School Committee: October 2, 2023

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.

0:07 Frank we’re live right just a reminder to everybody to turn off your

0:28 speakers I will call us to order at 5:00 pm I just want to let everybody know on the library counter back there there’s a pile of resumés as well as a pile of can’t remember what maybe it’s purple forms um that is a feedback form there will be a second set of resumés and feedback forms that will come out with the next candidate all I ask is when you’re done with your feedback forms um if you can please just leave them with Frank over here so we can get those you mind speaking up um I I can try to go a little louder I’m already shouting from Up here um the structure for the meeting tonight will be 10 prepared questions with each Committee Member having provided two questions each follow-up questions will be allowed through the chair time

1:14 chair time chair time permitting the school committee does welcome feedback on the interviews and candidates from the public as you know the feedback forms are at the back of the room the public May reach out via email or through one of the comment forms which is provided and available um um for people who are more comfortable having a conversation versus leaving feedback and writing I’m happy to share my phone number with anyone as I’m sure other committee members are as well people can email us and let us know how to contact them for feedback and we’ll be in touch there will be no questions from the public just has been in practice in previous interim sures I’ve confirmed this through via um via meeting minutes from 2019 in a typical search for a full-time

2:01 superintendent there’s a day in District which essentially runs like a 12 to 14 hour interview throughout the day in District candidates have many meetings with various stakeholders to include administrators Town officials students staff and parents prior to their official interview with the school committee in the event that there has been any confusion I just wanted to clarify that this is the formal interview with the school committee rather than a day in District however I encourage you all to use the feedback forms or reach out to us in another venue um someone will be bringing up the candidate momentarily uh just to let the the committee know you all have a packet in front of you um it outlines the

2:46 questions you all gave I just kind of put it in a a rhythm that it made sense and as we go through I’ll call on each person to ask a question I ask if you have a fe or a follow-up question that you just ask through the chair if we if time allows to do that I’m going to try to keep us very tight to our time spans to be Equitable between both candidates it wouldn’t be fair to give one candidate an interview 20 minutes longer than the other um I just want to make sure that we keep this as as comparable as possible um all right so we’re just in a little bit of an awkward holding pattern while we wait uh for the candidate to be walked upstairs they were in the office downstairs is the reporting okay yep we should be up in live to my knowledge Frank we’re good on the live stream all

4:06 yeah I can talk to the AV department but there’s no a there’s no AV projection of our voices it’s all these speakers are for the the cables in the internet just letting everybody know there’s some resumés as well as feedback forms on that counter if you want to grab one after this interview if you want to hand that feedback form into Frank over here at the the table with the technology we will have another set for the next

4:43 interview very interview very excited I know I feel bad I I told her not to bring up for a couple minutes I thought my little introduction would take longer oh it’s all good it’s very very

5:05 is there a way for the image that’s featured on this screen to be the one of the candidates speaking yes okay so I think that would be really helpful for the audience yes perfect they don’t need us

5:40 Frank Frank set um you’re here with us live this is not question and answer we’re in a meeting

5:57 okay either the agenda was posted I know but sometimes agenda name by theair in

6:19 any the fact that we’re here we can’t even express anything prior to act is not transparent and Sarah you know I’ve been sitting at these tables for a long time and I think that personally I’m questioning whether or not this is even authentic

6:46 tonight that said there’s my public com it’s not

6:53 obviously ask obviously ask question

7:47 Cindy there’s some application materials as well as um a feedback form on the

9:08 have you done your Zoom update so it’s like the new version there you

10:11 thank you everybody hello I’m so happy to get a chance to talk with you again and have you back here um I’m gonna ask everybody briefly just to introduce themselves so you know who everybody is we had an opportunity to meet last week but I’m Sarah Fox and the current chair Brian OTA hi my name’s Megan Taylor I’m good to see you again hi Jen shaffner Vice chair of mar welcome um we’ve set up similar to The Format prior where we’ll go through and each member will ask you a question um

10:47 so so okay we’re gonna do the best we can we really are we don’t have the best audio here and we really want to make this um comfortable for our candidate I know everyone in the audience wants to too this is going to be recorded which is on audio um so it can be replayed to be listened to we’re gonna we’re going to do the best we can but we need to make this a comfortable environment for the candidate so I apologize our audio is not the way it should be we’re going to do the best we can and we’re gonna ask the candidate to but we’re here to interview the candidate and it’s all will all be available to rewatch on the YouTube channel and I have to ask that you all stop being disruptive to the process because it really is unfair to the candidate who is here um so if you want to tell us a little bit about yourself

11:32 and then we’ll kick off with the question I’m use my teacher voice hear me thank so my name is Janelle Pearson Campbell um this is my 23rd year in education I I want to begin with I started as a pharmacy major um my mom was a math and science teacher but I didn’t go that direction and so um I like to talk about what my um last position was the in superintendent for no camping Public Schools so when I arrived there I’ve had um 75% of my staff left my five building MERS left too and so one of the things that I did do was what I call meet in GRE so the first thing that I did do was meet my staff meet my my families so that they can meet me over time because I think that’s one of the most important things

12:19 in addition we have had a budget deficit when I was Ring into public schools the business manager laugh a note said please start the budget as soon as possible so I started the budget process in October with new new building administrators and so my process for that was to um for them to identify all of Staffing look at the in analysis look at the school Improvement plan in order to create a budget for the community to have and one of the things that I am proud about is sending an interactive document for the community so they can follow you along what’s going on in the school district in addition to that I was assistant superintendent in north and old Rochester Regional School District which is three towns and that

13:04 was during the coid um time and one of the things that we focused on was the sense of belonging a sense of looking at our data analysis looking at the new literacy plan for this guidelines andure that all students were prepared in addition to that I was the uh assistant director of special education and Walkin Public Schools where I focused on looking at programs to support all Learners so that all were prepared for College and Career readiness m 1 and I’m glad to be here in front of everyone to talk about the initiatives that I’ve developed and I am an approachable person and so to me I think I love having the community background hearing for them cheering me on I love I hope I you can hear me and then um that I can help you along this process and I always believe in the Ruth of Franklin

13:51 accentuate the positive because I believe that’s been my asset to bring all the different voices together on behalf of students thank you Jen if you can take the first question welcome um could you give us a brief overview of a 90day onboarding plan you would create for yourself if coming into the mar Public School District so my first part of the 90-day plan is visiting schools visiting buildings filling community members I’m driven around madhead District um so that community members can meet me that’s one of the part of meeting the community the second part of my 9-day plan is also looking at data analysis which you look at desie um desie has the subgroups and groups of how students or achievement the third piece is looking at your online website

14:37 looking at what programs have you put into place the other part of the two is looking at your planning for Success um looking at how what what has been accomplished what documentation has needed and one of the things I feel proud about is meeting with having a set time to meet with principles directors department heads Etc and right now in October is really the month that we prepared for that budget because budget is very important and so part of the 90day plan is looking over the previous budget with building principles to create that and I what I have what I was um positive about is sending emails or letters to the community to talk about what would the budget process look like invite them to the very first meeting so they can hear about these are the initiatives that

15:25 marad is H is um focusing on this will be the budget process this is the calendar a timeline so they able to see the timeline over time because that’s also very important the other part of being um the part of my ning is working with students hearing student voices hearing all their concerns because most important is hearing um how they’re being supported well so um I do have a 90day plan a timeline I have already Creed already with questions to look like how all sub groups will being for what is what is belonging look like in the district how can helps parents and community members support schools so there’s a partnership so there’s a a building of a relationship over time because I when I talked at the beginning at the very first thing I when I designed a budget I think of that of a

16:12 fiveyear window plan the reason for that is so that the commune understands these are the initiatives that we working on this is how we’re going to support it this is how we’re going to finance it because I one of the things about having the community here I know they’re very active in this to be a partner with that so that would be my 90 I will have a document that’ll be in front of school committee and show like my 90 plan on the screen at home send it via email people can see the 90day plan they can send comments to it so that they’re part of that

16:48 conversation we are entering a very difficult budget season given your potential point of entry to the district what would you what would your process be for engaging stakeholders while simultaneous ly developing your budget requests in my previous role as insur superintendent one of the things I did do was send a survey out to families and one the things they talked about what the needs of the building what the needs of the district and then also to send survey out to our staff members so they can hear it from them and the second piece looking at data analysis to look at what resources that we currently have um looking at what does enrollment look like what our Chapter 70 funds working alongside our uh our assistant Finance assistant superintendent of Finance um

17:34 so that we can build over time one of the things I believe in that you really look at I call it shopping you go through all of your cabinets to see what you have in the cabinet before you spend any more money because that is a resource in addition to that looking at what the what was the alls so you Title One your title two you title four from that working alongside with a special ed director to see um students who are iips out of District placements so that that over time from there and so um that has been my process but also looking at enrollment so one for example so if someone’s in first grade moving to second second grade so in first grade you only have two classes and third grade has two three classes you know that M moving up you only need two

18:21 classes so also working along with with the Union because when you have a difficult budget you also have to work hand in hand with the Union because the main reduction staff you can also look at what the licenses say so do that has been my process but I believe in a Google Document and I try to break it apart so that anyone of any economic status can understand the budget and to me that be a part of the conversation in addition working with the town have the Town come at the very beginning of the process so they understand what education looks like what initiatives that we have so that it’s not waiting to end with so that is more a partnership thank you Megan good evening

19:06 thank you for joining us today uh my question is uh Community engagement is an important and necessary component of the superintendent role here in Marblehead as I’m sure you’ve already gathered um given the short-term nature of this position how will you develop effective relationships with families and other stakeholders especially if Community views may be in conflict with state

19:32 well I feel like I’m the person that brings people together and one of the things that that my role has always been it’s about meeting on different groups and one of the things that I like to do is um partner with the different presidents of different organizations or different constituents so that they can see me out in the community because I can send an email out to families but email doesn’t matter but when people have see me on the community they can have a little of a conversation and to me that’s very important in addition I also like to send um newsletters out so like there small newsletters so they know what’s going on in the community so um for example if there’s a half a day I contact families let know the week before like there’s a half a day coming up these are the initiatives are going on it could be a stem activity so that

20:19 people understand that we’re focusing on education and the second part is that PL for Success so every time that we meet for school committee meetings or me on the community we’re focusing back on how that plenty of success mod is working and I can tell you that when I was I sometimes I might be the only person of color I can myself a black woman that could be in the community and there different voices and I’ve learned how to people feel approachable enough to tell me about the different um opinions because right now everybody has an opinion and everybody and I believe everybody has a voice and one of the things I can tell you all the places that I worked at people have said I’ve been approachable they’re able to talk about what they’re feeling about their

21:04 child and I think to me that’s one of the most important pieces because especially during this time when’re as a community as a country that sometimes we we’re not working together and I always say that when you walk into a school it it’s about the students and not about the adults and um sometimes I get emails from families and I said let’s meet and let’s have a conversation because being a Twitter thumb being a Facebook thumb can’t respond I don’t respond to that but I respond to L to them have a cup of coffee I like hot chocolate I went to Starbucks and the phone I’m a team person so I believe that I’m approachable in that manner and and it’s great to have all these community members for who feel that their voice need to be heard and I think that’s

21:51 that’s been my skill set thank you thank you for joining us tonight um as other districts have experienced our students are impacted by Co despite recent gains thanks to the hard work of our teachers and administrators 3 years later we’re still below our pre-co scores in your schools have you implemented programs in the elementary and secondary schools that have been successful in helping students close the gap and or exceed pre-co scores okay so what I’m going to break number one we impl EXL which is for more of a parent students Focus so for a parent who may are not a teacher in you the stand en in the skills for ELA Math Science and so the teacher can use it in their classroom in addition to

22:36 that I’m adding in look EXC me can you say the name of that program again it’s

22:44 I and it goes from preschool to high school and the reason why that is very important because when students leave high school they might have to take a placement assessment also for parents who need support it tells you here’s the standard here’s the question this is how the child perform the second part is literacy looking at um we went from um um I ready so that we can focus on literacy in addition to find professional development for our staff on ensuring that our kids for Center of reading so that kids understand what does f look like in the classroom what does the data look like and sure all kids are reading on grade level and one of the things that I did as an assistant superintendent as a superintendent is also to putting professional development

23:31 in you identify all your Staffing to see what type of of refresh development they need so for example you s a survey out and say how many of you um have a license in that showed us that when it’s times to look at our Title One grants we put in professional development for because some kids might need extra support reading so that’s one of the things that I also put into place the second the third thing I put in place is called stated base so when I arrived at northamp they doing State based raing and and they wanted to purchase a software program I said the software program is like $135,000 I’m like we don’t have $135,000 but we have free right now so what we did do was for them to really start focusing on standards so that they did professional development on standards look at what current system

24:18 that we did have in order to move forward because when you hire people part of the another that they also did when you hire people you want to make sure that they have certified in the in the their lure and function so if there’s special education special education Matha so that you have that in that P in addition to that there’s a shortage of teachers so one of the things that I also did is worked along side with an outside Consortium so that we can increase the number of staff and so we worked on parir for cassion teachers because you go online to Department of Ed a lot of people are not coming into the education so one of the things that we worked on was to um look at the have professional are in our building um I have a lot of my study

25:03 guys that I used when I was born which is living up and then we um connected with the outside organization because I want to do a plug because there’s $25,000 out there for people to go become teachers there’s such a shortage of teachers so those are things that I have put in place um to um ruce the achieve thing now and I like I like to go back to prev that I work for to see how everybody’s doing because to me it’s like it’s a celebration so

25:33 I have a followup to that one um the par of teacher program because you’re right there is such a shortage right now um could you talk a little bit about the success of that program and if you’re aware if that program is still in place after your departure um that would speak to one of the great things is that um people who did the pair the class teachers contact me now and said I passed the Tex and they are they in there um one of the things that I did do was share the study guides with them and also to looking at part of the pro Ed they have a online superintendent group where um our school district can and can um create a par to class in the school and the problem of that is right now are

26:18 doing that right now um so I’ve been part of that plus I keep all my study and speci education mathematics so I anytime someone says oh I need help with passing final reading I’m literally like give me your email here’s my stuff take it pass it because sometimes the study guys cost $300 for a class you might not have $300 so I send out whatever study materials that I have I send out in addition if you go to MP website those are all my resources that I think to them to review so my life has been about increasing um staff to the become of teachers and so that’s has been always the gift

27:03 um next would be Alison hi great to have you back um understanding that Marblehead Public Schools implores the mtss uh methodology what steps would you take to ensure that all students in all grade levels are getting what they need to reach their full potential whether on an IEP or an advanced learner so one of the things I I take a step back number one is ensure that everybody understands is called the um standard-based Navigator online for Department of so because sometimes teachers don’t know that there’s websites out there that conect the standard to that and to me is also to what professional development that we have the second piece is like what documentation that you have for mtss which means when you teach the standard

27:50 and you looking at your curriculum M when you do a data analysis how are all the students are doing and how are you documenting that when I was talking to a in principle with what resources do you have iale do you have I ready what so there a documentation I call it onboarding which means I’m still a teacher at H so I really create PowerPoint presentations so that I work alongside with build principles say okay we start with the standard we start with the curriculum appap what do the essential questions look like when do you teach this how do you know that the child understands it how do you look at student work what professional development have you had to look at student work also what professional development you have to support elll students um students with disabilities

28:35 how how is the there’s a resource guide for special do you know that they exist because sometimes people don’t know that they exist and what documentation that’s also part of the 90day plan because you don’t want to come in and say okay I’m going to rearrange everything you want to see what does your MTS look like what documentation look like for that in addition to that when do you have time to meet with staff so staff we say we have this time to go over the data this is the time that we meet with parents um Union to say do you meet with the parents you know every three months what things that you have in place so that’s also part of the conversation but I am a geek at heart I love curriculum Ms and I love to look at more than one curriculum map because I’m also a math and science person and I like looking at curriculum map to see

29:22 are they rigorous enough are they asking the strong questions for example when I was a building principal we were looking at really resources and one of the questions was um can we be friends I’m like that’s not the standing you know the standard is what is the main idea so I I believe in that we have to go back to the fundamentals of saying do you know what the standard is what’s the ensor col look like what does the assessment and it’s assessment watered down so that the student can access it so that’s to me is part of the 90day because you want to build the capacity of everyone to understand from there so that’s the things that I sure um through the chair just ack sure thank you um and

30:10 so what what part how do you fit into that the advanced learner piece of it so when you when you so when you do your standards and you do your assessments and you look at your student role the assessment piece you’ll be able to identify um it’s a student meeting or exceeding that assessment the teacher will have time and planning time to plan acceleration and intervention so that part of that too and also too working with the building principle to see looking at their schedule when will that time happen because when you look at somebody schedule it might say N9 to 10 I do Ela I like to break that apart so 60 Minutes what do those 60 Minutes look like when do you have time for cation

30:55 when you have time for intervention what does it look like and one of the things that I like to do is I like to share different um schedules so this is what a reading block looks like this is what a math block looks like and then say okay let’s build it from there and see how how me for all all students because you you might want to support a solition and intervention but you might not have the time in your schedule so that’s why part of the 90day plan is look at some fundamentals like what does your schedule like for teachers how you know um one of the things I always ask teachers shaming your schedule and work with building principal so that we can go into the classroom and visit there’s also times where I work with the my um exective assistant so sched time with

31:41 each building principal to look over the data because each school has a report for each classroom and it will tell you what each what each classroom is doing what the strength what weaknesses are so plan that into that scheduling time to go over the information so it’s like you really need planning specific times for that so it’s a one-onone con conversation and it’s also to working with the staff thank you um before I kick this off to Jen I just want to note our CAC um group had submitted a question uh one of our school committee members had already submitted the same question so which is great because it shows I think really the importance of how we’re going to look at this topic and how there’s

32:26 multiple stakeholders um that not not to put too much pressure on but that that feels strongly you want to hear about this so I’m going to um go to J this question so this is sort of a multi-part question so if you need me to jump in remind you I can do that um so please provide your definition of an inclusion class or inclusive classrooms what does it look like to a student into to a teacher and please further Define differentiated instruction and how it’s realized in the classroom by the students and the educator so first one what does inclusion look like yeah what is it to you what does it mean to you what does it look like my my inclusion that all different Learners will be supported um throughout that class and the way that inclusion looks like it’s teachers um General Ed teachers special ed teachers sitting down together um

33:11 supporting the creting creation of that lesson and understanding what is that I look like the combinations and modifications on there um also to how the setup of the classroom works because you don’t think about all the diverse learns that you have so you have auditori visual kinetic learns in classro and also two you have disability so student’s dyslexia or who has a math dyslexia math disability come in there from that piece but really thinks about how does that plan life over time and how is that student for supported throughout that piece and the way this inclusion also look like for a student and a teacher the teacher really has to figure out um what time for them to plan the lessons how how sit down together as a group sure that all are being

33:58 supported another piece from that is really think about the experts in the room so if you have a co- teing model in there so a special ed and a general education teacher are working together and so what I mean by that it’s not just general education teacher in the front of the classroom special education side they’re really intertwin you never know who is the special ed who is the general if they’re all working together and so um to me that’s very important and the way that you look at different instruction you really thinking about the different levels so for example how I said this special resource guide It’s called entry level skills so it’s saying what entry level skills on that standard that all students can be supported with and how do you know that they’re meeting at that high level of expectation and one of the

34:44 things is that if you look at the standard Navigator it’s saying en show that all students are being exposed to that and that also connects to when you look at your assessments you want to see how how all the students ofri that but that really takes the time of thinking about when this planning happen because it really do inclusion right you really have to have time to plan and the resource that you so for example if you look at a math book the math book might be all words and a student who’s been dlex like wait a minute I can’t access it so you really have to think about what resources that we putting in front of students who might need a multi synthetic step in order to move forward so that is also part of that conversation to that you look at

35:34 way way Megan thanks um in your professional opinion what are the most pressing issues facing the Marblehead school district and how will you address these as an interim superintendent and if you could please use some of your previous experience as examples to support your answer pressing issues about three experience number one is ensuring that all students are centered of every decision that you’re making and number two uring that the community has pass has a role in that conversation so that they feel that they’re being part of this because I I see the people in the background people they’re boisterous which is good and it’s good that they feel that they that their voice matters and the second piece is also looking at

36:21 that budget um that budget is very important because when I look at the documentation about how it overl in past you really got to think about how you create a budget that that is feasible that supports our students but also that we Market ourselves saying we’re still moving ahead in spite of what goes on like I said before I try to plan a budget of fiveyear window because this year you man you manage you make sure maintain and then the New Year budget comes in that’s two years so I try to think about it in a fiveyear window so that there’s stability here because you want to ensure that the stability happens so that kids still can continue learning that that your staff feel that they’re supported and that we’re moving on together the other piece is ensuring

37:07 that there’s a sense of belonging belonging in the district I know one of the questions you have asked me about diversity Equity inclusion and I said well we also have to ensure that it’s belonging because if a student if student um feels that they’re belonging it also have with the academic achievement because they feel that some there they have strength they know that they’re prepared for the world that they’re that they’re supported that to me is also important and the last piece I always qu party with the purpose that there has to be a time where the community has to come together I don’t care it’s on the football field or somewhere that you that you meet together and have some orange juice and some GLS something whatever but I feel like that’s important so that you all working

37:54 together and you should be proud of like you finished all the buildings I was walking up T you know you did the elementary you did the Middle the high school you should be proud of what you accomplished it might be some difficult conversations but you should be proud of what you are thank you right students staff and parents are still experiencing some emotional distress impact of Co this is especially true of our special education students what would you do to address address and remediate this well number one I call it everyone needs to be supported because education shut down during the pandemic we kep done going

38:40 forward but especially for special education students they need to feel supported in the classroom and in the community one of the things working with this director of special ed the General Ed and principal so we have almost like a a tier one tier one is like a responsive classroom so that everyone for supported from tier two is looking at the IEP and showing that the academics are being that they’re um being exposed to higher level academics but saying you can do it these are the steps that are going to help you along the journey and number three working along with parents who also have students who home IE um the work with the community to say my child has an ie but doesn’t mean they cannot be invited to birthday doesn’t mean that they can’t be invited to the community doesn’t mean

39:26 that they can’t be included and so those with pieces from that because when school was shut down a lot of times the I with I you know the the supports was up as strong as it could be because we were just trying to survive and now we’re coming back that and I also believe that mental health is an invisible special ed we might not have an IP and mental health but all of us are facing something in order to navigate these past few

39:57 years years so uh explain your thoughts on transparency within the Marblehead Public School Systems and what steps you would take to begin to improve that here with our stakeholders our community so whether that be within the curriculum with activities in the school um with the budget as as you’ve already noted well number one look work with that website so that’s your first entry so that um keep just change the layout over a little bit so that we can know that our kids are doing extremely well and these are things that we have so it’s pictures like when you go to college like now you look at college campuses now you look at the website um the second piece is I’m sending I like more

40:43 newsletters out and I used to do a little break this is what’s going on in schools let’s just put a SP Spotlight on our teachers and our staff and our te also These are times that we can meet together and I try to do a a month ahead of time time so that if someone has to take off the work that they’re able to do it because you know some people you know people have different arrangers football you know things that happen um also to I’d like to send out um communication newsletters and things like that in addition to school committee having schools come in and talk about what’s going on in the schools so they can acknowledge the planning for Success how it look like in your schools so that is a connected pie and I Al know the beacon I I stand to

41:29 the beacon um having the beacon be part of community so that there’s there’s a piece that we can have open dialogue with that and so that’s it’s always a communication

41:47 you so you touched on this a little bit um in your previous questions but I have a general question here from that that I didn’t have specifically from one individual many of our members touched on this topic and it it is so very important so I you know didn’t attribute it to one specific person um but if you can talk a little bit about your understanding of Dei and belonging as as you brought up and what your thoughts are on integrating that into the Marblehead Public Schools well I’ll start from this my my understanding of diversity Equity inclusion and and to me is very important and one of the things when you hear about diversity

42:33 people say well we’re Prom white District but I’m like no it’s everybody feels that they supporting that land so that they can be strong from that my experience has been where I um have led professional development in in the district so that we learn how does Di and be di um be implemented into the class so for example one of the books they read one time was was written in 19 7 were trying to read into the classroom and we had to put together a plan together reason why the plan was put together so that all students in that class go support that they also had IEP that there was emotional or like that that part was together so that it was a holistic piece in order for the students to move forward in addition from my

43:20 experiences I’ve also had um Community meetings so that families can because sometimes people don’t know what to say and we need how can we sit down together and have honest dialogue so that they’re being supported along that journey and so another piece of the twoo is having staff and community members look at our data and say are all of our students being successful in Mad public schools and what does it look like because when you walk into this high school over to the right you see the guidance counsel but if you don’t understand how School works and how to apply for school what the scholarships look like how do you afford it how do you make sure that you maintain it that is also a barri in

44:05 addition to that I’ve been on the ready committee from the state and we talk about diversity Equity inclusion and there’s guide I think this year or next year part of new teacher evaluation talks about Equity inclusion and what does that look like so you really have to work along side with the Union so because it talks about what it look like in the classroom what supports do you need in order to move forward and so what I also have done is called inclusive practice guide and that supports um looking at diversity overall and so that we can move forward together so I I think of it more so of how do we ensure that all voices are being heard how do our staff support they can talk about in their class if there scenario

44:51 happen what does it what what do we do in order to move forward as a superintendent there’s times where I might have to call the police I might have a documented to say this is our expectation how we behave in the school district because sometimes people do not understand that you might have chatter on Facebook and Twitter when you start talking about somebody else’s child just crost the L so we have to make sure that every kid feel that they’re supported so those my been experiences thank you um what gives you pause when considering coming to Marblehead and what would you need from the school committee and your administrative team to be set up for

45:39 Success you know when I walked from here and I heard the voices behind that didn’t give me PA that kind of gave me some excitement um because I do know that this is going to be a very engaging community and so my pause would always be before I speak make sure I have everything I need to say the first time so that I’m not on Twitter Facebook or something like that and but I feel that this is a community that engag in education that values education that have different viewpoints but they they’ll be a great team to go and I think what I will always need I always believe that honesty is important before you go to Twitter or Facebook pick up

46:25 your phone and say Janelle I want to have a conversation with you because then we can I can hear you and then I can say well this is why the pr of Ed or the federal law or the state law or the school policy this is the reason why I made the decision and one of my parents are you a lawyer I said no I just have to read because I want to make sure that I have a really a a clear um communication expectation for all the members because I do not want to be in a chaos where we forget that students are only here for one time in life and that we have had our high school or colle college they have not and we really have a focus on our

47:14 kids I can your team some additional questions the committee we have we we’re a little bit ahead of schedule so if anybody has additional

47:25 questions so I just had a question um maybe you can just clarify a little bit more about this Navigator you’re talking about just what what exactly is that because you referenced it a couple of times so it sounds like it’s an important tool so just so we just so I really understand so when you go on dep Department of Ed you type in standard Navigator and it Vis all the standards and it connects to the assessments it goes and for assessments start for third grount because sometimes people do not understand what does the standard look like for that and so that’s like fundamental and the second fundamental is the um next generation of science standards because a lot of parents want to have Project based learning so you really have to see what here’s the standard in ela here stand in math and

48:12 science and how you plan it for and from that and the third piece is your English language Learners there’s the English language Learners Site for Access and Cy descriptors so when you look at your when you do your um curriculum app you really want to look and focus all of that in that planning and in addition to if you’re special ed there’s a there’s a resource guide so it gives you entry level skills because when you do um an all assessment for for special ed you have to show documentation and then if you look at for someone who’s not a teacher iel will give you the standard and this is what it look like because what I always here people say my child’s a genius and he is meeting the expectations well okay

48:58 here’s try it find out that child just needs a little bit more support and for a parent you know I always say um when I when I graduated from high school went to college and took an exam the white counselor said where are you from I said I’m from Massachusetts she said black suud don’t you don’t don’t score very well so I knew that Massachusetts prar me whever I want to be in life but if a parent doesn’t understand there’s a road map that you have to take you talk about inclusion Equity belonging that gives you a landscape of how to how to work and for me being being 23 years in education in mother as a math and science teacher every day in the classroom so I’m used to I know how

49:44 to look at books I know how to look at resources but I also know how to bring people together and say look at your resource does it support the various diverse C steps you have because when you have somebody who needs a multi step for reading and you look at the reading book that you have doesn’t match up that’s that’s where the that’s the argument comes into place so I’m a oldfashioned teacher where I like to look at books I still have books in my house I collect books because if you if you think about your budget if you only have $20 cannot afford to buy something that teachers are not going to use that doesn’t give you the impact over over time and no that so um that’s how I how I did go and I try to bring people along

50:31 so that at a meeting time let’s go over eye so that’s how it helps your child at home let’s go over the book that you have let’s begin to ask questions at home because it’s prek to 12 once you finish High School a parent becomes that teacher so we have to give you those tools while they’re in school so they can be successful and I always end like this is that I come from a family of Educators my brother’s in anes physiologist my other brother’s electrical engineer is myself I’m standing in before you because my parents made sure that I had education not everybody had my Robert and F and that’s my mom and dad and so I believe that it’s my responsibility to be in this seat to have those strong conversations and to challenge you I

51:17 love the community that came in here and it’s great that you um it’s like British Parliament like you know it’s it’s okay because it means that you believe in answer CH so thank you very is there anything we have not asked you that you no I just have question sure yeah um so my mother is an English professor and I went the math and science route as an engineer so I totally get it but in opposite way my mom so I get the teachable moments as she calls them um and I I fully agree with that when and you so you talk about you know um the website and you talk about data and really liking to kind of dig in and nerd out on that which I do too so I get that

52:04 what what do you think some immediate steps would be that you could take in regards to you know our mcast data we have have seen a bit of an uptick certainly not where we were preco um that’s obviously somewhere we want to get and Beyond right we want to want to be in the top tier of the state again like when I grew up here so what are some steps that you think you know just initial steps you think you can take number one download theam analysis for each grade level I’m also download by by each teacher because sometimes one classroom might ma strange versus the other and so that they can help around that number two looking at the resources that you have to teach that standard so one of the things that I call it old old school skills you take you download the

52:51 I analysis you look at the literacy to say well the question was how can we be friends and over here is the main idea well those are not connecting so then the second the third step is saying what resources that you have so that a student gets exposed to those type of questions that’s the Navigator is free and some staff members maybe didn’t know that they exess but you have that plus I would call Old School notebook where you have a student notebook where they identify these are all the standards that a child will have to be exposed to these are the assessments like I already to connect to so when it happens and what is the what does assessment calendar look like for the district so you can show when you talk these standards when the assessment happens what does the r look like what does the

53:39 acceleration look like and so having those documentations but number one fundamentally is you take your curriculum map take your resources take your assessment if it’s not matching up that could be some fundamentals through the chair yeah um just as you’ve been answering some of these questions I’ve been thinking you know we’re talking about a number of great initiatives here and there’s certainly lots of opportunity uh here in Marblehead but I’m just wondering how you would approach the superintendent Ro differently as an interim versus a permanent long-term superintendent well I think I’m gonna say this is the reason why because you

54:24 want to give the kids this year the best year ever and you want to set high expectations for that what I have done as an interim I leave a superintendent transition so for example when I was in lampon our buum um plan was not up to date so I created one and left it for the next person I S it to the um attorney so I don’t think like I’m the inter per I think of it is putting instructions in together I’m listening to staff and running things down down so that they they become strong because the strength of Marblehead head Public School strength of Marblehead Public School are your staff because you’ve had so many superintendant that it changes over we

55:11 just be honest but your staff is still here still standing so I work with your staff and the way that we I work with them too is looking at when do you have professional development when do they have time to look at the standards look build principles when do they have time to look at the data because your staff is your strength superintendent going to come like this your staff is still here and one of my colleagues I knew in Boston 20 years ago I saw him out in the park lot he’s here still looks the same and he’s been here over 20 years that’s your Testament of your organization so I’m a teacher first so I like to put in documents I can look at documents so that it follows you year by year because

55:58 I also would tell you that I went to BR your school in fifth grade I learned how to read the fifth grade so I’m a br your school kid so I go back and look at C match all across the country and what things with steady consistency matters and to me that’s important and so working with your staff matters because St is going to come and go but staff is here so one of the things me be invisible ask your staff what do you need because if you look at your Title One title two and title four it talks about um grants opportunities diping opportunities for your staff to look that materials it also tells you what time order materials so when they do Title One and title two you look at what resources that you need to order so you make sure that your staff is supported

56:43 to move forward and I was talking to your building principal I’m like have you heard it by you heard I ready have you heard of these different things so you startop planning in a fiveyear window so that by the end of June you have a plan in place and to me that’s very important because your staff is is everything thank you is there anything we haven’t asked you that you would hope to have the opportunity to touch on I always think about this is how do you have fun how do you manage dress to move the district forward and to me one of the things is I like to laugh I like to have people you know I like to have conversations and I believe it’s

57:28 and so to me that’s that’s any questions for us well I always say what did you learn from what your what are like AA moments like these you around so happy went through it you know there’s some strengths coming behind it say technology or we work together open up a school or something you can’t put off being prepared for tomorrow because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring um for instance here we had put off investments in technology because our budget was so um tenuous and we put it off and then the rubber really hit the road when all of us were forced in a day’s notice to rely on

58:16 technology as a way to educate and bring together our community so um we were fortunate we we had a team in place that was able to get that Tech up and running but it was really um a wakeup call or a very loud reminder that you pay now or you pay later and by pay it’s kids so um that was my takeway and also that I never want my husband to work ever I think for me it’s just to and and I think you touched on this um to appreciate what you have and to celebrate those accomplishments I lost my I don’t know why this is happening sorry um I lost my dad during the pandemic so and and so experiencing that whole process which you’re going to say

59:01 whatat does that have to do with students but there’s a circle back I promise um so and that whole process you know of someone being in the hospital someone getting sick wakes funerals Etc was dramatically different as I’m sure many people in the room and online know um for me it it made me realize exactly that you have to celebrate the moments that you have now you have to look for the good you have to believe that people are coming from a place of good not a place of malice and to kind of put you know life is short very very short and we need to celebrate that and we need to celebrate and find our strength find our you know commonalities and and build upon that um and and have that bring us

59:46 together you talk a lot about bringing people together um and I think that that’s one way you know kind of Shifting that mindset to what’s the good here and let’s find and let’s talk about and celebrate it yes there are our frustrations as well and we didn’t pass our budgets but what are the really great things that we have and like you said our staff is is hands down just the best I lost my father um op too this is what he told he said make sure you party and and he said I live and I father the team is 89 and he said make sure you party I lived a good life and one of the things I can tell you that during the pmic teachers kept on working and then right now we would taking care of our staff so it don’t out and so one of the things I believe that you take care of

1:00:33 your staff they take care of you and so those are things that I try to have a plan so each month I building person said this month is called next month work on the budget so that it’s small chunks so that they don’t get you know too anxious and I can tell you my princial I do small things because I understand that working in a building is stressful um people are stressed and they were still coming out of the pic with a lot of mental illness from our families from my community and it’s not over and so that’s been my piece is to accentuate the positive as we so thank you very much thank you

1:01:18 as we so thank you very much um Alison do you mind walking yeah and

1:01:38 then um I’m going to call for a recess at 6:01 um until we we can bring our next candidate

1:16:37 so am I live okay so just to let the public know we had scheduled an hour and a a half for each interview um our previous interview finished a little bit early and then we had a buffer period in between um to allow for any potential overage and for the committee to um use the restroom or anything that they needed to do so we are still in a recess and we’ll be returning by S but if the candidate arrives early we will start early as well so right now we’re still in recess thank

1:54:56 I’m going to take a moment to ask everybody to introduce themselves I think you probably know many of us but um I’m Sarah Fox I’m the current chair of the school committee Ryan OD hi I’m Megan Taylor Alison Taylor good to see you again nice to see you Teresa Jen shaffner Vice chair nice to see you similar model to what we used um last week we’ll go through and everybody will will ask uh various question so um I’m going to start off is there anything you would like us to know about you right righta well yes thank you um it is a pleasure to be here with all of you this evening and I appreciate the invitation and also the opportunity to share with you some aspects of my leadership um

1:55:41 that I think will be helpful um not think I believe will be helpful in moving Marblehead Head Public Schools moving Marblehead Public Schools forward from where they are today um a few of those things that we important to know um that are foundational to and Central to my leadership are that what’s most important um in leading schools or districts is having um core values that you stick to as part of your mission and then um into the Strategic plan and my three core values that are most important to me is our Excellence building community and equity and what I mean by that or what this looks like is Excellence is ensuring that all students have uh all teachers have high expectations and have rigor in their

1:56:27 classrooms um for all students and that we meet students where they are which requires data to see where they are um and what makes Excellence happen is um having a Continuum of services so that um our students who maybe are struggling meing grade level benchmarks or our Advanced Learners all have an opportunity to still have high expectations uh the second one about building Community well before kids can learn they have to feel like Le Al and so building Community is for me about nurturing relationships um nurturing growth oriented relationships across the community in the school Liv in across the community and then thirdly um when I

1:57:13 say the word Equity people sometimes pure up um their own thoughts about that and like to Define it myself and what I see be looking like in the school district is um a place where all students and um feel um that they’re included so a very inclusive environment that is Equitable to students but also that has um a joyous environment where students are engaged in learning students help procreate some of the learning and all of that so those three um core values are really important uming forward and share more about that with you guys start I will Frank I’m getting a little noise here is this we on are you hearing any I heard a little Kickback

1:57:58 does anybody have there I just don’t want to distract any okay okay great thanks sorry about that thanks so um if you wouldn’t mind giving us a brief overview of a 90day onboarding plan you would create for yourself coming into the marble Public Schools sure we’re sort of in a unique circumstance because starting in November and also at being interim so I’ve been thinking about that um to make sure to get the most done in a very short period of time I think that that entry plan would look like um I think the goals are obviously to keep Marblehead schools moving forward making sure the well-being of students and staff is taking place so that’s primary and then you know secondary um is making

1:58:43 sure that um I set up a structure or lay the foundation for the permanent position upcoming so in order to to do that um I would need to make sure that unless my train of thought can you resay the question yeah it was just um to to give us a 90day onboarding plan so you started with well-being of students and then you were talking about structure perfect so in order to do that I would do two things and the first thing is um set communication plan how do I meet people um how do I make sure that I know what the needs are in the district um from all of the different stakeholders so I would U make very transparent communication plan it would start with the communication with the school committee and myself the superintendent um and I can share more

1:59:30 about that afterwards if you want but um and then it would trickle down to making sure that I had um I was visible in the schools I was um meeting with first the central office staff and the um principles at the school so that um you know I could get the whole picture A big picture from them um and then it would be setting up on opportunities for both qualitative and quantitative data gathering on what’s happening in the district so that would look like um meetings uh focus groups with students and with adults it would look like Community Forum it would look like um Gathering um feedbacks on teachers using a a quantitative survey with just three questions that I would develop with the leadership team so that we could send

2:00:16 one out to students to staff to parents and caregivers and to the Greater Community then what I would do is um take all that information oh yeah I would also have to look at the structures and processes that are happening so I would do a present and historical um discovery of the documents the plans and the structures and processes and I would pull all that together and I would analyze it evaluate it and um develop an action plan from November to June and suggestions therea uh and then I would share that action plan broadly um which would include you know what are the benchmarks marks to get to those actions um so that would be where I would start with that um being visible and visible in the schools um and community events would be critical

2:01:04 to ensure the success of that um that’s that’s start you um we are entering a difficult budget season given your potential point of entry to the district what would your process be to engaging stakeholders while simultaneously developing your budget request important question um well first thing first step would be um to sit down with the the assistant superintendent of Finance to learn about the nuances and the big picture that has happened so far and then to also meet with the town finance folks and other Town leaders um to get the perspective since it is um very much

2:01:49 a a town um shared responsibility so I would do that first um and then I would talk with Michelle in particular as the you know um as a collaborative uh person in this process um with the structure that she has used but this is how I would Envision it um at all times the assumptions for the budget would be around um ensuring that poor instructional quality education is occurring um and that means not only the four subjects that are often thought of but also the opportunities for students to develop their passions and their interests with um FAA or you know um Fine Arts all of those things Athletics and stuff um so we keep that as the

2:02:35 Assumption um that we went by um and making sure that student facing um uh parts of our budget are remain intact so um I’m assuming that um that uh Michelle would already have probably vot up the budget from the year before which would you know show us the level Services budget including the steps and Goa and all that kind of stuff and then there would either be there’d be a Delta and it would either be a positive Delta um or a negative either way whatever the Delta is I would employ a very collaborative process and I’m sure that they do um but I would employ a collaborative process that started with the central office staff and the principles in a meeting uh what are the

2:03:20 needs determining what are the needs for the schools um where are they at and then um making um a list of an urgent and important priorities based on that um if the uh the Delta was negative which from what I’m reading a lot in the newspaper there may be some structural deficit um it would incorporate a lot more um things like oh looking to reallocate funds looking for efficient icies um in building use or in in Personnel um looking at um alternative um revenue streams so it could be um new grants for example I just wrote a grant

2:04:06 um that was due September 12th um to Desi because we were making a large purchase for um adopting a literacy program in 2425 so I wrote a grant to get 50% of it covered through Des so when I think about uh a district budget I always go to the that alternative Revenue stream which is look on desie they have a lot of federal money um and to get those grants of course you need grant writers um so we need a lot of people you know able to do that I train so looking at those grants um looking at um entitlement grants title one two three and four are Charing buing my district and you know we we spend them in a certain way but if we’re having a major deficit then you have to look at where are those they are all supplemental so they can’t supp plant we’re already doing but where can we use

2:04:53 them in a different way possibly you have to look at these structures which is always a difficult area to be but you still get everything I think another assumption that I should have said at the beginning is that you know no category is off limits so that team of instructional of leaders of the buildings the central office and the principles have to look at programs have to look at Staffing to look at anticipated enrollment have to look at um um programs uh roles and case loads you know all those details um in advance so nothing is off the table when we have read officite so back to um the alternative revenue streams um also you can look at Foundation grants they’re

2:05:40 not a lot out there you can we have in Marblehead Head there’s a tremendous I don’t Marblehead there’s a tremendous I don’t have to tell you that amount of financial support from boosters from Marblehead Head fun friends of Marblehead head Marblehead fun friends of Marblehead Head fun friends of Marblehead school you know a lot of other people too so not that you can count on those things and it’s not sustainable to but you can put them in for to um for for a yearly budget to see where the need is um so let’s see so I went through parts of the bud that’s what I would um two we just I think for a second see if I forgot anything [Music] that’s programs miss something but anyway so then you get that and the reason you get that data is so that you sit with those team of folks and you

2:06:27 start to prioritize it together because what I need at the high school may be very different at the elementary level but the elementary folks have to know the impact of you know not having or having something at the high school so so the process um is entirely collaborative um it’s communicated uh regularly with the school committee um as we go through the process and I that’s welcome Meg thank joining us appreciate your time uh my first question is community engagement is an important and necessary component um to the superintendent role here in Marblehead so given the short-term nature of the interim superintendent

2:07:15 role how would you develop effective relationships both with families and with other stakeholders and especially if Community views May conflict with State guidance okay good twist at the end so remind me if I forget that one yeah um well nothing beats face to face um so uh in this role going to um PTO or PCO meetings to welcome and hear uh from them and see what’s on their agenda what their values are um a community forum is always effective just to you know out there um I think that because there’s so many people especially in a small town that um are dedicated to understanding education and the needs of the schools

2:08:01 but I’m not sure we always communicate broadly to people who don’t have children in schools um and so going to places like a senior center just to you know Pierce what’s happening in schools it should be done you know at least annually if not more frequently so that um they can be proud of and they can know when we need more funds what we’re doing so um communicating in places like that um I I think that I know in our district and I would like to do this here I’m sure they do is you know they have coffees that principles have I think that’s a good place to um get a lot of parents as well and to hear um what the needs are so other than soccer games that night like the one that was very appealing to look at on the way in

2:08:47 here um you know and uh public uh events um I think that that you know me hearing from them in that way in a in a two-way um format is really important another way that I could in a more one way but important equally important is um doing at least bi-weekly um memos or newsletters to both the staff and to the parent Community keeping them apprised I picture um a written newsletters forever and I picture you know asking the leadership team too for contributions but they definitely would be a budget section every time so it’s sort of just continuous um you know there would be a curricular session in instruction there would be a student you know Athletics or what have you so I think in that way it’s a continuous um

2:09:32 something that they can rely on to be predictable um it’s really important and um just keeping an open door policy it’s really important oh the last part of the question tell me that um how do you handle when there may be conflict between community and family feedback versus maybe what the state might be what our guidelines are for the state for state curricula or other yeah okay yeah well that happens all the time right um so I think it’s incumbent upon me as the leader along with our um principles to be able to um share rationals or the why in what we do if there’s a new Adoption like the upcoming unpacking of the health Wellness standards things like that

2:10:18 there needs to be a lot of education around that the why we’re doing what we’re doing um so that would be definitely a priority of the assistant super and super together um working to communicate that um because there there of course are differences in families we we vote differently we maybe raise our children differently and all of that um so in getting folks um you know to have a common understanding of what those what those priorities are given from desie and why they’re important like why are we teaching one of the new ones know more about vaping and um illicit drug use there’s more of it in the and so some parents for or um it could be elderly and a senior center folks you know may not know enough about that so we would then share data as to why this

2:11:05 is important and I know we have it unfortunately so I think just sharing the why having those conversations not being afraid to answer questions um it’s not even afraid to I think you should be proactive and giving the information thank you welcome Brian welcome Teresa thank you Brian as other districts have experienced our students were impacted by coid despite our recent gains thanks to the hard work of the teachers and the administrators three years later we’re still below our pre-o scores mcast scores in your schools have you implemented programs in the elementary and secondary schools that have been successful in helping students close the gap Andor exceed the preo levels

2:11:51 thank you great um question because it’s really the most important right is student achieving Wellness um yes is the short answer and the long answer is how so I’m so excited that you all are using I read as an assessment system and I know when I say that word um to folks maybe don’t have enough information you have shared it it might elicit some fears that kids are on computers or why you know and and so if I back up that’s been an instrumental um constructional tool for us and I’m going to tell you why so um to answer the yes part of it let me give you a little bit of data so our at the elementary level um start okay at the elementary level um

2:12:38 we have three elementary schools and um one of them of 700 students is the most diverse um 40% parents um sour language is not English and they are recognized this year by desie and as a school of recognition for their growth and achievement um over since Co since last year too um and the reason that they’re recognized is that we had this concrete system started from 2017 to 2019 we adopted um already a long time ago and we also um started creating um in our budget a plan to have instructional coaches and things be are unaffordable everywhere and so we started with one back then instructional apprach and that was in literacy at the elementary level

2:13:24 then we added a math one then we added math and literacy at both schools so this was 2017 and 19 and the growth was tremendous in and I included that on my um uh resume um so you know 23 points in math and 15 points in ela in just two years and to people that don’t know what those numbers mean they’re big um and they’re a result of making a cohesive curriculum and monitoring students progress along the way what we used to monitor it was I ready so that was the beginnings of that so then we have the pandemic and then we have 22 and 23 which are the only real data that we can use 22 being Baseline similarly from um 22 to 23 we’ve had remarkable growth not

2:14:11 across every single grade level but across the the district as a whole at those levels what we can attest to U being the biggest impact was with I ready and other assessments but I’m just using I ready here we do three times a year um assessing students in literacy reading and then mathematics and that might sound like a lot of testing but it’s 45 minutes for each of those times and what it gives us is the beginning of school year your kiddos come to us and we see where they’re at over the summer was their loss learning loss you know where are they at grade level standards so gives us a great Benchmark with which to group students so we can differentiate and in those intervention blocks that you all have as well that we

2:14:56 do we have intervention blocks K8 you’re able to address that learning loss in those blocks so um midy year now we have started to we didn’t do in the first two years but now we’re at a place where we share with parents students midyear report to see if there’s growth or not or what areas have growth or not um just to let them know what this process is and um you know to um hope that they feel more comfortable with the use of it and then the end of the year it’s individual student growth but it’s also looking at our curriculum looking at the three elementary schools we we do broadly um look at that and how you look at it is um we work with the Consultants um who are coming next week who come after the first Diagnostic and we meet at individual schools including middle school and then um they come at the end

2:15:43 of the year as well and we assistant superintendants and other folks teacher leaders run those meetings along we used to just do it with leadership but now we’re down to getting more detailed and distilled and doing it with grade level teachers so it’s really you know in their hands ready to go they get training um and it’s made a world difference so not just using that way of progress monitoring but it’s also making sure that the curriculum is aligned across the three Middle School uh elementary schools and into Middle School been very effective data shows it and um and even though that one scho is a school of recognition it’s a tab school it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the highest achieving school there’s three schools there and there’s actually one that is higher achieving still doing well but the growth of

2:16:31 students um was wonderful so it’s one way of doing it chair can I ask follow can I just said too quick detail questions to first of all you talked about I think 23 points in math 15 points in ela was that pre that was 2019 so the first two years this year it’s seven and okay remember um and then the only other question is you talked about now you’re meeting with teachers um is this current year so teachers are getting current information on their current students not the next year that we have on well but yes okay yes great thank you are you at preco levels or above so what’s interesting is that school is the other thing is the principal was the math

2:17:17 coach in the district before so you might imagine the knowledge level that uh meeting with individual teachers and seeing who did not make grade level you know they’ve done they’ve done structure that’s really great too um they’re at 23 points in science ahead 23 I’m sorry don’t me I’m sorry 23 points ahead of pre-co numbers I think it’s pre-co if not it was last year it’s either one so there are areas where their head in their areas where they’re lagging definitely there’s both there’s both but there’s some that it’s so what we’re doing studying that’s what we as you know the curriculum leaders and the teaching learning team do is help out while the teach teaching in class with studying these Trends making sure that we can leverage them and scale them in other

2:18:04 schools yeah Alison hi um knowing that Marblehead H Public Schools uh uses mtss as a methodology for teaching what specific steps would you take or you know obviously have our amazing our amazing uh teachers take to ensure that all students in all grade levels are getting what they need consistently to you know reach their full potential and have their needs met whether they’re on an IEP or an advanced learner yeah yeah that’s great um I told myself don’t use AC today because you have a wide audience so instead of saying mtsf I’m G to say tiered levels of support so we have tiered levels of support AB absolutely um and often the

2:18:50 focus rightfully so is making sure that if we have students who are not yet achieving at grade level we have systems and structure set up but also what we’re able to do now even with the support of desie now they have a new Talent Development um professional development series that’s just starting where it’s taking our Continuum of services right and moving it from grade level to Advanced so so often we have you know lists of what we for advancing our Learners which we can share with you but it becomes more articulated just like the tier one the tier two and tier three for academics are but in a way that ex extends the learn um what’s been successful for us in need of improvement

2:19:36 ongoing as we look at it every year is having um our Advanced Learners have having our intervention periods be based on these data right it could be I it could be dble classroom common assess M what have you having our um intervention periods based on that in Cycles we have four cycles for those so that um students might be either um receiving interventions to bring them a skill up to grade level or extending the curriculum or extending the learning into deeper in in so there so these intervention groups you might think are less heterogenous than the classroom is so it gives opportunity to have both heterogeneous classrooms and home genus SPS to move kids no matter where they

2:20:22 are on the continuous Services what we’re doing this year we have a really articulated ntss our tier system support program and so tier one is all students what all students get and so we have it academically outlined and we have it um behaviorally outlined you know our responsive classroom advisory restory practices what have you right um but what we’re working on is one moving it from just gate8 to 12 so we haven’t done high school yet yet um but also making sure that um the three areas academics yes Behavior yes but social emotional Wellness how do we measure that so we don’t have accurate measurements of that so how we’re progressing through it is ensuring the three levels three tiers for academics ensuring them for

2:21:08 Behavioral um behavioral is often um helped by what’s written in um in IEP to make sure that they get specific Sports it is an academic as well um but what we haven’t um yet done is how do we measure um social emotional growth um in sometimes Behavior so that’s where we’re working on it and did I miss part of question make sure I answer no that was that was both sides thank you thanks Jen next question sure um Teresa can you provide your definition of an inclusion class or inclusive classrooms this is a multi-part question so I can repeat um what does it look like to a student and to a teacher and further Define differentiated instruction and how it’s realized in the class classroom by the two students and the educator okay might have to go back okay it’s basically

2:21:54 inclusive classroom for teachers and students and differentiate instruction for teachers and students okay great inclusive Pro is hopefully all classrooms um and what it looks like is you have all students that need these Continuum services in a classroom but you’re able to meet their needs because you have um information of their progress in the classroom and as I sort of related to the last one which is um I’m able to give them um explicit targeted supports or interventions based on where they’re at and when we talk about mtss or supports um not all students are they may be advanced in math but they don’t really dig writing and so you know they’re not it’s not

2:22:39 like we say oh an advanced learner it’s about the services that are provided not the student necessarily um so an inclusive classroom has um the support often times of a co- teer or a special educator that might be in the classroom working with some students who have um needs on their IEP but also other who the data showed based on whatever they’re learning that day the data showed need some some more support they need a double dose so that special educator might have four students are IP and two students who are not in 9p but need that help so it’s a very fluid kind of situation um there I don’t remember the number but I know it’s low but for um English language Learners we have a large population so we also have an ESL teacher in the same way um sometimes if

2:23:26 it’s a newcomer they would be taken out to get ELD services to where’s the to get language de English language development services um in in uh simultaneously with learning our curriculum so an inclusive classroom is um a place where you know every student has a sense of belonging and a sense of worth so um the teacher knows the um student well their interests their background um and that um all of these students um their um could be ethnic could be racial could be gender could be learning disability or different learning styles are reflected in both the curriculum the book choices that they have the examples in the lessons or

2:24:12 on an assessment um making sure that they see themselves in um both what they’re learning and um as a as an important and significant member of a classroom so that to me is what inclusive classrooms look like um so using data to make sure that individual student needs um are met in an ongoing um PR monitoring type of way and um also having the uh big key thing um having the um gened curricula um across to everybody because what we used to see and not so long ago was there maybe kids taken out of the classroom to do things that they needed absolutely but they would miss part of the literacy lesson or part of the math lesson so that can’t happen um and that’s been a

2:24:58 good change actually since Co um since partner that came out with a very helpful accelerated learning document or roadmap that we have all been using which has really shifted the mindset a lot so those are some of the things thank you did I answer all of the question another through the chair yes you did thank you through the shair yes thank you so uh just as a quick follow on to that in that in that model and I I love what you said about you know it being a particular service related so whether it’s writing or literacy or math or science whichever it may be how how do the advanced Learners at all grade levels you know we’re talking about you know kindergarten and up how does that fit in with that inclusion model to

2:25:46 ensure that whether it’s math you know just question yeah very good question um here’s how it fits in so teacher does a mini lesson of 10 minutes on a um describing things in text texts reading and um then students go into groups um based on um what their needs are so a student who might be an advanced reader Advanced learner would have a different level and uh of an independent reading book or independent reading groups there might be three students in that class who were reading at three years old they would be in an independent reading group but they would all be working on the same standard so

2:26:31 you know developing a theme getting EV text evidence whatever it is so that it’s just right it’s called you know that’s terminology is just right scaffolding so I’m not bored in the class because I’m reading some Advanced kind of reading but we’re all we’re all learning themes and text evidence yeah thank you thank you um did you have no okay um that brings us to Megan so Teresa in your professional opinion what would you say are the most pressing issues facing the Marblehead School District right now and how will you address those as an interim superintendent the short nature is kind of the key here um and if you could use some examples from your previous work to

2:27:17 support that answer that would helpful sure so pressing issues in model heal to start with well I’m an outsider right so I read everything I could get my hands on I looked at everything on the website and talked to a few folks that I know that live or work here to to gather as much information as I can so it’s an outsider’s perspective um based on that information so I would think that the first and foremost thing is um building trust in um leadership would probably be the most because I really believe in my heart that the teachers are doing as great as they always do with the students but it’s hard to be sustainable when you don’t have a leader or

2:28:03 leadership group that’s kind of supporting you in the work so I would say um the biggest thing is you know in building the relationship with a school committee and an interim superintendent um so that that trickles down to our principles and to our teachers and to our staff um and it also kind of helps alleviate the fear of uncertainty and I think those are kind of primary things um the budget and negotiations are big to does um this year and so but you can’t do those into that first part it’s done right because it involves all of those people that we’re describing um so I would say budget would be the next order um and it would be really important to um know and I hope to be

2:28:50 able to gather that information through quantitative document research and qualitative um feedback um what’s working and what’s not so that when we go to make those decisions of what needs to change or be modified or reallocated or Grant funded all that kind of stuff we have we have some um examples of things that we can do so I have to learn that um so at for a district I think it would be you know having principles and they probably are already thinking about okay what is absolutely half to keepy to support our students in instruction um and their student experience in school and and whatnot um I think that um building relationships and an understanding across the town

2:29:37 departments that we then communicate um with our staff and then with the that’s critical um so I think that you know developing a communication process that can be predictable in getting that information out as we develop the budget would be would be uh essential like weekly or bi-weekly anyhow um so budget and then for contract negotiations um you know teachers have worked harder than maybe in my eyes um anybody but Health Care Professionals in these last few years um putting themselves on the line and you know with passion and compassion to make sure their students um learn and um their well-being is good and and I feel like we’re in a place

2:30:23 where we need to make sure that that kind of energy and a gift to students is sustainable and so you know Finding areas of joy and support for teachers is another way well when you’re doing contract negotiations you know one of that way is you know you want to make sure that we have Fair wages and fair benefits and fair but we also want to make sure we have a phly responsible budget that’s always the attention right so I think that part of that though is we look at a comparison or comparative analysis of compensation in area districts and districts like ours Etc so that we’re just sharing with the public um you know where we’re at in in comparison because we we like to share

2:31:08 our data you know academic and so forth but we should also be sharing other data such as that so a lot of those efforts have to um be done in short time um as we go in into negotiations as well you you’re welcome student staff and parents are still experiencing the emotional impact of coid this is especially felt in our special education students what would you do to address and remediate this yeah it’s a great great Challenge and important for sure um yeah it I’m I’m saddened when I look at data

2:31:54 everywhere across the state I’m sure Nation massachusett it’s more achieving than other states a lot of them but um at the uh discrepancy between all student the Aggregate and our students um different abilities their um scores are the it’s just too much um and you’re right in saying that um it was really difficult to make those accommodations and modifications during that time period um so what becomes more important then is having a structure tier system Sports having time in the schedule intervention periods for them we’re talking this area um so that um the areas that they need

2:32:42 remediation um can be addressed in in t in tandem with having uh making sure that they’re learning grade level standards in the class with everybody else there are times when they still need to beef up some of the other um uh standards that spiral into what they’re doing now and so we need to make that time to make that happen so um I think just being uh laser focused using data on that individual student you’ve never been so personalized which is really good so personalizing looking at the data of that student um and what’s what’s the most bang for the buck what are the priority standards they must be up to date with in order to do grade level work um so just being better at

2:33:29 that um hard for teachers to do all the time when they’re teaching all day long so that’s when it’s really helpful to have systems and structures set up that sort of give information um help teachers uh support around it teacher leadership opportunities uh with data and things like that um but it’s a integral need it’s um something we’re all working on um and I think you know I thought you were going to go a different direction in that question I I think I know that we um one of the things that we in all districts um did uh during the pandemic was hired many more mental health um folks because we saw there was a need and there still is a need I think you can use the ybs or any other or

2:34:16 teachers um sharing with happening in the classroom there’s a need to support students who maybe weren’t in school for two years and now they’re in third grade and things like that so um so it’s not just the academic support because we have to support you know their access to learning the academics which starts with you know um supporting uh self-regulation self-awareness and all those important things that are part of the program so it’s complex it’s not simple but um I think just saying it these days showing it these data aren’t working what are we going to do differently you know everybody having those conversations is is critic

2:34:57 difficult um explain to us your thoughts on transparency in a school system so whether we’re talking about curriculum the budget Staffing whatever the subject matter might be um at you know at all of the different grade levels uh and some specific steps you may take to improve that at Mar Public Schools yeah great great question um you know let me use just to start as an example the the new health and wellness guidelines um from the GetGo like right now um as a district we need to be sharing them publicly you know with um parents so that they can uh with highlights on what’s changed um you know uh areas you know some sort of table of contents that

2:35:43 could be helpful to because they’re they’re long these books are long and people who are not Educators it’s not the most exciting things to read but I think that um knowledge is education on what’s Happening is really part of our job um to do so i’ like to put it out there here it is now what we’re going to do as professional Educators is decide looking at what we do now looking at our student data discipline data uh mental health disorders Etc and what are the needs in our district um and then what is the expectation from partment V that we teach so prioritizing those standards um and then making those shifts we call it unpacking them um that should be uh

2:36:29 very U should be ongoing right now but at every step of the way it would be good to give updates to parents here’s where we’re at because there’ll be no matter what there’ll be some decisions on various parts where we’ll have two different camps but if we can rationalize why looking at our data um not just say it’s a mandate because that’s kind of yes it is but um I think using student data to the why we’re teaching various things is really important so that’s one example of transparency but I think it’s across for any um curricula um instruction I think the only place that it’s harder and you have to be super careful and it sometimes has some tension around it is student behavior issues or disciplinary actions everyone wants to know but you know

2:37:14 there are good reasons uh lawful reasons but also personal reasons for child and the family that that can’t be shared so but you have to have a culture of trust where parents go okay they you know there’s other actions that I’ve seen that I trust and have worked well so I’m going to trust this but um so transparency is just what’s to hide especially coming in um but why why would you um it’s not like you’re gonna yeah let’s just say that um so methods of communication that I spoke about earlier employing all of those um addressing things immediately that’s where I see things go bad in the newspaper and elsewhere is when they don’t get addressed and we think I’ll get to it or whatever no they’ll SC up yep it’s problem we’re dealing with but I also want to make sure that they trust

2:37:59 the professional Educators to come up with the decisions as teams on various things because although you care and love your child um the educator has years of experience and lots of um degrees to be able to know how to teach and how to displine all that kind of stuff so

2:38:20 thank um you hit on this when we talked about inclusion in an inclusive classroom before but if you could just talk a little bit about what your understanding of Dei is and what your thoughts are on integrating that into the mar Public Schools so not you say after and it is something that bolsters up um feelings in people when there’s so much nationally and everywhere that um doesn’t um do J justice so I’m going to talk about diversity Equity inclusion and belonging in schools in Marblehead hood and belonging in schools in Marblehead schools so I see the those four letters um being in sync and I see the belonging as the umbrella um and Under the Umbrella is

2:39:06 diversity equity and inclusion so diversity doesn’t just mean uh a rational or ethnic diversity it means um diversity of learning styles it means nuro diversity uh you know are you um do you have um trouble with your memory do you have trouble you know there various um areas of relative weakness that we need to strengthen for our students so so diversity of curricula different books to read um books that reflect all of the students there books that reflect the genders or um identities of our students um is really important to have um it it’s they’re learning tools right and so that’s diversity and Equity I talked about a little bit earlier but it

2:39:53 just means you know avenues for all students to um have entry points into higher level classes for example um to see themselves as a learner early on so high expectations early on in the classroom um there’s Equitable Services everywhere and I think I talked a little bit about that so I get back to that one and the last one is inclusion which we talked about there and again inclusivity is not uh although begun with thinking more around Special Ed I think it’s a much broader term of including students and I talked about that in your last question but most importantly is this um umbrella of how do we have a feeling for both students and staff um that they belong to Marblehead head Public Schools belong to Marblehead Public Schools

2:40:39 those are some ways tools to make sure that happens um teaching or as the lead learner um in the district and um got the continuous professional development for staff that they desire and that is needed say learning how to be a more inclusive anti-racist you know um an bias um teacher is really important and I already know a lot of it is happening here and we all need to so you know continuing to support that so that that sense of belonging is strong for all of our students it’s critical so what gives you pause when considering coming to Marblehead what would you need from the school committee in your

2:41:24 administrative team to set you up for success thank you for that question um all right I’m G do the pause first um what would I need um from the school I think it would start with you know developing a shared mission and vision for us as a you know leadership team um and looking at ourselves as a team that supports each other’s role so that would start with defining each other’s role which you know is always helpful with an outside consultant um because we’re we have some new membership and new intern remember that is right so masc or others um real targeted um kind of our own professional development um would be great so we’d have that shared um vision

2:42:12 and Mission uh having clear expectations of what your goals for the interm superintendent Ro are and for me so that I could meet those expectations um in making sure that together we um you share to all of your other questions that we share transparently with open communication um so that people don’t devise their own narratives around um what the work that we’re doing going forward um and I want to be clear on what that is and the action plan that I would develop after doing the um politic and quantitative um Gathering of information um would be shared broadly too and and we would Benchmark it you know it’s uh here’s the information January to June you know uh two months

2:42:58 in where are we at with these we you know talk about it here’s here’s where we’re at um here’s where some successes are here’s a challenge um and then all over in so sharing that action plan with my parents in the community and certainly so we can all for um asking question under Dei one of the things we are supporters of a Medco and have been for many years but our medical enrollments keep dropping off every year how would you encourage more medical students return all right so here’s um here’s a uh mistake I made as a principal here that I learned from around Neco um that was both something

2:43:44 that wasn’t very culturally sensitive um or respons that I have learned from um and it also ends with how I think we can bolster more so we were having our open house and um historically our parents of our Boston commuters are less uh likely uh percentage wise to be able to make it to that open house because it’s in Boston they’re working and all that kind of stuff far away at night so with our generous PTO um we um l we got a bus to bring them it’s $500 bus and me thinking this is a great idea you know it’s can help support them and Sarah was saying that one parent was able to be on the bus

2:44:33 so it just felt bad all around um and other parents did come but they drove in cars and and all of that so it was very clear that I thinking I’m helpful was not and that I didn’t um Do the Right Step so after that um was spaghetti supper before and all of that too so after that I went to I grabbed a guance counselor and went to the uh Dorchester um Community Center and basement where the meetings are for um Meo families and you know planning and socials and things like that so I went to it and it was a great experience listened to First just them knowing who we are and what we stand for in our schools and how well and how much um their children bring to

2:45:22 our schools Etc um was listening to them and um you know the takeaway was the kns um a lot of them are working even if you work till 5 to get here at that time you know all of that so some of the things that taught me is that one it’s really beneficial to go there to go face like I keep saying right face to face well face to face there because there are students and so um just as we you know invite the parent Community to our open houses to our parent conferences well why wouldn’t we then um Meet the Parents where that need is there so that was one of them um in order to do that visit I stayed at one of my daughters at the time apartment in in Boston and so the gentleman who was driving the bus um

2:46:09 picked me up at her apartment and drove me at 5:20 in the morning drove me to a breakfast spot and that the lights were all off at the bakery products because only people who are in the neighborhood are able to go had breakfast met some folks there a couple of them were parents then we went and picked up the kids and I could see you know other parents that were bus drivers their bus would be parked there and their kid would jump out of their bus to get an our like so I could see what the the experience was for the students that are commuting in from Boston starting at 5:20 in the morning you know um to get just to get to Marblehead just having that experience you know taught me a lot on and of course thinking parents are going to show up and I’m just going to send the bus so um you know I then continue to ride the bus you know every year because it was fun

2:46:56 to ride bus with the students but I just think making an effort um brainstorming with other leaders Ines on um ways that we can meet them um where they are and um encourage them um to join us here in Marblehead why would they want to you know really you know a brochure is why why would they want come and what do we have to offer that we can’t get in Hometown so I think face to face makes all the difference so welcome um are there other questions I followup questions um is there anything we have not asked that you had hoped we would so that you could have an opportunity to share some pieces of information

2:47:43 um NSA do you have any questions for us oh I have a good question for you so um you know this is like I mentioned a unique experience because of the timing of this um and that there is the permanent role and I have expressed to you my interest in um applying and interviewing for the interim um but also that I have an interest in doing a great job with all of you um and be considered for the permanent going forward and this is roundabout way to ask your question and um I think that also is evidence that um I believe I am excited about doing good work with um you all and all

2:48:32 of the staff and students here and so much so that I take the what I believe is healthy calculated risk of uh considering being the interim here leaving a job I’ve had for eight years that is we’re doing great work and you know feels very comfortable um for a little bit of um healthy risk and moving forward so I think that’s evidence of how much I think this would work um since four years ago when I was here I haven’t interviewed or I haven’t applied to any superintendencies because I wasn’t interested in I want to be in a place that I feel like I can make a difference so in order to make a difference here as the interim versus the permanent um what would you need from me

2:49:20 um did anybody want to speak first happy to um this is my opinion obviously we haven’t deliberated on this but um it would be whether this is you or really truly anybody coming into the interm role we are not in a position right now in our district to to do a stay put order if you will um we really need to be moving forward we need progress um for our students for our staff um and not just change for the sake of change but thoughtful change um and so we would need whoever comes into this role to be working as if you know they’re it’s not you’re the interim or you’re the permanent you’re just the you’re the

2:50:06 superintendent our students our staff need someone to do this role to move us forward and whether that be with someone who then has gotten us exactly where we should be in need to be in that what do we eight-month period um and are and are then ready to hand it off or whether it’s someone who gets an extension or takes on a job I it’s that end piece right now for me is is more IM material and it’s more we need someone to be successful at least for myself in moving us forward in eight this eight-month period we we don’t our students um pit Paws through coid as as the entire world did we can’t hit pause for another eight

2:50:51 months we need to keep marching on towards you know meeting their needs so I would just I would hope that whoever comes into this role is really able to hit the ground running right away build the relationships and move our students where they need to go thank you for me I think I would say uh true transparency and communication would be important understanding there are reasons often times that you may not be able to communicate one thing or another and resp respecting that boundary um but knowing that you’re coming from a place of good ensuring that you’re trusting that we’re all coming from a place of good as well uh so that we really can build and Forge that relationship um I think having a strong relationship

2:51:37 Foundation is what really will allow you and us together as a group um whomever is the interim you know whether it it is you um or not and I think that that is what will help and facilitate hitting the ground running and really being able to dig deep you know there are a lot of difficult conversations that will have to be had over the next eight months undoubtedly particularly with the budget season coming up right um and there are a lot of things that are going to need to be communicated out to the community you know forums to engage the community and not being afraid to do all of those things to dig really deep into you know Staffing at our schools to dig really deep into the budget dig really deep into our mcast scores and determine how

2:52:22 we can really get us back you know not just back to where we were before I I want us to be better than we were before I want us to actually get to that exemplary level um and I think our students deserve it um I feel sure you or whomever was in the role would feel that way too uh and just really being willing to do all of that it’s it’s work um and it’s not always thankful work sometimes it’s a little bit of they less work um but we’re doing it for the good of the children and we’re doing it to make their experience better and just ensuring that you have you know that willingness to ensure that you do um that’s what I would be expecting I think the most can I I guess you know Sarah’s right we haven’t deliberated about this at all and I agree with both Sarah and Allison have said I think it’s important

2:53:08 that whoever comes into this role is coming in as an inter room being able to be effective from day one on some you know on some of the opportunities for improvement that we have right now um but I think also we’ve set the expectation with the community at this point anyway that we would be doing a permanent superintendent sech and I think we owe it to the community to do that and to really include the community in that process with for the permanent superintendent searge and I think we have to be realistic around what that timeline would look like you know that would have to start fairly soon when you’re still kind of getting your feet um you know kind of stabilized and Marblehead Head so I think we have to be Marblehead so I think we have to be realistic around the time frame you know with what that permanent search would look like I think what we need is stability

2:53:55 more than anything and stability comes from transparency a clear and set of priorities and goals for the staff the administrators the staff which will trickle down to the students and the parents in order to do that we have to have some strong planning to show people that the interim is moving forward in a strong Direction based on I ready data the curriculum needs and moving forward that way so I think that’s one of the most important things we’d be looking at is the interim and potentially for the permanent superintendant I agree with everybody I think from my perspective the inim we really need someone to come in who’s going to be able to help us make the improvements that we we know that we need to make and I I think we don’t know what we don’t know so I think there’s a

2:54:41 lot of work to be done as you’ve talked about on on the data and evaluating where we are and putting a plan together how we’re going to see those improvements you talked a bit about vision and Mission which and strategic plan all very important um I don’t know if we’re ready to do that right away I think we have to do some of this sort of remedial work during this interim period to get us ready as a district to prepare for sort of a fiveyear whatever you know strategic plan that we’re we’re talking about so um I think that’s important the other thing that’s been evident to me and you you talked about it tonight is the whole you know the social emotional part of of children now I have grown children as you right so my

2:55:27 children did not were out of school during coid but what has been evident to me over the last four years is how important the social part of school was and I have to tell you having served on a school committee frankly being a parent I don’t think I could have told you that four years ago that it would that it was that important to the health of our children but it is and so that is crucial and to me all of the work that goes into that to me speaks to culture and climate culture what is in our buildings what is the culture what does a student experience in our building from the minute they walk in to the minute they leave at the end of the year and at the end of 13 years or well years what how many years they’re with us so

2:56:12 we’re not there yet and I think that’s what that’s what this interal is for to Megan’s point I don’t think that we are in any position right now to be talking about what the permanent search is going to look like I don’t think we know I think we need to get to the interim spot and then as a committee we that’s my thought you know that we haven’t had those discussions and right now we need to focus on you know what we’re doing right now and then we can begin to have those discussions and I don’t know what that frankly is the two points of clarification when I was referring to the vision and Mission that was an answer to the question of the school committee and relationship that the inter term superintendent so I was thinking more as a leadership team our vision of what it would look like and then what you need to do so I

2:57:00 understand all that and secondly is I just wanted to make you clearly aware that um I’m interested inment for good reason um and that doesn’t work out um I have Sav myself in I on to whatever since and just for a point of clarification I know some districts when they hire an interim there is a contractual um piece in there that they are not eligible to apply to the general consider or be considered I think Brookline does this standardly um there’s other districts that it’s a pretty standard element in that District that has not been a standard in our district so just to answer that question it’s it’s not been a contractual obligation

2:57:47 right quite the opposite yeah actually um we are so grateful for your time and um your answers and I will ask Megan if you can walk

2:58:02 Teresa take a quick five minute recess and then we will move on to with the discussion I have

2:58:28 7:57 7:57 I’m I’m

3:04:56 804 all right so I will open it for discussion well first I want to thank the screening committee um for doing a great job you have come forward with two great great candidates so thank you very much appreciate that thank you um in your pockets are are the reference grids for both candidates um that I believe you know next steps will be going over those um we can kind of split up who wants to call through um I mean we could see is there any interest in I don’t know with candidate or do we

3:05:41 want to go for with references um that’s that’s a discussion too I mean what are what is everyone’s thoughts um I’ll be the broken r on this but I think um you know like I say with most decisions I don’t think we should make them on the spot I think it’s always useful to sleep on them I think in this case specifically we’ve asked for feedback from the community so I think we should oh no I don’t think that there’s I don’t there’s no motion on the table to take a vote tonight it’s what what are next steps um oh I must must have misunderstood what are next steps there’s references um we could ask to do a day in District if we wanted to um you know what information does

3:06:28 everybody need to feel like they can make the next step of the decision-making process um and then you know we can talk about what that what how that breaks up up really so you want to break down the reference and have people select would they like to call um yes I so given Teresa is in a district currently I actually do have an interest in in seeing what goes on there how her staff interacts with her how her student body seems to be able to identify who she is if she’s in one of their buildings is it does it seem like it’s the first time they’ve seen this woman’s face or is it is it someone um that’s

3:07:13 newer it’s a little hard because Janelle isn’t currently in a district right now but um we could at we could do a deeper dive on her references to kind of equalize that um but I think to me it would be important now that doesn’t mean if every some people may feel that’s not a necessary piece that they they need to make the next decision which is fine um we don’t all have to go people can go people cannot go um or we can you know move from here here I would use it more as almost like an inperson reference if you will I mean one thing to keep in mind just from a timing perspective is if we do something like that um first of all I don’t think that

3:08:00 it’s I don’t think it’s realistic to have to expect what a typical permanent surge day would necessarily look like no it would not be a full day in District it would more be going to do if you will an onsite reference back you know a conversation with a few employees or or things the superintendent yeah I think would make sense you know it I guess to that matter it it would be the equivalent of me calling one of these references versus calling someone saying would you have would you like to have a cup of coffee and and talk about so and so I mean it’s it’s pretty much the equivalent of that but if there’s so that I may be the only person that wants an in person no I think we’ be remiss to not do that when we have the opportunity to do an person um that being said we do

3:08:45 have I mean I’m just thinking from a timing perspective we have a school committee meeting scheduled for this Thursday night so it’s possible that can be done before Thursday that we could deliberate Thursday night if not I am reluctant to want to wait two more weeks no no my recommendation would be if we are prepared for Thursday then we um I spoiler alert I’ve already have draft version because I never leave anything till the last day um in is in there right now as a possible vote with a question mark on this so we could if all of us have done our reference checks and have the information we need we could entertain a motion on Thursday also I’m perfectly happy to um schedule a meeting

3:09:32 for early next week because putting it off for another two weeks really is hard too because you know I think Michelle would like to go back to her her previously scheduled role um and and I also think both of these individuals are aware that our goal start date was November 1st and whoever we land on I think for for um planning the best transition the sooner we identify that event I think um one thing that they both talked about and is important to me too is the building up the trust within the community and with staff and families um so I would like to see how they each

3:10:17 interact with staff and families and community so if there’s an opportunity even if it’s before our meeting on Thursday or however it works out to have that opportunity for um you know for that interaction I would like to see that well we could only do it for Teresa yeah I’m not sure Janelle’s not currently right no here here with our own staff and oh I don’t think that’s um I don’t know how we would do we definitely can’t do it before Thursday the posting window um I yeah we’ve posted the the meeting people can all watch it and um give us their feedback I’m not sure why there was ever

3:11:03 another expectation when you ran the search in 2019 this not speaking um when you ran the search in 2019 this is the exact way it was run and I would argue that um the hiring of bill maala was a shining success so I will continue to um run this along these terms if you feel free to make a motion if you’d like no you asked what we all felt would be helpful for us to come to a decision so I’ve offered what I thought would be helpful for me to make a decision that was the question okay um I would definitely Advocate that going to see Teresa in her

3:11:52 district is is critical I don’t uh hire like this interim permanent whatever should never be done without that um regardless of circumstances so uh that’s important I don’t have to be the person to do it someone else can be fine with that but I do think that that is a critical piece um just to kind of pulling that picture together it’s unfortunate we we can’t do that uh for Janelle currently but at least there are a number of re you know references here that we can certainly reach out to in different districts as well she gave a very comprehensive list here which I was happy to see yes um I guess sorry just a question on that though I guess you know one of the things that I think we’ve tried to do here is make sure that it’s completely consistent across two candidates so that it’s Equitable asking the same questions in the same order so

3:12:38 I just want to make sure that we’re being completely accable you know however we approach next steps um I had asked uh Carolyn our consultant about this because I I going into this knew one was currently in a district in one was not and she had said that this is this is done and that was her recommendation that the way to give um the equity there is to do a deeper dive into references and if need be go back to Janelle and ask for some more as well um so if there’s something on this list missing as far as a specific representative or or area of the community that is not represented here or something you’d like to see more

3:13:23 representation from please let me know I will get um in touch with Caroline and and get that you know area bolster I think the um for me with u Miss Pearson Campbell she has a very robust list of references for sure she has um a mayor um which is on the sort of you know political or city side which I think is important I was uh thinking until I looked at this that considering she’s been an inim I think for the last two positions I think or or intern positions that it would be hard to speak to a superintendent who she’s worked for right because she’s been these but there is um a superintendent she has listed here from old Rochester so I’m not sure what that role is um say she assistant

3:14:09 super she assistant so that person um is a super you know we can we can there is some parity there if that’s the right word um between being able to speak to that person as well as if in in person or on the phone with the superintendent Watertown so I think we through these references I think we can create close to parody okay by calling I think by calling them um do we I know this is something we we well I do we know if the districts she was in previously had that same Clause of not being able to participate in the permanent I have to fact check this but I believe from my research she was a finalist in her previous district for the fulltime

3:14:56 suprem I did look myself I just I I could okay if I then if I can just go down the line and ask if you want to identify who you guys want to call and if some if if um sorry Julie Julie you’re reference by way so we have Allison knows she’s that’s why I’m using your next one if um Alison knows she really wants to hear from that parent perspective and that’s who she wants to talk to but Brian also feels that I see absolutely no reason to say only one person can speak to that that individual um but I don’t think we should do more than that I we can’t anate these people no no I think it needs to be reasonable but if someone feels very strongly they have a specific question for a specific person I think In fairness we need to allow for that one one thing

3:15:42 impossible I don’t see on either of these that they have a CPAC number so I would be interested in speaking to the CPAC for both of them

3:15:59 okay in some ways you could probably just coold call and that’s the other thing people should not feel limited to this list um calling non-specified references is actually encouraged if anybody um wants to do that be great if anybody has a connection or wants to do some looking on their own um those I I find just from a professional standpoint tend to be the best people to call because you get some some very C different type of feedback sure um all right so if we’re gonna start with Janelle Pearson Campbell um who would like to call the mayor Jen is that your hand up in the sure was oh sorry

3:16:45 who would like to call the chair of the school

3:16:50 committee who would like to call the school Committee Member like to oh you’re yeah would you like to call as well no okay should I H call a parrent school committee or the retired theair the chair you’re doing the chair I’ll call okay um who would like to call Kai the chair of the budget and finance

3:17:17 um who would like to call the past superintendent I can do that um the principal of the middle school I can do that the vice principal I can do that who is that me sorry Alison principal of the elementary school happy to

3:17:49 the president of the Union like to call um the team chair that may give some really good special

3:18:08 president I’m not quite sure is that a future kindergartener that we’re calling yeah I’m not quite sure this person is yeah I can do it I sure Y and clarify that role oh it’s under oh it is two parents yeah I didn’t see that heading I apologize um and then Megan I will get you information on a CPAC reference from Janelle and you can call them as well and then please anybody if you have any further contacts or or way to do some additional research please do um moving on to Teresa mcginness I would like to go and speak with de so would I okay so that’s Sarah

3:18:56 Fox and Jen Jaffer and just for the record and I’ll clarify this from the town clerk but if we were to go as a forum we don’t have to post I me obviously we just can’t deliberate we’re not going as a forum um well there might be another person school committee

3:19:13 chair chair um School Committee Member I’m sorry Megan Megan anoun and you sound a lot alike So when you say I’ll do that it’s hard for me if I’m not I’ll say my name um I’d like to call the president of the teachers union as well anybody else um Allison will call the principal principal fa okay and principal or parent Cornelius

3:19:47 I mean I mean okay Services we might be able to meet that person okay that yeah director of student services that’s what I’m saying you well okay we can also while we’re there um who would like to call call

3:20:10 okay who would like to call the PTO parent we’re all gonna I know and I’d actually like I can call I just wrote down your name as if you’re calling yourself but I’m

3:20:29 just um and you’ll call D do you want me to do that yeah um and then Megan I’m Gonna Get You cack I that up Sarah you’re G to call Debbie right

3:20:43 par yes um do you need me to get you CPAC information for both candidates or do you want to list those up from Janelle because um she can pick whichever District she wants but I can look up Water Town myself okay um and she was in um her previous District till July one of this year just um all right and one you want us to use when we do the references no no um you we’ll come back and while we deliberate you’ll share the information um there should not be any email exchange among anybody because it be a deliberation um you’ll present what you have okay um being mindful that you

3:21:28 know high level getting the point across but but public meeting yeah um and then also like I can’t enforce it encourage this to enough I strongly encourage you if you know someone that you have a relationship with that may be a speak to one of these individuals or a friend of a friend or however you want to do it I strongly encourage people to um look into you know other ads and thanks to the beauty of Zoom um everybody has previous Zoom meetings up on online that you can usually find and look at if it’s the rule is if it’s in the public venue we can look um all right so it’s hopeful that we will all be able

3:22:15 to take action on Thursday night So the plan is this will be an agenda item on Thursday we will we will come back with our hopefully having been able to reach all these references if we can’t we’ll obviously have to deliberate that um you know someone could be on vacation or what have you but the ideas that will come back we will it’ll be a GED item we will deliberate we will share our reference results as well as share our own thoughts yes and could potenti it could potentially be a vote or not and also please consider um as we have with previous ples times the packet well one two sheets of it will be at Central admin anybody at any time can swing by

3:23:00 and and look at the responses or if you just want one way out look at the response um and then if people have further responses we will make them available to the committee either via print out to swing by Central ad so we put those feedback forms on the web so parents who tuned in to the zoom can now fill them out send them somewhere because they can just send it electronically they can just it they can just give us their feedback and send it to an email to the school um it’s school committee at Marblehead schools.org and that will go to all of us are there specific I think you’re just referencing that particular form though yeah yeah we can put it it’s a general question what is your um well that way you get the same I it’s just basically it’s what is your

3:23:46 take forther comments yes were you happy um but yeah we can prank can you and Stephen get that up tomorrow um so sorry are you and Jen going to Teresa’s District or well I’m gonna reach out to Teresa try to and but your intent is to do that before Thursday yeah yeah um so we’ll reach out and we’ll see if it’s possible if not you know we’ll call and have conversations I would like to have a face Toof face ation if possible um and actually I may the people I’m calling for um for Janelle as well if they’re local enough I’d like to have a face to- face conversation with as well whenever possible I’d like to if we can um I don’t know if if that will be possible because it you know North Adams is a

3:24:36 little bit further but um yes I’m sorry um but if possible that’s where what I would like to do all right without further F Ado I will adjourn us at 824 thank you thank