School Committee: May 1, 2024

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.

1:20 so I will call us to order at 7:04 and I apologize um for the delayed start we were just flipping over from one meeting to another very quickly before we get into the events of the evening I just want to take the opportunity to thank the Marblehead Police Department and the staff at um the Marblehead high school as well as our administrators outside of the building that were involved um as many people know we had an incident on Monday um everything very thankfully turned out to be um safe for our students but in that intern while we were figuring pieces out I am I think I could speak for us all we are all so grateful to all of our staff how quickly they responded um the reports I received

2:06 were that students did what they were supposed to do right away it was all very in a calm manner our staff was very calm and organized no one at any moment hesitated to to do exactly what they needed to do everyone was on the same page um communication went very well in the building about what was going on at all times um through the leadership here in the building and I’m I’m just so grateful and I just want to commend again all of our staff our students and the Marblehead headit Police Department so thank you all um that brings us to I think one other thing we were remiss in not doing last

2:52 week um is just having a a moment of silence for Coach Norman who was a staple here in Marblehead head beloved by staple here in Marblehead beloved by many um including his family tons of of students and other teachers and such here and I just would soft Co softball coach y own um known all over the fields um and I would just like to pay our tribute to him and just have a h moment of

3:26 sense thank you thank you Alison for noting that um so we’re here tonight for very exciting opportunity we had um some wonderful applicants we have four wonderful candidates will be inting over tonight and tomorrow um and additionally we’ll be talking about an additional one that um we’re just trying to Fig up scheduling uh just to let everybody know what the format of this will be can you do you mind getting the QR code off when you get a chance um as as many people know uh one of our members Al Williams is zooming in from China right now so um will be asking his question remotely he will also you know be fully participating in the meeting everybody submitted to questions to me I did not

4:11 edit other than you know for a question mark here or or grammatical thing there anybody’s content um so we we will go in in order you’ll ask your question all candidates will be asked the same question um we ask that candidates will allow approximately five minutes per question um we have 10 questions and then we want to allow some time at the end if you have things for us um we’ll have a 15minute break between candidates and then we’ll move on to the next one we are soliciting feedback from the community if you go on our website Marblehead schools.org there’s a button for assist or interm superintendent candidates search on there you’ll find

4:58 everyone’s resumee cover letter as well as the survey for feedback we ask people limit their responses to one per candidate um it’s very self-explanatory and also if you see the QR code for anybody in person here you just scan the QR code and automatically will bring you to that survey um the school committee will be reviewing those looking over that and and taking into account feedback from the community community input um is very important to

5:32 us I believe we are I have YouTube here y got that all right perfect um also you know if anybody knows of someone who wants to see it and didn’t catch it will be up on the YouTube channel as normal and um mhtv will also be rerunning our meeting so we you want to get the link and QR to yeah I can send you there’s a QR code but um we can send it too yeah I can send you the link and to it’s right on the website but I’ll get that off to you yeah it’s right it’s very user friendly very quick and easy um so I will open up if anybody has a question

6:15 plug any questions from the committee before we move

6:22 on no all right perfect I will welcome um Barbara catalo to come join us up here we’re so grateful to have you here with us this evening um and I’ll just ask the members of the committee just to briefly go through as you ask your question introduce yourself in any role um beyond the committee that you may have if you’re appear or how long you you’ve served it hi welcome hi thanks for taking your time tonight we appreciate it um Jen Schaffner um Vice chair Marblehead school committee um grew up in Marblehead attended Marblehead Public Schools myself um I have two children who are grown and flown um also attended Marblehead Head public schools um and uh Marblehead public schools um and uh have I served four years on the committee back in 2016 to 2020 and then

7:09 uh join uh joined last fall last um summer sorry was elected so um this is I guess my fifth year on the committee yay um so I think I’ll just jump into the question um so um the first question that I have for you is maybe if you could just give us a little bit of your background and why you’re interested in being the interim superintendent in Marblehead head so I think that’s a very Marblehead so I think that’s a very fair question so uh my background is education education all the time 43 years I went from being a teacher to an administrator um it just has a sign here that says the host would like should we have her computer unmute so then can hear I apologize but I also don’t want to throw your computer

7:56 off me to can we Are we more seamless usually this technology is so perfect our lives at the E it still looks like she’s muted to me that’s fine oh it is fine okay suppos to okay oh I’m sorry go ahead yeah so you can prevent Echo anyway um so I’ve been doing this for 43 years first as a teacher then as an administrator eventually I wound up being a superintendent and obviously Lov every minute of it and I will share that uh most people don’t decide what their career will be on their sixth grade playground during recess but one day and I’ll make it quick but one day uh we were all outside sixth grade at the Mitchell School in Needum talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up and everybody was talking about I’d like to

8:42 be a nurse or I want to be a doctor I want to be a lawyer I want to do this I want to do that and everybody looked at me and said what do you want to do and I said oh well I’m going to be a reading teacher in first grade and everybody said really and I said absolutely and what nobody knew on the playground at the time was that I didn’t knew how to read the single word that I had managed to get through six grades I was dyslexic it was prior to the special education laws and I had slipped through and I decided when I grew up I wanted to make sure that be know student who couldn’t learn je and that was really my my jumping off point into education and then I wound up obviously getting into college I was an art major which was all Visual and then one day all my friends met once again and said what are you doing now that

9:27 we’re out of college and he thought I don’t know what I’m going to do but I thought wanted to be a teacher so um I wound up applying for a master’s degree in one work for Jean Char who broke a great debate and from there I never stopped and so I’ve always loved it I have as much excitement on the opening day in September as the kids do I can’t wait to buy a new outfit or peir bearings or pair shoes and have a great snack I’m still like a little kid but I really do it because I have an investment in our future I feel every student deserves to know how to learn every student should learn to read every student should feel wanted feel valued and because no matter what district time in they are future for that District

10:13 time in we own all of our students and it’s up to us to make sure we invest in by providing the very best education possible so then the question is of course why Marblehead Head because there course why Marblehead because there have been other openings and I certainly haven’t applied for that well I used to Sail Out of the club I’m familiar I’ve had relatives up here over the years that I visited and so I thought why not this would be a really great place it’s a nice size it’s pretty similar to many of the other districts I worked in having worked inass and Sherburn and West and Wayland And sbur there’s a lot of parallels I certainly love being on the water because I seem to keep picking out the schools and you also have to me is very valuable which is the metal program in

11:00 almost every District I worked in it’s been selected because of Medill program and investment in program that’s on the board of directors for 5 years so there’s a number of reasons why Marblehead seemed like a right fit and I’m head seemed like a right fit and I’m hoping that you see that my skills would be a right bit to help you for the year to Reign and move forward so thank you I forgot to mention I graduated from weaton college too I knew that I’m Brian I’m Brian Oda my first year on the school committee m i was an administrator in Mar for many years as an assistant principal and then a principal at Glover school and then I retired and ran to school why not quite sure

11:45 sometime so my question is uh we’ve had a significant in we have not had a significant increase in our school budgets except the salary increases for more than a decade we were unable to succeed in our last two override attempts to find the steps you would take make your override request

12:05 successful I will start with by telling you that I hav had to have override in any District I’ve ever worked in um I’ve been very cautious about money if the override is something that is necessary I think we have to look at everything from capital projects to the number of teachers to the types of services we give to the technology and to the curriculum purchases across the board it’s not not a got in one area and not another it’s let’s look at what we can put off for now and then I know that you did have a override that didn’t pass but I think we would have to work together to me this is a team effort that we would have to sit down and prioritize with a calendar exactly what we need to

12:51 do and I think you you and I I was the one sitting in that seat would be a part of the community speaking to all the stakeholders constituents open houses opportunities for parents to come and ask questions certainly putting out pieces of information whether it’s on social media through emails or whatever the case might be I think one of the reasons why overrides don’t work sometimes is there hasn’t been enough dialogue about the necessity I’m not saying that your last one didn’t have enough dialogue I want to make that very clear I wasn’t a part of it I didn’t examine it and we knew that it did not pass but I think it’s really clear in every position I’ve ever been in I’ve made it a priority to be available for teachers for parents for institions for the school Comm I consider if I were in

13:37 that role that we are all part of the same team and it’s up to us to organize and find a way to communicate to parents and to all the stakeholders who pay the taxes in the town why it’s essential because you I’ve noticed that your enrollment has dropped and that means there are less people invested in the schools so they might have a desire not to support the schools and we have to give them a reason we have to show why our children are our future they’ll come back to Marblehead and they might work here and so we want to make sure that it’s available to them but it all is about how we communicate that information how we speak to them and making sure we show exactly where the dollars are going to

14:22 go it canot in any way uh be secretive can’t be quiet it’s going to be completely transparent and we have to sit and show that and let parents ask us questions so we can demonstrate why it’s necessary youis hi thanks so much for coming Alison Taylor uh I grew up here went to school here also Yan ago and um on the school committee it’s my second year out of a three-year term and um my son I have a fourth grader here as well both of you probably seen a lot of differences yes than her see more especially with my question um so knowing that Marblehead uh Public Schools is an MTS uh methodology District what specific steps

15:08 would you take or look to implement um for student to me sure students at all grade levels are consistently having their needs met whether that is an IEP or an advanced learner that’s great question we have the same question happening in him right now so that’s very convenient so one of things essential is that the leadership team come together if I were here we have a leadership team come together I would want to hear exactly what’s happening thus far in the district what kind of documentation you have what has happened so far I know that you have a new literacy you have new literacy curriculum how is that accessible for all students at the lower grades what are we doing to make sure it’s accessible I would want to look at what we’re doing special education what

15:55 we’re doing for 54s what we’re doing in a general education setting and then create a document obviously that would be appropriate for all the grades with some type of toolbox that would be approachable for the faculty who are teaching and also for parents who want to reinforce at home and find ways to do the professional development that is needed in order to make sure our teachers are successful in teaching of course the most important thing is that everybody has a common definition of what it is and sometimes I find when I speak with teachers across grades and in different districts they can’t always Define it and I think it’s really important that we how to define it and what the elements of it are so that we can make sure we’re teaching where their gaps and capitalizing on where their

16:42 strength so we have come together this year in King we I’ve been working with the princip is taking a look at how special ed ties into ntss since I’m obviously overseas St services this year at the same time I’m tied to the assistant superintendent for instruction and we’re working in terms of what’s Happening general setting because we want to make sure for students who are receiving Services outside of the classroom we getting syncs with what’s happening in the classroom that’s as important looking at ntss as anything else and then finding out all the types of approaches that are necessary for our students to learn the strong component of making sure our teachers have an understand ddl for instance as part of the NSS also I think it’s very important

17:28 that we do checks on ourselves so I know when I need principles monthly I check in as to what their outcomes have been to see if there’s anything else we need to do to contribute it’s not you come in in September you make an assignment back in June you check you can’t do that we have to be looking at it on a regular basis and refining our work so I don’t know exactly all the own of your mtss right now certainly if I were here at beginning of July me all principles and the central office staff to find out what has happened what’s documented what has worked what hasn’t worked there are things that won’t work necessarily and make sure we start to make a plan for July for August September October make sure this C each month what we need to do and then keep

18:13 checking ourselves looking into Data as it comes into and as a just a quick followup um for do you have experience of any sort of plan for the advanced Learners in the younger grades um terms of gifted we’ve had to develop them on a student by student basis In fairness uh I think a lot of districts even the ones I’ve worked in have never aligned a gifted program if pass one would certainly be able to work with it um and I have places where I can access services for me in terms of getting Gathering data that would help but because of where work we not have any we don’t have we didn’t have yeah but you did on a student by student bis yes absolutely if a parent came in the worst thing that could happen is to have a student sit in class

19:03 and board that is not allowed yeah thank you thank you Al Al will be joining us don’t don’t hesitate to kind of just link up with him um he should be uh yep hi Sarah can you hear me all right good thank you uh well welcome um I’m not originally from Ma so I didn’t go to any Marblehead schools uh I have been in Massachusetts the hob about 15 years uh I’ve only been a Marblehead head a little less than two years Marblehead a little less than two years uh so obviously fairly new to the community and only have been on the school committee uh since February um I have two grown children uh one lives in Marblehead uh and I have two she has two daughters so I have two

19:50 uh grandchildren uh seven months and three years um I recently retired from a long career in Information Technology but I do have teaching experience at the high school level in math and computer science in Philadelphia and I’ve also taught classes in higher education at brandise massoit and now in Shenyang shinzu University uh in China um so my my first question is what role does technology play in your vision for the future of

20:26 Education trust me I think it plays a really important role in teaching our children how to access the world but at the same time particularly in the last two or three months I’ve been looking at the research about helping students to know where technology should be in their lives and where they have to separate from it so I know that there’s been a lot of bad press for technology and the fact that our students cannot separate themselves from their phones where they’re constantly on them and using them in their studies but at the same time to me it’s part of their access to the world and without it they won’t be able to access the world I think the fact that artificial intelligence has come in we have to help our students understand what we’re going to do with it and how we can help them and what they need to do to stay away from parts

21:11 that won’t help them I think it’s important that the district have a whole technology plan from the time children enter to the time they leave school because the reality is their world will be based in technology I know when I was growing up I’m going to identify the fact that we didn’t even have electric typewriters we had manual typewriters and we have far away from that and so we look at our children yeah see we look at our phones and how to play with all of the apps and the sounds and what to do with them they’re very advanc in how they look at it and so we have to capitalize on that and take that plan and see how we can tie it into the curriculum and where they need to use it but at the same time teach them how to

21:56 be responsible with technology because we also know that with the good sometimes there is the bad and know schools are notorious at this point we’ve heard some stories of bullying we’ve heard other stories that were not positive we have to help the children to also understand how to separate themselves from that but I think it’s important that we have a really tight plan on what we’re doing with curriculum how we build on the skills and also that we’re able to keep up as curriculum changes one of the hardest things for public schools is when you invest in curriculum it’s many years sometimes before you get your next round of curriculum and you have to know how to bring that that along when I arrived in casset I went in and asked for the internet password and they said internet password I said well I want to get on my computer and they said well we don’t

22:42 have internet passord here you you have to plug in and of course I couldn’t plug my computer in and the desktop they left me was 17 years old and I said we need to make a plan which I did while I was there and of course technology come that much further so to me it’s essential we have a plan of how we’re going to incorporate it into their studies when they should be accessing it and also teach them how to come away from it and how to use it when they’re outside of school when it’s appropriate to use it in what ways to use it thank you hi Sarah Fox I’m currently the chair of the school committee um this is I’m finishing up my fifth year on the committee I have six kids um five of which are currently in the school system

23:28 and then one little guy so um so my question would be what would you do to prepare for the role of interm superintendent specific to Marblehead um and what would your plan be for the first five days as far as prioritization um I think some of the things I would do are similar to some of the things I’ve done as the inome of student services uh I want to show up bright early on my first day which I done every time and I want to know where my Cofe machine will be but beyond that the most important thing is to know and take a tour of the schools probably on day one I would get in my car and find every school and walk around and if the principles and assistant principles are inside certainly meet them that would be

24:16 day one and then I would want to make sure in the first five days any of the principles if they’re in house that we have a meeting so I can hear what’s on their mind and get to know them it’s really critical to me I’m a people person I really believe in building trust transparency and capacity and that can only be done if you’re actually present and you’re there so in those first five days I want to make sure we all meet the leadership team principls the senior office people central office people and so forth and here what’s been happening I need to know what’s happened so far particularly in this year 23 24 what are the projects that are ongoing so that we can then move forward and make a plan for 24 25 and then during

25:03 2425 build a structure for 2526 for the person that will come in to me it’s very important the position currently did not have anything when I arrived nothing um I had met with the person initially for a very short period some of the really critical pieces I needed when I came in were not there and I had to wait till September to figure it out and I would never do that to anybody else so in those first five days I want to make sure people know who I am I want to make sure that the leadership team comes together at least once unless they’re on vacation I certain going understand that and up those individuals afterward I would also want a chance to sit with all of you I don’t know if you’ll be back out if you’re back i’ want to sit with you as well in person if not on screen but I think it’s really

25:49 important that we all sit down together and hear what’s on your mind and you hear what’s on my mind and in congruent with what’s been going on in the district and what I’m learned so that’s one of those days as well and a day to meet folks in the community have an open door day where we can set up coffee in the morning and I don’t know if you’ll have a rush of people or not but have an opportunity for people who want to come in and meet me and get to know me and certainly put a bio out of what I do and what I believe in and align it with what your mission is because I look at your mission is really important you have a really solid strategic plan I want to make sure I help continue to build that for you and I think the only way we can do it is if we bring together the

26:36 leadership bring together school committee help work with the stakeholders in the community and certainly work with the uh haa president and anybody else who’s in those leadership Gos in excuse meang forgive me the NBA and uh anybody else who’s in the leadership Ro in the with the teachers I think it’s really important that we get to have a chance to each talk about what we do and come together together and talk together as a group and build what needs to be the future and then that would allow me to build July and then from there while I’m in July build the rest of the year I obviously believe that coming into July some of the orientation for August or September would already be set in place professional development will be set in place I would want to know what that

27:23 professional development is and then during the course of the Year be able to follow up on it make sure it’s worked make sure there’s nothing else we have to add there will be things that will always come along that we have to add anyway that we didn’t anticipate and look at the budget and how we’re going to align this thank you ch um so speaking of budget uh you just left on that so please share with us your prob maybe more when you were in Cohasset but also maybe where you are hang of your budget Pro the the budget process in your school district when you served as superintendent when did the process start and how did you get to a town approved budget um in the five budgets I presented they were all approved I’ll start with that and just see backwards

28:10 so when I was in prass I always started with a zerob based budget my business manager and I sat down in August and began to talk about the budget and then when we came back to school in September we would sit with all of the principles and curriculum directors and central office staff and talk about and give calendar when we expected the budget to in Earnest begin which was the beginning of November but during October we were having discussions about the budget where the budget was sitting deciding if we had enough uh money in the budget currently to make sure we didn’t have to freeze anything I know in hang right now we’re Frozen so and we froze very early but we would look at those type of things and then in Earnest weekly I sat with the team and everybody had an

28:55 opportunity to get their school and build their budget income presented then we would look at all the overall numbers and then we would look at what the town was talking about as well and I met weekly with the town manager where I was and make sure I had a really strong relationship so that I would get I could anticipate what was coming and I also sat with the school committee and made sure I sat with the chair weekly or the vice chair for both of the sometimes didn’t have to be posted because we were small enough but in any case we sat and we talked about it and they give me their Impressions and concerns and I would go back and work with the leadership and hand to hand built it over the course of about 6 to8 weeks and so by the time we were heading to the

29:40 beginning of December we pretty much had our budget in place and the budget would be voted on I one of my years it was voted on this early I think as the end of January but most times it was voted on I think it was the beginning of March and then we went to town meeting about eight weeks later but it it was wasn’t that they you know School come back say no you do that you got to trim here you got to trim there and we would go back and as a group we would talk about let’s itemize what are the most essential things that we cannot live without in the upcoming year what are the things we think we can put on the table for the following year and what are the things that we want to put in the middle in case they come up and we really have to meet

30:26 the and those are all things that we had to do and even working on the budget this year even though I’m not the superintendent um I worked on the budget last year in W was last year I had three superintendents during CL of 12 months so I’m used to having to change quickly and in doing that I had meet with principles I had to meet with directors I had to keep taking my budget and refining it and aligning it with what was happening in the district principles contracts and you know once a contract was settled we had to go back and refine how we had set up the budget to make sure the numbers would meet the demand things like that so I’m not unfamiliar with having to press hard on my leadership team to say look that’s not going to work this year and I’m not

31:13 unfamiliar with having to share with the public these are certain things you can’t live without your teachers you have to have your teachers fac in your students so we know that but you have to look at your numbers and how many students you can have in your classrooms and I don’t know if the contract caps that or not some some districts do some districts don’t but look at all the elements of contract and figure out what are the essential parts we really need in the budget this fourth coming year I looked over your budget I saw where you did or I should say the she a lot of triming I could see that and I think there were a lot of sacrifices made and people are going to work very hard next year and I want if I’m asked to be here I want to be really respectful of that decid didn’t to make the budget but I want to honor the budget certainly and make sure you live

31:58 within what we’‘ve been given that’s really important and obviously there are parts that we can’t always predict either as your roof in the high school I think is weaky you could prot take that we could we would have had it in the budget already so uh these are the kinds of things I always look at but it is a process can take 8 to 12 weeks and it’s a process that requires the leadership team coming together over and over well all of the curriculum folks have to look at their independent subject matter and our principles have to look at their independent building and figure out what it is they need and what it is they want thank you if you’re the successful candidate will’ll have many new administrators assistant superintendent student

32:44 services and finance and operations you have two brand new Elementary principles how will you begin the process of rebuilding the organizations how will you gather and determine your most critical needs how will you turn those critical needs into actions using your a I actually thought about that question coming up so I think it would be really important to be in July to lay out a plan to work with everybody as a team and um it might even mean bringing someone to help us to team better because we’re all new and figuring out how we call all the information information we need because you’ve lost a lot of your historical contest when this many people have left I’m well aware of that but having folks on the school committee

33:30 who have been in the district for a while that’s a help working with people in various roles throughout the school district who have been here will be important uh and then relying on past uh budgets past memos pass to soal pieces that are there we’ll put it together but it’s important that we start together immediately in July one of the things I like to do is and if it’s available in the budget I would do it is bring everybody down to the C for the executive Institute Mass Association School Superintendent usually day one is the team day you bring all of your administrators down for an opportunity to team together and hear all of the different talks I’ll be

34:15 presenting this year at that particular conference my subject matter will be about special education and how it can bre a part a budget and what we need to do what we really need to know to help contain things because it’s important students have such a variety of needs we want to make sure we meet those needs but I think it’s really important that we come together immediately I recognize the fact that people will be on vacation but we keep coming together until we get everybody in the room at once little Sumer and then from that point build we need to build and I consider myself a real people person I really find it important that we all work together as a team and I find no matter what it takes I find a way to bring this all to the table and find a few hours to

35:02 talk and then set up plans and create rolling agenda so that we don’t forget the important elements and then I find it important that sharing articles sharing cases talking with other people in other districts the fact is it’s all about communication and building capacity and I have never not been anywhere or I haven’t built capacity with my staff so that they’re able to do their jobs and being available for them when they are having trouble and troubles shooting making sure I’m

35:35 V uh in your previous role or whichever one of them you know doesn’t have to be just the last one uh what would you consider to be one of your biggest failures and why and what steps would you do differently here at MPS to I think currently in I’ll be very this is not a secret so that uh We’ve shared this with the school so I feel sharing it so I had planned to be in the schools more frequently than I’ve been able to be in the reason why I’ve had my and I consider that a fail for me because I’m again people person I need people to be able to feel that they can call me um and I’ll tell you what the resolution has been but one of the reasons why that has been very difficult this year is because we have received 32 PRS

36:21 PRS PRS complaints and I’ve done them all myself and those take anywhere between 20 and 40 hours of piece to complete so we’ve had to actually complete I think it’s 19 of the 32 complainant that fin off take 19 multipli by 40 and that’s the amount of time we put into those that time has come from somewhere I do sleep I don’t sleep much it’s overrated so I get four hours in a day um there are certain parts of my life that are PR including running five miles a day and getting four hours of sleep but the fact is I would prefer to be in classrooms more often than I could be to me that’s a fail because how can you run a district if you can’t see what’s going

37:06 on in the classroom and how can you run a district if you don’t get to know your the people who work for you or the principles who run schools now we’ve had a love and in that time I have been running I had two PS are running shoes in my office and I have been running and the reason why I know that I’m doing something right is because my staff feel comfortable in calling at 11:00 at night with I don’t really want them up 11:00 at night but they know they can call me they know they can eat they know they can text me my principles know that I they can call me 5: in the morning and get me and I think that’s really important that people know that you have their back and so for me the fail is not being out there enough but for me the

37:53 success is the fact that people believe that I will help them when they call do and whether I do it myself or we have legal councel or I work with the superintendent I will always find a way to get a and even today as I left I had a parent really wanted to speak with me but I also knew that this was going to be a long ride and until school and said I’ll give you two times tomorrow just choose either one if those won’t work I’ll find another time so I have a 7 o’cl me tomorrow I an 8:00 Mee because my feeling is parents can’t wait our kids can’t wait they’re growing this is not a dress rehearsal and neither is it for our teachers so I have to be thank you very

38:40 much okay if you can uh first visualize a school bus for me um and in that context how many basketballs can fit on that school bus how many basketball students or basketballs just basketballs I was so good in m that wasn’t one of the questions that ever crossed my way in algebra oh well this if I it depends though we didn’t toine first of all electric or gas operated and then um are we talking about just putting three basketballs on a seat representing each student or is it more like how many people could be get into a VW and we are loading the bus with basketballs the the latter scenario um I’m going to be honest and tell you I probably don’t have a number

39:25 but I bet we could get 150 in and if they don’t fit then I might def a few of them and if they there’s still more space I’m going to go find more basketballs for you all right very good thank you than you there was

39:43 methodology 43 years thank you for making me get on my toes here so how do you uh how do you prioritize tasks and make decisions when unforeseen circumstances are um um actually that’s a great question yesterday I had one of those instances we have our children just went off to DC and we had an emergency that happened during the day and I had to set certain things aside in order to make sure we got all our students on the plan today so um and I was two hours into the day when I discovered it so usually what will happen depending on what it is too we have to decide the importance of those items but usually what I’ll do is I’ll quickly go to my C and see what I

40:31 can move around I’ll ask my assistant to maybe move something or I’ll write to people let them know I something off I will get back to it but I will always explain why I have to make a change in the schedule um I will also always make sure that I’m there for the people who are asking but the fact is I will sit back and say if I don’t do this right now what will happen after that I try to look at what the end result is and then backtrack through the steps and decide which one really takes priority which one can I solve immediately which one can I solve in the afternoon and one of the things I want to make sure is that I always have the information I need to solve the problem I don’t want to just jump out and make a guess at any time trying to look at all of the plus the

41:18 scen here you don’t need out out um but I want to make sure that I’m prioritizing in a way that is useful and I don’t want to jump to conclusions so and make a decision immediately without enough information because then what happens is you have to change your path again if you discover this new information so I usually try to gather information like I did yesterday I had to gather information I thought I had the best answer for what I needed for the crisis that was going on I moved forward about an hour and a half later new information came in I then regathered and I had to reorganize a bit at the end of the day it involved in Middle School um at 4:30 even though I had plans to be elsewhere I got in my car I went over to the middle school and the principal and I sat there till 8:00 at night to let dis

42:06 all us all and then I went home and 6 o’ this morning we were talking to make sure everything happened as it needed to so you know it’s time it’s recognizing how do you know what’s the most important thing making sure you have the right information before you speak and if it’s something that involves a school committee you need to be informed because the social media thinks h sometimes we can even get them out of our mouths so it’s really important that the school committ be apprised of things that we want you to know so that you hear it from us and not necessarily on social media that sometimes might have all the facts might have some of the facts and want you to know what we were thinking something so it’s a partnership it really is we work together we will

42:53 laugh together we will cry together we will succeed together we’re never going to fail together you um what questions you bre that’s all my question I didn’t realize it you’re good you’re very efficient okay thorough but efficient um so I WR a list because I wanted to be efficient for you uh but as a school committee what do you envision the inter superintendent to tackle during the 2425 school year is there something particular you’re looking for I know I’ve given some ideas but what are you really thinking needs to happen open that up to the committee we’ll just go in the same order as we

43:39 did sorry you’re okay so um a whole of stuff um uh probably uh one of the big important things is the budget right so um we were successful this year in getting a well we have we have town meeting on Monday so I’ll I’ll Reserve whether it’s good by town meeting but we had a successful um season with our finance committee um coming together on um a number that we all could agree on um and you were right when you said so we we had to make some difficult decisions um so we will hopefully be working with the town side and the town finance side um the town’s having its the same Str we’re no different than any other town in commwell um and talk about do we want to look at additional Revenue sources for next year and if so we need

44:27 to start like you said July 1 um June maybe June 30th yeah so um so for me that’s probably one of the the biggest things which is why that was one of my questions is what you know what we had been your process which you actually were um had a better timeline than we didily um when you were in

44:47 goass right I think the turnover we’ve had in staff and administration is a lot of um discontent amongst the rank and file and I think that that has to be worked on right away to get the morale back up the strect I think that’s going to be one of your key issues to resolve sure and I don’t disagree with you because if people don’t feel good about coming to work they won’t want to be work with or they can’t do their best work because they don’t feel good about it and they think it’s important that everybody do good door uh I would say a couple things that you said that really stood out to me is uh zero based

45:34 budget um also equally ha and I probably should have said it first to be quite honest um ensuring that your team and the staff here know that you have their back that’s double uh for me I I think those two things will will set you up for some for some strong success here that those would be my very very big top two okay I appreciate knowing that

46:02 yeah yeah um yeah Alison took a lot of the words right out of my mouth uh you know to me the formation of a cohesive leadership team is Paramount um I also think a great communication in general but specifically with the school committee and I’ll finish with something you said that I really like right we have to focus on students you know I’ve always said I can’t take credit for this but to me any kind of learning Victory is typically in the classroom that’s where it starts and that’s where it’s most important and so you mentioned that and so um that’s something that I I’d like to see our next superintendent really bring to the table and and I really do believe it I don’t just say it for the sake of saying it um my staff now who I work with our central office have all said that it’s

46:49 been a huge turnaround in terms of what I’ve brought to the table and making sure everybody’s always working together it’s just massive so I do respect that I think how can come to work if you don’t want to work with each other that’s why day one team comes together we’re a team we’re a family we stand with each other so thank you for that um and then I have a question for Al specifically so what is the answer to the basketball otherwise I’m gonna have to go out there and ask them to give me basketballs and try it out so you’re not going to believe this but I honestly don’t know how many basketballs fit in a bus and the reason is I I don’t want to know right I I could easily Google it right as we all can but the the issue is not how many

47:36 can fit on right it’s it’s what you did it’s it’s questions can they be deflated am I trying to put the the most in there can I take out the seats so to me it’s the the pro I’m trying to ask a question that the interview has not heard before right just to see how how well they they react so I don’t want to know you know so I I judge the answer to the question on how the process of of the maybe the follow-up questions they ask but I honestly don’t know how and I don’t want to know because that might that might you know you know kind of uh you know

48:09 yeah so did someone did I hear someone Google it already size I Googled of course I Googled I had to know I wouldn’t sleep at tonight if I didn’t figure that out ask to follow there that still stands in

48:25 my okay um can I ask another question yeah I I just want to tell you what I’m I’m looking for um for for the first year so sorry Fort I always find a way to get my word no I want um really two things and if we accomplish these two things I’ll I I think we’ll be successful um in addition to the budget of course um that every single decision that’s made during your time here starts with what’s in the best interest of our students um and that we we are able to establish relationships based in trust huge so um huge it’s really those the the other piece I’ll just add

49:11 to that about establishing relationships on is even when you’re the superintendent knowing when to say I made a mistake and I’m sorry and I will give you an example of that when I was superintendent Cohasset uh we had the overnight camps in the fall for kids to get to know each other other and I didn’t really think it would taking kids out of school for five days at the almost the beginning of the school year our situation in class it was you know was um K to two and then 3 to five so the fifth grade was only one school so then they came to the middle school went to the stamp to get to know each other but they didn’t need to really get to know each other because they were already together so I questioned the value of the

49:56 camp and the parents were horrified question I I’ll be up front the parents will hori that I question the value of the camp and said five days is a lot so one of my parents one night said this is horrible how can we do this you know there’s got to be another situation and I said if you’ll head that committee I’ll work with you on it and she did it and we did find another situation and it was completely successful and I went down and zipline for the first time in my life and the last time in my life but nonetheless I zipline and it was a great experience for the students and I believe they’re still doing it even today but that was a case where I came to the school committee meeting and said this is what we’ll be doing now and I’m going to say I was wrong I made a mistake and I’m very grateful for the

50:41 parent that took it on and was willing to put a committee together and search it up so I think it’s really important that you have some humility in this job because you can’t get it right every day you just can’t there’s a lot of movie beasts so your next question okay and this time we sure if all five of you are answering I get to all five please forgive me um so one of these is uh you cover a lot of it already but I’m curious about the Strategic plan so one of the things I did you have a lot of great things in your strategic plan I can’t quite tell because the bottom line is in I believe it was 2026 all these different things will happen when I do a strategic plan I like to Benchmark it myself that doesn’t mean everybody’s sure it or needs to but I need to just like an IEP when I look at an IP what

51:28 thing the child learn in the first quarter or the first half the second quarter or the first half the third quarter you know can we do it that way do we look at the first half the second half whatever the case may be when I did strategic plans I always looked at what had happen in year one and then of course we had to measure did we get it right did we succeed in everything did we cover it all did we miss did we have to change things and then move to year two and then move to year three so in our technology plan Al we we had a 5year plan and we got it done in 3 years I’m happy to say um but that took humility on my part because in our case at the time I was bent on all students having Apple iPads and laptops and they came back and the advisory committee said no

52:13 should I use Chromebooks they’re much less expensive than you can achieve the same thing and I’m like I don’t want Pro books I want iPads but I listened and we went with the Chromebooks and it was completely successful so that’s one situation where we over five years but through careful budgeting and working with advisory and capital we were able to do it great but your plan doesn’t do that it’s sort of here it all is and then here it is all done so I’m kind of curious where and that’s a long way of saying where are you right now in your PL so I’m actually no if there’s no objections I’m gonna I’m going to take that one I was here when the plan for success I think I’m the only one that was here during well the plant for Success was developed um the name of our Strat and I’ve been very vocal and very

52:59 happy to hear what you just said um it the plan for Success right now is we started the first part and we made these plans of what we wanted to do we never um the plan was never brought through to the stage of having benchmarks having deliverables having budget drivers associated with which I each item which really is those are the elements of a strategic plan that’s why I I actually won’t call it a strategic plan um because it it was really a plan of wearing wanted to end up but there was never pieces of how we’re there was not a road map of how we’re going to get there when we’re going to get there how are we going to access or how are we gonna measure measure success and what is this going to cost us each year and each and each step so we can see are we

53:44 on budget or we off budget we need to adjust so I’m really happy to see that you identified that and had the the honesty and um to to say to us you know this isn’t here and you did it in a very lovely way so um I I do think um the question for me and only SP speak for me is you we’ve had some change in obviously in leadership and um you we inm this year and looking at another inum so the question so I think that’s clear I I agree with Sarah on this so the question would be with an incoming interum is you know does it make sense to develop one this coming year or do we look at more um shorter term priorities and goals for the year preparing for a permanent superintendent and do we wait till the Perman it comes in to ex to execute the plan and those would be I

54:30 think discussions we’d have as a committee and with the and because if we could it would be great um is that biting off too much you know um for what we have to do and I think that would be a discussion early in the summer or you know right from the jump off July 1 do you want me to weigh in sure all right so listening to all of this I would if I were in the chair I would recommend that we take a look at what’s happened if any of pieces have been done a long now we can recognize they’ve been done and then look and see if there’s any essential pieces of that current plan that we might need to tackle over the 24 25 year do I think as an interim should I build

55:15 the next strategic plan I really don’t I think it would almost be like house and decorating it for the next person who I love contemporary furniture but they might like and they might come in and go like that so my feeling is I would want to build it to someone else for just one year that’s going to last them five years I think it it belongs to the next sitting long-term Superintendent at the same time I think Brian’s question was we have a lot of new people coming in new principls new central office people kind of Shifting around you have a new director I would be you um your your assistant superintendent would be entering for second correct yeah so you have a lot of new people and

56:02 I think it’s more important in next year that everybody get connected and get on the same page so when you sit down to write the Strategic plan you’re all moving forward together I mean just to me that’s essential versus I would be the ones that are driving the bus and other people might be running behind and hoping they can jump on the bus and somebody else might say I don’t want to be on the bus that’s not what you want you want your leadership team strong so when you sit down to write the Strategic plan they’re ready to do so and then write it in concert with you and the stakeholders in this community and it would also help you if you waited the year because if you are going to do or attempt to do an override next year which I’d be happy to work on

56:47 that I really think it’s critical though that we have lots of time to plan and make sure we have it laid out properly in July and August but if you’re going to do that that will also change your strategic plan so why build something that needs to be revamped the minute somebody else arrives thank you thank you did we get all your questions no but I know I’ll take I we have 10 um I will give you one more how’s that let me just pick and see the you got time okay you’ve got time okay

57:22 um so give me some of that can you share with me because I find this is a big Topic in the I’m in dealing with special education particularly out of District program and I’ll tell you why can you share with me how the communities handling the topic ofal and what direction the committee feels the schools need to move social emotional learning is that too B question okay um Brian you want to start off on that I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re asking can you fine I’m happy to Define it so how are you working with social emotional learning in the district uh particularly in the area of special education I have found in a number of

58:08 districts now that post pandemic a lot of our children are quite vulnerable and I don’t know if you have programs that can assist the children whether you’re finding you’re having to send the children out of District in order to make sure their needs are met have you are you talking about building programs if you don’t have them how are we helping all of our students to feel emotionally strong internally so that they can sit in classroom somewhere um I’m I’m happy to speak go okay so um we’re very fortunate that um we have a very strong mental health um we many mental health clinicians particularly here at the high school we have a very strong um robust amount of people um

58:54 addressing those needs we’re we’re facing what every Community I think everywhere is facing right now we are seeing an increase in students um disregulation students having social emotional um impairments in IEPs perhaps more often um and we’re seeing that affect you know their ability to access the curriculum it’s something we’ve talked about we we’re very honest we talk about that in um at the whether it’s the leadership level or we’ve talked about it um at the the school committee level we’ve had um several presentations on it we’re very fortunate at the high school um about three years ago we started the bright program which really helped students that um

59:41 previously would have been bouncing in in out and really have no transition to help them ease in so that was an initiative that was brought to us by our um interm superintendent Bill MDA he thought it had a lot of Great Value Jen was on the committee then when we supported bringing that in originally through a grant it’s been a very successful program there was a discussion about if budget allowed um last year we talked about bringing it into the middle school level as well um we see the value in it we see how it helps our students um so those conversations are absolutely happening and um you know so there is an awareness that students need to be ready to learn to be able to achieve and and we’re I’m grateful that we have a committee that

1:00:27 is open to hearing that feedback and that it needs to be data driven but that those are conversations we are having oh good well it’s important can also oh we’re also currently conducting or H um in the process of doing a special education audit to address you know some of the the information that’s come to us in the last year to make sure we are properly providing um Staffing levels that if there’s programs that we um could address that they’re being addressed and to see you know really what’s working what isn’t so that we can always do better by our students excellent and is that being done internally or did you bring people from the outside y it’s external we put it out B reviewing um the companies next

1:01:15 week okay that responded to the RFP yeah excellent so I we just completed one in hangam this fall okay so I’ve gone through a number of companies let you choose what you you think is suitable for your District but um I will say was one of the most beneficial things that we’ve done good it really helped us have a um an independent party really look at us in a way that we haven’t been looked at in a long time and really that’s one of the places where we discovered mtss people aren’t sure it depended on who you ask you could Define it that’s why I’m saying we really have to be able to Define in our what’s IST what’s mcss you know what is RTI what is multisensory beinging we have to make sure and calibrate that everybody understands the language right not just for our teachers but for our parents yes and make sure we

1:02:02 don’t live in the world of Ages speak yeah so we’re all on the same page all right one more question I promise and then I would read you can I just back into that one question oh I’m sorry yes we have a tremendous amount of excellent special education Educators I could see that but we’ve had a tremendous turnover too what I was a principal of glev we went through six chairs yes and it’s that bad sometimes and I know the morale in the special education teachers is very low right now we now have a new interim special uh student services director I’m calling your assistant superintendent right uh but that’s a lot of rebuild right there in so I think one of the tasks you have in front of you to become candidate is

1:02:48 to rebuild the special education dep not just leave it to the director of people services but as an active role in how that group is uh rebuilt absolutely understand when I was in coass said I did rebuild that one granted it was smaller but I rebuilt the department I know I was head of student services in Wayland I did rebuild it in concert with my first superintendent of the year um and this year I’ve rebuil I’ve been rebuilding with the uh current superintendent I you know I can have a plan but I’m not doing it without having the superintendent back and one of the really important things for me is the fact that I believe I have a deep knowledge of special education not only from the standpoint that I didn’t learn

1:03:34 to read till I was 18 but then produced a 220 page disseration which to me was a miracle and I’m still questioning whether they the name on the diploma was correct but nonetheless so I know what that’s like I had a child who also was on an IM so I understand as a parent what that feels like and how I had to work through a district and work with various people for my my son and then having been a director I understand the other side of it in the budget and making sure everybody’s needs are being met so I’ve seen a lot of that so for me it would not in any way be difficult as a team to support the new person who’s who on boarded at this

1:04:20 point I think you voted the last week was it or I can’t remember but I know you brought somebody that would not be a problem because I had that understanding and I would want to make sure that your new person felt comfortable coming to me right from the start I think that would require a few sit Downs personal sit Downs for us whether it’s breakfast lunch dinner extra coffee but make sure that that relationship is established early establish deep I really do and I I will certainly have an understanding if um she came in my office and said I just worked 12 straight hour was I’m ready to FL when answer I will bring you sparkling water right now because I do know hard is I sometimes work 17 hours in a day because I’m not going home till every child’s need to on that day so I get

1:05:07 it okay we probably have time for you to ask us one more question all right really fast um I’m just kind of curious

1:05:20 uh you have two we can s him in if uh I was going to say one of them was you know you’ve been able to discuss the strengths of the Committees and the relationships I’m just kind of curious how the relationships are working with Town manager and police and fire are there regular meetings with them is it just as you need to I’m used to having regular weekly meetings for those constituents to make sure that the district is moving forward do we we have um you know it’s it’s been a long time coming particularly on the town side but we have a very good working relationship with we have a Town Administrator um select board Town Administrator um who we do work um the super tenant and Town Ministry to have you know ongoing dialogue um probably a lot more during the budget season um and certainly with

1:06:06 our finance uh director um who heads the town finance department um that relationship also is important between our assistant superintendent of finance and the finance director on the town side as well um and particularly as we go into um the summer if we are talking about doing an override or any additional Revenue sources we will be working closely right from the beginning in the summer um and Brian may be able to speak to this and even Sarah they sit on the security and safety subcomittee but we do work um closely with our First Responders both fire and police and I know the superintendent um has you know direct access so we’re small town um we might be a little bit bigger than kassa but we’re it’s probably same as hangam so you know the department has you know

1:06:51 everyone um knows everyone and works closely together and that’s what I like is that you have that unique opportunity relationship yeah can I yeah that you hit it um see the the Chiefs get together at a safety meeting once a month with um the entire School leadership um and then also you know there are there’s a department head meeting townwide which is all the department heads in the town that the superintendent included in and so those meetings are happening regularly excellent that’s what I want to hear and it’s obvious or you wouldn’t have had Monday be so Flawless right I was just going to say Monday terrible that it happened but um 100% our First Responders our police you know police force really um were amazing and responded um and you know did everything

1:07:38 that they said they would do and and kept our our students and our staff safe so and worked with the superintendent you know communication absolutely it all it makes the difference when you’re prepared so um I just want to say to Al and all of you thank you very much for inviting me to the table tonight I know you have a hard decision head you more people to meet um I like to think that my skill set will meet your needs but I certainly understand you have to work with what’s good for your community I want to wish you the best thank you and I’ll be in touch um with next steps probably Friday um we’ll we’ll talk a little bit after the end of our interviews tomorrow night and decide what are what’s what the timeline is but I’ll be I’ll be in touch okay that’s thank you so much very much I’m sorry

1:08:23 you’re I know and then did you wna oh Julia was gonna gonna walk just want someone’s walking okay good thank you by myself I’ll by myself have a good drve all right thank you you I’m going to give us a very brief recess for anybody who um needs to take a take a moment um step away so I’m just what time what time we getting back together Sarah um I’m gonna give us 10 minutes each one okay all right thank you thanks um can you red light

1:23:45 I’m that is the hot um all the sound is taking care of for you right there just got about to call us back into session at 8:26 um and and welcome thank you good be here for everybody joining us via Zoom so we’re just to let you know we’re on zoom and YouTube and all the fun stuff okay good um that we’re welcoming Dr David Thompson here with us this evening and um as we go through start with our questions each individual will um introduce themselves to you just to kind of move things along um keep in mind allow roughly five minutes for each of the questions we have to 10 questions from us then we want to allow some time for you to ask us questions if need be um so we’ll start with Jen hi welcome uh

1:24:34 Jen Schaffner um I uh born and raised in Marblehead attended Marblehead Public Schools um I have two children who are grown and flown um both attended marble Hood Public Schools I served on the school committee from 2016 to 2020 um and then uh elected again last um summer so I’m the first year of my um three I guess next threeyear term um and that’s it um and I serve on several a vice chair and serve on several of the subcommittees go you jump into the question okay all right um so I’ve got the opening question here Dr if you could please um give us a little bit of your background um your experience and why you’re interested in being the interim superintendent in Marl yeah um so I obviously you know I tell people I

1:25:20 kind of work my way up from the classroom to assistant principal the principal um to different districts um an assistant superintendent and superintendent um you know so I have kind of checked all the boxes and taking my time to move into uh this position uh I look at Marblehead as an exceptional school system that’s you know looking for some quality leadership and I think that I can offer that to to marel ship to sorry Mar yeah and um you know my experience uh my background I think would would fit with what you guys um are looking for from what I could tell at this point um and I also think that my core values line up

1:26:06 with youre core values very centered on children uh very centered on education uh the whole child um and making sure that all children succeed thank you very much Brian if you’re other successful candidate you will have many new administrators and assistant superintendent of student services assistant superintendent of finance and operations and two brand new Elementary School principles how will you begin the process of rebuilding the organization how will you gather and determine your most critical needs and how will you turn those needs into actions using your new admin dat yeah that uh that is something that I’m actually very good at is building a team um I have done that in in two previous districts uh the first thing is bringing people in um

1:26:52 finding out what their interests are what the talents are uh I would encourage them like I would encourage myself to do an entry plan uh you know listening tour if you will uh in their building or in their Department depending on the on the role to find out what is happening how it is happening um you know what the district is doing well um and what other things that they need need help with um from that I would have them share those with me and I would be doing my own listening tour as well um trying to get that information to find out how best to serve the district um you know the context for everything because context matters uh and a chance to build relationships there’s relationship matter um so that is what I would coach my team or the new team

1:27:40 members uh to do to bring them together um and yeah depending you know I would like to schedule at least an early ad administrative Retreat where we can do some team building and bring people together um and then do another administrative retreat um toward just before when school opened um I would meet with them to find out what they have learned and what challenges they are concerned about um from their entry plan uh and go forward from that so one thing about how um I work with a team every every person has has value and has a role to play in the organization and that’s everything from your you know your your special ed director to your cilia everyone and the fair professional the teacher everybody has a role to play

1:28:25 uh and need to be respectful and help them do the best they can in that role um I have been very successful in you know hiring mentoring and moving people forward positive leadership and adaptive change with two of my uh key things that I work with people on um I think it’s not worthy that I have mentored two uh principles of the year one in Blackstone buildo those were principal year and one last year uh in Norwood I hired a mentored and I’m very proud of him being uh the 2022 high school year um and that’s from having close relationships building trust uh listening to them uh when we meet as a team we come together as a team we make decisions as a team and everybody has a place thank you and Brian you just want

1:29:14 toce yes sorry I forgot I was a uh administrator here in Marblehead as an assistant principal at the village and then the principal at the Glover school and then when I left that I retired and then made for school committee so right well here I am here you are nice to meet you I’m Alison thank you for coming I’m Alison Taylor I grew up here and went to school here I have a fourth grader that goes here um it’s my second year of my three-year term um on school committee so and again thank you for coming so uh knowing that Marblehead had Public Schools is an mtss system what specific steps would you take to ensure you know that all students in all grade levels are receiving the education that they’re they are needing whether it’s 504 IEP or

1:30:01 Advanced Learners yeah so um yeah and this is this is actually a real passion piece for me um ring Middle School where I was principal I basically started a progress monitoring and talking about kids progress um closing gaps for special ed students and that’s what a middle school was 5re Middle School we found a level one school and after I left go to Black St mville continued that for three more years following that um but basically we need to be in a position and there’s different ways to do it I’m not quite exactly sure what it has but we need to be in a position where we are looking at student work and student progress and monitoring that as on an ongoing basis and then setting up systems where we are making sure kids that are a little bit behind are getting

1:30:46 the intervention that they need kids that are on level are getting the intervention that they need and the kids that are above level are getting challenge cerial so they’re continuing to grow um I tell people it’s not just about getting kids up to the standard it’s also about raising the ceiling so the kids are doing more and better um when you do that you close gaps uh you have children that are um successful um so what I what I did in in rham and have done in black snow milville and have started doing in Norwood is basically moving our instructional model so it is primarily an inclusion model as much as possible there are always exceptions uh but kids learn best and most in regular classrooms with the model teers and a

1:31:32 co- teing situation uh and by adapting the curriculum and keeping them going on Pace with their te um you know and I can tell you um stories I’m very excited one of my random kids is I graduated from WTI she was um a kid who was pulled out all the time back in fth grade the mother and I had a conversation about you know this kid can do the work just got to support her and put her in position to do it she did graduated WPI with a um with a degree in software engineering uh and already has a six job aming so I’m very excited about those sorts things that’s kind of why I got into this crazy pieces to help kids St the way they want and can that’s great thank you um and I apologize I should

1:32:19 have explain to start with um we have Al Williams one of our members of the committee zooming in from China where he is teaching a four-week um

1:32:33 Professor he’s um his field to study is um information technology so he always gets himself back to us um so I’m gonna hand it off to Al all right thanks hi welcome um I’m fairly new to to Marblehead about two years uh very new to the the school committee uh I like how Jen put it I have two grown one one is flown to New York City one is in Marblehead uh I have two granddaughters uh so um yeah very excited to meet you and as Sarah kind of tip things um my background is technology you know I’ve just recently retired but I have over you know four Decades of it experience so my first question is related to that

1:33:19 um what role does technology play in your vision for the future of Education yeah so I’m going to go back a little bit because I actually um pushed to implement one to one uh in Blackstone and one to one in nor I actually kind of shocked uh that they did not have uh computers uh in grade six and up um so we brought convinced the town to do a Chromebook program brought in Chromebooks and then that thing called um Co happened we we were eventually you know going to get more computers in the elementary schools who cycled through um so you know the reality so you know the short answer to that question is what isn’t technology going to touch in the future and and the answer that is pretty

1:34:05 much nil right um so if we’re expecting children to work in a digital environment we call them digital natives now then they should have that experience or similar experience in the classroom the classroom should be a real life experience that nimic that now we’re obviously watching some um very rapidly changing technology uh AI uh for instance and we need to be um aware of that and kind of determine where what its position is in education and you know there’s kind of two thoughts on that one is we need to keep it out and the other is we need to use it um I’m probably more of Il that we need to use it with um with with some caution But ultimately we need to teach teach our students how to use technology to do

1:34:50 good work do realistic work do it better but also not lose our ability to assess what is real in in this environment coming up um and to use it you know to get some of the work done but the thing that makes us human the the creative piece um you know the Thinking Out of the Box um you know the relationship piece that’s going to be hard uh for any technology to to Really replicate well and we need to hang on to that me use those things to make sure that um that you know we’re setting up our classrooms and them to be successful in a environment that’s going to look drastically different very quickly um so

1:35:36 it is something that I’ve been actually um monitoring and listening to uh people’s opinions on it is um I mean the what can be done is absolutely fascinating but also a little terrifying uh at the same time so uh but how do we balance Ai and the power that it has with also carrying on and keeping our creativity uh our thought process and ultimately our ARG Humanity so that’s um that’s definitely going to be one of the challenges in the next 5 to 10 years okay thank youcome hi my name is Sarah Fox I’m the chair of the school comme um I’ve been on the committee for this is the fin

1:36:22 fifth year and I’m also a parent um have six kids five are in the school system and then I still have a little one so um my question to you is what would you do to prepare yourself for the role of coming into the Marblehead interum superintendent role and what would your goal be for your first five dayss first for your first five days what would you prioritize yeah so um so I’m kind of you know in a um in a special situation where I’m ending in Norwood I’ve got vacation time and obviously I would want to work this out with school committee you know and the superintendent but I would very much like to start by visiting the schools this spring before school gets out it’s kind of one those things it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to come

1:37:09 in in July and you know the kids are not um in the classrooms the teachers are not teaching so so to get that sense of you know you know what what’s happening in our classroom who the people are let the people meet the you know the new superintendent so it’s not this you know ball of anxiety for the entire summer um you know so so start to build those relationships and listen and View and see so I want to start with that um then you know the next thing would really be digging into the data um obviously the fy2 budget would be a huge piece and what are the drivers for that um the Strategic plan you know where we are with that I don’t know if there’s another page somewhere that I didn’t see but there you know where where are with

1:37:56 that and how does that all uh come together what work needs to be done there uh and then really starting an entry plan which like I mentioned earlier would be about meeting with stakeholders having those conversations about you know what are you most proud of here what works really well what do you want to make sure we don’t lose what are the things that we need to work on um and hearing those from different stakeholders not just like parents teachers parent professionals custodians uh members of the finance committee of the select board the town manager the fire the fire chief the police chief every stakeholder obviously the school committee um and really here and collect that information to find out looking at assessment data data you know where are I mean you can go to the DS website and

1:38:43 get the top layer but I like to dig in a little bit deeper and look at what are the kids that are not succeeding and then be able to follow up why do you think this is happening what other evidence do we have uh what are our local assessments what are we using to progress how are we setting up our so basically everything do all yeah but that but that would start in Earnest in July um and then you know setting up meetings with with ppos uh booster clubs you know these sorts of things um to ensure to make those connections from that create a communication plan going forward on what kinds of communication when those should get out so that those are standardized to ensure that transparency perfect and it sounds like

1:39:29 you have some ability to be able to do that um in terms of coming in yeah I have I have like eight or nine vacation days that I will either lose or I don’t use so um and there isn’t another page to the Strategic plan so there is not another page to the Strategic plan we can talk about that later maybe I’ll come back to that there’s there’s so yeah um yeah yeah um so if you could please share your um budget process in your school district when you served as superintendent when did the process start and how did you get to the point of a town approved budget yeah so it’s a little different coming in you’re starting at kind of zero and I believe the finance person be too right okay so

1:40:17 um normally normally what you know once you’re there you know you look at when town meeting is when this is when you work back and and the first thing you do is do a budget calendar so everybody knows when the dates are and build some wiggle time in there um but in this case um I would want to start early and I’m probably going to say August looking at um this budget and hopefully getting to a point where we’re looking at at least a three-year projection out of budget drivers uh if not a fiveyear projection out I I don’t know where we are with with contracts you know big contracts but but those are big budget drivers and a lot of people talk about zero based budget zero well it can only get to so much zero because you still have

1:41:02 contractual obligations you still have to heat the place turn on the light so you know but finding the real numbers to use for those putting that in and doing those projections and looking out three to five years as to what the budget forecast is kind of look at and we’ll have to agree upon some and this is a conversation with the you know the incoming Finance person the town finance person the school commity on what our are those assumptions that we would make to do that projection so that I would want to start that in August finish that in September I’m a firm believer in that the Strategic plan should drive your budget um if those are your priorities for what you’re saying you need the school system to do then it should be reflected in your in your budget and cited in your budget um so from that

1:41:49 from there you know obviously meeting with building leaders and what their priorities are in there um I usually do not say you can only have 1% or 2% you know the first behind the curtain look is you know what are the things that that buing leader really thinks they need that year or next year or and have those conversations again projecting out uh and then from there and I’m you know part of that August September time would be learning how Marblehead does the budget because each town does it a little bit differently some come in with a with a target number some say bring us your everything you know depends on the situation so learning that but based on that trying to put put together a budget that represents what’s best for kids

1:42:34 because that’s what we’re here to do um and you know what is is

1:42:42 spee thank you um Brian yep we have not had a significant increase in our school budgets except the salary increases for more than a decade we were unable to see succeed in our last two override attempts find this step you would take if you decide an override is necessary for the override to be successful yeah so I’ve I’ve done this um a couple times now at this point so uh again back to that projection piece um you so the mistake that is often made is that people are going for an override a month before to Media okay um and obviously there are campaign finances La the superintendent can’t go around

1:43:27 holding a sign saying you need an override or I want an override or on that one it has to be the the citizens of the town that want to do that um but you know those projections will tell a story and the story has got to be shared and hopefully there you know there’ll be some that are for it and some that are against it but having that discussion starting it early um when we passed the8 starting it early um when we passed the8.6 million operational override that was.6 million operational override that was the largest in Massachusetts we started in November for a June vote okay um being strategic about that process I um pushed hard might have been some stamping and screaming and K me BW

1:44:12 the face but stamp you know really pushed hard to have a ballot vote after town meeting um Norwood has has a representative town meeting people are very involved they do their homework I wanted people watching that debate before there was a ballot okay so um so basically what what we did is we created two budgets okay one was that the override didn’t pass and I told the school committee I like you know we can Whittle this down but if it’s a no then this stuff is what’s going to happen I’m not playing any games with this okay and then what we were going to do if it did pass and there was something there’s a lot there’s very

1:44:59 good reasons for that money being needed and that programming but we did everything from expand uh Advanced placements offerings um to get into a position we were funding uh Chromebook replacement in our operating budget so it did everything soup soup the nuts um it wasn’t just for these kids that that it was for um everybody including bringing back middle uh Middle School sports and a few other things um but you know I mean my my job was to create the story do the budget and answer the citizens question so um you know maybe maybe that’s something that school talked about in the fall um about

1:45:45 whether it’s going to Bey or not uh and the other thing is that if you’re going to do it there’s two different um there’s two one is you you get one and then you do little ones as you need them the other is is that you ask for one and you make Reserve accounts and say we’re not going to ask for another one for X number years so um again that’s a that’s a local decision um but yeah it’s um it’s hard work it’s you know patience and and persistence um if you don’t get it the first time if what you said is going to happen happens you might get it the second time um the other problem Oh Sky’s going to fall well it’s only dropping three feet

1:46:31 then you know you don’t have any so the one thing um the one thing with me is that I’m very transparent um and I’m not going to tell you something unless I’m absolutely sure of what what it’s going to be I’m not going to go down the road and then walk back T um sometimes I drives people a little crazy well let’s wait a little bit um but well this is kind of going over my five minutes this kind of a funny story but I I was at a question and answer at the senior center and this very nice older lady came up to me and she said you know I’m not going to vote for the over well I’m very sorry to hear that can you tell me why and she said 20 years ago they told me that I was give this money they were going to buy this book set and they

1:47:16 never bought it so I’m not I can’t trust and I quickly says well man I wasn’t here 20 years ago and I can tell you what I’m going to do what I say I’m going to do um and because that’s that’s just how I’m how I’m built so I don’t think I changed the vote but but that was um a realization about really being transparent and really being um forthright and saying what saying what you mean mean

1:47:50 what detail on that override that you were successful was that for the school budget only or was that a town it was it was schools and town it was uh 70% schools 30% town okay and they uh we created a um an override stabilization fund and promised that it would last for at least five years it did had dip into it last year and this year that’s year five and year six so but thank you thank you you know and the map the map that is that is the 2 and a half% was just something that someone came up with you know on a whim and if you look at the Historical increase of cost it’s about three and three three to

1:48:35 three and a half% a year so it doesn’t take a lot of advanced MTH to figure out the two and a half is not going to cover three for us but um thank you in so in your previous role what would you describe as one of your biggest failures you know doesn’t have to be just the last role in in your career I really probably should have said um and what specific steps do you think you might take if selected here at NPS to make sure that you know you don’t make mistake again or have you already had the experience to not make a mistake yeah

1:49:16 um biggest most recent yeah so one of um one that I am constantly lamenting and coming back to that that special ed piece um and that we were trying to move towards inclusion we were doing a lot of PD around um Cooperative teaching or co- teing so we had that model in place but the next thing we were starting to introduce was um Universal Design for Learning and we were in the process of starting that training and then Co hit so we never finished it um and then we came back and the priority was Mental Health and Trauma still got back to it um and you know

1:50:03 so and then needs went up right so now now we went from 20 to 25% special ed because of the instructional design model not necessarily meeting kids where they are and it’s

1:50:17 nobody’s yeah so that’s um it’s still something that it bothers me every day when I look at those numbers um and when I think about kids not being um serviced in in those classrooms the way I would like them to be serviced um and sometimes it’s hard to be patient with that um ask my son yeah I’m not not giving up on it um and and you know my team back and forward is not giv up on it it’s just now instead of it being you know that linear progression it’s been pause wait you know so um um you know and then you know I’ll go back to black s milville they had when I got there they had no curriculum it was

1:51:03 just uh their idea of math was doing fast math facts so I obviously had to fix that first um then they then uh they did not have um a reading or they had a reading program but it was very PD and teacher heavy it really took a lot of time to do it so it’s taking away from other things we’re looking for a program uh and I didn’t have enough funding to do the Reading part and the writing part and so didn’t get the writing part in for so that is um you know in you know I think in at every single one of those when you know I’m kind of like a dog and a bone I don’t necessarily walk away from it I

1:51:50 just wait until I can come back and Chop on it or come at it from a different angle um last year we were looking at behavioral interventions in our budget I wanted to put three in I got one in looking to get another one in in this budget still not three but you know so um yes okay proba for it’s not you know you know I I joke that being superintendent is not is not a popularity contest luckily I have a dog that’s very happy when I come home uh but you know um you know you’re not always making popular decisions but they’re always I always Center them on what’s best for my students no I appreciate you sharing all that same as being a parent right oh

1:52:36 yeah not always popular that way um so we next are gonna go to

1:52:47 Al hi um so if you could visualize a a school bus for me okay um and then answer how many how many basketballs do you think you can fit on that school bus one than one um okay um I’m not quite sure um well I’m not sure if you want me to tell you how I would go about answering it or whether you want an actual need to make up a number so um I guess I I actually I’d like both but start with the process and then let me know what the number is I’m GNA say 2,000 um but you know actually mean you want to You’ want to try to model it um you know then there’s a whole bunch of I mean are they

1:53:33 fully inflated basketballs are we talking about the curved space in between do we have to account for that um you know so model it you know first you have to figure out the volume of the bus um which would be difficult if you had the seats in it and then the volume of the basketballs and then try to figure out what would be um you know you know the best fit and then are we looking for an approximate answer because if you’re looking for an exact answer probably have to deflate some of them to squeeze in that that space so

1:54:10 um that that’s a no that that was fine thank you so back to me um how do you prioritize tasks and make decisions when you find yourself in an unforeseen circumstance you know crisis management yeah

1:54:35 um so well yeah so there’s several well first of all there’s the you know the need to have emergency plans that are well thought out practiced and established right um and then um going back and you know practicing them going through them um you know we do that yearly we practice that with the kids but even then when that happens there’s sometimes twists that happen right um and then you know when you’re in a situation there’s multiple decisions and this is the um the hard part you really need to slow down um because if you go too fast you’re going to miss something um the

1:55:21 other thing is to use the people around you to help you inform those decisions um you know and then go go from there so if we’re talking about you know a school safety issue you know good relationship with your Police Chief Fire Chief um school resource officers those sorts of folks uh building principal um knowing the emergency plan having a team that really is looking at that and going through it all the time um you know my um call the resume Eagle Scout and all that but I’m okay I’m actually on the uh on the National saff Training Waterfront directors across the country um so I’m an old lifeguard so that sort of stuff I

1:56:08 actually do uh pretty well withy manag and stuff but um but even then you can have things that um come up was we we had um a threat a text threat come out now we’ve we’ve done threat assessments you know once a month for for years we probably done 40 right um this one came in the morning like 6:30 in the morning we we were told about it uh what we didn’t realize was that it was a text and then someone had shared the text and it’s right when everybody’s coming into school um and we didn’t realize it had gone viral the other threats we had had you know had been at school or after school wasn’t like that but these particular children had gotten

1:56:53 this the night before and it was pretty pretty there were things in there that were alarming because they you know talking about specifics about school um and before we knew it we had a full fudged rle kind of canic um so we we obviously dealt with situation it was not being credible very quickly the other the other Factor was the police really felt that they could catch the person who did it which is not always the case um but this person was not a professional or something and uh so we’re a little more patient with communication that so this might go back to your failure question um so obviously in that situation you had parents who

1:57:39 were concerned and and wor and you know any sort of situation like that um you know you do you know an after incident review the appropriate term um and you sit down you go through what you did what worked what didn’t work and and there were a couple things and keep in mind that we’ve used the same procedure for four years right but this situation was slightly different so we changed our communication protocols um we um and we also figured out that we need to do a little more education with our parents about what some of these things mean because they didn’t seem to understand the messaging um but having messages pre pre-done um and maybe assume that there’s going to be a v viral effect going forward um

1:58:26 so but so that’s and every single person that contacted me my office got it got a phone call and a conversation with me o over that week so I scheduled I sat down I talked to them explained the situation listened to their concerns and use those and told them we would be using those in our incident review um so that’s you know again that’s that building relationship piece they know that I heard them they know that I listened to what they had to say and they know that we yeah what questions do you have for us all right um so I guess the first thing so we’re going into an interim situation right so what are your goals what what are goals that you either didn’t finish this year or think that you might um

1:59:14 might want to um have for next year you know as a school um do we want to go through again or do you want me to just some I’ll it so I have a lot of things I think um so I think we are um we’re not necessarily looking for someone to come in and just you know keep the lights on and you stco we we need someone who can help us um go through a transition period right so we’ve had a change in leadership um we had an interim this year um and we’ve had a lot of turnover so starting July 1 we actually have you know you know almost an entirely new um or largely new Central admin team and and some building admin too so the person coming in is going to need to you know Galvanize and and build this team um we also may very

2:00:00 well be looking at working with the town on an override okay um for next year um don’t know that yet but we going to need to start having those conversations um not the month before the vote but you know early on um and that would be obviously a key role for for the superintendent um and then we will be deciding as a committee what what we’re doing for a permanent search right right and that so there’s sort of a lot of things going on I think the person coming into this role is is going to have some you know juggling a lot of um issues around transition yeah well and that’s good because that’s that’s good to know um because there are inters that are just you know keeping the lights on keeping the boat going but you’re looking more of setting the ground work

2:00:45 bu found so yeah um and and those are things that I’m well versed and able to do so hopefully that’s hopefully that’s an mat that um I mean I think what Jen said is great I like uh what you said about there’s only so much zero you know zero based budget is important but there’s only so much zero um I like the projection ideas so I think a lot about the budget and what you have said here is is going to be critical for us yeah and I love the idea of starting even earlier yeah yeah you know and again it might have been a little bit of a different situation where nor had gone through about eight years of cutting things sure um so people were were prying for that but it really was about Pride you know what they were doing for

2:01:32 their town for their kids and much like here people don’t leave right so you know so you’re basally investing in the future of of your own town by investing in the school so uh that that vote passed 75% to 25% wow it was a single ballot question and 80% of the people showed up wow wow that’s a voter turnout that’s 80% voter turnout I love studying voter returns that’s an excellent turn now really like then then three years later we went back and asked for $158 million building project wow we got did you get it nice awesome again it’s about communicating clearly

2:02:19 consistently and and being transparent yeah I like what you said also about the story and getting the story out early not waiting until February right you know to understand you know um I think you I I really like what you had to say about you know unforeseen circumstances we recently had one here and so um I I think that that’s a really important piece particularly as we move forward which I appreciate yes I think a big problem is morale in the district is very low okay you know we have have any increases in our operating budget 10 more than 10 years I mean since I’ve been here and in fact they always try to cut us instead of giving us a slight bump they kind cut us every

2:03:06 year right so that makes teachers and administrators say well what am I doing I spending all my time and I’m not getting rewarded for it by getting paid appropriately right so that’s a big problem and I think the turnover in Administration has hurt a lot of the teachers morals in the schools and I think special education budget as everyone knows since Co has gone this way yeah and that’s eating into our operating expenses so I think all of these things put together are going to be a good um chunk of your time trying to figure out how to get things moving forward again POS right yeah and you know I mean having things is a good to right so you know um I mean the one thing that

2:03:53 um you know that I bring to the table is is a deep love and respect for what happens um and there’s certain times when I really missing so uh that’s kind of where I I like to be and that’s you know have a bad day go to the preschool have a bad day go to the kinderart go see Senior projects and that that’s what you do because that reminds you why you go through you know you know the wall of knives at times um so but you know again back to that team and everybody plays a role that that’s a key piece that and listen say years in one mouth listen twice as much as you speak um which is what I do so

2:04:38 um that level of empathy and listening and caring hopefully came toit that’s something my did we miss anything that you want to add to to what we’re looking for no I think it’s just maybe just reiterating uh what David just said right around you know big believer in teamwork and we have very good people in place a lot of turnover but we have good people in place and so what I’m looking for is just really a you know an interim to come in and just continue to provide that cohesive leadership you know an organization typically takes on the attributes of its leader and its leadership team so you know if if that’s a big Focus then everyone understanding their value and participating will um help us get towards our goals

2:05:25 but um and for me it you know you already talked about using students as your your guiding Focus which is great and it’s um establishing relationships that are based in trust um I I’m a big believer and statement that you can and should delegate Authority but never accountability um so that’s really you know what I’m looking for we we’ve um I’m really proud of the work we’ve done in the last even in a short period of time in the last four weeks of rebuilding right a lot of our main uh roles we’ve pretty much I would say brought in renewed our Central Administration we’ve renewed by the end of um the month we will renewed 40% of

2:06:12 our um replacing 40% of our principles so we we’ve done a lot of work and there’s um the team that’s coming together I really truly feel so far is presenting like a team that’s really going to gel right is going to be great so it’s just finding you know someone to lead that team and to facilitate really those relationships so that would be yeah well um that that at this point everyone that is in Norwood I basically hired um and I didn’t I’m not one of those people that comes in and clean house um I believe having people who’ve been in the district there is is a benefit because they know you know the context and context matters when when you how it happens and why it happens in the historical perspective

2:06:58 are all very important in the work because without knowing that you’re not going to build relationships if you don’t build relationships you’re you’re GNA walk into a wall um so I have um you know invested in my building leaders we have a very good back and forth relationship they know that I’ve sat in that chair before um it’s um it’s a it’s a conversation for they call me with a challenge and I ask question little stic method here but you know I’m asking them questions and did you think about or how about this or how about that or why not this or why not that um you know and I’m also a big person in chain of command so if there’s a problem at the building level you need first need to build um

2:07:43 because they they realistically know you know they know the answers in that day far far better than I do um so you know these are the kind of things and building those positivities and it’s part of you know it’s part of why I you know got involved with the principles Association and the Nationals principles Association is how important that role is um you know as is you know teachers and Par professionals are all important that leadership role is really the person who has to you know move things uh move things forward I can’t be in every single platform every single time um so working working through them and with them and you know one of the best things is the evaluation and going through and going watching teachers with principles and talking about what is

2:08:29 good teaching you know how do we mentor and help people become better because if you’re in this you know I joke people don’t go into education for the company car the stock options right they go into it because they want to make a difference um so if you’re helping a teacher you built that trust where they can take risks and do things and are going to improve their practice that things move forward which is exactly what get and elevated teacher leaders in as well so do you have so let’s so let’s go to the um missing page of the Strategic plan so so I looked at it online and I was very excited because it had planning for Success which is the Department of of Elementary secondary Ed program which I

2:09:15 got trained in because I did our first strategic plan uh in Norway so I was all excited and then I didn’t couldn’t find the other Pages um so I guess I’ll I’ll because I so I’m going to take on that one um I was here I was serving on the school committee and actually served on the subcommittee that went through the planning for Success at the time that was the path our then school committee chose to go through right um and it’s kind of my understanding is it’s the first step and then you move beyond that step right um but we didn’t uh so we have a plan for success and um we I I think I speak unanimously with our our current committee um that we all identify that that needs to be fleshed out more right um a true strategic plan

2:10:02 you know I think you you very eloquently started to thread the needle of this you know has timelines has deliverables um really b b good clear benchmarks budget drivers so that you can use it for a strategic plan so um it’s interesting this um that from someone coming into our district and looking at that that you were able to pick pick up on that right away so that is it is a piece that we really need to flesh out we’re many years through this process it was all it all says you know 2026 right um so we’re not we’re obviously not going to start over you know day one here but

2:10:47 we do need to dig in more we need to find out because especially if you’re looking at a long-term Vision right of where you’re going financially you’re going to want to track it in accordance with a strategic plan and when we don’t have that fully fleshed out plan next right right so so it ends in 26 so that’s two two years left on that plan um and you going to bring in a permanent superintendent you know that superintendent is going to want to do an entry plan get to know what’s in time so it could it could very work out where you you put in those benchmarks and measurables would have you for some of depending you know um that would obviously compensation um so that when the new superintendent came

2:11:35 in they could kind of do their own plan um personally and people look at me but I say I love Su planning because it really is coming up with a vision and direction for the district right um but you know what I do and what I believe in doing is you have the district strategic plan and then all your school Improvement plans come off of that and then your educator plans so all all the ores are roll in One Direction um and when you do that then you really get people pulling in different directions partice happen right so um that’s what really starts moving a district forward and you know I believe in bringing in you know members of the select board members of the fincom you know the town manager some of these other key people on the town library committee I don’t I

2:12:20 don’t know whomever else key people in the town to partake in that because then you’re going to get buying from the from the old Community you have buying from the old Community you’re making progress

2:12:34 probably thank you very much what that I like all of that a lot that’s one thing that I um campaigned on is is needing to have an actual plan for so so you mentioned possibly an override and talking with the town I’m going to so our relations there pretty strong good yeah so we have a really great relationship with our fincom and then um our fincom leads onto the schools we have frequent meetings with them we meet very very early in the year to lay out um a rough calendar um you know with everyone’s expectations are um lots of dialogue back and forth between the select board um the Town Administrator um so everyone’s really

2:13:19 accessible willing to have conversations everyone might not always ending the same point on a conversation um but i’ I have found that um the group is very good to be able to access and and talk to um we’re a small town we’re it’s a very much so Community feel here so you know there’s townwide um District head meeting that you would meet attendance I believe it’s once a month maybe twice a month and then you know so there is a lot of cross pollination right good good sorry yeah I mean I think the thing I think what the challenge will be is the you know the the relationships there are are good we work we work solidly

2:14:05 together you know maret hasn’t passed a general override since 2005 I believe four four five and we’ve had some attempts um so it really is going to be a you know a hill to climb yeah um for us to come you know for all of us to come together and and if if we’re going to do this um you know build the U build the data build the story build the presentation to the taxpayers um potentially at next town meeting together with the town um as to you know why why we need the investment in our future so that the relationship are definitely there um but we’ve got a you know we’ve got a Herculean task to do right if it was easy everybody right

2:14:52 year so then then the next question is there a communication officer in the district or is there one on the top there’s not one either place okay right um we have had various configurations of either superintendents handling entirely their own communication right um having and then various degrees of um having a consultant potentially do that so we tried different models we really haven’t hit something yet that works um as an ideal setting to both the the taxpayers um people receiving the communication the people sending the communication so we’re we’re working I would if you’re asking that in terms of the override I don’t know if you are not we well I was talking in general in

2:15:39 general okay because we do have we have been successful in debt exclusion very successful in debt exclusion overrides for I mean this is what this town will fund is you tell us a story and it’s a 20-year Bond and you know so we buil our school buildings and other Town buildings and in that case I will say we really have had a lot of support from Community where community members will step up yeah and will you know will handle communication and because we would need them to do well and and that’s what happened you know in in Norway there was someone who was a Communications person that was leading the the yes group um yeah so we’ve been fortunate to have similar situations are great people but General Communications so I don’t know I should talk about another failure or not but post but

2:16:25 postco um Communications and people how people expected Communications that happen was like and um you know we realized that the we used to use Blackboard and everybody was using it a different way um and did did some survey and I don’t know what it looks like here but did um surveys of parents and and students and it really came out that the more applike the communication is with the notification that they can personalized the better off is I don’t know what uh what you do use but we um we sat down we studied it um and we standardized how we would communicate certain things you know Flyers like flyers go out on Tuesday afternoon so the the lacrosse and softball whatever it all goes into

2:17:12 one email it translates it into into different um and people can choose whether they want that to come instantly or at 7:00 or as this or is it that or what Happ and that has made a huge difference with communication and we only call when it’s this kind of thing and we only text when it’s this kind of thing um and it really guess someone was calling about you know having a fundraiser and someone else was calling about right you know something more serious so really have a strategy around it I really I I my only one ad on the communication piece is that from a a school specific perspective I think it’s really important to hear for the district to hear your voice yeah um I don’t necessarily like the idea of using cons for that but I even using like

2:18:00 Consultants help write or craft you or craft your presentations because I feel we want to hear your you know you’re the one leading the district we want to hear your voice and okay maybe it’s not perfect the first time or the second time but it you know that it grows we see that growth in you because nobody’s perfect out the DAT so right yeah and and that you know there is that you know get the know you know right get to know the person and there’s you know I tell people there’s there’s formal and informal right informal is you know you’re at the play you know you’re at the you know you’re you’re at the you stop by the football game every other year for Thanksgiving I’m not cooking the three because I’m at the football game right and and um you know so there’s that then there’s the structured you know coffe with the

2:18:45 superintendent he’s going to be at this event presenting this and doing that you know maybe he’s going if you know if it’s a Bud thing maybe he’s going to PTO meetings and doing those presentations in their house um so the other thing during Co I did a lot of was was videos you Facebook lives at that point yeah but YouTube channels are over easier people to get attached to that sort of not that I think I’m a TV we have to Google

2:19:19 that um well thank you so much did we I want to make sure that if you any more questions um so just tell you a little bit about the process we did two interviews this evening we have two tomorrow and potentially one next week um I will be in touch probably Friday just to let you know what our next steps are as far as timeline goes fa um I always joke you know don’t expect me to call right in the morning it’s probably gon to be a little bit later I have a little bit of a heavy load in the morning um but I will be in touch and about next steps and we’re so appreciative that you g and and met with us and talked yeah can I just share one more thing yeah absolutely so obviously well have um my assistant superintendent is the one you’re looking at talking to

2:20:05 but you know Ju Just to address my leaving uh Norway so after seven years it became really evident that our priorities M the schools were not uh lining up um giving that difference I decided in the fall that I would not see um a a uh a new contract that was that was tough a tough decision but it was a professional thing to do because um I didn’t want um my students my staff to to be in a rushed kind of situation or not know where supported that transition um but as the year progressed it’s became kind of evident it was it was time for me to kind of step aside and let some things happen which is what I’m doing now I’m currently on agre upon leave um my um relationship will and

2:20:51 with with nor and you know some of these are are you know running Cycles I’ve been there seven years the average tenure of a superintendent is two to two and a half years right now um so I’m very proud of what we have done and notice I say we because it is a te effort um but you know they they’re not see we’re just not seeing that that does happen that’s okay but I’m going to continue to be professional and take the high road and make sure I’m best with best so appreciate thank you so much yeah um so Jen do we’re gonna take a five minute recess Jen do you want to walk him out or did you sure okay um and we’re just going to take a quick five Al promise we’ll be back in five minutes

2:21:36 and um we’re going to be interviewing for the assistant superintendent finance and operations Lee did you you get a photo got it thanks sorry for I didn’t know if I was smile or hi thank for com so just to know we’re taking a recess at 924

2:28:13 um so I’m going to call us back in a session at 9:31 and I’m going to kick it off to our assistant superintendent teaching and learning Julia to make the instroduction thank you so much um so on behalf of the interm superintendent we are recommending Mr Michael peering um as the finalist for the school committee to consideration for appointment for the acquisition of assistant superintendent finance and operations for the 24 25 school year Mr piering dedicated the early part of his career to fulfilling roles within the within the business industry gaining experience and insight which he later appli toward his positions as the leader of finance and operations at Public School District level for the last 12 years Mr perline has proven to be an impactful leader in public school districts havil and Wakefield gaining a depth of experience

2:28:59 in both town and City operations currently Mr piering holds the role of assistant superintendent finance and operations in the hail Public Schools overseeing 17 schools with nearly 8,000 students as one of his reference shared Mr piping has a wide breath of experience from Finance Food Services transportation and operations is very personal and build strong working relationships Mr P earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Southern New Hampshire University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Wester State University additionally he holds all necessary licenses and certif uh certification for this position Mr piffin has our strongest recommendation to the school committee to be appointed as our next assistant superintendent of Finance operations welcome thank you thank you

2:29:44 welcome she gives a good in thorough we’re so happy to have you here um I know Jen and Allison already had the opportunity to uh interview you I’ve nothing but but wonderful things from anybody who who passes along your name or information so um I’m going to open it up um we started with Jen allight um so I’m gonna give Brian a chance to start um if you have something you you w to ask sure we uh the predecessor had done a great job bringing our books up to date one of the things we always had a problem with was we always got question where all the money was going for the school and I

2:30:30 think we have a very comprehensive budget now so we have that Baseline to go from but we haven’t had an override successful I think you said 2004 was the last one the only thing we ever get is the increase in salary lines because they’re by contract you have to pay it but our operating budget has been flat I mean really flat in fact every year they come after to knock 10 20% off it so if you really think about what that’s thunderous it’s created a huge discrepancy in pay for the teachers if you look at the surrounding districts they get paid $2,000 for to go school you know so it’s hard to keep staff what we really are going to have to have is a real override at some point in time so how would you prepare the district for an

2:31:17 override thank you question um so uh for me an override it takes planning it’s not something that you can jump into and say hey we need an override my my local District not the one I work in but my my local District my town just went through an override and they will pass um there was a lot of communication in advance and I think that’s important you need to understand the community needs to understand what the purpose of the overs it’s not just that hey we need more money just give us more money um so so for me it’s about communicating uh and for my role my standpoint how I would contribute to the team approach would be that we need to cost out things that we’re missing out salaries um maybe it’s a Chromebook or or device refresh program uh maybe it’s an athletic you know investment could be a curriculum investment maybe we want to roll out a

2:32:03 curriculum every year uh do a fiveyear cycle or something so that needs to be communicated well this is what we can’t do right now and this is what we would be able to do with over and I said I think it really begins at least a year it’s not something that we can jump into last to me it’s take a team approach it can’t be one person Le your charge we need to invest the community uh to get them working with us having us be transparent with them and then I think on on the flip side I say about my own Community but I think things happened after the override that were not transparent before the override I think we really need to be transparent because if we ever have any hope of having override or building project or something that’s going to take de exclusion or tax override we need to be

2:32:49 very transparent and do what we say and say so for me it’s it’s about communication uh

2:32:58 transar um Alison yeah just I just want to say welcome welcome back I’m so glad to see you sitting here um also I think you should share with everybody like your HVAC experience I don’t want them to to lose out on that he’s very much an e become an expert unexpectedly but I really liked a lot of what um what you said in in our other in interview about your process for the budget about the information that you provide to the community I think that will really be an added benefit here in your experience in all of that in doing all of that and doing all of the reporting is is really going to help get us to to another level of greatness so really really excited to have you is there a question no I just wanted to be a little thank

2:33:47 you Al are Al are you with us online lost your little icon on my screen I’m not sure if he thought we let me just double check he’s not on yes so Al is he was um Che I don’t think he understood that we were going on a break I’m not sure did but no he he was trying to get your he couldn’t oh okay I don’t think he heard it okay Jen it was before that’s why Frank put up the okay um so e i Echo um Allison’s words um we had a great opportunity to hear from you earlier this week um at at length but I wonder it might be helpful I think for the other members and for the folks

2:34:33 tuning in still with us um you spoke um in in great detail about your process I think probably in Wakefield from a budget perspective maybe more than hail because wakefield’s a little bit um is more similar to us from a town perspective but maybe talk about what the what your budget process looked like how you got a budget through and approved at town at Town of course um for that really great relationship that on the same page he shared his vision I shared what I could as far as how we make things happen and putting your numbers together um but for me starting the budget process starts long before anybody start talking about the budget 80% of our budget is in salary so I’m looking at salary projections rolling steps and columns make sure that everybody’s on the right set meeting with the principles and department heads

2:35:18 to make sure that I got their personel on the right buckets um make sure they’re coded properly it’s great to pay everybody but we want to history and say what have we spent in the mathematics Department the last four years if I don’t have it C properly it’s a lot of crosswalks and things like that so both in W field and T there was some pain up to do with the chart of accounts to ensure that the history would be there when we wanted it um so for me that’s that’s the first step is finish at the right people their right FTE their salary their column um year of service make sure everything lines properly so that when you get to actually putting the budget together we’re starting with a solid Sal 80% of the budget’s there uh I I Echo your your

2:36:05 sentiments about you know once you put all that money into um the salary portion which is why we here we don’t teach kids with you know anything about mostly bodies so we need the bodies here um there’s there’s very little left over for some of other things as far as Hurrican devices uh even utilities utilities are a big part of our budget special education uh so I am meeting with department heads and principles and usually the townside finance committee and school finan to let them know what we have so far what we need what we might be looking at I usually ask the principales and Department to give me your wishes it’s not because I want to tell them no because ultimately no well

2:36:50 they saying no but when we write our budget it’s a book it’s a document it’s a living breathing document from year to year it’s important to stress things that we can’t do as much as things that we can to people say wow we it’s the override question if we had an override maybe we could maybe something that principle wants but they also might just not say I want I want $50,000 to do next what’s the benefit on the back side how it’s going to benefit the children what’s the long-term investment long-term return you know how does that all play in is it a one-time investment so in W field we did it some very important onetime Investments but we got the time to put the money into our budget instead of as a separate article warrant article so once it was in our

2:37:38 budget this year’s um investment was next year’s different because it was now in our budget we worked with that we were transparent let them know this is what we’ like to do this is our five year so if we had an extra at that time it was it was $300,000 that they put into our budget but we financed uh Chromebooks for five years but we did it so that every year that 300,000 would would reinvest into another round of Chromebook so every four to five years we flipped our cycle after we through the four or five year cycle we now had $300,000 in our budget so that we could now invest in corc so then it went into you know one year we’re going to do math curricul next year we do Ela curriculum forign language curriculum so we were C cing that money the Chromebook part was important because I was a wish Cur these

2:38:25 once the money is in there we were good the curriculum part was was probably more important but uh from a standpoint of being able to uh balance at the same time or one right behind the other it was CRI that we did stages probably a longer answer but um there’s you know there’s a lot of pre-work and then there’s a lot of during the budget work but a lot of it about communication public this is why we need um I had a really brilliant superintendent Wayfield um who wanted three things he wanted a special education stabilization fund he wanted F day kindergarten and he wanted a Chromebook ini he bundled all three together because that the to meeting one

2:39:10 year instead of breaking it up over three years he did it one year and it was a big ask in the town was very receptive because we’re transparent and this is our our vision um but people in town hall you had the parents of special education students you had the parents of high school middle school students who are going to benefit from the homeb program um and you had the um but you had the kindergart young who were like told they were all there at the meeting it was one budget not separate article so they were voting on one budget so we had support from majority of the

2:39:50 time um so I’m sure you understand or you’ve been you’ve been filled in we’ll be doing a conversion of munice this year um which I’m so excited about because we’ve been and sofri which has really made the reporting mechanisms very hard to to the school committee um it’s a very cumbersome program um so my understanding is you have some experience with that trans have you brought through a transition through munus we will have Mary July working with us to to help facilitate that but there will definitely still still be large pieces on your end as well so just if you can give us a little bit about what you’ve done in the past when I arrived in Whitefield they had um called budget sensor infinite Visions which is Tyler product also mice is a Tyler product so mice runs both those products

2:40:36 but we had infinite visions and um it was already pre-planned before I got there very similar the year that they were going to bring on un um they

2:40:47 will software um so I started with in divisions for a year software practice just to turn over to M but I did rely on mention Mary she had M there so when we were doing the conversion her and I you know can I get full of account it is I wanted mine to match up I wanted to make sure that when we got to the reporting period not only reporting to school through the time but we have reports of Des and if your accounts don’t line up crosswalks and what could be a twoe project could be a two Monon project things something line up um so in ail we have infinite Visions so back toin visions and there’s no talk converting there but when I got there the

2:41:36 child do it right the first time fix I didn’t really understand the account structures and Howes so pretty good with Excel as far as slicing and dicing dat um using text to call and so just up certain aspect of that account number every piece of that account number account salary account special ucation being able to slice and Di some says to me hey can you just come we spend special education hit four for the

2:42:16 last so last so Happ I think we all are um we’re very fortunate our chart of accounts was cleaned up um once Michelle cresa came in and she did a lot of work so we are aligned with the Desi format so hopefully that will facilitate making that transition a little bit easier are there any questions anybody has that have not been addressed 9:3 by oh okay all right morning um so I will ask for a motion to approve M Michael piering as our uh assistant superintendent of finance and

2:42:58 operations subject to success subject to contract negoti successful contract negotiations chair I apologize um second second by Jen chatner any

2:43:11 discussion we’re um roll call um so all in favor all oppos motion carries forward is zero and we’re very very excited to have so you know our fifth member was not on that’s why it’s a four Zer not a five Zer um so we’re very very happy to have you on board um we really are in the last couple weeks have really started to bring a wonderful wonderful team together that’s going to be really exciting um I will be in touch hopefully tomorrow possibly Friday I’ll just be honest um for next steps and then we’ll work through that our next full school committee meeting as of right now is May 16th but because of where we are in the superintendent process we may be meeting before that to get that um approval of

2:43:58 the the finalized contract right we should I’ll give thank you very much it nice to we meet some of you and thank you for coming out so late apprciate it we appreciate it all right um so I’m just we’re gonna just talk about really quick next steps so we have all right thank you thank you Michael we all know there was one more candidate um Jose mun Munos who just for scheduling I believe he was traveling this week was unable to make one of these times work um so do we want to offer our time next week um our one one factor I unfortunately can’t answer and

2:44:43 I’m not sure is if these candidates are interviewing somewhere else um so I don’t I I wish I had that information that’s not always public at the stage um you know we might so we have two interviews tomorrow might want to um hold off and discuss this tomorrow night maybe just to see I mean I just wanted for posting if we if I want to try to reach out to him and possibly get some oh well I guess we me Monday so we could do Monday no the earliest we could do it is Wednesday Wednesday okay um and I just it’s possible that after tomorrow night we might I don’t know we might feel ready to deliberate on and assant Cates yeah so I will um ask us all to hold next Wednesday if we can um I would

2:45:31 not yeah I would not want us to delivery um at the end of tomorrow night because I do I I do hold really to hold tight to we put those Community surveys out it’s really important the community have a chance to be able to give us some information back we give them over the weekend um that will give us some time to look those over as individuals I’ll make them available with the help of stepen and so maybe we should host for school Community meetings so it could be either an interview or a deliberation yes so I will um I will post for for and just geez everybody’s n it will not be another Marathon three four hour meeting this will be a single agenda item just for the deliberations of what our next

2:46:18 steps are and at the end of the evening tomorrow night while we won’t be deliberating on candidates we I think we’ll have um an opportunity to take short period of time and talk about do we think we this would be a two round interview do we think you know are people feeling once we hear from the public that we’d be able to move we have a better idea once we hear from our other candidates so um I just if everybody can hold I say that by I think we should just post because let me just double check and what what time next Wednesday at um 7M so it’s just one agenda item can we do eight it’s just that one I can’t I

2:47:05 just I don’t mind doing eight what’s that if we since it’s just one agenda be eight for Al too be later for him I think he’s flying oh F back on Wednesday late Tuesday early Wednesday something um it’ll be a mess though that’s all those time zones um so yes so everybody put a placeholder in for Wednesday at 800m I will get that posting in um just so when you see a bunch of school committee meetings postings go up next week just for everybody’s memory I’ll post for CH meeting um for all of us so that’s Monday Tuesday to cover us so I’m GNA post for Mond Tuesday and Thursday because I don’t think it will go three nights if for some reason it goes three nights informed us it will not be

2:47:52 Wednesday it will be Thursday Lisa me our attorney with um I believe the Town Council is not available on Wednesday and so I I don’t think that there’s I’m certainly looking at the warrant don’t think it would go three nights um you never know but I just my go tell me no but if it does it won’t it won’t be Thursday so just be prepared I’ll be posting Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday but those will be for town meeting nights so if it turns out we end up end up interviewing next Sunday night I won’t be able to delate till like following Monday the good news is I will have Thursday posted because of town meeting so if we had to meet the next day that enough time to get feedback it’s just one day yeah well hopefully we’ll be able to

2:48:39 communicate with the community we’ll know more people timelines and things like that um we’ll also know if quite frankly if we had tonight and tomorrow night in five days go bye not one person isce responded I think we’ll know that people aren’t really engaging in the feedback yeah yeah they yeah they may but you know I think we’ll just have more information at that point the good I guess that’s the upside of having postings every day of the week this week I’m not sure how much time I’ll have on the night I’m just be honest we probably won’t we also have bargaining so it’ll be later um I actually have Bo days later no better so okay so I’m going to uh journ us at 9