School Committee - Regular Meeting

Monday, April 28th, we are returned to public session after a um executive session. And we will start with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand and join us if you're able to flag the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Great. Thank you. On our consent agenda tonight, three items in our packet. Meeting minutes from April 14th, March 2025 general fund and a appointment for Dr. Chu for next year for the Valley Collaborative Board of Directors. Any questions or feedback or motions? Sean, you want want to make the motions all night? Motion to approve the consent budget transfer instead of general file status. Got it. Just a typo from theformational documents below and both are in the packet. A revised agenda is in the packet. Oh, I'm sorry. I printed the wrong one. Thank you. Um, everyone hear that? So it's the consent agenda is the budget transfers as in the amended agenda. Mhm. Okay. Motion to approve the consent agenda. Thank you. Second. Second. Bill. All in favor? I I I I. Great. Okay. Next up is public comment. 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 limited to two minutes per person. Please use public comment even if you refer to something later on the agenda. Virtual public comment is available through Zoom. Please raise your hand and

you'll be promoted to panelist and unmuted or in person at the microphone. And please start by introducing yourself and your address if you are a resident. I have one person online just so you know with their hand up or just Okay. So we'll start with someone on Zoom. Um, I don't have a name, but I will promote you to panelist. iPhone 56. There we go. Hi there. Um, Wendy Lloyd, 16 Pleasant Street. I just wanted to um note there was a recent communication p published by Westford Cat as a letter to the editor regarding the P uh P 5325 transgender nonconforming student policy. It mentioned the policy may have been approved hastily without thorough review. Um, I just wanted to state as a community member who regularly attends school committee meetings and was um there in the process um during the the review by the school committee um that it was very carefully reviewed. The policy was twice prevent presented to the public for the comment process. There were very few slight adjustments made. It's the policy is grounded firmly in Massachusetts state law and guidance. Uh the Westford as in all Massachusetts public schools, students have rights to

freedom of speech, expression, privacy as well as protections related to gender identity and nondiscrimination. These are are the um based on US constitutional protections and state policies. I want to thank the policies working group for all their hard work volunteering to review these comprehensive documents and having them reviewed thoroughly with uh accordance with state law consulting with town council and thoughtfully addressing all feedback from Westford community. Thank you. Thanks Wendy. Anyone else on Zoom or in the room for public comment? Any other hands? Not at the moment. Okay. Anyone in the room? Okay. We will move on toformational updates and jump right over the students. I know they both reached out and said they had um conflicts tonight and we will recognize them as part of our annual end of year um recognitions at our next May meeting. And so we'll go right on to administration. Good. Um so today was the first day back from April vacation and Miller School, Nabnasset and Robinson welcomed the class of 2038 for their kindergarten screening. Um it was a very busy day in each of the schools. Um and what I've heard from uh some of the principles that no fret if anybody missed out on the kindergarten screening or if we have some late enrollments, we will catch the students once they arrive in the fall. I I believe our regulation is we have to have everybody screened by um October 31st. So, okay, still plenty of time to

get that screening completed. Um, and then it's always interesting to hear what some of our staff members do over April vacation. And um, one of our staff members this year, Amy Parker, was recognized for 25 years of service with Dana Farber and the Boston Marathon. Her years of service working with these great organizations almost matches the same dedication that she has um, provided to us here in Westford. Um Amy was honored by riding in one of the lead cars in front of the elite runners on Monday. And so we say, you know, thank you for your service to both Dana Farber and to Westford public schools. Great. Thank you. The only thing I I was just going to mention as I I did share with all of you earlier, but just kind of share with the general public, we are postponing the presentation tonight for the director of um special education social emotional welling uh learning. He uh had a uh a sudden loss in his family this morning and so um he's not going to be with us tonight but we'll postpone and let you know when this can happen of course. And our thoughts and prayers are with him. Yes. And his family. Yep. Thank you. Um great school com Well, not great but thank you. Um school committee updates. Anything Tom? Bill? Uh just want to note that next week is teacher appreciation week and um I think we as a committee are so appreciative of the hard work and patience and uh the compassion that our teachers and our staff are practicing daily. Um you're the engine by which our students prosper. So um looking forward to all the different events uh that our parent uh parent organizations and our schools will provide for our faculty and a big thank you for all that you're doing. our teachers out there, teachers and staff, everyone. Thanks. Y Sean, I'm up um CPAC meeting. Didn't expect to see our um wonderful people from CPAC, but

there is a CPAC meeting on 58 7 p.m. this room. Uh special education parent advisory council uh 7 p.m. Millennium B. And if you're interested or if you want the Zoom link, you can uh send an email to cpac westfordgmail.com and they'll be discussing uh survey results which as CPAC always uh comes and visits us. Will they be at the next meeting? Actually June 9th. June 9th. Okay. So they'll be discussing survey results at their meeting uh on 58 May 8th and they'll be with us sme uh in June June 9th. Yeah, you can always be. Exactly. Yeah. You're welcome. Maybe I will. Yeah. I mean, your your Monday nights are still free. It's not like Lori, any update? No. Thanks, Catherine. All good. Um, great. Um, I just want to point out uh in the packet are some documents from the Robinson school building um feasibility study process. Uh, there is an enrollment certification and an and and wow. and an enrollment letter. Um, basically documenting from the MSBA everything that we've already talked about that the feasibility study will evaluate those three different avenues of a small building, a um, slightly larger building for K to5 Robinson Abbott populations and then a third potentially even slightly larger including um, the day school population as well. And that process, as we've said, will lead towards um an evaluation of the costs and tradeoffs and all of those long-term efficiencies all sort of wrapped up neatly um at the end of that study. And uh so we got that in for that deadline and we expect to be on the MSBA

board's agenda at their June 18th June 18th meeting. So, we'll continue to keep you updated as that process uh continues. Were you gonna add something? No. Okay. Um and then lastly, an update uh that um next Tuesday is no school for election day, local elections. Um so, next Tuesday, May 6th, polling locations are open 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. As a reminder, there is only two polling locations now. You are either voting at Westford Academy or at Stonybrook Middle School. Um, there is also in-person voting this week during town hall hours. Um, and if you haven't been there lately, they actually have shifted hours a little bit so that um, there's some evening hours on the on Tuesday tomorrow till 6:30. So, you don't need a reason to vote early. You can just stop by town hall, get in and get out. Um, and we can try to aim for more than our average 12% turnout for local elections. With those extended hours, they do close earlier on Friday. Fridays. Yeah. So, if you were wait hoping to vote early Friday afternoon, I think they close at one. Great. Thank you. You might want to remind people about the bus registration again. Um I don't know if you have it down there. Sure. I don't have it down there. Well, just that it's moved again. I I know we kind of said that maybe for these few meetings to remind people again bus registration deadline date has changed. It's now June 1st. So now that all the parents and families have had a minute to themselves this morning to recoup after a week with all the kids, they can maybe start getting organized for next year. Thanks. Um and one last thing in the packet is um the select board at their one of their recent meetings declared um the month of May 2025 as mental health awareness month with a town of Westford proclamation. And a copy of that is in our packet. Hey Valerie, of note, there's a town

event on that. Yes. Great. Thank you. May 1st. Yep. Which is at uh I believe five o'clock 5 to 6 in the town hall courtyard, I believe. Right. For Hope Blooms here and that information is on the town website. Okay. Next up is recognitions. Um sometimes we do students and outgoing school committee members at the same time. As I mentioned, our students schedules will be doing them in May. Um, tonight we have two outgoing school committee members. Um, very unfortunate, but that Mari could not join us tonight due to family emergency. Um, but we will still speak very highly of her in her absence and obviously um some words of uh acknowledgement for both Shawn and Mari's years of service to the committee. You want to take it away? Sure. Um, we do have gifts for you, which is that's why I do the job. Don't say you don't get paid. It's a small It's a small token. Thank you. But we do want to hand that to you. Um, I just want to say thank you. I appreciate everything that you've done serving on this committee. I know we've all I'm going to sit down so people can hear me on the microphone again. Um, I know uh you being the elder statesman on the on the uh on the committee uh having you having you leave us um you know it's going to it's going to be sending us into a new path. But uh I've appreciated the work that you've done here. I've appreciated uh your participation. I've appreciated specifically, you know, you've helped with a lot of different subcommittees um closely even with me um bringing me in in the first place and then with this with the uh the evaluation subcommittee and I just think your insight has always been valued and you will be missed and

we wish you the best of luck. Yes. Thank you. Um, I wrote a little little little thing down because I learned from last year where I tried to wing it with Chris and Mingchen and I thought I did poorly. So, uh, apologize if it sounds a little polished, but tonight we have the bittersweet honor of recognizing two members who are completing their service on the school committee. Mari joined the committee three years ago, bringing with her a deep passion for mental health, children's rights, and educational equity. Her expert expertise and statewide perspective have helped shape our conversations and remind us of the broader mission behind our local work. We are grateful for the knowledge and advocacy she has shared with us and we know she will continue to make a difference for students across Massachusetts. Sean Shawn has been a steady and thoughtful voice on our committee for the past six years. Over that time, you have been a true advocate for students and families, especially through your work supporting our special education community. your legal insight, your care for the town, and your focus on doing what's right for our students have made a real difference. And just a little add that I think he's trained all of us on our executive session minutes processes, and we will sincerely miss your legal insight in those conversations. Thank you. On behalf of the school committee and with great appreciation, we thank Mari and Sean for their dedication to Westford schools and students and wish them both all the best in the future. Thank you so much. Means a lot. We'll miss you. It'll feel very different next year. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Now, we have a moment. Yeah. Pre-planned from the audience. I'll speak in front of the mic, please. Thank you. And just do a quick introduction. Yes. Melissa Mackey with with the CPAC, Special Education Parent Advisory Council. And we wanted to come tonight first to thank both um Mari and Sean for your um service, commitment, time you've given to the community um

the school committee, but also to Sean a special thanks. You have been our CPAC school committee le liaison school committee CPAC liaison for the past three years and you have um attended a number of our CPAC meetings. you have given uh thoughtful insight and shared your voice and we have been very grateful for that. You've been a um really meaningful voice for students with disabilities here in Westford and so we have a small token of our appreciation as well for you and um we wish you the best in all your future endeavors and please know that the CPAC is always open to you as it is to everybody. So um we'll see you next week. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. What? You did a good job obviously. So nice. Well deserved. Yeah. Thank you guys for coming. It's yellow, too, right? Back awareness. I noticed that. Thank you everyone. Great. Awesome. Well, with the party over, we move on to business items. Um, Valerie, can I actually just say something? Oh, briefly, do you mind? No. Is that Is that gonna throw us off? No. No. Um I I normally don't say things. I'm not good with kind of goodbyes, but I felt like I I had to reflect on this. So, um I did my best and tried to put it into an organized thought, but we'll see how this comes out. Um so, I think generally my my experience on this committee has been a positive one. Um, when I first joined, uh, my son had just been entering the Westford public schools. So, this was quasi my my first experience with the Westford public schools. Uh, but but

really why I did it was u for him and to give back to our community. So when I initially ran, I um ran just kind of on myself um without a detailed agenda or specific objectives. And looking back politically, that was uh not the brightest idea. Uh but it turned out to be for the best because as we all know uh the next few years turned out to be a wild um roller coaster ride with a lot of challenges and unexpected issues that came about. Um, I I bring this up because I I think that it's really a testament to this committee, but in the past six years, I have seen some very hardworking individuals and we've done some really really cool things. Um, including navigating the worst public health crisis uh in a century. Um, transitioning to a new superintendent, which as we all know, uh, Westford does not have um, a lot of superintendent coming in and out. So, that was a big deal. Uh we've implemented full day kindergarten. We've raised staff salaries to better reflect the time, dedication, and passion uh for our teachers and our staff. Um and we've passed more social emotional uh policies to protect our most vulnerable populations within the Western schools. Um I've been really lucky uh and fortunate to be a small small small part of that. uh and I'm grateful for the time that I've been able to uh be with such hardworking individuals and even during times of um strong disagreement and uncertainty, this committee has always maintained its sense of decorum and mutual respect for each other uh and for the people who walk through those that doorway. particularly this group of six

um in my opinion has embodied civility advocacy and consensus building. Um, and I would just say as you folks move forward, when your inboxes become flooded with criticisms and negativity, um, I want you all to remember that there is a whole group of us out there who are thankful for your dedication, who recognize the long hours that you put in, and who appreciate your thoughtful analysis. and I will be proud to be a member of that group um cheering you folks on from home. So, all right. Thank you. [Applause] Well, now the any sorry, any final thoughts? I I just want to say, you know, on the policy committee, having worked with you really closely the last two years, it's been amazing to have your insight, Sean. I'm disappointed I didn't have you for my very first year on policy. It's been awesome, but also just to wish you the best of luck with the election. Um, you ran a really good campaign and I I hope you know the town of Westford votes for you and um, yeah, good luck and best of luck, Sean. our our kids are the same age as uh second grade kindergarten. So look forward to all of what's to come public school system and uh congratulations. Your hard work has laid the floor for years to come. So excy rush to the agenda. You know how much I love to keep us on track though. Um so for our amended agenda tonight,

our first order of business is uh superintendent FY25 goals preliminary evidence. So um just to kind of set that stage uh you know all of us are very familiar but the public may not be but each year we go through a very public um re regulated process for evaluating the superintendent. It is one of our three or four main you know meaty goals of the committee um or purposes of the committee. Uh there are goals set in August and September. there's a mid midyear check-in around January and then as part of sort of a reflection in the end of the year um this wrap up and why it's you know end of April instead of middle of June is because all of us as individually will fill out a um very uh uh defined rubric with um uh Dr. choose performance against set these set goals. Um that those individuals evaluations then get combined combined into a composite evaluation for a one um representative uh uh official evaluation um which will get uh bring back to our June 9th meeting. So, uh, this is the first step of that. And the we reason we refer to it as evidence is that we know a lot of work can happen behind the scenes. And so, the last couple years, I think we've made a really good effort at um at speaking to what of what is the output of the goals that can be shown publicly. And so, if that works as context, I I hand it over to you to walk us through. Sure. Thank you. So, uh, in the packet tonight and I've shared with all of you, there's two different documents. One is the slide presentation that I plan to just use sort of as talking points, but then the last couple of years, um, I've been using a similar

template where it's about a nine-page document that talks about the goals, and there's a self-evaluation and a reflection narrative that's attached to each of those goals along with some examples of evidence. And then in the standard section, I've put more examples of evidence, but plus there's an evaluation narrative at each point as well too that you'll all have access to that then you can um get more and more information. Interestingly, one of the thing first things that I say in in my in the memo that I that I sort of created there is I I do talk about the my gratitude towards specifically the evaluation subcommittee. Um I feel like every single year we've been making progress with this and this is really something that we established um when I came in to try to make sense of this evaluation and to figure out how how how might this be a meaningful process. Um and so that being able to collaborate with a small group and then with the full committee has just been really helpful. And so I'm I'm grateful to the subcommittee members um the work that they've been uh helping me with. The one difference this year is that we put it on the agenda tonight um a month earlier than it typically is. Typically, this meeting would be taking place or this presentation would be taking place later in May, but we swapped this to provide a little bit more time for the school improvement plans to be developed because we're hoping that they're having that opportunity to meet with air as we talked about, right? So I I don't know if that's going to have very specific action items, but the air output will also have specific action items, but that's one of the reasons why it's happening now. And so in doing that, I didn't actually get a chance to preview this with the subcommittee. So this time I'm giving you everything. Everybody's getting it all at once. And so one of the things that Valerie and I talked about and Katherine was when we setting the agenda is that certainly if there's

any questions um if there's anything that you you're you're missing that you think hey could you share this or whatever that's something I think it's important for people to understand this isn't a test that then is done tonight right this is like an opportunity if there's more questions we could certainly meet um the subcommittee I could meet with the subcommittee I'd be happy to do that if necessary but if not that's there's a lot of work that you have to then try to determine your own individual evaluation and then the work of the subcommittee, whoever's going to take that on uh right to try to make the make it all sound like one voice, which is always loads of fun, too. So, with that, we'll just dump jump right into the um the presentation. So, with each slide, what I did is I have the the goal listed that we talked about just a couple of months ago at this point, and then I' I've I've presented just like one or two sentences from the narrative there. So like for example right here I do believe this professional practice goal which was focusing on calibrating leadership and we talked about the universal design for learning. This was meeting with the curriculum coordinators and the principles and doing walkthroughs together. You will see in the document that I've shared with you all that it's also in the packet that I've shared that aggregated data with you from the fall rounds that we did. We're going to do another set of rounds in May. But I believe that from all this uh that this this goal has been met. This articulated goal has has been successfully met. Um we will have a 100% of participation of the full leadership team by the end of June. What we found in the fall was that um based on the curriculum coordinator schedules. We didn't go to every single one of the schools. And so now in the in May, we're going to the school. We're making sure that if there was a principal that wasn't involved in the first part that they're that they're part of this section. And we're also doing it as crosscurricular. So we're bringing two curriculum coordinators together because we did that once honestly by accident because they both

had the same time and I said let's do this together and it was super beneficial for everybody involved. Um so that's how we're going to be wrapping up um this year. But you'll see uh one of the things that you'll also see in the in the document that I've shared with you is the examples of the PowerPoint presentations and the look fors that the different schools that the principles used for their professional development in faculty meetings. I thought it would be a nice snippet for you to see things that these are the types of things that you haven't seen necessarily in the past. So I I asked them to share that information with us so you can see how does it go from this conversation at leadership and how does it begin to expand out to the the classroom. So that's goal one. Sorry you said that um add that additional data is down here with like the standards. It is. Okay. Yep. Got it. Because that that's actually one of the things this is trying to do this as a PowerPoint presentation just for your benefit and really for the general public. I thought it would be it's just better than reading through that dry and I will reflect I will mention again ninepage yeah document of a lot of narratives right so I didn't want to just read that to you well and I think what's what I forgot to set up in the context was this overlap between goals and standards right so goal one really is also and this is something that we we talk about we've been doing with teachers for a long time we encourage them to develop goals that are aligned specifically with the standards right so that then they're there the the evidence that they're bringing together is actually meeting two two purposes and so um standard one and standard four uh that I'll talk about later you'll see that they are directly related to this first goal as well too and just an sorry a further clarification that when sometimes we use that word standard for like curriculum but this is like standard one is called instructional leadership standard two is management and operations standard three is family and community engagement and

standard four is professional culture. It's almost like areas. They're not really standards. Like it's a weird They are. And it is the it's the we're using the same the the district level administrators and superintendent specifically have a very specific rubric that is still aligned with the educator evaluation system that all of our professional staff right use as well too. Um so it's all connected together coming from DESIE. Yeah. And so that's what we've been using and and that's uh and so that's where that's where you're seeing this language. Um thank you. So the second goal was a sense of belonging and engagement uh and is focusing again on the the exposure of universal design for learning um combined with the collaborative problem solving in grades K to 5 and the focus on community circles in grades 6 to 12. Uh the goal as articulated says all students will exhibit an age appropriate awareness of intentional strategies that support student engagement and sense of belonging. I still think that's a great goal and I think significant progress has been made towards this goal but we I we have not met this goal. I have not met this goal. I think the success criteria of trying to figure out exactly how would students exhibit this approp age appropriate awareness. I haven't developed a student survey for this. I think there might be better ways. Um, but what you're going to see is a lot of evidence that shows how the progress we've been making towards this. And so my suggestion is going, unless you have different thoughts as we get into the development of next year, was that some aspect of this be rearticulated into a new goal. Whether it's this goal with now really measurable success criteria that's a little bit easier to Yeah. to to figure out or whether it's taking still the spirit of this work and articulating a new goal. That's something we can talk about later. Um but you know one of the things that we've we've done that I shared during when we were talking about the district improvement plan was just the fact that

even with um the collaborative problem solving which has been a focus of us specific with the elementary schools we've had over 30 staff members with a team at each elementary school um trained in the level one uh collaborative problem solving this year at the elementary schools this spring which is fantastic. And then we've had by the end of this year, we've had 60 staff members from the middle school and from Westford Academy trained in level one and two community building um circles and restorative practices. And that's that's that's going to have a an uh an impact on us um moving forward. So, I'm really proud of that work. I'm really grateful for um all of the the support that we've had from the volunteers who've been stepping up to exhibit and share their own interest in this work. And I think that's um that's going to really benefit us moving forward. I I appreciate that humility because I feel like it would be even feel awkward to say we've met like a sense of belonging is like the whole the nut of why we're why we do what we do. Um so to even say like oh that's met in one year, right? Well, and I feel like and that's a good point. I've actually I've talked about sense of belonging the whole time that I've been in this position and we've been we've been that that that language I think will always continue to exist in a student learning goal of some of some kind specifically I identifying that the students are aware that all of these other things are going on and one of the things that I even say in the reflection one of the success criterias was making sure that there was common language that was being utilized when we were talking about student behavior here and student progress and that might be something that's a little bit we might be able to exhibit a little bit easier next year but we're not there yet to be able to share that. So those are the the fact that we don't really have the student voice and we're not really able to identify how the common language is

being communicated. Um I think we need more time with I think there's something to be said about I mean this sounds to me like a goal of instilling a new culture. Yeah. Right. and and to to do that is definitely a multi-year right and the universal universal design for learning the UDL aspect alone we know is is a seven seven you know six to sevenyear process and honestly the same thing with CPS and community circles like you're right any type of cultural impact takes time um but I think we've we've been committed to this and so we this is we've finally been able to roll out u more of this professional development which I think is going to have an impact. The third goal uh really was focused primarily on our work in the eligibility phase of the the with the MSBA and also the space utilization work. And so you've seen that we've done I I believe this goal has been met. I'm grateful for all the work that um that that Valerie did and Jeff Goodwin and Lindseay Roger helped us with the space usage um piece as well too. I mean, Valerie really kind of led the charge with her engineering mind of of really you, you know, uh, synthesizing all of that that data. Uh, but the principles did a fantastic job meeting with us in every single building to talk about how the buildings are being used right now and what they could be used for in the future in different configurations. And, um, I think, uh, that that's been really it's been it's been very important data. It's been helpful at in our work with the building committee with the art the Robinson school building committee and it's going to inform what we do next as we move forward in the in the with the MSBA process and we start to look at what might redistricting look like. So I think next we will have a district improvement goal that will be attached with the MSBA in some way. Um but I

don't know exactly what it'll look like uh for next year. M I said Roger, didn't I? Yeah. Thank you. you Frank. Oh, sorry you Lindsay. It's Lindsay Richard and I don't know why I said Roger. Well, actually I do know because I know Lindsy Roger that's from time. Okay, good. Dr. Ch, this this feels like a cornerstone piece to like a master planning effort that it's going to be years in the process for Western schools. So, well, I'm glad you said that because that master planning piece actually started before you joined us and it's still that in itself is still taking place and we're still um chipping away at this. I'm gonna I'm pretty sure I even put Lindsay's name wrong incorrectly, too. So, I'm gonna pull down that PDF, fix that. Yeah. And we'll repost it. She'll understand. Kathy, can you help me remember? Do you uh I appreciate that. Um, so talking about humility. So, that's we'll go with uh so we move on to goal four. So, goal four, we extended this goal. This is again, this is still long-term work. However, the articulated aspect of this goal that we expanded over two years will be met by June 25. We will we will really be completing our work with air specifically and they'll be then leaving us with action plans for us to be considering as we move forward. So, like I said, some of those action items um depending on whether they're able to be articulated specifically in the school improvement plans or not, I I'm not sure. I know there will be aspects in the school improvement plans that we'll be talking about um including those recommendations, but each school is looking to see how they can now work towards bringing the district recommendations to fruition um at their level. And this process ends up with its own action its own report with action items outside of it as well which look very similar to the school school improvement plan but won't actually be a

school improvement plan as well too. Um but I do feel like again there'll there'll still be work that we that we'll be doing with this. One of the things that I do say in my narrative uh is that you know this has been a very interesting piece too just with all of the changes that are coming fast and quick from from the federal government since January. Uh it'll be very interesting to see okay well we're committed we're still committed to this work. Um and just what does that what does that look like as we as we continue in um in these efforts. Uh so then if you go to this last slide which is really hard to read here but it's what um it's what Valerie was connecting at the beginning which is these are the four different standards that at the beginning of this process when we develop the superintendent's goals and we collaborate on those and you approve those goals. The other thing that we do is we identify specific um elements and indicators within the standards because each one of those four standards has multiple subsections. And it it's honestly I think I I don't know of any district that expects all of their educators to provide evidence towards all of the subsections of all of the standards at all time. um it's something that people focus on with they when they're focusing on smart goals, right? And so it's things that if we see an area that might need improvement, then we can kind of direct someone to focus on a certain area, but for the most part, we identify specific standards and this is what we've identified and you you approved early on. So as you are looking at the evaluation process, these are really the specific indicators that um that will be driving that. And within the document, if you would you mind clicking Yeah. on the document there that uh this one. Yeah. Yep. That'll just

show for I mean I think I Lori and Tom still saw this last year although you weren't Oh, sorry. It's come up on my computer. Oh, got a little watch like it's loading. Looks like the old uh Oh, look at that. The old computer back. That is the that that link is just going to take us to the the other PDF that I actually shared with you earlier today. Um that where each section is uh let me see. Can I share it with you again? It's actually on that computer. Oh, look at that. Yeah. Oh, fancy. Something's going funky here. Is the screen frozen? Hang on. Let's try this. That's just showing what's on the Oh, that was just It looks like it hasn't impacted Zoom. Well, the idea being Oh, here we go. This So, if you scroll down to where the standards begin, you'll just see again the If you go down to like page four, maybe next one. next. Oh, yeah. So, here you'll see what what you what you'll find is each heading. I I did this separately for the standard. So, it has the it has the indicator and then um something that we had talked about last year, which I think was really helpful was just including the examples of common forms of evidence that actually comes from the MASC has a really good guide um that I think they've put together to help school committees with this process. And so I just took that language right from there to show examples. It doesn't mean that it has to be that that they're just saying these are these might be the types of things that you that you look at. And so that first instructional leadership piece um you'll see the reflection that I have there. It again it focuses on that first goal. There's the evidence that that I've included in this section here. Um

there it one of the things that that I always did as an evaluator and continue to do is I I actually take language directly from the rubric and then I cite it. So there is like a a sentence or two sentences in there that's pulled directly from the rubric and that rubric and that's why it says 1B1 in some sort of interesting hybrid of citations. Um I don't think anyone would any AP Yeah. Anyway, uh that's that it's just for our purposes. So, um so that's just an example of what what you'll see and what people can look at. If you scroll to the the second standard, we we saw and we knew that this again was potentially going to be a challenging budget year. And so, we continued to put the fiscal management systems on here. And um again, I'm I'm still very proud of the work uh that we've been doing. And I think the team uh specifically you're going to be hearing from Jenny um director of school finance Jenny Lynn later on tonight and the work that she does to to help share information with us is um is wonderful. I think the work that we collectively did on the NGFG is was really was really um was really important and other people within our town have been very happy with it showing that you know using it as an example. other school districts have said, "Hey, well, that's really fascinating and that's something that they would like to look at." So, I think that's that's just kind of speaks to the work um that I think we did again in a in a I think a challenging fiscal environment. We know that it's it hasn't been easy. Um but we did bring a a balanced budget uh to town meeting this year and um I think that it it just came with a lot of hard work and difficult um decisions. The third uh standard that we decided on was family concerns and it was specifically addressing family concerns in an

equitable effective efficient manner. I think that this is perhaps one of those this is one of the more challenging things to observe, right? But on one level, as you all well know and Sean spoke earlier about your inboxes, right? There are a number of times where we are all included on emails and concerns and I didn't include all of those because you have all of those. You've seen all of those. And I think you'll see that whether I'm responding in a way in which the person is happy with the outcome or not happy with the outcome, you'll see that it's always um I think it's always responsible. I think it's always respectful and professional and and trying to address the concerns in an efficient manner manner as well. Um one of the things that I thought that I might share with you this year was just a short example. I took um I think there's like five five or six different family meetings that I had throughout the year. I've had more than that, but I I took some that were all very different. And I just gave you an example of short email inter exchanges between us, whether it was setting up the meeting or whether it was a follow-up after the meeting. It might be from them, it might be from me. to kind of just give you a sense of it. Um I I tried to include things and redact things so that there would be no identifying information. Um but that's something that I haven't shared with you in the past, but these are things where I might have been included with principles. It might but it's something that I I look to see that it wasn't something that you were a part of. Yeah. So that you kind of see that um you're going to be hearing from the class officers which is a little bit different in a couple weeks from of of class of 2026. Um, and I decided to just throw their email exchange on there, too, because I I don't want to I I'm just really happy with the work that they've done and the presentation that they're going to bring to you. And Valerie and I were a part of a a conversation earlier in the year that I think, you know, you can ask her about

it, but they they had a lot of questions and concerns and we gave them very specific direct feedback and they took it and they actually um included it. considered it and came back with a with a proposal that meets every single thing that we had talked about and I'm just really proud of them. Um, and so I just kind of wanted to share that in there because it just happened recently and I thought that was and I think it ties into that engagement piece, right? That like it's not it's not no or yes is an answer and you're not willing to talk about it. It's that there are conversations and you know that collaboration, right? Thank you. Um and then just the last piece uh professional culture we focus on cultural proficiency um specifically here and I do think that the work that we've been doing with our curriculum specifically through the e the roll out in the elementary schools has really had a a major difference in our students experiences in the classroom. Um, but another thing that I've just been really proud of that I just wanted to um share with all of you is the opportunity that I have being on the Mass Commission for LGBTQ plus youth. Um, I've been I've joined the safe schools committee. Uh, they're actually going to be coming and doing being part of our um, professional development day next Tuesday. um working with elementary staff to figure out okay how might they how might element because the 6 through 12 staff I think have a little bit more experience um talking about safe spaces but the elementary staff doesn't necessarily haven't had as as many um as many opportunities and so safe schools is coming out to work with them and that's actually one of the things that I was very excited to work with safe schools about because I feel like the resources that exist for elementary are not as extensive as they are for six 12. Um, but that along with uh just examples of different ways that I think I've been trying to communicate with the district, with families, with different changes that have been taking

place. One of the things that um I included here was again just the we again I talked about it in the district improvement plan as well too, but um uh we've been a part of the uh the P PN I have to look at it again because too many acronyms. Oh, PPNM. Yeah. Partners of Northern Middle. Um, it's the Northern Middle. It's a it's a new new group that was established and we have some fantastic representatives who have been working with for the district with this group and they've secured um through grant funding these pocket talks which each building is going to have this this uh it's a handheld device that um is a translation device so that if a family member or anyone comes in to speak to somebody at school and we don't have access to um a translator or if it's just for any it could be for any simple conversation. Every single building now has access to it right in the main office. And I feel like that's just another step forward forward for us in trying to make sure that we are creating a welcoming environment for everybody. That's really cool. So this is really now homework for you. Yeah. Um but like I said, it's the beginning of the process. If the if you look at it, I you know I do don't expect you have to to have read it beforehand. I am going to make that name correction and re re uh repost that and um and and send that to all of you. Perfect. Um so as Dr. Chu alluded, this becomes our homework now. Um so for Tom and Lori, I have sent you a separate email to offer support going through this the first time. Um, it does feel overwhelming the first time, although maybe not with with previous experience as a rubric is very familiar. Lori know Lori's going to know the rubric. I've done I've done this

process myself. Right. So, um, I just want to make sure you have the framework. It's you would do the work on your own, but like to talk through the process. There's a temp there's a template that we use that you would put your input into. Um and then typically the um evaluation subcommittee would work to you know uh uh integrate seven voices into one composite evaluation. Um obviously twothirds of that committee will be no longer as of May 6. Yes. So I am volunteering to we'll help you Larry Islander. So yeah. I didn't think that through at the beginning of the year when we put, you know, people together, but no, I'm I'm happy to step in and, you know, between Katherine and I as as chair and vice chair, um, we'll be able to help get that through. And it is, you know, due on May 7th. No. So, um, I was just saying, uh, as of May 7th, they'll Mari and Sean as part of the subcommittee will no longer be on the committee. Fleeing. In the past, um, in the past, our although I am able to contribute. So even though you most contributed if you folks want my I don't think technically you'd be part of the subcommittee essentially but yes it is part of our practice that the two outgoing members still complete an evaluation as that's you're evaluating the superintendent from the year that you have finished. It wouldn't be fair to welcome someone new on and say now evaluate the sub the superintendent. Um so that's how our practice that's how we've done it in the past. I looked back at um the previous years here it is the previous year's timing that we've done. Usually um we kind of have the presentation of the evidence and then about uh two weeks your the individual templates would be due and then it gives

about a week and a half for the compiler person to create the composite evaluation in order to bring it back to a school committee um meeting on the agenda and for a vote. So, I was eyeballing um I think I had May 14th as like a due date from all members um to have their individual evaluation due and then that would give the compiler a week or two to kind of get it ready for June 9th. Does that sound good in theory? Okay. Um, obviously if you have set aside a little bit of personal time sooner rather than later so that if there is follow-up questions for Dr. Chu in that memo um because anything further that you receive or that you want more detail on should be shared with the full committee as they're all um as each member is doing their own individual evaluation. Does that all make sense? Clear as but so that would be questions still sent directly to directly to Dr. I will share them out either through you. I think he would the I would request that you share anything that you clarify or add detail to to all. Does that make sense? And again, happy to be helpful to Tom and individually. We would ask questions. So direct it to Dr. Chu and he would share with everyone. So if there's if there's clarifying information he gives to one person, all seven members should should see that. Right. Yes. So I'm just asking that that part like that you take a time to review it the data sooner rather than later so that we would all benefit from that instead of you know getting it if you've individually done it quicker. Does that make sense? Okay. Yes. Briefly. So Chris, you did you spoke to the student learning goal, the sense of belonging and engagement. I

think you actually left something out and I know it wasn't in action that was proposed going into this year but um the yandu pouches right I feel like that was a big a big move also going to echo start times shift here so true I did however I the reason why I didn't is because I did talk about those with the this with the dip right but but those weren't specifically part of this goal goals Okay. Sorry. It is part of sense of belonging and social emotional well-being for the students. Absolutely. But it just wasn't it that and that's honestly one of the things that I've learned now in year four and I think we've had a very robust strategic district improvement plan. Right. Right. And we've had a very robust superintendent goals. We talked about this at the beginning of this year. Like they really are aligned with each other. And the idea of having both going on Yeah. is a little might be something we think about moving forward as we start looking at other things as maybe they should be a little bit it should be okay where they're aligned or maybe it's one I don't know um but that's a that's a a piece of it. Thank you. I appreciate both of those things. Any other initial thoughts tonight? Okay. Um again, please reach out. you know, I I know even, you know, year two of filling this out um uh or year one happy to help support figuring waiting through this so this process. Will we be emailed the template? Yes. We have it all in Google Drive and Oh, okay. We've worked hard on the template so that hopefully it helps you. Yeah, it makes it easier. The process has come a long way. It used to be more clunky and um I think Chris Chris Sanders originally moved it from Microsoft Word to Google Docs so that it's more edit edit friendly and um

I think if if it's okay what might make the most sense to in terms of this is if someone has a question clarification or requests additional information and I actually have it then um I'll just share I will share the Google doc of the evaluation with everybody so that you'll so that's where I'll place it instead of sending you like oh here's another email or whatever I will let everybody know if it's been updated and I'll I'll put it I'll I'll put that in in an appendix I'll create an appendix or whatever and then when when this process is done that we can turn into a PDF and put into the packet. Sure. Great. Awesome. That makes sense. Makes sense. Y it's organized. Yep. which just has me thinking that like I feel like we've been working so hard on evolving this year after year. I don't think this has come up in in our conversations with other districts, but I feel like we must be like nearing best practice or at best practice in the area for how we do this. Definitely because based on the conversations I've had with Yeah. Yeah. I I think we've gotten to a really good place. Yeah. Okay. All good. We're going to move on to uh policy review P6110 graduation requirements. This is the second time this policy is on the agenda, so there is no reading to wave. Um and I would like to start the conversation by mentioning Oh no, I had a little note and it's gone. Nope, I put it in here. That's why. Um, I would like to start the conversation by suggesting that we take our original timeline and extend it because I think when we when I went back and read policy P7 something was yeah wherever it says the 12 business days for public comment

we didn't count spring break April April break or and so if you count the vacation week and if you count the no school day of election day. It actually takes us to May 8th for public comment. So, I would propose we extend our previously um planned public comment to be longer. Um and I know we had talked at our last meeting about, you know, that it's the will of the committee about the timing of a vote and whether we feel ready and the level of discussion, everything. So, it's not that we were on some, you know, um crash timeline to a a vote with no uh way to change it, but I just want to make sure that we adjust our public comment with that in mind. So, and and which would which would just potentially um give us another uh reason to think about extending to the end of May so that we have chance to reflect on any public comment. So, that would be my proposal. Yeah. And then open it up for discussion tonight. Can I just say a quick word? Um, so policy subcommittee has met. We we met last week and had a a good discussion um and Dr. Chu also joined us um which was helpful. And so um this iteration of the policy tonight is a little bit different from the first one. um based on some of that discussion. And so I just want to kind of highlight some of the tweaks I would say as opposed to um major changes. Uh the first one being actually just that very firing paragraph. Um we just kind of changed it around. The um thing is still the same, the essence of it, but it was just reading funny. um and kind of you

were it felt almost like you were coming in halfway through um a policy. So um we just re rewarded that opening paragraph. Um the other Oh, I didn't mean to do that. Um the other uh things to note was um we've just cleaned up this section a little bit and actually um what we've done is when I went into the program of studies, the new one for Westford Academy, they also have this wording in their um program of studies. So um we've just kind of aligned that so it's actually correct. There was one or two typos. So we've we've aligned the wording so that they read the same. um because it essentially was the policy language in the program of studies. So then the next piece um is to note you did add you did go ahead and reflect what the committee yes the talked about about the um number four there. Yes. So 32 to 0.5 30.5. There we go. There it is in point4. Um Oh, sorry. 30. Yep. Yeah. And we had consensus on that at our last meeting. So yes. Great. Yeah. Thank you. So then uh what we also just started doing here was actually checking the math on history and social science. It had said originally um 15 credits, 10 of which was world history and 10 of which was US history. So the math wasn't working. So um we clarified that. Makes for fun conversation. Yeah. Science social science department. So um that's why that change is just there. We're not actually changing it. We've it's just a a mistake that's been corrected. Okay. And again then some of the other tweaks you'll see where it said foreign languages, we've changed it

to our languages to align with the language that's actually being used at WA. Y um and again we've tried to clean up. This was the next section that we've tried to clean up and again as we adopt the policy this will all look much better. Um so we knew we you had I think it was you Val had raised the issue about the wellness the PE and health just about the phrasing of it and I think it had come up in some of our discussion and so we've kind of branded it more wellness combining the PE and health and I know this is part of our discussion tonight but we've just kind of put it in writing to show it to how it might look um with the in previously it said 10 credits towards towards physical education and 2.5 towards health. Correct. Yeah. Yes. And so um because it's the kind of this the the classes combining um we just left it at the one semester per year with the double asterisk showing that note that it's going into effect for class of 2030. Um and then uh we actually cut out all of this extra complicated stuff that was kind of in there including you know 0.24 semesters of PR required um because we felt it was a bit more easier in the other way. Um uh and then the last piece to note was it kind of came up about and this is a proposal tonight about um kind of keeping on top of the um graduation requirements because we know it's a a work in progress as well at the moment and that there's ongoing conversations happening at at WA. Um and so and at the state level and at the

state level. Exactly. And so um you know we thought by adding a kind of a review of the policy into the policy it might help. And initially we kind of thought and it you know do we review it every year every four years? And I actually, you know, as we were looking at it, I kind of thought the program of studies is something we should be reviewing anyway annually as a school committee and that maybe we just build the practice of when the program of studies gets approved or reviewed by the school committee. We just do a temperature check of based on what we're looking at changing, you know, on the program of studies, we automatically kind of do a quick review with the um policy itself. so that it just becomes an annual kind of check-in for for both. Um, so that's where those kind of changes are just to talk you through kind of how we came for it. I think the the main points of discussion tonight is to obviously look at the review, but I know we need kind of direction on the um there was more I think discussion on the health um wellness PE discussion and on the VPA discussion. Um so just for uh organizationwise, why don't we why don't we pause on the review for a minute? Yeah. I think my my initial instinct to this was that that this wouldn't make sense here. Like I I don't I don't love that we're tying us future committees to an annual review of this. It makes it sound to me like it is more fluid than really we would hope. Um so I'm not I'm not totally sold on this part. Mhm. I mean I I understand I think like to me maybe it's more like

uh you know maybe it mentions the annual approval of the program of studies but it doesn't necessarily mean that this policy is re like the word review you know on an annual bas I don't I don't know it it's review with a small R it's literally kind of more of a check of oh if we're doing I I totally get what you mean when you say review it sounds very formal right like a change is almost expected. I don't want to change expected. I do think it opens a door though of an expectation that that this is going to be a responsibility of the policy subcommittee every single year. And I I really I caution I believe it's in the interest of principal TUMI and Dr. Chu and Western public schools to put forth a program of studies at WA that is that diligence is coming from them. I worry that this opens a door for us to provide input that we may not have the whole sight in like but on an annual basis too. It feels very reactionary. The idea of it being is if something changes in the program of studies, sure, that's when you would check are is our policy still aligned correctly with it. Like to to reference Dr. Chu, the governor's council looking at the high school graduation requirements across the state, you know, what's a better, right? Yeah. But could this be used as a way for community members to voice their opinions, right, about where this should go every single year? Yeah. and having this sort of debate like we're going to talk about fizzed and health, we're going to talk about visual and performing arts. I I worry about the language of this of an annual review in here opening up a door for more work

than what's kind of in our chart. Yeah, that's not the that's not the um spirit of this. This the spirit of it is really just to say just is this a check? Is it still in alignment with what's happening? Like for example, you know, the 15 credits of history, they're saying what, five U world history and 10 US history credits. That's really determined by kind of, you know, if if things change at at WA. Yeah. I think the the spirit of the conversation was around there is nothing in the policy that is saying that you ever have to look at this policy again. Yeah. And and we had a pretty good conversation about that. And we're like, okay, well that actually maybe there should be something in here that does actually say that there is an expectation that the committee is going to look at this every so many years. The annual thing I agree with and that kind I understand your rationale in connecting with program studies, but when we were talking about it in the in the in the sub committee policy subcommittee meeting, um we kind of had said maybe we were thinking like a fouryear cycle like what like the typical life of a high school student is four years, right? And when you think about there's also if if a district decides to engage in the NEAS process that is a 10-year review with a five-year um midyear section the if you and now that's something get a district chooses to do so it's not something we have to do but most do and we do do it um you know making sure that you're looking at your graduation requirements is is an expectation yeah as part of that process. So that was sort of our thought was we thought that having some having the committee having something in this policy that does actually say to a future committee that hey it's your turn and you need to look at this as well too isn't as necessarily a bad idea. Doing it every year it could be I think it could become weaponized. It could be like we wanted no I don't like it this

year. I want this to change because my child can't take this course and people trying to and I think that could be that could be bad. And I do think, you know, I like the connection of this policy to what what is really going to be a new practice of an annual review of the program of studies. Yeah. But I I I think I'm I think I'm I support that. No, I get I get you. So I think maybe it's that you're right that that in itself even including that in the chart, Tom. Yeah. that there there's some there's idea that wait a second this is it's not going to be four years before the people are even just talking about this I think that there's um you know being able to review the program of studies to the policy and then in that process I think there's the the the opportunity to say wait this program of study doesn't align but is it the policy that's broken or the program of studies and then that goes back Does it trigger a review? Um, you know, initially I I like the idea from the standpoint of there's a couple of I'll call them fairly significant changes being proposed this year, right? Um, so I I do like the idea of a review at some point to make sure those changes are effective and are um in support of our um image of a graduate. But um but I do I think that having it annual and it has to be reviewed. You know I I do think uh the the current climate does lend itself towards oh well it's opened up so we need to change it again. Right. I got you. And and even it it almost feels similar to me of that the revolving accounts that we did with the NGFG for the finance subcommittee where we're saying like okay we like we spent a lot of time thinking about like when does

this make sense? What like annually what does that look like? What does the timeline look like? And and I felt like even that was like um let's be careful what we're signing sort of future committees up for. And so I just want to make sure that this is this is as thoughtful and like vetted as um what's the timing of that is what's the goal of that like I sure that's I think mentioning program of studies is is probably the original nut of it and I support mentioning an annual review of the program of studies or the annual approval of program studies but I wouldn't say shall review this policy yeah it wasn't it wasn't It was more just to check. Yeah. Because I suppose the other thing is is as we know there's so many policies and I was thinking okay what's a future school committee in eight years like how do you keep track of when was the last time they graduate? You know what I mean? Yeah. And so it was more kind of a how do you maybe kind of build a habit or a you know similar to like how check I mean like similar to how in a month when we will review handbooks there are policies that are quoted in the handbooks that we're like oh yeah do these still match okay good you know like that's how I kind of see it happening of we're what's in front of us is a program of studies not always this policy going through this like really thorough step but the program of studies And some of it is obviously tied to that, but it's not the same. So then the other question is is do we put an actual number on it of like every four years it should be? You know what I mean? Because if you're not like how do you and you don't want to you don't want to tie if school policy. Sure. I think that there's two way it seems like the biggest concern about this is the mandatory language of shall right. Yeah. Like because you're you're imposing obligations on a future school committee. May. Yeah. So, I mean,

there's a few ways that you could approach it. You could change it to May or something along those lines or just get rid of the whole time requirement and say that whenever practicable, you know, whenever necessity requires. You actually can do that anyway though. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, it has no obligation at that point, but if the idea is to kind of just put this on the radar for future school committees, then it's not necessarily a bad thing. Right. I I feel too that like again like this this new practice of ex the expectation of reviewing a program of studies is already sort of a a change for a future committee and that I I worry about sort of prescribing more than that at this point. Like I think I think those conversations and what we intend for those future conversations is this topic being you discuss this whole topic being discussed um without y prescribing a and again I I do think that if you're saying we need to look at the program of studies we we I say we you know the future we are going to look at the policy sure yeah so it's it's a chicken in the egg and it'll be it'll but like this feels this feels too far for me like if we're if we're starting with a new change of reviewing the program studies I want to just kind of start there and see where that takes us because I think naturally it will take us to this and I don't want to lock us in on that. No. And the other question is if we did say anything about when we'd review a program of the graduation requirements, would we have a requirement for a working committee like we have this time with recommendations? Right. Would there be other would there be a survey? What other aspects would be involved in that? Right. Right. Because then you get into a place where you're comparing them with like well when this was removed it was this process and when

this was added it was that process. The graduation requirements policy is a subcommittee the policy subcommittee like you're literally saying are our numbers is the math still matching are they still doing the same amount of requirements or you know it it's it's as simple as that not necessarily a full overhaul working group. Um, so I think clearly the language is reading different than how the intention. So we think it's because that wasn't the intention. I think it was a really good discussion point. Yeah. For what we all envision next year's committee discussing. Yeah. So perfect. Yeah. I'll I'll update that then for we'll get that updated for the next one. on the list. The other two is the health and oh yeah, wellness and VPA. So this is where we're looking at um just to kind of get some definitive feedback and guidance then as well if there's nothing else that has cropped up um in the last since our last meeting. Um, so the question being, can I quickly say this? The way it's just kind of laid out on the table is still confusing to me. It makes it sound like you could choose one semester of PE or health each year. So wellness is kind of the new phrase with PE and health combined. That's what it was supposed to in in the discussion that we had though what we did talk about is PE is required by law, right? And so this recommendation allows then the academy to develop courses that meet those requirements. Right? So, for example, there could be a health class that has a PE component to it that meets the that meets the the law that then would allow a student to take additional

health classes instead of a what one might have seen as a traditional PE classes as well too. Okay. Okay. The idea being is that we're providing that flexibility to Westford Academy in that as long as it again PE it it says that it has to be you know it has to be um uh scheduled and provided by law, right? But there's no language in the law and it says that the local um district can determine what does that look like and what does that mean. So it would really just need to be addressing a PE standard of some kind. That was sort of what we were talking about as opposed to saying, well, is this limiting them or is this providing them opportunities to to look to see what might this got it department develop as helpful. Thank you. I thought I had that printed out. Um, okay. Thank you. That cleared. But we're assuming under this proposal that the ninth grade health that is required right now would be quote unquote rolled in over the other four semesters across the four years state mandated. Right? So like the proposal of the policy subcommittee is that the health the current health required health semester in grade nine is going to be facilitated or rolled into the other four semesters which is the 10 what when the when the curriculum coordinator presented to the working group and I think Tom you were there so you can speak to it. I wasn't there. I wasn't a part of it. Okay. But my understanding as it was then shared with me was that one of the options that could make this work would be this combination of the health and wellness, health and PE as as a freshman course. But then they also talked about

dividing it up over 9th and 10th grade. And that was one of the main reasons why they were advocating for it not to impact the next year's class, right? That we need time to actually allow the allow allow the department to develop what the course would look like, right? So, but it was one of the options. So, the policy subcommittee is not saying what this has to be. That's one of the pieces. And I think that's also why I think it's good that Katherine is talking about the program of studies because the program of studies is what will then be something that then looks at it. But this details because we kind of talked about that in in in that meeting on Wednesday was just about well what is the goal here? The goal is not to dictate what the course course says in any department, right? Look like, right? Right. So, it was there was it was phrased just that way that it's this was one way and it was going to take some time to digest the new standards for health, the new standards for PE and try to figure out how how they could could work it. whether or not they can effectively work it is still I think what we heard in concerns um two weeks ago was whether or not um it it would be an effective use of the the the credits I think is one of is the way I would phrase that. Uh I will say that looking back at some of the notes uh which were had some great scribes for for the meeting. So I was able to look back at um some some history and and there there was some divide on on this topic still, right? You know, everything from leave it existing um to a little bit of support for alternative PE options, which again is a program of study discussion, not a policy discussion. um to a little bit of

support for combining to uh some support of flexibility um you know and whatever however that might come. So, you know, that that's kind of I think where this idea came from. Um, who exactly presented the initial idea? I I can't completely determine by the notes um in my cursory read, but it was out of that kind of split of really trying to match every everyone's needs. So, needs and wants. Okay. I I will say just on this topic that you know there's two two points that I I I come back to on this um first of all I appreciate the comments about um you know talking about students you know kind of social emotional you know mental health um and I think Valerie you had kind of brought it up in the last discussion and I completely agree that looks different for everybody and for some for some people, you know, having the two PE and health, you know, that extra class that may not look like that for for those students. And the other thing is is and I literally just had another conversation and it ca came up completely organically not connected to this discussion anyway with another parent again last week you know talking about students who are typically on IEPs um moving up and into high school and trying to navigate the scheduling that they have to do um with various different um incidents that have happened. And these are the students that you know we we're looking to support and there are a million classes that they can take by hopefully creating that bit of flexibility in the schedule

for them. The other point that I kind of come back to is is we don't have two different state standards. We don't have a health state standards and we don't have a PE state standards. It is health and PE combined and they're very organic. And you know as a former teacher I know that you know this kind of idea they're not even crosscurricular they are one in the same subject in many ways because kind of they're you know you're having different conversations or different things can can um you know you can have different focuses on it and so even as I was researching all of this I've noticed in a number of surrounding districts they're all calling it kind of wellness and there is a combination um happening of both PE and health. You know, it would be different if maybe we had much if we had more time available in the schedule, but I truly believe right now at the moment because I know there's conversations happening in WA anyway about other subjects and kind of flexibility that one of the best things we can do for our students right now that need it is open up some flexibility within the scheduling. Um, and I I know t that, you know, com combining those two subjects, I I truly believe the team at WA will will be able to do that, you know, and do it well. So, that's kind of where I'm at on this one at the moment. Okay. I think my feeling about fizzed and health discussion right now feels it and I'm going to go back to the annual review language in in this draft up here is that it feels reactionary. It feels like we're being pressured to move ahead

with a change because of a failed override and positions that need to be cut and sections that need to be thought about. Look, I 100% agree with flexibility need uh in a program of studies, the pressure valves that exist in this district and releasing those for our students. I I just I just think this is very hasty and fastm moving right now to meet the needs of some, you know, voices both on a working subgroup, you know, a working committee that involved a number of people and, you know, and parents that look, Westford public schools and Westford Academy has a track record of academic rigor, no doubt about it. But I think I just think there needs to be a slowdown in how we approach as I mentioned last meeting a 25 year overhaul an update and what are very compreh comprehensive fizzed and health standards there there are two levels of licenses of our teachers in the wellness department I don't think we've considered that right so there's fizzed and then there's health and family and consumer science. Looking at the program, uh the the the C course catalog that I reviewed from Westford Academy, I'm I'm counting 15 sections that are under their department right now under wellness. Two sections that are not being offered next school year. Um you know obviously the demands of the laws that every student has to have one semester of fizzed per year and our

current offering where our freshmen receive both fizzed and health which means all I don't know 300 to 50 to 400 students in a class year have to receive it and then half of every class year after that has to receive it. Right? there's a there's a big demand on that wellness department to meet the needs and of those standards. Um I I just it's my opinion that we're moving too fast in this because of what is a reaction to a failed override. Um and again we don't you know it was mentioned last minute we don't want this pitting of departments you know for for what is you know more more look flexibility is important I said but academic excellence what we're sending our kids off into uh whatever adult path that they choose higher education in a decade is going to be very different uh AI is changing how we learn in schools um what what is going to be expected of high school graduates, college graduates, adults in the workforce uh in the years to come. And I just think that, you know, we're we're pushing ahead here. Um I', you know, I I'd like to see what the wellness department proposes. Um, you know, if if they were to keep 12 and a half credits, I'd like to see what they propose in terms of really solid outline of a course catalog to justify, you know, their program. Um, yeah, that's just my feeling though. Can I just say though, Bill, on I know you you're kind of saying that you think this is a reaction to the override. Mhm. I do like my understanding is this the working group came in very clearly and said we're not having any of these discussions regarding budget there there

was no kind of aim. It it was more kind of let's review our graduation requirements and that this was a recommendation that came to us from the group. It wasn't about saving money, you know, it's not about cutting um staff um that there there was none of that. And I don't I don't feel that that's where the the the idea of the working group it kind of came out of discussions that were kind of blurring through the budget cycle. But even to go back to the annual review Yeah. um wordage there. Yeah. One could argue that you would need to get that working group together every single time you want to review a program of studies. So right like it would set that precedent. Well no the the program of studies is supposed to come before the school committee every year. the so the the high school is supposed to do the work and present it. Not that there's a working group that has to come together, but but if we're going to propose substantial changes on future class years ahead, wouldn't this prior work group that has that has worked this year be a model or an exemplar for future iterations of this? I I I don't know. I'm throwing it out there. Yeah. So as on the the budget, so there there were some references to um a budget impact. Um I really tried to stress that budget impact really ended up no offense, but that was that's Dr. TR's issue to deal with. It was it was the working group's charge to say this is the best requirements for what we wanted our students to come out with. Um but even still it I think that it's it's a natural tendency to say you know well that might cost something or you know I um I I think I I think I honestly

respectfully disagree. I I think that I've been hearing about the lack of flexibility ever since the deferral changed, which is also tied tied to this. Um, and so that is irregardless of the override failure. Um, and so that has I've been on this for five years. I think I've heard about it every year um from different pockets like you're saying whether students had um academic support in middle school and then are facing choices in WA that don't feel as equitable as their peers. Um and I would also I would also point out that in my in my opinion this is a measured step. This is not an overhaul for four years. This is one semester of grade nine. This is also does not preclude someone from also taking freshman wellness and PE. So if a ch if a student wants to sort of still do that, they could. Um and what we're really talking about is a change of 2.5, not, you know, a four-year overhaul. um it feels measured to me knowing that a working group did talk through this for months and that this is a 2.5 credit change. So I guess that's my out of one other thing that kind of came up in discussions and um in reviewing I remember this may be again program of study but going back to a culture right and and having recommendations as well. So requirements and then guidance recommends you take these classes as well as part of your overall electives. You know, I don't know if that that helps to solve some of it. Um, you know,

one one concern I do have is that we measured a lot against uh Mass Core and I'm sure we'll talk about that in a little bit with VPA. Um I do wonder at what point mass core is going to go in say with the new health standards well we really do need to include that as well and then then we would be right back here. So it's and just to go back to your point about the two and a half we're also talking about VPA and changing that potential. So it's not just two and a half credits we're potentially changing five credits right because you could have two concurrent Yeah. Right. I guess I guess that we could be increasing BPA and keeping PE and health at the same. Well, to my point was that my point was that the rush that your your point about rushing I felt like 2.5 out of 12.5 is not is not an overcorrection. And and I think the the like you're saying the trade-off between taking 2.5 somewhere and putting 2.5 somewhere else is each of us individually may have different opinions on that. My own opinion is that uh I'm not in favor of adding 2.5 back somewhere else. I'm in favor to Katherine's point about flexibility for these students who are choosing their classes, finding out what they like, and making the giving that breathing room to their electives. So, because bearing in mind that that 2.5 is very prescribed. It's not like you have the option of doing it in your senior year when your schedule opens up. It's it's specifically hitting our ninth graders, our freshmen coming in when they have little to no flexibility in their thing. and and and trust me, Bill, the amount of conversations I've had with parents who because of their middle school experience and IEPs, they're really struggling um with with what's happening

at that kind of freshman year. Whereas, if we if you could do this in the senior year where it opens up more, yeah, then you're kind of having a very different discussion. But because this is so prescribed, you know, as opposed to maybe the VPA, you know, requirement, there's there's something different about this to maybe any of the other kind of subjects actually have a VPA class in senior year anytime you want. It's not like you have to have it your first year. So that they they are kind of tied too, right? And I agree, it did start coming up when there was the change to the deferral. Um, and I say it's tied because we say that, you know, the classes are determined based on enrollment. Well, you know, because of that lack of flexibility in freshman year, people people are are our students students are choosing to not continue with certain classes, which is impacting that enrollment. So, it it self-fulfilling. Yes. Yeah. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Yeah. So I did want to talk a little bit about the DE DOE requirement of the mass core requirement for VPA uh visual and performing arts and that is they do recommend a full year credit. That means not just a full year but it could be less than a full year potentially but they want to see a full year of credit and I have confirmed that with someone from DOE and I think Dr. Chu has received an email as well. I I I think they I think what they're communicating in the mass score is one unit or could be a year, could be a semester, but the most important part is it fulfills the standards. it's meeting the standards indicator. I do I actually still feel I I spoke with I think it's Nile um and my question was actually focused more on they were Desi was claiming that we were

self-reporting that we were um meeting the core requirements by 100%. And so that was my first question to him. I said can you tell me we are being told that we are self-reporting and there is no place for us to report this information with all of our data. And so he he pointed me to where they were getting that information. So one of the pieces is that in their process they say that they collect the SIMS data and they validate the student course. Y however they haven't been able to start validating the student course enrollment piece yet. So this whole time we thought they're taking all of our SIMS data and then they're seeing exactly what kids are taking and then they're telling us that we're meeting at 100%. But what they're seeing is that no, we're saying 100% of our students are graduating having taken what we believed is the mass core requirements because the because I think there's still interpretation as to are you meeting the standard or you not right and then this whole time I'm assuming which you know you don't do that right assuming that they're actually validating that data okay and he confirmed oh no we haven't been able to do that yet they haven't started doing that so so they do believe that we're self-reporting by the way that we code our graduates and they're not double-checking that with the courses that they're taking. So that does leave it back to okay it's been our interpretation which is the digging you're doing Lori too. So this is the email response from DOE. They said regardless of seat time, as I stated below, the course should be the equivalent of a year-long course and have the same credits as a year-long course for mass core purposes. Now, a year-long course is five credits. So, that seems pretty clear to me. There's just an additional I just want to be clear that there's an

additional sentence there that says it's really about the standards and content. That's actually a different email. But it but that's my problem with Desessie honestly is that even this one individual who I was so thankful that he was so helpful helping me finding that direction. But that one individual and even the same thing happened with other communications with other departments previously where the same individuals say different things in multiple emails. Sometimes depending on who they're writing to and what the question is. Sometimes it's just based on the same conversation. Because what I did is I actually forwarded the conversation to this individual and said, "There seems to be confusion here. Can you please point me to where I'm going to find this information?" And that's when he said, "Oh, well, we don't validate it. We don't do that." I hear and I hear you. I I hear Lori Lori and I hear what you're saying, too, Bill. I the I still think that the I I would respectfully disagree with you about the reactionary and the and you didn't say rushing. Maybe you did say rushing, but I do think a great deal of time and effort was put into this by a number of people um that really really tried to look at this from every single angle and say, "Okay, do our requirements meet our needs and is this what we think we should do moving forward?" there was no directive for them to find a change, right? I mean, they it could stay the same there. They they could have come out of their process saying, "Nope, we think this is actually solid." But they came out with a recommendation that brings in this at this moment in time brings wellness, I think, to be more in line with what we do see other districts doing. Now, I know that's not necessarily always our our model that we're looking at, right? M but depending on whether we depending on which definition of the VPA

piece in both cases I would say wellness PE at 12.5 is exceeding the mass score which I don't have a problem with exceeding things and if if what Lori is saying is if that's truly the way the des um uh interpreting that then we're not meeting the mass score and we need we'll have to make that determination before we code the this graduating class this year honestly regardless of what decision is made here because we have to now that I know that they're not validating that data and they're using this one code then it's really critical that we make sure that that that the students are being coded the way that they're expecting it to be coded which means that that could change sorry if it is the case that Desi views a a full course of study as being able to occur in one semester of a VPA class then I think we need to define what VPA classes meet that which because I think that's fair and I think that um the curriculum coordinator should work with you and figure out because I'm not sure you know if any of them do right there might I think you're right there might be some the example that I keep giving is like if it's a if it's a full you know full subject area in ceramics or something ceramics one is also followed by another semester of ceramics 2 right so is it one one semester we all know that a full year of an experience is much different than a seme master worth of experience in terms of the level of competency, understanding and overall educational validity. I think the math is wrong. You know, it's a a one semester experience out of an entire four years of experience in high school is maybe not the best we can give our students who are often pressured either internal pressure to be successful or parental pressure or community pressure, societal pressure, who knows? who often want to

succeed to the extent that they're taking a lot of very difficult classes in order to get a lot of AP classes, etc. And perhaps it's not in their best interest when to have such a narrow focus when high school is more of a well-rounded um situation rather than college. I mean, this isn't something where you you're not majoring in a subject area necessarily. You are just getting a well-rounded experience for the rest of your life. And the arts are extremely important as we all know in their creativity, in your self-expression, in your confidence level as a person. There's so many different reasons why this is important and why mass recommended that it be a year and I feel like we're shortch changing the students. Honestly, um I'd like to make a proposal as chair, watching the time and based on the earlier note about extending public comment, I'm wondering if it makes sense to have a continued discussion at May 12th business meeting with like a a tentative um second read final reading and vote at our May 27th. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Um, I agree because we we do have more of an agenda tonight and I just want to um give this the time that we we need. That makes sense to me. Okay. Agree. Great. So, um, our next business item is a policy review of P5327 timeout spaces. As this is a new, um, policy review, I will make a motion to wave the first reading. Some moved. Seconded. All in favor? I I I thank you. I don't know where I did hands. Okay. Um you

want to give I'll just give a a brief overview. So um we are introducing a brand new policy P5327. Um a policy on use of timeout spaces. Um this is a policy that kind of has been you know spoken about and there's been conversations happening um for the last kind of two years two to three years in particular not just in a district level but on a statewide level um nationally and and and yeah very true Sean um but I think in the last year in particular as well or two years Desi has really kind of stepped up that conversation um and so working closely with our uh director of special education and social emotional learning. We totally need an anagram of some sort for his n his title. Um we have this hasn't happened just overnight. It's really been a long time in the making. Um Sean um you know has obviously been working with CPAC the last couple of years. Um and then this is something as a policy committee we had many discussions and many hours of really working very closely with Gerard um on what this policy a first of all was it needed and b um if if so what would it look like um and so this is just you know obviously the first initial draft for you guys to look at and review but I will say that it is um connected very much so with the CO I'm always getting these ones wrong. 603 CMR46 and 603 CMR um 18 that Desi is currently talking about and actually has a public comment um open period right now. Um and it's closely aligned to um what they're already proposing the changes and amendments on a statewide level. Um, so this is really just kind

of codifying something within our district um and kind of setting expectations for the use of these space spaces in Westford. So feel free to have a read any questions um you can reach out to myself and Larry or Dr. or Juror Coughlin and we can look at having a next discussion um on it at our next meeting. And just to note that it will open for public comment uh tomorrow and it will stay open to for public comment for 12 days uh until May 14th. Did you count election day? Because the policy really says 12 business days. I went back and May 15th. Thank you. Well, the town hall is open. So it's open. Schools are open. Schools are open. Like it's a business day. It's a business day as opposed to a school day is the difference. Yeah. So I know but in the world of in our world of business I don't you could go ahead and air on the side of caution. You're right. Yeah. We'll keep it open until what was that? May May 15th just keep Val happy. Well careful now. I might get into policy next year. Go first. You can have this. I know she wouldn't. Katherine, can I ask a clarifying question? Um, I noticed that um, part of the parental consent requirement that's added in there on the third bullet, it mentioned um, documentation from a licensed medical uh, mental health professional or physician that agrees that the support is required of the student and will not negatively impact the mental health status. Is that something that the state is considering? Because their amendment is Yeah. Like you said, under construction, I don't think they're going to be reviewing it until May 2nd. May it it may not. We took all their proposals and kind of discussed it. But even that point itself, that could be a school

psychologist or an adjustment counselor. Um maybe it's something we can clarify or discuss more Courtney if you want. Courtney to extend on that. They're talking about seclusion and correct. Yeah. Well, we don't have any seclusion. Yeah. This is just timeout space, but we're talking about rolling this into timeout space. So, just Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, and a lot of this is very consistent with what we already have for our policy on restraint policy. Um I guess that is it looks like a new addition. Yep. Which is a heavy lift I think. Well, the idea is that have somebody you know kind of look into the looking glass and say this is not in any way going to negatively impact. Well, the idea that it's saying it is No, I I completely understand the question and I anticipated that this evening. The idea behind it is that it's already being written into a behavior support plan or at an I or in an IEP. It's come up at a team meeting, which we typically will have an adjustment counselor and a or a school psychologist there. Um if you know they're saying as a team that this can go in as a strategy that in itself is would cover it but we can totally look at at reviewing it under the memo from yeah Russell Johnston from March 18th 2025 about the proposed amendments before the desi board. They mention those criteria as emergency circumstances under which a type of seclusion, which we don't practice here at Western Public Schools. I don't even know why he would use that word. I don't even know. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's not prohibited. Right. Right. But but if this is more Jessie, sorry. Yeah, we have to laugh. Um,

but if we're proposing in this into our regular timeout policy, y I would I would agree with coordinator that this is a heavier ask certainly. Yep. For every team meeting and every heading into every school year. [Music] I think right now, you know, our practice is that certainly if this is going to be written into a plan, it goes into a behavior plan. BCBA's write the behavior plan. All behavior plans should be signed by the BCBA and by the parent or guardian or caregiver prior to its implementation. And that's typ and then of course anything that ever gets signed can always be retracted by any party is is it specifically that second half of the sentence will not like that I mean that I mean that's a that's a loaded sort of phrasing for anyone, right? to say like will not negatively impact the mental like how do you know is that I I guess is that that's something that is that what you're saying Courtney that a BCBA would be unqualified to make a statement like that so therefore they may not be comfortable making it that it will not I don't think it would be I don't think it would be in their wheelhouse for a BCBA to make that statement the BCBA is taking a look at the behaviors and and saying that this is an appropriate strategy for the student under these certain circumstances and everybody signs off on it if it's if if agreed upon. This part just kind of takes it the next step. I don't know any one of our staff members who's going to put their put their names. I get you. Yeah. In terms of this is not especially in light, I'm sorry, of the comments that were made during our last meeting about you know taking responsibility for mental health demise after graduation. So I don't um this is just a heavy pill to swallow there. Yeah. Okay.

What's policy subcommittee's um schedule? We are due to meet next week although I think we'll try and squeeze it in before Sean departs. Um and last take public comment later. So I think and the other piece to keep in mind is that during our last review for TFM, all of the timeout rooms were very clearly photographed, videotaped. The principles were interviewed and so we didn't have any findings on that. We are having yet another round coming in very soon. Yep. Midmay. I want to say May 10th, 11th, 12th. So, I mean, it's very soon, quite possibly based on what they're discussing at the state level. Might they have more recommendations for us that we're not aware of? You know, I I don't know. Yep. No. Yeah. And we we discussed that with um the director of special education and social emotional learning. Yeah. Um and I guess that where we came down on this was that um it's worth having a policy in there and then should the state come in and tear everything up and tell us that we're supposed to be doing XY and Z then we can always go back and amend it. Yeah. Um but but maybe that that particular bullet point and I appreciate having our um former special education director with us today to get an extra set of eyes on this. um look at that fourth bullet point and see what what type of imposition we're really putting on the staff and whether or not you know no absolutely that's the whole point. Okay, great. Cool. Okay, thank you. Um next up, uh you should have a memo in your inbox and in the packet. This captures a discussion, couple discussions that happened at the finance subcommittee um to consider uh uh adjusting the early arrival payment schedule and programming

to give elementary families a little bit more um flexibility as the start times change next year. really. Um I know my initial instinct for this was if you have if your you know uh workday routine gives zero flexibility and you have to leave Westford and start your commute at this time every day. You might not have the luxury or privilege to be able to wait and see what the bus timing flushes out to be. And so I wanted to be able to give families a chance to say, you know what, no matter what, I need early drop off. And we're preserving that 7 a.m. start time. Um, but I need I know I need it starting the year, but I'm willing to see how sort of the bus timing shakes out or um to just see how my child adjusts to the start time. And so we're trying to break up that instead of the $500 per year for the whole program, which is what we've done for years and years. Um you could now sign up by basically by the elementary um terms, which is like the report cards. So I put the dates in there and I don't remember them, but it's um you know, basically August to November. You could say at least I know this is my family's morning routine for the next couple months. there is a nominal administrative fee that we discussed adding on top of that. So if you did choose the three payments per year instead of the pay in full um just as typical sort of in other places in our life you end up paying a little bit more than the prepay in full for the year. Um but really we hope that this gives families a little bit of that flexibility if they need it going into next year. Mhm. And we also um discussed um the fact that like keeping that overall fee fixed this year because this

is a change that we have done, right? Yeah. Um but acknowledging that that fee hasn't been really adjusted in in a number of years. So going forward, it may be adjusted to reflect actual staff costs and things like that. But for this year, we we wanted to keep it pretty level. Yep. Any other questions or discussion on that or motions? Motion to approve uh what is it? SY 2526 early arrivement early arrival payment adjustment. Second. Okay. Any final thoughts? All in favor? I I. Great. Thank you. Appreciate that. And last, but certainly not least, a Q3 financial report from Director of Finance Jenny Lynn. Don't welcome us now. Computers. Apologies for the late uh delay tonight. Jenny, we appreciate you staying and walking us through what I'm sure is a very thoughtful presentation report. Uh, thank you for having me. I hope you have the patience to listen to my presentation for another 15 minutes. And uh so uh for fiscal year 25 quarter 3 financial status report uh let me begin by reviewing uh the summary of general funds budget by individual function call. So this first slide and uh you can see there's a unencumbered balance in general funds appropriation for the amount of 505,971. The total projected end ofear usage is 99.25%. So I will highlight a couple notable variance in the following

slides. Let me just start from the first one. 10,00 call administration. Uh Katherine. Okay. In the 10,00 function administration in fiscal year 25, we budgeted uh total amount 224,000 in compensation reserve for the open negotiation. At the end of quarter three, we already fully redistributed this amount to the property function code. Since the reserve is now fully depleted, but we still have uh three amounts to go in fiscal year 25. That means any deficit in individual function call must be covered by the surplus in other areas. For example, if we incur some deficit in the facility area, we might have to use the surplus from the salary budget line to cover the deficit area. Usually, we do not do any like uh uh trans budget transfer between the function code. But as of this point once the reserve is fully exhausted, we have to do the transfer budget transfer between function call. So next one is the function code 2000 instructional. Uh this chart is a summary for combined unit A salary. Uh nurse is part of unit A. Uh but the nurse's salary is not included in the summary. Uh I only covers the regular instructional position such as regular classroom teacher, special education teacher, speech and uh occupational therapist, librarians, and guidance

counselor and psychologist. The total uh end of uh quarter 3's available budget here is 671,000 compared to fiscal year 24's quarter 3. We had $812,000 remaining balance as of last year's quarter three. So we have seen this number decrease $141,000. This is actually a improvement because we have seen uh we have fewer teachers and other staff who have taken a leave of absence. Whether it's a short-term leave or long-term leave for this fiscal year. So fiscal year 24 was marked as a fiscal year. We had a really high incidence of absence request. So administration continues to uh actively monitor the absence request for this fiscal year. Uh so it's encouraging to see that we have fewer substitute needs from the classroom and uh we have more consistent and dedicated classroom instructional and uh regular teacher teaching time. So that's a great thing to see from the data. Uh move to next one. Still under 2000 function code. Uh we will look into the three years historical data for our teachers substitutes. Uh so for teacher substitute this is actual spending because we do not usually encumber for the subbing cost since their unpredictable nature of absence request. So in fiscal year 24 we increase the subbing cost from $90 per day to $100 per day. That's why you see a jump in

fiscal year 24. Uh for fiscal year 25 uh we spend uh lower than fiscal year 24. So the data is telling you the same story. We have fewer staff requests for leave and we have improved staff attendance. So this is really a good thing because we always talk about students absence. At the same time if we can see less staff uh absence that's also an improvement for education quality uh for us. Uh so next one is uh the instructional assistance the available in this function code is 65,000. Uh we currently have 141 full-time FTE for educational support staff in the system. Next slide please. Uh that's 3,000 other school services. I will focus on the function code 3,300 transportation. This is our first year to outsource special education flee. The total projected year end deficit at this point is 105,000. Uh that's mainly due to high higher than expected special education transportation costs. As of quarter three uh we encumber in the full fiscal year 1.7 million for contracted special education transportation cost. However, as of quarter three, we only received four months bill from September to December. Uh so because the D bus really have delayed their invoicing process. So our special education department already follow up with DBUS. So we just received January and

February's bill right before February uh right before April vacation. So uh now the methodology we are using is use the actual uh daily expenditure. So we times the remaining days of the school year. So we come up with this projection of a projected end ofear deficit 105,000. If this projection remains the same, we will have to use other surplus to cover this deficit area. Jenny, can I ask one question on that? Um, it says higher than expected transportation costs. Is that we have more students using the vans or the costs to D for the service has increased more than we had anticipated by outs by outsourcing that role to them. We do have more more moving students. So that's additional students changes in that in student trans. Okay. So it's it's not that the they're they didn't increase their costs from what they told us they were going to be. True. So it's just we have more students than our No. Perfect. Deficit would be similar if we had still had the fleet in house. Yes. Right. And this kind of lines up with something you're going to see a little bit later where there's increase in and other costs. Yeah. Just want to simply check. So next slide for function called 4,000 operation and maintenance. Uh the first one under 4,000 is 4110 custodial services. So I'm providing you the breakdown for regular custodial salary, custodial overtime, uh custodial substitutes, and the snow and ice over time. Comparing the data from this year to last fiscal year. Uh from the

information here, you can see we spend less 20 about $22,000 less for regular custodial salary and custodial overtime. uh we spend more on custodial substitutes. That's mainly due to the improved operation efficiency for facility department and the change for the staffing arrangement. So facility department is trying to better utilize the custodial sub so we can save on custodial overtimes. So from the chart below you can see here we have more remaining available budget for custodial service. So that's really a good thing because we have additional budget remaining to cover other facility area. Uh for snow and ice overtime we spend $12,000 more uh because we got more snow last winter. It does line up with the weather condition is out of our operational control. Uh, next one is for the function code 4120, heating of the building. I already Jenny, can we pause on 4110 for a second? Can I just paraphrase paraphrase what you said to make sure I understood it that the increase this year for substitutes is not a is a good thing because yes, it's really was spending in overtime in years before, but now it's in substitutes. So now we are using substitute to cover those overtime costs. It's like a better Okay. I mean, it's still overall more Yeah. expense on labor, but you're getting twice as many hours. Yes. Thank you. Correct. Okay. So, next one is for the heating of the building. Uh I already briefly mentioned about that in the finance subcommittee meeting also. Valerie uh talked about that in last school

committee meeting. I brought it up here. Uh so I don't know if you remember uh fiscal year uh 25 town signed a new contract with direct energy. So this contract covers the period from March 24 to February 27. So fiscal year 25 is our first full fiscal year under this new contract. Uh because all of our stu school building are heated by natural gas. Uh the town budgeted uh total school uh heating cost for this fiscal year is 462,000. However, as of quarter quarter three, we already spent 452,000 which is already very close to the budgeted amount, but we still have a whole three months to go. And uh so this based on the current increase on the projection we will have uh projected deficit for heating costs by the end of the fiscal year range from 150,000 to $250,000. This is adding additional pressure in our general funds operating. Uh so next step we need to ask facility to increase the incumbrance in the system for this $250,000. Uh hopefully we have more like a warmer weather just like today and uh we have to think about the cost control methodology such as reduce the temperature down and uh so we can save something from the heating cost. Yeah. The good news is for the next slide and uh for our 4130 uh function called utility uh services for our water and uh electricity cost. The town also signed a new contract for electricity. The projected budget

increase was $93,000 more than last fiscal year. uh but we actually spend less than fiscal year 24. So we still have available budget 345,000. So hopefully by the end of the fiscal year we can use the surplus in the electricity to cover the deficit for the heating cost. So we can just balance out uh for the heating and uh utility cost uh for other function code under 4,000 from 4210 to 4230 maintenance of brown building uh security and equipment. The spending level uh remains relatively consistent in uh with last fiscal year. Next one is function code 9,000 special education tuition. This is a area I would like to emphasize and uh comparing this year to last fiscal year since we have seen a significant increase for our special education tuition cost after we factor in the total offset from 2.4 4 million circuit breaker and uh the grand two uh grand 240s $820,000. This chart gives you the general funds financial trend. Uh let me just work you through uh the comparison uh from Colin to Colin from last fiscal year to this fiscal year. We can see in the total budgeted amount increase 796,000 which represents 33% of the increase from the budget. For the yeartoday expenditure you can see an increase for 740,000.

That's a 37% increase. For total incumbrance there's an increase for 997,000. That's a 123,000 uh 123% increase. So resulting available budget from last year's projected deficit $397,000 to this fiscal year's 1,339,000. So that's a total uh $941,000 increase from the deficit. So the key takeaways from this whole chart and uh from this information first and uh we can see the special education tuition cost has risen sharply particularly for the uh private school tuition and the tuition we pay for collaborives for the incumbrance uh this number has nearly doubled. So indicating uh more committed expenditure for the remainder of the fiscal year uh for our projected deficit for that significant increase for this year uh highlighting the potential needs for future year for additional funding for special education. uh based on the current projection uh even we fully utilize all the offset from all the revolving account and even we fully utilize all the offset from school choice for the revolving accounts offset that's totally uh approximately $1.5 million from school choice the offset total is $528,000 we budgeted we might still end it up this fiscal a year with a

projected deficit range from $250,000 to $350,000. However, this is still based on projection and there are so many moving parts and uh for example, if we can save something on the heating cost, we might be able to end up in the fiscal year with a deficit maybe $200,000. So school committee might have to make a decision if we want to use the special education reserve fund to cover that deficit or we use school choice to cover that deficit. So you do you have any question here? Mhm. I mean, I I think I think it's um a conversation I think we should be having with our town partners as well because as one of the things with the budget task force was the education, the the general education with the community about how difficult it is to to make these projections um and you know budget for this. And so, you know, this is not like uh discretionary spending. You know, this is pure like out of our control and it's here to stay like these these numbers aren't changing. And there there is um I know there is something at the state level about the fair share supplemental funding there. There's a proposal to increase some of this. Um obviously that's not a sustainable fix, but it would help you know in this year. Um, but even if we ultimately decided to use our own special education reserve or school choice, I still think like this should be maybe a conversation at our tribe board meeting in June to to just be talking about it with our town partners. Well, and and the town may

also be seeing like the challenges with the heat, right? Yeah. Um because well one of the things Jenny did right away when she saw that is she did reach out to town hall and to the finance director in for the town and said hey are any other departments seeing this? And so they started doing a full review because they're the ones who signed that contract. So they started looking at that and I think I I know you all appreciate Jenny's work. She does phenomenal work. This is something we've been talking about on a weekly basis, right? So, we've already talked about what we think. Depending on what the final number is, we'll then have a recommendation to talk to talk to you about. Um, and another thing to remember is that like this slide specifically these are all students. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. These are these are students. And um one of the reasons we were all we we kept looking at okay well you look at the budget column and the year-to- date expenditure column and you see 33% and 37%. Okay that's starting to make sense to me because we knew all the other things that go into the 123%. So we just kept de diving into it, diving into it, looking at the data, making sure that the incumbrances were matching what we thought it should be and looking at and you know unfortunately Gerard's not um able to join us tonight, but he was prepared to talk about basically the number of students that that actually reflects that have come to join us and or has had a change in placement this spring which has had which is why it changes the encumbrances at at this end of the year piece here. And then to, you know, to Jenny's point, we'll see what it actually as we as we look at quarter 4, we'll see how it actually plays out. It underscores some of the things you said during the budget discussions about that, you know, the impact one student can have on on this. So, and I know we have this target of reaching a million dollars in our special education reserve fund. So it would be, you know, bittersweet to kind of dip into it

before we hit that since we've been working on it for years. But it but it is in fact kind of the reason for it too. So it's it's tough and it also demonstrates how quickly it can go away because a million dollars is wonderful, but if you're looking at a deficit of you know, right? And as a reminder to to actually access those funds, it requires your vote and a vote of the of the select board as well too. So that's the other reason why we'll definitely be having this conversation as to what we think the best course I mean is it an option obviously you know we're not deciding tonight but where you kind of take funds from both places so you're not completely depleting our reserve fund the special education so we we can look into see what the appropriate expenses are and yes we can we'll have we'll we'll again when when we know exactly what that number is then we'll have a recommendation and and I mean I think again we've demonstrated all of this good work with our targets and our NGFG. There are always budget adjustments made at special town meeting in in in town department but line items. You know, I think a conversation should be had about whether this is solved outside of school line items. Yeah. Gotcha. Thanks Jenny. Yeahides. Oh, sorry. Okay. Yeah. So we are we are very closely monitoring the general funds operating budget. We will keep you updated. Uh so after that let's jump into the federal grant and state grant for fun 0255 federal grants. Uh for fiscal year 25 title one funding we will receive $100,000 for this fiscal year. and uh we use title one funding to provide uh the assistance for lowincome students and uh

help them to achieve the the challenging academic standards. Uh recently we received a formal email notification the first time from DESI federal grant specialist regarding fiscal year 26 projection and uh Westford uh is expected to fall below the property threshold 2%. We are currently stand at 1.94%. So if that projection holds, we will lose the funding uh for title one in fiscal year 26. And uh there's a trickling impact for fiscal year 27's title 4 because title 4's elleibility is based on prior years title one funding. Uh typically we receive 10,000 for title 4. This year we use title 4 to provide uh professional development for those and uh universal design for learning and uh multi-ingual advocacy. So that's very unfortunate news. In next two fiscal year we will lose and uh 110,000 federal entitlement fund. Uh that's a basically a direct impact for Trump administration's uh federal funding cut. Uh next one is our state grants fun 0265. We currently have two active state grants supporting education and student uh through funding initiative. These two grants uh provide us funding more than uh 20 more than $18,000. So that allows us to purchase the garden bath supplies and materials for day school and also that provides stipens for food service worker uh involving student foods preparation. Uh next slide is the last

slide. Uh we will cover uh the fun 0285 and 0295 for revolving and other special revenue fund. Uh, as I previously mentioned, uh, we budgeted total offset from revolving account $1.5 million. As of quarter 3, we already spent 964,000. Uh, this spending uh, does line up with our projection. Therefore, as of quarter three, uh, the revolving accounts fund balance has been reduced from one $2.8 8 million to $2.3 million. Uh for regular 4day kindergarten, uh Q3's ending balance is 36,000. And uh we will fully utilize their 4day kindergarten revolving by the end of this fiscal year. as part of their six-year funding strategy to support a free 4-day kindergarten program. Uh, school choice and the Q3 ending balance is $1.1 million and uh we budgeted total offset uh for fiscal year 258,000. We already done the interf transfer for $249,000. We will probably utilize all the remaining school choice offset for the remaining of the school year uh for special education reserve. The stabilization currently has an ending balance $740,000. So this just wrap up my presentation and uh do you have any other questions? Anyone? So, I would start by saying thank you. Um, but also just make it very clear to the public that it, if I'm understanding you correctly, when we enter our next

budget cycle, when we're talking about budgets, we're already starting $110,000 behind the eightball. Yes. So, all those you out there, this that's going to be something we need to to find a replacement for those funds. Yeah. So, thank you very much, Jenny. Appreciate it. All right, that is the end of our agenda tonight. I will take a motion to adjurnn from Sean Kelly, please. Oh, motion to adjurnn. Thank you. And a second. Second. I'll take Lori. Okay. All in favor? I. Good night, everybody.