School Committee: August 9, 2021

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:39 Okay, Emily, I sent that link. Let me know if you want me to call the meeting to order before you get it going or whenever you’re ready. Yes, call the meeting to order. I will be able to do it again for one minute, yes. All right. So I will call us to order at 603 this evening. Welcome everyone and welcome our two special guests, Dr. Paula Donnelly and Ms. Kathy Brine. We’re excited to have you both here with us and I will hand it over to Dr. Bucky to move along with the interviews. Sure. The first up is our Interim Director of Special Services and it’s, as Sarah said, no stranger to the district. We are bringing Dr. Paula Donnelly forward for the committee’s consideration for the Interim Director position for the year. I sent the committee a memo that outlined the process and what led us to tonight. So I will turn it back over to the committee to watch the interview. All right. Well, again, welcome Dr. Donnelly. Would you like to say a few things and then I’ve got a question. I’m not sure if anybody else has a question. Sure. Well, thank you for having me. I’m really grateful for this opportunity. I’m really excited about the prospect of continuing the work that student services as well as the rest of the district has undertaken over the last couple of years.

2:10 And again, grateful for this opportunity and happy to answer any questions that Sarah, you are the rest of the committee have. All right. Well, I will go ahead, sorry for the sound of the cars in the background. I will go ahead and ask my question. What do you think is the most pressing issue facing the student services department in Marblehead at this point? I think that one of the, you know, one of my the highest priority that that I have coming into the role, and I certainly see this as a challenge as well, is ensuring that we’re really continuing to collaborate really closely with general education teachers and curriculum and learning or teaching and learning to ensure that we’re really supporting the growth of the multi tiered support system, you know, really more formally operationalizing a lot of the really great work that’s been done in the district over time, but also making sure that we’re supporting that effort, you know, not just as special educators as consultants and experts in accommodations and modifications, but really forming genuine meaningful and authentic partnerships, you know, across, you know, horizontally and certainly vertically across the district. I think it’s a huge opportunity for growth, but also a real challenge because I, you know, for years, everyone’s kind of been in their own little silos, their own hallways, their own floors.

3:43 But I think that the foundation is there to continue to build on that sort of practice. Wonderful. Thanks. I know I was on the high school SAC with you and there was at one point kind of later in the year that we got to be in a little small breakout group and I really enjoyed, you know, hearing your thoughts on where I think we were looking at like the portrait of a graduate. And I, it was, it was, it was nice to have that experience with you. So, you know, I think, I think everybody knows you’ve got some big shoes to fill but it’s exciting to have you moving into this position. David or Emily are two other committee members on the call. I don’t, I haven’t seen Sarah Fox come in yet. So do either of you have a question that you’d like to ask or anything you’d like to say?

4:39 I’ll yield to Emily if she has a question first, but, or comment. I think she might be switching computers right now. So if you want to take it away, go ahead. I’ll take it away. So I understand this might not be fair at this stage of your position, given that, you know, a lot of your time has been at the high school and some of the higher level grades but Talk a little bit about how you see the Brown School impacting the overall delivery of student services where, you know, in the past we’ve had to actually limit where students could go to school because of accessibility or because of the various programs that we were offering. But could you talk a little bit about or maybe in the turnover that you had with, with Dr. Oxford, there were some highlights there. Yeah, I think, you know, it’s, it’s exciting for there to be two schools aligned as pre K to three schools. You know, I was in Marblehead as a therapeutic teacher that’s years ago and I couldn’t name like all of the different schools and all of the different grade levels that were there and operational at that point of my life depended on it. So to have, you know, that sort of streamlined alignment, you know, I think really makes a lot of sense. And I, you know, I will say again I don’t know what tremendous amount I have a lot of experience in doing the early intervention to pre K transition so I’m familiar with the grade level.

6:17 But one thing experientially that I can say is I was at I went from working in Swamscott Public Schools to that’s one of the first years that it opened and just the like the morale that was there with staff when you had like a brand new building and the best technology and everything was so much more state of the art. It just made everything like all of the day to day things flow so much more smoothly that it was such a tangible difference in like the culture and like really the well being of staff and kids, you know, in the building like that you didn’t have to worry as a teacher that you were going to get stuck in an elevator. You know, I mean, it sounds like, you know, a silly little thing but I do think that, you know, having new facilities and state of the art technology will really make a big difference in a lot of ways that are really kind of hard to define. But I also think the opportunity to have more, you know, even horizontal alignment with the pre K with the transitional kindergartens and one to three, I think will, you know, will really make a big difference in how we deliver services and like you said, you know, the accessibility for all students that really plays a huge role in ensuring that we’re working towards, you know, true inclusive practices. Well, that’s certainly great to hear. We certainly expect that will be one of the outcomes. It’s good to hear from somebody who’s had that experience and we welcome you over the next couple of weeks to, you know, come on over with your staff that will be at the school.

8:00 We were touring the space Dr. Bucky and Michelle Kresta today, you know, ourselves and seeing, you know, all of the new spaces that have been designed based on the educational needs for all the students. So it is really exciting and yeah, happy to see you over there as we start the planning for the next stages of opening. I’d love to. Thank you. Emily, did you have anything you wanted to say or ask? Sure. So I was I missed a little bit of the beginning, but what, what are your priorities for the special education program in our district for this coming year? You know, it’s hard to define any one single one, but I think continuing like I had said at the beginning, I’m continuing the collaboration with general education staff and with teaching and learning, you know, to really ensure that we’re maximizing inclusive opportunities for all students, not just students with disabilities. And I think one of the other big challenges that, you know, we as team chairs with Eric’s leadership have started to undertake is really starting to, you know, kind of to break down some of those silos within our own department, you know, within some of the specialized programming and ensure that students are still receiving those highly specialized, really specific needs-based services,

9:35 but not excluding them from other opportunities within their buildings and within their communities. And we know that it’s a big paradigm shift. It’s a big, you know, a big cultural shift in a lot of ways. But, you know, I’ve really, you know, really been so excited to work with the team that we’ve had up to this point and to continue to go forward with ensuring that we’re making sure that kids have their needs met in every way. Great answer. Thank you. All right. Well, we’re a smaller group tonight, so that, oh, David, did you have anything else? I did. I’d like to just follow on a little bit to that. So over the last two years, we’ve heard from Dan Bauer about the BRITE program that was established at the high school. And Dr. Bucky and Dan brought forward the decision to carry that program forward to make it more permanent. I think that’s one example, but are there any other programs that you think we could, that we’re looking towards adding? Or maybe you could just comment on, you know, maybe the impact that the BRITE program has had at the high school, if nothing else? Sure. The BRITE program has been phenomenal. I see Lindsay, I won’t put Lindsay on the side, but Lindsay Page is here, the assistant principal at the high school. And she can certainly speak to, you know, the huge successes that the program has had for a lot of students.

11:06 I think it’s, you know, certainly coming out of the pandemic, you know, we’ve really, really increased our focus on ensuring that students’ social and emotional and mental health needs are being met. The BRITE program has played a huge role in that. But I think it’s also helped to model, and I’m sorry for the traffic noise, it’s also really helped to model, you know, the level of collaboration that’s needed for kids to be able to take a step back from their typical programming and to be able to reengage with it, you know, in a really highly successful sort of way. One of the other things that we’ve done as we’ve sort of readjusted curriculum support as a course at the high school is, you know, have some students that are no longer identified as needing special education services, being able to access that level of support. Because we really do want to ensure that they’re successful, but also really being forthcoming about, you know, that as a course and, you know, the expectations that there will be for that class. You know, so, and I think that I spoke at a meeting at one point last year on Sarah Fox that asked, can we take that level of executive functioning instruction and scale that up for all students? I’d certainly love to be able to do that. I’d love to support the district and being able to provide more of those supports, you know, to all students in a developmentally appropriate way.

12:35 That’s great. Thank you, Dr. Donnelly. So if there are no more questions, I will ask for a motion to approve the recommendation that Dr. Paula Donnelly be offered the position of Director of Student Services.

12:57 So moved. Emily moved.

13:04 Second. All right, David second. Thank you. The roll call votes. Sarah Gold. Yes. David Harris. Yes. And Emily Baron. Yes. All right. That motion carries three to zero. Congratulations, Dr. Donnelly. Thank you. Thanks very much for this opportunity. I’m looking forward to working with you all this year. Same here. And that, you know, thank you to everybody who applied and, you know, this is, it was, there were a lot of great candidates. So I’m excited that Dr. Donnelly is going to be given this opportunity. All right, John, I will turn it back over to you to tee up our next candidate. If I could just for one second, we have some people who are on. Dr. Bucky, could you just mention some of the other people that worked with you on this advisory search? Sure. Sure. Several of them are attending this evening to lend their support to Paula’s nomination. We had assistant superintendent, Nan Murphy. We had two representatives from CPAC, Meryl Schell and Jennifer Jackson. We had Melissa Kaplovich as a parent representative. It was Megan Taylor as a school committee rep and Matt Fox as a member of the leadership team. I think that is the search group. So I put you on the spot there, but I knew you had it right there. So thank you for that.

14:36 Sure. Yeah. The next part of the meeting is the nomination of the middle school nurse. And I see Matt Fox is here. He did a really comprehensive process that has led to Kathy being brought forward to the committee for your consideration. So I’ll ask Matt to fill in kind of the background and then you guys can commence with the interview. Well, thank you. We’re excited to bring Kathy Byrne in front of you for consideration for our hierarchy here at Vets. Kathy comes to us after four years in the Lawrence and Chelsea, most recently Chelsea school districts. Prior to that, though, she’s had numerous years of experience in the cardiopulmonary rehab unit, ER, oncology, mental health unit, surgical unit. She brings to us a wealth of knowledge of nursing. But when I spoke to her references, it wasn’t just her clinical skills that I really stressed. It was the connections she’s made with students, the communication she had with her colleagues, and one very personal recommendation in which she actually diagnosed or helped to diagnose a very serious medical condition for one of her fellow colleagues whose doctor was sort of blowing it off. And thanks to Kathy’s clinical expertise, she really helped her, which could have been a challenging one for her. So it was a very personal recommendation that really spoke home to her care, not just for students, but to everybody around her as a true medical professional. So we are recommending Kathy Byrne to join us here at Vets.

16:08 Wonderful. Welcome, Kathy. I apologize for getting your last name wrong as I introduced everyone at the outset. So would you like to say a few words before we open it to the committee for questions? Well, thank you, Mr. Fox. That kind of chucked me up on that last introduction. Well, that was nice of kind words from some recommendations. So thank you. And thank you for this opportunity and meeting with Mr. Fox and Diane, the team during the interview process. So when Mr. Fox actually introduced myself, I mean, it sounded great. I didn’t think I had that much background. So thank you. Enough said, I don’t know. Well, your resume was certainly impressive as I read through it. So I think Matt did it justice. I can kick it off with a question. Can you give me your thoughts or any experience that you had? I definitely noticed the mental health experience. And so I was wondering if you have ever or what your thoughts are about collaboration with the guidance department for students who maybe are presenting with physical ailments. But then as you get a feel for those kids are a little bit more concerned that maybe it’s something more emotional that is bringing them into your office. Sure. Great question. I mean, as a nurse, psychosocial evaluation is always part of your evaluation at any point, whether they come in just for a scrape knee or a headache or a stomach ache or even to bring you a note from home or some medication.

17:57 I mean, you’re always trying to make that connection with the student to see what’s happening and what’s going on, just to have them feel like it’s a safe area for them to come to. And I think it’s so important as we discussed during the interviews that having that connection with social worker and the social worker team and guidance. And teachers and administration to have that collaboration, connection and communication across the board to be able to communicate effectively and let them know what’s happening both physically and psychosocial because I think it’s all interconnected mind, body and soul. Wonderful. Thank you. And my son just is moving on from the vets this coming year. So I know you’ll have a wonderful team to be working with over there. They do a great job. So Emily or David, did you guys have any questions? So welcome, Kathy. So mask or no mask? Just kidding. Just kidding. Don’t need you to answer that question. Don’t need to answer that question right now. Let’s not answer that. My stomach looked on that one, David. Yeah, but I mean, certainly we all understand the seriousness of that issue, certainly as we go forward. And could you just talk a little bit about what your experiences were at Chelsea and how it appears that schools are now transitioning to go back to, obviously, full time.

19:52 And having students in class, just like we, you know, what do you think that when we asked Paula, some of her biggest challenges, what do you think one of the biggest challenges will be for opening the schools or not even maybe a challenge, but some of the things that we need to be focused on? Sure. I mean, last year was a tough year for everybody involved. And, you know, whether it was the parents, the students, the staff, doctors, nurses, PCPs, everybody involved. And hopefully we’re getting over that hump. But then with the new variant that’s coming in, and, you know, people are, people are, again, having some, you know, thoughts and different processes. And, you know, it’s all a personal preference, but I think, you know, things that we probably will have to overcome. And as far as I don’t know what the district, you know, is going to do as far as with the mass policy or not. But I think some of the hurdles that we’ll have to overcome is, you know, who’s vaccinated, you know, 12 and older, who’s going to, you know, how are we going to regulate that? How are we going to see who’s vaccinated? How are we going to, you know, get record of that? Almost like immunizations. The teachers, obviously, are going to be nervous. You know, how come he’s not wearing a mask? Who should be wearing a mask? You know, last year we did have students come back the second, the last two months.

21:27 So we were back in school and everybody wore masks, but then people were taking them off outside at recess. So, you know, to regulate that, it’s a tough process, you know, while you’re eating. It was just a tough process. So it’s all about, I mean, what the district’s policies are. I mean, obviously with DESI and to follow those guidelines, but obviously record keeping. I mean, who’s vaccinated, who’s not, who should be wearing a mask, if there is a mass policy, making sure that the teachers, you know, are, I believe, with my nursing practice that education is a big part of people feeling comfortable. So the more information that we get out there, I don’t always have the answers. So if I don’t know the answer, I’m going to try to get it as soon as I can. And I’ll tell you, I don’t know that answer. Let me get it for you and we will get back to you. But we need to inform and make sure that everybody feels safe in the school and make sure that they know that, you know, they’re safe in their teaching environment and they’re coming to school when they’re in the building. So we have a lot of hurdles, obviously, that, you know, hopefully working together, we can overcome and get the information out there and make sure everybody’s safe. Did Chelsea do the pooled testing that was available from the state of Massachusetts? Yep, I was one of the coordinators for the district. So we had two different agencies that came in. We started with one. It was very time consuming.

23:07 And then we went to a second vendor. It was a lot easier, but I think more challenging in that community for logging on, doing a QR code, scanning in for the parents and getting that information out there. I think it was a little bit more challenging. But we worked for it and it worked and it worked quite well. But yes, we did weekly food testing. Great. Thank you. Thanks, David. Emily, I know you are on this committee for this search. So if you have any additional questions or want to say anything, no pressure, though. I was just going to say that I loved your answer about educating people and how important that is. So that is great. So thank you. And if you don’t know, you find out. So I think that was a great response and all about educating people also about everything, all the stuff that’s going on. So thank you. And I would feel safe if you were my nurse. So thanks. Thank you. All right. I will ask for a motion to approve Kathy Byrne as the school nurse for veterans middle school. So moved. David moved. Second. Emily second. All right. Sarah Gold. Yes. David Harris.

24:38 Yes. And Emily Baron. Yes. All right. That is approved three to zero and welcome to the district, Kathy. Thank you very much. I’m looking forward to the opportunity. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. So that leads us, I believe, to our final agenda item for the evening declaring the kindergarten to eighth grade math curriculum as surplus. Dr. Bucky. Sure. Just by matter of policy, school committee needs to declare surplus the old math curriculum materials, but I would be remiss not to give a shout out to Nan Murphy for the work that she did on the curriculum adoption for mathematics. There were dozens of meetings with stakeholder groups and vendors and really getting program K to five K to six and then another program at the middle school. So it’s been a tremendous amount of work. And so I’ll just ask Nan to talk a little bit about declaring it surplus and we’ll be done. Yes, great. So we are we’re super excited. This is such an exciting opportunity for the arcade through eighth grade teachers. The process has been long and arduous, but we’ve landed somewhere really cool. Our math program K to eight is going to be learned. I’m sorry, K to six is learned zillion and our seven and eighth grade team selected ready math and they’re both just outstanding.

26:16 So thrilled to bring on all of these new resources. But with that, we need to dispose of quite a few materials. And I know in speaking to some leaders, they already are aware of certain organizations that might be interested in our older materials. So we would, of course, our priority would be seeking out a place to be able to benefit from our used materials. And then if not, we would recycle or dispose of them. However, Mr. Bloodgood directed us to. Great. Thanks, Nan. I will ask for a motion that if anybody has any follow up questions, can I get a motion to declare the kindergarten to eighth grade math curriculum as surplus? Moved. Emily moved. Second. David second. All right. Does anybody have any questions for Nan? All right.

27:26 Just would be great if we could find another district maybe that might still need some of those supplies. Not sure if we’ll be able to, but that that’s an ambitious effort to make that happen. Be great. I think what we’re going to find David is that with the Essar funding, a lot of districts are looking to adopt new materials. So there are those resources out there for folks, which is amazing. And every district is lucky to have those. But we’re going to try that. Try that. Try hard first. Matt, I see you’ve got your hand up. Yeah, I had to wait until we actually picked the new choice. But Charter did reach out to me at the beginning of summer because they were looking for a few more of their books because they use the same series that we just left behind. So I might be reaching out to them tomorrow to let them know we have a few if they want to bolster what they have. Wonderful. Helping out another Marblehead school. That’s great. All right. Well, it’s very exciting. I know that was a long process. So hooray that we’ve got it. And let’s declare this surplus. So Sarah Gold, yes. David Harris. Yes. And Emily Barron. Yes. All right. That passes three to zero. And that brings us to adjournment. So I will adjourn us at 631 p.m. Thank you.