School Committee: October 6, 2022

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

2:31 thank you of testimony in the trial of Charlie Casey was accused of Motor Vehicles

3:38 foreign foreign thank you

4:44 um on September 28th uh the high school had its picture day and on October 1st uh they hosted the SAT uh we have many more clubs starting up again uh including GSA headlight which is the newspaper and model landline model un with its first meeting tomorrow uh our math team also won his first meet tonight and we had the highest score we had in many years so congratulations uh the all sports boosters held its annual scholarship drive on October 2nd and they brought in over 32 700 for our athletes which is a new record and the athletic department would like to thank the hard work of the boosters and all student athletes who participated so again congratulations to everyone

5:30 the junior class opened their class closed store and you can visit the Marblehead Sports Shop website to purchase products and they will be on sale until October 14th the freshman class will also have their elections tomorrow on October 7th uh next week on Wednesday we will have a day Zero at the high school and there will be different events for different classes freshmen will have their annual Day of Service where they go into the community and perform various service projects uh grades 10 and 11 will have epsat to help prepare them for the SAT and other standardized tests and seniors will have either college essay seminars or college visits um in other class news the senior class is selecting Powder Puff coaches and planning schedules for their upcoming

6:16 game in November and in sports news boys soccer won yesterday against Salem fuels hockey volleyball and girls soccer had games today as well as cross-country how to meet and the football team has a game at home tomorrow tomorrow and for anybody that missed it because we did not have sound I just want to reiterate for anybody watching that um Dr Bucky had presented yes in the Massachusetts Association of school superintendents Award of Excellence such

6:47 um if we have anyone who’d like to make public comment um either here in person or um to just raise your hand and then remember to state your name address correct

7:13 it state your name thank you yes Becky tsuchu 38 Lafayette Street Marblehead uh I just had a couple of questions um comments I I missed the last school committee meeting um just from family schedules but um I wanted to do a follow-up on the elementary schedules and I know that this has been sort of discussed Ad nauseam but I just had a question for clarification about um the time spent on learning and how that is being calculated just by Knowledge from the Glover school I know there’s 40 minutes on lunch in recess of their day and so that leaves an extra 35 minutes in their current schedule for the day and I’m just wondering where that is going where it’s not spent on learning because I did see the schedule

8:00 at the open house last week and it seemed like it was back to back with learning activities so I just wanted to ask that question thank you Becky um we don’t typically have a back and forth during public comment um and these items are definitely more operational so I’m sure that Dr Bucky and or um as you said lover so that would be hope will be in touch and be able to answer any of your questions

8:38 go ahead thank you sorry I just had two other comments then I’ll I’ll go ahead through them and then I can follow up with principles if that’s necessary um I at the lunches I’m noticing that there are very long lines for the kids especially in elementary to get through on Tuesday particularly I think it was burritos or taco day and it took almost 17 minutes of the lunch for all the kids to get through so uh where they only get a 20 minute lunch and a 20 minute recess for anyone with um kids in grades one through three they’re only getting that one recess um they got out late so they really only had like 15 minutes outside that day um so that’s just a trend that we’ve seen with certain days on lunches where it takes a little longer um and if it’s possible to have them order ahead I’ve just heard that that

9:24 was a little bit faster because their lunches would be ready or at least prepped and ready to be handed out when they got up to the front instead of deciding um and then the third comment I had is is another question about actually going into Village school I learned at open house that art and music are mutually exclusive this year where half the year is spent on Art and half the year is spent on music in sixth grade and that was pretty surprising to me just as a parent as a first I’d heard that that was a plan so I just didn’t know if there’s any feedback as far as you know why that decision was made I would assume that it’s the same amount of hours on this subjects but it doesn’t seem like half a year of double time is the same as the full year at you know

10:10 the blocks that were before so those were those were my questions and comments thank you Becky um are there is there anyone else for public comments just again raise your hand um participant

10:29 all right I think that is everyone that brings us on to our consent agenda and action items um we had two sections of minutes in your Dropbox um they were so I will ask for a motion to approve the minutes from 9 7 22 and 9 22 22. to move second

10:57 so now Sarah 922 is the one you’ll have seen from yeah do you want me to break those up uh sure sorry okay so the first one I’ll just um ask for a motion then took three minutes from 9 7 22. so second and I’ll do a roll call vote on that Sarah Hall yes yes Allison Taylor yes Megan Taylor yes Sarah Fox yes um and then we’ll ask for a motion to approve 9 22 22. some seconded Megan I think you’ll need to Second this oh sorry I thought you did second yeah um roll call vote cerebral Epstein um Allison Taylor yes Megan Taylor yes

11:43 Sarah Fox yeah yeah and then we have an appointment of a nurse um um uh introduce the candidate to the school committee since you are the official hiring by commercial nurses I’m sorry [Music]

12:14 ready yep we’re very pleased to present to you our candidate for a nurse uh Vanessa hi everyone can you hear me yes thank you hi I’d like to say a few things about Vanessa so we went to the interview process very impressive Vanessa she’s a registered nurse received the BSN from Capital University the references were unbelievable just saying they they really love working with her she’s Patient First compassionate thoughtful the team player so everything we would want in a school nurse so we’re very pleased to bring forth Vanessa for your consideration and hopefully we can ever join us so Vanessa I was very happy when I was reading your resume and cover letter to hear or see that you were talking about

13:00 a holistic approach and how important social emotional well-being is as well that was that was really good to see especially where I think that this is something that is affecting a lot of our students questions questions congratulations Vanessa and welcome to the district thank you so much it’s so nice to meet everybody so good um so I will ask for a motion to approve the hiring of Vanessa m opponin BSN second roll bubble roll bubble um Sarah gold yes Allison Taylor yes

13:45 um Megan Taylor yes and Sarah Fox yes Curious George um and welcome to the team Vanessa thank you

13:58 um so that brings us to our review of our school Improvement plans and I will let Dr Bucky introduce over whatever order you could stop oh Allison’s good I yeah

14:14 um they have a presentation so if I can share my screen okay we’ll start with Phil I saw a village out there

14:31 hi everyone it’s our hashtag up there so I got excited then jumped up

14:37 um thanks for having me um for Village School we have three main areas of focus and our main areas are teaching and learning professional culture and diversity equity and inclusion and the nice thing about all of our school Improvement plans and sharers are right um and aligned with the plan for success and a lot of the language that you will see right now is um in line with what you may have seen last time with Matt Fox and Dan Bauer so our first key concept is scope and sequence we went over that last time as well a list of Concepts and topics covered in uh class tied to a calendar and along with the curriculum map which is a little more detailed than a scope and sequence win um which is a word we’ve all heard a lot of what I need and this is a valuable time in the schedule and our teachers

15:23 are really I’m diving into this this year common assessments our classroom based assessments that are used by multiple teachers and professional learning communities are where all this magic happens where all the planning takes place so that we can best meet the needs of our students in the classroom in front of us and the protocols are the structured approaches to Foster these conversations during our DLC so our first goal of teaching and learning Village will use the alliance scope and sequence to begin the process of mapping out 25 of our curriculum this is in line with the high school and middle school and we’re just diving a little bit deeper because we are starting the process of standard space grading this year so when you look at

16:09 how we’re getting the process of mapping out while we determine common assessments through our plcs and using time to create common rubrics a lot of this work has already started and the teachers are excited and questioning and spending a lot of time really diving deeply into this we’ll reflect on what we need and what we have already so some things we may not need to recreate the wheel with and that will be really great common rubrics that support standards-based grading and we’ll look at planning vertically in order to determine multiple methods to show Mastery we’ll look at common assessments together so teachers can calibrate and look at how they’re all scoring those common assessments and what that means when students have taken an assessment and they’re looking at scoring together

16:55 through this process teachers will collaborate with brown with Glover and with veterans school so that we can make sure that we’re the transitional middle schools are we’re not in the middle school but we’re the middle child school so we can make sure that we’re transitioning easily from the curriculum at the elementary k-3 level and also with the Middle School and then to schedule time for school um

17:24 um our second goal is our professional culture goal and this is with the assistance of our amazing coaching staff and teacher leaders Village will create opportunities to offer relevant PD through staff and plcs in order to strengthen their teaching degree and so um with thanks to Nan this year we have a PD calendar that’s very organized for ourselves and our Wednesday afternoons and we’re really looking at through our staff meetings also offering TV and during our plcs so by working with our group of teacher leaders and serving our staff and looking for what they need in order to provide the best instruction we’re going to tap into our resources that we are so what expertise do we have within the building what expertise can we look for to do to

18:09 create train the trainer models within our building and so if there’s relevant PV for interventions or wind blocks or looking at assessment that we can bring back into the school and have people be experts on those areas that we were looking at strengthening that a lot um and we’ll develop PV for learning faculty meetings so that we can um we’re already getting the process of our next faculty meeting focusing on win strategies and working with the teachers um rotating through those stations um and then teachers will participate during that time on learning new interventions and sharing interventions with one another as well discussions yeah um how I love the idea that uh utilizing the trainer how are you about the

18:58 identifying which members and faculty are really the ones that should be running those training trainer models in any given area so some of it will be interested through the survey we’ll ask people I know there are a few people that went to PV this summer and have things to bring back so we’re going to create a survey that will go out to all staff asking them what they’ve done also working with our coaching staff they’re seeing a lot of the expertise within the building and they’re they’re helping us um to pave that path so I think that multiple sources you know will a variety of looking into who wants it and also by visiting their classrooms too to see who has the next one too so they can share out

19:41 so you know I I also like that but you sort of as I think about budget and everything is that is that a very typical way that districts are handling PD um you know I I guess the concern that it evokes in me is that are we I I know that people are going out on professional trainings and then coming back and sharing their knowledge which is fantastic but are we are we reluctant do you believe we’re relying too much on like on that where we could be bringing in larger scale PDS in in a more effective way I think there’s a mixture of both to be honest with you I think oftentimes teachers will go out to PDS and come back and they just um provide that what they’ve learned within their classroom or within the grade level so we’re really looking to

20:29 share those skills across the school um so I think there’s opportunity for both okay bringing in larger scale we had um I ready um people here today and that was really great so we had those communities happening so I think as long as you’re tapping into both it’s really important can I continue just what I’ve heard over you know my journey through the Marblehead public schools from different people is that we have such talented individuals in our buildings I’ve actually heard you know just as a parent in the buildings throughout the years people saying you know we’re doing such great things here I’d love to chance to kind of hear about what the great thing that might be happening down the hallway is that I know it’s happening but I need more information so I think it’s a way too to kind of

21:16 expand on the great things that are happening and just educate each other and and with those tricks

21:27 so our third goal is Dei and um we have already established our Dei team for the um school year and the first team meeting for Dei this last week and we’re excited to get that going again um by restarting that team we have a consultant come in last year and offered some data to us and so we’ll identify and Target those areas that the consultant offered to us um when we look at the data and last week we talked about this when you first look at so when we talk about how reestablishing the team and then reflecting the curriculum was my number one because we can always use room for improvement in reflecting on curriculum and looking at our diverse curriculum but also the target area that really came in was our discipline and how we’re responding to all students and making

22:13 sure all students are seen and heard and so that was the piece that was really important for us as a team was to identify that and say okay how do we have all students have a voice and be inclusive and make sure that eei is not just focused on one area but on a variety of areas and make that embedded in all of our teachings so we’re excited to begin this process there’s a good team of people and more interest in that and then we’ll we will be offering more of that opportunity through our PFS after meetings as well so I think it’ll be really important work and the team is excited to get going on that so when you’ve got that excitement going you know there’s going to be included there so determining alternate consequences really um this is these are things that we have within our building with pbix that we’re just looking to strengthen

22:59 and improve upon and I think by looking at it from the equity lens and being more inclusive you can only get stronger and some of it that is our hope this year through that to use to really dive into a lot of those areas also organizing spirit days and a weird awareness days celebrating neurodiversity as well that came from some conversations with our faculty to really focus in on areas of neurodiversity making announcements in the morning um in different languages so we’re working with our El and some we have a lot of students that speak Russian or speak Spanish and so we’re excited to get going on doing announcements in different languages and providing opportunities for everybody to be celebrated any questions

23:44 I’m really thrilled to hear the behavioral aspect of the especially in in terms of equity and inclusion um you know I think I was talking with Paula Donnelly a little bit about this recently and how excited I was to hear that there was something kids that came in for PD um and it’s it’s I’ve been in my professional life that’s something that I’ve been big on lately and I love the idea particularly as we move sort of into this whatever we want to call Post pandemic place where we’re you know we’re catching kids up but you know we have a lot of skills in Catching things up with math and reading but how do you catch kids up with behavior and it’s a it’s a really tough topic and I love the idea of looking at Behavior as a symptom

24:30 instead of as sort of the issue um and and so I I’m really glad to hear that particularly at Village because I think it really sort of that’s just a great age to start to focus on that um I’m thrilled to hear that that that’s sort of one of the goals from school this year and where you guys are focused and Megan I see your hands up yeah I don’t want to repeat what Sarah said but Mandy um some of the pieces that you’ve got there on the diversity Equity inclusion are things that um you know I’m really happy to see as part of the village plan going forward there’s so much research that backs up the things that you’re doing so I really appreciate that thank you

25:14 so I read in um as I was going through your actual plan because I wanted to particularly I want to make sure I reviewed that too you talked in there about info as you implement this new standards weeks rating one of the action items you wanted to do was to look at other districts and how they’re doing it and how do you identify you don’t have to tell me what districts are but have you identified those districts yet and who will just be you looking at that or do a team of the teachers you know who will be digging into that so that was through conversations with teachers and there’s a lot of teachers that have already started looking into other districts and talking to their peers from around the state um I know Katie Freedom our music Allied Arts Teacher actually today um that she was talking about how she

26:00 met with someone in Lexington that was looking at standards-based writing and so the teachers are already beginning that work to talk to other districts and bring that back to us so it’s it’s already happening and I think that’ll be good to bring those ideas back and so I know Allied Arts in particular was looking at how do we do this because you’re always looking at math and science and Ela in terms of standard face grading and it’s a little bit of a different lens when you’re doing it from your perspective and Allied Arts Teacher so she was excited to begin that conversation and to bring that back to Herzing as well so um so that’s where we started we still um are researching and teachers reaching out and we’ll continue to look into how other people are doing and have them help us with her for parents too the kids seem to have chapters on

26:49 but I think for parents it’s a little bit harder too where we’re used to kind of it’s it’s going to be hard to see that we’re just progressing in something or haven’t met it when that is actually quite appropriate because you’re you’re not going to meet a lot of things till the end of the year so I think there will be a learning curve for parents for all of us and we’ll get through it we’ll hold hands and step by step and it’ll be better in the end we’ll just wait and we’ll approve everybody at once but thank you very much

27:23 What’s called the dynamic duo of cloak and Mary up foreign

27:59 ERS teaching and learning professional culture and diversity equity and inclusion and our key concept some of these you’ve heard before multi-tiered systems and support system that provides specific instruction and intervention to support students identified by formative and summative assessments the win that what I mean block it’s time a lot of the students to provide interventions and enrichment opportunities based on our data scope and sequence a list of topics covered in a class tied to a calendar professional learning community that PLC a team of Educators sharing ideas experience and insight based upon data to create a learning environment where all students can reach their potential

28:46 and protocols structured approaches to Foster Canada and Powerful conversations our plc’s grade levels are going to be used in protocols and they do their work and our first goal is teaching and learning and we’re going to develop consistent data cycles and systems for teaching and learning and TSS like the multi-tiered system of support we have weekly plcs that are up and running our teacher leaders are running our plcs for grade levels and they’re going to develop systems for looking at work looking at data looking at instruction and PLC today that is really excited to start looking at some student work and calibrating how they store that continue to develop intervention Cycles to

29:33 include a definite beginning progress monitoring and end and reassess so looking at that student data at the beginning to identify where where do students need the supports reassessing are the interventions we’re doing working for students and then either they exit out and maybe they work on something else or they get some more supports in your area of need and we’re gonna establish those for our specific learning needs

30:03 and our other goal we have four goals the other one is on teaching and learning the second one align the curriculum by engaging in curriculum mapping including scope and sequence and this goes along with the report card standard boost report cards and really aligning our assessments to go along with those students and teachers are going to be doing a lot of that work this year with the new report card and we’re going to look at current assessments and then common rubrics that teachers are using and part of that work will be calibrating those rubrics and making sure that they’re scoring the same way so teachers are on the same page about how there’s School

30:43 our third goal is to do with professional culture and we’re going to engage in lots of opportunities throughout the year to develop and strengthen that a unified professional culture of learning where our Educators Thrive we want to make sure that we’re offering relevant PD that really correlates with the other parts of our plan that we just went over really helping teachers to understand that mtss process understanding how to calibrate work how to develop a win cycle so that it’s systematic and and successful so all of that will be tied to that our teacher leaders and coaches will work

31:30 together to provide that training and support and then there’s an additional goal tied to this one that’s um sort of around the brown school and that’s just really a regular use of faculty meetings to connect evaluate and share our development teams so we really having come from three different schools and a new school many people going from working with 100 plus students to 400 of us we’re finding that you know we have a lot of work to do around just bringing us together and making us a strong thriving community and we’re off to a great start but we’ve got so much to do we need to keep keep working on that so I really wanted that to be a goal as

32:17 part of this plan so looking looking forward to watching that growth and development

32:27 um our last goal is a Dei goal and this is really dovetails with the district plan um took this directly from where the district uh team left off we have re-established our Dei school-based teams they’ll be working um each month on their PFS uh related work when they work on Wednesday afternoons while we have adopted several uh books and texts last year into the curriculum this year we’ll really be helping uh to sort of integrate those so that students can use that sort of Windows and mirrors concept to see you know how do I see myself in here and how do I see others in these um these wonderful texts that we’ve already adopted so um our plan looks a little

33:13 shorter but it’s actually very lofty each one of those things will take this um very very um has a lot of details a lot of steps a lot of moving pieces so um we’re excited about the work and I would Echo what um hope said about already seeing that in the plc’s um a team of teachers last week was calibrating one of their foundations tests really going through some work samples and making sure that everything when they look at data that they’re all really comparing Apples to Apples and not there isn’t any sort of gray area there today another team was working on how to align the writing standards

33:59 um as they worked on their uh phonics assessments how will those speak to the standards that they’re using to assess in December on that person so they’re um I’m pretty impressed and proud of the work that they’ve already started okay so many questions for us um

34:28 no I think I think it sounds good I think you’ve got a lot of work cut out for you and I can’t wait to see how it all shapes up over the course of the Year thank you

34:40 yeah as you go through the year you’ll see that I I always have one um first I just want to for the clarification did you waste about because this is we have not transitioned this year is this the school Improvement plan that you guys developed or are you presenting okay so how did you utilize feedback from your school advisory councils to to do this or did you use what they had developed last year through those councils to kind of come up with this I just want to I was wondering how there’s that collaborative present so we met with teachers and actually you both met with our school advisory councils to get feedback from them we both met this afternoon oh yeah

35:26 than usual yeah we had established our councils and got some good feedback they got a copy of the compute plan and we went through the complete plan with them and they gave some great feedback on um the win how we can um sort of uh communicate that um succinctly but also clearly to parents and help them understand how it’s developing this year yeah um yeah I think it’s some great feedback on the way around my um School advisory Council was talking about the students based support card and what you mentioned earlier that parents are going to need some guidance and support because it is new and it’s like a change so yeah and I think a really big way is going to be where as in the community where we

36:12 haven’t at this grade level had comments that will really help for parents get a better view of what’s going on with these kids yeah we also had feedback on acronyms and yeah I had that today abbreviations that you know just that we just need to remind ourselves that we speak you know edgy speak and you know a lot of people don’t always know what we’re talking about when we talk about win or PLC or all of those kinds of things so um

36:46 how are is the data that you’re collecting going to drive what occurs in the Wind Block will it drive you know enrichment opportunities in certain areas for students also can you talk a little bit about how in that block um that data will will children receive services will Services be scheduled during that block um you know how will this data feed into that so looking at the data we will have to incorporate enrichment for students so students are making progress it’s our job to challenge them and right now we have a menu of interventions to kind of develop that even more for teachers and be looking at the data specifically for what’s the area of mean and what’s the intervention

37:35 so it’s really time for like a tier two intervention absolutely and it’s a and there will be um part of that goal that we see in the plan really is around developing the Cycles so there is a start point there is an end point there are progress monitoring dips along the way and then making those critical decisions about you know is this the right intervention are we making progress are we not making progress do we stay there do we graduate out of there and work on something different so all of those are critical questions not something you want to be doing in October and ask those questions in April you need to ask them every six to eight weeks and so we won’t be students won’t be scheduled to have various Services regularly during those periods so to

38:21 allow that period to be used for enrichments and or tier 2 supports or whatever this data is is driving I would say both could happen I think Services may be uh if that’s what their greatest need is it’s possible that Services could be scheduled during that time I wouldn’t say it would never happen

38:47 when you talk about uh enrichments that is that something that will happen at both schools so enrichment for children that need additional I shouldn’t say additional work that seems unfair but more challenging work sure that will happen at both as well so we’re looking at what we have for resources during that block of time um and what kinds of enrichment we want to make sure it’s meaningful okay so um things like book groups at their levels so we have kids that are in second grade that are living at a fourth grade level is that do we have someone available that could help you know run a really um a book group that has you know really rich vocabulary conversations so that they could have that opportunity that

39:32 might be one you know we might do another might have a a long term project that’s based around Recent research project or something so that’s great yeah um I love the swing block um and I’m I’m grateful that you guys keep and you know Mandy I know you were talking about it as well but you know I think it’s been a long time in coming and it’s been some of the criticism since you know well before I even considered running for school committee of sort of you know how are we challenging all of our Learners and and you know and supporting all of our Learners and and so to see both of you up here together presenting like as a unified front and so that you know kids going to Glover are getting the same things that kids going to Brown are getting

40:18 getting getting um and that kids at Brown and kids at Glover are all getting the same things it’s you know and that and then that some kids have access to you know the challenges that they need and then other kids are getting the supports it just it’s it’s really it makes you smile it’s going to take this some time absolutely I’m going to happen overnight it’s it is a system and um and we we’ve got some training to do along the way but that is the goal and we we are very optimistic about it and uh and our teacher leaders are experience yeah

41:02 approve the school Improvement plans for brown Glover and Village Schools discussion um book um book I want to say you know thank you to the principals for their hard work you know I wasn’t here the previous one you know Matt and Dan I if I missed yours I apologize um but you know and thank you to the sacs because you know as Sarah as you noted like that’s a huge piece to the sacs is putting things together and the teacher feedback with the parent and then you know particularly at the high school I’m not sure about that if students are involved in that but um you know it’s a large working group but every level um and so you know and that it that’s how it becomes its comprehensive self so

41:48 that it’s not just a top-down thing that you know that there have been many voices that go into it so thank you for all the hard work um and there was an absolute reason for this year to be an anomaly at Lumber and brown because of the transition there’s really no way for you to have worked with your sacs to develop this um so that’s totally understandable but but it is such an important piece of what happens there so you know that would be great to see how that moves through this year um one thing I will say before we vote about all the school Improvement plans is there used to be an element in them that talked about um a facilities goal in in the buildings I remember at one point at the Old Bell school that’s where we invented that we needed new carpet but the carpet was just horrific so if there are elements

42:34 physically of your building so it’s obviously they’re I don’t participate anything coming out of brown hopefully but as the rest of our buildings age you know that that are more building specific you know build as you build with your sacs those plans for next year that is something that we in the past had seen so don’t be shy about putting that those facilities goals in there too because that is that is an appropriate that always has been an appropriate place for that um that we’re used to seeing and so if you have those needs looking back so I will call roll call vote um Sarah gold yes Allison Taylor yes Megan Taylor

43:28 all right all right um so that brings us to the Marblehead Conservancy renewal we have um Community would you like sorry um and we have Don Morgan on here in the past we’ve had an established relationship with the Marblehead conservatives Conservancy who um takes care of Barry’s comp conservation land in town has taken a Robin uh I’m gonna let John present this good idea um my name is Don Morgan I live at 19 Wyman Road I’m here to represent the Marblehead Conservancy I see our president Bob French is in the audience as well

44:14 as well as well um for the past 20 years or so we have tried to do good things for Open Spaces in Marblehead and one of the main things we’ve done is uh maintain the conservation properties there’s seven of them and in addition to those there are two other properties we’ve uh we maintained as well because they act pretty much like a natural open space one of them is uh the forested area of Seaside Park and the other is the forested area of the Village School um could I share a map yes yes

45:03 you should have the ability to screen share a map now when I click on screen share oh there okay

45:18 see if I can full screen that all right there’s a map um can you see my cursor moving yes upper left-hand corner okay the driveway into the Village School is approximately here so if you were on Village you can see Village Street running up and down the left hand side here this land is sort of encapsulated so it’s hard to see from the street but uh it’s fairly significant uh the right hand portion is the Robinson Farm which the town acquired from the Robinson family 15 years ago and this portion over here is part of the village school property which used to be the Germaine Farm

46:04 um and I think it was in 2006 we got permission from the school committee to essentially combine these two and consider them one piece of property and maintain them as conservation property and you can see we’ve developed a bunch of trails there’s entrances in many different places and Loops each one of those places you can go in you can find a loop to go around and come back again uh and also these trails are used heavily by kids on the way to school some of those streets over on the right don’t empty easily into the school unless you go through this property so at any rate we’ve been doing this for about 15 years or so and we’ve developed Trails as you can see

46:50 with loops we’ve sponsored Eagle Scout projects where in this area here we’ve built a boardwalk because the ground is kind of mushy uh it’s about 100 feet long and so it makes it possible to use these Trails uh in virtually all weather um we’ve removed thousands of invasive plants out of here it’s one of our main objectives and replace them with native tree and shrub seedlings uh and we plan to keep doing that uh let’s see and finally we’re we’re funded primarily by memberships we’re a private 501c3 but virtually all of our energy and resources goes into maintaining town properties

47:37 so we would like to continue maintaining this property we think it benefits this Village School uh and would like uh and oh in order to to uh we’re in the process of being reauthorized by the Conservation Commission to do this kind of Maintenance and in the process of getting that Authority they want us to have your permission uh to do this on your property thank you very much we have uh Mandy Murphy The Village School principal here as well if you can just um does this has this served to the benefit of Village School oh yeah absolutely um the classes have gone out there before we’ve had students running out there it’s it’s yeah it’s a great area when it’s kept up no I think it’s one I mean I’ve brought

48:23 my own children through there to hike through there it’s it’s a great space and it’s really wonderful that we have an opportunity to use that outdoor space for exponential learning so I see you know strong benefits um not only that we don’t have a ton of people raising their hand asking to take care of our land for us so there’s any more out there um I will ask for a motion to approve the continuance of the current um relationship with the Marblehead Conservancy um or I would say until you know further notice so second uh Paul or for a roll call vote just in case my back Circle yes Allison Taylor

49:09 yes Megan Taylor Sarah Fox yes all right motion carries um Don is there anything that you need just a memo or anything from us in writing to go to the Conservation Commission or are you all set if this will appear in your minutes a fairly timely order that would be sufficient we are doing really good on our minutes so you should have that by our next meeting approved terrific thank you very much for joining us and thank you for the work you do you’re welcome right um if you just want to stop sharing your screen

49:44 yes there it is all right perfect um so that brings us along to see the superintendency but first we’ll have our director of Technology Stephen quiet Tech duvet planning for Success update

50:04 okay okay the tech department is happy to say that our elementary schools K to sixes now has a one-to-one for devices and classrooms uh We’ve added additional devices to the Middle School in the high school as well that’s part of our goals that we were working on last year and we continue to work on as we move forward um this summer we were able to use NASA if it was to purchase 133 smart panels the council last year last career those were working on the

50:51 install Bates install Bates hoping and expecting that we’re going to have them done this hopefully before accessibility so

51:04 my planning for successful this year my four five is to review our current curriculum for the technology and trying to align it K-12 I started a last year doing the survey among our staff asking them what they were teaching using which tools and come to find out that we don’t have a set technology curriculum uh really came at six right now which is something that um you know I really haven’t seen in any of the other districts that I’ve worked for previously so one of my uh goals is to work towards creating a Breaking the fan and office in that District and look to try and hire three more

51:51 staff members to do Tech curriculum slash team at the Brown lovers

52:04 another good note is on our security front we have added new cameras to the those started going on like yesterday uh we have new canvas going in at the Glover and at the village and additional cameras being upgraded here advice

52:27 we’re working on additional security swipe um stations here at the high school to help Mr borrow its new front desk area and have new ways of people checking in through the ice and we have our new Graphica system that we installed this summer without all the schools are using as people come to visit the buildings their IDs are going in the system they’re going to understand and and ID badges displayed for them with their information on it where the business one of the things that kind of came up last year through the school committee and through other things for us the need for security awareness coming for our staff

53:14 and so just this month being Superior awareness month we’re kind of launching that for our district and uh

53:23 letting them know that we’re going to be starting this and what it is is it just sends out I put a five minute video clip and gives some information on what to look for what kind of scan things to look for and how to avoid falling for Sims online and then it also sends out tests little emails to make sure people are planning books so um kind of a follow-up there’s been an issue at the high school where there’s been some bottlenecks during the new flex block we’ve been working on diagnosing that and we’re going to hear about myself um so any questions for Stephen I don’t

54:09 have a question I just want to make sure for anybody else looking at this brown isn’t listed on here is needing any upgrades because it’s so new I just want to make sure that yes everybody else is aware of that you did it they did that one additional security camera around because it was missing from the original build for everything to stop and running I noticed that an area wasn’t covered so we went through the building committee and purchase another camera right I just want to everybody else to hear that so if you’ve had other ideas that need to be identified that process is still open so for probably another two or three months I’m sorry if you have other if you’ve identify other needs like a security camera other things yeah um that the building project

54:57 checkbook is still open for another two two three months so that would be you know appropriate I’m not looking but I’m just saying this is something that should have been embedded to begin with like let’s let’s take care of that um one of the things I was interested in when you I remember when we did planning for Success that first meeting I was with you you talked about how it Marblehead was so unique from other places you worked because we had no height it just didn’t exist our top curriculum for the k26 are there curriculums you purchase is this something that you and Dan are going to need to develop from the ground up and if it is something that is purchased do you think that you’ll be able to identify that in order to have it embedded in this in our proposed budget

55:44 I would start by saying we have I think what we need to start teaching we have devices already in our classrooms available the basic uh classes that they would be doing are using you know our Google Classroom our tools that we already own learning how to type we do have a typing program I should say at our third grade level that all of our third graders do other than that one specific program does not accept piece of technology

56:20 there is a state framework that goes to each grade level of what should be learned and kind of a portfolio and to move through your school career that you could you know have a sign and ending position with so you know that’s what I think we’ve been moving forward to and you know coming from a district that really worked hard on that developed it had everything aligned with the stage for that if I recall I’m sure they did um but it’s it’s something I think if we want to give all the great technology that we have to our kids and let them to be able to really use it and and learn how to use it correctly which

57:07 is I think a big part of our teaching yeah the state framework that you need to have the staff in place to be able to do yes and I have to assume too there’s going to be additional software licenses or things like that or something I’m just saying the sooner we identify those I want to make sure all those pieces are embedded in the proposals and then you talk about how we’re at a one-to-one now at our k-6 which is new and exciting um one thing that I will say is foreign almost a broken record with if we if children need something to access a public education the district needs to provide we can’t keep relying on outside parents or ptos or things if you need that to access your education in Marblehead we need that and I know we’re one-to-one in our

57:53 buildings but I also know these some of these kids need a device to do their homework to access their homework so if that’s something we should be building into our budget for next year as well then that’s something I want to see that number too just because if we need it and that means we we sign one out to every kid then that’s we have to budget I I know there are some families that do need the device and we’ve asked that you know all of our souls and anybody who has asked for a device that is in need to go to their main office talk to the school and we’ll do the best we can to get them in place yeah I think Santa we’re using this year and I may be wrong is if if you meet the financial

58:42 threshold but my point I see some head shaking now um I see some head shakinesso too so it might be building specific um but my point is if you need something if we’re sending a child home and saying you have to this has to be done online then that child has to be going home with the device issued by the marble headphones like that that’s just my take for public education and our budgets so this is not a Pokemon you’ve done amazing things from the time you’ve been here but just as we look ahead because you’ve done so much of such a speed and it looks like you’re going to do a lot this year too that I just would love to see that better than any budget is I I am also working with Michelle on

59:29 the reoccurring schedule for replacement for all the devices that we have and as you said we’ve relied on for many years as I had in my previous District through ptos and outside phone resources but you know between covet funds that are paid for many teacher laptops student devices other funding sources that we’ve had you know we need to roll that all into a budget that we can sustain and be able to not fall into a trap where we build a brand new school this year we’re in it for four or five years and then all of a sudden we have to replace 500 devices and that’s what we kept we ran into for so many years and why when covet hit why

1:00:17 we had to use the Lion’s Share of our cares money to get us up to speed because we had just you know had to kick that candy on the road now we bought so many devices in the spring of 2020. correct me if I’m wrong but the lifespan of though some of those will be coming up and basically about three to five years right about four to five years so in the net so as we build our budget for FY 24 that will be the year a lot of those devices we bought with Kobe money will need to be replenished so none of us should be surprised when we see that that’s a schedule with all the devices when they were purchased and when we kind of expect those to come do yeah and this is more just to prepare ourselves that we

1:01:02 will very likely see a big Tech ask because if we’re gonna keep things going the way we should that’s that’s when we’ll say it um thank you so much for all this with everybody else I just want to say thank you you know it’s it’s amazing to see the work that you’ve done and you know it’s you’ve got great staff that is is there supporting you and everyone else in this district and um you know it having been on the committee this month of year um you know I never thought that this is where we would be at this point um and so it just it’s it’s amazing to me so thank you Stephen thank you and thank you to yourself very hard yes they do

1:01:49 back to you so true to my word I posted my goals uh last week and I’ve had the opportunity to meet or speak with most of the committee uh and get feedback uh on the goals I used the uh planning for Success the state superintendent’s evaluation rubric and feedback from prior evaluations to formulate these goals you’ll see almost verbatim some of the language that was in Prior evaluations so I have the four goals the professional practice goal which is a continuation of building myself as a leader and continuing with uh year three of the new superintendent seduction program one of the things that’s unique

1:02:34 about these goals based on feedback from prior years is having those key actions what am I going to do and then benchmarks and outputs so how is that measurable how will I produce evidence at the end of the cycle for YouTube evaluating the student learning goal is to empower opportunities for students while focusing on our met goal program and based on the conversation I have with you Sarah I’ll be adding more inclusion experiences with particular focus on special education the professional practice or the district Improvement goal the first one is using the instructional rounds and I gave you some links to calibration

1:03:21 instruments that we use and how we’ll have kind of an ongoing record of the observations what we saw teachers doing what we saw students knowing opportunities for feedback and then that continuous loop that will hopefully instruction which will improve student outcomes and then the second district Improvement goal is continuing to work on communication and we have been picked up by Salem State and their expect program where we’ll be working with uh for their seniors who are doing the externship with us I’ve been uh included in a leading now cohort which is a Communications program for superintendents from across the country so hopefully the outputs and charts from that will be exemplified to the rules

1:04:13 um what one of the things as far as the measurability piece um where the rounds go it would be really great you were able to explain to me today kind of those pieces that you follow through with what would be really great is if you gave us a few examples um as we approach your review of you know this is something that was picked up during the rounds this is how it was addressed this is how we recheck to make sure it was you know that followed it through so that we can see the cause and effect in the positive outcome in a few different situations that would be really helpful I I think of all rounds that we did at middle school and uh from rounds last year picked up on teachers who were doing some exceptional work Matt rolled that into professional development at the beginning of the year and from that professional development

1:04:58 we were able to observe in a classroom something that had been provided as feedback um um we’ll be back on that because one of the things that John and I had talked about when I met with him about pickles um is is on this same the um the goal number one for decision Improvement is one of the pieces from last year that we had talked about about getting school committee members into the schools a little bit more often to see what’s going on in the school so we have that where we step back from the sacs where are we going to insert that was the that we would attend instructional rounds along with um Dr Bucky and so we talked about that a little bit more and and the idea that especially now that this is a goal is that it gives us an opportunity not only

1:05:44 to see within the school and what’s going on but then to watch Dr Bucky working on this goal in Real Time much the way that they’re watching the the teachers in real time um so I thought it was a nice um just a nice piece to that I appreciated this goal a lot um because it sort of goes all the way throughout the system so I just want to pick up on that so that their people are clear that part of the rounds piece for me is coaching principles not evaluating teachers we’re not doing any evaluation of teachers we’re working to calibrate our own observations and share what we’re seeing and then providing feedback at the building level okay from principals to teachers and then we look

1:06:30 back in our discussions to see how that manifests how would school committee members go about reaching uh I was thinking just call here or email you but I think it would be really helpful for instance if I did rounds with you if I had done ones you know in Mandy’s building and what came out of that was you Ed coached Mandy on XYZ and the next time you’re going back to kind of follow up on that scene if I I get to see that work in progress you know what I mean so if Sarah had happened to go to one uh I don’t know the high school that she can see so we all can speak to it because I think what really came out of um evaluation process last year is we really want to see each of these bowls happening and some of the professional

1:07:16 practice ones are sorry for the school Community to see because you know they are so operational and that’s outside of our purview but that would be a good way for us to be able to accurately have you know feedback on that

1:07:37 I think um seeing what comes out of those meetings the plan that’s put in place and the follow-up and expected success I think that would be obviously for us to see but I think public would you know as we’re talking about those things those successes the public will really love to hear about as well in the community I think it’d be super important for them I think sometimes that all those you know smaller successes are maybe not seen necessarily from the community

1:08:08 and I appreciate that Johnny works from our feedback from the summit of the last last spring in putting these goals together and that they reflect that and I know some of the pieces over the last two years have been really we haven’t no one on this committee had done any evaluations before two years ago and that that putting these benchmarks and outputs in is really helpful um because it by the by the end of the year going back it can feel a little muddled um in at least in my head of trying to think back throughout the year and you know you do a great job of of putting yourself a vowel together for us but um you know it’s it’s nice to have this sitting in front of us right now um and then be able to refer back to

1:08:54 that because it’s just it’s very concrete I like that I appreciate that now we had a possible vote on this where we’re only a committee of three out of the five right now would it be I don’t expect an issue um but I I would like us to have all five members vote on this um I just want to make sure that at the committee level too that we’re being really inclusive that everyone is getting a voice um if unless there’s someone that feels differently on that or yourself John I’d like to um be able to vote for our next meeting just so I can get everybody to do that all right um and then for you yes um as foreshadowed earlier in the meeting uh principal fox has done a really nice job of maintaining communication with town and with

1:09:42 aqualine on the ever continuing Pleasant Street project so there’s some big Milestones I think we’ll call them coming up this week which is in that first of a couple yes so I’m just here to sort of update folks about the concrete sidewalks they’re going to record uh you’ve seen them curbing one in to see the day um so we’re just gonna walk through a couple few Maps here and explain it awesome students

1:10:18 um here we go we go full sun yes oh that’s a PDF well we’ll go back to the very first side so um first a big thanks uh to Amy McHugh and Maggie wheeler from the talent they’ve been involved a lot with this and helped out um Eric Richard from aqualine he gave me his cell phone number and he hasn’t regretted it I don’t think yet uh Carmen Eliana from eot of course our two Chiefs um keep going and and she came up in the world too um so to sort of Orient everyone we’re sort of talking about this area of town and if you go to the next slide it’s it sort of zeros in this is in case you uh haven’t been a Marblehead for the last uh six months uh we’re gonna sort of focus you in

1:11:04 um the next slide sort of goes through what’s about to happen so uh these dates are all weather dependent right now Tuesday and Wednesday look pretty good uh so the goal is to be most supporting on Tuesday and Wednesday um so the first section of concrete pouring will be on the sidewalk on the north side of the Village um now the whole thing we’re trying to juggle through these two days is keep being Village passable for students um dot does not allow you to to close both sides of their Highway of their roads Pleasant Street will never be closed on both sides so that’s never a concern about passage uh technically they don’t care what we do in Village so they could curve both sides but of course that won’t work and uh Eric said done a great job managing this so the

1:11:49 first concrete point will be in an l-shape the north side of the village and then the sidewalk on the village side of Pleasant Street so it’s like an L shape there and we’ll show you on the map um the impact on students walking uh or biking it’ll be coming down Pleasant towards a village you’ll have to cross at bessem right by Village we’ll put a new crossing guard there called the cross at bessem be on the far side of pleasant come down to the typical intersection where our normal crossing guard is and then cross back again so they’re just sort of avoiding where they’re pouring concrete um and that’ll be the only really impact none of this is impacting cars by the way we’re talking about just sidewalks

1:12:32 yeah so that would be a normal she’ll be a crossing guard there and then we’ll have another one down at Bessemer Village a lot of what I’ve seen is dot could handle 100

1:12:46 options the way they have it during the pour it’s going to be simpler because it’s going to be a straight right across okay because they won’t be Crossing back over on those and then the Wednesday hopefully just Wednesday pouring uh it’s going to be on the the vet’s side of the village is going to be poured in all the area on buying that’s the tearing up and all the area in front of the old B and B and around that corner so what what that’s going to impact is uh our say our the Vets lockers and bikers they’re not gonna be able to come up behind street cars will be able to but Walkers and bikers will have to go down the street down Pleasant and up our front Hill so it just adds a couple hundred yards to The Rocker to the bike you just can’t because there’s no sidewalks that day

1:13:33 coming into our school so you go to the next one which is the maps uh the first is Tuesday so anything red is where they’re going to be pouring and it’ll be closed pedestrians and Walkers anything is green is open so you’ll notice up on bessem underneath that little floating um screen is the crosswalk that I was talking about that’s the new crosswalk there and they’ll walk down the far side of pleasant and cross back over the top and binds open and that side of the building and the police station will stab this right uh yeah

1:14:13 and then and then um on Wednesday we’re hoping just Wednesday uh the next slide uh it’s a little more complicated you’ll see all the red is really that whole Vine Street BNB restaurant area is being poured at once so that really shuts down the walking and biking entrance into vets like I said cars not impacted get the silver down um so both sides of pleasant will be open today you can walk on it the next day the concrete that pour and so you can walk down the next day um so as it says on the bottom to enter mdms you go off the screen and around to the front of our building where we have our normal crossing guards now one question I I’ve had as I’ve been driving through this this whole time and you may or may not have this answer I

1:14:58 probably don’t but I can do the job is where they cheat where you’re the red has been very helpful where the red comes down Village Street there they change they’re changing the structure of that intersection right in a large island sort of uh pencil really it’s a pencil it’s connected to the current sidewalk is the turning radius of our buses still gonna work uh we’ve been told yes we only have one bus that makes that turn uh our Metro Bus makes that turn coming from Village to our school every day so one of two things would happen um we either can make that turn it’s no sweat um or The Simple Solution is the bus like it does some mornings just picks up the kids the bottom of the front okay which you know we’ll we’ll work it out as as this is developed there’s a

1:15:46 lot of things that the chief uh Chief King and I are sort of waiting to see how this plays out you know this redesign how traffic flows through you know we don’t want to make changes now because this isn’t a five-year design um plus if you’re not involved with the little end of it but um instead of Five Years on so we want to see how it plays out neither one of us are Traffic Engineers so we just like to sort of see how it goes yeah well I mean you might suffer aren’t you kid because we’ve had talks about it you know we’ve had talks about like you know what should our driveway what should my driveway go which way should It Go all sorts of stuff so but we we just sort of settled on let’s give this the rest of the year see what happens and make adjustments on the fly like with the Metro bus or something like that because

1:16:31 ideally for safety wise I students if possible getting out or getting on the street because we’re also have sports teams that will be coming go up your Hill to use going up the hill this course is easy because that that turn they’d be coming from pleasure there’s no absolutely yeah it’s that tight turn coming from Village Street to Pleasant to vine that’s that’s a little tight so we’re just gonna see how it plays out I know dots there can help stop traffic you know um it’s just again we’ll see how it plays out okay but picking up in the front of our stool they’re going to be on the side so the bus will be heading down Pleasant stopping our school it’ll be right there and we have a sidewalk you know that’s where the faster building walks out

1:17:17 this is very informative thank you I can still go out to my parents we’re going to share this with our parents tomorrow I just have one question well there’s still post completion still just be one I’m just looking at it wondering if one crossing guard will be enough with all of the different ways set the traffic it’s it’s been what she’s managed in the past is essentially the same sidewalk it’s the one cross unpleasant and one cross on Village it’s been what she’s managed to about I when I saw the reconfigure I really thought because I’ve watched her dance back and forth this year and it does seem hard so well it’s also hard because the like the streets are torn up people people know what they’re doing they’re coming in hot or they’re coming in for theater they’re coming in this way in that way so I I

1:18:03 think again we sort of settle in and see how it plays out and of course you know we know you know Jeep Vehicles Emoji thing he’ll be down there yeah take a look at this The Crossing Hearts actually are employed by the police department so that yeah yeah so

1:18:22 um that would be their call and their advice there have been discussions about that so in my in my combination I actually should have included Chief King as well because all right so I’ve been involved in some of these meetings I was with this one the other day it’s my role in the Safety Committee and um I’ve been a bit much at points I would say um just kind of pushing to make sure that that we have the the detailed presence um to manage the varying sidewalks you know and that for any parents that are listening uh please talk with your kids about this um It’s You Know It This is an active construction zone and it’s tough and I have I live over in this area so I’ve watched it all summer and and you know I

1:19:07 drive through it getting my kids each day and you know the kids this age and really you know if this impact around kids who walk to school and Bike to School um as well as the high school and you know their their brains aren’t developed to be thinking you know what oh I should be careful around this and yeah and they’ve got their cell phones and they’re talking with their friends and particularly after school when they’re excited to be out of school so really the the reason that we’re pushing this out in this meeting and on all of the emails is so that parents can look at this and then work with their kids and develop a plan um because we can’t do this on our own and so you know Chief King has been really great and I know you know he’s he’s has an utmost concern for the safety of students and you know he has

1:19:53 said in one of those meetings you know that can’t happen you know that’s not okay um so he he really gets it so you know I know in the future he’ll be on this you know looking at the detail for for next year and what crossing guards might be needed I remember when this went through town meeting as well um and the plans for it and it and those plans it appeared that it was going to make this intersection significantly safer and easier to navigate because there’s not going to be one gigantic crosswalk going through like three streets at that point um so hopefully that will actually be what it ends up with for DOT it’ll be easier to manage that situation over there um but again I think so the king will be honest and in the short term we’ll be helping on those couple of days we’ll be

1:20:40 down there helping man just since arrival so essential for the public once next week once we get through next week the next big push is and I asked Eric that he says that’s three lifetimes they’ll have a sidewalk yeah but it’s not a kid walking and biking safety the next impact was like being powerful okay which again adult problems are adult problems it could end up in the walkers on different streets like this area may be far less impacted for our Walkers when cars are being taken off of this area and rerouted down some of the back roads the GC says that’s three lifetimes away from now I’m not even gonna worry about things I just want to get a little plug for

1:21:26 Lindsay because I we ever utilize a train the trainer model

1:21:34 um no okay this is great information to have out there and things change so if this changes then yeah this is all weather dependent if we if it starts pouring on Wednesday Wednesday’s day watching um that’s the one that sort of just touch and go so uh things could change but hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday

1:21:54 put these Maps together and everything so I appreciate it

1:22:02 this brings us to our schedule of bills which everyone has in their Dropbox um I will ask for a motion to approve the identified schedule bills totaling 517 631.20

1:22:25 all in favor zero

1:22:32 school committee Communication in our discussion items um some committee and news on updates Sarah Indiana believe you guys have a presentation for us yes we do so thank you for postponing this uh until this week Sarah um so this is a carryover um slide um this is a carryover from discussions that we had in think of recipe summer Retreat um and I have been working on this again as I mentioned earlier as a way for school committee to better understand um the inner workings of the school day and and kind of have that

1:23:18 have that understanding of the operations um since it’s not part of our technical oversight um and this is actually something that principal Bauer had kind of turned my site to last spring um and at one of the end of the sac meetings and this is a um one of the subcommittees that Beverly school committee uses um so I had pitched it a little bit over the summer I went back and dug further into it um there was a bit of pushback so everyone was going to view some of the take YouTube meetings of the Beverly School of the Beverly subcommittee of this um and then in the meantime Nan and I met um because I I really like the idea of this I think there’s a lot of opportunity to kind of communicate in a

1:24:05 different way and and in a deeper way again as filling in the committee to these things these are all public meetings so they can be accessed by by members of the public who are wishing to understand further things so Nan and I kind of put together what might be covered um by some of these meetings and we just kind of met and took um forgive me then jump in as you see fit because it’s been a little while since you and I had this conversation um so one of the PFS goals and looking at the mtss Frameworks and obviously we saw some of that come in tonight with the um the school Improvement plans and so digging into if we just look at that digging into that for the year two goals

1:24:53 that you know in one meeting one of the agenda items could be to look and take a deep dive into the development of consistency systems um common assessments um analysis and about student growth and so it would allow for the opportunity for Nan to give a a deeper dive into what that’s looking like in each school and then for students to come in and talk about possible um possible projects that they’ve been working on and teachers to come in and talk about lessons that they’ve that they’re doing that are looking at it or some would be you know building a like a common assessment we heard that from I think Mandy you know what her teachers have worked on and sort of you know what this looks like in real life in in our

1:25:40 schools and then um so meaning one like understand standing that scope and sequence that we’ve heard talked about and and then the standards these reporting with the report cards being taking that deeper dive into that to what that looks like um and then um you know what the data is telling us and Nan you know do you want to pop in a little on what data pieces you’d be you’re thinking that we’d be presenting on at that point sure so the one of the overarching components when we picked the topics for the four meetings are just kind of brainstorm topics was that it would be Universal so it didn’t matter if you had a kindergarten student or a eighth grade student or a 10th grade student that the the content that we would be discussing

1:26:27 would you’d find something else about what’s happening in your child’s academic experience so as far as the data it would kind of be one sharing what data we use like I’m not even sure families know how how in the last two years we have really refined how we look at our formative assessments which are assessments that teachers develop with each other to dipstick where kids are and our summative assessments which is kind of what’s at the end of units assessments and how can how kids have done and so kind of just we’re trying to organize those now and you heard teacher um principles talking about cycles of intervention and monitoring and tracking data

1:27:13 data data um so just kind of helping parents understand that if you’re concerned about your students and even if you’re not these are all the safety nets in places kind of where we go we get a full picture we never look at just one piece of data but what are the different pieces of data we looked at fourth grade or different than what we look we look in eighth grade which are different level so just kind of helping people understand what’s happening happening operationally with students and teachers so it really works as a communication piece as well kind of to the community of what’s going on and how it’s going on how we’re using like so when your child comes home and says I I took and I read

1:28:00 the assessment I checked that right and these means to really get into the meat of how do we use those things to then further the curriculum or their specific needs yeah that was one of the pieces that I was really struck by when I spoke with the chair of the subcommittee who is not the chair of the Bible like the full Beverly committee but um just shares this uh subcommittee and she herself has a teacher in a different district and and that was really one of the big takeaways that I didn’t realize as I kind of researched it online and you had emailed with her a couple of times of just what a fantastic communication tool this is because you know you know and I know one of the criticisms um from the committee as we’ve talked

1:28:47 this through is that it’s a lot of our subcommittees tend to go through things kind of vet things out and then present them to the full committee this isn’t really this that what that you know this is much more of an informational subcommittee and sort of an a deeper understanding of how our district is running and and what is moving it Forward um and how it’s moving forward so it does you know it does differ from how we traditionally have done things with our subcommittees but I I again kind of continue to think that it would be that it could be a really valuable asset to to adding to to our you know to our experience I think we’d have to be careful because with anything like this

1:29:35 you know we are looking at operations and so I think and I think that was one of the pieces that as Nan and I chatted further after the last time we talked about this in an open meeting um that we kind of wanted one make sure that it was reflecting Marblehead and not kind of pulling too much on what Beverly is doing because we want this to really be a tool for us to use um to move our districts forward but then also that you know we don’t it’s it’s new and so it could easily become a runaway train and and I definitely don’t want that um so you know I don’t know if the solution to that is that we pilot it this year um I guess I would request if we pilot

1:30:21 it that we take a look at it before a new committee is elected just because you know we’ve got and then you know we’ve been taking a look at it yeah exactly yeah um but you know I’d have I’d have no problem doing that you know I know obviously we’re missing two members at this point love to get this moving along but you know if we need to put the brakes on you know maybe you know if you are both more interested in it at the end of this maybe Nan and I can go back and kind of dig a little bit deeper between now and our next meeting come up with a little bit more meat so maybe it’s a little easier to hit the ground running if a full committee says just let’s go some of the meat I would like to see is um what would the committee makeup be

1:31:07 um because obviously would be man and then two reps to the school committee who else is on this committee what are the rules yeah um I’m assuming we would divide a year between you know four because you have four meetings here but maybe not you know how would that lay out roughly um and then what is what is the governance of this committee because that’s the piece I get to keep getting stuck on because this is all very operational and it is not the perfect of the school committee to feed into operations so I want to know where what the meat is um you know obviously we’re not deciding what is being taught at these meetings so is are are the are these meetings you know or things being voted on you know just a little bit deeper dive on that

1:31:56 and how we don’t we make sure we stay within the confines of every format so I just want to make sure on those but for the communication keys I think it’s helpful because as we’ve seen over the last year year and a half you know a lot of this work is ongoing it happens so it feels like to our staff what do you mean this came out of nowhere this didn’t come out of nowhere we’ve been talking about this for a year or we’ve been talking about this for so for so long but a lot of you know the sausage is made in private because that’s just the way things function and I think this will be helpful to you know giving Windows of how how these how these conclusions are made what goes into making these decisions and so that when when these things come up people aren’t

1:32:41 saying well what do you mean I didn’t hear this and it’s like well no these were the dates we’ve had yeah so but just how do we stay within every format so like you can kind of have a little bit of that and I do want to make sure that um we’re cognizant of the fact that Emily and Megan aren’t here because I want to make sure that if we’re adding a subcommittee that you know people have a whole voice but I I can definitely see the benefits of this just as long as we stay within the complex man did you have anything further that you wanted to add yeah okay did you have just general ideas of maybe what the makeup will be or do you want to hold off we never Sarah and I haven’t gotten to that okay sounds good sounds good thank you for that presentation

1:33:36 um so Forum dates and topics discussion oh does anybody have any other subcommittee liaison updates um yeah I so um Emily’s not here tonight we actually have to cancel our policy meeting for tomorrow morning as well so um you know it’s got an agenda it’s ready to go and so we’ll work with Dr Bucky um on on you know getting that back on the books um as soon as possible um and then we had talked about at the last meeting um how one of the things that came out of our finance subcommittee meeting was that we um Dr Bucky had said that other districts of their other districts that do this that we would as a school committee give what’s we’re referred to as budget directives so um Michelle’s

1:34:22 timeline roughly was she was hoping um to give her budget materials out to the principals and directors at the end of October and then they would have you know several weeks or whatever her timeline is but it wouldn’t be a quick turnaround they’d have some time to really dig into that work with their staff get feedback and really give a robust plan to us so then we would have our typical um Workshop if you will that we’ve had in years past what we decided to do was um I had wanted to make sure because the whole school committee owns the budget the budget Liaisons you know work out those pieces but we all own the budget

1:35:08 so before just as Liaisons we came up with directives I had thrown it out there if there’s so much as one other person that wants to be part of this we’ll post it as a workshop and we’ll come up with those directives as he and Emily wanted to be part of it um and I don’t I think Megan’s had fallen off by then um she she had had some tech issues or something that night um so but that’s through the support so we want to post it as a workshop it won’t be a meeting like this the public can definitely come but it will be much more of a workshop format of us discussing you know what what are the directives and these will be high level you know for instance one of the things I was saying is you know I would like to see how each of these things affects student inputs you know where every dollar might not be specific like it might not be a

1:35:55 textbook or a student but down the trickle it affects two Networks um so that was one of the things or we might say we’d like a focus on specialty you know large we’re not writing a budget but we are gonna we can give direct large-scale directives um so we were trying we were going to try to pick a date um I would like to see if I can work out a date with everybody next week um for a workshop it can it can be unplexible with time um it could be Zoom if that makes it a lot easier for people what I can do is because we can schedule we can talk about scheduling via email I’ll send out an email to everyone to see what works

1:36:42 for them but the goal is so that when we meet at our second meeting in October that we will have some of those budget directives so then Michelle then can when she presents her information um worksheets and whatnot that Dr Bucky can pair that with this is the school committee’s budget directives um so then because I what I found Through The Years what happens is that we have that first workshop with the with the principals and we have a bunch of questions and concerns and comments and thoughts but I think it would be helpful for them to have them up front so when they’re presenting to us they can address those okay um does that sound something that I gave you I’m willing to try and I’ve got some

1:37:27 flexibility okay so I will set I will take care of sending out that email um can I can ask you a couple questions because I listen to um portions of the last name that I have missed and and I and I then I had a I read an article on the budget subcommittee and I was concerned because um a lot of the meat of the budget subcommittee didn’t seem to come up in the update um and I will totally take it on the chin that it was a bit trickery back to like 2018. um because there’s a large deficit in our special education funding right now um that mirrored very closely that that time um and that that kind of came out of nowhere

1:38:15 um to to the larger committee whereas it seemed as though the the subcommittee knew what was going on um and and then I was also concerned because even within that it sounds like you had allowed Michelle or given permission to Michelle to do quarterly updates so we’re not the reporting will be the same so one of the things that in that meeting that Michelle really opened her eyes to and she’s talked about this before is how terrible software is absolutely and how every one of those monthly updates takes her several days to do and so what we said was we it’s not that we don’t want monthly updates but we only need to see what is not in line so if something is above or below what’s expected then we need to see that

1:39:03 but what we don’t need to see is 15 pages on this is exactly where it’s supposed to be okay so that was the directive you gave her if it if it makes it so that you can do this in a few hours this is four days yeah because what she used to do is she has to manually calculate every single one yeah but she can see it on her thing that they’re in line so we said if anything is out of its debt out of its expected line whether it’s under spent or overspent we need to see that but what I don’t need and if anybody feels differently we can change it but what I’ve said is we don’t need until we can fix this software issue is to see where exactly where we need to be at certain points because really that’s in any budget tracking that’s what you track understand oversight yeah um so the assumption would be you’re on

1:39:48 track unless you see it yeah and we were very clear that anything whether it’s underspect or overspent who you would need to see maybe we need to know that okay um so that that will say on there and then I apologize I thought we had had known that but I apologize if we had it um and then we really talked about soft right we asked her to we’ve asked the Champ for as you know many years and we’ve said stuff right doesn’t work so although that is a town expense and that should be listed in their budget we’ve asked many times and Michelle cannot accurately report right and we cannot accurately track our budget without that information so what I’ve asked her to do is embed the

1:40:34 program she needs in which the town the whole town of use in the budget X and what my assumption is the town will say well that’s a town expense well then yes decided to your line but we’re telling you to run the schools effectively soft right no longer does that so we’re going to make that ask and my assumption is it will come out of our budget and go where it is appropriate for it to go but Michelle is telling us she cannot effectively do her job utilizing that program so we have to acknowledge that in our budget request S no and I completely agree with that and that was one of my concerns is that like if we’re not telling that story each time and in full meetings and everything then it’s getting lost somewhere and you know that it is it and it is you know I can remember doing the interviews with Bill

1:41:20 and David when we hired Michelle and having people who didn’t understand that we used um soft right come in and talk about what a terrible system soft right was and I was like um but so you know it’s it’s it needs to go you know I think it’s been discussed for some of the federal funds with the covid relief funds and everything um and you know it it the way that I my only concern is that the way I understand our finances function in conjunction with the town is that we can’t really switch over no we all have to do it and that’s what’s going to be that’s what’s going to come back but we have to open the conversation because we’ve asked them we have someone has to open the conversation so we’re going to open the house but that’s not gonna

1:42:08 happen so if we have that part you know of those meetings and part of that budget ask that opens the conversation because it’s something we all need to be accounting for and quite frankly we have Michelle who’s willing to do these days and days each month but I’m also concerned you know we’ve we’ve cleaned up our books a lot but damn why how are we recording that stuff like how do we know because if the entire Town’s using the system you know where do we stand everywhere if it takes everybody days to get one report what what are all of the important things analysis that aren’t getting done that’s a result so you know I think I think that was you know that’s just a really important discussion and the other big takeaway we took was and it was very I remember Bill

1:42:53 used to say this and John’s concurred it’s a very uniquely Marblehead thing that we have seen combo in our budget before we vote our budget we talked about the fact that just Optics we had wise and procedurally the school committee needs to vote our budget and say this is what our needs are and then I present it to whatever other governing bodies we’ll go with it um I just feel strongly that that’s a way for us to say we are owning this special this is um and that’s been very uniquely Marblehead in the past and um it might be a way that we can change you know for some positive so yeah all right um I think Additionally you know some of the conversation around the special education

1:43:39 deficit that we’re running right now and the charting of it and everything I just want us to be very careful with information and and you know what is what may be and I you know I’m not sure what’s legal and what’s not I know there was a request to find that out at the bottom with the bottom line what may be legal isn’t necessarily ethical and so just that we really you know this is this is a huge part of my professional aspect of like if you can you know sometimes you can say things but it out someone and that’s that’s a problem and so you know what and what may be you know if I worked at a clinic in Boston what may not out someone may out someone at a clinic

1:44:26 so you know just really I need us to be really careful and you know we the the money the bottom line is very important and what our what we’re spending to educate all of our students is very important and just really remember because again like you know just going back to all of the stress and heartache that was that 2018-2019 budget that you know we never want to pit special education against regular education yeah and I know that you neither one of you do either it just it I you know again if there was just a lot that was brought up from that year and just really wanting to you know just let’s let’s make sure all the information is out there that you know that we are all understanding

1:45:13 it and and knowing where it’s at because you know I can remember back to mentions and stuff and then it not coming out and being like okay it’s it’s fine if it’s not being brought out and so just you know not really wanting to avoid ever being kind of put on your card yes well one good thing is we’re recording all those meetings and uploading them to the YouTube channel so every you know there’s all that’s out there but um for anybody that’s interested all those meetings any subcommittee meeting should be at this point being reported and uploaded um so what one really important thing with that tracking is you know one of our biggest swings every given year is that out of District special education and I just want to be really clear we are not saying I do not want to label

1:46:01 properly educated students it is not a problem to give students what they need we need to track it closely because if we can’t budget for it then we can’t serve our students and I know we have the special education Reserve fund but that Reserve fund one one out of District placement could wipe out that Reserve account and then you add on transportation and it’s you know all the stuff can go off the rails and I think it’s really hard for people who aren’t aren’t seeing this and living this all the time to understand they might think you know we have that or you know we we just gave you this much more money in your budget last year

1:46:48 what’s the problem and the problem is this stuff is expensive yeah and we have a fixed budget and you know we still have to buy supplies we still have to pay our staff like there is nowhere else to go with this extra money so we have to track it back post because I think it’s really important to be able to come back each year in that budget cycle and say and Michelle does a fabulous job of it but to say you know if we look at our Delta over the last three years you know from the time that we passed our budget to what we actually expended each year we have an additional 900 000 and I’m making up this number um over and above what we knew about at

1:47:34 the time and then and that’s happened consecutively over the last three years these patterns are really important to track and to present as we go to the budget because what we really if we’re properly budgeting we’ll be doing is saying we also need to add on this placeholder of an additional whatever because we have shown historically this is what the Delta is every year and it’s the same way that you know we would you would plan for your house if you if we cut it so close to the skin then there’s no wiggle room and there’s no where to go except for the salary and we’ve said that for years when we get a big Delta swing there’s nowhere left you’re not finding that money yourself

1:48:24 um so I I just wanna that that’s why I think it’s important to look at this tracking sheets not because we want obviously our students privacy is is Paramount but it’s also very important to know exactly what what is happening and how how these swings happen throughout the year because you don’t just find out about an outer District while you’re out of districts in May and be able to accurately plan for them you find out about them constantly it’s it’s it is a moving Target so we just have to be able to look at those Trends so that we can plan importantly yeah and I think you know this isn’t a unique problem to Marblehead how do you know this is across everywhere and so and you know and I can remember having these conversations with fincon last spring

1:49:09 about and and with John mcginn when he was still acting as the Town Administrator last year is that you know these things have been traditionally very difficult to predict you know I think it it kind of comes there’s there’s somewhat of a wave-like motion to it and covet obviously has not helped because my guess would be that that some of the places where we are seeing spikes and out placements have direct links into covid and some of the other spikes that we see globally through that and um and so and that then going back to that Reserve fund that was set up right before he left right as he was leaving and the first time and that it was meant to be

1:49:56 added to and that probably you know that 200 000 to I forget it’s 200 or 250. it’s it’s probably not enough of a cushion it’s a great cushion we haven’t touched it the past couple of years and now at this point we’re well past it so yeah and it needs to be people need to understand a reserve fund is to fold in reserve not to use as a budgeting tool so as we go through the budget process we cannot be having conversations of well we have the reserve fund so we could plug that no like that is not planned we want we cannot and in Dr Bucky and Michelle have not suggested this so I just I just want to make clear that is a reserve fund and that that’s how it should be used

1:50:43 um which segues into our Forum deeds and topics discussion so there was a lot of talk about um how we were going to use thought exchange um due to things that had happened the first time thought exchange was supposed to come um that had to get canceled suddenly because things were unfolding and um

1:51:04 um speaking of construction um so Dr Bucky has been doing that work and getting that up and running but we did want to keep kicking out the Forum and um Dr Bucky and I um were speaking in Emily at our planning meeting you know about how hard it would kicked this out and Finance in our budget is always going to be a something people want to talk about so we thought in line with wanting to get this stuff out to the community and hearing what the community had to say last year and the concerns that we would have that as our first Forum topic so then we’ve had that we’ve opened discussion before we start a budget season so that we’re bringing the community into this all throughout it so that at the end when we have these

1:51:51 forums again just like we’re having our budget directives we’ve had these conversations it’s not you know no one should be showing up in May and saying well why didn’t you because we’re going to have this topic now and we’re going to have a conversation now and if people feel really strongly that we need to war we need to finance you know social studies and that we are using planning for success as our guiding principle but we also want to have a conversation um so so with this kind of effectively you know I know last year Dr Bucky and I I think Nan was involved as well maybe Michelle had forums I think and I think they did them at each school for parents

1:52:38 so with this effectively kind of streamline that to lack of a better word and bring us into that yes okay so I don’t know if you I think this was before your time on the committee um where they went through a period of having three to four per year um they were very well attended um of course that was before zoom and so the room was really full and I remember one in particular in special education and it was it really was a discussion um it was it was really really nice to see the committee and the administrators that were present really interacting with the conversation with the public um and I think both both take really good takeaways um so that’s how that I would model it off of that type of thing so we had looked at

1:53:25 um we want to get it done before Michelle sends out those that people work to people um and we had looked at some possible Deeds um we’re trying to steer clear of some very important thanks

1:53:59 um so um so that we’re looking at Tuesday the 25th for a possible Forum at 7 pm um but I can also with the schedule the other email it out to see what works and what doesn’t work but just for the community that that’s what we’re thinking it will be very well communicated out to out to the community that we’re hosting it um and that’s you know and and for future forms we hoped you saw it because that gives Dr Bucky a chance to kind of roll it out the professional development on that really talked about a specific way to roll it out and to make the success of it you know we want to have him have the ability to to use the proper rollout

1:54:44 um all right so I will email but for now we’re looking tentatively at Tuesday October 25th I can do the Tuesday that the end of that week it’s um a little for everybody so I think right now um because that works for Emily so Megan I’ll just have to double check with Megan but otherwise that looks like the date um uh so that brings us to new business

1:55:14 and correspondence there was a petition that we received um the timing on it was you know if it had come come through two hours later um Matt Cox had already put the work uh into addressing the concerns and it sounds like you just he had timed the business of an email out after school and got that out when he did and it seems like it has addressed any and all concerns in that um so I think we’re we’re set but you know that came from several members of the community so that’s under correspondence which brings us to adjournment at 857 8 57. thank you thank you and you’re emailing about the next week correct yes yes stop

1:56:04 um um once you end the meeting it all ends