School Committee - Grafton Public Schools - Regular Meeting

So, let's start the Zoom. All right. Good evening, Grafton, and welcome to the March 24th, 2026 school committee meeting. I call the meeting to order. Uh before we get down to um business tonight, I did want to remember uh longtime GMS educator Paula Conlin. Um my daughter had her uh and uh really enjoyed the whimsy and um fun she brought to the classroom. I don't know, Jay, if you want to talk a little bit about her career here in the district.

My my my own children had Paula as well. If you knew Paula, you were uh very fortunate. Uh wonderful woman, great educator. wonderful person. Um she was with us for uh almost exactly 30 years. She started as a student teacher. She graduated from Holy Cross and then she came to us as a student teacher, finished out that year and then became a teacher uh going through her file. She was always in grades seven and eight to different

schools and locations and everything else. but um but she was with us throughout and impacted thousands and thousands of kids and fellow educators. So uh she's going to be greatly missed. Uh services have not been set yet. Once they are, I'll obviously be sharing those. Great. Thanks, J. Uh it's going to take a minute. Um if next I guess we'll start with public comment if we have any. Okay, seeing none, let's go to um general business and an update from our um middle graph and middle school leadership.

Do I need the time in there? I don't know. Do you I'll try to

Thanks very much for the opportunity to present uh to you and the community this evening. It's a it's a it's a pleasure to head into work every morning and and greet the kids and our educators. Uh it's just an absolute privilege uh to be there. So Christine Martellio, those who don't know her, assistant principal at Grafton Middle, uh Chris Tartesky, principal of Craft Middle. So our job tonight is to share a little bit about our story. Uh we're not going to go into all the granular details of our program. Last year, we really uh dove in under the hood and and celebrated almost every content area, talked about every club and activity and all that we're able to offer because of the great support of our community. Uh this year, we're going to focus on some key elements that we offer instructional programwise and co-curricular wise. Um as well as highlight some new experiences that are being integrated into our program. So with that,

so one of the things we did um as a staff last year and many of our staff participated was we read the power of moments. And for those of you that are aware of the power of moments um then you know what it's all about. If you're not, it really kind of digs into, you know, what what do we remember um from our life, right? And we don't necessarily remember all of the big things, but we and we might remember some of the minutia, but what can we do to create memories for kiddos so that there's something there that they'll remember that they can bring with them. So, we really tasked this staff last year with doing that and they did a phenomenal job and I know we've highlighted some of that this year. So, one of the things we wanted to highlight this year was some of the some more of those things that we've been doing. So, we won't just talk about curriculum, but we want to try and we want to try and find those little moments in each of our curriculum areas. And then outside of the curriculum, um, a lot of the things that the community has been able to provide for us, you'll see at the end. Um, so we started with our book club. So, um, they did an extension book club. They really, the teachers really loved the book Farewell to Manzanar. And there was no way to kind of fit it in, but a lot of the kids really wanted to enjoy it. Um, so they've already met once. That's a picture of them there on that slide. Um, and they they really had a nice um outpouring of, you know, kind of participation. Um, and they meet again on April 30th, uh, for sections two and three. So, if anybody is interested from the committee that would like to read it, come stop by. We'll get you a copy and you can participate. They do it during lunch. Um, it's 7th grade lunch, which I want to say is about 10:45 to 11:15ish. Um, so if you want to participate and read a little bit or just come and hang out and see what the second session is all about, please do. April 30th. Oh, I think this is still me. Um, so our world language um, curriculum. So Erin Hernandez is our curriculum lead for

world language. Um, oh, I should have said Nancy is our our curriculum lead for ELA and they do a lot of immersive activities and you'll see that. So what we provided you um there were a lot of different pieces on the slide of just students being actively learning. So, um, in the, uh, world language. So, we just have Spanish this year. Um, and they really do make sure that it's an immersive experience and that all students can participate. Um, and you can see the kiddos on the floor and they're in the hallways and oftentimes they'll whiz by me because they're doing some sort of an activity where they have to go from one slide to the next slide, but they do it in the hallway rather than just kind of sitting at their desk. So, they really try to make sure that the kiddos are getting a full experience. Um you see there they and that this is actually there's a new one on the board now where they're still they haven't picked a winner but they go through and they choose down um during the basketball season um to see who's going to win during the March Madness. Um but it's all about the music um and the culture. And so they go through and then the kids will choose all of that through Google forms. They figure out and they go all the way down to see who wins. Um so that's just a little bit of that. And then lastly, um as part of the um experience, they and that's this is actually just started this week. Um they brought the Pulsera project back. So they partner um with the Pulsera Project with is which is in Central America. Um I actually have my little go bag that I wear every day and couple the teachers like, "Did you get Yep, I got that last year." It's great. You can put your little cell phone in there and my walkie-talkie and my keys and a pen. Um and so that's great. and the kids, you know, they can get their um bracelets. Um so, uh we have that going on the next two weeks, I think it is. So, um and then they'll send all the proceeds over. So, from kind of a global awareness perspective with world language and the civics department, we really hone in on

individual self-civic identity and you know, local, state, and federal government awareness with the kids. Uh we're in the first year of full implementation of DKP which is uh the democratic knowledge project. Um it's a highly immersive uh project that takes uh the story of a fictitious character named Maria and her identity in civics. Um along the way, the kids parallel her experience through their own lens uh focusing in on a culminating project at the end of the year that will potentially be showcased at the statewide civics fair um sponsored by DKP as well as their partners uh the 18 Foundation uh who who we're a partner with um as well as Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Um it's a tremendous resource. Our civics educators are participating in ongoing uh cohort partnerships uh with colleagues from across the state as well as coaches who come in and do some site visits and provide some real high level feedback. It's a very powerful experience. Um the idea of DKP is for kids really to own their learning and and shift that cognitive load. Um and I was in civics it would go a lot of book reading and a lot of note takingaking. Uh this is a lot of discussion, dialogue, reading primary sources, uh but examining things as the kids are identifying their own identity and belief systems, looking at things critically and learning how to question. Um, they recently were able to go to the Worcester courthouse and sit in with uh, Judge Daniel Ren as well as uh, some prosecutors in the Worester DA's office and uh, defense judges uh, defense attorneys as well to learn about the judicial system and have a discussion about that side of the process. Um it was exceptionally wellreceived by the students who were able to attend and uh we received as we always do with Grafton Middle kids um tremendous feedback about the work that uh moms and dads other

caregivers and our educators do around instilling you know our core values of respect, responsibility, gratitude and kindness. Um it's a real it's a real gem to have uh these opportunities for our kids. So next we're going to jump over to special education. Um our curriculum leader is Brandon Thompson. Um so one of the things that was identified or has been identified for years is kind of dig digging deep into co-eing. So a lot of people kind of think that co-eing just means that there's two teachers in the room. Um but there's a lot more to co-eing than just two teachers in the room. Um it is more about the experience that the students are getting alongside their peers and the teachers can teach in many different ways. So, what they've been doing this year, they've been doing a deep dive with uh Chris Kitell, who is the special ed assistant director of special education. I don't even know how to say all of those titles, but he's the assistant director. Um, and so he's been coming over, I want to say we've met four times and we have two or three more times. Um, and he goes through all the different models. Um, and then the teachers will use some of those models and then come back and report on it and then they have a little bit of time to co-plan. Um they do have we actually did build into our system this year a lot of co-planning time for the co-eing pairs which has been really beneficial. Um so we've seen a lot more of that parallel teaching and a lot more of those types of experiences for our students um so that they're able to get a a more immersive experience with their um greater alike peers. uh when Christine and I began our partnership, you know, almost three years ago, one of the feedback uh loops that I was informed of and and I talked with parents and other caregivers about was inclusive practices at Grafton Middle. You know, the co-eing is a great example of us focusing on that. Um that that impacts all kids. Um specific areas that I really wanted to hone in on

though were uh individualized participation in the school community. Uh last year we started a stronger partnership with our unified athletics program bringing in unified botchi and the unified strength and conditioning program. Uh this year a team of enthusiastic educators um took on the the creation of the Grafton Middle School best buddies chapter. Um we have 26 members uh participating. Uh they participated in the first event that we had on March 17th, which was just it was amazing. Uh we had piñatas and confetti and tabletop games and snacks and treats, but more importantly, we had kids partnering with kids that they normally may not have partnered with. And the smiles, the laughter, the giggles, uh it was heartwarming, almost tear tearbringing. Uh it's it's a great opportunity for us to celebrate and identify uh even stronger uh foundations within our community and I'm I'm exceptionally proud of uh our teacher leaders who took this on as well as the students who participated. Um absolutely phenomenal. Um specifically Mrs. Gillow, Mrs. Narduchi, and Mrs. Petritis. Um there were a host of supporting cast members though. Um I think we had 13 adults in the room uh during their lunch block um to spend with the kids.

We may or may not have worn mustaches. Yeah, there were a couple of

a mustache sounds. Um our science curriculum. So uh our curriculum leader is Mrs. Wall this year. Um and our science teachers are digging into um a shift towards phenomena based curriculum. So really experiential learning. um kids hands-on um how are you know how is this applied in every day? You can see some pictures there of some of the things that they're doing that actually you know they'll talk about the current weather and not just like phil philosophically but what is actually happening. So what it what does it look like there and what is it going to look like tomorrow and they can make some predictions. Um and so they're looking at um the the open sed and uh piloting a chapter out of open sed which is just another um experiential learning um curriculum uh highly rated. So they're looking to see you know with how will this fit in so with what we already do um rather than making more work for everybody let's see how we can make this uh work better for all of all the students. Um so they're investigating and looking at real world. So along the science vein, uh today I had the great fortune of uh attending uh TU's gap junction program with uh 16 of our students. Um several couldn't attend today because of conflicts. Um but TUS reached out and wanted to do um a veterinary sciences experience um for our middle school kids. So we did our sign up and we went today. Uh that was absolutely awesome. Uh we investigated the uh cardiac system, the coronary system of animals. Uh the kids made a u a model uh using hydraulic hydraulics and liquid uh to see how the heart circulated blood. Uh we went ahead and learned about the skeletal systems of animals. Learned a fun fact that a

certain type of whale has 13 stomachs. When we talked about anatomy, 13 stomachs. Um, I thought four was the number seems excessive, right? That's what I that's so big.

But, uh, the kids then went on and created a a model, um, skeletal system out of Q-tips, glue, and paper. Um, it was fantastic. the level of collaboration and communication uh that the kids had, the excitement and the the enthusiasm for next week's session. Uh we will we'll actually be in um one of the medical labs at TUS uh playing with beagle puppies. There'll be no photos of the beagles though because uh photos are prohibited. Uh you have to go on site to see the beagles. The kids are fire.

They're really cute. And uh on the bus ride back, several of the kids came and said that uh is there's room on the bus. Is there room for friends? Because we told other kids what we're doing and they want to come. So, okay, that's a win. Um very excited about these uh partnership programs.

Um related arts, we have another partnership program actually uh mostly in the visual arts section. Uh kind of hone in on that. So with the Black Snow Valley Ed Foundation, um we have partnered with them to not just do the arts in the valley, um but we also have an artist in residence. So she has come once and she'll be coming again. Um and she works all day with the students um and with our our teacher Fitzgerald um to just kind of immerse again so students can see how what they're doing in the classroom is giving to the real giving back, right? And what how that um is applied in the real world. Um, so that's a pretty neat thing. U, we're also going to be partnering with at the end of the school year, um, the whole school, the the vision is for the whole school the day of the, um, the day of our spring concert, um, to kind of do a a showcase. So, not just arts, but we're going to be bringing a lot of different things in. So, keep your eyes open for that. But beyond that day after school where we did pizza and pages for the last few years, if you remember that. So, we want to just keep expanding on that. um have some of the civic showcase there. Um have some of the art show there. Um bring different pieces that the kids have been doing all year long. Um and have that be showcased just that one time so you can kind of come through and then go over to um the the uh music concerts.

That's Yeah. So this was just another slide about the artist in Artia Valley and the arts and residents.

April 24th uh 4 to8 at Open Sky Alternatives in Whitenville. Um, student artwork from around the region will be on display and multiple pieces of work from Grafton Middle as well. So, it'd be worth uh worth the time to get out there on the 20th. Uh, mathematics, we're in our second uh year of full implementation of uh illustrative math. Um, illustrative math, it it is one of those curricula that really shifts the cognitive load. Um, back when I was a math teacher, Christine was a math teacher, uh, we would encourage our kids to do problem set after problem set after problem set. Problem sets still exist in illustrative math, but they look different. Um, it's much more of a inquiry based, phenomenabased type experience, problem based mathematics, uh, where the kids are guided on a more of a learning journey. Um, they start to identify patterns, information through their experience. And uh what we're seeing based on our star data is that uh the whole population in schools um academic aptitude and math is increasing. Um you know that that's one metric. MCCAST is a very public metric. I think I've shared my perspective on the amount of testing that we do. Um if I didn't, I'm welcome to come back sometime if you're willing to listen. Um but uh the kids are learning at a high level. Our preliminary placement for seventh grade to eighth grade actually has uh an uptick in students recommended at this point preliminarily for participation in algebra as opposed to intro to algebra in the eighth grade. So uh the teachers were seeing this at the classroom level and again uh the idea of that mathematics illustrative mathematics it required the teachers really to think about their practice very deeply uh to shift from that sage on the stage model to the guide on the side allow the students to really carry

that cognitive load and think uh get that brain sweat going if you will and and we see that in in all four of our math classrooms in addition to our uh our specialized mathematics classrooms as well.

I I'll just touch on that first. I was walking through a math class the other day. I taught math for over 20 years, high school and middle school, and I was like, "What? What do they Oh, I get it." And that they it was pretty cool. I was like, "Oh, okay. I get why they're doing it that way." Why? When I first walked in and I didn't say it, I was just like, "Why are they okay?" So, yeah, it's a really neat way to just kind of look at math differently. Um and yeah, it was pretty cool. Anyways, that being said, um our student support team, uh we love our student support team. We have a phenomenal team that we work with on a regular basis. We meet either weekly, sometimes every other week depending on what's happening. Um and it's really a proactive approach. So, um we have different levels of our student support team. So, we have the the team level. We also talk separately about different cohorts. Um we have a cohort that we meet meet about every 3 weeks just for attendance alone. Um and we look at you know those high level attendance issues and what can we do to help those families if needed um and how do we support those students and then we will look at our lighthouse program separately and what's going on with our lighthouse kiddos and can we help them in a different way? How are things going? and we just keep, you know, we we're all we're constantly chatting about how things are going um in with our different student populations um to make sure that those interventions, we're not reacting, but we're proactive, right? Um our team is still doing um their anxiety groups. So, one of the things that they do is they do some screeners um and then they identify who can they work with separately and they pull those students for I believe it's eight weeks. Um one just started this week with some of our seventh graders. um and they go through very specific topics with them to help them to figure out how they can help with their anxiety. Um and they're seeing through um their screenings uh the pre and post screenings uh quite quite a decrease in some of those symptoms and giving those

kids some real tools. Um they're also phenomenal in working with us. And so one of the things we didn't put on here, but one of the things we do um in as far as discipline goes is we really do work with the team and it's not all about, you know, what did you do wrong and how are we going to punish you, but what did what happened and how are we going to repair it and how are we going to move forward and how are we going to give you the skills so it doesn't happen again. Um and so our SST team and our counselors are just I I can't say enough about how well they work with us to get that done. Um they're amazing.

Along the lines of discipline as well, we're really leveraging the use of a of a district provided tool called Compass. Um it can't remember what it used to be called, but uh essentially it's a a a behavior-based intervention program. So if a student does X, there are some online modules that we can provide to the student to complete in reflection and then we'll process that reflection afterwards. What we're seeing is less repeat assignments of specific modules, which is fantastic. Um, and we're also hearing uh from students who might be considered frequent flyers. Um, we're hearing their processing shift to I could have done. I think that if I had thought about this, I would have done. Uh, and that's very powerful, especially considering that the young adolescence that they are, they're they're impulse control driven, right? So, we're starting to see the benefits of our student support team, our behavior perspective kind of merge together into a more of an individualized accountability um for our kids. Um, the future of learning. I I'm I'm exceptionally excited to be a part of this cohort um with with my team. Um applied learning leadership is uh is a strong focus of the foundation of all of our instructional uh focus when we're sitting down thinking about school improvement planning, thinking about curriculum design, thinking about assessment design and feedback mechanisms for kids. Um last year I talked a little bit about year one of the cohort. We're in year two of the cohort now. Year two is a much more intensive experience where we designed a pilot uh that we're going to focus on expanding and scaling out to our school. Uh the focus of our pilot

was on academic discourse uh and collaboration skills in the classroom. Our pilot team uh was led by Kelly Dowst, Eron Hernandez, and Indra Karabdi and myself. We meet with colleagues from across the state as well as those from the 18 Foundation um who is a tremendous partner and supporter and driver of this work across the state. Uh we visited the Philadelphia public schools um after having designed this preliminary pilot and when we went into the Philadelphia public schools uh they had selected very specific applied learning environments for us to look at and we through the lens of academic discourse and collaboration identified the things that they were doing exceptionally well and brought those back to finalize our pilot plan. Uh we ended up with eight classroom pilot teachers uh in the building. Uh and it just so happened that every single student in the building is touched by this pilot in some way and with at least one content area. Uh and you know through that through the provision of uh sentence stems and starters. There's an example up there, but we've got like eight different sentence stem uh templates for kids to use. We're hearing in the classrooms higher levels of discourse, higher levels of agreement, disagreement. We're hearing fact-based evidence woven into student arguments. Uh it's fantastic. So the plan will be once we conclude the pilot is go ahead and create our at Grafton Middle School and in all classrooms will utilize these strategies for discourse and collaboration and uh move student learning to the next level. The master plan will be to trickle this down to sixth grade and up to 9inth grade and really start to influence um the experience for all kids. Uh so our products coming in from the L's will be

at a higher level and the high school will see higher yield as well. That's the the secret master plan. I'm exceptionally proud of the work that our pilot team is doing. Um absolutely phenomenal. Okay, so the the next few slides or the last few slides I should say um really are focusing on all of the different u extracurricular things that we've been able to bring to our students through partnerships with outside agencies. So Steam unfiltered um was May March 12th I believe um at WPI. Um so we partnered with the Blackstone Valley Ed Foundation. Um we had over 40 students uh attend um up at WPI. It was an afternoon event. Um they did everything. You'll see one of our one of our kiddos there using sutures. Um they had to build. So on the left you see foam build. Um the picture in the middle is actually kiddos uh with somebody from TUS who was teaching them about like how to hear heart sounds and things like that. They actually had to figure out what heart sound they were hearing. Um and they also did a slime um one of them was making slime and the other one was a windmill um experience and they could pick two of the two of the five. So, um, our kids had a really great time. We did a post survey, um, and a lot of them were like, "This was so exciting. We're really excited about this field. We want more information." Um, so we hope to continue um, our our partnership with the Blackstone Valley Ed Foundation. Um, and we really appreciate I actually am part of the Blackstone Valley Ed Foundation. I run this program for the middle school. Um, so I, you know, we were really fortunate to be able to bring this to them and WPI actually gave us a grant to run this. Um, so it was wonderful. We're hoping next year to have it during the school day and be quite a bit longer. Um because really the kids would have loved to do more. Um we wanted it to be bigger, but uh we had to start somewhere. So we'll see how that goes. Um we have the dollar scholar program

coming up. So I I think we talked about this a little bit last year. So last year um we reached out to the United Way um and they actually came to our building for a half day. Um and we did two different half days for all the eighth grade girls. Uh we did one team one day, one team the other day. Um it is a specific program just for middle school girls. Um and this year we're able to partner with them. We're going to do a full day experience. Um they provide busing. Um so we can bring up to 90 students. Uh we do have that open right now for girls in eighth grade to apply. Um if there are more slots open once the eighth grade is kind of, you know, once we've given them their deadline, then we will open it up to seventh grade. Um, but we will be taking 90 of them over to Clark University on the 13th. Um, and there's a lot of local women that will that they volunteer the day um to put on all different types of events for the kiddos. And so they'll do everything from smart budget planning to how to invest your money to, you know, what is debits and credits. Um, things that, you know, we maybe as adults get, but they don't necessarily always get that financial literacy daytoday like we used to. you know, they don't even know what a check is. Um, I don't even know if people use checks anymore, but it's that kind of thought. Um, you know, and giving them, you know, what is your money really worth? Um, and I think it's it's super powerful for these kiddos at this age because they don't see a lot of money. They see credit cards and they see tapping. And so I don't I think money to them is very um, you know, it's kind of out there. They don't really understand the concept. So, um, programs like this are very helpful, um, for budgeting and exploring and and giving them real world like this is what it's all about. So, I'm excited to bring them to that. Um, I had to put this in. I was thinking about this tonight. I was like, holy moly, I didn't put it Washington um, in there. So, just wanted to highlight we have given over almost $13,000 away. I actually think the

number might be a smidge higher. It might be a little over 13 now. Um, in scholarship to bring students with us. Um, so we want to make sure that this opportunity is for anybody whe whether they can afford it or not. Um, we've already opened up the seventh grade um, group, but we are bringing I think it's 184 185 students this year, so four bus loads. Um, nation's classroom that Oh, yeah. Your husband's coming with us. Very excited. She gets a few days off, right? Um, you're welcome.

Second year. And yeah, so Nation's classroom is is really great. So every bus every for every 40 students, they give us a scholarship. Um so we actually are able to schol we were able to scholarship eight half scholarships through their funding as well. So definitely wanted to highlight that. They're a great company that we've been working with. Um they also um afford us four students to lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. So we have those um where we've got a four-way tie for number four. So I haven't announced our four people yet. So, we have top three and then a four-way tie for the for um the fourth kiddo. So, we need to put those four back out there and get one more round of voting to try and get that fourth kiddo. Um and so we'll have four students again this year that lay the wreath and it's really powerful. Um they have to dress up so there's a special dress code. The whole school is there at the same time. Um so they make it so we're all there so we can all see that. Um and it's pretty neat. Uh we also have the students create the logo for the t-shirt. So on the lefth hand side that is this year's logo that's the winning logo for the for the for the group. Um so yeah so it's it's a it's a fun event. Um it there's a you know we we it's it's a lot. Um and we have all of our volunteers. So we very much appreciate our volunteers that come with us. We have our parent volunteers um and our teachers that join us as well. So it's it's a it's a fun it's a fun trip. I think lastly,

lastly, before I before I talk about the Nova Bio Club, I just wanted to say thank you to Christine um for leadership uh and taking initiative with so much um from the day-to-day grind of the role of assistant principal. I would be drowning uh without you. Um but also these additional experiences, your leadership, Blackstone Valley Ed Foundation's tremendous partnerships that you built. Um it's just simply amazing. Uh thanks. So thank you to you.

Um uh two members of the committee specifically, you know, Miss Kilbasinski and Miss Deas um for the work behind the scenes. You know, Miss Kilbasinski stepped up and helped us with our math team this year. Um and uh I'm not sure if we're going to make national championships or not, but uh she provided a service by being present on Tuesday afternoons throughout the competition season preparing the kids for their exams. And Stella uh you continue to be a force when we're we're looking for uh support to help out our teachers. Uh we don't have a formal PTO uh organization, but we've got a tremendous troop behind uh folks like you uh who raise funds, collect donations, and provide our teachers with thank yous every now and then. It's uh truly from the heart. Uh thank you to both of you. If I refer the it's here to help a lot with the DC right emails was a big force helping with the fundraising here for DC for sure

big time and yeah we have so many other uh parent volunteers and partners and community members that are really supporting our mission. Uh it's it's truly special. Um, another special piece is um the Nova Bio Club from BVT. Um, some student leaders created this uh club uh in STEM and biomedical exploration. They reached out to to me to say, "Hey, would it be okay if we solicited interest uh and ran a biomed STEMbased activity?" I'm a why not kind of guy, so I said, "Sure." Uh, we put out signups to kids to participate after a description went out. Uh we filled the 30 slots immediately. Uh we now have a weight list of over uh I think the weight list is up around 50 kids.

Um this group is just starting out. They couldn't commit to do multiple days or multiple experiences of each session. So we said we're going to cap it at 30. Uh but they're the student leaders and one of them's a Grafton uh middle school uh alum. um it they're just exceptionally proud of creating a legacy type project that they can partner uh with local middle schools and we are kind of their pilot. So I look forward to seeing that. It's going to be a five session experience, four sessions of classroom and hands-on experiences followed by um a showcase type experience where the kids will take all four skills that they've learned along the way and apply them into one project. and uh we're trying to coordinate that experience to occur during our showcase

uh on the day of our spring concert. So uh there'll be a lot of uh academic celebration and uh this is just another example of that student leadership and student voice. Um the final piece which we didn't have a slide for but I just wanted to acknowledge um members of the principal advisory. uh we're 37 members strong this year and you know one example of their project leadership was the creation of a student recognition program where uh monthly we utilize one of the themes of Grafton Middle School and we just asked teachers to acknowledge one student from a very from a specific class. We started with period one classes went to period two and we're going to do period three this month um where we call the kids down. I bought a button maker which was super fun. uh made buttons for the kids and uh

just a little face, but it was created by kids for kids. Um another group is working with uh Betsy Labonte and and Frank Rothell on uh cafeteria redesign. If you've been in the cafeteria, it's, you know, a cafeteria. Um they they're looking at uh flexible seating options, more decoration. Uh and they're also talking with Betsy, who's been exceptional about uh meal planning and uh options. Um through that conversation, she's uh doing a really nice opening day of baseball special lunch at Fenway Franks and sausage sausages and popcorn.

I got my sweatshirt ready to go. Yeah. Uh Red Sox fans are allowed, but uh you know,

we'll celebrate Yankee stands. Uh but uh so the student voice and sorry I am a Yankee Spanish. Um the student voice and the student leadership element uh is important and I'm hoping that that influences student participation in student council and other leadership experiences at the high school by giving them the opportunity to have voice. And finally, before we turn for questions, uh direct questions if you have any, um is uh I'd like to thank all the members of our um GMS school council. Uh it's made up of a number of parents, educators, and students. Uh we have five students, I think eight parents, and four regularly attending teachers uh participating through either virtual um experiences or in session experiences. It's it's nice to have that support and more importantly it's nice to have the interest in support uh because you sit on that side of the table and uh sometimes the interest appears to come from different angles. Uh we're seeing real meaningful impactful experiences um from those who are involved in our community. So that's about all that we've got. I'm sure we have more, but

there we could go for five hours, but we Thank you both. Not just for a great presentation, but just a really engaging community. It sounds like it's it's incredible what you've been able to build at GMS. You guys have the kids for the least amount of time of any of the schools really. Um, and you've made it so meaningful and you've built a really nice community. So, thank you. We appreciate that. Sure. We would love sixth grade. Good to know. Throwing that out there. Okay. Yeah. Putting it down into the universe. Does anyone have any questions?

Yeah, Chris. Hi, Chris. So, I have a question in regards to the applied learning leadership discovery. Remember, you and I actually spoke about it that that um each classroom is often be like an island type thing, right? That kids go from one classroom to the other and and feel the same rules and such apply. when you implement that fully, will that translate into grades as well? Like in every classroom, homework and class participation is worth 15%. And you know what I'm saying? Because right now, each classroom kind of does their own thing. And so each kid has to learn based on that classroom. Is it worth 20%, is it worth zero? Is it worth 10? Is it worth 15? Is test in this class 40? You know what I'm saying? So is that going to be part of that implementation? It's a great question and it's also a great loaded question. Uh but the the idea here is to identify instructional practices and down the road I think we're going to be getting into deeper conversations about those assessment practices and what grades truly mean. Um I am not a tra and I and the faculty and staff know this. I'm not a traditional gradesbased person. I think it um in some ways can penalize the um the slower learner. The kid who earns a 40 on a quiz and a 60 on a quiz, but by unit test time, they've got it and they're they're banging a 95. Are they really a 72 because of that 40? Are they a 95? Um and that incorporates in the conversation about those uh those learning practices that we're measuring as a part of the grade. uh is a grade an academic measure or is it a measure of a good student? I think we need to have that conversation. We're not ready at this point. Uh so down the line, I'm not advocating uh directly to the camera uh for standardsbased reporting at the middle level. Not advocating for that. But I do believe that we need to focus

on really uh finely tuned discrete elements as a faculty so we can be consistent across the board. Um down the line we're looking at this from a pers this pilot from a perspective of what are the best practice for instruction and learning that we need to standardize across our and how do you assess that and and then the assessment piece comes in. So, um the the conversation is very large and it's a multi-year conversation, but I I do think that does come in uh at some point down the line.

Yeah. And then uh this is not a question, but just to thank you because I've noticed that every student that comes with you to you for a club idea, that club gets created and that is wonderful. I've seen bird club, D&D club, the birders, the birders are amazing. Don't Don't knock the birders. Okay. They're the birds. They want to be the bird boys. No, they are. Okay. So, the bird club is amazing. But every club and I've seen it throughout the years, even from when my oldest son was there through every club that comes to you, you're like, "Yeah, let's go. Let's do it." Which is

Thank you for recognizing that. And I think it's more of a thank you to the kids for being comfortable and confident in identifying a passion that they have. the more we can do to support that the better. Well, and I truly believe that's part of the reason why the Nova Bio Club kids came to Grafton, right? Because our Grafton student knew that we're open to that, right? And we want to give these experiences to kids whenever we can. And so we made it work. Yeah. You know, um and and and it is important, right? And all these outside things are what, you know, that's what drives students to stay and that's what makes them remember.

Yeah. And that's what's important. It also allows us to refuel ourselves. I could have done so many other things today in the afternoon instead of spending two hours at TUS, right? However, the experience sitting there with the kids looking at them smile and giggle and and check their Snapchats every now and then under the desk

uh was was wonderful. I can take care of the work I didn't get done tonight or tomorrow, but being able to provide the kids with what they what they want and what they need, that's really what our mission should be, you know. So, when we sit down and talk about big picture pieces, community identity and the like, you know, these are the things that we should be thinking of. Um, and when our when our teachers get strapped and and taxed, uh, these experiences allow them to refuel and recharge. um when added pressure is put on them that's um you know of the negative uh it can really take away from you know the overall experience. So I I urge all the moms and dads uh and caregivers out there to think holistically about our identity and the experience and and really consider uh the impact that we're having on every single child um in every single day. That's our job. That's our mission. And I mean, it's kind of why I I do what I do and I believe it's why Christine does what she does. Um, so, but thank you for acknowledging that. It's it's it's special to be able to say why not.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for letting me borrow your glasses. And cheers.

Um, I had two things I wanted to say. one, I really wanted to give a shout out to your student support team. I feel like middle school is such a I mean, it's just it's a tough time for every single kid developmentally and they are really catching those kids before they fall through the cracks. They're doing such an amazing job. I've heard about some of the things they're doing from I mean I've spoken to some of your staff but also from some students and it's just it feels really intentional and not like this is not a lip service program like you are really really trying to help those kids and prevent issues down the line and I I just just love it. Um, the other thing I wanted to say, I loved what you were just saying about grades and I, you know, I have a lot of feelings about grades. I used to teach middle school science and when I was a teacher there was, middle school is a weird time for grades because it's sort of that time when it's like, oh, they're starting to be like, worry about college, you know, like don't don't forget this is important for college. But it's also the time when I feel like a lot of kids can potentially check out of specific academics. I remember I would have seventh or eighth grade kids come into my classroom and they would be like, "I hate science." And I'm like, "Dude, you're 12. Like what's up?" And um like I really felt like part of my job was to show them the joy in science. And it's like this is our opportunity. You're going to go on and take those better classes, those higher level classes if you if you're able to, you know, hold on to that joy. And I feel like your new math curriculum also provides that a lot because it's sort of like math is really dry at the beginning and then it gets fun. And this is making it fun earlier. This is making it fun earlier. I love math. I absolutely love math. But it's like I used to tell my daughter like you got to get through the memorization to get to the fun stuff. And it's like you

guys are bringing that fun stuff like much earlier. And I and I love that. Anyway, thank you. Love it. Yeah. to to that end, I think it's um it's a it's it's an attribute that's been brought to the district through the leadership of Jen Manion, who you're going to hear about teaching learning in a little bit.

Um and leadership from Dr. Cummings as well as, you know, Mrs. McDonald and the special ed side, you know, all the members. Um but the the real acute focus on high quality instructional materials coming in a lot of those have embedded in them very highlevel practice shifts and while the conversation about grades will be very important the mindset shift about what teaching and learning looks like in the classroom that foundation is being relayed right now and you know we're seeing that in science with the open sed pilot and our science team which is exceptionally enthusiastic. I mean, curriculum change usually brings about eye rolls and groans. This team has rolled their sleeves up and they're already three years down the road in their thinking, but we have to slow them down so that way it can be implemented effectively. So all the support that we're getting from the district level and the curriculum side is uh exceptionally helpful and it's going to really get at you know your point um how do we build uh a more distinct love of learning as opposed love of content uh and you know if we can get them to learn and they love learning the content's not going to be a barrier so um I'm just really thankful for the cohesion and the team that we have to get us there.

Awesome. Thank you for the acknowledgement.

I'll be quick. Thank you both. It's so wonderful to see you and it's great um to hear all of what's going on at GMS. Um I particularly one I just have to say my father was an educator in the Philadelphia public schools for 30 years. So that shout out just kind of um warms my heart. Um they do a lot of great things and get a bad rap because they're a city school, but there's a lot good things going on in Philly. um completely irrelevant to this conversation, but um shout out to Mr. Orort. Um but the um one thing well several things that really struck out um kind of piggybacking on what Christy said um it's also due I heard over and over again about students and students it can tell you're that is the driving force in what you're doing. Students are in every piece of this presentation and it's the full student. I'm so glad to hear about, you know, social emotional, but in a meaningful way. Not just, again, I think somebody said lip service, not just lip service. We're seeing what that means. When you can get rid of that anxiety, then they're able to learn better. Um, and because they don't have that, then they're able to do that discourse. To have discourse in a middle school classroom isn't easy because it's very much, hey, I want to fit in. I want to don't want anyone to notice me. I don't want to stand out because you're doing all that work now. These students are able to learn and grow. And um finally, just a shout out. You mentioned the um the clubs. I also know you're stepping up too, Mr. Sh. Aren't you leading the weightlifting club or something? I can tell obviously strength unified, isn't it?

I mean, clearly. Um so, thank you for doing that, too, though. that's um but just stepping up and being do being there both both of you um is really important to see and then everybody and I know that they're not here but your teachers and your staff at that school I mean they were they love um being there I remember when I used to go to the open houses I was like wow these people love middle school and you kind of have to love middle school um and but they sure do and that's amazing and now it feels like all the pieces are coming together. Um, and maybe cuz you know and even building pieces too, right? And I I love to hear when you if you're able to reimagine that cafeteria. Um, that'll be really cool. But the roof

the roof roof the roof we finally got, you know, an Hback, right? So we'll have, you know, we're getting there, right? So roofs we have not forgotten. Yeah. But I mean that is, see, that's important thing though. We have all these great things. It has to happen in a building that is safe and healthy and a place where it can foster. So, thanks for all your amazing work. I guess I didn't really have any questions. I probably just want to give my dad a shout out, I guess, but no, I appreciate both of you so much and just there's a lot of joy in this presentation and I know that's infectious to from off that bus till on the bus again. So, thank you.

I want to build off the strength and conditioning thing. I don't know, most people probably don't know this, but Mr. Star earned a invite to my son's bar mitzvah because of his work, strength and conditioning. He was like, um, can we invite Mr. Star? And I was like, your principal. And he's like, um, you mean my strength and conditioning coach? So anyway, um, but that's the joy, right? like you're an important part of his life, not just because you're running his school, but because he's had that interaction with you, right? So, fantastic. Thank you.

There was definitely some sad tears today when he said he have to take the bus home and there's no strength and conditioning today. I know half day tomorrow, so there's no clubs tomorrow. We had to cancel because of weather and I had several send me uh send me videos of them at home doing a work. Oh, I love that. Awesome. Oh, that's funny. That's fun. But this uh this little uh AI generated graphic does not show um the benefits of strength. Uh however, it doesn't do either of Martellio looked as if she attended every session.

Who made the graphic? I may have made yes and stuff. Thank you both so much for not just this evening but everything you're doing. Our pleasure. Appreciate it. Yeah. And thank your community for us too. Yep. Yeah. The teachers are exceptionally supportive of all the work that you're doing. Uh and yeah, for the great community of Grafton for continued support and focus. They are happy to be working with these kids and uh it's they're an exceptional team. We have a great thing going at Grafton Middle School. Thank you. Let's keep it rolling.

Thank you. Thanks. You will see how while you're because it's be so quick. Just gonna take Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. All right. Uh fine. Do you need a minute? I need a second cuz I can't remember. Um, can you tell a joke, Christie? No, but I can talk about Paula Conland. She the first year she started, I had her as a teacher. Amazing. Wow. At public schools and she was the first teacher to ever say to reference her as Paula. Don't say Mrs. Conlin. That's what she would say. And she'd walk around with a pencil in the back of her hair, her hair. She was amazing.

That's a really nice memory. She was wonderful. Yeah, she had one. Yeah, I didn't like calling her Paula, so I called her Miss Paul. That's what my parents always said. Did you sell Hey Paula? No, because the kids got nobody. I think I think she watched Dead Poet Society more than anybody else in the world. I could see that. She was you more. No, I was an English teacher. Yeah, I mean, we watched it. So, oh my gosh, so sorry. That's all right.

Um, I can talk while I get prepared. I do have actually I have a kind of what I need help with. So, we're jumping ahead just to the MASC update that I asked you to put on the agenda. I sort of talked about it two weeks ago. Um, but I have an update. So, the update is this. Um on Monday, um I know it was day on the hill where we have the opportunity to meet with um representatives and hear about legislation updates and um I confirmed that we will have a meeting with Senator Moore um which is which is great. Uh Representative Meridian isn't available. He did of course offer to meet with us another time

another time. But um I just wanted us to I don't know like just think about what we want to talk about. obviously I mean top of mind in funding. Um I did go to and I'm hoping this can fit under the agenda here. Uh for last week I went to an ad an advocacy call. Um it was sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of the Mass Teachers Association. Um, and they were talking a lot about how to advocate for the funding and how there's a lot of funding that is available that is just not he

trickling to us to use the old uh trickle down theory that messed all of us up forever. But um and so some of that is um that fair share tax that we all advocated for. I mean BRT is not saying really any of that. Um, and they are and I know, you know, I know we talked to Senator Moore several years ago. He came into the select board. It didn't go well. Um, and I will recommend that when we're talking to him, we we push hard. Um, I've been thinking just very strongly. Um, especially hearing a lot a lot obviously of what's going on in the in the community is if you also think of Representative Meridian's uh districts, he represents us. He represents Upton which is going for a big override as well and he represents North Bridge which we have given up and they will admit that too. So I'm very passionate about pushing back on the state more than we have done. We have done it and I don't want you know there was a memory that came up in my phone of Rebecca and I going to a hearing this time last year you know advocating for funding. Um, but we have an opportunity to be with Senator Moore next Monday. So, on our own, just let's think about, you know, how we I'll be kinder, but how we want to just speak with him and advocate, right? Um, for what we need and if he's pushing back that he needs to help, too. Like, if we have to take what we've been taking, he needs to take what he had not been taking. Um, and after that though, I am very excited. Um, and I know I mentioned this before, but um, Division 4, which we are all in, is um, hosting the very first post um, celebration after Day on the Hill. I can't find the name of the restaurant at that and I apologize for that. Um,

but we can go and celebrate that. Um, so hopefully if you're coming, it starts at 4:00. I will lead you cuz I'm in charge. so we can get there and um hopefully just enjoy some meet and greet and just getting to share with other uh school committee members and helping each other. Um so that was my MASC update. Um I'm pretty excited about next next Monday. Oh, and my final one is on April 1st. I believe Division 4 is also sponsoring a uh lunch and learn at noon on how to get an override pass. So, um I hope we will I will definitely if you can't make it, we'll have a recording. It's being hosted by Dan Gail who used to work with us and has helped pass an override over there in Hudson. And he is going to uh present to us kind of some tips and tricks that he learned along the way and um anything we can do to to help learn. Um so, I'm I'm very excited about that. came from a lot of people asking for that because again Grafton is not alone in this need for an override and people want to know how to do it. So thanks to Dan. Hope to see you guys there.

Is that in person or It is a virtual event. It's a lunch and learn. It'll be on Zoom and they usually record them too. Um so yeah, very excited about that. Good. Thanks. Great. Thank you. All right. Welcome Jen Mandy. I'm thinking of the connection between override and appetite like cool. But thank you for having me. It's nice to be here again as usual. I'm excited to give you uh just a quick overview of what we've been working on in the curriculum department and I use the term department like these days. I'm going to ask you to speak up a tiny bit. We've had audio problems with people watching. Scooch forward. Yeah, I think you're near the mic near the new microphone, but All right,

sing out. I don't want anyone to miss anything. Great.

Um, so our work is driven by the district strategic plan, um, federal and state regulations, the expertise and needs of the staff here in Grafton. Um, so I'm just going to give you a blush of some of the things we've been working on um, relation to those things. And I recently submitted our progress report for our student opportunities act plan, which are um strategies that really mirror what's in our district strategic plan. Uh we choose evidence-based practices from that plan to focus on in terms of our goals and then report out on them. So that seemed like a nice lens to frame this presentation to you on since I just done that work. It's kind of fresh. So our three evidence-based practices u for that plan were inclus inclusive curriculum adoption process supporting curriculum implementation and authentic post-secondary planning. The third one I don't speak to you as often about but I'm looking forward to sharing um how we're doing and what I've learned there and how I'll continue to support that. So, we've talked about this in the past a little bit of the why, but I figured just a quick refresh on um the push to adopt HQIMS um at the state level and the work we've been doing here in Grafton. As a result, the state um published a new vision for student learning. I believe two years ago um and really focuses on equity and access and making sure all students um access curriculum that's at grade level or beyond. Um so that's become the um hub of the work that we're doing. Um and you see that in terms of HQIM adoption across the state. So first part of the why is that equity of access piece. Um particularly with subgroups who our data shows have not had um similar performance comparative to their peers. Um and for me inclusive curriculum also is students seeing themselves represented in the curriculum uh resources, literature, things like that. So, I included that photo. That's Karen Mey, our department head at the English department. Um, and we were fortunate to be uh the recipients of a generous

donation from Don Anderson, who a lot of you know as a town moderator um through a series of events. she was able to donate um a significant amount of books curated by Scholastic who has focused on this lens of making sure we represent different um populations, different students, different voices, different perspectives um and made that donation to the Grafton public schools. So my office looks a little bit like a fortress right now because there's just boxes and boxes and they're labeled by grades span and this doesn't usually happen but she gave us things for grades K through 12. Um and so I reached out to uh department has a grade level leaders and Miss Millie was so excited because she's developing a new elective, a new reading elective and was looking for contemporary literature um to boost the level of reading again and get kids engaged. Um so she was thrilled to be able to pick she's a kid in candy store and be able to pick through the boxes and and really support that elective. So that was fantastic. An additional part of our why is um a big aim of these HQs is to reduce teacher decision fatigue and I use the word aim because um initially in implementation we don't achieve that. Uh initially it drives just a different kind of fatigue um because teachers have to learn a whole new resource. It's basically learning a new curriculum because it doesn't reflect the scope and sequence that they designed when they designed their own curriculum here in Grafton. um does still reflect alignment with the standards, but they have to unpack the units, internalize all the lessons before they can become designers themselves of how to differentiate and scaffold for students. So, we're only in year two, so that's still taking the bulk of teachers cognitive load. Um, but another benefit is that it creates coherence grade to grade. So it really we're setting each grade up for the next in terms of students learning routines and language um and then expectations in the standards as an intentional spiral to what they're learning. So we hit that

cohesion piece. Uh alignment of cognitive science. I've been reflecting on this a lot because I think that this has been something that has driven my um it's the drive behind my work I think since I started as an educator long ago. I just always been curious about how to make work more inclusive, our learning more inclusive, engaging, impactful. Um, knowing we we like doctors call our work our practice in education because we're in a researchbased profession. So, there's always going to be something new to learn based on the science. So, I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure our students are receiving instruction and new resources that align with what we currently know about learning in the brain. Um so these HQM are curated to make sure that they align. We use things like ed report and cury um to evaluate them

uh to make sure they align with evidence-based practices and that they really focus on knowledge building. If you've been around a long time, you know education often does this pendulum shift. Um so we went away from knowledge building and back to knowledge building because we realized ohh that's an important part of um the educational experience for a nurse in terms of data reliability. Uh we see this actually starting to play out. I'm going to speak to it a little bit more in a further slide, but it allows for teachers to um speak to each other when we're looking at evidence of learning in terms of what does it mean? What's going well? Uh so we need to build on that and then where do we see a need for growth and what can we do about that um so all the variables more controlled and that data analysis is what drives typically our professional development. We help identify what do we need instructionally or in terms of resources from that analysis. So it's nice when that becomes tighter. This one I love. We're always looking to engage students in the productive struggle. This is not new. Um, we want students to be appropriately challenged till the they are uh experiencing that year's growth that every child deserves and not working at their frustrational level. And this picture on the right is from a high school um PLTW intro to engineering class. And I feel like this photograph just captures what we mean by perseverance and grit in terms of student learning. um they there were no parameters around whether they had to work alone or with peers and I watched students take different approaches in the classroom. So I think what's important to remember is that when we are appropriately challenging students we're also addressing all the soft skills of social emotional learning. Um so learning to work through learning to uh collaborate learning to communicate is all a piece of this work. Um so I just had much respect for the learners in that room. Uh in terms of where we are in our implementation processes, you

know that we adopted um EL education K to6 Illustrative math 6 to 12. Uh we're in year two of Project Lead the Way K to8. Um and in terms of the phases, we're not really approaching phase three yet because um it really just takes the first three years for teachers to teach the full curriculum experience each unit at least one time before they can really talk about what to speak or adjust. That being said, where teachers are feeling more confident and comfortable, they are starting to make decisions around I keep calling it the Grafton way. I think I might have got that from Paul Marano um of the high school. But um what is how we doing we're going to use this resource in Grafton so that our students um achieve to the level we believe they can. We did some expansion this year in terms of adding uh Project Lead the Way through intro to engineering at the high school. Um, and as you have heard uh, Mr. Saresky mention, we're in year one of DKP and eighth grade. Um, and I was thinking, oh boy, there's going to be a lot of repeats between my presentation and Mr. Saresky and Mrs. Martellio, but I think that's really a good thing because I think it shows there's an authentic collaboration going on among instructional leaders in the district. U, it's great people are working toward the same goals and supporting each other and getting there. In terms of 26 27 planning, um you heard um them mention a little bit about open sedcoming more um focused on phenomena based instruction and performance tests in science particularly at the secondary level um just because our elementary teachers plates are full with math and um English implementation right now and our middle school teachers really were the catalyst in getting this work going. And I have to um just share how much I respect and admire the middle school teachers process. They've been very slow and um mindful in terms of the steps

that they've been taking, not wanting to rush in and adopt something um to really be mindful of the work they've done in the past. Their their curriculum is strong. So we don't want to throw it out baby with the bathwater. Um, but we also know that through applied learning, the hours and hours of research that go into creating these applied learning programs, we can't replicate at the district level. So, I love that their um lens is let's explore it. We talked about we could make it the floor, not the ceiling for whatever work we do here in Grafton. Um, but still hesitant to go through the grant process because that locks us into their process and we didn't necessarily want to be locked into somebody else's process at this point. Um and so I had started looking for outside vendors to support us in the phenomena based learning piece for teachers and when um our liaison through OSE and 18 they consistently communicate reach out how can we help what can we do um and when she heard that I was looking to contract with an outside provider she said call me so I did and they offered to uh split the cost of PD with us let us forego the grant process for now align with the cohort of people who are receiving the grant. So, we'll be with this next cohort. So, our teachers will participate in the professional development um and pilot a unit of OSE that will give them more time to process and plan and make decisions. If they decide OSE is the way to go, we can then apply for the grant in February next year, get the materials, continue coaching and PD um and we won't have to start at go. We will already be in this in line with this cohort. And that networking piece is huge. So, feels like a real win-win. I'm really um appreciative of OSC's generosity and and trying to meet us where we are and create a partnership with us. So, that's exciting. Um we are um members of the Blackstone Valley Education Foundation. So, um Dr. Connelly and I had worked

together around putting together a PD offering for the high school because it's not just about adopting a resource from a publisher. It's also about fine-tuning the curriculum that currently exists in Grafton um so that we're aligning with what we know from cognitive research. So um she's put together a proposal to engage our science teachers next year in that process. So doing some similar learning. Uh Tracy Kao is also doing incredible work in terms of working with her team on um cognitive rigor and academic expectations. So I think there'll be a nice alignment next year in that regard. Um, and additionally, we um had done some work with French River early on and we had really developed a nice partnership with them and I was able to connect them with the Blackstone Valley Curriculum Consortium. So, now we're doing things where we're purchasing and then expanding and offering seats to other districts so that we can expand our offerings to teachers because they can attend PD in other districts and vice versa. So, we had a really good partnership with them for our uh speech and language pathologists. They've done some great work for our PAR educators and in looking at our data, we know our students with disabilities and our students who are learning English really need to be the crux of our focus next year. Um so I'm partnering with French River to do PD this summer for teachers in those two areas and then hopefully continue on um in the school year. In terms of our outcome data, um we just see this early evidence obtained which is really exciting in terms of collaboration across and uh among buildings. So we had an example where um one team looked at uh one team in one elementary school looked at the other team's data and the other elementary school, same grade level, and reached out to their building principles and said, "Can we get together with them? We need to know what they're doing because their data indicates they have figured something out and and we kind of need to

collaborate on that." So that came from the teachers, which is I feel like that's when we're getting there. Like we really um are capturing the energy of of champions for kids there. Um and then this professional development day, our sixth grade math teachers and our seventh grade math teachers going to be working together to talk about vertical alignment because we're really trying to push and continue to get more and more students an authentic algebra experience in eighth grade. So, we're doing some um shifting of scope and sequence work. Um so, just it's really cool to see it all coming together. Um in terms of persistent disparities, we continue to talk about our students with disabilities and our multilingual learners. Um not if you we look at our we use lots of data points. One is a heat map that we use um in terms of our accountability data. So you can just see overall I I might have a slide in here on some data just to show a general there's general growth overall reading and and uh math at every grad span but we have these subgroups of kids who are not showing the same growth. So to us it's not just about equity and access. It's about equity and achievement. So I feel like we're really going to fine-tune our efforts and make sure that we're focusing in on that moving forward. Um there are impacts from budget of course. So right now uh it's Kristen Peron and me who are the department. Um fortunately we have great instructional leadership at every building. So really principles are um partnering and and doing a lot of work around this. Um but we amended our plan to kind of reflect the shifts in who's doing what um knowing could permanently lose the additional uh for two positions that are open right now in my department. Um so in terms of implementation it changes our review cycle because we just don't have the capacity to stick to the pace that we had set out when it was a department of six. Um and it limits the amount of hand-on coaching content

specific that we can do. So you lose a little bit of that proactive approach to supporting teaching and learning um without those those roles. Um but we have come up with some mitigation strategies. uh smart people wanting to do great things always get together and figure it out. Um so we've been leveraging our ESSA grants and our competitive grants to support uh teaching and learning and um you know teaching teachers how to use AI for efficiency sake in terms of planning. Um, so if we're talking about meeting the needs of students with a certain profile of learning, how to use AI to support your lesson internalization and design and scaffolding, um, so we're better able to meet the needs of those students. And then I had to give a shout out to this group of people um because one of the things we're doing as a mitigation strategy is um since we don't have uh humanities coordinator for elementary teachers, we are using ESSA funding to provide um stipens for what we're calling curriculum leads. So these are the people who stepped up to be curriculum leads at um Milbury Street, North Street, North Grafton, and South Grafton. So, we meet once a month and then they facilitate the work of their team. Um, and the collaboration that happens in those monthly meetings is incredible. I wish I could record it to hear. I don't really have to say anything. I just sit and kind of let them go and listen and ask questions. Um, because they know what the work is. They know what needs to be done and they know how to get it done. Um, and they're really eager to share what's working with each other and to learn from each other. So super proud of that that group of people and um thankful and grateful for that group and hope we can expand that model. Um additional professional learning highlight is I mentioned this earlier. We've had um customdesigned uh professional learning for our PAR educators this year. So people in their first two years in the district are participating in optimal push. They have

their fourth session tomorrow um fifth one in May and it's really about how do you foster independence? So you scaffold and then how do you know when to remove those scaffolds so that you're fostering independence rather than reliance on the support. Um and then this is a piece where I have not done a lot of work as curriculum director to date but I think I'll becoming more uh become more involved in this next year. Um in my role I'm the one who's able to attend all the things and go to the networking meetings um do the research and then help design what's needed. I can listen to staff about what the barriers are to the work and try to design solutions. So, I'm gonna start to partner with the middle school and high school primarily to see how I can support the work around the career pathways um that students are engaging in. We know these increase engagement, they increase attendance rates um because they make the learning more hands-on, more um relevant, more authentic to students. Um, and we also want to increase our dual enrollments and our students taking AP and IB uh, exams and all that counts as part of our accountability data. Um the pictures at the bottom are students I had the privilege to speak with at different uh events and showcases. And um the young lady in the bottom left corner there, she just blew me away talking about what her internship did to reignite her passion for learning, her interest in school. Um she could see the connection between the learning uh she was doing here in school and the learning she did in work-based environment. um it just came out of her pores like her enthusiasm for next phase of life for herself and I don't think she had that um vision prior to her work-based experience. So I can really see the value of it. Um and then the middle

picture is another internet engineering piece where uh students were using pretty complex software to design solutions. I pretended to know what they were talking about as I was asking them questions, but it was really cool to see that they knew what they were talking about and could see how could this could parlay into careers in the future. Um, and starting as early as middle school in terms of civics's engagement and um, career development and pathways and what that looks like. So, lots of work to be done with the administrators at each building um, and figure out ways that I can support that further. Uh what got me interested partially was this little bit of a dip. Um last year we had 45 students participating in pathways. It dipped to 21 this year. So I had an very informal conversation with Sharon Buckley and then we have a much more formal conversation um with high school admin and Sharon and myself to figure out okay what can we do to tighten our processes so that we really do see that increase. Um of the 21 were low income. So we want to see those students subgroups really again having equity and access to this kind of programming. Um and then uh Sharon expressed concern about this is something I never would have thought of now that community colleges are uh free for people who have never earned a degree. There's much more demand for professors. So um the concern that that will limit the offerings for dual enrollment for high schools. Um so we'll have to love good challenge like we know a problem exists. something said about and how to address it and come up with solutions. So that'll be an important part of our work. Another part of our plan, both strategic plan and uh student opportunities act plan is increasing family engagement. So it's been exciting to develop and implement our ELPAC this year and we quickly went from four to 11 members. We the snow did us wrong so we are down a meeting. Um, so we will be electing board members in our next meeting rather

than our prior one. Um, but it's great to see that partnership grow. Looking forward to the input, feedback, and collaboration around how to best meet the needs of our multilingual learners um, and not just students but in our community. Um, this is part of the S SOA plan and it's not necessarily part of my purview. So I have the data because of um what's shared with me for developing these plans and then I was able to collaborate with Frank Rothell um to put together this piece. I forget I shared it because I have the information with you just in terms of growth in uh the diverse rep representation among our staff. Um, a lot of this is through our para educator workforce and thinking about why um, thinking about the pipeline and and how we create a better pipeline into Grafton in terms of faculty and um, what are the barriers to that and it's a good thing that we don't have a lot of turnover in Grafton. Um, but it limits opportunities for new hires. So, it's slower to increase diversity because um of some of those I don't want to say issues, they're not issues, just factors. This is the word. It's getting late. Um so, in the past, I've given you lots and lots of data. Um and I fig you could always ask me to come back and present just specifically on data. So, I eliminated most of that for this, but I just took a sample. This is sixth grade reading just so you can see. Um this is really what it looks like star data wise for math and reading across almost every grade span. You see a dip um first grade to second grade reading and I was working with Kristen Peron around the data. I've also been working closely with Steve Wilshshire and the literacy specialists at Milbury Street because the state has changed uh accountability in terms of compliance what I have to submit for reporting and evaluation of our program. So we've been doing a lot of deep dives into our data um which I love. Um, and Kristen noted

that a lot of our second graders are taking the STAR literacy test for the first time because they take the early literacy test until they hit a certain threshold. So, the cool thing is that you see that recovery third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. Um, and it's nice to see the growth from 23 24 to 25 26 and we're only in winter. We haven't even done the spring assessment yet. So, to continue to see that growth. So, our teachers are doing a great job despite implementing new resources. my overview long, but if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer or that was amazing. Good stuff happening for sure.

I didn't really give a shout out to our ESL teachers who are doing a ton of work with data collection and intervention and um collaboration around tier 2, what it looks like and how to support tier one. So, I could do a whole separate presentation on that, but um our literacy specialists are doing great things. So, lots going on across the district. Great. Thank you, Jen. Question. Yeah.

Yeah, just a couple. Thank you, Jen, so much. It's always great to see you. Love to hear all the great work you and your small team are doing. So, thanks for that. I had two questions. If I can read my writing. Um, you talked first about the knowledge. We were talking about the pendulum swimming, winging, and I have definitely seen that and totally agree. But I was wondering when it swings back, has what changed it? Because obviously we step away from something um, and then we go back to it. Is it the same thing? Has it there been tweaks to it? Um, and do you know what I'm talking about? I do. I didn't. Okay.

Yep. And I'm gonna show my age and tell you I was a child of the 70s when we were hooked on phonics and then in the 80s we went to whole language. Yeah. And then in the 90s we realized that was a mistake.

Um so I think that that continues to happen. I think we're also a bandwagon profession. We get on and then we fall off and then the next thing comes. So, it's I I feel like this is the thing I learned from Jay, like a moderate approach is really wise because you want to monitor those shifts and make sure that you're not jumping on something too soon or waiting too long to get on board. Um, so I think in terms of literacy, for example, uh I think the focus the past phase in education was really on the skills of reading um and um giving kids reading at their level. So I think the shifts are embedding the skills of reading with content knowledge because the what people have learned is that that's what really boosts comprehension.

So the brain always wants to brain looks for patterns and connections and it wants to to have those things to grow and learn. So I think when we didn't provide the content knowledge, we were pulling away some of those patterns and connections. So I don't know if I shared the example in the past. I went into a sixth grade class um when they were piloting I think uh Whiten Wisdom and I was asking the kids what was different and they said oh this is way harder and I said are you learning you know what are you learning oh my gosh we're learning so much so they said way harder and we're learning so much and I said if it's harder how come you're learning so much and they said well because I know everything about the dust bowl so now when I'm reading these complex texts I understand what they're talking about because I know everything about the dust bowl because we just spent so much time studying the dust Um so I think it's that connection now that is the shift um with math it is balancing I think you heard Mr. Star Tesky talk about this uh used to be mountains of practice problems. We all did them for homework and in class. Um and I think the shift to the thinking classroom and academic discourse is really important. Um ultimately kids need to be able to do the math. They need to understand the algorithm, be able to apply the algorithm, memorize the tables, whatever it is. Um but it's valuing the balance of that thinking piece as well. So that metacognitive piece of being a mathematician, where does that fit in there? Um, I heard uh Chris and Christine talk about co-eing a little bit and my latest obsession is John Hadtie's research and it's red is things that actually have a negative impact. Yellow is low impact, green is moderate impact, blue is really high impact. And co-eing in the yellow. So, it's not that it has no value, but no matter what, it's going to have this much impact. Some of the things in the

blue are things like um self-reported grading. So, when we say it, the conversation to grade or not to grade that is the question, it kind of sounds like that's what it is. But often in education, you dig in, you realize, well, that's not totally what it is. There's much more to this. So, when I looked at self-reported grading and the impact it has on learning, it's more than a year's growth. When you consistently engage kids in providing a rubric or exemplar, having them monitor their progress based on your feedback, and then you ask them based on this, what do you think you will have earned and why? And all that cognitive load that it puts them through really drives that learning, makes it stick, helps them determine goals and what has to happen next. So part of that conversation might be you might want to think about doing the homework and the practice problems because it looks like that's what your brain needs. So make it not so much about the grade in terms of holding students accountable but about the learning and engaging them in that process. Well, why aren't you learning? Well, what can we do? Or look at you're killing it and you're not doing the homework. So okay, you don't need it, right? Let's talk about what else you do need. Um so I think everything's in education is a bigger question, bigger problem. So, um, I look forward to that next challenge of talking about student grading and things like that. Like, there's always going to be a next. So, piece of me wishes I live till 95 and he never fires me because I undo all the things and, you know, get everything on track.

That was a great answer to my big question because Thank you. You read my mind. And if you can I ask Sure. Thank you. Um, some important stuff.

Um, for the disparities and you answered some of it. Um so if it's concerning I mean at 24.8 uh chronic absenteeism. I wonder and about how much going on in the world is obviously affecting our learners and families um and that is an overall just concern um and hopefully we can work together to make our schools and communities safe if you don't feel safe can't learn if you don't feel safe right and you know seeing that number just it just hit me kind of hard because I know we like to think sometimes we're in a little bit of a bubble, but we're not. Right. And um

and it's a two-parter. You can't learn if you don't feel safe, and you can't learn if you're not in school. Exactly. Right.

And so, just but and then thinking about how different how we can better help. And then I did hear you say over the summer some increased learning opportunities for our pair professionals and focusing more focusing on the um multi- lingual learners, which is terrific. Um, so just anything else kind of think of it to try to make sure that everybody is able to I'd love to I think you mentioned that you had data um showing kind of how people have improved. Um I'd love to see that after or something just um because it's important and I think that I don't want to be missing a large group of our learners. I know you don't either, right? Um obviously.

Yep. So I that is what has driven my new obsession with the Hattie research piece because um every district I've worked in has struggled with driving the growth of our students with disabilities and kind of taken the same approach to the problem.

So then I finally get to like okay there must be another approach to solution to this problem. So if we know that these things, instructional practices or strategies in schools have the highest impact, how are we looking at those things through the lens of student achievement in terms of our students with disabilities, our multilingual learners. So student discourse has a very high impact rating. So are we working with our co-teers around how to engage all students in high cognitive rigor student discourse? is everybody getting those skills. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um so to me that's my new shift, my new

thinking around is I want to drive a lot more PD. So I have the privilege of doing the new teacher workshops. So I've been working with them on those things and it's been so awesome. Like I don't want to leave those sessions when they're over because the teachers are uh so engaged and enthusiastic and willing to take risks and try these things and it makes sense to us. Um, so it' be nice if we could see that kind of spread. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Go ahead. Hey, Ken.

Uh, in regards to the needs of increased synergy and collaboration across the banks, can you expand more on that because over the years, I mean, I'm going back even decades and decades, it's always been North Grafton does this, South Grafton does this, and you have your own experiences and your own everything is kind of separate. So, how is it going? Yeah, kind of. I'll give you an example.

Um, since we don't have a coordinator to coordinate, we had to figure out a way for the coordination to still happen. So, we sort of built this pyramid structure. So, uh, I'm just going to say fourth grade just to pick a random grade. So fourth grade team at North works together and fourth grade team at Milbury Street works together on um the EL implementation of the units and uh any revisions that they think need to happen in terms of scope sequence alignment assessment and then the grade level leaders from each school we're giving them release time to get together. So they bring the work and we have designed systems and documentation to capture the work. So they bring that together and share the thinking from the two grades spans and ultimately are able to synthesize that work. If they can't they have to go back to team it's like oh they're doing this. Um so Dan Burman and Rebecca Mahoney just worked together fifth grade and he was able to um see some of that and it's new it's frustrating and hard still and it takes a long time um because we're working it out but they then can make decisions that are then captured in our curriculum map. So this is now the Grafton way of teaching module one unit three grade four or whatever it is. Um knowing that it's always dynamic and as we learn and grow and what our data shows it will drive changes. But we talk about this is where I get super geeky nerdy in terms of curriculum but curriculum design in stages. Stage one and stage two are tight. Everybody in fourth grade should be following the same scope and sequence, same standards, same essential questions, doing understandings, transfer goals, similar big assessments because that's how we talk common language around what's best for kids and what we're seeing in learning. Um, so that is where they're making those decisions and capturing it and documenting it. If that changes, we're saying that has to change collectively

because you're changing the grafted way. And we're not saying you can't. We're just saying you can't do it on your own. Can't do it in a silo because that's not what's best for all kids. If you're doing something incredible, all kids deserve to experience that. So, um, fourth grade team um had the idea of teaching unit two in one of the modules before unit one. And normally you'd say, "Nope, that's a no no. That's stage one. You can't touch scope and sequence." But right now, I want them to take that risk and try it out because it might be better. If it is, they got to connect with fourth grade from the other building and say, "Hey, we tried this thing and it went way better." Fourth grade from the other building has to try it out too and agree or we're gonna have to come back to the table and figure out that's not a change that we think is one we should make or we need to try it for a little longer. So, it's that is invigorating to me to see that level of dialogue happening, that level of collaboration. The example I gave earlier was around math and they've been doing envisioned math for a while, but it was really driven by the star data and looking at student data and seeing a disparity between schools and loved that the teachers in that school said, "Hey, our data is not as good. It's not quite as strong as this school. We got to connect with that and find what's going on. So, can you give us time?" And so, I have meetings with all the principles Thursday to talk about PD planning for next year, what the needs are, what the goals are. So, for me, that's one is creating. We got to carve out time for teachers to revisit math units and continue doing the EL work.

Are we trying to link up like those major projects, right? Like let's say I think it was um the the state float projects or like at one school they would do something like the other the big projects where it's a memorable experience, right? Because you get to high school and then you say to another kid, "Oh, remember when we did the wax museum?" And the kids like have no idea what you're talking about. Yes. Yeah. I think when we talk about assessment is always stage two. So what are we going to take as evidence of student learning? So there's parts of that that are really tight. We want everybody to do this assessment because we have to be able to compare student data. Doesn't mean everybody has to have the same experience and do the same activities. That often goes into stage three.

So if you aren't getting data about the standards in the unit, it's probably not an assessment. It's probably an activity. And that's where there's more room for autonomy between schools, between teachers, that kind of thing. But when it's giving us data about student, you know, independent achievement in the standards, then we want to make sure it's going to work with the rest of the schools. And then I have one more question in regards to the STAR data. So, you know, to compare data. Yes. Uh, so my question is I see that the comparison is basically for one cohort, right? Like if I look at second grade, it shows them what they were the previous year for first grade. But do you have the data comparison for like all second grade for this year versus last year's second grade class versus second grade? Yeah. Yeah. So, how does that

I can bring it to I can do another round if you want or you can we can do separate. Um I can pull the data any way the committee would like to look at it. I was just curious. Yeah. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Was that good? Was beautiful. Thank you. I was really kind of energized by the focus on groups like English language learners or multilingual learners, students with disabilities, um you know, students that sometimes when we're talking about new curriculum, we're just talking about the curriculum at a really macro level and we're not talking about, you know, how it trickles down to

to groups that might not be the first ones you're thinking about. So, I was really energized to hear you talk about that, but I'm wondering, you know, sort of how you balance particularly as students get older, um, sort of equity and achievement, but meaningful inclusion, um, and and, you know, sort of the tracks as the kids get older in terms of making sure they're still accessing um, grade level material. Yeah. in a way that's accessible to them but also um interacting with you know their peers. Right. Right. So I don't know if we can talk a little bit about that what that looked like.

I can give you an example of some work um it's still elementary but it's upper elementary that we were just doing and and it translates I think to middle school and high school. Um in the work that Steve Kristen and I are doing with the literacy specialists at um Milbury Street. I got all excited in our last meeting um because we have got to the point we're talking about individual students and we're looking at all the data we have on that student you know and really looking at like what's working not working why do we think that is so what are we going to try and then we meet again how do it go what do we do next um and that leads to a lot of broader conversations so we the goal of our um evaluation plan that I have to submit for title one is which programs work for students and why so that we can capitalize on that with all students. So one of the things that came up was um if we are doing Wharton Gillingham, how long does it take a student in Grafton to go through the lessons of Wharton Gillingham? Should it take that long? Why is it taking that long? Um because every time we add programming tier 2, it's pulling from something and sometimes physically pulling them from somewhere, right? So the goal is always

least restrictive. How do we get kids back in with peers knowing the the instruction that is so rich and robust in the classroom? So, we want them to be accessing that in addition to getting the supports that they need. Um, so I think that that work is going to trickle up as well. So, looking at who are we sending to the middle school at what level, why is that? Who are we sending to the high school at what level? Why is that? And what are we doing? So we saw some of that in the work at the high school around um foreign lang or world language

in terms of who was able to access what at the middle school driving what their um options were at the high school. So if they got boxed out because of IEP uh goals and objectives at the middle school, they were already not accessing grade level curriculum with their peers at the high school. So just doing a lot of work around that data, the math like trying to um engage more kids in algebra like authentically in algebra and eighth grade. We're looking at scope and sequence of math instruction. Can we um we originally adopted an accelerated version for sixth grade. We dropped that and went back to a regular version, but are going to get to the point where we'll be able to teach one or two units of seventh grade by the end of sixth grade. And then seventh would do the same for eighth push them forward. So who are the students who don't have the prerequisite skills or need a little more time even though the pace has picked up and how do we meet those needs? So there's master scheduling conversations that happen then because you kind of need a windblock so that you're not pulling kids out of core content areas. So um it all becomes part of the CA conversation and the work and then we figure out who needs to do what. So principles look at master schedules to figure out when can we weave in time for intervention enrichment extension that kind of thing. Um so it's kind of I I feel like it's a no stone unturned project process. Um and the cool thing is the people I work with are fully invested in it and I I truly believe we'll get there in terms of our student sub groups.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It's great. Great stuff. Yeah. Good question. Thanks. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you for the rest of your recording stopped again. Did that you last I always think it's my laptop and I do the same thing. I love it. You're like mic drop mic drop. I just gave you one. Thank you. Sorry D. That was very jarring to see our site on our big screen. I know.

Yeah. Terrible. What? I don't I mean I I'm wearing not black for a change so that's exciting. Very colorful. What are you talking you potato there? Listen, drink my water like a sign. Part of the paths her seniors used was like indicators of success cuz they're like optional. She was like saying there's only 21 seniors doing pathways this year. Yeah, they're not. I mean, but they're like it's just like

recording in progress. We're good. Well, so they I think the No, no, it's not a measurement in the same way other things are, but it's a program we have and there's like a 50% drop off. So, because a lot of people kind of realize like you can't put it on applications because you don't get it until June of your like the extra hour, right? Yeah. That's actually really good.

Yeah. Yeah. in good like this is buckly like people didn't want to do it. That's really good feedback. You're right. That's a big deal when you're picking and choosing what you can do. Exactly. Yeah. Um I feel like you should do your update, Delaney, before we go on. I'm going to bounce around just in case if you want to go and have stuff to do. We have our reset day tomorrow at the high school followed by a pep rally with some homecoming style games. That's exciting. Teachers versus students. We have our spring play announced. The Little Mermaid this April and spring sports has started up with many home openers this week. Snow melted.

I know. Snow melted. It could go in a st. Who won Mr. GHS? Oh, Anthony Gico won Mr. GHS. Yay. Yep. Our rainy champion. They didn't stop. That's it. Thank you, Dane. Hi, Delane. Thanks, Dane. Norms. Yay. You want to talk about normal? Bowser. Oh, that was okay. I mean, at least it's cross. Nope. Oh, what? Cheers. See, we're gonna have we're gonna have Cheers Marathon. Oh, we can't wait. Do you like

My kids even like Cheers when it was on Netflix. Elliia loved it. I don't think it was like we Yes. We watch without shows. Didn't remember it on Netflix. I mean, it's like so Boston now. So, exactly. Clearly, I didn't grow up here as you all know. Now, so we finally managed to bring back the norm. That we dorm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Whimsical. It is whimsical.

Uh so when we last discussed these there were some repetitive stuff. Uh there were um you know we had an entry there about not um evaluating or talking about the superintendent's performance in public which was in public meetings which made no sense because we in fact evaluate the superintendent in a public meeting

and are supposed to. So we kind of cleaned up things like that u and wanted to kind of as a group refresh them and and look at them again. So, Leora, I'm not sure if I have the updated copy because what I have is the exact same copy that was back in October except with the just one deletion of number four off of communication with the superintendent. Everything else is the exact same. Okay. Um, it's probably pretty close. That was the big main thing. Well, I mean, because I went back I rewatched the meeting like we were supposed to eliminate the role of the chair and the vice chair. That was supposed to be a link to another for this MAC. We talked about that, didn't we? Okay.

Yeah, there was a lot of stuff. I only read the minutes as opposed to watching them. Yeah. So, fair enough. Um, and then the other thing is I would really like to see the minutes from the uh workshop from the workshop before we start reviewing this. I submitted them and it was the wrong it was uh I have them and I had two files that had the same name and it was the wrong one. So, they have actually Did you see them? Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's uh bring this back to the Yeah, I would like to move to Yeah, bring it back. We spent a lot time last time going over a lot of the stuff and then just rewatch it. Yeah, that's fine. Let's bring it back. That was quick. Let's do that on the fourth. Thank you both.

Yeah. Uh anything on future scheduling? Um that audit report is still in draft form. We're waiting for Mary to just had some kind of issue with the the town side and the firm that did it. So, okay. Uh I'll push that till the 7th. They have a file. Oh, I hear something. Yes, Leora. I'm going to ask. So, I um there's this new citizens um award. Oh, yeah. The like outstanding graphic citizen. We're supposed to actually get We're supposed to have one of us. Yes, that should be on the agenda. We need to vote somebody. We need to vote somebody to be on the Does anybody particularly want to be on that?

What is What is it? What is So, there's the uh the select board has implemented this outstanding graft and citizen award and they're um soliciting uh nominations and so they've asked that the school committee send a um representative to the judging of that. I see. I see. So, do you know when that is? I don't. It hasn't been set. Probably whoever is uh was selected. Well, they have to do it before time. They're announcing an attempt. So, they're soliciting um applications. I don't know the deadline. I can watch it up on soon though. Yeah. Well, it has pretty soon. And did anybody reach out to you and ask you, Leo? Yes.

Oh, good. They did. I They did read the emails. Oh, yeah. Uh the select board has created created an outstand outstanding citizen award that will that will be presented for the first time at Maytown meeting. At your next meeting, could the school committee please choose a representative to serve as a member of the group that will review the nominations and make a selection? More information about the award in the in the group can be found below. And the nom the deadline for nominations is March 31st, by the way. Right. Yeah, they're going to they're going to have to

so after that the group will a group will be convened to review the nominations and make the selection. The group shall consist of one select board representative, one school committee representative, the town clerk and the town administrator or their designate. And in future years, the timeline is nominations will be accepted January 1st through March 31st. So this was just last week. So got it. So we need somebody to step up to be the school committee designate if someone wants to. Great. I'm also happy to do it. Whatever.

I would do it. I just think we should default to the chair almost. Do you want to do it like do it should kind of be the representative of our committee. I love that. I'd be more than happy to keep that. I love it if everyone stay with that for you. Yeah, I admitted someone so I would not want to be on it. Just Yeah, that's not fair. I think Yeah, just in Yeah. And you can't send it somebody on a board who's elected official. So, if you guys were thinking of submitting me, it was halfly written. You can just send it my way and I'll read it. Yeah. Okay. But I love it. I think it's a great idea. So, Laura, sure. Thanks, Christie. Yeah. Um All right. So, we're Yeah.

And I didn't see that email. So, it's weird that I just knew just I'm just saying Florida. No, it's I submitted the thing. I was like, "Hey, wait a minute. I haven't heard about things to judge. This really I like Okay. Anything else that needs to go on here?" So, the reduction planning doctor coming at the next meeting is that like the reduction budget.

Yes. Correct. And I know you don't know this at this point, but I think for the next meeting, I'd like to see uh so even if the override goes through, it's $5 million over five years. What would it look like each year? Because it wouldn't be a million dollars a year. Like if you started at like a 5% increase, it would be like 94,000, five and a half, like you you know what I'm saying? Yep. So what would that number be? Okay. Yeah. Yep. Well, I think that's yes fair. More than just what the first sheriff gets. It's important. Agreed.

I don't know. Tell me if this is not appropriate to say. Now, I did reach out remember the last meeting we talked about that 360. I did reach out to MASC. I did learn that it is actually not in our private to be able to do that and it's not appropriate. Great. And I actually got kind of a nasty response on are you a new member to be asking this question. Wow. It was kind of rude. Not by MASC, but by some like another person. I was very kind, but I thought that was a little weird for you for being kind. Um, but anyway, I guess we're really not supposed to do that. I did send Dr. Cummings his survey. He did it in 2020. Um, which that was Did you let me know if you didn't receive it? Um, but yeah, that was kind of PTSD because there's a lot of pandemic

really thoughts on it. But um so maybe if you want to do it on yourself supposed to be soliciting thankful. Yeah kind of. But I also when we touched that I was wondering but it also doesn't make a lot of sense right like no. Yeah but it was a great question to ask and I actually thought yeah person looks weird. Sorry we're watching home person. They weren't for they I would think not. Okay. Um anything we need to add on your evaluation? Not really. That's I lose. Yeah. Ready? Lose are ready to go.

Okay. I just need to do my self. Perfect. End of next week. Okay. Great. All right. Excellent. approval of minute. So this Yeah, go ahead. I spoke with Mahoney because when I read these minutes, I said, "Wow, these were old. This is from last year." And so I reached out to her and I said, "Did you submit the right minutes to Dr. Cummings?" And she said that she did. And that because I went back to last year, March 25th, and it was in our packet from last year, but it just was never approved. Was never Yes. Mhm. So these are old.

Did her homework and yet they are old. They were just never It was weird because it was in our pack. We did the meeting but not the hearing probably. No, we had all I think they we had them. They or we just had a a meeting and just in the excitement over the meeting skipped over it. That's what I mean. We approved the meeting minutes but necessarily the budget hearing. Uh and Rebecca's done. We'll have the meetings that the minute she just finished. She did a really great job overcoming all of those uh audio like you can take a good look at that and obviously we can fill in gaps if if needed but we'll have those for the seventh. Great. Thank you. Okay, I'll still take a motion then.

Madame Chair, I move that the committee approve the March 11th, 2025 budget hearing minutes as written. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any further discussion? It was interesting. Did anybody like this is late? This is you know I was like Mrs. Mar. Yeah. Yeah. When I first saw it said Amy I was like wait a minute that's not right. That's not like Becca. So you saw I thought I can't vote on it because I was you actually can just I was here for it but I you were in the That's true. No, I mean you're allowed to vote on minutes because you're not attended too. It's one of your thing,

but All right. Well, ready to vote. All in favor? Ready. Okay. Motion passes. Did anyone have any questions on the warrants? Okay. Do we have any policy? No. Next week. Next week. Next week's a big policy week. And actually it's just Laura. Could we say to email you about that one? Yeah. No, actually I have updates and we're supposed to Yeah, you're Yeah. Okay. Please. We have neither correspondence nor executive session. So, uh, with that, I will adjourn the meeting. Thanks and good night, Craftton.