School Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Call to order meeting of the Salem School Committee of May 11th, 2026, 7 p.m. This meeting is taking place in person at 29 Highland Avenue, room 227 in Salem. And you can also join via Zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda. I'd like to start this meeting by asking for a moment of silence. Massachusetts state police trooper Kevin trainer was a graduate of some high school class of 2013 and was tragically killed in the line of duty protecting others on May 6th and will be laid to rest tomorrow or on Wednesday here in Salem. Thank you. So is there a motion to take out of order. I'll take a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved. So at that point do I am and to work.

No, this is a proven anything action. Motion made by member Miranda seconded by member by us on under discussion seeing none all in favor and opposed the agenda is approved unanimously. Sir motion to take out of order.

Motion to take out of order to hear from the students.

We're taking out of order item one under the superintendent's report for student recognition. Motion made? Second. Second, motion by member Miranda, second by member Hoffman. Under discussion, seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? None opposed, the matter carries unanimously.

Good evening, everyone. Tonight's a special meeting. We have lots of students in the house and that makes for a special meeting for us. We enjoy hearing from our colleagues, but there's nothing like hearing from our students, so we're so grateful. to have the eighth grade team here. They're gonna present their civics project tonight, and we have three high school students that we are excited to recognize their accomplishments and their achievements that they've amassed in their portfolio this year. These students represent the very best of what Salem Public Schools is about, and they really embody the essence and the characteristics of a portrait of a graduate. All three students that we are going to recognize tonight have attended the Salem Public Schools from elementary school to middle school and through high school. In addition to the incredible family support and personal networks that have surrounded these exceptional students, we'd like to believe that they have experienced access and opportunity in their Salem Public Schools journey that has helped in some ways, helped pave the way to the incredible things that they have accomplished. So I'm gonna go through recognizing each student and then we have some swag for them. The mayor's gonna present them with city seals and we'll take some photo opportunities with the families and members of the committee, okay? So the first person I'm gonna recognize, first student, is Alexia Coleman. Alexia, can you sort of stand and just be recognized? There's Alexia, okay. You're really going to want to clap when you hear what this amazing student has done. Alexia, she's a senior at Salem High School, and she attended Nathaniel Bowditch and Witchcraft and Collins Middle Schools before she made her way to the high school. And Alexia has been a standout on the witches wrestling program and is one of the most decorated athletes, male or female, And in doing so, she opened doors for the next generation of female wrestlers all over the North Shore. Alexia is one of the first ever girls state champions from the region. And for the second year in a row, won the Division II state title at the 132-pound girls bracket. She was runner-up at the girls' all-state meet and then made even more history when she captured three matches at the New England Championship in Providence to reach the finals. Though she dropped a tight decision, being runner-up in the New England competition makes Alexia the most accomplished female wrestler in North Shore history. Alexia, yes. Alexia went 3-0 at the Phillips Andover Girls Tournament and 4-0 in girls competition at the Brandon Grant Tournament, which hosts 24 teams and over 650 athletes. As if that wasn't enough, Alexia won her decision at the All Girls Massachusetts Wrestling Association Kickoff Classic and finished fifth at the George Bossy Tournament and defeated a fair number of boys in the dual meet matches over the course of the season. In addition to being an elite athlete, Alexia is also an ace in the classroom, and she'll be attending George Washington University in Washington, D.C. this fall, which is an excellent school, and we know that she will continue to excel and rise to high levels. Congratulations. Our next honoree is Johann Polanco, who is in back with his family. Johann. And Johann is also a senior at Salem High School and earlier in his educational journey he attended Nathaniel Bowditch also and then went to Bates and Collins before he went to the high school. This year Johann was the proud recipient of the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators Outstanding Student Award. This award, which encompasses all schools in the Commonwealth that offer career technical education programming, is presented to a senior who maintains a minimum of a B average or higher, demonstrates excellence and accomplishment in their career area through internships, and has outstanding attendance. As a junior, Johann represented Salem High School at the district and state levels in SkillsUSA, Massachusetts. This is an annual event that empowers students through leadership, career development, and technical skill competitions. At the district competition, Johann placed second and moved on to the state level, at which he placed third among 500 students. Johan works in the Early Education Center at Salem High School and has spent the second half of the year working with kindergarten students at Bates Elementary School for three blocks during the school day. An experience that not only has strengthened his commitment to working with children, but has really helped to shape what he plans to do in the future. Upon graduation, We're so excited that Johan plans to attend North Shore Community College to study health sciences, and then he plans to transfer to Salem State University to earn his pediatric nursing degree. And I've had a chance to interact with Johan a couple of times this year. He is a truly delightful young man, and he's going to really make the world a better place as he moves on. So congratulations. And last but not least is Grant Dwyer, who is right here. And Grant is a junior swimming superstar who is also a student at Salem High School, and he attended Carlton and Collins Middle School previously. Grant's swimming resume is super impressive. He is a two-time Northeastern Conference Swimmer of the Year, in addition to a two-time Salem News Boy Swimmer of the Year. Grant made history as the first Salem High School male swimmer to win two individual state championships, swimming the 200 IM, which is the individual medley, as well as the 500 freestyle at the Division II state championship. Grant is the owner of nine school records at Salem High School. And incredibly, he rebroke six of those this winter. He owns the Northeast Conference records in several events. The 200 IM, the 500 freestyle, the 100 back, the 200 freestyle, and he took two event titles at this year's New England Conference Championship. The runner-up in two events at the North Sectionals, Grant is undefeated with a 44-0 record in dual meet races, including a 14-0 mark this season. This year, Grant led the witches in points and was named his team's most valuable swimmer. And like Johann and Alexia, Grant is also a gifted student, as he currently has a 4.30 GPA average. Grant, you are truly an amazing student athlete, and it's an honor to recognize you tonight. All right, so we're gonna have you all come up. We'll give you some swag.

That was so well done. All right.

Look at me. Don't be afraid. We're going to take a few. One, two, three. One, two, three. A couple more. Awesome.

Should we have their parents come up? Sure. Yeah. Oh, hold on. Moms. Oh, oh, oh.

We know you guys had something to do with this, so I figured we'll have you come up, too.

No, yeah, we'll have everybody. Come on. And this little guy. Yeah. Right here. There you go. All right. Get close. Good. Everybody look at me.

Excellent. One, two, three. Love it. Great.

Congratulations. A hoodie.

Come on.

No, he didn't hear me. Thank you so much. Thank you.

And I know that they have AP exams, so they might want to scoot out while you can, okay? Thank you.

Do you want to do this?

Yeah.

So the other student presentation out of order we have is students from our Collins Middle School.

Yeah, so we have eighth grade Collins Middle School students from Ms. Jahl's social studies class, and they're here to present their civics project. and to solicit support from this body for an issue that they think is really important that they want to uplift that is relevant to the health and well-being of our community. I've heard this presentation already and they're did some amazing research, and I'm excited for them to present to you. Just for a little context, all eighth grade students in Massachusetts are required to complete a student-led civics action project. So this was part of that. But you can really feel the students' passion and ownership for the topic. So we're excited, too. They did present to Representative Manny Cruz earlier, and he suggested that they come here, and they were eager to do that. So we're excited to have you. Perhaps, maybe, Ms. Jal, you want to come up to the microphone and give a little more intro, and then we'll turn it over to the students.

Sure. So this is something that they've been working on. They're going to tell you in their presentation, but they've been working on this since September. This is a full year of project that we work on. We start with brainstorming ideas and they do some general research and then they start honing down something that they're very interested in. What was great was our presentation. that we presented to Representative Cruz that you were able to see as well. That actually did make an impact and we were able to update our slideshow for you guys which is great because time has passed and it has a lot to do with the budget for the state and they through their efforts, as well as obviously the efforts of our representatives in the Massachusetts House. We're able to secure funding for something that we believe is really important, but now it is facing the Senate. So this is where you all come in. This is our big moment. All right, so we're just going to share our presentation with you all.

Mr. McCarthy, who's here, Bob McCarthy, who works in as Joan Lovelies.

I emailed you.

Chief of Staff. You're here. Guys, this is a big moment. I just wanted to recognize that. So thank you for being here. Thank you for being here. This is so exciting, guys. I did not realize. Yeah. So this is the real deal, guys.

Great. Okay, let's go.

Can we move the mic?

Can that mic move?

Can we move the mic?

No. You can try it.

Oh, perfect. Thank you, Mike.

You just kind of got to, like, hold it down there.

Okay, I'll try. Okay. This is the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program. This is our Action Civics Project.

Can I put this there? Oh, okay. There you go.

Thanks, Dan. This is our Action Civics Project and we are Ms. Jahl's B Block.

We started this project in September 2025. We researched many problems that were impacting Salem.

Some of these issues were food insecurity, homelessness, affordable housing, racism, and the lack of public school options.

As a class, we voted on the topic that we felt was impacting our community the most. After we researched our options, we narrowed it down to food insecurity and homelessness.

Interviewing a stakeholder. After much discussion and research, we decided on food donation sites at grocery stores, hoping this would make the biggest impact. To narrow down our ideas, we decided to interview with the director of the Salem Food Pantry, Mike Lilly.

During his interview, we learned the pantry supports cities all over the North Shore. Many families and individuals use the Salem Pantry with 25% of Salem residents visiting every year. They mainly need money and volunteers to keep it running while also relying heavily on advocacy. Currently as a whole, food banks are receiving less funding than needed.

He mentioned an important bill that would be voted on shortly in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

What we learned about the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program . We learned that the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program is a program that allows food banks all across Massachusetts to continuously purchase food products to provide families with healthy diets at no cost. This program helps feed people in every town of Massachusetts, and in 2025, it provided 600,000 meals per month for families.

This program makes a difference and significantly impacts our communities. Here are some factors that negatively impact MEFAP. Federal cuts, food inflation, and SNAP reduction.

Federal funding cuts that include non-profits and food banks. This is an article from CBS News that shows the cancel in $1 billion in funding for schools and food banks. The move cancels about $660 million in funding this year for the Local Food for Schools program, which is active in 40 U.S. states, as well as about $420 million for a second program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which helps food banks and other local groups provide food to their communities

The federal government is cutting funding that will affect the children in Salem and their families. In Massachusetts, we need to make up this difference.

Here is another article that talks about government funding cuts. The One Big Beautiful Bill reduces SNAP funding around $186 billion over 10 years, a 20% cut that marks the largest reduction in the history of the program.

This means tons of families won't get fed and children will not be getting the nutrition that they need.

So average annual number of SNAP recipients in Massachusetts. This graph shows the increase of recipients in Massachusetts that receive SNAP benefit increasing significantly from 1990s to 2025s. So local food banks impacted Salem Food Pantry. This Salem Food Pantry is an organization located in Salem, as she said. This helps provide food to families and individuals who struggle with food insecurity. Overall, the Salem Food Pantry has provided freshly made meals to individuals and continues improving lives.

The Greater Boston Food Bank. The Greater Boston Food Bank is an organization started in 1974 to combat hunger throughout Massachusetts. This issue is getting worse under the economic climate according to the article from GBH. A report from the Greater Boston Food Bank released Tuesday shows an estimated 40% of Massachusetts households experienced food insecurity in 2025. This massive increase is a huge problem in our community, showing that now is the time we need to give more support to these vital organizations.

what we have done. We have done research about how MIFAP works and helps people in need of food assistance. We have spoken to Mike Lilly who is a stakeholder and research about different food pouches in Salem.

We contacted every state representative. We received emails back from a few of them. We created this presentation to be sent to representative and presented to representative Manny Cruz.

So these are some These are some emails we received back from the stakeholders.

The current status. The House Ways and Means Committee increased the amount of money going to MFAP. They were asking to increase the amount to $60 million.

The House just passed the budget in April and now it is going to the Massachusetts State Senate and this is part of the bill. Budget.

Budget.

What we are asking for, we need you to write a resolution from the Salem School Committee asking for the Massachusetts State Senate to pass the budget with this funding. The current budget that is going through the Senate Ways and Means Committee is asking for $55.15 million. We want the $60 million budget that the House passed to go through.

This will increase funding for food banks to serve people and families in need. We contacted state representatives, we presented to rep crews, and now we are asking for more support. Please write a resolution to send to our senators and make sure hungry families get fed.

Thank you for listening to our presentation. Any questions? Yes.

Is there any other way other than writing the resolution that we can help out, whether it's like posting about it on social media, anything that you might want us to do to help spread the word a lot more? You want me to answer it? Yes.

Okay, this was a recommendation from Representative Manny Cruz when they presented to him. He specifically was saying, you should go to the school committee and they should write a resolution. So then we looked into what resolutions are. So this is mostly a recommendation from our representative. I'm posting through social media has been done quite a bit which is great on the greater Boston food bank has been really vocal about this. So that's happening but these guys are doing the government research. So now it's a resolution time.

Other questions from committee members. Can I ask, so what was it about food security that you, why you selected that over the other topics? What was it that drew you to it?

Anyone want to answer? Come on.

We felt that it was affecting like the community the most out of all the topics we looked at.

And how did you come to the decision? Because it was like a class project, right? You did it together. I asked this the other time, too. But I'm just curious for others to know, what was the process that you used to narrow in on that? Did you come to consensus? Did you vote? What was the process?

We researched a lot about each of the topics and then decided as a class which one we should work on. Okay.

I'm Miranda.

I'm curious, and this question is for anybody who would be interested in answering it, but what is something that stood out to you, one of the most impactful things that you took away from this project? Anybody.

Go ahead, come up, come up, come up.

I think it was, like, exciting to do, like, a lot of research. Yeah.

It was just exciting. Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it made like a really outstanding and good difference in our community, and that's why we focused on it so much.

Not being a member of the committee. Mr. McCarthy.

If I could, on behalf of Senator Lovelay, I want to send her regrets. She couldn't be here, so I came in hers. on behalf of this long-time city councilor. I actually sat on the school committee for a little bit myself. And I just want to say how impressed I am with the group and the research you've done. And I will say the budget process is complicated, but I may have, Penn Gallagher contested about it. He was up on the hill for a while. He understands how that works. Right now is the perfect time to send a resolution to the Senate. The Senate takes up the budget next week. And I will say that All the amendments to the budget were filed Friday at 3 o'clock, by Friday at 3, and Senator DiDomenico has included in his amendments a line item to increase the funding for that item in the budget by the $5 million to get it up to the $60 million mark. Senator DiDomenico represents the area where the food pantry is located, so he would be go-to senator for the that kind of information so I would say to make a recommendation to this party in great haste that they get this resolution passed and sent in some sort of electronic form and then I if you reach out back up to our office obviously I'll bring it to Senator Love's attention we'll make sure that Senator DiDomenico and anybody anybody else that you want to send it to is aware of the budget amendment the budget process is complicated But we'll see what we can do.

I just want to say thank you so much, and I can't wait to see what you guys do with the rest of your lives. This is really impressive. Thank you.

So I appreciate the context around the timeliness of this question, because I was going to ask if we wanted to take it up for a vote at the next meeting, but given the fact that the amendment's been filed and we're not meeting again until the 26th, I think I would entertain a motion for a vote to endorse the amendment to increase MEFAP up to the full $60 million and that we'd send a correspondence to that effect to Senator Lovely.

So moved.

second okay motion made by member miranda seconded by member hoffman we do have member manning participating remotely now so we will vote by roll call vote member miranda yes member bias yes member hoffman yes remember manning to mute oh all right myself Okay. Myself, yes. The resolution passes. And thank you all so much for the time and effort and for bringing this to our attention. You know, it is a critical need. We are, I think we experienced it firsthand when the one big beautiful bill hit our SNAP benefits for our community and the pantry was vital in stepping up and it's not possible without MEFAP. So thank you for bringing the alarm bell and bringing this to our attention.

Thank you so much.

Can I ask you a question? I think maybe it's a question that some of the students have. So what happens now? So you passed a resolution. What's the next step? I heard you say you write something up. Is that in the form of a letter or a memo? And just curious if the students would be able to get a copy of that.

Yes. So I'll take the motion that was approved with the secretary from the school committee and put it into a letter that I'll send to the senator on behalf of the school committee as the chair. And I'll see that your class receives a copy of it.

Motion to take a 2 minute recess.

Motion made seconded under discussion seeing none all in favor. Any opposed I will give a short recess so you guys can exit.

Good job. Be kind. Thanks, Mom.

Thank you. Could my vote be... Do you think my vote could count now? What is the Screen Actors Guild? You got it. non-fiction performance the most engaging read is about for number nerds listening space for that response. Jessica?

Okay, would I need to start now talking?

Okay.

Would you?

Our regular scheduled program here, thank you gentlemen. Our next item is 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. 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. Is there any public comment in the chambers? Any public comment on Zoom, please use the raise hand function. Our next item is approval of the consent agenda. These are the minutes of the school committee meeting of April 27th. Approval of a field trip to New York City for Collins grade eight students from May 28th to the 29th and the warrants of April 23rd and April 30th.

Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second.

Motion made by member Miranda, seconded by member Hoffman. Under discussion, seeing none, roll call vote. Member Miranda?

Yes.

Member Byas?

Yes.

Member Hoffman? Yes. Member Manning? No. And myself, yes. The matter passes with one no vote. Next item is student representative's report.

all right um good evening everyone um my report for this week is going to be pretty short because there is a lot of academic Things going on at Salem High School, like AP testing. I myself am on my third test, so I'm very tired. So yeah, we're on the second week of AP testing. Sophomores recently took their SATs. MCAS is happening for the underclassmen. I think the math MCAS is happening soon. The biology MCAS is also coming up in June. um and i wanted to talk a little bit about some of the outside of academics activities that are happening at salem high seniors are preparing to leave we are also preparing to host the elections for the next student advisory rep So the student rep, like myself, the vice chair, first officer, secretary, so all of the office positions will be open because they're all currently occupied by seniors. And the medical assistant class of CTE also recently just started their Salem Hospital internship. As of last week, we had the Oh my gosh, sorry, I'm losing my words. We had the orientation, and they have split everyone up on the different floors, so if you, hopefully you don't, but if you do end up at Salem Hospital, you might see us there. And you might see us on the floors. But yeah, that was my report for this week. Very, very short. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Cindy. Any questions? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to the superintendent's report.

Okay. Yes. So, I did just want to, from the top, I thought before we began the meeting, but now that we're in the middle of the meeting, I did want to just take a moment to acknowledge Mother's Day and recognize all the mothers, the grandmothers, the caregivers, and anyone who fills that role in the lives of our students and families and just express on behalf of our team how grateful we are for what you do and hope that your day was a special one yesterday. There was sunshine out and the flowers were blooming, so that was great. We also last week had a great time and fun celebrating our committed and exceptional educators in observance of educator appreciation week. And I want to thank all of the students and family and community members who sent in reflections. We pushed those out via social media so they were able to say, you know, this teacher made a difference for me or how special this educator was to their experience. And those served as daily affirmations of the positive impact that our educators make every day. So that was really nice. If you follow Instagram, you would have seen those rolling. And it was really nice to see them. We also raffled off $475 worth of gift cards. Each day we did a raffle and we had lots of, they were pretty much in increments of $25, but to local businesses. And that went to, it was just a whole variety of different educators from our custodians to our paraprofessionals to our classroom teachers and everything in between. So we had 19 recipients of those gift cards. 25 other members of our staff were able to get some swag, so they were able to pick a hoodie or a hat and T-shirt combo. So that was nice, too, as part of the raffle. And then on Friday, we delivered a cookie platter. to every school as a sweet treat to say thank you. It was just a small token of our appreciation for all they do. So it was a really nice week. And we are grateful for each and every one of our educators. So we hope they had a good week as well. And so I think that brings us to the next presentation, which I'm going to ask Glenn Burns, the principal of Salem High School, and Megan Souza, who is the director of the College and Career Center at the high school. And they are on deck to give us an update on the college application process, which is very relevant at this time. So I will turn things over to them.

All right. Thank you. Thank you all for having us again. And this is a continuation from the September presentation. So in September, I believe it was, we came in front of this body to discuss what our goals are. And those have been set in conjunction with this body a few years ago, as well as a few partnerships with some of our partnerships that we have to make sure that we're aligned and moving forward. So in September we set some clear targets around increased access to advanced coursework, expanded post-secondary applications, improving our FAFSA completion rate, and strengthening our post-secondary outcomes. So through a variety of activities, we've done this, but these are just some shots of some of the things that we've been celebrating, which are our kids and all of their achievements that lead to them to opportunities that help them dream bigger. I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Sousa.

So these priorities and areas of focus are coming straight out of the attuned assessment on the key initiatives that were developed two years ago now. So we're two years into this work under these set of priorities that were presented to this body two years ago that we've been working under and then building our key objectives each year from there. And relative to the inputs and outputs specifically around advanced coursework, access to opportunities for alignment in course selection to post-secondary pathways. college applications and three or more college applications for college-bound students, and then also applications to workforce, three or more for students that are going into workforce development, and then the percentage of students who began in the CareerTechEd pathway and completed with certification. So we have been setting targets each year since we've created, since we've started this work, going back a few years with a baseline of 2021 and then setting targets. So last year, targets are here in the 2024, 2025, which we presented. And then we also presented where our targets were for this school year. And in green is where we're at now. So we have surpassed our targets across the board. The ones that are missing Career Tech Ed Pathway will receive that upon graduation and our post survey. But based on where we are in the school year and looking at grades in each one of the career tech ed pathways, we're on target to exceed the 90% as well. And then as far as looking at applications for workforce, that's also something that we will gather within that last exit survey of seniors. However, one of the things that career tech ed and the college and career counseling team have worked together for for students that are interested in going into trade or the workforce is to have this opportunity set up before they leave high school. So many students didn't need three or more applications because they were either working with partnerships and businesses and communities through high school or working on a direct union pathway and applications with the college and career counseling center and their career tech ed teacher. So we will have the data at the end in the exit survey, but that number I'm expecting to be much lower, but that's because of direct entry into their pathway through our partnerships. And again, just to represent the work that our students are doing and aligned with those pathways through different career panels, direct entry in celebration to admissions and the work that they're doing in career decade programs. So based on that attuned report and then earlier in September, the slide that Principal Burns presented on, our key priorities for the 25-26 school year, which we presented in the fall, were around student counselor engagement with a goal, a target of 95%, specifically targeting this year of 9th and 12th graders. The 95% of students will have met for their post-secondary plan individual counseling meeting session with their counselor. College application rate, to improve that from the 39% to 79% of students who are college-bound to apply to three or more colleges. Pathway awareness, so that 90% of students would spend at least five hours on college and career MICAP-oriented curriculum through push-ins, crew, advisory, college panels, career fair, supported work. And then a FASFA, MASFA completion rate looking to increase to 75% by the end of the year. Right now, for our counselor student engagement, 95% of seniors have met with their counselors more than once. 95% have met twice at minimum with their school counselors to prepare for the end of year and the end of their term. 99% of freshmen have met with their school counselor to begin their post-secondary planning work. We far surpassed our college application rate at students that were college bound. 88% of those students applied to three or more colleges and the acceptance rate shows that as well. Pathway awareness, we also exceeded that target at 93% of students were in attendance and completed exit surveys and reflection assignments based on the five hours of direct curriculum instruction through push-ins, advisory, college and career panels as well, and the career fair. And then our FAFSA and MAFSA completion rate. FAFSA reports at 50% through the DESE portal. However, there is some factors that are not represented there. Over a dozen students are not reporting as matched that have completed the FAFSA that are not matching with with that portal, we have been in contact with DESE. This is a common problem that we've been facing over the past couple years, but we do know that they've completed them. And then we have a large handful of students that have completed the MASFA that will not show up on the DESE portal for a FASFA completion rate, but have completed that for their next steps as well.

All right, I get to do the fun part. You do? All right.

So what we're really excited, and I can't really see those numbers, that's too small, but great. There is been a large increase of our students exploring and going to college in different avenues. So what you can see is 23.5% were accepted into four-year private. out of that 23.5% I believe it's close to the 24 almost 25% were accepted into highly selective colleges this year which means a college that accepts less than 11% of applicants We also have four-year public at 27.5%, and then two-year colleges at 25%. And that number is growing just as we were sitting in my office today discussing this presentation. Kids were making other decisions now that are in that 24%. And that 24%, isn't a percentage that we can give you exactly what they're doing until really around graduation when they start going on their job interviews. Some of the students decide, I'm going to North Shore, that's in that 24%, even today. So that number will be in flux really until the end of the year.

All right.

So this is just an image of the types of colleges that our students have been accepted to this year. Just to give you an idea of what we mean by highly selective, moderately selective in four-year public universities. The four-year public universities that our kids are going to has greatly expanded this year to across our country, but also across the world as a student just notified us that they were selected into a college in Germany. And that's where they're attending. So those are, those lists are vastly different than previous school years too. So what's not on this, this is just to give you an idea of what the outcomes have been at Salem High School. And because students haven't matriculated there yet, there is no 2026. But that is something next fall that can be presented on as to where our students actually go to. But the key takeaway is more students are enrolling in post-secondary pathways, particularly four-year private and two-year public institutions. Our focus is closing the gap between district and state averages. One of the big pushes for having kids fill out three college applications was really to diversify what their opportunities were, to find better college matches, but also to see who was going to give the better financial package. And that's a big piece that we've learned this year through this process. We have to do a lot more work in supporting our families around financial packages. And we do have some partnerships with that, but there needs to be more outgoing communication with our community on that. And then our next focus and closing the gap. So we have more offers to more selective and private institutions than we've ever had before at Salem High School. We're looking at our outcomes. Students still enroll in more affordable and familiar pathways, which is key. We want our students to be enrolling in more affordable pathways, which means we have to do a better job of matching our families with those pathways, but also student interests. And we're working towards that. That's where we're at. More opportunities for more opportunities opening for students. We see that, and again, the affordability, financial aid, and decision-making influences the final choice, and that's some of the communication pieces that we need to up our game at. and expanding access across all institution types. And our focus is closing the gap between what students can access and where they ultimately go. So our next area of focus, which is around the financial literacy part, also in the direct now, is our focus is on summer melt. So through doing the research, we know that summer melt is a real thing, which is students get accepted, they fill out some of the paperwork in the spring, and then they never matriculate to these colleges and universities. So that's a real problem. In Fort Worth, I believe it was upwards to 59% of Latino students that got into college did not actually matriculate to that college, and that was through a Harvard study. So that's a real concern of ours. So some of the things that we plan on doing this school year and into the summer is stipending some of our counselors to electronically communicate with students on their college, which is tailored to their college choice. and some of the things that each college is asking them to do. And that's around making sure their financial aid is all in order, courses are selected, making sure they've met with their college advisors, connecting them there. Even little things as, did you check your college's Instagram for all incoming students? Because they're all posting and sharing, just building that community with our students. working on currently a nice spreadsheet that has every college that the student has actually committed to and all of their deadlines for things so that we can send out an email blast and a text message directly to that student over the summer to make sure that they're not missing any deadlines, as well as if there becomes a hardship, how can we support that student? And hardships include things such as, you know, I know I'm supposed to be at college next week. I don't have a ride there. How am I going to get there? Because that becomes a huge barrier. So that's things that we can help our students and our families make sure that they're getting transportation, that they end up on campus, and that they feel supported. So those are things that we're in the now, working on making sure that we're all set for the summer and that we'll be doing a better job of tracking who's actually matriculating and what are some of the barriers that families are coming up with to actually starting this process off so that we're ready to support them and make sure that those don't become reasons why their student, their child doesn't end up in their first choice or where they want to be. Any questions?

I wanted to ask about the process with the guidance counselors that you just said. So how is that going to work? Is it going to be like we have to approach the guidance counselors to set up appointments or is it going to be like the guidance counselors are going to reach out straight to every student throughout the summer?

Yes. So you will not have to reach out. Once they have, the guidance counselor is going to be collecting cell phone. We have many of your cell phone numbers. Yeah. But for those of you that we don't, the cell phones and your personal email because.

Yeah, the school emails.

You're going to move on from the school email. And there's a whole process that was in the newsletter.

Yeah, I know. I did that. All right.

But then you're just going to get text messages. Now, the thing is, there will be a person, they will not be like automated text messages. So if you respond and go, hey, I don't know how to do this, then you'll be reached out with a phone call from one of our counselors who says, let me help you with this to make sure that... that you're in a good place and that your family is in a good place. Because we feel like a lot of times, once you graduate high school, you've been off on your own. And nationwide, that's a problem. It doesn't work for a lot of our families. And we want to make sure you've all worked really hard. And a lot of work is going into how do kids get into these highly selective schools? How do they get into programs that they chose this time, which hasn't been the norm? And that's because your GPAs are really high. You've put in a lot of work, like yourself. I got three AP tests going. And we want to take advantage of all of those things you've done and really put you in a good spot in the fall. And we don't want this to be a stressful summer. And for too many of our families, it's a stressful summer. They're not sure how to navigate that. So we have some ways that we can navigate that and make sure that you're receiving the text messages and that you have people checking in on you. And that, like I said, it could be something like from transportation to, you know, I haven't met with my advisor. I don't know how to get my course schedule. And that, if you know school starts in a week and you don't have that, you might just say, this is just too much. I'm not doing this. Even though your financial aid package is all in place. And so we want to make sure that that doesn't happen this year.

Yeah.

And then we'll do some feedback. Hopefully you, y'all, once you get into college and you're there, you'll give us, you'll answer one of our emails with a little survey on, did this help you? And what were gaps in our support process so that we can close those for the next group of kids that we're supporting?

Member Miranda.

I love that idea and had it written down here, I would love to see exit surveys from our alumni cohorts. I do have a few questions here. In terms of electronically connecting with students, I'm hearing that we would be reaching out by text or email. What happens if the counselors get ghosted by students? Is there a plan to follow up in a more aggressive manner?

Absolutely. We know that our kids are going to be doing wonderful things this summer, so we'll reach out, pick up the phone, and make sure that we know that they're in a good place, talking to the parents as well as the student. We don't want to miss this boat. Like I said, so many kids have put in so much work, and we know that for a lot of our kids, they've got really good financial packages to go to schools, and that's because of the work that they've put in. And we want to make sure that we can support them in making this happen.

Great. One of the other things that I heard, and I'm curious here, so these priorities that are listed, it sounds like it was developed several years ago. And I see here that one of the focuses was student counselor engagement. And I heard one of you say that the goal was to meet with the counselor at all, and I'm just wondering, like, two times doesn't really seem like enough to understand the student and to kind of get a feel for what it is that they want and need, and so I'm just curious around, like, do we plan on increasing that?

Absolutely.

So that is a specific post-secondary planning meeting that is not the only time that students are going to meet their counselor. Some students will meet their counselor multiple times throughout the year, throughout their four years. Those are specific to longer meetings, 30 to 45 minutes. around post-secondary planning and the next steps for course selection, possible internships, college application process, depending on where they are years 1 through 12 or grades 1 through 12. So that was around that alignment rather than either through workshops or before it was that all that work was being done in small group or in larger group in workshop and really it was to tailor to a personalized experience one full session minimum a year per grade to go through all of the work that's been done through the curriculum and then follow through the next steps for each year. So that's what those specific meetings were about or recorded for.

Cindy?

Well, last question. I was wondering if the meetings were going to be set up with the students counselors that they've had through high school or if it was going to be like random assignment of counselor with student.

Like, I don't know how that's going to work. Oh, for the summer?

Yeah, because my only concern is, I mean, me personally, I've built a very good relationship with Ms. Kozlowski. And I feel like if I had any questions following up, I could reach out to her because I did build that relationship. Whereas I don't know if I'd feel as comfortable reaching out to a different counselor if I were to have like some sort of struggle that I need to talk about related to college. So I don't know if that's something that's gone into the thought process as well regarding the program.

It has, and we're gonna try to set up, we're gonna give the opportunity for all counselors to work with students as their schedule permits, and hopefully they'll all take us up on this, and if they can't, then it will be Ms. Souza will take on some, I'll take on some, to make sure that, and if there is a struggle, that might get escalated to my level anyway, or Ms. Souza, so that we can make sure that we can mobilize and get the right supports in place.

I'm never biased.

So I'm wondering what's the communication like for parents to kind of reinforce those pathways at home?

So I mean there's been Not as well as we need to because a lot of this is about education and some face-to-face and there needs to be a lot more community outreach. So our pathways have been through different workshops that we've done. We've asked parents to come in, not at the rate that we want to see our families or connect with our families. And that's something that most certainly has to shift. We need to be in the community more meeting families where they are having some of these means like one of the things that we've switched out or we've offered at the high school is when your child is doing their course selection you can come in and do it with the counselor as a as a parent you can schedule it or you can schedule a zoom so you can be part of that process. and that's particular just so that we have the whole family and in the schools on board with what is this child's goals and that we all know that we're all rowing in the same direction and that's something that we're going to have to do for a lot of these workshops or when the student is coming in to me to say as a parent would you like to be there because we can do a zoom meeting um because we're not seeing on a lot of our other college and career readiness stuff, we're not seeing parents as much, and rightfully so. Everybody's busy. When we're doing the one-on-one meetings, we already have the student. We can pop open the computer and have a Zoom. The parent can be wherever they are. And just pop on for 10, 15, 20 minutes if they're available and be part of that conversation. And that will be a shift that you'll see going into next year. And we've done it for the past two years, I believe, with course selection. And we'll continue to make that shift.

Member Hoffman?

Do you think some of that is also because of language barriers, that they're not comfortable coming into our schools? And especially, you had mentioned Fort Worth, and I was wondering if that was, with the new administration and the ICE, if that was also the reasons that kids aren't wanting to leave the states, to go to, like, where you don't know, you're a different culture, your skin is different, you're still American, but, like...

So with the Fort Worth, the reason why I mentioned that was that was through a Harvard study that was done a few years back as they were implementing and they were saying one of the things that they did do was having counselors. So the model that we're using is based off of theirs because what they did was this was years back. So they did. They said this is our problem of practice. They did. They tried out a few different practices, and this is one that really stuck out, which was having counselors connecting with kids throughout the summer. And that's what Harvard printed out. That's what they put out there as their research model. So that's what we're thinking about how to support kids is based off of that model. Why our kids don't matriculate, we'll have that. We'll be collecting that information now because we'll have constant communication. A lot of times we weren't finding out that a student didn't matriculate unless, A, we had a really strong relationship with them and we personally talked to them. Like some of the kids, and we can't do that by happenstance, is that, you know, kids that had strong relationships with people in the building, they're the ones that would say, hey, so-and-so didn't go, I can think of, Three kids who I called up the first week of school and like, hey, why aren't you there over the time? And we end up getting them there. But that was through happenstance. That was communication with a staff member who then communicated with me. And I don't want that to happen. So this year we'll be tracking better data of who doesn't end up making it, why they didn't end up making it, and making sure that it was a choice that they consciously made. Because they can't make choices. Our kids are leaving with college credits. They're also leaving with certifications in many of the shops. And some of them may go, I'm going right into the trade now. I thought this is what I wanted to do. Upon review, I've been off for a couple weeks, reflection. I set up. I'm going into the carpenter's union. I have a job interview, and that's what I want to do. And that'll be great. But we haven't really been collecting that data or engaged throughout the summer process. And that's where our shift is. So a lot of the numbers that you've seen in the past years is, They look great because they're optimistic. They're like, here's what all the kids said that they were doing. And now we're actually going to be following up and supporting them through that process to say, here's what they actually did. And we know that for sure, that they actually, because the other number we're getting is just from the clearinghouse, which is kind of a postmortem. This is what everybody did. And we didn't really, once they left graduation, we didn't support them. They kind of just landed there. or they had a support system that got them there. We want to make sure every kid has that support system now to get there.

And then the financial piece, like with parents, I know that money makes me anxious. And could some of that be the parents, like, kind of ostriches? Like, I would do that. I would hide my head and be like, somebody figure this out for me. But are we teaching our kids, too, about finances? Like, when they, these are big checks, like...

So we've worked what we've partnered with college affordable, which is a free resource for our families and we've connected a lot of them we also use partnerships people in our community that have certifications to do this type of work and they've worked with a many of our families. We need to institutionalize that at Salem High School so our families come up and not just start that senior year either. Like a lot of this work, why so many kids ended up in a really good place is we started their college essays junior year. Most of them walked into their senior year with at least a draft, but some of them with it totally complete. So that wasn't a stressful situation because it's stressful when you have all of this stuff due and you're starting a new school year. I mean, at this point of the school year, most of the seniors have senioritis. They're not stressed out in the same way they were when they started the school year. So this is another thing with... the college finances is we have to start earlier with our families and building the relationships and mentoring. So tomorrow night, I'm actually, I have a meeting with the Latino Coalition to speak just about this, which is a mentoring program and the pilot will focus on first gen college going students and families so we're looking for mentors within our community that can help support our families and we'll do the training that they can be connected and have that one-on-one support and when that mentor gets in a jam or It doesn't know how to answer the question. That's where we'll come in. So we want to provide the training up front so that they can answer the basic questions in a really timely manner. Keep our family, all of our families engaged. And then when something hard comes up, that's when our counseling system can be like, hey, we can meet. Let's meet for. cup of coffee you can come in or we can go to you so we we are trying different things I do I do truly believe like the stronger our community is the stronger our schools are so the more informed people are and how we get information to them in their household is going to make this really stressful situation better especially around finances but we have connected with we even had for financial aid some of the local individuals that run tax companies, like doing FAFSAs for our families for nothing. They were working with our families and helping them with all the paperwork. So we've reached out to many stakeholders across our city to make sure we're doing this. We're getting it done right and well. We need to kind of scale up a little bit because we have many more kids, as you can see, in this position. And we want to make sure that the families feel confident because that is something that as more kids have gone we've heard families well I don't want to take a loan out and there are some based on professions and there are some loans that are good loans and there are some loans that we we would say that probably isn't something like let's look at different colleges let's look at different programs something that's more affordable So those are conversations that are happening. While we're not going to make that decision for the family, we want to make sure they have all of that information on the table. And that takes somebody who knows what they're doing or somebody who's been through that before. And that's why we want to build out this mentoring program for the families in Salem so that they have somebody who's been through this process, who has some training in this world, and can sit there and just be a thought partner with what's a really good choice and decision. And that's going to be our pilot program. going into next year and what we're excited about.

I just, oh, I'm sorry.

Were you going to say something? I'm sorry. Do you want to go first?

Thank you so much. All of that information is incredibly helpful for me to hear. And this specifically, like career counseling, is something that is really important to me as somebody who went through high school, Revere High, class of 2010, not feeling very encouraged by the counseling that I received and not feeling like the guidance counselor kind of like pushed me to dream bigger. And so like that graduate school as an idea, like didn't come to me until I was at the tail end of my undergraduate degree. And a professor really like encouraged me and pushed me. I'm curious, how are we keeping track of where we're steering our kids? Like, do we have an idea now of, like, are we pushing certain kids towards certain careers? And how can we keep data Maybe the idea, and you guys know far more than I do on this, but maybe the idea could be similar to the concept of like having a reach school where counselors can have like what they imagine as like a reach career that they encourage as an example. So I'm just curious, are we keeping those stats yet? And if not, so excited to see all that we are keeping and yeah.

I'm going to let Meg jump in because she's really excited I can and Cindy and they're connecting. But I will say you that we're working on a partnership actually right now to create a whole data dashboard with a lot of these things because this data is all over the place and we want to bring it all together. So yes, we are working on collecting a lot of data, including we put out in our weekend newsletter for people to fill in a spreadsheet, if they're available, of what financial aid packages different schools offered our kids. Because that's really important. Because we can set up profiles for our kids and go, hey, you have a really good chance at this school to get this financial aid package. And they're offering this major, which is exactly what your child wants. So this would be a great place to apply to. So we're doing that internally. Some of that work.

So that's a big goal of the College and Career Counseling Department is to look at what students are interested in, where their values are, what their goals are, and then help them dream big. It's for all those students that you saw, the 88% that filled out three or more, there were plenty of REACH schools on there that they themselves may not have thought of at the time they could possibly get into, and they did. I'm going to look at someone in particular for a moment, but lots of students in the same boat. An example of this across the board, students that are career tech ed, for example, one of the fears or beliefs for students in comprehensive schools is that if you're in career tech ed, you're tracked in a certain way, and that is certainly not the case at Salem High. CT teachers and counselors work very closely for what students' interests are. And students are interested in construction. We're not only looking at union, but we're looking to make sure that you're an advanced coursework in math and sciences, that you're expanding those options and opportunities to include construction management programs, engineering programs. And whether or not you may not choose that, student may not choose that, they have the option to. And they've heard of those options. They've explored those options with their counselors. And a lot of the students have put applications out for this class. They may not have taken advantage of them. They ultimately may have decided to go into a union, but all of the options have been presented and they've been situated in a position to where they could take advantage of those. We are fortunate enough to have a schedule that allows students to have be full-time in a career tech ed or in early college and still make sure that we get three to four years of a world language and without sacrificing those other opportunities which allow them to go to moderately and highly selective schools so counselors are not looking at students saying oh well you started in vocational so you don't need that graduation requirement move on it's okay you can fit it in we just have to be mindful of how we how we do that And we're going to make sure that we do. So you have the opportunity as we're exploring what it is you're interested in across the board. So you're aiming high. One of the workshops that our counselors do is to go over all of the different options. What does each school mean? What is a four-year public versus a four-year private? What is a trade school versus a community school? What do the certifications or degrees get you? What does graduate school mean? And that is an entire unit that's part of that five-hour curriculum that students do. And that goes into that reflection piece and their presentations, we group them to present to each other, and that goes into their portfolio for their MICAP work. that they have by the end of their four years. So we do a lot of work around that to make sure that students understand what all their opportunities are, but they're also poised to take advantage of whatever opportunity they would like.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about Member Hoffman's point and Member Miranda's points as well as the student. Regarding the financial aid, I actually used College Affordable because Ms. Sousa and Ms. Kozlowski pushed me to use it. because I was going through some unrelated issues that initially kept me from applying for FAFSA so I had to apply for MAFSA and then I could apply for FAFSA but it was also December and there's like this thing where like if you don't apply for FAFSA fast enough then you don't get enough money so I had to fill out the FAFSA in two days or less so that I could like still make the deadline. College Affordable is really helpful and I don't know if it was Mr. Burns or Ms. Sousa that said it, but it's free. So nobody is paying anything to use it. And my mom is from Albania, and she has no clue about FAFSA. She was actually really scared when we opened it. I was really scared, too. it was definitely like on the student perspective I think they do a lot with financial aid and it's something that my counselor at least has talked to me about since like the beginning of junior year like she has made that very clear that this is something that needs to get done and this is what it's going to look like and this is how you do it and this is who you can turn to if not me this is like some other organization that will work with you outside of school hours. And then for the careers in college, since freshman year, I think our first meeting was freshman year and we were asked what we wanted to do, like where we saw ourselves, what we wish to do like in the future. And I was actually one of those very indecisive students. Like I was always switching back and forth, especially sophomore, junior year, I was really switching it up. But my counselor never really, turned me away from anything or pushed me towards anything. And I was a CTE student too. So I was doing a lot of things. And I never really felt like she was pushing me towards one path or the other. And I really feel like they try to let you come in with an open mind about everything. She always pushed me to take advanced coursework, always pushed me to go for like early college, PLTW, continue with CTE, even though it was two blocks and I wanted to do so many things, but she made it so that I could do those other classes while also still in CTE because she knew I liked the class. So yeah, I think there's a lot of, I think the counselors really care about the students, and it shows, because a lot of us feel comfortable enough to go talk to our counselors. At least my friends and I, we really feel like we can turn to them. Miss Kozlowski sees me at least once a week. Not for meetings every time, but she does see me. But yeah, that's really what I wanted to bring from the student perspective of it, because obviously you do hear Mr. Burns and Ms. Sousa talking about it, but I also feel like the student point of view is very valuable, because this is the students that it's about.

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, to your point, our philosophy has been, and the real shift is, we want every, it's about keeping doors open. And even when I talk to kids, we make sure right away, like even as freshmen, like, Don't put a price tag on this. You're going to apply to lots of places, and they're going to give you a financial aid package. There's a thing called FAFSA, and you're going to learn a lot about that over the four years, and you're going to see what packages different colleges give you, and then you make a choice. But just be prepared. If you keep your GPA up, if you're doing all of the things that you need to do to reach your goals, there will be lots of doors open to help you get there. And we'll make sure. And that's really the biggest. So I'm glad to hear that. I mean, you've sensed that through all of the actions that have been taken. But that's really the philosophy at Salem High is everything is possible. And this year, I think that we've demonstrated our kids have worked really hard. They've ended up in some great places and we're still not done yet. So we're now going on our next level of journey, which is how do we make sure they end up there? Right. And it's not just a photo op like we don't give them. Well, I'll be taking your picture. I know you're going to end up at UMass. We give them T-shirts, the photo ops, and they come in for a college signing or career signing. So even if they're going off into a trade or union, they're going to sit at the table and we're going to do their career signing, reach out to their employers to make sure that they're all set up. what their employment to after school. So we typically we do what we call a hashtag I applied, which is college apps and employment applications so that every kid has a place to go after school. And that's really important for our counseling team. We have to get better at those things and the tracking is a huge piece. So we're working with community partner to develop this whole new dashboard that's gonna help us collect all of the data that we want and give our councils a place to populate the data that they're tracking when they make these phone calls for our kids.

Member Hoffman?

One last thing. I have to say, I did appreciate, I got to do my, my son chose his sophomore classes and the counselor reached out and I was like, he doesn't like pressure, so I'll just let you guys handle it. And then she was like, do you want to come and see what he did? Like, talk about it. It was very, I really loved it. I was really proud of him for what he chose and that he was able to choose a schedule that he's going to enjoy going to school every day as opposed to me going, you have to go to school today. So that is refreshing that they actually are able to build in hands-on and academic all in one year. And the counselor was very informational for me as a parent. Like, he's on a good track, don't worry. So I hope people will do that. I hope all parents take the opportunity to do that, because it was super helpful. Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much for the update. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Back to the superintendent's report. The calendar.

Okay. The calendar. We have, so Principal Jellison brought to my attention that there was an error in the the calendar that was approved for Sarah Parker-Ramond school, there was a missing professional development day. And so we fixed that and put the draft into the packet that you have. And so it's actually the September 23rd professional development day wasn't there. And so that just makes it even with the number of days that the other elementary schools have. And Collins Middle School as well. So it's just a technical fix. But I would ask that I think it's in under votes that we approve that. And then lastly, well, no, not lastly, just the MSBA update, I think. We're all still riding a high from the vote. It seems like a long time ago, but it was just last week that ensures that we will be building a new Salem High School and that will be moving forward. It's just, you know, it's a. A PROJECT THAT REPRESENTS A POWERFUL INVESTMENT IN OUR CITY AND IN THE FUTURE OF THE CITY. WE HAVE THE FIRST BUILDING COMMITTEE MEETING SINCE THE VOTE TOMORROW AT 6 O'CLOCK. IT WILL BE HERE AT COLLINS MIDDLE SCHOOL IN THE CHAMBER AND THERE ARE THREE THINGS ON THE AGENDA, THREE MAJOR THINGS. ONE IS TO GO BACK TO THE MILESTONE REVIEW AND MAKE SURE THE PROJECT IS ON TASK. on target. And to propose future meeting dates and then to receive an update from the finance working group. So if anyone's interested in attending that, that's happening. And then over to you, Deputy Superintendent Pauley.

Good evening. And I offered on Cindy's behalf to give her regrets. She has another AP exam tomorrow morning first thing. SHE WAS GOING TO HEAD HOME. SHE TOOK ONE TODAY AS WELL. SO AS WE ARE IN THE THROWS OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR, WE ARE LOOKING TOWARDS FINISHING THIS SCHOOL YEAR STRONG AND STARTING THE SUMMER STRONG. SO I WANTED TO PREVIEW FOR YOU SOMETHING THAT WILL BE COMING OUT TO FAMILIES. Very soon, which is about our Summer Eats program. Last summer, the Salem Public Schools Summer Eats program served 29,591 meals to children across 22 community sites. And this year, we are excited to continue that, and we will be providing free meals to children throughout Salem beginning Monday, June 29th, and concluding Friday, August 21st. The program will operate at 11 open sites and provide meals at 22 partner locations, including the Boys and Girls Club, Parks and Recreation, and YMCA programs. And we'll be sending all of this to you. Our lunch locations this year will be at Witchcraft Playground, Bates Playground, Loring Towers, the Salem Public Library, Gallows Hill, Mary Jane Lee, Rainbow Terrace, and Forest River Pool. So those will be our lunch sites. And we have new dinner locations, which will include Collins Cove, Palmer Cove, and Pequot Highlands. So we will be sharing this widely with the school committee and with families very soon, but wanted to be sure to invite you all to come to a kickoff event on Monday, June 29th from 4 to 6. And those email invitations will be appearing in your inboxes this week. And that is my update. Thank you.

That's it. All right. Subcommittee reports. Any of the subcommittees have reports to share? Member Hoffman.

The superintendent screening committee met last week and we finalized all the questions and we will start interviews this week and hopefully end next week and send it on to the next level.

Any other subcommittees have information or updates to share? We have one item under motions and resolutions. This is the approval of the corrected calendar for the Sarah Parker-Raymond School.

I have a question. Do you want me to wait for discussion?

Yeah, why don't you take a motion first?

Okay. I just don't know if it will impact the motion at all. But I'll make a motion to accept the revised calendar for the Sarah Parker-Raymond School.

Motion made by member Miranda second by member Hoffman under discussion.

Just noticing here. Actually, I'm not sure if I'm if I'm looking at the right.

For the last day of school.

That does look like an error.

Yeah.

I didn't notice that it should be the 22nd. Okay. Like the Yeah.

And then do you, Kate, do you know off the top of your head if what the last day of school is for the regular calendar? Yes.

So I'm sorry. I'm looking between two things. So the 22nd is the same end date for the Sauerpark or Ramon. Nothing changed except adding the half day, which doesn't change the end date. The last day for other schools is the 18th.

Okay. Okay. So Juneteenth, which falls on June 19th. Which is a Saturday. It's a Saturday. I don't know if that's typically observed on the day before. And so just wanted to highlight that as well.

It doesn't impact, I think there's language in the contract that it does, if it's on the weekend it doesn't impact the day off of school.

Okay, and then there was one more thing that just escaped me. Oh, I just, I don't know where we are in the process of creating the draft for the plan, but just wanted to highlight as it relates to the calendar, I don't know if the group had any thoughts around if we're going to continue to have a different calendar or not.

I think they want to reserve the right to have some autonomy around that. But I think they've acknowledged that there's less of a significant need for that because of the way the before it was like the trimester transitions were the reason for that. And they're approaching that in a different way. So I don't think there's as a significant need. But I think they do want to reserve the right to have some autonomy over that, acknowledging that it has to be like a significant reason because it can have an impact on budget in terms of transportation. So I think the two principles acknowledge that and don't want to do that frivolously for, you know, no good reason. So that's what I would say.

Thank you.

Any other discussion or questions on the motion to the calendar. Seeing none. On the motion on favor. Any opposed none. The calendar is approved. The vice chair is not here on newsletter items table that any announcements from committee members. motion to adjourn motion made by member miranda second by member hoffman under discussion seeing none all in favor any opposed none opposed the matter carries unanimously thank you everyone