 Thank you. Welcome to the organizational meeting the Arlington School Committee today is Thursday April 14th 2016 at 6 30 p.m. The purpose of this Small meeting is to reorganize the committee one of the joys of this committee is the collegiality that we have in terms of exchanging roles and rotating the chair It was an honor to serve as your chair last year. This was my second round as chair, so I've now Double has been in the committee As well as being a has been at MASC. I've hit the daily triple, but it's great to be with you all I'm happy to be with my colleagues and ready for another great year of work I'll take a nomination for the election officer of chair. I nominate dr. Seuss dr. Jennifer Seuss second Any other nominations hearing none motion to close nominations? So moved all Second all in favor. Hi opposed. That's the unanimous vote Motion to elect dr. Seuss's chair by mr. Thielman second by Mr. Hainer all in favor. Hi. Hi opposed That's the unanimous vote. Congratulations madam chair now nomination and election of officer vice chair move to elect Nominate excuse me. Nobody invest at the element as vice chair now into the school committee second Okay, move first a heiners second by dr. Allison ampey any other nominations Hearing none all in favor. I opposed that's the unanimous vote nomination election offices secretary Nominate mr. Hainer second. Okay motion by mr. Thielman second by dr. Allison amp here that are there any other nominations? Hearing none all in favor. Hi opposed. That's unanimous. Congratulations to our new officers vote to approve committee and liaison assignments for 2016-2017 is presented by dr. Seuss. I'll move move by mr. Hainer second by Mr. Thielman. Mr. Thielman any debate discussion? Besides the thank you for a very lovely placement All in favor. Hi. Hi opposed that is unanimous vote on authorize authorization to sign payroll warrant Mr. Thielman some moved Well, you were you going to authorize the chair? No, no, no. Oh, I go mr. Hainer. Mr. Hainer. Okay Well, you vote to authorize the chair and mr. Hainer to sign the okay payroll warrant any discussion Second by dr. Allison ampey all in favor say aye. Aye opposed That is a unanimous vote Per policy BDA standards and norms of the Arlington school committee BDA dash Will the incoming chair, please read them to the committee. I'd be pleased to We the Arlington school committee acknowledged that a school committee meeting is a meeting of school committee members that is held in public And not a public meeting and that we will make every effort to ensure that meetings are effective and efficient To that end we acknowledge the importance of subcommittees and we in the superintendent agree to utilize them to focus on specific topics in depth and to prepare for presentation deliberation and possible action by the school committee We the Arlington school committee set forth these standards and norms that we will all commit to abide by as individuals and as committee represent the needs and interests of all students in the district Exercise leadership in vision planning and policymaking Evaluation and advocacy on behalf of the students and the district not in managing the day-to-day operations of the district Conduct our business through a set agenda emerging items will be addressed in subsequent meetings through agenda items Provide full disclosure. Each member will provide input encouragement express concerns and positions rather than withhold information from other members When a committee member feels that there has not been full disclosure an objective process for revisiting the issue will be used Five maintain an open environment where each member is empowered to freely express opinions concerns and ideas Committee members will work together to clarify and restate discussions in order to strive for full understanding Keep an open mind and accept that they can change their opinions by recognizing that they are not locked into their initial stated positions Make decisions on information and not in personalities Committee members will act with the best information available at the time Considering data the superintendent's recommendations proposals and suggestions Committee members will strive to make the best decision at the time To debate the issues not one another the committee will engage in critical thinking Expecting all committee members to freely offer different points of use as part of the discussion prior to making a board decision Not take unilateral action a committee members authority is derived only through a majority decision of the committee Acting as a whole during an open public meeting Attend meetings well prepared to discuss issues on the agenda and will well prepared to make decisions Striving for efficient decision-making Strive to have no surprises for the committee or superintendent all members will receive the same information on all topics in a timely manner Strive to reach decisions by consensus Discuss with respect disagree without acrimony when consensus is not possible all members will publicly abide by the majority decision Understand and respect the chain of command as it concerns the roles and responsibilities and direct others to do the same Review and revise our standards and norms as needed as part of the committee's self-evaluation This was adopted and approved March 22nd 2012 and just a note we will be actually looking at these again and seeing if they need to be updated in a better month And I will sign. Thank you. Okay. All members of the committee will sign policy Bda-e This is the conclusion of business of the organizational meeting following a motion to adjourn We will commence the regular meeting at 645 looking for a motion to adjourn So moved by mr. Heiner second by mr. Thielman all in favor I opposed We are adjourned Welcome today is Thursday April 14th This is my first time as chair and I look forward to serving everyone We have a new member Len Cardin who unfortunately cannot make it today. He Has a year ago planned a family vacation and it was not able to make it Before we have some exciting stuff to hear we have the National History Day Presentations which are really looking forward to hearing, but I just wanted to talk about some of the art that is in the room That's new first So starting from here this I think these are all Dalen students Water lily painting down students were inspired by water lily paintings of contemporary artists Lucinda how from South Carolina as well by French artist Claude Monet Students worked on both wax resist resist with tempura paint and glue resist with oil pistols to achieve colorful and playful water scapes so the glue Resist paintings is that they that's I think those are those For this glue resist painting technique down students were inspired by the work of Australian our Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd Boyd is contemporary artists from Sydney, Australia who uses oils pistols and archival glue to create large colorful images His mixed media paintings often have black or dark backgrounds upon which the applied colors appear bold and striking No, I think that's that's a water lily Japanese Sumai brush painting Dalen artists were excited to use traditional Japanese brushes made of bamboo and goat hair to paint scenes of nature The students were inspired while watching several videos on YouTube of contemporary artists Sensa Rebecca Rocca Rebecca Rocca who lives in Spain studies the traditional art of Sumai brush painting and also teaches the Japanese martial arts of Akaito butchering pronunciation. I apologize Objects of nature drawn from observation Actually, that's that I think right Yeah Okay Yeah, California based contemporary artist Sean Sullivan was the inspiration for these studies by Dalen students of natural objects John with attention to texture light and shadow Sean Sullivan is perhaps best known for his sprawling murals murals of nature drawn with only a sharpie The mural titled grand pale maw created on site at Los Angeles contemporary Exhibitions took him seven months to complete okay, and The international dot-day painting Which apparently is on September 15th? Down students in grades K through 5 were inspired to take paint in their own unique direction for our student celebration of international Dot day this year International dot day takes place every year on September 15th and is a global celebration of creativity Courage and collaboration inspired by the book the dot by Massachusetts author and illustrator Peter Reynolds The book challenges readers to make your mark and see where it takes you Peter Reynolds writes children's books about authentic learning Creativity and self-expression and its books have been published in over 20 languages and I have to say my kids love that book Okay Okay Should I introduce Yes, I will actually so I also want to recognize Linda Hansen as our AA right So let me introduce the National History Day students Is Allison sent to you know here? She can't okay, that's too bad We are excited to hear I actually don't remember how many how many students do we have here? Seven okay, so hopefully we get well introductions So apparently what I've heard is that whenever Arlington goes to these competitions. They dominate the scene they're just so fabulous and And they win awards like crazy, so we're really excited to see a sampling of the work today I'd like to Welcome all of you. You did a fantastic job, and we are so proud of you Jason Levy is here tonight and His co-advisor. I don't believe was able to make it Alice Ancinito But they have been Advisors and there for these students from the very beginning of the year They spend I'm sure that they spend Hundreds of hours certainly collectively on these projects, and you're absolutely right They're fabulous. They they dominate and they dominated the states this year. We had I believe 13 is a 13 projects that went to this to from the region to the state competition and Six projects are going on to nationals, which is a third of all the projects that were there So actually there's probably more statistics about this and I don't know Jason Would you like to come up and talk a little bit about this and then introduce your The students that are here tonight Okay We had 32 participants in this year's competition at the greater Boston districts We competed against 14 other schools We had 13 projects advance to states at states We had six projects come in first or second place, which is allowing them to compete now in nationals in Washington, DC We had three honorable mentions, which mean they just miss going to nationals third or fourth place We also had one project get a special award for the best Massachusetts history entry We competed against 25 other middle schools across Massachusetts at the junior in the junior division, which is great six through eight And out of 18 possible projects I can go to nationals. We had six advance for each category There is up to 12 projects I will be competing and only the top two will make it to nationals these students worked very hard. They started in September We had meetings throughout the year. They came before school after school We met during the weekends. They gave up all their time on the weekends to work on this and they learned a lot Most importantly, they enjoyed it. They got to pick topics that they wanted to do and that shows in their work I'm going to introduce the first speaker who's participated for three years and This will be his first year going to nationals Griffin Gould I'm looking gold I have participated in national history day all three years in my middle school career And I would like to start off by saying thank you guys for giving us all this Exciting opportunity to speak in front of you and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we're honored to be here National history is a very it's an incredible program and it's given us all valuable skills that will stay with us for the rest of our lives and We have learned how to research and write a thesis and defend the thesis and conduct interviews and work hard and I think that working hard is the most valuable skill that we have all learned from National history day and it's probably ten times harder than regular school Our team has always done well in the competitions I think we took home or we sent almost half of the people from our region to states and 11 other schools compete in regionals and we took home. We beat the other 10 easily and We also would like to thank mr. Levy and miss sense NATO for their help and assistance and guidance in this process And their health is just incredible You wouldn't be able to do without them This is soccer hi, I'm soccer Stoge. I'm in grade seven and this is my second year participating in national history day and and So we have many project choices that you can do to represent the theme that is for this year, which was encounter exploration exchange and we have a documentary and websites and research paper exhibit and our original performance and you can work in groups I'm Lauren Murphy. I'm in eighth grade and this is my first year participating So for the research process it starts out in September and you learn the theme which was a soccer set exploration and counter exchange And then you kind of pick your topic. I guess around that. I know when I started Mr. Levy and miss Ansonito advised me to find a topic that I care about first and then worry about the theme later and that was actually great advice because I Think then I kind of found something I was passionate about without worrying about it being you know, is that fit perfectly and all of that and So then you start your research. I know I started more with a broader view. I found You kind of just look at anything that might fit and then see where that research takes you find a focal point If I access to primary secondary sources, you can visit museums. I went to the JFK library for my research And then from there, I know I didn't come up with my thesis until pretty far along into the research process Because it took a while to sift through everything I found and see what I was really trying to prove and then you can also conduct interviews our advisors encourage it and a Lot of our interviews were set up by the students We learn how to send a proper email to a professor or someone who's an expert on our topic and we conduct interviews over the phone over Skype over email and It's really great to hear from someone who knows about your topic and can really talk to you about it first hand And I conducted a few interviews too and I think that was probably one of my best sources in the project Hi, I'm Grace Walters. I'm in seventh grade and this is my second year doing National History Day Doing the interviews was a really cool process because First of all, it's so beneficial to have an interview in your project and I in fact did I Conducted an interview with Paul Brinus who was a former freedom rider during during 1961 and It was funny because when we were looking for interviews we were Emailing so many people about I think like 10 people just looking for interviews and we got no responses and it was funny because We were in the media center Mr. Conklin one of the assistant teachers at Ottison approached us and said I actually know a freedom rider And I could totally set you up set you up with him so So it was great because we got to meet him and we got about an hour and a half Interview with him and he was just such a he was so beneficial to our project and he was so articulate and He was just like a fascinating person It was such an honor to meet him and get to know his experiences on the freedom rides during 1961 and so many other really amazing interviews were conducted and We found them just you know from looking kind of trying to stalk people on Google and also just Writing formal emails So yeah I interviewed Barnaby Milne and he is the great-grandson of the person who I chose as my topic and his interview was very helpful because he gave me quotes and Actually on my website. There's this whole long list about a thousand plants That was very beneficial to my to helping me prove my thesis And I got that from him and it was really fascinating to meet him because he's not only an Expert on my topic But also he's a great civil rights activist in Britain, especially for For History and he he's on I think the Education Board of England and That was it was really incredible to know that someone who achieved that high level was helping me with my project So my topic was about Gender equality or this amendment that was passed to improve gender equality in us aid recipient countries so I interviewed professor good kind to is an professor at the University of Pittsburgh and She also founded this program which Still what's the word? It helped the implementation of the amendment and continues its legacy today And she founded it and it's still going on and I just happened to read about her in an article And I found her email and you know I reached out I didn't think there was a very good chance she get back to me but she did and She was so nice and I learned so much about the organization because of her and then I also interviewed ambassador block the former ambassador to Nepal and she worked under the senator who passed the amendment during the time it was passed and She her interview was probably my best source throughout my entire project It was over the phone and she kind of just tied all of my research together She told me you know about the effects that it had immediately how it was received And I think without these interviews my project would not have been as successful as it was So it's just amazing that we had this opportunity to conduct them Francisco and I'm in seventh grade. This is my second year participating in National History Day I'm Helen Vanarty. This is also my second year participating National History Day, and we did our project on the brothers Grimm They wrote a lot of the modern-day stories that we love today we interviewed a Harvard professor named Maria Tatar and She is She teaches folk German folklore and German literary stories So when we interviewed her we We tried we asked if it was okay to record her because especially in the exhibit you want to You want to like maybe type out some of their words and put them on your board? And we also had a video that had a few of our favorite clips, but It was she she was just really personally connected with the brothers Grimm and their original stories We also made sure that our interview kind of flowed like a conversation you don't really want it to be question-answer because It's kind of feels more friendly when you're talking to them Kind of just like you're having a regular conversation not for something as important as this But she was very helpful with what she told us and it was definitely one of the best sources we had Hello, my name is Connor Rempe. I am in seventh grade and this is my second year doing National History Day I'm I was so I was partnered this year so we conducted an interview of Three our topic first off was the lost boys of Sudan a group of refugees who had to travel across Sudan at the time which is now south Sudan and Are now residing in the United States after a genocide that killed most of their families and so for our interviews We had three we had an interview with three lost boys, which helped us a lot We had Moses a Joe Peter Chambang and Jacob day who are all who are all live in Arlington and One even Jacob went here that to Arlington High When he first migrated here And we interviewed them at the Sunnis Enrichment for Families Program in Maldon, which is a center where Children of Sudanese refugees can come and get extra help with their school work and Meet other children with the same situation as them It really added a lot to our project because who can really say that they were They knew what happened to these boys like so it gave us a real Like a sense of Reality our project because we couldn't really understand without them really are the boys went through So we had 13 groups that went to the state competition on April 9th, and then two teams also got honorable mentions At the district level, which is just greater Boston and then six projects Me Lauren And then three four other people who aren't here And we had four first-place finishers and two second-place finishers and three honorable mentions And that's just incredible for one school and we were I was surprised and I was I Was so happy that our school had done so well and that we had all been able to participate and we got one special award for the best project on Massachusetts history and That's really cool because the special awards are really they're sort of fun and interesting We covered the last one of the Sudan as I said before We so we started off conducting our research on How are like just what the Sudanese Civil War was? Really because we had no prior knowledge of that and that's a good basis to start off on So We that was one of those things that we asked people the person that we dare one people that we are interviews with and We understood how like it made us understand how much their lives were just ruined after there after this genocide Because they I mean This guy was one of Yeah, so it was basically just an interview showing how We just asked him how he how like how life was before the war before the Sudanese Civil War happened and He just explained how great their life was and how he couldn't have changed it for anything On the next page. So yeah, once again, this is all just this is a war background the I mean, this is just a lot of dense information that I really don't have time to go over right now, but So Terrible genocide and so southern northern Sudan was gonna switch switch to Islamic law and southern Sudan who is culturally closer to South Africa Southern Africa Didn't really which is most of like animus beliefs. I didn't believe that Religion should play such a large role. So yeah Yeah, just yeah, this is our research This took a while to put together so it's all of our sources and Easily the most valuable is the interviews but So, yeah I Okay, so is that I guess that's all we're gonna be the single okay our exhibit our project choice our project choice was an exhibit and This is it We chose an exhibit because it we felt like that since our The Brothers Grimm kind of revolve around stories. It was the best way to present our information It was very visual and interactive and that's what we like about it At the competition, we also had a display set up below. This was actually put up on a table So you could kind of it's high and you can see everything But it's yeah, like Ali said it's kind of shows a mix of your information and pictures like we have some comparison of some modern tales and Some of the originals and it's easier just to show comparison and Yeah so That's the picture on the left is our Table Presentation part we used a lot of books for our sources one of them was in German an original German book with their original tales in it and This is actually our board from states. That's our board from regionals We got first place in regionals But we took some of the judges feedback and revised it for the states competition The white on the picture on the left the white Kind of frames that was our typed up interview. We obviously didn't use All of the parts of the interview because it wasn't really connected to our theme of our project But there were definitely some parts that we really liked and that's why we put them on a table at the state competition We also had a iPad with a video I movie playing of some of the favorite parts Sorry My project I did an individual documentary and I'll just show you the beginning of it As America entered the 1960s a societal shift was occurring More and more women had entered the workforce and were facing many inequalities in the office from unequal pay to sexual harassment Women's activists throughout America staged protests for the equal rights amendment Which stated that women could not be discriminated against based on their gender as women argued for their rights all over the country It became apparent that gender disparity was a problem in economic development worldwide in the 1970s data and studies reported that in parts of Africa women account for a mere 5% of the workforce in In reality these women produce 80% of the continent's food supply But because they work unpaid and unofficially they are unaccounted for in studies and censuses Outside aid organizations were under the impression that the men were doing the vast majority of the labor in these developing countries and Therefore their projects and resources were all directed towards men healthy world The women have as much to do Amidst the atmosphere of the women's rights movement senator Charles Percy of Illinois Recognized that the issue of women in the labor force spread much further than America He will pass an amendment forever changing the United States foreign development programs Improving gender equality and women's rights throughout the world the pussy amendment exploring gender equality through the establishment of nonprofit organizations in In 1973 the young senator sponsored the pussy amendment to the foreign assistance act of 1961 Requiring that women benefit equally from all United States foreign assistance projects The pussy amendment stated that US bilateral assistance programs must be administered So as to give particular attention to those programs projects and activities Which tend to integrate women into the national economies of developing countries thus Improving their status and assisting the total development effort Senator Percy is quoted saying at the same time as we seek to achieve the equal rights of women in our own countries Let us adopt this amendment to promote the achievement of equal rights for women in aid recipient countries the pussy amendment to the foreign assistance act of 1961 Spark to the creation of foreign assistance projects with the primary goal of empowering women to become strong independent leaders 13 black and white activists of 13 black and white activists of varying ages to travel on commercial buses And intentionally violate the laws and customs of the deep south This would involve sitting in random seats next to anyone regardless of rates At the stations the riders were to ignore white and colored signs that indicated public facilities It was a simple yet dangerous plan of challenging southern customs Before they departed on their route through the deep south the recruits trained with core in Washington DC The purpose of the training was to prepare the riders for racially motivated hate or harassment provided by segregationists They learned how to act in a situation where one or multiple segregationists were being confronted with the violation of the law The riders would observe their reaction. I Didn't realize it, but I was in effect exploring What was on the other side of the racial divide that I had grown up with It was a cross in the border was into the south When I went from Manhattan to Nashville to the SNCC office for four days of training Which is after I went to the Congress of Racial Quality, and I said, oh, they get to continue under jail for an independent period I'm asking the children, right? Yes And they said fine. I mean that was all it was like very low-key low-level low budget And they said get up get a bus and go to this address in Nashville, Tennessee and Don't take a cab Because if you tell the cab driver who will be white that you want to go to that address You'll never get there. So we would just like to talk about how incredible NHD is as a club It helps us learn so many skills like I said before It helps us work harder. It helps us do more work, which is nice and it just builds a sense of team and Friendship between us and that's really nice And I know that everyone is really excited for what's next and for the future of NHD Thank you. That was fabulous. Do anyone comments questions there's a fabulous presentation and Everyone should be congratulated on your hard work. I'm impressed by the literature you read the references the research I mean, I don't know about count about 40 sources there, so that's It's a lot more sources than I looked at middle school. So congratulations Mr. Heiner, I agree with that I can I can't imagine any of my graduate papers in college having that many resources and the quality of your resources were fantastic I envy you what you've gone through Great job. Dr. Allison MP. Congratulations, and I echo what Mr. Thielman. Mr. Heiner said and I wonder where is nationals? Where are you going? Oh, I just have a oh, oh, sorry This is a stunning presentation Very high-level and I'm looking at the video said Ken Burns could have presented that That was done by our kids here in our length is fantastic I just want to have one more thing You did a great job, but I think a part of it was the inspiration of you teachers and congratulations to them, too Thank you very much. So if someone was interested in hearing more about National History Day, where would they go? NHD.org NHD.org. Okay, great. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your passion Really excited. Um, I have a quick question. What was the project that won the Massachusetts history group documentary. There were a number of categories. There was the web the documentaries the poster performance and Well, we're all very proud of you, and we wish you great success in DC and now bringing home national awards Yeah, and what we've seen tonight. I think that's really very very likely very likely so thank you very much Can I just add that we saw a great deal of technology today? And I need to thank the Arlington educational foundation for their support in our increase of technology at the middle school So thanks to them Okay, so just actually a note of our better structure So we wanted to make sure that the kids who are presenting here tonight weren't up too late We also have teachers who need to get up early, and so we've moved the public participation Till later so some it was on the agenda But just to sort of note about what's happening public participation usually happens at the beginning We're pushing it to 745 All right, so next up Thank you Next up we are hearing presentation on middle school options by Jack Flood and company As of tonight we're hearing perspective from teachers We also have future opportunities to hear from the community. We want to hear from each other We have a truncated schedule. I just want to inform the audience at home that There was some talk recently. It's not been finalized of having a debt exclusion vote on June 11th one of component of which would be a solution to the middle school So because of this sort of truncated timing we are going to have a lot of discussions and we are going to Try to get everything in at one, you know very very quickly. It's it's going to be a challenge We're very pleased that the Teachers and administrators are sharing their perspective with us tonight I'll let them introduce introduce themselves they've prepared a PowerPoint for you, but this actually goes back to us to a process that they've gone through at the middle school to Really look at this issue very carefully And welcome to all of you and thank you very much for the work you've done on Preparing this PowerPoint and just the for all of your participation this important Decision is facing all of us in this community. So That microphone there is something that everybody needs to pass along so that that people watching this evening can hear What you have to say it is it slide? Jack you want to introduce everybody or have them introduce themselves Well, so our first I'm Jack flood I'm one of the assistant principals up at the Odyssey Middle School And as you see with me here tonight is a whole host of members from the Odyssey and teaching staff So before I just thought before I start off with an introduction I'm Jenna Fernandez. I'm a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher. I'm Juliana keys I am an eighth grade history teacher, and I'm one of the AEA building reps at the Odyssey I'm Randy Flynn. I'm a special education teacher at the Odyssey And Heather Mahoney I'm one of the sixth grade English Language Arts teachers at the Odyssey It's hard to beat them were fantastic In any case we had tonight to present to you the finding from a from a Survey and a discussion that took place amongst the Odyssey staff in regards to the space Challenges the enrollment challenges. I should say that the Odyssey is going to be experiencing in the years to come Currently our enrollment is at 1143 students with those numbers expected to rise up into up into 1500 in the years to come on March 8th Dr. Bodie visited the Odyssey Middle School and provided a presentation to Odyssey staff around the enrollment challenges that the school is facing and provided the staff with an explanation of three different options that the district was entertaining as a means of accommodating that increased enrollment those three options were renovation of the Gibbs and converting the school into a sixth grade model the second option was renovating the Gibbs and Basically and turning the school into a six seven eight model and the third option was The expansion of the existing Odyssey Middle School as we know it today So after after dr. Bodie I had her presentation and Explained the options to staff staff broke off into mixed disciplinary groups and they engaged in discussions around the three options These discussions were guided in nature and they were led by by three discussion prompts, which I'll read to you The first discussion prompt was which is the three proposed models is the most supportive of a school culture and climate that is conducive to teaching learning and meeting the social emotional needs of our students and why The second prompt was which of the three proposed models best supports high quality instruction that promotes creativity innovation creative thinking problem-solving and communication and collaboration and why and The third of which was which of the three proposed models is most effective at facilitating staff collegiality and healthy parent involvement and why So teachers broke off into these multidisciplinary groups and the whole rationale behind this was for Myself and in dr. Bodie and members of the district leadership to be able to kind of To acquire an understanding of how teachers felt collectively as a whole as opposed to just teaches as individuals And as you'll see when we move forward into the presentation those findings will be revealed as we move forward following the group discussions the feedback forms were gathered and that data was all Organized and categorized and so that it could be prepared for further analysis and put into report form which all of you have received tonight Shortly after the group discussions individual Group Google surveys were sent out to individual staff members in the building so that they could share how they felt as Individual teachers in regards to the increasing enrollment and the space changes and space options that were that were put before them that data was all gathered it was it was organized categorized and Basically the teachers worked very hard. They took a lot of the data that I provided with them and they put it in report form and put together this PowerPoint presentation to use tonight and So they here tonight to share what their findings are from the opera from the perspective of the teachers in the building and what they think is in the best interests of Healthy learning environment for students and a healthy teaching environment as the teachers in the building so at this point what I'll do is I'll turn it over to Julie keys and she will start the presentation Thank you So I just want to start you off with kind of where we are as a school We all recognize that all of us and is nearly the double recommended size for middle school, which is about 6,800 students That puts us as the fifth or sixth largest in the state. I've seen both numbers depending on which survey. I'm looking at Projected to possibly be number one if the enrollment numbers Continue the way they're projected to And we're really over our building capacity as is and I think you know that We're at the point where we have to seriously consider whether we can even have full school assemblies because it's just too many It's not safe. We don't have a safe place to gather 1,200 people or more The gym is fully scheduled the cafeteria is crowded. It's hard to get that many kids through the lunch line in one block of lunch We're looking at teachers having to share classrooms Which means teachers having to keep their materials on carts, which limits how you're able to teach when you know You have limited supplies As well as sort of we're already stressing our infrastructure. We've had plumbing issues this year We've had heating issues. We've had you know our kitchen can only cook for so many kids I mean, there's a lot of issues going on here that a big school is going to have And we're seeing the shakedown and affect our students I think all of us can tell you that we don't have the relationship with students that we used to have and we miss that And that larger class size means there's less one-on-one time for kids I can tell you just in a class of 26 compared to a class to 18 even little things like the time it takes to check homework. I Have more time for the kids in that class of 18. We get a lot more done There's more instances of bullying and misbehavior in the hallways because they're so crowded and even little things like just kids bumping into each other that's perceived as bullying or You know just leads to escalations of things that wouldn't happen if there weren't as many kids and the time it takes to get around the building You know it when there's that many kids in the hallway traffic moves slower And there's only so much time between classes So, you know, we're stressed with the number of kids that we have in our building today. So that's where we are We all filled out the survey jack sent and then we took that data and broke it down by grade level or Discipline to kind of see how the different groups were responding and that's what we have here for you tonight So the first group we looked at was the sixth grade teachers because they are potentially most affected by these changes Oh Well, what we've been doing. Yep. We just did that. Okay. So, yeah We had our we've had following reports that you guys have been putting out from your meetings from the building task force meetings in school in town Lunchtime and hallway conversations faculty meeting presentation with dr. Bodie the individual survey and then a group of six grade teachers out of cluster teachers special ed teacher and Administrators did go visit the high rock school in Needham Which is a grade six only school just to sort of see what that was like and ask questions And then information about that was shared out people were able to contribute questions ahead of time And then the answers to those plus more information was shared out afterwards. So So in terms of our survey the sixth grade teachers responses you'll see in all of these the red section of the pie chart our preferences for Renovating the Gibbs to house a single school the yellow section is Renovating the Gibbs to house a smaller six seven eight school and the blue section as people who up who said their first choice would be to build on to the oddison So most of the sixth grade teachers 71.4% responded that they would like to try the sixth grade school model So they supported renovating the Gibbs they really cited ideas about tailoring that for a sixth grade students that they really liked that idea and The opportunity to maybe have more in cluster time with kids more flexible schedule smaller clusters that those kids really need and Then you know some of the concerns they put about the other ideas were That and you'll see that a lot of these answers come up depend for across grades You know concerns about two schools being set is separate, but equal is that it will it really be equal? comparing contrasting between the two schools and Just fears that the oddison is so big the idea of making us bigger Would have too many issues the loss of outdoor space was a big problem So we have some six grade teachers here if you guys want to ask questions about those results or if you want to save them to the end Yeah, you want to ask questions or let's let's let's say it today. Okay. That's great. All right So then we lumped our seventh and eighth grade teachers together here And you can see the colors are the same all the way through the reasons are pretty much the same For these responses, but both groups preferred the idea of a sixth grade school at the Gibbs Nobody in the seventh grade liked the idea of expanding the oddison on that interesting And then when we looked at the out-of-cluster teachers, this was our biggest group of responses There were 30 out-of-cluster teachers who replied and that in that's a big category that includes Yeah, world languages art music PE tech facts Reading math support So there's a lot of variety here and again that the responders said that they're Really preferred the idea of a sixth grade school And you can see some of the reasons up there So then what was really surprising to me when we went through this was we got when we broke out the special education teachers responses, and you'll notice that one looks different And that our special education teachers were the only group in the school who Responded with that they would prefer a six seven eight and I I'm gonna let Randy Flynn talk She's one of our our SLC teachers at the oddison and she brought up a lot of points that I hadn't thought of so I think it's important that everybody hear them So one of excuse me. Would you define SLC? It's a supported learning center So the kids kind of they get more of a therapeutic approach to their their whole day a lot of these students struggle with transitions with anxiety with making connections socially and With adults so a lot of the reasoning behind the wanting this six seven eight is that to have Two transitions so close together is really difficult for a student like that Also, another thing is the programs right now. We currently have a behavioral program and an autism program a low cognitive program co-taught inclusion and All of those also need to be represented at the sixth grade level and but the problem then comes Say you only have one student in that program coming up that year Do you have a whole teacher there or like how do you work with that? So that was another Thing that was concerning to them And also the social work perspective our social workers currently at least in the programs the SLCs they Spend a lot of time in the classrooms really getting to know these students and working with them for the three years and Some students receive individual therapies with these social workers So it's really hard to develop that relationship in one year Whereas when they have the three years, they're more trusting and open and they can get to a lot more of Their struggles and work on them with strategies and things like that So important stuff to consider absolutely when we're looking at these models and Yeah so So in total sort of taking the big picture look and looking at the majority opinion here It seems that the majority of teachers do not want autism to be expanded So we would respectfully ask anybody who's in charge of decision-making to please take that off the table We are big and it's not in the best interest of our students to get bigger and that's really what this is about Overall the Gibbs the if we're going to renovate the Gibbs and open that as a new school building the preference of teachers Seem to lean towards a grade six school But with some very serious concerns that would have to be addressed specifically about the special ed issue and how that was Going to be done and some of those questions were sort of addressed with the visit to the High Rock School in Needham But there were some other flags that were raised at the same time. So we're really looking You know, we know this is very early in the process But you know ours as our recommendation it seems to be Grade six school, but we have to figure this stuff out before the building opens if that's the way it's going to go And the big flag there is that if we're going to go with a grade six school. It needs to be a grade six school Not a mini-audison What did you say about the sixth graders it was little people Are you know, I've only been on us in eight years and in that short time what the sixth grade schedule has looked like has changed Tremendously where we used to be pretty different from what seven eighth graders were going through and as enrollment has increased and budgets and The schedule has gotten more and more in line with what something eight graders do and the kids are just so different Yeah, and so in the element I've visited a lot of fifth grade classrooms And it's such a different experience from when you know, we have high school with little people That's the high school with little people and that's we don't want that we want to you know Have a developmentally appropriate programming for our kids and So, you know, we if we're going to open this as a sixth grade school It should be with the idea that we're going to have smaller clusters We're going to have more flexible time It's in you know the idea that all the kids can be in cluster at the same time Whereas right now the sixth grade always has one group who's out in an exploratory class So they never have like all of their hundred and fifteen kids at the same time And that sixth grade teachers should drive the change. I was told that that was too forceful of language They should be very involved and be able to give lots of input in the change From the beginning So so that that's our recommendation I just want to let you know not to end on a negative note But we do want to keep these things in mind the special ed programming especially that if if we're going to do a sixth grade school It needs to have all the programs that we have it at the elementary level and at the oddison For a wide variety of reasons and we need to look at that transition piece very consider carefully We need to look at how this is going to impact exploratory course offerings extracurricular programming And staff you know if people are going to have to be transferred. How is that going to be handled? Everybody said ask for volunteers first in the survey The double transitions making sure resources are distributed evenly between the schools which I We're saying make sure that happens. We have faith that you would make sure that happened And then the the other flag that did come up is that Requiring teachers to commute back and forth between the oddison the Gibbs would be very challenging if we were going to have to and that that should be Minimized as much as possible, and I think that that also goes to the idea of this is a sixth grade school We should have teachers who specialize in sixth grade students so To put together this presentation as well as the the report that's been submitted to all of you It's pretty rich in nature. It comes from the qualitative standpoint as a result of the group discussions that took place in the mixed disciplinary conversations that took place after our Dr. Bodie visited the school as well as followed up with the With the individual survey which kind of gave us a more of a quantitative approach and what you saw tonight in this presentation was kind of Was kind of all that information together into one PowerPoint presentation and as I said a moment ago The specifics of all of this can be found in the report that was provided to all of you as well I want to thank the teachers. I think the teachers did a fantastic job and put this all together It really shows that I mean it really was a collaborative effort between the teachers the administration The district doctor Bodie wanted to make sure that the teachers were part of this process And I think it's that in itself speaks a lot regardless of what decision is made You know, especially we look at what the with the oddison as a whole really seems to be leaning towards right now That being the sixth grade model at the Gibbs One thing that we do have to consider and we learn this from the visit at High Rock the other day is that The school simply can't be as Julia little to just kind of a Kind of a holding tank for the sixth grade students in other words that that sixth grade model At that's going to be how is it to give really has to be unique and tailored to the sixth grade needs It really has to be a special place for the sixth grade students so they can get the most out of that experience With that said what that's going to require is really get it out in front of that and providing the professional development of those teachers That are going to be traveling through that are going to be working in that building So that they can be best prepared because it really is going to be kind of a it's going to be a different approach Into the way they do things every day as teachers in the classroom And the same thing extends to the seventh and eighth grade teachers one of the things we learn from need them is that when If you walk around that sixth grade that sixth grade school need them you'll see the whole kind of that that whole positive culture attitude is is Permanently throughout the building they have advisory periods every day and the lessons are from those advisory blocks are incorporated into a lessons Throughout the day one of the challenges they face. However, is that when the students go to the seventh and eighth grade years? There's almost like it's kind of stepping into a little bit of a different environment so one of things that I would recommend is in addition to providing professional development to the Staff that's going to be working at the sixth grade school It would also be getting out in front and providing professional development to those seventh and eighth grade teachers so that they can be a continuity between the two schools But other than that like I said, I I think everybody did a great job and You know, we open this up to questions or Thank you, I just want to say a little thing about timing So we expect that the school enrollment has first will be making a decision on May 2nd if the decision is to repurpose Gibbs then the school committee hasn't to make a decision about what model if the decision is not to Repurpose Gibbs, then it's we don't have that decision. So just to say something about timing I'm sure my colleagues would like to ask questions and comments. Mr. Slickman. Yeah couple things One in terms of you know, I'm very attuned to the argument of the social workers Who would need to develop relationships with the kids as they're moving up? I'm wondering if we could take some of the folks and attach them to the cohort or you know a class and move them one year and at the Gibbs and two years at the Odyssey and then rotate back to pick up a new class is that model something that we could potentially do I Thought that too, but then I said you're putting the car before the horse. So I stopped thinking that but Yeah, so yeah, you could potentially do that But again the double transition for some of these students will be too much and I know that in districts once In special ed if we lose a child and they go out of district To get them back in district The next year for a seventh eighth school if we have a good program and something that they'll be really Successful at the likelihood of us getting them back is really low And that it's a lot of money to send a student at a district just because we have that one year That might not work for them Did you guys go to high rock? Oh Yeah, so saying it was from from the administrative ranks it was myself And more Murphy were there as well as dr. Bode and mr. Hain are also joined us for the visit as well as as well as several teachers I guess you're gonna have to represent the professional staff here Were there things that surprised you or opened your eyes that you didn't expect and need them Yeah, I mean the one thing that jumped out at me when you know when you walked in the building is basically So what I alluded to earlier was Was that whole thing about you know the the culture of the building when you walked around? It was very positive in nature You could tell after it's it was something that you could you could feel as you made around the building There was constant reminders around the school's mission around the school's values everywhere It went when you talk to the teachers in the classroom The teachers were also part of making sure that that culture you know kind of stayed in a state in existence and Just walking around and you know and seeing the students moving about from class to class It was it would seem like a very orderly environment and it seemed like that the students were really enjoyed the experience We also had the opportunity to during the lunch period to sit down and talk to different groups of students to see how they felt about the whole thing and They seemed to really love the experience It allows them to kind of grow stronger relationship with their peers without having that additional anxiety of seventh and eighth grade Students on top of them because many of which like in Ellington where they're coming from seven elementary schools and need them They're coming from five and so it really gave them that kind of additional year to kind of polish up some of those some of those some of those things that are needed for six grade students and So you know overall it seemed like it seemed like a very pleasant place for us for students to learn and for teachers to teach in but you know I Just want to say that this has been such a persuasive report and I agree with you that we should take the expanded eyes and off the table. I Just don't see it as a viable option. I think I'm such a postage Postage stamp sized lot to try to crab in the largest middle school in the state and that's what it would be just is not feasible at all and so looking down and the teachers agree and And I understand that because I don't think I'd want to work in that environment And I think that the argument, you know, there are reasons to go for the two different models and I do think you're Six at Gibbs seven eight at oddison is also very persuasive argument and I thank you for doing the research and presenting such a good Thoughtful package of data for us to consider. Okay. Mr. Stetman. I wanted to follow up on Mr. Schlichman's question about the supported learning community issue if the SLCs If if we went to a sixth grade at the oddison I mean at the Gibbs sixth grade at the Gibbs and seven and eight at the oddison How would it look if the entire all all three SLCs remained at the at the oddison including the sixth grade of SLC? Those six grade students they wouldn't be with their class And just because they're in a supported learning center doesn't mean they're not accessing the general curriculum Right now. I currently have some students who go out to General Ed for history and science and that wouldn't be an option for them if they were at The seventh and eighth grade school unless they were going to go to a seventh grade class, but that wouldn't really be appropriate for them So I don't think that that would really work Okay, thank you. Mr. Heiner First off, I'd like to say a week and a half ago. I was all for six seven and eight to two campuses Then I heard the preliminary thing that mr. Flood gave us and I was leaning towards just the sixth grade and after the trip to High Rock I'm converted the issue that you brought up about the SLC and special education was a Factor that the High Rock and Needham is dealing continued to deal with It initially it was kept separate just used to use it But then population shifted and stuff and they developed programs there The biggest thing is my issue at the beginning was the transitions the added transition and stuff what I heard from the High Rock people and I believe sincerely is That sixth grade has come in and there's a need to emulate the older students and And to copy which can cause issues can cause anxiety and stress and stuff But the principal and I don't remember it was the other one assistant principal that was Sharing the social worker social worker They discovered one day one turn to the other and said has we had anybody crying yet the beginning of school and they both it was an awareness They said no and they hadn't realized that that initial transition making it in there and the anxiety was coming there that one more year and Developing the skills and going forward the Not only the continuity and the all-planning that mr. Flood was talking about but they have this Commonality with the seventh and eighth grade. They have one PTO and things of that nature two separate buildings and The special needs aspect of it is a challenge to them and they're continuing to work with it They don't have all the news we don't have all the But we have to look at it collectively. Thank you Dr. Allison happy. I Was also one of the ones who was lucky enough to get to go to see High Rock and I also was very very impressed They're doing a really wonderful job and it was neat to get to do the full tour I was also impressed at the experience of a sixth grade only school for the children both just seeing it and Hearing and also talking to the children in the cafeteria But I am concerned about what we're hearing about The problems of special ed and this question is actually more for the full administration anyone who wants to take it I Would really like to Hear more about If we were to do a sixth grade only school at the Gibbs and and do seven eight at the oddison How can we make this? the best for our Students who are either in SLC or the different programs How can we improve it for them It I'd really like to soon I'd like to get more information about I mean I'd like to hear I Didn't the part of the tour that we were on I didn't hear that much about how high rock deals with it and what they're there because we split into different groups How high rock deals with it and how What they're doing with it but I'd like us to be thinking about it and perhaps reporting back even as soon as the next school committee meeting because I think this is This is like a major sticking point and we need more information about it So do you want Yeah, I did ask that question in high rock because that was something that that I'm concerned about as well They actually replicated the program at this for the sixth grade. So that when we're talking about incremental costs between having a Having a sixth grade there or even a six through eight because they've been it would have been We might not have to replicate it in the six to six through eight Because we don't have a program in every elementary school either But for the sixth grade they did replicate it and that was part of the incremental cost Now every year that can have a different Programmatic shape to it because you may not have a sixth grade student In a particular one of the the programs. So it's one of those costs. It would be hard to You'd have to look at if you completely replicated it, but that may not may or may not be necessary I don't know Miss Samar and Dr. Bode has asked me to prepare two different scenarios So we'll be doing that. But as Miss Flynn pointed out, you know, the changing nature of the population You know from year to year does present a challenge the other piece that we would need to figure out is the related service providers So, you know Classroom teacher, you know, we could say replicate the program for the classroom teacher their TA's What would then also have to be factored in which really is dependent on individual student IEPs Is those related service providers ot's pts speech and language social worker those individuals How that would be shared between buildings would you know, those are the things that are going to have to be figured out and May have to shift year to year just based on the distribution of Students so I know that concerns about staff having to travel, you know, we'll be taking into consideration, but Those are factors. We'll have to just so I want to ask a question So I know that potentially you're going to speak to us on the 12th of May If gives were repurposed, would you have a report for us at that time or feel to talk to that? Yeah Okay, I just wanted to follow up so I wasn't Obviously I'm interested in the financial aspects, but in this case, I was actually thinking more of the experience The experience of the students and how can we make if there's a group of kids We're going to have our time with transitions if we're setting up something where there is going to be more transitions for them How can we make it better for them or you know, I'm looking for how can we improve? The experience that the students will be having not just I'm not just talking about the program But but really how can we make it better for the kids? Did you yeah, I just because we did sort of a dry run of this in our leadership team and the Budget stuff comes up like we're well aware teachers cost money But the thing to keep in mind is with the rising number of students in these SLC programs You're going to be hiring that teacher anyways, whether it's for a six seven eight school or a six school or an audition expansion like We're going to be hiring that person anyways no matter where they go So when you say oh, we're going to have to replicate the program Well, we put another we put one compass teacher at a Gibbs six only school or we hire a third compass teacher for the Audison, but we're the numbers are showing us. We're going to have to have that And Dr. I was happy. Yeah, good now. I have to remember what else Oh, I was going to say so one thing I wanted to mention to This is more for our audience outside that I know there's concern about going The kids having an extra transition if we were to do a grade six only school and I've been looking at the papers I know they say that kids achievement decreases after When they have transitions going from elementary to middle school and people kind of infer that then the next transitions are Going to be worse and I just want to point out that the papers at least that I've seen haven't talked about why this transition I mean why there's a decrease and some of it could be age-regulated Some of it could be all these different schools coming in together and I think we can't infer from these papers that Taking the same cohort of kids who are all together from one school to the next school is going to give you the same kind of achievement changes or things That that these papers suggest so I don't think that you can look at Something like what we're suggesting bringing everyone in together and then moving them all from here to there to there It's going to have the same you you don't need to be thinking necessarily that the achievement of them because of these extra Transitions, but that's not necessarily true for the special education kids and that's what I'm concerned to be to be fair I mean in some ways they sometimes are less vulnerable than When the kids are coming in sixth grade because they're coming into a small class They are coming into a very one teacher in some cases are only two or three versus a student who is Transitioning through four five six teachers. So that there is a vulnerability there But I think that that is individual to the students and for some of them They've been traveling as a cohort those who've been a program, you know in elementary have traveled as a cohort too So, you know, I don't necessarily think they're More vulnerable than the other sixth grade students, but it's certainly something that you know We we do address already with that sixth grade fifth to sixth grade transition pretty thoroughly So we'd be thinking more about that sixth to seventh grade transition Great well, thank you I can't emphasize enough how critically important is to hear from teachers and administrators and to get your perspective It's a difficult decision to make and we absolutely need your voices on the table Thank you for letting us be involved. Yes. Thank you. These are our kids. Yes Okay, so we now turn to The vision 2020 steering committee appointment. Oh, I'm sorry. We have published registration. Sorry about that. Do we have actually? We have none. Okay. I'm okay. Sorry. I missed right so Vision 2020 steering committee appointment Scott Lever is that how Yes, and I've had the pleasure of meeting you before and was very impressed with you and I'm glad you'll be part of the process Well, I'm just begin this Last year there was a change proposed to town meeting for a vision 2020 in creating a more defined standing committee and in that process I included in your packet what the what the vote was for in the language around that so in the in the language of Appointments to this the standing committee the process is is the superintendent Brings to the school committee a recommendation for an appointment to that committee and Tonight I'm doing that and Mr. Mr. Lever and I have talked actually we've known each other for several years because one of the things that also was a new focus for vision 2020 was to revitalize the the education subcommittee of the committee and there was a number of people who were involved in in actually Motivating that change there and so we've had some discussions and we've had some recent discussions also on what the role could be and he is prepared tonight to give a little introduction to his background you have his resume and the The hope is tonight that you would approve the approve the appointment Would you like me to give a little background on myself and talk is that appropriate? Yeah, I'll be quick I know okay. We're behind. Yeah, so so just quickly about myself I think you have my resume in terms of my professional background I'm a consultant with Gardner consulting and I lead the work there around organizational change and Strategy and digital strategy technology. I've been a consultant for about 20 years across various firms prior to that I did a PhD and University of Massachusetts as an undergraduate and also I'm an Arlington public school product, right? So I attended the much discussed Gibbs Also parents in town of one child soon to be two in the schools and also a taxpayer a lot of taxpayer Like many folks so lots of lots of interest in this In terms of what I think the role of vision 2020 can be I think vision 2020 Can play a very constructive role collaborative role with the school committee in the school administration In engaging the community in a dialogue about the vision for the schools and What we want our schools to be and what we want our students to experience I think we face and you all know very well a lot of very crucial decisions the the Gibbs Discussion earlier high school ongoing conversations and discussions around curriculum and how do we best support our teachers and All too often. I guess my experience is that parents get involved, but they get involved really around issues And and there can be a lot of excitement a lot of energy generated but that's often difficult to sustain and I really hope that we can use vision 20 as a as a mechanism to sustain parent involvement and community involvement in a discussion about what we want the schools to be I In particular Would hope that in the next year that we can have a dialogue and a series of maybe discussions About the priorities and the and the values that we have as a community and how they're represented in the vision for the schools and In particular, I would like to see us discuss and begin a dialogue around what it means to be world-class we live in a state and in a town where the expectations are quite high and There are I Think many aspects of the schools right now in my view and and others would have similar view that are truly world-class but but I think we as a community need to be involved in defining what that means and To discuss really what we want in that and most importantly how we how we achieve it and really what I hope to get out of that is Sustained involvement from the community and from the parents in supporting making that collective vision happen So that's pretty lofty goal but I think As the school enrollment Discussions recently have shown to me there's a lot of parents who are very committed and community members beyond parents who are very committed in having this sustained discussion and I think vision 2020 can be a tool for that. Great. Thank you Can I entertain about do you have a question? I just a question for Dr. Boyd. Is this a an appointment as Our representative or just an appointment on the board? Well, I guess what I'm asking is are we going to be interacting as as our representative? I know I can call him as a citizen anytime I want and have that kind of an input, but I didn't know if it was more formal That's a very good question It was a way to have people that were Representing different parts of the community that were appointed to the standing committee. I know that even that He wants to have very much have a continuous dialogue with the school committee as we go forward and thinking about this It's an important question. What is world-class and I couldn't agree more. There's a much about our school system That is really world-class and I think we all have maybe a different interpretation of that But there are some things as we go forward into an operating override in a few years are there things that we want to consider Having that we don't have for example World language in the elementary schools. So and that's just one of of Several things. So I think that's a discussion We want to have over the next couple of years. And so yes, there would be communication So how long is the appointment for I think it's three years I think it is. Yeah, okay, great. Yeah, so potentially. Yes, Mr. I'm gonna move the appointment. Yes, great. Okay Do I have a second? Okay, so mr. Thielman moves the motion Mr. Sark's seconded all those in favor Sorry, let me just ask you in the moment. Yeah, let me just ask a technical question Because under the new bylaw what the bylaw changed to have meeting last year And this was a good thing because prior to that the standing committee what were elected officials and people who are Meeting to death and they spun that out to have a steering committee where elected folks and Could get together and talk things out on occasion But the data Operations nitty-gritty planning and work of putting this thing together It's gonna be in the hands of people like dr. Lever here who is Has the time and the commitment to go and do this so this is a this is a good thing But my question was is that do we? Appoint a prove or is this the superintendent's appointment? It's my appointment with your approval Okay, so then the motion to approve is appropriate. Okay, so thank you Okay, so all those in favor of the motion to approve Any opposition no, it's an unanimous approval. Thank you. Mr. Lever. Dr. Lever I look forward we look all look forward to a continual conversation and communication. Thanks so much. Thank you So it turns out that we do have public participation overlooked Can I welcome Michael Quinn? So you have three minutes, okay? It's our Policy not to comment on the presentation. Yes. I'm aware of the policy I'm not sure I'm even in the right room on this, but I figured I'd come here and ask my name is Michael Quinn 15 Shawnee wrote I'm the parent of an Otteson 7th grader and in Arlington High School freshman what I'm here about is the The athletic facilities the track in particular and the track and field facilities in general My son is one of about a hundred kids in the middle school who signed up for the middle school running the middle school track program and they found I found out that they're not going to be using the track this week and then I learned that the Track team at the high school is going to have all road meets this year I went out and checked out the facilities on Tuesday night and they're looking kind of beat I don't know what the situation is if this is a school committee thing or a park thing But it's and then as a taxpayer It's kind of concerning to see these nice new all the work that went in on this It doesn't appear to be being sufficiently maintained I guess going to the previous speaker. We're a little far from world-class right now Great. I actually I think Ms. Johnson has some information about the track The we had hoped that we would have sufficient surplus from when we renovated the field to do the track In the spring, but we did not and so it's in the capital plan Subject to appropriation by town meeting this spring with the hopes that the renovation will take place starting July 1 Okay, and that just to make sure I understand it then is Is anybody going to be using the track then this spring or is it you know that this middle school program or is that point of order? Sorry, okay, so maybe just generally I don't know what that means if it's if it's I think you can direct your Questions to miss Johnson and email and she can maybe direct perfect. Yeah, that works. Thank you very much. Okay. Thanks Okay, so Now we're jumping around a bit we have Dr. Bodie's Recommendation to the committee and I think we're gonna look to take a vote tonight about the educational impact of the option of Repurposing the Gibbs versus an Odyssey edition and at this point as I understand it We're not talking about what we would do with the Gibbs if we were to repurpose it Okay, dr. Bodie well, I Think that the teachers that were here earlier Really sort of summarized my feelings about the recommendation which is that of the two options of Repurposing Gibbs for the island to public schools as a middle school whether a single grade or a six through eight Or have an addition my recommendation is that we Bring the Gibbs building back into service for the island to public schools I had completed a chart of all of the various things to take a look at in terms of The decisions as to whether you look at walkability or school culture or programs extracurricular This is there's a complete list of all of the different comparisons, but really it comes down to Despite the fact that there there may seem like one is preferable than the other We have to look holistically at the decision and that is which which environment is going to be the best environment of the two for our students and Having a large middle school of 1300 1400 and that may grow beyond that it's just too large of environment at this very important time of students lives and Why I've done a fair amount of reading on this, and I'm sure you probably have as well It's fairly inconclusive as to what the actual size of the building is on student achievement But what you can find a quite a bit of in the literature is the relationship of size of building to students feel about being in school anxiety Behaviors in the school environment so and all of that plays an important role on student learning The other thing that is important is we as a district have been looking over the last few years at how to improve school cultures so that we we Support our students and their social emotional learning To help our students in an environment that's going to be very positive We know from many discussions at this table that we're experiencing Greater anxiety among our students, and that's true at all levels We've even talked about it at the preschool level, and we're not unique Arlington is definitely not unique in this that this is a discussion that's going on in Definitely in this area, and I think there's a discussion that's much broader than even Massachusetts so What can we do to? Provide a more positive culture. We certainly have done a lot of work in this district, and we're continuing to do a lot of work Beginning even with our kidney garden with the tools of the mind program We have looked at that in terms of how we support students in that in that area of growth So when we when our students come to the middle school the best thing I think that we can do for them is to provide environments that is more scaled to their needs and to a culture in which they are going to be able to feel more efficacy and support develop stronger peer relationships with both with teachers as well and So despite the fact that there's going to be incremental costs and despite the fact that there's other issues that may appear that in addition might make sense because you you're really only growing a school by its the the factor of enrollment growth I Have to recommend to you that we that that encourage you to choose and recommend That we simply repurpose the Gibbs school Mr. Thelman, I move that we endorse the superintendent's recommendation As Detailed in the April 10th 2016 memo to the school committee second. Okay. Okay, great Motion sorry seconded by mr. Slickman and now we'll have discussion on the motion. Yeah, so the school enrollment task force asked the school department to Make a recommendation on what's best educationally so this memo addresses what's best educationally we're still going through a process of evaluating what's best fiscally and the two may have to be reconciled But for now, I think our motion is very basically is very focused on an educational recommendation So I think it should be adopted by the school Just clarification We need any specific language to state that we're recommending to the time to remove Gibbs from surplus. No, I don't know if we need any legal I think we're at this point. We're making a recommendation to the task force somewhere along This is a recommendation to the task force the task force still needs to make their decision Which we've sort of given them somewhere along the line When Gibbs came offline it was put into surplus and that required a vote from the school committee Yeah, after what happened yesterday. I'm not at the long-range planning I'm not saying it's going to 100% go forward, but if we have to continually come back with different votes All I'm saying is that Yeah, I I understand that we will have to make a motion at that point later like but I think If this group is making a decision between Artisan and Gibbs, and it doesn't come up. We're not making a decision. Excuse me. Yes, sir. This is our recommendation We're basically making a decision if we go forward to this tonight on this and the enrollment task force supports it never You know, we're not going to change our mind. I don't see that happen. All I'm saying is if we make a Motion to take it whatever we have to do legally and do it now If it doesn't happen, it's it's avoided in effect. Okay, uh, Dr. Allison. Okay. Did you want to talk to that? I Was going to speak to the motion that's on the table. Okay, what do we have we want clarification about this issue? I can wait Okay, go ahead. Please. Yes. I Agree with mr. Thielman that we're taking this motion because it's felt to be the best educationally I know that I'm thinking of the community at large that may be thinking. Well, why can't they just put another addition on to the school? And I think one of the things Part of what you need to think about with the odyssey is the actual Physical building that is already there and the physical location it is on And I think that both of those go a long way towards pushing us against adding an addition Because the building as it's already structured Takes up most of the lot There are very few places that in addition could actually physically be put and it fills almost the entire lot It I think when people are thinking that you could just pop something in they're thinking of the ideal school That has lots of open space all around it and is is physically It's on a flat spot and I think and I think there could be a middle school even that size that could potentially accept an addition The problem is we don't have that middle school. We have the odyssey and so I Just wanted to speak to why we're ruling out the addition Because of the specifics of what we're dealing with so Mr. Slickin yeah, I think the common space issues of the odyssey are a huge issue The logistics we looked at the model of how they'd have to attach this and Put this on pillars out in front of the building This is not a viable option. This is not Educationally sound we're not going to be create the kind of educational experience that we want for our kids and in fact to take kids from small elementary schools and Plop them in a tight condensed largest middle school in the state is a Tremendous to service to our kids. It's a tremendous to service to the people who have to work with them It is not educationally sound. It's not a viable option. I don't know what the numbers are going to be financially But educationally, this is not an acceptable proposal. We need to move forward and we need to move forward with the Gibbs Well, I was going to try to answer mr. Heiner's yeah, that would be good. I Talked with our town council Mr. Heim and he said there's no specific language. It's Essentially that you are going to not agree to have Gibbs surplus Beyond June 30th. Do you feel this motion would satisfy that? No, I don't I don't No, no, no, this This this motion here. Let me put it in context which mr. Thillman had done. I thought pretty good job of we've been asked the task forces asked us To make a actually more specifically you and you've asked me To make a recommendation to them about your preference from an educational point of view on On April 28th, the task force is going to hear the study that was done by HMF H looking at the feasibility and cost of the two and We don't know quite where that's going to fall out yet. We have some idea about that given the Study that was done last year So there's that cost. There's also they've asked for incremental cost, which I have provided and continually looking to read to Revise and frankly every time I come back to it a different way. I'm coming to roughly the same numbers. I gave the task force a month or a couple months ago, so There is three major considerations There's going to be the cost of the project itself because this is going to be on town funds There's going to be what it's going to be the effect on operating budgets going forward Which is no small thing either because as you know from our discussions. This is very tight And we have a plan going forward, which doesn't easily Accommodate an increase of six or seven hundred thousand and then there's the educational and that and all of these are going to go In a mix so what they want to know is from you your what you think is the best educationally That will go into a mix that they will hear and they will make a recommendation And so where we go from there is then will be stepped up to that Okay, mr. Heiner my only concern is that if everything goes in goes in a In line and the intent is to go for a debt exclusion at the time that was discussed There's X amount of days for the select men to put that on a ballot and that's my only concern Yeah, that that I would ask the chair or the superintendent to look at the timeline and If nothing else put it on the next agenda if it's necessary if it's not necessary, that's fine But just get clarification so that we don't lose out on a technicality. That's my only concern, right? Yeah, I mean I I know a little bit about the timing of it, right the superintendent needs of the superintendent the Board of Selectsmen need to put this Suggested we put on the ballot 35 days before June 11th, so if that if that is Yeah, if we're looking at the beginning of May To take a vote right it's very tight that is extremely tight. It is I mean it's very tight We're gonna talk a little bit our schedule soon. I'm on record with the town right now. Yeah, it's tight I don't want to lose on a technicality. That's my concern Mr. Telling so the long-range planning committee discussion yesterday morning What the group decided was that the appropriate time to take the vote to repurpose Gibbs was after the debt exclusion vote Which we recommended for June 11th. Yeah, so following that vote the school committee would convene and take a vote on the Gibbs 23rd That's potentially that's fine. Thank you. I apologize for taking the time. I was happy I was just gonna say I agree with what mr. Philman said that that's what we had talked about and the advantage of that is that we're not trying we're not saying Surplus no not surplus surplus. No, I'm going back and forth. Yeah, just to clear one other point It's important to make is that this conversation started in July. So we've been Working with the tenants. We've been they've been well aware of this issue. They've been looking for other space We've been working with some of the tenants to find other space. So this is it's not news Yep, but and yes, so we've been talking about this for a long time But we do have a couple of months that are very tight, but I think everyone's aware of the deadlines Okay, so I'm only a few minutes late Yeah, we I'm sorry. Yes. We have one on this. Okay all those in favor of the motion as Articulated by mr. Thielman. Could we hear it again? Yeah, sure So Karen what I said I said I said move that the school committee Endorse the superintendent's recommendation is articulated in the memo dated April 10th 2016 Okay, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed or Oh, aye. I should say aye. Yes, you should. I'm sorry. I am new to this Okay, don't great. Okay Could I ask a question? Yes, Mr. Hinner Would it be appropriate to ask the superintendent? I'm asking the group as a whole through the chair To bring forward a recommendation at the next school committee meeting for the potential configuration Yeah, yeah, so the superintendent if we should have that up front Well, we our next meeting is a half an hour meeting. So we have to actually We're actually going to be talking about that a little bit later about what our future meetings are going to look like This is a conversation. We have to have as a committee Another conversation we have to have as a committee. I'd like to have is the district goal strategy district goals we talked a little bit about this a couple months ago and I just wanted to bring it up again because this is the time So the question is how we as a committee want to handle this so in the past we've often received a Semi complete document from the superintendent that we've worked to revise in a special Retreat A potential we do have another retreat coming up that is on a different matter already We have a lot to do There's other potential ways of handling it We could get involved earlier before that document is created. We could take that document to a subcommittee There's just other potential. Just want to hear people's ideas about what what you'd like to see done with the district goals to session Mr. Heyman Whatever way we go. I'd like an opportunity for the community to be involved in that aspect of it on the district goals we have timelines that that affect the building goals and then the teachers goals and things of that nature so From my perspective, I'd like to be up front so that we're not jamming this in to meet those other deadlines That's so upfront meaning as soon as possible. Okay Subcommittee may be the way to go well So I always think that the purpose of a goal statement for the year is to define What's going to be different and better about an institution a year from now whether it's you know You're running a hospital university school district the school wherever it is so I My own personal preference for this process is that it comes from the district to us for review because I think it's I mean I think we say we want to know what's going to be different about the school district And what's going to be better about it as a to frame it and then the superintendent and her staff go out and think About what's going to be different and better and then we get a document back and then we critique it So that I've always liked that process myself. I don't really my one personal opinion I don't like a committee a school committee or board committee going off and creating something Without knowing what the people who run the district every day think and Believe can be changed and then I think we have to give them you know feedback in this process and say you know I don't think that's strong enough or I don't think you're being realistic or you forgot about this goal or that Goal, so that's how I like a check and balance in that way. That's my that's my comfort zone It's your slip-in that you were making no you didn't okay. I'm miss Allison. I think I'm I'm not sure. I'm understanding what you're proposing Right now my understanding is the district goals are formulated by the superintendent with working with her cabinet Administrators and then they bring it to us to look at when you talk about having other people participate Are you saying that we formulate kind of a different thing and then we're like intercalate it or are you I? Just want to open up. No, it wasn't I wasn't thinking that way I just want to open up it it it feels to me I mean, I've only been on for a couple years, but that we often feel like Rushed at the end about these district goals and so that I just wanted to open up the conversation earlier about what we want to see Happen with it and actually it might be appropriate for dr. Bo you talked about the process that's changed this year with her administrative team All right, can I do a little bit of context? It does feel a little rushed and part of that was because of the way the educator evaluation system Has evolved and I think that's something we all have to sort of you live with this for a while And you have to think about it because teachers have to determine their goals by October 1st And their goals are related to their school improvement goals, which are related to the district goals So we have an agreement that we've worked out and through negotiations and just good common sense among us all is how we How we need to move this forward now We now move district goals into the May June where we all prove it now one of the disadvantages of this timeline quite frankly is that We with administrators we have a chance to sort of in the summer Do a bit re-evaluation see where we are and then before we used to come in the fall and have something for you in the fall But and that's something we might want to look at Together again and certainly with the with the teachers as well So where we are right now is that If we're looking at the four overarching goals Which pretty much talks about the vision of the island public schools in terms of what we're looking at for achievement for our students The professional development for our teachers and and certainly all of the infrastructure Things that need to happen to Create the right environments and the level of communication So those are all Things we want to see happen, but every year we find new strategies and we next What one of the things we've been looking at with student achievement the last few years And this is part of the dialogue between all of us is that looking at mcast scores And pbi scores and sg is student growth scores But but this year because we're moving into the park We're suggesting taking that off the table for the year And now thinking about what's another way that we can really look at student achievement And how would we want to define What we think Our good measures of student achievement And so we began that discussion last week through more of a collaborative process Which we're hoping that the teachers will also engage in over the next couple of weeks to the extent that's possible in our timeline Um, and we looked at What what the whole area of social emotional growth? What are we doing? Well, what what what would be good indicators that we've made improvements in the next year is better And what are the obstacles to that and so we we've begun that already with the administrative team and um I can't I can't tell you right now. We have some goals. We've had some good discussions and uh So maybe having some of that and and commit in in uh A subcommittee would be good in the next few weeks to see where where we are In that process. Yeah, so actually one question that one suggestion that's brought up earlier Is to maybe send this to subcommittee, which I think we haven't done at least earlier that and on um to have some of the discussion go on there Mr. Hainer, I would agree with mr. Thielman. I think it is a good idea to have him come back to us One of my concerns is An issue on the superintendent's diversity task force Is come up periodically and There's a hope My hope as well cultural proficiency. We've talked about it But I'd like to see that as an integral part of our overarching goals Embedded in it. We have we've had issues this year dealing with uh different ethnic issues um I think it has uh When it's done well the research that i've seen it has an effect on student achievement across the board So I I would ask that that'd be a priority consideration uh cultural proficiency It came up repeatedly in our discussion. So we're all in the same wavelength. Thank you So let's I maybe sort of throw out some Timing and see if this seems right to everyone um So on the meeting on the 12th We could see the beginning draft that could then be sent to the committee or is that too late? That sounds good. This is this is may Yeah So so so may 12th. We'll see the beginning, but it'll be sent to subcommittee Um, is there a desire to have another retreat around goals? Or So so do this on subcommittee mr. Slickman. Yeah, I mean the thing is is we've got a set of overarching goals Which drive our district goals? We've also got a set of goals for which we're evaluating the superintendent So now we're really dealing with the overarching goals the district goals and the superintendent's goals Uh, we can goal ourselves out, you know, and and I think that at this point To work within the context of all the existing You know the structure of goals that we have This is going to be a tweaking process that we get into a little conversation in subcommittee and And get a sense of where everybody's at and then we could be able to bring it back This shouldn't be a difficult process. Okay, so it sounds like So potentially we'll be seeing this on the 12th of may it'll be sent to subcommittee and then it'll come back to the committee Is that that's mr. Thielen So one one point I want to make, you know, we got into this This whole thing about the goals have to be done by june because of the state law, right? Is that what does that would cause them? Oh, that's the superintendent's goals on the evaluation Okay, we have a policy that we're not following actually, but it's a little bit earlier So anyway, um, it would be one thing I would I do think it would be good to Revaluate the timeline for that policy because you really when you you know Can talk about the goals all you want in may and june then when you Get to the summer you can think a little bit more as a leadership team about where you're really going to go as a district for the year And the other thing is, you know, we still have to finish the goals for f y 16 And one of those goals for f y 16 is space issues and we might have a vote on june 11 That's going to take up some time with people involved on the committee. Yes I want to point out the reason that was backed up was at the administration's request because the teachers needed To know earlier so that they can set their things. So that's how that Yeah, so so it sounds like actually if we send this when we send this to subcommittee Um, a conversation about timing could I I think that's a good discussion Well, it was something that was negotiated with the union. So this is Yeah, so there's that we have to bring everybody together. Well, I would just say one thing to look at We can do it earlier as long as we don't ask them to switch this We we can arbitrarily put set the goals earlier Is what I'm saying Am I wrong in that? Well, that's what we're doing now. We're working to do that all I'm saying with regard to the union is is that we negotiated To give them x amount of time So that they they wouldn't be crunched am I correct Some people wanted to know the direction that we're going as a district in terms of emphasis So that in the summer if there was work they wanted to do or they wanted to participate in professional development the summer They are doing that rather than hearing about it in september. It's just too late So we decided to do it in february We could do it on our own. We wouldn't have to involve them on that. I'm not I'm using that as a as a broad example. That's all. Thank you Okay, so I don't think we need a vote just wanted to get a sense of the committee. Um So we are now no longer behind schedule, which is great. Um monthly finance reports, miss johnson I will do my best to keep us moving in that direction There really isn't much to report from prior months Because the last of the purchase order submissions are happening as of tomorrow So by the May reports, we'll be doing two things. We will have hopefully booked All of the planned expenditures through the end of the year and we will start reducing Blanket purchase orders that are put up at the beginning of the year This is the time of the year when we go particularly in facilities But also in energy and other things we start tailing back purchase orders if we feel there's surplus funds in them And that allows us to zero in on a closer picture Uh questions, mr. Heiner On the tracking report line eight two one oh three. Okay, hold on. Let me get there. I'm sorry Eight two one oh three. You said yes our electricity Uh-huh This only shows the general fund. It doesn't show the revolving accounts from which much of this is paid I'm looking at the money right now. I'm just the last statement says expense will be moved To the revolving account got it. Okay. And my other question is uh on the grants There were It's a general question several items pensions and mtrb they were budgeted And you're listening at no expense That's right. We do that by journal entry at the end of the year mtrb is being See So we're not but it says estimate to completion right it implies that's going to be a surplus It isn't okay. So I guess if I saw it listed and uh, you've encumbered it Then I would not encumbered it yet Okay, the way it looks right now. It looks like you give me a specific grant that you're looking at The medco one. Okay, uh, eight one seven three oh pensions and then three one would be mtrb pensions And there were several others similar I don't see an eight one seven three oh and metco I'm a title one. I apologize. I looked at the Yes, because we have both teachers and non teachers that are being paid out of the right all I'm saying is the way I'm reading it I'm not questioning what you're doing the way I'm reading it It says the budget amount and the estimate to completion is the exact same amount It it looks to me like we're not going to spend it Oh, yeah, I can see why it would right right. I think I need to change the verbiage. Thank you It it goes through a whole what you're saying it looked like we had we weren't going to give We weren't putting 136 thousand dollars worth of pensions that goes through the whole grant thing We were just we're going to keep the money And I know I mean I you know I I will work on the phrasing of that But the presumption is that all grants are expended fully. Thank you Dr. House and ambi I understand that the budget tracking report doesn't have other moneys How given that how much are we running behind at this point if you look at the budget summary the top sheet 349 859 Um minor in different order. I'm going to have right after my memo There's a very small box of a sheet that consolidates revolving grants. Okay. Okay, I found it I download them onto my computer because I look at things at times when I'm not online. So, okay, okay, got it Okay, so that one has has all of So this is no different than the um budget tracking one, which you just said for example that the Uh electricity would be pulled from another account. So because it's we're showing that the That the revolving account the revolving account will be fully expended But if you look at the revolving account, it doesn't show a lot of expenses in there yet because we haven't moved the expenses Um I'm still confused. Okay, um when you look at this top sheet it presumes two things all revolving accounts will be fully expended as budgeted All grants will be fully expended as budgeted We've budgeted electricity in both the general fund and in the revolving account At this point the expenses for electricity are only resigning in the general fund When we make that when we move those expenses as it says in the general fund It will help to meet that presumption that the revolving will be fully expended Okay but I still don't see why the As it's presented now it seems like It shouldn't the the end Number shouldn't be as negative as it is because the electricity in the other one is still in the revolving But there are other things running in negative. It's not just electricity at this point. I understand but it's a hundred thousand dollars So I should be able to see it on this this level And I'm not What you're saying is that everything in revolving Is going to be spent as it's expected but Then the numbers aren't matching up. I mean Can can we sit down and talk about this offline? Yeah, but I because I'm not really sure what you're driving at Yeah, we'll talk about it another time, but it's I think it's Confusing how it's presented It is confusing the fact that you're expensing things out of various places is really hard And and I am deliberately making a choice to show the variance only in one place rather than multiple places Because I think this is the least confusing way to do it Is it a hundred percent? Right on what's going to end up happening? No, but I think it's it's more of a model of how I'm to show how over under we are in total Rather than specifically. Yeah, I think the the confusion is you can't have a variance from budget At nothing for revolving and expect to throw 100 into something into You're not there. Okay. I'm not I'm sorry Probably makes sense for a longer discussion Um Yes, I I think the thing that most people are really interested in is how do we look in terms of where we're going to be at the end of this year Right and the way we look right now is the 349 But I think that may come down based on how the final expenditures go and how much we can liquidate from Already encumbered activities Okay, great Um Okay, so superintendents report as I understand we have some motions in here as well, right Actually, I have a fairly long report. We have a very long report, but there's a lot a lot going on There is And unfortunately one of the first things I need to talk about is how the day started today That was that we had Yet again another bomb threat at the high school this time it started the the call came in Before school started in fact it came in I think 7 30 which is actually a little bit Different than maybe it was put out there, but the fact is that was before school so Students and faculty that were in the school were asked to just leave while we could do On the a search of the building police came the fire in fact the fire department came today What we found out then and also I found out later at a meeting That there were a number of calls today again in in the state And there were many on Monday and in fact one school district next to us I've got one on monday and they got one on today What is a little concerning is a pattern that is changing though and that is it's been middle school in high schools but there's recently been some elementary and That's you know, that's it's it's more difficult. I think for young children to really understand this process. So we have certainly protocols in place The high school gets better at these protocols But each situation has been a little different in terms of the time of day, which also affects it as well So we're we're hoping that That the fbi frankly can make some progress in having this these activities. It's just disruptive and And it's and it's happening here in this state in this area and it's certainly happening all around the country in fact so But I will say one thing that I I really want to again thank the police department because and the fire department today but we We work very closely in these situations and The first person that we call Is the police department Or the department All right. So at any rate, hopefully this is our last one as we go forward in this year So now a number of things and in fact, there's so many things Let's start with We had some actually good news Yesterday, um, I got a call from our representative garbally and also from town manager Saying that the house budget Had come in higher than the governor's budget for chapter 78 And that is great news for us assuming that in the process the senate Also maintains the house numbers, which would mean that Above that 126,000, which was the governor's number. We might have an additional anywhere from 177 to 187 That would be in addition to our to our budget And so we may be having some discuss discussions in june Good discussions about And as I was saying to our town manager, we just finished some A meeting in which we were talking about well, we need another point to here another point to there It's going to be hard to schedule for you And yet, of course, none of those point twos are currently in our budget requests And that always is what happens when you get into scheduling So that's good, um, but we may not know for a while another very positive Is that I have to Congratulate the high school for a truly outstanding performance of hella dolly amazing just superb And I heard many people said walking out talking that you know that this could be On stage and professional that it's that good. So congratulations to all of them They did a terrific job Um, you've already heard that we went to need him this week and we'll have more discussion about that But I think that overall that was it was a good decision to go and I want to thank again publicly The staff the principal of high rock and the superintendent who also came and met with us to give us information And are both open to more questions and I'm sure as we go through this process of those questions that you might have I can certainly relay them To the principal and also the superintendent and one of the questions I had had for him was incremental costs, which He'll give me more information about um Another thing that you should be aware of it's last night at finance committee There we found out the the right process If you recall last year we had two hundred thousand dollars that we were Going to put in that had been savings and special education We're going to go into the stabilization account But because of a technicality that money has just sort of stayed right now in the reserve account of the finance committee So about the day last night approved the the process and the process actually that has to be voted into the school department operating budget And then the then there's a second motion after that to go into the stabilization It can't come directly from the where it's been sitting this last year. So we're all set I think they've got all the motions in place For town meeting and and diane you would have we're all set on that There's a lot of discussion about how that how to make that work um, I also want to um encourage you I know Mr. Schlickman was there last night with with made the art exhibit at the high school, which is Terrific wonderful. It's just a wonderful exhibit if you have a chance to stop by There will be another art exhibit which is more of a k-12 exhibit At town in may at town hall. So If you'd miss this there'll be another opportunity coming up and I'll I'll send you an email on the the time of that reception as well We had an actual a great event this week Which we had more applicants and maybe you want to talk a little bit about that Mr. Siegel Because he worked with our well, we all work together, but we have the diversity. We have a committee As an advisory committee on diversity that we meet with regularly and they were a great help with this But I'll let you talk about it. So as we have for the past few years. We've hosted we hosted a coffee social for potential applicants to the district Um seeking applicants from diverse backgrounds For positions in the district and we had 13 candidates Come into the social plus members of the advisory committee Ms. Starks came as representative of the school committee the superintendent assistant superintendent Some a principle a couple principles and curriculum leaders and Um Ms. Elmer so we had a staff from our administrative team represented as well to talk to the candidates about potential openings if they fit in their area Of their certification area. So It's a good way to make contacts with people for them to Get their name in front of and a face in front of our Our administrators In a more informal setting than an interview And potentially some of them could come in for interviews for positions that we have open Down the road we um or soon so It's a good event to the advisory committee Was instrumental in calling some of the candidates the candidates were generated from job fairs that I attended The mpde the mass partnership for diversity diversity in education hosted a job fair in march Several of the candidates who we met at that job fair came To the social I also attended job fairs at boston college and leslie university And um there may have been some other outreach that people made but the members of the advisory committee did actually make calls to candidates who I had met and I had given them a spreadsheet of Um phone numbers and email addresses and they some of the candidates commented that they were impressed that they got the personal phone calls from the advisory committee um So we I think it was successful. We'll see how it result what the result is from the You know from the coffee and in terms of our hiring I will comment that um, you know Maybe I need to expand my job fair attendance and some of it is scheduling and hard It's hard to get to them all some of the job fairs that We have attended Aside from the mpde job fair do not have A large number of Diverse candidates. So that is one issue that the schools of education are dealing with And I've talked about that before some of those pool problems that um, we have in massachusetts and in other parts of the country But it's a You know, it's an ongoing thing that we're working on. Did you want me to comment on the other the hiring or now? Is that something you want to save? That was in the It's in the it's in the report. Um That they can have well, let me just unless they have any questions for you I'm sorry you're getting it Wasn't planning to talk to the progress report because I did talk about it in march 31st but everybody wanted to have the written part and of course When I started getting into the written part, I always add more and more detail and um, so We had people that helped with the different parts of it and it's it's there in your packet Uh, I think the issue relative to this particular Issue is that we've seen some progress this year But you could talk a little bit about it because it does relate to the efforts. We're trying to do in order to increase our Our can our Our staff So that the more diverse and more reflective of the students we have right we have seen some progress and the report does list Some of the positions that we filled since october 1st since we've um Since I gave you the the last hiring report in the fall and some of the things that we're doing to you know, some of the things that we continue to do to Increase diversity one of the best ways I think that we hire teachers classroom teachers in this district Is through our student teachers that we get in the district and our teaching assistants Um, so that is an area that we are We continually look to to focus on to increase the diversity of our student teachers in the district And our teaching assistants because who are working towards Educator licensure so that People on those paths once they get into a building they know The teachers and the principal and the students Are more they're more successful. I think starting out They're not brand new to the building and they get to know people and it's sort of a way to To learn about someone before you make a decision to hire them into A teaching position All right, there's no question. Let me just move on because we actually have a lot so actually bulleted here Just make a comment again is that the superintendent's mid-year evaluation report. It's just bulleted so that To highlight that it's there And if there's more that we want to talk about it, maybe we can do that at the next meeting Because I'm sure that there'll be more that we'll add to it at the end of the year In terms of our work. Yeah But I I'm sure one of the things you're very interested in is the update on kindergarten enrollment Yep We have right now registered 425 25 students and What we're seeing already to in fact Karen Tessone and I work together and looking at buffer zones That already Thompson and Hardy are definitely approaching the numbers that the McKibben Report in December said they would be approaching Thompson faster than even Hardy right now Thompson is well on its way. In fact, it's almost right there and this is Hardy's getting is moving up there very close as well Dr. McKibben's report had predicted 81 students at Thompson and that being fairly steady for the next few years And I think that's definitely what we're going to see if not more as we go along So where does the 425 compared to where we were this time last year and we're pretty much On target as to where in fact may be a little So close to where we were last year and our final numbers were in the high 400s when we finally got to september So I expect that's the case. We're getting more registrations all the time and actually one of the things that one of our Building secretaries discovered. So I'm going to put a little plug in here tonight If you are already an Arlington public school parent And you have siblings children in the school, but you have a kindergartner coming up Please register that child We discovered at one school a school unnamed Had six families that we knew there was a kindergarten student coming up and had not registered yet We haven't done that a complete analysis at other schools So highly encourage that We're we're going to do a deeper analysis and start calling people that may have that third or fourth kid that's not in there Call last year So we're we're going to We're going to be getting finishing the buffer zone assignments by next week Get letters out the first Meeting at schools This year is going to be may 10th and principals are sending that that notice out We're also going to be doing A change as you know in that during the screenings this June And parents will get a notification about that and no more about it even on may 10th But um the start of school and I and I don't that will go out again in the letters in terms of Making them tell us again one more time. Yeah, it's had to be great that Tuesday right after labor day We'll be just a quick visit an hour. It's um Just so they can come in see the classroom Um see Meet the teacher because they won't really meet their teacher in June now That gives our kindergarten teachers the rest of the day to do screenings of students that did not participate in the june screenings Then the next day Half the class will come in From for the whole day so that they go through all the routines in a smaller group And then the other half will do that on thursday And then the entire class will come together on friday for the last day of the week And they'll go home exhausted to their parents on friday afternoon Do we need a vote tonight on the new calendar change? Um, you already voted it. We voted this okay You voted it and but you'll have another calendar later in made when we get the we have you right The calendar that I got in my package it has uh november 23rd And if i'm reading it correctly with the key it says kindergarten students to start tuesday september 2nd I think it's a all all school early release. It's just the key november 23rd Uh, that says thanks. You have adult. This is the Thanksgiving break And you have two asterisks on it when I look down at the key the key. Oh, there's the asterisks are around Yeah, okay All right, well we'll get that fixed Yeah Right, but again, oh because that was just the first read Thank you. No, you're right. Okay. You're right. I thought we had to still okay All right, so clarification. We do have to vote on this mr. Slickman You have a yeah, we do also need to vote to add our meeting dates. We haven't established a meeting calendar for us for 16 17 but that's in here now That's in here now Right just put in the second and third We just so it's automatic so we um As of now, do you know if there's an issue should we wait our policy is that we vote dates, right? Rather than it's automatically second and fourth, right? So I haven't gone through it I haven't gone through it, but we have to look for MASC conference and a couple of other things that we end up running against Yeah, um, so if we vote this in we can still revise it or should we not? You're gonna have another vote in in may with all the other pieces of it The reason we wanted you to vote on this now Is it we we don't want to say well this is tentative to kindergarten parents. We want to say this is This is what's right. So So the I move I move that we Adopt the kindergarten start date as dr. Bode articulated Okay, so our clarification. Are we adopt? Having a motion only on the kindergarten start date. Yes, or in the calendar Just just that sounds great. Dr. Allison at me I'm sorry. I didn't I don't understand what the kindergarten start date is and I'm also looking at the calendar and it's not Written on the calendar. So I think we want to make it more clear or or Think something the double asterisks up at the top If you look down below it says kindergarten students just sat Tuesday, September 6th Six, right? He doesn't spell out the details of what that means Yeah, I didn't I was hearing day. They go half on Wednesday half on Thursday all on Friday Yes, it's all explained in the letter the start date If you look at the top of the calendar. Yeah, no, I I see I I personally find what's written there to be. I mean I can't Tell It says s equals grades and then there's asterisks asterisks k Dash 12 first day But it's all the way to the bottom all the way to the bottom of that that double asterisks Says kindergarten start date all the way to the bottom. So we are not voting then on the calendar. Yeah, but We're voting on the Proposal by dr. Bode to change the kindergarten start gate on the new calendar as are you know spelled out in your recommendation I think is what we're voting on now. That's all you're voting on. Okay So we can any more discussion on that motion. Okay, so all those in favor And the chair about some affirmative which I haven't been doing And that's a Universal but oh, I'm sorry. We didn't second it Excellent Parliamentary a second is not required if we discuss it Really? Yeah Once it's discussed it's deemed seconded Interesting Okay All right Okay A couple more things but one of them. I know you want to have some update on That dr. Chesson is going to give you as where we are on park. Yes Um, that's we're not we're gonna get that now Yeah, just a quick just a quick great because it's starting right after vacation Yep, you know and and you received in correspondence a copy of this just you are aware So in correspondence, we discussed Listed the parent meetings that we've had at the elementary level And at the middle school level the teacher trainings that we've had at the elementary and secondary level Student trainings that were held at the computer based testing sites of oddison and bishop The paper based testing training for students We ran a infrastructure test for technology infrastructure already at bishop and and oddison And they went pretty smoothly just a couple of my own things had nothing actually to do with technology But the users of the technology And we have put up our presentations on from the parent meeting on the district website as well as the opac website Teachers have had and their trainings have raised a number of FAQs and the answers to those have been placed placed on the teaching and learning website The testing schedule has been distributed to all stakeholders at the teachers the the parents And a detailed testing schedule will be sent home to parents and A reminder by the will be sent home by the individual Principles just prior to the testing elementary begins on monday for the most part the monday after vacation And the oddison begins on tuesday after vacation It is a long testing window. It goes from april 25th to may 26th the window the notices go out to parents So they're with the parent it will be go home through email. It won't be a right now I mean the my understanding is that the principles each were sending them home at different times But this week, yes, hopefully at the end of the night Dr. Austin Um, I see that's listed on correspondence received, but we didn't actually get it in our Yeah, I'm just can we either get it in novice or can you email it to us or something? That's all Yeah, I thought you're showing that prior correspondence. Yeah Okay, um a couple more things I'll be be finished one of the things I wanted to ask this evening is if you would approve a motion to give me the the authority the discretion to Exercise this well, I should say exercise the same discretion with respect to principles as we currently have with a a in triple a with regard to a children attending the island to public schools we discuss this in the policy subcommittee and And I just would would like to have a motion I prepared a motion and just asked if the committee would approve it Just I would ask you I have no problem voting on this job But before even implementing to just check with counsel To see if this would be it's necessary to to put an optional Keep maintain the option but put language in their individual contracts Because this may be deemed like a second agreement with them and remember the issue that we had that All of it. Yeah, not a good suggestion. I I'll I'll just I have no problem Giving you that authorization, but just for your sake and our sake just to Thank you. Yeah The school committee moves that the superintendent may exercise the same discretion regarding the Children of principles attending island to public schools as allowed under both the a ea and triple a contracts second Discussion on the motion just just did one more Talk to buddy. So we don't have to come back again possibly in the future We might have other administrators and uncovered under what you just said we have Well, all the administrators would be under triple a now there'll be no We don't I was going to say this central office people are not that's I guess what what I'm saying is do we Do we want to broaden it or do we want to wait for you to bring another one back? Um I can you can wait till I bring another one back or you can amend the motion to to all administrators in the district if you want Uh not covered by triple a I think discussion on this question And Dr. Samby I I'd prefer that we just leave it at principles right now because we're still really counting heads I think it's fair to broaden it to them because We're doing it for the teachers and the administrators and the other administrators, but I just want to keep an eye on how much we're actually we have only Three or four. I think that's it That's very would affect only a few people and it's and it's all based on of a formula That I have for availability. It's and And we look at that very closely. Um, so it's strictly availability I just have one Really just I guess comment not for discussion, but just in terms of if there would be multiple Applicants for the same grade. I haven't really thought about this before but criteria for You know, which of the different units would get the spot By seniority or by something else, right? And we don't really have anything bridging all three of those groups Right of just something for thought So much to just a policy change. Mr. Hena if i'm not wrong I thought that it may have happened in triple a back when I was involved But the discussion was that we felt that decision would be left to the superintendent if it got to that It may not have happened in a EA It didn't because we were first I mean, I mean a question I did I know I remember hearing the question And it was I thought the end result was The superintendent would make that decision I don't know that may be something for later negotiations Okay, so what which motion is on the table? Do we want to amend it or do we don't want to amend it? Okay, so we're keeping it motion for the principles. Um Any more discussion about the motion All those in favor so you have everything I Chair votes in the affirmative Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Uh, and mr. Hener abstained And the last thing and that is um We talked about this many times over the year not many times but several times about a late start And I you have I've sent to you the recommendation uh from the middle sex league superintendents about looking at our our Our rival time at the high school And the the thinking of the middle sex league superintendents was that if we all got together and discuss this one of the things That's always been an issue in this discussion as athletics and by getting together and having unanimity on this Um, we have taken athletics out of the out of the equation now Right now we have a lot here in ourlington our plate And in fact we already have a start time which is the lower end of the recommendation But I would still like to Have a discussion next year about about a start time in ourlington we actually would be in Um Would be less of a difficulty and a lot of changes for us though This would be something we'd have to negotiate with the union and talk This is a lot to this process, but in terms of obstacles Physical obstacles like buses or lights on the field. We don't we do not have those obstacles Like other districts and that's why in this letter which you have the recommendation was That there would not be implementation of it until 2018 now there was one district Which is why the letter got out more quickly than it was anticipated The one I actually do the changes next year. So they're really on the fast track and So I I'll bring this back to you again next year When we have a little bit more time to do a thoughtful discussion and probably want to do it in subcommittee first By 2018 are you saying The 2017-18 school year or September 2018 September 2018 So two years out And then two years out from Well, do you have a sense of how late? No, no, no, that's well two years out This is going to be 16 September and that'll be two years because for some districts they have they have Bus schedules and bus contracts And for some districts it would mean actually even changing the elementary start time So there's a very much more complicated process for in other districts Do you have any sense of how late the start time might gravitate toward? Well, I would I would see it going to I would recommend thinking seriously about an 830 here because We actually have a class here at the high school a couple classes that start A period before and that means that they're here at 10 after 7 for for band or madrigals and so we have some No a significant number of students that are starting the day here at Arlington High School At 7 10 in the morning and not at 8 o'clock Dr. I was gonna be would we be looking at changing the middle school start time also Well, I think that's part of the discussion Um, I would say the two should be in tandem and partly because there while we don't do Well, it'll be more complicated when you have two middle schools, but um The we we do do enough sharing and certainly there's the issue of our k-12 curriculum leaders So it makes a lot of sense to have um schedules that are at least start times that are very similar And I just wanted to point out that um, there was a survey that went out to teachers and to parents and one of the questions about this issue And it'll be discussed in community relations as I understand And that's it that's it for this for them. Okay, great. Um, so not too far behind Consent agenda now I need to read this, right? Okay, um all items listed within asterisks are considered to be routine and will be enacted in by one motion There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless the member of the committee so requests In which event the item will be considered in normal sequence Approval of warrant warrant number 16145 dated march 24th 2016 total warrant Amount is a 673 544 and 32 cents Approval of minutes the Arlington school committee regular meeting march 24th 2016 Approval of drop descriptions special education coordinator out of district Uh, I'd like dr. Anthony Can we pull the um special ed? Yes, coordinator. Is that what's your that's exactly? Okay, so now by pulling that do we vote Okay, so I just call the sorry So all those in favor of the consenting measure or is that I I uh chair votes informative and now we will discuss the special education coordinator Mr. Hinner I have just two questions. Will this person be a triple a member? Yes, this person will be a triple a member Will this person also be doing any evaluations? Yes, okay? I saw and any of anything else it wasn't listed as evaluations. Okay. Thank you My my questions were looking at the financial aspects of this it looks like they're Some of their work To me sounds like it overlaps with the business person who's already focusing on special ed and I was wondering about that Just the coordinators all the coordinators have a role in helping to form the budget each year. So this will just be a additional court Additional coordinators. So that's the other coordinators have those so it's not a duplication of of It's not and what we have currently in the budget for this year is 1.5 Team chairs who handle out of district placements and they are The team chairs are in the AEA I have discussed this change with both Ms. Hanson and Ms. Ritz who's the president of triple a so they're aware of that and are on board What this would do is we would not replace we would keep the point five team chair But not replace the 1.0 We had a retirement at the end of december of the 1.0 team chair And we have replaced that person with an interim appointment for the rest of this year Someone who wouldn't return and would replace that position with a coordinator. Okay. Thank you Mr. Rayner The salary I know Unlike the AAA the triple a salaries Do you have a range? We have a formula now in the triple a contract that Is how we determine the salary based on education and um, yeah, thank you Okay, so now we need to vote on this. Okay. Um, move approval of the job description. Okay, so move approval of The special education corner out of district position All those seconded by dr. Allison ampe all those in favor please signify by saying I All those opposed or abstained you're good. Okay. Um, and chair chair Is in the affirmative and say unanimous vote Okay, so Subcommittee liaison reports and actually I had a couple of things That I wanted to bring up One is The day in the hill is coming up And I just want to encourage us all to think about things that we might want to bring to our legislatures And I remember last year there was a subcommittee discussion about that I don't know if we want to do that, but just if it's an option open to us um I know that I am going I know that mr. X is going But your Allison ampe is going I can't we can't go for mr. Schliffman's going um, so I don't know if there's anything we want to I guess I guess if people are interested to direct Issues ideas to us I have faith in you all Uh, the second thing I want to mention is this big thing about the calendar and let me describe the problem You probably might know it um So our next meeting has been served by the school enrollment task force And they and then right now in the calendar We are only meeting for half an hour to do some small business and then it's moving to a school enrollment task force Our meeting after that on the 12th. We have a full meeting um So this is the so let me say go back um School enrollment task force is meeting on the 28th. They are then potentially voting on the second Schliffman are potentially voting to put um something on the ballot for june 11th on the 6th And then there's a feeling that if the vote is May it's Friday Yeah, that was the that's not finalized, but that was what Okay, this is a casual conversation with dan dunne I don't they they've done it before I'm not sure. I think it's a quick thing The idea was that they wanted to meet after the second They need to find some time between the second and the seventh that is their window Because the seventh is 35 days before june 11th. So that's why they're doing that. Um, so, um If the decision is to repurpose gives We have a lot of work to do and a lot of discussion to do But we're losing A meeting to do that one of one of the means that we could have been doing that Um, and so the question is do we want to add an additional meeting? Or the other thing that complicates things is that potentially when the people advocating For the, um, townwide vote go to the voters They might want some information about what the school committee feels about the options So one proposal is to add another meeting on the 19th Of may so and here here's here's the here's the thinking on the 12th of may Have the public come to us to talk to us about the middle school options Receive the superintendent recommendation. I mean, this is all preface on A vote by this left man, which hasn't been decided or by the school school moment task force On if they do indeed vote to repurpose the gifts, which we don't we don't know that vote yet So, um, have the public come to us have the superintendent come to us We'll talk about it on the 12th and then the 19th potentially meet to vote Can't we vote after we have the meeting on the 12th? So Dan Dunn had this great view Yeah, a personal mantra that he makes no decision without a sleep and a shower So it felt to me that we wouldn't be getting input from the superintendent Or the public Until that day and that we might want some time to sort of mull it off. Why can we not get Input on the fifth Uh, the fifth, I mean have an earlier meeting So that's another possibility. We have a meeting on the fifth. We have no We don't currently have a meeting on the fifth. So that is a possibility. We could have an earlier meeting on the fifth Clouding that is that there's a lot of stuff going on that week. There's the boys and girls club. There's, you know There's a time meeting and it's going to be an exhausting week. I know First time I wonder If we could do this the uh I wonder if dr. Bodie could put together Because right now we've been having a lot of conversations about the sixth grade versus the six seven and eight with all sorts of different information flying about Um and a very good presentation by the teachers from their perspective, which is very very useful and helpful but i'm wondering if the Superintendent could put together a plan for the sixth grade To the best of your ability with the information that you have You know, this is going to be the plan for the sixth grade. This is how I would work at the Gibbs school and then And then that's presented to The public and the committee at a certain point in time. I have not thought thought through the chronology But but that would be sort of we'd be looking at a concrete plan for the sixth grade All the issues that have been raised will be addressed at the best of the superintendent's ability based on the information we have now And I think that at some point, you know A dedex provided the board of selectmen vote to put this on the ballot on june 11 A dead exclusion campaign Begins and voters are going to want to know what am I voting out? Right. We talked about it at the long range planning committee three question one question with three Funding three things the feasibility study for the high school, which we can explain the expansion Of the thompson elementary school, which we can explain and then something for the middle school And to get people to vote Yeah on that question. We need to give them enough information. So I'm concerned about Putting us too far off into may then try to do a mini campaign in a couple of weeks. Yeah. No, this is a big This is a big problem. Right. Absolutely. Um, Mr. I think We if dr. Boat he can put that package together. We were just talking about get it to us We can have that meeting and I am comfortable Of having material ahead of time. We'll have it ahead of time. I May hear something that may change my mind from the public that I doubted very much But I think I'm comfortable voting that that night instead of putting it off another week or two weeks. I agree with Jeff and uh I have something I want to just add to that All right, let's uh, Mr. Slickman. I mean the thing is is that Uh, if the public wants input on this decision, uh, there's more than just a meeting to come to to talk to us They have the opportunity and I think that they should is to contact us by email Um, you know, there are other forms that they can get information to us And given the tight timeline, I would Like to take that vote that night if at all possible Unless something comes up that causes us to sit there and say right we need to think about this move forward because I'm looking at this and and the evidence seems to be conversion right for me and that that's only my vote How are we going to get to four votes or even the unanimous vote of the committee? I don't know It's up to everybody else weighing it But I think that by the time we get to that point We'll have had sufficient time and notice for the community to start talking to us informally and to send us Information so that at that point we could make a decision coming out of that meeting I would say may 12th Has to be the date that we take this So I would sort of do like, uh, you know backward design here may 12th is that is the assessment That's the day we're going to take the test and we're going to take the vote So I would take in the park. I would go You know go backwards from may 12th and what are the things we have to do before may 12th to take the vote? That's fine. So I one of the things that I think is important I mean, I should we should include Dr. Bowden's You're the one to do all the work is what we're talking to you about doing all these things. So I don't know what you think Well, actually, you already know what I think We'll know what I mean in terms of the process. Yes, but the terms of process I was absolutely planning to do a recommendation and the I do think that there are some Uh, financial things that we do need to talk about and we can talk about that night for example Um There's a replication of the special ed program You need to talk about it and we're going to talk about that and work on it In fact that night you'll be presenting what the plan would be But there's also the issue of if we're going to really have a different sixth grade Do we want to have smaller clusters than we currently have? And That would mean more incremental costs, which I actually didn't even put into my proposal I'm going to go back and really look at this carefully It also has implications for the usage of the buildings when when we did a floor plan for gibbs We've been able to identify 24 classrooms And 16 we're going to be for the cork so it would mean really rethinking some things too I'm not sure that Honestly by the 12th that all would be taken care of because it's the whole purpose of a design study Is to do exactly that And so i'm not sure How how granulated you would want that because I think there's some things we really need to to talk about If we go that direction what well how we want to design it so Oh, I just wanted to make some kind I From my perception there's about 70 of the parents who actually don't know that this decision is imminent yet We have a lot of really engaged parents. So there is a question of how we want to Let those parents know that the decision is on You know the agenda and so I think that's in So dr. Alice nabby, okay first just to clarify the decision that you're talking about is Give six versus six eight. Yep. Okay trafist on To that effect But we asked to give a plan and there's so there's some things around sixth grade There's also some issues around six through eight that that get into design as well Okay Then my other question is If we didn't want to hold a full school committee meeting would we want to Hash some of this stuff out in subcommittees for example talk about the I'd really like to see How you're coming up with the financial you know the guesses for the Estimates just so I can talk about it to somebody else Um, so that could be taken up by budget Maybe curriculum we'd want to talk about the More about we did we did we have a whole document on it. We already did that And actually those conversations can happen now even though the final decision has been made Yeah, that's why we had those okay, mr. Thielman, so Kathy, what are you thinking that we would Have a debt exclusion vote and not have resolved the sixth grade versus sixth through eight questions. Oh, no We're just saying when we're gonna do that. Okay, so only question is when we're doing that Okay, okay. Okay. So so to reframe what I said before I mean I think what I'm trying to say is the best plan you can come up with So it's not like it's no the plan knowing I mean the caveat will be that it's the first step in a plan plan full approach to this subject to change And just like mediums plan for the sixth grade has evolved ever. Yes. It has years I'm I think you're taking a frame it like ours is gonna evolve too So I think you know the best planning to come up with And I I personally think that I don't know it seems like to me may 12th It's the last day the committee can take a vote on this because you have then you have just four weeks to Yeah, it's a four week period. Okay. Okay Yes, mr. Heiner My concern about may 12th. I agree with mr. Thielman. That's the night we have to do the vote We have a lot of reports going on that night It will imply to the public that we've already made up a decision. We're ignoring the reports If we can get these reports and let the public know that we've had them in our hands Sufficient time to digest them ahead of time. That's all I'm asking. I have no I have no problem sharing with the public that night. What if what if back to buddy get a report? Sometime before may 12th. I don't know what date there's a public hearing. Yep Where that yeah, yeah, that we might want to do that. I was yeah, we might want to do that Yeah, sorry, sorry, mr. Ham. Yeah, I I moved it We set may 5th and that dates flexible with the committee for a public hearing and dr Boddy making a report on that for that specific purpose Okay May 5th, which is that a thursday. Um, we talked about may 5th As a school committee. Yeah, I mean we can figure out it Well, the the purpose you were asking for that school committee was to Deal with this wasn't it? Yeah, actually, so my concern is there's these competing pressures One is we want the voters to know what the plan is and they need to know that early on And we also want the voters to know that we didn't take this decision lightly and that we you know have been Taking everybody's considerations into account including educators including the public You know and and that we're really thinking about this and we're not coming to this lightly So there's sort of a you know, and not those are not just perception. We want to do that in fact The choice is either the 28th or the 5th Or the the 19th the 12th the 5th right those are the What I would envision is the the 5th is a public hearing could be a town It doesn't have to be a school committee the superintendent As a presentation of what this sixth grade plan is going to look at there's teachers there and administrators the principal of the school The middle school the assistant principal whoever want the jack flood They do a presentation on the sixth grade model and then All the parents and members of the public in the room Have an open forum with the superintendent and us to asking questions And that would be the may 5th and that would be that that would be the vetting talk that yep And then may 12th we take all that into account and we take a vote So is that dr. Bode is that timing? Will that work for you in terms and will that do you think that'll work for the teachers and administrators? But we have the documentation from the teachers Yeah, we have that and we could if they can't make it we could still at least share that with the presentation with those people Yeah, but I mean as a parent it's very effective to see assistant principal They're saying this is the best thing for your child. I'd say that Okay, so there seems to be consensus to have a public meeting around the 5th And the decision around the 12th. Is there any Is there any sort of objection to that? Is there any sort of I was I was going to say the same thing to have it on the 5th I would suggest that we make sure it's scheduled as a school committee meeting in case there's any business All right It doesn't have to be here. It can be like We need It's all cameras fall. Okay. I knew there was well you have a shorter time potentially on the So far out of the curve Cindy is not even quite okay. Um, Okay, great. Uh, we will make that happen great school committee meetings. Okay So then we have now we have liaison. I mean a subcommittee reports Said that everyone has moved around so how do we do that? Just call each committee On that committee I want to start. Okay. I got a big budget. I did it last. I'm still budget. She's still budget. I'm still warm We should oh, I'm sorry. Wait. I'm sorry. I messed up. Um, we need to vote on To have oh, yeah, yeah, I'm second. Mr. Hanner's motion of the meeting on may 5th. I may 5th. Okay. Sorry about that Okay, so all those in favor And chair votes I any We have to say the time So the so the sorry So is the motion to have a um school committee such public forum on the 5th at 7 6 30 we usually have public forums on 7 6 30 Okay, okay, what's it? Uh, the the public hearing and where is it gonna be? Town hall. We I think we have to find out if town hall is free We don't know. We have to we have to make that It's either that a camera's front room planning this who's gonna sign it up who's gonna make all the chair and the superintendent Yeah, I guess the two of us. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. Okay Okay, so That was the motion. Um all those in favor. Hi. Hi saying aye chair votes and affirmative Um, so Nana's motion Uh So now we have subsequent reports. So budget. Dr. Allison. Okay, so budget, um budget We had a meeting uh at the end of the last Year um before we traded over to discuss putting a budget a A budget message in um I was tasked with crafting that however I found In the process of doing this I feel that our budget last year was a political statement What we did asking the town to fund more throwing the whole thing at them was a political statement um in crafting this there was some Disagreement or wording and such such To the point that I felt uncomfortable doing it without getting the approval of At least the subcommittee. I mean like a firm vote in a meeting Um and preferably of the full school committee the problem was I hadn't allowed for that in the timeline And following in between the two terms Made it kind of impossible to do so there is no budget message from the budget subcommittee in the budget book because the time I couldn't get it in and you know do all of that um our options One possibility is to write something and deliver it in conjunction with the book or after um I felt a little I don't know. I feel as a incoming town meeting member um that That would have a weird feel to it And so I'm not super in favor of that, but if I everyone else thinks it's a wonderful idea. I'm happy to work on it Otherwise we can just Okay, we can talk at town meeting and explain to you I'm not in favor of a separate statement on the c said that just Amplifies it to a certain extent where I think it would be appropriate statement if it was in the book, but to amplify it by putting a separate seats I think is a little problematic. I mean, I think it's certainly legitimate for any of us be Be we town meeting members or not We have the right to get up and speak our mind and discuss Why we did what we did or how we voted In front of the meeting and that would be an appropriate venue of the esteemed budget chair would like to discuss some of the Uh, deliberations and the in the feelings going into making this budget this year. I think that'd be a good thing Uh, Mr. Hiner, did you have something? No, okay. Thank you. All right Oh, okay So I'm not hearing a lot of movement for having this but maybe you could actually yeah read it or talk about it Well, I can do whatever I want It was I was talking as the committee That I'm not hearing a sense from the committee that we want to have the committee make a message You know, so next time we'll I still think that this is A useful and important thing Now I know that I think we'll just assume that we want to have the whole thing passed so there isn't these quibbles about wording and things like Okay, so mr. Hiner I I just want to acknowledge I read the draft that uh, dr. Ampey put out and I thought it was very powerful It was very good. I'm sorry the timelines did not allow it for to go in. I just wanted to make a public statement on it Uh, so community relationship relations Want to talk about community relations? It was yours. It was mine, but I mean at some point we'll have another meeting So I can I can just say we um good report Cindy Go over it It was Anson and I No, no, so so I did an analysis of uh, the parents response with pie charts and stuff like that and uh The calendar survey for the calendar survey, sorry for the calendar survey and the tansan did an analysis So hopefully that will go to to the community relations when when it next happens and linda I know uh completed that same analysis for teachers So we'll try to have a meeting and pull all that together and talk about it. Yeah Do you have your accountability curriculum instruction and assessment? Did you have something before I've got a question for community relations? Obviously in and unfortunately, it's a it's a broad political question, but uh, I'm wondering if we have any administrators or conferences or field trips involving north carolina or mississippi And uh, wondering if community relations would want to inquire about that I Will send that to the community relations committee to Why uh the uh anti Yes, but what I don't think we have any if if we don't or do or would we have a statement that we are not predisposed to granting those trips So we have any trips plan to mississippi north carolina? That's a happy point of us. Let's deal with that when we get there. Send this to the community relations They can put it on an agenda item That that was the question. Yeah, I I'm not looking to get a vote out of this tonight Or anytime if if it's not going to come before us in a way, but uh, You know, I think that the this community would want us to be firm in terms of affirming the civil rights of all We will not be giving any concerts in north carolina or mississippi That does I mean our kids are so talented they Know Okay, um district crownability curriculum instruction assessment anyone speak to that we met twice And all the materials were in the packet right Uh facilities No report we the school enrollment task force meets on the 28th. Yeah Uh policies and procedures I have no report now, but it's my intent to harass the former chair and learn how we did it so well Try to Obligation to help out anymore Okay, uh school enrollment task force anything that we haven't heard yet so we need to know okay Um warrant committee everyone good paid again. Okay, excellent If I may just add one thing I attended edco the other day The entire meeting was on school calendars and the major topic was religious holidays I would like to share with the appropriate subcommittees Lexington, I think has a way around our issues And uh very positive. So I think that's community relations Relations, I think probably is this committee that everything gets dumped That's how I found it. It used to be policy when I first Maybe you can talk about this when you're avoiding north carolina. Yeah Because they take every holiday Any other announcements Okay, um, so now we are moving to executive So I need to read this right? Yeah, okay Uh, we're going to executive session uh 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 if held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect To conduct strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation in which you've held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect Collective bargaining may also be constructive Discuss Arlington educational association units see negotiations and vote to approve the following executive session missions That's the things we'll be discussing in executive session Uh, so we need a roll call to go into executive section motion will oh sorry motion first Motion to go in by mr. Hayner seconded by Mr. Arx Okay, so uh roll call and we will not return Oh, and yes to announce that we will not return from executive session. Thank you. Okay, uh roll call. Um, is that dr. House and ampie? Yes, Mr. Dye. Oh, sorry Mr. Slippen. Yes. Okay. Mr. Arx. Yes, mr. Hayner Mr. Thiemann and chair votes aye or yes, and we are in executive session. Thank you. So we will wait for the oh, sorry