School Committee - Regular Meeting

call to order this meeting of the Westward School Committee for Monday, May 12th. This meeting is being recorded. The first item of business is to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. standing. First uh second order of business is our consent agenda. Um so we have meeting minutes from April 28th as well as a propo proposed FY26 school committee meeting schedule. Has everyone had a chance to look at that? Any questions or feedback? Good. Looks fine to me. All good. Okay. I'm looking for a motion on the consent agenda. So moved. Second, Katherine Bill. Okay. Any last questions? All those in favor of the consent agenda, raise your hand. Any opposed? Good. Okay. Seven. Next up is our 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 to for individuals to share their thoughts. Speakers will be 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. Raise your hand and you'll be promoted to panelist and unmuted or in person at the microphone in Millennium in the room. So we'll take a minute to see if there's nobody online. Nobody online. Okay. Really? Sure. Just start by introducing yourself. Can I sit here? Please. Emily Taylor, 9 Texas Road. That's what I say at town meeting. Um, I just am here for two reasons. To uh welcome the two new candidates who are now elected to school

board. And even though I was here when each of you got on and some of your campaigns I worked on, um, I just want to say it's a great organization and I'm glad it's a happy new year for you guys now going forward. And secondly, I was at the play the final performance of six at Westford Academy and it was just fabulous. um amazing. The whole new situation where they did theater in the round and had people on the stage was just terrific. And the ushers were terrific, too. Um and I just I'm I'm always one to stand up and speak for this, but the arts is so important in our kids' lives, increasingly important. And the caliber of those musicians probably had something to do with how early they started in the elementary schools. And um there's a quote that I don't know who said it, but it was told to me once at a concert in Harvard. Math and science are how we live and art and music are why we live. And you know, there's mixed feelings about that, but please, please continue to fund the arts. They're so important in Westford Academy. So, thanks. I'm sure you don't want to repeat your your commentary as one of the Queen's books. We have one of them. This was kudos about the performance. Thanks, Emily. Any other public comment? Nobody on Zoom still? Uh, nope. Okay. Okay, great. We'll move on toformational updates and start with our students. Okay. So, I have a lot to update on because I wasn't here two weeks ago. So, um, let me kind of tie off, I guess, April break, which is crazy to still say, but we had Spanish exchange, French exchange, Costa Rica trip. Um, and it all went wonderfully, um, from all like three trips. I didn't hear anything bad. I know I was on the Costa Rica trip and I had the time of my life. Um, it was truly wonderful. The teachers coordinating it did an excellent job.

Um, and to reiterate what Miss Towers said, I also saw Six a week ago and it was amazing. Natalie, you were amazing. Um, it was such a cool show and I I hadn't heard the story and the way the stage was set up. I know you guys had some setbacks with that. Um, but it was it was fixed beautifully and it still was a wonderful production. Um, WA is also in the thick of AP exams. We're starting week two. Um, so students are in and out of the building, seniors and juniors typically or mostly. Um, and so far so good. There hasn't been a huge problems. Um, a lot of kids studying though and it's a lot of work. Um that's probably, you know, my absence last week, a couple couple weeks ago in Daniels. We are very wrapped up in APS. Um we also had no school last week for elections on Tuesday, so that was cool. Um we had advisory number nine last Wednesday or the other other students did. I was on Capstone. Um we also had the art show on the 8th. Um and it was really amazing to see everyone's artwork up in the hallways. It was so cool. Um we really do have some talented students here here in Westford. Uh, Junior Catillian was Saturday and that was also great. Uh, the weather turned like on the dime and it was perfect. I mean, my brother is a junior and it was raining up until he stepped outside to take pictures and the sun came out. It was so perfect. Um, looking at this week on Thursday the NHS senior recognition ceremonies this week at six o'clock in the PAC. Like I said, on Thursday, um, we have on Saturday the senior prom. Photos start at 3:45 in the common. their warning. Traffic will be awful as the Apple Boston parade is also that morning. So stay away from that area town. Um let's see. We have Bus Betty's Best Buddies Prom on the 21st. That is in the cafe at 6. Very excited for that. And then also just looking more ahead on May 20th, we have Junior Job Shadow Day. So that's really kind of getting the ball rolling for the college process and kind of the the next steps for the the upcoming senior class. So that's really

exciting. Um, next week we have grade 10 MCCAST Tuesday and Wednesday. Not so exciting but necessary to graduate. Um, and then again capstone ends, I can't believe it. Next week, next Friday. Um, that is crazy to say. I feel like I just started but very exciting. And then the end of May, last day May the 31st, we have the Relay for Life on the turf. Uh, that event which will be awesome as well. So I think that's it. A lot. Thank you. Yeah, thanks Maddie. That's good. Uh, we'll switch to administration updates. always difficult to follow, right? Enthusiasm. Um but uh last Tuesday we hosted our last professional development for the year. The format of the day's events followed um the spirit of UDL um in which we had ed camps available for all of our uh teachers prek through 12. Um there were offerings that were relevant to individual roles, a variety of different learning experiences as well as really leaned on some of our own staff members to go ahead and lead some sessions. So it was a great um day um for the staff. We received excellent feedback and we are very thankful for those who stepped up and um offered a session and especially to the elementary and secondary curriculum coordinators who brought the day together. So it was a great event. Um on Thursday of this week from 10 to 1, Westford Academy will host the third annual um WA Friends Invitational. And this is where students uh athletes with and without disabilities will come together from Actton Boxboro Regional High School, Burlington High School, Conquered Carile, Gardener, and Tukesberry. They will join our Westford Academy students and hopefully we will have decent weather because it's been a wonderful event in the past, and we're looking

forward to another one. Last uh Thursday, um Bob Wear, Melissa Boland, and Kelly Deiet joined me in a job fair out in Ashurnham where several different um Department of Ed was uh represented as well as maybe 30 different districts that were there. And so it was it was a nice event. We haven't been to a job fair in years, but we were able to collect some resumes, get that out to the principles today of some po possible candidates. Um, and I know of at least one um interview that has been set up since that meeting. So, with a little bit of luck, we're continuing to fill the positions that will be available in 25 and 26. Great. Um we are in the process uh of the establishing the search advisory committee for um the Blanchard principal position. Um as uh you see saw in the announcement uh Mr. Hislip has um taken a job closer to home and so we've opened up that position. We'll be doing a search process. We have um I think as of this afternoon it was 22 applicants. Um, we sent a we sent a feedback form to families at Blanchard and to the staff at Blanchard that we'll keep open until Wednesday uh as we're looking for information for their thoughts about the next candidate as well as if they were interested in participating on the um the search. I also shared with all of you that one of your members has expressed interest. We would like to have one member of the school committee to um be on that um on that advisory committee with us. Uh we are anticipating having um Courtney, myself, a school committee member, um a curriculum coordinator, two staff members, two parents. Uh and so that's all designed to have the first round of interviews the week before Memorial Day. And so um I would maybe just ask if

either maybe if they just reach out to you if somebody is interested on the committee and Yep. you can let me know. Sure. Okay. Um so, additionally, we have um you've all heard this, but I'll share it for everybody, too. Um the great news for the Ghost Writer is always winning awards, right? So, um Ghost Writer went to the the Spring Conference, the New England Scholastic Press Association spring conference in which they received third place in all New England for their online publication. Uh we already knew that Deepa Gaum and and Alisa Khaliva were were honored for their work of Deepa's the Massachusetts journalist of the year. Um so I think they they had a and they they celebrated her there. The two of them were um named to New England journal the all New England journalism staff and they also had the opportunity to host some workshops themselves. I think that was really might have even been the highlight um for them that their fact that they were actually leading workshops for their peers in that. And then they wanted us to share that the two advisers shared a couple of other folks that um were honored. So sophomore Aria Barachara and juniors Grace Sue, Katie Fondon, Kate Kelly, and Shrievis Arun. They also um received special achievement recognition for their work. and and we really want to make sure that we congratulate and thank Miss Fondon and Mr. Hullbrook for their leadership in that. I mean, they they really are just constantly winning awards. It's quite impressive. Uh and then the last thing I just wanted to say is that we are looking to organize a spring tour for the school committee. So, I'm going to share some dates with you this week. We'll kind of figure out what might work. The focus is going to be on sustainability. We want to try to do this in nice weather. So, I'm going to try to look and see what the farmers almanac might say if there's any, you know, give us a couple of weeks out to try to find a nice day when we could do it. But, okay. Well, I'll share that with you and then we can get that

scheduled. Great. Thank you. School committee updates. Anyone like to build? Yeah. So, uh, town DEI committee met on April 30. Um, we are still exploring and recruiting for a second student seat uh on the committee. Uh, we have passed word on to the Nohoba Valley Tech uh high school for a Westford student uh to join possibly for the uh fall of 26. We know we're kind of wrapping up here for the school year. So, um that would be voted on here and at the select board. So, uh, much like we did before for Kate Kelly, um, we had discussion about the Robinson feasibility study and the long-term implications of that study. I think, uh, there were a lot of questions that the committee had and I think it's, you know, the order for us, uh, to to really articulate what are those phases and the communication, what that sort of timeline is and be able to spread that out through other committees in town. uh you know the the last uh larger question they had very very broad question uh you know what does equity mean across the district and how do we enrich it? So we're going to listen obviously to uh some of the uh first six school improvement plans of our elementary uh principles and how they're going to target equity objectives uh through the uh AIR recommendations and some of the schoolbased teams. So I think you know we as a committee can can work to further that work and the communication and outreach. So great. Yep. Thank you. Anyone else have something to add? I'll just give an update um now that Sean is not their official CPAC leaison. CPAC met this week um out of which they'll be coming to the rest of us uh I think the next meeting or the one June um to review their survey results and create their slides and recommendations.

Um but uh just to let people know that they are planning a um night to keep an eye out on the uh Facebook page, but they're planning a kind of a CPAC night out uh June 11th I believe. um location to BD. Okay, great. Um I was going to add I don't think Maddie mentioned this, but the financial literacy fair. Oh, right. Oh my god. Somebody's going to have my head happening. Um so I think this originally started with the student senate. Yes. And they have partnered with the Rotary Club. Um there is a youth financial literacy fair scheduled for Monday, June 2nd. I think it's part of senior week, right? Um, and they're looking for volunteers. Uh, so you can sign up to help either the 9 to 11:00 a.m. shift or the 11:45 to 1:45 p.m. shift. That's Monday, June 2nd. Uh, I think you can reach out to to sign up as a volunteer, please send an email to one of the following addresses. Westford Rotary Club@gmail.com or gullshank guanaol.com or 26g h i n kle at westfordk12 us or me and I'll forward that information that information along. Um I think I had another thought but it's gone. Oh, I went to Parkerville for the first time with my third grade. um my third grader and that was great. I had never, you know, you can sometimes they open up to the parents to like stop by during lunch depending on the teacher and depending on the class and depending on the weather. Um but this was the first time I had gotten to um chaperon. Of course, I volunteered to chaperone before I realized that you have to dress up a chaperone. You did a good job. So, but it was great. like the school marms I think is the term they use um like

runs through the history lessons and like the kids really enjoy trying with like the ink pot to like write the letter home and it's just a really cool immersive um experience. So I was glad I got that chance. Um and I will echo the uh applause for six if everyone had a chance to see it hopefully um at WA. It was just mind-blowing beyond words. I continue to sit there reminding myself this is live music. These are high school students. I mean it just continues to um impress. And I also was lucky enough to see the Blanchard music um middle school did uh the lion, the wish in the wardrobe. Thank you. And that was also what very well done. And I I like to see the middle school one so that you can hopefully see familiar names start showing up at WA in a couple years. Um that's it. any any last call for updates? I would just second the the live music. Um, you know, I know that that is not something that all the high schools in the state have. Uh, and it is a phenomenal program. Um, to to have that ability, not only performing with live music, but having the live musicians, right? Yep. And sorry, one one last one would just be to echo what was said in public comment, which is thank you. Uh, welcome to Shaina and Jess as your first meeting. Um, and we hope that you enjoy your term and don't have any regrets. Yeah. Here. So, next we have a little bit on the agenda for recognitions. We were hoping Daniel could join us tonight, but we understand this is busy time for spring uh in the in the spring for seniors. Um, I had a couple remarks. You go first. Okay. Um, and I wrote them down because I'm really bad at this. start. Um, I just wanted to point out like that not every teenager signs up to spend their evenings listening to budget discussions and

policy debates. Um, and I think both you and Daniel have continued to show up this year with respect and consistency even while managing the demands of senior year. And I hope that these meetings have given you a little insight into how school decisions are made um, and maybe sparked interest in civic life beyond high school. Um, and I just think overall I love having the student representatives to remind us about the engaged, thoughtful citizenship that we hope to foster in all of our students. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I I would just like to add that I've had the the joy and privilege of knowing both of you for a long time. And so it's been very surreal to have you as the senior representatives here now because our journey started so much long ago when you were in middle school. And um you have done an incredible job. We appreciate your advocacy. You've you've never shied away. Neither one of you have ever shied away from um from speaking up and and adding context, which I think is is really what this work is about. And so it's been wellreceived and we appreciate it and we respect it. And I would agree with um what Valerie just said. I hope that it it is a springboard for your continued advocacy in whatever form that that takes. And we wish you all of the best um as you move on. Yeah. Thank you. It's been it's been fascinating. It's been a great opportunity and I I feel like I've learned so much and I'm I'm you know excited to graduate but sad to leave. I'm excited for you know whoever else sits next here to get this opportunity. So thank you. Well, we have something for you. It might help you be less [Laughter] so that you can have some downtime and fun board game if no one's familiar. It's a lot of fun in my house anyway. Wait, can you expect pictures from your

dorm room of you playing at home? If it doesn't make it to school, that's okay, too. Oh, I love it. Thank you guys. This is This is really cool. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, everybody ready for some business? I just wanted to echo that six was amazing and I want to congratulate the cast and the crew, the director, everyone who was involved, all the musicians. Um, and I did see it in Boston a couple years ago and I it definitely rivaled that performance. It probably was my favorite. So, congratulations again. Um, and also to the Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe cast, crew and and director. They do an amazing job, not only performing, but also creating a wonderful community that's very supportive for the students. And the VPA show is incredible. The VPA art show, there was over 1,400 pieces of art from all of the schools. It was incredible and amazing. So, congratulations to everyone. Great additions. Thank you, Lori. Final call. Okay, we're going to move on to elementary school improvement plans. Why don't we start with the K to2 um and we'll bring up uh one of them and we will we will welcome our K to2 um principles to the microphone. Happy enough in the last two weeks.

Um well, thank you all for the opportunity this evening uh for us to be able to review the progress that we've made uh towards our um our school improvement plans this year uh as well as the the goals and objectives that we have moving forward uh for next year. I think you know throughout the year uh we always do take the opportunity to review the progress that's being uh made but sometimes when you sit back uh and collaboratively uh look at all that has been accomplished and then all that we need to continue doing uh moving forward uh it just can be reassuring uh for the work that you've uh been doing. I'd like to just uh welcome our newest members of the school committee. Um well, I'd also like to recommend that West Fernop become a retirement present. All exiting employees. Just a nice piece. Um I got to start off first tonight uh with uh taking a look at uh the prek to two uh goal one uh part of our school improvement plan. uh and like the superintendent, we uh decided to make sure that we organized it in the similar manner uh to make sure that there was consistency not only across uh what what he has done for work and reporting out on but make it easier for all of of you as well. I think we found the exercise to to be helpful uh and easier to be able to delineate um how things were uh set up from the beginning of the year and and moving onward. Uh I chose to to ch uh to talk a little bit about the progress that was made uh with the implementation of the new IEP. I think it is was a huge uh undertaking for our our staff to be able to implement a really a brand new format of a brand new document and try to be able to

understand what that looks like. Um, when we talk about individual education plans, we really talk about the being individualized for the person sitting in front of you. Um, and so to take that same thought process and then try to individualize a brand new document with parts that we r weren't really always sure of and what it meant and having to talk with one another uh made it made it daunting. Um, but I always say that through uh a brand new roll out of anything, there's a lot that you can that you can learn and reflect on. And I'm I'm really proud of our entire uh special education staff uh for the work that they've done in in looking through that. And then adding to the fact that it was a brand new IEP, we added brand new software, too. And as you all know, technology doesn't always work as it's intended um uh to do. uh like to take the opportunity to just to thank uh Gerard Coughlin uh for just helping to arrange additional support sessions for our staff through professional development. Um but there's still a lot of work to do and and that is uh certainly been highlighted for for next year. uh rather than me talk about uh what's planned for next year next year on the IEP, I figured I would touch upon just a a separate initiative if that's okay with with all of you. Um one of the things that we've been looking at for a while now is the MTSS model. uh especially through the lens of the implementation of the EL curriculum and just really making sure also uh that we're removing any barriers to any new curriculum that we have um in place uh especially also making sure that we're not uh we're not being redundant with the work that's being done uh both in a you know a program like Eel versus

content that we also have to touch upon. U EL is a pretty content heavybased uh program which is which is great makes it more authentic. So really kind of delving in deep to look at each individual part uh within E. Um and while we've done a lot of great work and we've had some building based professional development um meetings on you know on these types of uh things for next year uh we're looking to build upon the UDL model that's uh universal design learning. Uh this year we spent time uh talking about engagement and what that really looks like. Uh I've said for a while and it's it's probably like a broken record but uh uh excuse me engagement's not compliancy or compliant work which we oftentimes see from our students are so eager to perform uh but really it is truly engaged in the curriculum and instruction uh that takes place uh before them. Uh and so I really feel like we we grew a lot as a administrative staff looking at the engagement uh part of UDL. Um, again, peeling back that onion, uh, coming together, developing a survey, um, as a way for us to calibrate our own understanding as an administrative team of what engagement would look like. and then afterwards bringing that to our staff to really have them take a closer look at engagement and almost reflect on their own practices uh to be able to determine where it is that we might be able to do a better job uh moving forward into next year. Uh what will be new is that we're going to really start to explore a little bit more the representation uh and the action expression portions of the UDL uh framework. So, um I imagine that it's going to look somewhat similar to what we've done with engagement. We'll talk a little bit more at admin, uh and the

summer retreat and then probably start to slowly roll out aspects of um of those portions to our staff so they have a greater understanding and we can really uh look at what equity means in the work that we do each and every day. Um, and then because I feel like I'm rambling at this point, um, you know, a few things that we, uh, have also done are just to implement the new IST form. It's really more of a revamping of the the IST form. That's the instructional support team form, uh, where teachers before bringing a student who they might have some questions or concerns about would fill that out. um be able to give the entire team a little bit more information and context as to where the struggles lie. And then also uh how we might be able to provide some additional input on interventions that we want to put into place for tier one uh and tier 2. And then of course we always want to take a look at what our tiered response for intervention looks like every year regardless. Um this year we are losing uh some reading intervention staff. Uh so we want to make sure that we look at that one more time to make sure that we're we are truly doing the best to meet the needs of all of our uh students. Um you know with with the tier one, tier 2, and three interventions that we're lucky enough to to still have in place. Um that's all I ask. Do you guys want questions as we go or at the end? Um, it probably makes sense to do Yeah. Okay. At the end. Sure. I was going to say my goal, but those two I'm outnumbered. So, go ahead. All right. So, I'm going to talk to you tonight about goal number two, which is to improve curriculum implementation and assessment systems so that every child continues to access highquality instruction. And one of the initiatives that has been

a key focus this year was through curriculum analysis identify math standards that need to be supplemented beyond the provided curriculum. So we've made some really great gains and progress this year. There's they've developed a looking at student work protocol an structured conversations around student work and inform instructional decisions. There was a Westford University course that was offered and this goal of this was to deepen teacher understanding of place value concepts all the way from early counting to fractions and decimals. There was also collaboration done with teachers, administrators, and staff to design a clearer, more detailed rubric for the standards of math practice. And if you're not sure what those are, and I had to refresh my my teacher brain on that, that those are the guide to creating a more complex learning experience for our students that so they can apply it to everyday life, right? It's not just about what happens in the classroom. And some of those are I'm not going to read them all because there are eight, but making sense of problems and persevering and solving them, modeling with math, using appropriate tools strategically, some of those higher level thinking skills. So, and then we also the rubric we talked about designing clearer more detailed rubric for the standards of math practice and then that rubric will improve the standardsbased report card for next year. We also had professional learning related to math practice standards that occurred this year. Moving forward next year, our action plan is to start really using that looking at student work protocol and that will happen at our curriculum meetings. We'll examine student work. We'll collaborate and we'll make sure that they we're calibrated with our expectations across classrooms. Another part of this is to identify and provide professional learning opportunities in math to support instructional growth. And then we hope to continue offering University

of Westford courses to strengthen mathematical knowledge and instructional strategies. Great. All right. And I have goal three. I'm I'm Melissa Boland, principal Miller. I figured I should um so goal three is to maintain a healthy and supportive school environment that meets the social emotional and health and wellness needs of our youngest learners through the direct teaching of social emotional and physical wellbeing. So I'm going to give kind of two quick updates because they're we're kind of merging them out and then um I'll talk about kind of an action plan for a different one. you know, we had in here um identify and analyze what can be removed from the calendars and schedules at the school level while maintaining high expectations and standards and and for us um that both looks at student and staff. And I think we've really started to embed that in our decision-m process um in whatever we do. So, for example, if we're coming up on a staff meeting or curriculum meeting and we're like, "Oh, is there, you know, anything urgent or on our, you know, that we have to or could this be an email?" we're sending the email and we're giving team time to really kind of look at UDL or or work together as we're navigating the EL curriculum. Um, and I I just think, you know, as far as an action plan, there's not a lot of specifics that I can predict for this coming year of how I can how we can alleviate things from e our staff and students, but we just want you to know that, you know, we we know that they have a lot on their plate. Um, you know, one of the nice things at PreK to 2 moving forward this year is there's not a new curriculum, which seems to happen every year. So, we can dig a little bit deeper, give some more time and coaching um for those pieces. So, while there's not a real action plan moving forward, um we just want you to know that it's really embedded in our decision-m as we look at different aspects. And then the other piece um that fell under this was to grow our school-based equity team. and we've made some progress with that, but we really wanted to merge it with our um equity audit initiative because we really feel like that comes into play. So, you'll see that those two um for the action plan. So, I wanted to highlight that.

And then I think in regards to talking about where we're going, uh I think there's probably questions around more that health and wellness piece. So, I figured that might be a good one um to highlight. So, as we look at the new health and wellness standards and what we know about um students, especially our youngest learners, we um we analyze the schedule. And I say we um but that's all of us prek to five. Um really looking at how we could kind of embed more of that time. So, as we move forward um to next year, we are planning on having two um PEwellness classes a week for our youngest learners. Um what that looks like is our rotation. So if you're familiar with the elementary schedule, um one of our specials um weekly is our trimester rotation. Um so one of those is health, one of those is spirit at the prek to 2 level and one is innovation lab. Um so we plan on for health, it's already taken care of because that's going to be embedded in um spirit. We're really focusing on how we're going to in introduce that to our kindergarten students because they're the ones that is really new for um and then use a lot of our community meeting times to really um reinforce those core values um that have we've as if we look at the progression of school improvement plans you know it went from you know classrooms to whole schools to afterchool programs. So we've really focused a lot on being able to extend our spirit um for that. So now, you know, we're working to how we bring it into to our new students, but we can really reinforce that during community meetings and other times that we have whole work, group work. And then um the library, you know, there there isn't um like standards for the for the library. So our librarians are really going to work on bringing pieces of innovation lab um to library time along with pieces of spirit and the books that we read. So, we won't lose either of those

pieces. Um, but we will be able to better um address the new frameworks um for PE PE and health. Um, so that's where we're at with goal three. So, now we'll take questions. Great. Great. Thank you. Anyway, is the increase in uh wellness classes, is that being driven by the new standards? Yeah. So, um, and Brian could probably speak better to this, but there's been, um, the new well health and wellness standards are much more in in depth. And so, a trimester rotation of once a week, um, really wouldn't allow us to cover um, those standards effectively. Um, and so adding, you know, there'll be movement pieces and we're still kind of working out the design, but um, you know, it's not going to be one health class and one PE class. It's going to be kind of a combination. And within the new um updated frameworks or health standards um it also looks at it's not just physical health, it's you know emotional health. And so there'll be you know pieces of that embedded as well um in in those lessons. So um in order to be able to kind of teach those um you know look at a trimester rotation just isn't long enough to cover what we need to cover. And also it will provide them with it throughout the entire year, right? Like we're not just addressing this for a trimester. This is part of our year-long work together. And when you say the trimester, you're talking about the health class specifically, right? That was what was rotating. Yeah. Yeah. That was one trimester. We operate on a trimester. So we do three report cards that way. Great. Thanks, Lori. Out of uh clarity, uh what is University of Westford? Uh it's the first time I've seen that term, so So we offer um professional development here at school. It's taught by um you

know experts within our our district. So for example, you know, Julie Kelly, one of our curriculum coordinators, could offer a course um for for PDPS um that's housed here in Westford, taught by Westford. Um and it really it's it's nice compared to some of you know the PDS that you go to because it's relatable and it directly um is based on what we do. So we offer a variety in a variety of kind of topics throughout the year. They change um I attended a really great staff member or administrator can offer a a course and then they would bring it to us with the syllabus and what the expectations are. Um there's a clear guidelines around whether it would mean one credit, two credit, three credit and any of those credits would allow our staff members to move along the the scale. Okay. Um, so which the ones that were provided this year we're very happy with and really feel like we get a kind of a better bang for your buck in terms of like Melissa said um something that's really uh tied into the curriculum and what we're trying to roll out as well as we have two teachers um from the day school who annually will offer the mentor mentee program. And so this year we had an additional five or six uh staff members that signed up for that and that's pretty important for our our program. It's nice too is it empowers teacher leadership, right? It's a nice way. I had a quick clarifying question um on the trial wavefinder program. Oh yeah. Could you explain that? Sure. Um so Miller school and and day school. So we've been using Panorama for a a long time. Um, however, at the early ages, we're looking for more um, you know, panorama, the what it offers as far as lessons and pieces. We wanted to see what else was out there. And so, Gerard

did some research. Um, and so Miller and Day School have been triing Wayfinder. Um, it is fantastic in that, well, it's fantastic for a few reasons, but one is, um, it gives you lessons sorted by grade level, tier one, tier two, tier three, right? So, it's not the same lesson that kids are getting year after year, right? We can really fine-tune it. Um, they're not only is it sorted that way, it's very low planning. Um, so there's activities that you can just take and use in your morning meeting, five minutes, no, you know, really nothing extra. And then there's real lessons that a teacher could be like, "Oh, my class has been really struggling with whatever." Look it up. They have a editable slide deck. You can pull that up. The teacher can choose to kind of personalize it to their own. and it's all set and you can use it. So, our teachers have found it very user friendly. Our counselors are are loving it because um they're using some of the tier 2 and tier three resources in their groups. Um and it also has a great um anti-bullying kind of program. Um, and you'll see even though I didn't highlight that, you know, um, initiative here, we are really working to kind of, um, calibrate our our social emotional supports across the pre-K to 5 schools. Um, and, you know, it shouldn't matter kind of what school you're in. We want to make sure that, you know, we're working on those Castle 5 core competencies and making sure that we're touching upon those and and really building on that. So, um, so Wayfinder is a trial. Um we we still have a little bit left to go. Um we have a meeting with Gerard in in a little while. Not tonight, but in several days. Um and then there's that like the survey. We haven't piloted the survey part yet. Just the lessons. And do you see a next step of if that goes continues to go well? I mean, if I had my way, we would we'd all we would start. I'm on board.

It's a Yeah, it's a it's a question as to which which of these two things do we prefer. Okay. There's also screening tool that you can use to gather information about that teachers would I believe fill out and we would get information to see do they need more support and that's how they would qualify for tier 2 or tier three. Okay. And then there's a home component as well that families be aware and it's just that common language right across K to five and I actually believe it goes to eight. Um, so something else to look into. Thank you for another time. You uh touched on another uh point there. Um I see in a couple plans about the school-based equity committee and I know that there were some family surveys Yeah. that were sent out. Any good info from those or Yep. So, um I'll talk about mine, then you can talk about yours. Um so Chris Ardell and I um we wanted to kind of see sister schools wise. Um, and for us it was really um, as you know, we have a high um, ELLL population, a high Asian population um, within our our building. So, we really wanted to make sure our sense of belonging. And I think um, it might have come up previously, but for us, we we don't want to necessarily take away, you know, like celebrations or things, but we want to make sure that everyone feels welcome and we're honoring what is important to honor. And so, that was really the focus of our of our survey. And the great part is is that you know um 99% of the people were happy and felt that you know we were inclusive and things were going you know well and even if they celebrated different things or or um you know they felt that it was even if they let me change that if they oh sorry if No, I thought you were talking to me whispering an answer. um let's say like they didn't celebrate Halloween, right? But we have a big PTO Halloween festival. We wanted to make sure that we weren't that wasn't offensive to them or they didn't feel

like they couldn't and they didn't. And that was what was important to us. We just want to make sure that all of our families um you know feel welcome in that before we start taking more away from the kids that um that we wanted to make sure we had the data point that it wasn't impacting anyone negatively. and we can share that out um eventually. It's not ready to be shared out yet, but I just think it's any anytime we can hear, you know, like the that the families are responding directly to your feedback that Yeah. Great. just data points we I love to see. Yes. We also in Sorry, I could talk all day about this, so I won't. Um, we also included things like um family like cultural traditions and things that they like to do and after school activities that just gave us some information on what their days um look like and and things like that. So once it's ready to share out, I'm happy to share it out with everybody. I haven't crunched, you know, in a pretty way. There's no it's not like CPAC with all their charts and graphs. Melissa, actually I'm just curious. Did that um survey also look because I know you have like a medically fragile um population as well. So did the kind of the questions encompass that group as well? Absolutely. Yes, it was it was from um a variety of of perspectives. So awesome. I do have just two points or two questions. Um on that goal three actually Melissa you were talking about you know ident we're talking about identifying identify and analyzing what can be removed from calendars and you're saying like it's been embedded into your decision making. Um, has there been any engagement with staff in terms of ser surveys or conversations about, you know, anything tangible that can be removed as opposed, you know, because I think when we came into this, we already had overloaded and o overstressed and overworked staff. So, I really appreciate the mindset change moving

forward, but has there been any kind of feedback from staff on, you know what, Melissa, we'd love if you took a look a look at this or, you know, yeah, I think there's open communication, I would say. Um, you know, and obviously if I I I try to think through this lens all the time and if I put something out there and then, you know, they're like, I hear about it. Um, but in a very nice way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think it's a kind of a balance. Um, you know, I I think I it's hard to say, oh, this can be taken off your plate and this can be taken off your plate. It's more of what other things we can do to support. Um, you know, I think again for kindergarten screenings that was huge, not having school for our incoming kindergarteners. It it takes away sub plans. It takes away scheduling, you know, location, trying to find spaces for these teachers to work in. That is just an easy one that I can come up with on the top of off the top of my head. You know, I think even as we're navigating new curriculum, providing them time to work in grade level groups to talk and troubleshoot that they have reported to be helpful. Um, and in my air equity audit meeting, I clearly heard that we don't have enough time for that. So, uh, you know, so like looking at those mindset pieces I think is is really important. Um, you know, and I it's hard to come up with like those tangible pieces and we know our teachers are hardworking and they wear a lot of hats. Um, so just trying to find the support and time has been kind of a priority. Awesome. Okay. I just had one other thing to note as opposed to a question and it's something that's been on my mind and I think I've said it to a number of um various meetings and it's kind of to through K to 5. I see this year you're looking at um kind of revising and potentially revamping the report cards and um one of the things I've always thought is that it would be great if we could look at is there a way we can include like a small paragraph a couple of sentences about

each student we talk about you know being a holistic you know whole child kind of district and I feel when we get the report cards everything's reduced reduced down to a number. There's nothing personable about your kid shown in that report card. Um, and it's usually very like academic or skill-based. So, it's just something that I would kind of throw out there that maybe you might keep in mind is how can we put more of who the child actually is and how they're doing in that report card um so that they're not just a number. Sure. Appreciate that feedback very much. I had a Yeah, I had a quick question and I just wanted to say thank you for all your work on this. It's clearly a lot of very thoughtful effective initiatives that you all are are working on um for the math curriculum. I was just curious the impetus for looking for the need for additional supports whether that was staff driven or that's a regular part of your process or there were student gaps that you were trying to solve. Sure. So Dr. Kelly does a lot of that work with our staff and she actually pulls together task force and then they do it it's volunteer work based on that. Um, there are definitely areas and pockets. Everyday math has been here a while now since before me and I couldn't tell you how many years, but we are definitely we've included a lot of the Kathy Richardson math at the lower levels and that's a nice tier 2 support that we can give to our students. But just thinking about that and getting manipulatives in their hands and those sorts of things are always on the forefront and Julie heads that for us, Dr. Kelly, so we're very fortunate to have her. probably give like a tangible example too. Um, so for example, in the geometry unit of kindergarten, right, it's identifying shapes. Our students are really good at that. But when we looked at the data for students like being able to identify shapes like in different perspectives, orientation um that it was it was a struggle even after teaching, you know, the curriculum. So we look at the those that

data and we're like all right this is something across schools and grade level that the students didn't do as great on. So it wasn't just like a Miller thing like we didn't teach it well or something. It was you know it's noticeable. So then as a a team Nina Kevin myself Julie whoever um kind of look and the teachers look at how we can supplement that. One an easy solution to that was magnetiles. So now we're building things with magnetiles and they're able to kind of look at the shapes in different ways, but we're adding some pieces to it to make sure that everyone is learning what they're supposed to be learning. Does that make sense? Great. More questions. Could I ask um just to follow up on that like additional slide at the end that you guys have to speak a little bit more towards the collaborative problem solving how that's been going and what you are kind of envisioning for building and understanding um is that with families is that more staff based that's a great question um as you may recall uh the administrative team uh along with a number of other volunteers from each of the buildings went through uh that first uh tier of training. Uh and then from there there was a smaller team that went through a much more comprehensive two full days um of training of of how to implement collaborative problem solving. Uh from there uh some of us met with just building based team members to talk a little bit more about our own understanding of it. Two days uh is a long time to to sit through and and try to process everything. So, making sure we were all on the same page or a similar page um with that. And then what we've done this year, and correct me if I'm um speaking just for one of our schools, but I do believe it's it's more than one, um is we've all been sort of implementing it individually um as we've

been a part of that team and trained with the goal that next year we will roll it out to our our staff. And so that's actually one of our homework assignments over the summer as a leadership team is to come together and talk about how we roll that professional development out and then to make sure that our approach with solving problems uh with kids is um you know in fact uh collaborative. So and at our ed camps um we did have a a follow-up kind of group for those that did the the um level one training. Um, so we were able to kind of really list kind of some action items um and some barriers um that might come into play to to roll that out. I think um like Kevin had said, rolling it out um to our schools in a way that you know this is a trademarked piece so we're not trainers, right? But really embedding those philosophies um and understanding the why. Um we talked a little bit about sometimes, you know, let me take a step back. We talked about being proactive, right? So, if you have a student that is having a couple office referrals, we want to do a proactive plan B, um, which is really the collaborative piece and not having it be in reaction. Um, so we talked about like how can we set aside time? What does that look like? How can we support each other in that? Um, but really being able for staff to understand the philosophy because sometimes it feels uncomfortable if a child's not walking away with a consequence because we've come up with a solution to that problem. So, really embedding that piece and not the one-sizefits-all. um piece anecdote. There was um a minor um incident and I thought, "Oh, this is my opportunity." Fred had the collaborative problem solver. Not to get too excited, ready? Um you know, and uh the children in front of me were having a consistent problem. And so I said, you know, you've been having this consistent problem. We

we need to figure this out together. And you know, what should we do? Uh, and they immediately came up with we should probably be in different classes, which will happen. And I said, well, I don't know if that's going to be fair to, you know, Mrs. Boland's class. Like, they've got a whole thing going on. Um, this was just a few weeks ago. And then, um, they said different schools. The other child said, "My mom's not going to like it." Um, that's just a piece of what that could look like at the prek to. But, um, we're going to we're going to keep striving. Like, I know that, um, there's been, uh, there's that, um, self-paced course that's been in the newsletters as must be as part of our package. Um, and then I I had heard feedback about um positive feedback about at the kindergarten orientation I think at NAB, was there a little slideshow about CPS? So, I feel like it's the messages making its way out to families, right? And one thing I sort of anecdotally hear whether from staff or families is is this hesitation that CPS does remove this idea of a consequence. And when when the when we know that behaviors are so disregulated and that is a major thing that is on teachers plate that like they can't get through their lesson because of this or or feeling burnt out because this student is repetitive repetitively doing that. So I'm just wondering how you could speak to like great question. So I think two important pieces of that is um you know a plan B or the collaborative piece is for those you know repeat offender specific kind of pieces. 90 90 to 95% of the time you're a plan A. You're enforcing the rules, right? The other piece that is so

embedded in CPS is a child will do well if they can. Right? So, similar to someone that might need extra support in reading or writing, we've identified this student as having lagging skills and needs extra support to be able to kind of meet those expectations in the classroom. So, it's not every stu, you know, every student we're not going to meet and be like, "Oh, you're running in the halls. Let's talk about a plan so you don't run tomorrow." Like, that's really not what it it is. It's for those, you know, special circumstances where a child is struggling because of a lack of skill to be able to work through it. And it, you know, the it's it's not an every student every day type of of piece. It's really for those kids with those significant lagging skills that we need to work harder to support just like we would support or a reading or math, which is an appropriate place for that to come up sometimes in our ISD meetings quite a lot. And I think once we get on the same page with this districtwide, this is going to be something we can take off teachers plates, right? Because behavior is such a challenge. We're seeing a rise in it where their bodies are moving and what can we what approach can we take that is universal that is empowering teachers to have the tools that they need and I I do believe this will get us there right any final thoughts on the K to2 you want to save the vote to be K to five or vote K to two and then three to five either or you could approve ours in case you don't approve theirs we don't want to leave I'm hanging. Sorry. You want to vote right now? I'll take I'll take a motion to approve the Nebnacet Robinson and Miller school improvement plans for 2025 to 2026. So moved on the motion. Thank you. And Lori was a second. Okay. Any last discussion? All in favor? Thank you. There you go. Pass with flying colors, Melissa. All right.

Miss Canelli had an emergency, so she's not able to be with us tonight. So, but her colleagues are step it up. Ready to ready to So, first thing next year 3 through five will be going first. I don't I don't I don't know. Oh, I was just going to say this could go a little faster than that. We've had some of those some of those foundations because because we know and a reflection is the vertical and horizontal alignment and so it it's possible you might want to stay second. Go ahead. Take it away. Thank you. All right. So, I'll start first. I'm with Pete Myers, principal of Abbott and this Christella from uh over a day and Sharon Canelli couldn't make it tonight, so we'll be presenting tonight. So, um, very similar similar to, um, K through two, um, with with goal one. Um, Kevin did a fantastic job. So, um, I can't add much to it. A lot of this year, we talked again about the equity audit. So, we're going to have, um, teams at the school-based. Um, I think we I think the district just finished up our interviews with Maddie from um, the audit. I forget her last name. And so, now we've been putting our plans together and next year we'll be working on those plans um, for the different schools. And then quite a bit of work went into the new IEPs this year. I know the APs did a fabulous job working together and putting the new IPS together along with Pyro School. So it but they managed it. It wasn't too easy, but they did a wonderful job and that'll keep on going for next year as well. Um and again, um Kevin, you did fabulous. I don't know what to say. See you, right? But again, it was this year just the equity audit and working on the IEPs and and updating that. So, great. Pretty much for goal one. Thanks. Okay. So, goal two is about improving curriculum implementation and assessment systems. And as you know, one of the school district priorities is universal uh design for learning. Um, and that's something that we have been

talking about in professional development opportunities at a curriculum meetings. And the good news is um UDL is already alive and well in our classrooms and we were able to have some really robust conversations surrounding that. And I think you may have had discussions about this already, but we had done um some look fors in the classroom. And so we were looking at various categories, for example, optimizing individual choice and autonomy. And so teachers had um collaborative conversations uh to talk about what that might look like. So for example um as you know uh at the um elementary level we now have a new ELA curriculum um which is consistent across uh K through five. And um because of that it doesn't necessarily offer as much choice as they may have had in previous iterations of our ELA program. But the good thing is teachers are able to stamp their own autonomy by offering things like literature circles at the grade five level. And that gives children an opportunity to choose books that they would like to read. Um, and other ways of doing this could be like using book creator in which students can decide how they would like to present their information. Um, those are just two of the many bullets that we came up with and I'm certainly not going to read all of them to you, but um, as you can see, it's something that is really important to our teachers and we know that it is happening. Um, an example of minimizing threats and distractions, which is also important to engagement. um we cited uh the fact that we are now piloting that SEAL program called Wayfinder in the classroom and at day school we're also using the ADL lessons. Um so those are examples of how

engagement is already happening um at that level. Okay. Um, additionally, and I think it was already mentioned at preK to two, but we did um do a lot of work with our IST form to make sure that it was consistent across grade levels. And at the 3 to five level, it's a really robust process because we want to make sure that we're analyzing data, which includes um dibbles, which is looking at oral fluency and accuracy. um the MCCAST data which obviously starts at grade three um including ELA and math and then looking at those uh student growth uh percentiles and then additionally we use the I ready diagnostic for math in looking at areas like numbers and operations, algebra and algebraic thinking, measurement and geometry. Um, and this allows us to have a conversation about how students are doing with tier one instruction in the classroom and then to have conversations about whether or not they need more um consistent support and perhaps move them into tier 2 or tier three. I have to be candid that there are teachers who are a little bit wary of the fact that we're reducing the number of interventionists um and that our class sizes they proceed to get larger. In some cases they are absolutely happening and that's why this IST process is so important that teachers are involved in having these discussions and not just presenting the data but what is the instructional improvement that is going to happen as a result of that and how can it happen within the classroom without additional staff members. And the nice thing is with the targeted areas of assistance, we now have a whole section about whether or not the intervention is working. So that um conversation is collaborative and ongoing to support students. Okay. All right. So moving on

to goal three uh to maintain a healthy and supportive school environment that meets the social emotional health and wellness needs of our learners and our staff. So, I know Melissa talked quite a bit about, you know, what could we take off their plate to make it, you know, for them to help them and that's just it that's really hard and in in the world of education. That's not what we think about to be honest with you. I mean, what our job is to work with our students and if things aren't going right, we we find things to help. Um, and it always seems like we're adding adding and what we can do is we're going to add, but what can we just slow down? So for instance in our EL program um we we adopted it you know we started it last year and we keep on reminding you it's going to be three to five years so we're not rushing them you keep on saying it see now I think they believe it because we're not rushing them same thing with the UDL this year we just looked at engagement okay and Dr. said many times it's you know five to six years as well so those are the kind of things we're not taking things off their plate but if we do it in a slower manner I think that takes a little stress off them so so we're always looking for that. Um, another one we talk about is um collaborative um I'm sorry it was their staff meetings in our our curriculum. We've really changed that up these last couple years as Melissa said um very frequently. We we see our agendas and what the teachers can work on or we have a curriculum and said everyone together it's okay. You don't even come down meet with your grade levels and they do a wonderful job when you give them the time. You give an hour hour and a half just to work on their own and you walk through the classrooms and they're working on things that's important for them and it makes such a difference when when they're doing something they really need to do for themselves. A third grade team may do something totally different than the fifth grade team and that's okay. That seems to work very well. And the last one we've worked pretty hard, very hard on is implementing the PE twice a week uh for next year. Um and I think this is an awesome move. Um I think we know the kids need movement and

to have it twice a week is great. Um for this year we were able to pilot at at Abbott this year and with uh TJ Elder, awesome PE teacher, what we started to do at the beginning of the year, he has his PE classes, his health classes in the gym. So we had a discussion said what if we took you know what do you have any time at the end of your health classes because she usually does. So what usually what it turned out to be is the health lesson would take about 2530 minutes and to be in the in the gym and all the gyms in the district have big uh screens so they can do lessons on that. So what it turned out to be is he had the kids about 13 weeks part of the rotation. The lesson would take 25 30 minutes and then the kids knew after they did that they'd have a a lesson a fun game a PE lesson. um kids can run around. So they were getting basically a chance to run around twice a week and he was able to fit in the curriculum during that time. Um so it worked out very well. So now we know it can be done especially next year we're going to have it twice a week. What I envision is probably PEU probably about a week and a half average out throughout the year which is great. and he was able to review this with the other PE health teachers at our ed camp last week and he went over exactly what his looked like and teachers and I I I was able to visit some of that meeting and teachers had some great ideas and one teacher said like in the fall and the spring when the weather's great can we maybe those for those two days we take them outside and I said yeah there's no reason you have to you'll have time to to um to cover all the health standards so use the freedom and I think they like having the freedom freedom and the flexibility to to fit it into how it works for them. And it may look a little different K through K to 2, three through five, but that's fine. And then hopefully the communication among them just works. And I think it's it's a great idea for for everyone involved. So that's that's a big um and again the schedule um Melissa Richard uh AP over at Abbott did a fabulous job making sure all the schools that we could fit this into our schedule and it did work. So thank you to her for

her work on that. Okay. And uh finally, goal number four is about utilizing the westward climate roadmap um to increase sustainability initiatives within our school community. Um so some of the things that we're working on, we have revamped our STEM fair. Um that's the great uh science and engineering fair that we've done for years and years at the grade three to five level. We are now calling it steam because we're adding the art um to that as well. And although it doesn't specifically uh focus on sustainability initiatives, there's a lot of room for improvement and growth in that area. There have been some of our young engineers that have been looking at that. So, for example, um during one of our steam I keep saying STEM, but it's now steam steam fairs. Um, one of the fifth graders uh decided that the day school parking lot needed to be redesigned because it's not large enough for the um cars to turn around. And actually, that is true. So true. And some like serious insight there, but the sustainability initiative is figuring out what can we do to mitigate the problem of runoff into the nearby wetland um which is Reed Brook. Um so that was incorporated into that. We've also had projects that have um talked about rain gardens and things like that. So obviously adding those types of elements into the steam fair is going to um also increase sustainability initiatives and get the kids involved as well. Um so shout out to Jeff Goodwin who's been working um across the district um to make the buildings more energy efficient. Um, and if anyone has ever been at the day school, it's either the temperature can either be like the surface of the sun or it's anti and like

one or the other. And so knowing this um he um spent a lot of time and probably money um most assuredly a lot of money went into this but uh re uh fixed all of our climate controls and the um what is I don't know what the inards of all of the 60y old radiators are but somehow we fixed all of that and it's so much better now and so I know that it's not perfect um it's a 60 y old aging building, but because the district is focused on that, it's really going to be energy more energy efficient and we're not going to have windows open with heat also going out the window at the same time. Um, we also know that um we're excited about our school garden program. Um, particularly NABNAS and the day school have received uh grants from the department of elementary and secondary education. We're excited about our $16,000 grant that we were a were granted for our school guard program. We were able to revamp um the uh current gardens that we have. Um we now have eight plots out there and they're currently growing um lettuce that they're going to actually use in the school cafeteria. And that um that initiative of going from ca uh the school garden to the cafeteria, it really speaks to sustainability for sure. And kids get a hands-on approach and they know where their food is coming from. And some of you who are veterans uh school committee members probably remember that our day school senate maybe two years ago did a presentation about our cafeteria offerings. I mean, as Melissa said, we have a very diverse population at the Miller and Day schools. We realized that our cultural offerings were minimal at best. There's

only so many chicken fingers and pizza crunchers that you can eat. Um, so we started offering on Thursdays in April and May some more culturally attuned offerings. Um so just uh on Thursday last week we had sweet potato and um black bean stew which was a Latin American uh flavor and um we have garden interns from Westford Academy that did some impromptu salsa dancing. So that was fun for the kids. Got a little bit out of control but we came back pretty jazzed to class. Fun. That was so fun. But the great thing is we were able to introduce some of of the fresh herbs that are already growing in the garden. So they were able some of the more adventurous kids put cilantro in their black bean and and and sweet potatoes too. But we've also had dishes that are attuned to um our Indian cultures and next week we're offering falafel which is a not to Middle East. Um so we're excited about all of that. Um, and last but not least, um, the new ELA program and specifically in third grade is talking about global initiatives about water conservation, believe it or not, and they're so excited about that. So, we're great. It's so great that we're able to choose a new curriculum that is also aligned to goal four. That's awesome. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Okay, first questions, Tom. Uh just uh something that stood out to me is what do you expect the uh mindful breaks for staff to what do you envision those to be? Well question for you. I think whenever we can alleviate something from them maybe not curriculum based but what can we do as we said a staff meeting or just giving them extra time to do things instead of something needs to be into administration by next Friday give them another week give them until after vacation things like that. um if they need a break during the day have maybe

cover for their class just things like that and just having the open conversation if you need a break need a little you know time to collect yourself that's fine it just given the opportunity that that you can do that all right there were also options embedded in just the recent ed camp I mean I don't know if you want to if you did were either one of you able to experience any of that um well the ed camp they did have I think one of the offerings was yoga yeah and then I think the The greatest thing about that was we gave them a long lunch period which they could collect theself, talk to their friends. And what was also nice, they don't get to see each other like the elementary, we have six elementary schools. They don't get to see each other too often. Um, our PD days are pretty packed, usually three through five, you know, K through two. And then, so it was good for them to see each other. A lot of times you hear people, oh, I haven't seen you in a year and things like that. So, it was just it was it was a very relaxing day, put it that way, for a full curriculum day, which could be long. It went by really quick and really good feedback. just gave him the freedom and not having, you know, and they the offerings are only 45 minutes long. So, it it went really well. So, that was a good suggestion. I think it's important to remember those mindful breaks. Uh I think there's a lot of focus on giving those and having that space for the students, but the teachers have to be on for the entire time too. Right. Thanks. Any other points, questions? Could you speak to the science advisory committee that was mentioned on the last slide? Yep. So the science advisory committee that is a committee led by uh Julie Kelly our math and science curriculum leader and they get together during the year to just talk about what's going on in science. Science and social science it's indistrict they're starting the process to explore a new K to8 science curriculum. And so they're starting with conversations now to figure out okay what's working? That's one of the concerns and that's really a kickazone. Uh Joe Barnes is also helping with that

at the six to eight level. Okay, great. And then Julie Nina um and I and some teachers um went to a professional development opportunity offered by Desi um to explore um a curriculum called OpenSIED which is inquirybased. um it's one of many now that are fully vetted um for that type of learning and that's where um science is um going. Sure. Yeah. Thanks. Could I ask one question on the PE um Peter if you mind and I think you've mentioned it before but it might be just um good to confirm it. We're able to do this across the schools without needing to increase PE staff. Um, we are increasing the PE position by one. It's a budget neutral. It's budget neutral, but it is an addition of a of of one PE staff across the six schools. Okay. Yeah. But it's budget neutral because of the changes that they're making to the um the basically the amount of support that was needed in the library. Right. Okay. Because we're not going to have the um the research, we're not going to have the technology. So now we have more. Okay. So we'll still have so there's there there is a reduction of some library ESPs okay not the librarian not the LMS position that'll still be supporting the library but the idea of having really two sections of library that was covering different things they're sort of saying that they're able to schedule that in to be to one and that's where the additional time for PE is really coming from and so there there's by by rescheduling the current staff people between sisters Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. One clarification and just for people who are listening out there, um although we don't have separate technology

uh courses or research, it's going to be embedded in the library. So, I wanted people to understand that we're not like getting rid of it. Right. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. So, uh, just to follow up on that, uh, I would certainly encourage, um, finding a way to kind of track that, make sure that we are not removing a critical, uh, learning opportunity also from, uh, from our students uh, to supplement another critical area. So, um, yeah, just want to make sure we don't have unintended consequences down the road, right? Um, and I would just I was just going to open up the same sort of um collaborative problem solving question I had for the K to2s because three to five obviously bigger kids sometimes bigger behaviors. Um, so I was just wondering how you have been seeing that roll out and if you've had any hesitancy from family or staff about the perception that CPS means less consequences. Um, I we're just getting started obviously this year. So I know we're completing all the training next this at the end of this month with some of our teachers. We have four teachers and our administrator will be trained at the end of the year and as we roll it out next year as you know we kind of talked K through talked about it's it's it's more problem solving than consequences. Yeah, consequences are easy. You do this you get that but it's it's more deeper than that and that's something we all have to work on for some of our students. Okay. Thanks. Uh so on the contrary I feel like um the few opportunities that I've had to do some more robust collaborative problem solving, the families have been very grateful. Okay. Um because they understand that this is a long-term solution and it's not just give the aggressor a consequence and make sure they stay out of recess, but we're solving the problem for both parties. Yes. Right. Going deeper. That's the whole point of this age.

We're educators, you know, these kids, we're teaching these kids, it's proactive underneath. I I think it's like a a perception problem. Like I think we all absolutely around the table understand the value of it, but some people can hear that and they think, "Oh, there's no consequences." Correct. It's not It's a system. It's a system, but one piece of it is problem solving. It's a continuum. Yeah. Yeah. U just uh overall for both uh both groups I do look forward to seeing individualized uh targets of of what we're going to be looking at for the air audit too. Um you know I I see it noted on everyone's to to work on what's been identified. I I do look forward to seeing that as well and how how you're going to address those. So great good point. Thanks Tom. Any other thoughts or motions? Motion to approve the grades three to five school improvement plans. Thank you. Second. Sorry, that was Bill and Catherine. Any last discussion? All those in favor? Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Are we having anyone at the table for the handbook? I believe so. That's okay. Yep. All right. So, we updated all you Melissa. Nina's there. Yeah. All right. So we, as you can see, we made some updates um to the handbook. I mean, overall, we kind of softened some language to make it a little bit more developmentally appropriate. So, for example, instead of um you know, cheating and plagiarism, um we've changed it to academic integrity because really, you know, at this age, the kids

are still learning what that means, you know, they're not copying from the internet on purpose to submit their paper. So, really kind of focusing on that piece. Um, we added a section around cell phones because, you know, guess in case you didn't know, we have first graders and second graders bringing cell phones to school. Um, so, you know, really kind of adding some more specificity around that. Um, we updated the food services. It still had costs for meals. You know, some of those paperwork type things. Um, we cleaned up some redundancies. There were still some um half-day kindergarten references in there. So, some of those updates just all kind of happened. um we tried to look at it through like a parent perspective on some things. So um the communication piece in the last email and the last handbook was like a little rough. It almost was like all right you gear up your fight and come and talk to the teacher first and then reach out to the principal and that wasn't how we want that to sound. So we kind of calmed that made a little reference chart about you know who you can contact for what and hopefully that will be a little bit more user friendly. Um, we tried to be consistent with linking school committee policies and they really worked before we submitted it. I know Courtney checked them, I checked them. Um, and then there was a little snafu, but I think they're all back up um, working and we updated some of the ELLL and 504 information just to reflect the most updated information. Um, we did change the word report cards it says instead of progress reports. really reference now um progress reports as special education progress reports. So just to make it less confusing, those are report cards that we um do. We moved some of the 37H like the more specific discipline things to the end. It's not really reader friendly, but you know it's in there but appendix sort of. Yes. Um and then um in the behavior piece, we did remove

the levels. um you'll still see like sample consequences or things that could happen, but I think as we take more of a UDL and and collaborative problem solving um lens, you know, we would get I don't want to say stuck, but sometimes we'd be talking about behaviors and pieces and and for, you know, some a level for some students and their their needs, a level three is more of a a level one. And so when we're talking about consequences and pieces with families, um it was kind of a rigidity point of what the level was. So, this just kind of we're looking at it through more of a UDL um collaborative problem solving lens to kind of reduce some of those those barriers and still thinking about logical consequences, right? If you write on a wall, you're helping to clean up what happened on the wall and just we were talking just as administrators and you know there it's hard to be consistent amongst those levels when you're tied to them. So, how do we sort of come from this restorative practices approach, collaborative problem solving, and sort of meld it all? And that those that would be the work that we continue to do. I appreciate that explanation. It was one of the questions I had had. So, I I think that's really helpful. And just thank you to Courtney for spearheading it. She really helped us get organized in a month of chaos. It was that was a big project cuz I know that some of the um school DEI group had looked at them last year and yeah it was it that was a big project. I tried to remove some language make it a little bit more user friendly. Any questions? I was going to offer so I know first page I see the uh translation if you need this translated copy and paste in Google translate. I know there's a lot of parents that could do that. I'm wondering and maybe this is an IT district uh potential um solution just like Western public schools has the powered by Google select language up top

maybe there's a way that we can incorporate that into the website and have a full handbook available and we can do that in the website the problem is that this is a PDF and so the PDF so but I think if as we explore it the ability to do that I would agree I think it would just be more accessible and easier to digest for our families in one. That that was actually something I also had noted. We had on our previous um handbooks put together a and it was standard. It was supposed to be standard across K through 12 handbooks a translations page that had all the official languages that were spoken in Westford and or that we required translations. So I'm wondering would we consider just putting that page back in? We had worked a lot with Amy Bailey on that and Mgalli um to kind of just have that one page with each line in each specific language saying about the translations page. One of the concerns with it is that it's not exhaust it's not like it's not an official list, right? It is and it language. We're trying to say, okay, what is there something that truly an individual can access to get it to the language that they need it in as opposed to whether it's that list. I think that was one of the reasons why they kind of leaned towards let's try to get to a tool as opposed to having the list. We're trying to make it a little more resourceful because what that translation says is go talk to your administrator. So now you've added another step. Sure. And so we were trying to put the tool in their hand right away which they'll need to access for multiple documents throughout the year. Right. But so the the challenge is also then we're in this format we're requiring the ability to read English right so so I think there is a barrier. I think there's I understand the you know not exhaustive.

I think there's something to be said about that's a pretty good list. You know, even if it's the instructions to try Google Translate, I do like the idea of um it it's leaning towards um this isn't intended to be printed because we have so many links that are click here, right? This is no longer a PDF. This is this is a web page, you know, ultimately. you know, we might approve it as a as a PDF the content wise, but it really does start to lend itself towards just being a page. Um, and and then I'm not printing a 60page handbook to keep you at home, but in color, right? Right. But, um, but then we do have the added abilities of having tools already there that it's native. Um, and if someone has already chosen their language to view the district site in, the handbook is then in that that as well. Uh, it might be additional steps to move it over, but not um not too much. I don't believe so. I feel like these are the this is a great example of something sometimes that comes up and I'm like that would be a great capstone, right? Like you know, you should have a running list just you give out to seniors. Even if could we put like an icon or something there like I've just done a quick Google there is an icon a symbol that shows like a translate like a translation symbol so for people who obviously as universal as you can get as universal yeah so that it's just a visual um that can just show that click on the link and it should it should help. So I don't know if the other issue with, you know, just instructing to copy into Google Translate, you're going to lose all the formatting, right? And it's just going to be one big document, you know? So again, u I I think exploring some other opportunities would be would be good for that. Yeah.

Any other I question? I had just two other questions. Um, one, um, I noticed we were reading about, um, our special education, you know, process and also for our, um, English, um, learners process. Um, could we consider like putting in a mention because they're kind of official advisory committees, a mention to CPAC and LPAC as resources for parents? It's kind of something we still find that new parents within that those areas don't realize that there's another tool or resource and because we're you know statemandated to have these groups it might be deemed appropriate to add those in. And the one other thing I wanted to raise up and forgive me if I missed it I have looked um but we if I remember correctly and I can't remember when it was it was in the last year or two had um added the MGL language to the student when we're talking about the suspensions and expulsions we had added the MGL language the chapter 71 37H and 3/4 I always feel it sounds like something out of Harry Potter. Um, but it spoke because I feel like as I was reading that section, it's it spoke about the process of suspensions and this process of expulsions. that language as a school committee. We had we had worked on a bit and kind of I think agreed that we wanted it included in the parent handbook which specified that it just explained the law to everyone about um how all alternative you know strategies you know could to be used in advance of getting to the suspension and expulsion. I think it just explained it really well and I know it was a discussion that we had on school committee at the at the time. Um, so I'm just wondering if we could consider putting that back in.

Um, that's an option. Sure. I'm surprised it's not in there. Yeah, it'll still need to be cleaned up. I mean, there was a lot of redundancy in there. So, I think that what happened when that was added, somebody else left whatever was in there. Yes. And so, it got very, very messy. Yeah. And um you know like Melissa had said that we were just trying to not necessarily start the handbook with in ABC order. We were talking about conduct discipline and then we were just nailing people with expulsion and law. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But no I I love the new layout. I love you know the refresh. It it looks great. put that in the back. Yeah, but I mean just in that section I think is is kind of worse. Thank you, Manny. Graduation. We can go back and and that language in there. Thanks. Good. I had a comment and a question. I think the grouping that you've done uh is great. It's very helpful um to make it a little bit more uh easy for parents to navigate. If there's any more grouping you could do, that would be great because it starts to become a list at the end. So, just looking at that. Um, but one question I had was I didn't see Alice drills in here and I was just wondering if you had thought about putting that in or if there was somewhere else that you can find that information. That was a great question. Yeah. I think we had referenced different types of drills and not necessarily called out Alice, which is traditionally something that we haven't advertised what that might look like, but I thought there was a comment in there about fire drills or other safety or evacuation. We can fire alarms and building evacuations. Yeah. Yeah. Um Okay. Is is Alice drills covered in some other way for parents to understand what that

entails or what their kids are going through? Well, the part part of the training that we've always been through with Alice drills is that it's not something that we want publicly advertised about how we're going to combat the the principles at the building level do communicate that to families. I mean as they're in an age appropriate manner like when people knowing that this might be coming up soon and this is kind of what we're talking about but you're right the actual book yeah the actual details what we do how we do it we don't communicate and there's actually even right now there's even a there's a you know there's some districts that are moving they've decided to use a different um acronym uh and we've just still continued to work with our SRO and with our you know with our public safety partners to to just talk about what are we doing to just kind of in empower individuals to be able to make choices in real time. Um but so we didn't necessarily say we follow this protocol. Yeah. Right. We didn't put I think we used more of a general statement like we didn't put controlled evacuation like other types of things that we might do because there's just a list of that. Um, but as building principles, we would communicate like out a little bit in regards to like how we prep the students, what you know that the drill happened. But there's pieces I don't that would be uncomfortable sharing because then it would allow you know just publicize our response. It it might be something that just says other types of safety drills are conducted as administration sees fit or something that just acknowledges to families that there are drills that are happening outside of just fire drills. Whether that happens in this iteration or as you look towards next year, I think that's a yeah, that is a concern for some parents. Yeah, definitely. We'll we'll make that suggestion and we'll add that

in there while we're cleaning up the um Yeah, it sounds like we have a little bit more work to do. I was just I guess Katherine just stepped out because I was I guess I'm still just I'm a little confused as to what her suggestion is because you do have the MGL in there. Oh, Katherine, I was just looking Sorry, I was looking at the handbook trying to figure out where your question. Do you want to tell her a page number and then I can Yeah. So, I'm looking at I went right to 50 and 52 in that section where they are where the MGL is referenced quite a bit. So, I just want to make sure I think that it is in there, but I think to your point, we want to make sure that everything what whatever was decided earlier is consistent. What page are you It starts on 50 and then all of those different discipline pieces of of um different types of suspension and alternatives that could take law mentioned the bottom of 52. Do you want to take a starts with alternative remedies, suspension, emergency removal? Why don't we give her a minute to read that? So maybe it's true. But to her point, like whatever it is that we talked about, we'll just make sure that it is there. But I kind of think that might be what it was. We had just put in the actual language of the law. That's what it was. Okay. Um Okay. Okay. Because we we had a a full conversation about whether or not we put the actual law language in. Okay. Thank you. Um I just had two quick points I wanted to make which was one the homeschool communication table jumped right out at me as like this is a huge um improvement I think and and just so needed and very um thoughtfully done and I just really appreciated that work. Um, and then as you were talking about the academic integrity, um, that section to me stood out because it's it it feels very fresh like you you it feels like a full rewrite and and it's really written in an age

appropriate way so that you could sit down with your kid and really and your student and say, "Here's, you know, this handbook that, you know, that I sign on your behalf every, you know, fall. Here's what's in it." Um, and and I just think that that's just a really powerful way to have that in here at that age level. So, I really appreciate that. Like that whole tone is in there of like I it just sounds like something a classroom I can hear it like in a classroom teacher's voice. So, I just I just thought it was really well done. Thanks. I was going to have the same comment on the table. I thought that was really helpful. It's something we do a lot at work too is like showing it a really clear way. If you need this, you go to this. If you need this, you go to that. But I think the whole document cleaned up really nice. It looked from being like a lot more like adult and boring to being a lot more tangible. And even the font change, I think, makes it more welcoming. And some of the color changes. So, I think it it it doesn't feel quite as daunting as somebody that went back and read it was like, I should have been reading this for like all these years. Now, I have to read it a little bit more in depthly. Same. Yeah. Um, yeah, I was so much more excited to read this one than when I had to cover it. No, that's great. And I think that's really was our our hope to clean it up, but also make it more developmentally appropriate. Yeah. My final comment is just on the cover. Um, I'm always one that likes branding and making it look official. So, you know, having having a way that it stands out that this is truly an official document and not just WPS logo somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. So, just Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, I don't need to hold a vote for for that, but you know, uh just a a comment. Okay. With the approval of our new roles very soon, we'll make sure that page six is updated. Uh I'm no longer the secretary. I would love to be

where he is, but that will change, too. So, we'll make sure that that's Yeah, tighten. You didn't know you were getting voted that, did you? Back at it. A switcheroo. I've looked at that page 10 times. Didn't notice that. So, thank you. I had a guy. All right. We're a little fish to fry. We're a little off time, so I'm going to ask for a motion for the elementary handbooks. So, moved. Seconded. Sorry, that was Catherine and Bill. Any last thoughts? Uh, is that with the feedback that we've I think it encompasses all the feedback we've had. I haven't heard. Yep. Yeah. Great. Okay. All those in favor? Great. Thank you. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Clearly a project that's taken a lot of time and we really appreciate it. Mhm. Up next, and we'll welcome Gerard to the microphone. Uh, director of special education and social emotional learning, right? Wellness, sometimes learning, sometimes depending on the Thanks guys. Have a good night. Thank you to everyone. Other duties as assigned. Hi folks. Uh firstly, uh Jessica and Shane, I just want to say nice to see you. Welcome. Look forward to working with you. And um then secondarily, I just want to say thank you so much to the committee for your um understanding and flexibility uh two weeks ago. I know it was sudden, but I really appreciate it. And uh it was just it was just really thoughtful and kind of everyone. And um now because of that, I apologize for making your evening even longer tonight. So, um, with all of that said, I'm really excited to be here and spend some time talking today about, um, our department of special education and social emotional learning. Um, give us

an update. Um, allow some time for questions and, um, and also just have, uh, some discussion about anything related to what we have in our presentation tonight. Um, I will also apologize too for some of this being duplicative. Uh, we've talked about a few of the talked about a few of the highlights in here tonight. Um, Wayfinder, some of our PD, all of that, but I hope I can help us maybe even have a further deep dive into some of those discussions that uh that came up tonight. So, I think you've all had a chance to see this. Um, and additionally through some of our slides, I didn't want to get into too deep of a dive with some of the data and statistics on uh slides 13 and 14 that deal with um that deal with some of our specific information. Um, so I put some links on there for people to take a look at and I know a few of you have have requested that over the years. So, um, we can just jump into it. um special education and social emotional learning department just give some broad updates. We continue to have wonderfully and talented and thriving students um at all levels uh throughout our district. I um have the opportunity to be in schools very frequently and um see all of our students and see them thriving and um and being successful at all levels and um it it it's very exciting to see. It makes me really happy. Um we have an incredibly talented faculty and staff. We are we all know that education is constantly evolving. Um I will say that special education involves maybe even 10% more than the rest of education with changes in law with changes in um DESIE expectations and directives and our team and faculty and staff just manage those changes and expectations so incredibly

and um it's just a tribute to to our staff here. Um, I also think our parents and caregivers in the district of Westford are an incredible group. And I know I stressed this from day one about my desire to work collaboratively with the district and our desire as a department and um special education group to work collaboratively uh with the district and I see families, parents, caregivers extending the same um efforts to our department as well. And um it's been incredible. We have an unbelievable CPAC. Um so much so in fact that some of our sister districts have reached out to me to um figure out or find out how our CPAC has been so successful. And um that obviously has nothing to do with me. It has to do with our leadership at CPAC and our participation um with those groups. And um so that's something that's something that has meant a lot to me. And um I know when we have had some potential changes or thoughts around special education programming, new ideas, it's always received really really well within um the public and within the district and within families and and we really appreciate that. I think tonight uh on the agenda, we'll have a further discussion about some of that more broadly. And um again, I will always stress collaboration and it's it's been wonderful to have that here within the community. And uh lastly, I just I just want to highlight our our tremendous leadership team at the school-based level, our special education leadership team. Um we had three new uh folks transition into the in into those positions this year. You've already heard they had to deal with a um new IEP, a new software. Um I like that Kevin and Pete said kind things about that, but really all the staff and leadership probably wanted to kill me for um having both a new IEP and new software working together. But um they've just managed that so incredibly

and um we've done some great work at the building base level. Um we're really excited about a faculty uh sort of handbook we created for the new IEP and some of the new software. So um so it's been really great and you know I absolutely could not have done it without our tremendous team leaders. So I thank them so much. Um just a more spec uh more specifically some of our successes this year. I remember sitting here a year ago talking about um roots and how excited we were about uh in having roots start right here at um in central office um at the Millennium Building and here we are a year later and it's quite possibly one of our most successful programs in the district. Um I think many of you have seen how forward- facing it's been. um Roots Roers and and the work they do within the community and the work they've done. Uh senior center uh Valentine's Day um town meeting I believe they're a part of. Uh it's just been incredible. Um we've had some great success with our um co-eing at NABN NASA this year and additionally other schools have expressed a desire to continue that. So, we hope to continue our professional development and collaboration with our um with our group of folks we've been doing the co-eing with and expand that out. Um specifically Stonybrook um Robinson um they've all expressed a desire and interest to really expand their co-eing and um I I think we know how impactful that can be as a least restrictive environment um for students. And um then I know this committee has long talked about, asked about, and reflected upon our SEAL curriculum and the work we do with SEAL. You've heard some tremendous examples of that tonight. Um you've heard all about Wayfinder, so I don't have to uh delve back into that again. Um I was going to

say as Melissa was talking about it, uh spoiler Melissa, um I am leaning toward uh Wayfinder as well. So, we do have sort of a final meeting with their the Wayfinder team and um what we want to do there is present our successes on those pilot building based lessons um at the day at Miller and see how we can build that. I think most importantly for me is I really want to be able to have something that we can just sort of have consistently and and sort of stand behind as a district, as a curriculum. um we're asking so much of our counselors, our teachers to create their own lessons and um and they've and they've done so so effectively and um I want us to be able to support teachers and support counselors, support school psychologists, um support everyone who does that seal work and really allow them an opportunity to be able to have something right at their fingertips. And um to me the um it was great to hear it was great to hear uh um u Melissa and Chris talk about the successes with it because I see it from 30,000 ft and and I I can feel the successes but I also it was really important to me to hear those on the um on you know sort of the ground level. Uh just a couple of fun pictures here. Here's um here's here's Roots at the uh at the um Valentine's Day uh event at the senior center. Um, and then this is a really fun picture too. Uh, another success for us has been the unified sports. I think you heard um, Courtney talk about our track and field event that is upcoming. Um, it was incredible last year. We've also expanded that out this year to um, basketball. And as you can see in the picture, the uh, check out the crowd in the background. It's uh pretty incredible the turnout the um the unified basketball uh got and was had uh as a part of of what we did there. Um

again, few more successes um and some planning uh for for next year as well. Um we're really excited about some folks have asked over the years about uh transparency as it relates to special education and that's something that's really important to me. So um this year we added program descriptions to the website. Um we are trying to review those as often as we can to um update name changes uh expectations around entrance and exit criteria. But that was something that was really important to folks in the community and it was really important to me as well personally in our department. We wanted to be able to highlight um what the work it is that we do and have everyone know and experience that. Um some of the drawbacks maybe are that uh some other towns call us up and ask about those, but that's that can be a good thing in some ways. Um uh Superintendent Dr. Chu uh gave his budget proposal on 129 clearly laying out our expectations around uh new programming and um and what we were hoping to do within the special education department for next year. Um Dr. which was also great about his newsletter if it needs to include u some special education updates. And um we continue also to offer as many community presentations as we can. Um this year we we've had uh multiple um multiple evening presentations that were in conjunction with CPAC. Also one around sort of a status of the new IEP, what that was looking like. I think it was important for us as a department to be able to just sort of take a temperature check there and see how were people doing, what was happening, um what was successful for us. Um looking ahead to next year and and thinking about some of uh some of our successes, we're really excited about um the expanded programming in three specific areas. Uh

the first is is Compass. Some of you, and I've heard you reference this tonight, formerly known as our medically fragile program. Um, we currently have that in the prek through two schools. We're exp uh we're expanding that to the three through five a day. Um, we have a space. Um, we have current interviews currently happening right now. And it was really exciting to have the support of you folks here as the school committee of the community to be able to hire for those positions, make sure they're appropriately staffed. And um we're really excited about being able to offer that. Um, secondarily, and we may get it into this later in the night, we're really excited about the opportunity to be able to um bring back some students who are privately placed and um and and it just gives us an opportunity to be able to provide services for all of our students here in the district because I believe so intensely in public schools and I want all of our students to be able to experience um their education here in the public schools in Westford if they're residents of Westford. And then um related a little bit to what we were talking about with social emotional learning um really excited about the expansion of our sale program which is our social emotional learning program that exists right now at day in the 3 through 5 and we're expanding that next year to the 6 through 8. Um so we're really excited about that. Um skipped over the one the second bullet there the reach classroom at NAB. Many of you are familiar with the work we do with REACH that is consistent throughout the district. But right now at the preK through two level only exists at Miller. Um it's my vision. It could be a decade. Uh who knows? But I would love to be able to offer all of our programs in our um community neighborhood based schools so that our students don't have to travel, so that our students can be with their cohort and their peers. And um

this is step one in allowing that to happen. and um expanding reach to NAB. So we will now have um two reach programs available at uh both Miller and Nabnasset and um maybe someday it will be uh at every school throughout the district. So like I said, our students can experience their education in their neighborhood school. Um just jumping ahead and I don't mean to rush or gloss over anything. I I want to have time for questions and for all of us to be able to um you know continue some of the conversation here. Uh specifically, I wanted to talk a little bit about social emotional learning and what Westford is doing to continue to expand our resources with social emotional learning. Um so for us, I think you've heard a little bit about Panorama tonight. Um Panorama is a comprehensive um software that allows us to support and screen students. Um, it functions it it it uh functions where it's it's basically a survey where it allows students to uh answer questions about their mental health and wellness. This occurs at all levels. And um what makes me so proud is we don't just use Panorama as our only tool. Um individually at building based levels, we have additional mental health screenings. Um they occur at WA. There's a universal screening uh for tools for anxiety and depression. We have what's called the strengths and weakness questionnaire at the elementary school level. And these are all these are all tools that um that that teachers, administrators, and buildings are using on that small intimate level. They review the work of the data. um if there's any concerns around quote unquote lower scores or scores that have students at risk or have students or have us concerned about the mental health and wellness of students, we meet with those students um immediately. And um then again to reiterate, we we've we've talked about piloting the Wayfinder SEAL curriculum and it's been

so great to hear uh so many of the positives around that. Um I think you heard Valerie asked a really good question about just sort of some of the overlap with that. Um Panorama and Wfinder and I think Dr. Chu said this. We would work we would sort of take one or the other in that situation. They're both uh there's some redundancy with the two. So um I think it's important for us to highlight the one that is most successful and the one that works best for us as a district. They both have their advantages. They both have obviously their challenges. Uh, but the piece about Wayfinder that I like so much is the access to the curriculum. So, Panorama sometimes their their data and their surveys can be great, but then our question is, well, what do we do with that? What do we do with those data and surveys? How do we respond to that? And um, Wayfinder gives you sort of that next level of um, of support there. Um, supporting our students just continued. We uh we have consistent SEAL levels delivered by counselors and teachers occurring at all grade levels. Um I've seen uh a cyber bullying lesson and curriculum exist at our middle schools um at Stonybrook um and we have seen um partnerships our partnerships grow with multiple different community centers and groups throughout the region. Um, some of you may or may not be familiar with some of of the uh some of the groups we work with here. The Westford Community Wellness Center, Prevention Partners of Northern Middle Sex, Simply Social Kids, Riverside Trauma. So, just working together with all of these groups and the the great part of this it is it's not just me. Um, I I am not going to all these meetings. you see a passion and dedication from our counselors, from our teachers, from our special education teachers, from our department chairs reaching out, participating in these

groups, um, and, uh, attending PD, attending seminars together with all of these community groups. And for us to be able as Westford to have that representation, I know is so important. And um it allows us opportunities. It allows us opportunities to find out about new grants. Um to uh to work collaboratively together with groups to find what's working and what's not. Um full disclosure, there was some kind words tonight about Wayfinder and us finding Wayfinder. We found that from other districts and we found that by working together with other districts and um you can't do that without our uh our staff here being willing and able to attend those those um collaborative partnerships, seminars, groups, all of that together. Um really exciting. We had the creation of a mindfulness room this year at Stonybrook um which was really incredible to see. And again, these are these are some of the creations that I'm most proud of because they are they are progressive and they're thoughtful rather than being reactive. They're proactive. And it's us together working as a district, as a community to say, "Hey, I think we need this. I think we need X. I think we need Y to make us the strongest community we can be and to make us have the most positive um social emotional learning environments we can and uh and and so that makes me really proud. Um just wanted everyone to see Hamlet uh Harris Hamlet uh who is at WA. He is our dog therapy dog. Is that our exact Is that the title? Facility dog. Facility dog. That's it. That's it. That's it. Thank you. And uh um just really exciting and uh I I'm sure you would have heard from our um WA representatives tonight about uh what a presence Hamlet has been at

the school and um how great he is to uh to have around. And I think you all know the data and research around um animal support is just it's really positive. So again, for us to think as a community and for us to think proactively about doing something like that is pretty pretty incredible. So what's the difference between a facility dog and a therapy dog? Curious. So it it is he is a trained um a trained K9 um to to to be existing within the facility. He is not a specific therapy dog for an individual. Okay. Um is that the best way to separate the two? a service dog is a therapy dog and then a facility dog, but um he's a facility dog because he's owned by Westford Public Schools. Yes. So, a good way to think about it too is is um maybe individual versus broader group. That's another way to think about it as well. And um you know, obviously a therapeutic animal is usually sort of um I want to say assigned, but is works with does specific things for an individual, right? Yep. Yeah. Yep. So, um, thank you for that. Um, one of the other things I wanted to highlight too is just some of our, and again, you've heard a good deal of talk tonight about Panorama and, um, and that survey and what it is. We do have two links in this presentation if you want to take a um, deep dive into this. Um, I will say right up front, there were positive gains in I want to say all. I think there were some areas where we had zero gains but um our our uh results maintained and to me even if they were small and incremental up five six 2 3 percentage points that's incredible and it shows that um Westford

is trending in the right direction. Um we all know that we still continue to exist in in in a world where there is a mental health crisis and we don't have um I'm saying broadly macro society we don't have the supports gaining supports is very challenging managing uh managing the health care system is very challenging so for all of us to see some of these gains indicates to us that the work we're doing as a community the work you folks support us with here today is um is working. So I just highlighted a couple of bullets uh that are specific to social emotional learning. Some of Panorama deals with academics, academic preparedness and and you'll see that when you take a deep dive. So I just wanted to highlight a couple of areas that were related to our um related to our social emotional learning in the district. 79% of students say that change can be made um in effort and um that's up five uh five percentage points. 78% of students say change can be made in behavior. That's up five percentage points. Obviously indicative of the belief that students have in themselves and uh and what they believe they can do. You'll see a couple other bullet points there. 73% of students say they pay attention and resist distractions. Um, that's probably great, especially now being five years removed from COVID where all we had was distractions. Uh, 79% of students work independently and stay focused. Also up uh, five percentage points. And then I just thought this one in here was great. 96% of students were polite to other students. And um I know that may seem random, but that was something that really stuck uh stuck out to me and uh something that was really important to me and and great to see, a testament to the um awesome kids in this district. So, um moving along related to Panorama, we also have some cartwheel data in

here. For those of you unfamiliar with cartwheel, cartwheel is just um an interface that allows us to be able to access mental health supports immediately. It's um it's a it's an online portal where we schools partner with cartwheel to find therapists to find um to find uh uh family support, family therapists, all of that rolled together. So you work with cartwheel. Cartwheel's best sort of selling points are the engagement, are the ability of of um are the ability for them to decrease weight times, the ability to just sort of manage the health care piece that I talked about before. Students are not required to have um private insurance. Um cartwheel will cartwheel will will support all students if a referral is made. So um this year we had we so far uh I think that actually the data was today um really helpful from WA Lauren Clark provided me with this today. Uh so 56 students have been referred through cartwheel and then from there um not every student takes advantage of the referral or um or you know could potentially be screened out or um may not may not need the the service or anything like that. That obviously all makes sense to you folks. And uh 41 of our 56 students right now have engaged in the care. And um so every year we are uh afforded the opportunity to have 50 we can have more than 50 referrals but we can have 50 referrals who then are able to engage in the um the support support provided by cartwheel. So years ago when we started cartwheel um one of our measurements or one of our questions I think was well are we going to use it? Are we going to be able to use this and will we use all

of these? We are seeing we absolutely are and um and 94% of students in Westford say they enjoy meeting with their cartwheel therapist. Uh it is a virtual service. Um so far over 700 total sessions have um been delivered to students and cartwheel tracks this data nationally and this is seen as excellent engagement. So, not only is this a testament to the work we're doing um with our counselors and with WA, but it's a testament to you folks as parents, as a community willing and um open to accepting this support and most importantly the students themselves. Um the most important the students themselves willing to to accept the help and engage in that help. And um you'll see there in blue we have another link that you can take a look at some of that um cartwheel data. Um just just uh take note of this. I I've been I've been tricked by this before too. Some of the cartwheel data in there is um is sort of like uh the national data. So when you're reading through it Yeah. When you're reading through it, just just make sure you you take note of uh of of the Westford data. Um, obviously it can be helpful to see the national data, too, but we I think we'd like to focus on what we're doing here. Um, I touched on this a little bit before and so had some of our principles who joined us here tonight. Um, I did just want to talk about some more nuts and bolts parts of of our special education world. Um, we did have a new IEP this year and um, it was to me now we see that it was it was um, what's the right phrase? maybe a a tad over we were all overrated our nervousness related to this because people have done such such amazing work of sort of transitioning to this new document and um that's not only teachers

our APS and team leaders again it's parents and it's the community responding to the document and um understanding that there might be challenges around it and understanding that it was new for all of us. So, I know I really appreciate the community's work there and um I really really appreciate how hard our staff has worked here to understand this and make it meaningful. Um like I said, we have a new software um one of and the reason why I mentioned this because it may seem that it's sort of relevant only to our staff, but the new software has a digital signature. So, hey, that's big news in the world of special education since um so much of what we've done over the years has um been paper has been US mail has been slowed down all of that. So, I think that people have been really responsive to the digital signature um aspect of that. Um our admins here have done such a great job with that. Uh we still are offering folks if they want PDFs, if they want paper files, you are still absolutely able to do that. But I think it's really sped up some of what we do in terms of um in terms of um signing IEPs, generating consent, all of that uh working out together. Um we are almost we are fully offering in-person meetings here in Westford. Uh many families are taking advantage of those. I always prefer them. Uh myself for me obviously we also love to have the virtual meetings as well. We want to be responsive and respectful of working parents um working parents schedules uh parents who travel um parents who um uh who just find that is an appropriate option for them. So we will always be responsive to families and what they

want. we will never demand um a or we will never ask for um a particular meeting in either in either form. So we we we always leave that to the parents and and be respectful of that decision. Um like I said, we we had a training packet created. Another um another um another handbook or brochure we're really excited about that we're in the final uh phases of just putting a bow on is our parent brochure. And um I actually have a scheduled meeting on that tomorrow morning to be able to just sort of take a final look at that. And that's another um document we'd like to circulate on the website, make available to parents. Um again, with transparency and clarity being our central goal, um having parents fully understand their rights. Um a parent could be new to special education or they can have a they they can have no knowledge of the process. And to me, I see myself as a resource to be able to educate parents on that and not to just sort of hide or obfuscate or just I I don't want to do that. I'd rather say to parents, hey, this is the process. This is what happens. This is what we're here for. This is what we're trying to do together. So, um so that's really important to me. So, we hopefully uh will have that done by the close of the year. And we're really excited about that. And once again, that's our that that's our team leaders. I would love to I would love to take credit for that, but it's the tremendous work that they're doing on the building base level and that we're doing collaboratively. Um just some just some staffing updates and um I'm often asked by parents about professional development, what we're doing together as a group and um and so couple couple things here. First is we have created a budget neutral um position for the assistant director of special education. Those of you here have known that we've been uh we've been um working on that all year. We're

really excited about that. Uh just a few things with me. Obviously, uh made us back up the process a little bit with that. Unfortunately, we were hoping based on our original timeline to pretty much have the offers this week, but we're now having um we're having interviews start uh Friday of this week. So, we're really excited about that. And we do have a uh we do have a um a parent volunteer for that. uh for that interview committee as well, which is really exciting. Um and uh at the risk of rushing you along, you've given us a lot of information. Your next couple of slides are things that we've been talking a lot about. All right, let's do it. So, I'm just saying like the so you can specific improvement plans like the the restorative practices and thing. I think it's great that you have it here so somebody's reading through this, they'll see it. But I am get to questions. I have no problem with that. Um, so why don't we do that? Uh, you can scroll down and please, uh, 16, 17, 18, 19, you can take a look at those slides. Uh, you're always welcome to follow up with me during office hours or a an email and I'll happily answer any questions, but if folks have questions now, let's let's open it up. On that note about office hours, Gerard, how's it been going? Any resources that you need there to better expand on? Um, no. It's been um, thank you very much, Bill, for asking that. It's been really, it's been incredible. It's, it's been great for me. Um, and and it it it allows me an opportunity to meet with the community, to meet with folks, to hear their concerns. Um, we do both options. We do virtual and in person. And um I will have some week where jam three straight and then I'll have other weeks where um where I might may have one or two uh parents, but they have been consistently they've been consistently filled and um it's been really great. But no, don't don't really

need any help there. We have it locked in. We'll keep them in place during the summer as well if that's convenient for families. But uh yeah, thank you for that. It's been awesome. Great. Other thoughts, other questions? A lot of great information here, a lot of great successes. I'm just curious uh what your biggest challenge of the year may have been. Yeah. So, um um you have the rest of the night, Tom. Uh so, it's uh it's budgetary concerns. It's really hard. It's um and it's not exclusive to Westford. It's uh but it's budgetary concerns. We've heard over the years, we've talked about this at length here as a group and we've all been very transparent. Uh transportation very challenging. Um out of district placements very challenging. So those those uh budget concerns are probably the hardest for us. And then honestly and this is sort of a macro thing too is um staffing can be really hard. Um, I wonder sometimes if the burnout in special education or the challenges we face in special education make it hard for us to hire. Um, I have read tangible data about the number of um, special education uh, requests for licenses have and Bill might have some knowledge of this too have dramatically decreased in the past 10 years. And that's data that's provided through us through DESIE and their um online licensing portal. So that's been really hard for us. And if we have someone uh if we have a position open up um you know maybe during the school year or there's or there's a long-term substitute, those have been really hard for us. And um I was I hit my head on the ceiling jumping out of my seat when Courtney told us about the um the job fair. And I was like this is such a good idea. So, um, so little things like that. And I think together

as a community, we're always working together, reaching out to one another. Um, if some of us have an interview with a candidate, um, that we feel like would be a great candidate for another position or another school or if we had we were down to a final two choices, just everybody sharing and collaborating with that. So, I think those have been the two hardest things. Yeah. Thank you. Other questions? Um, you'd mentioned the potential for Panorama or Wavefinder to p potentially be the district model. Um, I know it's, you know, being that KTO to five pilot, but, you know, make sure there's some care and attention paid to six to eight and our WA as well because I think that's going to be lend a lot of data, especially as we talk about um, you know, the mental health, our wellness, and, you know, all those indicators. So, yeah, 100%. It's it's a great point. Um, it's a great point, Bill, and and I I I think when we come back with our meeting with Wayfinder, we want to be able to ask that. We want to be able to say like, hey, because Panorama is great for the upper grade levels and for, you know, secondary schools. They have some great stuff in there. Um, so I want to make sure we're meeting the needs of both. And that's a that's a good reminder. Anyone else? And it is a great video. If you haven't seen the video, it's the best buddies video. So, um I just wanted to mention I really appreciate I lost what slide number it is, but um under the new new IEP, you you were very straightforward by sharing a frustration. And I think sometimes it's easy in these slides to only come to us with highlights, but I I really just wanted to remark on how much I appreciate you bringing all the warts, too. So, thank you for that. Um, sure. And and again, I think that's part of of transparency and just understanding. Um,

and like a a sort of good analogy with that is the panorama verse wayfinder. Like you you you have to learn from your mistakes and there have been there have been challenges. There were some parts that were really frustrating um with that change. So, I try to do that. Yeah. Thank you. So, thank you. Just some feedback on the new IEP. Um, I think it'll be interesting to see what we're like this time next year because I know some of the feedback that came out of CPAC last last week during the meeting was there's still a number of families who haven't they're timing whatever schedule they're on. It hasn't hit yet. So, um it'll it'll be interesting to see kind of once we're two years in where everyone has gone through the cycle. Yeah. So, Katherine, great point. We had our um we had our uh special education leadership meeting. We meet every two weeks and we met Friday and we talked about that. Exactly. And our hope is actually it will just be significantly easier for everyone in terms of not only the creation of a new document and a new software but also having that having that new IEP having folks see it and um you know Desi did give you the the one year to be able to do that knowing that that was going to be the challenge but uh by June 20th we'll we'll we'll have had to have had it done and if we didn't there was a problem somewhere so we'll know that. Thank you so much. Any other Great. Um, according to our agenda, we're going to do graduation requirements, but I think Gerard has a has a part in the conversation with the timeout spaces policy. So, I was hoping we could switch those around so that Gerard could be a part of that discussion and then he could go on his merry way for the night. Maybe. Thank you. Appreciate that. Makes sense. So, um, we'll move on to a continued discussion of P5327 timeout spaces. I'm sorry. No, please. Well, just to say

that the public comment is still open until Thursday. Um, policy committee met this week and we also um wrote in with Gerard and I think also probably for Shaina and Jess was helpful to try and bring you up to speed. Um, and we did get some community feedback as well. So, um I actually did update and I sent that to everybody um yesterday the policy language. Um and I did put it in green um even though it's all new language. Um and so um some of the just changes just to highlight is we're we're suggesting as well um that the parent guardian be offered the opportunity to view the timeout space in advance um prior to signing um IEPs or behavior support plans. Um based on Courtney's your suggestion last week as well, we rejigged um the point about um having documentation. So we're saying that there is a recommendation from a licensed mental health professional or physician, but we've taken off the end of that um session that point. And again, as Jared and I um as we discussed, that can just be our school psychologists or BCBA who were recommending that um strategy for that student. Um, and then, um, we cleaned up a little bit on the logging, the documentation, and we're we're kind of calling it the Westford Public Schools timeout log to standardize that, um, documentation, um, which Gerard is is going to, um, be overseeing. Um, and we added in one extra piece on, um, regarding notification for parents. So um we've not um we if a the space is used that the parents or guardians must be ver verbally notified preferably as soon as

possible but at least within 24 hours and that written notification must be provided within 3 days. Um so again it's just standardizing the process for the communication piece. very small piece that we do at my program is multiple attempts, you know, to try to it might be something we think about, you know, like a call, an email that but we've noted that in our log, you know, so because obviously parents are working or they, you know, they miss the call and Yep. you obviously don't want a student arriving home from a day with without some indication. So, yeah, just one note on that. Um may want to clarify days. Is it calendar days, business days, school days? Y you know because you know if it happens on Friday and and school is saying school days and you know parents are going well I didn't get notified on Sunday. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No perfect. One part I looked at sorry the uh header the parental consent requirement. Yeah. I thought maybe that was a little bit too specific because your bullets are talking about a parental something being noted in the IEP plus the written permission plus some sort of recommendation from a um mental health professional. So I was wondering if maybe the header should be something a little bit more like required documentation prior to usage of space of timeout spaces instead of narrowing it to parental consent because our bullets are broader than parental consent. Good point. So I put like my I wrote require documentation prior to usage of timeout space or something like that. Gotcha. Anything else on that? So that would come back to us on May 27th for a vote. Yeah. Just a really small question. Um there it said uh there was a requirement for the timeout log to be reviewed monthly which was changed to frequency frequently which is just a little more

vague and open to interpretation. I was just curious. So, so I understand it and again using my own practice, we review uh restraints on a monthly basis, but you can review it more more frequently as needed based on the acuity. So, I think leaving it frequently allows for that. We know it's happening monthly, you know, at least again, you know, and and the thing is we have spaces in this district that haven't been used in probably close to three years is is some of our data. So putting a a monthly um on it specifically um didn't make sense in that in that way. So that's why we changed it to frequently. Yeah, that was the main piece there, Jessica. That's a really good question as well. And I think the the central part of that is that very positively we we we have stretches of time where the space is not utilized at all. So yeah, just had one one followup question. Um it's it sounds like this has been a very collaborative it's been re review or or creation um at the committee level and the administration level. I was just wondering how we circulated it among building based staff at all. Well, Gerard has been speaking with um with the various um staff members who would be kind of in the last year and a half really like this this policy is but nobody would really be surprised you think. Yeah. So that that is a that is Valerie honestly that's a really good question. Someone brought up to me the other day and if we're going to talk about ports and transparency was there a teacher on the committee and I hadn't thought of that. Um we did have a member of the community who is heavily involved in this world um who is a teacher in another district who is a is a part of this committee. Um and so that was helpful to us. Um but I think that that was something that you know reflecting back we could have we could have had

someone as a part of that. That said um we did just in our in our uh bi-weekly meetings we did talk about this together. We have been talking about it for a significant amount of time. Desi has released some information and I've really been working to try to share that with folks and get from the building base level um feedback and input from administrators um and teachers to find out just sort of you know the uh the language that we'd like to use and and also just on that as well Jared I know it feels like it was forever ago and it wasn't that long ago um myself and Sean Kelly who was also on the policy committee meeting. We actually went met with Gerard at um one of the schools and specifically spoke to the principal on that room at at great length um prior to kind of starting the writing process to kind of really get an input from that um staff member as to um their experience with it. Great. Yeah, that's a that's a good point. Thank you for that, Catherine. It does seem all jumbled together, but we did we did take tours of the buildings and the spaces. Okay. And um collaborated with uh building building staff and um uh administrators, teacher programs uh program teachers when we took those tours as well. So awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. I'm sorry I was wrapping up the presentation. Um any final thoughts on the policy? Okay, great. Thank you for weighing in on that discussion and for your presentation earlier. Really appreciate it your time tonight. All right. Thanks. Okay. So, I'll pivot then as well to P6110. Um, as you can see again, we have

updated um this uh the draft version again. Um, we completely rewrote the policy committee rewrote the opening paragraph because we just didn't like it. So, we decided now is the time to do it. It kind of came in hot and heavy and Jess you you'd noted it too. Um, so we had actually rewritten it. Um, so that's the change from our last day. And then um there was one or two tweaks we needed to do. Some of the math wasn't math thing. We fixed that. Um but the main point of our conversation or one of the main points of our conversation last week if you want to if you wanted to look at the end was the um annual review um component we put into it. So um and again we may want to change the header but we we reviewed that um and said each year the school committee shall formally approve the program of studies prior to its publication and implementation in the event of any substantial changes to the program of studies. Policy P6110 shall be reviewed to ensure alignment with the district's educational goals and compliance with the state standards. So that put into place, you know, a kind of a a potential spot in in this school in the school committee meeting year where, you know, when we're doing the program of studies that we may need to double check that we're still in alignment with the policy without using the word review and committing the the committee to an annual review. And what would that look like? what that would look like. I think the intent there is that and that was the intent originally is that you know we have had lots of discussions about how this committee has not been routinely reviewing the program of studies and this discussion has spurred that for next year. So I think codifying that in this policy is really

helpful. Um and without and and and as that as like an incremental change without further prescribing yeah what else will happen at this point like what before we've even lived it you know it feels it reminds me a little bit of the non-general fund guide book where we like piloted it for a year before locking in the policy right so we're kind of saying like okay next year we're going to talk about a program of studies review I don't want to further limit you know or furtherc describe that. Yeah. So, um, from a meeting point point of view, this is our third discussion on policy, the the draft that's in there, sorry, that's in the packet. Um, we are planned for a vote on May 27th. We obviously had two members um, exit the committee and two members join the committee. Um, so what I'm hoping for tonight is to really get a sense of where members stand on the draft. And at the moment, the draft has that senior DLT credit change as well as the PE reduction. Um, and that annual review. Um, and I'm hoping to get a sense from the committee on where people are with that draft. Obviously, um you all know that there has been a proposal to also increase um the VPA credits. So, I just want to kind of get a feel for where we think we're headed, if there are remaining questions that need to be answered, and how the committee um is ready for May 27th. Before we do that, could I just add a few things about the visual and performing arts? Okay. Okay. Um, I just want to talk a little bit about graduation requirements and what what they're for, the function of graduation requirements because they

rec they recognize that those things are important and their areas of studies going forward for students after graduation. They're there to ensure that the students are prepared for whatever comes next which may or not may or may not be college work, the armed services or other options. Is the intention of the WPS graduation requirements that students receive a well-rounded education? Who created the Mass Core graduation requirements? Mass core graduation requirement recommendations were created in 2007 revised in 2018 from BES or the state board of education. an advisory group compared composed of educators, students, guidance counselors, business representatives, and staff from the department of education and secondary education. And the department of higher education also contributed to its development. Mass recommends one unit of study in the arts, which is equal to the credit of one full year. Our neighboring towns of Chamsford and Littleton require one year of the arts for their high school graduation requirement. Westford's visual and performing arts classes include visual arts, theater, and music classes and comprise 58 different choices for electives. We are fortunate that Westford students receive a foundation in music and visual art from grades K to 8. However, at Westford Academy, there are many different types of VPA electives that students have never experienced before or at the high school level. High school students benefit from expression of feeling through music, art, and theater. Arts are an avenue for students to communicate emotions which not only are valid for art forms but have a strong mental health benefit since arts create a way to connect emotionally to self and to others. In an era of increasing emotional isolation, artistic collaboration creates a healthy culture for students, the school, and community. These artistic experiences are

remembered and taken into the world as possibilities for exploration and enrichment in lifetime pursuits as singers, actors, artists, and just as important as audience members, supporters of the arts, and possibly parents of children who are interested in pursuing the arts. Although some of our students may pursue these areas professionally, we need to consider the importance and enrichment of lives for those who may choose to spend adulthood doing community theater, band, orchestra or chorus and make who may continue to create through visual arts as lifetime pursuits regardless of college attendance. Currently, we require one semester of a VPA course for graduation completion. A semester offers one experience of a half a year in a single art form. Approximately 75 to 80% of our students pursue at least one year or two semesters of VPA courses. For this year, it was estimated that only 80 seniors did not meet the one-year mass recommendation. As a school system that is trying to give their students more choices, we have to ask, is an arts requirement of one year in the best interest of our students? There are students who may wish to participate more fully in VIPA classes but feel the pressure of other requirements or goals. There are students who may be afraid to try something new. There are students who may be discouraged by peers or family to make an additional semester of VPA a priority. Are the arts important enough to require high school students to engage in those subjects for one year instead of one semester? VPA is the only subject area in the graduation requirement that currently does not meet the mass core recommendation. Given the current draft of recommended graduation requirements if the VPA graduation requirement was extended to one year, students would

still have 22.5 credits in electives for free choice or nine semesters where students could pick their electives during their high school career. And I noted from the survey last fall that just 23 students out of 356 students voted to increase electives in their in the student survey. As a school committee, we need to discuss what is the best path moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I'd like to open it up to the entire committee um, with again kind of where you where you're feeling or if there's other information or data points you need before May 27th. So yeah, Tom, great. Thanks for volunteering. He's not in the hot seat anymore. Um actually something that you said at the last meeting Valerie kind of stuck with me this week or these two weeks and that was that um this pressure on flexibility really came to a head when um the essentially the the option to defer freshman year um came up. Uh and that had that had the impact of in the in VPA. I know I know this through experience um not from my kids but from other kids that we were very closely um working with it created the fact that they could not have the VPA for the full year. Um so I I just that with the new uh guidelines around health and wellness I'm just wondering if leaving health and wellness at the

12.5 still moving to some health and wellness model. uh but only having that requirement in the freshman year of like being able to take take the five classes over the four years, right? Still having four year having at least one class every year, but being able to have that flexibility that was um was noted as as part of the reason for for this discussion coming up. Um having that built in. So, you know, and again, I'm not trying to get into program of studies, but if we had that health and wellness model where freshman health was still taught freshman year, um, or those topics were taught, I don't I don't know how it would work. I'm not in that, but Sorry, Tom, do you mind me? So, you're trying to suggest that you could defer something opponent previously. Sorry, it's 9:30. So, so previously, uh, prior anyway, I don't remember the exact year at this point because I can't math right now. Um, I believe it was fizzad could be deferred as a freshman, right? And then taken as a double as a full year of of gym sophomore, junior or senior year. Um and when getting in line with the must be taught every year, right, combined with freshman health, you know, that created a bottleneck freshman year. So, I'm just wondering if if there's the ability to meet the MGL, still have all of the curriculum that is currently offered, but still

offering flexibility somehow. So, your policy would be, let me just clarify, so make sure I understand what he what he's saying. So, from from 10 in the draft, you would go back to 12.5, right? but sort of reinstitute the potential for deferral, right? And at the same time, are you suggesting like something new like a substitution or No, no, I'm not I'm not even getting into substitutions, but still looking I mean, we we're already at the 10 at the 10.0 and I I'm sorry to throw something new in now, but at the 10.0, No, we're already asking for a redesign of their curriculum to be a health and wellness model. I'm just wondering if we still get that health and wellness model covering all of the the requirements of the new standards, which we haven't digested yet. Um, but still offering that flexibility. What I was what I was going to say was that my and Courtney I think might have a little bit more um memory of it but the the conversation around removing the deferral was yes because we weren't following the the law and it was also creating significant scheduling challenges right so like you would end up with I think there were times when I'm I'm making this up but I know it would be like 150% of the senior class ended up taking fizzed because they needed to that many students needed to fill that requirement at that time. And so I know that that was a that was a a challenge that was happening um and it was creating issues uh for WA in in general just with staffing as well too and figuring out the un well I guess it I would like to say it's unpredictable. It's unpredictable in that you don't know when students are going to make up

the the time. So, you don't know is it going to be a, you know, more students in the sophomore class, more students in the senior class, whatever. Um, it was driven, I think, primarily by the the fact that, you know, they weren't following by that that by allowing a deferment, you're not following the the MGL, right? So, like, how could why why would you hold on to that argument if you're doing that? But I I know it also created concerns and issues around the ability to actually schedule those classes and get and get students what they needed. if they didn't have it when they were in that grade. Um, but we could ask questions about it. Yeah. Does anybody else want to share their thoughts? Sure. Um, so the last two meetings I've been pretty vocal about keeping the fizzed and health uh curriculum credit requirements as is at 12 and a half. Um I think we've heard tonight a number of different data points and um you know mentions across our K to5 schools and their school improvement plans. Uh they're implementing a full uh two times a week wellness curriculum for next school year. We've talked about collaborative problem solving, how uh you know we're addressing behavioral conflicts uh across the district and that you know is a direct indicator of student wellness. uh the wayfinder pilot um you know connections to panorama and something that our uh wellness department our counselors use uh you know Gerard mentioned our mental health crisis. Um we received a letter from five eighth graders about um eating disorders and what the school committee could do uh to better support um our input in in that uh curriculum or or the the lessons and topics that are addressed in uh health curriculum. Um, it was the charge of the grad requirements working group. Uh, two

points. Uh, what requirements will make our students best prepared with the skills needed for college and career readiness after WA? And then how do we allow for more choice for students when selecting courses? Um, I am a proponent of a well-rounded, balanced, comprehensive, and broad curriculum. Um, I think the charge uh of Westford Public Schools uh is to ensure that our students wherever they go after um their time in this district uh to they're able to critically think, to process, to problem solve, to evaluate, to communicate, to adapt, to work as a team, and to develop the regulatory skills to address their emotional, social, behavioral, and physical wellness. Um, I, you know, I share the sentiments of the K to5, uh, principles and that they're addressing this wellness curriculum headon and I think, you know, they understand the gravity of these standards. Um, I think we've heard from our WA wellness department the gravity of these standards. Uh, we received an email in January at 60 students across 16 sections. We're averaging about 30 students a section. Uh we're we're not even talking about students with IEPs and 504s. Um essentially if we're moving from a five credit uh model to four credits, sorry, five courses to four courses. So 12 and a half down to 10, we're essentially talking about a 20% reduction in the department. Um and then can you clarify that just so it doesn't get misinterpreted? So so so five courses, right? So, if we're saying uh one course of fizzed per year plus right now freshman health uh were to be reduced down to four, let's call them

fizzed and health courses across once every grade year because that's the law. Um we're trying to take all those standards. Uh many of those are you know I think your point was you're saying it's a reduction in time. It's not a reduction in staff. Thank you. When you say a reduction, I think you can hear. No, we're not talking about this is that's not what this is. I didn't mean to do you. I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. But I think, you know, we're still considering um how many students are need going to need to be met by those courses, right? So, four courses now taking those 760 students. Um I mean, let's say it's less, right? We know enrollment's going down a bit. It's called 700 a year or sorry, excuse me, 700 a semester. Um, if we do some of the math, I think there is a lot to handle in that curriculum. Um, for those four years, we've talked about things like we could add to our uh to our WA program of studies. We've talked about financial literacy. We've talked about um uh social media and technology uh ethics, awareness, safety. Uh you know, we we could incorporate um you know, community service aspects. Um I I'm a firm believer right now that that we're rushing headlong into this. I think, you know, even to echo Lor's points, um the curriculum that needs to be in place at at WA should support the whole student. They have college, they have their adulthood to figure out, you know, where they want to specialize. And um you know, my my stance is that we we keep fizzed in and health as is. I'm

even a proponent of of adding another two and a half credits to VPA, too. Um I I just think you know the survey you know we um the working group survey neglected to ask ninth graders their input about their experience or um you know what what they would choose to do and yet we're talking about giving nth graders extra elective input you know to to pursue that extra elective. I just, you know, there are a lot of points here um that I'm trying to make that I that's how I feel. So, I'll go um I had sent an email to everyone as a citizen before I was elected about a little bit about my thoughts after having listened to this last few meetings. Um I think I'm close to your camp, Bill. I think that we have a lot of academic pressures already at WA on our students and I think removing a credit course gives some flexibility or pressures from home or from wherever or internal pressures to add on more academics in that time spot. And so I'm not a proponent of removing it without at least some I don't know compromise there. I understand some flexibility. So my question I posed as a public citizen was could we have the two and a half credits be elected either in PE wellness or in VPA so that they can decide Valerie you had said this something I think two meetings ago like this is good for mental health but not everybody's mental health is the same right and so some child may get that break from their schoolwork by taking a music class or an arts class or if you have no musical talent like myself maybe you want to do something that's more wellness related and mental health or

social emotional learning related. Um I absolutely love an idea of having something that's added on about financial wellness and I think we do not do enough of that with our uh young students understanding credit things like that. So that's a probably another conversation about how that could get implemented into a program of studies. Um but I would say as is I don't think that I am in agreement with removing that. Um, if we want to talk about flexibility, can we do something where they get to make a selection? Or maybe it's a DT because maybe there are some learners that need that extra time. But I would reduce it only with some guidelines or or roadblocks that say here's kind of where you can take that credit and move it. And so you have some flexibility, but not total flexibility. Because I do think a well-rounded learner is what we're looking for. And I think we do have a lot of pressures. And I don't want to put students in a position to be adding more onto their plate from an academic perspective and not being able to have that kind of downtime in their I guess. Thanks. Were you ready, Jess? Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that um you know if we were trying to if our charge was just to find a potential solution to allow for more flexibility then we have a potential solution and and you know but if our charge is really to think about also what requirements make students best ready for life after that's a much bigger discussion and I think that you know I appreciate Bill as you said you know the personal finance the ethics the digital literacy there's AI is coming down the pipeline you know what are the skills that our students students are really going to need. So, I think that probably needs a more rigorous look at, you know, all of the options out there. Um, yeah, I think the solution has to fit the the problem. So, if we were trying to solve a small problem, you know, I'd feel comfortable, I think, you know, going with a small adjustment, but

um it seems like we're we're actually wanting to consider a bigger um you know, issue here, which is are we really preparing our students for life after, you know, Westford Academy? Um and definitely I wanted to ask where are we seeing the request for more flexibility? Is it from our ninth graders that are wanting that or it's been from families for a number of years? Yeah. From all students? No, from from students at the academy from students at Westford Academy who are looking for more ability and flexibility within the schedule and it could be it could be at any grade level. I mean, you know, Tom mentioned one of them. Uh I know Katherine mentioned uh in a previous meeting just some of the challenges that students depending on what their IEP is requiring for them. they might not have enough um flexibility. So, right, it's I I do think that historically and I will say in my this is my 11th year here in the district when I came here 11 years ago as a principal at at the middle school, I was already hearing from families who were transitioning to the academy who would be upset about not being able to access the courses that they wanted to be able to take. And so what just what does that look like? So that's where we started talking about is is there enough flexibility in there? I know there's been criticism as to whether well is that really you know um something that is our that that's that's a priority for us. And I think as we are trying to meet I think our students mental well-being I think we should be talking with families and students about providing the flexibility. So that's kind of where my feeling has come from. It philosophically and in theory, I agree with many of the things that have been said, right? And I've said this before already. I I've been an artist my entire life and I I believe wholeheartedly in

it. I am struggling with increasing anything. And you you just listed five courses that would be awesome to have. There's no room in student schedules for those courses. And so if you're increasing the or keep keeping it as it is or increasing it in some way you're I I'm worried about you're not seeing the unintended consequences of that. I what maybe to summarize better can we look at the wellness curriculum the fizzed and health standards a revamp of our fizzed and health curriculum at WA and again like you know I'm guessing that our wellness teachers at WA have not had a lot of collective time to sit this year and talk about it with all the other PD offerings going on. Um I'm sure it'll be on the agenda uh from from Mr. forumi uh because this is being so talked about. Um, but I think we have an opportunity to reshape the path a little bit. Uh, and and you know, address the standards, talk about what what we envision the Westford student to leave here as. One other thing I'll just just if I could just add this one thing because I just want to make sure you said it before is making sure that everybody's also aware that Desi right now is is looking at since the MCCAST has been taken off the table. The governor along with um the previous commissioner has put together a graduation requirement statewide council that they are doing that work right now. So there's another thing to consider maybe not making any changes and waiting to see what that says or making a but I'm just saying throwing that information out there for when does that get finalized? Is it like a year or two? Let's see. I don't know exactly. They've been talking about I mean they're doing right now they're

doing listening tours right now. Just want to make sure everyone's had a chance to weigh in. So why don't we finish out the Can I just you know I appreciate all the feedback tonight. Um I do think um Dr. too. As you said, I also came in this evening going, you know, this is a conversation that really should be, you know, including um Dan Tumi, the curriculum coordinators, and there is a place where we leave it as is and that maybe we revisit, you know, giving more time to get some more feedback. Um, you know, and Jess, you you mentioned about kind of what was the actual original charge. um and maybe that we are very specific on what that charge was. I mean and to get that flexibility and and that maybe they can we can work more and with the program of studies, you know, when that comes to us in the fall at some point that maybe we revisit the conversation. But I think I I just felt I really needed to make this point. I you know and and Larry and Bill you know in theory I totally agree with everything you're saying you know in a perfect world that's exactly what we would be doing but in practice unfortunately that is potentially hindering a number of students and I have had you know Dr. to you mentioned it and I've said it again before. I have had numerous conversations with a variety of different parents since pretty much my day one involvement in CPAC four, five years ago at this point. all saying the same thing about how their kids on IEPs or the students on IEPs in middle school and the choices or um offerings, you know, that happen in middle school and the impact that has

on them in their high school. Now, I haven't personally had that experience um for a variety of different reasons, but what I can tell you as a parent who has students on IEPs, it's not an easy path all the time. And you look at a lot of other students a lot of the time going, you know, they get to make choices or things come so a bit easier for them or there's not always a hurdle. And so I think at this moment in time until maybe we can look at the middle school and and have time to maybe rejig some of the situations that we're creating in that ninth and tth grade. Um I think the flexibility is something key right now that we need to be doing for these students who life is hard, you know, for a number of these students. don't get me, you know, um they're not the ones getting awards on award night. They're not typically, you know, always captains of football teams or whatever. And so I think if we can create some flexibility for to just to help them graduate, I think that's where we've got to stop and think, what does equity mean in our district right now when it's not perfect? And and yes, in theory, we would have all of this. I completely agree completely agree with with with the idea of a full-ranged student, but when our system is imperfect and it's actually negatively impacting a number of students who already have potentially had, you know, a lot of hurdles to cross, what can we do right now to alleviate them? And and and that's really where I I have to to come back where on the flexibility component. So, we're come we're looking at the class of 2030. Yeah. That gives us a whole another year before these kids would come into potentially new

graduation requirements. Is there something we can do in the meantime with the middle school situation to make it easier? I think those are bigger conversations about math and requirements and leveling um outside and scheduling and scheduling. Um, so I guess it's the hard thing about being chair is I don't want to speak first. So I was trying to, but my brain kept leaping in at at different points that people were making. And so I just want to make it clear how I feel um as one of seven um that my guiding light is flexibility. It again I think it's something I've heard every year that I'm on here. it comes up in different ways with VPA with um students from middle school limitations in their schedule. Um and that has been my my personal uh lens for the working group recommendation and for this um policy review. I don't worry about academic overload. I think that's an advisor that's a place for advising not for hard coding it into policy. I think we have asked staff to pivot across the board in all levels, whether they're moving buildings in the last couple years with the budget changes, whether they're moving buildings or grade levels. I think we're giving a year to look through this curriculum thoughtfully. We are the what, not the how. And I trust our experts to look at that curriculum and do it well. And they have a year to do that. I don't feel like this is a rush. I actually kind of feel like the VPA is a little bit reactive because the PE the PE has been a longer conversation for us. Um, and I do support that in theory, but I think it's not a change I support right now in this moment. I see this as a long game.

I think we are starting a process that has a yearly review of a program of studies. I think we have heard the willingness to evaluate schedules, to evaluate levels, to evaluate gate gates, I guess, that happen for students of like you took this in seventh grade, therefore this is your sophomore year schedule. I think there is overall a willingness to evaluate all of those things and I think that will come with time and I want to let that play out. The statewide timeline who who can predict, right? I I am perfectly comfortable being honest that our ma that we are 80% of mass core for VPA. I think that's I'm okay with that at this moment in time. I think long term it's something I want to keep revisiting. Um but again I think what what we could make a like a incremental moderate change of something that has come up time and time again that could impact next year's freshmen is a 2.5 change for PE and that feels measured. I loved that quote um that phrase you used Jess about a solution matching a problem. Um to me that the first problem is flexibility and I think that 2.5 credit is the first solution for that. I hear the discussions about whole child. I think that could all come into play with our next year STIP too. Yeah. like I I guess I just see this as a much longer discussion, but what's in front of me today is whether or not to make this change to the senior DT credits, to an annual program of studies review, and to reducing PE 2.5 with the full intention that those standards in

whether it's the yearly um merged program idea or the freshman wellness idea, I tr fully trust our experts that that is going to be a thoughtful um incorporated plan forward in the curriculum. And so that's my personal take as one of seven. But I am at the will of the committee. Um I am I am just uh uh one vote in that in that stance. Um and so as chair, what I'm really looking for though is how do we get to a decision at our next meeting? Um, I'm still hearing a a lot of split. And so what I'm trying to figure out is what do we do next? I mean, and I I just want to add to because this is something that's been on my mind is that sometimes we get this critique that all of our decisions are unanimous and and sometimes it seems like, oh, you guys have already decided something when you walk in the door. This is this is a result of open meeting law. We are not allowed to discuss this ahead of time. This is why all of us have all of these two weeks of thoughts or or a year of thoughts that we're sharing real time and trying to figure this out as seven individuals. So if this it looks uncomfortable, it's because it is uncomfortable and that's okay. Just want to add that. I mean for a policy committee I think you know it it doesn't sound like there's any kind of tweaks regarding any of the language or I I have like just a few grammatical but I can take that offline with you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've got like three or four like some sentence structure changes that I would recommend but we don't need to talk through that I think all of us together. Perfect. So the really the only thing is is that it's the PE it's specifically the PE and health and the VPA um which I think we have we should

be looking at them different in the sense that PE came out to us through a recommendation of um a working group Tom was involved the principal was involved whereas I don't think VPA maybe has had the same level of um a working group and and so you Do we potentially park both of them or do we park VPA and ask for more or do we feel, you know, we we be ready to make a take a direction on on PE? So, um, so well, I just I wonder if a way forward is to clarify what our expectations are for this decision. Like I'm wondering if we're trying to do too much with one decision. Yeah. and if that might be helpful and perhaps to commit to um some other mechanism of addressing the larger question next year and I the STIP is a is a great way of doing that. There may be others. Yeah, couple things. Um so the discussions uh so VPA was brought up to the working group and um varying levels of support. The other thing was uh there was a lot of discussion about community service being a requirement of graduation. There was um discussion about financial literacy and you know a lot of those discussions came back to some of those things are already embedded in curriculum, right? So to to add another class to address those was removing that flexibility. um but that those topics are there. You know, I fully agree that we need to be headon to AI, right? But that's again most likely going to be embedded

in every class because we need to teach our students how to write papers with the fact that AI is there to write it for you. Um yeah so um I think the I think the only concern that I have is that from from department to department there is a strict focus on those content areas and I think fizzed and health wellness provides more of a umbrella um you know capture point and and you boots on the ground sort of mentality where you know there's frequent check-ins on students um they're they're meeting whether it's whether long-term it's it's a classroom gym outdoors hybrid sort of model I mean this again that's that's for wellness to take in the future but I think there is a my feeling is that there is a an urgency right now to make sure that our students are being seen that they're being addressed that we're thinking about all the different components to ensure that they are um they're leaving. But I don't think that's a zero someum equation. I mean I think we we've heard and I'm sure we'll hear it next week next meeting with the 6 to 8 and the 9 to2 about embedding seal in like all of our staff all of our interactions. We just heard it in K to 5. I don't think reducing 2.5 of PE is this zero someum reduction in seal you know. Yeah. I I I think it's I'm just going to go back to the standards again. I think it you know the charge that we're asking on this scale. I mean you know our our K to5 leaders addressed it. Um they're shifting from one day a week to two days

a week to address the standards but they're doing it in the fall to be fair. Right. So like we're we're saying like this proposal is for next September at WA following September, right? Sorry, next next 26. Right. But while the elementary is proposing a change for September, right? So that I think that's a data point to me that says this is not rushed. Yeah. For our curriculum coordinator has backed this. Like I I do I Brian's not here to say I will tell you Brian is not an advocate for this reduction. Yeah. Okay. He's he's just said this is what it could look like. But he he even in I mean he was in the working group with you. He never said we should be reducing wellness from 12.5 to 10. So I want to be clear about that. He's never said that. He's just said when asked the questions what might this look like? How what are different ways in which we could do this? He was a part of that conversation. Yeah. Right. And I I think it may have been received by as and I'm not trying to speak for anyone. Um well, I'll speak for myself. It it was received as this is an acceptable model. Um and that's how I received it. And again, we're the what, right? Right. Like the the model, the delivery is the how. So, but to to follow on that, like upon reflection and looking back at notes, I I do think I may have received that message less clearly than than I would have liked and that may have informed a different outcome for me. Sure. I I am going to say, and Tom, this isn't this isn't at you. I'm kind of frustrated that we gave this charge to a working group and I don't feel we've really gotten clarity in one sense. A recommendation was made to us in a

presentation in December and yet we've heard so many different bits of information come out of this working group that it doesn't sound like there was actual clarity in a recommendation. And I'm kind of disappointed that well I'm going to interrupt because I I I don't think I understand the frustration but I don't think that's a fair statement. They because I what Dan what principal Tumi presented was the vote told you how it was like seven to three. This was the recommendation. This is what I the way I took it as the this committee after after having all of these conversations looking at all of the requirements and looking at different things they came back with that this was I think he even used the word a compromise right and this was something that seemed to be um it seemed to be a reasonable compromise and then since then though we've heard a lot of information so now you know I think like there's holes being poked but I think that's I think and I think to some you So, there's been some confusion and I I respect the fact, like I said, I met with the wellness department. I met with the VPA department and they expressed their dissatisfaction about not being a part of the conversation. I will respectfully say that's why we have a curriculum coordinator and that's why we have administrators to to to do some of this work as well too. Um, and so I feel like I I understand how frustrating this has been because this conversation has has gone on I think longer than people had anticipated and even if anybody was paying attention at the beginning and we did this and then it became a policy thing. So it then is like we're having this conversation now instead of even back when it when it first came up but it went from a recommendation from the group to the policy work of the school committee. Mhm. Um and that there was a lot of discussion about that as well within the working group was what was you know it the policy the working group was not to write the policy it was just to this is

what we believe you know and yeah it was a consensus and that's right and that's why the policy group took the recommendation and put it in there. So it's not that the policy group is advocating for this we took the recommendation. Yeah. from the working group. How how compatible are the wellness and physical education standards? They're it's one standard. If you if you read the if you pull it up, it's the I think physical health and wellness state standards. Okay. Um so it's actually and it's they're integrating them. you'll see on their program of studies um that they're now calling it like a wellness block. And so we're the credits are not necessarily your traditional I'm in Jim doing bad mitten, right? it it's encompassing all these other wellness type of because I think that that's where you kind of make that the whole whole person a little bit is not just we're requiring somebody to who maybe doesn't enjoy physical education in that same traditional way to have a little bit more of a well well-rounded program and I think to Bill's point that's where you can maybe look at that curriculum by those curriculum coordinators to integrate whole person wellness from financial literacy like there's places where you could stretch those components based on the curriculum guidelines obviously and I and I read this I read the standards you know and like I as I was reading it I and I actually spoke to Brian about this after I'd read them going have have you had a conversation with like ELA and um you know maybe history or civics or you know some of the other teachers I was like because as I was reading these standards there was some actually that really stood out to me that these could

absolutely be touched upon across curriculum. Um, and that's really the best way to to be teaching is that crosscurricular approach. So, um, you know, I I just think it would be interesting for you to to have a look. Yeah. Just want to bring us back. Um, this diving into the standards is excellent background information, but I would say definitely crosses into the how. Um, and I want to bring us back to the what. So, um, uh, I guess I lack of any other narrowing of thoughts, we have a draft that we will re revisit um, May 27th. And uh are we ready are are we ready to vote in two weeks? Is there more information that someone needs? I don't think that there's for me I don't know that there's more information that we could get in two weeks because it for me it would almost be the what does the curriculum like what is it even possible but it whatever we decide it's going to be it's I I do have faith in our very capable and professional staff that they will make it happen one way or the other, right? Um, yes. I suppose the question is do do we have do you have clarity in it or Yeah. Do we keep it as is and look to vote later on in next school year if you

needed more groups or so? So I think in that option we would vote to change all the things we've already agreed on, right? And we would just leave the credit for later just to clear. Yeah. And then we could sit down as a school committee and give a very specific, as Jess was saying, you know, like you said, what was the actual initial charge? What was the initial problem? Maybe we sit down and put a very clear um charge together to to say this is the information or this is the issue. You know, you present it as is and it either votes for or against is the other option. This is the recommendation of the working group. I was going to say it's understanding what does the vote mean? Yeah. and it just votes and either it votes up or it votes down. Yeah. Well, it's the graduation requirements policy. So, we do need to pass some sort of a graduation, you know, I would for 20 for 2030. So, we're talking not this one year in between. And we're talking the freshman at 26 27. So, um yes, with the competency determination in there though, I know we voted on that. We already voted on so I think we're covered for that. I think you're saying everything else in the policy though goes into effect this year other than the graduation requirement. Was that the only change? Was like I'm trying to remember. Were the electives Was it just some of the changing the the the numbers 32 and a half? Yes, we're changing the up the senior giving seniors. You know what I'm saying? Requirements one last semester. The policy can say whatever we want it to say, right? like whether we want the DT to take effect by the Right. Yes. That's what I I'm trying to figure out is are we even okay with voting on that and leaving the credits to a later stage. I feel

like this has been a long time coming. I'm I would be in favor of the 2.5 reduction. So, I I think that it it needs to come up one way or the other right at this point. Um, and I'm reminded of one of the things that was stated at charting the course, which is that we may differ personally, but whatever is voted on, it is the decision of the school committee and we stand by it. Right. Y um and and I think we'll probably have some more spirited discussion in two weeks um around this. Um okay with those closing remarks uh at 10:15 I would look for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All in favor?