School Committee - Regular Meeting

Calling to order a meeting of the Salem School Committee of April 27th, 2026 at 7 p.m. This meeting is taking place in person at 29 Highland Avenue, room 227. You can also join via Zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda. Uh first item of business is approval of the agenda. So moved.

Second. Motion made by member Miranda, seconded by member Hoffman. Under discussion, seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? The matter carries unanimously. Public comment. The Salem School Committee would like to hear from the public on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities. Uh, Spanish interpretation is available for anyone who needs it. The members of the school committee would like to remind the public that Salem public school students regularly attend school committee meetings. We encourage all meeting participants to model respectful and productive public discourse for our young learners. We have any public comment in the chambers.

All good news. No sign in. No, you know where I am. Okay. So, I am pleased to announce that two students from our STU Union family won scholarships from AFT Massachusetts recently. Um, AFT Mass awards scholarships to the students across the Commonwealth with the top seven scores on the labor exam. So, the scholarships are different from the teachers union scholarships that we award um, locally to our Salem public school seniors. Regardless of the school they attend, they must have a parent or guardian who is an AFT member. So, this scholarship that they won is a little bit different. it belongs to our union family as opposed to our Salem public school students. So, the awards are named in honor of um former AFT leaders Kathy Kelly, Albert Shanker, and Sandra Feldman, and for longtime AFT Mass field rep Jay Porter, who worked here in Salem for a number of years. Um, the two awards from aft mass, one went to Brooks Workman, son of John Workman, who works here at the Collins Middle School. He won the Albert Shanker award. Um, Brooks is a senior at Salem High School. The other award from our union family went to Ryan Urbanowitz. Ryan is the son of Julie Urbanowitz, who is a paraprofessional at the ECC. Um, he won the Sandra Feldman award. Ryan is a student at St. Mary's in Lynn. So, they were two of the top seven scores across the state, which is pretty amazing. Um, additionally, Salem Teachers Union scholarships will be awarded on senior night. Um, the students have already been told, so it's okay to name them here. Um, the students with the top four scores in Salem Public Schools um were Brooks Workman, Ryland Workman, Mia Silva, and Gavin Ryan. Um so congratulations to all the scholarship

winners and um we look forward to working our scholarship awards again next year. Thank you.

Any additional public comment in the chambers? Not. Is there any public comment on Zoom? Please use the raise hand function if you wish to be recognized. Next item on our agenda is approval of the consent agenda. These are the minutes of the school committee meeting of April 6th, the public budget hearing of April 13th, the special school committee meeting of April 13th, and the warrants of April 2nd, April 9th, and April 16th. Motion to approve. I'll second.

Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Miranda. Under discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? The matter carries unanimously. Our student representatives report. Cindy uh emailed us just before the meeting. She's under the weather and not going to make it. However, um was Miss Paulie is going to give a little update.

I have report on behalf of Cindy and the student advisory group. Um first I wanted to mention as Cindy often does mention what's going on with students at the high school. Um, just before April break, there was a student summit at the Hawthorne Hotel, it was organized by Anne Whitney, Jackie Burns, and Angie G and Cola and brought together 70 students who was who represented a diverse range of um, identities um, at the high school and they came together to talk about making positive change in their community and specifically how well does Selm High School prepare them for life after high school. So, it was a great event and um Superintendent Carboni and I had a chance to go for a little while and it was amazing. The energy in the room was just terrific. Um other items that I imagine Cindy would include in her report are that next week, May 4th, we have our next student advisory meeting. It is the last meeting with the seniors, so we will be recognizing them and sending them off with our best wishes. Um, we will also elect new officers for the student advisory group and talk about recruitment strategies for 9th graders and new members who might already be enrolled at the high school. And last, we also have member Hoffman and um, superintendent Carboni planning to attend um, in case the students have any questions or input about the stu the superintendent search. So that is my report on behalf of Cindy.

Thank you. Move on to the superintendent's report.

Okay. Um, I know the first item is about the proposed budget update, which I will get to, but I did want to just welcome all students and staff back from our April break. Um, we're now officially at the front end of the home stretch and we have about nine weeks of school left before the break. It sounds like a long time, but it'll it'll go by quickly. Um, I did want to give a few updates about um, while we were on break, it was anything but quiet. We have a lot of things happening and so the first thing I want to do is acknowledge that on April uh 22nd we celebrated um administrative professionals day and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing front office clerks and administrative assistants. They're really on the front line and they're often the ones who are the first ones to uh greet visitors and members of the public and in doing so they really lead our efforts to be a welcoming and customer service organization. And so we're really grateful for their smiles and the helping hands that they extend routinely and I hope you'll uh join me in thanking them for the important and impactful work that they do in our front offices every day. Um I also just want to give uh take a minute to highlight that we did have vacationmies running over the break. We had 25 prekers attend daily um for a theme-based program exploring farm-to-table activities um through sensory play and storytelling. And this is a really beautiful uh topic that lends itself to cross-cultural connections as food is so central to uh cultural celebrations and identity. Um and the prek class uh interacted with several local partners throughout the week including Salem Sound Coastwatch and music together. We also had an elementary program where students stepped into the role as urban planners and they were dealing with um food in a

different way. They were using their math skills to investigate the potential productivity of our school gardens and they made recommendations for um equitable distribution of of planned harvests. Um, and this project uh was a really interesting one because it was a joint project between our food and nutrition department um that um was supported through grants that was written by the were written by that team and is really a great example of how operations and academics can really work together. Um we had a small group of middle schoolers that engaged in wellness and social justice activities and um they also partnered with a lot of our community organizations wreck fitness, artful life and the YMCA to explore um health topics and they um one of the things that they investigated that was really interesting was the correlation between cell phone usage and uh students sense of belonging and uh the students spent a full day at Salem State University and um we're able to um work together in the maker space there and use the high-tech tools to develop their findings and prepare uh their presentations. I do want to extend thanks. We had several high school interns who worked throughout these programs over the course of the week and they really were honing their skills um and um as our next generation of educators and of course much gratitude to the Salem public school staff who also worked these programs and provided fun and meaningful experiences for students throughout the week. So there was lots of activity on that end. We also um had a group of Salem public school staff members led by Laura Assad that went to the dep Dominican Republic last week and they had a very busy week. They visited five schools and really immersed themselves in what school is like in the dep Dominican Republic. Um

really gaining insight into the experience that many of our students um had um in the DR as they started their learning journey there. They also met um with the minister and vice minister of education uh to discuss our continued partnership on the uh teacher exchange program that we have been co-developing over the last couple of years. Um and what's really exciting is that the team did interview three Dominican educators to two of whom they determined would be a good fit to work in Salem. One is a prek teacher and the other is a middle school educator. Uh the next step in the process is to arrange for these individuals to meet with our principles and their hiring teams in schools where we currently have vacancies in the hope to make a match. So fingers crossed that we will have some successful hires um from the DR in the near future. Um and then lastly, but not leastly, uh rounding out the vacation updates. Many thanks to our buildings and grounds crew who were working really hard over the week um on several important projects um including but not limited to making sure that inspections of our fire sprinkler and elevator systems were completed. They did upgrades to our school gardens uh to get them ready for grow growing season which is coming upon us and they facilitated and supported the installation of new walk-in refrigerators at both Bates and Salt and Stall. So it was a busy week um but we're happy to be back in session with our students. So I'll move on to budget updates unless there are any questions about any of that. Okay, great. Uh, so this is the big item uh tonight on the agenda is the vote um for um this year's proposed um budget

for FY27. Uh in the packet for tonight's meeting, I did include a written memo with some reflections about the budget, and I do want to take a few minutes to briefly summarize those. Now, I I want to start with thanking all of the community members uh who shared their perspectives throughout the process. Um we had a lot of really meaningful um and measured feedback from several stakeholders, many of uh whom were uh staff members of ours. Um and most of it did center on reductions associated with the family engagement facilitator positions. So, I'm going to uh start my comments by addressing this part of the budget first. Uh to start I want to reaffirm and reiterate that we are strong advocates for the people who currently hold the FE theft positions. We are actively advocating for these staff members to remain in the district and we are working directly with each one of them to explore different options. We do believe however that it is time to move on building off of the foundation that the thefts have helped us to establish to a bigger and bolder vision for family engagement that includes four key elements. First, we aim to maintain systems currently in place to address chronic absenteeism. These systems have proven to be effective and are grounded in a shared responsibility for improvement that is not dependent on any one person or role but rather grounded in teamwork and for that reason we believe um they are sustainable even with the proposed changes. Second, we want to take a bold step forward to create a culture of shared accountability for family engagement where every educator in the system deliberately supports outreach that goes

beyond relying on five members of our team to do this work alone. In order to do this successfully, we have much we have to do a much better job in training our staff to use the tools that we have invested in that will enhance communication and connection with families who speak languages other than English, including Spanish and 35 other languages that are spoken home languages of Salem public school families. We are fortunate to have tools at our disposal such as Lionbridge, Parent Square, our own internal office of translation and interpretation and support from staff who receive the bilingual stipend. If we do not shift to an all hands on deck approach to family engagement, we will continue to fall short on reaching all families. Next year, we intend to have every educator develop a family engagement goal as part of their evaluation, including and starting with the superintendent, department heads, principles, classroom teachers, and support staff. Thirdly, part of our strategy has to include achieving role clarity. We have a number of family and community-f facing positions in every school including student adjustment counselors, city connects coordinators, nurses, front office clerks, student success advisors, full-time assistant principles, and guidance counselors. These roles represent vast resources in our schools and we have an opportunity to explicitly map out how they all support distinct pieces of family engagement while also ensuring that their efforts are streamlined and not duplicative. And finally, we believe there is an authentic opportunity to develop a district strategy that specifically aims

to empower families to self- advocate advocate, excuse me, and um exercise their agency. We hope to build a system where engagement is not something that is done to families, but rather a two-way partnership where caregivers are informed collaborative decision makers. We see this innovative work being spearheaded by trainings, fellowships, and workshops hosted by the welcome center, Laura Assad, and the two FEFs that will join that office. We do appreciate that shifts can cause uncertainty. So, we welcome being held accountable for results related to these proposed changes. Next year and beyond. We look forward to providing this body and the public with regular updates on the following metrics. Attendance and chronic absenteeism rates. Family participation in at least five events hosted throughout the year such as student le conferences um and other annual events like the back to school fair. um family uh supported sense of family self-reported sense of belonging as measured by questions from the district-wide family survey. And then finally, efforts to diver diversify the workforce because we believe family engagement will be enhanced by greater numbers of employees who reflect the cultures and spoken languages of our students and families. Monitoring these metrics quarterly will ensure that we're not just making changes and then forgetting about it, but rather closely watching progress and being held accountable for continuous growth and improvement. So, I'll shift now to to uh the ML staffing. And I want to publicly reaffirm that our commitment to serving multilingual learners and supporting all families, especially those who may feel

marginal marginalized, remains strong and unwavering. We have and will continue to be very intentional about how services for multilingual learners and their families are delivered. We are absolutely confident that we can and will maintain the same level of service given to clients in student enrollment um that we have and continue to experience. We will monitor enrollment closely and if there are upticks uh we will adjust staffing as we have in the past accordingly um based on fluctuations in enrollment and the numbers. And finally, the last area where we did receive feedback was a number of pieces of feedback was around technology and specifically pertaining to screen time and the use of licenses and online platforms in the current year. we will more closely examine screen time uh beginning and we don't have good data right now to to really uh share that you know kindergarteners spend x amount of time um on Chromebooks for example but beginning in the summer of 2026 class link which is our single sign on provider and that's how students log into the Chromebooks they will be adding an analytics tool to their platform so that we will be able to quantify and review student screen time. Having this information will allow us in partnership with principles, teachers, and this body to make more informed future recommendations about screen time. And as has been our practice annually, we will continue to review licenses and usage and sunset these tools that no longer align to our instructional vision or are underutilized. So, at this time, that concludes um my

reflections on the budget, and we submit the proposed budget presented on April 6 for your consideration and approval. So, that's that. Do I just move on to the next thing in the Yeah. Okay. Uh so we had Ellen Windgard who presented a few weeks back on addressing um inequities and our discipline practices. There were some follow-up questions and so we asked her to come back um to present a set of follow-up um slides. So Ellen is going to join us.

Oh, the next slide. Do I'm gonna do the next slide thing.

Okay. Good evening. Thank you. Let's do the next slide. All right. So, thank you for having me back. This is really um important work and I've been able to have some conversations with some uh committee members. Um but here's here's a way for us to sort of cover some of the questions that have popped up over the last couple of weeks. So, um, hopefully we can answer some of those questions, think forward, and then, um, use our the rest of the time to think about what we have to do next. Um, next slide. So, I wanted to kick this slide back up to the top. Um, just to go over and clarify what we mean by conduct, discipline, referrals, incidents. So, those are all sort of exchange exchangeable um, words. So, in the beginning of the school year, our administrators go over um what they consider the behavior flowchart with educators. And so, um we have sort of a set of behaviors that students may display that we consider our teacher supported, teacher managed behaviors. And then there are behaviors that almost universally we accept as office supported behaviors. Meaning the office needs to have something to do with helping to support the student, support the family, support the teacher. So when we talk about office supported behaviors, office managed behaviors, that's what we consider incidents and behavior referrals. So if a teacher um observes a behavior, is trying to intervene with a behavior, has tried all um of their tricks or or you know followed the behavior plan, but the behavior continues and it's escalated and they need to put in an office referral, it goes into Aspen and that's where our data is kept. Um it doesn't mean they have to wait for uh to put the referral in in order to get support. Usually there's a call or a text or um walkie to the front office for some support, but eventually by the end of the day that referral goes into

Aspen and it's counted as an incident. The administrator then reviews those incidences and um sends back to the teacher what the resolution was. Parent call home, restorative conversation, a number of different things could come about. Okay, so that's the data that gets into Aspen that we're able to then manipulate and figure out some of our disparities. Um, there are a range of incidents that teachers can report on that are also aligned to Desi codes. And so there's there's kind of a bunch of them and I think you saw earlier uh and we'll go over later actually about the difference between physical altercation and fighting. That was a question that came from a couple different people. So we'll go over that. That's a that's a um an example of an an incident could be recorded as one of the other things and really it's the teacher's discretion to figure out what happened in that moment. Um just for the committee to know some of our schools um are not currently using the Aspen journal or the Aspen conduct workflow to um record incident data. that being the e ECC for some obvious reasons, but um behavior is just what happens in in preK. Um we don't use conduct referrals uh for that. The Salem Prep because they have their own programming based on the um the students uh special ed um IEPs and New Liberty currently doesn't use Aspen conduct workflow to record instances. Okay. So the data that you're seeing excludes those schools. Make sense? All right. Next slide. Mark. So there was a um request to see some of the school incident data over time. I gave you a snapshot, a sort of a highle snapshot last time of um what instances have looked like. And so the um you can go ahead and click mark. The first um overview is really about just this total sum of incidences recorded

uh by March 31st in 2024, 25 and 26. And so what you'll notice is we have considerably decreased the number of behavior referrals instances um since 2024. All right, hit it mark. We also see that uh consistent across all three years, the primary location for incidents are the classroom and hallways and the the lead offense what's most recorded most often is skipping class and disorderly conduct. So that's consistent across all three years. Uh next one, Mark. And then um we had we broke down incidents by gender. And so again, you're going to see that there is um an abundance um o of male versus female and non-binary. So we have decreased them over time, but continue to have disparity between male and female um students. And then we have our risk ratio and that that measures the likelihood of certain subgroups to be disciplined over other sub subgroups. So we've stayed fairly steady in some, we've decreased on others and gone up in other subgroups. I'm just let you sit on that data for a second. One of the things that I failed to say at the beginning of this slide is that um the the incident totals those are the number of incidents not the number of students. So a student could have 30 incidents in a year. The risk ratio is just one student. Okay? So that that really measures um disparities more than even incidents. Okay? Does that make sense?

Great. I'm going to keep going. Mark, uh there was a um a request to break down incidents by year um and race um and gender. And so what I did was break out, um gender and race over the years. And so, uh blue is this year, red is 2025, and orangey yellow is 2024. Um so you'll see that the number of incidences recorded for students who are identify as Latino is much higher than white which is much higher than black and then multi. The number of students in other races who have um demonstr who there are referrals for um was not even statistically significant enough to include it. I have that that number but it just we're talking in the less than 10 fewer than 10 category. So that's by male. This is by female. So a similar pattern. We see again we see um 2026 we we see fewer incidents overall and that all of all of the data you're seeing is um on the March 31st 31st cutoff date just for consistency. So that's broken down just by incidents. It's not necessarily broken down by um students. Okay, next slide. So there was a question around the difference between physical altercation and fighting. I think that came from three or four different committee members. So it's clearly a a a big question. Um fighting is really is generally considered mutual. There's usually a back and forth. um and it's usually treated as a really serious infraction. A physical altercation or

aggression, it's often a broader term um with aggressive physical contact, pushing, shoving. It's it's not two-way um always and it's, you know, sort of lower level altercation. Usually, it stops on a verbal command. It doesn't need physical um management to be able to um deescalate this situation. It's not a reportable fight. So, that's the difference. All right, Mark. There was a question on what an emergency removal is. I um recorded those in the last um presentation. And so the principal and designate um is able to remove a student from the premises of the school um for no more than two days following an incident. And so unlike a standard suspension, um the student is removed before a formal hearing. Um and that is uh because the situation is too volatile and there needs to be some space and time. But there's some pretty strict um guardrails around that. So, the principal has to determine that the student is being charged with a um disciplinary offense as per our handbook and our code of conduct and the students presence poses a a danger to persons or a substantial disruption to the order of the school and there is no alternative option. So, all three of these those have to be met before a principal can emergency remove a student. um the school resource officers and law enforcement is only involved if there's a criminal complaint, but it's not an automatic call to the to the school resource officers during an emergency removal. Um there are safeguards and due process in place for emergency removals. And so a principal has to make sure that that the um the child is safe and that they have transportation and that there

is uh immediate oral and written notice to the family. and then a hearing after. Okay. So, those those those due process um guardrails are definitely in place. Next one, Mark, there was a question around alternatives to suspension and what that looked like. And so, for those who are uh not on the committee a few years back when we talked about the change in what they call the mental health law, let me just review that really quickly. So, in August of 2022, um a new law was passed and there were multiple different facets of it, but one of the um biggest implications for schools is that principles must consider alternatives to suspension prior to excluding a student. Um and the law mentions four different practices, restorative practices, collaborative problem solving, mediation, and conflict resolution. Um we in Salem public schools at the time really sunk our um feet into restorative practices and collaborative problem solving in different ways. Um and that's when we introduced restorative justice training. Um we have over 200 staff that have been formally trained by SUFFK. Um we have introduced community circles into our schools and into our classrooms. Um we really amped up our student voice work. Um so so thinking that about restorative practices as being our tier one um to help support and prevent um situations where students need to be suspended. Um but then um if a if a student does need to be suspended, those alternatives for that specific student is documented in the suspension letter. So they're not necessarily and in the in the um students record in Aspen. So, what they look like in play could be a restorative conversation, a reset with an adult, um it could be mediation. Um all of our

deescalation is always alternatives. We always try to deescalate prior to suspending a student. And so, um once we've exhausted those resources based on the student, based on the school, um that's when a a principal can go ahead and suspend. But they do include what those measures were into the suspension letter so the family is aware. Um I should also mention that we have seven district safety care trainers in the um who and help to certify over 230 staff in safety care. That's a pretty big cadre of staff. And then all number again sorry what's that? Can you repeat that number?

Sure. We have seven safety care trainers. So those are folks who are certified to deliver safety care training. We have over 230 staff that are safety care trained. Those are staff who every year um have to get reertified in both deescalation and physical management. Safe phys physical management. There are job descriptions that require it. Um and so we keep that up every year. Um but all of our staff um experience deescalation training at the beginning of our school year. There's a module that we ask our administrators to facilitate that go through the different um deescalation skills and strategies that teachers um can use in their classrooms. And then a way to think about how to self-regulate themselves um and think about how to sort of remove themselves in the moment, get real curious, get really empathetic, and then um act in a way that helps maintain the integrity of the student. So that's what the deescalation module. We look at that every year and make tweaks and make sure it's up to date. There was a question. Go ahead, Mark. There was a question on um risk ratios and other surrounding and gateway cities. We don't we don't have public knowledge of other cities who are using risk ratio to measure disparities. And so what I offer you are um suspension rates. This was last year's data through the um Desi profiles. And so you can see that um you know on the high end uh there's a district that 17.7% of their students have been suspended. The lowest end of that was 2.5. We're at 3.1. So we're at the low end of the other gateway cities. What that comes out to be is 135 students last year were suspended from school out of our nearly 4,000 So while we don't have risk ratio, we do have some comparison to other um school districts.

Next slide. Ellen, can I ask a question about that? Is that 135 individual students or are some of those repeats? Individual students. Okay. Yep.

Thanks. Uh Cindy last time asked um really noted quite keenly that we want to be thinking about our um students who may be new to the country and so we wanted to know a little bit about discipline data and um students who may be experiencing American school for the first time and um here's here's what we have. We we don't ask families to report on immigration status for lots of different really good reasons. Um we do ask at point of registration a student's place of birth um their previous country and country of last residence, date of entry, etc. Um first and native language, home language that gives us clues as to how to help support the student in their learning. It's not used to do anything else except that. Um and so um immigrants and newcomers are classified as two different things but they're not necessarily desi-reportable subgroups. So we don't track data on that. And to go one step further due to some coding structures um in Aspen we're really unable to cross cross reference the information at the reg point of registration with discipline. So all that to say is I can't clearly answer Cindy's question about whether kids who are new to our country, new to an American school are being overdisiplined or not. But I I can say that you know we have proxy data. um I you know we can look at the um multilingual learner risk risk ratio and and think through that lens although that's not exactly the right um you know data point but um that's I think it's probably more beneficial for us to be thinking about how do we ensure that kids who come to our schools and into our country and into our state for the first time feel that sense of welcoming and I love the work that they've done at

the student advisory committee around that. And then there were some questions that we just don't have data on yet. Um, one of them was around disproportionality in school suspensions. The risk ratio includes suspensions, but it's not just suspensions. So, we can build a tool and work with Open Architects, which is the the platform that we're able to bring some of this data together to to think through that for sure. That would be easier to sort of have at the touch of a button that that data. We also don't have currently school initiated contact with school resource officers um including how many of those contacts have resulted in legal action. I do think it's probably important to have principles around the table when we talk about that. Um we we don't collect that data centrally right now. Um we certainly can in the future and I think it's a really important question to be looking at very carefully but we don't currently do that. I think it's just questions. Excellent.

Any questions from committee members on the update.

All right. Oh, member Cornell. Sorry. Um I just have a question about when we're when we're thinking about or when you are thinking about training and we're talking about like you know um the deescalation modules and and all of that. I like to what extent is antibbias training baked into that? And I'm also just curious about the demographics of the folks who are, you know, we talk a lot about the fact that we're trying to encourage um hiring folks who look like our students and particularly I think when we're talking about discipline

that's really essential. So I'm just wondering like kind of both of those things. How is antibbias training baked into that? And to what extent do the folks who are like really administering this training um reflect the demographics of our kids particularly when our like the numbers like it's the we have to get that number down of of disciplinary actions with regard to our Latino students. So, um, you know, we don't want to be targeting teachers, but we want to make sure that teachers are equipped with the with the skills and training that they need to be sensitive administrators of discipline.

So, that was a lot of words, but

I think I understand what you're asking. Okay. Um the the module currently includes um work that um from uh we talked about this culturally responsive teaching in the brain. So that's the rea and that's a lot of the work that we've done through the academic lens and so it incorporates that into the deescalation training. It isn't just like when a student does this do this when a student does. It's really it does ask the the educator to stop, pause and think through um because in those moments is when our biases come out. That is just fact. Um when the rubber hits the road and our primal sort of instincts come out is when we our biases come out. Um and uh so that the deescalation modu module does include that component. Um the the folks who are teaching it are often our student support um staff who we continue to try and diversify that workforce um every year. Do are do they represent entirely our demographic of student? No. Um, but I think the the folks who are leading those PDs um are ones that can talk easily about bias and educator bias. But I I I do think that over the next year we have to get to a point where we are looking critically at data at a granular level

with principles to say what support do does does this grade does this cohort cluster need to move the metrics. That's where the conversations I think need to happen Miranda. So, do I don't know if you have these numbers, but in terms of the student support staff, what what are we talking in terms of diversity there? Um, staff of color. Um, I don't you're asking me to do math in my head right now. Um, it really also depends on the school. Um,

if we were to look like districtwide and I don't even know what that number would look like. So, like if you if we're including nurses and school adjustment counselors and city connects coordinators, um I don't I can't even percentage that right now. I'm happy to do that when I go back to my seat and do the numbers. Um we have one, two, three, four, five, 10 that are Spanish speakers across the district. Um it's certainly something we could follow up with. Yeah, I'd like to do that to so that it's concrete and Yeah, sure.

And then I just had a a couple more things I wanted to ask. Um so who has access to the data around place of birth for um children in our in our schools. um the the the teacher I mean so that's part of the the child's Aspen profile and so everything's on a need to know basis Mark I don't know if you want to chime in on this but it's really um depends on what year so the teacher has it I have access so that there are different levels of access okay and then um do the SRO's have access to that no no

okay

mm- Um, all right. And then the other thing that I wanted to ask about is, oh, um, what are we hearing from educators around supports? Like sometimes we know that behaviors, um, escalate when there aren't proper supports in the classroom. Um, and so I'm just curious to hear what you guys have heard um, as uh, district leadership overall, like are our educators feeling supported in the classroom and and feeling like they have the resources that they need um, in order in order to um, kind of have the space to engage in a way that is restorative. Yeah, time is always um, a problem. It's always a barrier uh because restorative practices take time um both in building a community and also in being able to repair harm when harm's been done. And so I don't I I think if you asked any educator in in this hallway tomorrow morning, do you have enough time for restorative practices? They'll say absolutely not. Um, if I were to compare where we are now with how teachers feel um, in their confidence level being able to support students compared to four years ago, 8 years ago, 10 years ago, I think we've come leaps and bounds. Um, and I think it also is variable depending on the school and the school leadership. So I have definitely seen where you know that the clearer the response plan is from the administrative level and the student support level the more confident and um supported the teachers feel, the educators feel. That's just sort of a but it's the formula. Um, which is why my department works really hard with leaders when things seem unclear or we're not quite sure about roles and who does what and you know what happens when.

Um, but we've grown tremendously and I would really give the principles and assistant principles a lot of credit around this. We've had stable leadership which really helps. There's a vision that is really aligned to the vision that we have here. Um, and you know, we always have students that challenge us to be thinking better about how to support them. Um, but I I do think we're much better off today than we were a year ago than we were 3 years ago. For sure.

That's really great and I appreciate that. Um, I'm hoping as and maybe this data is there and I haven't seen it or I'm I'm not remembering it, but I'm hoping as a school committee member to to see um some data from educators similarly to how we give the surveys to kids around like do you feel supported or do you have an adult to go to like do our educators feel I I would love to see some type of survey for our educators that um around their relationships with um central office or or with um admin in general um and you know obviously anonymous and and all of that but uh if that's possible I'd love to see that

we we actually launched our panorama school climate surveys midMay um and so we can certainly provide the committee with the questions that we've been using over the last few years to be able to track data um we have asked different questions in the past around um support from administrators um that we could revisit uh potentially after this, you know, round of strategic plan measures that we're monitoring. Um and then we do have our central office survey that goes to our administrators uh around the the service that that the central office provides principles, assistant principles, and special education administrators. So, we'll have have those data points to this spring. Member Hoffman,

I just have a question about um do we especially for our younger learners um when it comes to this? Are we thinking of age appropriateness when it for example when you evacuate a classroom for throwing a crayon or scissors or whatever? Obviously not a good thing. Um, but I worry about what that impression does to everyone else in the class.

Um, because sometimes it's just the age of the child, a normal thing that they would do the same thing at their home or whatever, and you would take them and talk to them. But I worry about like that impression it makes on the other kids when they see that kind of um I don't know if enforcement is the right word, but response. Yeah. response is is a correct response versus having a conversation. Um I know it can be like scary in the moment, but like

I don't know. I just um I feel like it sets our kids up for that then whenever something like that happens that kid's the kid that does that. Like it's just a not a good um and I don't know if that how that evolves around this. And it's not anything against any teacher or anything. It's just a curious question of like how do we how do we approach the age appropriateness of a behavior and it could go all the way up to high school without inflicting that persona onto you know a kid having a bad day.

Sure. I I mean I think there's always a conversation that that um is in our heads around keeping the integrity of the student intact. Um, I can guarantee you that evacuating a classroom is not the first thing that happens when a student is um causing harm. I mean, there's there's almost always two, three, four people who are helping to support it, okay?

Who um have tried to deescalate, have tried to to distract or to, you know, use the safety care um measures. So, if if evacuating the classroom has happened, it's usually because it's has to it has to happen. One of the things that does help when that happens is obviously a discussion with the student and then a discussion with the class and being able to sort of have a repair circle around it. um I have helped facilitate those and uh because the last thing that we want is to have like nothing be said about it and then especially for younger children who create the narratives in their head about what happened and what who that student was or is um we want to be able to help them repair that with their classmates,

right? And potentially like what will be support, you know, some or the best time is when the little ones say, "What can we do to help you?" you know, that's the um but I I can guarantee you that that if a if a classroom has to be evacuated, there's been multiple okay attempts at other interventions and it's a safety concern. Okay. So, yes, and I hear I hear the back question for sure. Any other questions? Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay, I think you'll be happy to know the next two items. I sparing you additional slides. Um, so I chose to um put the Sarah Parker Raman school updates in like a memo form um for you. What I can report is that the merger activities are going along smoothly and without incident. I don't have anything to report um of uh any urgency. Um but starting from the top, I'll just uh highlight a couple of things. Um for the transition and community building team, um they are will this week um hosting a joint um family and staff pottery night. That'll be on Wednesday night. So that's something for the community uh to look forward to. And in May, the students will be scheduled um at Carlton to go over to the Salt and Stall building to get familiarized um with the building so they can h begin to have a sense of ownership and uh um feel connected to the school in a physical sense and also meet some of the teachers. And then a joint field day is scheduled for May 29th. Uh the innovation plan planning team um is also on track to be ready to um present the uh final innovation plan uh which will go before the school committee at the May 26th um meeting uh that will be followed by a um special meeting for the hearing. Um I would like to note that we are exploring in partnership with principal uh Weaver Angel the idea of um partnering with the Renie Center um for education research

and policy to support um implementation of innovative practices that support um implementation of the the school plan and they're very excited about that. Um and we're just at the beginning part of that conversation, but hopeful that that will materialize for next year. Um the academic planning team is narrowing in on a math curriculum and that is where there's the greatest need. They've reviewed several different um curriculum options. Um this is a teacher informed group. They've narrowed it down to two finalists. Um, and they set up viewing stations where they actually had the materials available for teachers at both school to um, check out. And we have about five or six teachers who are in the process of piloting some lessons from both of those curricula. And they will be narrowing in on um, a choice before the end of the year. The goal is to purchase those materials and um have them available to teachers to have over the summer and we'll be providing uh training during the week-long uh retreat that those um that the merge school will have together in August. Um there is progress being made on um planning and organizing the before and after school programming. There was an RFP that was posted on April 13th. It closes this Friday. The proposals will be re reviewed and then a final announcement of who the partner will be um on May 12th and then we'll be able to share information with um families about that. Um there are a few um clear vacancies that have been identified. They're posted and the hiring teams are working with the principal uh to um start

exploring options with a high priority of um uh hiring um diverse multilingual um staff for those positions. Um and then finally, the big thing is that's looming out there is the moving plans. And so, Elizabeth, do you want to talk a little bit about um that process?

Yes. And um later this week, we'll be disseminating a memo to the staff at the schools that are moving or being moved into um with a schedule of when um to start packing and how to label things. So more details will be forthcoming. It felt important to the principles and to district leadership that we don't start packing while, you know, in April and May. School is still going on. Um there's still lots of learning happening. There's also MCCAST happening. And so we will advise staff that beginning at the end of May, they'll be provided with packing materials. Um and that we are planning to have both New Liberty and Salem Prep out of the mall before June 30th. The move from Carlton to um the Sarah Parker Remon School will happen in July. And so, um, right now what's happening is people are purging old, broken, um, equipment, surplus items. Um, and so we would urge them to do so as before any move. We don't want them moving things that are obsolete or broken. Um we are in the process of soliciting quotes for movers um so that we'll be ready to hit the ground uh with the Carlton move in July but also we'll be ready to move New Liberty and Crep in June and we have actually scheduled the moves already for the technology coming out of the mall and into Carlton and the Sarah Parker Raymon school. So, um I guess the last thing I would add is there will be time provided for staff, um paid time provided for them to do the packing because it is a significant lift that we're asking them to do. Not actual lifting that should not be done by any of our staff, but the packing uh and preparing to move.

Great. So, that's the updates on the Raman school. And then next is just the um MSBA update which is fairly brief. Um there were two meetings I think since we met last. One on April 16th and one tonight. The one tonight was kind of a repeat of the one on the 16th because I think there was a error in the way it was posted. So it had to be re um readministered if you will. Um, so that was held tonight right before this meeting. And pretty much the work of the last few weeks has been hosting um community meetings to um educate the community on um the why and the need for a new high school building um and sort of updating people on the costs and the tradeoffs um for that. So the vote is scheduled for May 5th, which is next Tuesday. Um, and the next building uh meeting is scheduled for May 12th. Um, and that will be in person uh here at Collins Middle School. I don't know if you want to add to that, mayor.

No. Um, if you're watching this meeting, the vote on May 5th, the polls are open 7 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. the regular voting locations that you always vote at. Right. And then finally is the finance and operations report.

Yes. I have two items um for your consideration this evening. The first is a memo from Camila Salazar, our director of financial operations uh requesting approval for several transfers. As you recall, the threshold for transfers is under $15,000. Um we are authorized by school committee policy to make those transfers without coming to school committee and these fall below that. However, when a transfer is across cost center and in this case, it's going from non-personnel to personnel. So, we consider that to be moving across cost centers. Um, we do bring that for your approval. So, there are three um a request from Bentley to move funds from their contracted services to their stipen line, a request from the ML department to move um funds from their instructional supply line to their stipen line, and a request from the ECC to move funds from their contracted services to their stipen line. All of these are for um yearend um events and outreach for families for things like literacy night, family night, and other end of year events. So these are all requests to move money from non-personnel to personnel in stipens. And that is the end of

I actually do have one other sorry um we um and we met with um member bias um had a buildings and grounds subcommittee meeting um where we um discussed a request to declare a food service vehicle as surplus. And this vehicle is a 2009 non-refrigerated food service van. It has 75,000 miles on it. Um, we use this to transport food items and because it is not non-refrigerated, we've had to make do. And one of the ways we've made do is we've added some refrigeration. It makes it almost impossible to keep the battery alive. So, our request is to declare this surplus and include it as part of a tradein deal. Um, we're using some grant funds to buy a new refrigerated van and so we would like to uh trade this in as part of that deal.

That is the end of the super report. Thank you very much. Uh, next item on the agenda are subcommittee reports. So, do any of the subcommittees have reports they want to offer? Member Hoffman. Um I have uh we are meeting with the screening committee on for the superintendent's role on uh Thursday. Um I've decided to uh after we we're going to discuss the questions and then we'll go into an executive session and look at the at the and discuss the candidates going forward from there.

Any other subcommittees? No. Okay. All right, motions and resolutions. The first item we have is approval of a tree planting at the Bentley Academy Innovation School for Arbor Day on May 6th. We have a Motion to approve.

I'll second. Okay. Motion made by member Cornell and seconded by member Miranda. Under discussion.

Seeing no discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimously. Uh the second item under motions and resolutions is adoption of the FY27 proposed budget. Motion to adop adopt the FY27 proposed budget in the amount of $81,755,368.

Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Hoffman. under discussion. Member stop.

Thank you. Um I just want to take this opportunity as this being my first budget season to thank the chair of the finance committee um and everyone that provided their input um including the members of the public. This was um for me a very enlightening process kind of coming I guess from the other side of the budget seeing the final number that was always presented to council. Um I I am impressed with the conversations that were had, the transparency that was had um and up to this last moment of receiving the memo um to respond to the feedback that was collected. Um I a budget is always hard. Um there's never a a perfect answer. Um, and hopefully one day we get there and everybody can get everything plus more, but it's always tough conversations that need to be had. And I just want to say I appreciate the candid conversations that happened and the transparency that was um provided. I do know that some of that um a lot of it was, you know, in our committee conversation. So, I appreciate being able to provide that information via the memo um because a lot of those conversations, you know, we we did receive a lot of really heartfelt community feedback, especially related to the family engagement um positions and it it is I think you know there there really was like a concern around those positions. So, I appreciate that we have a plan in place to make sure that the lift that we gained from having those positions from almost the past 10 years will not be lost because I think that's kind of the biggest takeaway I'm taking from this this um this year's budget and conversations that we've had. And I really truly hope that, you know, we can stay on top of that. We'll make sure that uh the items that we list it for tracking do occur every year. Um, and I appreciate being able to kind of it's it's a hard position to kind of add tangible uh takeaways and data on, but I

appreciate the the um the ability to do that or the attempt to do that. And um I just want to say thanks and I appreciate this uh budget. Thanks for this budget. That's weird. Sorry. Any further discussion on the motion? Seeing none, uh, all in favor of the motion to adopt the proposed budget for FY27. Any opposed? None opposed. The motion carries unanimously. Uh, our next items are related to the elementary and secondary associate principal positions. I'm not sure if you want to speak to these or

uh, sure.

Um, sure. I mean the the elementary one was um a position that came out of um the merger discussions and the um the idea that we wouldn't have two principles at the school but wanted to honor um the fact that um Miss Weaver was going to stay at the school and so um this was a a way to keep her um as part of the team um and is a position that is you know somewhere between um an assistant principal and the principal position um and will be in place I believe it was agreed to for two years um and then would revert back to um an assistant principal position that's actually I think um theou that was developed with her but we would have this position um and job description in place in case it was needed. The secondary associate position uh associate principal position was um uh devised to support um a sort of an elevated position um and thinking about um really a retention strategy and a succession planning um for um you know people who have been we've invested in and are on our bench. Um, and we want to make sure that we haven't invested in them and then they go to um to other uh to other districts before we have an opening. Um, you know, the one thing is that we've had very stable principles in place. Um, and yet we have these folks sitting in a holding pattern on the bench and so we want to have some tools

at our disposal that we can use um as a a way to um ensure that they stay. Right. Thank you. Um so we have two motions on these topics. The first approval is of the job descriptions and the second is um for inclusion in the Salem Administrators Association of the recognition. So we'll first take a motion on approval of the job descriptions for the elementary and secondary associate principal positions. Motion to approve. I'll second.

Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Miranda. Under discussion. Seeing no discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimously. Approval of inclusion of the elementary and secondary associate principles in the Salem administrators association. Motion to approve. I'll second.

Motion made by member Cornell. Seconded by member Miranda. Under discussion. Seeing none. All in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimously. Uh we have approval of the budget transfer requests that were previously pres presented during the superintendent report. Motion to approve. Second. Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member. Under discussion, seeing none. All in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimously declaring the food and nutrition services van surplus as presented.

Motion to approve. Oh, motion made by member bias in the zone. Seconded by member Hoffman. Under discussion. Seeing no discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimously. Uh and then our last item is the school committee meeting schedule for 2026 2027. Uh this is in the packets. Is there a motion to approve? So moved.

Second. Motion made by member Miranda, seconded by member Cornell. under discussion. Seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimously. Our next item is uh topics for the newsletter. Member Cornell.

Thank you. So, what I have are um the approved budget with the link, the steering committee members and process and calendar. um the superintendent job description and I think those are I just tried to do highle updates. So those are the highle ones that I that I could identify. Um and for upcoming we I am still working on this with um Superintendent Carboni about because we changed the schedule a little bit in order to to um do a second round of the discipline update today. So I'm not sure we're we may be set on it, but I just don't have it at the top of my head. So, um, whatever our next our meetings are for for, um, uh, next month, I'll put those in there. And then just I usually I've been putting important votes, so I'm just going to note that we voted on the steering committee, voted on the job description, and voted on the budget. Um, and again, calendar stuff. Um, I think we need to sort of post that in a in a way that people can see it easier than just the newsletter. like it has to be a a stagnant link on our website. So hopefully we can get to that and I can work with Chris and get that done.

Miranda, I just wanted to note um you keep referring to it as staring committee and I I don't know if that's language that we used before or if we're sticking with screening committee, but I know when I first saw that I was like a little bit confused. Thank

you. Okay. Any other ann more any other announcements? Oh, okay. I I will share. Please remember to vote on May 5th. If you have questions or would like to see more information about the project, you can visit the building committee website, salemma.govsalem high school. Um, all the past presentations and FAQs are available on that website. Any further question or motions? Motion to adjurnn. Second.

Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Hoffman. Under discussion, seeing none. All in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. The matter carries unanimous. Thank you everybody. We're