 All right, good evening everyone today is Thursday, November 14th, 2013 at 6.30 p.m. and this is the regular meeting of the Arlington School Committee. My name is Judson Pierce and I'm proud to chair this hard-working committee. In just a few moments, we will see an example of our very own Arlington High School students taking a bit of risk. The Arlington High School drama guild will be presenting Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking to tonight. They open in an hour, folks. They're opening tonight, they're running through Saturday this weekend at 7.30 in the low auditorium. According to our guest tonight and drama coach Michael Byrne, Dead Man Walking is based on the non-fiction book of the same title, written by Sister Helen Crijean based on her experience as a spiritual counselor and a fictional death row inmate Matthew Poncelette. It plays a work of fiction inspired by real life experiences. Our students are partnering with the prison books program and they're sponsoring a book drive and representatives of this program will be at the performances to collect books. I know from personal experience that getting on stage involves some measure of risk-taking and certainly a play with this challenging subject matter even more so. So with that said, I'd like to invite you folks into this little stage, if you will. Great. Thank you for having us. My name is Michael Byrne as Mr. Pierre said. The Dead Man Walking School Theater project allows only colleges and high schools to perform this play and there are stipulations that we have to meet. We have to involve at least two other academic departments, sponsor creative art and music projects, and provide feedback to the Dead Man Walking School Theater project. Arlington High School is the first public school in Massachusetts to present Dead Man Walking. Some of the collaborations that we've done so far are that Dead Man Walking was the choice of the Arlington Intergenerational Book Club for the fall. The AHS Drama Guild partnered with the prison books program and is sponsoring the Book Drive and offering discounted tickets to anyone who is interested in donating a book. Sophomore, Cora Flanagan interviewed members of the cast and then interviewed Father George Williams, Chaplain at San Quentin State Prison. And the final product of that video is on display in the lobby where she spliced the interview together so that the students at Arlington asked questions and they were answered by Father Williams. The classes that included Dead Man Walking as part of their study are advanced placement literature, race identity and society, introduction to American law, advanced placement, language and composition, missing voices in other cultures, mixed media and sculpture, and the music tech students designed the sound used in tonight's show and one of the students composed and performed a song that will be used in tonight's show. So I'm going to hand it over to the actors now. Faith of my youth is the faith of my future. But never in my youth could I have imagined where my faith would take me. As a young man it was simple. What counted was a personal relationship with God, inner peace, kindness to others and heaven when life is done. In 1980 my religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph, made a commitment to stand on the side of the poor. And I had gone along but reluctantly. I didn't want to struggle with politics or economics. We were nuns after all, not social workers. Even Jesus Christ himself had said, the poor you will always have with you. That all changed in June 1980. Some glaring injustices were pointed out to me by a sociologist, sister Marie Augusta Neal. The poor aren't there magically. The poor are poor as a result of specific business decisions, specific oppression. Specific greed. To be apolitical in the face of these injustices is to uphold the status quo. A very political position to take. To not actively fight against injustice is to actively condone it. Jesus preached good news to the poor that they are to be poor no longer. Which meant that the poor were not meant to accept their poverty and suffering as God's will, but instead struggled to obtain the necessities of life which were rightfully theirs. Sister Neal viewed Jesus as a social visionary, an activist, what we might call radical today. And we sisters of the Catholic Church had an obligation to carry on that activism, that advocacy for the poor. Something inside me must have been building towards this moment because there was a flash, a revelation, an epiphany if you will. And I walked out of my meeting with Sister Neal forever changed, never to look back. One year later, I was living in the St. Thomas Housing Development in New Orleans, Louisiana. I worked at a place called Hope House, which did lots of things from distributing food to running daycare centers to tutoring. We shared the space with a group that worked with prisoners. I tutored high school students. How can X times Y equal Z? They're letters. When someone told me you could multiply letters. They're concepts. They represent numbers. Well, why are they hiding? Y and X represent sides of the triangle. They're not hiding. It's a formula to find out the distance of Z. Mm-hmm. Sister Prajon, got a second? Yeah. Listen, sister, we've got this fella. Death rowing me. He could use a pen pal, doesn't have anyone. I was wondering if you could write to him. Sure. His name is Matthew Pontlet. He's in for murder. Maybe I ought to give you someone else. This guy's a loner and doesn't write. Maybe you want someone who'll answer your letters. No, don't change it. Give him to me. He's from Slidell, Louisiana. We've got files at the office if you want to read about the case. I didn't know much about the death penalty at this point, but I did know enough to assume that anyone occupying a cell in Louisiana's death row did not come from money. So I saw getting involved with this as a logical extension of my work with the poor. Like my new digs, I'm pretty special, huh? Got this place all to myself. Got each guy's gardener. One dude checks me every 15 minutes to see if I've killed myself. Suicide watch. Never had so many people care about how I was doing. When did you come out here? Last night. Late. Didn't get a chance to say goodbye to the guys in the row. Most of them are sleeping. Did you get me that lie detector test? I made some calls. No luck yet. So this is the end. The death house vacation. Three days of quiet. Plenty of time to read my Bible. Leigh's sister looked for a loophole. Did you read anything in that Bible about Jesus? Holy man, did good in heaven praise Jesus. There's passages in there about the suffering of Jesus when he was alone and facing death that you might find interesting. Me and Jesus had a different way of dealing with things. He was one of those turn the other cheek guys. Takes a lot of strength to turn the other cheek, Matt. You say you like rebels. What do you think Jesus was? He wasn't no rebel? Sure he was. He was a dangerous man. What's so dangerous about love your brother? Love changed things, Matt. People that nobody cared about. Prostitutes, beggars, the poor. Finally had someone that respected them. Loved them. Made them part of a family. Made them realize their own worth. In his eyes they had dignity and were becoming a social force. Threat to the established order and that made the guys at the top very nervous and so they went and arrested Jesus. Kind of like me, huh? No, Matt. Not at all like you. Not at all. He created a better world. He changed it with his love. You stood by and watched while two kids were killed. Mahatma Gandhi once said if we were all to give an eye for an eye, world would be blind. Jesus Christ showed us that the only way to stop this mad circle of violence and retribution was through love. And reconciliation. Love for everyone. Even those that inflict pain. For the family of a victim this is an emotion that seems unattainable. Impossible. But perhaps there is redemption in reconciliation. Perhaps there is some peace in not letting the hatred overtake you. In not letting those who have hurt you continue to. After they're gone. If we reconcile, do our memories of our loved ones spade or do we honor our loved ones with a wish for everlasting peace? A holy place. Without violence, hatred or revenge? Only time will tell. Any other questions? Director? This is a cutting from three very different parts of the play. It was the opening, something from Act 2 and then something from her final monologue. Are you offering to talk back after the performances? We aren't. We aren't. Respect people's time and let them go. But we have been contacted by the prison books program to have something later perhaps. And there's someone who works on the Emerald Necklace with inmates and we think that this probably will not be the end of our exploration of this. There's another play that Tim Robbins produced called The Exonerated that I've been thinking about looking at, too. So I think the discussion will continue after the play. Could you just explain the books program you're talking about and the type of books you're looking at? Yes, they'll take anything published within the last 30 years. They do not want hard cover books. They are in particular need of dictionaries and books in other languages. Did this experience reaffirm or make a question or change your mind on the central question on the actors? At least in my case I felt like it really gave a look to something that you don't get to see because you know about this act and this terrible, terrible thing but they didn't get to know the person behind it and yes it was awful and yes nothing, like nobody deserves to go free after doing something like that but to see the emotions behind the person's family members and the person themselves and the way they affect their community was really interesting for me to learn about. I had something similar to that where I had my own beliefs but then it made me question them but I actually questioned it from the side of the victims' families I had previously been opposed to it if somebody kills someone why would you show that killing is wrong by killing them? I think that's even a line from the play but you really see how it affects the victims' families and just what they're feeling and that really made me think. I was just wondering how you went about deciding to put on this play. I didn't know it was a play and I was watching Rachel Maddow one night and Sister Helen Prejom was on as a guest because this is the 20th anniversary of the publishing of the original book and there's a new forward and so she is doing the rounds and she just mentioned very off the cuff that only high schools and colleges can do and so I googled right away and I was convinced it was going to be a three person play that would not be appropriate for high schools to do and it's a 43 person play and 42 people auditioned so someone gets two rolls and then I reread the book having read it 20 years ago and it seems really present now. One of the things that reminded me of when Dukakis was running for president which I had to tell these kids about and when he was asked what if something happened to Kitty what would he feel and one of the things that Sister Helen says is that's an unfair question and not answerable question but an easier if there is such a thing question to answer about the death penalty is what if someone hurt you how would you feel about it and I had a very different answer to that and she also one of the things about being judged by your worst every person is worth more than his worst act and the idea of forgiveness and redemption and with we think it's very removed from Massachusetts but something that happened four or five miles from us could very easily involve the death penalty and so I think it's something that young people should be thinking about and to do a contemporary play is a difficult thing because contemporary plays have three characters in one set and that's very economical to do but I think it's unfair educationally so when I saw a contemporary play with 43 characters about a topic that invited you to dig dig deep and involve other people and have really great academic conversations about it even just with the other teachers that are teaching it over the lunch table that's what we've been talking about for two months so to me it just as soon as I knew that it was a play it seemed like I read it once and I said yes this is what we're going to do I just want to congratulate the students that put together the video I had a chance to watch it last night and all of your questions were really interesting to hear and it was a really nice kind of thoughtful way of getting ready to watch the play the interview was great and the footage was great so congratulations thank you well thank you very much thank you we go to see that man walking at high school this weekend and it's not to be missed this reminds me a lot of the Laramoon project Moises Poffman the tectonic deer company coming together with a real tragic moment and really digging deep like you said it's wonderful and thanks for presenting tonight to us thank you thank you just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming just a hand coming and I know you're all waiting on the end of your seat. To have public participation, I see a few folks in the house, Ms. Jane Beyond, if you would like to come to them. Thank you. Good evening. I don't always come to the school committee for theater, but that was just phenomenal. It was such a pleasure. So what I did come to the school committee tonight, meeting tonight, is to invite you all, the school committee, the school community, and the Arlington community to the Arlington Education Foundation's Fall Celebration. It will be happening next Monday, November 18th, from six to eight at Flora Restaurant, so we'll have some very good food. The speakers for the event will be Dr. Matthew Janger, the new high school principal, and Catherine Ritz, who's the director of War Languages. One of the reasons we come together in our Fall Celebration of a year is not only to celebrate the work that AEF has done with the schools over the past year, but also to celebrate new projects. We're very excited about a new three-year technology initiative we're rolling out, a new grant category, continuing scholars grant for teachers. And I would also invite you to take a look at today's advocate, because there's a wonderful article about the technology initiative and the new STEM lab at the high school that was funded partially through the technology initiative. So please join us to learn a little bit more about these programs and our past programs. Again, our event will be Monday, November 18th, from six to eight. We hope you all will be able to make it, and it's at Flora Restaurant on this app. Thank you. Anyone else here for public participation tonight? I'd like to just go over the Bishop and Hardy Schools art that is in learning our walls. First grade one, from the Hardy Mixed Media Collage. The first grade students created Mixed Media Collages inspired by Nancy Stanley, contemporary artist from Texas. Nancy Stanley works in various media and creates beautiful collages of animals and everyday objects and food using maps, newspapers, pattern papers, and painting. The students in the first grade observed and discussed her artwork and how she created her pieces. And they learned about Mixed Media Art and how it refers to artwork that uses more than one art medium or material that artists use to create artwork. The students were asked to choose an everyday object to use in their own personal artwork and create their own Mixed Media Collage using print and paper. Grade two, which is on that board, they did Picasso faces. And the second grade students created imaginary faces inspired by the Cuba style portraits of Pablo Picasso. Picasso was one of the pioneers of Cubism and art forms are an artist's observed objects and people from different viewpoints and perspectives and assembles them together in an abstract way. Second graders observed and discussed several of Picasso's Cubist portraits. They used oil pastels and colored paper to create their own imaginary portraits using Picasso's inspiration. The students were asked to take close attention to what colors they chose and where they placed the patient's pictures. Grade three, from Bishop, I think that's Bishop, they did narrative prints. The third grade students created prints based on the narrative nature of the prints of Alice and Boyd, a contemporary printmaker form. Narrative artwork is artwork that tells the story. One type of narrative art occurs when the pictures look like snapshots of a story that's in the process of unfolding. The students observed and discussed Boyd's artwork, they discussed what narrative art is and how Boyd's work represents that idea. The students created printing plates or their original image that represented their own idea of narrative art. The printing plates were created by drawing lines into styrofoam plates and they took rollers and rolled a thin layer of ink over the styrofoam printing plates. A clean piece of paper was placed on top of the ink printing plate and the inked image was transferred onto the paper, making a print or copy of that image. Grade four, which is right behind Mr. Spray. Fiona Hall Birds, the fourth grade students created three dimensional birds out of various papers. The project was inspired by the Australian artist Fiona Hall and her exhibition and interactive installation at the Gallery of Modern Art in Australia. Fiona Hall created sculptural birds nests created out of shredded U.S. currency. This was a commentary on how to spend your money on things such as cars, plastics, et cetera, affect the environment in a negative way. The installation fly away home tied into the steam and allowed children to come into the gallery and create their own paper birds, not out of currency, to add to wooden tree sculptures. The fourth grade students pretended they were in the gallery and invented their own imaginative birds out of paper, tissue paper, tape, glue, and markers, and they were required problem-solving, invent ways to make the birds three-dimensional from these two-dimensional pieces of paper. And last but not least, grade five, students right over there did tertiary paintings, mixed media paintings inspired by the art of contemporary artists, the Vienna MacArthur. MacArthur's colorful abstract paintings translate her motions, thoughts, and energy into complex designs and patterns. She's heavily influenced by the art of various cultures around the world as she began traveling around the world when she was six weeks old. MacArthur's paintings include primary colors, red, yellow, blue, and secondary colors, orange, green, and purple. They include the six tertiary colors which the fifth graders focused on. Tertiary colors are made when the adjoining primary and secondary colors are mixed together to make colors such as yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, and so on. The fifth grade students were asked to create artwork where they used primary colors to make a painting focusing on shapes and lines to create a feeling of energy using MacArthur's paintings as inspiration. They were required to mix their own secondary and tertiary colors, and once the painting was complete, the students added oil-pastel details. Beautiful artwork there. Thank you Bishop and party students for coming together on this. Speaking of the hard work that it takes to do this artwork, I'd just like to take this moment to give some congratulations to my colleague, Jeff Bealman. Jeff was honored last week with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Massachusetts School Committees Association and the School Superintendent's Association Joint Conference in Hyannis. I was happy to be there on with some of the colleagues here at the table and our superintendent to witness the presentation. Jeff, congratulations. Thanks very much. Friends, my opening remarks tonight deal with two broad and important themes and some of them come out of the conference that I attended last week. How these themes relate to one another. Leadership and taking risks. We all just saw an example of our students taking risks with the play Dead Man Walking. Regarding leadership, it was 150 years ago, November 19th next week, and one of the greatest speeches in American history was delivered. The Gettysburg address. On November 19th, 1863, a cemetery known as the Soldiers National Cemetery was dedicated just south of Gettysburg. President Abraham Lincoln wrote 10 sentences, comprised of 272 words, spoke for two minutes, and changed our nation forever. He never used I or me. President Lincoln took considerable risk during his presidency, and we're all very thankful that he did so. Which brings me to tonight. Tonight, we exercise one of our most important responsibilities as school committee members. We evaluate our superintendent in open session. And there really is no coincidence that we had to play Dead Man Walking. On the evaluation, though. There's really nothing to, okay. We take this responsibility seriously. I will give you a preview of my report. Our superintendent leaves, she leads gracefully, and with an eye towards the future and the success of our students. She takes appropriate and calculated risks to further our district goals. That's a preview. As author and frequent lecturer, Mike Staver stated in his book, Leadership Isn't for Cowards, never ever assume you've tried everything. I guarantee you, you haven't. Also, don't assume that because you tried it once, it will never work. Results require work, not trying. Our students here tonight, as well as our superintendent, exemplified it's there. Moving on, superintendent's evaluation. It's a little bit different this year than in past years, because we had a new structure sort of mandated by the DESA, but we had come up with overall district goals as we had in past years, using our old format. We evaluate the superintendent on a November to November year timeline, in part because we get the results of our MCAS scores in October. We like to use and incorporate those scores in our evaluation. So it presents us with an interesting sort of transition superintendent evaluation year, in that we're evaluating based on the 2012-2013 school year, which is long ago ended. But again, we've received the scores from MCAS, which is part and parcel to some of our evaluation pieces tonight. And we use our old CBI policy and CBIE instrument tonight. Now, Mr. Hanner and some others here have tried to incorporate some of the standards, indicators, rubric, if you will, that we will be using a year from now as best we can. So this is an experiment in the transition. What I would like to do is start out by seeing if any of the members have any opening comments they'd like to make. And if so, now's the time to do that. And then what I'd like to do is following the old CBIE form where we have two sections, section one, core competencies and section two, district goals, strategic goals now called, going that work in a round robin fashion. So starting with core competency, one with Dr. Allison Ampe going around the table, core competency, two with Ms. Hyman and Matt. And if anyone feels that there's part of their written material that we have in front of us that has been left out and hadn't been touched on, please, please raise your hand during the proceedings or right after. I'd also like to give the members some pause here. If you veer off your written comments and speak sort of extemporaneously based on what you've heard tonight, please mark that for Ms. Fitzgerald so she can mark that in the minutes so she knows that there's a difference in your writing and what you spoke here tonight. And again, we're not doing this live because of technical problems. It will be aired starting tomorrow, Friday 15th on ACMI. And hopefully we're gonna be live next Thursday. And it will be next Thursday, not two Thursdays from now. We had to make a change due to the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. So, Mr. Hamm. I just wanna, as the chair, Mr. Piazza said, I will be passing several times during this because I have decided to use, try to use the newer form and did not go back to using the older form as some of my colleagues have. It's not a judgment one way or the other. It's just an understanding. And all these documents are available to the public in the future. That's really, yeah, Mr. Floyd. I wanna thank Mr. Hainer for putting the new form into a template that we can use. I too followed the new form in part because I've been working on familiarizing ourselves with the new rubrics in my day job. Great. Okay. So why don't we go ahead with section one, core competencies, having to do with committee superintendent relations. The superintendent keeps the school committee informed on issues, needs, and the operation of the school system. She offers professional advice to the school committee on items required in the school committee action with appropriate recommendations based on thorough study and analysis. The superintendent maintains a professional working relationship with the school committee and interprets, supports, and executes the intent of all school committee policy and goals and objectives of and provides recommendations as requested. Dr. Allison Anthony. Accommodations. I commend the superintendent on her hard work and her dedication to our schools. I recognize that she has devoted much of her time and energy to running the RIP public schools. And I greatly appreciate this. I also commend the superintendent on communicating to the school committee the changing picture that is our state's educational policy and activities. Because it seems like it changes every other week. Under recommendations, I recommend that the administration ensures that school committee input is sought before making financial decisions about funding, about splitting funds with the town. This input was missing before proposals were made regarding kindergarten fee offsets and the splitting of the chapter, the increased chapter 70 funds. Second, that the administration better communicate facilities issues such as snow removal and maintenance of the school committee. This would involve improved collection of ongoing problems, analysis of the source of problems, a presentation of this information. Possible solutions could also be included. We're lacking appropriate facilities, needs, and formations that would enable us to make good budgetary decisions. Third, that the superintendent with the chair make creation of a long-term agenda priority as was discussed during governments. This agenda would allow for school committee members to anticipate upcoming topics. The superintendent needs to make an effort to assign dates to topics and follow through and work with the chair to provide information to the school committee while in advance of our meetings. And finally, in communications, the superintendent act more as a distiller of information rather than a consolidator. I feel end of year evaluation reports should capture essential information on both the equation in a sentence or two to support any data following. And then all information should be written in a similar style with the same voice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For commentations, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep a voice this whole meeting. Dr. Bode keeps committee members informed of issues regarding the school system in a timely manner. If there is some urgency or public attention to an issue, she calls committee members personally. When the issue is appropriate, it is shared through email in person or the regular meeting or through newsletters and communications. When the committee needs to take action in addition to Dr. Bode's guidance, she has brought in other experts such as legal representatives, principals, directors, et cetera to provide information to the committee. Additionally, Dr. Bode has continued to strengthen her relationship with the committee through the MESC, M-A-S-S-D-E-S-E School Governance Program. I'm to recommendations. My recommendation is that Dr. Bode should take the next step with the committee by continuing to work on a year-long agenda to ensure that the committee has necessary information to make decisions around the budget and meet all legal obligations. Thank you, Mr. Swit. I'll pass right now. Mr. Phil. Commendations, the superintendent has kept a school committee informed of issues facing the school. She attends nearly all subcommittees and she responds quickly to inquiries from the committee. I find the recommendations on policy matters to be helpful, carefully considered, and in the best interest of the district, she understands and supports our needs to respond to a question of public. I don't have a recommendation on that same. Under commendations, I've seen an improvement in the communication level between the superintendent and the school committee over the past year. Dr. Bode is constantly keeping the school committee in the loop through emails and phone calls to make sure that we have the latest information. She's also quick to respond to requests and questions that I have had or that the team has had. She has been proactive in making sure that we have information we need in a timely manner. She attends just about every subcommittee meeting that she can, so she's up to date on the school committee business. She was an integral piece of the MASC governance project and her role in that and support of it was vital to the improvement of our relations and how we conduct ourselves. Recommendations. I would like a quick weekly update to school committee members via email that simply tells us what things have been going on in the district this week and what we're spending time on. This would allow us to have more understanding of where time is being spent and if there are places we can help or where we should be involved. Thank you. Yes. Dr. Bode has improved in this area from previous years. Her newsletter is full of information. She regularly emailed the school committee on issues of the day. She studies and makes the appropriate recommendations based on administrative, staff, legal and community feedback. Dr. Bode regularly comes to our subcommittee meetings and other town school related functions and encourages the school committee to join her. I would rate her as proficient in this area and meeting expectations. I recommended the superintendent sees issues that are arising to let the school committee know on a timely basis rather than have them become larger and harder to rectify and not to dismiss problems as being minority view but to investigate and if necessary come to a revised opinion or conclusion based on new evidence and testimonial reports and to report same to the school committee. Summary Dr. Bode is proficient in core competency. One, there are areas that need improvement to allow for more expedited further discussion at the school committee table for items that are not planned, going as planned and what to do about that. For competency area number two, educational professional leadership. The superintendent is active in visualizing and analyzing new ideas, methods and technologies. She demonstrates understandings of state and federal laws and Department of Education regulations. The superintendent assures that a balanced program of professional development is provided to enhance curriculum, staff performance and student learning. She inspires all staff to achieve the highest possible professional standards and she assesses designs, recommends and implements curriculum consistent with the mission and priorities of the Arlington Public Schools. The superintendent understands and keeps informed about all aspects of state and national educational activities which have the potential for affecting the Arlington Public Schools. The superintendent develops and implements educational and organizational strategies that are effective in meeting the needs of a diverse student body. Ms. Hyde. Dr. Bode with her administrative team have continuously used data and professional development opportunities to determine the best educational tools and opportunities for student academic achievement. In addition to meeting the requirements for mandated trainings such as 51A Furbun, anti-bullying, Dr. Bode and her team have been proactive with we then retail compliance making Arlington one of only seven communities to meet a YP for ELL students. She has also improved programs for RTI that have allowed Arlington students to exceed their projected performance on MCAS's measured through the SGPs. Under recommendations, I believe Dr. Bode should focus her attention on programs and supports at the middle school level to further close the achievement gap. Thank you, Mr. Schulten. Thanks. Mr. Tillman. Commendations, the MCAS results show that Arlington is a high achieving district. Overall, the district met TPI targets of 75 in math, ELA and science. The median student growth percentiles is 53.4 in math and 56.4 in English language arts. Several of our schools were in the top categories at MCAS. A significant amount of professional development was offered to teachers and staff. The participation of teachers and PLCs, professional learning communities is excellent. It's one of the best professional development tools there is. It's one of the best ways to do academic achievement for students. The full alignment of ELA and the math curriculum of the Common Core State Standards was completed in the summer of 2013. The district and Dr. Lawyer to be committed for doing this ahead of many other districts in the state. And we continue to expand participation in advanced placement courses in the high school. The recommendations, I like my printed remarks, there's all sorts of data in there. Basically, we still have work to do to close the academic achievement gap. The student growth percentile in the sixth grade math is 47. The student growth percentile in the seventh grade in ELA is 38. Student growth percentile in grade 10 math is 44.5. We have high needs groups. We have students in IDPs, low income students, ELL students. And throughout the district in different grades. Fourth grade in ELA, the student growth percentile is below 48, is 48. The fourth grade Latino student growth percentile is 44.5. And I have a whole list that I want to work with. So there's different pockets in the district, the point I want to make. Where we have title one students, we have ELL students, we have IEP students who are not getting to the same, not making the same academic progress as the rest of our kids. And so we just can't decide on that and my recommendations are the other side. Thank you Mr. Stark. Commendations. This is a place for Dr. Bodeuk Sells. She has created a team of administrators and teachers who feel supported and well led creating a cohesive team of administrators and educators in the Arlington Public Schools. The work done in this year to get the curriculum to align with the new Common Core and a renewed focus on common assessments for all disciplines are just two examples of achievements in this area. In addition, the work to ensure meaningful and useful professional development experiences for all teachers and specialists has helped to many improve their practice and further improve the level of staffing in the Arlington Public Schools. The move to ASOP for requesting and assigning substitute teachers has been successful and is an example of how a new technology can help in better running our schools. In leading by example, Dr. Bodeuk's participation in the superintendent's induction program shows teachers that we can all improve our practice and should seek out ways to do that. Recommendations. For future professional development, I would survey the staff to find out what they most want and see if it is possible to meet those needs. Thank you Mr. Hanford. Pass. Commendations. Dr. Bodeuk encourages and fosters professional development opportunities for staff. She understands the need for teachers to learn as well as to teach, especially even the mandate to align to the Common Core Framework, develop and implement the new educator evaluation system and to further excel in their practice. Dr. Bodeuk comes to the job as an educator and curriculum experienced individual. There's a stable, professional, and productive working relationship between the superintendent and the human. I am pleased with the 2013 MCAS results of our students. Gentlemen. Recommendations. I have some concerns and need further information about the new kindergarten curriculum and its rollout. I'd like to see us updated more regularly on technology plan and to have a short summary of it for the community to review and give feedback on. Also further work needs to be done in furthering the trend of overall improvement in the areas of ELA now and science and math tests. I would rate the superintendent as proficient in core competency in 1.2. Moving on to three, general district management, Dr. Nelson Ampe. Next. Sorry. Recommendations. I commend the superintendent on the advancement of professional development that we're seeing in this past year. This will help our teachers help our students in their achievement. I also commend the superintendent in keeping abreast of the changing picture that is our state's educational activities. For recommendations, I recommend that the superintendent put more emphasis on analysis of new ideas whether they be results for a pilot study for discussion of new curriculum directions and then to communicate the results for this analysis to the school committee and to the public. I also recommend that the superintendent more closely oversee any proposals for new approaches such as the language of immersion initiative. She is the one to ensure that all appropriate questions are being asked and that information is being obtained including financing before putting such topics on the table. It's also necessary to present how new initiatives fit into the entire picture of the R&D public schools. Thank you. Number three, general district management. The superintendent makes a concerted effort to reach out to all cultural, racial, and linguistic groups in the school system. She identifies opportunities to improve organization performance and facilitates constructive change. The superintendent provides an environment, culture where creativity, exchange of ideas, responsible risk taking, and experimentation on shared, valued, and practice. And she maintains high standards of ethics, honesty, and integrity. Mr. Schlow. Yes. Mr. Schlow. I commend the superintendent for the completion of the Thomson School on time and on budget. I commend the superintendent for completion of the NEASC for overseeing the completion of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation. And I commend her for accelerating the tech plan. Recommendations. I understand from a conversation I had that Dr. Booth is visiting classrooms more and accompanying principals on learning walks. I would like to hear more about it. And I'm going to add to my remarks here. I'm supposed to tell you the chairs that will do that. So I wanted to talk about a conversation at a high level. I'm not asking you to say something. Perform this way. But I think it'd be good to hear kind of at a high level what you're here to say, Mr. Schlow. Commendations. Several district initiatives, ASAP and Atlas Rubicon have helped to better organize and serve the district, but none more so than the move to a centralized registration process for all new students. This central registration allows the district to better understand where new students are and how best to serve their needs. Students can be placed at a better level. Class sizes and class and school needs are now known more immediately in administration. Dr. Bodie continues to improve the district's response to the many languages other than English spoken in our LinkedIn homes. For recommendations, I would like to see a report on how we are doing with the translation of notices and information into the many languages other than English that are spoken in our LinkedIn homes. Yes. Commendations. We've met our district goal of increasing the diversity of our staff and our superintendent and human resources director should be commended. The superintendent worked very hard to make sure that the Thompson School opens on time and on budget. The superintendent should be commended about the work she and our interim high school principal and staff put into the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Survey and the review of the letter and recommendations that was issued in the spring took a lot of time and energy. The STEM computer lab that opened at the high school was stepped in the right direction. Our food management services are very good and run on budget. I'm impressed about the completion of district goals 2.1 and 2.2. The superintendent worked closely with the Arlington Teachers Association and the Arlington Administrators Association to create and ratify an educator evaluation system that is consistent with the new DESC guidelines and is currently being implemented. Dr. Bode understood the importance of providing at least four professional development experiences over the last four years for teachers and administrators in the implementation of this new system. Recommendations. I would like to hear more about the diversity of our staff, our students, and how we're making sure that our English language learners are growing and thriving. Dr. Bode is proficient in core competency 1.3. Dr. Allison Amin. I commend the superintendent on her collaborative approach. The cooperation between our schools and the lack of acrimony greatly contributes to a healthy professional culture which is attractive to teachers and helpful for students. I also commend the superintendent on the increased recruitment this year of teachers of diverse backgrounds which better reflect the diverse backgrounds which comprise our students. And I'm going off text here. I've also, who was reminded by Jed, I bragged just yesterday to friends about the food service, our food service, to friends from Newton who are not nearly so happy. They'd like to know where you go. Under recommendations, when there is a suggestion or mention of a potential problem either by school committee or by a member of the community, I recommend the superintendent be more proactive in identifying the issues of concern where research should be done by the administration to clarify the size and the scope of the problem for discussions with principals and possibly surveying staff and our parents. Ultimately, the issues need to be reported to the school committee. Examples of this type of problem would be reports of inadequate snow removal, reports of fellow orders from the Bishop classrooms and reports of heating and cooling problems at the dawn. Ms. Lance. For commentations, Dr. Bodie has developed a strong administration team that encourages the exchange of best practices. Teachers are encouraged to be continuous learners and to experiment with their instruction in the best interest of the students. There are many programs offered as resources to student caregivers. For recommendations, Arlington has a diverse population and Dr. Bodie needs to expand the outreach to non-English speaking public school families and also continuously review and expand on that extra for the greater community outreach. Number four, personnel management. The superintendent develops and oversees the execution of sound personnel procedures and practices and applies procedures and techniques as required by contracting law in the supervision of staff. She clearly defines roles and responsibilities of central office employees and other administrators. The superintendent sets high consistent expectations and standards for effective staff performance and holds every employee accountable for meeting them. She obtains input from parents, staff, and community groups when hiring key administrators such as principals, assistant superintendents, et cetera. She works effectively with collective bargaining units to ensure high quality teaching and learning in our schools. Mr. Swift. Yeah, Mr. Field. I commend the superintendent for hiring a new high school principal or new principal at the Hardy School. I commend her for implementing new educator evaluation guidelines and I commend her for implementing the new evaluation framework for principals. No recommendation from the superintendent. Mr. Starrs. Commendations. Dr. Vody is quite adept at her management of district personnel. She has taken part in numerous negotiations with our unions and has overseen the hires of several outstanding administrators. Her hiring continues to be inclusive with staff, parents, and community groups who are effective and ensures a level of openness and inclusiveness in those hires. Work is progressing on ensuring that every district level employee has a clear job description and gets timely reviews and feedback on the job that they are doing. This is on top of the need to move to the new teacher evaluation system required by the DEC. Through the professional development opportunities in the district, she has worked to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning in our schools continues to improve. Recommendations. I would like to see a timeline for when we can expect to see all job descriptions completed and approved. Thank you, Mr. Hand. Pass. Commendations. Dr. Vody is strong in this area. She's hired an excellent staff and conducted four major administration searches. Community forums were conducted to aid in these searches. The ASAP was successful in requesting and assigning substitute teachers and for employee absence reporting. The superintendent should be commended in requesting and advocating for an increase to our substitute A scale, putting Harlington in line with what other communities are doing. Recommendations. Stronger oversight should be put in place to make sure errors and or missions do not happen. When and if they do happen, I'd like regular reports on how the district is responding to them. I'd like reports on how the educator evaluations are going. If principals are completing them on time or if there are any issues that are realism or need to be addressed. Summary. Dr. Vody is proficient and is meeting expectations in court competency 1.4 that needs to improve the protocols and procedures to make sure that errors which could have been prevented by proper oversight may be reduced and hopefully eliminated. Dr. Alice Mann. I've been superintendent on the hiring of a new high school principal and new high defense school. I also commend the superintendent on last year's search for a new special education director. Although ultimately the search did not succeed because the other district wouldn't let them go. The quality of the candidates brought forward this year was much better which bodes well for our future. Recommendations. I recommend that the superintendent better communicate to the school committee how key administrators are helped to grow in their roles in a way that doesn't violate confidentiality. I would like to hear more about how performance is assessed and how the central administration is helping our key administrators improve their management and their communication skills. While recognizing that the structure of certain departments in Arlington is confusing I recommend the superintendent do more towards clarifying these department needs. I'm talking about IT and facilities and communicating these needs to the school committee and to the public. Thank you. Ms. Hyde. Under commendations. Dr. Bode has successfully recruited and hired new administrators to the district. She's used technology to ensure evaluations and deadlines are being met more consistently than any previous years. In addition Dr. Bode has taken more active role in mentoring the administrators to ensure inter-rater reliability. Dr. Bode also creates a supportive environment that allows personnel to grow professionally and continue their commitment to the Arlington Public Schools. I consider this an area of strength that have no recommendations in this area. Thank you. Moving on to number five for competency, community and public relations. The superintendent strives to maintain community respect and support for the school system. Promotes partnerships among parents, businesses and other community agencies and assesses the needs of parents and community members and involves them in decision making. The superintendent is an effective spokesperson for the school district and she works effectively and cooperatively with other town leaders and agencies. She plans, initiates and carries out activities to inform community of the mission, goals and accomplishments of the system and responds effectively to identified problems of all groups and individuals. Starting with Mr. Thiel. I commend the superintendent for the completion and approval of the redistricting plan. I commend her for strong relations with town leadership. She has made the town and other leaders in our community aware of our growth and needs including the need for new high school. I commend her for the implementation of alert now. I commend her for regular newsletters and communications to parents. I commend her for being very visible in the community campus at all the events that happen in this town. Under recommendations, I urge her to continue the effort to diversify our staff and I'm gonna add one more that's not going rogue. You know what I mean? And that is, and I think this recommendation before is that I would encourage the superintendent to have discussions in school committee meetings around solely around the challenges the district might face in any one area, whether it's special either closing achievement gaps and all that because that would be a great way for us to learn what the district was doing and also as a way of leverage. It could be a way to leverage improvements inside of this district. Let's start. Commendations, this past year has seen a high level involvement with town officials and appointees as to be committed. Dr. Bodie has ensured that the town is kept up to date on school needs and accomplishments and his work to ensure that schools are being included in conversations that affect them. Her monthly updates to the community highlight the great things happening in the Arlington Public Schools. Her work to improve the information available on the district website has helped many to have the information that they need. Dr. Bodie consistently ensures that the entire district is thought of as a cohesive whole. Dr. Bodie attends community events and supports Arlington as a community in addition to attending school functions. Recommendations, I would like to see the websites of all schools conform to a standard so that navigating them is easy for parents regardless of the school their child or children attend. I would also like to see a review of all after school programs housed in our schools to ensure that equity is maintained in space, cost, and expectations for all. Mr. Chairman, ask commendations. Dr. Bodie attends many school and town events and is always ready to talk and answer questions. Her monthly newsletters are informative and very interesting to read. The town meeting book was well done and provided to the community on the district's website. Recommendations, I would like to see a review undertaken of the piece of the rentals of school space and accounting of those that are long-term renters. I understand this is commenced and that is a good start and these have not been reviewed for years. I would like to see in conjunction with the community relations subcommittee and the school committee revised and modernized website and have schools all have equally modern websites that are easy to navigate and update. I'd like to see more use of the talent resources we have and members of our community who may be willing to spend some of the time of their time and share their energies to improve in areas that we are lacking. Summary, Dr. Bode is a proficient in core competency 1.5. Dr. Allison Ann. I commend the superintendent on her reporting of the many positive activities that occur every day in our schools. She's been a very effective communicator for the support aspect of our district. I also commend the superintendent on her newsletters which also highlight many aspects of our schools. And finally, I commend her on attending so many of our school functions, something which is supportive of staff who conveys caring to our parents and our students. Under recommendations, I recommend that the superintendent pay more attention to obtaining and maintaining better data to aid in communications about the needs of our schools. Examples include class sizes at the middle and high school, the numbers of drafted studies, the numbers of students for teacher in specific subject areas. I also recommend that the superintendent create a uniform method of reporting class sizes at the elementary school level and ensure it's used by both APS administration and by the elementary schools. This would illuminate the appearance of ineptude and the confusion and anger that occurred when parents are hearing different class size numbers from the teacher, the principal and the central administration as occurred this past summer, as has occurred in the prior years. Thank you, Ms. Allison. Dr. Bunny has shown continual growth in this area. Through the work between district and budget, she effectively seeks out community partners to work in the best interest of the school system. She's also successfully oversaw, rebuilt and has developing support for additional capital improvements. Dr. Bode is a visible advocate for the school system and is president in many community events. Under recommendation, Dr. Bode should to continuously seek means for communicating with community members or not tech savvy. This is slightly fast. And the last one under core competencies, business and finance operations, the superintendent effectively plans for all the financial needs of the school system, including program staff, facilities, equipment and supplies. She controls expenditures with a high degree of efficiency within budget limitations and obtains maximum return on investment. The superintendent either individually or through a member of her staff provides clear, concise presentation and explanation of the budget and budget process. She informs the school committee of the budgetary implications of administrative decisions in a timely manner. The superintendent and her staff keep the school committee informed of the district's financial status and budgetary implications of administrative decisions in a timely manner. The superintendent oversees the development and execution of procedures to assure the safe and orderly maintenance of all facilities. She communicates with school building committees and effectively manages all school-related capital projects and starts. Budgets, funding and budgetary implications and decisions made have never been more transparent than they are currently in the Arlington Public Schools. Improved processes and tools for handling this work are a welcome addition. Her work with town officials on the needs for the physical maintenance and work on the schools has been thorough and timely and has helped to ensure that there is consistent and timely information. Her work on the Thompson rebuild was exemplary and helped to ensure the opening of the school on time and on budget improves as a shining example of what we can do when we work together with the town and community for the schools. Through work done under her, we were able to eliminate the fees for kindergarten and consequently bring in more money for the town. Recommendations. I would like to see a high level report for each school that outlines the physical state of each building and the plan for the next five years for maintenance, updates and repair. This report should be updated yearly. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Combination. The elimination of kindergarten fees was an accomplishment as was the ongoing process of updating the job descriptions. Recommendations. I want to see more information about the state of our buildings and what needs to be done to keep them in good shape. I'd like to see an organized vision for the plan of the stratum in the high school as well as direction on whether or not the middle school will be large enough to hold any increased enrollment numbers we're witnessing now at the elementary levels. Summary. The superintendent is proficient in core category, competency 1.6. Dr. Allison. I commend the superintendent on the smooth final construction phase of the Thompson and that the project came in on time and under budget in a financially constrained district such as Arlington being able to make everything work out as a wonderful asset. Recommendations. As previously mentioned, I recommend that the superintendent create and maintain better data that captures in numbers aspects about our students' life at the middle and high schools as well as enable more informed decisions of budget time. I also recommend that the superintendent enhance communications with town officials at long range planning via two actions. First, by preparing concise handouts conveying information highlights, for example, the HHS facilities needs. And second, by ensuring that all members of the school committee obtain pertinent information in advanced police meetings so we can better speak to the schools issues. Finally, one of the questions about budgeting and the overwrite constraints occur, I recommend that the superintendent herself seek clarification with the town manager and begin this communication well in advance of budget presentations. This would avoid situations such as what occurred with the special education increases in the past budget cycle. And I agree with the Starks idea they have a high-level report on facilities needs and updated. Thank you, Ms. Hunter. Dr. Buddy has shown growth in this area. Schools are completed on time and buildings and improvements are being planned for future. Dr. Voting conjunction with her staff have built community confidence in the district's management of funds. Under recommendations, Dr. Voting should consider long range planning that focuses on the direction of the district and not on the available funding. Thank you, Mr. Flint. Yes, Mr. Flint. I commend the superintendent for the role she played in this nation at the all day kindergarten fee for implementation of the center registration for new students in our district and for some of the, and for many of the capital employment projects in the districts including the replacement of the HVAC system on this floor. My recommendation is that the major focus of the school district in terms of construction and expansion over the next several years to be the high school and therefore it is important that the superintendent and her staff develop a FAQ frequently asked question document regarding MSBA process and the process by which we will seek funds in support of the town. Thank you. Section two, strategic roles. Strategic role one, the Arlington Public Schools overarching roles. The Arlington Public Schools will ensure that every gap graduate is prepared to enter and complete a post-secondary degree program, pursue a career, and be an active citizen in an ever changing world by offering a rigorous, comprehensive standards-based and data-driven K through 12 system, a curriculum, instruction, and assessment that integrates social, emotional, and wellness support. Gold categories, student achievement, there are four of them. Number one, using Atlas Rubicon software, complete the alignment of the APS curriculum with the Common Core Standards, CCSS, and the World Instructional Design and Assessment Standards, WIDA, in English language arts and mathematics as well as subjects impacted by CCSS. Number two, reduce the achievement gap by attaining an annual PPI score of 75 or greater for high-need students at every school. Number three, improve student achievement by attaining a student growth percentile, SGP of 51, or greater, at eighth grade level in English language arts and mathematics. Number four, create or identify two common assessments at every level in all disciplines to measure student progress in order to maintain high expectations for learning, teacher consistency, and common focus on instruction. We start with Mr. Han. I'd like to brief comment at the beginning. My ratings and comments are based on evidence that the superintendent has given to the school committee and district goal work plan. I do not question the superintendent's veracity, but evidence is just that specific examples of what has been accomplished, much of what has been provided as statements of what has or was done as specific examples. In the subcategories, there are four ratings. They did not meet some progress, significant progress, met and exceeded, and then there is an overall rating for the goals, which would be unsatisfactory, needs improvement, proficient, or exemplary. Under the first subcategory, which was using Atlas Rubicon, the evidence provided were the professional learning community cover sheets, nine of them attached with SMIC goals and three common assessment sheets, one sheet from Ms. Kerry Dunn, attesting to the alignment of the common goal using Atlas Rubicon. Your college acceptance and matriculation report, class of 2013, and Allington Public School District goal work plan, a statement of work done by teachers during the year. The only comment, the only document that is related to this goal was from Kerry Dunn, the evidence supports the alignment and the social studies department. I rated this subcategory as some progress. The second one, reducing the achievement gap by the annual API score of 75. The evidence, the 2012 accountability data from DESE and the Allington Public School District goals work plan. This goal was only met in five of our schools, one of which did not have a significant population report on it. I rated that did not meet. The third one, improvement student achievement by attaining student growth. The evidence provides supports that there's been significant progress in attaining this goal. I'm still concerned about the math scores in the middle school. We have invested money, professional development, and staff, we have all had this as an issue for the last three years. I rated this one as significant progress. And the fourth one, create and identify two common assessments at every level. The evidence that was provided seems to meet the goal. I've asked the superintendent to have all the work listed in the work plan available for the public to see perhaps on our website. I rated that one as this sub goal as being met. The overall rating I rated as needs improved. Thank you, commendations. Coming into this year, I was concerned the NCAS results from 2011-2012, which showed efficiency in math learning, particularly at the middle school. Dr. Bode deserves credit as does the OMS math department staff and working effectively to meet the changing demands during the school year. In the summer, there were numerous meetings to update curriculum and to develop the initial diagnostic. As a district, we met goals 1.2 as five of our eight schools with high-needs populations at the annual target, and we realized improvements in our math score, and MCAS scores. Dr. Bode and Stafford have been commended in realizing strategic goals 1.4 because at least two common assessments at each grade level and course have been developed and implemented. I recommend that we need to make sure our high-needs learners at the high school and the middle school in bracket attain an annual PPI of 75 with greater. Further professional learning communities work and most grades must continue. For our budget planning process, this should be thought about and recommendations made to the school committee and the community of what resources need to be deployed to assure the completion of this goal. Dr. Bode should address and watch, not meeting strategic goal 1.3 in grade seven, which is now grade eight, and grade four at the Dow in now grade five. Continue to align the DDMs and report out to the school committee periodically on the process. Add steam to STEM. The arts can play a crucial role in the learning and success of our students. I'd like to see Dr. Bode take a lead in this effort in encouraging the use of dance, visual arts, draw line music to foster better understanding of core concepts in math, ELA, and the sciences. Dr. Alex may. I commend the superintendent on the alignment of the curriculum with the common core standards and for identification of common assessments in all disciplines. I also commend her on improvements in the PPS scores and growth scores. The improvement of student growth in math, the total mass in the sixth grade is especially noteworthy. Even though it didn't make quite to 50%, it went up from 35 by 12 points, which is a lot. Recommendations. I recommend that the superintendent report more on what steps are being taken to address our high-need students whose PPI scores were below 75. I note that although five of our eight schools met the goal of 75, remaining three schools comprise over 60% of our high-need population. The field is worrisome that so many of our high-need students are non-cheap on a similar level. I also recommend that we need to take the curriculum mapping to the next level and make it available in a summary form for the public so that the parents can know what to expect for their children. Finally, given the new evaluation timeline, I recommend that attention be paid on ensuring appropriate student performance data is available in a timely fashion for the school committee when it comes time to set the annual school committee district goals. Thank you. Ms. Hunt. The commentations, I would commend the superintendent on the work competencies. Pretty much when we look at the list every year of our graduates, they are going to find colleges, usually their first choice, and we continue to use the data to make those informed decisions. Under recommendations, I also think that we need to continue to focus on the areas of greatest need, particularly the middle school and our at-risk students and want to see an expansion of focus and resources for that population. Thank you, Mr. Sleitman. Okay. Goal one, student achievement 1.1 using Atlas for the Khan software. Significant progress. Evidence, evidence presented to the school committee indicates significant progress toward the goal. My sense of the goal is too expansive to be presented enough evidence to document fully meeting this goal, which is why I rated it as achieving significant progress. Comments, it's an exhortation of this curriculum alignment will lead to improvements. In PPI and SGP, with the 2013-14 school year, 1.2 reduced the achievement gap. Evidence, rating significant progress. Evidence, four schools, Hardee, Stratton, Pearson, Thompson had annual PPI scores below 75 in 2012 and raised them above 75 in 2013. Two schools, the Odyssey and Arlington High had annual PPI scores below 75 cumulative PPI score below 75. Comments, progress is significant, recognizing it will still have a significant way to go before you meet the cumulative PPI in online schools in the district. 1.3 improved student achievement by attaining a student growth percentile of 51. Evidence, grade levels where the SGP does not meet the 51st percentile threshold in 2013. Grade six math was 47.0, though it was 35.0 in 2012. Grade seven English language arts, 38.0, that's down from 47.0 in 2012. Grade 10 math, 44.5, down from 55.0 in 2012. Grade seven ELA improved from 47.0 in 2012 to 53.0 in 2013. Comments, last year the MCAS presentation and the subsequent presentations by the district math director highlighted a sense of urgency in moving middle school math scores. While grade six math did not meet the threshold, there was a significant improvement in the growth scores. The declining grade 10 ELA is concerned by anticipating a continued sense of urgency that will lead us toward having high growth scores in every grade, in every school. That's goal one. And an overall rating for goal one for Bishop. Thank you, Mr. Tillman. I refer the committee of the chair and the secretary to my commendations and recommendations under core competency to education, professional leadership, finance, everything, et cetera. Thank you, Mr. Stax. Commendations, we're completed to align our curriculum with the common four standards in focusing each discipline to define and use common assessments. It means that students are seeing teachers who are working together at a more cohesive level than ever. There is nothing that strengthens teaching and consequently learning more than allowing teachers to work together to plan and execute their curriculum. This year we saw this in every department, so it is really no surprise that we saw a reduction in our achievement gap and an increase in PPI on state assessments. Recommendations, I would like to see us to continue to focus on common assessments and ensure that departments continue to have time to work together to offer the best instruction and curriculum design for our students. We also need to focus on efforts to improve math in the middle school. Thank you, Mr. Stax. Strategic goal number two, the Arlington Public Schools will recruit, hire, retain and build the capacity of a diverse staff to be excellent teachers and administrators by providing high quality professional development aligned to needs, instructional support, coaching and an evaluation framework that fosters continuous improvement. There are four strategic sub-goals under staff excellence in professional development. Strategic goal 2.1, working with the AEA and the AAAA, create and ratify an educator evaluation system consistent with the new DESE guideline to be implemented in 2013, 2014. Strategic goal 2.2, provide at least four professional development experiences over the year to support teachers and administrators in future implementation of new educator evaluation system. 2.3, provide every teacher and specialist with at least one professional development experience designed to deepen their knowledge of content and differentiation strategies. And 2.2, provide professional development for teachers and administrators on iPad technology and instructional integration of technology to improve teaching and learning. Commendations, Dr. Bode deserves credit for completing these strategic goals, work over the year to implement the new educator evaluation system will ensure that all teachers and staff get their frequent evaluations and the support they need to continuously improve their skills. Dr. Bode has also taken part in negotiation sessions to define how this will look and how it will be implemented. Our staff diversity continues to improve. Professional development for all teachers and staff was offered that not only allowed them to deepen their content knowledge but also improve their ability to differentiate instruction. Professional development aimed at the use and integration of technology in our classrooms will help motivate students to further their learning. Recommendations, include input of all staff in decision-making process, especially when it affects significant changes to curriculum. I'd like to see us continue to improve on the diversity of the staff hire, Dr. Alasman. I commend the superintendent on the creation and ratification of the new educator evaluation system. This is a major achievement, one that many districts are struggling to attain. I appreciate also that it was done in a collaborative and respectful manner. For recommendations, I recommend to the superintendent that the next set of professional development goals focus more on what educational objectives to be achieved, not on how many days of professional development are supplied. Although I recognize in the past there may have been less professional development. I think we're ready to take this to the next level and think more about assessing what is learned rather than counting how much time spent in the process. Thank you, Ms. Lott. I also commend the superintendent, Dr. Boody, on the work achieved with the new educator evaluation tool and also for the recruitment and hiring that has been continuously going on. Under recommendations, there is always the need to continue our outreach to find more candidates of color, more candidates that represent the diversity of our community. Thank you, Mr. Schlittman. Goal two, staff excellence and professional development. 2.1 working with the AEA and AAAA exceeded Evan's AEA contract, Arlington Evaluation website comments. Arlington has developed a reputation for being in the forefront of thoughtful, aggressive implementation of the new educator evaluation system. As a non-race at the top district, our being really means we surpass other districts with a one-year head start in the process. The collaboration between the AEA and the district sets the standard for building a thoughtful evaluation process. 2.4 provide professional development for teachers and administrators. Rating met the goal. Evidence and extensive training in role out of iPad technology, professional development that corresponded to the opening of Thompson School. Overall rating, goal two, proficient. Thank you, Mr. Schlittman. I refer everyone to my commendations and recommendations under four core commentators in our management. Thank you, Ms. Starks. Commendations. Work over the year to implement the new teacher evaluation system will ensure that all teachers and staff get fair and frequent evaluations and support that they need to continuously improve their skills. Dr. Boating has been an integral part of making this work and has taken part in negotiation sessions to define how this will look and how it will be implemented in the Arlington Public Schools. Our staff diversity continues to improve. Professional development for all teachers and staff was offered that not only allowed them to deepen their content knowledge, but also improve their ability to differentiate instruction. Professional development aimed at the use and integration of technology in our classrooms will help motivate students to further their work. Recommendations. As stated previously, I would like to see a survey of the staff for future professional development to find out what they most want and see if it is possible to meet those needs. I would also like to see us continue to improve on the diversity of the staff hired. Thank you, Mr. Henry. Excuse me, 2.1. Working with the Arlington Teachers Association and Administrators is developing the education evaluation system. My rating is exceeded expectations. I participated in the process and feel that the superintendent and our staff are to be commended in the job well done, going well beyond what was expected of them. 2.2, providing at least four professional development experiences over the year to support teachers' administration. I rated this exceeded expectations. These show the many excellent offerings to help the staff through a new and sometimes frightening program. 2.3, divided every teacher and specialist at least one professional development experience. Rated this has met this goal subcategory. The self-evident in the evidence that was provided. 2.4, providing professional development to teachers and administrators on iPad technology. This goal was met. My overall rating, oh, I would, one comment I would ask the superintendent to include staff evaluations of the seminars in the future as part of the supporting evidence. I overall rating this proficient. Strategic goal number three, the Arlington Public Schools will offer a cost-effective education that maximizes the impact of taxpayer dollars and utilizes best practices, academic research, and rigorous self-evaluation to provide students and staff the resources, materials, and infrastructure required for optimum teaching and learning in a safe and healthy environment. There are four strategic subcategory goals. 3.1, resources, infrastructure, and educational environment. Develop a need statement and potential actions that address this planning for the future of the Arlington Public Schools with emphasis on the high school, middle school, stratton, and preschool. 3.2, complete the non-construction planning and purchases, which includes furniture and technology infrastructure, and the relocation plan for the New Thompson Elementary School. 3.3, implement an automated system ASOP for requesting and assigning substitute teachers and attendants reporting. 3.4, implement state health regulations outlined in the Healthy Hunger Free for Kids Act, HHFKA, Dr. Allison Ampe will start with you. I commend Superintendent on the completion and the opening of the Thompson as previously mentioned. I also commend her on the implementation of the ASOP program and on the implementation of the Healthy Hunger Free for Kids Act. Under recommendations, I recommend to the superintendent to utilize things like the facility's need statement more fully as a way to communicate important school problems to the public. There was a missed opportunity in the need statement as presented in that it did not give enough information to sustain and capture and convey the facility's needs or to highlight the most important parts. Thank you. Next slide. Under commendations, the Superintendent, Dr. Bode, has done a good job of sorry to see my voice. Okay. Okay, Dr. Bode has done a good job of ensuring that the buildings have been opened on time and that she is looking towards towards sending out resources in the correct direction and provides a cost-effective education for all our students. Under recommendations, I would like to see Dr. Bode work more with the five year planning process to make sure that there continues to be that focus on cost-effective education. Thank you. Mr. Schlegt. Goal three, indicator 3.2, completes the non-construction planning purchases. Thompson met the evidence as a successful opening to Thompson. Implement the automated system in ESOP rating met. Overall rating goal-free proficient. Thank you, Mr. Finley. What I want to say is covered under my remarks under core comment, these three and six. Thank you, it starts. Commendations. System-wide improvements to help the district run smoother and smarter, including centralizing new student registration and the new ESOP system for finding and assigning substitutes. Needs assessments for the Middle School, High School and Stratton buildings are ongoing and the Thompson School renovation was completed on time and on budget. Recommendations. As stated earlier, I would like to see a high level report for each school that outlines the physical state of each building and the plan for the next five years for maintenance updates and repairs. This report should be updated yearly. Thank you, Mr. Hanner. 3.1, development needs statement. Rating I gave was met and I would ask the superintendent to continue this work so that all our schools of 20th, 21st century schools, 3.2, complete the non-constructive planning which includes future technology, things that this goal was also met. 3.3, implement an automated system ASOP. This goal was met, I had personal experience using this program in neighboring districts and I find it easy and useful and beneficial. 3.4, implement the state health regulations, this goal was met. I found the major part of the evidence in our own policy file and I commend the policy group with Dr. Bodie's help in writing this policy, overall rating proficient. Recommendations. The Thompson School opened in September, it was on time and on budget. The superintendent and our leadership team worked together to make decisions on what are the right resources and materials and infrastructure to bring into the district. I'm pleased that Dr. Bodie contracted with the Boston Company on-site insight to perform an audit that resulted in recommendations of the media action for our capital and energy needs of high school. Dr. Bodie and our health and wellness kitchen staff are to be commended on a wide variety of nutritious offerings, the policy and rollout of the new nutrition policy and a fiscally sound meals program. Arlington submitted documentation and was approved last year for an additional six cents funding per reimbursable meal for meeting the requirements of the federal HHFKA. Recommendations. I do not remember seeing the results of the planning on potential reconfiguration of existing space at the autism. I'd like to see that. I'd also like to see a one or two page need statement summary and actions for the schools with particular emphasis on the high school autism strat and preschool. We've talked about the needs of these buildings, but I think a concise summary statement that highlights the major problems and suggested solutions is crucial to get the town behind any efforts of renovation. I wanna see more updates on STEAM initiatives, technology plan and the facilities plans and the media as well as at our meetings. I'd like to see surveys and town hall meetings on these very important issues. I'd like to see the technology plan boil down to a short paragraph of goal or goals of what we want for our students. There's definitely room for improvement here. Once we recognize higher enrollment and further unexpected costs due to unfunded mandates, the burden is on us and the superintendent to get the community and stakeholders informed as to what it will take going forward. So we do not encounter any large deficits or have to cut valuable programs. I'd like to see more of a speedy and organized approach to that reality. To better document special education cost growth, for example, I'd like to see further leadership and organization around the strat and high school autism and their renovation and space limits. I'd like to see better explanation of our special education costs versus our regular education costs and how we're using the town's appropriation in that regard. I'd like to see better long-range planning partnership with the town officials. Lastly, folks, to end this discussion before summary statements, strategic goal number four, the Arlington Public Schools will be run smoothly, efficiently and professionally. The district will operate transparently and engage in effective collaboration and responsive communication with all stakeholders. It will provide timely, accurate data to support financial decision-making, envisioning of the district's future and long-range planning in partnership with other town officials. Through these actions, it will create broad support for a high-quality education system in the community that is the community's most valuable asset. There are two sub-goals under operations, communication, and stakeholder engagement. Goal 4.1s, develop a centralized registration process for all new students that incorporate school committee-approved redistricting guidelines as widely communicated to all stakeholders. Goal 4.2, conduct and report the results of a survey of Arlington residents to evaluate the two-way communication of Arlington Public Schools. Ms. Hein will start. I actually have nothing to add to either commendations or recommendations that are not already said under the categories. Thank you, Mr. Schlick. Goal 4.1, develop a centralized registration process for all new students met. Evidence presentation regarding central registration of school committee meetings, comments. The successful implementation of central registration was essential for the implementation of the new student assignment policy, given the efficient placements of students in elementary schools. This is a critical cornerstone for implementation of the new districts and buffer zones. Overall, rating goal 4, proficient. Thank you, Mr. Kim. I say exactly what you said. Ms. Hart. I just said it much better than I did. You said it very well. I also have nothing to add in this section that is not already been said. Thank you, Mr. Hanner. Develop 4.1, develop a centralized registration process for all new students. I rate that it's met. This was well done. I would recommend that an evaluation sheet be added to the form to give feedback in the future. 4.2, conduct and report the results of survey of Arlington residents who evaluate two-way communication and EPS. Statement of business goals document was not completed. It speaks for itself. This goal was not met. I hope that this is completed as soon as possible. Commendations. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry, Mr. Hanner. The overall rating needs improvement. Commendations. Dr. Bodie tackled 4.1 well with the help of Ms. Leilani and Dagestino. Parents seem to like the centralized registration. It's easier. It's more efficient. Dr. Bodie's leadership proved invaluable in tackling a decades-old problem of unequal class size in the district. Recommendation. I'd like to see more evidence on how the centralized registration process was widely communicated to all stakeholders. I'd like to have periodic updates on the early results of redistricting with reports on how many students were redistricted and how many goal point and goal, why 4.2 wasn't completed. The school committee and superintendent should meet in a retreat and formulate what a survey should look like and what the goals should be for it. Section 3, summary comments. Oh, Dr. Allen. There's only shut that. Yeah, there's only shut that. I commend the superintendent on the development of the central registration process, which has enabled the gathering and reporting the helpful, important information about student population growth. Recommendations, as already mentioned, and other topics. And also, I recommend to the superintendent that the survey be conducted for actual communication continues to be a significant area of parental dissatisfaction. Thank you. Summary comments. We will start with Ms. Dishlickman. We're gonna go around the table and please ask what you have missed or would like to input here. This is your chance for the ending. Okay, overall comments. Given the transition to the new educator evaluation system, I scored the superintendent on the high leverage indicators, in which evidence is apparent to the school committee and at the community level. Superintendent Bode has had a successful year leading the Arlington Public Schools. The role of the new teacher evaluation system is exemplary in the model for the entire state. Given that Arlington was not an RTTD district and has had a much more relaxed deadlines for developing and implementing the new system, the fact that other districts, including race to top districts, looked to Arlington for leadership is an exemplary outcome. The successful completion of construction and opening the New Thompson School is achieved in what appeared to be a seamless manner. Superintendent Principal Donovan should be commended for the smooth transition to the new building. The superintendent's leadership interacting with Niasque helped Arlington to get a report that truly reflects the current state of education in our high school. The commendation of our teachers and students reflects the substantial work involved in making the high school a great place to learn. She was using the Niasque findings as evidence to demonstrate the urgency of making substantial improvements to the Arlington High Facility. There has been progress towards the goals that would bring the district to level one status. The goals are purposefully challenging. And in my mind cannot be achieved in one year. There is evidence of purpose and strategic planning in the gains that were made in 2013, no matter how well we do, there is always room for continuous improvement. And the superintendent has skillfully committed herself to this task. Superintendent Bodie has also alerted us to the challenges we will be facing due to steadily increasing enrollment. By placing this item before us at almost every meeting, she helps to focus the committee and the community on the problems we need to solve in order to continue to provide a quality education for our children. Currently the central issues are the steady increasing enrollment and the need to bring the physical plant of our own high school up to the standards required for accreditation. The future of our district depends on the continuation of this work. I rate the superintendent proficient in all four goals and view her overall performance as a superintendent as proficient. Thank you. Mr. Phelm. I've learned in school management that we're going to keep recommendations as concise and as we have as few recommendations as possible so people walk away knowing the most important things. So the overall commendation is that we have a high performing school district and that's because of high performance leader in Dr. Bodie. So we have a high performing school district. We should be happy about that and I think we are. There's two major recommendations that I want to leave you with. The first is any area where we have, where we're not achieving an SGP of 51, whether it's a subgroup or grade level or subject matter and a PPI of 75, is an area that has to be the focus of the superintendent or staff and it's a conversation we should have, protecting people's contractual rights, we should have in public so that we can learn about what the district is doing to address these issues. That's my major recommendation one. The second major recommendation is that the big issue facing the island and public schools over the next one, two, three, four, five years is the issues, the physical issues in this building, this high school. And so I want the superintendent and her staff to make that a high priority and to enlist the support of the school community to do whatever is necessary to address the concerns raised by the community association of schools and colleges about this building and to make this a great, smart building for learning for the next 50 years. Thank you, Ms. Tarris. Overall, this has been a good year for the Arlington Public Schools and I feel that Dr. Vody finally has the staff she needs to successfully run the district. With a wonderful team of administrators, teachers and staff, Dr. Vody has led the Arlington Public Schools to a more open and cohesive school system. More than ever, things are being handled proactively instead of reactively, allowing the time needed to think through and handle issues and concerns that may arise. Dr. Vody has fostered a positive working relationship with the unions, which not only allows there to be a discussion and creative thinking around anything that may need attention, but also means a productive relationship that helps move our schools forward. Thank you, Mr. Harris. I want to commend the superintendent for the Thompson School coming online, smoking on time and under budget. I commend the superintendent and the application of the redistricting program. I did not get one single phone call during this year. Thank you. Negotiating and implementing the new teacher administration and evaluation program, keeping the school committee informed of the timely manner on all pertinent issues of the Arlington School system and making yourself available to members on a timely basis. I recommend that the superintendent consider the following. To continue with the statement of interest of a high school and other facility projects, work with the committee so that both sides are clear on the evidence supporting the standards and goals for your evaluation in this upcoming year. To continue keeping the committee informed about continued increases in student enrollment, just strive to have a successful search for the special education director that the entire school community will support. We'll ask the complete the survey of the Arlington residents to evaluate the two-way communication of Arlington Public Schools. This evaluation that I have put together is a hybrid of all of the old form and the elements of the new form. I do not feel comfortable to do an overall reigning at this time. I continue to believe that Dr. Bode is a caring educator who acts in the best interest of the children's staff in the entire school committee. Community, excuse me. Thank you. I am proud to say the Arlington Public Schools are strong and Dr. Bode has provided stability and caring and consistent educational leadership. Dr. Bode does not rest on her laurels nor does she accept full credit. Like a good leader, she understands that it is practice of continual improvement that needs to be adhered to and pushes all of us for better results. Dr. Bode is the first to say that the Arlington Public Schools are strong because of our teachers in our classrooms, the administrators in our buildings and the parents and guardians and the students themselves. Today, I wish to tell her and the public that we are fortunate to have the leadership of Superintendent Bode. Dr. Bode is always looking for community support and help and volunteerism of the parents and guardians. Last but not least, the Arlington Public Schools is strong because of the continued commitment to excellence and practice that our students exhibit daily. Dr. Bode has hired the right leaders to help implement her vision of a strong public education system and takes on projects and problems to finish them and make them better. My recommendation is to continue to educate the community about what a 21st century education in Arlington should look like, what it will take and what we already have in place and what we will need. My summary comments, Dr. Bode is proficient and she meets expectations and goals. I'm pleased that last year's numerous and ambitious district goals were over 92% completed. Dr. Allison. I commend the superintendent on her collaborative leadership side but I remind her at the end of the day she is still the one responsible for ensuring that the district moves forward. I would like to see more analysis of data and results whether we are discussing new pilots, new initiatives or future planning. I would also like to see improved communications with an emphasis on targeted, clear and concise reports of presentations. Finally, the superintendent is the one we should be bringing you the bigger picture view to the table for both educational aims and for thinking about the future. I would like to see more of this in the coming year. Although I greatly appreciate the hard work the superintendent has shown, I feel improvement is almost possible and I'll for these suggestions and hopes that we can bring our district to the next level of achievement. Thank you, Simon. And almost anything that I would have said has already been said but I just would like to commend the superintendent on a continued commitment to improving the Arlington School's public education and making sure that our students get it in facilities and with tools that are worthy of them. In terms of recommendations, I'm going to echo what I said before. Just keep your eyes on the long-term goals of where we want to go as a district and don't get mired in the year to year in a way that lets you lose track of those long-term goals. But thank you for what you do for our districts. Thank you, Mr. Schlinger. I've already given my. Oh my God, are we already over? Yes, we made it through. Thank you, members. And thank you, Dr. Vody. For this hour, we went over our 40 minute, 45 minute budget time but I'd like to give you an opportunity to say any words or any questions that you might have for us. Can you get all this done this week? You mean the whole renovation of Arlington? Yeah. It's fine. Well, thank you. The very thoughtful comments is true that I am responsible for where we go but I have to honestly say this is really a team effort and we're part of it. We have very competent teachers, administrators and people who are very dedicated to progress of our students and to creating good learning environments and to constantly improving. As I said on Arlington Day, beginning this school year, this is a school system that is committed to a continuous improvement. And you see that everything that people do doesn't mean that we always make every single goal. I don't think that that's actually, should be the goal. The goal is progress and commitment to that kind of improvement. You don't wanna set the goals that are easy to be achieved because then anything in life, they're too easy, then there's no sense of accomplishment when you achieve them. So I'm very proud of all that's going on. In fact, some of the reports I have tonight just more evidence of the, say it was the superintendent's report but of the achievement of our students and our staff. So I would want to say to the Arlington community that you really have a great public school to be proud of. And the handsome sitting here who talked a lot about union collaborative work but I give a lot of credit to Linda. She's certainly been a very strong leader for the AEA. And in that collaborative, but honest and frank kind of conversations we have, I think that we are able to work together to really stop problems that come up and that's just natural. It's all about people. And therefore there are things that come up that need to be worked out. But it's also systems and vision of where we are. And you had sitting at writing down the recommendation. There are a lot, there are a lot of things here. And I think that it's going to be important for all of us to set some priorities around these. Some of them are in our goals for next this year and some are not. And we are in a school year that is really a challenge in terms of energy. And I think that we can all say that we are all trying to do this with equanimity, but it is a lot of challenge in terms of the mandates that are upon us from not within ourselves, within ourselves we always want to improve but the mandates that are external to us. And so we are doing, that's where our energy's at this year. And there are some things I think are just going to have to wait, such as improve websites. And there's a number of things, but those will all come in time because we all want to see those. So thank you for your thoughtful comments and thank you for your partnership as we've been working together. I think that the governance project certainly was a very worthwhile and I talked other superintendents and school to be members that this is a really valuable thing because it's not all about one person and it's not all about, it's really about all the different kinds of teams that focus on what we need to do. And well, thank you for your comments to the Thompson. There's the Thompson School Building Committee, which Jeff served on too. That was a great team of people that worked on that. And by the way, it was not on budget, it was under budget. Thank you, Jane, but it was. And I think that the members of the committee felt very good about that, is to have such a wonderful school to result from all those years of effort. And I suspect as we go forward with the high school and Stratton and yes, we do have to look at Thompson, given what we experienced this year in enrollment, but we will do this. And I think that there's a commitment everyone's part that we need to do it and we will do it as we go forward. The challenge will be, talking about what are the challenges, the challenges are gonna be the sequence in which we do it and that will be a community challenge, not just a school department challenge as we go forward. So a lot of good suggestions and the commendation there really would like to spread those out to all the people I work with because it really, they deserve a lot of credit for what just happened this last year. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on. We have an enrollment update projections session and this correlates to our district goal, 4.1. The public should know is relating to the operations, communication and stakeholder engagement and the state of the interest that we are developing for December collaboration with town officials addressing the physical plan of the high school. So this sort of ties in with all of it. Well, it certainly is one of the challenges that we face and we're going to see that a little bit more in Diane's presentation. We did see a large growth in our number of students at the elementary level, which has us thinking again about out of some space if we should, but also all of the students that will be coming through the elementary grades will going to end up here. And the class sizes that we see right now in fifth grade will be here in four years, which is not much time when you go along these processes go. I think a lot of the information about enrollment is going to come out when Diane goes through the long range look at where we're going to be in the next few years based on live birth. But one thing that is at your place that I just, I had, I received after the package went up were the summary of the October one numbers as they relate in the chart that you'd like to see about class sizes. And one thing I will say about this chart is that the numbers are going to be different than the numbers you're going to see with Diane's, mainly because these numbers do not reflect out of district placement. But I didn't want any students in an out of district placement as part of the, our total number of students in the district. So I just want to alert you to that. We, the number that we saw as an increase in students which was talked about in this paper and talked about this table many times, 160 as being the number of new students, that number is accurate. You will find though that after we've had students move out of district, we've been able to, sometimes parents leave the district and they don't even notify us. And so we find out as we actually get into the school year that they're no longer in the class or on the class list that we have. So the adjustments that are made are reflected in these documents and the documents that Diane is going to go over with everyone. But the message to take from this, all of this about enrollment growth is that it presents a challenge not only in staffing which could potentially be significant as we move forward in the years ahead. But of course in facilities. And I think at right now, at least at the elementary level, just one way to do it, I think we're gonna be applying for a number of years where the pressure is gonna come. We're gonna look very carefully at us and certainly this high school as well. Because right now, even though it seems like it's a huge building and it is a huge building, we are, it is built. And put another 300 students in here and that is going to be significantly challenging. So why don't we just give you the presentation and then I think this will be a good evening to have some discussion about this and questions both from there. Thank you. Good evening. First of all, I apologize for being late. The Capital Budget Committee met at five o'clock and ran over as we were going through public safety issues and other things. So I apologize for being late. Okay, I'm gonna start off to talk about the three years of actual expenditures we have now according to the chart of accounts that we implemented in 19 in FY 11, which allows us to look at various different categorizations of our expenditures. Prior years, we've done multi-year comparisons based on the end of the year report data because in prior years, that's the only source of data I had. There isn't anything particularly remarkable that happened in FY 13. And I think I'll go right ahead to this graphic. This shows a broken out by the budget transfer detail categories that are voted by the school committee. The far left in the blue is FY 14 budget. The other three years are actual expenses, 13, 12, and 11. And you can see some of the patterning that one would expect in budgets. We're seeing the growth in elementary education, secondary education. We're seeing the stepped up growth in special education consistent overall time with the 7% growth that we talked about many times. You'll notice in FY 13, we did not meet that same step threshold, but we already know that in 14, we're going to exceed budget by a good measure. So over time, we hit 7%. We don't hit 7% every year. Curriculum and Instruction is showing some modest growth. Administration looks a little artificially down in FY 13, and that's predominantly due to the fact that our legal expenses were very low relative to other years in FY 13, which is a good thing. It was a non-negotiation year and other things have settled down. So that's a good thing to see. This is a different view that I'm now able to do because I have the data for three consecutive fiscal years with the new chart of accounts. The bright blue on the left is general education. The bright green is special education, but in between the red is something I've tagged as interventions, and this represents the reading, RTI, math RTI, ELL, and other types of supports like this that aren't strictly special ed, but I think are really important to look at. In general, in times of budget crisis, this is an area where one would go to cut because these are the supplementary services, but I think they're absolutely vital to helping to contain special ed costs. And you can see that over time, we've been able to invest more and more in these intervention services, which I think is an excellent long-term strategy for making sure that we can keep the special education to the 7% run rate that we're hoping to keep it to. The itty bitty purple right here is direct professional development, and I have to admit I was shocked when I put it up in numbers in the actual dollars. This doesn't include in service days that are part of the teacher contract. This is just other spending for professional development, and when you look at it, compared to other items in the budget, it's rather shockingly small. And administration, you can see those costs are not growing in the same kind of rates that regular ed and special ed and even interventions are. So we're able to do more without growing the infrastructure at the same pace that we're growing other types of expenses. As you know, the multi-year financial plan for the town and the school accommodates a low average special education growth rate of 7%, and we did not meet that in FY 13, but many previous years have exceeded it. I believe that we need that 7% year over year to be able to deal with costs in the long run with special education. And I wanna show you a couple of graphs that I think you've seen before, and I think the point is still important. The dark blue line that's jagged is special education expenditures from FY05 through FY13. It's FY14 based on our estimates right now. The top line is growth at a 10% rate, the yellow line is growth at 7%, and the purple line is growth at 3.5%. And you can see that in many of the earlier years, special education costs were well exceeding 7%, and in the last few years have been tracking closer to it when you look over the long timeline. But if you shorten the timeline, starting in FY11 when we implemented the new chart of accounts, the dark blue line is still the special education costs, and you can see that over that period of time, it's exceeding even the 10% growth rate. We're able to make it work with the 3.5 and the 7 because we have some flexibility, but thinking that in a good spend year when we don't come in at 7, that we don't need the difference between where we come in and that 7% is, I think, erroneous thinking, because in, for example, in FY12, our growth rate was 12%, and we had to absorb those costs. Special education just does not grow linearly. You know, it's up, it's down, it's one of those things that's not predictable. And we've cushioned ourselves by creating some reserves, but without that 7% year over year, we're gonna use those reserves this year to cover the uptick in FY14, but without that 7% year over year, we won't ever be able to rebuild the reserves in the good years in order to do that again. The next big issue, as Dr. Brody has said, is enrollment. Over the last two years, we have an additional 281 students, but since FY2000, we've added almost 1,000 students to Arlington. That is a lot of pressure on the district, particularly on facilities. When you consider that when the school rebuilding project was begun, it was expected that the district would hold steady at about 4,200 students, and we're way up from there at this point. But we have done some things to try and accommodate that with the redistricting plan. We negotiated a larger Thompson project that was originally suggested by the MSBA, and hopefully with the future high school renovation, we'll be able to take that forward. As we look forward with the pressures of enrollment growth, it puts pressure on the multi-year plan in a way that it wasn't envisioned, I think. The multi-year plan is meant to maintain stable services over the years for both town and school, you know, with budgetary restraints so that we can go as long as possible between override votes. It never assumed that there'd be large swings in population and it doesn't compensate in any way for those kinds of budgetary pressures. Given this enrollment growth and given the confines of the multi-year plan, we could only maintain our budget within the plan. It would inevitably result in the reduction of services to our students. So this is the budget growth over time. Through 14, their actual 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 are projected based on a five-year-awaited survival average from grade to grade. You have the spreadsheet from your packet. It's the same spreadsheet I've been doing for several years. I have to say it does improve to be a particularly excellent predictive tool because it depends a lot on what happened in the most recent year. And we did see some flattening out here. Prior to that, things were marching up and then FY 11 and FY 12, the growth flattened out but then 13 and 14 have shot right up again. So as best as we think, it looks like the growth is steady. One piece of information that I think is particularly concerning is that that calculation is based off the live births in town. And in prior years, and I have the information going back quite a while, live births were generally 500, 550 somewhere in that range and then they've crept up to the 5550 and now we're seeing in the class that'll be coming into the school system for fiscal 18, it's 600 babies. So we're seeing an exerable growth in the number of babies we have in town. We're also seeing that the survival rates in the first, third and fourth grade exceed 100%, which means kids are moving into the district. We're not only keeping all the kids from the prior year, we're adding kids to it. We also add children at the high school as well. One of the principle of the principle funding mechanism from the state for education is Chapter 78 and the allocation is based on the total population of students, the types of students, the wealth of the community and how much the state has to allocate in any given year. Chapter, our life is Chapter 78 as in most communities has risen in the last four years. Some of this is due to the move to a full day kindergarten without fees. But even if we back out that change, we're still seeing a pretty significant growth in Chapter 78. And with the continued upward enrollment pressure, we should see Chapter 70 continue to rise in future years. So in this chart, the blue represents the Chapter 70 allocation from the state from FY 11 through 14. The red represents Chapter 70 less the offset for the kindergarten fees, which comes into play in FY 13. And the green represents the increase from the prior year backing out the additional revenues that are coming to the school department, the 970 that they're offsetting our fees. So you can see that in 13, even though they gave us extra money so that we could stop charging fees, they still realized growth in Chapter 70 from the prior year. And in 14, when we saw the effect of no longer charging kindergarten fees, we saw a very large uptick. I think it works out to about $2.5 million increase over those three years in Chapter 70 funding. So in order to deal with the budgetary pressures of increased enrollment, continued growth of regular ed and special ed, just normal healthy growth, suggestion to possibly mitigate this problem is to look at the number of students that are added in the fall. So for this fiscal year, for FY 14, our increase is 134 students as of the time we filed the enrollment report with the state. If we were to multiply that by some growth factor, by per pupil growth factor, which is certainly something to be debated, and add that to the FY 15 school department base, that would put us in a position where we could thoughtfully plan for the growth that may or may not come, I think will come. But we're in a position if the money comes in in the fall, we can go through the whole budget process, knowing that those revenues are available to us. And I believe that less money earlier will do more good than more money later in the budget planning process to wait until town meeting or till the spring is very late in the game for thinking about scheduling and staffing and how we're going to run the schools for the upcoming year. So I think it's very important. I mean, this is just a suggestion on how we could modify the multi-year plan, not break the fundamental terms, because I believe the three and a half and the seven percent is really a sound metric for maintaining services. But we can't maintain services and grow on the same amount of money. The subsequent years, it would always be the current years, enrollment change multiplied by whatever that factor is that goes into the next year's base, or if we were to see a drop in enrollment, then by rights that we should see a reduction in the fall into the next year's base, but it gives us time to plan and to deal with that. Diane, that slide that you had, the three year expense history with current year projection, you talked about professional development. And yes, and I didn't quite understand it. It looks really meager in the end. I thought we have grown in our professional development. Oh, we have. If you can see the numbers down here, we went from 249 to 326, but as a portion of budget, it's so tiny, graphically it doesn't show up. Does that include all the stuff that you've done on teacher evaluation? That's direct professional development. Any kind of training, any kind of professional development training. It wouldn't count those that we've done this year. Yes, but it wouldn't necessarily include equipment that went along with that. When you say equipment. If they had a training in iPad usage in the classroom, it wouldn't necessarily include the iPad. It would include the training, the trainer, the stipends for that. The reason why we were able to eliminate the kindergarten fee is because that increase of enrollment generated so much increase in chapter 70 money. So that the chapter 70 money turned out to be more than the fees were charged. A corresponding 130 some odd increase in students offsetting the maximum gain in the local contribution would mean that we'd have a nice spike in chapter 70 money as a result of that increase. But under the terms of the present fiscal stability plan, we don't get the benefit of the additional state funds that are coming to us in order to serve the additional students. The current terms of the plan that's correct, that additional revenue goes to the bottom line and works to extend the life of the plan pushing out into the future the date when we need to seek another override. Which is why, but the suggestion to modify this to compensate for the compensate for this growth because we could not continue to absorb this kind of growth without either achieving more revenue or making cuts. And obviously cuts aren't desirable. This chapter 70 increase provides a potential source to increase that funding. But I don't believe it would be in anyone's best interest to completely throw out the multi-year plan. I'm not saying that at all. However, the multi-year plan also did not anticipate the extraordinary increase in chapter 70 money that was derived from the increase in students. So perhaps the way we should be thinking about this is to somehow come up with a formula that says, okay, if our enrollment were stable, our chapter 70 would increase by, say, 2%. But because we've got a growing enrollment, our chapter 70 is increasing by 10%. So that increase of 2%, which would have been a baseline increase, should stay within the formula. But the additional aid on top of that, which is generated purely by the increase in the number of students, should revert back to us for the purposes of educating the, in this case, 134 additional students. We're getting this here. Do you understand what I'm saying? I understand exactly what you're saying. I'm a little concerned about the timing of it. So when are we gonna know, I seem to recall from last year that we didn't really lock in what our chapter 70 for FY 14 was gonna be until very, very late in the game, post-town meeting. And that represents, and that's why I'm nervous about going down that road, because, do we do it two years out so we know exactly what it is and we can plan it in the fall? Do we guess? And then we're on fuzzy ground? I mean, to my way of thinking, timing is so crucial. And so, you know, I agree with you, but the timing of that is lousy. Yeah, I like the way you're thinking about this, is that you're looking at a more conservative early number is better than a bigger number late because of the plan. Well, and an unpredictable number is the worst of all. Yes, yeah, so, but we really need to have some sort of an adjustment looking at, and not looking to take money out of the tax, the local taxes for this purpose, because I wanted to stay within that three and a half, seven configuration. But because the additional students are generating additional state money specifically for the purpose of educating those additional students, I think that we have to have some sort of a mechanism where that additional Chapter 78 targeted those students, ends up being used to increase our capacity for the larger student enrollment. Would it be possible to do it from the year's previous growth? So, we know that last year we had 147 new students. So again, going with the similar formula, if we knew that we already know what last year's increase in Chapter 78 was based on those numbers, so would it be possible to influence the next year's by what happened the last year? Which is really how it affects us anyway, right? Because it's the 13 increase of 147 that helps spark the big growth in FY 14. It wasn't just the loss of the kindergarten fees, it was also the total enrollment growth, which is why that performed so much better than anticipated. Right, so let's say hypothetically, last year we saw an increase of 10%, and we were only expecting that 2%, then maybe the town could see its way to saying, okay, but we can look back, and that way we always do have the number already for this next year, kind of like what we did with, it's kind of like banking was special at that, the circuit breaker to kind of, instead this way we're looking back and work, and then it would be on the town's side for them to say, okay, whatever the differences that comes in, we have to set that aside, that's gonna go to the schools the next year to offset that difference. Just correct me if I'm wrong. Chapter 70 on the amount is not guaranteed to go up every year, we're at the whim of the state. Now if we get an increase in population, we get a slightly bigger percentage of the pie, but if the pie itself has been reduced, we technically could get less money next year even though we have 100 plus children. So we gotta be very careful. This idea, depending on Chapter 70, we've been fortunate. Yeah, I'm not depending on Chapter 70. I mean, because I was sitting in this chair here in 2004 when the Iranian administration came in and cut us off 100%, just because they decided they were going to balance their budget on the backs of the local governments. It was a terrible time. However, there are a couple things we need to understand here, is the October 1 cap, the Diane is reporting now, which is October of 2013, is the number that generates the local aid number for fiscal 15. So that there's already a year lag in this. And one of the things the state did the last time they recaptured the formula is to put in an escalator in there to compensate for high growth communities which all of a sudden become. So that because they are capping our minimum local contribution, the state under the Chapter 70 rules is obligated to fill in the rest of Chapter 78. That's what's happened. That's why when we eliminated kindergarten fees, the aid went up. That's why when our enrollment goes up, the aid went up. That $2 million increase that she's showing is a result of the, a lot of that's a result of the increase in enrollment. Now, how do you capture that? I think some sort of a formula which recognizes that on average the state increased Chapter 78 per pupil by X amount or their whole Chapter 70 pop by X amount. And then taking a ratio between that and our actual increase, the super inflation number. In other words, the number beyond the normal inflation given a steady enrollment which we can go through the formula and calculate should sort of be the area where we're capturing the money. Because that wasn't considered in the original plan. What happens if our enrollment goes up and Chapter 78 goes up aggressively in order to compensate for the enrollment? That's all I'm saying is that if our enrollment was steady, the three and a half, seven is what we agreed to and very manageable. But since then we've experienced this huge increase in enrollment. And if we have to put in five new classrooms under the three and a half percent cap, we're gonna be going backwards over here. Dr. Allison. Okay, so I wasn't able to make the budget meeting. So these numbers are new somewhat. So one thing I'm asking you because I know it's going to be asked by someone out there is the source of the new increased enrollment or is it the increased special education costs? If we had not seen a significant uptake in special education costs, would we be able to handle the increased enrollment? I'm just thinking that if we had 700, to me the numbers I'm comparing are $700,000 for increased special education versus three or four teachers at 50, 60K for to cover 150 students. And I'm seeing that the big cry is really in the increased special education costs. Well, and so to try, I mean, I think it's fine to try and think of how we're gonna be able to fill our money if possible. I'm just saying, if we go in and say, well the problem is this and really it's not, the bigger problem is the other. Well, I mean, I think with the 7%, if we're allowed to keep the 7% year over year, I think we can manage the natural special ed growth which we've shown in our community over time to roughly work out to 7%, roughly. Or more, but we can work with that. We can't work with it at three and a half. I mean, you could say that it just absolutely, three and a half is just unmanageable. That we really do need 7% on special education costs. I think that, I mean, if that is a given, that the seven and the three and a half, we can manage SPED even in an occasional 12% year under those conditions. I think we were able to manage last year as 147 kid uptick because we had an easy SPED year that created some room. What we can't have is SPED doing seven or better or way better and enrollment growth at the same time. You know, and so, you know, I think the prudent long-term strategy with managing SPED costs is, again, continue to investment in the interventions, you know, to continue to prudently staff and fund all the way along to put the money in that we need to put in. And in order to continue to do that, we have to course correct fiscally for the onslaught of kids. The differences are arising and I'm just concerned, like I said, that, you know, from the big pilots over here, and we're talking about the little pilots as well. No, I think one of the things to bear in mind is that I think you're, if you'll forgive me, low-balling the cost of those additional students. It's not just a classroom cost. It's, you know, it's whatever our percentage of special ed in the district. It's a percentage of ELL. They're going to need reading support. They're going to need math support. It's, you know, it's a full, and overall, that kind of upward enrollment pressure is going to put pressure on the entire district, particularly the facilities at some point, which is why I was, you know, my brain jumped to the per pupil, you know, from the state because that's an all-in kind of number. Now 100% of per pupil makes no sense because the uptick cost of one kid isn't, you know, shouldn't factor in an enormous amount of capital. But over time, curriculum supplies, educational technology, all of that. It's not a teacher in a piece of chalk. It's really a much bigger number. And so I think the 700,000 for SPED versus just classroom teachers isn't the right comparison. It's just very difficult to quantify exactly what the costs are on a student-by-student basis, which is why I believe the state came up with the per pupil metric as a way to try to capture that cost in an apples-to-apples comparison from district to district. Ms. Johnson, thank you for the presentation. I just want to comment that what we're doing tonight with the superintendent's evaluation talking about the district goals, we're trying to do now on our agenda. So what Ms. Johnson was talking about corresponds to goal 4.4 of our present goals, which is a projection model for long-range multi-year planning. That is to be developed by October 2013. So thank you very much for writing this. Did you have any questions about some of the other documents you recently? Because this document here, which I did not, oh, I'm sorry, that I did not include in the presentation because it looks terrible on a projector, looks like this. This is a multi-year projection modeling piece. And they're two separate ones. One of them, if you go to page two first, which is a little higher intuitive. You can see that I'm using the projected enrollment for my enrollment sheet to drive a calculation to try to come up with an estimated cost of what the uptick in students is. And I think this metric is a little low because it assumes that our staffing ratios at elementary, middle, and high are sufficient right now. But this was an attempt to capture the additional costs that we would expect with each increase in the projected enrollment of students. The other sheet does exactly the same thing except the numbers are being driven forward by a percentage of growth. Two and a half at the elementary, 1% at the middle, and 2% at the high school, which, historically, has kind of been how the growth went. And it was just a way to come up with some numbers, but since I started working with this, I'm increasingly feeling like those are a little too low. You know, that they're just not as fully loaded as they need to be. And I'm struggling with that because it's really difficult to model the all-in, which is why I tumbled back into Percubo because that really is the all-in limit. Dr. Allison? I have two things. First, the comment. Can I ask Dr. Bodie and Dr. Emma Johnson? Can you please tomorrow go in, find your spreadsheet, and take up the word survival and replace it with retention? Because I think in the time when we have events like Newtown that using survival when you're talking about children from birth to school is just, it's loaded. We can use retention, and we don't. Retention means something else. Oh, okay, well that's, maybe I don't know that, but I'm just, the survival bugs me. I'm sorry, it has bugged me for years, and I brought this up every year. So the word, the other thing is, so what's the next step? Question? I was gonna make a comment and commend. Do you have an answer for that? I think so. Okay. To the chair of a bunch of committee, I think started yesterday the communication with other boards in the town, and I don't want to speak for you. You may want to just speak for that question. Yeah, we started, yesterday we had a meeting with the chair of the select men, the chair of the finance committee, and Adam Chaplain, and Andrew Flanagan. So meeting with those three, Diane presented all of this information. Obviously it was meant to be a kind of heads up knowing that we were all gonna get this information tonight, and that of course we are on television, so we didn't want anybody to be blindsided by it. So we decided that the next step would be that this was gonna come up at Long Ranch Planning, which has a meeting scheduled already for next week. And so they were very happy that we were able to come to them with this information so early. They agreed that obviously the projections that we had been using and the modeling for the Long Ranch Planning has been on keeping a fairly stable school population. So they had, I truly think that they had no idea the numbers that we were starting to deal with. I mean they had heard, obviously everyone's heard that we've had more, but when you think that we have a school district of 4,200 students and you look and our numbers are actually more like 5,200, I think a lot of people went, whoa, when did that happen? And I think that was the reaction last night. So they have committed to thinking about this, and like I said, taking it to Long Ranch Planning and then we were gonna see where it came up after Long Ranch Planning. So I'm sure there will be many meetings to come, but we all agreed that this is best handled early and trying to figure out a plan before we get to town meeting so that we can go to town meeting with one cohesive plan that everyone is already okay with. And they were happy to help us try to figure that out. We didn't come up with any solutions, but we made sure that they all understood the data and they were all interested in helping us find a solution. That sort of ends up the question. Any other questions you would like to leave? Dr. Boeck. It's a great question, it's one of the next steps. And that was an important first step. We're gonna have to have just a lot of discussion among ourselves as we try to think about what makes sense. And it's not just us, it's all these other people that are involved as well. But the thing is we're looking at next year's budget, and this is what's gonna happen over the next month, month and a half as we go through this process. When we've had these increase of five teachers at the elementary this year, and we've had different small FTEs in the secondary to deal with a few enrollment pressures, that becomes part of the base. And at any time, when you have an increase in special education costs, which right now is definitely 500 and probably we're predicting more like 700 going into next year, that's a new base. So when you're looking at what is available after you deal with all of your contractual obligations going into next year, what will be that delta that we will be able to expand on new initiatives that we might want to have? Or we might want to put more money into professional development because that is a great predictor of how you improve instruction in a district. Those are all gonna be issues. And over the next week, we're going to have the elementary principals coming and talking about the kinds of things that they see that they need. Well then in December, having our secondary principals come and curriculum leaders as well to hear those needs as well. And so those needs are going to be balanced again what is possible. But one of the things that's gonna have to be part of our thinking is we may have another uptick next year. Do we need another five or six teachers? And what does that do? And where do we get that additional money? It was fortunate that we predict who are being very conservative in terms of what predicted for our grants for this year. And they turned out to be better than we anticipated. Everybody was saying, oh, they're gonna go down 8%, 6% if you're lucky. And in fact, that did happen at some districts. For whatever reason, we were able to be fairly level. Some of it ups and down, but generally speaking, had that not happened for us, I'm not quite sure how we would have handled, we wouldn't have been able to do it, but the truth of the matter is we would have some particularly large class sizes. So going into next year, we're looking at long-range planning, you're asking. Those teachers now, because those students are gonna move forward. We know we have this deficit, not deficit, well, we know the overall budget by a certain amount and they predicted a fairly definite amount in the year. How are we going to fund that potential if it upticks again next year? Where will be the source of money? And that's why it's so important as we think through this right now. Well, thank you. Thank you both for performing us. Again, we will be meeting next week in a step of two weeks from now. Sure. Yes, please. May I just get one clarifying point? So basically what you're saying is that when we prepared the budget now, we were doing it based on where we were on October 1, 2012. And so now that we've got another 100 and some odd kids more than we planned on based on the October 1, 2012 numbers, we're sitting here planning next year based, still based on that baseline from 2012 because the additional teachers we pulled in were coming from outside sources that we didn't plan for when we built this year's budget. So that we've already got a built-in gap based on what we've got now and to have another another increase next year is going to double the problems. So we end up next year potentially with 250 more kids than we have in the base budget based on the 2012 numbers. I think we need to create a visual survey to understand this because we know with this plan of three and a half seven and we assume a certain dollar amount. In fact, we will be getting a dollar amount from the town. What goes against that delta? Well, what goes against that delta is what we're already now seeing as new expenditures. And the on-district expenses are not going to change. That's not a, they're going to remain and we don't know what will happen next year. So that delta of increase for next year is significantly already spent by the changes we've experienced this year. So essentially we're talking about small elementary schools where the kids over the course of these two years are you getting into the 200s? Oh, yeah. It's the equivalent of a small school? That's exactly right. And in order to close the gap this year, we'll use some of the reserves that we talked away. It's sad to take about using the small schools. It's one time, huh? Yeah. So we have a huge problem. Well, it's a small reserve. We very likely will have to go to town meeting and take some of that money that we've put into a stabilization account out. What we don't know right now is how much of that. We would like to keep it as minimal as possible because I don't see us replenishing it any too quickly. It's the issue. Yeah. All right, moving on then. Shall we, superintendent's report? We'll get back to budget during the budget or subcommittee. Well, some really great news. And I sent this press release out to you. The, once again, Arlington has been named to the AP District Honorable. This is the third year in a row that this has been the case. This is a distinction that has, it's fairly recent distinction by the college board. And it is, it's given for maintaining and improving the percent of students scoring three or higher on the AP exam. For those that are listening and not aware, the AP exam is scored up to five. And if you get a three, four, five on the exam, what that means is you either get to not do a prerequisite for that particular subject in college. And in some colleges, they actually give you college credit for that. So it has a monetary value as well. And in this quote, well, according to the college board, Massachusetts has the fifth most number of school districts earning the spot in the honor roll, which is both increasing the number of students having access to AP exams while at the same time maintaining or increasing the number of students that score that three or higher. And again, Arlington High School is one of, believe there were 33, I think there were 33 districts in Massachusetts and the highest state in Pennsylvania was 40, but still, we have 351 school districts in the state and Arlington is one of those that is now three years in a row been on this honor roll. In fact, when we painted this room, they used to just hang right over here. We probably need to get them back again. We haven't gotten the new poster yet. But anyway, it's another affirmation of the great work that is going on. And it's not just the great work of all of our teachers in my high school, which deserve a lot of credit for this, but our students have to come here to do this kind of rigorous work. And that starts very well and an expectation of the discipline of doing the work, doing the, being rigorous, and that's happening. And it's just, it's just, this is another way that the district is demonstrating that our kids are doing really well and our school district is doing very well. But in another way, also that I am kind of particularly proud of, and this came out in the newsletter, which I do want to emphasize again, but I think it's really important. And what data is important and the teaching is important. We all know that, but we also, I think at Arlington, recognize how important it is to educate the whole child, whether it's in all of our arts and music, but it's also providing a climate, a social-emotional climate in which our students can also succeed and get the support they need. Is there always room for improvement? Absolutely. But one award that I was very happy to get was from the Massachusetts Coalition of Suicide Prevention. And it recognizes innovative work done by school and community groups. Four awards are granted with only one going to a high school every year. And so this year, our intervention coordinators at the high school, Andrea Rossi and Jess Claw, and the rest of the Arlington High School mental health community received a leadership award, presented the organization's annual leadership breakfast held in October 22nd for their innovative work. And I think that a lot of credit goes to them and certainly to all of the work that this work is. So congratulations to them. Going back to achievement, our students did very well this year in the National Merit Scholarship awardees. This year we had 24 young men and women who were named National Merit Commended Students on the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program, which received that distinction based on their scores on the PSAT last October. And in addition to those 24 for commended, we also had six students who qualified as semi-finals. And those six semi-finals will go through the process and hopefully be one of the final National Merit Scholarship awardees this year. And consistent with what I was talking about the AP district honor roll this year, one of the reasons we got that award is that this year we had over 100 Orleans High School students achieve the status of AP school scholars. And all the information is in the newsletter about the number they get three or higher, the number they have four or higher in the test. We had two national AP scholars each receiving an average score, or at least four on all AP exams taken. And scores of four or higher on eight or more of these exams. So we have some students that are really stretching and doing really extraordinary work. And so congratulations to all of our students and our teachers. Thank you. That's my report. Thank you Dr. Bode. Moving on to the consent agenda. All items listed with an asterisk are considered to be routine and will be connected by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion of these items. Lesson member of the committee so requests in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence. Approval of warrant 14057 dated October 24th, 2013. Total warrant amount 829,941 dollars 77 cents. Approval of draft minutes October 24th, 2013. Regular meeting. Approval of the Grand Canyon field trip out of the middle school, April school vacation 2014. I'd like to pull the Grand Canyon field trip out. Okay. May I have a motion on the consent agenda? No. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those against? Okay. Approval of Grand Canyon field trip out of the middle school, Dr. Alice Mann. I just wanted to know that if you're sure that the administration is discussing a little bit. I just want to be sure that there's all safety issues are evaluated for the students who are going on this. I don't know. We got more information here at our desk which gives me a bit more. Yeah. I think we're still a little bit better but I just want to be sure that there's discussion and making sure that the students will be safe on the trip. Well, they're going through an agency that provides all of the buses and that makes all the arrangements for and provides the tour guides. Jennifer Craft, who is a teacher at Augusta is the lead teacher on this and well, I didn't have Jennifer come tonight. She's willing to come if you would like to ask them one question. Both of them. I'm asking. I'm asking that the administration is just looking at things and making sure that they go with it. It's a company that has been used by other schools. The principal of the middle school and the head of the science department of all both people on this trip. Can we, I think you're asking does the company have a good reputation essentially? Yeah. Yeah. The company does have a good reputation. Does it mean that an accident would happen? No one can ever guarantee that but it has a very solid reputation on one of these trips, yes. What further information would you like? I just wanted to be sure that someone in the administration has looked carefully at the information from the company and thought about it. Part of it was that all we got was this before. That's just what's in the very and I'm not saying that school cleaning has to decide. I just wanted to be sure that another sort of advice has been. There'll be staff and adult supervision with students, I assume, all kinds. Yes. It's a ratio of 10 to one, which is fairly standard on field trips. And so that would be our staffing. But in addition to that, that there will be the tour leaders that are there provided to the company. You know, when they do a float down the Colorado, they're gonna have people on the boat but they're not our staff. Our staff is really there in the supervisor's role, not in a trip, lead the trip role. Any other questions on this? I'm Mr. Hammond. I guess you brought your attention on day five. Again, I support the concern, free time chopping at Caesars Palace and then one down the walk down the strip, Las Vegas Boulevard to the Bellagio. I mean, I think you're just jealous, Mr. Hammond. Yeah, but I, again, I want positive stuff coming back. So thank you. So much math, thank you. The cars are pretty crazy on the strip. I mean, in all seriousness, that is a safety, I mean, I wasn't even thinking of the Grand Canyon itself is a safety thing, but the strip is like a real, the cars are crazy there. Have you crossed Manzana? Yes, they have up Pleasant Street here in my house. They're crossing streets. I just think the concern that was brought up, we passed it on to the superintendent. I'm sure she's going to pass it on to the right people. All right, let's vote this item off the consent agenda. All those in favor of the Grand Canyon approval, say aye. Aye. All those against? Enjoy the trip, middle school students. And this is the first time, this is not the first time. All right, moving on to subcommittee and liaison reports, Mr. Thielman, policies and procedures. Okay, so we have a motion and we have a first reading. So we have amended, we are proposing an amendment to policy DDDH, public participation in school planning meetings. And it basically talks about, so there's several points. The dissemination, point one is the dissemination of written correspondence to members, and the requirement of correspondence shall include their name and address and all written statements that are distributed to us. And then, number two, there's a requirement that people during public participation identify themselves by name and address. Number three is that if you're deleted to be considered a request to be received by the new and the day preceding meeting. So it's just a citizen who wishes to have an item in place in the agenda to present the request and write it to the administrative secretary. So these are sort of minor changes that we found when we went against this of first reading. And then the second thing is that we have been in a conversation with Rebecca Bryant from Stoneman, Chandler and Miller about policy KDV, KDV, KDV-SR. She's going to take another stab at writing those. At the same time that she began that dialogue with us, she recommended that we had a conversation with her about the idea of Stoneman, Chandler and Miller doing a review of all of her policies. And so we have the following motion that Paul and Percy and I are putting forward is the subcommittee. Move that. Stoneman, Chandler and Miller review the APS policy manual for the purpose of categorizing each policy in one of the following categories. One, policies that can be appropriately remain in effect as written. Two, policies that should be eliminated. Three, policies that might remain with a few adjustments and four policies that require major rewriting. The total billable time against the district's retainer for reviewing and categorizing policies shall not exceed 18 hours. Following the receipt of this report, the policies of the subcommittee shall request that Stoneman, Chandler and Miller provide the school committee with an estimate of the time and the cost of adjusting or writing the policies, identifying categories three and four. So once in a second I will speak with her. So here's the rationale. In the 1990s the National School Board Association, the National Association of School Committees developed a model policy manual which was adopted by the online school committee. Over the last 15 years or so we've modified this manual, often in reaction to different events that have occurred in the schools and in the town. And we have some of the policies that Rebecca and Brian pointed out are actually contrary to law or they create rights that are beyond the scope of the law. So the most prudent thing that we can do and what works with our budget is to first have her go through a process of identifying those policies. Then we'll come back to the school committee and we'll get an estimate from her and we'll make a decision about what she should or should not do. It will give the school committee and the policies and procedures committee a framework for policies to work on over the next year or two. I don't see a wholesale, but wholesale revision of all policies. Mr. Slickman. This is sort of an interesting direction that I think we're proposing and going. The whole process of identifying policies, problematic policies, so that's what we're really looking for. Policy that due to the way it's written could engage and get us in criminal litigation or some sort of an issue that one. It is sort of an important first look. Now what we do once we get the results of this first round is up to us to decide. We can go to ask them to do a quick rewrite on some of the policies. If it's a relatively small group or we can take our findings to MASC and say, hey guys, our attorney has identified these legal issues attached to these policies. Why do you think it asks their attorney to go over the policies and come back with a recommendation? So it's entirely possible that at the end of this first bit of research, we come up with a document we might go elsewhere to think about. But I think it's, in life or so, the problem we have with the company of our policies in the past is worthwhile to see which ones would need to be re-crafted to reduce any legal liability that might be generated from it. Mr. Hamm. Two questions, number one. If we approve this, we'll approve this. The report back to the us, will they give a little anecdote or something with the rationale of why the recommendations and each one of the things? I'm not looking for total change, but I mean, why they recommend this to be deleted? It's against the law. Some of the things that you just said. Yeah, I'm sure she's going to have to do some. Right. Yeah, great. And the second thing is, I think I see this, the billable part of it, part of our retainer. Yeah. Right, it's available against the retainer. I mean, it goes against the retainer. Right. It's 18 hours against the retainer. 20, how many hours? 30 for 20 based on 190 times 18. 3,420 dollars. Yeah. Is 18 times 190. Oh, okay. So, okay. That's theory. So, that's where it's going to be. That would be the max. They said. It's not an additional expense. It's an early budget. Right. Talk to us. This starts. I think this is a great idea. I think that, you know, that's always the problem is that you end up with these things that have just kind of been mounted into this pile of things and we don't ever get a chance and I don't know what else. I know some of you do have more legal expertise than I do. I do not proclaim to have any of it. So, I think that's a great idea to have someone as just an eyeball on everything and kind of give us that, you know, thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle. Where are you? Any other questions before I ask them? I just want to say that there's attention here because I mean, the attorneys in the room versus the school administrators in the room are looking at the policy documental differently in that the attorneys seem to want to take a much more minimalist approach and I think that that was sort of the message I was getting from this. Whereas the school administrators want a little more guidance and things out in front. So, how we balance this out that once we get this report is going to be a really interesting conversation we're going to have as well. Was there discussion about putting NASC unnoticed and questions sent to them first? And then if they couldn't answer them going to Stoneman and asking for further help? I think we were trying to get this a different set of eyes at it is where we're trying to go. This is a first, first take on it. Because I know in the past Steve Finnegan I think is there, right? He's been incredibly helpful about policy questions. He certainly has been. And it's pretty good, yeah. You all know where I stand on some of the legal issues. But I think this is a very good idea to go to Stoneman, Chandler, and Miller to get this right here. NASC, sometimes we get it. I always find the documents that give us they'll give us a response and then they say this is not, we do not feel legally bound by this where this law firm has a degree of the legal liability to it. And I think it's good to have this. And no matter how many people are looking at this, it's an awesome document. You may get to see a particular policy once every four or five years as it comes up in a review. Have them do it. Let them spend this time. I think it's a great idea. Yes, Brian. Just to give you a judge's point, we will once this is done, we will have conversations. But this helps us to have a productive conversation. Because then I can say that they've identified these policies the way you think we should do it. And any further discussion on this motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those against? Terrace. Thank you. Mr. Thielman, I have one question before we part. Oh, policies. We ETO. Is that what you're asking? Yeah. I saw in the minutes, if you might just let the folks out there know what the initial findings were from Ms. Bryant. Okay. I would love to just, I can't find, I have like two versions of improvements. I have to, is there another? We'll have to wait. Music, I like to do it. Oh. What is that? Strike that. Okay, got it. Okay. So we had discussions about the question that was sent to you. How do I PTO? About how do I PTO I believe. So first of all, we know that either the town or the school department has a writer and a general liability policies protecting PTOs in the event of a lawsuit. Dr. Bode agreed to sit down the town council to get some ideas from the new town council. Used to work in the general council's office for the Boston Public Schools. So you might have some insights on how to respond. It's Rebecca Bryant believes a school permit should make sure that its policies make it clear that the district is a separate entity from the PTOs. So we need to make sure that's clear in our policies. PTOs are welcome to purchase liability insurance from the national PTO organization. Dr. Bode pointed out that in many years of experience in education, were the 30s? Yes, 130. 130, including time on a PTO in Winchester that she never heard of the PTO actually going out and getting liability insurance. I had no idea we were getting sued. We're getting sued, yeah. But we did ask Ms. Bryant and she said that yes. She says it does happen. And yes, PTOs can be liable for things that happen during an unraising effort that they have. It doesn't happen often. And so I think PTO has to balance the risk of it happening versus the potential risk of being lost. So maybe that's what we could do is help us to do a research in terms of what's happened in that area. And perhaps the new town council could be very helpful in that regard because it comes from the Boston Public Schools. Right. Any questions on that issue? So I mean, if you're a PTO president and hearing this, you're probably going to know what you want us to do, right? I mean, right now, I think the best thing is to wait for the real and more guidance. If you really want to be approved, you can go to the national PTO organization and price liability insurance. Is that? I think there's a PTA in every great PTO because they're all independent. And they don't have to pay dues and stuff. That may have changed. Remember I need to know from the back, I don't have it in front of me. Well, there was some discussion that there may not be part of the national association, in which case it wouldn't be eligible for it. It just may be prohibitively high. I know that you're aware that the insurance, liability insurance for the school committee, just keeps going up every year. And so I have no idea what the pricing would be on that. And they're not making any sense because they don't have that much money. They're raising money. But they're going to spend it all on insurance. Well, thank you for taking that out on the background. Moving on to budget. All right, we met last night. It was two parts. The first part, we have started the conversation. And Paula came in and presented a lot of data about the afterschool programs that rent space from the schools. So she has sent out a questionnaire that they all filled out. And then she's trying to put all of that into a spreadsheet and make some sense of it. And so we've started that conversation. All of the afterschool programs were represented. And it was a great conversation, I think, that they are happy to be involved in what we're doing. They understand why we're doing it. So we are trying to figure out on our side what the expenses are and what reality it has to be that we have to charge and rent so that we're obviously not looking to make money, but we at least need to get back what it costs us. And even just having it all on a spreadsheet was very interesting to see some of the discrepancies already that exist. So we are in the process of doing that. We are involving all of the afterschool programs. And they were thankful to be part of it. So we're moving forward with that. I think that I know I had a couple of questions that I shot off to Paula today. We'll probably continue to. There's still data gathering and information gathering that we're doing. So nothing, no actionable items from that. The other half of the meeting was, as I said before, with Alan, Tosti, Dan Dunn, Andrew, and the budget. And just starting to talk about it, it was mostly just informative. We didn't do much anyway of brainstorming or problem solving yet. But like I said, they're going to take it to Long Ranch Planning. And then from there, try to see what Long Ranch Planning might offer as advice. And then move forward from there, hopefully with the next step, probably after Thanksgiving. And for the folks out there, the Long Ranch Planning meeting is next week at 8 AM at the Town Hall of Conference Romanics. What day? Thursday? Thursday. Thursday. Are we from today at 8 AM? Mm-hmm. 20th. Any questions on the budget? Thank you. And this starts tonight? No, we don't have a next meeting, so yeah. OK. I'm waiting for the Long Ranch planning. I'd like to report. OK. And curriculum instruction? Oh, he's scheduling a meeting of about five days, at least one night. That's come up from a group of parents. I think there may be another one, sir. OK. Thank you. Mr. Hamer, on facilities? No, not this time. OK. I just had a couple of things. Oh, sure. I can get at you. No? Go ahead. This time, I'd like to commend the workplace program we have here at the high school, one by Mr. Lundstrom and Mr. Minor. Three of the students, Derek McMunn, a senior, Caleb Strasconus Jr., pronounced right, and Brendan Wall, another senior. They work today around between 1230 and 130 with members of Rotary to clean up and restore Memorial to let Lieutenant Daniel Barry at the corner of Warren Street at the intersection of Medford Street. If you drive by, they look like a giant bush. Now you can actually see the Memorial. And these young men are really great for flexing on their program, and people are there. So I just wanted to pass them on. Second, I'd like to remind the committee and other staff that we'll be having a special meeting regarding going to Papalist next Tuesday, November 19th in this room at 6.30 to 8.30. I hope you can all make it. Thank you. Thank you. And I just wanted to thank Ms. Starks again. We spoke by phone. Briefly, you're telling me you were going to have this meeting this week. And you had last night, Mr. Hainer and I, we were at Mr. Schlickman, Dr. Bodie. We were at this conference they have every year on the Cape on an ASC Mass Associates of School Committees and Mass Association of School Superintendents all over the state coming together, had multiple breakout sessions on different areas of school, issues, law, and topics. And I think I was just coming out of a breakout session on municipal school relations. And one of the things that I got from that breakout session was talk about it early, talk about it openly, and keep the talk going. And so that is precisely what happened last night. And it was a great first step. So thanks for doing that. Ms. Hansen, I forgot to recognize you at the beginning of this meeting. Linda Hansen, ADA rep, she joins us. Thank you for being here. The report from that conference last week it's an amazing thing to see all the different districts and what they're doing and the superintendents and what they're doing. I, of course, have always done music and drama in my life and doing the breakout session about STEM, science, technology, engineering, math, and how folks are incorporating the arts in instruction is so helpful. And at some point when we have more time meeting, I'd like to get into it a little bit about what I learned. I think Bill was in that one with me. We had one the day before we left on the superintendent evaluation. It was just so happy. I was just so fortunate to be there because I knew we were going to have this process this evening and I was concerned and anxious about it. So it's a great conference for those who have gone. Go again. For those who haven't gone, please do go. It's really wonderful. I wanted to report out that the special education advisory committee, CPAC, is holding a meeting this Monday evening, the 18th, Monday morning, Jefferson Cutter House and Barlinton Center at 8.30 AM. And you all heard Jane DeAnde invited everyone to Monday night's 8th thing at floor at 6.30. And again, 6 o'clock, my floor on Monday evening. And once again, the fine dramatic presentation we saw earlier tonight, Dead Man Walking, this weekend. Anything else that you'd like to put in before we go? Secretaries? Secretary's report. Secretary's report. We received the following correspondence. The superintendent's October newsletter, an email from the superintendent informing us about the AHS Act of the A.P. District Honor Rule, a letter from Ian Jackson, chair of the MLK Junior Birthday Observance Committee, soliciting sponsors for the event to be held on Monday, January 20, 2014. Email congratulating the AHS mental health team for receiving a leadership award for the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention. The September 30, 2013 draft of the strategy for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education. I'm not really sure we're supposed to do that. But we got it. Information from Jen Krauts on the OMS Grand Canyon Adventure Trip Plan for April vacation 2014. Mail regarding the tools of the mind curriculum in the kindergartens. An invitation to attend an artist's opening reception at the old 12th mill of David Moore from December 7, 2013 to March 14, 2014. One last thing that I forgot to mention that I wanted to mention, I did pick up a poster getting back to Gettysburg from someone who actually works there. And there's a story in there. This is all the memorable sites and monuments. And he signed it, and there's a description of the history of Gettysburg. It's 150th anniversary of that speech next week. I'd love to give this to Ms. Fitzgerald to a respectfully adorned room, at least for the next five months that I'm in this chair, because I feel so much pride about it. And that speech is just such a wonderful speech. I'll be giving this to you to maybe go somewhere. So you're not next school committee meeting? Gettysburg Address? I expect a little bit of form and circumstance. I don't have a hat tonight. Oh, OK. But maybe next week, I have a hat. I can break it off. Well, I thought that they already knew that Bill, who did y'all do in tandem talk about the teacher of the year last year, Kelly Brown, who gave an extraordinary talk on how the Gettysburg Address relates to the common core and how she teaches it today, and how different it is today that she made it from college in her social studies class a couple of years ago. So maybe you can share some of that. I know, Bill, you're going to. I've already done it. We already done it. I remember the group of parents that we were asking about the common core. I just used that as an example. I did not do justice to what she presented. But in that speech, I thought I knew everything. I learned so much that night from her. Anyway. But the difference was, instead of that, I won't spend a lot of time in the group, what could have happened years ago who may have all experienced that, go home at night, read the Gettysburg Address, come in tomorrow, and let's talk about it. So the teacher comes in, and what did you get out of it? Blank. And so then the teacher would explain what the Gettysburg Address was about, the significance, and do all that. The difference today is that the teacher does not do that. The teacher leads the work of the students in thinking about it, giving some structure to it, might start out, Kelly was talking about how she might start out with the word dedication, and looking at Gettysburg Address. I think it appears six times. She said, how many times does it appear? It's six times, and it's used differently each time. She had the whole audience sitting there going, re-reading it, and going, oh yeah, that's different each time. And the word nation is used five times, 10 times. This is close reading. And going through the different structures of it, so that the students start pulling the meaning of this out. And then, but then she can also throw in perspectives that they might not have. For example, in the Gettysburg Address, they used the word nation for the first time ever in our history since the Revolutionary War. And what's that significance? Lincoln was laying the foundation for what was gonna happen with Reconstruction after the war and the healing. Before we talk about, we don't still talk about states, but in terms of the language of a president, they didn't ever talk about nations. So you start going into the Gettysburg Address at that little detail. You really start, it starts to come alive of why it's such an important document, but the teacher doesn't tell them why it's important. Thanks. I think you did it better than I did. I'm rising up. All right. We are going to go into 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 in which a panel in an open session may have a detrimental effect. And to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if in an open meeting they have a detrimental effect on bargaining or litigation of the public body and in terms of the players exiting only for the purpose of adjournment. Any motion? It's on a little bit. Second. Okay, welcome. Aye. All right. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. We're in executive session.