School Committee - Regular Meeting

so thanks everybody I'm going to call to order this meeting of the westward schools committee for Tuesday April 1st we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance please stand and join us if you're able I to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you um next is the consent agenda with uh meeting minutes from March our March 17th meeting any questions or feedback on those minutes take a motion to approve salute second all in favor say I I I I any opposed just checking um next up is public comment so a reminder that public comment for any item or topic on or off the agenda is always available near the top of the agenda for individuals to share their thoughts speakers will be limited to 2 minutes per person please use public comment even if you refer to something later on the agenda virtual public comment is available through Zoom raise your hand and you'll be promoted to panelist and unmuted or iners at the microphone and start by um introducing yourself with your name and address anyone on Zoom today on Zoom but nobody with their hand raised that a minute okay all right thanks everybody we're going to move right on to informational updates and start with the students okay um so this week and next we have a lot of concerts going on we have the spring

chor concert at 700 p.m. tomorrow in the PAC and then on Thursday it's the spring band concert at 6:30 in the PAC and then next week on the 8th is the orchestra concert 6:30 in the P um so you've got plenty of opportunity to come see the performative Arts um and then let's see also on Friday is um myself and another apgb student we are going to the state house for Student Government day um and there is a mock bill being proposed on uh phone phones like technology in schools in the younger generation um and it's pretty cool me and another student will get a chance to kind of see how that process works and speak on it if we wish and um we think we're meeting up with Jim R sier at one point so it'll be very excited um and then next week on April 8th we also have the another MGH blood drive uh it's 8 to 1:30 uh 18 years older you don't need permission I believe you can get your blood drawn if you're 16 but you need uh to sign the form you need parent signature I think that's in the office uh and then we also have our eighth advisory next week on the 9th and go ahead oh yes I'm sorry can I you're going to be in the building at the state house on Friday yes on Friday yep okay good yes so graduation speech for seniors I believe were due tonight um and they go through everyone who submits a speech goes through a pretty thorough selection process with multiple rounds of auditions um there's like a committee made up of principal Tumi Dean we Mr towers and other wa faculty members and they will ultimately select who will be speeching or excuse speaking at graduation uh and quarter 4 starts tomorrow kind of signaling the end of uh the wa career for many seniors and it's getting pretty surreal but and then finally uh wa Theater Arts performed their last performance of stupid effing bird uh at the metg final round over this past weekend and they

did very well with many individual students uh doing excellent um Hayden pela Tyler pela and tea michello have received excellence in technical theater for lighting design and rhythic Runo and Carissa Wong got excellence in performance and acting also one more thing to add uh there was also uh the Japan a Japan trip announced for next year um and it I'm not sure if it's February April break I don't know if you heard I I'm not sure I believe it's still in the works um but there is a Google Classroom code and I believe it's morning un morning announcements um but there is a meeting next week on the 9th from 6:30 to 7:30 in the lecture hall um it's led by Miss bakar and I highly recommend her she's leading my Costa Rica trip this year she's awesome um so yeah that's pretty much it do you guys know is it the first time that we've done a Japan trip I'm not sure I haven't heard of one I haven't either before um but I'm sure it'll be so cool I'm jealous that it's next year it's fantastic cool thank you I will just say it hasn't actually come to you yes still interest interest but it hasn't actually been approved talk she was like wait a second a it's a 15 hour done it so Administration updates oh thank you um uh I'm I'm glad that you shared uh the information about wada I was thrilled to be able to go in there um Friday afternoon and I watched the performance and they did an incredible job uh one of the things that I don't know if people appreciate like the the students who won the acting Awards and they won a number of different students won them throughout this process but there's not a lot of students who are doing the lighting design actually taking taking over all of that

responsibility for that work and so the fact that Hayden and um Tyler and TAA won that award I think that's it's remarkable because a lot of schools still rely on the adults to help them with the technical aspects specifically the lighting design um and this this production won a lot of awards throughout the process which I think is great um there was original music that was for it and those those are things that I just that not other districts don't necessarily have that level of skill um amongst the students and I think um that's just something really excellent to highlight again in addition to all of the acting Awards because that's all phenomenal at the state level that they were recognized in this way but it's important for people to understand that um there's something different there with that layer of technical ability um if you you might not have had a chance to read my um update yet that I sent out earlier today but there was something really cool that I just wanted to highlight tonight too the fact that the Mandarin students did this project based learning assignment to um translate the kindergarten read alouds and they created a QR code so that we have this phenomenal curriculum that you're all aware of that we've brought into the into the district the El curriculum that's kindergarten through fifth grade well well they have all these read alouds that are part of it and one of the things that we've been trying to do is to make sure that all of the students have access to the tier one instruction and so we knew that there were a number of students that were in our kindergarten who didn't come in necessarily to us with a high level of English proficiency and so our Mandarin students at the high school at the Academy did this project based learning um well this project based learning assignment and they created

translated read aloud so that the students will Le they'll they'll hear it and they'll participate in the tier one General instruction but then they have a QR code that they can then access it with an iPad so that they can listen to the translated read aloud on their own and it just really supports that language development the vocabulary development and I just thought it was an awesome way to see literally our 12th graders helping our kindergarten students um and at the same time um principal boand shared with me that the robotics Club at wa was helping them with the switch adapted toys in the medically fragile program like the idea that students who have these skills and this interest in soldering are helping honestly our Educators who would not necessarily know how to do that and who have been struggling with this and so we have students who have a passion for this they've been connecting and I just think it's an awesome way to to um showcase the way our our students are helping each other so I wanted to highlight that and I think you all received the Fantastic email um from Miss uh thornford from the um the day school that the Day School chorus was selected to participate in um the Massachusetts Ed um the music educators Hill uh day on the hill uh in May and so the Day School chorus will be performing at the state house so I think that's awesome awesome those are updates thank you school committee updates sorry I always start with you Tom I just I look up yeah um again Abbott uh fifth grade musical is going on this week um hit Tech week today uh and again we're um training that next Generation uh alltech is run by the kids so that that's really kind of fun to watch uh also show is it it they're doing Lion King kids so um yeah

so it it'll be a interesting weekend be be busy uh and then I also I sent out the uh the link to um charting the course thank you the charting the course uh which is actually here in Westford at nooba Tech on May 3rd uh so if you want to attend you don't have to travel hours to get there so thanks anything Bill nope Mari no Sean I'm sure Katherine it's going to make a plug for this too they called on you first yeah uh the westf cpac's annual survey is up and I believe it's up through Friday yeah okay um so through the end of this week um all of those who can and have access to a computer should partake in the survey yeah it's a it's a quick survey it's a Google Drive survey it's immensely helpful and um for those who don't know CPAC um does a wonderful presentation at the end of each year to kind of go over the results and that helps inform us um into special education decisions going forward so um if you can and you're able please take the survey closes at 5:00 pm on Friday um I attended the westf cat board meeting on March 20th um as you as I mentioned before they are uh mailing a subscription of their newsprint paper version of the newspaper out um they have 144 subscribers and their goal was 250 so in order to increase subscriptions they're actually going on a voters list of people and sending out

100 free newspapers a week for the next four weeks so you may be getting a free paper in the mail if you don't already subscribe great um just to say update policy meth this week um we're working on our graduation requirements policy um and kind of figuring out when we vote on the competency determination where that's that slot in and we should be ready to have that that first reading come to our next school committee meeting um and there is just one other thing I'd like to plug tonight the just to say thank you and number of members and our director of special ed special education social emotional learning um jar hofflin all attended the um CAC Lego building event so um it was an awesome awesome afternoon but thank you so much it really meant a lot that so many people turned up and supported what was a lovely afternoon so thanks a million we put jar to work he did good building skills so I can't wait to see your you're three yeah like that's that's I'm looking forward to just had of curi so there was a mosaic or mural that was made what happened to that it we we kept it in dis on display in first par for the week and now it just gets dismantled um we had hoped that maybe the PCA might take it for the AR the regional art event but um I think just space was an issue so um we need to come up with a way of kind of having it displayed Elsewhere for a while yeah maybe the Westford Museum yeah well I think the big thing is accessibility and the floor has to be you talked these Lego builders they're very particular about the building environment and the floor has to be a certain you know so yeah it's not everywhere there requirements involved yeah but no it was it was really an awesome bricks don't reuse oh yeah the the Lego Club reuse them all they build

mosaics and all that all the time so yeah they need them back is that an enjoyable experience for someone taking it apart yeah they I mean I was going to say that in itself speak for personal experience I mean we did like even just sitting there and organizing cuz you know the the members have everything organized out so you're just like chatting and you're plucking and putting it wherever and it's kind of a yeah it's very soothing movement meditation yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um I have a couple quick updates um you may have seen in your inbox um a a bunch of questions from a fifth grade girl scout troop number 70533 I didn't want to mess that up so I was looking down um I had the pleasure of joining their meeting this past week we had a great conversation about the school budget um they were they are doing working on their Bronze award which is sort of an evolved community service it's not just you know identifying a need but taking action and engaging with the community um and so after a couple conversations we ended up um they a group of them are working on some pedestrian safety and then another group are working on um actually uh um publicity uh for the local election and they'll have a table at the ren rhen Bush spring Market um so they were interested to hear our low turnout typically for our local elections and they felt motivated to they're going to make little magnets that remind people to get out the vote for May 6th and have a little table with how to check your registration and everything so yeah it's great um also wanted to just this is our first meeting since town meeting and we will obviously speak about Robinson um later on the agenda but just want to take an opportunity to thank voters for approving our capital projects um the nav Library rooftop HVAC the curbing at Robinson the Blanchard Middle School

standby generator the Abbott Elementary wastewater treatment plant exterior roof and trim and the Blanchard wastewater treatment plant roof and HVAC as well as the Appropriations from the community preservation fund which for the schools was the um wa truste field lighting Improvement project and if you followed any of the capital meetings that sounds really great the the ease that that new design the new um equipment let's instead of like warming up the bulbs for an hour you can just kind of turn them on they're easier to to change out and so and the safety Factor yes yeah having better polls and right yeah all of that so anyway thank and like I said Robinson obviously was also Robinson feasibility study was also approved but that's later on the agenda so we are going to move right on to can I real quick since we're on the 10 meeting um subject of note right there were the schools contributed to that day in several different aspects one of which was uh The Roots program was there serving coffee which I think was a great success y right um as someone who usually partook in the Dunkin Donuts coffee I thought this was a nice change and uh was happy to be served by our um students which was great um and then Food Services also too and it sounds like that was a big success they only had what 20 or so plates left by the end of it so it was well used that was and I heard a lot of compliments about the boosted Wi-Fi the gym so okay and the child care I mean it really went well yeah so okay now we're back on schedule um for our first order of business which is to welcome up our representative from American Institutes of research for root cause analysis

followup we don't have a laugh track or Applause so as Maddie sits down I'll just some of you were able to participate in the root cause analysis event that um we particip that took place in December the focus for tonight is really giving an update there's still more work to be done um and so there's so much information in this slide deck I encouraged Maddie to not go over things that we might already be familiar with right um so that we can kind of get into what the uh recommendations and the next steps are really as well actually I think Catherine Catherine's gonna drive for I think maybe what we could do is well hi I'm Maddie djuna and I'm a researcher with the American institutes for research I'm also the Project Director for the equity audit that has been conducted and I had a team um joined me to do the data collection and Analysis and another team um joined me that was local um to do the root cause analysis event that was held on site and tonight I'm by my loansome which is lovely but um I think maybe what we could do is start on slide seven okay um and then the rest is there just for your reference and to provide some some context and background um one let's see one slide before that um so we focused on three areas in the district one was resource allocation the second I need to start my timer the second was educational climate and then the third was instructional supports for diverse Learners um from there uh next slide we uh um sort of divided it up even further um so financial resources and human resources um sort of sort of fed into the guiding questions that were developed from there

and then educ educational climate focused on students family and staff experiences instructional supports for diverse Learners targeted access to tier one instruction which is abast and and of itself as we know and then um Equity Focus professional development from there um we and then we'll Breeze through this but from there we developed guiding questions in collaboration with the um Westford District Equity AUD Equity excuse me Equity audit steering committee um and so these are there for your review um but what we'll do then is Skip to slide 15 so the guiding questions helped serve as a a Guiding Light on how we were going to to collect data and choose which data we're going to collect and analyze we um interviewed District staff um District leaders and we had three family focus groups additionally we had extent data that we pulled in to do a lot of the um Financial Resources um the equitable distribution of resources analysis things like like that so after we did the entire data analysis we came up with problem statements that we brought to the root cause analysis event and there were I think 32 members that day um from the community from the school committee from District Leadership School leadership we had student representation it's good to see you again um and um just community members parents um um teachers I don't know if I mentioned that as well and so the tasks that day one of the tasks if we go to the next slide was to review and confirm the problem statements from

the key findings so there were several key findings that came from the data analysis that informed the problem statement and the group that day was split into three three separate groups to sort of tackle these three Focus areas and they either confirmed the problem statements and said yes that really highlights what we're reading in this data and the key findings or no we need to include XYZ we need to modify it we need to scrap it and create a new one that really highlights what's happening in our in our district and our school communities and so the problem statements were confirmed and then um from there there was a process that um the groups were LED through to identify um potential causes those were then prioritized um and then we went through a root cause analysis 5y protocol to sort of get down into hopefully the root cause several of them could be contributing causes and several of them could be potential root causes and we know with dis District structures and systems um it's multifaceted and all of these things sort of connect together right um and so then the next set of slides shows you that process so it's really small um but I have it pulled out a little bit later so we have our Focus areas we have res resource allocation um educational climate and then um instructional supports for diverse Learners and so what you'll see is the problem statements um in that second sort of column if you go back one slide the second column is the problem statements and then from there there were priority causes that the the group came up with um and then um it trees out branches out further to identify some of those potential um root causes or

contributing causes so if we go to the next slide you'll see the problem statements here and um I do think this is worth going over I don't know if you want me to say it out loud or just let everyone read it yeah um okay so problem statement one under resource allocation um was among District administrators and families there is a perception that udl and mtss is inconsistently and unevenly implemented across the district impacting the effectiveness of these instructional supports problem statement two says there is a lack of clarity regarding the entrance and exit criteria that drive special education decision-making and student identification processes if we go to the next slide we enter the space of educational climate there are a total of five problem statements for educational climate Because We examined so many different spaces within that um and so there's a lot there but problem statement one um the district has prioritized building relationships a sense of belonging and social emotional learning in schools Westford has resources for seal curriculum but not has uh formally implemented it consistently across grades K8 parents have concerns about social emotional support offered to students and feel social emotional needs are not being met problem statement two despite parents perceiving Westford schools as safe welcoming and supportive there are concerns about classroom management and discipline practices the district has moved toward Progressive discipline collaborative problem solving and restorative practices to keep students in the classroom overall there is a lack of available data on discipline in problem statement three sense of belonging and engagement tend to decrease as grade levels increase this is for students with differences

across student groups ex uh the exception being English learner students Maddie can I interrupt you just on the side for a minute of course because if you weren't in the room in December at the root cause analysis um it it might be helpful to know that these are these were formed based on the data that's right right so if you're reading if you're reading that going how do we know parents perceive Westford schools as safe welg and supportive we were looking at like the Panorama data and the survey data that was showing this assumption and and then it's put together as the problem statement or the focus groups right so it's um these these were like rooted in data yeah sorry I thought that was helpful that's really helpful I think additionally there is the data that resulted in key findings that then further was fleshed out into these problem statements that sort of captured a larger theme that was existent in the data yeah thank you um and then we can it might be good to interject now but um we can also discuss this later um there are limitations in the data um focus groups provide snapshots um our recruitment process was open to any parent who want wanted to be involved so um and we held three focus groups and so there like I said this that data specifically is not meant to be generalized but it is important to acknowledge the snapshot that was taken um all right that was my question because these folks self- selected to be in the group it's not randomized that's uh that's right yes yeah that's right because the concern of that the same idea behind people who leave reviews

online and stuff too right you might have absolutely agenda or something behind being involved yes and um I think that well I know that there is data that supports an overall positive feeling and sentiment from parents and um students in the district and I think that's important to acknowledge as well without completely pushing that off to the side because it was a handful of people I will say also it's important to note we wouldn't take just one parents sentiment that was shared this was a collection of voices that was large enough for us to say yes this is a theme that we're hearing across focus groups so um it wouldn't be representative of one family one family many people were totally you survey yeah there were there were I would have to go back there were five to seven folks in each focus group three focus groups in the parents in the parents focus groups did you do staff then as well we have not we only done District leadership that's right so so it's yeah so you can't have statistical significance because the sample's too small and we wouldn't claim statistical significance with a focus group we're just gaining voice and and perspective yeah and so I think that that there and I talk about this later on but there we've had many conversations about hey there are lots of wonderful things happening in the district it may not be received well across stakeholders um as well as you would like to have it received so for example udl there's a whole roll out process that is actually identified in the district uh strategic plan

um that may not be reaching all stakeholders as well as you would like it to be and so there might be a perception that udl isn't evenly um implemented sure but that's part of the plan right the phase out plan um and so I think that's just important to keep in mind but Maddie isn't this the point of these Equity audits is to kind of figure out you know the gaps or the disconnect or know like the whole point of this is we know we're not perfectly so let's figure out the areas to focus on right okay yes and udl is a maybe a bad example but but maybe mtss is a better example right so there we know there are best practices and how to implement monitor um Fidelity of implementation and improve mtss practices that are in service of all students um and to what degree that's happening across the district equitably is um should be part of the conversation so udl was a not a great example but I think that I think it was an example of the messaging yeah yeah communication [Music] um so I'm going to hustle yeah okay so um where do you want let go to do you want to go into the recommendations is it I think we can do that um yes maybe I think maybe possible root causes um I I think we can go into recommendations we can come back if we need to um you know and before we jump into this recommendations were re reorganized to

to fit into this the focus area so there was a lot of conversation about Equitable resource allocation specifically in regard to special education providers and servicing um and that really fits fit more into the educational climate space because when we did our analysis there was no difference in access to effective Educators um for student groups across the district and so that's just a that's a quantitative data fact that we we were able to see and that was based on years of experience um we looked at um teacher certification qualification and um we also examined um absenteeism rates across um teachers to see if that could that and that would potentially impact students um students access to Effective Education Educators um if they're receiving substitutes more often right and we just didn't find a difference and so then we have to look at well why is there this perception or this message coming across and so there were lots of layers um there including um how students are identified for special education um how and what happens before that so the RTI or the mtss that happens before that um what happens when students are identified for special education what happens um are students actually being pulled out for services are they being taught by a qualified educator um and so all of that was looked at um I'm getting kind of sidetracked we're at 14 minutes though you're good you you have time you don't need to limit yourself so ignore ignore the

timer well don't ignore it I will say don't we don't ignore it it's the goal um and so then we think about um um so there there was a shared sentiment that perhaps students were being pulled out for services and that I would I would encourage us to look deeper at who what are people identifying as services so if we're if we're grouping intervention in there prior to students receiving Ed a special education assessment or um being um identified as needing special education services interventions totally separate and so maybe they are being pulled out for small groups and there's there's just some misunderstanding there and I think a little bit of clarity around District expectations um would go a long way yeah um so I want to also point out so the findings are not in this slide deck but there were no significant differences in um scho School spend expenditure for students and schools that had higher needs had higher spending and that was that's to be expected because you're following State um guidelines and um formulas for funding entitlements and mandates right it was interesting because as we looked at it the principles weren't necessarily aware of that because it's really just looking at tracking how district is spending money but it wasn't their per pupil expenditures that they necessarily have control over so they didn't realize that oh more money was actually being allocated to their building than another building um which I think again it just spoke to the fact that we're just doing what we're supposed to be doing

right okay so now the I want to also just put out a warning this is a lot to digest and when we're thinking about District structures system supports it is it's a huge game right and so there are a lot of larger recommendations um and it would be up to you all to prioritize them and to scrap some that you're like ah this isn't we don't need to do that or this is just what we've come up with and and they're massage right well and to that point if I can interrupt it we're also we're also at a still at a midpoint right like this is an update that Maddie is sharing with us based on the information from the initial data analysis and the root cause of it although she's going to talk about the next steps the next steps is working at the building level and so there's more of this is still out to play so I don't want to give any of you or anybody who's listening the idea that this is it and this is the final piece of it because it's not there's still there's still work that we're doing right and so exactly um and I I will also acknowledge that the district is really decentralized in a lot of systems and processes um and I do think that people are um hungry for a little bit of structure and coherence um and so that can be um nerve-wracking to enter the space like we don't want to tell people what to do or we want to respect the autonomy of school leaders and and and um Educators as masters of their craft and also I think it's important to hear that people do want some guidance around some of these things and they would be I think they would welcome it um okay so uh resource allocation

this is a little bit empty but I didn't want to have a blank slide I think that the district is doing well um in terms of equitable distribution of resource allocation um and so I it might be better to actually work in rever reverse order but um if we go to the next slide so educational climate so um if you look at 1A um so thinking about providing professional development opportunities focused on culturally responsive pedagogy and classroom management strategies that Foster inclusion um and ensure that PD includes practical strategies for embedding these approaches into daily instruction and monitor effectiveness in implementation so there's a lot of language throughout the recommendations about monitoring Effectiveness or impact um which requires Data Systems and tools uh for you to be able to make informed decisions on whether yeah I'll I'll pause there um and if we go to the next slide um develop and Implement seal districtwide plan so you'll notice again this is about establishing um an expectation but then also supporting so sort of high high expectations and high supports so thinking about finding the gaps which requires observation so having your teams push in observing what's happening regularly not just in in accordance to the state evaluation system for instructional observation eval valuation um really embedding a a culture of observation feedback throughout the district um in service of

growth um and so thinking about how that provides coherence throughout these recommendations we're we're observing monitoring supporting and all of those things should be in alignment with professional development coaching uh where necessary instructional observation and feedback and and these feedback loops occurring regularly in alignment with the district priorities um okay and then um from there so so there's so much I'm like holding my breath um from there creating also so thinking about like creating teams to support School leaders so that can be that can be hard you know I mean resources are can be tight so you don't want to be asking people to volunteer all the time but you do want a team that owns the work and it can't just be the one person at the district who's owning everything right it needs to be this distributive model where we have representation from from various stakeholder groups that support and own the work um all right and I also want to I just acknowledge that like there are time restraints right so there were conversations about teachers wanting to have collaboration across schools um which would really support horizontal alignment which is in service of equity right so you should be able to walk into a second grade classroom in any building across the district and see the same level of high quality instruction for for every second grader in your District it should look rather similar I mean while acknowledging the the various unique contexts of each School

Community um and so then that leads us into um the mtss um on the next slide so thinking about um consistent districtwide mtss processes that include data collection you to inform um and used to inform ongoing intervention decisions so thinking about how are stud students even referred to intervention what is what is supposed to be occurring in the general education classroom by the general education teacher and that can be established and communicated across the district there are lots of lots of places where tier one two and three interventions are owned by the general education teacher and then before we refer to like SST or IST um I think it's SST here we call it ist ist um teachers would bring in uh their data and say okay I have tried these interventions for four to 6 weeks or 6 to8 weeks and I have not seen adequate or expected student growth based on these interventions um and now that requires more intensive um assessment analysis and support um and so it can look it will look different for Westford it will look different across the district but having sort of these guidelines um is important um and I think people would appreciate that as well and I know that the these things are happening really well in pockets and also not as well in other pockets and um so just acknowledging like there is a lot to celebrate in this District that's performing beautifully um and so my job is to come here and poke holes and things

um and say like hey but you do it well is everyone is everyone doing not the same thing but something very similar so that we have Equitable student outcomes and so that this child over here in this school in third grade is receiving the same intervention based on the same sort of process that this child over here is um yeah so I'll pause there um and that feeds into the standardization of the IEP P process um and I know that there's been a lot of work already done by the district to establish clear entrance and exit criteria um which is a a really great step in the right direction and um so thinking about establishing clear guidelines for data use and progress monitoring that feeds all of these things so the mtss framework or model would include behavior intervention social emotional needs and academic needs all right and um expanding access to specialized programs I think that the district has done a really good job acknowledging uh where programs exist and why and if in the future you see a need to expand those programs um it's it's here for for your reference um and uh let's see yes okay I think we're good so and then the last one I will say number six I think is just really important to think about alignment and coherence throughout everything that the district

is doing so here's the policy that drives um that drives decisions and how are we going to make sure that our expectations and District supports are aligned to policy and then how do we push into individual schools to make sure that the policy expectations are being applied and practiced equitably which requires um which requires clear expectations alignment coherence observation um data collection monitoring and um I'm for getting a word but I think we understand cuz I'm so boxing at the point can I get back to something you said I I can't not be stuck on it so when you said there's like entrance and exit criteria for special education services can you please say more about that yes I can so essentially like what we're looking for is like program um entrance and exit criteria so like what is required for a student to qualify for specific programming or uh services and so that has I think this year been established and and posted to the website as of this year and it it wasn't it wasn't before right so thank you welcome I think one of the interesting things too is that the notion of as you're looking at there's Pockets where a lot of these great things are happening and there's still always room for improvement and as we look at it and as we talk about if we even just think about professional development and thinking about okay as we come up with a more um a more specific way to not only communicate professional development but to align our professional development the reality is is that there are always people who don't necessarily

agree so as we're trying to in as we're trying to expand voice and choice for all of our students and as we try to do that for our staff as well too I think one of the things mty's sharing is that there people are asking for more clarification and more Direction in certain things and so it there comes a point where there is a push and pull right in terms of there are some people who very much don't want to be led in a specific way um and might want more time and more autonomy and that's one of the things that when we looked at at this District in general we have I think you talked about it earlier we have nine schools and so we're not large but we're not small and so you mentioned earlier that there's a it's decentralized there's great autonomy in all of our schools well that's something that we've celebrated for a long time the personalities that exist in all of our schools but yet at the same time what we're hearing is is there a need for more consistency amongst the schools and so while I would say when I walk into any second grade classroom in the district I do feel like I see a high level of expectations I think your point of as we talk to each School are all of their IST proc processes the same there might be some differences that that that are taking place in in different places and that's I think going to be something that as you work with the individual schools that's going to help us to see okay wait a second where where are things similar and where are they different and and then where they're different there's going to be some friction as to change what should what what what might be the better way to do this can I ask Maddie and and as you go into this next phase so you know just for example say um on this slide here

you say establish a system for regularly monitoring the Implement implementation of udl MTS when you put recommendations like that is is is there a follow-up kind of conversation of based on you know audits you you know and the research that you guys know are there kind of recommended best practices for how to do that like do you share that kind of or is it very much like high level and then we have to figure out what we want to do in kind of those different things I think it would be I would we we have um a consistent meeting and I think that the next step here is going to be prioritizing and figuring out what needs to be um focused on for the upcoming school year understanding that this all feeds into the district um strategic plan and the school Improvement plans and um you're coming up on sort of a cycle um an end of cycle and so this is going to be valuable information of like hey this is what we're hearing across stakeholder groups um and so how do we insert that um and align it to our district priorities and a lot of this I I really believe that having spec having um identified data collection systems and a way to monitor implementation of District priorities is key so if you think about um I I guess instructional I would say like we could just talk about real quick um instructional priorities if you're deciding hey we would like to see these instructional strategies implemented to some degree across the district because we're really trying to um phase out and

and increase the scope of of of impact of udl in the district we're going to hang our hat on these three instructional strategies or priorities for the next school year and that could be flexible assessment that could be I don't know it it could be whatever you decide as a district like these are are instructional priorities and that is already align in in alignment with the district um strategic plan but um then that requires observation and monitoring right and so I I think that these can be really scary words when there's not a culture of observation feedback necessarily um across the district and I'm not saying that exists here because I have not spoken to many teachers but I do know that outside of the formal evaluation system there's not a lot of spaces where regular observation feedback formal is occurring so so my one of my questions and I love the fact that you're saying all this is rooted in data um but are we getting specific kind of guidance on what data we should be collecting and how often and and things like that yeah I mean I can I'm happy to I'm happy to work with Dr Chu and and and come up with some some priorities next steps and and data to like really hone in on you can't do all of this at one time and so I think it's important maybe to to pick a space um if seal was mentioned across parent groups um you know I think that figuring out a way to either communicate what's happening and then Beef It Up um or find some tools and supports for schools that are really needing them I think are are some spaces that are like anyway I'm not answering your question directly but um I think that picking a couple of things

to really hone in on next school year or for the next three would be really helpful and there are tools and um specific to priorities that are selected can I can I jump right off that so um the the prioritization step where do you see that happening who who is in that room well I think the first thing is that it's these next steps so we're going to be working at the school level school-based teams because one of the thing one of the voices that we knew we did not hear from in this first round was from the teachers yeah and so hearing from more of the Educators in the buildings is going to be very important to sort of get a I think a just more information right in into the picture to to to better understand okay what is if we just use IST as an example right what is the IST process in each of the buildings are they consistent are they using the same format some schools have a team that is that's a standing team in which a teacher comes and joins that team other schools they just assemble a group when needed to do something like that and so that that's going to be really important information that Maddie's Gathering that then I think can impact the way in which schools are approaching this as as well as far as our udl um roll out I'm going to talk about that a little bit later um in the Strategic District Improvement plan as well too I I feel like what we heard from the data that they shared with us was was now a year and a half old and it spoke to families and stakeholders saying that they felt like udl was not being rolled out equally across the district but I think that again was now a year and a half old we've made significant changes even this last year in how we've been approaching professional development and

we know how we're going to be approaching professional development next year as well too which I think is going to help support that so that in terms of when when when we're also talking about that that uh cycle of of of feedback there's been pockets of that where that's been happening as well too outside of and again I think the important part is that you're saying outside of the formal evaluation process follow the formal evaluation process every single year right but I think that's something that every school district struggles with right in terms of what what has been created that is creating this non evaluative cycle of feedback that can exist when you have whether it's peers working together whether it's professional learning communities that are working together and one of the things that that I learned early on on was that while there were people who understood Universal Design for Learning within our district Westford had never embraced udl as a district just like honestly I'm pretty sure westford's never embraced the PLC concept districtwide schools have done it just like one of the things you mentioned earlier on was um culturally responsive teaching well we've had schools who have done significant professional development that over the years but it wasn't districtwide and so I think that's kind of the the other piece of saying okay wait a second are we like the the autonomy has been great and we've seen some some wonderful growth in different places but has everybody benefited from that has it been shared equally throughout the district and that's one of the things we're trying to focus on um I think those are really great examples of the the big picture ones what I guess what my question was these slides have like 17 you know um statements on them and

like the nuts and bolts of how do we choose what which of those 17 like I've heard Maddie say prioritize so I'm just wondering is that before the schools get looped in is that after the schools get looped in I I think that's a conversation that we'll have um okay I I will say my my my intent and my impression was having the schools respond to this information yeah so that that could help us prioritize okay okay um so that there so that we're having an understanding is because I think I I do think in some cases we're going to see some schools who will say what are you talking about here right and they're going to show you all of this stuff that might not have been visible beforehand and that's going to help us get a sense of okay wait a second this is something that this this needs to be shared this is this is doing this is working very well here but it's not working so well over here which will help us okay thank you there [Music] other um I know so right now Dr Cho are there school-based kind of equity teams or is that is that something is that a goal that we would like to have by the end of next year when we talk about the teachers getting to have this information is is there sort of a concrete unit right now that that air is going to lead into for next year and kind of dig down through some of these recommendations more yeah so this it still feels like we're kind of far out right now yeah so this year so we had a a districtwide Dei group that had been that was meeting um regularly before this year and so this year we knew that there was a lot of work that was going on with the audit itself the steering committee that

Maddie um spoke about earlier was actually a subgroup of the districtwide Dei committee um the schools this year their charge was that the the principles were developing their own their own teams within their schools to address any building concerns that they might have the the focus of all of the work this year has been around udl and around the the the adoption of the El curriculum as well too specifically so as a district team we've been sort of waiting and in limbo to see okay well what are these recommendations going to be we all came together for the root cause analysis um now the focus in this spring and it's I mean the first meeting that MD's going to have with each team is going to be two hours long and then there'll be like followup from there so they're now ready Ian and they've already scheduled those right so um I don't think they've happened yet but they're scheduled now for next week's our first yeah okay so so that's sort of the now the the next step is that the building based teams are sort of taking this information to see how it can inform what their needs are but we're talking like principal system principal yeah it's it's the administrative team it's teachers it's what we started with was that the the every building like I said some buildings have a standing IST which is an instructional student instructional support team yeah um some others have a group of people that come together when they need to so what I said to the principles is you need to establish which group is going to meet with Maddie it's five to seven people got it teachers are included it's going to be at least one administrator

if not two administrators plus your um the Educators involved in the in that team got it thank you yeah and can I ask then so we do this round of meetings is that when because this isn't the final report this so we're still so does the recommendations that kind of or that final report come after that the the final report is almost completely drafted and will come simultaneously oh okay yeah so that'll be separate from it'll be District so this was an examination of District systems and practices and policies yeah and so the report final report will be inclusive of that from there the district needs to do the work to align practices and expectations okay so I would say expectations and practices so it's the really the report is kind of what the leadership team and Dr Chu will be working from in kind of cuz I am imagine there's a bit more information or in the report itself like yeah the report really includes um the data that was used to create the key findings it includes the key findings and then it includes uh the information um in the beginning of this PowerPoint and then the recommendations um and how those are backed by by um research okay um I had a question well I guess not a question it's more of like a observation um and I think mdny made a comment about it which was you know you can't just always ask for volunteers and there are a lot of places where we talk about establish or these these um this these Draft plans talk about establishing a

community or um where was the other one I just saw yeah there's some groups yeah groups and I'm just reminded about our estp goal of taking things off people's plates and this I'm sure looks and feels heavy and like a lot so how do we balance that how do we balance that I think that that comes into the prioritization right of where is there something because again this is a lot right and it's great there it's a response to data it's a response to to different aspects whether we can tackle all of this or whether we can't we're g we we'll be looking at that and I think that's a a good point we know that not only has it been one of our goals for three years to try to remove things from people's plates but then we've also I'll hate to bring this up and I don't want this to sound like an excuse but it's a reality we've had we've been facing fiscal challenges every single year which we've been losing people to do that work which means some things are not going to get done and I'm glad that you all not so you all kind of understand that but so it means that okay well what can we prioritize and I think that's the that's what I like about the work that mti's been doing is that MD's coming in and she's sharing with this and there's all there's like no expectation from her or judgment from her right as to what we should or should not be doing as much as like listen we've been that outside Source that's been able to come in and look at all these things and we're going to share this information with you and we'll talk through it and we've had awesome conversations about mtss we've talked about what things look like in other districts that they don't look like here which is not a popular thing to talk about but one of the things we've talked about is how often different supports are being outsourced um in from the classroom and yes we know that our teachers have a lot

to work on but that's one of the challenges that we've talked about is that what the expectations are in districts around really around the world but definitely around the state where classroom teachers are are are responsible for providing different supports than we've always been asking of our teachers and so but we don't want to add more to the plate so we have to figure out okay well how can we do that I will say in the biggest of pictures that is why our focus on udl is the right direction for us to go it is a it is a change for some people and for some people it's not as aable but it is the way to strengthen your tier one instruction and all of the research supports that and so it just takes us some time to do that yeah and I and I think actually as you were saying that what hit me too is the timing of this and um is that it will become that s dip that falls into the school building plans that hopefully feeds into some teacher goals so that it's not in addition to the plans and go goals and evaluations that you're already working on it's embedded in those plans and goals so it's not it'll be the adopt the adopted educational philosophy that's owned districtwide but there are steps that need to be taken for to make that happen sure you know yeah and I I can also see where the report can be kind of The Guiding this is why we this need an additional staff or right kind of support some of the the requests um I you it having my experience is you have an outside group say this is what you should be doing it's a little bit easier to get that should be doing into practice so yeah I think and to mti's point one of the things that I've really

appreciated is that she's paid attention to our strategic plan right and so the fact is that she knows that this one as I'm going to talk about tonight is coming to an end and so it's this is now while this is a she's also been talking about this takes a couple of years yeah right so it it takes time in order to do this and so this becomes sort of the in some cases the jumping off point for that next strategic plan and and people are pretty receptive to say if you say like hey this is what we're going to do and we're going to offer a lot of support to get us there yeah um you know another thing thinking about like PLC or like PD time or like anytime that people need to collaborate to make these things come to fruition um if that's not happening across the district then thinking about like not what don't we have but what do we need moving forward when we're in negotiations when we're creating these strategic plans or these Improvement plans and thinking about really creatively thinking about how do we how do we um change change um our timing structures to be in support of uh PLC time right there are there are companies out there that will come in and completely uh completely change bell bell bell um schedules and um I was an assistant principal at a school in Aurora and all of our gened teachers had a grade level teams had a full day of planning together now we couldn't we couldn't dictate how they were going to use that time but they came up with how they were going to use that time we wrote that into theou and they had a full day to look at to do the IST to do these sort of other to to engage in these other initiatives to figure out how they wanted to um be on different committees in the school and to own the work and they were given the time and we didn't have to do anything with the contract you know I mean there are

creative ways to think about these things but we kind of get stuck in in this space of like wow we don't have time or we don't have the people or we don't have XYZ um and so if it's a priority you you'll you will figure out how to do it I do believe that MH MH any other questions or remarks the committee uh the only other thing I and I know you'll talk about this Dr cheu later with your progress report is you know we hear so much from the parents and some of the student indicator data early on and I just don't want this committee or the work of our programs to forget that they're also players in this too and that you mentioned surveying students and families like I know that action like we don't want to add undo work to our schedules but is there a way to also encapsulate them in a bit in those teams you know um I know it's like you know we can only control what's in the four walls um I don't know just food for thought somewhat somewhat related I know under this section of your goals is a is a webinar have you given any thought to what that looks like or when thank you for asking um no um I'm not on the subcommittee so uh that's a really good point um because we weren't necessarily sure how this was playing out okay yeah um so that's a good point okay I'm gonna say no TBD TVD but to Bill's Point like you you can't necessarily control things but you can incentivize things yeah yeah so there might be like a way to like incentivize like parental because I do a lot of data collection in my in my day job and a way you could incentivize more parent participation is that you give the kids a homework pass if their parents fill it out and I will tell you there will be an enormous amount of

encouragement on the part of of you know like you can you can incentivize things I I I was just thinking like smile I'd do it if you're thinking about like the IST just as an example to be like the school-based team if you're going to broaden it more to an equity team mate want to include more than just that IST for wall sort of thing so I mean you know again long term long term like you know but how we facilitate that change we're really going to listen to our teachers and our um and and see those indicators of like Community Partners correct we have quite a large school Dei group like just we haven't met this year Al yeah really committed also hearing you know and the layes on to the town Dei committee they're banging at the door and how to help and you know and again it's that juggle of like what where do we need them how do we need them how do we keep our teachers and our staff happy right but I think there is a value in that so and again down the road how do we prioritize it as a group here so yeah and then just really remembering that like Equity Equitable student outcomes are a result of high quality instructional practices that are occurring in every building every day for every student and so really just staying grounded in that I think we can kind of get too high and everything that we're doing should be in service of that and align to that right and so if if some of these things are like well you know expanding access to specialized programs it's just up on the screen I'm not okay yes we'd love to do that that but how are we going to make sure that every student every day is is really they're receiving um grade level

instruction that is attuned to the grade level standard and um using grade level text and using Juicy sentences and all of these things that are that are grounded in in research to support our instructional practices that's what needs to be happening how do we know that's happening well I don't know if a teacher is only being observed three times this has nothing to do with evaluation and accountability has everything to do with support mhm right and so thinking about how do we create alignment and coherence if we already have existing groups like an lpac or a CPC or a school council or whatever how do we make sure their the priorities are aligned throughout that in support of XYZ on on that note I'll I'll Rel release Maddie from her presentation keep us moving um I do want to just say I think that this is um it's reinforcing our idea from the original arpa request which was to make this a two-year process because we I it feels so heavy but knowing that this is the midpoint is is reassuring yeah so thank you thank you thank you so much for joining us tonight really that goal was it was a goal it was a goal it was a goal it was over you're welcome meet you thank you for having us thank you thank you very much so um our next item is just to bring everybody up to speed a little bit on an update from the Robinson School building committee um in the packet and in your email is a timeline and on the screen um I know you you have all heard us before talk about the nine modules and all the steps that the msba dictates um our VI uh the Robinson school committee Vice chair um

uh added the meeting dates in here and some very rough timelines to try to help understand because with the overwhelming support at town meeting I think it was what was it 80 over 80% yep um it felt like let's like all this excitement and energy um and what we're finding out is that the msba um sort of Beats to Their Own Drum and you can't rush them and you can't slow like you know we're just living in their world a bit so this timeline is just kind of to share a little bit more to so that you can understand it's not um jumping out of the gates getting no pm tomorrow um they have votes set up along each bit of this process they have meeting dates already scheduled that they stick to and they might have a full agenda and sorry you're on the next agenda so um so instead of sort of an OPM like next month it might be an OPM this summer a design selection team this summer and maybe that sort of community outreach and feasibility study process really is like in the fall um so we might get quiet for a little bit we want to keep thinking about communication and giving those updates especially to the community um I joke that this is like our longest and biggest PR campaign um so that it's it's not a surprised anyone what we're working on and and what we're bringing to the community but um I do think that as much as I think we're eager to get more information and to kind of dive into the process the idea that the work will now more likely be authentically hitting the fall is better yeah because if all of a sudden things

were ready and the design team was ready in the summer we weren't we would have as much participation in community events you know so the fact that that I think naturally will will be taking place after the school year begins is better for um Community engagement I also think that you as a group have done an incredible amount of work already this year just between the space utilization and and because I know it all kind of ties in so sometimes there's no harm to take a pause Val and you know mull it over and you know you know no it's good I I I think I'm just so anxious for the OPM step like to to have somebody that you know is that paid expert to the sounding board kind of you know run managing it all is I'm just really excited for that so what at one of these msba meetings either the June or August meeting they will say Okay up next Westford they have voted it in and we give them the green light to do this OPM is that the I think that opens the gate to the next module we have to we have to wait for their vote to move into module two so we can't we can't really like bring an OPM on board until we have that like executed FSA and we can't even start advertising to right that's what I mean they they have to vote in that meeting to start module two yes for what it's worth I really like the checklist version of this because this is all Lindsay Richard our wonderful Vice chair of the robin it's nice and clear that this is done you know and this is where where we're at so yeah um I I do appreciate a good checklist yeah and I mean it's like three pages long so I'm not expecting I I couldn't even answer some of these questions I'm sure but um it's really just to kind of give

this checkpoint this update from the vote and to say there's a lot of work that is ahead of us and again it it might get quiet for a little bit while we wait for some of these things but um you know we're kind of hoping that the fall would be a lot more Outreach to the community and and um see where that takes us good anything else no okay great we're going to move to the annual s dip review um and Dr Chu has a slideshow for his progress on year two and action items for year three good night Daniel so I use the same format that um we used last year I got a lot of uh positive feedback from all of you in terms of the progress for year two and then the action plan for year three putting it all in one place so uh I thought that this would this would be helpful so if you go ahead and go to that first or that second slide Katherine thank you um so the first piece right here I mean you've looked at our objective was to ensure we have four strategic objectives um to ensure Equity Infuse our Equity into the curriculum and instruction which is the heart of what we do and that initiative the first one was the equity audit and so we have uh We've analyzed a whole bunch of data I mean everything that we just did all night tonight is showing the progress that we've done this year and the fact that um the the principles at each building are working with Maddie over the next month to begin strategizing um how we Implement those recommendations and how the schools respond to those is sort of where we're at in that progress so the action plan for next year I we we're still working on this will be uh working again with the building based teams to develop what those specific action items look like at the building level so it's kind of what your point was Valerie were we looking at all this and we're saying okay well some of those things we might not have actually

articulated but what will be articulated and will they what I don't know is whether they'll be articulated in the school Improvement plans or not because they're they're developing this School Improvement plans right now as well too so there I would imagine that they'll have a item that will refer to it but it might not have a specific aspect to it so it's something that I think we'll still be following up the these two things will still be living parallel with each other um because some of that will take us a little bit longer before after they've already established their school Improvement plans um another massive piece to this is our work with Universal Design for Learning um we did a lot of work this year rolling out uh at the building level the engagement framework I hope that if you haven't had a chance to do it I hope that you will click on that example of the elementary look fors one of the PD I think it was the February date um they're all kind of M um mushing up in my brain right now but uh one of the earlier uh PD meetings the elementary teams collaborated to develop what they thought would be effective Westford Public Schools look for in other words what does engagement look like what what what would this look like in the classroom and so well thank you um it's it actually when I first started looking at it I was I was I thought it was great and it was so well done that I'm like oh where did you get this and they're like no we did this like well we need to put you need to put a westf stamp on so this is just a draft they're still working on it I I think they've taken it that it's been inspired by a lot of different things much of it is universal K12 but the 6 to 12 folks are actually going to look at it as well to either add or

to adjust any language that that might need to um change for them and so the action item for year three is to do the same thing for um representation which is the the next framework so we're looking at in engagement is the first framework representation is the second which is what we're unpacking with the leadership team this spring and summer which will roll out with the staff next year and we also believe that because of what the work that we've done this year we think that we might be able to roll out both engagement and the means of expression which is the third framework of udl because one of the things that we're planning to do I'm going to communicate this to the staff later in the spring after our last professional development day but right now what we're looking at at is making our Focus next year be really purely on udl this year it's still been divided we've been trying to we it's it it actually takes so much time to implement the curriculum with Fidelity the the El curriculum at the elementary level that all of their time has been taken um so in working with all the curriculum coordinators and the principles we've talked about next year focusing on really doing udl the representation and the means of expression with our professional development time knowing that it'll be touching different content areas but that was going to be the focus and then the following year we're going to become very content focused so we know that we need to be looking at new science standards in the elementary school maybe a new curriculum um uh even K through 8 um with the science curriculum or things that we're looking so my goal for this spring is to communicate that two-year plan to all of our teachers so that as they're looking at their own pdps and their own things that they need to do for their lure that they'll be like okay next year we're doing more udl then the following year we'll be doing more content based stuff because every year we hear that people want more

content based stuff but I think it's also because they don't know when they're going to get it so I believe that if we are really really map it out for everybody then they'll be a more comfort in saying okay then I know that I can focus on this this year and then that next next year I'm going to be we're going to be focusing on this this other aspect of it so that's sort of the plan here and you'll see that um the uh the other thing that we highlighted for Action um action plan in year three was continuing to make sure that we're highlighting our commitment to udl as we're hiring new staff and I'll mention that again later as we we talk about some other things one of the things that I I I marked as continued if you look in that bottom right corner you'll see articulate variability as an asset to meetings and documentation that was something that we had this year in our progress um for year in our in our we had it as an action item for year to there's a couple of items that I've listed as continued I think we were overly ambitious and there are some things that we either didn't complete or didn't get to or in this case I'm not sure we really wrapped our head around as it was an it was a it was a really great idea as we articulated it and then in practice we're like do we measure this and so that's why I'm like okay we're going to really focus on that for next year what we do know is that we have been utilizing power school for our IEP and for the 504 documentation which has been huge to to talk about what that has done to our special education staff I mean Gerard is with us um tonight it the idea they there's a there's a new IP in a new IEP form format in in general that was rolled out from the state we've been looking at it for a year and a half now but then we also went away from easted and implemented everything in power

school so we decided that as students new IEPs were being developed they would be developed on this new platform with this new tool and so that amount of retraining all of our teachers who were already familiar with something else to then go through this other process which in some ways I've I've heard a lot of great things about the readability of the of the new document and it's I think it's a it's probably a better communication tool but it is asking for different information and so that I think is was huge and I I feel like we've done a nice job um rolling that out this year um can I ask a question on the slide before we move on or do you want to wait till the end go ahead I'm just curious with um the top one 1.1 where we talk about the building based teams um you know looking at the equity audit is there any um point cuz looking through some of the recommendations some of them feel like they kind of may be possibly belong with central office so would there should there also be a point there of kind of a central office you know between um uh you know the different apartments that are kind of housed here and stuff to also break down the recommendations and kind of get that input as well I I think that that work is taking place I was trying to be a if you look at the this the the year three action plan is a little bit it it's not as many items as we tried for this year so it's just the way which we're articulating and so the way that I'm interpreting that is that in order for them to be successful it's going to require that communication with central office and the work that we're all doing together um so I didn't I didn't articulate it as a second yeah piece but

I think you're right yeah um so the so hopefully I can get through this one a little a little bit faster so we the first one is basically about everything we've been doing with the feasibility study so um the the master plan we've been working on it's had a number of different um aspects to it the working uh looking at the space utilization study all of these things are things that we've done this year what we know is that next year we're going to be focusing a great deal of our energy on the feasibility study one of the things that you'll see that's continued here is assessing our redistricting strategies because what we now know now that we're even talking more with the msba about the feasibility study is how we envision redistricting and the reconfiguration of the grade levels is going to be dependent on what we do with the feasibility study so those things are intertwined but I think next year as we're going through the feasibility study we'll be able to have a little bit more specific conversations as to okay if this happens then this would happen and then if this and so as each one will be able to tie what it would mean for the other elementary schools as well um and then the other aspect is what are those other identified facility needs that exist and we need to be able to make sure that we're communicating that effectively whether they're things that are being addressed in the feasibility study or whether they're not right um start times that was a massive undertaking on the subcommittee's part and the work that um the school committee did this year and working all that now that that has been approved we know that next year and I mean this spring as well too it's going to be communicating all of that I've been talking with the principles regularly as they prepare to communicate for next year making sure that they are

like a broken record talking about what that impact is at their school level um and I think they're they're always communicating the start of year information and so as they're doing that as we do that with um supply lists and class lists and all of the things that lead us into the next year we're going to be pointing people back to what these new school start times are as well too one of the things I think we you had mentioned um when we were talking about this process process I think in the spring I think it would be important for us to get a sense from students and families as to how this is working I think it needs to wait till the spring um just to get you know so we'll develop some type of a survey to get a sense as to the impact that the the start times the new school times have have have had on everybody on that one sorry um I'd also like to see a start to have data to analyze like Tardis you know capture that information this year so we can you know look at it next year in comparison you know as a potential or any other identified um measure that we can use from this year with the current schedule to next year um if we could add those types of things to to this evaluation piece is what I'm that uh that that might be easier said than done yeah I think it's true at some levels but I don't necessarily know whether or not we're tracking tardies at some of our earliest grades as to when they're I mean we are marking when people are coming into school yeah so we should be able to collect that through um the data system got it on my kids report cards so it's it's definitely happening in some of the elementary so just identifying those things and and making sure we're

capturing that to be able to yeah make informed decisions I think the other thing and to add to that data collection point is kind of maybe more in the first few weeks is um asking the principals to monitor the bus the bus arrivals and departure times um for those for across the board just to make sure um you know with such a change like this I I do think it's going to be safe that there's going to be a lot of observations that people are going to have so I think yeah we'll just be ask them those those question formalize it maybe a bit more um so we can go to and then the last piece was about the policy work that we've been doing I did add in that I mean one of the things that has changed um is there's a lot of changes that are going on with federal regulations and so I think we're going to have to stay on top of that yeah um the uh here I have something that we didn't have it as an action item but it's just this great thing that um uh Courtney Moran did with our HR department is they developed this new hiring manual which it's really it's just a really great tool for all of our hiring managers um it's taken all of that work that we did with Lawrence Alexander it's taken the just the process in general of as we're going through different hiring and it's it's it's putting it all in one place for people you know one of the things Maddie had talked about was the guidance that I think people might might be asking for and I think there was there might you know historically there might have been a little bit more autonomy at play in in in in hirings that were taking place and I think this just helps to guide what the expectations are for everybody and so I I wanted to share that with all of you I thought that was I'm wondering is it worth sharing that with the time Dei because I know they had spoken before

and and kind of given some guidance on hiring so it might be just nice to show that it might I I will say it's it's one of those things that Lawrence Alexander kind of encouraged us again to move away from even including the words Dei yeah in the language that we're talking about but are you removing barriers yes removing barriers it's not about are you are you soliciting different um candidates and applicants but are you removing barriers that's making it attract that that that you are becoming more attractive for people who want to come and work here yeah um if we go to the next slide so one of the the this is big this is difficult it's probably in hindsight I think it's one of our it's our most challenging strategic objective I mean how do we uh remove things right as we're looking at the pressure valves I'm it's also one of the Strategic objectives that I was the most proud of that we have articulated here but if we look at that first initiative identifying what can be removed or reimagined it's hard and especially in our current Financial it is it is and but but I think I think we're still we we are still committed to it and we're still trying to do it it's just that people don't necessarily feel like it's always happening and so I think uh Valerie you had mentioned it earlier too I think it's it's an important thing for us to look at we're looking at it with the recommendations from the graduation requirements right they're looking at more flexibility how can they remove things in order to try to create more flexibility for our students um one of the things that we're doing this year that we're um that we're really happy about is that our Elementary staff we've been doing this Ed Camp Model of PD for a little while it's been successful with our 6 through 12 staff but the elementary um folk had been their time has been monopolized by the curriculum

rollout and so they didn't have the same type of choice uh and and voice if you will even in their professional development so in Ed Camp it's a model that's been around for a little while in in um professional development for educators it's really allowing Educators to lead workshops where truly people are voting with their feet right they're able to go and they're go able to go and check out something they're able to kind of pick where they want to go they have this wide um uh array of options for them that's going to try to meet different needs um and so it's exciting opportunities for our staff to present workshops and then for people to be working and listening to their colleagues present on things and so we've had a lot of success with it and so the idea that that we're giving time back in essence it's giving choice to the staff which doesn't necessarily seem like a big thing but I do think it's one of those things that we're trying to take off their plate right where they don't necessarily they're not having to sit through learning about how we're going to roll something out as much as they're able to actually choose what type of a workshop they'd like to go to um next year one of the action items is is we're looking at uh this year this the the three to five schools in their school Improvement plans they had articulated exploring how they might be able to expand Elementary physical education and wellness and so this spring they're working on a uh a a budget neutral way to expand fizzed offerings at the elementary level and so um I think once once once we've solidified that uh and and how that's going to be able to work to increase the number of times that PE would meet in the students in the

elementary students um rotation rotation uh it it it's looking it's looking very good right now I think they're going to be able to kind of solidify that plan and share it with the staff and then uh I think they'll be able to give give something that we've heard for a long time elementary students and families looking for more opportunities for them potentially for next school year for next school year oh W yep yep the the plan right now they're we're just making sure that the Matrix of it works because it includes six elementary schools and to say okay well how do you how do you work this into a rotation where individuals are shared between buildings just even that you know on the Staffing and scheduling of that aside I think the other point to maybe not lose sight of is how does that impact teachers because when we've been up in the schools looking at the El curriculum for example this year and you know you're hearing just how much time it takes to throughout the the day so um you know I would hate to think that we're we're re ucing teacher the time teachers have for still getting the roll out of math then because I mean I I see their schedules I it's one of the things I always look at when I go into the classrooms and you just sit there going yeah I know how how tight it is so I'm all four I know you've to what they're looking at is how they can do it within the specials rotation right as it exists and so it's the that that's what that's what they're going that that's where there will be compromise I'm sure we'll hear more about it but just to be clear without sacrificing the other specials correct is what they're

looking it yes I mean I will say it I I think we'll I'll share more with you as to what it is yeah I will say it's it's a they're they're they're trying to look at specials in some cases that are not driven by curriculum okay okay because they all have different things where whether they have for example two sections of Library MH got okay and it's not going to be a reduction in the content areas that are um specifically driven by state standards okay but yeah we'll look to see how can that work um but as with all things some things has to give in order to get something else I just for cuz the literally you know one of the other goals is to reduce you know um or what we're talking about is reducing SK like you know that impact and just as long as it's not kind of put putting gened teachers in a time crunch it it it won't be yeah okay it won't be let's let's get more information yeah um so the other piece is we look at this the assess the effectiveness of how student progress is is communicated um this year they develop and rolled out a brand new um prek just prek report card which I thought was something that they were looking at trying to really update what these standards are and how they're communicating this because again this is a wide range of Ages too um of students who are in the prek program uh potentially and so how uh how they communicate that that's been super helpful in I think you know aiding in sharing from the teacher to the parent as to what is going on in the classroom

what they're seeing uh one of the things that we had hoped to do this year was to develop a report card committee for elementary middle school and even wa to assess the effectiveness of our of our report cards and uh that's marked as continued because that's something we're going to do next year we're going to actually establish that next year this year we did spend a great deal of time looking at the graduation requirements at wa next year I think we're going to we're going to focus on what the what the what the report cards look like at each grade level and whether or not there are recommendations for improvement and um we'll look to present those to you in the spring of next year um again we continue with this strategic objective uh securing the districtwide resources these are things that we hadn't done in the first year and so we we um we were looking at how we could in I'm sorry it was the other two it was 3.1 and 3.2 that we added last year so 3.3 and 3.4 we did add in the first year and as we continue to move through here I think the establishment one of the things when we look at it as district-wide resources but the idea being is that when we establish a program that's supporting our students that in itself is securing districtwide resources to help in in developing some of these skills so um I had neglected to include the establishment of The Roots program on here so I added that in here because I think that has been a huge success this year I think you've seen you've seen it in in many examples um we're thrilled with the program we're thrilled having the students here the students are are excited about it the families are excited about it it's been a great um a great addition to our our um our our school system the school Improvement plans included a lot a lot of specific action items last year that was something we saw in the school

Improvement plants we'll see how they um work towards those when they present those to us in May um one of the things that we also did this year is we start we established a working group to review our district curriculum accommodations plan so that's also part of our just the reviews that we have with our tier Focus monitoring um but we uh we established looking at it had been I'm trying to remember Mr cofin do you remember when when the last time we looked at the Decap was I'm not I don't remember if Courtney wasn't able to be with us tonight and Courtney's been um uh guiding this group and it's been it's been a number of years since we looked at the Decap I think so this is my 11th year here and I think it was maybe at the very beginning of my time here so it's probably been a decade since we looked at it um so they've been working on refining our district curriculum accommodation plan and next year they'll be rolling that out yeah it might not be quite that long Chris but you think it's less than that yeah it has been a long time and um obviously there's been a tremendous amount of work on that this year to to reevaluate that the prevention partners for northern middle sex is an organization that was started that we were invited to participate in and um Gerard has been participating with Lauren Clark and Brian roor um who have been working with other communities from well the northern middle area specifically on different addiction prevention uh programs it's also though been a great resource for things Beyond um just addiction but just mental health support in general as their support they are sponsoring a community event for Pathways to

restorative communities that I have listed Ed in the next section there they're SP they're they're sponsoring that with the chumford public schools um this spring and it was something that then our our team was excited about saying okay well we want to work to sponsor something like that for our families next year which is to provide opportunities for people to understand how this might how these practices might be something that could be helpful in the home setting um because we you know the next piece is going to talk about the work that we've been doing as well um next year the action plans we are continuing to look at how the the new PE and wellness standards that's something that we're now thinking we're going to develop that plan so that that can roll out for the following year um something that's been in discussion with the graduation requirements as well too uh we know that we're expanding the sale program to our middle school and like I already said the rolling out the the district um curriculum accommodation plan the this last piece about the work that we've been doing with the collaborative problem solving and restorative practices so this is something we've been talking about now for two years last year we had 20 staff trained in the level one and two restorative practices this year we've added 40 more middle school and Westford Academy staff who've been trained in level one and level two restorative practices and Community Building circles so we're really expanding that bandwidth which is I think something that's really going to have a a great um impact on the schools and additionally um we the our leadership team early on did uh the level one collaborative problem solving uh professional development and from that the elementary schools have identified 30 staff members who are in small group teams at each school to build capacity there to help support the staff there as

we continue to move forward and that's work that has been going on this spring next next year we'll have um slots for 15 middle school and Westford Academy staff to be trained specifically in restorative conferencing which is an the really that the tier three level the more intensive work so it's going to be more our counselors that are going to be doing this work um and then like I said we're looking forward to hosting a a Community Information night that would be working with um Pathways to restorative communities to to specifically share resources for with families do you think we could add a point there and because at that point would be kind of what three years in of coming up with a way to evaluate um where we are kind of three years in and take sock I think it it might be helpful then for just seeing how we did no sorry the uh the Strategic for The increased sustainability Chris can I interrupt real quick just something that I think that you actually missed which is a a real selling point for objective three is the Yonder pouches right you're right yeah I mean that that's a big deal that has been a huge deal yeah and I I think it's it's something I actually have districts reaching out to me like how did that work what has this been and like they're talking to there yeah I thank you I didn't uh I didn't I didn't I actually didn't think about that in terms of the impact that that's had the teachers probably 3 have been thrilled yeah in terms of the it's it's it is it's been a game Cher at the middle school level sure and it's certainly consistent with uh this school committee and our our objective that we've given you of um you know being concerned about social

emotional well-being and you know phones aren't always as good as on a personal level I have to say it's a little frustrating in terms of the fact that last year we went through all of the work that we went through for the override and then this year people are talking about the perfect storm that's hitting the state with all the financial aspects where I'm like we hit that last year just like we went ahead and made this really I think we we took a leap to say okay let's invest in these Yonder pouches and now as Maddie was even talking about now there's more and more conversation about trying to you know a Statewide push to to to limit um cell phone usage in schools and while I'm happy about that I'm kind of like okay that happened a if that happened a little bit earlier that might have been a little bit easier thank you for mentioning that Sean um the sustainability objective uh in some ways has been challenging because a lot of our action items were linked specifically with working with the sustainability coordinator um who doesn't who is no longer a a staff member in the town so that in itself is is has had to shift a little bit the the work hasn't necessarily changed though I think there's a lot of authentic things that are taken place one of the things that we haven't done it yet but i' I've talked to our curriculum coordinators to to see how in the the early meetings in June how we might get some representative student work here to kind of share with you what this looks like in the curriculum um so that you can see how the climate Ro Ma and just sustainability is truly embedded in the science standards um K through 12 and what does that look like and uh in the action plan I think we just need to I think we would do a better job if we continue to document more what does that look like um so it's something that we

said we would do this year and that's why I've said we've continued it um we've talked about our yeah we started having three school committee tours and then this year we even like we were looking to the spring and there was a moment when I was like I don't remember what we were going to do and I went back and looked and I was like oh we actually had a plan for that and that was as we get into the nice weather um in April and May we're going to have a couple of those targeted tours for you to Showcase different sustainability programs that exist at the schools whether it's a garden whether it's the solar I want to I want to work with Jeff to and even the curriculum coordinators to see okay what how can we how can we kind of show you a range of the different things that the district's doing um just that you can see that it is part of what our conversations are Y and also knowing that any conversation in the feasibility study is going to include what is what are what are the efficiencies and what are yeah what's the sustainable options for us um and so I think that this this these this objective in general has been a little bit more challenging for us to sort of just articulate and even measure but I feel like it is stuff that we're still doing um one more SL we just kind of need to show how that works um one of the things that we did this year is that uh we actually participated in there was I can't I can't remember the name of the group that was facilitating it I want to say it was Nim Cog it was it's a the is that thank you yeah it is yeah like and then I was struggling with it I'm like I couldn't remember what it was um but there was a this additional work that the town staff I I worked on this group with the clean energy and sustainability company uh committee along with nib cup to um specifically look at the Strategic plan

and the sustainability goals and what does this look like at the schools um I feel like that's continued work that we can do I think with a number of our town partners there are times when they might not necessarily be aware of what we're doing and so I think we have to try to do our best to communicate that uh we had an item we had an an initiative to look at the viability of investing in in uh electric Fleet at the same time we actually got rid of all of our fans right um and we're not in a position we did explore and one thing I should say on WE although we didn't explore electrification we did explore whether or not purchasing our own buses would be a um a financial um uh benefit to us but that it wasn't about electrification and I can assure you electric buses would not have been um something that would have been initially does not help that equation but we did um purchase a van for the roots program um through the capital process and that has been a huge um resource for them I think which has been big would you mind adding or considering for the action plan for for this point just to get a bit of data capture a bit of data on the Vans I think it would be really helpful longer term at some point to just kind of see how they're running what kind of Miles they're doing on a on a week or you know kind of charging you mean the van the van you mean our two Vans the one we already have and the one we purchased yeah okay I think just to capture some of that data because I think it might be helpful to have um you know moving forward that it's just kind of there I'll say from my short time now on Capital anytime a vehicle comes up from replacement that is a question that is asked is is mileage and and usage so sure so capturing it now would help you

in five years when you go to replace well hopefully not five so if you the last slide last year I included items that had not been addressed in year one and this year I I think that as part far as this process what I would like to see us do is that an major aspect to year three is to develop the next strategic plan and so following the same process that we followed the first time um we would be assembling a working group of stakeholders to collect feedback throughout the school year that would be working to say okay so that at this time next year the update would include the proposed new strategic plan it might the first bullet item it might be carrying some of these strategic objectives over because they're so big that they could be more than 3 years it's not like you can say met this on or some might not but we'll see um and so that idea being that that's what that that I think should be an expectation for next year that the the the update would include what the proposed new plan would be that I would ask you to approve and this is where the work of air is going to D exctly exactly and like she was saying lines up really well y okay thank you very much thank you um any other more specific feed feedback I would respectfully request that you direct it to Dr Shu so we can keep going with our agenda and the estp conversation doesn't stop here as we know we have school Improvement plans that come next month um I know we have a lot left I think a lot of them will go pretty quickly so if we move on to the competency deter mination that was language from um Administration and the curriculum coordinators that was in our packet last

week um last meeting we had a brief conversation about it um it is does have a timely aspect of it to approve that and let the class of 2025 have that certainty were there any feedback or commentary to add just to be kind of transpar and clear this is language that is modeled after the state right now right um and really the I don't want to say the only other option an other option would be for for Westford to adopt and cast still correct some districts have done that but that that's not what you are proposing I'm just yeah I I I will actually say that's actually been discouraged okay by um many y not yes you're right there are a couple of districts that have said they wanted to still include that but because the law specifically that's what the law the the ballot question specifically took that off the table um I will say I've seen a lot of legal advice that has said you don't want to do that y um and I'm not saying that I would be proposing it I'm just just to kind of get it I I just wanted to get it out there in the public conversation the only and I will say I I mentioned this in the last meeting but just mention this again the only difference was that when we first looked at it we the conversation that that we were having was really focused on okay what was assessed on that mcast exam in 2023 which is what the ballet question and the new the new language refers to so we were only talking about English 10 we were talking about both algebra and geometry and we were still always talking about biology chemistry or physics the difference is is that the the board of education is already considering

language to implement next year and they're already leaning towards saying English n and 10 in two years of of of that English so that was the reason why proactively um we said well we might as well include that at this moment in time too any other final thoughts or a motion motion to approve the proposed compensate determination policy second that motion feel like enough for you I think so I mean maybe just specifically saying the language the language is the competency determination language because you're you're I think your intent is to include this in the graduation policy yeah okay yeah everybody clear on that motion okay all in favor do a hand vote easy thank you great thank you we're going to move right on to the um policy from the finance subcommittee P 3305 revolving and special fund accounts um I did send out and there was a so Finance subcommittee met last week um there was no um input from the public comment period but we had some more brief great discussions as a subcommittee um and I had actually sent it directly to our town finance committee Partners to um solicit feedback and got got one one clarification question from them um about the appendix that we're speaking about in in the wording there about um it's really just that extra spread sheets that Jenny puts together of like five years of past data um and uh we it

gets put together after the Q2 closes at the end of December so somewhere in mid January but as the nfg will really become published with the superintendent's um budget presentation this appendix will kind of get later and and added onto it so instead of anyone wondering where the more data is we wanted to come out of the gate and say very clearly there will be an appendix um you know expected and published as part of this just as at a later date um there was also just a little bit of word smithing and um Jenny had a great catch about the single audit that is done on the Food Service that threshold can change based on federal law so we updated where that gets referenced as well so I tried to make it super clear that anything like brand new updates was underlined in the draft um and then again all that green text didn't exist before and it's new look at us look at you look at our finance subcommittee right and policies any feedback no or motions motion to approve policy P 3305 revolving in special fund accounts second thank you any last thoughts all in favor thank you we'll say this is one of those policies like a number of other policies that we've recognized over the last couple years that I think will be a model for other districts yeah that's good and people are excited about this and just to kind of close that loop I know we've talked about it in the previous meetings but the non-general fund guide book The nfg is not expected to have a separate vote it is referenced in that p335 so it's almost like how we marry policies

and regulations together um so that on the policy but not the regulation exactly so that that is we'll live again with next year's finance subcommittee and get a fresh set of um another cycle through so thank you everybody um our school choice openings for the fiscal year 20126 the 19 proposed openings the memo was in our packet last week I think is also in tonight's and we had a discussion on that at our last meeting any other remark remarks or feedback no or a motion I move to accept the recommendation of administration second thank you all in favor great thank you and job descriptions so as usual um anything like this we'll have two will'll be on our agenda for two meetings so tonight is not a vote just sort of an initi initial um sharing of it and then any feedback can be brought directly to Dr Chu or myself um and then we'll be back on our agenda for the 14th but did you want to um I do so um you you were all aware of the fact that we've been talking about an assistant director of special education and social emotional learning um that was something that we talked about during the budget process and um and Gerard uh has done a lot of good work looking at other um templates and work working with Courtney Moran and myself and looking to see what what this job position uh what this job description should look like that we share with you the thing I also want to highlight is that we have a retirement this year at Westford AC that we that's happening at Westford Academy and which that is this other position that we're looking to use

those funds so it's budget neutral but to create a yearlong position that would support all of our schools with instructional technology integration and supervision um so we have a phenomenal educator um Stephanie Goslin who has been doing tireless work above and beyond really what her expectations are to support even districtwide aspects of technology that really shouldn't have fallen on her shoulders but as we've been reducing and reducing figuring out what those needs were we've now identified this is something that we need to have moving forward we need to have somebody who is responsible for all of our subscriptions who's helping to supervise how we we have a really strong IT staff a lot of technicians who are not necessarily Educators and so they don't feel as comfortable discussing the curriculum aspects of it and then we have wonderful curriculum coordinators who might not necessarily know all of the different technology that might be um able to assist and so this is a a position that would help make sure that we are not losing sight of important things like I said it is budget neutral and it would be able to continue the work that's being done this year and really supporting all of our Stu all of our schools but it's a year-long position um and so we would like to um introduce this this new position so that one is not something we've talked about but we have talked about the assistant um director of special education so we share that with you like I said I don't expect you to even have questions tonight but any questions that you might have about either one of those positions um you can either email me or we can talk about at the next meeting as

well anyone tonight okay we're going to move on to bus registration update you've probably seen um in your emails actually only a few have active student probably right sorry yes correct um there's a a districtwide email that went out announcing and do you mention it in his update um that bus registration window is open as of today April 1st um which is earlier than usual we did talk about that during our starttime discussions right um and but as part of the budget process we approved a fee schedule that had a late fee instituting on um August 1 thank you and um it would be better if that was earlier so it the proposal is to move that to June 1st um anything else you want to answer there no I would just say that is we we voted on the fee structure during the budget process and then we had conversations about the school start times and so I think the conversation about moving the the late fee earlier took place in a couple of meetings when we were talking about the buses and the challenges with trying to get all that information but then we didn't go back and actually address that so I think this is sort of allowing the the actual fee schedule to be reflective of the conversations that have been taking place and I guess th this is probably a good good point as any to just um to bring up that like there there are other pieces of the starttime change roll out that we expect to bring to the committee and the public in one of these meetings soon um the finance subcommittee actually had a conversation about early arrival and potentially um breaking that year that current current fee into term installments so that if you were unsure about how the start time

might affect your family schedule in the fall you can sign up for early arrival in a smaller chunk to make that a little bit more flexible instead of saying oh I have to commit for the whole year um so we did an analysis on that and we'll bring that um back to you and um um that I think that's all I was going to say sorry no that's I think that's that's great that that sort of again is every year there's different things that are impacting the next school year which I think the principls do a really good job communicating so I think our goal is that at the school level Al we'll share the information districtwide but I think at the goal is that the school level as the principles are telling people hey getting ready for next year this is what we're going to think about we're g to make sure that we're highlighting all of this information so that there's no confusion about it because this the late fee and the deadline has always been the end of the summer so it's I think communication is really important for this deadline I'd hate to see a lot of people who just thought oh well I have till the summer and no problem and just missed the the missed the deadline and had to have a fee I think that would cause a problem so Sean when do we anticipate being able to have bus root timing right that we can articulate to the public well the estimates were are what we talked about while we were looking at the school start times so in order to find out how those estimates are going to play out they need to understand how many people are going to register for the buses so some so presumably sometime after I'm sorry June 1 after it's going to be during the summer it's going to be in this yeah um I I I mean I think I

think it's a question of looking at the data to see when we said that this is when this is when we think these roots were going to be starting is does that look like that's still going to be accurate so I'm optimistic that that information will be something that we can solidify sooner than later but I know that every year it takes them a long time to commit to the bus rots in the first place so it's something that we're trying to put all of those deadlines earlier right so that then they have as much information as possible so that then they can share that out and that's and and that's all that I wanted to articulate which it seems like you're on and I'm sure Jen Piper's on too which is that families are planning their schedules for next year now right so I think like to be blunt I think there's a little bit of you you kind of have to look at the draft route bus route with and and register knowing that with subject to change and you know all the usual which are disclaimers we kind really have every year but um the draft routes from the subcommittee work is as best as we have right now to to drive that um and then you know it's the hope is that that information gets refined solidified used using the registration data sure but yeah it's a little chicken and egg yeah yeah absolutely sorry I'm struggling a little bit with moving the late fee two full months um and leading right into the end of the school year and you know I can imagine parents are at that point having to pay for summer camps and it just I could see that that can be a challenge I I fully recognize that to getting people registered two months earlier is is certainly

beneficial um but you know it just I I could see a challenge in timing with everything else going on at the end of the year and to Lor's point oh I I forgot I normally have until August I can think about it after uh we've done our year end stuff it's very hectic in June yeah I will say J Jen Piper had brought this up way early in our meetings because even if we weren't changing anything about the school times this year she was saying that we she really would like us to look at the deadlines because of just the the volume of work that has to be done and right so you know this was something that she was kind of hoping we would look at anyway it's understandable but I think the communication is key so that families really know this deadline and so and I I appreciate that to both points I'm going to say it has already been in all of the principal's emails it was in my update today we'll continue to share that information there is an expectation that people read this information and so what happens I think for someone to say well June versus August what I would say is what we need to communicate is that if someone has a problem being able to pay for the bus in June or in May or in April I'm going to I will add had something where I would ask them to communicate that specific request but just forgetting between June and August I I feel like that's it is so arbitrary that we are communicating that information and there is a responsibility that the families have to actually read the information that's coming to them from the schools and as you're saying that and as I'm saying here I'm realizing that in some cases it's actually going to be better because families are in a habit of reading a

weekly email as opposed to Once June 20th comes I'm on summer break so true so I think I feel like that might be something where if they knew that it was August they might be like oh I have time whereas if it's before the end of the school year but I think to the point of if somebody is if it's a struggle or a challenge we want to know that we want to know that but if it's just people aren't paying attention I'm like I I feel like we all have to do a better J the conversation's already on Facebook book okay they'll they'll know that could be something in the westr cat paper there you go I that would be something that's showing up at people's houses yes all right can I just ask one question because it is a significant change in like the equivalent of like a snow day phone call about it we could DOA I wouldn't I mean we did I did already think about sending out a separate message just with that I didn't think about a phone call but that's a great idea I think good oldfashioned like snow music on it too situation not at 5:00 in the morning though not at 5:00 in the morning no yeah let's we'll be clear it's like a day before phone call I I just feel like because it's such a a significant change in custom in a year where so much is evolving it might feel like if there's like an extra Personal Touch that people might feel like that they've been on notice I'll I'll look at that since since I since I mentioned it in the April um up date and the principles are doing it I'll look at what we might think a strategic time in early May would be for maybe a fun phone call do what you will you you got to go so now I will just say I think that like what I'm I'm feeling is like a a coordinated roll out of all the things because I do think there's a piece of it

that someone's trying to look at next year and say well if if the bus is uncertain then and I know I have to start my commute at this time I'm dropping my kid off and I want to know that the early arrival is the same start time and I want to know if the payment is the same um and one thing we had talked about maybe was investigating something at the middle school so for like an early drop breakfast I think all of that together once all of those buttons are kind of tied up that makes sense to me to be like okay here's start planning your next year here are all the information pieces to look at and make your decision and and here's a late fee you know but um I I guess I would support the May timeline because as opposed to right now we don't have everything in a row yet yeah well I just mean like no I love the idea though just to add about the phone call that has happened in the past I have received phone calls about the bus fees yes from the school district it's precedent yeah it has happened teacher newsletters the school newsletters like every vehicle president okay I'm going to look for a motion on updating the bus late fee so moved second okay great all in favor thank you and not too bad we made up some lost time there did um a motion to adjourn please motion to adjourn second all in favor thank you very much e