 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Schleckman. I am vice chair of the Arlington School Committee. Dr. Kersi Allison Ampe is our esteemed chair, but she is spending the evening with her daughter at her very, very, very last gymnastics banquet. So we wish her well, and we proceed from here. It is officially 6.34 p.m. on Thursday, June 15th, and we are operating in a hybrid matter consistent with the law. All the members of the committee are present, so we don't need to do an electronic roll call. First item of business is public comment. I'll read the ground rules. I'll tell you what I'm going to do, and then we'll proceed. For members of the public who wish to address the committee, there will be a 20-minute public comment period. If you would like to sign up to speak either remotely via Zoom or in person, you must email Ediggins at ArlingtonK12.ma.us by 6 p.m. Thursday at the date of the meeting. Depending on how many people sign up, time allotments may be reduced, but will not exceed the three minutes each. If a number of people sign up exceeds what can be reasonably done in 20 minutes, and that's the case tonight, the number of speakers may be capped, or speaking times may be reduced to the discretion of the chair. All requests to speak received after the date and time indicated will be invited to speak at the next school committee regular meeting. We do have 19 people signed up. We cannot do 19 people in 20 minutes, so I think the compromise will be to reduce speaking time to two minutes and extend to 30 minutes. Once we hit the 30-minute mark, which will be at 6.36 plus 30, which will be 7.06 on my clock, we will terminate public comment even if we have not exhausted the speakers. So I'm going to tell people who are coming up in certain order so that this next person in line will be ready. So the first person to speak will be Sarah Lamb Barton, who will be followed by David Valdez. Sarah Barton in the room. Thank you. We're doing two minutes. Yep. I have one too. Hi. Good evening school committee members. Sarah Barton. I live at 57 Huntington Road, and I'm also the CPAC co-chair. You may recall that at the April 27th meeting, I spoke during public comment in support of a gender inclusive health and human development curriculum, noting the importance of accurate inclusive sex and relationship education for disabled students. That evening, I concluded my comments by urging the school committee to explicitly reaffirm the district's commitment to gender inclusivity. At the very next school committee meeting, I sat right behind me here and listened to two of our youth provide heart-rending testimony about the impact that exclusion within the APS system has had on their mental health and well-being and their ability to grow and thrive in this community. I firmly believe that public support for our gender diverse students and staff from this body is required if you intend to keep your commitment to providing safe and supportive schools, which is why I was encouraged to see a resolution affirming the LGBTQIA plus community on tonight's agenda. Ms. Ekston and Ms. Giddelson have drafted a clear and cogent statement in support of LGBTQIA plus members of the APS community, and I thank them for that. You may also recall that during my April 27th comment, I expressed my dismay that the committee chose to focus on a procedural discussion of policies designed to avoid confrontation rather than a full-throated defense of the district's commitment to inclusion and equity. I would urge the committee not to make the same mistake again. No one has ever felt supported, welcomed, or empowered by a subcommittee review of the policies of the Arlington School Committee. The inclusion of concrete actions in the resolution, including affirming the rights of all APS community members to be called by the requested names to access athletic and curricular activities, as well as a commitment to professional development and the posting of these affirmations at our school buildings will go a long way towards making our community a safer place for our gender diverse members. Thank you. Your time has expired. David Valdez, followed by Claire Johnson. My name is David Valdez. I live at 6 Walnut Street here in Arlington. When I was 15 years old, I went to a school that was very homophobic. I climbed a bridge in my town to jump off it, and a neighbor stopped me in the time since then. I'm glad to be alive. I have now as an educator, I just crossed the 4,000 student mark, and I'm glad that I could be there for them. My college roommate was a trans woman who told me the story of when she was 6 and discovered that at school she would have to go by her birth name and have to dress as a boy. She threw herself out of the back of her family's truck. She lived, she today is, she works for the United Nations policing human rights. I tell you these stories because it is important that a school not just passively say we are okay, but schools embrace students and support them the ways that they can. The bill that you have before you, Exton Giddison, is a bill that proactively does that, protects inclusion and makes students feel welcome. The amendment to sort of soften things and to kind of look at things again will just slow the roll. I encourage you, I beg you, I plead with you to stand up for your students and to make them welcome in Arlington. Thank you. Thank you. Claire Johnson is next followed by, will be followed by Hilary Clay. Hello, my name is Claire Johnson. I am a resident of Arlington at 84 Wright Street. My family is gender diverse and a part of APS. I'm here tonight to ask you to support the Pride Proclamation written by school committee members Liz Exon and Laura Giddison. I'm asking you to reject the amendment proclamation proposed by school committee member Len Cardin. Even all that you have heard from members of the public over the past few weeks, the proposed amendment is not sufficient. It is a weak promise to take action at some undefined date in the future. I came before you weeks ago to offer public comment on these issues and you have been hearing from other members of the community for nearly two months now. Again, I share that our family is incredibly grateful for the experiences we have had with the Arlington public schools. Our teachers and staff have shown they understand and recognize gender diversity. The Pride Proclamation offered by Liz Exon and Laura Giddison is a good step in the right direction for the Arlington school committee. The proposed amendment after all that has happened in Arlington is incredibly weak and honestly borders on insulting. The Arlington school committee has a chance now to change its reputation of ignoring the experiences faced by LGBTQ students in our schools. Thank you for your time, your dedication, and your work. Thank you. Hillary Clay is next followed by Collin Bennell. Hello, my name is Hillary Clay. I live at 438 Appleton in Arlington and I'm the parent of a fourth grade student at Dallin. I asked to speak tonight to address the resolutions put together by the school committee affirming the LGBTQ plus community, which you're being talked about later this evening. I wanted to voice my support for the obvious care and thought that was put into crafting these resolutions. I feel it is the intention of the school committee to help protect this community and foster increased understanding and awareness. There are two drafts of these resolutions. They're similar in tone, but the first draft includes particular action items that I think are incredibly important and I want to encourage the school committee to vote in favor of this first draft. It's one thing to say that we're going to support the community, but the first resolution includes distinct steps to take to make sure that support becomes a reality. One of these action items is to include the discussion of LGBTQ plus people and issues in the health and sex education, which is such an important step for inclusion. One of the action items is to support the use of preferred pronouns, which is such an important step for inclusion. One of these action items is to include books in the library that portray LGBTQ plus people in a positive light, which is such an important step for inclusion. These are all concrete actions that will help support our student population and I feel so strongly that this draft of the resolution could make a difference in helping the very real children that are affected by these policy decisions. My fourth grader identifies as non-binary. They've spent a lot of time explaining what this means to their classmates and it was incredibly helpful to them to have gender topics come into the health and sex education classes that they had during the year. It's been a profoundly positive experience for my child to have their teacher embrace their pronouns and support their gender expression throughout the year. Every child deserves to have this type of support. I urge the school committee to please pass the first draft of this resolution, which will help make this affirmation and support into a reality for all of our students. Thank you very much. Thank you. Collin Bonnell is next, but will be followed by Sarah McKinnon. My name is Collin Bonnell and I'm a former town meeting member from precinct 5. I request this committee support the Exting Gittleson resolution and reject the proposed card and amendment. Nothing in the Exting Gittleson resolution should pose a controversy. There is no good faith reason not to call a person by their actual name or the correct pronouns. Equal access to services and facilities is not controversial, especially in a town as progressive as Arlington. Training and professional development to guide and support faculty and staff in treating queer and trans colleagues and students respectfully is not controversial. Widely disseminating the contents of the resolution so all understand this committee's iron clad support for the LGBTQ community is not controversial, yet all of these provisions of the resolution are stricken in the card and amendment, leaving behind just a feel good shell of a resolution without action to match. Nationwide the rights of queer and transgender people are under assault. This is not just in states like Florida and Texas. Queer and trans communities in our state are under threat from extremist organizations like the Massachusetts Family Institute. Passage of the card and amendment will be construed as this committee wavering in its support of the transgender community and will invite further attacks from those who would seek to exploit divisions in pursuit of political power. Clear unambiguous support for queer and trans students is the best way to convey that homophobic and transphobic extremism will find no refuge in Arlington. Thank you. Thank you very much. Sarah McKinnon is next. We'll be followed by Carolyn Vincent. Thank you very much. My name is Sarah McKinnon. I live at 10 Kill Scythe Road and I'm a town meeting member for precinct 20. I have been so struck by what has been said already and that I'm sure in this room you can imagine many of the things that the LGBTQIA plus community and their allies would be saying in terms of how the Extin and Giddelson resolution is really a call for normalization, not for exceptionalism. This is for equal, equal existence within the schools and we're writing what is off balance. I'd say that the difference that I see between the two resolutions that were proposed is that one is very, both are very strong in saying where we are strong already as a community. Both have sympathy and support but the latter one stops at subcommittee. The Extin Giddelson resolution is clear, concise, it gives us a plan and if we do need a policies and procedures subcommittee to support, it can support action where we have barriers. It can support in creating removing older or unnecessary barriers that would allow us to clearly and concisely take these areas for improvement, say the library. Determine what is our goal, diversity of LGBTQIA plus figures portrayed in a positive light and the action item is clear, materials. If there is anything that stops us from doing that then the policies and procedures committee can help, can support. Not support in developing action that's been done. So I urge you to please support the Extin and Giddelson resolution. It is truly a resolution and not a hope. Thank you. Thank you. Carolyn Vincent and Noelle Roup will follow. Hi, I'm Carolyn Vincent. I live at 9 Colby Road. I am a over 20 year resident of Arlington and I have two children who are working their way through the school system here. I also have extensively volunteered with K through 12 children both in and out of school in the town of Arlington. Many speakers before me have been much more eloquent. I am just here in support of the Extin Giddelson. Thank you. Thank you. Noelle Roup is next. Then we'll be going to remotes. The first remote speaker will be Keith Marzilli-Erikson. Good evening, everyone. My name is Noelle Roup. I live at 16 Shawnee Road here in Arlington. I'm a proud parent of two Arlington public school kids, a second grader and an eighth grader who's graduating tomorrow. Professionally I have worn many hats. I have been a school psychologist, an educational psychologist, and currently I am a full-time faculty member at Tufts University where I teach graduate school psychology students. In 2014, I published a body of research conducted over several years on the experience of trans and non-binary students in educational settings. The recommendations generated from that body of work still apply today. More importantly than that body of research are the recommendations from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education here in the state of Massachusetts, which identify representation and curriculum, validation and respect, and the validation of chosen names, intrinsic gender identities, gender markers, all as key elements for supporting trans and non-binary students. In 2021-2022, the Arlington Public Schools conducted an equity audit in which they identified LGBTQ plus students as a priority student group. The recommendations that came from that equity audit found its way into our five-year strategic plan. The resolution, notice the Pride Proclamation, is most closely aligned with that five-year strategic plan, the DESI recommendations, as well as the National Association of School Psychology's Safe and Supportive Schools for LGBTQ plus Youth Position Statement. The difference between the two resolutions before us here tonight is small but critical. The goal without a plan is a wish. Tonight's amended resolution exists without clarity as to what we are proclaiming to do regarding the inclusion and representation, health and well-being of our LGBTQ plus students. The Pride Proclamation resolution identifies requested names and pronouns be respected, that equal access to programs and facilities occur, that there is privacy for students, that there is participation in all activities, that there is representation, professional development, training and protections. Thank you. Time has expired. Great. First up on the remote is Keith Marsily Erickson, who will be followed by Sophia Westerhoff. Keith, are you... I'm here. Can you hear me? Go for it. Here we go. Two minutes. I'm Keith Marsily Erickson, a resident at 85 Coolidge Road. I'm a parent of two children at the Brackett School. I'm a professor of markets, public policy and law at Boston University. And I'm here today to ask you to support the Pride resolution written by members Exton and Giddelson and reject the amended version proposed by Len Cardin. It's important that action be taken to promote the well-being of Arlington's LGBTQ plus youth, to end to give Arlington's non-queer youth a well-rounded education. The amended resolution does not take concrete action, and we've already waited too long. These actions should not be controversial. We know LGBTQ youth are suffering. We have evidence they experience harassment, high rates of depression, respecting student and staff pronoun choices at bare minimum. They were remaining recommendations, books in the library, access to bathrooms, respecting gender identity. This needs to be said and should be policy now. Parents and many teachers want LGBT history and culture to be taught in our classrooms. It's part of our American history and culture. However, teachers don't all have the tools to do so. This resolution will give them concrete training. All this is part of our strategic plan. Giddelson-Arrington's LGBTQ youth keep coming. We need not just words but actions that demonstrate to our children that they are beautiful and valued. Thank you. Sophia Westerhoff is next to be followed by Jasselyn Friedman. Good evening, everyone. My name is Sophia Westerhoff. I live at 26 Shawnee Road. I grew up in Arlington and have attended Arlington Public Schools since kindergarten. I graduated from Arlington High in 2021 and just finished my second year of college. I'm putting forth my support for the X-Tin Giddelson Proclamation to increase LGBTQ plus inclusion in schools. The statistics about the mental health of queer students are clear, so I want to talk more about my experience as a queer student in the Arlington Public School system. Particularly in health classes in middle school and high school, there wasn't representation or information about gender fluidity or inclusive LGBTQ plus health information presented. This left me feeling unclear on how to take care of my own sexual health. And I know many of my peers, in particular queer students, felt similarly. I had to seek information on my own. Now in university, I volunteer at a sexual education center and I run workshops on sexuality, sex, safety, and consent. Oftentimes specifically for queer audiences. As a sex educator now, students ask so many questions about sexual health and safety, and they have a right to this holistic and inclusive knowledge. I believe there are well-intentioned health teachers in our schools, and with better training and support, I believe that they can provide education and information to their students. During my time at AHS, I was also deeply involved in the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, or GSA. My senior year, I was one of the co-presidents. Having a community and the support of faculty and other students improved my high school experience. We also collaborated with librarians and other staff and knowing that there are people at the school who care about queer students and knowing that the school system has your back can make a big difference to feel support and safe. While I was disappointed in the lack of LGBTQ plus inclusion, I experienced an APS. Other experiences in the GSA made me feel safer and more supported as a student. I know there is a community of supportive staff and students within APS, and all LGBTQ plus students have a right to feel safe at school. Moving forward, the X and Gittleson Proclamation is a much needed change we can make within the system. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Jess, when Friedman is next, he'll be followed by Elizabeth Dre. Thank you. My name is Jacqueline Friedman. I am an Arlington resident at 153 Medford. I'm also the vice president for strategy at Seacus, the leading national policy organization on sex education. I applaud the school committee's recent decision to come into greater compliance with the second edition of the national sex ed standards. And I'm speaking today to say that the X and Gittleson Proclamation is an urgently needed next step in this process. Arlington students need to see themselves and the people they know represented in the curriculum that's being taught to them. And students and staff both need to feel safe at school. However well-meaning it may be, the Cardin Amendment would align us with the kinds of people who think that if they erase certain kinds of information from the curriculum, the students who need that information will stop existing in real life. At Seacus, we have seen the data and we know that inclusive curricula and affirming policies, decrease bullying and harassment, increase academic performance and make students more likely to stick up for each other if they see someone being bullied. Data aside, let me also say that as a kid who grew up queer and deeply in the closet in a place where it was not safe to even come out to myself, it is heartbreaking to see some of the leaders in my own town once again actively deciding to leave LGBTQI young people to their own devices. We have already let the trans and non-conforming, gender non-conforming students in our schools wait too long while under-increasing attack for the kind of actions provided for in the Exting Giddleston Proclamation, they cannot afford to wait yet again. As you've already heard, the policies in the Exting Giddleston Proclamation are all based on the recommendations of leading organizations with expertise in creating environments that keep LGBTQ students safe and help them thrive, including of course, Seacus. We cannot just say it gets better. We have to take action. By passing the Exting Giddleston Proclamation and voting no on the pardon amendment, you have a chance to take a huge step tonight toward ensuring the students of Arlington have the freedom to be themselves, pursue their dreams, and get the quality education we have promised them and that they deserve. No. Your time has expired. Thank you. Thank you. Elizabeth Dre is next followed by Jordan Weinstein. Good evening, my name is Elizabeth Dre. I'm on Jason Street and I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 10. I urge the school committee to vote to support either the original or the revised Giddleston Exton Pride resolution. As we all know, our LGBTQIA plus youth are being attacked both nationwide and right here in Massachusetts and failure to vote in favor of this resolution puts Arlington in bad company. As the parent of a trans child who graduated from APS, I am grateful to Ms. Exton and Ms. Giddleston for proposing common sense policies that may have helped my child and will definitely help current students and future students. And frankly, I am shocked that we are even having this discussion. And that school committee member, Mr. Cardin would ask our children and the APS staff to wait when they have clearly asked for help. Wait for what? Our children cannot sit by and wait while the policies and procedures subcommittee undertakes a lengthy review of the school committee's policies to determine changes that may be needed as Mr. Cardin would like. Every day that the policy review takes is one more day where students don't feel valued, seen, accepted, safe. Every day they wait will risk further damage to both APS, from APS staff and students and every day they wait could put them at risk for further depression, anxiety, and maybe one day closer to possibly attempting suicide. The original and revised Exton-Giddleston resolution clearly lays out the absolute minimal that we need to do and we need to do it now. And let's be honest, this is not earth shattering policy changes that they're suggesting. Correct pronoun use, bathroom and locker use, staff education is the minimum that we should be doing. This is not a time for an action or for kicking the can down the road. How many more youth will suffer if you support the Cardin resolution? How many more will drop out of school? And how would you vote if it was your child experiencing discrimination by their teachers? Your child who didn't want to go to school anymore because it didn't feel safe or your child who is currently hospitalized due to suicidal ideation. Thank you. Jordan Weinstein is next. We'll be followed by Mustafa Varoglu. Yeah, hi. Jordan Weinstein, town meeting member of Precinct 21. I'm gonna keep it short to give, try to get everybody in who wants to talk. I'm also supporting the original resolution, the LGBTQIA plus affirming resolution number one by Exton and Giddleston and also their third or their, the third resolution which is a bit revised by Exton that's described as the Exton resolution. It has everything that we need. It's time to take positive action and not just voice empty performative support or for these changes that are very much needed in our schools and are supported by the community. Thank you. Thank you. Mustafa Varoglu is next. We'll be followed by Jennifer Mansfield. Somebody is self timing. Is Mustafa on line? C is seeing not Jennifer Mansfield. If he comes back, we'll get him on. Jennifer, you're next. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, who will be followed by Chris Martin. Go ahead, Jennifer. Sorry, thank you. I'm Jennifer Mansfield, 44 Franklin Street, Precinct nine, town meeting member and parent of two white Cishat elementary school boys. Just quickly, I expect both my own children and their classmates, teachers and families to be supported and reflected in the APS curriculum. I feel like it is hypocritical of us as a school district to claim inclusion and not take specific actionable steps toward that inclusion. And the Exton Giddleston resolution does this. I believe that the Cardinal amendment suggested doing too little, too late. And the often quoted by Angelou, think it really applies here. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. And I think we are well past the point of it's time to do better. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Martin is up. He will be followed by your chief Sanger. Is my voice coming through? Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't. Okay, so my name is Mustafa Varglu. I'm a town meeting member for precinct 10 and I live at 26 Shawnee Road, which is also where Sophia Westerhoff grew up. You heard her speak a few speakers ago. So I'm here to give my support for the Exton Giddleston resolution. This is a specific resolution with specific actions. And I think the, I won't go over all the reasons that you should support this because they're all in the here be resolved. All the basically the facts are laid out why these populations and this group of students and teachers need the support at the Arlington High School and in the Arlington Public School system. But what I would like to say is that it has specific actions, actions that can be implemented. And very notably, of course, as the police policies and procedures subcommittee works to implement these policies, they will of course study them. I mean, that's gonna happen no matter what you do. So you're not taking away from the other amendment at all or the other resolution at all. You're actually just adding right on top of it. The studying will happen. The policies will be implemented as specified here at least as a good starting point to make everybody welcome, make life easier and more supportive and a better environment where the students can be safe and learn to their full extent. And I'd like to thank you for your time. Thank you. Chris Martin, who will be followed by Rajiv Sanja, who will be the last speaker. Hello, my name is Chris Martin and I'm an Arlington resident living at 70 Alpine Street. And I'm here today to speak in support of the pride proclamation by Exton and Giddleston. I think it's incredibly important that our LGBTQIA students are seen and supported and that our non-LGBTQIA students see that support and grow up in an environment where difference is celebrated and understood. I think that can only lead to a more compassionate and caring generation of students. And that's certainly what I want for my three children who are in the ninth grade, seventh grade and in the fourth grade. And also if Arlington wants to be a leader within this space and I believe that we do, having actionable steps as are laid out in the Giddleston Exton proclamation that can be measured and evaluated is particularly important. And most important is that we hold our community and our educators accountable and we ensure concrete support for our LGBTQIA students. Thank you. Thank you. And Rajiv Sanja is next. My name is Rajiv Sanja. I live on 13 Mary Street and I've been a resident of Arlington since 2005 and I have a 10th grader in APS. I am also part of the Arlington Human Rights Commission although I here speak today in my personal capacity. I wish to speak in support of the Resolution Affirming LGBTQIA Plus Community. I find the resolution as spent by Miss Exton and Miss Giddleston very strong and supportive of one of the more marginalized groups of students in our community. As others have mentioned, a survey conducted by the school administration found this community of students suffering most from anxiety, stress and mental health issues at levels far higher in proportion than other groups. At the same time I also cautioned the school community against adopting the amendment as put forth by Mr. Blaine Cardin. Since it does not fully proclaim the help and support that this group of students require from the administration. Over the past few years we have seen an increasing number of attacks on inclusion against inclusion for marginalized groups across the country. At the same time I've also heard conversations amongst people that in a self-congratulatory manner indicating that this will not happen in New England. Well, here we are. Every day we see reports of school district meetings being disrupted, misgendering, homophobic language being reported at constant basis. Right here in our town we have a proposal to review the health and wellness curriculum that was so urgently required in support of the LGBTQIA plus community. Anything short of a full-throated affirmation of LGBTQIA plus students make students feel unsafe and unsupported. With this in mind, it is the time to put together our progressive reputation on the line and adopt the original resolution as written by SC members, Ms. Giddison and Ms. Extin. Thank you. Thank you and it is now 7.06. So we got everybody in. Thank you very much for your cooperation and patience as we work through the list. So we're now opening the meeting. First of all, our student rep unfortunately can't be with us tonight, but our AEA rep is remote tonight. That's Sif Ferrante. And also I wanna recognize Allison Elmer, who is our assistant superintendent for student support services, who is also online tonight. I think that takes care of everybody who is online. Next item on the agenda will be an appointment to the Arlington Human Rights Commission. Is Griffin Jones with us either in... Griffin, come on up. Griffin, you're seeking our appointment to the Human Rights Commission. Can you tell us a little about yourself and why you wanna do this? Sure, I am a resident of 24 Mott Street. I use he, him, pronouns. And I have a doctorate in social epidemiology, which has me spending a lot of my time looking at civil justice and its impact on health. That goes anywhere from substance use disorder to education, to our approach to policing and emergency management. I own my own health justice consulting practice and I currently work half time at Harvard, building an equity hub there and then half time at Yale Law School working on medical legal partnerships there. And so I'm keen on contributing to the pursuit of justice here through the Health, the Human Rights Commission. Thank you. So I guess at this point we'll need a motion to appoint Mr. Jones. Motion by Mr. Thielman, second by Ms. Giddelson. Any further discussion from the committee questions discussion? Hearing none, we'll go for a vote. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? That is unanimous vote. Congratulations and we wish you well. Okay, 6.45 p.m. We now come to the point where we say, hopefully at our last meeting, a fond farewell to Dr. McNeil who is leaving us on the 30th for private pastors. I'll start with the superintendent. All right. Rod, I came in today and I said, are you ready to be embarrassed? And he said, oh no, what's about to happen? So Rod, I just have a few words I wanna share with you and then I'll turn it to the rest of the committee. You've been my partner in leading the district for the two years I've served as superintendent and you've proven an excellent, reliable and trustworthy partner for those two years and you're someone I will very much miss. You are leaving a legacy in this district of walking the walk when it comes to making our schools a more equitable place for all of our students to learn. You are a fearless advocate for kids and I'm so happy that you'll find yourself in a place where you can spend every day interacting with more young people because this is where you shine and thrive. You've developed our leaders to be compassionate while maintaining high standards for themselves and those they supervise and you have eliminated multiple systemic and programmatic barriers despite opposition and done so with grace and humility. Rod, we have not always agreed. As far as I'm concerned, that's what makes our partnerships so rewarding. While we haven't always agreed, we've always supported one another and your support of our shared work is something I will always remember and cherish. One of the things I appreciated most about you is your ability to be candid, to disagree respectfully and to have the hard conversation until such time as we're able to establish a shared course of action that we can support together. You are a committed, capable and caring leader and someone I am proud to have led alongside. I wish you the best in your next very well-deserved adventure and I will leave you with one more piece of unsolicited advice. Follow your instincts because my friend, your compass is always pointed in the right direction. I'm gonna miss you. And I will go around the table for anyone who would like to be recognized to make a comment at this point. Ms. Giddelson. Rod, I have only been on the school committee a couple months, so we have not actually worked together in that capacity very long. But I was a parent watching Zoom school committee meetings during the summer of 2020, wondering what my entering kindergartner was gonna experience in pandemic school. And I really always appreciated your calm and reassuring manner. It was always a presence that I felt really good about having as I had no idea what decisions everyone should make and I was grateful for the people who were making good decisions. I also was watching the meeting when you volunteered to be the APS liaison to a rainbow task force and truly appreciated that. And the small amount of time I have worked with you on the most recent APS pride. So I wish you all the best. Okay, Mr. Cardin. Thank you, Dr. McNeil. We've been so fortunate to have you here as our assistant superintendent. This was your first central office role. We've seen so much growth and development in your time here. You helped your Arlington through the pandemic, totally reinvented professional development and brought an equity focus to everything we do. Your tireless efforts have greatly contributed to success and advancement of the Arlington Public Schools. I wish you much success in your new role. Thank you. Ms. Morgan. I also come from independent schools. So I have a sense of where you're going. I counted, there are 19 members of the board of trustees of Chestnut Hill School. And yet, but I know that you will engage with them in the same way that you have engaged with us. And there have been periods of agreement and times of disagreement. And you have, we've always been able to move forward beyond after those times during them. And I have no doubt that you will take that experience with you. I'd like to think that I've perhaps given you the opportunity to sort of practice disagreement a little bit. And then you can implement that with all 19 of your new employers who are so fortunate to have them have you at the helm of their school. And I'm excited to see what you do there because I think it will be amazing. So thank you for everything that you've done for us. I'm so glad we got to keep you as long as we did. And we wish you the very best. I want to thank Rod for his service to our town. I remember when Kathy announced your hiring, she was ecstatic about having the opportunity to work with you and bringing you here to Arlington. And I think she made a great hire and you've been a great addition to the district. So I think we've been lucky to work with you. As Jane said, you have had a lot of practice reporting to a board. I report to a board for a living I have for many years. And so this is a good practice, good place to practice. I do appreciate, as Len said, the equity lens you bring to everything we do. I appreciate the dialogues you've been willing to have with many folks, many parents on many issues. And I think that's an important part of our work. My time is up. But your time continues until June 30th. So I just want to say it's been a great pleasure working with you. We had many conversations during the intense times of COVID and I think we all worked our way through that and you were always a gentleman. So thank you so much. Ms. Sexton. Dr. McNeil, I also want to thank you for your years of service here in Arlington. The curriculum leaders and the principals in the schools have really benefited from your passion and commitment for curriculum, for equity in curriculum, for believing in what you, being committed to what you felt was important and right and leading conversations in a direction that brought others on board. I also want to comment on the professional development programming that you designed particularly this year and I hope that it can continue. In your absence, I think the opportunity for teacher choice and the opportunity for teachers to be leaders and to support their colleagues in their professional development is really commendable and I appreciate all of the work that you put into that. So best of luck in your next endeavor. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. McNeil, when we first hired you, I did what everybody does on a new hire is I hit Google. And I found this wonderful picture of Rod McNeil principal in Needham. And this, I saw that and I said, okay, this guy, we got a hire. And he is absolutely a kid-centered ally of great teaching who understand schools. And from everything that I can see from the chair here at the school committee, I've known that the principals and the education leaders in the district appreciate you by their side. The teachers in this district appreciate how you value their work and support them and the children in this district have benefited greatly from your service. So thank you for being with us and I know you're gonna take a whole bunch of Arlington with you to Chestnut Hill. Thank you very much. Oh, oh, Rob, yeah. Thank you, I didn't prepare anything, but I just wanna say, Rod, I can't believe you're leaving our office suite. When Rod- We're gonna tear it down in a few months. And we're not gonna be, yeah. When Rod first came to interview, I remember well, he was interviewing with a large committee in this room and he had to wait in our office for a few minutes. And the way Rod engaged with the administrative assistants in the office or benefits coordinator, other people who are in the office who are not part of the interview committee or the interview decision speaks to how Rod is with everybody. Whether you are a custodian in the district, a teacher, the superintendent, a food service employee, he wants to know you, know your story, and he treats everyone with the respect that they deserve as professionals. And I will miss that. I will miss you as a colleague, as someone who we've done a lot of work together. And I wish you luck in your new position. So, naturally, I didn't prepare anything either because I was not expecting this. And I really appreciate the words. I'm humbled by all the comments that you've made about the work that I've been able to do. And it has not been just me. It's been, I've been fortunate to have a great team of educators within my department and within the schools, working with the principals, and working with my two superintendents who have come in and have trusted me and have given me the room to grow. And I have appreciated my time working with all of the school committee members. Like you said, we've been through a lot of tough times. And I think that has forged a very close and professional relationship. So I appreciate allowing me to have this opportunity to grow. And I couldn't be more thankful and grateful for all the things that we've done. And I appreciate it very much from the bottom of my heart. So thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. McNeil. We will take a 10 minute recess to celebrate with the cake over at the side of the room. And reconvene at 7.29. Welcome to Amtrak, we're 29 minutes behind schedule. We're gonna try to keep moving because the reward for moving quickly this meeting is exhausting a long agenda and not having to come back next week. So we're now up to the AEF presentation to the school committee. Dr. Homan. I'm going to pull up and drive your slides. Thank you. I'll go ahead and get started. And you can tell me when to move on to the next one. Hello, I'm Judy Geyer. I am the outgoing president of the Arlington Education Foundation. AEF is a 501c3 nonprofit and our mission is to support and enhance public education in Arlington. And our special focus is on innovative or new programming for the district administrators, curriculum leaders and teachers to experiment with that is slightly outside the budget but is reasonably aligned with the district's priorities that it's worth trying. And if it succeeds, we ask the folks who receive our funding to describe its success and think about how to work it into the district budget. And if not, we say, well, that's why we're a 501c3 in providing this experimental funding. I'm here to present a summary of what we did this year. Next slide, please. I wanna first start by thanking this body. Our donors and event participants really enjoy seeing you at our event. So thank you school committee members for attending. I really wanna appreciate working with Dr. Homan and also Ms. Julie Dunn who's not here tonight. We work in really close coordination to make sure that our funding is getting to the schools. And we also benefit from the participation and insight of school committee liaison currently, Ms. Exton previously, Mr. Cardin. Ms. Exton has attended our monthly meetings every Sunday. We really appreciate her insight. So thank you. Next slide, please. Who are we? We are 14 community members. We meet monthly and sometimes in smaller groups more frequently. We have a teacher representative, a Metco parent representative, the district liaison currently Ms. Dunn and the school committee liaison. And our funding priorities span grants to the district administration, grants to curriculum leaders to expand curricula across the schools in Arlington. Some grants that are directed to teachers to try new things in their classroom. And then about 15% of our funds go to enrichment scholarships for teachers. I want to announce a new grant that the board approved two weeks ago. And this will go into effect for the 2023-24 school year. And this is a $42,000 grant to support strategic initiative working groups. And Dr. Homan can tell you more about them than I will, but there will be eight groups. And we are funding some of the stipends for those group members to meet regularly to work towards a lot of the strategic initiatives that came from the strategic plan. This last year we funded instructional leadership teams. I'm gonna borrow some of Dr. Homan's words. These teams use the district priorities to design and implement action steps in their local context, in their local schools. And AEF funds allowed the district to explore how to bring more staff to the table to make sure that they had opportunities to engage with the administration on shared action plans and goals for their schools. So that is next year's district investment grant. This year we had several grants spanning multiple schools. One of them that I'm really excited about was the Understanding Our Differences curriculum, which is a disability awareness curriculum. This was a program that was at two elementary schools, but with our funding it went to all seven elementary schools and it reached third, fourth and fifth graders. We also worked with the digital learning lead, Ms. Pimperkar, Dr. Pimperkar, on expanding the last year's new to the district digital learning curriculum for K-2 to grades three to five. So with our support on the order of $20,000, the district now has Finch robots and micro-bits that third through fifth graders are working with. We also worked with the SEL coach to bring a new curriculum to the upper grades, upper elementary grades in four schools on social-emotional learning. We worked with the new Visual Arts Director on integrating screen printing into the Visual Arts curriculum for K-12. And finally, we worked with the Performing Arts Department on for the first time bringing performing arts at the high school level to our youngest levels, K-2, and not only did the high schoolers put on a play of Stragonona, but that play was part of the K-2 curriculum and we saw lots of really cute pictures of kindergarteners writing about what the story was and what the theater experience was. So that's an example of our grants touching multiple schools. And I won't read all of these, I'll just highlight a few. We have teachers appeal to us twice a year to try new things in the classroom. So I'll just pick one. At Pierce, for fifth graders, Pierce students learned about street art and skateboarding and skate culture and the work of Keith Herring, a famous artist. And at Bracket, I guess I'm highlighting two art ones, the art teacher purchased small animal, mineral, and plant specimens, permanent specimens to bring nature into her artwork and have students focus on how to bring nature into their art. At the high school level and middle school level, there were several, one I wanna highlight here at the high school is narratives for change. These were workshops for students, staff, and also members of the Onlington Police Department to talk about justice and their experience with justice in the community using a structured program called narratives for change. And another one is a hydroponic garden. So the high school is going to have hydroponic garden that will be integrated into a couple of the biology classes and will also produce food that the cafeteria will use. There are more grants listed there. Looking ahead to the next year, Ms. Elizabeth Goodsell will be the next president. She was stuck in an airport in North Carolina and can be here tonight. She is currently our vice president and she's been meeting with me and with Dr. Homan through this whole year. And so your ATF is in great hands. I really wanna celebrate Ms. Julie Dunn. So next time you see her, she is moving to a new role next year. I want to recognize her as a founder of AEF, a board member, I think she was president for eight years and she has constantly made sure that we stayed on mission. I also wanna highlight for this group that next year our work with the district will be coordinated through a new position, the grants administrator through the business office. And it's really important for us to get started on a good working relationship with this person because this person helps make sure that the disbursement of our funds goes really smoothly and make sure that we can coordinate with Dr. Homan and make sure that our grants are funded in a way that's aligned with district priorities. Also want to mention though that AEF has had a lot of pleasure in working with Dr. McNeil over the years. So thank you. You came to us for an equity audit grant. I remember when the Gibbs School was forming, you and colleagues came to us for a grant on how to bring those Gibbs teachers together and create a culture at this new school. And also in 2020 we were so excited and thrilled and funded right away a grant that you wrote asking for training for teachers on how to learn how to be effective teachers in a virtual setting, virtual classroom. So thank you for working with us. And thank you, Dr. Homan, for making my two years corresponding with your first two years really, really fun. Been a pleasure. Thank you. Questions or comments from the committee? Mr. Card, so thank you for all you do. And I've been part of the board for a while but pleased to also pass it on. I'm very excited about all of your grants, particularly the understanding our differences. Something that's, I mean, it was in the district 10 years ago and it went away because of resources and so to have it back is really wonderful. So thank you for that. And to get ahead of the new grants administrator's job because sometimes we slip up on this, I'd like to move receipt, approval of receipt of this strategic initiative working groups grant for $42,000. Second. Okay, we have a motion before us. A motion by Mr. Carden, seconded by Mr. Thielman. Any debate on the motion? Hearing none, a vote on the motion, all in favor? Yes. I opposed. Abstentions, that's unanimous vote, six nothing but we're still able to discuss items under this agenda. Anyone else would like to speak under this item? Go ahead. I just want to say thank you, Judy. It's been a pleasure working with you and I really appreciated what the AEF does to accelerate some of our innovative work and to promote a culture of curiosity and inquiry and innovation in the Arlington Public Schools. It really adds a lot to our community and we're forever grateful and I've really enjoyed doing the 5K so I hope that that sticks around. And just thank you for your service. Thank you. And I'm sure on behalf of the entire committee we're very appreciative of your work in the AEF. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is the diversity, equity and inclusion report with Ms. Cradle Thomas. Computer, too. Okay, I have him here though, so I don't know when to go. Good evening. Thank you for having me this evening. And this is a report for the diversity, equity, inclusion and justice belonging department. First I would like to say and thank the school committee for having this department. I also would like to say that I couldn't do this work without the leadership of Dr. Holman, Dr. McNeil and all the other cabinet members in the leadership in Arlington Public Schools. I don't do this alone, we do this as a team and we're building this department so I wanted to start there. So as everybody knows we do have, we've had this vision since last spring and the vision of Arlington Public Schools is to be an equitable educational community where all learners feel a sense of belonging, experience, growth and joy and are empowered to shape their own futures and contribute to a better world. And the reason why I wanted to start there is because one of the things that the department has done is has added onto it, where we believe in this department that we are designing a multicolored tapestry that will weave together courage, determination, authenticity and belonging in order to actualize the vision that I just read. So I wanted to just take you a little bit on a timeline of where we've been with this department in July of 2021. You all voted to have a director of DEI so thank you for that. In the fall of 2021 the district conducted listening sessions that's the first thing that we did in this department just to get an idea of what was going on in the community. There seemed to be a lot of things going on and we decided as a district that we needed to do an equity audit as you all know, we got the official report from that equity audit from those six strategic recommendations from that audit that audit helped to inform the strategic vision and mission and the priorities which you all have accepted and we are often running right now of implementation. So I just wanted to name a couple of things that the department has done this year. We've done professional development which goes under our strategic goals 2.0 which is valuing all staff. We establish affinity groups at the, there are some student affinity groups going on and we did some affinity groups with educators this year. There was a white affinity group and there was a BIPOC affinity group which we started. That white affinity group was led by our director of history and social studies, Caitlin Moran and I did the BIPOC affinity group. The hope is that these affinity groups will grow into different intersectionalities and from those affinity groups that we can have other leaders come and support our different intersectionalities in our districts. One of the other things we did this year which is under the professional development still strategic 2.2 is that we are continuing to do the ideas on professional development for educators. As of this date we've had 150 educators, nurses, psychologists, school counselors, principals and teachers take the ideas course. Some of the, I guess I wanna say some of the stories I've gotten from people who've taken the ideas course is that one of the things is I'll never forget this is a teacher saying I've learned that I need to have left handed sisters in my class. Another teacher has said that taking a course helped them to find their voice and to advocate for their students. Under Dr. McNeil we organized a belonging panel with our educators who share their stories with their peers. They were brave enough to act to say what belonging meant to them working here in Arlington. And then student engagement strategic initiative 1.2 collaborated with Audison to do the second annual Audison Day which was May 19th. We had our own Dr. Homan and Dr. McNeil. They ran workshops with other teachers and outside presenters. We did narrative four project for the high school which was in May. That was a success our Arlington police department. We enjoyed it in something that we're looking to build upon with what we did there. Curriculum Instructions Strategic Initiative 1.1 I collaborated with teachers and coaches. They were reading killer marking bird wanted to really talk to the students in regards to that there's language in there that sometimes can trigger other students. Did a lesson on wrinkle my heart which is power of our words how words can sometimes hurt but also how can we also do restorative practices with people how can we ask for forgiveness and learn better. So community engagement that I still have the DEI channel with AMCI to communicate and just disseminate information in regards to diversity equity inclusion and belonging. I meet monthly with the town DEI director Jill Harvey and the Chief of Police Chief Flattery and then I collaborate with the Human Rights Commission and other commissions in regards to other activities whether in the school or out in the community. Some of other additional partnerships Rob Spiegel and I are part of the Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity Education MPD. We attend those monthly with other districts that are looking to bridge pathways for more diversified staff in districts. I am part of a new association of Massachusetts School Equity Leaders which are DEI directors which is going to be official in one week at the State House. And then my other affiliation is that I am starting my third year at Boston College. I passed my comprehensive exam and I will be doing my proposal defense in two weeks. So some of the other things that we've done in the Human Resource Department. Mr. Spiegel and I participated in the Teacher Diversification PLC through DESI this year. We're developing a partnership with Cambridge College to create teacher pathways for Arlington Public Schools. And then one of the other things that we did as we had changed our hiring practices this year. We also designed process monitoring for hiring. We do anti-bias training. We have taken names off of cover letters and resumes which helps mitigate bias that can happen in hiring. So strategic priorities for this for next year coming year I'm happy to say that we have hired a new specialist for the department. The department will be a department of two. So I'm very excited by that that we can start to build capacity for this department. And the other thing that this department will be doing we're going to continue to partner and collaborate in the strategic priorities 1.2 and 2.0. And the other thing that we're doing is that we want to ensure that we're increasing inclusion and diversity by honoring important holiday holidays and observations monthly. One of the things that the department would like to do is to curate YouTube videos with AMCI each month that talks about what each month is representing and how you can do some action stuff. Again partnering with the curriculum leaders principals to continue to design and develop curriculum for the directly equity inclusion and belonging. And then the last thing I want to say is that next year I would like me and the new specialist to do residency in schools to be on the ground to spend a week week and a half in a school just to get the lay of the land just to hear what's going on in that way. I can do on the ground office hours for teachers that would want to meet and that's the other way that we can go into classrooms and do observations. And if teachers need us for any coaching then we're on the ground. Any questions or comments from the committee. Mr. Thielman. Thank you. Mr. Lickman. Thanks very much for this presentation. I'm really pleased to see how this department has grown because I think it was just as you said it's only two years old. So this is great growth. My question the the affinity groups what's the participation like in the two groups. Actually we had in both groups we had over 20 educators in each group. Yeah that's really good. I appreciate that Dr. McNeil had a new what you know curated new ways of professional development. We were able to put it in the diverse professional professional development menu. I think that was really important so that people didn't have to think about could I meet after school that we can do it during the school day. It was during the day. Yeah. And it was really helpful because we we did a lot of you know one of the things that we talked about in a Bible group is we talked about the book My Grandmother's Hands. And talked about really a lot of how you can support yourself how we can support each other. Talked about white supremacy culture. What does that mean. Sometimes we we talk about microaggressions. What you know sometimes we say these words and people don't understand what they mean. So we did a lot of like understanding of things. So there were books there were topics to discuss and readings and OK great. All right. Thanks. I just wanted to get more very good. Questions or comments. Thank you for the excellent presentation. Yeah. I want to name one thing about the affinity groups since you asked Mr. Thielman which is that you didn't mention this in your presentation but the administration has been participating in affinity groups to to some extent those are self motivated at this point we structured it a little bit and then we kind of let them take off but they've been a wonderful experience for our administrators to experience what it is to be in an affinity group so that they can promote that build out into our school so that it's not just structured by the district. So we're hoping to see that expand and we know it will next year and we're also thinking about what that format looks like but a lot of districts take a lot of time to get that off the ground and we like I have to commend Margaret we just did it and we knew what would really help people feel a sense of belonging and connection to one another and it has definitely accomplished that for our administrators which we know will lead to them facilitating that opportunity for students and for other leaders. Margaret is an excellent relational leader and I just want to commend you for all that you've done to connect with leaders and teachers and students across our system because it's making a real impact and it's been a lot of really exciting and excellent work that I've enjoyed doing alongside you. Next up resolution affirming LGBTQIA plus community Ms. Eckston. Thank you. First I want to acknowledge that drafting this resolution has been a more uncomfortable process than I had expected. I know that everyone on this committee shares the same goal to make our school community a safe and supportive place for LGBTQIA plus students and families. I'm deeply appreciative of all the members of the committee and our community. We're all working to achieve the same goal to do its best for our students. I believe that we need to resolve our commitment to the LGBTQIA community. We need to do so in words and actions and we need to do so urgently. Over the past few months the LGBTQIA community's very right to exist has been questions and we need to reject that thinking. We as elected officials and leaders in this town and in this district must speak out in support of all of our students. We must ensure that we are all working every day to move toward our vision of a district where all learners feel a sense of belonging experience growth and joy. The revised resolution that Miss Skittleson and I have brought before the committee accomplishes these goals. It speaks out forcefully for our students and backs up those words with concrete actions to be taken by this committee. The resolution supports the district's actions to incorporate LGBTQIA people and issues in our school curricula including in health and sex education. It supports a plan for professional development focused on creating an LGBTQIA plus affirming atmosphere so that all district employees are trained to recognize and support members of the LGBTQIA plus community and it directs the policy subcommittee to take specific steps to create specific gender affirming policies by a date certain. This is the kind of specificity and action that we need right now. Finally I do want to be very, very clear that I am 100% confident that under the leadership of Dr. Homan the district supports the LGBTQIA community and is consistently working to support and affirm our LGBTQIA students staff and families. This is evidenced by the establishment of the rainbow task force supported by Dr. McNeill implementation of district wide LGBTQIA plus safe schools training in 2022 2023 ensuring schools have gender neutral bathrooms, ensuring all APS elementary schools have a rainbow alliance, hosting a series of community conversations, celebrating the first annual district wide APS pride celebration on May 13th 2023 and many others that I have not mentioned here. However, until every staff member in every school in every department is affirming of our students and is aware of how to support our students and ensures that every student in our school feels safe, welcome and included, then the work is not done until every queer staff member feels safe and supported in our schools. The work is not done until every queer family in our town feels safe and a sense of belonging. The work is not done and we as a school committee need to communicate loud and clear that we will support and prioritize that work. So I would like to move approval of the revised resolution that I have put into Novus and authorize the chair to sign it. Motion by Ms. Exton, seconded by Ms. Giddelson. Discussion, Mr. Cardin. Thank you. I applaud Ms. Exton and Ms. Giddelson for developing a comprehensive resolution, affirming the LGBTQIA plus community, which included policy proposals. Under our policies and procedures, the policy proposals would have been referred to our policies and procedures subcommittee. The draft resolution was only made available to us Tuesday afternoon. Upon seeing that policies were included, to avoid having the whole resolution referred to the subcommittee, I quickly drafted a revised version, which would, one, endorse the changes in the health and sex education curriculum and two, state our commitment to affirming and promoting the inclusion of the LGBTQIA plus community. The proposed policies would then be reviewed by our subcommittee under our normal process or on an expedited basis if they so chose. Ms. Exton seems to have come to the same conclusion and I fully support her revised draft. I just wish she would have let me know when she was preparing a revised draft, so I could have withdrawn mine. We utilized the subcommittee to make sure draft policies are fully vetted by multiple school committee members and the administration. This has not been done with these policies and it shows. As just one example, the policies proposed in the original resolution include a specific direction to our librarians. We have never done this and I believe it's dangerous to start telling our librarians about the types of books they must or must not include in our libraries. At the very least, we should hear from our librarians about this. The end goal is to create a set of lasting and enforceable policies. Even if we were to waive our policies to consider the original proposal tonight, the agenda item did not note that policies would be considered and thus we cannot legally do so. My goal was not to water down the proposal but to provide something that we can legally adopt tonight. If we decided to flaunt the law, would we be any better than Donald Trump? Ms. Exton has been on the committee for three years, including serving as chair until a few months ago. At any time she could have sent these proposals to our policy committee for quick action and we could be adopting them tonight. So I would respectfully suggest that some of your eye are at tonight's proceedings be directed at her instead of me. I appreciate the revised proposal and I'm happy to support it. Thank you. If there's no other discussion I would like to speak. Go ahead Ms. Giddelson. Thank you Mr. Cardin for supporting the revised motion. I just didn't want to let this opportunity go by without speaking about why I worked with Ms. Exton on this resolution. During public comment at the last several school committee meetings we have heard from many members of the community about the crucial nature of affirming our LGBTQIA plus staff and students. Over the last day we received emails and now heard more public comment about the power of and need for this resolution. This is our chance to respond to that comment. We heard from current students alumni and staff who stated it bluntly. Acceptance and inclusion are suicide prevention. The urgency of addressing this problem cannot be understated. If voting in favor of this resolution and making it as strong as possible can even have the smallest positive effect on the mental health of Arlington School's community. I don't know why we wouldn't do that. We have seen the data and heard individual stories about the devastating effect of going to school in an atmosphere that is not only not inclusive but sometimes openly hostile. This is a crisis and we as elected representatives of our community should respond accordingly. It is our collective responsibility to address this urgency head on and affirm the identities rights and worth of some of our most vulnerable students. The district has taken important steps in this direction and I share Ms. Exton's belief about Dr. Homan's leadership here. I think it is time for the school committee to make its own statement. By making this statement we take a step towards making the efforts across the district clear and consistent. I stand by the resolution that we have submitted as amended and I hope that we pass it unanimously. Mr. Thielman. Thank you Mr. Schlipman. So I am going to support Liz's revised motion. I really hope the committee can work together harmoniously going forward. I don't like a lot of the tone and we are not town meeting. Thank God we don't make decisions like town meeting. We don't even refer most of the time here to motions as the Exxon-Osh motion or the Gittleson motion or the Cardin motion. We kind of collaborate with each other to try to solve problems and do what is best for the district. The DEI program that you saw tonight on display that came about by a lot of collaborative decision making and conversations that took place at this table with the superintendent and administrative leadership and it resulted in a great program that has done great I think good work in the district and that happened collaboratively without any name calling that every call. So I hope that we can get back to working collaboratively. Mr. Cardin is right about the rules. I think everybody knows that on the committee who has been here for a while. The only option for us tonight would have been to either do the original motion would either to do a second reading next week or to suspend the policy adoption rules. That would have been the only legal option for us. Both of them were available to us if we wanted to go down that route. So I am supporting Liz Ekston's motion. I hope we can put this behind us quickly. We have a lot of work to do. We have buildings to build, overrides to pass, kids to educate. So and when we work together we do great things that help the town and we and when we work as a collaborative school committee rather than like other bodies in town we get a lot done. So that's my only comment. Thank you. Thank you. I want to note that under Massachusetts law the Arlington School Committee is governed by the open meeting law which means that we cannot deliberate outside of this room. Now I can talk to anyone of you about any issue. The only people I cannot talk to or communicate with are sitting at the table ahead of us. Which is why we structure our organization the way we do. When we get a topic what we usually do is refer it to subcommittee so we can sit and have an informal conversation and get to a point where we have something that is ready for prime time at a school committee meeting. Now I have put resolutions before this committee without going through subcommittees. It's not uncommon. When I saw this one I've got to say that it heartened me that at last after all the controversy we've had since March when the sexuality curriculum was questioned that we really have not had an opportunity to make a firm statement. And I want to state in the firmest possible way as a member of this committee and a member of this community I fully support the LGBTQIA community and want us to be a leader in creating safe spaces for children because that's what it's about. It is not about promoting anyone or anything. It is about making safe spaces for children in this district. And as a former principal with a kid who is transitioning at grade three I know how important this is. I want to also clarify for everybody because I've emailed sort of the gist of the statement to people that resolutions are temporary, a resolution gets attached to our minutes and it states our opinion but the only way we can make action as a committee is to have a formal vote and insert language in the policy manual. That requires work. It is work that the policy and procedures committee I'm sure is willing to do because I know that Ms. Giddelson who is a promoter of this resolution is a member of it. I'm a firm supporter of everything that she's trying to do with this and Mr. Thielman is also somebody who is very into social justice and doing the right thing for children. So we're going to get this done. We're not postponing anything but our policy manual is a complex document and when we make a vote in policy we will be putting codifying what's in this resolution into the formal instructions that are passed to everybody in this district. The ground rules for the district about how we're going to do business in a formal process. Sending it to the policies and procedures subcommittee is not killing it. It is enhancing it. It's building it. It's putting it in the place where it needs to be and I will give you my commitment that we will do this quickly and we will get this in place within the context of the procedures of doing policy in this district. In other words, coming up with a policy proposal, presenting it for a first read, preventing it for a second read and adopting it to that point. So this community needs to know that every member of this committee is standing behind the children of this district. The only disagreement here was with the language and the process and the procedures for getting it done. We now have a resolution before us that I think is an excellent resolution which both makes a statement and points us to the future action of this committee. And I will do everything I can as a member of this committee and as the chair of the policy and procedures subcommittee to get this done as quickly as possible. The resolution sets a deadline of October 12th of report back. I hope we can do it faster than that. With that, any other further comments? Ms. Giddelson. I'm just pointing at Dr. Holman. Oh, Dr. Holman, OK. Equity work is challenging and inherently controversial, even when we see nothing controversial about basic human decency. We as a district, as an administration, are committed to doing the actions in this resolution and are already doing the actions in this resolution. When we do so, when we do these actions, we encounter resistance. We are aligned with the committee and our commitment to the values in the strategic plan and to creating policies that are aligned with that plan and to implementing those policies and to focusing on LGBTQIA plus students in measuring our progress towards our goals. And I have been exceptionally grateful for the support of our work that comes from our committee every single day and the collaborations that I have with all of you and that are codified in this resolution. As a district leader, I've never felt so supported in my work as I do by this full committee and their collaborative work together and we're really looking forward to continuing to implement those actions in support of our LGBTQIA plus students, staff and families. So I just want to say thank you. We're better together and I leave it to the rest of you to decide what to do. I will now call for a vote. All in favor of adopting the resolution is presented. Say aye. Aye. Opposed? It is unanimous vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the HGI report. Mr. Changer, Dr. Changer. So thank you very much for having us. I'm here with Nicole Edson who is one of the English nine teachers as well as Liza Bassett who is also another one of the English nine teachers. I'm going to take a little bit of the presentation out of order because they want to go first. So I'm going to tee them up and then we're going to let them talk which is honestly always my favorite way to go. Start with the strong folks. Although sort of like going on after Hendricks. It's not a great plan. So just to sort of contextualize this presentation. This is one in a series of presentations we've been making about the heterogeneous English pilot. This is the last one for this school year although not the final one for this school year's data. This one is going to focus primarily on the climate and culture survey. We've already looked at the participation and grade information throughout the year and we don't have the final grade so that will be something we will do in the following. So we'll do it in the fall. So if you look at a second. So if you look at the presentation overview we're going to start with the teacher feedback and their comments on the students and then we will loop back up to do the panorama information and the caregiver survey as well as contextualizing some of that. So without further ado I'll give it to the professionals. I'm starting which slide. They have no slide. Hi everybody. Thanks for having me here. I'm Liza Bassa, one of the ninth grade ELA teachers. So I was asked to share some of our impressions on the year overall and based on our conversations with the students and based on our conversations with all of the grade nine English teachers we're overall really pleased with how the year went. Prioritizing UDL in our classes we were able to dive deeper into specific skills and content and maintain high levels of rigor across levels consistently. The ability for students to work collaboratively across levels allowed for rich discussions and more sophisticated levels of discourse on a consistent basis. Students were able to act as leaders in certain topics and were able to receive support from peers in other areas. In both cases this built confidence and a sense of belonging in our classrooms. Based on student feedback that we collected using an anonymous end of year reflection form outside of the panorama survey students felt consistently supported by their teachers to meet challenges. As a result of this support students felt more motivated and capable of succeeding in English class. I just wanted to talk a little bit about what our teacher next steps were what we were planning for the summer in the curriculum work days over the summer we plan to review the panorama survey results and discuss some actionable steps specifically lessons and tools for developing skills around academic conversations for example doing some research and learning about and then ultimately hopefully implementing collaborative interval training which is a discourse and discussion structure we were hoping to also share ways we differentiated our instruction and assessment assessments on a smaller scale so a daily and weekly scale not just formative assessments which we have already discussed and aligned and then we also plan to review our common assessments these are the writing assignments that all ninth grade students complete about three or four times per year so looking specifically at our prompts the rubrics and student samples and when it comes to student samples being able to take specific student samples that align with different levels of sophistication so that students have an example of when we say what's an honors level what does that mean what is an honors versus an A or what are we looking for when it comes to different what's an A what does it mean to be more sophisticated because we can use that word many times but unless students have samples having student samples is much more helpful and clear and concrete to understand what different levels of sophistication is and then our weekly common planning is split meaning four teachers there are eight English teachers and ninth grade English teachers overall so four teachers meet during one period and four teachers meet during another period weekly and we found that the most helpful common planning this year happened when all ninth grade English teachers had a full day to collaborate during the curriculum retreat so next year we're hoping for more opportunities to meet as a full team specifically to grade norm as that process always leads to rich discussion not only about assessments but also about instruction so why don't we go to slide three so obviously what you can see here in terms of formative assessment is that the teachers are doing a lot of really sophisticated thinking about how to move forward this conversation is more of the summative one right thumbs up on sort of whether or not we feel like this is effective as part of the pilot program so I'm gonna be talking about these outcomes so these were the outcomes that we said we were gonna focus on for the summative question honors level participation, student grades rigorous expectations equitable access to rigorous expectations which we defined and we're going to look at through the panorama survey around these areas teacher-student relationships classroom belonging expectations we will be looking going forward at future enrollment and honors we see it sustaining right now with requests but we don't really have the numbers on where the students end up when they arrive in the class so we will have that in the fall and then sometime by the end of next year we will have these students as sophomores in terms of their outcome no actually we won't have it for a while we won't have that till the year after next in terms of this group of students as sophomores taking the MCAS but it is something we hope again we would see positive results in so what we've seen so far is that honors level participation has gone up substantially and we've seen that student grades have stayed even which is an improvement since 19% more of the class is participating in honors level curriculum so now moving to the panorama survey so that link there I believe you guys have the summary of results so the way the panorama survey is organized is they group clusters of questions into scales and if you look across each of the scales these are the scaled results so that's a combination of a number of questions currently what we see is no difference in almost all the scales 4% difference is statistically significant so if you look at the first two or no difference at all next one is down to the next one is up one so if you're looking across these scales of classroom climate, pedagogical effectiveness classroom rigorous expectations classroom teacher-student relationships and then you go on to the next slide you went the wrong way classroom mindset and classroom belonging essentially those are remaining the same it's not great like we were hoping and sort of expecting given what we were seeing in classes to see some more substantial improvements in all of these but it's important to note that this class in particular scores really highly on all of these things and if you look at some of the key questions which I'll do in a minute you will see you will see that on some really crucial questions this class already does extremely well so the one you'll see which was low originally and has gone down statistically significantly is the scale of classroom engagement so that was a disappointing outcome so if you go to the next slide we've gone in more depth through all of these looking for patterns and issues but obviously this is the one where this is something we're focusing on the scale it's the one area in which we're seeing a statistically significant negative impact so we wanted to look and understand what's going on so if you look those are the five questions upon which this is based so these are the questions that can constitute the scale and I actually met with a person from panorama to try to say like how do we interpret this what does this mean in context one of the things they noted and you'll see that again in the next set of questions is that all of these ask not a question about did you learn what does the teacher do what was going on but they ask specifically about how interested are you in this class so there is a way in which the kids were saying I'm not that interested in this class not necessarily that I didn't learn a lot necessarily that it wasn't interesting when I was there but I'm not interested and you'll see that when you go to the next set of questions so on that set of questions which would seem to many of us to be asking very similar things we have very high results and we don't have those negative impacts so how positive or negative is the energy of this class 84% are positive that means extremely positive or very positive if they said slightly positive that's not considered a positive result so that's an extremely high result how often does your teacher seem to be excited teachers were pretty excited in these classes in fact that's the one that went up 5% they are seeing things as a positive thing and this is one which seems to me like the one that we are most interested in overall how much have you learned from the teacher about this subject so that's 89% of students are saying I've learned an extreme amount very high amount or a significantly high amount and then you have students still in the middle if it was only slightly high that wouldn't even be considered positive how interesting does the teacher make what you are learning in the class again this is a high result 68% say teachers make it very or extremely interesting and how excited would you be to have this teacher again 68% of students would be very or extremely interested in having this teacher again so it's kind of a weird thing if I'm a teacher to be like so they say all these great things about me the class they've learned a ton they like the climate of the class but they're not that interested in this class so we're puzzled by it I think it's something we're going to look at we're going to have more conversations with the students to try to understand how they're interpreting that question and why that one would be going in a different direction yep like informal just asking my students about this specific question like what is this kind of giving them some context to ask the survey they know what's going on very transparent so to say what does this question mean to you and so a lot of them are like well I mean am I excited to go to school I'm not really sure what this question is asking of me am I excited to like I'm not excited to go like run laps at my sport but I love my sport so I think I don't know I'm really curious to know more about what students or how students interpreted that question and so I think this is our surmise to some extent that students are saying to us in the current group of students and this is something we're not just seeing in this English class yeah I'm learning a lot yes I'm going but I don't really want to go and that is an issue but it doesn't appear to be an issue necessarily that's specific to this class looking at the very worst outcome let's be fully transparent one of the things that the consultant pointed out and this is true is that if you look within the engagement most of the movement is from high positive responses to middle responses so they are more tepid as opposed to necessarily being negative so you'll see that more students are somewhat excited and more students are slightly excited whereas some used to be more quite extremely excited and that is a finding interestingly that the panoramic consultant said a universal a universal tepidness that there's a move by a lot of students to not negative results and lots of questions and lots of things that they're seeing but to sort of more neutral responses so that is something we will look at more closely so then the other questions that were real focal questions that we will look at when we did the survey within the scales one obviously a significant concern in fact probably the primary concern of everyone when they talk about why whether or not we should embrace inclusion in the heterogeneous model is the impact that there might be some students who are having a negative experience on students learning is obviously a big question for us and so the question was in this class how much does the behavior of other students help or hurt your learning that remains generally positive and it's also worth noting that the percentage of students who are actually negative who are saying that I'm actually being hurt not just that they don't make a difference is relatively small and then the second one that we were looking at which was a specific question that we wanted to focus on is that direct question how much do you feel like we belong and again that remains relatively high in this class it's higher than the school overall by a substantial amount and relatively high for high school students and then if you look at the sort of more neutral questions most of the remaining students remain in the middle part where they're a little bit more ambivalent but not where they're not feeling like they do belong so what does that mean 2000 foot thing I think we are looking at in this the teaching, learning and relationships remain strong in English 9 and are not significantly changed by the inclusion environment the students aren't that excited about going to class that's our issue that we have to work on and figure out what's going on there and as I said we see evidence that this is a more widespread phenomenon there's less excitement about going to school and that we'll look into meanings of that and then Zetsen and Ms. Baster talked about some of the things we're doing and one of the things I talked to Dr. Homan about was so if you go look in the panorama results they have something called the playbook where you look at the specific areas that you're looking to improve and when you go through and you click engagement and you click high school and you click English the things that pop up in particular are things like the collaborative interval training collaborative interval training collaborative interval training is an approach that focuses on academic discourse which shock of the century is what our ILT has decided focusing on next year it's always great when a plan comes together and so if you look at what we're seeing elsewhere and what the strategies are that help to address that we feel like we're moving in the right direction so that is that and then moving on to spring data collection so we also conducted a caregiver survey where we reached out to parents and other caregivers to get their feedback and the questions that we put in there we shared with the curriculum and instruction committee last month we asked one question focusing on each of these scales sort of what we saw as the key or a summative question because we weren't asking the teachers the full 40 there's not a panorama doesn't have an equivalent survey for parents at the classroom level because in part generally schools are not super comfortable with parents for that kind of feedback about individual classrooms because it gets into a level of teacher surveillance that most schools do not want to practice so it was very nice actually that the teachers here were open to us doing this even at this level so if you look again my summary response to that is that on most of these questions the parent responses remain relatively high but interestingly the parents generally give lower responses than the student responses on the equivalent question so if you ask students how much they belong in class 64% respond positively 50% of those 50 parents that responded felt responded positively and you go through again 84% responded positively about the overall climate for students 73% for parents I don't need to read the chart to you I'll be honest as a parent of a teenager I think that may have a little bit to do with how students respond to their parents like they respond a little more tepidly about going to class and I think also probably it's a little bit of just a result of the people who choose to respond to surveys tend to have a slightly stronger opinion and overall the responses from the parents were positive and they were just less positive than the students there were 28 parents who in the open ended response made a comment which could be interpreted as whether they were giving a sort of thumbs up or a thumbs down to heterogeneous grouping they were more positive than negative 15 were positive and 13 were negative the negative comment generally focused on that initial question my students is learning but there are some students who aren't great to have in class and so that is I think a question that we have to ask but one of the things I think we want to think about is that may be the nature of an inclusion class that what we really want to focus on if your student is learning a lot if their experience in the class is positive if there's not a negative impact of other students then there's not a strong argument for moving away from inclusion which we know benefits all students much more so we've already done teacher feedback we've already done student feedback so now we are getting to the last slide so going to slide 18 I believe that is keep going keep going that one now comes an evaluation honors level participation we've seen significant positive impact on overall participation and equity student grades we've seen overall improvement rigorous expectations are generally strong and unchanged in terms of teaching learning relationships and belonging we need to explore the engagement scale result future enrollment and honors it appears that this increase is sustained to next year and achievement in MCAS scores we don't know yet so next steps in the fall my proposed timeline of presentations and next steps would be that we in October when we have the grades from this spring and participation rates for the fall we come back and give you an update then in December we would have term one grades and assuming things are generally okay and that we haven't found something really horrible about engagement we would make a recommendation for the program of studies for the following year the things that are sort of in the wind are continuing the pilot so continuing in English 9 and potentially moving heterogeneous English to English 10 so you have comparisons and doing a pilot at the 10th grade level and then in June of next year we would come back to you again with the semester one grades or maybe the quarter three grades semester one participation rates and panorama results members of the committee thank you for including the full panorama results in the Novus materials the kind of transparency we're looking for I do want to point out though on the expectations section there's four questions one of the questions has the highest drop of any question in the entire survey it's overall how high are this teacher's expectations of you dropped 16% from last year I think that's although the overall expectations blend is okay I think that question itself is a little bit alarming thanks thank you yes so Mr. Cardin picked up a key point there I'm wondering to what degree you all took the engagement questions and reflected on your practice in the classroom collectively all the teachers who teach 9th grade ELA not just all of you how would you assess the group's reaction to these numbers and what kind of change and instruction did you guys discuss this is the teachers we just got these results so that's over the summer I think the question is to look through all the specific questions and kind of like if we were to get a test and we noticed that oh wow you know when we go through let's say a common exam that we give and we say wow everyone most of the kids didn't do so well on question whatever then that's indication to us like okay what did we do or what did we do where they were struggling in that area so I think we plan to do the same thing what was it about the classroom where we could have done this or that or working with those specific questions does that address your question? that's the question is the whole group of faculty in the 9th grade involved in the summer active? not the whole only English teachers I mean the whole 9th grade all the 9th grade teachers all you guys are meeting to talk about correct so we just got these results in from the panorama survey about a week ago so we haven't had an opportunity to meet the whole 9th grade team the whole English team is difficult with a schedule with prep time and with yeah just with the high school schedule work so I think moving forward in the future that's something we'd like to be able to do more of is be able to meet all together as a 9th grade team for an extended period of time how many ELA teachers do we have? 8 how do you react when you see the parents results and they say it's a good class how do you react as a teacher to that? which one specifically it's a good class just the general Dr. Janger said that teachers parents wrote in and they said it was a good class but I didn't like being at my son or my daughter or my student didn't like being in a class with other students who were not at the same academic level I presume that's what they were saying how do you feel about that? I think initially as any human being you say oh jeez I think that's a question where you're like okay is it me? I think that's the first thing I do I also then try to take a step back and say okay I also have to look at how many if there was 400 something parents and only 50 responded and I try to get a sense of is this an overall feeling and also I think to have a discussion with all the teachers and to say hey what do we think about this and why is this happening do you see this in your classroom because these aren't results specific to each teacher we just see it as overall all eight teachers yeah Liza I also think as a teacher I see each one of my students as a rich and complex individual with a lot to offer to the class so the more simplistic perception that the parent might get from a kid after a frustrating day doesn't really capture all of the dimensions that I see on the day to day so allowing maybe more opportunities for collaboration between students and each other as rich sources of information I think that's a goal also for next year just to make that better make that better alright good thank you that was really helpful thank you for not deferring to the principal on answering my questions directly my so follow up question is I just want to do we have data on how they felt there's like no data about we didn't ask 8th grade English how do you feel about 8th grade English we will ask this same group of students again at the end of 10th grade yeah so that we can try to see what kind of cohort effects there are it gets after a while we're getting into I'm running regressions and I may want to do it but it's like we're really digging now into the weeds yeah no regressions is not always the best use of administrators time or the staff's time I like doing it okay fine I don't like spending a lot of time on myself but because I think I actually learned more just talking to my team my own faculty and engaging with them and figuring out what they were feeling on the ground so my next question is I want some clarity so you're going to ask us next year with the program of studies to vote on HCI for all 10th grade ELA is that the proposal? I think I'm going to ask you in December will December is not near yet but the only things that we looking ahead the only things that have been in consideration at this point would be whether or not you would move one continuing English 9 heterogeneous and two whether or not it would be extended on to 10th grade those are the two questions in December of 23 I would add one whether or not the structure of leveling the kids within the class is one that we should continue that's a question that we also have so one of the things we're yeah so one of the things we're doing here and that I would argue should be interrogated as impacting sort of the flat effect on experience is that we're still leveling the kids like they're still leveled they're just leveled within the same class which actually makes the leveling clearer to the teachers and to the students and I think it's worth discussing whether or not containing the structure but now putting it in one class is something we would want to continue or whether we would want to pilot an honors for all approach to 9th grade in a subsequent year so yes it's contained English the conversations we're having and to whether to move to English 10 and to how to structure in English I promise my last question how do you guys feel about honors for all do you like she just gave a tip yeah I feel great about it I think everything what Dr. Hulman said yes how about you oh there's a pause there I was not a pause I'm just being thoughtful about it I definitely think that's the direction that we would take I mean the differentiation is going to happen for student to student no matter what I mean when I'm in my honors class teaching honors kids I'm still differentiating no matter what because every student is different neat I mean that's the bottom line I know that we're asking students to meet a certain set of goals I mean if you look at the common core curriculum they don't say this is what we want honors level kid to do and this is what we want an A level kid to do we say all students should do this and so I think in having the distinction in the classroom is really just a GPA thing but not a learning thing and I would say one of the things like when you think about rigorous expectations for example we we need to interrogate that why that one of all the other things dropped but one of the things that's interesting is so we have students who report they learned a lot from teachers who they report but 99% report positively the teachers know a lot they have good relationships and the teachers report that the quality and consistency of the students work is the same or comparable to past work if not better and yet the students feel somehow are interpreting this experience as one of the thing that's gone away is it's less rigorous and so some of that has to do with this sort of question for some folks about how they make those sorts of interpretations and it's not easy to know what is more real so I think one of the things that the teachers are looking at doing this summer which I think will be very helpful is by providing exemplars of work I think we can have much more consistent conversations about you know when someone says what does it mean to be doing comparable work or not those expectations can be compared across time so I think that's a really helpful thing that we're doing there who likes regression equations but can we just the kids aren't saying that they think the rigorous expectations are gone away because they never had them these are kids that you have who have never been in a leveled class before they had heterogeneous seventh grade English eighth grade English so they're not comparing this to what used to be the people who make those comparisons are people like me who has a kid who took honors English and then has kids who are taking heterogeneous English we may be able to see that but the kids who you surveyed aren't comparing it to a leveled class because they've never had one right they're just saying that they're saying that this year those kids taking ninth grade English are saying the expectations are not particularly rigorous as compared to the students last year who took this class so the kids I think it's really important the kids are not making that distinction because this group is a totally pure group because they've never had anything else right so that I think that to me they are indicating that they don't that this cohort as compared to the cohort last year is indicating a lower sense of rigorous expectations around what they're doing so I guess what I would say is that we are now making very high level inferences from one question and so we don't know right we don't know we know that rigorous expectations overall there were some that went up substantially which is why that scale on the whole remained flat that question went down which is a puzzling result and I think it's something we just need to interrogate Miss Morgan like I think it's important that we look at these questions over the summer and to say do these students know you know what do they understand because the students aren't sure what the questions mean meaning like they may not I have to again I have to look at what the questions are in that section those other questions for questions to say like oh is the word rigorous use a bunch of times do they know what that word rigorous means what does what does rigorous look like to them so I think that's it sounds like a silly basic thing to look at but I don't think so I think if someone was to ask you know any of us what does rigorous look like what does rigorous mean we would have to take some time to think about that and so I want our students understand what that word means before we can evaluate to really you know to take any sand on like oh this is a problem or this is not sure I think though that what we're comparing our kids last year who may also not have known what rigorous meant right they could have been equally confused about it right who knows right so what we're looking at really is is is what is the status between certain things right same thing with the class right they seem disengaged in some level with the class right but they were all taking English last year too what we've seen is this you know a decrease in their engagement with the class which you know maybe is just a see you know maybe we're seeing drops in engagement everywhere and and some of that can be explained by just like this cohort is not they're not the same kids we had last year right so yeah I just I you know I think it'll be I think that it is very brave of all of you to come and present this now in June when you haven't had the opportunity to you only had it for such a short amount of time so I'm you know I'm I'm sure that I don't know what those dates were on the slides but I'm sure when we hear from you in December or October or whenever that is that you know we'll we'll know more about how you thought about it so thank you anyone okay question I'm intrigued by the question of excited about going to class because I'm thinking back to my days in high school there's some classes that I found more exciting than others I'm wondering if we've asked that class across content areas so that we're the only we're the only ones ninth grade English are the only ones who have been who administered this survey so I just I do think that's another thing I was wondering myself like well excited compared to what I know I mean I mean not not that I would want to like ever put like content areas up there and look how well English did or something but it was it's interesting to me to see like you know and along those lines just to I really want to thank my my colleagues for working really hard on this all year and to be the only ones who have been kind of just putting themselves out there in a way that we're not used to and also that no other people have been doing so I just I do I want to thank I'm lucky to work with the team that we work with and thanks to all of you for allowing us to explore this I'm thrilled you're doing it the other thing I'd warn you about is if you're going to come back next year and talk about how the kids are viewing the class is more rigorous explaining what rigorous is will will pollute the cross year comparison because if you stand there and say hi welcome to rigorous ninth grade English you know I missed Dr. Janker just to be clear the question that we're focusing on right now is overall how high are this teacher's expectations right that's the question no but I think you're doing great work and I'm very thrilled to have you here does the superintendent have anything to add nice work team thank you very much Dr. Janker don't move because what I'm going to do is going to take the approval of the Arlington High international trips out of water so you can get out of here or not sit through the rest of this meeting my wife just met so just find out if I was alive we think so thank you very much thank you do I talk what do you want me to do go ahead whatever you want to do so this is not the first of our international trip proposals since COVID but it is in many ways feels I think very much like a relaunch at this point because some of the other ones so our world language department deserves a lot of credit because they have all been coming to me discussing various different trips and programming but the two that are ready for prime time are a trip to Taiwan led by Zhaowei Chao and a trip to Quebec City led by Sean so they are happy they are both I believe here so Ms. Carney is here and Sean is here so they can speak to the itinerary and all the cool things they're planning on doing if you are interested in that and I'm happy to answer any questions you have about program do you have any preferences in terms of content we weren't really sure what you would want you have a big all packet with an itinerary do you have board packets for both of them as well as the survey which tries to answer questions that school committees have asked in the past why don't we try going down to the committee and ask let them ask some questions does anyone have any questions Ms. Morgan I actually have a comment for Sean I have always had a really hard time with these trips to report a trip that cost $5,000 but I am absolutely delighted I don't know that I have ever seen on the school committee an international trip that's been at the like $1,000 mark and that's just incredible for making something more accessible and available to so many more students and I know that it's can be harder to do that and I know that it looks like you're going to be expected to sit on a bus with kids and I just I really wanted to express my personal gratitude for bringing something like this forward I do think that it is the kind of thing that when people see it happening that we may get more interest in running more of these trips that are more affordable for more of our students so I'm really looking forward to supporting that one I haven't supported an international trip in any time so I'm excited to vote for that one okay so first of all Ms. Morgan would you like to make a motion to approve the I would yes I sure would yes I would like to make a motion to approve the very fiscally responsible trip to Quebec and the second by Ms. Giddelson okay any other discussion on the Quebec trip and cold Quebec hearing none all in favor yes yes yes opposed that's a unanimous vote now entertain a motion on the Taiwan trip who would like to make that Mr. Thielman I move the approval of the Taiwan trip second by second Ms. Exton any further discussion on the Taiwan trip can I ask a question what how as the newest member I've never voted on one of these before I share I've seen Ms. Morgan talk about the equity issues before and followed it not super closely how what do we do to address how very expensive that is and and maybe for other comparable trips in the past have we have those efforts made a difference so one of the challenges of leading or allowing these international trips to happen is just the equity of access even a $1,500 trip is prohibited for some families I think the tradeoff that we make as a community is that because we offer international trips we are able to make them accessible to students who would never have that opportunity through any sort of private provider or anything their family could do on their own the way we do that is in part we set aside $10,000 a year for scholarships which is you know it does not make them equally accessible especially with some of the more expensive trips the trips do fundraising towards those and one of the things that we plan for going forward is to offer a mix of trips so that you know there are trips available at different price points so things like the Quebec trip have in the past been sort of every year or two in the Spanish program we've looked at Puerto Rico because you can get there and so alternating those with cheaper trips there's been some discussion about overnight trips that are domestic that are more history focused so there's a mixture of travel opportunities so Taiwan is at the high end the reasoning behind that there's a secondary equity issue which is equally representing all the language programs so we have a large number of students who are committed to the Mandarin program and if they're going to go to a native Mandarin country it's mainland China or Taiwan or Hong Kong and so Taiwan is actually kind of a nice option in terms of being a little bit more accessible but it's very far away and therefore very expensive so fundraising we are hoping I think as a lot of these things were in place before to be able to do more fundraising to increase the accessibility in the international scholarship fund last year when the many points to Papa when the music trip went to Italy all the students who requested financial aid were able to be given what they requested so so we have $10,000 if the trip is if Dr. Homan hasn't taken the money back from me we actually have $15,000 next year and so do you how big are the scholarships they vary so we look across the group of students that apply we look at the level of need that they have and then we make a determination based on need and merit and I know it's in the materials but how many students is the Taiwan trip proposed for? usually we take as many students I don't believe we've capped a trip recently the Mandarin program has about 125 students in it next year so we're not expecting that when the Spanish program is much bigger the French program is much bigger so we would hope anywhere from 10 to 20 students the price goes down as we get more kids it's a little bit easier to run them realistically we are 14% free and reduced price lunch if 14% of the students are requesting we could not cover it so I'm sorry 14% if it was representative of our student population and we had to fully fund 14% of the students we would run out of money pretty quickly so it ends up being a smaller number so also 14% is a pretty look I mean there's a lot of kids who don't qualify for school lunch who can't afford a $5,000 trip so that is the tradeoff if we're going to run programs like this we're doing it because it gives us the opportunity to have some students and more students participate and we try to have a mix to make it accessible and there's a long-term goal we really want to expand that thanks district-wide we are 10% low income but we use a qualify and that's the qualifier we use we use the state's qualifier for low income so they don't have to apply for benefits in order for us to qualify them for a scholarship not all families apply for free and reduced lunch so we've been using that as our indicator for scholarships in the scholarship the family shares what they think is appropriate in terms of need and then we just make a determination based on what we have hearing no other comments I'll do a vote all in favor of approving the trip to Taiwan say aye aye opposed okay that is a the chair is voting in the affirmative why don't we do this by roll call just to make this clean Ms. Giddelson Mr. Cardin Ms. Morgan Mr. Thielman Ms. Exton Vice chair votes in the affirmative that's a 4-2 approval thank you Dr. Janker thank you all very much next item on the agenda the goals Dr. Homan there are some minor revisions to these goals to make them a little smart with a little bit of tweak to inclusion of outcomes so that we're articulating and doing these action steps here's the outcome we're looking for particularly in strategic priority one where we've articulated outcomes related to student outcomes and in strategic priority two where we've articulated data and track to improve retention recruitment and professional development so those are the only changes that were made the actions articulated in the goals are the same okay members of the committee okay on a motion by Mr. Thielman seconded by Ms. Exton to approve the goals any discussion of the motion hearing none all in favor aye opposed no abstentions either it's a unanimous vote thank you override update Mr. Cardin thank you so on June 5 the select board voted to call a special election on November 7 2023 for the purpose of a vote on a proposed proposition to a half question they also voted to put a question on that ballot $7 million general operating override they further voted to approve a draft set of commitments subject to some changes that were noted at the meeting the select board chair is presenting a revised set of the commitments at their next meeting which did not until June 26 so typically I looked up what we've done in the past and in 2011 our vote was to support the language of the override decision and approve the commitments in 2019 our vote was to adopt and vote the long-range plan FY20 override commitment the chair who is not here would like us to take a vote tonight and so I think there's three things we can well there's two things we can do we can vote to support the actions taken by the select board or we can vote to support the override there's two things we can do we can vote to support the override we can vote to support the override as a body that keeps us that prevents us from affirmatively supporting the override we voted on support of other ballot questions so we haven't done that in the past I'm not sure why but I'm open to whatever the committee would like to do I'm happy to listen to the committee or vote in support of the proposed override so either way it's pretty much the same thing with the same result same outcome yeah I mean technically the first one is approving the the the asking the voters about an override and the second one is affirmatively supporting the override all right I move that we affirm I move that the Arlington school committee supports the November 7th override okay we have a motion by Mr. Thielman second by Ms. Morgan any discussion on the motion is that language good mm-hmm okay we'll have a vote and we'll do this by roll call just because it's so important Ms. Giddelson yes Mr. Cardin yes Ms. Morgan yes Mr. Thielman yes Ms. Exton yes and the vice chair votes in the affirmative it is the sixth nothing item as roll call vote Superintendent's update Good evening everyone congratulations to the class of 2023 we enjoyed a wonderful if a little bit drizzly graduation ceremony couple of weeks ago I would like to update you that our crossing guard champion Linda Corella was honored at the State House recently there's a press release LinkedIn your materials and for any reason you can't actually access that link I'm happy to send that I'll upload it to Novus later This has been posted on the APS website and socials. We're very proud of the work that our crossing guards do to keep our students safe on the way to and from school. I'd like to congratulate Stratton student Anna Bode who has selected for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation 2023 Children's Congress in Washington DC. You can see Anna's story at the link that's in the slides and I strongly suggest you watch it. She's going to be an incredible advocate as she grows up and becomes a citizen of Arlington. National History Day national competition was this week and one project has advanced to the top 10 in the nation which is spectacular. We're so proud of them and one outstanding affiliate entry winner for Massachusetts. The title of that project was now I've got the pill oral contraceptives and how they changed the lives of American women. Good for them and one project won first place in the junior group website category that project was entitled Park versus Pennsylvania pioneering the right to education for children with cognitive impairments super proud of our students and their brilliant projects. In addition we have completed several administrative hiring searches I don't have all of them listed here because they didn't fit on the slide but I will share some of the ones that are more recently completed. Congratulations to our new Stratton principal Amy Kelly who has jumped right in and been at school meeting students and teachers and hosting meet and greets with families. Congratulations to our new assistant principals at Brackett Michael Amaral and at Bishop Erin Spinney who will remain she was the interim this year and previously the assistant principal at Stratton and Michael is new to the Arlington Public Schools and is a music educator in its current district. Our new director of research data and accountability which is one of our newer positions this year will be Matthew Coleman and we have posted for an interim director of mathematics because the continuation of this role or integrating it into the fiscal 25 budget would require the override. So we're going to post for an interim math director while we see how that goes. Ongoing administrative hiring searches in addition to interim math director are for Hardy principal. We've completed our initial round of interviews and congratulated our finalists today and informed the Hardy community of those three finalists. The final round will take place on Friday and Tuesday and I'll share the finalists with the full community tomorrow and we have a new opening for a middle school special education coordinator and that is posted. I also want to thank our workplace students and teachers for their work honoring our fallen heroes. The Memorial Day display flags up on Park Circle was beautiful and they work collaboratively with our Rotary every year to do that display. So thank you to them for their work and your enrollment or in your packet. I'll take any questions. Questions for the superintendent. Seeing none we'll move on to approval of job description. So there is a job description that's been reviewed by CIAA yesterday afternoon and has been forwarded for your consideration. This would be a one year grant funded project designer who would be designing onboarding programming. This is an area of need that's been articulated through negotiations with a unit D. It's been something that we know is a need but it takes time to sit and design onboarding programming. So we want somebody to come in and design it in a moment where we have a lot of new administrators also implement a lot of it as we welcome new paraprofessionals and hopefully have a fully staffed school system next year. We would like to also do some implementation of some onboarding programming for paraprofessionals. And what we really want this designer to do is spend a year designing what the program looks like what the outcomes are what the deliverables are for our onboarding processes and our mentoring programs and get this in writing and make it sustainable so that they can deliver it to us and we can execute on it. So this is a need that's been articulated. We've collaborated with the AA on the development of this job description and are really like collectively looking forward to having someone to do this design and then hand it off to us to sustain. Motion by. Move approval of the job description for the leadership development and onboarding program designer. Motion by Ms. X and second by Mr. Thielman. Any questions or comments? Hearing done we'll go for a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. Seeing none Ms. Holt. Thank you. We've done the high school trip so we're now at the year end financial update. Due to a personal emergency Mr. Mason couldn't be here. You have the documents for the financial report memo and I will do the presentation with an update on SR3 now and I'm happy to take any questions and attempt to answer them. If there are concerns about the report that Mr. Mason gave you with regards to conducting the transfers that we need to conduct at the end of the year then we might need to hold a special meeting to address them since I don't have him here to answer questions more explicitly. I'm going to pull up the SR report. Walk through that it's very brief. So as you know we received SR dollars in multiple installments and in multiple different grants in order to address the needs of our students during and across the course of the pandemic. APS was allocated $1.13 million in SR funds. We had three initiative options that we shopped to the community back in 2021 and the community chose to support and move forward with option B which was to ensure student access to consistent and equitable instruction focus on tier one. So we had some core initiatives associated with that when we launched it and we've adjusted some of our action steps but we've stuck with the goal of moving towards these initiatives. So we were going to support the comprehensive equity audit and strategy development. The positions that are in the SR grant for next year are moving towards this because we're hiring a DEI specialist expanding teacher leadership capacity system wide. We were going to use actually the grant to the SR three dollars to increase ILT stipends. We've found a way to integrate that into the base budget next year using some revolving funds. So we're hoping that we won't need to use SR dollars for that but initially that was part of the plan. Resources to support mental health engagement in school culture and accelerating and improving our APS coaching models which we've completed at this point. So there aren't dollars allocated to that in FY 24. So here's the expenditures to date and our FY 24 overall spending plan linked to those four core initiatives. You'll see the FY 24 budget in that right hand most column and the only one thing that's not still being funded on that is the improvement of coaching models because that work has been completed and is now being implemented. So on the spending plan for FY 24 are the following things. We have communication specialists. It's funded at a level of 1.0 but it's split between a couple of folks who will be part time and assistant director of high school counseling which you are aware of. DEI specialists, we've hired one and we hired that individual in at a relatively high pay rate. So we're deciding how to use the additional allocation of that. Director of research, data and accountability is one roof just filled. A family liaison at Gibbs which you've approved the job description for and is currently posted and we're working on hiring for it. The leadership development and onboarding coordinator that you are onboarding program designer. So how that should read that you just approved and elementary literacy professional development is significant allocation going towards our roll out of the new elementary literacy curriculum. So that's the plan for us or three for FY 24 so that we can spend those funds all the way down. And I'm happy to take any questions about that or the financial report to the extent that I can. The financial report includes two motions. One motion to increase the elementary education budget category by 598,000 and decrease secondary by four, six, five, nine, eight, two, three, five and decrease secondary by four, six, eight, oh, three, six and decrease special education by 130199. Can we do it all by one motion? Okay, yeah, we can do it all by all one motion. And then the other component of this combined motion will be increase the other budget category by 940,054 dollars and decrease curriculum instruction category by 542,381 dollars and special education by 305,365 and administration by 92,308. Those are the two motions presented by Mr. Mason. We'll combine them to one vote if that is the desire of the committee. Mr. Thielman. Can I move adoption of the motions? The budget transfers. The budget transfers as described by Mr. Mason. Yes, second by Ms. Ekston. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor? Opposed? That's a unanimous vote. Thank you very much. Policy and procedures. We have for second reading one deletion which is file IJ-R and we have four files that will be in our policy manual for second read. File IGD, file KE, file KE-R and file IMA. There's a slight correction to, I think it was IGD, Mr. Thielman. Just a technical correction to that other than that, these are as presented for first read. I'm looking for a motion to approve this package. So moved, moved by Mr. Thielman, seconded by Ms. Giddelson. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Yes, yes. I opposed, that's voted. We are now seven minutes behind schedule. We have before us, as I asked to put into the agenda at the last meeting, Regis Road used to be a pothole filled mess. Somebody went and paved this private way and now we've got cars speeding down at Regis Road, intersects the corner of Everett Street right at the northwest corner of the Thompson campus. A lot of school traffic and pedestrians there and there's no traffic controls. I've presented for the committee a letter to be sent to the select board with your approval. So I'm looking for a motion to approve. So moved. Okay, motion by Mr. Cardin, second by Ms. Morgan. Any comment or discussion? Yes, Mr. Cardin. A question for the chair, whether admin has contacted the police department or town manager about this? Yes, they have sent a request to the select board who is sort of kicked into TAC and TAC is sort of kicking it back. And I think we really should put a letter in and stress the urgency of this. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor? Yes. Yes, opposed? And that's a vote, nine, 10. Consent agenda, all items on the consent, all items listed on the, with an asterisk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee so requests in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence warrant 23288 in the amount of 747,026 dollars and 60 cents warrant 23293 in the amount of 1,334,840 dollars and 16 cents and the draft or a healer school committee meeting minutes for May 25th, 2023. Moved by Ms. Exton, seconded by Ms. Giddelson. All in favor? Yes. Aye. Opposed? That's approved. Subcommittee liaison reports. Budget, Mr. Cardin. We will be scheduling a meeting after the close of the school year. I'll check up on people availability to wrap up. This year, talk about the initial money in the override and do a debrief of this year's budget cycle. Excellent, thank you. Community relations, Ms. Exton. No report. CIA, Ms. Morgan. We met earlier this week, yesterday. And talked about the job description. We talked about the school improvement plan template. Project you. Project you. Project you at Gibbs. I don't know what else. Yeah, I think that was it. It was a great meeting. Facilities, Mr. Thielman. No report. Policies and procedures as noted in the agenda, we've been asked to look at ADF, nutrition and wellness policy, JLCD administering medicines to students and BEDH public comment at school committee meetings as well as now the LGBTQ plus agenda. So we're gonna be busy over the summer. Prepare for a couple of meetings. Yes. When you do the wellness policy, can you put me on the invite? Cause I sat with them all year while they wrote this. Oh, that would be excellent. I'd love to have you there. I would just love to be there too. Oh man, yeah. Mr. Thielman was chair of the subcommittee when we did the, I think it was the allergy and that was complex. I admired your work on that. I let others do the work. Maybe I could. You're gonna admire my work too. Don't you worry. The revisions are significant. These revisions are significant and are going to require discussion and thought. Just to be aware. And an implementation plan. And an implement. Yeah, I mean, okay. So we've got work to do. Our only thing on high school building committee, Mr. Thielman. Well, we had a great tour of the building. Four of us went. Yeah. This is Paul, Len and I. And it was a beautiful, it was just a great day. The building's doing great. We're, I don't wanna say that's good. We're on budget and we're moving along and on October 11th it will turn over everything but the preschool will turn over on phase two. And so people got a chance to look at everything. The plaza, the library, the cafeteria, the plaza stairs, beautiful. We got to go to the very top. You were on the roof. Yeah. We were on the roof. We checked out the equipment up there. Don't exactly know how it works, but we checked it out. It was just great. So it was a great, beautiful day. So thanks to everyone for coming. Thank you. And those of you, and I don't know if we're gonna do another tour until, there'll be a tour of some of us, probably for all of us rather sometime in October. And then for the public we'll do something, I don't know, probably in the new year. Thank you for the invitation. I really enjoyed it. No more boots. Hard hats. Yeah. Loves. Helmets, not hard hats. I know. Helmets. Helmets, yes. The standards have changed, upgrades. Liaison reports. Yes. I went Tuesday. It's been a long week to the final CPAC meeting of the year. Mr. Cardin had emailed them to update them that there is discussion in the budget committee regarding giving them a budget. And there was appreciation for that. And that's pretty much all I have to report. I attended the ceremony in downtown and the state house for the traffic supervisor from the Hardy. Any other reports or announcements? Future agenda items. Hearing none. Item future meetings. We are scheduled to meet tomorrow. Do I hear, we, tomorrow, next Thursday. I'm advancing the schedule, you know, for make and time. I think we've cleared our agenda. So do I hear a motion to cancel the meeting of the 22nd of June? So moved. Motion by Ms. Exton, second by Ms. Giddelson. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That's a unanimous vote. Don't show up here next Thursday. The other thing is, is there may be items that we want to talk about over the summer and certainly it wouldn't be a bad idea to either have a retreat or some other meeting where we meet some of the new people who we'll be interacting with next year. So just make sure that Ms. Degans has your summer calendar for the ease of making a meeting schedule over the summer. And we now have a meeting schedule and we now have a executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with union and or non-union personnel or contract negotiations with union and or non-union, which if held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect to consider strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation in which if held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect. Collective bargaining may also be conducted and to discuss a potential memorandum of agreement between the school committee and AEA unit A mentor stipend. Do I hear a motion for going to executive session? Motion by? So moved. Mr. Cardin, second by Mr. Thielman. Requires a roll call vote. Ms. Giddelson. Yes. Mr. Cardin. Yes. Ms. Morgan. Yes. Mr. Thielman. Yes. Ms. Eckston. Yes. And I'm voting in the affirmative. Six nothing. We are going to executive session. We may come back into public session. We have returned to regular session at 928 p.m. We have before us a memorandum of agreement between the Arlington school committee and the Arlington education association unit A pertaining to stipends for curriculum mentors. We have voted this in executive session. We're voting this again in public session. Motion by Mr. Thielman, second by Ms. Giddelson to approve. All in favor? Yes. Opposed? Anonymous vote. Looking for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Mr. Thielman moved. Ms. Giddelson seconded. All in favor? Yes. Opposed? We are adjourned at 928 p.m. Seven minutes are up.