School Committee - Regular Meeting

Happy stars. One second. Great. Thanks everybody for your patience. As we get back from executive session, our first order of business will be to um stand for the pledge of allegiance if you're able. I aliance 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. Thank you. So, just to reiterate, this is the school committee meeting for Tuesday, May 27th, and we will start with our consent agenda. There were meeting minutes and budget transfers. Any questions on the consent agenda? All good. Motion to approve the consent agenda for May 27. Second. All in favor? Thank you. Next up is public comment. A reminder that public comment for any item or topic on or off the agenda is always available near the top of the agenda for individuals to share their thoughts. Speakers will be limited to two minutes per person. Please use public comment even if you refer to something later on the agenda. Virtual public will be available through Zoom.

Please raise your hand and you'll be promoted to panelist and unmuted or in person at the microphone and please start by introducing yourself and your address. So if we if we have anyone in the room, please make your way to the microphone. Hello everyone. Um, Gloria Miller, 14 Hutchkins Way. Um, nice to see all of you and be back in the school committee room. Um, I try not to do this very often because as a former school committee member, um, you don't need to hear my two cents on everything. Um, but but on this issue, I feel really strongly. So, um, I decided I wanted to come tonight. I also did send you, um, an email. Sorry that it was last minute, but I sent an email this this afternoon. And um I am commenting on the proposed changes to P6110 for graduation requirements. Um I in addition to being a former school committee member um had three kids go through Westford public schools and they all had really different interests and really different experiences. And um in particular, I'm going to share the a little bit about my middle one um who was running a very demanding academic schedule um but loved music and she um made it a priority every year in her schedule and her guidance counselor knew this about her that she always wanted to make sure that she could be in a fullear orchestra class all throughout high school. and it was challenging some years. Um, and she was always anxious about it. She would put in her class schedule. She would get her schedule back. It would never have the right things in it. She would go into her guidance counselor in a full panic. Also a bit of an anxious kid. And her guidance counselor would say, "Whoa,

whoa, whoa. We got it." Would tear up the schedule, start from scratch, and would make it work. Every year that guidance counselor worked some kind of magic to fit all the pieces together that she was able to get the classes she wanted and orchestra. Now to make that work there were two procedural kind of exceptions flexibility that they had at their disposal. She was able to push gym as a freshman. So she didn't take a gym as a freshman. She took two gyms as a senior. That is no longer an option. Also, in her junior year, she had a large number of full- year classes, AP classes that were fully year, and the only way to make it work again was to wave gym for that year. That used to be an option. Again, it is no longer an option. I understand why both of those mechanisms were taken away because the guidance department at the high school wanted to better align with the state requirement of having a PE every single year. But understand that my daughter had flexibility a decade ago when she went through Westford Academy that current students don't have. If she was going through Westford Academy today, there is no chance that she would have been able to work orchestra into her schedule every single year and take all the academic classes that she felt like she wanted to. She wouldn't have been able to do it. And stepping into that orchestra room was her happy place. I believe in my email to you, I described it as her shoulders would drop. I actually had a phone conversation with her on my way over here and I told her that and she said, "Mom, you can't drop your shoulders. You have to have proper playing position. Your shoulders need to be up." And I was like, "Okay, pardon the metaphor, dear. How How would you describe it?" And she said, "The orchestra room was my happy place.

Every day I knew I got to go to my happy place. So I understand the benefits of physical activity. She was also a ballet dancer on point, physically demanding. She had plenty of physical activity in her schedule. She had other things of wellness, but being in that orchestra room was so important to her, and she never would have fit it in her freshman year schedule under the current policy. So, I hope that you take this opportunity to provide that extra release valve. Give our our freshmen, incoming freshmen, just a little bit more flexibility in their schedule to take advantage of things. Especially those incoming freshmen get so excited coming in. And I know I'm over time, you're going to cut me off, but they get so excited coming in because they want to take all these classes they've been hearing about for years, and then they get boxed in. So give them that little extra little bit of flexibility to make their own choices and and guide their own program. It meant the world to my daughter and I know it would mean the world to future students. So thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Do we have any hands on Zoom? Not at the moment. Oh, I do. Yeah. I have George. I'm going to promote you to panelist, George, so you can speak. So just give it a second and it should switch you over. He's just switching over now. George, you should be able to speak now if you just unmute. Hi, this is actually Patty. Apologies, the wrong name is on my Zoom account. Um, so this is Patty Hong for Birwood. Um, first I want to thank you uh say thank you to the school committee and the policy subcommittee for all the time they spent discussing the graduation policy changes. As a member of the graduation requirements working group, I'd like to share a few thoughts ahead of tonight's vote. Um, during recent SC

meetings, I've heard comments indicating that the working group struggled to reach consensus. That is true to to a degree. However, ultimately we did reach a consensus as reflected by the proposal presented by principal TUMI in December. The meeting minutes from the group show that the proposal combi to combine freshman PE and health was supported by principal TUMI Lauren Clark the uh WA director of counseling and other group members. I think I think it's important to highlight that WA guidance who are not tied to a specific academic department and more importantly have the most holistic understanding of the student body supported this policy change because of the flexibility it offered. The flexibility is quite basic. It gives freshmen access to an additional halfyear elective which includes introlevel courses like exploring computer science, intro to engineering, principles of marketing, intro to business, intro to movie making, foundations of art, intro to photography and elements of theater just to name a few. These are not the highintensity high stress classes that you may have been led to believe. They provide early exposure which matters when exploring interest in high school, especially since many of these are also prerequisites for other courses. Um, as we've seen, Tom created a great chart highlighting the elective opportunities available at each grade. Most of these elective opportunities are available for seniors. However, many collegebound students are expected to narrow their application decision decisions before the first quarter of their senior year before it ends. Uh, for those that haven't had a recent senior, WA guidance encourages collegebound students to apply early action when possible. Why? Because early action acceptance rates are often higher than regular decision and early decision, unlike early decision, early action is not binding. So early applica early action applications are actually due on or around November 1st and the first quarter of the upcoming school year ends on November 5th, which makes freshman, sophomore, and junior year electives even more critical for exploring and identifying interests. And during this critical period, most

students have access to only 10 half-year electives. Now, I say most because there is a group of students, however, that is even further limited in their access to electives, and that's 14% of the WA student body who receive special education supports and services. Many have fullyear uh academic support or study skills on their schedule every year. This reduces their access from 10 half-year electives to only four before their senior year. The proposed graduation policy is a step in the right direction for all these students, for these students in particular. I also want to remind you of the historical changes made to the WA policy, PE policy. I appreciate how far we've come with the new WA and WPS administration, but it's important to remember that PE policies went through dramatic changes without school committee or student parent feedback as far back as 2018. These were not official changes to the graduation policy, but instead were strict policies enforced during course selection. Prior to 2018, students were able to wave or skip PE if they were enrolled in seven in seven fullyear classes that year. This was a very popular option without tracking completion of annual PE requirements. Waving PE was actually not a compliant option and WA administration made a decision to remove that option. Students could however still defer or push PE to another semester and for years an overwhelming number of students doubled up on PE during their senior year to access half or fullyear electives before applying to postgraduation type programs. This created scheduling challenges unfortunately for the PE department and instead of looking at what was driving all those challenges without again without school committee and student parent input WA removed the option to defer PE for sophomores and juniors further limiting their access to half and fullyear electives beginning with the class of 2025. This of course severely impacted enrollment in fullyear electives and

continues to be a huge challenge for students today. The proposed graduation policy change is a small step towards bringing back access to WA electives across all departments. Lastly, I just want to make sure that the school committee not only considers the comments heard today, but you also recall the passionate comments made in 2023, 2024, and earlier this year by students and parents. I know many of you have not experienced the impact of the 2021 change in PE deferrals because you either have younger students or Patty, I'm gonna have to stop you there. Yeah. Thank you so much. Okay. Is anyone else? I think we've Oh, yeah. Great. Good evening. I'm back. I didn't plan on speaking this evening. Um, but I wanted to take a couple minutes. Um, if you see that I'm a little red and stressed out. Um, you probably imagine why, but um, I actually shouldn't be here right now. I uh I underwent a medical procedure this morning and uh money anesthesia. So I brought my chauffeur who's in the back of the room. My daughter is uh had to drive me um because one of the things that we do as a department is we show up when it matters. And um I do believe that tonight matters and the vote tonight matters. Um, as I said in in my first time up here a few weeks ago that if you did research on PE and students being active during the school day, you would know that it does help stress. Um, and it also helps to increase test scores, which I am not concerned about. Um, my own children would tell you that, but I know a lot of people here are. One thing I did hear uh two weeks ago was that someone on the panel was not concerned with academic overload. As a teacher who's in the building and I witness a pressure cooker

every single day for my students, I am concerned with academic overload because even some of those other classes that they may enjoy taking, they have homework. They have stuff that they will do outside of the classroom. They are not going to get that in PE and in health. We are the ones that are concerned with what they're going home to, what they're coming into. And like I said, we're the ones who are there when the students come talk to us when the bell rings at 155. Um, I know it's been a concern with CPAC as well and IEPs. one of my children is on an IEP and went through Westford public schools. And that was the rule and that's what we did. We knew we may not have one elective that we could take. And you know what? As a parent, we have to teach our kids that sometimes you don't always get what you want in life, and that's okay, too. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the room for public comment? Any other hands online? We're good. Okay. Right. Thank you everybody for speaking tonight. Um and if you're watching uh we are also if the audio is not great on Zoom, we are also live on YouTube tonight overriding um the select board live stream. So if that audio is better for you from home, please um feel free to switch now that the Zoom portion is done. Okay. Um we're going to move on to student representatives updates. Um so busy busy time right now especially for seniors. Um we had capstone end Friday which is very exciting. Um and then capstone presentations have been going today and then they will continue tomorrow. It's like the kind of first set of second part of the final like it's our birds. Yes. It's the first of the second part of like completing capstone. Um the second part is the

exhibition on Friday. It's 10 to 12 and friends and family of students are welcome to kind of come check out all the projects um which is very exciting. And then next week is senior week which is again like just crazy um filled with a lot of events. Uh there's Red Sox, we have the mock accident, we have um senior awards. I know this weekend is the um athletic boosters banquet. Um this Thursday is senior scholarship night. Um we are kept busy not even though not in school. Um, this Friday there's also the night of live salsa music. Um, and it's 6:00 to 8 instructorled. I believe it's in the cafeteria. I'm not 100% sure on that. Um, but um, I know Prof Develin, one of the Spanish teachers at school, has been has been promoting it and she's mentioned there's food and I know that it'll be a great time. Um, very exciting. We also have on Saturday the Relay for Life event. Um, that's 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. I believe on the track. Um, that will be really amazing too. I'm sure plenty of water. Um and then just kind of looking ahead, graduation is next Friday. And then for um the junior, sophomores, and freshmen, uh there are finals about starting mid June. They start on July 13th and take a break over the weekend, 16th to the 18th. So great. Yeah. Anything to add, Daniel? So yeah, last Friday the 23rd, there was shop masala. Um I heard it was a great time. There's food, drink, and uh many performances of dance of dancing. Um this Thursday the 29th during advisory there will be elections for uh just electing their class officers, student council members, student senate as well as uh stack for next year. Um right after uh the exhibition for the capstone presentations uh the seniors at least I'm not sure about the underassman but we'll be receiving our yearbooks. So that's always a great time. And then Monday, June 2nd, uh there's also the Westford Academy Journal of History event where essentially students who

have been who have excelled in their history classes and have written uh phenomenal uh papers uh they'll be recognized in which their papers will be actually published in a professional journal which is you know pretty amazing. Um there's also biocast I believe Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Yeah, it's June 4th and yeah, June 4th and 5th. And then lastly, uh, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls, uh, tennis, as well as boys and girls track and field all won their DCL championships, which is, you know, amazing. Wow. Great. Thank you so much. And updates from administration. Yes. Um, please, uh, join me in recognizing the outstanding work of the West Public Schools music department. This is the 12th straight year that, uh, we've been recognized as a best community for music education by the NM Foundation. It recognizes and celebrates the outstanding efforts of the entire Wester public schools community who've made music education part of a well-rounded education. Designations are made to districts and schools that demonstrate an exceptionally high commitment to and access to music education. And it's amazing that it's the 12th straight year in a row. So, we just want to congratulate and thank all of our phenomenal music educators. Thanks. And as Maddie and Daniel were sharing, um there's a lot of activities happening districtwide, not just at Westford Academy, um straight on from preschool on up. So, um I just watch your weekly newsletters because there's just too much to even to start to mention. Um the last time we met, I shared that we went to a job fair. Um and we were pretty happy that we have yielded uh two hires from that, both a teacher and an administrative assistant. So, we were pretty pleased with that overall and maybe there'll be more. Um, but this is our hiring season and that which leads us to the Blanchard Middle School search. Um, as you are aware, um,

Principal Hislip has resigned. Um, moving on to a new position. Um, and we'd like to thank the nine people who were part of our search advisory committee. We had 28 applicants which were um you know whittleled down to five selected candidates to come in last week to meet with us. Two finalists have been chosen to move forward. Mr. Adamano and Mr. Brian Curley. Both individuals will be joining us tomorrow at Blanchard Middle School for an opportunity to meet with staff and with families um before the final selection is made. So, we certainly welcome your participation as well as um the public's you said that was 28. And how many applicants how many came in for interviews? Five. Thanks. Great. Okay. Anything else? School committee updates. Just a reminder, we're over time. Okay. Great. You guys go ahead, Lori. Um I attended the West Cat board meeting on Thursday, May 15th. Um they're wrapping up their strategic plan uh overview with paper crane who are consultants. Um and they've decided to stay in their current location on Grten Road for another lease cycle. Um their current lease cycle or their current lease expires 123127 and they'll be there for at least another 3 to five years after that. Um it's not financially viable for them to move at this point. Um, also they're prioritizing their reporting as Westford's newspaper of choice, podcasting, broadcasting, youth programs, training of the public on the equipment, and fundraising. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? Okay, we're going to get jump right into our packed agenda. Thank you everybody for your patience and start with the 2025 2026 field trip proposal from the 2026

class officers. Please come on up to the microphone and introduce yourselves. And we do have your slideshow ready, so we'll put that up. Beautiful. Thank you so much. Here, we'll just gonna pull up the white. These chairs over too many. Thank you. Yeah, Dean Welch is grabbing you some chairs, too. Just more chairs. Oh, wonderful. Thank you. Okay. Just before they start, I just want to give a little bit of context. So, um, this past fall, Valerie and I met with the class officers because they had, um, some questions and some ideas about a a potential class trip, knowing that we had had conversations here at the school committee and I I had, um, made comments about what what should a class trip really entail. Um, they asked really thoughtful questions. I think we had a great conversation. They took everything that we said and they went and they have now created this proposal which they shared with me maybe a month ago maybe at this point. Um and I I well I loved it. So I'll just tell you right off the bat I I did love the trip and I was just so unbelievably impressed not surprised but impressed with how you took everything we had to say and you're like okay well we really believe in this so we want to make this happen. So, let's try to fold all of those concerns into a trip. And so, I said, I really think you need to come and present this to the school committee so that it has this public um viewing, but for your information, you're not voting on this tonight. So, this is an official, you'll get the slate of field trip proposals, some that you need your um your approval, some don't need your approval. So, that this will come to you with that full June 9th. Yes. On June 9th. So, you you'll see it again. But um I just wanted them to have an opportunity to share it. I knew that that WA was going to be here tonight doing the um their SIP and um handbook and thought this would be a great night for them to do

this. So with that, great. Take it away. Well, thank you Dr. J for such a kind introduction. We really appreciate it. Um thank you guys all for having us here tonight. My name is Kate Kelly and I'm the WA class of 2026 president and I'm joined here with our secretary Joanna, our treasurer, Sai, and our vice president Peter. Um, and we're just really grateful to have this opportunity to give you guys a quick overview of our retreat proposal. And um, as Peter's going to pass around and Sai's gonna pass around right now, we have little packets for you guys. So everything that we'll talk about will be explained in more detail through these packets. Um, but we welcome all questions at the end of the presentation. Thank you. And again, we're just very grateful for the opportunity. And when you're done, you'll chair the meeting, right? I think you're ready. Yeah, totally. She's ready. Awesome. Um, okay. So, just to get right into it, um, our why, so specifically, um, our class, like many other classes, um, never really had the opportunity to go on an overnight trip, right? Our DC trip was cancelled. Obviously, the Disney trip is long gone. And, um, it's always just been sort of in the back of our minds. And about two years ago, we started hearing a vocal population of our um students and our class um vocalizing how they were interested in this opportunity and having these off having these experiences. Um and as advocates for our class, we decided to buckle down and do some research on to what this would look like. And so essentially after looking into it, we came out with the goal of creating a trip that every single student in our class could attend. Because what we realized through doing this research is that not everyone has a thousand dollars to go to a trip, you know, even if it's just in Orlando. No, not everyone has $3,000 to go to Italy. And while these are incredible experiences that I know so many students that have amazing times on, not everyone has these um resources to do that such things. Additionally, a

lot of trips are unable to provide physical accessibility for students in wheelchairs or with other physical accessibility needs. And so we just truly wanted to create a trip that every single student in our class could attend regardless of their interest, regardless of their accessibility needs and create and foster an environment that all students would feel welcome sort of as a culmination of our senior year and this time together. Um and so we believe we've done that through the this trip to the Omni. And so just to set the scene with a little bit of details on the outline of our trip, our proposed dates would be May 26 to the 28th of 2026 would be our senior year. Transportation wise, we would be taking busing to and from the Omni. And we've budgeted in an ADA compliant bus to the overall ticket price regardless of if we will need to use it for student needs. Um, additionally, the cost. Um, we have a baseline cost of $610, which by no means are we saying is cheap, but in comparison to some of these other trips, we're very proud of how low we've been able to get it. And then based on the activities that student choose, which we will get into a little bit later in the presentation, that price could go up to $760. And the activities ranged from structured to unstructured blocks to really provide um an amazing experience and memories for our students in our class. And so we researched probably about a dozen different places in this process. We really we wanted to find a place that was far enough that it was interesting, but also close enough that it felt safe and secure. And we came across the Omni. And in no better words can I say that this is probably the best place you're going to find for a class trip. It's about 2 and a half hours north in northern New Hampshire. So it's far enough that it's a little bit exotic for students. They haven't been there before, but at the same time it's close enough that if you need to drive there, it's not an extraordinary um trek that you're going to make. Additionally, it's

very secluded and um surrounded by beautiful scenic areas and um national parks, but at the same time, you sort of have this microcosm of college living on this campus with all these different buildings and the freedom to sort of explore um on your own while still being in a safe and surrounded environment. Additionally, there's 24-hour free shuttle service at the Omni to get from place to place. So, that should ensures all physical accessibility for students. Um, there's also a variety of countless things to do at the Omni. There's pools, there's stables, there's arcades, you name it, they have it, basically. Um, and so we just really thought that the Omni encapsulated everything that we needed for a student-based trip. And additionally, they have experience in talking to their sales associate. They have experience in hosting high school students. So, this would be nothing new to them. Um, they have plenty of space and plenty of facilities for us. Um, so we really saw the Omni and found it as a perfect opportunity for our class. Um, and just a quick breakdown of our tenative itinerary. Um, so you guys have an idea. We would leave the morning of the 26 from WA. Um, and we'd arrive mid morning at the Omni. Everyone would unpack, get their things settled, and then they would go on what we call their first activity, their first choice activity, and they would have lunch with their friends at their choice activity, which we will explain in a second. And then that evening, they will have dinner um by themselves. There's about six different on-site restaurants that students can choose from, which again range in pricing based on what students need and where their needs are. Um then the next morning, we'll have a big group buffet breakfast, which is in this gorgeous um open air room. Um then that afternoon students will have their second choice activity where they'll also have lunch um with their friends. And then that evening will culminate in our group last dinner barbecue we like to call it which is at the Brettonwood stable um and it's catered and we'll

talk about that in a minute. And then that last night or the last day on the 28th we'll have breakfast again in the morning as a group. Um students will slowly and gradually get their bags packed and get back into the buses. Then on our way home, because we can't really pass up the opportunity to all see all these amazing scenic areas around us, we plan to stop at one of the many um beautiful parks nearby, have a opportunity for students to take photos, and really just soak up that last bit of sunlight um of their senior year with all their friends, and then we would arrive home early evening that day on the 28th. And so in going into this trip originally for a little bit of context we were going to sort of like an amusement park place. That was our original proposal. And what Dr. Chu had brought up which we had never even thought of but was honestly very considerate and we took into account was the fact that not everyone's going to enjoy a roller coaster. Not everyone's going to enjoy a hike. Everyone has different interests. And we really wanted to create an opportunity for every single student to feel like they enjoyed themselves on the trip and they weren't just being dragged to activities that they didn't want to participate in. So we created what's called the choice system. So we have seven different um well-ressearched activities which are again in detail on your packets. And essentially how this will work is as students are signing up for the trip, they'll pick their top choices for each of the first and the second day. And then based on first come first serve, they'll be assigned um their activity for that day and then chaperones will be assi assigned to groups to go on these activities. And it really allows opportunities for students to assess their own personal needs. Like if students feel that they really want to keep this financially accessible to them and they don't want to be spending any more than the baseline price, they can pick activities that are completely and 100% free. If students feel that they need physical accessibility and assistance in their activities, there are variety of options that even like the scenic gondola rides, you'll it's handicap accessible. So, you still get

to see all these beautiful views, but you have that accessibility for all students. So, we feel that these options provide um opportunities for every single student to cater and customize a specific trip to their interests. And um just to quickly go over the meal plan, all meals are covered in the baseline price of 610. So that includes all breakfasts at this very luxurious brunch that they set up. So it's an all you can eat buffet. And we feel that that really will get students off to a good start in their day. And you know, many students might fill up then and not even need lunch. Um so that really puts everyone in a good mood at the beginning of the day. And like I said, it's a communal breakfast. And then lunches will be on their own because students will be at their individual choice activities. And then the first night dinner will be on their own. So students can explore the different restaurants at the Omni. But the last night, like I mentioned, is a big class barbecue. So it's at the Bretonwood stable. It has um all of these they they'll basically cater a big meal for all of us. We have um outdoor and indoor yard games and it's just really an opportunity for all of our classmates to come together for one final time, get all the all of these memories and just really enjoy this last night together um in this dinner. And just a quick price breakdown. So like I said, the baseline price is 610. can go up to 760 based on the activities and that budgets in for the um the busing which includes the ADA transportation, the hotel stay um accounting for quad occupancy. Additionally um we accounted for the chaperones that will be on the trip. So obviously their um trip will be paid for through our funds and lastly the breakfast and the food will also be in that baseline price. And while we recognize that um 610 is a little bit

inexpensive compared to some other trips, it's by no means, like I said, a cheap trip. And so we as class officers will be providing 100% of demonstrated need through our um funds that we have raised over the past three years to any student. And that will be assessed similarly to how it was at Disney um on a case- by case basis. And so really just honing back into what I was saying at the beginning, we really just wanted to create a trip that allowed every single student to participate regardless of who they were, where they're coming from, where they're going. Everyone can just come together for this last um trip and really enjoy themselves. And that means we assess the physical accessibility with the um ADA compliant busing, the shuttle service as I mentioned, and additionally half of the choice activities are handicap um accessible. Like I said, the financial accessibility um you can have the baseline price of 610 and pick completely free activities. And additionally, we will provide demonstrated need. But then also we have the interest. So students can find their niche in the trip and find ways to customize this trip to their interests. um and enjoy themselves in the ways that they feel most comfortable. And lastly, like I said, this is like 10 years for many people of schooling with each other. And we just feel that this trip would be so special in so many ways. and to provide a trip that everyone can go on because people are going to have these amazing experiences when they're going to Italy, when they're going to Japan, when they're going to all these other trips, but one where you can have all 400 or all however many of us are interested in going on this trip together regardless of where they're coming from would just be so special. And on top of that, we feel that it's a really amazing learning experience and stuff that you can't learn inside of a classroom. It has budgeting. It has time management. You have to learn how to be in a dorm with someone else, how to live with someone else. many experiences that a lot of students in our class have never had. And so we feel that this will allow all students to have this

experience and ultimately through our research we believe that on at the Omni there is something for everyone. Yeah. So thank you guys all for your time. Is there any questions that we can address in regards to the presentation? Blown me away as much. Where can I sign up? Yeah, I know. Uh chaperon. All right. writing the dates down. C can I ask um have you shared this with the rest of your class? Like how much input have you got from your o from the other students of of the class of 2026? So we like like I said, we started this like two years ago sort of just as like a a dream really just shooting in the dark like how can we you know make this work. We had a trip originally proposed. Um, but we kept it really under wraps because like we weren't really sure how it would go and we know that it's been, you know, a difficult thing to overcome in the past just with all of the different student needs to meet. So, I really don't think anyone in our class knows too much about it. That's kind of like the big reveal at the end of the year. Well, they do now if they pay attention. I was about to say they're clearly all watching tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, our viewership viewership is through the roof. Junior class. Uh, yeah, please. A question on the financials. A very thoughtful presentation and really thoughtful project. I I really appreciate how you've incorporated choice and really thought about everybody's needs. So, that's that's awesome. Um, I'm just wanting to make sure I understand. So, the proposed budget that you have here for a student doesn't include the food that they would have on their own, right? Like the lunches and the dinners. So, um, we kind of took a plan similar to other trips that we saw. We, uh, for example, my brother, he actually went on the Italy trip and I and I talked to him about how they paid for the breakfast and dinner and then the lunch was on their own. And that ties back to the freedom aspect of the trip. So, that's basically tied to our trip. Also believe

um, since it's kind of more of a brunch style um, breakfast, it's you you could get like very filled and some students may not want to have like a full lunch. So this provides them that option to maybe have like a lighter lunch versus um someone who might want to eat more. So we just want to give people that flexibility and leave give it give them that decision. Yeah, for sure. And just to clarify the specifics, the baseline price does include both breakfasts and the last night dinner and then the first night dinner and the two lunches are on their own and not included in the pricing. Okay. Yeah. Might be something to just blank or put in an estimate for them of additional. We would let students know ahead of time. Yeah. Great. Bill, were you gonna say something? I was just going to say uh for four class officers, the work that you guys did is incredible. Um and you're also you're culminating the experience that you've had as a class and as a group, but also looking ahead too, like excited about a dining hall, excited about rooming together and uh as a quad room. So, uh, I think it's incredible and, um, I hats off to you guys for this. This is it's very powerful. You've really considered all the options. Clearly, you had good guidance as well in your comments. I I don't feel like we should take any credit whatsoever. I I we listened and we just said no a lot. No, I mean it was a lot like our original conversation was like a lot of like whatifs and to kind of give that you know that adult perspective that we have from the committee and like all the things that we worry about or that we hear about field trips. Um and so it's just so impressive like you said it well that like not surprised because I was blown away the very first time I met the four of you. Um they had little folders with all of our names on them and and like the handouts. So, I'm I'm not surprised, but it's just so um I'm a little speechless. Like, you really hit a home

run. I think it looks awesome. And I just think that I mean, you truly have just you've embraced that goal of can this be something that everybody could participate in. And every time you another question comes up, you look into it and you research that and you say, "Okay, well, wait a second. Is if if there you're just you're truly removing all the barriers, which is one of the things we look for, right? You're trying to remove barriers for this trip. It doesn't mean that people necessarily will want to do it, right? Because that now you even just said that. But you've really tried to maximize could this be possible for anybody in the class of 26, which I think is great. Thank you. And can I clarify? You mentioned that there's two teachers um advisor advising on this, but is there would be more chaperones? Just those two will take all three. I'm just thinking, you know, 400 or Melanie. Those are the class advisors. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We plan to have a ratio of about 20 students to one chap. Okay. Terrific. Don't worry, we will have enough chap, but any committee members can follow the same Corey process. Um, so anything else tonight? I mean, as you heard, the logistics would be that our our formal vote would be um on June 9th at our next meeting with all of our other field trips. But I just can't say enough how impressive your presentation was, how well spoken you all are, how thoughtful, just you're a great testament to what we hope we're instilling with the decisions we make. Sample of UDL right here, like hitting the benchmarks, inclusivity, voice, terrific. Thank you very much. Omni Resort was actually built uh with a cruise ship in mind. So that's even more exciting, right? It's like you're going on a big cruise on land. Cruise on land. Yes. The person who built it. That's interesting. It has a very interesting history. It's one of my favorite places.

Yeah. So you can learn a little bit about the history going all the way way back to when it was built. Uh it has some very interesting historical events that took place there. Oh, cool. Not The Shining, though. actually, which is one of the things we did talk about. I'm going to I'm going to channel their their uh execution and bring us back to our agenda. There you go. Thank you. Um and thank you very much for tonight's presentation and we'll you know follow along for June 9th, please. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. Well done. Thank you. So, moving right along, we'll welcome up the middle school administration to talk about um next year's well, current year's progress and goals for next year's school improvement plans. Can I um and as was mentioned, we also will send our best wishes to Mr. Hlip and your next chapter and miss you here in Westford. Miss Westford a lot, too. Nothing but love for Westford. It's been a great place to work and build my career. Good. Very grateful. I'm glad. So, feel free to I'm I'm sure you have some highlights or would you like to go through the um the slideshow? Yeah, sure. That's a tough act to follow, though. Yeah. Thanks a lot. A little bit of credit, right? They went to middle school, then high school. We did go to middle school. Did you also want us to talk about the handbook or is that separate? We'll move um we combined them to try to make the agenda flow a little bit better and because the changes felt on the same scale um if that's okay. So talk about the handbook after this. Yes. So why don't we focus on school improvement plans? Yep. All right. Great. Um so uh we our goal our first goal is equitable equitable student outcomes. Um, and the goal itself is members of the Blanchard and Stony Brook Learning Communities will collaborate to increase alignment of the

WPs middle school programming and practices while allowing each school to maintain their unique identity. This is not a new goal. This is something that is ongoing, but we've been changing the strategies within our goal. So, the first slide are actually two things that while they aren't disappearing, they are coming out of the plan because they really are part of our regular practice. The first strategy is having regular administrative meetings with the administration of the two the two buildings. We really are in very close alignment. Um and some of the highlights of things that changed and have been progress we've made especially in the past year are things like um the offerings of in our theater programs, general music, student the student center safety training, the yonder pouches um and our completion ceremonies. We've really um those have been some pretty big big and important um change uh accomplishments this year. And the second strategy is related to providing opportunities for collaboration between Blanchard and Stony Brook communities. This is built into their their their monthly everything and and some for some of our teachers daily everything. But so it is something that will continue as part of our practice. But we have a lot of professional development that is combined. Um we had some very significant restorative practices training last year and then continuing this year. We've already had one one session with well two sessions but one group went through and there'll be some again in June. Um we have a lot of uh PTO and just school-based you know within with the two schools together um events which have been really fun. Um especially our our volleyball game. We did win. We got it back. We got the trophy back from Blanchard. Um and our advisory councils have met uh together a couple times and we're trying to do that more and we you know we found that to be incredibly successful. So we expect to continue to do that. On the next slide, there are two additional strategies under the first goal of equitable student outcomes. The first um is a carryover. Both of these are carryover from last year's plan. Um continuing to

look at the way that we communicate feedback to our students and families. We've been um gathering feedback from from parents each spring. Uh we did that again this spring to get some feedback on the changes that we've made over the last two years to progress to reports and report cards. Um particularly regarding conduct and effort um and also some of the events that we have for parents to have an opportunity to come in to learn about the school open house parent conferences um to continue to look at ways that we can make those better serve our parent um community. Um next year we plan to continue by participating in the district report card committee um to assess the effectiveness of those um those documents. The second item is participation in another district initiative, the equity audit. Um we did meet with a representative um earlier this spring from AIR with a rep from our buildings to begin to talk about an action plan specific to Blanchard and Stonybrook. So that work will continue into next year. Um our second goal is a focus of sense of belonging. So members of the Blanchard and Stony Brook learning communities will promote a safe school environment where students and staff embrace diversity, feel a strong sense of belonging, and have an equitable opportunity to thrive. Um the first strategy is something that does continue in our in our regular practice, but it is something we're going to take out of the actual plan and that is really looking at the data. We do that as part of our practice. Um primarily looking at panorama um trying to use that panorama playbook um that we've you know we we have access to as well. And then just looking at different resources that we can help um all of our staff with our our you know diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Um just the way that we're we're helping kids feel like they belong in middle school, which is such an important part of middle school especially. Um and then the next two strategies will continue. So continued professional learning and learn in learnings learner centered approaches really focusing on our UDL framework. Um that is something that has been a huge focus this year at the

district level but at the middle schools as well. We've done um we've really had some some really really impressive professional development where our teachers were incredibly invested in diving into what does that look like in my classroom specifically focusing on um on the on engagement um and we will continue that um work on that engage on engagement as well but we'll begin exploring the representation framework of UDL as well with our faculty um and we already have sort of developed some plans for like the long range for our PD from the you know from the fall starting in August all the way through the last full PD day in May. We've got a framework very it's a framework. It's skeleton at this point but we've got a good plan. We have a you know to have that continuity. Um the third strategy there that will continue which is the second one that will continue is supporting community based sorry community building activities that celebrate student diversity, voice and choice. And this is something where we really try to get our students involved in um in our in our uh school community as in active active representatives and leaders. Um our ADL program um through Pride, our student councils, they're very very important parts of our um of our our programs at our schools and our kids are really invested and we really see a lot of positives from that. Um we have we really try to have community building assemblies and spirit days, lots of spirit at the middle school level. It's a lot of fun. um to be at I think Friday at our school. Oh, I can't say what it is. It's a secret one. I can't say that one. Sorry, I almost gave away the big secret. So, I will not say that one. But we have we're having a anything but a um backpack day in in June, which was a huge hit last year. So, lots of things like that. Lots of fun. Um and we, you know, continue to focus on neurodiversity week and really celebrating that with um with visuals as well as announcements with announcements that students participate in as well. looking at our project 351. We go back and forth between the two middle schools and then different um different ways

that we can um really help the community. So looking forward um this does continue. We want to keep it in our plan, but it is it is really an important part of how we um how we work with our students and we're looking for ways to you know see if there are ways that we can get our families involved in some of those afterchool activities. We've some of our stack members really brought that up is it would be great if we had opportunities for that. So, we're going to explore some ways that we can possibly do that and see what types of things people are interested in doing and helping out with. On the next slide, there are two more strategies under goal number two to promote a sense of belonging. Um, similar to the strategy Allison just described, this one is about celebrating student growth, achievement, leadership, and service. Some of the ways that we we do this, our honored citizens program at Blanchard, the panther card system at Stonybrook, our completion ceremony, um our student led service projects that we recognize and and help them coordinate. Um again, bringing students to the the center, giving them a voice in in these activities that they plan and celebrating their success. Um so, this is something that's coming off because it's really just become a part of who we are. It's woven into the fabric of both of the schools at this point and and very well established. Um so we'll continue to look at ways to to do those things. These are just um some of the specifics that have have continued um to be in place at both schools. Um and then an item that needs to continue is the exploration of the climate roadmap. Um we've been introducing staff and students when we have the opportunities in age appropriate ways, identifying where it fits into the curriculum and um looking to continue to educate and empower students to know where they can make a difference around climate action in Westford. And our third goal is uh social emotional academic engagement focus. So members of the Blanchard and Stony Brook learning communities will continue to integrate academic, behavioral, and social emotional supports and interventions to enhance student

engagement and outcomes. So the first strategy is really where we dove into restorative practices um over the past year and it's been um it's been really quite um it's been quite extraordinary actually. We both participated. It was fantastic. Um and we will be our goal is really to really look at ways that we can incorporate restorative circles into our advisories and our regular classroom practices not just as a it's not just a restorative conversation but also as a learning opportunity for students where everyone is really involved. So that is something that we'll be we have had a lot of PD on and we will continue to do so. One of the things that is um has been accomplished is really looking at um and we're pulling off our um pulling out but we are going to continue is using these um looking at pan you know panorama surveys, signs of suicide, all of the different types of um surveys that we look at. We look at that data all the time. It's really part of our practice. So it doesn't really need to be part of our um our student improve our school improvement plan. Um and then the third strategy is identifying social emotional and academic interventions really with the focus of trying to minimize that that social emotional pressure valve that you know all the the stress that we have. Um and so one of the things we hope that our later start times will help our students. One of the things that we also um implemented this year is the use of the yonder pouches um where students really are not as distracted by their phones. Um we've seen a big difference in the social media stuff that's happening during the day. we don't have that texting happening back and forth. We don't have kids being as distracted in classes um which has been really quite powerful. Um and the use of the student center really does support all students as a general education support. So that has been really those have been very very effective um and we we expect to continue um with those and our our implementation of yonder. I think that has been very successful and going forward we expect to continue to be successful. Just two more items for goal number

three and these are actually just specific to Blanchard. Um our student center we have struggled to gain some momentum over the years with staffing and access to the student center. We've um been able to hire a great ESP who Michaela Dolan who's done an excellent job. We've revised those buildingwide practices for communication and access to the student center and it's finally in a really good place. Um so we hope to see that access continue to expand next year. And then um we were in need of additional staff members to receive safety care training. We were able to train an additional three members. So that item's been accomplished, too. Okay. Thank you. Are you ready for questions or Okay. Any follow-up questions from the committee? Tom, uh just one on the yonder pouches. Uh I see you are looking to do surveys with uh students, families for the start times. Have you done any surveys similarly for the Yandere Pouches? And we've done the Yandere Pouch survey with with staff. Um we have not done them with students and families. I would say we certainly can. We hadn't we hadn't actually thought we didn't get a lot of feedback beforehand when we implemented it. We expected as we presented it at the beginning of the year, this is what we're planning on doing and we were ready like all right what are the questions? And I think we had I had one. What happens if they lose it? I like oh well that's easy. I can help you. So, you know, we haven't really had a lot of questions or concerns raised by that. That doesn't mean we can't survey. Um, I know what students will say, but that's okay. I think that if we really if we were able to dive deep in, I think that they would say that they are not as distracted. Um, 80% of our staff believe that it's a and that's combined between the two between the two schools say overall it's been incredibly powerful positive rather um experience for kids. Um, 52% say that we should continue, 32% said maybe. So, we're talking a high, you know, high 80s are saying either maybe or yes. And um most of the impact for teachers, they don't see cell phones in the hallways.

Um there's less teacher student confrontation about phones. So, there's not a lot, you don't have to tell them not to have the phones out because kids know the expectation. Um students are less distracted in their classes. Um there's a lot less drama with the phones and the texts and the social media during the school day. um you know so and 34% of the staff said there were no negatives at all with any with the use of the yonder pouch was which is that's a high number at when you're talking about possible negatives for something like this. Thank you. That's great feedback. Any other questions from the committee? I think just um on your first goal as a newer middle school parent I still still do feel like there are some discrepancies between the two middle schools. Um so I think while that first one um about like community events and parent home communication things like that um have made some strides I assume I think just keeping mindful of that moving forward especially with an administration change because those are really important goals that I think are still not 100% where I'd like to see them as a middle school parent. Um, and so, and I think I've heard that a lot coming into middle school, too, right? That a little bit of the inequities between the two schools. So, I think just kind of keeping that frame of mind, especially as someone's coming in to backfill the big issues that Yeah. Yeah. And and somebody might also coming in with fresh eyes, see different viewpoints that maybe get missed. Good point. Anyone else? Tim, I was just wondering if you could speak a bit about the student support center and how that's kind of running and what that looks like. Yeah, so our student center is a space um that's kind of separated from the building. It's a little bit more p private when you walk into our main main entrance. It's sort of down the hallway to the right and it's a place where students can go to um practice coping skills. They can bring schoolwork to

work on work on with the help of the ESP who runs it. Um, they can use that space if they're coming back from an extended absence to kind of get caught up and get organized. They can use um um they can color, they can practice mindfulness, they can just take a break and check in with the adult in there. It's just designed to be a welcoming, calming space to prepare them to go back to whatever class um they're they're heading to. And sometimes there's a there's a you know sort of a a gradual gradual release where the ESP will actually go into a classroom as that safe person as a student is returning into the classroom to feel like that's my person or they're here so I'm okay, right? Or if I need to go I just do the high sign and we take a break. So that also is a way to help kids get back into the classroom because that's really our goal but we want to make sure that they they're feeling comfortable and ready to do so. Some use the student center for a quick check-in and it's scheduled. Others, you know, will take an item down there that they need to make up, they need to work on because it's a better space for them. So, it's very flexible and fluid based on the needs of the individual student. But it's always staffed. You have that ESP, she typically always there or for the most part that's that's where she's assigned, but with staffing and coverage challenges, we do pull from time to time when there isn't a scheduled student to be in there. Gotcha. They usually have a walkie. So we can we can find them where they are. Thanks. And a quick thought going back to the yonder pouches. Um it might be a really interesting opportunity to partner with Western Academy and look longitudinally at the impact on the kids or maybe you're already planning this but um Miss Jazokus had a wonderful panel um you know the last couple weeks with students talking about cell phone use at WA and how it impacts their learning and u might be some opportunities for you know cross school collaboration on that. Sometimes it's more powerful for a middle schooler to hear from a high

schooler instead of the adult or the parent. So that could go a long way. Yes. Yeah. Well, it's amazing how many kids when they forget their pouch will just come to the office and say, "I forgot my pouch. I'm and then and they just put the phone down and they write their name on a little thing. We put it in a pouch and you know in the and they just come pick it up at the end of the day." So they are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Are there is there some under the radar stuff? I'm sure there is. It's okay. They're not using the phones in school and for the most part kids are doing the right thing which is great. We want them to be owning that as well and they I think they understand the importance of it. And Allison, have we had any more um issues because I know initially there was some people leaving like school on Friday forgetting to unlock their pouch. We haven't had any issues of of that. it that hasn't been an issue, but we always have a um in the outer lobby of our school, we're able to have it there until at least five o'clock or whenever that outer door closes. I think I've seen all year maybe three kids come in like all year, like in that in that late afternoon time to come to come unlock their pouch. Had a mom group chat about does anyone know how to get into the back? I was like, I think you can get there till 5:00. You won. It's in the outside. It's a little later than five, but we advertise five. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Okay. Thank you so much. I think we'll just take a motion to approve the middle school improvement plans. So moved. Second. That was Katherine and Bill. Any final thoughts? All in favor? Great. Thank you so much. Sorry for the flip-flop. Unless you want to speak to the handbook. Does every is everyone okay with that? Maybe if they just preview the handbook changes sort of out of order. Sure. Okay. Um so in in the um packet, it's called packet, right? Yeah. I had a like wait, what is it called? Uh

so there is a memorandum that has the sort of the changes that that we're proposing um and that we've made in it. What a lot of grammatical updates, date updates, things like that. Um there is a modification to the language under the academic intervention section because we we do not have reading interventionists and math interventionists and those were in there. So we just pulled that. So the language just now includes our academic coaching. Um under our academic integrity section on page 16, we've added language that we borrowed from the high school about AI. Um because we are seeing that more and more. We want to make sure that we at least can speak to it in a way that kids know this is what the expectation is. It's just it's come up just a little, but nothing bad. Just it's really nice for us to be able to at least have language in there so that they understand and so it just falls underneath that academic integrity piece. Um, under food services and uh free and reduced meals and breakfast, we just we changed the language so it it actually reflects what we do in school now where there is no cost for the lunches or or breakfast. Um the and the and the fact that if there are extras like next year there will be a a little bit of a change in how the cafeteria does extra extra meals and extra desserts and things. We wanted to reflect that in the handbook going into the 2526 school year. Um as well as we borrowed something from the elementary schools as well about you know the idea that about you know applying for SNAP if necessary. That's a resource in the handbook as well if families are applying or need need to apply for free and reduced meals and how that does also impact um financial needs for other things as well such as you know bus fees and things like that. And then um we liked we also borrowed some other things from the elementary schools. They did a really nice job with how they showed the all of the administration districtwide and what everyone's role is as well as as their email addresses and

extensions. So, that has been added instead of just having sort of a few people, we wanted to make sure we had everybody in there. And then we've also changed how um how the school committee members are listed. So, it's it has everyone's name as well as the email address and then the link to the school committee as well. Um, and today Kathy forwarded forwarded us a um an email with some comments about changes and some of those were edits and have already been made. Um, and some of them are links that I have to figure out how to make those changes in the links because I can't get to the air. Kathy knows what to do. So, she's going to help me with that. I know how to link, but the I don't know how to get to these links. Um, and then there are some more substantial changes that we will will need to look at with our with our school advisory council. It's not really a three o'clock on a um on a Tuesday. Yeah. Just one or two people doing it. We want to make sure that we're looking at all of that. So, we will be um we'll be making those changes as well. Okay. Great. Any questions on middle school handbook? Just a comment. Um going back to our discussion last week about whether to have this translations page and whatnot. Just making sure it's consistent across the district. However we choose to do it, it should be the same. And that way there it's Yeah, we did change the elementary. Okay. To revert back to this. Okay. Oh, okay. Thank you. I just I just just want to make sure. So, is ours the same as yours is fine. Right. Yep. Thank you, Shane. the only com well the update on the school committee list I think it sounds like you can not that I don't love that my name's not in lights or anything on there yet but um so that was one but the other thing that I unless I missed it and I looked through a few times was I felt like the elementary schools had made an update um with a better clearer like home like parent school communication chart that I felt like was missing in the middle school and I saw that there was some in the Western academy had me that was also really

nice. So I felt like and especially again as a sixth grade parent and you come in there and all of a sudden like all of these things are like taken from you, you don't know how who to contact and where and when and how. And I feel like we're also trying to empower students in sixth grade to take more ownership of things too. So I thought having and maybe if you want to go and see how the elementary schools did it and then maybe go back to westernmies and find a happy medium felt like it was missing a piece that's like contact the principal for this contact the guidance counselor for this this first line of defense and I think Western academy had theirs written out like really well um like first line of defense is to have your student go talk to their advisory second line of defense then a parent to intercede so you can kind of help give like nervous new middle school parents I wouldn't say I'm necessarily one of those, but he he hasn't spoke to me all year for the record. Um, but like an idea of when you should interject, like when you want to empower your student to maybe stand up for themselves first and then what the appropriate channels are if they're having like tween conflicts or if they're having academic issues, like where those first lines of defense are. And I felt like that was like a gap in this communication. I think it will be an easy slide in because we do that at open house. So, we can take what we have and look at what WA and the and the middle and the elementary schools have and modify it. That's not a problem at all. Yeah, sounds good. Great. One um piece that I didn't see that I wonder if we need to think about for both middle school and high school handbooks and just because of the moment that we're in, we we have policies about visitors. Do we need to think about including policies about um you know uh law enforcement or ICE officials that may come you know to the school? Do we have those policies? Um, and totally understandable if they're not things we want to necessarily advertise, but um, just something to think about. Do we have That's a good question. And I'm thinking in terms of I I wouldn't necessarily think that we would differentiate it. Um, but yeah, it's something we can look at. That's more of

a district like you shared like the state guidelines in terms of officials that came out from the from central office um, as opposed to specific to each school's handbook. But it's a Yeah, it's an interesting Yeah. Okay. Um I guess since I to blew up the agenda. Yeah. Everybody okay with the motion at this point? Okay. Uh Shaya made a motion to approve the middle school handbook. Catherine seconded. And all in favor? Thanks for rolling with that. Sorry. Great idea. We'll just get that out of the way. Now you guys are free for your night. Thank you. Very well too. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next. And we'll welcome up WA administration for school improvement plan presentation. Good evening everybody. Let me actually take that off. That's been on around my neck all day long. It's not needed now. I think you know who I am. Um, so, uh, the the framework for, uh, the Westford Academy, uh, school improve improvement plan very much mirrors what the strategic district improvement plan with the with the four really objectives. Um, being in my second year as a principal here. Um and I remember coming to uh this uh forum last year and um after going through my school council, going through my faculty, going through my administration and then coming here to Valerie and said, "Dan, there's a lot in there." Yeah. So I I really tried um I remember I tried uh synthesizing what I wanted to try to do in next year's school improvement plan. Um so under the first part around uh ensuring equity uh in our curriculum and our instruction the heart of what we do uh that one so

much of that uh speaks to the universal design learning that we've been doing um this school year. Some of the some of the opportunities that have presented themselves along the along the way were or some of these vertical ones where our students are the expert learners and they're showing off their robotics and they're working with elementary and the Mandarin classes and just so many of those wonderful authentic experiences that um happen this year. um you know in addition to that uh many of the things that we've done this year around our our our PD uh with AI um and some of our content specific universal design learning and and um uh the work that we did there uh next year on uh some of the improvement is it will be a big year for uh universal design learning for us that's when we look at and Allison talked a little bit about this the framework of what our PD and our faculty meetings and our department meetings and the actual uh PD time that we have. Um, a lot of that is going to be centered around the universal design learning. Um, and and part of that for us is our our curriculum. We have a lot of homegrown uh curriculum documents that we use that now need to be infused with some of that universal design uh language and frameworks. uh you know we have gone into this knowing but we weren't capable of updating many of these curriculum uh documents here because we're still in the learning process but next year we'll be able to um that's a you know believe it or not we are uh five years out from our next visit and accreditation um and and for us really to have truly living breathing curriculum documents we need to now incorporate some of that universal design learning um framework into it. Um I I just got to say a couple things. Um as far as working with our

our staff on their educator evaluation goals, it is this year I I would say the goals in the in the excellence that I saw directly connected to some of the the uh our our school improvement plan and the S DIP and some of the universal design language and the mass state frameworks was excellent. So, I want to work with more staff on that, provide them some more clear ideas because I get asked all the time, what do you think I should do for a goal? This is my seventh time around, you know, at this point in their career. And um but I think Alice and I have been talking um and planning on some of those uh UDL goals that we would be using. Um I'm not going to cover everything in here. I'm going to do my best to get stick to the highlights. Um strategic objective two. Um this one, you know, awesome on the school start times. Um it was a lot of hard work and I think I got asked that question two years ago in the forum with um a parent said, "What's the first thing that you would change?" I said, "School start." And and um so in the work of this community, we were just waiting for you. Yeah. Thank you. Um so, you know, I think we're still going to learn what that looks like, you know, for next year. So, I think we're going to have to, you know, people are like, "Oh, we going to have a whole new schedule." And basically, we're we're just pushing things back, our our blocks and our schedules and our lunch. And so, we're going to live that next year. I think two to three years out, we are looking at a scheduling something. Okay. Um, but we're not there yet. Um so for us to do some of those things we've been talking about uh you know a master calendar that allows for more collaborative planning time more co-eing time to to do the to co-eing planning time um and department planning time. So there's there is work that that's still I just haven't able been able to grab it just yet of what

where that time is. Um, you know, we have done stuff with staff this school year, uh, where we have actually reduced the amount of some of the duty time they have, which has been hugely impactful. It's basically less lunch duty at the end of the day. Um, but that gives them more time back into their schedule to release some of that pressure valve. Um, uh, a couple other things, uh, that we continue to do, we're always growing and evolving. We have rolled out more unified sports. you know, the basketball, last year was unified track. This year it was unified basketball. We we've come so far with Best Buddies and our unified sports and our Special Olympics. It it's um and the school and the community has embraced it. It's been it's been a wonderful a wonderful thing to be part of. Um you know, next year on the lower right hand quadrant of this uh go objective number two, a big chunk of this plan uh really revolves around uh program of studies. I know there's some interest from this school committee as there is interest from me as well and how we uh revise our course selection process that include that could include how we do our override process or if we don't do override some of that work like we we got to dive in um and also evaluate weighted GPA and class weights. Uh we have a massive amount of different types of weights for classes uh at Westford Academy. Um, and you know, there are some schools that are unweighted in the area and there are schools that continue to have a a weighted GPA and we're going to try to figure out as part of program of studies. It fits right into graduation requirements. All these things that we're trying to do that is that's a big part of it. That that's a that's a big part of uh next year's school improvement plan. If we go to strategic objective three, um we've we've done a lot of work on the graduation requirements and we've presented it here and we'll continue that this evening. Um if if something is

to change or the policy needs, we will we will review what it will be and there's some planning that will need to take place on that in the school improvement plan. Uh we are again looking at our reinventing and revising our advisory program. We've added advisory minis. Um we've done some of those trial runs. So there's there's more growth there for us to have those existing advis advisory teachers and program to have more opportunities to meet with students. Um we we opened our power school grade portal this year. Uh that was that was a big one. Um so it is open and it gives uh the staff and the teachers flexible options on on how they're publishing, what they're publishing. Um and that's gone well. I we've gone away from the formal progress reports that used to come and I it took me a while to get the language right u but it's you know grades have been updated you know quarter quarter four grades were updated last week so the most current grade is in the in the power school portal um there are different certainly different levels of what teachers can publish and and I know um as a school district improvement plan that ties right into how we communicate um some of our progress and assessments in the report card group that um that we're going to be working on next year. So, you know, we'll continue to do that um with the the district-wide report uh card and we'll we'll continue to talk about what we're showing, how we're showing it on some of the progress goals. Um okay, we go to continue on strategic objective three. Um the roots program has been a wonderful uh a wonderful thing that we've that we've been able to accomplish here. the revamped roots program. Um we've done uh we in the upcoming uh district curriculum accommodation plan we have language around um extended time on assessments that will be has always been

a change. It's always been you have extended time on assessments KA and then you get to West Academy and it's like it doesn't exist. Um it existed. It truly existed in classrooms. Teachers were doing these types of things all the time. So now it'll be part of this district curriculum accommodation plan. We'll have to roll out that whole um new program. There's a lot of work to do around our continued exploration with AI. Um the students are using it. There's at the high school level there's ways to interface how the the AI from the teacher to the students or how teachers are continuing to use it. We know students are using it. Um so there's there's continued more work with that um our our community. So then the next goal on the bottom here is we had 25 staff members trained in the collaborative problem solving. We had 20 WA staff trained in level one and two of restorative practices practices this year. So we're kind of a year behind the middle schools on on their roll out of this. Um and next year we'll have more staff trained at uh the tier three. For us there is a significant use when some of real damage occurs and happens that in a variety of capacities. So we are very much interested in that that the tier three of doing a restorative uh circle or prog uh meeting um but as a building um just even today there there was a circle that happened um in in one of the programs at the school. So it's it's we are building that capacity with the training. Um we strategically picked of the 20 staff members of the multiple hats that they wear to invite them to that training. I and this is just a one. I sent out 20 invites might have been 22 but I sent out 20 invites and I got 20 yeses from the staff. I'm in you know and that was that was a wonderful thing. Um so uh we're going to continue to do

that. Um, and also, you know, our our our our guidance and some of our adjustment counselors have developed a wonderful network of some of our town partners and the resources that the town has. So, we're going to continue to do that. Um, there's, you know, when it's um some help at home might be needed that we can't provide. Now, we have a good access of those of resources to do those things. Um and then uh the last one we we had wonderful gardens growing this year and u it was it was a huge success with uh right in the courtyard beginning of this school year. We you know we used a ton of that produce in uh in the cafeteria after it was thoroughly washed and went through that process. Um we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with. But um there were there was wonderful things like um the students were just curious and interested and volunteered to help during their lunch you know pick things and wash things and they want it was it was a genuine interest. Um so that will that will continue. Um you know being able to offer students a slice of watermelon after school was was a complete joy in September this year as the seniors are walking out. It it was a wonderful thing and telling them it was grown right by the school right at the school. Um we've also done some other things that you know um we did almost half of the building have been upgraded in LED lights. That was a capital improvement two years ago that did this year. That that was a big project. They have wonderful amounts of different settings that we're still figuring out um because some of them are too bright but but they they are adjustable and we're trying to figure out those pieces. Um, and also, you know, a big one that was approved at the town meeting was the trusty trustees field lights. Those things light up the entire, you know, west side of Westford the way they are right now. And it's it it really truly is the the new modern, you know, lights that are way more efficient. There's

less light pollution. So, like that was that was a big one. Um, and less warm-up time, right? Less warm-up time, less you don't have to test it on an hour. Yeah, that's great. So, um, so we'll continue all those things. Um, and also just trying to build more, uh, relationships with the town. Um, the open space recreation plan. They've reached out to us with some of our student groups. We want to provide them feedback for that. So, that's just another town connection that we're trying to um, establish. And, and something I realized this year is is that first one is really to the westward climate roadmap within those particular classes. is we need we need to allocate some time to understand what it is. Yeah. Um and how it directly impacts the students. There are there are classrooms there's um there are are Spanish classes that are that are are doing all sorts of um uh uh climate related action items around the school right now. So it you know there are those connections and and you know having the alignment of the school improvement plan the SIP and teacher goals continues to be an excellent practice. Great. Okay, any questions? Thank you. Open it up to the committee for questions. Go ahead, Jess. You got a question on um your vision for the AI training for teachers. So, just thinking about, you know, there there was a recent case about a a college instructor that got in trouble for, you know, using AI to generate feedback. Like, there are some great things that AI can do for our teachers. So, have you thought about where the line is between what we want them to replace with AI, what we don't? Yeah. Um I would say that's a good question. Um it it's something that we've explored this year, right? Um I would say the line is um it can be very useful for um common common feedback. Okay. Um and at the end of the day, what we've been stressing with our staff is if if you approve that feedback, it is

your feedback. Um so that's still in the development. Um there have been some teachers right out of the gate that have adopted practices to it and then there are some that have maybe pulled back and some that are trying it. Um it it changes by the week. Um Brisk is a wonderful tool. Um and that every time I look at it there's a new teacher. Um sorry Don is that the program you're using teaching brisk teaching. So it's an education specific one. Okay. Yeah. Um it continues to evolve as AI continues to evolve. Uh I think it's my my general practice is um my general belief is uh we're better off understanding it, figuring out ways to use it as time-saving um opportunities to then spend more time on uh the direct needs of the students in front of you or or of the position or the job that you're in. It's actually brisk. We we have brisk teaching. Um the academy started exploring it earlier. They brought the middle schools along and we've actually it's something that we looked at some of our technology costs and we've replaced other things with this for next year. And you by using your Westford K12 US domain you can add it as a as a a extension to your Google. So you could actually explore what the teachers are are able to do because I know Jess that might be something it would be really interesting to kind of look at. And it is it's designed by teachers for teachers is kind of the whole idea. Um and we're sort of using it. We're rolling it out trying to take some of that, you know, take some of the things that might be able to be done more efficiently if you had an assistant to help you with something. That's kind of what we've been talking with the teachers about. the teachers are are they're they're still coming up with the ideas, but if all of a sudden they're

able to kind of help have something that can help them do this in uh some of these administrative tasks in a more efficient way, that'd be helpful. And one of the things that the teachers at the academy have been able to explore is this notion of feedback. And so there's some of them where with through brisk if if a teacher's asking um brisk to uh to to explore and provide some feedback it has to be on a very specific thing. So might we'll just give the easest example like it just it could just be grammar feedback right and then the idea being is that that will then come to the teacher and the teacher will have to decide whether they agree with that or whether they don't before it ever goes to the student which is I think helpful. So my my one caution on AI and this goes across the board is needing policies on what is entered into AI. you know absolutely no private data should be entered into the interface because it will learn. So um you know if you are looking for to provide communication back to a parent you know remove anything that's identifiable and get your framework. So just just uh overall put it out there. Great. Any other points from committee members? I just I just want to add something. Um I really want to speak on the power school grades. I love that this year. Um the first half of like my WA experience was I mean obviously great but um you know I would find myself at times being like what is my grade after particularly low vocab quiz and but I wouldn't always want to go up and ask my teacher or it was just the end of the day and I was just like I really want to get out of here. And so being able to look on my phone and actually use the app that I have on my phone was just really nice. And I felt like it brought a sense of like elevated

responsibility for your grades and not just like, well, I'll see what comes in the email to my parents in like a couple months. I felt like it kind of held students accountable because there was no reason why you shouldn't be aware of like what your grades are and kind of being able to if you can go into each class and you can see what assignments the teachers entered in and what you got like your score. Um, and sometimes the teachers can leave like comments and stuff and that that's really useful I think to kind of especially as you move up through the grades like junior and senior year as you're starting to gain more independent starting to get ready for postsecary education like college and stuff or whatever. It was really useful to be able to have that information and to use it to benefit and to kind of just be really like um like aware of where you are and what your grades are. I think it's important actually. It is. Yeah. Thank you. Any other committee points? I had one while other people might be thinking. Um, as as always, I think next year's work sounds ambitious and I applaud your um your your list here. There was a couple things that were mentioned of this current year that I was just hoping you could speak a little bit more about. Um, the action items to track and address attendance issues of students. I know it feels like this time last year chronic absenteeism was on everybody's, you know, words. Um, and I was just wondering, you know, did did WA discover some silver bullet? You know, you solved all all the world's problems. Um, but did were there some things that you found that was like meaningful progress? Yes. Um, I would say the most meaningful things that we have done this year are the early action items when students when they start to show signs of school absenteeism or avoidance. So, right out of the gate, letter writing, contacting home, um those initial things right out of the gate have have proven to be um the best. Okay. Um we still have a working draft of when you get in that area of when things are bad

attendance-wise that we're still working through. Um that has proven to be a little bit it's it's a challenge. Um but all the research that we have found and the actions that we do it it we start with last year's attendance in August. letter home on students that might have been chronically absent. Okay. Um and then monitoring the first two weeks of school and the first month of school and right out of the gate, you know, monitoring the the the actual and those are the first like three steps of our flowchart that I feel like we've nailed down well. Um it's just that the rest of it is there's more work to be done. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, another question from this current year. I was just, um, what did I write here? Oh. Um, could you speak to like I know we heard it from the middle school a little bit, but could you speak to some reflections you might have about how the phone policy has been going? Sure. Yeah. Um, yeah, this one's interesting. Um I would say um uh my administration, my school council, um many of my colleagues at um dual county league um schools, so the act box um I would say um the experts that I talked to in um digital literacy at the 9 through 12 level, there is in my opinion a level of independence that they still need to have and they need to learn. Students need to have the opportunities to learn how to have their phone or not have their phone and when it's appropriate to put it away. There is certainly the research that out and away off is excellent, right? But there's there's still a level of our students independence that that I respect. Um we started the school year um with a

a complete phones out and off um during ed educational time. Okay. Right. And as like most things there's been a little bit of slip of that towards the end of the year, but the um the educators that it's has always been their thing and the ones that have done that in their classroom that that's that's the way they live and it's not an issue. Um it's you know there are times in many of the class settings that okay teach pull out your phone let's do an activity. Um so there there's still that balance. I'm still in the the camp of we need to learn how to use it. Um but you know that's something that that we'll continue to reflect upon. Um especially as we get the some of these incoming freshman classes that have been used to not having access to their phone. So that's something that we're going to keep looking at like sure all that work we just did in middle school is it thrown out the window? Yeah. You know or what is the next appropriate step for us? Okay. So I think there's there's more information to gather on that one. If I may, I just want to add on to that. I completely agree with you the independence thing. We did a lot of talking about phone stuff with the stack and our meetings and it's been a huge like I'm very much torn between it because I see the pros and the cons of of it completely and I've lived it. Um, but I can say kind of to add to like your slippery slope thing at the end of the year, we started in some of my classes obviously the first few weeks the teachers were like, "Yep, phones away, phones away." And it was definitely like cold turkey shock. It was like, "Okay." But at the end of the year, kids stopped putting their phones in the thing and teachers obviously other things on their mind, but it actually was like we had learned almost like like kids started realizing like, "Oh, we don't want to put our phones in the pouches in the door, but we'll still keep them in the bags." Yeah, like one of my classes, and I won't name class, we started with all our phones, but at the end of the year, like I think my last day class, there was no phones in the bin, but there were also no phones out. Like, we had learned that like,

okay, if we take them out, they're going to get taken away, but if we leave them in their bag and like just know that they stay there, there was no problem. Um, granted, this was a mostly senior class, so I don't know if we were all just like, let's get through it. But, I feel like there was like a learning curve, and I feel like as as hard as it was for students, I feel like we've learned. And I I feel like that kids have learned that if they keep them away then they won't get taken. It's like there's an established expectation. Yeah. Like and it's and it's kind of like I appreciate that because I think it really helped teacher and students alike. That's awesome. Did did those did my time buy anybody else a question? I I actually just wanted to comment. I really enjoyed reading the the the SIP. Um, I just felt a lot of the action items for next year are very thoughtful and um, you can definitely see that kind of um, line coming through it of trying to, you know, be aware of mental health, workload, um, you know, student balance and stuff. So, I actually I I really appreciated it. I thought it was quite it was good read. Awesome. Motion to approve the S. I actually had one more um because I my other ones were about like this current year, but I just wanted to circle back to the door you sort of creaked open that applies to our later conversation about graduation requirements. So, for those of us that don't have a high schooler, can you speak a little bit about like what what you think some of the impact of evaluating the GPA weight might have on student flexibility and student choice and if there was anything else that you thought ties into that with like the master calendar changes, the course selection, could you just speak a little bit more maybe to that that top? Sure. Um, so we have a weighted GPA, right? you know, an AP course is weighted has more weight than a CP course, college

prep course. Okay? And there's there's that spectrum of it. And um there is uh I would say a lot of discussions around this. Um students are concerned about some of their G not all of them but GPA drive is a concern of some students and um instead of interest drive um so there there is that balance of it of okay what what does a GPA do for us like at the end of the day what does it really do for us yeah it gives it gives us an idea of um a caliber of a student it definitely helps with school counselors like there are there are some things uh many colleges recalculate. They just they just take whatever it is from whatever school and they they come up with their own calculation of what your GPA is. Right. So they can compare apples to apples in all these different places. Um and there's some courses that don't count towards the overall G. Correct. There are some unweed courses. Thank you Chris. There are unweed courses. um some of the electives. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um many of the electives are unrelated. When we were when meeting with both the VPA staff and the the fizzed staff after we sort of talked about this, it came up that there were times when there are students who are taking a class because it's a requirement, but it doesn't count towards their GPA. And the struggles that they might have with students there who don't really care about this class because it doesn't count towards their GPA, but they have to take it. And so that that is I don't think that's necessarily the case with all of the PTE classes. Um but it was with the VPA classes, some of them. And that conversation of if if everything is part of their story and if everything is equal weight, right, then students might be more apt to take things that they

want to take as opposed to we've talked about chasing a GPA because Dan's right. What we know is that colleges change it. It doesn't matter what because we're we you'd mentioned it. We have weighted classes. There are other many other schools that don't have that at all. And so colleges are looking at all these different transcripts that come to them and then they then put it through their system to determine what it means. You know, um, colleges, I guess, what are is the tail wagging the dog often on on some of these conversations? And um at the end of the day, if you ask that to a school, a college counselor, they'll tell you, I I want to see APs, I want to see honors, and all those things. And those Yeah. those traditionally carry more of a weight to them. Yeah. Um but it's it's worth the conversation to figure it out. Will that will there be an element of our students that truly are now exploring things that they're interested in instead of always chasing GPA? Okay. No. And then this reference to the master um calendar and schedule, is any of that tying into the work that you had the exploration work this year about deleing um grade nine classes. How does that all fit together? Um the master calendar is more of like our WPS master calendar. Oh, I see. Okay. Um finding time within the school day to provide more collaborative planning. It's it's it's difficult at Westford Academy. A rotating schedule, different department. It's it's difficult. Sure. So, there's and that's something that has been in many school improvement plans and still something that that we're working on. Yeah. Um doesn't really feel like a one-year goal. No, it doesn't. It It doesn't. But it's something that you're taking on a lot again. Yeah. Yeah. But you're getting it started maybe starting the conversation.

Well, I guess related to that, do you just want to share with us um what you did find with the exploration of the delelling? Um we're not ready for it. Um I would say uh the feedback that I receive uh from my my departments and my colleagues was where where is the the the substantial evidence that leads you in that direction? Right? And I feel like that was a valid a valid valid conversation we have with a lot of our our faculty and staff. Like I provided one set of reasons why I think it will, right? And it's um so there's still there's still work to be done there. Yeah. At the end of the day and and it might not fit us. It might be there are other models. There are other models. There's you know I there's more co-eing that could be done, right? You know there are other models that we that we can explore. Okay. I feel like that discussion is going to be a greater district discussion that Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That may come out soon. Yep. So, okay. Thank you. Um mot sorry, Shaina had a motion. Motion to approve the Western Academy school improvement plan. Thank you. Second. All last call. Any Okay. All in favor? That's everybody. Unanimous. Thank you. Um, WA handbook. We welcome up Dean Amanda Welch. Hello everybody. How are you? Who jumped at the chance to focus on the handbook this year. That's not exactly here. I am some late night reading. Dan's looking down. Yeah. Um, okay. So, I don't really know how this works. I'm just going to start. If I'm going in the wrong direction, just let me know. So I think you have everything in front of you

digitally. Um and there were two changes that I'm proposing to you today. The first one is on page 25. We are adding um a bullet um second from the bottom about the use of the WA logo, the mascot or the simulation without administrative permission. Um we found that some students were using it for their own personal social media accounts inappropriately. So we thought by putting this in it would deter um the use of the logo inappropriately. Okay. Um the second proposal is um a change of the language to the assessment and midyear final exams. We didn't we had a protocol in place and we were all following it but there was nothing written down kind of laying it out for families and students. So basically um what we did was made sure that if a student's absent for the midyear or final examination for any reason that um students parent or caregiver would submit written documentation to their students dean detailing the reason for the absence and then administr administration would approve it and then basically reach out to teachers and facilitate the makeup date. Um, students who require extra time on a midyear or final exam should use the extra time provide provided in schedule on the same day of the regular exam block. If you're not familiar, we kind of have final exam break, final exam, makeup time with a huge block at the end of the day for that. Um, students must remain present during the entire exam block. That stops students from just getting up and leaving in the middle of the exam time. um make up midyear or final exams taken at the after after the teacher's last day of school year will be graded when school reopens in September. We do have students who have planned trips or whatever and the snow days kind of bump that. Um just letting families know your child will take the final, but it will be graded when the when school recommences in the fall. Um students who do not f uh follow this protocol

basically could receive a zero for the assessment. Not will, just could depending on each individual basis. And that's on page 18. Do you have any questions? It was pretty selfexplanatory. Um, I did watch the last school committee with the recommendation of making the digital handbook in different languages and I did I saw Valerie at the Blanchard cat fair and we kind of chatted about work because what else are we going to chat about work? Um, and I did one sample for you. So the only issue I could see is because the handbook is a um PDF file. You can't just click on the PDF file. It's not live. We would have to submit this document as a view only Google document. And then basically if you click on it, I did the first one. Um and then if you click on it, it bumps you immediately to a translated copy um in Google Docs to the next language and you can't see it, but it would go it would just open up in that other language automatically. Nice. Um, if that is something we want to move toward, I will do the rest, but I wasn't going to do them all unless you wanted me to. Um, I also saw your your email and I changed all the links and the dates and the addresses and anything else that was quick change, but um, as Tim and Allison said, changes that have a little bit more weight to it. Some of the ones that you were suggest suggesting need to go through the the different committees. So, we will take into that account for next year. Okay. Awesome. So, just to paraphrase, um the the idea that we were talking about the translations in a PDF and then Tom had talked about like a live website. It sounds like maybe an interim move would be to have a Google doc version of it that has those built-in Google Translate tools that might be a little bit more accessible than a PDF, somebody copying and pasting and whatever. So, I basically have done the work for them. They don't have to copy and paste it. They just click on the link and the document appears in there.

native language. Does anybody have any feedback on that? No, I think if I mean Tom, I don't know if you I think that would be a great step. Yeah. Um, you know, rather than again needing to know what section you need to copy and paste into a translator. It just Yeah. Yeah. That means the Google um document would have to stay live and anybody with access would be able to view it. Same with the translated page. Just view. can only view it. They can't edit it or similar to like the you know some of the principal newsletters are in like a Google doc and everybody clicks that link and views it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's definitely worth triing and seeing how it goes. Yeah, we would love that on the list of to-dos. Right. Yeah. Now I wish I did all of them. It's a proof of concept. So that's a good thing. Proof of concept. Uh I did have just one question just I probably been past practice and whatnot but the um you know the grading at the commencement of the next school year like how does that impact the the students grade is that like a is it a lower grade and then it's adjusted or report card it's different case by case. Okay. Um there's always an element of uh feedback that that staff want to give the students. I think students want so there's that element of it no matter what. Um but it's it's it's a case by case example. Okay. Do you mean the grading of the assignment? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like how does that impact their what they get on their report card? Let's say um I think case by case basis but essentially I believe their grade would go in as an incomplete which is like a holding place card and then coming back that would be fixed and then the GPA would be okay just so everyone is clear exactly how that would impact any other questions on the WA handbook I just have two quick things one just

please consider and for middle school too my my feedback is just a new set of eyes it's one person one data point so that's all um but also uh it seems like there are a few timelines in the um WA handbook that depend on progress reports so if you're not giving progress reports anymore you might need to update that langage We do get close to the time right now. This is the language that we have about that I had to nail down this year about grades being updated. Great. Thank you. Take a motion to approve the WA handbook. So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Great. Thank you. You guys great. Great. We're gonna try to scoot right along to facility rental fees. Jeff Goodwin, our director of facilities, is monitoring the select board agenda for something he wants to weigh in on there, too. So, if he jumps off or something, we have Jenny. I was also privy to a lot of the discussion. So, got Jeff. Um, Jeff, please just raise or go dark if you need to switch meetings or whatever. We're we're happy to take second seat. Well, thank you. I appreciate you letting me tune in remotely tonight. Yes. Thank you very much. Y um do you want to dive in? Uh sure. Thanks. So, um we're here tonight to talk a little bit about our facility rentals rates uh and our fee schedule. Um at the request of the finance subcommittee a few weeks ago. Uh we were asked to do a little bit of a market analysis to see how our rental rates stack up uh about s uh you know in relation to surrounding communities. Um, so myself and uh particularly Katie Lamir, I do need to tip my cap to her. She did a lot of great research on this and and um dug into a lot of um rental information from the surrounding towns.

Um it it is difficult to find a direct apples to apples comparison between how different towns handle their rental policies. Um, but what we did find is that um we we kind of came in um a little on the low side for what we're charging for our spaces. Um so what we're proposing tonight is an increase for for some of the rental rates and we we did also make a couple minor modifications to the rental rate and group uh group classification pages um uh tonight. So, if you want, we can dive right into the fee schedule. Um, and and basically, um, Jenny and Valerie and I met last week just to discuss this real quick. Oh, he looks frozen. And I think that um going to have to take a deeper dive into our policy as a whole um over the next year or so. We did learn that a lot of towns have some very robust rental policies and it it gave us a lot of a lot to think about to the to the point where our heads were spinning after a two-hour conversation about this. So I I think we got some work to do in the future, but um right now what we're proposing for 2026 is a is a 20% increase to the current existing fee schedule. So, I don't know if you have the graphic of that Excel spreadsheet on the screen there if you can see what we're looking at, but um as we went through, you know, room by room, uh it it it became increasingly difficult to to really jack the rates on one room higher than we we would on another room. So, what I decided to do is just go with a 20% increase across the board. Um, and you know, even with the 20% increase, that still puts us a little below what some of our surrounding towns are charging for these spaces. Um, we obviously didn't want to give any of our

current current rentals or current renters any sticker shock. We uh we've developed some good relationships with the people that are using our spaces. And and like I said, Katie's done a great job navigating and and fostering those relationships. So, we didn't want to come in too heavy-handed and make any major uh price upgrades at this point until we have a more robust policy to back that up in the future. Uh so, right now, we're looking at 20% increase across the board on all of our rental spaces. Um if you look on the right side of that screen, we did add a couple additional notes on there um for grass field rentals. Um the district itself has a decent amount of grass field rentals, but those are handled through uh Jeff Bunan's group. The only field that WPS rentals um is is um renting out is the Abbott football field on Fiser Way and we rent that out to the Knights football program. Uh so we did we have been charging them for field lining all along. Um, but basically what we're doing is memorializing how much we are charging for each lining of that field over there at Fiser Way. So, if you see that on the right, it's $375 per lining. Um, I know that sounds expensive, but um, for the cost of paint and the labor to actually do it, that that's basically what it adds up to uh, for a field lining. Um, and then the other note that we added over there is just, you know, this this hasn't come up too many times, but there's been a couple instances where we have a rental in the buildings during the wintertime and perhaps their rental uh would influence when we have to go in and do snow removal activities or even clean up walkways around the building. So, we felt like it was necessary to add a note in there that if if special attention is needed uh for snow removal during your particular

event, that would be build at at the hourly rates for the custodians who have to come in and do that work. Um, one of the other changes that we talked about is if you look um in the current uh group classifications, we had group A, group B, and group C. And currently, group C under the old policy was listed as a for-profit group. Um, this creates a little bit of ambiguity and gray area for Katie as she's trying to negotiate the contracts on these rentals. Um, and and one thing that we saw in one of our comparing towns is instead of calling it for profofit, they just they just called it all others. So, it's basically you're either a town event, a nonprofit event, or any other event, whether you're a private function or a for-profit rental. um that you're all going to be treated the same way under this new proposed policy. Great. Um and the last changes that we made are regarding the custodial fees on the uh rental rates and group classification page. Uh we basically adjusted our custodial fees uh by $5 an hour across the board. Um and that's just really to account for our recently hopefully tenatively agreed upon custodial contract. So we're basically just adjusting the rates, you know, accordingly to what we have adjusted our custodial rates to. So um I believe that's all the changes that we are proposing at the time at this time. Yep. Um if anyone has any questions, happy to answer. So just another bit of history is that um a lot of this was kind of brand new in 2022. Uh so we've had about three years with this set of fees. Um the like I said the finance subcommittee did touch on this at our last meeting in April I think and I acknowledge that there was um

definitely room to adjust as as a another reminder that I don't get sick of saying but um all the maintenance of all of these spaces comes out of our operating budget. Um, so if if we're undercharging for lining the paint that's eating into our our personal like our WPS operating 69 million, you know, school budget. So, um it like to Jeff's point, we want to make sure we're um you know, valuing our partnership with organizations, but we can't undercut what it costs for these for a lot of these services and to just rental. Yeah. All right. This was also something I looked at on the budget task force, right, as well when it came to school fees and I believe what I ended up writing in there was that we should revisit looking at a way to help offset maybe some maintenance costs of spaces. So, I'm really glad to see not that maybe A to B was a direct linear line, but um it was certainly this something that came up in the research that I did on the task force. Um, one question I had was are these prices now like at cost or is there some amount of money that is helping fund like future maintenance out of this or is this an at cost or these are like break even numbers? So if I can I I think I may be able to clarify the the chart is on top of the maintenance the the staff. So the staff is charged. So we're now paying for the staff appropriately and then that is on top of So So you're like renting the room and then whether or not you're outside of the custodian hours, you might also be paying extra hours. Yeah. So but if it's like a normal like you know the custodian needs

to hear until open. Yeah. Then you're just renting the room depending on where your group falls in the group. I I don't think we answered your question, but well to in one I mean if we go back to the NGFG, right, which has the the the facility in there um as we've seen that grow a little bit since we've been having these fees, that's allowed us to address some maintenance because our maintenance line item is is underfunded, right? So like we're So it's not that it's at cost, it's that we're we've been able to generate some funds with this and it's helping to offset some of our costs, but no, we're still not at um zero. I mean, it it can't be it can't be break even because we are we acknowledge that there are some you some organizations that are renting and not paying, right, for anything, right? that we're saying this is a community asset that you're a town a town group that can use, you know, this this building as a community asset. Um it is paying like salary wise though as well. That was the other thing I remember when we appointed um Katie to kind of run admin on it, the coordinator position that is like absolutely paying for itself. And so that's coming out of the the funds generated from that as well. I think I also wrote in my task force synopsis that it would be great not necessarily to have like a marketing campaign but maybe to more broadly kind of advertise like hey this is available don't forget like you can come and rent this space roden bush might be full or you can't find space somewhere else um maybe it's something that could go in the bulletin you know I don't hopefully people are reading that when it comes out every week but I think it we have all this space and we could use some of that additional revenue and positive ways to offset operating budget So I think

finding ways to kind of like again not market or app but promote the ability to utilize the schools to Girl Scouts to you know other organizations I think would be a positive also. Not that that's necessarily this exact topic but any other feedback on the fee schedule. Um Jeff a question for you. Um, with the rejection of the Nutting Field renovation at Springtown meeting, um, have we seen or do we expect to see an increase in requests for grass or turf field rentals? Um, I I have not. Once again, um, so Jeff Bunan handles the rentals of the Westford Academy field and also the middle school fields at Stonybrook and Blanchard. So, if there were any requests for the turf field, that would be uh Jeff would be able to answer that question, but I'm not aware of any uptick in that. Um I know there's been a lot of discussion over recent weeks about legislation or potential legislation that could affect um the the turf fields, but um Jeff Jeff would probably be able to answer that better than I could. Okay, thank you. Actually, kind of a followup to that. Is there a reason that those prices were not increased as a part of this? Were those already at market value? So, so stadium. Oh. Um, well, I know Grassfield Abbott and Grassfield with Lights are new line items. Um, but Jeff, do you want to speak to um stadium turf field just that Yeah. So, so really that's um the stadium turf field is outside of the purview of Westford public uh WPS rentals. Uh like Jeff Jeff Bunan and the athletics have their own separate rentals entity that that handles the synthetic turf fields. Uh, so those really weren't my rates to adjust. Um, those are those are on the master spreadsheet because they're they're part of what the district charges, but um, yeah, that the stadium and turf field

rental costs, those are those are under Jeff Bunan's purview. Any other points? We're not we're not voting on this tonight. It's the initial discussion. So, if anything else comes up, please feel free to put in an email. Anything you want to add, Jenny? So Shane actually made a great suggestion if we have some kind of promotion for those rental actually is helping our uh helping us to support and jump from our operating budget for fiscal year 26. We have increased the revolving accounts offset from 30,000 to $50,000. That's additional 20,000 support for the general fund especially for last three fiscal year. and uh the maintenance costs at uh utility service have increased significantly but we have to level funded our general funds facility budget for three years. So with inflation and uh especially town enter into a new contract for fiscal year 25 for the utility services and uh the town uh contract with constellation company uh according to the budget memo we received from the town the total electricity contract price increase about 40%. for the uh natural gas we use that to heat off our school building. The total contract price increase 70%. So the proposed 20% increase actually is much lower than the percentage increase for our utility service. We are not even talking about those maintenance costs for like a gas for the mowing fertilizer for the gas field uh for the grass field uh the like uh the fertilizer the lining paint also

uh something as well as the heating cost for our building uh the like uh gyasian auditorium all those maintenance costs we have to consider about for our general fund Those are all adding pressure to the operating budget if we can create more revenue from those facility rental account is going to help us to offset our operating expenditure especially with the increase for maintenance cost. Yeah. I I would also say if we could look into and maybe this is something that's already done and not possible. Um the the way that the policy is now you have to have like an insurance binder in order to be able to rent which doesn't allow let's say I want to have a birthday party and I need a gym and I want to play dodgeball and I want to do this like as a private citizen I couldn't rent it. So, would there be a way to have like a waiver policy or something where every child that's present signed like if you go to trampoline park, right, and you sign your life away that if something happens to your kid there, is there something we could even look at even if it's not possible to be able to rent it to a wider audience of people like an AU team that you know or just a basketball team that wants to practice over the summer or whatnot. There's no mechanism for that because you have to be under an umbrella agency that has an appropriate insurance policy. So movie from a I think our lawyers would tell us not to do that probably back to your there's a difference between an individual and then some of those other examples that you had though too. Right. And I'm just going to pin that for in in terms of our agenda tonight and and circle back to something Jeff said which is in our discussions we the three of us Jeff Jenny and I realized there is a lot to this that we think is due for a more thorough review. I mean, there are three policies in our policy book that haven't been touched since that infamous April 2020 2001 date um that sort of relate to like our that haven't been updated to

reflect our practices. So, we've been talking about like is it would it be like a goal in next year's finance subcommittee? Is there some sort of working group to like merge what's happening with Jeff Bunan's um facilities and and stuff like that? So that I think there is a bigger discussion that will play out next year. And just to give some background on that, the policy subcommittee a couple of years ago were very aware that the policies needed updating. Yeah. And at the time the idea was we knew we were kind of putting a bit more structure in place regarding the rentals and the coordinator. And so it kind of we we paused it knowing that here's this now here's time for us to review it to review it and and figure out what works y with that in mind. Great. Anything else? Oh, and I just the other note I had in my mind was you can see the evidence of that in tonight's budget transfers. Yeah. Right. Like there was there's monies moved from other line items to go towards maintenance. So it's not um a secret. Yes. We have to move the the budget from the salary line to cover the facilities deficit. Okay, great. Thank you so much, Jenny. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks. Have a good night. Okay, so we'll circle back to that um on June 9th, which apparently will be an infinite agenda. Um next up is our policy review for P5327 timeout spaces. And before I forget, I'm going to ask for a motion to wave the second reading of P5327. So moved. Seconded. Okay. All in favor of waving the reading. Thank you. Okay. Discussion, please. It is what it is at this point. I sent everybody um a kind of a cleaner updated version um today and went into the um

packet as well with the various kind of notes um that we had had in our last discussion. So um we changed the like title from parental consent to required documentation. Um, we put in the calendar like the school days as opposed to the calendar days and uh I changed the um Oh, no, that was the other thing. Yeah. So um outside of some typos or something that may still be there which policy will definitely catch um this largely change stays unchanged from our initial um draft. Um and really it's just if we are ready to approve it in terms of the spirit of the policy and what it means. Um, I know Gerard's not here tonight, but Gerard is has seen this and has is in support of where we've landed um in terms of implementing this across the district next year. Um, not that it's not already happening, but it's just kind of what's the word? Formalizing I think and and to also help bring a consistency across all the school buildings. I don't any other feedback from committee members, follow-ups on previous discussions. You got something, Chris? Um Courtney saw this, her keen eyes. Um Yep. You want to talk about that? Sure. The the reference to safety care training. Yeah. Um we don't I mean there's only a select group of people who are safety care trained. Yeah. and they might not necessarily be the ones that are dealing

with a timeout space. The safety care training does two separate things as far as deescalation and then you know if it moved into any kind of a a physical restraint or a hold. Yeah. Um which is much different than the use of the timeout space. And so I'm not sure if uh all those staff would be available. Some of our safety care trained people are gened teachers, administrators who are, you know, in the classroom and are called out when there is a need for that. Um, it's not somebody who can monitor a timeout space. There could be somebody in a reach classroom. Um I I think that was the spirit of it because we did specifically talk about this in the um policy meeting with Gerard and the idea being that if these are rooms are connected to a specific program that the staff who are um or the of the leader of that program should also have this safety care training. It's it's also just a concern that safety care is a trademarked right. So we've gone back and forth as to deescalation. So if I just take a change of that kind of Right. So safety care is definitely a certification that we moved to several years ago after using CPI. Yep. Um and then knowing that um the the cost is quite significant. Yeah. And the time needed for all of the certification. So, what we've been doing is doing a deescalation training, which takes many of our staff members, as some of you might remember, we did that for um our principal assistants. We did it for, you know, many different um ESPs. It takes us all the way up to a hold because we don't want anybody holding a student unless they are safety care trained. Yeah. But all of that deescalation

training is something different that we don't trademark as safety care specialist. Yeah. So we could I mean certainly change it to like appropriate training or something. I mean basically what it has to solidify is that the staff who are managing these spaces are appropriately trained to use these spaces. I think that's that was the the point behind it as opposed to that safety care trademarked. I think that alone saying that the appropriately trained would be appropriately trained. Yeah, we can if the committee are agree that makes sense. I'm seeing head nods. So I would call that and I I would always avoid trademarked Yeah. programs that we don't want to lock in the district to using one. Yep. One thing. Okay. Change absolutely do that. Any final feedback or discussion? Shaina's on a roll. Motion to approve with a slight edit as amended. As amended. Second. Thank you, Shaina and Lori. Are there like awards that people get or like Yes. Okay. Yeah. We do a recognition night. It just means that I get I get There's a tally. I haven't been paying attention. Second worst assignment next to Jessica. We start picking out of the hat. Yes. Um Okay. All in favor? Okay. 5327 approved. Okay. We are on to our last order of business tonight, which is a second reading and final discussion and vote for P6110 graduation requirements. And before we forget, let's do a uh a motion to wave the second reading of P6110. So moved. Second. Who that bell? Tom, it was Tom. I just heard a deep run up. Okay, Tom and Catherine with a second. Okay, all

those in favor of waving the reading P610. Thank you. And now we are at discussion. So we've for anyone just tuning in, I don't know if there is anyone, but um you know this is our fourth uh meeting that this has been on the agenda um as followup from a working group recommendation in December. Um it's been through the policy subcommittee several times. Um I think we all articulated our initial thoughts at our last meeting. Um, so feel free to open it up. Um, was there anything? I just wanted to note one or two changes as well. Yeah. For from that. It was only some word tweaking um that I did on it with the clean version I sent today. Um, and instead of put calling it the annual review, I just put the heading for program of studies specifically talking about that. Mhm. Um and then um yeah, those were the only kind of tweaks, a few commas and things in between, but again, the spirit of it is there. Yep. Are you looking? I am looking for it. I'm not finding Why am I not finding it in the bar bottom of the drive if you're in the drive? I did want to kind of just throw out there as I like to do. Um the last night's discussion kind of really sat with me for a number of days as I kind of processed it going this feels like very complex in some ways in terms of the conversation and where we had ended up. Um, and I I think Jess, some of what you had said kind of resonated with me. And so, um, you know, I'm kind of wondering, um, if we can

kind of look at separating the two conversations, um, regarding this graduation policy because I know we've we've got two somewhat proposed um, amendments. one is that coming out the PE health that came out of the working group with the recommendations with Dan um and and the WA working group and that Tom was a member of and then the other conversation that had cropped up as this had gone on um Larry you had raised about the the VPA and I think the VPA for me kind of you know speaks to a wider discussion and wasn't necessarily connected to what we were kind of initially looking at was that flexibility and in in that PE e kind of conversation that um that uh rose from conversations last year. So um I just wonder do people have any thoughts about you know kind of pausing on the VPA conversation to become part of a wider conversation. And I know Dan even on his sip tonight was mentioning about you know looking at the program of studies and you know looking at kind of down the line in terms of schedule scheduling and maybe more that 6 through 12 lens and I know conversations are already happening around um kind of bringing a more equitable um kind of approach to that and so I don't know if if we if it's easier for the committee and I think that's what it was I was trying to think of from the last night Is it easier for the committee to kind of pause on one and just focus on what was that initial charge and really why the graduation requirements policy kind of opened up in the first place. So, I'm just throwing it out there. I would add that we were talking about the VPA uh question as being something continued into next year. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anybody? So, uh I I think that uh a couple things. Uh first is I think if we decouple, you know, and unconscious decoupling, is that unconscious? So, you know, not taking just what's in front of us right now and and the VPA piece, if I remember correctly, the number was something like 80% of graduates this year. Yep. Would meet that right already. Um I do wonder if you know um to Gloria's comments earlier if essentially adding that flexibility in would result in that 80% actually growing to 90% organically and not being a requirement but now those students are choosing to be there and thus elevating all those programs that much more because they want to be Mhm. So that that's the first thing. My other thought coming out of this is that if we uh adopt this proposal of reducing health and wellness um down to that health and wellness and not gym and not PE and and health, we are asking and trusting our educators to come to us with come to us come to the community with a proposal of how that would look and how that would work. Uh I think that would require talking across disciplines and asking what other subject matters are covering some of the things in the new

standards, which I will say I have not looked at. Again, I'm trusting our professionals to do that. But I'm also expecting that if we task them with this, they're going to come back to us if it's not possible at all and say that, you know, these are the reasons that it cannot be achieved. Um, and then we would just we would have to re-evaluate basically, you know, but I I'd be expecting a good faith effort to put the best program forward. Um, and recognizing the fact that it is a big ask. Um, And it's it's a trade-off one way or the other. But are you asking for the reduction in fisa and health and to be put on pause for more information to be collected or we asking them to put their best foot forward and bring more information to us? Yeah. I I mean I think I think it's a a chicken in the egg discussion really. Yeah. Do do we reduce it and and ask for the the the redevelopment? And then if if it's not possible, right, then then we need to know that too. And and I don't want to put our educators in in a position that they can't achieve. Uh but I think we need to make a decision and have a a direction one way or the other. And just to remind us that we're talking about the class of 2030. Yes. So this is not implemented next year. Correct. They have a Y the as I understand it the curriculum coordinator was a part of the working group. So I would think that would have been flagged if it was not possible. Um the other thing Katherine if I I tell me if I'm looking at this wrong. I actually don't see the VPA requirement at all. Oh on the table that's not adding up. Maybe I don't just just a little am I like did you use your really smart brain because my math is not

adding 115. I'm two and a half short. Good catch. 12th. Yeah. No, it's I cop cuz we we don't actually touch the the real one. So as I copied and pasted I had problems with the table coming over. So I Good catch going insane because that matter is I said I knew I I knew there was going to be and I went through it. Yeah. Okay. So that will go back. We're not eliminating VPA. Sorry. Yes. No. Yeah. Okay. No, we had problem with the formatting on the table when I copied and pasted. Um, so yes, good catch. Oh, that's not the original the final document as is. It would be drafted. Yeah. I just didn't want to sound like an idiot when I up and was like, I don't think the math adds up. Any other thoughts to share? So, I took a lot away from the student survey that was developed by the grad requirements work group. Uh, went back through the numbers um and looked at it a little bit with a closer lens. There were 356 students that responded. They represented about 33% of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. When asked what those uh subject requirements they would decrease, there were 609 responses, meaning that a majority of students chose multiple subject areas to decrease. Of those 609 responses, 215 or 35% uh would decrease fizz and health, while 394 or 65% would decrease subjects other than fizz or health or not decrease any subjects at all. Uh when asked what subject requirements they would increase, almost half responded stated they wanted no change to increasing requirements. Um I believe this these responses validate what is an academically rigorous curriculum for students to learn and grow, but also

acknowledges the high pressure environment, which I think we've we've talked about a few times tonight that exists at WA and across the district, I would say, in other spots, too. Um freshmen weren't surveyed. um in any manner in this group. Um and I just find that interesting because we were talking about this discussion only affecting future class freshman classes. Um we've had a number of recent public comments talking about academic support and specifically students on IEPs. Um, and I think there's a greater issue here about serving students on IEPs um, and their course schedules that that don't necessarily have to do with freshman year fizzed and health or a combined fizzed health. I think there's a larger equity issue at stake that deserves more attention and more discussion um, across a lot of district partners. But it's my opinion that right now given the standards given what um you know a 20% reduction in instructional time what we're proposing um would ask our teachers to take on more supporting more students more high need highne students in each section um with less time to cover more objectives and topics. um the stressors that we've already talked about, academic, social, emotional, behavioral, physical health stressors. Uh some of the arenas we talked about tonight, social media, smartphones, AI, other technologies. Um what we envision the Westford graduate to be. Um I would be I'm a proponent right now of pausing this uh for further discussion. We the governor's has tasked a statewide K to2 graduation council that's supposed to be coming out with new graduation

requirements a report hopefully by July of next year. Um I think we could glean a lot of that for a topic for the future but it's kind of how I stand right now. So anyone else want to share their thoughts? I think I mean I know I don't know. No I couldn't. Sorry, you just you Well, I I was just going to highlight um you know, especially tonight how much we heard student choice lifted up as being important in so many other aspects of um what we're doing. Uh you know, we had that wonderful presentation from our students and uh you know, just really taking to heart this idea that choice is important. And so that resonates a lot with me. It seems like it's something we really value and I think it helps to address the um you know equity issues that we've talked about regarding special education but it also helps with mental health and it helps students be able to be those strong you know uh advocates for themselves that we want after Westford Academy. Learning how to choose and live with your choices is a very important skill. Um, I I also, you know, agree that the student surveys had a big impact on me, too. Although I think I was looking at them a little bit differently. But for me, what I took away is that, you know, especially as being a teach a classroom teacher for high schoolers, too. You know, students often know what they need. We we just need to listen. And I think they were being very clear about what they what they need. I read some of the ghostriter articles about this and of course all the public comment that's come in. So, you know, to me, that's where I stand. I think we do need to think about some cultural shifts around reducing pressure, you know, for our students for sure. I think there are other levers that we need to look at and the GPA waiting is a great way to do that. Um, but yeah, those are my thoughts. The one thing that stood out for me just today that I mean and and really what

we're talking about is two and a half electives. So, it's not something that we're changing, you know, dramat like a dramatic increase across the way. We we got an email through today um in um on a number of emails and various comments, but there was one that stood out to me of a parent sharing that their student had dropped their IEP in freshman year because to them, theater was kind of the only reason to go to school. Dropped their academic support. Sorry. They dropped their Well, they dropped their IEP and and academic support. Yeah. Um came off the IEP. Yes. Um Yeah. In order to take the world language and and to keep up to keep up theater. Yeah. And that for me I kind of have to say I I that a student would go ahead and make that choice in ninth grade um kind of really resonated with I think the the various stories and conversations I I have had in in recent years. Um and and for me like you said Jess with kind of that student voice and choice. Um I I very much think that combining that one elective um I think just changes a lot of flexibility and brings a bit more choice in in for our students in in that freshman year and try and improves our equity as we do a bigger deep dive you know over the coming years in terms of those um the other scheduling and stuff. So, and yeah, and a similar story we heard tonight of someone who really their orchestra was really their happy place and they couldn't do it without some flexibility in the schedule. Yeah. In nth grade.

Yeah. I I mean I think those are the really you know sometimes we get um a push of emails it related to a topic but what struck me in the our recent emails is the personal anecdotes and the personal experiences that were shared um and just like without having a high schooler myself those really resonated to see what students are making for those tradeoffs um you know when I think about like the statewide group that's looking at this. Um I I think some of the research we've had from a parent showing what our um our our DART districts and our our geographical adjacent districts are doing. um and thinking about the changes that have happened in the last couple of years to reduce some of the flexibility um for for good reasons, but I think have had some trickle down unintended consequences. and this feels like a choice that is within our purview to um sort of mitigate some of those unintended consequences that that we've um seen affect student choice and student schedules. So, um I would also support um this idea of thinking about what's in front of us right now that was vetted through a working group and um and thinking about PE in front of us right now. um you know some of the things in the WA SIP about um I'm blanking on the words but like I think ma in making next as we create the next three-year SIP I think a lot of those things that we're all hinting at and we're all wrestling with are going

to come up as a bigger conversation. Um but I think this is uh a moderate response that has been recommended to us, vetted to us and um feels measured compared to the the changes that have happened that have reduced some of that flexibility. Shane, have you I I have thought a lot about this the last two weeks and I've like flip-flopped myself back and forth so many times. Um I think obviously we've heard some feedback from the community. Um I think I had definitely expressed some concern about that what a student might pick up in that spot. Um, thinking through a little bit more about it being more ninth grade focused versus further down in their high school career makes me feel a little less concerned, I guess, because I think maybe not knowing as much when you're coming in nth grade versus maybe trying to pull something in, you know, in 10th or 11th grade to boost a GPA or to to whatnot might be a difference. Um, I think it would be great as we're thinking through some changes in course study and changes in GPA to maybe keep this as like another data set if we moved this forward today to start looking at like what did not what has changed in nth grade enrollments like where can we track that students are kind of using this extra two two and a half credits if this goes through today. um so that we can have better data to either negate or conform nor deny that we're we're not using this in a in a capacity that is adding some of that extra burden. I think Tom was just

saying that maybe they will use it in a VPA and that will further some of our VPA statistics. So I think that if we move it forward, I I personally would be really interested in seeing even after the first class comes through like what did we pick? what did we use this for? What are we seeing as changes in the previous classes versus this classes? Um, and do we want to revisit something or make some guidelines or add in the VPA or whatnot? So, I think after I sat on it for a little bit and kind of really thought about it from a ninth grade lens, um, and then how the incoming eighth graders, right, are impacted if they're on IEPs and stuff and how it has that direct correlation between the eth and nth grade. Um, started to to sway me um one day or another um in in one way. And so I think just being mindful of that. But I do also agree that coming up with a better equitable situation when it comes to course scheduling for students that are on IEPs should be a larger part of a broader conversation, too. Anyone else? Lauria, did you have a chance to um Yeah, I I agree especially about the equity piece with the the kids on IEPs coming from the middle school to the high school where their choices are limited. That really needs to be looked at as well as uh the VPA increase according to the mass score. Yeah. And it seems like this conversation this year has been pretty much focused on PE health. It felt like that's what came out of the committee. The committee I think the the working group was asked to look at the graduation requirements holistically. Okay. Right.

And we had asked to look to see was there any flexibility and I mean I know Tom is here and principal Tumi is here too that could could speak to it. Um this is that is where they found an opportunity for flexibility that seemed to to make the most sense and was not a was not a massive shift or change. But the conversations that were taking place during the budget season, there were a lot of people asking questions about are there other ways in which we students could be getting their PE credit. So that's why it seems like sometimes that they're blended, but the committee actually just went to look at the graduation requirements as a whole and that's kind of their presentation showed that they didn't go into it looking to see can they reduce right any one specific I understand that but I think there were there was a lot of feedback from the community too um at least this year that I that I heard about concern about a lack of flexibility in that area in particular for for students to take a vote. Yeah, I'm not seeing anyone. I mean, we're either ready for a motion or others have more discussion. You can always uh there can always be a motion and a second and and a final thought. And I just want to share one more thing and and this kind of I was having a discussion with a parent of a current senior the other day and they were talking about the the decision between two schools that they ended up coming to and it was like one day it was one the next day. So and I've found myself kind of in that kind of going back and forth. Um, we've heard from parents, we've heard from students over the past couple years, we've heard from our

educators, all have very valid perspectives. Um, I think I think we need to, my perspective right now is we need to make a decision tonight so that everyone knows what we're going forward with. Um and we're going to have to live with that decision one way the other for a period of time. Yeah. And I um I don't I don't think it ends here. No. And that that's the thing is we we've we've in even in this policy there's discussion about program of studies and we've heard that in the sips. So I don't see it as like this topic isn't a stranger to our agenda. Right. No. No. No. And and I'm not saying we have to live with it for the next 20 years. Um but whatever we decide, we're committing to as our path forward, right? And that that's our direction um for for the district and in this case for WA. Um but that's I think that's how we're going to serve this the community today is to decide on that direction. And it may not be a unanimous vote. I have a funny feeling it's not going to be. And that's okay. Uh because the community is not unanimous on it. And and that's kind of I think we have to be okay with that. Yep. Anybody like to take a stab at a motion? Motion to approve the policy, but make sure we add in BPA. I was with the amendments the amended policy as amended and a second. Second.

Okay. Uh last call. Final words. All in favor of approving P6110 draft as amended say I. I. All opposed. Any abstained? Okay. 61. Okay. great discussions. Um you know like I said I think it will be a larger um thing that we will continue to unpack and um we will move forward uh from there. I will take a motion to adjurnn. That is our last bit of business tonight. Second. Who is that? Shaina. Okay. All those in favor of adjourning that is unanimous. Is it a full point? Like is it a full point? You wait.