask questions, and
[43:29] provide feedback. and uh we will um get
[43:32] to work. Thank you.
[43:35] >> Thank you. Let's start with discussion.
[43:38] Uh Steve.
[43:41] >> Okay, J. Thank you. This is this is
[43:45] great and exciting and um one thing that
[43:49] I just wanted to bring up to encourage
[43:51] you to keep on the forefront and I think
[43:55] it actually crosses
[43:57] um several of our academic excellence
[44:03] objectives
[44:04] um is just maintaining the rigor of
[44:08] [clears throat] um our curriculum and
[44:11] our evaluation of students in areas that
[44:14] can be impacted by AI. So, writing being
[44:17] the biggest one. Um, and I I've said
[44:21] this a number of times, but I'm gonna
[44:23] keep saying it because I continue to see
[44:27] it happening is that there is most of
[44:30] the writing is happening in the
[44:32] classroom.
[44:33] >> And that is we can't do anything but
[44:36] lower the standard of what we expect
[44:38] from our students if we're having them
[44:39] only write in the classroom. um because
[44:42] there's that defined amount of time. It
[44:44] also disproportionately disadvantages
[44:48] our students who require extra time. Um
[44:51] and that is not what we want to be
[44:55] doing. Um and no matter what our
[44:58] students are doing after they leave
[45:00] Westboro, they are going to do some of
[45:02] it outside of their workday or their
[45:04] school day. And so we need them to
[45:06] practice that skill. Um and so I don't
[45:10] know it fits into multiple buckets I
[45:13] think here um in in strategic objective
[45:17] one but I just hope that will be
[45:18] incorporated in because um I I don't
[45:22] really see it here and it just sort of
[45:24] struck me when I um was trying to think
[45:26] about how we would address this but I
[45:29] just hope that will stay on the
[45:30] forefront.
[45:34] » Thank you Jane.
[45:35] >> Yeah,
[45:36] >> thank you for the presentation. Um just
[45:38] a couple quick questions. Um the first
[45:41] regarding uh decap you know so very
[45:43] interesting and I am curious to hear a
[45:45] little bit more um you know just about
[45:46] how um you know this came to be a target
[45:48] for this year.
[45:49] >> I think you know part of it we have been
[45:52] looking at um our systems for support in
[45:56] general. Um, you know, the current
[46:00] thinking in education is around having
[46:01] this notion of tiers, right? Uh, tier
[46:04] one supports are those that happen in
[46:06] the classroom kind of fluidly for all
[46:08] students. It's sort of like um anything
[46:11] that you might need extra help with. It
[46:13] there's a kind of nice medical analogy.
[46:15] A tier one support would be like an
[46:16] over-the-counter thing that you can buy some aspirin, right? um uh tier two
[46:22] or specialized supports that require um
[46:25] more um you know more expertise and a
[46:28] and more of a narrow focus. So like a
[46:30] prescription uh medication, something
[46:32] that you have to kind of get specially
[46:35] um assessed for and get some support.
[46:37] And then tier three may be you may need
[46:40] a fully different approach um like
[46:42] holistic medicine, right? So the decap
[46:45] is designed really to help that first
[46:48] tier access for all students in the
[46:50] classroom. and that um you know our
[46:54] conversation about it really grew out of
[46:56] looking at our tiered structure
[46:58] realizing you know we've got the
[47:00] foundations of it really in place
[47:01] particularly at the elementary level um
[47:04] but have some work to do at the
[47:05] secondary level and before we get there
[47:08] we have to sort of make sure it's really
[47:10] clear what are the things that everybody
[47:12] can do all the time that are going to
[47:13] help make students more successful. um a
[47:15] decap. It promotes um really interesting
[47:19] conversation among teachers around what
[47:21] instruction is supposed to be. So that's
[47:23] kind of the origin story and last
[47:25] updated was 2012 or 2020. Okay. So pre-
[47:29] pandemic it's been a little while. Um
[47:31] and our sense is that you know during
[47:34] that time period that was the time when
[47:37] you know a lot of people had a lot on
[47:38] their minds. So I think being able to
[47:41] get back to it and have more robust
[47:43] conversation is going to be helpful and
[47:44] important.
[47:45] >> Sure. And that just made me think of it.
[47:46] And when did we start roughly like the
[47:48] co-eing model
[47:50] >> that is a historic I'll have to look
[47:52] that up. I don't actually know that. Um
[47:54] it's been in place for my understanding
[47:55] for quite a while here. But
[47:57] >> I mean just something that I'm sure goes
[47:58] handinhand pretty well with you know
[47:59] more student um you know specialization
[48:01] things like that is having another
[48:02] educator in the classroom that's able to
[48:03] take on some of that.
[48:04] >> Absolutely. Well, I think um you know
[48:06] the that is first and foremost a special
[48:09] education initiative. So a way to make
[48:11] sure um students who have learning needs
[48:14] are able to have them in the least
[48:15] restrictive environment. They're right
[48:17] there in class alongside their peers. Um
[48:20] and and it helps everybody, you know, it
[48:22] just happens to have these spillover
[48:23] effects. So it's great.
[48:25] >> And then just one other question. Um I
[48:27] know that you already spoke to this a
[48:28] little bit but um in terms of like the
[48:29] safety nets and updating some of that um
[48:31] could you speak a little bit to you know
[48:33] some of the work that you potentially
[48:34] saw you know kind of Jack coming in like
[48:35] taking on if you were to come back and
[48:37] just like how you know you plan to try
[48:39] to do some of that without
[48:40] >> address that. Yeah.
[48:41] >> Um you know I haven't ruled out the idea
[48:42] of um getting some outside help to do
[48:45] that. Um and it's just a matter of sort
[48:47] of figuring out who and and how. Um but
[48:49] in terms of the work it's updating some
[48:52] documentation is is sort of the not not
[48:54] super exciting but has to get done part.
[48:56] But once that's in place, really
[48:58] formalizing some of the structures. Um,
[49:00] so having what's called an incident um,
[49:02] management team um, at each school site
[49:05] and then a district-wide site and
[49:07] getting those teams a little bit more of
[49:08] a regular training schedule. Um, and
[49:10] what that does is it sort of helps um,
[49:14] uh, spread the knowledge a little bit
[49:16] from just the principles and key
[49:18] leadership people to a few more people
[49:20] in the bucket, which is always good, you
[49:21] know. So,
[49:23] >> thank you.
[49:24] >> You're welcome. Thank you, Sarah.
[49:27] >> Thank you. Um, thanks for this. Uh, this
[49:30] was really helpful to look at. Um, I
[49:33] have a couple questions.
[49:35] So, one of them is around in the
[49:37] academic excellence section, you talk
[49:39] about the robust curriculum maps for the
[49:41] high school. Um, I'm really interested
[49:44] to see what that's going to involve. I
[49:46] think that that's a great initiative.
[49:48] Um, I wanted to make a comment that I
[49:50] did see the email that came through on
[49:52] the APs, which I think is awesome where
[49:54] you guys are um this this must be a
[49:57] brand new initiative about um allowing
[50:00] students to take AP exams as ninth
[50:02] graders.
[50:03] >> That was for self-study. So, a couple
[50:05] we've there a couple things that we're
[50:07] hoping to expand the number of options
[50:09] for students who want access to APs. I
[50:12] know the administrative team at the high
[50:13] school did work last year on the
[50:15] schedule itself. I think there's more
[50:17] that could happen, but it was a good
[50:19] start. Um, you know, we're going to hire
[50:21] a new principal and one of the things we
[50:23] can do in that hire is sort of put out
[50:25] priorities and this is is certainly one
[50:26] is thinking about how do we um work with
[50:30] the schedule so that we're really
[50:31] meeting the demand uh that's out there.
[50:34] Um the self-study option is um it's
[50:37] really for students who there's either a
[50:40] specialized class that we don't offer or
[50:42] they can't get into a class. we do make
[50:45] it possible for them to study on their
[50:47] own and take the exam. Um, and for
[50:50] whatever reason that initial email went
[50:52] out just to 10th, 11th, and 12th
[50:55] graders. Um, there are students who take
[50:58] AP classes at all grade levels
[51:00] throughout the Commonwealth. There's no
[51:01] reason in particular to restrict a nth
[51:03] grade just just because they're a nth
[51:05] grader. Um, so it was to open that up as
[51:07] a possibility.
[51:08] >> So, did we have previous restrictions on
[51:09] that?
[51:10] >> We did not. It just wasn't advertised.
[51:12] >> Ah, okay. Okay, that that's actually
[51:15] really good information because I I do
[51:17] think there might have been a little bit
[51:18] of confusion around that email. Yes.
[51:20] >> I clearly I was confused because I was
[51:22] like thinking um you know it's great
[51:25] because I I've been talking about
[51:26] expanding AP options for
[51:28] >> Yeah.
[51:28] >> since I got on this committee because I think that our students are a great
[51:31] disadvantage when it comes to
[51:34] applications for colleges when there's
[51:36] you know other schools are offering APs
[51:38] and nth grade and we're not. Um, and I
[51:41] think that because we have so many
[51:43] limited years that it's being offered,
[51:45] kids are not able to even as seniors get
[51:47] into the APs that they want to, which I
[51:49] think is very uh
[51:51] >> frustrating.
[51:52] >> Yeah, very frustrating and and I I think
[51:54] we need to fix that. Um, and this email
[51:58] I took as because I was thinking the
[52:00] roll out of this is very strange coming
[52:02] once school has started because some a
[52:05] ninth grader who'd want to pick up a
[52:06] self-study would not want to do that,
[52:09] you know, in after school started in
[52:11] September. I would have thought that. So, I understand now what that's
[52:13] about. I'm glad that I got the clarity
[52:15] because I was
[52:16] >> really uh wondering why the roll out of
[52:19] that was happening at this time when
[52:20] school had started because if somebody
[52:22] was going to want to pick up a
[52:23] self-study, they would have planned for
[52:25] that last year. So, um thank you for
[52:28] that. Um and then also I wanted to just
[52:32] hit on this um piece that you have the
[52:34] belonging piece. Um
[52:36] >> you know that that part is really
[52:39] important to me. I want to just touch on
[52:41] so we you know had the calendar
[52:43] committee. I think that the can the
[52:45] committee came up with certain
[52:46] recommendations at the end which you
[52:48] know I I have my issues with but there
[52:50] were a lot of loose ends um with that
[52:53] committee. It was sort of you know I
[52:55] don't know that we were able to to come
[52:58] to a real consensus and so we kind of
[53:00] left it as this is the recommendation
[53:01] but we don't know how we're going to
[53:03] implement we don't know how we're going
[53:05] to measure. we don't know how we're
[53:06] going to get information from the
[53:07] students
[53:08] >> regarding the impact.
[53:10] >> Um and so I see that you've
[53:12] >> well one from the email that you sent
[53:14] out which is that I think you're um
[53:16] working with
[53:17] >> the staff
[53:18] >> um in trying to create uh a committee
[53:21] and and do some evaluation there.
[53:24] >> Yes.
[53:24] >> Um and I just want to reiterate how
[53:26] important it is that we do come up with
[53:28] some sort of way of measuring the impact
[53:31] of both. Um, I would say not only now,
[53:34] you know, this idea of what we're
[53:36] planning on instituting in two years,
[53:38] but you know, the homework holiday um
[53:41] policy has
[53:43] the Yeah, that's I said that right. Um,
[53:45] has so greatly changed. Um, I'm really
[53:49] concerned about the impact that that is
[53:51] going to have. Uh, and I think like we
[53:54] there needs to be some real measure of
[53:56] what the impact is. And I I don't have
[53:58] the first clue of how you're going to do
[54:00] this, but I would like to follow up and
[54:02] I've said this previously as well, like
[54:04] I would like updates on how this is
[54:06] going and what information and how
[54:08] you're obtaining it. So
[54:10] >> I think that's that's right. I mean in
[54:12] addition to so there's in addition to a
[54:15] staff group internally I think um Roger
[54:18] Anderson and Kim Tinan have put forward
[54:20] a grant proposal to form a student group
[54:23] and um which will follow kind of a
[54:26] similar trajectory. We've identified an
[54:29] outside facilitator to come and train
[54:31] both the staff group and the student
[54:32] group in in terms of thinking about what
[54:35] is the work of supporting belonging and
[54:37] equity within the district. How do we do
[54:39] that well? Um so year one is really
[54:41] going to focus on a lot of sort of
[54:43] foundation building. Um we'll be looking
[54:45] at at data but also doing outreach so we
[54:48] can understand how things are impacting
[54:50] students directly. I think that's really
[54:52] important. Um and that's part of the
[54:55] reason we need to kind of get those
[54:57] groups up and running. So
[54:58] >> yeah. So once you figure out a mechanism
[55:00] by which you're going to measure, gather
[55:02] data, if you could please update the
[55:04] committee on that, that would be I just
[55:06] don't want to come up on the two-year
[55:07] mark and then
[55:09] >> we don't have the information we need.
[55:10] We're just moving forward with a
[55:12] decision that's based on right. Um and
[55:14] then my other question is um
[55:20] I don't know. So I lost that train of
[55:23] thought. Um
[55:24] >> yeah, but thank you. You're welcome.
[55:27] >> Thank [snorts] you, Sarah. Gary.
[55:29] >> Hi there. Thank you so much. Um couple
[55:32] of quick questions. Um the first thing I
[55:34] just wanted to mention with um what you
[55:36] described about the decap. Um just
[55:38] because students uh this mainly affects
[55:41] probably middle and mainly high school
[55:42] students um not having access to phones
[55:44] now and how that's also um changing
[55:46] education. uh speaking with peers I know
[55:49] that often phones while they absolutely
[55:51] in school had harmful effects that were
[55:53] pointed out um they were also used as
[55:55] coping mechanisms by students in various
[55:58] different points.
[55:59] >> Uh so I'm just curious or actually I'm
[56:01] just wanted to point out um as the decap
[56:03] is being rethought kind of how some of
[56:05] those same supports can be included even
[56:06] without uh phones.
[56:08] >> Um
[56:09] >> and then just kind of letting students
[56:10] know about that.
[56:11] >> That's great. Thank you.
[56:13] Um and then uh the other thing I just
[56:15] wanted to uh mention was um broader like
[56:18] student communication regarding um the
[56:20] district plans. I think that especially
[56:22] at high school when um when we as high
[56:25] school students know why certain things
[56:27] are happening even if they are probably
[56:29] above our pay grade to an extent of um
[56:32] like the exact educational reason for
[56:34] it. I do think that in uh classes there
[56:36] tends to be more cooperation between the
[56:38] teacher and the student for why
[56:39] different decisions are being made. Um,
[56:42] and because ultimately we're all on the
[56:44] same team there, I just wanted to also
[56:46] emphasize making sure students are aware
[56:47] of these district plans and the
[56:49] reasoning behind them and that they're
[56:50] ultimately to help students.
[56:52] >> Absolutely. I mean, I think one of the
[56:53] things happening also is um, and you'll
[56:56] also see that reflected in my goals is a
[56:59] student advisory committee that works
[57:01] with district administration. Um, this
[57:03] is actually not my not my big idea.
[57:05] There were a couple of high school
[57:06] seniors who had approached me last year
[57:08] and my initial conversation with them.
[57:11] They a lot of the issues they were
[57:12] focused on were really high school
[57:14] issues. So I said, well, you know, maybe
[57:15] this is something to bring to the high
[57:17] school administration, but then with the
[57:18] turnover um and a little time to reflect
[57:21] over the summer, I I kind of thought,
[57:22] you know, I think students need a voice
[57:24] at the district level. So I reached back
[57:27] out to them. We had a meeting. they've
[57:28] got they're about to send out um a form
[57:31] basically to the student body asking for
[57:34] interested students who might want to
[57:36] sit on that representative group and I
[57:38] think that is something we'll talk about
[57:40] how do we get the word out about
[57:42] initiatives that are coming and also
[57:44] that group can be a sounding board and
[57:46] really give some helpful feedback in
[57:48] terms of direction and communication. I
[57:50] mean I I think we will always um you
[57:54] know make decisions that are going to be
[57:56] uncomfortable sometimes. I think the
[57:57] phone is a good example of one where um
[57:59] some sometimes I may see something that
[58:01] I believe is in students best interest
[58:03] and the research suggests it is even if
[58:05] it's you know not what not what people
[58:07] want you know for a short term and but
[58:09] to your point if we can communicate
[58:10] about it well it can help ease the
[58:13] transition so I appreciate that a lot
[58:15] you're welcome
[58:19] » thank you Allison for the uh thorough
[58:21] presentation and the and the goodlook
[58:23] plan for next year I I'm I I mean
[58:26] everybody seems to have some something
[58:28] of uh of focus for me I guess would be
[58:30] the AI road map and it implementation I
[58:33] mean that's a lot of people are are
[58:35] looking at that and so I'll be following
[58:37] that closely I have two questions one is
[58:40] very specific the other one is more
[58:41] general
[58:43] >> um the could you speak a little bit more
[58:45] to the chronic absentism uh um
[58:49] forgive me for ignorance but does it
[58:51] count students for instance who leave
[58:53] the country
[58:54] >> yes
[58:54] >> it does that counts as absent because
[58:57] that's a different kind of absent
[59:01] being anxious to come to school.
[59:05] >> some numbers to see, you know, what kind
[59:08] of absentism we are we are mostly
[59:09] concerned with or maybe you can just
[59:11] speak to that.
[59:12] >> Right. I I think you know one of the
[59:13] things I I pushed out like last year the
[59:15] year before just
[59:18] update for families if uh families leave
[59:20] for beyond that chronic absenteeism
[59:23] threshold we do encourage them to
[59:25] unenroll um in part because you know um
[59:29] they're technically not accessing school
[59:30] during that time they're we're not
[59:32] actually students we're not providing
[59:33] them an educational service and um and
[59:36] it's just not it's not a great practice
[59:37] but um but you know that's really a
[59:40] family's choice about making that
[59:42] decision. Um, in terms of being able to
[59:45] monitor which students which, it's a
[59:47] little hard to tell. However, in the
[59:49] data, it has very different data
[59:50] patterns, right? A student who's gone
[59:52] one big chunk of days, it looks very
[59:54] different than a student who misses
[59:55] every, you know, Monday and Tuesday um,
[59:58] in November. Um, so I think part of what
[1:00:01] um, Kim Tinen's role is going to be this
[1:00:04] year is p pulling together a committee.
[1:00:06] um she's working with a couple of the
[1:00:08] principles and as a sort of subgroup of
[1:00:10] the leadership team and the data is
[1:00:12] where they'll start looking at you know
[1:00:15] where are um the pockets of students you
[1:00:18] know what are are there characteristics
[1:00:20] of students in particular that we should
[1:00:21] be mindful of are there programs and
[1:00:23] supports that we can put in place um for
[1:00:26] example there's um there are a number of
[1:00:29] districts that have now joined um I'm
[1:00:32] not going to remember the name uh
[1:00:34] there's um a program out there that is
[1:00:38] uh helps families connect with mental
[1:00:41] health services online and uh the
[1:00:44] districts that have used it have said
[1:00:45] it's incredibly effective, very
[1:00:48] powerful, really helpful and often uh
[1:00:50] the underlying causes of school
[1:00:52] avoidance are things that need to be
[1:00:55] addressed that we may not have the
[1:00:56] bandwidth to help families address. So
[1:00:58] helping to sort of build in structures
[1:01:00] and supports can work and be very
[1:01:03] effective. So, those are the kind of
[1:01:04] things we're going to be looking at.
[1:01:07] I don't know. I don't know if I just got
[1:01:08] to your question or just talked all the
[1:01:09] way around it and came back.
[1:01:11] >> You did both, but
[1:01:14] >> uh the other question is more is more
[1:01:16] general. Which of these maybe more than
[1:01:19] one uh goals you find most challenging
[1:01:22] for the district right now?
[1:01:25] >> Um it's it's interesting. I think the AI
[1:01:27] is the thing that I'm the most
[1:01:31] I think it's the thing you know Matt and
[1:01:32] I talked about this too. I think it's
[1:01:34] the hardest thing because um I think
[1:01:39] educators have a responsibility, a deep
[1:01:42] responsibility to be mindful of what's
[1:01:45] in the best interest of children. And I
[1:01:47] think sometimes there are very different
[1:01:49] intuitions about what those things are.
[1:01:52] And um so helping move educators towards
[1:01:56] something when we don't really know what
[1:01:59] the outcomes look like for anybody
[1:02:01] because it's new. we find ourselves in a
[1:02:03] strange place. Um and um you know I and
[1:02:08] I think it's not helpful that the
[1:02:09] external conversation right now in the
[1:02:12] news media is about how it's just going
[1:02:13] to kill us all soon, right? That's super
[1:02:16] unhelpful to us in this moment. Um
[1:02:19] >> um so we I think have this very
[1:02:24] challenging task of helping to get our
[1:02:28] educators comfortable and familiar
[1:02:31] enough about what do what are these
[1:02:33] tools? What do they actually do? What do
[1:02:35] they not do? Uh because I do not believe
[1:02:38] we'll get any kind of buy in from them
[1:02:40] until that happens. Um, and I think it's
[1:02:44] important that we do because to Jane's
[1:02:47] point, you know, we're sending kids out
[1:02:49] into a universe where these tools are
[1:02:51] everywhere. And um, and if our students
[1:02:54] don't know how to use them um, and what
[1:02:56] they do not do well as well as what they
[1:02:59] do well, we are setting them up. So,
[1:03:01] it's uh, that one that one's tough and
[1:03:04] uh,
[1:03:05] >> well, I'm glad you're not going to be
[1:03:06] distracted by redistricting or
[1:03:09] >> other projects. So we got more energy
[1:03:11] for this.
[1:03:12] >> There's always something distracting.
[1:03:15] >> Thank you very much. And now we can
[1:03:18] proceed to very related next agenda item
[1:03:21] which is your goals for
[1:03:24] so 26 27 goals.
[1:03:27] >> Yeah. And these are are very connected
[1:03:30] as you can see. Um and I I want to speak
[1:03:32] to how I chose these. I I think um my
[1:03:36] job is interesting in that there are so
[1:03:38] many different things I could uh focus
[1:03:40] my time and attention on. And I think in
[1:03:42] order to
[1:03:44] um specifically think about my role
[1:03:47] here, I did a couple things. One was to
[1:03:50] think about the district strategy and
[1:03:52] what are the things where I could have
[1:03:54] particular I could be a particular help
[1:03:57] or influence. Um the second thing was to
[1:04:00] think about feedback um internal
[1:04:02] feedback from the leadership team. uh
[1:04:04] from teachers um you know what am I
[1:04:08] learning from people around me about the
[1:04:10] work that I'm doing and the third is
[1:04:12] feedback from you all actually looking
[1:04:13] at end of the year feedback last year
[1:04:15] that had a heavy influence in terms of
[1:04:17] thinking about where and and you and the
[1:04:20] community you as representatives of the
[1:04:22] community so those are the things that I
[1:04:24] really kept in mind in terms of choosing
[1:04:26] areas of focus um and uh I put these in
[1:04:32] this order for this reason you know I I
[1:04:34] do think um
[1:04:36] thinking about community engagement and
[1:04:39] really expanding the reach of
[1:04:41] communication from the district feels
[1:04:43] very important to me. Um I think that
[1:04:46] this uh it is the thing that is the
[1:04:49] superintendent's job more than anything
[1:04:51] else. Um and it's the thing that
[1:04:53] sometimes to me feels like the last
[1:04:55] thing I get to. So, by putting it here
[1:04:56] and prioritizing it as a goal, it kind
[1:04:59] of makes it concrete and hopefully will
[1:05:02] kind of help me keep that uh in my sites
[1:05:05] all the time. Um,
[1:05:09] you know, a couple of the things that
[1:05:11] I'm hoping to do here. One is an audit
[1:05:13] of what's happening with our
[1:05:15] communication. And I've mentioned this
[1:05:16] in kind of offhand way that we have
[1:05:18] tools that don't seem to be reaching
[1:05:20] everybody, but I want to be able to
[1:05:22] provide you with more data about what
[1:05:24] that looks like. Um,
[1:05:27] I do thinking about school committee and
[1:05:31] thinking about the time at school
[1:05:32] committee, we've had conversation about
[1:05:33] this as well. um you know, how do we get
[1:05:36] more people involved in understanding
[1:05:38] this board's role in sort of shaping the
[1:05:42] schools uh and really committed to
[1:05:44] showing up and telling you what they
[1:05:46] think. I think that's actually important
[1:05:47] that that folks do do that. Um so I've
[1:05:50] thought about engagement and engagement
[1:05:52] with the schools and with the community.
[1:05:54] Um the partnerships I already mentioned
[1:05:57] and then uh student advisory council and
[1:06:00] student voice um is an important piece
[1:06:02] too. So, I've um kind of advocated for
[1:06:04] that since coming here. I want to
[1:06:06] formalize it and expand it. Um I I think
[1:06:09] I don't know of any situation ever where
[1:06:12] we um didn't benefit uh enormously from
[1:06:16] seeking input from students and
[1:06:17] listening to what they had to say. So,
[1:06:20] um,
[1:06:22] thinking about instructional leadership,
[1:06:24] um,
[1:06:26] I I really wanted to think again about
[1:06:28] where is it that, um, we have work to do
[1:06:32] that I can be helpful with. The AI work
[1:06:34] was a big piece. Um, and I think my part
[1:06:37] of that is going to be working alongside
[1:06:39] Matt to help create the the steering
[1:06:42] committee advisory group. I can't
[1:06:44] remember what we're calling them.
[1:06:45] Advisory group, I think it is. um that
[1:06:47] has a little broader representation. So
[1:06:49] looking for some parents. We've spoken
[1:06:51] with a couple parents in the community
[1:06:52] who have background and expertise um and
[1:06:56] trying to kind of pull them together
[1:06:57] with staff and with some leadership to
[1:07:00] help us oversee the implementation of
[1:07:01] that plan. So that's a group that can
[1:07:03] kind of keep that work on track and um
[1:07:06] and I think that's important. Um,
[1:07:10] you know, we've had internal
[1:07:11] conversations about achievement gaps and
[1:07:12] I think we do need to sort of bring that
[1:07:15] out and highlight it in a more public
[1:07:17] way. Um, it's sometimes within a really
[1:07:20] high performing district. Uh, we have a,
[1:07:22] you know, we have great results in the
[1:07:24] aggregate. Things look really, really
[1:07:25] good, but they don't look um, great for
[1:07:27] everybody all the time. And by looking
[1:07:29] at those gaps, it allows us to um,
[1:07:32] notice what's working um, and what isn't
[1:07:35] and for whom. and then we can sort of
[1:07:37] refine our our work. Um, and then we'll
[1:07:41] be updating about secondary my cap
[1:07:43] implementation. I just think that's an
[1:07:45] exciting one. I want to kind of keep my
[1:07:46] finger on the pulse of that. Um, um, in
[1:07:50] terms of staff and professional culture,
[1:07:52] I've thought a lot about this. You know,
[1:07:54] I think one of the hardest things in my
[1:07:56] job is to be able to get out of my
[1:07:58] office and do stuff in the schools and
[1:08:01] see firsthand what's going on. And I
[1:08:03] think people value that. they need to be
[1:08:05] seen and heard. Um, but it it's it's a
[1:08:08] hard thing to do unless I sort of force it to happen. Um, and so I'm
[1:08:12] trying I keep trying kind of new
[1:08:14] thoughts or new structures. Um, you
[1:08:16] know, last year I uh started the office
[1:08:18] hours. I think some people like them,
[1:08:20] some people said, "Why are you just
[1:08:22] sitting around with plate of cookies? I,
[1:08:24] you know, go do something else." I was
[1:08:25] like, "Okay." Uh, so [laughter]
[1:08:28] it's, you know, you get it on both ends.
[1:08:30] Other people are like, "Great, great to
[1:08:31] see you. Nice. Thank you for the
[1:08:32] cookie." Right? So, I'm trying to find
[1:08:34] uh ways to reach people that work for
[1:08:37] them. Um
[1:08:39] and we, you know, we hit on the um the
[1:08:41] group around belonging and uh and
[1:08:43] equity. I think that's really important.
[1:08:45] And not only important, it's legally
[1:08:47] mandated. So, uh there there was a law
[1:08:49] passed um and signed by um the Healey
[1:08:53] administration that that actually
[1:08:54] dictates that uh every district is
[1:08:57] supposed to have either a DEI director
[1:08:58] or a team that does this work. And um in
[1:09:02] the absence of a director, pulling
[1:09:04] together a team is the thing that we
[1:09:06] need to do. And I actually think it's
[1:09:07] more effective anyway. Um it's work that
[1:09:09] really should be distributed across the
[1:09:11] district and should have a lot of people
[1:09:13] advocating for it.
[1:09:16] Um and then in terms of uh the sort of
[1:09:18] safety and management part, I think um
[1:09:21] for me it gives me a chance to sort of
[1:09:23] really hone in on this safety goal that
[1:09:26] um you know Tim asked questions about
[1:09:27] earlier. um it is the thing that um that
[1:09:30] I worry about, you know, uh in my uh
[1:09:34] sleepless hours and so being able to
[1:09:36] address it is important. And then also
[1:09:39] working with the town and with our
[1:09:41] operations folks on um just making
[1:09:44] everything work as well as it can.
[1:09:47] I think that's it. Um put together like
[1:09:51] a summary table at the end. Um and this
[1:09:54] is helpful for me too so I can track
[1:09:55] deadlines. I've got a few things coming
[1:09:57] up soon. Um, but my hope is to be able
[1:10:01] to report out both at the district
[1:10:04] strategy level and at my own goals
[1:10:06] level. So, as we're giving I'm giving
[1:10:08] you updates in school committee
[1:10:09] meetings, sort of tagging them to this
[1:10:11] so you can kind of see the progress as
[1:10:13] we go.
[1:10:16] >> That's it. That was a lot of me talking
[1:10:17] in two different presentations.
[1:10:19] Apologize for
[1:10:20] >> All right. Thank you, uh, Steve.
[1:10:24] Well, I guess first of all the the goals
[1:10:26] and effort are
[1:10:29] the second part that I worry about as a
[1:10:31] member of this school committee is to be
[1:10:33] careful of burnout.
[1:10:34] >> Yeah.
[1:10:35] >> Every single one of these strategies is
[1:10:37] a full time.
[1:10:39] Yeah. And I think one of the things
[1:10:44] about you is your attempt perhaps to do
[1:10:47] more possible.
[1:10:49] >> And there's two outcomes. You're very
[1:10:51] successful, super tired. or you burn up.
[1:10:54] And so obviously we know the strength of
[1:10:58] our school system and all the people who
[1:11:00] work in it and work for you
[1:11:03] >> is to engage them to help you attain
[1:11:05] these goals.
[1:11:07] >> Indeed.
[1:11:07] >> And so having said that, we'll watch to
[1:11:10] make sure you don't burn out.
[1:11:11] >> Thank you.
[1:11:13] >> But thank you. Thank you.
[1:11:14] >> I appreciate that. I I do want to say my
[1:11:17] goals are not just my goals. I mean, I I
[1:11:18] have such a I work with such a fantastic
[1:11:20] team. Um, and I I cannot thank you
[1:11:24] enough for it. I I I don't know of any
[1:11:26] other superintendent that feels super
[1:11:28] lucky,
[1:11:31] period. Really. [laughter] Um, and I do.
[1:11:33] Um, and I think part of that is a
[1:11:34] testament to the people that I work
[1:11:36] with. Um, the district level team and
[1:11:38] just the school leaders here are
[1:11:40] phenomenal. And, um, and because of
[1:11:42] that, it's it's it's fun. You know, I
[1:11:44] enjoy it. I deeply
[1:11:46] >> Well, that's the important thing about
[1:11:47] any job. It's got to be fun.
[1:11:48] >> Yeah. I mean, not every single load of
[1:11:50] every day, but a lot of it.
[1:11:54] >> That's true.
[1:11:56] >> Jane.
[1:11:57] >> Um, yeah, these I am very impressed with
[1:12:01] the goals and echo what Steve said that
[1:12:04] they're ambitious and um will do a lot
[1:12:07] for our district. And that's something
[1:12:10] that um I've been impressed about um
[1:12:13] your leadership that you're not afraid
[1:12:15] to take on very difficult things. And
[1:12:17] many of these are very difficult. So,
[1:12:19] thank you.
[1:12:22] » Yeah. Um, no real comments. I mean, it's
[1:12:25] always great to see people, you know,
[1:12:26] implementing the the smart goals and
[1:12:28] doing that. Uh, and so I'm just really
[1:12:30] excited to, you know, I appreciate the
[1:12:32] deliverables, the timeline, and I'm
[1:12:33] really just excited to see how we, you
[1:12:35] know, start checking these off. So,
[1:12:36] >> thank you.
[1:12:37] Sarah.
[1:12:38] >> Yeah, I'm going to echo what everyone
[1:12:40] said. Um, I think that this is great. I
[1:12:42] really uh think that your goals are also
[1:12:45] quite ambitious, but I too have seen
[1:12:48] that you um
[1:12:50] you know put hold yourself to very high
[1:12:53] standards. So I I appreciate this and
[1:12:55] I'm I'm hoping that um we're able to see
[1:12:58] especially in the piece around family um
[1:13:00] and community engagement and data
[1:13:02] collecting around how we're going to be
[1:13:04] able to you know what's the current
[1:13:06] status and how we're going to be able to
[1:13:08] get more community engagement um and
[1:13:10] connect with parents. uh when there's
[1:13:12] barriers. So, I I appreciate that. So,
[1:13:15] thank you. Thank you.
[1:13:17] >> G.
[1:13:18] >> Thank you so much. I really appreciate
[1:13:19] it. Um three quick actually no, two
[1:13:22] questions. Um the first one is with the
[1:13:24] student advisory council. Um is that b
[1:13:28] is that going to be implemented in the
[1:13:30] um way that the um state describes in
[1:13:33] some cases of districts having the
[1:13:35] student advisory council or is that a
[1:13:37] more internal?
[1:13:39] the the two young men who approached me
[1:13:41] were part of a kind of statewide
[1:13:43] conversation. So I think they are
[1:13:45] pulling um from their experience and um
[1:13:49] and having
[1:13:52] sat in on some sort of conversations
[1:13:54] with other districts and hearing about
[1:13:56] what what it looks like. Um so very much
[1:13:59] informed um but I also you know we want
[1:14:02] to make sure there's room for it to
[1:14:04] really meet the needs that are here at
[1:14:07] the high school especially. But I I have
[1:14:09] also talked to them a little bit about I
[1:14:10] I'd love to get that group thinking
[1:14:12] about how do we expand so that they're
[1:14:14] thinking about students at all grade
[1:14:15] levels, you know.
[1:14:17] >> Uh and then the second question is just
[1:14:19] around student belonging. Um is there a
[1:14:21] way that that's being tracked and
[1:14:22] measured right now? And I'm just curious
[1:14:24] what an improvement in that area would
[1:14:25] look like.
[1:14:26] >> It's a it's a great question. So um
[1:14:28] there is actually there are a few
[1:14:30] instruments that we've we've looked at
[1:14:32] some initial data around. Um first of
[1:14:35] all the vocal survey which is uh
[1:14:37] administered at the end of MCCAST
[1:14:40] testing um wasn't being administered
[1:14:42] before I uh asked people to start doing
[1:14:46] it. Um and it's um it's it looks at
[1:14:50] safety environment and engagement and
[1:14:53] asks students a lot of questions around
[1:14:56] how they're feeling about their school
[1:14:57] experience. It's incredible data. Um,
[1:15:00] and so we have it for Mil Pond and
[1:15:02] Gibbons, grades four, five, and eight, I
[1:15:05] believe. Um, it's also given at grade
[1:15:07] 10. Um, so my hope is to get the 10th
[1:15:10] grade implemented this year. Um, now,
[1:15:12] you know, uh, survey data that's taken
[1:15:15] at the end of the MCCAST test, you know,
[1:15:16] I is understandably, you know,
[1:15:20] >> might be a little skewed toward the
[1:15:21] negative, right? I I totally get that.
[1:15:23] But it also, you know, everybody
[1:15:25] district statewide is doing that. So
[1:15:26] it's at least like with like um so it
[1:15:28] gives us a sense of how we're doing
[1:15:30] compared to the state and how we're
[1:15:31] doing year-over-year. It breaks out into
[1:15:33] subgroups so we can see what's happening
[1:15:35] with particular groups of students and
[1:15:37] um and that's incredibly useful. So we
[1:15:40] did a first pass with leadership team
[1:15:42] this summer at looking at those
[1:15:43] preliminary um data. They weren't
[1:15:45] published yet. Uh the second set of data
[1:15:47] that we have already in hand is from the
[1:15:50] Metro West Adolescent Health Survey and
[1:15:52] that's um it's less asking directly
[1:15:54] about how kids are feeling and more
[1:15:56] asking about what they're doing, you
[1:15:58] know, um whether it's things that are
[1:15:59] risky or things that are healthy and
[1:16:01] that can be kind of a an indicator of
[1:16:04] how you're feeling about school,
[1:16:05] [clears throat] whether you're engaged
[1:16:06] in the the kind of things that we're
[1:16:08] trying to do to help feel help folks
[1:16:11] feel attached to school and like they
[1:16:12] belong or not so much, you know. And so,
[1:16:16] um, there are other tools out there and
[1:16:17] that's something that we may well end up
[1:16:20] exploring, um, at some point as well.
[1:16:22] So,
[1:16:22] >> thank you.
[1:16:23] >> You're welcome.
[1:16:24] >> Thank you, Gary. Um,
[1:16:27] and thank you, Alison, for this
[1:16:28] presentation. I'm not surprised the
[1:16:31] goals are ambitious. I I know I've
[1:16:34] learned enough that you respond to any
[1:16:35] feedback, critical feedback with even
[1:16:37] more work. So
[1:16:39] >> uh just I I think it will be your
[1:16:42] success in achieving these goals will be
[1:16:43] our success uh you know the whole
[1:16:45] district. So I wish you all the best. I
[1:16:48] just one specific question.
[1:16:50] >> Sure. Um, you mentioned the the position
[1:16:52] of DEI director. Uh, so if you could
[1:16:55] help me understand the timeline because
[1:16:56] I remember a couple years ago there was
[1:16:58] MAC resolution that we I believe we
[1:17:00] voted against it and I believe that that
[1:17:02] resolution failed but then is is it the
[1:17:04] case that the state went ahead and still
[1:17:06] established that as a mandate? Yeah,
[1:17:09] there there is a state law that was
[1:17:11] passed um and uh I'll I'll get the
[1:17:15] citation and send it along to you, but
[1:17:17] um and so yes, I think it was 2024, I
[1:17:22] want to say. Um and you know, it's I I
[1:17:27] think the idea was that there's been
[1:17:29] important work that's happened around
[1:17:32] thinking about, you know, making sure
[1:17:34] we're really paying attention to
[1:17:35] everybody who's here. Um, and not to
[1:17:38] lose ground and to lose sight of that.
[1:17:40] Um, so Matt, do you want to just say
[1:17:43] [laughter]
[1:17:44] >> Matt's looking it up for me?
[1:17:45] >> Yeah. So, Matt's general law, Chapter
[1:17:48] 70, section 101,
[1:17:50] uh, Massachusetts public school district
[1:17:52] and charter schools required by state
[1:17:53] law to hire and appoint a diversity,
[1:17:54] equity, inclusion, DEI officer or
[1:17:56] establish a diversity team.
[1:17:59] >> Okay.
[1:18:00] >> Yeah.
[1:18:00] >> So, it doesn't have to be necessarily
[1:18:01] position. It can be
[1:18:02] >> It can be a great team. And did does the
[1:18:05] state provide any funding for this or
[1:18:06] no?
[1:18:07] >> Just a requirement. [laughter]
[1:18:10] >> And to date, they haven't offered
[1:18:12] guidance either. I mean, usually when
[1:18:13] there's a kind of a mandate, there's
[1:18:15] some guidance and that is still pending.
[1:18:17] Um, so I'll be curious to see what they
[1:18:20] come out with. You know, I'm attending
[1:18:21] tomorrow a webinar on the Protect Act
[1:18:25] guidance. So, um, they've they've kind
[1:18:26] of hustled it up on with that one in
[1:18:28] particular. This will be interesting to
[1:18:30] see. Uh the good news is I've um you
[1:18:32] know I've found a a consultant who's
[1:18:35] somebody I I know and have worked with
[1:18:37] and trust before who's done a lot of
[1:18:39] work around facilitating training for
[1:18:40] teams uh who do this work. And I think
[1:18:42] it's really important to get that group
[1:18:44] trained well um so that they're
[1:18:46] approaching the work in a way that's
[1:18:48] thoughtful and welcoming and really um
[1:18:52] you know helps it be a thing that pulls
[1:18:55] the community together and doesn't pull
[1:18:56] it apart.
[1:18:59] >> Thank you. Welcome.
[1:19:00] >> Okay.
[1:19:01] >> I just have a follow to that.
[1:19:02] >> Yes, absolutely.
[1:19:03] >> So, um, this came up a couple years ago
[1:19:06] as well, um, about the DEI director and
[1:19:08] I understand that now, you know, you can
[1:19:10] either go with that or have a task force
[1:19:12] of some sort. Um, and you know, I I want
[1:19:15] I wonder uh because you referenced that
[1:19:18] you think it's actually a better idea to
[1:19:20] have a team, but um, absent any
[1:19:23] budgetary constraints,
[1:19:24] >> would I want both?
[1:19:26] >> Yes.
[1:19:26] >> Yeah. I mean because I [laughter] have
[1:19:27] seen a lot of districts who do have this
[1:19:29] um and my understanding is that it
[1:19:31] allows you know that one person to be
[1:19:35] focused on this solely and so the really
[1:19:37] move the work ahead. So I'm curious as
[1:19:39] to
[1:19:39] >> yeah I mean in an ideal universe uh
[1:19:42] where funding is no object I think
[1:19:43] having both is great um in part because
[1:19:45] of that you have built-in leadership um
[1:19:48] and I think the danger of having just a
[1:19:52] leader and not another structure is then
[1:19:55] that single person is carrying the
[1:19:57] weight of this whole project and it can lead to dynamics that I think are
[1:20:02] really hard and um having known and and
[1:20:05] worked with and interacted with a lot of
[1:20:07] people who've held that position in the
[1:20:09] state. That has very much been their
[1:20:11] experience that they feel isolated and
[1:20:14] um and you know they do a lot of putting
[1:20:17] out fires and feel like it's very hard
[1:20:20] to get the strategic work going um if
[1:20:23] it's just a single person. So I think a group is a necessary component. A a
[1:20:29] director would be a nice to have thing
[1:20:31] too.
[1:20:33] >> Thank you. You're welcome. And we're
[1:20:35] moving on to the next item on the agenda
[1:20:37] to our excellent student representative
[1:20:40] Gary.
[1:20:40] >> Hey there everyone. Thank you so much.
[1:20:42] Um yeah, starting with the elementary
[1:20:44] schools. Uh this week Fails is having
[1:20:47] its uh first Wester food pantry
[1:20:49] collection for breakfast items. Uh that
[1:20:51] goes to the end of this week. Uh and
[1:20:52] over at Armstrong tomorrow is the book
[1:20:54] fair uh for families and students 6:00
[1:20:56] p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Uh also we have open
[1:21:00] houses for all of the elementary schools
[1:21:02] tomorrow. And uh Mil Pond is happening
[1:21:04] tonight um at Gibbons and the high
[1:21:07] school clubs are starting up for the
[1:21:09] year um at Westboro High School. I think
[1:21:11] we had uh yeah uh nine clubs were
[1:21:14] announced uh over the loudspeaker for
[1:21:16] their first meeting just today. Um so a
[1:21:18] lot of different communities uh
[1:21:19] community events happening there. Um and
[1:21:21] late buses began last week for both uh
[1:21:24] Gibbons and the high school. Westpro
[1:21:26] High School is having its homecoming
[1:21:28] dance on October 2nd and then the
[1:21:29] homecoming festival which is available
[1:21:31] to the entire community on October 3rd
[1:21:33] 12 to 3 p.m. And Gibbons is also having
[1:21:36] an upcoming fall dance. Um as we
[1:21:38] mentioned earlier uh the new holiday
[1:21:40] guidelines are in place are in place for
[1:21:43] uh homework um which we had the first
[1:21:46] instance of happening uh over this uh
[1:21:48] long weekend with Yamapor. Um I think
[1:21:51] that right now students are still uh
[1:21:53] understanding the way the new system
[1:21:54] works. there was some surprise around um
[1:21:56] how homework was still offered because
[1:21:58] we were used to the category 1 system uh
[1:22:00] that was before but um that's starting
[1:22:02] to get rolled out uh and students are
[1:22:04] becoming familiar with the
[1:22:05] [clears throat] new way that it's going
[1:22:06] to work. Um my cap was used for the
[1:22:09] first time I believe at Gibbons today.
[1:22:11] Um and students uh seem to like both at
[1:22:14] the high school and Gibbons the idea of
[1:22:15] focusing on the future as opposed to
[1:22:17] just the content. So incorporating into
[1:22:20] the um three pillars of my cap. um today
[1:22:23] they completed a vision or some students
[1:22:24] completed a vision board uh at Gibbons
[1:22:26] during their structured time for it. Uh
[1:22:29] and then the other thing I just wanted
[1:22:30] to uh bring attention to is um I think
[1:22:33] Miss Owens you were saying the uh
[1:22:35] writing in class and um how that works
[1:22:38] given the new um concerns around AI and
[1:22:41] uh many students have um reported both
[1:22:44] this year but also a lot last year about
[1:22:46] the way that we do um writing systems uh
[1:22:50] in when we're in class or when we're
[1:22:52] outside of school to ensure that AI
[1:22:54] isn't being used. Um, I'm curious if uh
[1:22:57] there's been any thought towards
[1:22:59] specific software that students can
[1:23:00] write in. Right now, we used locked
[1:23:02] Google Forms on schoolisssued devices in
[1:23:04] our English classes or wherever else
[1:23:06] that's needed, but Google Forms isn't
[1:23:07] really designed for like the word
[1:23:08] processing environment. So, I'm just
[1:23:10] curious uh if there's anything else um
[1:23:13] that's happening there. And then aside
[1:23:14] from that, happy to take any questions
[1:23:15] about any student affairs that are going
[1:23:17] on.
[1:23:18] >> Excellent. Thank you, Gary.
[1:23:21] Um gonna move on to the financial
[1:23:24] update.
[1:23:27] Wonderful.
[1:23:29] Hand things off to Anita here.
[1:23:32] [laughter]
[1:23:34] » So, we had a couple sections here. Uh
[1:23:36] capital planning first. So, I'm going to
[1:23:38] let
[1:23:39] >> Okay, it is capital season
[1:23:42] >> and budget season. Um okay, so starting
[1:23:46] with the capital projects. Um if you
[1:23:49] look on this spreadsheet um the first
[1:23:51] six tabs um they show the capital
[1:23:54] projects um that we have um for FY28. Um
[1:23:59] you can see that there's two of them
[1:24:01] that are highlighted in red. Those are
[1:24:03] for um two possible projects that we can
[1:24:07] go out for MSBA funding.
[1:24:10] We did do a lot of um research. We spoke
[1:24:12] to our internal um subcommittee and
[1:24:16] after doing um talking to everyone we
[1:24:20] kind of decided that it was best and for
[1:24:23] the um sake of time efficiency and cost
[1:24:26] efficiency that we actually don't go
[1:24:28] through MSBA because when you look
[1:24:30] through the spreadsheet you can see that
[1:24:31] it would cost us more and um the MSBA
[1:24:34] funding would be two to three years out.
[1:24:36] So by the time we get it the project
[1:24:38] would be even more than what we think it
[1:24:40] would be as of today.
[1:24:43] Um the second two um are for the
[1:24:47] Hastings um parking lot expansion and
[1:24:50] the Hastings playground replacement. Um
[1:24:53] we are um actively getting um quotes for
[1:24:56] the playground replacement right now and
[1:24:59] we are putting together a um scope of
[1:25:02] services for our parking lot right now.
[1:25:04] And I'm actually working with Tim on
[1:25:06] that. Um Tim and um Kelly Jackapello on
[1:25:09] that.
[1:25:15] Those are the four kind of things that
[1:25:17] we anticipate moving before the kind of
[1:25:21] capital expenditures committee. Um, and
[1:25:25] we put together the information about
[1:25:28] both the MSB and and nonMS MSB versions
[1:25:30] because we believe that question will
[1:25:32] come up and so we wanted to have it
[1:25:34] there. Um, and you know, I appreciate
[1:25:37] Anita kind of she's spent a lot of time
[1:25:40] uh kind of on the phone with MSBA
[1:25:42] digging into sort of back um background
[1:25:46] um research about cost per per square
[1:25:48] foot, whatever we could kind of get our
[1:25:49] hands on. Um because the reimbursement
[1:25:52] rate, it looks like this great thing,
[1:25:54] but when you actually kind of look
[1:25:56] around at what those cost per square
[1:25:58] foot report outs are, it it kind of
[1:26:01] washes out. And in addition to the wash
[1:26:04] out, because the involvement delays the
[1:26:06] process, we're concerned that in those
[1:26:08] intervening years, the price point might
[1:26:10] ratchet up. Um, you know, you heard from
[1:26:12] a community member this evening about
[1:26:14] the restoration versus replacement. Um,
[1:26:17] and you know, that's something we can
[1:26:19] bring back to the capital subcommittee
[1:26:20] for conversation. Um, you know, I think
[1:26:23] our director of facilities has has noted
[1:26:26] that restoration is becoming an
[1:26:28] increasingly popular option uh out
[1:26:31] there. It's been done all around um the
[1:26:33] state and seemingly with good results,
[1:26:36] but that's a conversation we can look at
[1:26:38] too.
[1:26:40] >> Before we begin the the discussion and
[1:26:42] question, I just have
[1:26:43] >> Yeah,
[1:26:44] >> I'm confused about these two two tabs.
[1:26:46] We have one Hastings Elementary School
[1:26:49] parking lot redesign.
[1:26:51] >> And then following is parking lot and
[1:26:55] playground redesign.
[1:26:57] Is that just a
[1:26:58] >> That is just a typo that should have
[1:27:00] been edited. So,
[1:27:01] >> sorry.
[1:27:02] >> At one point we had those glombmed
[1:27:04] together and then we pulled them apart.
[1:27:05] So,
[1:27:06] >> okay, that's
[1:27:07] >> the first is parking lot and this one
[1:27:09] should be just a playground.
[1:27:11] >> Yep. So, I'm going to do that right here
[1:27:13] in real time about there. [laughter]
[1:27:17] >> Excellent.
[1:27:18] >> Thanks for catching that.
[1:27:19] That would be
[1:27:20] confusing for anybody.
[1:27:23] >> Thank you. Okay. Uh can you start with
[1:27:25] questions Steve?
[1:27:27] >> Uh no I think you answered one of my
[1:27:30] questions which was the combination and
[1:27:32] the wording of them. I think it's
[1:27:35] clarified now. Uh, and I guess I would
[1:27:38] comment on on the
[1:27:41] work that you did to look at what it
[1:27:43] would cost us to do the work directly in
[1:27:46] our own schedule with our own hired
[1:27:48] people uh versus the quote contribution
[1:27:52] to Comwalth Massachusetts or for similar
[1:27:56] projects
[1:27:57] and hit the nail on the head that unless
[1:28:01] it's a borrow and unless it's really
[1:28:03] beyond the capital capacity of the to do
[1:28:07] a plan. It is much more expensive using
[1:28:11] the MSBA
[1:28:13] term.
[1:28:15] And one of the things I didn't didn't
[1:28:17] mention was probably no and that is that
[1:28:19] they also don't um consider the entire
[1:28:23] cost as reimburseable by the state.
[1:28:26] That's the allowable piece. for example
[1:28:29] for uh
[1:28:31] fails out of the 50 something million
[1:28:34] dollar project with all the piece that
[1:28:37] the MSBA was contributed to was around
[1:28:40] 36 million. So there's quite a bit that
[1:28:43] the town has to carry on their own in
[1:28:45] regards to the way the MSBA works.
[1:28:48] >> Uh which I'm sure you will have to
[1:28:50] answer before the finance committee when
[1:28:52] they discuss these two numbers versus
[1:28:56] for the same project.
[1:28:59] I think additionally with that, you
[1:29:01] know, uh the other thing Anita sort of
[1:29:04] in her math looked at is the fact we're
[1:29:07] sitting on already um sort of mostly
[1:29:11] completed schematic designs for both of those projects. If we were to go
[1:29:16] through MSBA, we would have to redo
[1:29:18] those. Um
[1:29:18] >> yeah, because they want to hire their
[1:29:20] own engineer and their own
[1:29:22] >> OPM. So, so there's a cost savings in
[1:29:25] kind of working off what we have
[1:29:27] already.
[1:29:29] >> Thank you, Jane.
[1:29:31] >> No questions. Thank you,
[1:29:33] >> Tim. So, I'm I'm fully on board with
[1:29:36] everything we're talking about here with
[1:29:37] MSBA, but can you just walk me through a
[1:29:39] little bit more like how that can
[1:29:40] happen? Like looking at the numbers, how
[1:29:41] one is so much higher than the, you
[1:29:43] know, if we did it ourselves.
[1:29:44] >> Yeah. So, the cost if you go through
[1:29:46] MSBA, it's um anywhere between $41 to
[1:29:49] $55 per square foot and versus um if we
[1:29:54] were to do the project right now, it
[1:29:57] would be approximately $25.66
[1:29:59] per square foot.
[1:30:00] >> And do we know is that because of the
[1:30:01] approved contractors? Like what is
[1:30:03] driving that that large price increase?
[1:30:06] >> I think it's a combination of um the
[1:30:08] MSBA. They have so many different um
[1:30:11] areas that the contractors have to look
[1:30:13] at and they have to go through. So they
[1:30:15] set their own prices and I think Steve
[1:30:18] can probably answer it answer that
[1:30:20] question better than me.
[1:30:20] >> And they also review the scope of work.
[1:30:23] For example, there there is new uh
[1:30:27] oversight if you will that they require
[1:30:29] in regards to any project that their
[1:30:32] agents i.e. the hired engineer requires
[1:30:38] terms of state oversight in terms of
[1:30:41] what you have to build. For example, if
[1:30:44] we wanted to build a new high school and
[1:30:47] we wanted to put an auditorium in it,
[1:30:49] they would not carry any of that.
[1:30:53] So that's why it gets bigger. uh if you
[1:30:56] want to get what what you need isn't
[1:30:58] necessarily going to be supplied by the
[1:31:01] school
[1:31:02] and that was the case with our high
[1:31:04] school. We had to limit the size of the
[1:31:06] auditorium
[1:31:09] to what their standard was.
[1:31:13] >> Another question. Thank you. Thank you
[1:31:15] Sarah.
[1:31:16] >> Um I just have a couple questions. One
[1:31:18] is regarding the milon roof. So we had
[1:31:22] this was before us what three years ago
[1:31:24] I want to say and then we had pushed it
[1:31:26] off
[1:31:27] >> because we had something else that was
[1:31:29] there at that time.
[1:31:31] >> Um
[1:31:32] >> just to tell you the finance committee
[1:31:33] wouldn't support what we asked for.
[1:31:35] >> Sorry they didn't support it.
[1:31:36] >> Right. Yeah.
[1:31:37] >> So that was the so that blew it up.
[1:31:39] Okay. Um, so my question though is
[1:31:42] because it's interesting that we were at
[1:31:45] the prime time at that time
[1:31:47] >> to have the sealant done and now we're
[1:31:49] still at the prime time have the sealant
[1:31:51] done.
[1:31:52] >> So window
[1:31:53] >> Yeah, it's a window. I understand. I
[1:31:55] just want to understand a little bit
[1:31:57] more as to
[1:31:59] >> how long that how long we can stretch
[1:32:01] that, right? Because we want to be able
[1:32:02] to do that as long as we can. And I'm
[1:32:04] just trying to I don't know who can
[1:32:06] answer that. you know, at the time it
[1:32:09] was offered, it was um brand new. There
[1:32:12] wasn't any experience about it or
[1:32:15] whether any of it would work. Uh
[1:32:17] obviously, there's now three three more
[1:32:19] years worth of experience with it. Uh
[1:32:21] and going forward with that approach
[1:32:24] might be easier to offer and support
[1:32:28] based on other history of other work in
[1:32:30] the meantime. Uh but the the secret to
[1:32:33] it all is
[1:32:35] if the manufacturer will provide the
[1:32:39] warranty,
[1:32:41] okay, then it works because they have to
[1:32:44] go back and fix it at their cost,
[1:32:47] which I I pretty sure we we didn't bring
[1:32:52] that forward at the time, but it was
[1:32:54] what was offered. They were going to
[1:32:56] offer a warranty for that repair, which
[1:32:59] would have added for
[1:33:01] approximately half the cost using that
[1:33:04] method. Um, another 20 years worth of
[1:33:09] capacity, if you will, under warranty.
[1:33:12] >> Um, but at the time the town was
[1:33:14] strapped with other projects that needed
[1:33:16] to get done and it just didn't get into
[1:33:18] the mix.
[1:33:20] >> Are you asking to the urgency of of this
[1:33:23] project?
[1:33:24] >> Um, not really question. I mean in
[1:33:27] general I think like since we presented
[1:33:29] it or it was potentially something that
[1:33:32] we were considering three years ago and
[1:33:34] at that time we were able to defer it
[1:33:36] you know I'd just like to be to know
[1:33:39] when somebody asks me you know why can't
[1:33:42] you defer it again sort of thing right
[1:33:43] so I'm just trying to yeah what what are
[1:33:45] what is the criteria but I understand
[1:33:47] that's probably not something I would
[1:33:49] answer
[1:33:50] >> in the bigger picture I think for the
[1:33:52] school committee to bring forward any
[1:33:55] article We need to do all the research.
[1:33:59] Okay. And then present that and present
[1:34:01] it uh with the
[1:34:04] support of all the players on our side
[1:34:07] and hopefully we could get the board of
[1:34:08] selectmen and and the town manager to
[1:34:11] agree with us. Obviously the role of the
[1:34:14] finance committee is to query
[1:34:15] everything. Uh but if ultimately the
[1:34:18] town doesn't have enough money to do it
[1:34:20] and all the other things, we have to
[1:34:22] stand back and in effect try again.
[1:34:25] >> Yeah.
[1:34:26] >> So here we are.
[1:34:27] >> That makes sense.
[1:34:29] >> Yeah. So Sarah, so I'll add that we're
[1:34:32] actually going to get the roofs
[1:34:33] rescanned just to make sure that they're
[1:34:35] um eligible for the restoration itself.
[1:34:38] >> Okay. So we're not we don't know that
[1:34:40] right now they are
[1:34:41] >> correct.
[1:34:41] >> Oh, okay. That's that's good
[1:34:43] information. They're still within the
[1:34:45] window of time that we believe. Uh and
[1:34:47] you know in terms of the shape they're
[1:34:48] in, we're you know they are requiring
[1:34:52] ongoing maintenance and repair work. Um
[1:34:54] which is why the restoration is is
[1:34:56] important to do. Um so we're optimistic
[1:34:59] but we just want to make sure that it's
[1:35:01] actually
[1:35:02] >> it would be interesting to find out from
[1:35:03] them what the criteria is just so that
[1:35:05] we have an idea um for other Absolutely.
[1:35:08] >> Who's them?
[1:35:09] >> So actually that's a good question. And
[1:35:12] who who is it that's going to be
[1:35:14] evaluating or scanning and doing the
[1:35:16] roof to see if it it's eligible for
[1:35:18] this?
[1:35:19] >> Well, as Rod brought up earlier, we do
[1:35:21] have a consultant. Uh certainly the the
[1:35:25] statement that in fact that our
[1:35:26] consultants in cahoots with a specific
[1:35:29] manufacturer I think requires some
[1:35:30] research to either affirm or deny
[1:35:35] because it's the consultant that we're
[1:35:37] using to tell us what we need to do. And
[1:35:40] that's an important understanding maybe
[1:35:42] different than what happens in
[1:35:43] Washington but I think in our case we
[1:35:45] need to do it right.
[1:35:46] >> Right.
[1:35:47] >> And in fact uh I believe we have been
[1:35:50] doing it right because I don't believe
[1:35:51] that the individual works for any
[1:35:54] manufacturer
[1:35:56] but let's make sure we know that
[1:35:58] >> and that was actually my second
[1:35:59] question. So um this came up at town
[1:36:02] meeting as well. Um I believe somebody
[1:36:04] had come up and it may have been him. I
[1:36:05] don't recall.
[1:36:06] >> It was Mr. Hley. No, it was it was
[1:36:08] >> right, but it was to the same um
[1:36:11] >> it was a concern about that and u we had
[1:36:13] conversation in the wake of that and I
[1:36:15] think want to be able to look to
[1:36:18] engineers and independent people to to
[1:36:21] make that assessment uh as much as
[1:36:24] possible. So just to say that um you
[1:36:26] know since this has been brought to our
[1:36:27] attention as a potential
[1:36:30] >> um we want to make sure that we're
[1:36:31] looking into this as
[1:36:33] >> but but keep in mind it's not that
[1:36:35] single individual that agrees or
[1:36:37] disagrees. The engineer's responsibility
[1:36:39] is then to listen to um the the issues
[1:36:43] if you will of all players including the
[1:36:45] consultant and and provide a document
[1:36:48] that in fact meets state law and has all
[1:36:51] the the bells and whistles of what's
[1:36:53] required in public bidding. uh and uh as
[1:36:58] was done particularly as a result of the
[1:37:01] discussion at town meeting was to make
[1:37:03] sure that the contractor who was the low
[1:37:07] bidder
[1:37:09] actually
[1:37:10] was performing and asking questions
[1:37:13] according to state law that was
[1:37:16] documented as part of this project. So
[1:37:19] I think u and and the outcome of the
[1:37:23] work so far uh has been beneficial to
[1:37:26] the town.
[1:37:27] >> Sure. So I guess I guess the question is
[1:37:30] and it may be just that I don't
[1:37:32] understand which I don't think I
[1:37:33] understand. So the consultant the the
[1:37:36] allegation or what what's being stated
[1:37:38] is that the consultant is um
[1:37:40] >> was a manufacturer's rep
[1:37:44] >> right? So engineering the basically
[1:37:47] engineering the plan such that you know
[1:37:49] only specific people would be eligible
[1:37:52] to bid. Correct.
[1:37:53] >> That was the second.
[1:37:54] >> No not people specific material uh could
[1:37:58] be used.
[1:37:59] >> Right. So engineering the plan so that
[1:38:01] basically stating that this is the type
[1:38:03] of
[1:38:05] >> the specs the specs that were set were
[1:38:07] favorable to a specific vendor. Right.
[1:38:10] >> Or bidder rather.
[1:38:11] >> Yeah. That was the second state.
[1:38:13] >> Right. And so did we
[1:38:14] >> we corrected any misunderstanding there
[1:38:17] was about the rights of contractor to
[1:38:20] offer any product he wanted that quote
[1:38:23] unquote would meet the spec and was not
[1:38:26] uh a a single
[1:38:29] manufacturer's product that you would
[1:38:31] have to hire or buy that product u
[1:38:35] contrary to state law
[1:38:37] what was done was in in in that
[1:38:41] particular issue
[1:38:43] was that the contractor was allowed to
[1:38:46] offer anything they wanted in the
[1:38:49] anticipation of meeting the
[1:38:51] specifications offer and under review
[1:38:55] everything that they offered was
[1:38:56] accepted.
[1:38:59] >> Right. And I I concur with everything
[1:39:01] you're saying. I what I'm trying to
[1:39:02] understand is so I don't know that there
[1:39:04] was a question of whether or not it was
[1:39:06] in compliance with state law. I I think
[1:39:08] that the the question was whether or not
[1:39:11] we are getting the best pricing that's
[1:39:14] out there. Um
[1:39:16] >> that's why you bid a specific scope of
[1:39:19] work,
[1:39:20] >> right,
[1:39:20] >> with a specific requirements of that
[1:39:23] work and it goes out to bid and the low
[1:39:26] bid is the one that we selected and
[1:39:28] awarded to. That's how you make that
[1:39:30] statement.
[1:39:31] >> But if we are skeptical of the actual
[1:39:33] specs being put out, that that's my
[1:39:36] question. I'm not saying that we are.
[1:39:38] I'm just saying that I hope that we're
[1:39:39] evaluating the prospect of that.
[1:39:41] >> Let me chime in. I you know my
[1:39:44] understand
[1:39:44] >> say one thing that might be helpful
[1:39:45] which is in terms of like looking ahead
[1:39:47] the the uh scanning is actually going to
[1:39:50] be done by the engineering firm not by a representative of any company. So in
[1:39:54] terms of the analysis looking forward we
[1:39:56] are sort of sensitive to this.
[1:39:58] >> That's something else in here. It is.
[1:40:00] >> I mean,
[1:40:02] >> obviously if you're talking about a
[1:40:03] project um of this magnitude, there's
[1:40:08] it was 150 pages maybe of the
[1:40:10] specification.
[1:40:12] But uh the research was done. The issue
[1:40:16] of whether the contractor had the
[1:40:18] opportunity to offer something that in
[1:40:21] their opinion met our specs
[1:40:24] u was uh they didn't take advantage of
[1:40:27] it upfront. But we ask them specifically
[1:40:30] under the terms of the state law as to
[1:40:32] how you bid, particularly whether or not
[1:40:34] you have uh another offering, if you
[1:40:38] will, other than what was specified
[1:40:41] to to submit it, have it reviewed and
[1:40:45] approved.
[1:40:47] And that's what happened.
[1:40:50] Yeah, you were saying.
[1:40:51] >> Yeah, I just want to add I I I don't I
[1:40:54] believe we looked into it and we
[1:40:55] determined that the spec was not written
[1:40:57] to favor a single vendor. That was not
[1:40:59] the case. And I I do support uh hiring a independent roofing
[1:41:06] consultant uh just to I don't know
[1:41:10] reassure
[1:41:11] the residents that we doing our due
[1:41:13] diligence. But uh I don't I think the
[1:41:15] due diligence due diligence was done in
[1:41:18] the first place.
[1:41:19] uh as far as I understand.
[1:41:23] >> Okay, thank you.
[1:41:24] >> I think we can move on. Uh Gary, any
[1:41:26] other questions?
[1:41:27] >> Oh, uh nothing major. I just wanted to
[1:41:29] say uh great to see all of the uh
[1:41:32] improvements that are planned and I'm
[1:41:33] sure Hastings is going to be super happy
[1:41:34] with the new um playground. Um, I just
[1:41:37] wanted to mention one thing um that I've
[1:41:39] just noticed at town meeting where
[1:41:40] there's always someone that's asking
[1:41:42] like why wasn't a capital expenditure
[1:41:43] budgeted for which obviously they work
[1:41:46] different than um recurring budget items
[1:41:48] but um just want to encourage that it
[1:41:50] the school communicates it um about why
[1:41:53] uh these are capital projects versus
[1:41:55] budget items to the broader community
[1:41:56] just so that we ensure these get passed.
[1:41:58] >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate
[1:42:00] >> Thank you. Okay. Now, just add just
[1:42:02] >> Well, I mean, the first answer is
[1:42:04] there's no way that we could out of the
[1:42:06] school budget in any given year. Um, you
[1:42:09] know, carry a million dollars, $2
[1:42:11] million, $5 million project by
[1:42:13] definition. You don't do them very
[1:42:14] often. They're that's what makes them
[1:42:16] capital.
[1:42:17] >> Yeah.
[1:42:17] >> But, but the definition of capital in
[1:42:20] terms of let's say the finance committee
[1:42:22] is their definition.
[1:42:24] >> Yep.
[1:42:24] >> Right. So, I mean, actually, that's
[1:42:26] where to point that question and we
[1:42:27] react to it in either or.
[1:42:30] >> Yep. Right.
[1:42:31] >> I just want to uh say one one thing at
[1:42:34] the end. I don't know if that was very
[1:42:36] clearly presented that if if all these
[1:42:38] ask go through the process and they end
[1:42:41] up on the Tom Warren, we would be asking
[1:42:43] for the wing the seawing roof
[1:42:46] restoration design money for the for the
[1:42:49] mill pond and uh the parking lot
[1:42:54] redesign and and the Hastings
[1:42:56] playground.
[1:42:57] >> So all four of them.
[1:42:59] >> All four of them. And with the with the
[1:43:01] mil pond, if if it if it gets to that uh
[1:43:05] then the following year we we'll be
[1:43:07] going to ask for the for the full uh
[1:43:10] actual project.
[1:43:12] >> No, So that 1.7 million and that 2.276
[1:43:17] million that includes the project costs
[1:43:19] as well because we already have the
[1:43:21] design money because we already did the
[1:43:23] design, right?
[1:43:24] >> So we already have that in hand. So that
[1:43:26] money is for the project work, for the
[1:43:28] OPM work, and for the um architect.
[1:43:32] >> Okay.
[1:43:33] >> If we were to go through the MSBA, then
[1:43:36] it would stretch out and be a a bigger
[1:43:38] time.
[1:43:38] >> I was looking.
[1:43:39] >> Yeah.
[1:43:41] >> Thank you.
[1:43:43] >> Okay.
[1:43:46] Moving on to budget summit preview.
[1:43:48] >> That's great. Um
[1:43:51] I shared a draft of this earlier uh with
[1:43:55] um the advisory finance committee
[1:43:59] leaison uh that work with the school and
[1:44:01] I'll I'll sort of I I will go through it
[1:44:04] quickly because I want to keep us on
[1:44:06] time here. Um but uh I welcome your
[1:44:11] feedback because you know part of my job
[1:44:14] in the budget summit is to sort of put
[1:44:16] forward to um the other boards in town,
[1:44:19] the advisory finance committee and the
[1:44:21] select board sort of a little bit of the
[1:44:23] state of affairs of the the school
[1:44:25] department and try and help them
[1:44:28] understand some of what we're grappling
[1:44:29] with. So, in doing so this year, I
[1:44:32] started where I always like to start,
[1:44:33] which is bragging a little bit about the
[1:44:35] school district. Uh, saying, um, you
[1:44:36] know, our our students do really well,
[1:44:38] they perform well, there are great
[1:44:39] things happening, and they're very
[1:44:41] exciting. One of my favorites is this
[1:44:43] best, uh, bang for your housing buck,
[1:44:45] uh, uh, note, which we've been on that
[1:44:48] list a couple years in a row. It's a top
[1:44:50] 10 list. So, that's top 10 in the state.
[1:44:52] That's pretty good. Um, and although
[1:44:54] these ratings, they move up and down. I
[1:44:56] think we're up in Boston magazine. were
[1:44:58] down slightly in US News and World
[1:45:00] Report because they have slightly
[1:45:01] different metrics. Um, Westboro always
[1:45:03] is really reflected and that is a
[1:45:06] testament to the incredible work of of
[1:45:08] the staff here. So, I like to give them
[1:45:10] a lot of proper credit for this. Um, so
[1:45:14] major categories I I put out so people
[1:45:16] have a sense of scale, right? Where does
[1:45:18] their money go? And the overwhelming
[1:45:20] majority of our money goes toward people
[1:45:22] toward the staffing. Um, the kind of
[1:45:24] next greatest category is special
[1:45:25] education. Uh then transportation, other
[1:45:28] non-s salary which is going to include
[1:45:30] all materials and supplies and kind of
[1:45:32] everything else under the sun. Uh
[1:45:34] buildings and grounds and then utilities
[1:45:37] and um I got some help with updating the
[1:45:41] pie chart. You remember my pie chart
[1:45:43] with a really tiny writing. So this we
[1:45:44] did this instead the donut. Um and this
[1:45:47] is just nice to show the percentage of
[1:45:49] how these different things appear in the
[1:45:51] budget. And it's also helpful for folks
[1:45:52] to understand what the levers are in the
[1:45:54] budget. you know, we really can't make a
[1:45:57] big impact on savings in the budget by
[1:46:00] looking at non- salary items because
[1:46:02] they're such a tiny portion of the
[1:46:04] budget. If we ever need to make
[1:46:06] reductions, unfortunately, the place we
[1:46:08] have to look uh inevitably is in uh
[1:46:11] salary and in staffing. So, that's just
[1:46:14] an important thing for people to
[1:46:15] recognize. One important note too here,
[1:46:17] our salary is has actually shrunk as an
[1:46:20] overall percentage and that's for two
[1:46:23] reasons. one is our FTE has shrunk a
[1:46:25] little bit over the past couple years,
[1:46:26] but also um the the costs that we don't
[1:46:30] control have escalated and that's a big
[1:46:32] focus of this presentation is helping
[1:46:34] people understand how our our universe
[1:46:37] is impacted by these other things. Um so
[1:46:40] I'll talk about these four main buckets.
[1:46:42] The first is enrollment, what's going on
[1:46:44] there. Um the second is out of district
[1:46:46] costs. So tuition and transportation for
[1:46:48] students who attend schools out of out
[1:46:50] of the district. um student needs. Uh I really want to focus on that this
[1:46:55] year. In the past couple years, I've
[1:46:57] talked about spec especially last year.
[1:46:59] Um I talked about level services and
[1:47:01] kind of just keeping things stable. I
[1:47:04] don't think we can do that anymore and I
[1:47:05] think I need to be able to address that
[1:47:07] publicly right now. Uh and then also
[1:47:09] state mandates um which are kind of
[1:47:11] coming at us fast and furious. So I want
[1:47:13] to be able to to note that we need to be
[1:47:15] responsive to things that are happening
[1:47:18] at the state level. Total enrollment
[1:47:20] continues to come down. We are down
[1:47:22] between last year and this year. These
[1:47:23] are estimates based on Septemberish
[1:47:26] numbers. I'll have like a very robust
[1:47:28] enrollment presentation for you next
[1:47:30] time u when we meet in October. But uh
[1:47:33] this is just the the big picture and you
[1:47:35] can see this is sort of a a long-term
[1:47:37] trend of kind of coming slightly down.
[1:47:39] This is not unique to Westboro. It's
[1:47:41] happening in a lot of places in the
[1:47:42] state. Um but interesting when you break
[1:47:46] it apart into different groups. Um, you
[1:47:49] know, we are down at These are tiny, so
[1:47:52] they're hard to see. I apologize. Um,
[1:47:54] but we're down at the high school, we
[1:47:56] are down in grades four to six, we're
[1:47:58] down at the middle school. Uh, we are up
[1:48:00] slightly at the preschool this year, and
[1:48:02] that's great to see. That's partly due
[1:48:04] to the fact the preschool was able to
[1:48:06] offer extended day this year, and I
[1:48:07] think that has had a positive impact on
[1:48:09] our enrollment, uh, which is great. That
[1:48:11] is a, uh, tuitionbased program, too. So,
[1:48:14] there's a kind of revenue income. Uh the
[1:48:17] most interesting thing though is right
[1:48:18] here. So this is K to3 um has rebounded
[1:48:22] a little bit and what I would say is
[1:48:24] this is a thing to watch. Uh enrollment
[1:48:26] cycles in schools tend to go in about a
[1:48:28] 20-year arc. They go kind of up and down
[1:48:30] in waves. So uh and if you notice this
[1:48:32] has been down down down. Uh if this
[1:48:35] continues in next year to kind of keep
[1:48:38] on the upswing, I'd say we could
[1:48:39] probably expect there may be more of
[1:48:41] that to come. Um so and that will then
[1:48:44] wave out through the school levels just
[1:48:46] as the downward enrollment has trended
[1:48:48] through the school levels. Um um the
[1:48:52] good thing about keeping an eye on this
[1:48:54] is that it has implications for
[1:48:55] staffment. We just need to be really
[1:48:57] cautious about any staff reductions
[1:48:58] because we don't want to reduce and then
[1:49:00] have to add back next year. Uh it just
[1:49:02] creates churn.
[1:49:05] Um we've talked about this before but I
[1:49:08] think one of the big drivers in our
[1:49:09] budget is special education. Uh it's an
[1:49:11] important investment and really uh
[1:49:13] creates programming that's strong and
[1:49:15] supportive for our students. It's a
[1:49:16] responsibility I take very seriously. Um
[1:49:19] the costs for our outofd district
[1:49:21] placement have skyrocketed in the past
[1:49:23] few years. So um as you're aware, we
[1:49:25] have a handful of students in the
[1:49:26] district um whose needs can't be met
[1:49:28] here in the in the district. We do a lot
[1:49:30] to try and build programming to keep
[1:49:32] kids here. Uh but in some cases, their
[1:49:35] needs uh are specialized and need to be
[1:49:37] met elsewhere. um when we send students
[1:49:41] out of district there are two types of
[1:49:43] schools collaboratives and private
[1:49:45] schools and you can see the cost per
[1:49:47] year per student are pretty incredible
[1:49:49] here. Um so collaboratives and these are
[1:49:52] updated costs this year are now running
[1:49:54] in the 70 to $80,000 range and these are
[1:49:57] sort of based on our numbers. Uh private
[1:49:59] day placement between 80 and 183,000 and
[1:50:02] then uh private residential trait
[1:50:05] placement is $300,000 and up. Um, as you
[1:50:09] know, we do get some partial
[1:50:11] reimbursement for this from the state
[1:50:12] for some of these services and tuitions.
[1:50:16] Uh, but it is partial and it comes the
[1:50:18] year after the expense. So, it's a very
[1:50:20] tricky thing to budget with that in
[1:50:22] mind. What I'm showing here is actual
[1:50:24] cost, not the cost after the application
[1:50:27] of uh circuit breaker because I think
[1:50:29] it's important to see the total cost
[1:50:30] escalation over time. Uh the good news
[1:50:33] is there is substantial advocacy going
[1:50:36] on at the state level not only for
[1:50:38] addressing circuit breaker which is that
[1:50:40] reimbursement program but also for um
[1:50:44] seeking more transparency from the
[1:50:46] private schools around cost escalation.
[1:50:50] Uh we've seen some schools apply for um
[1:50:54] tuition increases above and beyond what
[1:50:56] the state allows uh through um
[1:51:00] restructuring their programs. And
[1:51:02] there's a movement right now among the
[1:51:04] superintendent association to try and
[1:51:06] create some legislation to mandate uh
[1:51:09] much more transparency so that so that
[1:51:12] the communities have insight into what
[1:51:13] exactly is happening and is it serving
[1:51:15] the needs of students. Um these are our
[1:51:17] students. We take that very seriously.
[1:51:19] If these are necessary costs, so be it.
[1:51:22] If they are not, then people should
[1:51:24] know. Um I do feel like these are important
[1:51:29] numbers to share because they also
[1:51:31] indicate when we have invested really
[1:51:33] heavily in special education
[1:51:34] programming, in co-eing and in all the
[1:51:37] things that we do to support students
[1:51:39] here. It is an investment in keeping as
[1:51:42] many students in district as possible,
[1:51:43] which is the most cost-effective thing
[1:51:45] we can do. So, it's also just a
[1:51:48] wonderful thing to do.
[1:51:50] Um, out of district transportation
[1:51:53] continues to be another area that's
[1:51:55] really volatile. This is one of the
[1:51:56] hardest things for us to predict
[1:51:57] year-over-year. Um, these contracts are
[1:52:00] tricky and also um we don't always know
[1:52:04] uh we may have an idea that a student's
[1:52:06] going to be um heading toward a private
[1:52:09] placement, but we might not know where
[1:52:10] how far it is, what kind of
[1:52:12] transportation needs are going to be
[1:52:13] required. So that's so individually it
[1:52:15] adds up really quickly.
[1:52:17] >> Really quickly I have a quick question.
[1:52:19] Um can you remind me is the
[1:52:21] transportation cost also factored into
[1:52:23] for um circuit
[1:52:24] >> circuit breaker. It is reimburseable.
[1:52:26] We've over the past few years our our
[1:52:28] costs are high enough that we've applied
[1:52:31] our circuit breaker reimbursement
[1:52:33] primarily to tuition um because we have
[1:52:36] enough of it to you know eat up all the
[1:52:38] circuit breaker. Um, but we we have a a
[1:52:42] just incredible person who works for us,
[1:52:44] Lisa Ber, who works in this special
[1:52:46] education department, does our circuit
[1:52:48] breaker claiming, and she's excellent at
[1:52:49] it. It's a it's an important job in the
[1:52:52] district in terms of making sure we're
[1:52:54] getting as many of those dollars back as
[1:52:56] possible. Thank you.
[1:52:59] >> Um, our total transportation costs have
[1:53:02] really escalated too over the past
[1:53:03] several years. If you notice like what
[1:53:05] it looked like back in 22 um versus what
[1:53:08] it looks like uh this past year um it's incredible. Um and you know I I'm
[1:53:17] grateful right now we're in a contract
[1:53:19] that is stable because with fuel prices
[1:53:22] and everything else going on. It's nice
[1:53:24] to know it's going to be a controlled
[1:53:25] cost for this year and next. After next
[1:53:28] year we'll have to go out back out to
[1:53:30] bid. So um this will become another
[1:53:32] issue for us.
[1:53:34] Yes.
[1:53:35] >> Are we subject to escalation relative to
[1:53:37] fuel cost within the contract based on
[1:53:39] the fact that when it was bid it was
[1:53:41] probably three bucks a gallon and it's
[1:53:43] now six. So we have to adjust I think
[1:53:46] based on the cost of fuel.
[1:53:49] >> I didn't know that.
[1:53:49] >> Not so good. [laughter] But that's it.
[1:53:51] >> Thanks for telling me that.
[1:53:54] >> Um I was unaware of that until right
[1:53:56] now. Um yeah that's a bummer. Uh so
[1:53:59] [laughter]
[1:54:01] >> all right we'll get ready. Um I think uh
[1:54:04] and that may impact how we think about
[1:54:06] budgeting moving forward if things don't
[1:54:08] sort of stabilize in the next little
[1:54:09] bit. Uh we're going to hope for you know
[1:54:11] the end of you know we're going to hope
[1:54:14] for peace and lower prices and fuel for
[1:54:17] many reasons. Uh
[1:54:20] um so other kind of driver I wanted to
[1:54:25] talk about this year and I did not do
[1:54:27] this last year was really talk about
[1:54:28] student need and specifically three
[1:54:30] areas. I talked a little bit about this
[1:54:31] earlier, but um when we've gone through
[1:54:34] the budget process the last couple years
[1:54:36] and also in the strategic planning
[1:54:37] process, some things have emerged as
[1:54:39] areas that we really want to focus on as
[1:54:42] a district. Uh one is early support for
[1:54:44] our youngest learners. Um we are one of
[1:54:45] the few district that doesn't have ESP
[1:54:48] eSPs in all kindergarten classrooms. Um
[1:54:52] which is a pretty um wonderful support
[1:54:55] for kids as they make that transition
[1:54:56] from preschool into kindergarten. And
[1:54:59] because we're seeing kids have a harder
[1:55:01] time with that transition in general, we
[1:55:03] think that's a worthwhile investment
[1:55:04] that we're going to be looking to
[1:55:05] pursue. Um whether we do it all at once
[1:55:08] or we do it in phases, it's definitely
[1:55:10] going to be on our list of things to
[1:55:12] look for. Additionally, we had talked
[1:55:14] last year a little bit about
[1:55:15] transitioning from um math tutors to
[1:55:18] math specialists in the early grades.
[1:55:20] really bolstering up our our work
[1:55:22] supporting math instruction in K to3 and
[1:55:24] building that really strong foundation
[1:55:26] together with the literacy initiative
[1:55:28] which is uh even above and beyond the
[1:55:30] grant going to cost us something to
[1:55:32] implement. So we're kind of keeping an
[1:55:34] eye on all that early support work.
[1:55:36] Wraparound partnerships is this idea of
[1:55:39] looking to build structures and services
[1:55:41] that are going to help kids who need um
[1:55:45] kids and families really who need um
[1:55:47] more extensive support than what is sort
[1:55:50] of typically provided through the
[1:55:52] school. So, uh, if students are are
[1:55:55] coming to us with, um, learning needs
[1:55:58] and a trauma background, for example,
[1:56:00] and, um, in their family, they've had a
[1:56:02] hard time accessing mental health
[1:56:04] supports and services, that really
[1:56:06] impacts a student's success in school.
[1:56:09] And if we aren't able to kind of help
[1:56:11] connect that student to to the support
[1:56:13] they need, it's going to undermine their
[1:56:16] uh, attendance and probably their
[1:56:18] long-term um, capacity to achieve in
[1:56:20] school. So, we're looking at how do we
[1:56:22] build some structures. We've kind of
[1:56:24] been handling this on a um case-byase
[1:56:27] basis, really trying to um wrap around
[1:56:30] arms around kids and families and and
[1:56:32] help them, but we need to take a more
[1:56:34] systems approach to it and build in some
[1:56:38] um kind of consistent structures so that
[1:56:42] uh we're not always solving the same
[1:56:45] problem over and over again in a
[1:56:46] different space. Um that's part of the
[1:56:48] work that Kim Tinen will be engaging in
[1:56:51] this year and leading and along with
[1:56:53] that chronic absenteeism and those two
[1:56:55] kind of go hand inand because sometimes
[1:56:56] these things run parallel. Um you know
[1:56:59] students are who are coming with a lot
[1:57:01] of complicated needs. Um sometimes
[1:57:03] school avoidance is in the mix with
[1:57:04] those needs as well. So um all of these
[1:57:07] things we're looking to address and we
[1:57:09] anticipate there'll be some cost to
[1:57:11] doing this and doing it well.
[1:57:15] uh state mandates. You know, we've
[1:57:16] talked about the early uh literacy
[1:57:18] legislation. Uh we've talked about the
[1:57:20] bill to bill cell phone fan. We ban we
[1:57:22] uh were very grateful for Senators
[1:57:25] Moore's office for earmark funding that
[1:57:27] came through. Yay. Uh which helped
[1:57:29] offset the cost of the uh initial
[1:57:31] investment in yonder pouches. And uh in
[1:57:34] order to make sure we maintain that
[1:57:35] program, we are going to need to add in
[1:57:38] uh some amount to the budget. It's not a
[1:57:40] huge amount, but we want to make sure
[1:57:41] we're able to have that stable for at
[1:57:43] least the next few years. Um, you know,
[1:57:45] it's possible in the long run there'll
[1:57:47] be a different solution that's a cheaper
[1:57:49] solution, but for now the pouches seem
[1:57:51] to be the thing that people are saying
[1:57:53] works best.
[1:57:54] Um, there are these new high school
[1:57:56] graduation requirements. We want to be
[1:57:58] thoughtful about potential costs
[1:58:00] associated with those, especially as we
[1:58:02] see sort of the myap development. At the
[1:58:05] end point of that, we're looking to add
[1:58:07] uh things like more robust internships
[1:58:09] and kind of career coaching kinds of
[1:58:13] opportunities and that may take some
[1:58:15] staffing changes. Um so we want to think
[1:58:17] about that and then again this diversity
[1:58:19] team that we're looking to put together.
[1:58:21] Um you know this year we are going to
[1:58:24] try and find ways to do it on a
[1:58:25] volunteer and um some like PDP credits
[1:58:28] and and things like that. going forward,
[1:58:30] we'll be looking to create stipens so
[1:58:32] that those positions are really stable
[1:58:34] and people are compensated for their
[1:58:36] time and effort. [snorts]
[1:58:39] Um, I will also provide people with a
[1:58:41] snapshot of our federal grant funding.
[1:58:43] Um, I've done this the last couple
[1:58:44] years. You know, I I put it here just to
[1:58:47] say that this is a pot of money that's
[1:58:49] been relatively reliable. And yet, over
[1:58:52] the last few years, it hasn't felt like
[1:58:55] um we could 100% rely on on on this from
[1:58:59] the federal government. Um and in
[1:59:01] particular, the the highlighted ones
[1:59:04] here, the pink ones are the ones we feel
[1:59:06] are the most vulnerable. Now, I've said
[1:59:08] this and it it keeps showing up, so
[1:59:10] we're grateful for this so far, but I
[1:59:12] don't, you know, I don't know what will
[1:59:14] happen in the future. So, as we budget,
[1:59:17] we really need to think about um what
[1:59:20] would happen if this pot of money
[1:59:22] disappeared and how we would backfill
[1:59:23] for it.
[1:59:25] Um, finally, kind of looking at
[1:59:29] what the year-over-year cost increases
[1:59:32] have been, you know, we have been able
[1:59:34] the past two years to sort of start to
[1:59:36] bring the overall percentage increase
[1:59:38] down, and I'm I'm proud of that work. I
[1:59:40] think um, Anita and the business office
[1:59:42] have done an incredible job. We've also
[1:59:44] really asked the leadership team to kind
[1:59:46] of look at reallocation and reduction
[1:59:49] where that was responsible. Um, I don't
[1:59:53] know that we're going to be in that
[1:59:54] position this year. I think it's um, you
[1:59:56] know, we'll do our best to to bring a
[1:59:58] number that is reasonable to the
[2:00:00] community and that can get passed. At
[2:00:02] the same time, I think if there are
[2:00:04] savings that we realize from decreasing
[2:00:07] enrollment, we may need to reinvest them
[2:00:10] in those things that support our student
[2:00:12] needs. So, that's really going to be my
[2:00:14] main focus in talking to folks tomorrow.
[2:00:17] um you know, we have these things that
[2:00:19] have changed over the last few years in
[2:00:21] terms of kids school readiness, in terms
[2:00:23] of the need for additional supports for
[2:00:25] students at all levels and um we have a
[2:00:29] responsibility to do what's right for
[2:00:30] kids and I want to make sure we're we're
[2:00:32] putting that in the mix. So um that is a snapshot. If you have
[2:00:38] feedback, you can either share it now,
[2:00:40] send it to me in an email, but I will
[2:00:41] see you hopefully there tomorrow night,
[2:00:43] too. And I I got some nice feedback. The
[2:00:46] uh uh AFC leazison had a few
[2:00:49] recommendations. I did not have time to
[2:00:50] implement them because they came at me
[2:00:52] at 3:00 today. Uh but I'll be working on
[2:00:54] that tomorrow to kind of put up a little
[2:00:56] more emphasis on a few of these things.
[2:00:59] >> Thank you, Allison. Um since we are 20
[2:01:02] minutes behind schedule, I would uh ask
[2:01:04] that we limit our questions to maybe one
[2:01:07] or two. I already asked my questions
[2:01:08] earlier during the presentation to AFC.
[2:01:11] So um um I'll let you Steve start.
[2:01:14] >> Yeah, I don't have any real questions
[2:01:15] about it. I I think it's it's um you
[2:01:18] know the full presentation that will be
[2:01:20] presented tomorrow night. I think it's
[2:01:21] very good. I think it's an eyeopener for
[2:01:25] the team teams AFC boris selectman and
[2:01:29] ourselves. Um and I I think it's a fair
[2:01:33] place to start. Obviously we're going to
[2:01:35] have comments
[2:01:36] u but um I think it's well done. Thank
[2:01:39] you.
[2:01:39] >> Thank you.
[2:01:41] Jane.
[2:01:43] >> Yep. Thank you. I agree. It's great.
[2:01:45] Very clear. Um, and one thing that I
[2:01:49] think I'm sure you'll emphasize is that
[2:01:51] these investments that you're you're um
[2:01:55] wanting to make in our students,
[2:01:57] especially the early grades, really do
[2:02:00] bear fruit down the road in probably
[2:02:04] lower special education um uh costs and
[2:02:08] just, you know, in in addition to
[2:02:11] improved probably educational outcomes.
[2:02:13] If we're talking about the money of it,
[2:02:15] you know, if we intervene early, we know
[2:02:18] that the students need less support
[2:02:20] later.
[2:02:20] >> Absolutely. I think their experience is
[2:02:22] better, too. I mean, I think that just
[2:02:24] and it all kind of goes together often.
[2:02:26] When kids are engaged and they feel
[2:02:27] successful, everything just goes better.
[2:02:31] >> Thank you, Tim.
[2:02:33] >> Thank you for the presentation. Um, just
[2:02:35] one quick question regarding the
[2:02:36] enrollments. Um, I know that you said
[2:02:38] that uh typically like you see kind of
[2:02:40] 20-year trends and I'm curious like is
[2:02:41] that within schools? Is that like within
[2:02:43] the state? Like I'm just curious if you
[2:02:44] could expand on that a little bit.
[2:02:46] >> It's interesting. I got that um so
[2:02:47] NASDAQ that does these enrollment
[2:02:49] projections has just sort of said that
[2:02:51] and I it seems to be true broadly with
[2:02:53] looking at the data here, looking at
[2:02:55] data from other places, it kind of waves
[2:02:57] um like this and I'm not sure why. Um um
[2:03:00] I don't know if it's true in all
[2:03:01] districts. Um it may be in certain types of districts. I've only worked in
[2:03:05] districts sort of similar to to
[2:03:06] Westboro. So um I c I couldn't speak for
[2:03:09] the urbans. Um that's a different ball of wax. time.
[2:03:12] >> Yeah.
[2:03:13] >> Thank you.
[2:03:14] sir.
[2:03:15] >> I don't have any questions. The
[2:03:16] presentation is very thorough. Thank
[2:03:17] you.
[2:03:18] >> Thanks.
[2:03:19] >> No questions. Thank you.
[2:03:20] >> Thank you.
[2:03:21] very much. And can move on to
[2:03:25] the next item, which is uh student
[2:03:27] activities account approval.
[2:03:30] >> So, this is something that we ask school
[2:03:32] committee to do um annually. Um you have
[2:03:36] to approve all of the student activity
[2:03:38] accounts. There's one located at each
[2:03:40] school. Um if you see on the paper um
[2:03:44] you can see what the ending balance was
[2:03:46] um for FY26. I'll add that these um
[2:03:49] these balances are for the checking
[2:03:51] account. Each [snorts] checking account
[2:03:53] has a companion money market account and
[2:03:56] that account earns interest.
[2:04:01] » Thank you. And since this is our uh our
[2:04:03] first um discussion item under under new
[2:04:07] business, I think we just we can just
[2:04:08] move on uh to that point.
[2:04:11] And do I have a motion before we start a
[2:04:14] discussion to vote to approve the
[2:04:16] student activities account?
[2:04:18] >> So move.
[2:04:19] >> Is there a second?
[2:04:20] >> Second.
[2:04:21] >> Is there discussion?
[2:04:25] >> No. Thank you. All those in favor?
[2:04:28] >> I.
[2:04:28] >> Okay. 500. The motion passes.
[2:04:32] Thank you. Uh
[2:04:35] our next action item today out of three
[2:04:39] is uh vote to approve SRO agreement.
[2:04:43] >> Yeah, just in brief, this is just the
[2:04:45] agreement that we make with the um town
[2:04:48] to um have our uh SRO who serves really
[2:04:52] as the point person uh in a kind of
[2:04:55] communication link between the police
[2:04:56] department and the schools. Um and uh
[2:04:59] working with Detective Delight has been
[2:05:01] great. His office is directly below mine
[2:05:03] and in in his words, all I need to do is
[2:05:05] like stomp on the floor and he'll come
[2:05:06] right up. And um I'd say Chip has been
[2:05:10] really critical in a number of things.
[2:05:11] One is some training and outreach for
[2:05:13] staff and leadership around safety
[2:05:15] protocols, but also whenever there's
[2:05:17] anything happening in town, he's able to
[2:05:19] communicate back to us so we know what's
[2:05:21] going on. If there's a major issue or
[2:05:23] accident or something like that, he's in
[2:05:25] touch with our school principles, our
[2:05:26] bus coordinator. um you know he has you
[2:05:30] know he's boots on the ground he's at
[2:05:31] the schools kind of getting to know
[2:05:32] students seeing what things are like and
[2:05:35] really with that eye for safety and it's
[2:05:37] a it's a bargain we pay the town exactly
[2:05:40] $1 a year for um having him uh part of
[2:05:43] our school community and I'm grateful
[2:05:45] for that this goes alongside the um uhou
[2:05:49] and that's actually signed by the the
[2:05:50] chief of police and the superintendent
[2:05:52] but that's sort of our how we
[2:05:54] communicate between departments which is
[2:05:56] regulated through the date. So, um, but
[2:05:58] this is a kind of companion document
[2:06:00] that the school committee signs.
[2:06:02] >> Thank you. Do I have a motion to vote to
[2:06:04] approve uh student activities? I'm
[2:06:07] sorry. Want to approve the SRO
[2:06:08] agreement?
[2:06:09] >> So, move.
[2:06:10] >> Is there a second?
[2:06:11] >> A second.
[2:06:12] >> Um, I'd like to just ask one question.
[2:06:14] Does this contract
[2:06:17] um agreement rather differs in any way
[2:06:20] from the previous uh version of this?
[2:06:22] >> Nope.
[2:06:24] >> Uh, is there any discussion? Yes, Gary,
[2:06:27] >> just a quick question. Is I know we were
[2:06:29] discussing the protect Act um last
[2:06:31] meeting. Is theou publicly available or
[2:06:33] is that kept private?
[2:06:34] >> That can be public. I mean, it's should
[2:06:35] be part of public record. So, I'm happy
[2:06:37] to share that and we can post it
[2:06:39] anywhere. It probably needs to be posted
[2:06:41] somewhere. So, I'll make sure it's out
[2:06:42] there.
[2:06:43] >> Thank you.
[2:06:43] >> You're welcome.
[2:06:45] >> Okay. Uh we'll proceed to the vote. All
[2:06:48] those in favor?
[2:06:50] >> I I 500. The motion passes. Thank you.
[2:06:54] And we have one more agenda item action
[2:06:57] item in our discussion uh section which
[2:07:00] is vote to approve donation from Eel
[2:07:04] Harvey.
[2:07:05] >> Want to show a photo of the guys who
[2:07:07] came to donate this. Um this is a
[2:07:08] wonderful donation. Um and this is above
[2:07:11] and beyond. I know the youth and family
[2:07:12] services does outreach in a backpack
[2:07:14] drive which is fantastic. And then on
[2:07:16] top of that Yale Harvey sort of swooped
[2:07:18] in and donated 75 backpacks filled with
[2:07:21] school supplies. So 25 at Mil Pond, 25
[2:07:24] at the middle school, 25 at the high
[2:07:26] school. And I can tell you this is it's
[2:07:29] just such an incredible thing to have
[2:07:31] this. They're brand new. They're totally
[2:07:33] stocked. So when whenever we have uh
[2:07:35] even if we don't use them all at the
[2:07:36] start of the year, we have them. So if a
[2:07:38] new family moves into town, we've got
[2:07:39] them right at the h at the ready. Um so
[2:07:42] we're really grateful to Harvey for
[2:07:44] their donation. It's worth a little over
[2:07:46] $4,000. So, it's nice and uh had some
[2:07:50] help from our facilities department like
[2:07:52] moving these uh around wherever they
[2:07:54] needed to go. So, thank you to them,
[2:07:55] too.
[2:07:57] >> Thank you. I'd like to say, you know,
[2:07:58] this is first of all, thank you uh to EA
[2:08:01] Harvey for this generous donation. you
[2:08:03] know, we we receive them every once in a
[2:08:05] while and and I was wondering if do we
[2:08:08] have any kind of recognition wall or
[2:08:10] some website or something where we can,
[2:08:12] you know, list all the different people
[2:08:14] that are so generous over the years and contribute to our to our schools. I
[2:08:17] think I don't know if we have something
[2:08:19] like that in place or not.
[2:08:20] >> It' be nice. Yeah, it'd be neat on the
[2:08:23] almost like on a website like a photo
[2:08:24] thing or something. It' be great. Uh so
[2:08:26] it's out there too. But um I love that
[2:08:28] idea. Thank you.
[2:08:30] >> Thank you. Okay. Do I have a motion to
[2:08:34] approve donation from Eel Harvey?
[2:08:36] >> I move that we accept the donation from
[2:08:38] Eel Harvey with appreciation.
[2:08:43] >> Second.
[2:08:44] >> Thank you. Any discussion?
[2:08:47] All those in favor?
[2:08:49] >> I 500. The motion passes and thank you
[2:08:53] again to Y Harvey.
[2:08:56] Okay. U we're going to proceed to school
[2:09:00] committee reports. Steve,
[2:09:02] >> none.
[2:09:03] >> Jane,
[2:09:04] >> nothing to report.
[2:09:06] >> Tim,
[2:09:07] >> nothing to report. Jane,
[2:09:09] >> just there.
[2:09:10] >> Nothing to report.
[2:09:11] >> I'm sorry. And same for me. Nothing to
[2:09:14] report. Uh, this means we're moving on
[2:09:17] to the next item, which is the consent
[2:09:20] agenda. And
[2:09:23] do I have a motion to approve the
[2:09:25] minutes from meetings on August 31st,
[2:09:29] September 4th, and September 9th?
[2:09:31] >> I move that we accept the minutes of
[2:09:33] August 31st,
[2:09:36] uh, September the 4th, and minutes of
[2:09:40] the 9th of September as well as written.
[2:09:43] >> Is there a second?
[2:09:45] >> I'll second.
[2:09:48] >> Okay. Uh, we'll proceed to the vote. All
[2:09:50] those in favor?
[2:09:51] >> I I 500. Motion passes. Thank you. Do I
[2:09:56] have a motion to adjurnn?
[2:09:58] >> I move that we adjourn the meeting.
[2:10:00] >> We have a mover today. Do I have a
[2:10:02] second?
[2:10:02] >> Second.
[2:10:04] >> Uh all those in favor.
[2:10:06] >> I 500. The meeting is adjourned. Thank
[2:10:09] you very much. And we are ending three
[2:10:11] minutes before the schedule time.