 Good evening and welcome to the Alec the school committee meeting. It is Thursday, March 26 2015. I'd like to welcome my fellow committee members and a AEA representative Siobhan foley. Mr. Schlickman will not be with us tonight This is the last school committee meeting I will be chair of and I would like to thank my fellow members and the entire administrative staff for their support and understanding when I occasionally falter I Would like to recognize Miss Karen Fitzgerald the school committee secretary for keeping me on point and all the extra work She does for the entire committee. Thank you very much Karen At this time, I'm going to do something that some of you may have wanted me to do the first night I did it I'm going to recommend that you stop watching us and catch this meeting at a later taping from ACMI and attend the white ribbon campaign at Arlington Town Hall in the Lions hearing room from 7 to 8 30 Jackson cats Ted talk video violence against women It's a men's issue will be shown Following the video, there will be a group discussion led by select when Joseph Cureau and Craig Norvig bomb White ribbon pins and light refreshment will be available At this time I would and it's going to be a little bit confusing on the artwork tonight. I would like to Have you take a look at the portraits over here? Six graders on this board from Miss Serafini's art class Would take and not only as a way to display the incredible work done during the mad hats lesson But also to give you a sense of how proud and happy the students are and the art studios at Otteson Middle School And our studios kids get the chance to express themselves something that is so crucial to their development at this age Students not only plan prepare and manage their individual projects But also work in groups to find the most creative solutions to challenging questions The display on board three, which is back here Numbering is a little different Shows students work collaboratively to create life-size human sculptures that will be exhibited during a three-day installation This spring the kids are hungry for a chance to do hands-on creative work We are working hard to make sure the Otteson art studios are an inspiring exciting place that gets every student The opportunity to explore and create lastly the sculpture right here of A creature made by eighth grader Maya Rothenberg was created as part of a big little project Eighth graders use the drawings of kindergarten and first grade students and turn them into sculptures This is an extremely exciting and successful collaboration and the work is currently on display in the Robbins and Fox Library Now I've got you turned around you got to come back over here And this piece that I'm going to read is about this board here and the board in the back of our room The art displayed here is created by students in miss McCory's mr. McCory's sixth seventh and eighth grade our classes students in the sixth grade explore a narrative observation drawing an Experiment with multimedia techniques to create original expressive self portraits students in the seventh grade Use photography and complex grid system to draw self portraits They also explore contemporary art making aesthetics and techniques to develop interpretive maps of specific places in the eighth grade Students use block print making to develop and print personal logos and explore contemporary uses of positive and negative space to redesign the favorite book cover Arts come a long way since I went to school with the eight Crayola crayons at this time I would invite We're gonna have a presentation technology one-to-one pilot presentation I invite the the the team up here the 610 cluster from us in middle school. Did you want the the screen down? Let me I'll have them all introduce themselves in just a second, but just as some background Last year last November 2014 which wasn't that long ago The the this 610 cluster, which is a sixth grade cluster at oddison Began a new technology pilot for the middle school, which is going to have a be very Instructive for us as we go forward in the years ahead in terms of actually how we want to Use technology in the middle school Each student was provided with an iPad so we have a one-to-one environment the only other Really Group that has a one-to-one is the Thompson school Throughout the pilot the teachers have been collecting data and how technology impacts instruction and they have been Gathering this evidence over the last few months with the final report coming out sometime this spring and The results of this report are really going to inform us in terms of how we move forward with with Technology at oddison in the years to come so I'm going to turn this over to them and let them introduce themselves and then They can go forward and tell us the great things that's been going on there Allison I'm Lillian. No, Donald. I'm the special education co-teacher in the 610s Okay, so as you can see up here, this is our one-to-one iPad pilot we took Data we polled our students at the beginning and the end of last year As well as parents and we collected this data and asked them various questions about the impact of iPads in the classroom and You can see here 97% of parents last year felt that the iPads had a positive impact on their child's academic Experiences while 98% of students felt the iPads had a positive impact on our child's academic experiences Okay, so what can successful students do? Habits of mind from the common core when you're looking at these and as we push further into the ideas of the common core We we believe that all of these are really important skills that all students must have and also that technology can really leverage these skills Yeah, so we just feel like these are the skills that kids need not only to be successful at the middle school level But if you listen to some of the kids speak in the interviews They really feel like the technology helps them to be successful They imagine their job in ten years and sort of how this technology shapes Where they'll be in the future? So and these are kind of the the skills that we see kind of taking them there How using iPads has influenced our reading instruction at the middle school? As we work with a common core we want students to be reading widely and deeply and students and teachers alike feel that The use of technology has helped students dig a little deeper into those texts Partially through the use of apps for reading where students sort of in a tactile way are able to annotate Are able to look upwards they don't know are able to bring in images or videos to supplement their understanding And so we as teachers can make those connections for them But more and more they're making those connections for themselves bringing in those external resources It's also been really beneficial if we do use a whole class text for students to have audio support Who need it so that everybody can access that we can have a conversation about that at the same time The reading material is now unlimited. I can always pull up A more challenging text for a student who needs a challenge or a text to an easier reading level for a student Who needs more independent work there? And I found it very gratifying that 88% of students this year currently feel that iPads are helping them as readers Both through comprehension and also through their fluency a few students have come to me and and reported on that but their opportunity to To practice reading recording for an audience has been helpful for them. Yeah, I think with the unlimited text It's also to sort of nurture their curiosity. So there's all sorts of extensions They can do with what they're reading topics. They're curious about topics are confused about So it really encourages them to kind of dig deeply into whatever The text is offering them as far as information is concerned. So this is an app that we use quite a bit in the classroom called notability This is a history text that the kids were analyzing so back to what Jess was saying about the iPads being tactile and allowing the kids to really physically interact with what they're reading Rather than just sort of seeing words on a page and trying to absorb them is hugely impactful in middle school I would say so you can kind of see the kids are annotating They are pulling information out into graphic organizers Joanna, can you zoom into the picture they put in there? I don't know if you can zoom from there, but if there's she had the iPad Yeah In the middle of the text they took pictures of something I was drawing on the board to put into the text So for example, they're learning about oracle bones in China and I had put on the board an oracle bone Will we have a quiz on this information and kind of drew the crack? So it's sort of our modern-day oracle bone to go with the definition and then the kids could take a picture of that and Insert it into the text for studying purposes so they can really interact with what they're doing They can put video clips of lessons from class that a company the reading all this is done on the iPad And then they just save it right up to their Google Drive for access from home Yeah, I just want to add there's a lot of research about learning and the way we absorb information and Being interacting with the text in this type of way is beneficial for all learners, especially our struggling learners Just beginning to explore but I think is really promising it's called actively learn and In this each student has an account I can assign them certain things to read and I can assign questions for that you see on the left there is a chart of Students responses to those that was just multiple choice questions And it sort of tracks that you assign a certain standard for each question So it's sort of easy data collection that way But what I find even more exciting is the opportunity that students have to interact with the text and with each other around the text So they're able to make notes to themselves that they can share with other people They can classify those notes and they can categorize them they can respond to each other And there's even a little a little flag so they can notify me if they're confused I know what to focus on as a whole class, so I think that's very promising Hello, I'm Elizabeth, and I'm from the 6th-10th cluster and I wanted to talk about iPads I really love the iPads because we can listen to audiobooks. We can use notability to highlight important factors in reading So it keeps me on task instead of floating off into Dreamland. I love the iPads because I can quickly look up a word without feeling bad about not knowing the definition And it just helps me overall. So I think what Elizabeth mentioned That's great with the reading is that kids can interact with it and they can question and they can get in touch with us without Sort of the hand in the air I don't know this word or how do you say this which in a middle school classroom can be really awkward for kids So it kind of gives them another platform to kind of get their questions to us and Work through what they're struggling with in a way that they're comfortable with So also talk a little bit about writing in our cluster this year So we really do feel that the iPads have redefined the writing process for students instead of Creating notes for themselves and then copying that over into a draft and then copying that over once again into a final copy Usually with days in between Students view this is a lot more immediate and they can plan In whatever way they need to whether that's through using an app to create a web of ideas Whether it's through typing up an outline and they can take those ideas directly into a draft usually copy and paste it into Google Drive we use a lot And then I'm able to give them feedback as they go their peers are able to give them feedback as they go So there's not that lag time so it really does feel like they're learning as they write not afterwards and and It's also been really helpful for them to be able to Write with an audience in mind. They know that yes, I'm gonna see it and their peers will see it But also we've been we'll show you some examples But using blogs so that their peers to have a chance to comment on their work their parents can see it And Allison's I know it's gonna talk a little bit about the documentary writing So they know their work is going somewhere It's not just for their classroom teacher and I think sometimes putting it into a meaningful context for them So when we're talking about podcasts or blogs We had one of our students with an IEP who was Right she wrote a personal narrative and then she was recording it in a podcast And then she started to see where you would naturally pause is where you should put Punctuation that she wasn't putting so those sort of like things that you wouldn't even anticipate that actually end up being Super super beneficial to all students. Yeah, and we're doing on documentary history class right now using iMovie And the end product is something the kids are really proud of but the amount of writing that really goes into a five-minute documentary is pretty intense The amount of research they have to incorporate and I've never seen kids edit in nine years The way they edit for their documentary is because they have to then say it and record it and hear themselves and their classmates hear Them so they are their fluency is top-notch So they really just edit so aggressively because they know the end platform is this type of display of their work Rather than just the teacher seeing a piece of paper So it's a totally different sort of experience for them as far as writing goes a level of precision Yeah, and motivation I'd say Quick snapshot of one of the book Students have this term so there are some students about a quarter of the cluster has chosen to blog about their reading throughout the semester, so Throughout the term so this has allowed me to keep track of their reading for them to have a meaningful audience for their thoughts and their questions their predictions and Also a chance for them to comment to get ideas of what to read next Some students have actually ended up reading the same book They are not even in the same class, but they have been able to have a conversation asynchronous conversation, but About that book and what they might that student might like to read next connections. They've made to history So it's been really rewarding to see So one of the benefits of using the iPads along with ours by ponder Google based email is the I mean transformative Google Drive and documents that we've used so every teacher has a Folder in which they will share handouts and documents online We've really become a paperless cluster for the most part And this is a way that teachers share information with students students share information with teachers They all have individual folders to share all their work if they take notes in class or take a picture of something on the board They put it in their drive when they go home It's there these are skills that are incredibly important and that they're going to be using when they go out into the real world And the level of proficiency they have with them is really amazing when you when you see where they start out Up to where they are now and the level we do have to put a little bit of effort there at the beginning But then they become like sometimes even better than us with it So then there are other tools in terms of organization such as poplet in terms of organizing ideas There are a lot of different apps and websites that deal with graphic organizers Organizing your thoughts The let's see it talked about students become more confident learners because the organizational concerns are solved. That's especially Students with executive functioning issues I find It's really yeah, I mean your your frontal lobe. It's just not yeah, it's not happening yet So They're not carrying around all these their binders as much they have the papers They can search for them if they haven't put them in the correct folder. It really puts the emphasis on the content And takes away some of these Barriers that might have been getting in the way of students all students learning and learning well Yeah, and I think it helps us to use Yes, if you look at the agenda in my classroom, it's not find this paper Which can often just be this like massive shuffling and searching and can I go to my locker? And I think it's in my science binder type conversation that would occupy Quite a bit of class time potentially. So it's go to this folder near Google Drive. That's where their assignments are That's where their work is. That's what we're doing for class. Their graphic organizers are all digital So it's just the matter of touching your iPads and we're there So I think if we did a study to compile class time and how efficiently it's being used I think that that would be organizational pieces huge for that For sure. And so students last year said 73% of them said that the iPads improve their organization I think if we did that again this year It would be higher just because we've moved closer to being paperless classrooms than last year So I'll talk a little bit about research skills I think that through the iPads the kids are developing Research skills that are really far beyond what I would typically teach in a sixth grade classroom And I've taught sixth, seventh and eighth grade and I think the skills that I'm giving the kids this year are Really kind of advanced because the technology is that they're fingertips So we have to sort of in the moment conversations about reliable and credible sources Where for example if I was teaching in the past that was something that kids had to figure out from home because That's where they're accessing the digital materials So kids can come up and say is this a good source of a sense You know we can project it and we can have a really meaningful conversation, which I think is pretty sophisticated for middle school and Really useful for them later on So and also multimedia sources. Does anybody know what the top right hand corner is? I'm sure you're seeing them around QR QR Puppa Gina's has them out front now So the QR codes for research is great. The kids love them. They're interactive. They hold their iPad over it They scan it in and it takes them directly to something we want them to read So those are actually linking to databases from the Robbins library That the kids can use and read and the bottom right hand corner There's a picture of Google slides, which we're using kind of as an old school Index cards for notes or you have the source and then you have the information And I remember sort of stacking them up and dropping half of them on my way to class in high school And hoping like someone found them having them color-coded So now the kids were using Google slides app as a way to organize their notes They can efficiently sort them by subtopic or Share them this girl has color-coded them pretty extensively According to the topic. She's using in her project And again, that just shows you the personalization of the tools also and how they use them I think students really take ownership over that I know Allison spent a lot of time setting that up with them as a strategy and Later on in the year student We were putting a character on trial and English class and students were preparing their materials for that made many of them Independently decided to use the same strategy. So you see them sort of generalizing it not just to sixth grade history class But they recognize that's helpful Yeah, and just to add on to that I think As students see like the color-coding are different strategies that are really individual They start sharing them with each other and talking about different study strategies different Organizational strategies and they're genuinely interested in learning about them because they're digital So this is the part we could go on forever with but Definitely, we think the iPads have increased student Creativity and overall interest in learning. We have lots of data that we've collected the kids We asked kids to talk about who wanted to be interviewed for this and they were like Overwhelming about this particular component and not sharing some of their work here. So Some of the big parts of this is just the student choices as a way of showing what they've learned and Working collaboratively is so much easier in a digital platform. Obviously, they're continuously commenting on each other's Google Docs and If they're working on notes on Google slides, they're all working on the same Document so they can kind of be adding in their research as a group and it really helps with their communication in that sense Obviously a variety of things that appeal to different learning styles and people's strengths and their personal interests We're gonna talk about Pear Deck in a minute, but that's a great tool for engaging students And they're learning and you can see that the data is pretty strong in this category And I think again this year with how we've implemented these tools It'll be even higher at the end of this year for sure I think we've taken that creativity step even further Maggie who's in the bottom right hand corner is using a new app We just got well, we're not sure either doing for doing kids We're going back and forth But they can record themselves like a green screen and put themselves in a location To talk about their topic and you don't need to have sort of fancy equipment It's just an app and you can put green construction paper on the wall So those sorts of things just get kids really excited. Yeah So this is an example of an assignment actually we did yesterday and today in history class just to show you All different ways kids can pull information out of an assignment It's on the geography of Greece. So we started with Google Earth And that's in the bottom left-hand corner and then the kids from there did a map activity Which is done also in notability. So rather than handing out a piece of paper. They can open it in notability color coat They can mirror in their iPad Google Earth with their map and see sort of how the geography actually looks Then they did a reading which is also done in notability You can see in the top with the highlighting of the text and then they had to display that information either in These are both apps that the kids use Pupplet is the one on the top which is an interactive web and the one on the bottom is called paper 53 where they can visualize The geography so they drew that right. Yeah, so this is about Two and a half class periods where we went through this whole process and every student kind of went through this whole experience And every student is so into it as well. Yes When I was like, can you share work? Overwhelming please take mind to this presentation, which is really exciting for us Hi, I'm Keon Silva. I am a 610 student and I really love the iPads because when we get a project We get to express ourselves in what we do best and it can be from like doing little skits To doing technology on explain everything. I movie all that is amazing and it really makes school fun when you're having a terrible day and What my partner and I are doing for a history project on the forbidden city in China is we are using YouTube videos and String them all together so it creates one big YouTube video And you may think it's like really easy and stuff But we have to plan our notes get our script ready and then link it together and do our editing and get it up there So that is why I like the app is Paradac, which is an app that we're really really excited about it's actually a web-based Platform also so it's not exclusive to the iPad so it really could be used in many different areas In this instance, and I think Joey is going to talk about how it's used in math in a little bit I was starting my unit on Greece and I was asking them to generate student-generated questions about what they're curious about Learning about topics that they want to explore and again This is just one of those tools that allows kids from their device to generate questions. What I screenshot here is what I see It's not what they see. I can just project from the responses pieces and parts. I can project all of them I can choose certain ones to bump up to the projector from my hub device. So We get pretty much a hundred percent Participation in any task when we're using Paradec because the kids know it's coming to me It's screening through me and then I'm projecting up But they've generated and it's a great way to get classwork grades in just through participation and writing Instantly and also we can give kids instant feedback in it from our device to their device Which is a really great tool This is just another way they use it when they're analyzing an artifact. There's a draw feature They can point to different things. I was asking them to tell me what they thought this teacher That's about Greek values. So the kids from their device can draw they can circle They can label and point to things and again You can kind of see the participation level is really high and I can see in real time exactly what they're doing from their device As far as the assignment is concerned This is kind of my soapbox, so I can talk about this for a long time. That's hence why it's a little dense But the iPads are an amazing tool for differentiation I think we were talking a little bit about how it's amazing as an extension tool for some of our maybe more gifted learners But also for our learners who struggle in the classroom. It's as I said here It's the ultimate tool not accommodation meaning It allows the students to take ownership over the process in the classroom and to sort of Find methods to work around their difficulties no matter whether those are physical cognitive, etc. So Specifically the iPad versus other forms of technology because it has some amazing built-in accessibility features like built-in speech to text so students who have Find motor issues students who have difficulty just putting words to paper They're able to speak into the iPad and it generates it into words and the hot the better The more recent versions of iPads are getting better and better at doing this So it increases the written output. There are different apps and add-ons through Chrome that can read aloud the text they've written so they can edit for Words that sound correct It can allow them to edit for punctuation and grammar. It's really amazing Okay, and then also text-to-speech readers, which is probably what I use the most with my students is when they have Lower-level reading skills. It allows them to access higher-level texts. So a lot of students with dyslexia This is a really amazing tool. So I'll put on their iPad through we use this app called voice stream I'll put in the English books. We're reading. I'll put in the textbooks And if there's ever an assignment they can go and put in headphones and listen to the text they can search They can highlight they can annotate in it. So it's building fluency. It's reading the text aloud to these students And it's also really personable They can change the font size. They can use Dyslexic font that's weighted more heavily on the bottom. They can change the contrast of the screen to black in the background white There's a lot of research that says students Actually find that reading through these types of devices is easier for them. They actually have a easier time reading So I can't say enough about that and then also easily shared notes and examples There's a less focus on copying more on the actual content that's going on in the classroom Since like I said before you can put things in folders. They'll have the notes whenever they need them Joanna has started videotaping herself sometimes with lessons students can go home and watch the videos again To review content. It's really amazing I think this increased individualization with these iPads is actually increasing the independence of our students with learning disabilities because they're taking on the ownership of learning themselves And they're able to accommodate those needs that they have And do that on their own whereas before maybe a teacher is reading something aloud to them now They are taking the iPad and they are listening to it on their own. So it's really amazing This is something we already sort of mentioned But just the different project choices different modalities of expression if you have physical needs sometimes You know drawing or writing is very difficult But being able to produce something on iPad or just techno on a computer is much easier for you So it's really helping our students with any Learning difficulties any disabilities really demonstrate what their strengths are and their understanding of the content and again The executive functioning difficulties. I can't say enough with this whole move to the digital piece And I think with the It really motivates kids who might struggle with the piece of the process the research the reading the writing Which for a lot of kids can be very daunting tasks when the output is something that's really motivating Yeah, whether it be an iMovie documentary some sort of artistic group project That's really kind of sparking their interest I feel that we kind of get them to really push through those stops Yeah, the more difficult that in a more traditional classroom is really grinding for us and for the kids and draining on some of these students So we kind of get more out of them in those pieces and parts because of these supports that we have in place Yeah, and often these students are becoming so well-versed with the technology that they're helping other students and gaining confidence That's amazing to see as well So these are just some examples on the left you can see the left in the middle This is voice stream, and it shows a little bit about how it can be customized in the middle So a lot of students with learning challenges might be distracted by spacing or too many words on a page You can change the amount of lines that are shown as it's reading it aloud on the left is actually something a student wrote So in voice stream, you're able to pull up Google Docs So say he wrote this essay about Macbeth. He can pull it up have it played aloud pick up on any errors It's a way to edit. It's really amazing on the right is something one of my students with severe executive functioning issues put together On the skeletal system, and you'll just see that sometimes allowing our students different ways of demonstrating their knowledge Can really be amazing. She she put all into different categories. She started independently without She was like the first person to try this app started putting in pictures and diagrams That she had found from the classroom just by taking a picture. So again Really allows students to meet their own needs and demonstrate what they can do The first is that students are expected to model with mathematics And I think we've it's it's pretty clear with the iPads There are multiple formats that students can engage Across the subject areas with the iPads. So Research has shown the more ways students can see mathematics the more ways they can experience it The more ways they can explain it the more ways they can listen to other people explain it The greater their own understanding is going to be these topics. So The students had the experience within the classroom They have videos of me that they can access in the classroom at home videos of each other that they make Explaining these mathematical ideas and concepts with the goal of building this long-lasting Understanding we want them to understand the material not just for the test But when they see the problem in a different way In a few months to be able to take and adapt that knowledge Additionally this whole idea that we want students to persevere in Problem-solving we want to foster active learners and the concept of well dr. Bunn I stopped I didn't know what to do So I just was waiting for you is not one that's accepted in my classroom In that I might be working across the room with another student But there are other students around you you have an iPad in front of you You don't know what area means look it up. There are examples online. There are definitions online There are videos online. There are videos from me online. There are videos from other people online I expect them to constantly be learning and this is something that's focused on within mathematics Within STEM within all of the subjects and this is something that we want our students to then take and do within the Real world we want to foster these active learners not just in mathematics But within all of the subjects and this is I feel really truly one of the great benefits of the iPads Building upon that and what Allison was mentioning earlier This whole idea of Pear Deck. Oh, and if you just noticed to the side there I have a how to find volume video that my students made last year We were making videos to share but moving on to talk about Pear Deck Here I'm an example of a live Created session that my students helped me make for the purpose of this presentation Just to show you the benefit of this particular app Here I have a program if you look on the right That's the screen that was being cast which graph best represents the story on the left are four different Created student answers for the purpose of this presentation We have two students that are correct and then we have one student on the bottom left that Didn't at this time have the correct answer It's hard with a full class of students to be able to know when a student doesn't understand one particular Concept with Pear Deck. I can ask a question Scroll down and see where they all are on that particular topic I can immediately turn to that student and say hey you might want to take a second look or Oh, did you read this particular part of the question and have them address it again? And if they're still struggling, I know that they need additional help with that Additionally on the bottom right we have a student that hasn't answered the question yet now. Maybe they're thinking Maybe they're doodling in their notebook. I don't know However, I can now see that and I can call on that student say hey We're waiting for you and that sometimes is enough to jostle them into activity so that they can then provide me an Answer so I know what they're thinking at the time So this is just one way to bring the entire classroom together and with Pear Deck as I was saying you get 100% engagement because if they're not engaged I can quickly call them back to what we're supposed to be working on Which brings me to my next slide is using class time productively We teach sixth grade we have students coming in from a number of different elementary schools I only have them for 48 minutes a day to teach the mathematics That's not a lot of time and there's a lot of math that I want them to know and to learn With the iPads, there is no excuse for wasted time in my class. I can individualized assignments I can work with students that need extra help on something and in the meantime I have students that might have already seen that topic and feel really good about it Move on and work on different things. I can Do this through my website where I can put different activities up There are also online sites that can then give students questions on the topics that they need help and assistance on Well, I'm working with other students in the class so Students are receiving that individualized learning experience and students are always working within the classroom And just last year students completed and each student completed So this is an average and additional 12 hours of math instruction through these online sites during the course of the year Because of the use of the iPads and it's not just In my class that they can do this if they have downtime in another class They're able to take advantage of this as well And so here we have a slide on implementing this one-to-one pilot and I think we're all going to talk on this Really the big thing with implementing the one-to-one pilot is Involving students in the process In making students be responsible for each other and having these students take a leadership role And what is occurring within the classroom and we do this through like the iPad Council We do this having students help each other with technology issues. Oh a student left their iPad on the desk You can just say that in the class Oh someone left an iPad on the desk and you have three or four other students run to help figure out Why is there an iPad sitting on the desk? Oh so-and-so is just one desk over and they're all Responsible for this technology and I think that's a huge piece this responsibility that the students join With us in taking care of this great opportunity for this technology within our classroom Yeah, I would yeah, I just say that one thing is the consistency across all classrooms like we've set Pretty specific Expectations you can see them there. That's one of our talented students last year made those for all of our classrooms The idea that whatever goes in one classroom is going in another that there's a personal responsibility I know a lot of people often ask us questions like about whether they get left behind or damaged the kids are so Invested in them that we haven't had one damaged at all And I think the implementation part is something that scares people a little bit and it scared us last year when we thought about doing this We were we were excited about it But nervous about sort of how to roll it out and believe it or not There aren't a many many middle schools across the state that have a one-to-one There's actually very few that we were kind of learning about and so we were kind of implementing this and learning about it As we go and I think from that we have a lot of tools that we can share with our colleagues But one of the greatest things is that it's not just our problem. It's that the kids It's a community sort of spirit to the pilot So we're not the people saying put that away like Joanna said or get this the kids are sort of in it together And it as far as student leadership goes. It's been fantastic. So we have kids that check our carts We have kids of color code things I mean they're so invested in all of these different tools that they're eager to help us and support us Which has been great That picture there those are our kids from last year who spoke at the tech forum in Newton and they look so small On stage, but they spoke to hundreds of people about their experiences and it was pretty amazing Some of them came here last year actually. Yeah, it's not last year So it's just a great the technology applies to this leadership piece I was just thinking my class today usually kids in the class who you want to participate or people who have the correct answer Today it was someone who knew how to use this app that I didn't know how to use that the kids were excited about and that Student got up to talk about it and that's not the type of student that would typically get up It's sort of another avenue for leadership through the technology piece And it's such a high-interest area also for this age group Our professional development that we took part in last year and this year has been really crucial to making this a success We attended the iPad summit in Boston last year with more of a goal of how do we implement this? Then we went back this year. We presented with Laura about the steps that we had taken and the successes that we had found And we've taken advantage of some other opportunities at Google at Framingham State Some teachers will be visiting Burlington, which has a one-to-one and it's an entire school, right? District yeah, so we'll be going to the middle school We are really grateful to have been able to take advantage of those resources And we think that as this program expands teachers will need to do the same Right, and we're happy to also share what we've learned and actually in the corners an example when Jess and I presented With Laura Cheson we put together some resources that we've used in our cluster and we've gathered from different PD Thank you It's a shame you're not enthusiastic about it I envy you I truly do 40 years ago I started education with the notebooks with the note pads losing the cards and everything like that And I truly envy what you folks have as as tools going forward Any questions the stocks oh, yeah, I got a whole bunch. My first one is do they get to take the iPads home? I Not right now, but they have that do they all have access to Computers at home, so you said that when they get home they have their notes But if they don't have the iPad how do they have the right if they have they need to have internet access at home And are you finding an issue with that or are you finding that most students have that? Okay, so they get them when they last year there were a few who didn't but they might go to Homework club or various other places where they had access to computers and could look at their notes and do the student surveys We were able to identify that so we made sure we had printed copies of everything But generally those students like to stay after school and kind of use the digital tools with us And then we would have those but I think Conducting those surveys at the beginning of the year was really helpful to identify who those families were and how we could Help make that and I think a lot of the more creative use of the iPads in terms of like making i movies Or explain everything different tools like that happen in the classroom not at home So really they wouldn't need it as much How do you guys like how how much time did it take you? to like How much if you said you know another team is gonna do this about how much time do you think it took to? for you guys to get up to speed and learn all these apps and And do that kind of thing lots of time Yeah, last fall was we were working a lot on doing this and learning and I think the PD that we went to was really helpful We're really looking forward to get out into other schools this year like Burlington and really sitting down with those teachers and thinking about Sort of what's happening next because it's been there for longer So we're sort of still in the very early stages of this So I think we're kind of curious to see okay now We're feeling like we're on a roll right now, but what what are we looking what's next? I think that's sort of still something that we have to gather information about and it's an evolution I think where we're at right now is very different where from where we were at November and December and Really when we first started out was the idea of how can we substitute the iPads in? instead of books or instead of you know a piece of paper and then we started to see more like ways to Innovate and I don't think it's realistic to think that another team of teachers will take it and be at the point that we're at now But it's exciting right and I think students come with ideas and it's an evolution and and One thing that we did say our takeaway with the student involvement is key and if you can see here, too That we really put the focus on us all learning together And when you reframe that from us being the people doing all the instructing and it's like we're learning together That's when yeah, it's really a cultural shift I think yeah, that has to happen rather than just sort of like individuals changing how they teach And that's sort of what I think we're learning right now as a group. Well, I mean, yeah, it's a different world I mean, I think I was at a PD recently where someone said you know who was president and you know 1855 and we don't need to know facts in the same way we used to know like everyone has that access to information So it's really about teachers being less the purveyors of all information and more as the guides of how do you access information and learn? How much more prep time do you think it requires you to be prepared with all this stuff? I mean, I love all the differentiation and all the great, you know things that you do But do you feel like it takes more or is it just different prep time? I I mean, I think at the beginning the more but different I mean what's so great is that you can build an assignment that goes in so many different directions in one assignment where I think Differentiation before this I'm sort of photocopying four different texts and six different graphic organizers And I I'm trying to put together this whole collection and I can now like link it all into one document And for me, that's so much more efficient with my time And then I give that to the kids and they're all the resources are embedded in one place So I think there's the learning how to do that that I think is time consuming, right? Yeah, learn those strategies. I think it actually saves some time The lines in the copy room. I Don't want to stifle any of this. It's very important. I have lots of questions I know you have a lot, but I want to give a few other people a chance too All right, well, I also want to know if you have enough support for the technology and if you feel like You know what what we have in the schools is enough like and you know, what does it does it go wrong? There are days, you know when you rely on it and it doesn't work and what more could we do to make sure that it's I Would say the internet has been very strong We haven't really had issues with that Laura's been Very hands-on with us, which has been really helpful and we've worked with Matt Pizzano and Susan and helpful and now that we have Rana Bradley at audison in the digital and Digital citizenship class. She's been really supportive and that's just another resource But I think because we're the only ones right now. We've got like everyone's yeah I don't know how that That support kind of spreads out once More people have access to this and how that that sort of works I would think maybe more PD upfront like before the school year started it would be really beneficial Just so that you understand how to troubleshoot things when it happens and help set up your systems I mean, we have a system that I think would work well for all the other clusters They might want to tweak it a little bit, but for us to share that Cut down a lot at the time because most of our time at the beginning, which is like, how do you manage the devices? From one class to another at the end of the day those types of things and How much time did it take to get the students up to speed like when you just start out at the beginning of the year like Kind of focused on how they were going to use them and where they were I mean, I think we didn't roll them out of the first day of school I think we did spend We definitely spent some focus time I mean a couple of cluster meetings together to talk about nor right expectations and we had an administrator there to kind of say You know, this is how we all feel like they should go And beyond that it just sort of the language the digital language the kids pick up really quickly And you don't overwhelm them with too many apps or different things at once You know, you you might show like how to use this one app using a one one project You wouldn't teach them two new things at once. So we sort of slowly implemented them to get them started and Last question how bad is inappropriate use like do you find that kids are Surfing the internet when they're supposed to be doing something or getting somewhere where they're not supposed to be We've only had maybe one to two issues. Yeah, it's so isolated And I think it's they're engaged in whatever we're doing and we have to be you know It's you can't sit behind your desk on your device where kids are on their device It can't be that type of situation, but you've got to be actively circulating You know, you've got to be moving around the room and we make the kids have to have their iPads face up on their desk So there's no like So, you know, just like little things like that I think is enough to make kids say oh someone's watching and they care what I'm doing and that sure usually limits those types And the threat of the device being taken away from them is so great like they don't think love them So they don't want it to be taken from it. It's also keeping an eye on each other as well because they all have accepted this Responsibility so they'll say hey, you're not supposed to be on that website That's cool. Do you have any questions? Oh, yeah, I just I think you probably answered this question But it sounds like many of the tools that you're using are specific to iPads So that if we were to move to some like bring your own device model that it wouldn't be as beneficial that it sounds Yeah, I mean, I think I think we're big fans of the iPads I think just the tactile nature of it is really impactful and as you know Apple has a great platform for education and they're constantly working on tools that are specific for education That we've incorporated into our classrooms But I think any technology is better than no technology in different age groups have different demands and needs I mean, it would be wonderful if they left Eighth grade to a bring your own device where they've seen different experiences with technology and they can make an informed choice on Sort of what type of style works best for them and in what situation and in what type of situation Because that's how we use technology My my son who's watching on TV just texted The sixth grade next year, so I I hope he's watching carefully about their answer about inappropriate use I think this is great. I know iPads are limited just by their technological Function, I mean they don't allow for flash They don't have a USB port. Do you find that those limitations on the iPad? Make it less desirable than say Google or another type of tablet. I think that certainly the USB not I mean, I haven't used my USB in years personally. I mean, I just found everything. I do go through Google Drive Or the cloud I mean, that's how I function And I think a lot of the kids are there too. I think if we said things like that, they'd be like what? But we run it to the flash thing on occasion With certain maybe websites or resources that we want to use in which case we might just project from our devices Yeah, or supplement or supplement from something else but I mean I'd say it's pretty isolated and Some people have concerns about sort of that typing ability on iPads for the kids to write and it's amazing how the kids have adapted So sort of what our personal concerns are what we have a difficult time with or not or not necessarily the same as what they Have a difficult time with which is kind of interesting. They're used to texting They're used to like really small keyboard. So this whole typing on the iPad thing for me I find it to be a little challenging sometimes I prefer to pull up my laptop that the kids don't seem to have that same and a lot of the kids get sort of an External keyboard also that they attach onto their device that they like to use They buy that. Yeah, so and we promote the kids to bring there We have a few that the kids can use and we ask the kids or the parents We suggest that they buy cases all those school provides them it just adds to the personalization piece of it for the kids To two more quick ones. Um, do you find that you know screen time is such a Kind of nasty two-letter work, you know sentence screen time Do you find that if they're in their screens and they're communicating with you via Pear Deck and There's there's less Conversation in the classroom. There's less discourse back and forth, you know, that sort of thing worries me a little bit I would yeah And it evens a playing field I think too So before you had your student leaders in the class who are the ones who jumped into discussion first You could pick them out on the first day of school and there they were and this sort of evens it So I think when you first start with a Pear Deck or something And then you ask kids to talk about it You get the whole class talking because they've all done it or they've all had a chance to fix their math Before the class shares together so that kid who had it wrong now has it right and then he's part of the discussion I think that's a worthwhile question though I mean that was maybe a concern that I had and I think if you came into the classroom You would see that there it's it's pretty similar to maybe have things were set up before and that you might be Reading for a little bit and then you're having group discussions. So there are times when we're not using the iPads I don't want to give the impression that it's the full 48 minutes, you know That will be on Pear Deck. Maybe put it down. Maybe they'll be doing a discussion We still use paper and pencil if that's what the task calls for so I don't think we're Necessarily wed to the device the entire time students aren't literally staring at the screen all day And then also sometimes there'll be several students working on one iPad together a project So if anything, I mean the level of communication and collaboration among students is significantly higher I'd say What's the future for this in the sixth grade one-to-one? Well As we've talked about before we pilot and then we expand I I don't know if we're gonna be able to do another one-to-one But we're hoping to we're hoping to and I think there's also some thought about maybe this going to the The cluster that would be a half a six seventh, right set some thought on that Um, we don't know too much about sort of what's happening next We hope Okay, I'll try me cook to do you think that the iPad Impacts the size of class that you can have optimally is it could it doesn't have to be smaller? Can it be bigger? How many students in a classroom I Mean my class size really varies this year, so I'm trying to process this. I have one class of 14 in a class of 27 Within the same grade level, so I'm trying to think I Mean, there's still a lot of bodies in the class when you put 27 in a classroom But I think that it's maybe easier to manage As far as sort of kids always being on task in a larger group because of the motivation because the tactile nature of the device We're typically in a class of 27 28 to 30 in a middle school is is challenging for a season teacher as far as classroom management And to have this device that does things like Pear Deck or kind of allows them to interact I think classroom management wise it definitely helps With student engagement in a larger class, okay That's really helpful. And then the other was just a comment I'm not sure if people read through the presentation that you gave But they mentioned how much more in math instruction The kids had gotten and it's equivalent to almost three weeks worth of Additional school for math and then in another one they mentioned they were three weeks ahead in their curriculum And so this is a pretty cost-effective way of gaining time I Thank you I want to quickly want to preface what I'm about to say I'm a hundred percent supportive on it But I'm also a sci-fi nut that is scared of technology decide that overtakes You've already addressed one part about the interaction with people and and I've seen that with kids when they get excited Stuff like that How dependent is there a concern of dependency on the individual tool? I mean The greatest thing for me was spell check because I'm such a bad spella except when I come to homonyms I always picked the wrong one for it, but I mean Do kids go to Wikipedia the way I went to the encyclopedia and just cut and paste You addressed a piece of that I think what the research Interesting because we've the kids have encountered real-life problems with researching online that are true I mean Google is not a great tool for researching and It take you can tell them that all the time and the first thing they do when they go home is Google something and To be able to have that conversation in the classroom has really I think as a result push them back towards books Because they'll bring me a website and they'll say is this can I use this as this reliable? Well who published it but what we have this conversation It's a it's a long conversation because you really have to figure it out They're exhaust and they're like I still don't know if it's reliable and I'm like well What do you know about a book? It's reliable and then there they go back to the book which is sort of interesting We're able to have those conversations You still have to have that one-on-one interaction initially. Yeah to build it to sit for the skill development on that Yeah, and I think that's what's so great about having the device in the class Okay, is that it's tough for kids to determine those tips and things from home And I don't think they have those conversations. They just guess, you know, oh it has what I'm looking for I'm gonna use it But then you'll also project it and then model that conversation with the whole class too So I think they're being reinforced some things haven't changed I used to find it in the encyclopedia right away Copy it and go and then get nailed. I want to thank you for your enthusiasm. I'd like to commend To the superintendent your your excitement enthusiasm. I think it's contagious And I linked is very fortunate to have all four of you So much at this time, I would like to invite Miss Laurie August and Evelyn Smith DeMille Sandbound sandborn foundation What we're gonna do here is first I am going to introduce myself I'm Evelyn Smith DeMille. I am the executive administrator for the sandborn foundation The formal name of which is the Elizabeth and George L sandborn foundation for the treatment and cure cancer We exist here in the town of Arlington our mission is to Assist Arlington residents who have cancer to get the things and the services they need What I'm going to do is ask our president of the board of directors to make a presentation tonight in a recent Conversation I was having with mr. Hainer and I do have to identify the fact that mr. Hainer's wife Bonnie and I were classmates in the Arlington High School class of 1964 so we just recently celebrated our 50th Graduation anniversary. I also want you to know that I have two children One who graduated in the class of 1999. He is currently a Military Jag officer. He's a lawyer for the military and a daughter who graduated in the class of 2003 and this coming May she will follow in my footsteps and graduate from the Simmons College School of Social Work She makes me very proud I have were students in Arlington at Arlington High in the teens 1917 I have a great uncle in the class of 1917 my father graduated in the class of 1932 so my children were the fourth generation when they were finishing up There were fifth generation members of my family So I am very proud Arlington a person a town so to speak But the Elizabeth and George L. Sandborn Foundation is an organization. It's a nonprofit charitable foundation that one of the things we have to do is give money away and And Laurie is going to do that tonight Thank you. Hi. Good evening everyone So the main purpose mission of the Sandborn Foundation is to help Arlington treat cure and prevent cancer it was Endowed with money from a couple that lived on Lake Street in the 1930s Elizabeth Sandborn had died of breast cancer when George's estate his her husband when he passed away he had given Money for a cancer hospital in Arlington It was a good deal of money. It was not enough to actually build a cancer hospital in Arlington Been transformed into this foundation We are here tonight to present the Arlington public schools with a check for $35,000 in support of the K through 12 anti-tobacco program a Very important program. It's a program. We've actually been supporting for 16 years in the total is about Five hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars that we have supported over those 16 years for this program This program has a lot of important elements Starting with, you know, Charlene Newell's work in the elementary schools as the cigarette lady Getting those young people very early on to think about use of tobacco The good choices program at the middle school the 84 Club Which emphasizes that they're 84 percent of the young people? I believe it's at the high school do not use tobacco products and so it emphasizes positive behavior rather than focusing on those who do smoke The funds also support the smoking monitoring program in the school in the high school the The schools relationship with relay for life In June There's a community hypnosis Session that's done every year where the community is invited to participate in hypnosis to help with stopping smoking And What we've been seeing over the years is that it these programs work They the youth behavior survey that gets done every couple years the middle school and the high school That the percentage of young people in Arlington who are using tobacco products has Declined and it is not just declined over the years, but it's lower than it is for the statewide average so Arlington is doing something different and something special to reduce the use of tobacco in our young people So tonight we're pleased to again Support this program. It's for the school year beginning in September and We're you know for us. It's important. It's a way of preventing cancer in Arlington Get to the young people early on tobacco use As a young person is totally linked to continued tobacco use as an adult And as we all know tobacco use is very much connected to cancer So it's a very important program to us at the Sanborn Foundation And we're just very happy to be able to continue to support the program helping Arlington to be healthier and to live You know free or freer of cancer into the future You have the Arlington school department I truly appreciate this and hopefully in the future will maintain this partnership. Thank you again very very much Fiscal 16 budget update and finance presentation Let me just make a comment they could about Sanborn Miss August gave a long list of Activities, but I even have a longer list from Cindy Bouvier who who has been managing this grant and Carly Newell Of course has been instrumental But there has been an effect in every single level of our school district because of this grant and we're Remain very grateful. Thank you Most of the money that we give away goes to individuals Individuals need help when they're going down this path most it's as I said, it's a precious gift and The town of Arlington the community of Arlington is so lucky to have it There is not another organization like this new state So, thank you. Thank you Right if you have questions, I gave you all our old brochure. We're gonna have a new sexy brochure tomorrow But also my card, please tell people if you know anyone in your neighborhood Relatives who live in Arlington? Please spread the word that we are here and we are here to assist people Thank you we FY 16 budget Well a number of the members of this committee were there that that evening also and probably want to make a comment We presented our budget is part of that. It's part of the process that we we go through And finance committee then in turn will recommend positive vote for funding at Tom meeting and last night they did have a vote and and did make the Positive vote for recommend recommending our budget there. We we spent About two and a half hours was it about two and a half hours of really answering a lot of questions or a lot of very good questions about the budget Particularly a lot of questions around special education And I think that there's some more information that we're going to provide the finance committee one of which is an update on the updated version of our 10 years 10 year I Would say that it's sort of a 10 year Expenses of special education and in fact, I don't know if Diane if you would like to just sort of jump in here Right here right now in terms of what that study is the school committee has seen it in the past I'm really trying to get rid of it It's it's a it's a misleading piece of document I had to develop it when I was first trying to do a retrospective when I got here because I hadn't been here and The chart of accounts had changed twice in the years immediately preceding me So trying to reconstruct a backwards look at what the expenses have been was Challenging to put it mildly. So what ended up happening is I asked the state to give me back the end of the year reports That had been filed digitally and I was able to construct using that I was able to build a model that showed that but from FY 11 on we changed the chart of accounts. We're capturing the data in much greater Much greater detail. You can really see what we're spending our money on in special education And I want to get rid of that old report because I have to lump everything into those old categories and people use people use that report and draw bad conclusions from it because you know, I basically the real power of that report is just the bottom line number and And I'm talking to some of the members of the finance committee about perhaps we can find a different model because I really want to retire That report it just isn't a good demonstration from FY 11 forward I can give you all the detail in the world you could possibly want and we can analyze that in all kinds of ways So I hope to see the end of that report but you know Well, we well it it it still provides a Good insight into the volatility of special education expenses over time and One of the things that when we did long-range planning we did spend some time in looking at what the long what the Really what the average would have been over that period of time and it and it was about 7% as part of our long-range plan for the town we have Agreed that we would increase the special education budget by 7% every year while keeping The general operating increase at three and a half percent, which has been part of the long-range plan Of course as you all know as we move forward in the next couple of years as part of this next three-year plan Next year our operating budget will be three and a half percent followed by then 3.25 and then 3.0 in the in the third year of this But that has been the plan We certainly are going to continue to update our numbers and take greater Greater look at that when we move forward into the next plan It may be that we find that all of the work that we're doing in district to provide Support for our students not to have to go out of district all the work that we've been doing with Interventions is going to have the effect of reducing the amount of money we spend for special education that is actually something we would like to see happen and So as we go forward and this is keeping the data looking at very closely is certainly one of our priorities we also have as you know the additional funding for the the enrollment growth as well as the replacement for the kindergarten fees which has remained static even though the number of students that we have in kindergarten has increased considerably and Which also contributes to chapter 70 income for for the town all of which which goes to the general fund So whatever revenues I think it's important for people to know whatever revenues come into the town goes into the general fund Including Medicaid for example when we collect Medicaid for the district goes into the general fund and the money comes out To the schools and to the town departments through this Formula that we have agreed on for this period of three years so It's important for people to understand that that's how we're operating and it what it does is creates a lot of sustainability and an ability to plan multiple years ahead which you know of which you've seen our plans So anyway, the I would say that in general the the questions were good They asked about what relationships were like between school department and and town and They're very very good. I think it's an extremely collaborative relationship Among all the departments, so I think that that is something that's Arlington I'm sure wants to know and feel competent and it will continue So I don't know if other members wanted members that were in attendance want to say anything Mr. Pierce. Yes, thank you. I just want to ask a couple questions and then give a comment or two that I had from from that Meeting the other night You all build a long-range plan for our needs in our schools Yes, you you know what you'd like to have in certain years You you save some things for doing for the following year, right? And and by way of agreement with the town in terms of the percentage that we expect and hope to receive it's now changed and You know, I know that we can't have a vote as a school committee on the change I certainly disagree with the change midstream It affects us in that you probably had already presented or prepared a long-range plan for the schools that now has to change and And I think that's important for the town to know and for the finance committee to know that It's not okay to have an agreement to Extend funds to the schools and then change that agreement midway through just to extend Another override three or four years It isn't okay. And so I'm not on record for voting for three and a half to three point two five to three and You know the finance committee Last night apparently One member suggested cutting a million dollars out of the school department's budget Why because that finance committee member was perhaps Disagreeable with the whole extent of the seven percent with the special ed in some years It's twelve percent some years. It's five percent on average. It's seven percent. It's probably more like ten percent every year, but Suffice to say it seems to me Disingenuous to say okay We want to cut a million dollars out of the school budget and we expect the schools to take it on a chance for three point two five and three Now I'm grateful for the town cooperation We've had over the last several years and the town managers have been Wonderful in terms of keeping an open ear to all of this, but I have to be on record saying that this is this is not okay with me Thank you. Yes, I wasn't able to be at the meeting on Monday. I had to alternate things I had to do but To speak to mr. Pierce's point about Being on record against it. I don't think any of us agreed with this idea It was discussed a long-range plan we expressed in great detail why we thought it was a bad idea why we did not agree to it And so it's not like any of us are on record is saying it's okay either Right, that's all yeah, we spent a lot of time preparing actually a long-range planning And I know why it was a bad idea, right and why would they shouldn't do it? Again my age just struck me our Student population is increasing a lot of it is in the kindergarten area and that agreement when we went They fronted that money initially when we went to the full-time kindergarten condition Would they get the chapter 70? Well that number as you just stated is static that we get back out of the that piece of it is $900,000 as the chapter 70 money continually increases It would be nice to get a little bit extra piece for at least the kindergarten Because that was part of the the deal they get they're getting on an average of a half a million dollars extra It's a great investment on their part to front that money for us The town I think you said it mr. Pierce the issue of continually to extend And and avoid the potential override nobody wants to increase taxes nobody wants to have an override, but the reality is Arlington is a Great place to come we're growing leaps and bounds We've had a phenomenal presentation tonight of technology that that if We were ever to take the cuts Without without fighting back Would be like to have a computer in the building never mind what we're doing with these children and So anyone else want to jump in on this? So it is it's going forward and we're going to give them some more information one of which is looking at the per people spending for Arlington public school system which is below The state average for per people and in fact this probably is a good segue into the Yes, and to the the letter that dr. Allison would like to have the school committee consider Dr. Ampe. Okay, I forgot that I might actually have to talk about this. I was too busy writing it So well, I should but I mean I don't have anything to show okay, so we have a letter Three graphs fan had another graph that would have been included had I thought of it soon enough and talked to her But it didn't fit Anyway, what so what this is all about? I've talked about it before but the foundation budget review commission was created this year by the house and Senate and is charged with looking at the state's formula for Creating what a budget for a school should be what what an average school should take not excessive But sort of average and how much money should it cost and there's this the original formula is done back in 1993 I don't know Yeah, and hasn't it's been reworked in terms of lumped into different categories But it hasn't really been adjusted significantly except a little bit here and there for inflation since that time and People are finding that the spending that schools need to do in different areas is Drifting greatly from what the foundation budget thinks that we would spend And so this commission was created to look again at the formula and to help Determine what a more reasonable well They're actually not totally sure what they're going to come up with but the hope is that they will make some Effort in Describing where the current foundation budget falls short what needs to happen who knows but hopefully something And so they've been collecting testimony. We missed all of their dates But they are collecting testimony at least until the end of this month and they are taking written testimony just as well as spoken so I sat down and took I pulled from the Department of Education website our actual spending over Multiple years and then what our foundation budget supposed to be and I just matched them up just category for category and They don't match so good shocking and And so I basically wrote that up and wrote up where we see the biggest differences What some of the reasons we think we see some of these differences and then as I wrote Linda Hansen of the AA Had been interested in doing something similar and she thought we could combine forces. So we kind of stuck our various testimony together and that is the end result and I Don't know Karen. Did you get the very last update? Nice. Okay. So what you guys have is the last update and so my hope is that We will authorize bill to sign it on our behalf And that the superintendent would sign it that the AA will sign it And then actually if I have the committee's indulgence Town manager Adam chapter Lane has said that he would like to sign it I have reached out individually to Some of the board is like me, but I'm not sure the message got totally through But at least one of them is interested in signing it and what I'm trying to do is just say, you know this is the problem and we all agree it's a problem and that Was in part when the Hansen's idea that it's just it's kind of more powerful that all these different People who maybe we have like we just said we have competing interests with the town that we don't agree with all the financing But that we all identify and agree to this. So I'll entertain a motion for the purpose of discussion Is there a second second anyone else wish do you want to speak any further on this at this time? What's the motion the motion is to Did you present it to have me okay to have you sign it and for the people in our organization to sign it and Pass it forward for the signatures Okay, so we'll switch to speed it has to go in it has to go in Monday. Yeah and sooner So it may be electronic signatures that we have or you know, no, I just wanted to say thank you I mean I read through it. I learned stuff. I think that you know, I really want to see this Out there. This is the kind of information I think that everybody in town actually really needs to know like, you know, this is you know, how well we're running your schools I loved that, you know that we were well below not only are we below the state average But if you look at the town manager 12 our average is below what we spend per pupil and Just showing people that we are doing the homework, you know, we've done the homework Here's what the foundation says this should cost and this is what it's really costing us and you can't There's no denying that, you know, and I just really I just want to commend you and really thank you for for all that work I'm more than happy to sign on to it I would also ask that two things that we get this on our web page once it's signed And I would ask the newspaper to consider publishing it in in total. I mean, it's a powerful message I think it's important for the entire community to see this that We're always asking for money, but we're doing a heck of a job Right, we're in the big way doing a job. I'm sorry The credit for I suppose it's like it's an excellent tutorial on how the finances in our town are in the school district So thanks for doing this. Yeah It was a lot It's a lot. There's a lot of It shows it reflects a phenomenal job really good really good all those all those in favor Anyone dare oppose Thank you very much So I'll work. I'll make myself available tomorrow for signature Yeah, I'll work with you Karen to figure out where it needs to go and What we may do is actually send a quick version in and say this the actual paper that we could send This with just the names of people. I mean we can send the Type not on letterhead and everything in with the names of people and say that the PDF is coming so that we can Get it in earlier and So I'll reach out to the other select men and stuff and and find out Statement of interest I like in high school Would you like a motion initially them? This is very specific motion that must be made and they they have a copy of this in the right in your Document for approval of School committee vote it starts for the first line is resolved. Oh, wow. Do we have to read that? I guess we need yes We should read it out loud and it Karen has a copy of it. So she could just put it in her notes. Oh, wait Result having convened in an open meeting on March 26, 2015 prior to closing day the school The school committee of Allenton in accordance with its charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest dated on or before April 10th 2015 for the Allenton High School located at 869 Massachusetts Avenue, Allenton, Massachusetts which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority category Category, excuse me for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future Three prevention of loss of accreditation due to the poor state of facility for prevention of severe overcrowding Expected to result from increased enrollments currently being experienced the elementary and middle school levels five Replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs windows boilers heating and ventilation system to increase energy Conservation and decrease energy related costs in school facility as is consistent with a complex buildings whose last major renovation took place more than 30 years ago Seven replacement of our addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of programs consistent with state and approved Local requirements as needed to bring a structure sections of which are not less than 30 years and some sections as much as 100 years old up to modern educational standards of safety security and comfort and hereby further Specifically acknowledges that by submitting this statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees The acceptance or approval of an application awarding the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority Or commits the town to fulfilling an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority So Good discussion may we have better luck We we're not just submitting the same report exactly that we have submitted last year We've we've actually gone through each one of these sections and looked at that very carefully and Have expanded on a number of things and reprioritized some sections We had a a meeting last week Facilities meeting and one of the issues that was brought up is that Saugas had submitted an SOI in 13 had not checked priority one. There are different priorities that you can check But did check it in 2014 and receive funding So we looked at very carefully Saugas has changed SOI to see what applicability for Arlington and we went literally through it very carefully point-by-point what we what we understand both from Conversations with MSBA and also the architect who helped us with the study here is that Priority one is for when you say the building is literally unsafe to be in and and They're looking for it ready to fall down or something major that is a security system that is just Doesn't isn't going to provide the Security or the access that students should have now we have a lot of deficits in this building there's no doubt about it and They only increase with age one of which That has increased with age is the permeability of this building one of the things we saw this year this winter Is that we were getting a lot more moisture into the building and if you were up here on the sixth floor You would have seen buckets in different places and other places around the school You would have seen trash cans in the middle of the of a of a hallway or classroom collecting the water So it's it's what happens with masonry is that once you start having this permeability There's big it almost is as our director of facilities. It said it becomes exponential So we may actually do a study on this we did this with Hardy and Hardy's mortar as a result has had to have major major repairs I think in nature about two hundred thousand there's no it's more than that entire project is now slated at four hundred thousand dollars And so what happens with the high school is when you get to get to this building and you have to do that kind of Maintenance you have to say it does that make sense in terms of the the age of the building and perhaps What would be a possible renovation? So I think this is one thing that we Highlighted a little bit more the other issue is just looking again very you know Emphasizing the security issues in this building and the costs to we talked at the last meeting about having crash bars that have alarms We've already talked to Have some discussions about this and to do that a kind of alarming and and feedback to a central place We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars and again you say do you put that kind of an investment in a building that has The kind that needs the massive amounts of repairs so we we I think we did Some it's a very good restructuring and there was a lot more we could have said but you're limited to five thousand characters and some of the sections So we had to trim it back and re rewrite it. So I think that That piece was redone and we really Changed we really beefed up priority number five We also did an update on the enrollment and I don't know Johnson if you'd like to say anything about that because that was your work in the packet You'll notice that there are two at the end of the SOI if you scroll through this There's a cover letter for me that explains the mathematics of how I do the projections And there's two ones the one you saw in the fall and the other one is taking the kids that are either born but not yet in school or in school and rolling them out through middle and high school and it's Subtotals the enrollment at the middle school and the high school and I reference in the SOI the five years out ten years out numbers and It's a lot of kids So, you know, hopefully, you know, and it's it's up from last year. It's it's more pressure now, and I'm hoping that You know that in a timely way the MSBA will will have a competition pull that will allow us to rise to the top Before it becomes truly critical That's right We have the high school while there's certainly space issues here the large enrollments that were seen in the elementary Are still a number of years from here, but if you were to begin this project go into eligibility next year That that those elementary students are going to be here by the time you complete the project because just the lead into the project is probably two years and then the Whatever is going to follow after that is going to be in the three-year range So what we're trying to do is anticipate that the building is ready When those numbers come here so that part was emphasized and So we're looking for you know your approval tonight the process is the same as last is the last time we submitted a statement of interest It has to have the signature of the school committee as well as the board of select one And so we've given all these materials in the backups that will go with The statement of interest to the board of select one and in fact, I'm going to attend their meeting on Monday just to Both leaving negotiations same time then So So we will Be presenting well, I don't know if I'm being so much presenting but it's having an opportunity To support it and to answer any questions that the the board of select one have So after we have the signatures, then we will be submitting it to MSBA We submit it through a security portal, but then we also send a hard copy of all the materials To to them and then we wait And what is the deadline for finding out this time? Oh This last year it was in December I They haven't announced that it seems to vary a little bit They do some studies at sites and When we weren't when I found out another district had had their study I immediately picked the phone and said So Arlington's not having a study. It was little indicators along the way. They didn't say definitely so I don't think we will know anything probably to next December is my understanding put it on my calendar I just have one question sorry There's a lot of stuff it's it's a very strong case I think I was wondering if we've had pictures as well If you look in the the attached documents, there's two reports that include pictures Okay, I did so there's no place to attach pictures within the SOI itself but the supplementary reports one from HMFH and One from on-site inside both include pictures. I had read that earlier. So good. Okay, great Superintendent's report Well One of the things that we've talked about is wanting to have some updates on district goals as we go along and It always seems like there's so much so much going on and I will limit a little bit tonight to a couple of things That I want you to be aware of one of the the the one of our Goals under goal three was to complete a feasibility study for the Straton elementary school and That certainly happened and we've gone through a process this year of the capital committee Looking at the report that the Straton building committee prepared for the for the capital committee Looking at what the scope of work would be to have Straton be have have a be on parity with the other elementary schools and We also gave them options of phase in as you all know the recommendation has been to Concentrate it just do it and have it be over the 14 months, which was one of the one of the options so capital committee has Voted to recommend the funding for Straton and just a week or so ago They voted to for the relocation cost and I think that's one of the things that is a great interest In fact this evening before the meeting I because I knew I was going to be talking about this tonight. I send a memo to So many people involved in this it's you know the Straton community and then all of the all of the rest of the The Arlington public schools people that are in the schools the staff Where we where we are right now with this As This this winter miss Johnson and mr. Mark Miano who is our superintendent of facilities for the whole town Met with an architect and also a contractor who Installs portable modular classrooms and To look at all of our different school sites as to which schools would meet a number of criteria And there were there were a number a lot of criteria in fact you may even want to talk a little bit about then I'll talk where we're going with this we we went around the whole district to see where it would be possible to put modules in and You know obviously from a transportation standpoint having them on fewer locations is better Keeping a cohort together as much as possible Unfortunately, we're a densely populated semi urban area where putting 18 classrooms worth of portables on one lawn is not really good to get it so We we have settled on with the help of the architect We have settled on three locations that are best suited and the reason there's some real questions about suitability is the modulars Don't stand apart from the building. There's a there's an access way that's built I guess the best analogy would be like a jetway when that goes out to the plane. There'll be something built Temporarily so that children enter and leave the modulars from inside the building So they won't be wandering around to get to class the modulars would have Exits so if they need to leave the modulars they could go out but normal, you know for fire drill or something But normal would be through that corridor that'll be built So you need grade and you need you need other factors to go so the three locations we're looking at currently are the Bishop and the Hardy and as if you think about their sites there there's some nice flat areas near the building and Those would be temporary modulars So they'd basically be in place only for the duration of the Stratton project and then the oddison We would put in modulars, but we would put them in more permanently So that after the Stratton students went back to the Stratton There would be additional classroom space at the oddison which really needs it And so this has allowed us to consolidate some funding that was set aside to help the oddison and the Stratton cost to Sort of kill two birds with one stone here That's right since since we're We're looking at relocation for Stratton The very fact that we might be able to address some of the the space needs at oddison as a result of it has really been a wonderful a wonderful thing so At the at the oddison middle school Most likely it would be the fourth and fifth grade that would go there And I know that once we start talking about this people are gonna have a lot of questions and what about this? What about that? What I can say is that we're starting early with the most important things of identifying the sites Now it is possible that when we actually go out to bid it could could change But right now that they did a pretty thorough analysis of all of the the building codes and how you could attach utilities And so I think we're pretty pretty set on these sites We've even begun looking at what the bussing would be like But we have a year to plan the important thing is to get the big things in place So that we're ready to go and it is going to be a much more A much bigger project than the Thompson move it because you're not you're not going to a school you're going to these to different locations And they're unfortunately we would have loved to have had it all be closer to Stratton than they are but the fact that the fact is The modulars have to work on a site That's the most important thing because unless you can act We want the students to be able to access through the building because that's part of the security of the the modular classrooms, so There'll be a lot of questions and I and I it's gonna be things that can't be answered right now But there are some important things that I can say and that is we've talked to the after-school program at Stratton And we are going to be working out a plan that the they will be divided between the sites next year So they're very flexible and willing to support this and it is a year and It's important to make sure that everything is ready to go because it is going to be a tight Construction plan and we do not want to arrive in September of 2017 and not be ready to reopen So all we're going to do is much upfront planning and ready to ready to Ready to go. I Just wanted to clarify don't I remember you saying that one of the big things is that the modulars take a year to Prepare I mean you have to order them a year ahead So that's part of why we can't just do this like a few months You know the planning first and then do it. You're absolutely right so the first thing we have to do is move forward and getting the designers and those bids out and Then we're going to package that this with the designer because it's a bit I think it makes sense not to have different bids on the on the on the modulars and Perhaps we even get a better price as well So that all has to happen and we should be ready to be ordering it We have the finances from Approved by Tom meeting I Just want to make it clear everyone listening that you know, this is the planning year. We're talking about this disruption 2016-17. Yes, it's not next school year. It's not this summer. It's a year. It's a year plus from now It's a year plus from now a lot of time to Work on the logistics discuss it have community participation That's correct. I mean I had my first meeting with Stratton parents and Stratton staff and in the next Week or so so that will happen, but they're We're already starting to compile lists of details that have to be addressed and they will be a sick that they're significant and But unless you plan well, it will that's what planning well is what will ensure that it will move Go forward smoothly. Just want to emphasize you stated it The first hurdle we have to get over is through time meeting to get finance proof Yes, I just wanted to To let everybody know that it finance committee did vote unanimously to support the capital budget including The Stratton and the relocation costs. So that's that's what's well for town meeting Yes, I have a question that costs and also about are the Modulars at odd isn't going to be a different in type because they're permanent and Are we leasing them are we buying them? What is sort of the plan? That's what that's what we need the designer to spec out for us because we want to put it out to bid So it meets our needs. So we'll have some modules that are temporary some that are permanent and Where's the lease by break over point in terms of cost effectiveness? Okay, so we don't know that yet. No, that'll all be part of the specking You know, it could be that you know, so many lease so many by You know or give us your best pricing and we'll see it might be cheaper to buy it might be cheaper You know, we have to look at all that we want to get the best price Actually, if we were to buy them, could we then use them at different places as our enrollment? the Modulars don't like to be moved around a whole lot They're kind of like a prefab building and once you you know when you establish them permanently They have to meet ADA compliance and and you really you really dig in So that it's not simple because I was just looking at the enrollment projections in 2019 every single elementary school class will be over 500 and according to our current projections so Well, yes, well you're leading into another Another part of the part of this but I did want to make one comment further on this is that parking will be Need to be addressed at odd us in and we do have plans for how that will be addressed And the unimportant part is that people students will be bused to these different locations and we're even starting now working on what that might look like I Just wanted one question that came up at facilities last week was whether the money for the relocation was in capital plan for fiscal 17 and And Some that was going to be looked into and I was just wondering there's a split okay There's a much larger portion than would normally be there for design cost So that and include the bid and the contracting for the modulars because you have to pass papers Well in advance of the order, but you don't actually start paying them a tremendous amount of money So that oh, okay So there's like the design phase and the you know And you could go out to bid on the modulars get your best price get them set up get them ordered, okay? And then the money will come around the next year, okay, so what we've been thinking about that We've worked on that we think we're in good shape with that didn't all of that didn't come through And I just didn't want us to have them and not be able to pay for them Well, we won't have them well I mean not have them we wouldn't be able to order them because we couldn't pay for them But that's fine if they'll wait until the money comes that's good. Yeah, we don't pay for things until we get them Yeah Right well We've been talking about the enrollment growth and this is a nice segue into this But let's just talk for about odyssey and for a second We have classes that are now coming up through the elementary school third grade and 470 and then they there's a pretty much little in hovering in the high 400s and then our kindergarten class is 513 right now and We if we were to see Even 90% of the number of students of children that were born that would be next year's entering class We could we can have a very even a larger kindergarten than 513 next year, but I think the number of births for that group was like 560 560 this this year we had the first time sort of a one-to-one correspondence between the number of Births and the number of kids that entered kindergarten in the past its range from Number of years ago to about 83% and then it went up to 90% and so even if we had 90% of the 560 We're talking about a large class Now these classes are going to I just wanted to say that four years out The furthest reach of a full year of kids. We have the number of live births is above 600 So if if we realize 90% of 600 that's going to be a big class if we realize 100% of it So these clap for the next two years next year in the year after we can I think with some Thoughtful use of space at odd us and really they'll be fine in terms of the the classes that are coming in It's the year of 1718, which is why this project said segue so well That's one the first really large class of the elementary of elementary hits Oddison and so I think having six additional classrooms is going to make a a big difference I think that they're going to be Desirable space because there will be air conditioned And they actually Modulus today are very different than the modulars of yesteryear and they're they're very they're very nice classrooms I know you were saying that you've seen them at at in Lexington the like Lexington Esterbrook They initially were intended for short thing They don't know I'm sorry. I shouldn't put that down. They don't exist anywhere. They have a brand new school there But they they still has them Portables everyone thinks they're the leftovers. They have their own heat. They have their own air conditioning and their own sinks They have water the smile every single one of them might have teachers to quickly volunteer for Yeah, we have met our school And in some schools have had to have them for as many as ten years and they're designed that they could Do that and so I think by having these six classrooms there We will be able to buy a considerable amount of time for odyssey in terms of thinking about Is it this is enrollment going to level off or do we need to think about? Permanent permanent structures there But it gives us it buys us a lot of time in being able to do that six classroom will be We'll work for a number of years As far as the other schools where we already talked about the high school but the elementary is is is concerning because we have very few classrooms that are available and In fact that wouldn't the study of why we need to go to portables We even saw how few there are and there are just trends that are happening Such as at Thompson where our entry in kindergarten last year was four classrooms And it's it's it's looking like it could go that direction again this year and it's only March so Well, we it's a very it's very complicated And so what we decided to do was to actually look for some outside experts to help us do a space study Looking first of all to corroborate what we're seeing with enrollment growths have another methodology look at it Which I think would be good to know and then secondly Well, actually more than secondly, but secondly to take a look at where we are with it with trends in different parts of town Look at the space that we have what kind of space would we where would be needing space in the years to come and and we put a Bit quotes out received different proposals had to go back and and talk with the people who gave us the proposals and sort of Redefine it a little bit and move the cost down to what we had budgeted for this so after that process The firm that we are going with this HMFH and So we have already begun Starting to plan. We're going to I've already got an email just for it came in in terms of the demographer and Look asking for the different kind of documents and the first documents you wanted to have we had all to do with buffer zones So that we'll be meeting With HMFH and and they have So it's as you know, it's a very solid firm in it They have they have the deep expertise to really help us think this through The we're looking to get a report probably in August or early September I think once we dig into this we're a little bit off our timeline right now but because we had to go back to the bidders and have them read resubmit a second proposal so that I'd like you to possibly consider and these are the experts and stuff Alec then has I don't have to tell you no space but the concept the idea of Utilizing some things that the school department is not using itself But as the idea of an early childhood center Which would be any preschool and all the kindergarten's in town located in one location That would provide a growth factor at the elementary schools Is it the best thing from the parents and stuff like that? I don't know But we're lacking space and the Gibbs building and you you folks know would it cost a lot of money? Probably but whatever it takes it's gonna cost money for space with the way we're going. Is it feasible? I don't know. That's why we're having the experts come the school itself would require millions and millions to make it ADA compliant But but the issue is the number of kids if we have classes of 500 you have 500 kindergarteners and and our preschool Which will be oh probably go for a hundred in one site. Yeah, I don't know I mean these are all the kinds of questions we have and I think it's something it's another option. We have to consider We either that or we have to get stuck considering on it even though if we can going vertical Because we don't have any spread out space you were limited to where you could locate the Portables because some of the buildings just did not have physical areas to put them in for the hookups and everything like that So that shows you that expansion space doesn't exist in Thompson is one of them You can't go left and right. Oh We don't want to get ahead anyway The space study is It's going to be ongoing if I have any updates I'll certainly let you know as we go along and the facilities committee will probably want to get regular updates on that too another Just so Heard a lot about the technology just it tonight But I wanted to just do a couple other things and one has to do with the one of the goal about Recruiting and hiring and retaining diverse staff Staff about that are outstanding And Rob has been doing a lot of work on that in terms of going out to job fairs But I also wanted to have you talk about the coffee that we're going to be doing sure so I've Been to some job fairs recently. We participated in the MPDE job fair the mass partnership for diversity diversity and education job fair a couple weeks ago The turnout wasn't as great as we we had hoped But we are hosting a coffee social again this year as we have in years past that's going to be on April 8th at 4 o'clock in this room and We invite the school committee and we have sent invitations to candidates that I've met at job fairs and hopefully and and posted it in some other places to inform students at different colleges of The job of the coffee social and and our diversity committee is going to be working on some recruiting phone calls Right and the last thing I wanted to update you on we had a district goal with respect to the website As a town found it's much more complicated To be to do a whole cloth change of our website in which we would also bring in the the school websites into a coherent system so short term we are working on on Basically making our current website more efficient and we have a prototype that's working on sort of separately And then we'll eventually have it go live But we still have more to work on with it But the other issue but having a more substantial change in our website requires an important decision That is whether you we have a higher content manager right now We don't we basically run our own website Claudia Bertoli is our webmaster and she manages manages the site the school websites While they're linked to the link to the district website are Managed either by a teacher in the building or a parent volunteer and they're linked in One of the things that would happen if we go content manage Directed direction is that we'd have much more management Sort of centrally so We've we've had some meetings already we're continuing to meet we've met with the director of communication for the town and and how with the process that they went through and I think then the next Play the next place we're going with this is actually getting some people to come in from content management firms and Give us a presentation. So it's moving forward. I do not think that we will have a A brand-new website for until a year and a half at least It's it's quite a project the town took well over two years on it But I do think that you're going to see come late spring early summer a much more Trimmed and efficient website The that we manage right now. I So I just remind everyone that our last community relations subcommittee. We talked about soliciting Community involvement in some way Right, and I was wondering sort of what what time would that be appropriate to do now or is that something? We're thinking of doing a survey later this spring with parents short survey Just trying to find out what are the types of things that they most want to find on the website We also we also talked and actually this is actually something you had you'd stepped out. You had you had something else that you were doing We talked about Asking for applications from Community members for people who might want to be on a committee To sort of get involved in this Okay, but anyway, we're moving forward and the other last thing I will just mention is Well two things real quick Shrek is this weekend and it from people who've seen the dress rehearsal say it's fabulous It is a great Show to bring your children to and they're putting on matinee on Sunday, which we only do when we run shows that for they would have a wider audience of young children, so That went out as a reminder to parents and the other thing I just want to congratulate our music department particularly Atino at Dagestino and the honors orchestra they were they were chosen among hundreds of applicants to perform at the music educators conference in Boston and I Attended as did dr. Janger and I have to say they were Extraordinary they were excellent. You had been so proud of them I wish that they had recorded them because we were thinking of linking the They're one of their pieces to the newsletter, but we're still trying to work on that possibility but When when they have concerts here at school, and I think we need to do a better job of advertising them because I think that people would be fold over by how Good our students are so I just want to thank them publicly for making us so proud This time we do the consent agenda All items listed with an asterisk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion We will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee so requests in which event the item will be considered in its Normal sequence approval of warrant number one five one two two dated March 12 2015 in the amount of 643 thousand sixty eight dollars and seventy three cents Approval of minutes regular school committee meeting March 12 2015 and the second public hearing on fiscal 16 budget meeting minutes March 12 2015 So moved second All those in favor. Hi. Thank you very much subcommittee and liaison reports Policy and procedures nothing at this time Let's see budget this start all right Hopefully my last budget report Till next three years. No Here's hoping I don't get it again. No Anyway, so we had a meeting just before last week before we went to see the finance committee and we focused on the finance committee report as Dr. Bodie said I think it went very well. I Actually took notes so that I can hand those off to whoever is chair next year about what there were over 30 questions And I'm trying to put those together so that we kind of know what they asked I think it would be good to go in with that next time we have a another subcommittee meeting on Ooh, I put it in here and now I can't read it Wednesday April 15th Where we will talk about the book that's going to town meeting And make sure that that's ready because that has to go off to the presses to be ready and on the chairs for April 27th That's it community relations anybody from that committee that would like to speak to it Well, actually we reported on last time, so No, I know we haven't met since okay Curriculum instruction assessment accountability nothing to report right now. Thank you facilities. Mr. Tillman We met on the 19th Kathy covered the main points The only thing I would add is that we had a report on the stratum the hearty playground and We are The we received a bid that the district received a bid to repair the hearty playground that was over a budget And you're trying to find money to do it Good luck with that And You know we had some other discussions about some of the other thing I mean the turf if Tom meeting improves the capital plan which had happened and the turf will be replaced this summer at the high school Do we have timing for hearty? Do we have a sense of when we'd start so trying to find money final request final requests for Final purchase orders are due in in April before the vacation and once we process all of those we'll have a better So I might be able to start this summer. I'm sure hoping to squeeze out right some hearty. Okay, great Special study group on super tenants evaluation before you in your package There were four goals and a questionnaire of the subcommittee is prepared for you the goals are for the super tenants evaluation You've had in the long before If I can entertain, I don't know the correct procedure can I entertain motion to accept the three the four goals so much Is there a second? Second any discussion Did people look at the questionnaire? I really need some feedback on the questions You did a good job going through it I mean us and you know the three of us are the only ones to have looked at them So anyway if people can take a look at that. I mean today is just a first look It's not like we have to vote on it, but you know anything that we felt like what we were trying to get at was the information that We knew we needed to do the superintendents review So if you think like in the past that there have been things you didn't have enough information on or you would like to have Had information on the point of the questionnaire was to kind of say okay These are you know we plan to give this to curriculum leaders and administrators and hopes that we have more information So that when we do the review this is required by statute from death It's not just something out of it be great if we thought of it, but you know desi desi is requiring this as part of the superintendents evaluation, so There was a suggested questionnaire was quite about four or five pages long. Yeah, Cindy To and I want to give a credit to this took the time over the Christmas holiday spent hours of one hour Which she we did it down to relevant. I think we we took one or two more Yes, is there anything that describes what output it has to have from desi, I mean No, you mean specific to who would go to no, I mean just So we have to have a question we have to have a questionnaire But there's nothing that we have to use theirs or make our own But but but there's nothing there's nothing specified with what you do with what you do with the information, okay? That's We have Where set up I saw I talked to mr. Good about doing We have the package within the district of a confidential thing. It will go out to these people The IP address will be contained building anonymity for anybody participating in this thing He will have control of it reminded to get it down That information will come back to us as individuals sometime prop We set the date the end of September or for us to look at it and how we want to compile it and how it would be compiled That information obviously will be given to the superintendent as well But as part of but it's part of our determination with this To look at it this appears and then a couple quick questions wire some of the items bold and in other questions Don't have any bold that Okay, so that won't be no, okay, and I don't think that maybe just the formatting of going into oh, okay And then the second question I had was well, you know say you're Principal yeah, and you're filling this out and you don't know the answer to Just leave blank. Do you know the last choice was yeah, there's one of the choices Okay, so those are the those are the choices you have to fill in each one strongly Disagree agree strongly agree not You may not interact yeah, you know, yeah, you may not interact with the superintendent And we know another thing that is missing is the timeline that we came up with Right. Well, the the timeline seems to be more your script. This isn't a policy. I mean we could vote on it tonight But I can't vote on it tonight. I think it's important. We all have input in this on this thing here So the original timeline that we had come up with and it got modified from the one we passed back in December we had to jag it a little bit may have to get a slight adjustment again Because these people should have this in the hands for a while before they make the determination should be just bing bing To think about I think we're voting to approve this. No, we're not voting to No, we know this is just a first like a first read So this is just you know, we wanted to make sure we introduced it gave you guys a little bit of context Take a look at it and next meeting. We'll talk more about it Comments send to Karen Karen will then send them out myself and Paul and if we field it Well, of a sudden we have a slight disconnect. We will call for another meeting We did not set up another meeting as yet, right, but we can't if we have to So it says to approve or not To take that up or not So I just have a question. I will definitely look at this and yeah Please contact your camera. Yeah, I will do that So my question is so since last year was my first time looking at that process And I've mentioned this before what struck me is at the bottom of that form the 7 to 12 suggested Additional documents that we should see in order to make the evaluations That we didn't have and I'm wondering at what time do we decide that we're going to ask as a committee for doc for those types of documents is that is that sort of now So, yeah, maybe I know what she's talking about it's on that whole template It's a very bottom in little smaller type gives examples of Documents that might help support yeah Evidence I would I would suggest that individual members that are seeking those Communicate well, I think maybe we should talk about as a committee, but which wasn't we might know Well, there are four standards that Teachers administrators superintendents are evaluated on What we are doing with teachers is that in the different standards they provide evidence three pieces of evidence for each standard So Karen has set up Electronic files in which they will be available to you the different pieces of evidence Sometimes there are things that go across different standards. So there's evidence on the standards and Then there's evidence on the goals So potentially we'll see a lot more because I remember just feeling that it was just our poultry the kind of evidence that we had Well, that's because we were only focusing on the goals last time But we really need to look at the standards and I think we need to look at all the district goals to which Are these things already set up Are they accessible by us? If you This is something that will only be Clear this is not a public document The only public document that will come out of this is the final evaluation that the school committee does come next November I want to make that clear to the public. So I mean Karen is doing when you can send us out of notice that the This is the link to us through novice for the but we won't we won't at that point We won't see all the evidence because it's still be collated, right? No It will as Kathy gathers it as comes in if you have a question about it If you want to declare it any one of us needs clarification back to Karen the cat in the time we made a cat The idea of this evaluation is interactive throughout the year Some of us may choose not to look at any of this till September Some of us want to maybe involved in it on an ongoing basis So if I'm interested in in sort of different kinds of evidence and not just for me personally I think maybe the rest of the committee might benefit as well. Who does that go to it was that Go to Karen. Okay, we will see any result of that. Okay, okay. We'll all see any result of that Okay, I think this is actually has a good point that we may want to have a conversation among the committee at some point about what's You know if there's any big buckets of evidence that we would like to see it's a good retreat topic Yeah, yeah, sorry. I think Yeah, yeah, let's put that on the bucket list of retreat topics Just would like to share with the group if this is going to be something that we're going as a group going to use in November We need to have this discussion sooner than later. Yeah, that's right. That's why she's bringing it up. I'm bringing it now Okay. Well, I mean I'm with you. I'm ready for the retreat two weeks from Saturday. Others gonna be finding that day It's going to be different. So maybe we need to ask you to Stop that doodle doodle Doodle again. No, no. Stop it. I didn't say pick it. All right. All right We go. Let's hope to Okay, I would like to entertain a motion to hold the school committee organizational meeting on April 9 2000 We're not supposed to vote. We're voting on the other items, right? No, no, that was the first read of everything We'll vote on it next time you first read have it things like the minutes I mean, we did the minute we did the minute. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry Go ahead one of the things that you're gonna see in the goals, which you know, sometimes you don't And until you sort of dig into some of these things you don't realize you'll see that The did some of the district goals that we have picked out that they don't really match up very well at all with the rubrics and It struck me as I was doing these that how much is Missing from the job in the rubrics And I suppose teachers doing it might see the same thing But it is with startling how I was just trying to find something that would even relate to it so You're gonna see a difference in the goals in terms of all the different correspondences to the rubrics because But some things don't match in there But if we have a retreat we have the four goals that are looking right there at it We can determine you're aware of what we're looking for. We know what we want We have that measure at that time going forward Try it again entertain the motion to have It's usually school committee organizational meeting April 9th 2015 at 6 15 p.m Any discussion And we play musical juice all those in favor At this time before we go this time I want to take a moment. Yes, sir To thank our esteemed chairman mr. Heyner for a great year. It was a it was a terrific year Builded a great job running this committee keeping everyone in line. I mean he's generally ended fairly early earlier than we've ever had Had that happened before and it was just a great year So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all And we have cake for you Bill in the addition which just started few years We gotta take a cake and throw in the chair. I figured that it's a new thing. I figured that Thank you all couldn't have done it without you. Thank you for putting up with my This memory every now and then This time I will entertain the motion to enter executive session to conduct strategy preparation for negotiations with union and our non-union personnel our contract negotiations with union and our non-union In which if held in open meeting may have a detrimental effect conducts strategy with respect to collective bargaining Litigation in which have held in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect collective bargaining may also be conducted We will we will be coming back only for the purpose of adjourn