 We'll start with my script for our remotely conducted open meeting. As a preliminary matter, this is Len Carden, Chair of the Allenton School Committee. And this is the regular meeting of the Allenton School Committee on Thursday, May 28th at 6.30. Well, 6.33. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me members. Please, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Mr. Heyner. Yes. Dr. Allison Ampe. Yes. Mr. Thielman. Yes. Mr. Schuchman. In the affirmative. And Ms. Morgan. Yes. And myself, Len Carden. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Dr. Bodie. I'm here. Great. Dr. McNeil. Yes, I'm here. Mr. Mason. Here. Ms. Elmer. Here. And joining us from the AA tonight is Juliana Keyes. Welcome, Juliana. Thank you. And I don't think we have any anticipated speakers other than Ms. Elmer and other staff. So good evening. This open meeting of the Allington School Committee is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12th, 2020 due to the current state of emergency in the Commonwealth due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in order to mitigate transmission of the virus. We have been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings and as such, the governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. This order, which you can find posted with the agenda materials for this meeting, allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely as long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. This meeting is being recorded and some attendees are participating by video conference. So for those of you who are on the webinar panel, please be aware that others folks can see you and take care not to share your screen unless there's anything you intend to share with our audience. And anything you broadcast will be captured by the recording. The meeting materials are available through the Novus Agenda dashboard and Brown rules for the meeting. I will introduce each speaker and then I will go through the list of members as we have in other meetings to ask questions, provide comments or motions. Please mute your computer when you're not speaking and please speak clearly so that everyone can hear you. And that's it. Oh yes, and each vote will be taken by roll call. All right, so for a public comment, unless there are any last minute additions, Karen, we only received one public comment by email. That was from David Levy and he had a question in preparation for the potential remote learning in the fall. How is the district planning to address the inequities experienced this spring that prevented full-scale remote learning from taking place? I did already respond to Mr. Levy that, you know, we can't address issues that aren't specifically on the agenda. I do anticipate that we will be addressing fall planning in one of our, in our, probably both of our June meetings and we can ask the administration to address that question at that time. And Karen, and there's no other public participation. Is that right? That's correct. Thank you. All right. So our first item is the update on the COVID-19 impact on our school district and the remote learning plan that's currently in place. Dr. Bode, do you want to start with? I will start with we have a number of things that we want to mention in this time, but just sort of an overview and what's happening with respect to participation in the remote learning plan. We want to also respond to the motion made by Dennis Morgan last time about, and that's just the element, I believe, about synchronous learning and what we can learn from pilots in the district. Dr. Meneal will speak to that. I want to talk a little bit about the elementary form with some of the themes and talk a little bit also about the surveys that we're planning to conduct, which will give us even more insight into what we need to do for next year. And I will talk a little bit about that at the end of this, because that seems to be one of the questions that has come up the most, well, almost the most frequently in our elementary parent form and as well as our secondary parent form. So as we now are almost halfway through the phase three that began May 4th, we're really getting close to that point. Things are really moving in quite a very good rhythm. And I think that that is what has been reported from elementary principals, curriculum leaders, and secondary as well. What we're seeing is some interesting trends, which are something that will be part of the data that we use as we as we think about next year. And that is the difference between elementary and secondary with regard to two important parts of the remote plan. So as we moved into this last, the third phase of the school closure, we changed what we were doing with the curriculum and we also changed accountability for the work that was done at the secondary levels reported. Last time there was the secondary, both Gibbs and Otteson students at the end of this time will have one of three designations as to their level of participation. And at the high school, that will be around whether they audit the course successfully. So what we're finding in a broad picture is that at the elementary level, the participation for the hangout meetings is higher than it is for turning in assignments. And that's even markedly different, a little bit different between the K2 and the 35. And we talked a little bit about this today, an elementary principal meeting. So for example, in terms of turning in assignments broadly across the district K2, roughly about 65% of the students do, and that was whether they partially turned in or completely turned it in. The participation rate, however, in Google hangout meets, it's about 89%. And for grades three to five, the turn in rate is even higher, that's 74%, and the participation in Google hangouts is about 84%. The principals hypothesize that one of the reasons why the assignments turn in at the earlier grades is lower, is that it involves so much more parent support to do that. Parents have to take pictures of assignments or help them work with a Google doc, or certainly just even any access to the platform. So that's a very interesting information as we think of one of our three possibilities for the fall. At the grades three through five, however, there's a market increase in that number. And that, I think, is attributed to the students at those grade levels are a lot more independent in being able to work in the platform. And prior to closure, many of the students, particularly in grades four and five, already had experience with Google Classroom. When you get to the secondary level, and this is true sort of uniformly between the middle school levels and the high school, and that is the turn in rate is much greater than the participation in Google hangouts, which for the most part is fairly universal through the entire district at this point. So for example, at the middle school, and this is Addison and Gibbs combined, the turn in percentage is around 74 percent. And the participation in Google Hangouts is about 23 percent. And that actually varies a little bit by grade level. So these are just broad strokes. So I can I can put more of this data into a chart, though I'm still collecting it that you can have probably next week. But I just wanted tonight to be able to give you some broad themes that we're seeing. At the high school, it's sort of it's fairly similar. The turn in rate is 73 percent and the participation rate in hangouts is about 40 percent. So we're seeing just just the reverse in terms of elementary in the in the high school. Now, I think that one department actually gave me a comparison, and I could get this for the other ones as well, is what is the difference in the turn in rate at the high school compared to the phase before this as to the phase we're in. And it's a marked increase went from turning in enrichment work from about 58 percent overall to about 74 percent. So there's a we're seeing the effects in phase four of the the fact that the assignments are now counting. And that sort of corresponds to the survey that we had taken that student motivation and not have and having the assignments the optional did affect what assignments returned in. So that's where we that's where we are right now in terms of like the overview, but I will tell you this also because this is I know a concern of all of ours is what is happening with the students who are not turning in or are not participating in some respect and having talked to all the principles on this issue. Those students are being identified. They're reach out to them. It's reach out to them to their parents. And actually what we're finding at the elementary is that the numbers are not great. There there's some level of participation fairly uniformly. And as I said that there's a there's definitely a reach out to parents and to the person who asked that question. It's certainly data that we're going to be looking at for next year in one of in terms of what what will happen in the fall and and how we can increase the contact of students with the district in terms of work. Of course, one of the options for next year is we're back full at a regular kind of schedule. So that is sort of a quick overview. But I think you're going to learn more about how this is working. Some asked actor Neil to talk a little bit about the study groups that we have set up an elementary study group and a secondary study group that our teachers who have volunteered who are very interested in and have already been doing in many cases synchronous teaching during this phase. So we're learning a lot from this group and I think we will continue to as we as they continue to meet as a cohort. So Dr. McNeil, do you want to talk a little bit about this because this this speaks to the motion of the last meeting. Yes, thank you Dr. Bodie. So excuse me, pursuant to the motion I've worked with curriculum leaders and elementary principals to identify teachers who would want to be part of a pilot to pilot live direct synchronous instruction with the purpose of moving the curriculum forward. So teaching key understanding understandings and supporting lessons. And that is a distinct difference from the goal of the way that we're utilizing live direct synchronous contact with students currently is that we're trying to use it to maintain contact, build community, and check on the social and emotional well-being of students. So I did want to point that out that there's going that that was the purpose of forming the study groups and relating to the motion that was passed by the school committee. So I put together some action steps so after I contacted or spoke with the curriculum leaders and the elementary principals to identify teachers, they submitted their names on a spreadsheet so that can see that you know what are the different grade levels and content areas that are being represented at both the elementary and the secondary level. So once I got the names the names were submitted and I created a document that had various guiding questions on so that could frame our conversations. So then we identified a meet time and so this this past week we had our first meeting and what I found out in both of those study groups is that to doctor what Dr. Bodie just alluded to that we have teachers that have already been piloting different strategies, utilizing different online resources for the purpose of teaching you know academic content and so it was it was very informative. Teachers were able to identify the challenges and also speak about the successes that they were having and then they were able to share best practice so our goal is to identify an instructional model that we can implement in the fall that will address the live synchronous with the goal of conducting live synchronous direct instruction and so the various things that we're going to focus on is expectations of students sharing best practice and identifying guidelines that we can share with teachers so that they can take these things in consideration as they do their lesson planning and also to identify the tools the technology tools that we can utilize to support teachers in their lesson planning. So it was very informative at the elementary level we have all grades represented we also have special educators we have a speech teacher and then at the secondary level again all content areas are represented and each level the middle school and the high school are both represented as well so we've done a lot of discussion and now teachers are going to go out the teachers who have not been doing it we're going to continue to talk about the things that they can do in order to pilot these strategies and the remaining weeks of the school year so I'll turn it back over to you Dr. Baldwin. Okay, maybe we should go take some questions at this point. Because that's covered in two different areas so we'll start and go in order Mr. Haynor. One question I have not excuse me normally at this time we would be doing testing assessing where the students are prior to COVID what do we the secondary level has a permanent record for each student are we getting are the students getting a buy for this or are we going to be entering grades of some sort for the students at the end of this year how is that going well we are not we are not going to be putting in grades for this last quarter or trimester which it is they certainly the grades that existed before we went out into closure those grades exist so what will the permanent record look like would it would it be an adjustment of those three quarters well it depends on the particular level the high school what that will look like first of all in power school you can see which assignments a student has turned in that doesn't change that that portal look is there but what what will happen for high school students is that on their transcript and in the permanent record they will have a record of which courses they audited during this time period and received an audit designation they have they're great for the year has been determined by the work they did prior to closure thank you okay at the middle school the same thing the grade was determined by by the work prior to closure and now they're getting a participation partial participation and it did not participate a designation at the elementary there everybody's keeping track of the records okay I'm concerned more for the secondary grades six or seven up because that's where the permanent record is and I just want to make sure that that there's not going to be a hole there there'll be something there going for absolutely thank you great dr. Ellis me thank you um this is very helpful uh I had a few questions dr. Bodie when you talk about that um students are turning in high in work at the high school seventy three percent of them are turning stuff in is that students who said they would audit the course or is that all students um well that's a good question my understanding is that it is the students that register to do it as an audit so so of their class a certain not everybody signed up to audit in fact some of them have in the column not the non audit percentage of students that are choosing not to do it but the student but they are these are the students this is the percent that are choosing to audit the class and our turning in the work okay and the students who what is the percentage of students who said they would audit classes I think it's pretty much the same as the percentage that we're getting to the turning end of the work um I don't I don't that hasn't been course that thinly I can look back and find that out in other words what you're asking is if there's a class of 30 students and 25 of them said they're going to audit what percentage of those are actually going to complete the audit no no I said what I was trying to find out is of your class of 30 students what percent said they would audit and then you said that the 73 percent that were turning in that's of the students who said they were auditing I believe it's the percent of the whole but I'll double double check that okay I think that's an important really question right um so yeah I'd really like to know that yeah I will get that clarified and when I put it some of this in a chart so you can see it I'll be still getting more data and some of these percent may vary depending on the data I get but um let me let me clarify that okay um the second is just how I appreciate what you're doing in terms of farming study groups and stuff but I'm also wondering what we're doing in terms of reaching out to teachers and finding out what are the roadblocks for them in terms of doing um live direct synchronous contact so if I can comment on that um I you know I can't speak to the individual reports that parents are you know saying that they're not contacting or connecting with their teachers I can just speak from my experience with teacher was speaking with the principals and teachers and the majority of our teachers are reaching out to students and like I like I made the distinct I distinguished between the focus for the live direct synchronous contact right now is to you know uh connect with students build community check on their social emotional well-being for the purposes of the study group is to move is to think about live direct instruction with moving the content forward so you know in my dealings in my uh conversation with the teachers the majority of the teachers I speak with the principals that are checking in with their teachers the majority of our teachers are reaching out to students and connecting with uh students multiple times a week so you know I I don't know about those isolated cases and I can turn that back over to dr bode well if I understand the question a little bit is also about what are the impediments that they're finding right now that makes it hard for synchronous yes um there are a number of things well one is just your own internet connection um and you know if you're here in Arlington or nearby it's probably stronger but maybe not necessarily whether they have children at home themselves what what the caregiving is also what they're finding is it's just students have in that kind of remote learning environment what we've been hearing is that you know you have you can't go very long um 30 minutes as I heard from one principal today I said at the length of time you can hold the attention of a young young elementary students so the quite and then there's just the management of a large group um one of the things that we've heard repeatedly is that when the children are younger it is very hard to have a whole class together because it's just the management on the platform though I will say and everyone would agree on this they are getting much more adept at this as we go along um their skills in remote platforming and the skills of teachers and also doing instruction and actually working in that kind of platform with all students is improving so what we want to be able to capture during this time and we're going to be doing that by surveys is understanding more about that because if next year there are kind of this good time maybe just mentioned there's really three basic models we could be facing next year one is just returning to schools normal I'm not sure that highly highly likely but if we were an entire remote or if we're in a hybrid model and we're planning for all of these what we're learning now is going to be very helpful I think everybody understands that if we are in a remote learning environment next year starting school that and by the way nobody wants that everybody wants to come back to school that we would have to learn from this so that we have a different probably a different schedule to what we're doing in fact probably definitely a different schedule much more synchronous teaching but then learning what what is an appropriate length of time for that as well it's going to affect so many aspects of this so we're learning and I think that what we can promise to give you is a little bit more insight into a lot of this over the next two meetings as we plan because we're trying to set like a constant input of data as we are thinking about next year is that more what you were thinking about is some of the impediments yeah I'm trying to understand and it's just it would be really helpful to understand how many teachers have significant impediments towards synchronous live direct synchronous learning and and also somewhat the nature I'm not trying to find out for any individual teacher but just so that I understand what to advocate for in terms of helping make this go forward you know because internet internet is something that we can look into or you know we can ask the legislator our legislator our legislator to look into children at home it's more difficult but it's just it would be helpful to understand what some of the natures of robots are Oh we've already surveyed staff earlier and we'll probably use some of the same questions in the next survey just to get the comparisons but I think that you're right I think those are the kinds of things we need to find out because you know in a different remote environment or a more expanded one next year we need to know that we absolutely need to know it in order to have a successful program okay would it be helpful if I can share one question that keeps coming up amongst teachers I don't I don't know but one thing that keeps coming up is when teachers are talking we're looking at this like scheduling this in the fall to answer your question is that they're concerned about the teachers who have children at home and their children are on a different schedule like if we have to go back to a hybrid type situation and they have a staggered we have a staggered schedule and they have to report but their kids are in a different district and they are not reporting that day so that's the kind of things that we're discussing and those are the kind of things that we have to plan for so I don't know if that helps to answer your question it would be one of the things that we'd want to know about and also how many people fall into those categories well child care is an issue for all parents who are at home trying to work and one of the things we want to find out from students and the survey we're going to do is how many of them are caring for children at home during the day while the parents work so we're only going to survey from six to 12 but I think it will give us a good window into some of the information we need to have and Dr. Allison Ampe to answer your question of how we're getting that information I know Mr. Spiegel's not here so he's not speaking it but he's going to be going to building meetings department meetings and school building meetings to have that conversation around some of those HR what we would put under an HR umbrella concerns such as that so that's one way that we're also gathering that information as well as principals having listening sessions so not so much having more open-ended guiding questions so that the staff at their staff meetings can surface some of these concerns that have been floating around and that we have a way to capture those concerns in addition to like you know survey answers of a drop down menu you know multiple choice so I know the high school is planning on doing that next week and the other level principals we're talking about how they're going to do that in their remaining time as well and I could add to that I've also gone to and spoken at and visited department meetings and met with teachers and along with the study groups so I was able to gather information from that process as well great news piece here about that something to add yes I can just tell you a few things that we've been hearing throughout the district one is just technology capability the MacBooks are dying quickly I know two people who have had them crash in the past week they just the hard drives give out and it's the Chromebooks aren't really good for doing both virtual conferencing and presenting so I can run a Google meet but if I then try to share my screen and do something during that Google meet it just it doesn't have the processing speed to keep up with that and everything lags so that's one issue with doing synchronous instruction another is that it's just hard for timing with our families a lot of these kids are like oh I was going to come but that's when my karate class was or something like so just scheduling wise it's been really challenging we don't get full participation from the kids which is hard and more and more and more the kids who are showing up pop in and turn they don't have their cameras on they don't have their microphones on so you're kind of talking to a blank screen and it gets really challenging I mean I've been running mine as current events discussions and trying to talk about racism in America when you're just looking at a bunch of initials on a screen and you can't get any sort of facial recognition feedback from kids is really hard so I think going forward looking at like set student expectations for what these virtual classes would look like making sure we have the technology to run them making sure we have a set schedule throughout the district those are some of the things in addition to you know finding ways for teachers who have other things going on in their household to have a space where they can run them great thank you Dr. Elton Ampe did you have more nope okay Mr. Thielman Mrs. is not here so you're up next I do you know Curcie touched on a lot of the major points I want to thank the district for attempting this I think this is an important thing to do and I ended up chatting with one of the science teachers in high school who said that the participation in his particular class was pretty high I don't know 65-70% of the kids participating and so I think by doing this we're getting good data and we're getting experience I appreciate how difficult it is for people to teach and parent and be at home even if they're not parenting whatever they're doing it's not an easy place to do their work I do want to say one thing is that you know this looks like the only part of the meeting where I can make this point but I think we have to keep doing all that we're doing keep doing all sorts of experimentation I think that most people parents and others are are tired and it's it's worth kind of moving our mindset to an idea that we have to try to do everything we possibly can to open up next year in school on site with instruction and learning taking place on site I think that the reality we face as we deal with COVID-19 is that we can't keep everybody we can't make it perfect we can never make it perfect in this environment we're going to have to live with some uncertainty we're going to have respect parents rights and family's rights to keep kids home should we open and we're going to have to accommodate for that but I really think that the broad lots of parents I can't speak for every parent many many parents many many people that are running to feel like our mindset at least has to be that we're going to do everything we possibly can to open as safely as we possibly can understanding we can't be perfect and there's some risk so I kept you and I had exchanged about this today so that's I just wanted to make that point well thanks yep we want that too I mean it great Mr. Shukman terrific and listening to Mr. Thielman I just want to make sure that we also understand that along with the kids in the building the adults are in the building as well and I don't know how many adults are in critical cohorts for COVID infection with the likelihood of bad outcomes but that's got to be consideration as well we can't be risking the lives of our the adults who are working for us in the system even if it might be safe for kids to come back so it's it's all about the entire community now I was on a desi zoom meeting with the advisory and assistance council and couple of interesting things were popping up there and what the state is hearing is there's some kids are absolutely thriving under what we're doing right now the kids who were not doing well in a traditional classroom setting or just doing okay by having to go to school and in the morning and coming home in the afternoon are all of a sudden just thriving and performing at higher levels the other thing is that the state is also recording there are far more connections right now between teachers and families than there were before so I know there are a lot of a lot of deficiencies in what we're doing right now but I also want to make sure we're capturing the gems in what's going on right now and where things have happened beautifully an unexpected positives coming out of this so that when we're evaluating what we need to do going forward we're doing so within the context of knowing what didn't work so well and as well as the things that are unexpectedly wonderful you make two very very good points one I agree with you we have to look very carefully at the staff and that has to be a strong consideration to the safety of opening but to your point about gems I think you really that's a really excellent point in fact today that came up in the elementary principal meeting and this came from a couple schools that one of the things they're surprised to see fifth grade teachers are surprised to see is how the quality of writing has improved markedly so so that they would comment on it so I think that you're right we need to capture some of the some of the gems of learning that and who is thriving that may not have been thriving prior to this so I think we have we have those students and we also have obviously the students who aren't doing are not is participating and not learning as much we also have families that said we're doing it ourselves that's okay school don't you don't need to keep sending stuff the other thing I want to point out is that the state is wondering what to do going forward because obviously you don't have a lot of data to do and do accountability with for next year and my feeling I think there was a predominant feeling in the group that the data the state can assemble as to what's going on and who's doing well and who's struggling is important to have and share not as an accountability tool per se but a way to identify best practices and share share outcomes the I know that we're working collaboratively with Winchester and Lexington and Belmont and Burlington and this group of superintendents that helped move us forward at the beginning of this by being the first districts to suspend classes but you know I think that the role the state has and the role that we have as a district is to be very frank as to what we think we're doing well and what we're struggling with because no one district alone has the resources to move forward and do wonderfully in all of this and the more we learn from each other the better and just when on a side note on the quality the essays and the quality the writing that's going on I know from Rieko teaching is that the quality of piano is going up because her students are practicing more as a result of the shutdown that kids are more focused on what they're doing so there's there's some positives out there not that we want to live like this but let's celebrate the good things that are happening as well great thank you Ms. Morgan you're next so a couple of comments on the next question so I I also need this I heard you say Dr. Bodie that you would provide us this participation information in a chart and that's great because I need to be able to look at it with my eyeballs I don't learn by hearing as well also Dr. McNeill I heard you say that the majority of students of teachers are doing synchronous meets I mean majority is like more than 50 percent right so that is that to me and I know that it's more than 50 percent are meeting with students but you know it's hard for me to feel like if we're aiming for the majority or even 70 percent that still means that like 30 20 you know some number of teachers are not meeting with students at all and that continues to be the experience in our family so I know and I hear that from other people so I hope that that is something that there are internet connectivity issues and technology issues I just you know I I don't really want to get to majority and say well we're at the majority so that's okay my question is about I'm kind of horrified by the 65 percent turn in of assignments in K through two that is is alarming to me I have a first grader and my question is and I heard that you touched on this Dr. Bode when you said sort of dismissively that oh well parents are saying we don't need you school but but what happens in September if we're still in a remote environment and a lot of parents say you know we're not turning this stuff in anyway this isn't working for our kid or our family and what happens if they right now if they just don't do it it doesn't matter but if they don't show up in September if they opt to home school and our enrollment decreases like how do we feel about that because I mean that's something that I think especially in these early grades is is very real and and so I guess I'm curious what our thoughts are about that are we concerned about what our you know I mean a lot is a lot of our state aid is pegged to what our enrollment numbers look like and how many kids are sitting in their physical or remote seats on October 1 so has that been part of the conversation at all well first of all I don't want to characterizing what I said is dismissive I'm just saying that there are some parents that are doing their their work at home and they want to do it that way right now as far as the fall goes I think that some of the questions you're asking are certainly ones that we have to be concerned about because there are going to be students whose parents are not if we're back in in session in either a full session or a hybrid session are going to feel comfortable necessarily having their students their children in the school that is going those are things that we're going to have to definitely look at I don't think I can give you a definitive answer is exactly what we're going to do because that is part of the planning process that we're engaging in at this time and but it is certainly something that is on our list of considerations to think about for sure so my other I guess the other piece of my question is so I understand that we'll have challenges with students who potentially don't attend if we were are in the buildings I am also concerned that given especially in the early grades the really low submission rates that we're seeing that we could have parents that opt out of participation in a remote setting right that that we can have people that say you know I'm not going to do this anymore I don't want to do this I don't want to and even some of the people who are submitting saying I don't want to photograph my kids stuff and put it in Google classroom this isn't a value add enough for my family Massachusetts is really kind to home schoolers and and what happens if we have some cohort and my guess is I don't know anecdotally my sense is is that it would be in the early grades but but I worry about that even in a fully remote situation yeah in a fully remote situation one of the things we have to find out is whether the platform is one of the issues if you recall Google classroom was not something that our K through two students even knew about prior to the last few weeks so that's part of it in a Google classroom we've already starting to change to another platform called CESA and we may find is that we're going to see more more participation there but I will tell you one thing why I'm wondering whether platform has a role in this is that we have another software program called Dreambox and that that that particular software is more creates more independence for students to access it then then probably some other things that we use so the independence of students to be able to access the work respond I think has a platform and the ease of the software plays a role in that and that's something we have to look at so we can speculate but I'd certainly like to find out with the parent survey a little bit more about that piece of it I also think it's the time of the year we've gone through a very challenging time in our society we're at the end of the school year and yet you know we still have students that are are participating it's not the percentages we perhaps would want to have but I think we have to put it in context where we where we are right now but these are certainly issues that we're going to very carefully consider as we plan for next year let me be clear I mean we would like to be back in school next year nobody feels that this is that is a good substitute for what goes on in the schools it's just not we're constantly adapting to try to make it better than what the limitations are of a remote learning environment and there are limitations there's certainly some gems that Mr. Slickman said there are but all in all I think that most people are finding even those people who are working on Zoom all the time are getting tired of not having that personal contact with people so there are it's hard to entirely say what is the the main cause but that's what we'll try to find out as best we possibly can and I also would like to add on to that when I say majority I've checked in with curriculum leaders and I've checked in with principals about teachers making the synchronous live contact so I do want to combat the narrative that comes in when we get the you know perspective from parents that a lot a lot of our teachers are participating and doing the things that we're asking them to do and I just want to honor the work that they're doing because they are you know they're living this as well and I just want to emphasize that I can't emphasize that enough the appreciation I have for our teaching staff because of the things that they're dealing with and they're having them professional and their personal lives merged together so they're living this I have three kids at home you know a lot of teachers have kids at home they have other things that they're dealing with so I do want to make sure that we honor the work that they're doing and we don't send out the narrative that they're not doing the best that they can do whatever the situation they're dealing with so they're doing the best that they can't can do and if there is a reason that they're not reaching out then there's a reason and that we have to find out what that reason is and address it and support them thank you Miss Morgan did you have anything else no just thank you Dr. Bodie for sharing this the information with us I really I appreciate the data and the specifics about submission and and just your candor about about where we're at so thank you thanks so my comments Dr. Bodie I think you're going to still talk a little bit about the surveys you're intending to do is that right you're you're on you sorry you're still on you the phone is ringing so I wanted yeah unmute unmute um I want to talk a little bit about that but also about the summer plan okay so let me let me just give my comments on what you've already discussed so um yes the data is helpful it's still a little bit confusing so when we say like 65 percent does that mean 35 percent aren't turning in any assignments or that just mean the average you know totaling all of let's say there's you know 10 assignments in a week for each student so a thousand assignments across the school only 65 percent are being turned in that kind of you know more granular explanation of what that number means would be helpful and it would be helpful to get that you know data to us you know not in two weeks at our next meeting but sometime before that I think that the purpose of our you know of our work over the next few weeks is to find out what is working what's not working and why so like Dr. McNeil said we need to find the teachers that are not doing any synchronous learning or that have started or that did it and stopped it because it wasn't being successful and find out I think a lot of a lot of the participation rate issue is that we're not teaching new curriculum so unless you're interested in current events why would you go to Ms. Keys's session right because it's not part of the assignments so I think Julia please no I we are teaching new curriculum we've been moving the curriculum forward since May 4th in live sessions no but I think a lot of teachers are using their Google meets not necessarily for instruction but for answering questions previewing material helping kids who might get stuck clarifying it might not be correct right so that's that's what I'm saying though I mean that's part of part of why the participation isn't so high my daughter for example doesn't have questions so she doesn't go to her Google meet or she said she doesn't have questions you know and I'm not going to force her to go because it's not required is she not learning anything new other than hearing other students you know ask questions which would which is helpful full exercise but I don't want to I don't want us to misinterpret the data as saying live sessions aren't working because people aren't aren't doing them so we don't do live sessions in the fall I think there's a lot about the way we're doing live sessions that that first they're not mandatory so people aren't going and second they're not by and large they're not introducing new material so there's no reason to go and also the technology that we've provided our teachers to conduct these sessions is inadequate so they're probably not very good sessions you know as far as you know I was talking to a teacher from Boston and he has like a home studio setup that they set him up with because you know with a with a camera for his white board and a separate camera for him and so certainly as we we look to the next few weeks we need to to as a district figure out where we've been successful and where we're falling short and I just don't want to miss the data misinterpreted as live lessons don't work so we shouldn't be doing them I think we need to find out more granularly why people aren't attending or why they are you know that science teacher that we have 65% at the high school whatever he's getting that let's find out what he's doing that he's getting people in that other people aren't so I know you're all working on that that's just my comment that that's that's what I'd want to see over the next few weeks the study groups that we formed let's get some teachers introducing new material and see if they can get higher attendance that way and and as we move forward and also talking to the other districts like I said you know in Boston they are providing you know maybe this is just one school and one teacher but but they are providing more robust technology for for home instruction and so let's find out what other districts are doing that you know so that we can know if we have to do this again what what what we need to do all right so that's my comment on that round and and Dr. Bode you had some more to present I do and I also want to just comment on what you said we are learning from this I don't think that anyone is coming to the conclusion that because students aren't coming to hang out needs that doesn't mean that synchronous learning could not happen in fact I think pretty much everyone understands that should that be what we're going to be next year it's going to be a different kind of remote learning environment than we currently have we want to learn from what we're doing to make it even better as far as the technology we are buying all teachers a new computer that is happening because we've read the same thing that they really are sometimes inadequate in many cases for what they need to be able to do in that environment and so that is happening that I believe they've already been ordered so that that will take place it and in general technology is an area we have to look at in terms of equipment and we are we're looking at webcams we're looking at these gooseneck things that you can hold cameras in so we are looking in all of that for sure I am cognizant that we're over the time that you had in the I can come back to this in superintendent support if you'd rather because we have a speaker here this evening I don't know if she's has some time constraints that's your call Mr. Cardin sure whatever Miss Elmer whatever you prefer sure I mean Dr. Orkin is here and I appreciate her coming tonight so if we can you know this was a presentation that we had planned back in February before the closure so this isn't specific to stuff that we're doing as part of the closure however we have been working with Dr. Orkin through the closure she'll speak a little bit about this but this was a presentation we had planned early in the year and unfortunately Dr. Seuss is not here because I know this was something that she was actually really interested in so I will turn it over to Dr. Orkin who has a presentation so I think as a participant you should be able to project your screen right if you can share your screen for the PowerPoint well she's getting up I will come back to all these other points in the superintendent's time and Dr. Orkin are you unmuted hello hi everyone thank you for having me my name is Melissa Orkin and I am going to be talking about a collaboration that I have been engaged in with the Arlington public school system through a small consulting practice that I run called crafting minds so I'm a developmental psychologist which means that I try to understand different aspects of development and my specialty is in written language so I focus on the development of reading skills and I in particular work with students who are struggling to learn to read and those who have been diagnosed with dyslexia so our collaboration started in what did I freeze still working okay can you hear me so our collaboration started in 2017 and at which time I had a conversation with Allison Elmer about the services that were in place in Arlington and Allison felt like she was wanting to really diversify the options for students who were on IEPs for reading so after a series of conversations Allison and I established this goal to appropriately differentiate specialized instruction for those students who are on IEPs for reading and since that time we've offered nearly monthly professional development workshops so for school year 1718 1819 and then 1920 and we've also conducted several school based consultations so that looks like going out to the schools and sitting with teams and talking about actual Arlington public school students and applying the work that we've done in the workshops to cases and I've also done some more limited casework and I've had the opportunity to work with general education on a grant last year so I'm going to talk about these different components of our work together so appropriately differentiating specialized instruction for students on IEPs is a pretty tall task and there are multiple components that you want to consider so we are addressing the background knowledge and the training of educators in Arlington we are looking at the assessment practices and interpretation we are thinking about how we're planning instruction for students and we're looking at how we're monitoring their progress so once they're receiving instruction how are they doing are they making adequate progress does it seem like the right plan for them so I'm just going to talk about each of these in turn so in terms of the background knowledge as you may know specific learning disabilities or SLDs in reading including dyslexia comprise the most common specific learning disabilities and yet in general in the United States there's very limited coursework at the graduate level on the processes of learning to read and delivering specialized instruction so that leads to just a wide variability in practitioners background and knowledge about how to support students who are struggling in this area so the first part of our collaboration really focused on how reading happens in the brain like the complexity of the process and in particular we looked at the way that different component skills lead to achievement in reading so what I mean by this is when you think about reading achievement you might think of a student sitting with a book reading a narrative or an expository text and being able to answer questions or tell you about what they've read but that's really like the highest level of reading ability and in order to achieve that there are all of these underlying processes and they fall into three categories so there are all of the processes that lead to accuracy in reading being able to recognize words correctly fluency like having that process just to be effortless for the student and then comprehension so being able to understand vocabulary and understand main idea and details and compare and contrast and to engage in inferential thinking and all of those great analytic tasks and within each of these categories there are lots of subcomponent skills and so in our work on building kind of background knowledge among educators we took these in turn we looked at how they're developed and we thought about how we might now measure them so that brings us really to the next piece once you understand how reading happens in the brain then you want to think about well for a given student how do I know where the breakdown might be happening and that's where assessment becomes your key tool so we looked at we wanted to ensure that the assessments that are being used in Arlington measure these component skills and then we wanted to support educators ability to interpret students performance on these assessments and plan instruction accordingly and then we wanted to talk about well how are you going to communicate now what you understand about this child to the rest of the team to the family to the Jenna teacher to all of the stakeholders so we started by conducting a district-wide needs assessment so we sent out a survey in I want to say 2017 possibly 2018 where we wanted to really take the temperature of what was happening what's happening from school to school in terms of the measures that are being used from practitioner to practitioner how comfortable do practitioners feel with different measures do they understand what they're measuring do they understand how to administer them how to score them all that good stuff and so that resulted in a set of recommendations that I'll talk about in a minute that would help round out the assessment battery and we also wanted to introduce a framework that would really structure interpretation that would make it consistent from one practitioner to another and that would make it manageable for families to understand the decision-making process and we practiced this process with different case studies and applied it to Arlington public school children through some school-based consults so as I showed you before reading is the result of all of these component skills and when we looked at the results from the needs assessment we found that this blue column was largely missing that we just didn't have many measures that were assessing these skills so we brought in some new assessments and we trained educators in these additional assessments particularly to measure fluency skills and here are the names of the assessments if you're interested and we also looked at phonological awareness skills and we added some existing measures to the battery for any child who is suspected of a learning disability in reading so traditionally it wasn't the case that all children also had their oral language skills evaluated and so we added that to the batteries especially for an initial evaluation and then we introduced a framework or what we call a graphic organizer for helping practitioners interpret the results so the graphic organizer looks something like this if you can imagine that this is the organizer for a student named Gabby she's in third grade and you'll see that there are several like dark and shaded areas and they give us the sense of how she's performing in these various skills so up at the top here it says connected text in reading and reading fluency and comprehension that would be like Gabby reading a passage or reading a story so that gives us an idea of how she's achieving overall in reading and what she's understanding from what she's reading but then these columns down here accuracy, retrieval or fluency and oral language comprehension they answer the question why like why might Gabby be struggling in her reading achievement and so it's pretty clear here that Gabby's performing below average in many of her accuracy measures so it gives us the indication that what she needs is an approach that's going to be targeted towards building her accuracy skills and so this really helps organize all of this data teachers get tons and tons of data out of eligibility testing it's a huge investment of timing resources and really being able to sort through it and make it manageable to interpret and explain to families can be very helpful for a team so moving on to instruction so reading specialized reading instruction is a field where there are just dozens of different curricula and not all programs are appropriate for every student so our our collaboration has been to ensure that a student's IEP goals and their objectives and the instructional approach match their needs match what is revealed on that graphic organizer so that allows the district to then invest in resources that are going to be reflective of what's needed in the student population and so the district recently invested in a pretty broad decodable library and those libraries are comprised of texts that are with that have controlled language so for example for a student like Gabby who's really struggling with her accuracy with reading a decodable book will allow her the opportunity to practice the skills that she's learning so if she's just working with short vowel sounds the teacher would choose texts that only have short vowel words in them and that would be an opportunity for her to really build her skills in a in a thoughtful and systematic way and we also wanted to bring some recommendations into gen ed so making sure that classroom teachers understood their students profile and how they might accommodate and modify the grade level curriculum so that it's accessible to the student as well so reading is one of the few areas of learning that is defined by law so the process of reading has a federal definition and that definition has been heavily influenced by the national reading panel which was a congressionally convened panel in 2000 that essentially defined the five essential components of reading instruction so you see them here in red so we know that reading instruction has to include these five components and so we use those five components and we match them up with areas of weakness so in green that phonological ability that's those accuracy skills so if a student is weak in accuracy skills they would have an IEP goal in phonemic awareness and or phonics and if a student is weak in their retrieval they would have a goal in fluency so we're taking kind of federal guidelines and we're taking research practices and evaluation and we're bridging the two to make sure that what we're doing is data driven and evidence based so so far we've held over 20 hours of workshops that have focused on developing IEP goals and objectives and helping practitioners choose a curricula that matches students learning profiles we've provided training in what's called a structured literacy approach which is kind of the gold standard in the field and is just a series of activities that a teacher goes through with students to make sure that they understand how to build words from individual letters and sounds up to single words up to sentences and passages and then also have skills and spelling and then most recently in May and April we had a series of five meetings with the I think it was five five or six Alice and you'll have to correct me but we had a series of weekly meetings where we were able to I was able to collaborate with the special education staff and some reading specialists in helping them transfer all the wonderful instruction that they had been delivering in the classroom to delivering it remotely and so that was great and they were so impressive they really took on this challenge not only trying to master this technology as you've all been discussing as its own learning curve but also really thinking about how to use different platforms to their advantage to engage students in new ways so the final piece that we have been working on is progress monitoring so you've done all of this work you've assessed a child you've developed an instructional plan you have goals for them you've chosen the curriculum how do you know it's right how do you know it's working and there are again lots of different approaches for progress monitoring it can be difficult to know what constitutes adequate progress there's no gold standard there's no one metric that we can use and sometimes because of these variabilities it can lead to instructional decision-making that might not be in the best interest of the child so a teacher might think something is not working and change their approach very frequently because they're trying to find the right thing or a teacher might persist with an approach even though it's not effective for a student so what we've been doing is working to identify some progress monitoring tools that can be used consistently to plan for a progress monitoring meeting if they're not already in place so that would be a set time every six to eight weeks that would occur when the teams when grade level teams would convene and discuss the progress of students and before that period teachers would not make any changes rather they would just collect multiple data points so that they can make an informed decision and we also wanted to offer some guidelines for measuring progress so so far we've identified some progress monitoring tools and we've provided training on the administration of them and here are two that we're working with and our ongoing work is really in using some of these validated metrics to make sure that we can measure adequate progress and these are a couple of metrics that we're drawing from so in terms of next steps our plan is to continue using the graphic organizer that you saw that we formally call a targeted intervention framework for the evaluation process so for initial evaluations for reavals and for instructional planning to continue with school-based consultations so that means going into schools and working with teams and they would bring a graphic organizer that was filled out for a student and together we would discuss the student and what their history has been and how they've been responding to instruction and what a plan could be for them and our hope is to when we started this this winter our hope is to collect district-wide data on the student's needs across the district for those students who are on IEPs for reading you know how many students have weaknesses in accuracy versus fluency because those then indicate that different curricular approaches are needed and so it would help with resource allocation planning to have a sense of the percentages across the district of students with these kind of different profiles and the hope is to also bridge this work into general education so I had the opportunity last year to work with each of the elementary schools to meet with the teams of first and second grade students first and second grade teachers and reading specialists and we engaged in similar work this idea of differentiating instruction figuring out what the needs of the students are and then grouping them homogeneously and this dovetails really nicely with all of the energy around the early literacy screening at which point you would be screening students kindergarteners first and maybe second graders for their risk of reading impairment and then after you have all that data the real work is in interpreting it and planning the appropriate instruction for students so using that using a similar framework that we're using instead can be helpful so thank you so much for the time to present this and also thank you to Allison and all of the special educators that I've worked with in Arlington it's been the longest collaboration that I've had as a consultant I started working with Allison just as I was leaving a position with a research group and at Tufts and it's been really gratifying to see all of the teachers transform practices or they've informed my work and it's just been an excellent experience for me so I'm just so grateful Great, thank you very much so Mr. Haynor you're first Please understand what I'm about to say is no way critical of what you've presented I think your program is phenomenal I was a regular and special ed teacher and I think differential experiences in the classroom are just phenomenal but I don't see how this can be implemented with the possibility of us still teaching from home and remotely my biggest concern all the things that you presented the one area that I'm deeply concerned with special needs children is the socialization component that is usually in place in a lot of IEPs of interaction and there's no way that that part of the IEP is being dealt with right now it's a very difficult part so I appreciate all your work I appreciate all the stuff that's gone forward but I don't see how this is going to be implemented going forward So Mr. Haynor to your questions about how you would implement specific aspects of this of what we've been doing or in general because part of the work that I know we mentioned it briefly we have been meeting over the last five to six weeks with special educators and reading specialists to explore how to do those assessments we mentioned dibbles in past how to administer those in an online format how we can use tools like seesaw to actually design instruction that allows for us to get actual data from students around how they're practicing or implementing the skills I think one of the things that we've been talking about is it's not just taking like as you said the work that you do in the classroom because that's the pedagogy around face-to-face instruction is different than the pedagogy around virtual instruction and so how do we not just take a video camera and try and do what we've been doing in a classroom but how do we use the actual platform and design it to address the issues that we need to address this the skill develop the structured literacy routines so that they had lesson templates that they were developed using to develop their lessons to deliver structured literacy instruction via this format so it did look different than what they're doing in the classroom for special educators the grid that was presented for Gabby is a great thing one-on-one working in partnership with the Gen Ed teacher in the regular classroom working in that partnership to integrate it and things of that nature I can see it working I've done it it's a phenomenal tool in having that support and it supports the socialization and not the isolation my biggest concern is that in doing this the isolation is going to cause a negative effect on the socialization aspect with the child I'm not trying to be overly critical oh no yeah I just want to clarify this is a phenomenal mountain to be climbed and I don't know if it can it's going to ever be solved I don't see it being solved overnight I just wanted to bring that up I just work in the implementation of doing this and working in the classroom and working in the partnership all the way up it's a phenomenal thing and I'm glad to see it happen thank you oh yeah I just want to add that that graphic organizer that Dr. Orkins shared that's specific to determining special ed eligibility this the work that we would be doing in general ed is not we are not using that level of I understand that but that would be something she had in the setting up the IEP you'd refer to this and developing the plans and stuff and the gen ed teacher you use it to support the gen ed teacher and show examples and stuff I'm not saying the direct implementation I understand that but I've said my piece thank you okay great Dr. Alasmanpe okay so I'm speaking as not an educator and first I guess I'm confused because as not an educator I thought there must be sort of a general best practice approach to dyslexia or and whereas it seems like you're kind of building this which it sounds really good I'm just confused because I would have thought it already existed so that's one kind of question and then why don't we why don't we this doesn't have to be like the White House one question it you get more questions let's do one question at a time Dr. Orkin you want to speak to that yeah so so the way that we have set up the organizer reflects kind of these larger categories of where weaknesses can fall whether they're in the domains of accuracy or fluency or oral language those are kind of the three big areas and so each of those has its own set of recommended practices and curricula so there are best practices but it's not a one-size-fits-all and I think what what can happen is that far too often there can be sort of this choice to use a one-size-fits-all approach like a common curriculum or a well-known curriculum just becomes like the go-to and it doesn't work for all kids and so this is taking a much more kind of clinical targeted approach to look at well who is the student and where are their deficits and this is how we're going to individualize their educational and that's really what started our collaboration because schools in general you'll hear a Wilson or Orton-Gillingham are the gold standard for dyslexia and so what we've been seeing and Dr. Orkin you hear this mirrored in district after district after district is what do you do when Wilson doesn't work because you have these kids who were coming in and we were giving them Wilson because that's what you do for kids with an SLP in reading and they weren't responding as we expected them to and so looking at those five core components that we really will go into that is that's where we started to really target and that's really where our conversation started three or four years ago when Dr. Orkin was the director of the Tufts Reading and Language Research Center she and I started talking when we were actually looking they were looking for space to use in our building for this summer and that conversation really started from me just saying what do you do what do you do in your summer program and her describing that to me really sparked that question of well what do you do when Wilson doesn't work and it was like well what are you trying to do was really where it started so right I guess what I'm saying I mean it sounds really good I just thought it would have already been in place and have come down from I don't know Desi or or just the general environment so okay so clearly that was a naive question then my other question is just how does what you're doing inform the choices of approach that are then used in the classroom I think maybe you got to that in your later slides about resources and stuff but but does this mean does this help you pick which approaches will work best here or what yeah so that's exactly it so you know as you you know the educators have like a table of different curricula that we've provided them with and so we have discussions about these different curricula but I think also having school-based consults where we meet and we talk about cases and we have the opportunity to really work through and that analyzing results and interpreting them and planning instruction has been really great to kind of support the implementation of this framework and and lead to instructional it certainly has helped us Dr. Allison Ampey to also look at where we're going to target PD because as Dr. Orkin said for each of those deficit areas there are curricula that are designed to address them but that doesn't mean that you're going to get trained in all three of those curricula that are designed to address fluency right so we have to obviously you know look at and prioritize okay we're going to train teachers in this you know so whether that was site words you can see to address something or you know we have a group of sports in Gillingham with some work that we did with Belmont so that's we've used that kind of information to also help us plan PD but and target PD and also what curricula we're going to purchase because obviously we have to then invest in that and I right right I guess my question was kind of how do you decide what gets on that chart that the teachers are then picking from Oh how do you choose from the curriculum I mean I just chose kind of you know I've worked in the field for over a decade so I know kind of the major curriculum so I've chosen the ones that I know of just from the research but also we refer to you know guidelines the federal federal leave you know vested programs like the I can't remember the name but there are websites that the federal government has set up where they go through and they have like a clearing house where they look at different curricula and the Department of Education for Massachusetts is now engaging in that process so there are lots of sources for these different programs and they're also you know some of the publishers right own some of the stuff so you know there I think there are some core ones that you will see regionally right like in Massachusetts in particular OG and Wilson are really big they may not you know it helps that you know Barbara Wilson lips around here right you know so I think some of that stuff is also driven by you know your regions yeah your location great thank you great thanks Mr. Tillman thank you thanks for this presentation my I just have two questions one is you know it sounds like you're you're offering workshops but what is what does it look like in terms of coaching of individual teachers as they restructure modify and improve their practice and to what extent do you bring data into the conversation about improving individual practice so for professional development you know we have the early release schedule for elementary so for the last three years we have used our early our early release time for learning specialists we began with learning specialists school psychologists and speech and language pathologists because we were looking at those assessment batteries initially as you saw the progression of the work we were doing and then as we shifted to the instructional piece we've really targeted our learning specialists and our team chairs just so they can you know help guide that decision-making process and so that's kind of the work we've been doing largely as a department and then as Dr. Oregon mentioned we two years ago we started implementing the school-based consultation so she's been working with individual school teams for the students they're actually working with we did that with special ed first and then last year for those of you who recall AEF funded a grant for Dr. Oregon to work with general educators so she did a second round with them but we were originally doing that for special ed teams and then we also as part of Dr. Oregon's consultation at each of those professional development opportunities we have office hours so you can sign up in advance and you bring your that completed graphic organizer we described to an individual planning session with Dr. Oregon usually me and the other coordinator will sit in and we'll go over an individual student that a person has question amounts and then in some rare cases Dr. Oregon has been a consultant on an individual student case for us you know actually participating in the IEP process Good, I was trying to understand how deep it went into the so thank you for clarifying that I might have missed it during the presentation that's possible the other point is I mean is it possible for us to get this has been a three-year engagement three-year partnership which I think by the way sounds great I'm not this is not I'm not critiquing is there a way to get some data on how our numbers have moved over the course of the past three years for students in IEPs at least in literacy is that a possibility? So I think you know you would be looking at individual scores in that regard or you are looking at their outcomes because in IEPs we're always measuring against their individual IEP what that looks like in you know and that data would be the largest one or as Dr. Oregon's talking about how the grade level data that we're working to try and incorporate that stuff Obviously I don't want student names and I don't want to get that I'm asking for that I'm in any sort of presentation that gives us a chart that shows you know what the impact has been statistically in terms of data would be a good thing to see can you hear me? Yeah oh yeah I we don't have that for you today I know you don't have that for me today I didn't expect it today this was a presentation about the work that's being done I understand that but I mean going forward at some point I think that would just be helpful to kind of have the data that you've used to measure the impact of this work and I mean student data Yeah there's also the data on like the adoption of the graphic organizer yeah yeah too yeah and I mean that's that's perfectly valid the adoption I understand that but I also to go beyond that it's like you know scores of some sort or something that shows shows growth that would be good to have all right thank you great thanks Peter Schuchman you're next and now that I'm unmuted so we've collected a lot of data it sounds like how are we storing this and working with this for any kind of a longitudinal look is that being done or is this all very ad hoc on an individual basis so I think that's kind of what Mr. Thielman was getting at I believe Mr. Thielman is what you were asking I mean we're using it in the day to day for an individual individual students as part of their IEP process because we're reporting on individual students throughout their you know their progress reporting and at their obviously at their annual review and we're charting their progress against their individual IEP goals because we're using this data to as we mentioned to inform the IEP goals to inform the objectives and to inform the instructional tool so we are collecting that currently as on an individual basis per student to reflect that back on their progress in the IEP process I mean you love to in that going forward that we close the presentation with how do we start getting this data large scale across the district around which ties to the the early literacy screening that's required across the state and how are we using progress monitoring tools to shape instruction in the Gen Ed class as well I think that's certainly where we mentioned we would like this collaboration to go that's sort of where I was going with the question I'm sort of looking at this is how much how many of these assessments are being conducted outside of the IEP or SPED process and how many of them are we looking at going forward is being useful for the entire population to sort of get a feeling of how the whole distribution of students moving Dr. Orkin can speak to those tools but I can tell you locally they did add the RAN RAS which is one of those measures we talked about and we have started using the Dibbles also in for those general Ed purposes but Dr. Orkin you can talk about more of that broader large scale process Yeah, I mean most of the most of the assessments that we discussed are for eligibility testing they're standardized by nature and so they're really for individual administration and there some of the progress monitoring tools that we talked about are appropriate for general population and can be used as a way to understand how the general populations progressing in these different component areas Would Dr. McNeil like to talk a little bit about this because we do have a data bank that we have created in the district and this is more broad in terms of the gen ed and Dr. McNeil you dare to want to just quickly talk a little bit about that Yes, so we have utilized information that we have received regarding early literacy in order to make certain decisions of changing the assessments the battery of assessments that we give to our kindergarten and first grade students and we also have a plan of adding on assessments at the second grade level that align with the information that Dr. Orkin has given us given us given to our general educators so we do have a plan of you know identifying those assessments so we're able to get the information and understand and use them as predictors as to successful you know in gaining students gaining successful the skills that they need to be successful readers so that is the work that we're doing and we're capturing all of that in the data bank so that information will be there and we will be able to look at it longitudinally as we continue down the road and as we continue to give these assessments every year so my follow-up question would be the typical one what do you need from us going forward what policy or thoughts or resources you need from the school committee go to the next level so just the DESC it's Dr. Allison Ampey's earlier question once the early literacy screening legislation like known as the Dyslexia legislation passed it went to the DESC to promulgate the regulations and then offer guidance to the districts they have not done that yet Dr. Orkin and I are part of the stakeholder group from across the state that we're helping them to inform how they roll out their guidance to states or to districts within the state and how to do that I mean I think you know we funded some of this stuff like I said through AEF grants initially we looked to the AEF to help purchase the the codable text libraries those are not inexpensive items some of these the universal screeners that we would need to implement wide scale as part of the the legislation but also as part of best practice you know have a dollar value attached to it somewhat nominally when you use measures like the Dibbles in conjunction with other measures the Dibbles alone is not the screening tool it's in conjunction with other measures and also the continued you know collaboration the PD work that we've done you know the reason we've stuck with it for three years is because we know that that districts in general schools in general tend to do you know one year they focus on one topic and then the next year they jump to another topic and we've continued with this topic so that people can develop a deep knowledge so the work that needs to happen with general educators to get this we're talking about right we're the special ed department so we're working with kids who've been referred or in the process of being referred to special ed ideally if k to two we get really good at this that should also drop the referral rate to special ed because we are we're getting these kids we're identifying them early we're intervening strategically and effectively and they're not then you know developing the you know they're not they're not needing to be referred to special ed so I think that the training for teachers administering the the screeners takes resources of time and people those are some of the things that come up and on the general education side as we're looking to build our model to support literacy instructions so I mean our five-year plan is to have a reading coach in every building therefore we would have coaches at the building that they could that teachers could access and they can have more conversations about instruction and utilizing the data in order to look at instructional techniques to build the capacity the skill set of the general education teacher so they can provide that tier one intervention so that that will also help with limiting the referrals to special education thank you thank you thank you Ms. Morgan you're up so my question is what would be the vision for so we have a we have Gabby right and how would her graphic organizer be shared with her family or her parents so the way that we've been working on it in workshops is just as you see it basically you know there would be a conversation first about kind of what I would I provided for you about how you know reading achievement what it looks like reading a book and answering questions about what you read like that is the end result and there are all of these steps along the way and so we want to know how Gabby is performing in each of those different steps or stages and so you know giving some background that can be accessible for families who might not have a background in education or reading or what have you and then being able to explain you know they're usually at team meetings at least for an initial about you know each person that's done the testing goes around and explains in depth sort of what the testing shows but this would be kind of a centralized approach where you would explain you know using the graphic organizer how did she do in accuracy skills well this is one assessment that she was given and this is how she scored and this is what it looked like when she was given this assessment so it would help to maybe organize it for families to see where strengths and weaknesses lie in their child and also then using it to explain right as we talk about developing the IEP goals that becomes the reference point in order to address the accuracy issues so that we're going to develop a goal in X, Y, and Z and then talk about the methodology for achieving that right I don't like to get mailed I mean they're part of the student record so I mean there's something but it's not something that you just we send home and you look through it without yeah understood so I guess my question is is that this something like what we're seeing for Gabby wouldn't be generated unless it was in a situation where there was we were in the like it was a referral or we were doing a review is that correct right well that that one is specifically for special education there are you know versions of it that we've shared with districts that are for general education for how to you know again differentiate in those three categories but using assessment tools that are that are used within the general population like the devils or something like that thank you great great thanks I'm I'm last so I want to congratulate Ms. Elmer Dr. Orkin and the administration on this initiative I think you know dating back from before Ms. Elmer was here you know reading services the district position that reading services there aren't even a special education service so we've come a long way as a district and recognizing that they are a service and that they have this evaluation approach very detailed you know too late for my kids but I do know parents that are are especially on the on the team meetings that Mr. Orkin participates in that are very appreciative of the new approach here I do hope that we can continue to expand it to regular ed you know I'm still hearing you know we still seem to have it's not really one size fits all but it's pretty close to that so definitely that continues as we you know it's going to be a funding priority for me to get the reading coaches eventually so that we can continue to differentiate the learning for our general ed population in the same way so thank you all for for that just one point on the on the data you know one thing that we're already always struggling with as a committee is is justifying our budget so we want to add those reading coaches but we want to be able to show data at some point that what we that by adding those coaches by adding this new way of evaluating students we're making progress somehow so maybe the special ed population isn't the right place to do that because it is so individual the numbers are really small they're probably still should be some impact on our cast scores including the achievement gap with our special ed population overall so maybe that is somewhere to look but definitely as we roll it out to regular ed we we we want to measure the impact of a of a program like this I think that's that's I don't want to speak for them but I think that's part of what Mr. Thielman and Mr. Shlipman where we're reflecting all right Mr. Hainer one last thing just real quick for clarification I understand the learning disabilities belong on the sped but if it mainly a reading issue my understanding was reading was removed from the sped connection several years ago am I wrong in that Miss Alma I mean I think what Mr. Cardin's talking about is something prior to my time here however it's always been the case that if you are eligible for if you're found eligible for special education services under a specific learning ability in the area reading you should be getting your reading services outlined in your IE now the question here and a reading specialist deliver that or a learning specialist both able to deliver it and so that's where the collaboration we still have reading specialists who are delivering those services the IEP as well as servicing students who are in tiered intervention right that's outside of special ed those that and that's the area where Dr. Orkin and I are saying I was just all I was trying to do was forward what Mr. Cardin said and the idea the reading is is all is a very broad thing and we shouldn't limit it just to one area that's all thank you all right well thank you both for the presentation thank you Dr. Orkin thank you thank you all all right all right Mr. Mason you're up next with the oh sorry Dr. Bo to your next with the no sorry I yep Mr. it's it's listed for Dr. Bode but so the FY 21 budget update whoever's going to present Dr. Bode you're on mute though I know I I'm muting I think what we really want to talk about is what the discussion has been going on relative FY 21 in terms of the state budget and the effects that could be having on Arlington and that those meetings occurred last week the long-range planning but there's also been other meetings as well as we trying to assess what the effect of the pandemic is going to be on revenue for the state and therefore what will happen in turn to local receipts as well as Chapter 70 which is the money that comes in for for public schools so we have been working very closely with the town Mr. Pooler and Mr. Chaplain to look at this these issues and Mr. Pooler has also put together many five-year looks at the budget and what the effects will be the town manager and myself and actually Mr. Mason and Mr. Pooler are going to the finance committee meeting on June 1st to discuss the FY21 budget but right now we can let's take a look first at what these long-range views are as well as what we presented last week in terms of if we had to reduce some some of the positions we are looking to fill next year what would that look like I think the the proposal well let's actually maybe get some of the documents up so everybody can see them Mr. Mason can you pull them up yes I can just give me one second okay okay thank you why don't you take over from here and talking about both documents yeah all right good evening school committee members I attached or the documents that I have in front of you tonight or this evening is a series of three documents that was shared with the long-range planning committee the first document that I have shared on my screen here is two different models and our discussions some school committee members that were present we discussed some different options and the two options were one that was proposed was looking at how the FY21 budget would look like if we had a decrease of about $460,000 which was a 10% reduction of what the increase of our budget was compared to FY20 which was originally about a $4.6 million budget the chart that's shown shows our current career budget compared to what we proposed that the school committee voted to accept and and then where we would make changes to the proposed budget to come to this reduced budget and as you will see is that it would lead to a reduction of about seven positions and it would result in a reduction in an administrative position and about six and a half teaching or professional staff positions doesn't necessarily mean that those would be teachers but these were all reductions to the what we added the ad list and I'm going to change tabs to show you this plan and this plan would call out a reduction of the it's not going forward with doing a system principle and fiscal 21 as well as removing the the additional teachers for the the seventh the learning community at the behalf learning community at the audits and middle school reducing one teacher position at the high school level and reducing to reserve teaching positions in addition to as well physical therapy assisted in a BCBA position that was proposed which is all at total up to four hundred and sixty thousand dollars and this was a drafted plan this is not a final plan I think there are things that still need to be worked out between the administration because as you know we worked along with the rest of the district administration on coming up with this plan and we have yet to been able to sit down and discuss this with all the district administrators I have a comment in here too even since we presented it last week I already know that we're going to have to do some because I'm getting kindergarten numbers and what the effect of those kindergarten numbers are going to have particularly in two schools potentially three schools as we go forward so if you notice two of the reductions were in reserve positions we very likely are going to need those and are going to have to do a redistribution so what we have said to the Long Range Planning Committee is that this is the locus of what the additions are and what we will be reducing whatever that percentage is probably 10 percent will come from this list the question is will we will we do some adjustments between once we have a final number and what's on this list okay good so the next if you still see my screen I hope so because I hit something that I hope I didn't change but the next proposal was proposal which was a little more drastic which was a level-funded budget meaning our budget in FY 21 would remain the same as our FY 20 and in our budget we had about 2.5, 2.6 million dollars worth of salary increases and in a level-funded budget we would have to figure out how to still provide contractual salary increases based on what that has been bargained between the different union groups and the school committee and the district administration of course but this plan which we pause we could not do this plan which would remove all the additions and on top of that there's additional column of reduction layoffs these would actually be positions that we would have to remove from our budget along with reductions of about a 10 percent reduction to our supply a supply and department budget departmental budgets and in this proposal along with the 22 to 23 positions that were added from the budget we would also be removing another 40 positions of actual staff and our current staffing model and this would not be providing the same level of service that the district is currently providing to the community this would actually be a reduction of service and there's I don't see how this could be a plan that goes for but the third document does show the reduction in all these positions and that would basically sum up the two different options and I don't have any additional comments at this moment beyond I cannot see I don't know how we would operate and considering we there's so many unknown expenditures that we have going for next year in terms of we're not even sure how we're going to what kind of operation that will be and so with that there's some unknown expenditures and so that might even cause additional cuts in this particular plan so this is obviously a plan but we're not sure beyond this but Kathy have anything to add no that's good summary yeah well the I mean the consensus of the long-range planning committee we it's not a committee that takes formal votes but the consensus was to pursue the the first option correct across an empty did you want to add something yeah I wanted to make it clear to our viewing audience of who knows how many that the second plan the levels level funded plan was prepared as part of a request from the long-range planning committee to have options to choose from it was not something that the school committee support their school committee members who discussed it supported is not something that the administration supported but it was something that we were requested to create and thus did so as did the town as part of the exercise in looking at how going forward we can knowing that we're going into a time when revenue is unstable and likely to decline how we can manage our budget as wisely as possible so yeah I would just add a little bit to that so they the proposal is to cut 10% of our increase not 10% of our budget so that's why it's only 460,000 so it's 10% of our increase our increase was you know four and a half million so so we're still getting a very large budget increase which would be which if you look at the headlines in other towns is very unusual we're able to do that largely because we passed the override last year and the town does have funds to cover that shortfall even if there's a significant state aid cut the state aid cut is completely uncertain we don't know if the federal government's going to come in and provide money either directly to us or to the state so they can lower their cuts we don't there's a lot of uncertainty but the feeling at long-range planning was we need to cut a little bit at least to be a little bit more conservative because of all the uncertainty and the extreme likelihood that there will be some budget cuts so fortunately and you know in my view 460,000 is significant there are positions there that are going away that we need but it could be a whole lot worse and that's what the second scenario shows if we didn't get any more money if we got just the same money that we had this year what would be the impact and it would be a really terrible impact but other districts are facing that so we are very fortunate Mr. Hamner you had a question yes Mr. Mason the figure of $65,000 for the FDE is that an average salary yes I'd ask you to consider using a master's step one as a figure because that's good position to hire in where just to make it a little bit more palatable going forward you understand where I'm coming from no I understand when you're coming from I think $65,000 I'm not asking you to input a bachelor's step one because I think that would be very hard to get out of the market yes we discuss this at budget and that's the number we use when I thought what number did we use Mr. Mason when we developed the budget so the original when we did last year's budget was the placeholder with $60,000 this year we changed it to $65,000 we did an exercise where we looked at the average salary that we were hiring at for a new teacher and our new teachers for the first year average was around $64,700 so we put in the the placeholder for $65,000 or actually average teacher salary is actually higher I understand every offline would you just send me what a master's step one is please yes yeah is any other questions or comments so at some point might I suggest that we put up the other chart so that people watching this don't see this draconian chart thank you so at some point in June well we will have to vote a revised budget preferably before a town meeting so probably at our first June meeting miss Morgan and we'll we'll need from the administration a little bit more detail about where that $460,000 is going to come obviously there's a lot of uncertainty this year about what going to be spent on anything in the fall but at least for for modifying the budget that we adopted we'll need something on paper to vote on would you just look maybe you have a question or comment yes thank you I just want to point out two things one we may not have we may need to cut things that we anticipated spending on in a budget no matter what it is because we need to move towards more equipment software materials that are suitable for distance learning and the second thing I just want to emphasize is that when we went to the town last year for the override we committed ourselves to a couple of things one of which was a certain level of service out of the school department and I just want to make sure that we maintain that vision that we committed to the families who went out and worked for this override that if you vote for this we will provide this level of service and that's also critical to me may I make a comment sure go ahead I think that's an excellent point but I also want to piggyback on this Mr. Cardin said we are in a very fortunate position in Arlington that we are looking at the reductions in our increases because I know that in comparisons of what's going on that's not the case and it's because of the voters at Arlington we are where we are and also because of the kind of careful planning the town does around budgeting looking at five-year projections making very conservative assumptions that even when we get more Chapter 70 year we get that variability that can happen we work on it on an agreed upon formula which shows a lot of collaboration town and schools so the voters in Arlington I think can be very pleased in knowing that by voting for the override they're helping the town and the schools be able to buffer the effects of what we're going through as a commonwealth and country yeah I do understand that my and I think that the 400 and some thousand dollar reduction in the increase for this year is probably manageable but I you know all we're looking at is the hypothetical numbers I haven't seen a need statement for what we think we need to do going forward in order to run a system uh that would be dual track to onsite and distance learning and it's tough to think about how we should respond to the budget without knowing what we think in our professional opinion is required in order to provide learning next year professional development equipment technology software and support that we never anticipated in the fiscal 20 budget that yeah that's all I'm saying you've got one piece of the pie the hypothetical is cutting 10 percent of the increase but it's being overlaid on on nothing in terms of an analysis of what we need to do differently and certainly there are expenses that we won't have next year or maybe there are things that we can buy closing out in the 20 budget that would help us move forward in 21 but I I just want to weigh that down right now because I feel uncomfortable with the uncertainty on all the other levels of this budget and Mr. Cardin turn I totally agree with you and I think that's one of the difficulties we face are some things that we know we need next year regardless of what is going to happen in terms of the learning the learning plan we we need more computers you can't share computers we need there's no sharing of a lot of materials we've talked to we've been talking about the kind of containers we need the mass that we need all the protection here but there's things that we can anticipate that we know we're going to have to have regardless if we go some plans might require a different kind of technology equipment than others and I want to yeah pardon sorry just I'm just trying to wrap it up because we're oh I see okay well we can talk more about this at an upcoming meeting then Len yes Mr. Thielman you know I missed my turn I'm so sorry I was in a conversation no no that's all right we didn't go around I just was looking for hands on this one go ahead oh okay um you know um I I yeah I think I I appreciate this presentation it's very helpful man I I think we got to meet uh you know as often as necessary over the summer so that we're kept abreast of any developments that are going to impact the budget we haven't heard about stimulus money yet that might come to municipalities and states and so I think we just have to be ready to meet to make you know to make some decisions and the other thing is the real the reality is going to hit I think in FY 22 and that's going to be the challenge for you know all districts across the United States and so I just think we need to be I don't really know what the response is right now but when I study this in my own organization and you know and other things the scary year is FY 22 it seems to me but so I just want to throw that out there and that's all I want to say great thanks anybody else all right so the next item is the MASC contract for superintendent search Mr. Schuchman you have the floor okay thank you very much in the packet you have the minutes of our meeting of May 20th where we discuss several aspects of the MASC proposal the basic numbers are that the fee to MASC would be $10,500 plus expenses Mr. Kutcher said travel expenses for MASC would be unbelievably low as the consultants are in Cambridge and there's very little travel on their part any expenses for advertising would be on our option any expenses for travel for candidates would only likely be for a finalist if we have an out-of-state candidate who we want to come in because of the minimal nature of the expenses the recommendation going forward is to and I'll make the motion formally now I've got it written down motion to authorize the chair to sign an agreement with MASC to serve as our consultant in the superintendent search for some of $10,500 plus expenses not to exceed $500 with that school committee approval so that would be the motion we have a second there that would be the motion before us that will move us forward on on the contract now we also want to move forward aggressively in terms of doing some of the work and the two things that are important right now is to do the community and staff outreach and to start work on the promotional materials for the district some of which are demographic some of which will be generated out of the focus groups and survey that will be conducted by MASC the search process committee will meet to Tuesday at 10 a.m. and at that point we will be talking to Mr. Kutcher about constituency groups within Arlington that we think are important for him to look at some people such as the town manager and the incumbent superintendent as being somebody we want to ooh the superintendent are you with me Glenn am I coming through okay because I got a little instability here on the zoom um yeah the some people would need to be interviewed individually such as the town manager the current superintendent some people would be interviewed in groups and MASC has stated that they will go and hold as many focus groups as necessary to get everybody who wants to get in on this so I think it's going to be a very inclusive process but the question is who do we need to reach out to and that Glenn is looking for guidance in a list so that that's what we'll be talking about next Tuesday and if any member has suggestions they want to put forward and they're not going to be attending Tuesday's meeting I would ask you to send that directly to Mr. Kutcher so we avoid any open meeting public records issues great you thank you all right so there's a motion that's been seconded and we'll go around for comment and question first Mr. Hayner any comments or questions not at this time Dr. Allison Ampe support the motion I have questions about process but I'm they're not relevant to the motion so should I wait sure yeah let's get the motion down first Mr. Thielman I support the motion and Miss Morgan all right yes and thank you Paul for and like your subcommittee for organizing this and and and getting this done it's you know the M.A.S.C. has a lot of experience doing these searches and and they'll be a great partner for us so roll call vote Mr. Hayner yes Dr. Allison Ampe yes Mr. Thielman yes Mr. Schluckman yes Miss Morgan yes and I also vote yes you know I miss okay let's go around with any other question on the process Mr. Hayner who second that motion Mr. Hayner did thank you I have nothing but gratitude for the subcommittee and all the work they've done thank you okay Dr. Allison Ampe looking at the timeline that we were given I'm concerned about it thinking about when we'll get the election results back and when we have our first meeting which is when we install our new member um and in particular I'm concerned about having an approved survey on June 8th when we have three seats open and the possibility of even two new members coming in and having the survey come out before they're on board I don't think we need to do the survey and approve it until after the election where we where we really need to get started right now and work quickly is to do focus groups with the staff because they're with us till mid-June and then they're going to be harder to get a hold of so that's why we really need to start but the other process is to look at people in groups that are important for the focus groups and that could be added on later as well so we're not cementing ourselves into anything at this point nor will we next Tuesday okay that helps and also again for our audience I want to make it clear although we're going to start talking to faculty quickly as Mr. Henry says because they kind of have an expiration date of going off to summer whatever summer means this year we really want to talk to parents and we'll be working out that all those outreach very soon too great thank you Mr. Thielman yes Kersey raised the question I had about the survey and the time to do that the question another question that I have is that at some point in this process our group the committee has to come together and we have to be a focus group you know it's very typical on a search that for you know any any major position leader of a nonprofit organization have a private school head of a school that the hiring body the board of directors or the school committee in our case has a meeting with a search consultant at some point in our in our world that has to be in a public session I understand in which we which that governing body talks about what it wants in a leader sometimes it's it's after their focus groups and surveys have taken place and we get a chance to sift through them and talk but it's really important that the firm doing the search hears from us so I just want to make sure that at some point in this process we're we schedule that I guess we got to do it by this method of meeting I understand that but I really just want to make sure that we we start to plan for it because people I don't know for anyone's going to go away this summer but you know July and August there are other things happening in people's lives so I I just want to point that out to Paul the committee and I do want to praise the committee for doing a great job with this this is a you know this is the you know we we really wanted this process to be moving quicker we wanted to get started earlier we obviously have hit quite a snag here in COVID-19 but I just want to remind everybody that's really important that our group there is a time schedule in which we talk about this information and talk to each other about what we're looking for a new leader that's a real important step in any search that's fundamental research I agree with Mr. Thielman and I'm sure that there'll be an event scheduled and we don't have to be physically present as well either so that if somebody's going away some place it can get into a zoom we can do that so we're a little less dependent on yeah making sure everybody is in Arlington physically at the time that we go and do a focus with the consultant yeah okay all right thank you Paul thanks everybody hey thanks Mr. Morgan any questions or comments on the okay thank you and yeah though we will have the subcommittee meeting next week and as I as I noted on on a Facebook comment there will be focus groups there will be a lot of them anybody you know there will be a formal survey that will come out to the community at some point in June and there will be lots of opportunity to shape the community vision for what we're looking for in a new superintendent so thank you Paul all right next item is the EDCO update from Dr. Bodie thank you the reason this is on the agenda this evening is that the Board of Directors for EDCO to which I am the liaison from the Alling to Public Schools and from the school committee is meeting on June 4th and it's going to take a very consequential vote and I wanted to talk with you this evening about that and recommend my position on it but first of all I think that we I want to give you a little bit of background where how this started this EDCO first of all is an organization that's in its 51st year and Allington was one of the originating one of the early I should say members of of EDCO in fact EDCO was going to celebrate its 50th anniversary that in November this has happened before it happened about a decade ago of the EDCO organization had a deficit this year it was caused by a couple of things one of them had to do with a major grant that was they did not receive it had to do with an overestimation of the number of students that would be in different programming and as a result back four months ago the deficit was at 1.7 through the leadership of the current of the executive director in Nadine Ekstrom that deficit has come down to 274 247 thousand dollars so in order to make sure that we are not ending the year in a deficit all of the EDCO members there's 16 of the member districts have been asked to pay their proportional share of that for Allington that is about the 21,500 to put that amount of money in perspective our current assessment is about 14,700 dollars and this is half the 14,700 dollars is half of what it was three years ago one of the goals has been to reduce member assessments over these years so this additional assessment really brings us back a little bit more than where we were three years ago so a plan was developed for that as we look at a plan for FY 21 the plan shows right now a surplus of about 240,000 but one of the things that happened as a result of this deficit the member districts were surprised that the Lexington school committee voted to begin termination process for EDCO and a member district can do one of two things it can withdraw from the organization you have a lead year on that in order to do it it also can if the school committee votes this can initiate the process of termination and that again also takes a year term so it was quite a surprise we had a board meeting that was newly called last week to discuss the pros and cons of whether the EDCO should begin that process under the articles of agreement what happens is if there's a two-thirds vote of the board then you begin the process of determining assets liabilities and it takes a year for that process to have a conclusion in anticipation of that it was not much lead time the business managers that we had hired this year when the business manager left in February did an assessment of what those costs would be they had been the people that also worked with the dissolution of another collaborative and so they were very familiar with all the cost categories that would have to be addressed and made some determination of what that amount of money would be and it's in the neighborhood of 600 million you have those estimates I think that number could come down a little bit depending upon how the organization would negotiate the remaining years on the lease but the point is that once that once a letter is received you have to go forward with a formal vote of the board of directors which will happen on June 4 and I wanted you to be aware that this was happening and I personally do not think that Arlington should either withdraw or vote for termination in terms of the finances of this it's really sort of a it's definitely clear that that would not be to our our advantage one of the benefits of being a member is that we have a differential rate on special education programming compared to non-members that differential is $12,500 so one student and we have more than one student at EDCO very comes close to what our assessment is in addition to that we are had previously been members of EMI and then went to a geoscopic scan and now ideas is that the evolution that organization is now part of EDCO and as part of our membership we are have the services of ideas which is an organization that focuses on cultural proficiency professional and development and we not only have used them but we also have presenters part of our staff we also as an organization take full advantage of all the roundtables that exist for in EDCO dive by curriculum area by technology assistant superintendent superintendent and these these are free to us as part of the membership so there are a lot of good reasons why we should remain a member financially for one because if we were if the process went forward our share of that six million would be close to half a million dollars based on the percentage that the assessments are based on and that's a function of your enrollment so some school committees have looked at this I know Newton last night looked at this and they've decided not to withdraw and not to terminate and so what I'm asking for you this evening is your guidance affirmation of our membership and would like to open up for comments but before I do that I also want you to know that the business managers for the member districts had an opportunity to talk with the the management consultant group and I'd like Mr. Mason if you could just talk for a moment on what what happened with that meeting yeah so the business managers met and we discussed the situation from our lens trying to seek out what the options would be and my main takeaway from that meeting was that many of the business managers that were involved on that that zoom meeting or it was a virtual meeting or get the platform but they left feeling secure and positive about the future of Edco and that they were in support of continuing being members of this collaborative there was a lot of questions that were asked in terms of what safeguards would be put in place for to ensure that no issues would happen going forward and how do they intend to ensure services well how would they evolve during this time of COVID-19 and you know the director and the outsourced firm seemed very confident and that answered all the questions correctly so it it comes as a surprise as a that some some districts may still have a reason to pull out but I think that all the business managers saw that it made sense financially and for Arlington I don't think that I mean we look at what may happen going forward in terms of our finances I think it was best to support the collaborative at this moment in order to ensure that we do not take a big hit in terms of this financial situation that's happening over at Edco that's all I have to say tonight thanks thank you so I just wanted to note that you know I we got to this note this we got information about this last night I did not have a chance today to try to reach out to the Lexington school committee chair to see if there is any more information so I think our decision tonight is unfortunately incomplete but I will going forward whatever what we take reach out to Lexington to find out if there's some reason if they can explain why they took that vote and why they're looking to to dissolve Edco because you know unfortunately we don't have the time to wait for that because the board vote is June 4th doesn't seem to me I mean I don't know all of the personalities on the Lexington board but it doesn't seem to me that they're a board that takes rash action so a little bit surprised but I will try to get more information Mr. Hayner we can go around in the circle the only thing I can speak to is my the positive experience I've had I've been the representative of this committee for several years on the school committee wrong table this year it was a little slack because membership changed but in the past it's been very informative sharing information I think big key thing was a couple of years ago I shared our norms and several members were very appreciative of what we have achieved as a committee so I will be supporting continuing our relationship with that Dr. Ellis-Nampy yeah I was a little confused about how we jump to disillusion is it require if a if districts want to leave they can just leave I mean they have a process but they can just leave they don't have to dissolve it that's that's separate correct that is correct and in fact in the last decade two different districts we had 18 for a while have left to be part of other collaboratives just because of where some of their special ed students were going but yes they could just simply withdraw and there's a process laid out in the articles for that and Lexington's decision which was sort of out of the blue really has had some committees wondering whether they should withdraw just to protect themselves financially but the reason given that by the superintendent at this last board meeting was the I think the lack of faith and Lexington of the financial viability of the organization and you know using this year as an example of the fact that we ended in a deficit at the end of the year I think there was also a little bit of concern about some of the teachers in the program when we went into school closure went down to a 0.4 FTE but all of the services were covered in fact the teachers in the edco special education programs on average were providing about 25 hours of one-on-one direct contact instruction and contact with students a week so the the students themselves were not impacted by that it was it was a but anyway those were the reasons that were given to the rest of the board and so a vote is scheduled by the board on June 4th to whether we're going to vote as you know to support that okay um my two other things one when you initially spoke you said 600 million and I just want to find oh six million six million just to keep anyone else heard the first one and not second and second is if districts withdraw is the remaining numbers going to provide critical mass for all the things Enco does the answer is yes uh right now the the budget this year was 12 million as we go into FY 21 it's going to be a little under 10 May 9 9.7 member assessments account for $186,000 of the revenue I meant student-wise if are there going to be students to have the programs or whatever is going well that that process of termination takes a year so even if you begin it now you can't dissolve until June 21 the end of June I think one of the the facts of of even this discussion that's been going on the last few the last couple of weeks is that will that prevent districts from foreign students to the ethical programs I will say that what I've learned from the executive director that so far they haven't seen that effect but if the board does vote for termination I imagine that that would definitely have that effect and so there then what would happen is without the revenue from the tuition into next year the cost all of the districts and anybody who withdraws or is still subject to these costs are going to increase they may I don't know if the exact increase because they're get to figure in you know the potential layoffs as well that could happen it's a but yes will it have an impact on the programming absolutely I'm not sure I made my question clear I was trying to ask first I'm supporting that we that echo continues and that we stay in it I just wanted to ensure that there would still be adequate numbers coming into the programs to to justify their existence the projections which are very conservative yes the numbers coming into the programming would justify but but echo is a more complex organization and it does have strong revenue from the special education but it also has grants that it manages for example the migrant workers grant that they've had for decades and providing support and education to migrant children that grant is it will end next December and so that would have an effect for sure so there are grants that that the disc that echo could lose should be moved in this direction but the actual assessments that a district of pain would have very little effect on its viability thank you thank you so miss Susie just joining us now but we're talking about echo and maybe you might want to wait until we go around to have to have your questions if you have any okay Mr. Thielman well I don't I think in all my years in the school there was an issue with echo maybe a decade ago Kathy referred to this that wasn't good and so I think we're I mean I think that the echo's done us a great service and I think we've gotten a lot out of it I think it's a good benefit for our town I am curious to know what is going on in Lexington and what their school committee did and why they did it and so Len I think we should find that out I don't know I don't know if you can share something or maybe if there's a communication you get from the Lexington school committee chair you can forward to the committee it'll be good to know I'm just I'm just curious to know but I support us staying in echo and I don't see any other alternative okay Mr. Sikman yeah thank you I first of all with regard to Lexington I think that if they're going to take that kind of a vote to withdraw and attempt to dissolve echo they owe it to the other member communities to communicate that to the other school committees who are looking this over they've essentially thrown a rock in the pond and I don't think our position that is that we should throw a rock in the canoe at the same time this is an awfully rash statement that they want to leave echo fine that's their decision but for us to look at it I can't see any thoughtful rational data informed reason for us to want to leave echo or do anything to dissolve it so I totally support the superintendent in voting no on withdrawing and voting no on on dissolution great thank you miss morgan all right so Mr. Schupin could you actually make a motion to that effect that we support the superintendent fine I move that we the Arlington school committee supports the superintendent in maintaining our membership in echo and to not dissolve the collaborative second is there any further discussion I'll just look for fine okay roll call vote Mr. Heiner yes Dr. Allison Ampey yes Miss Seuss do you want to vote or abstain I'm gonna abstain great Mr. Tillman yes Mr. Schupin yes and I'm also yes you forgot me sorry miss morgan sorry about that and I'm also yes so I'm sorry and who seconded again I didn't hear Mr. Heiner seconded Miss Seuss abstained and everybody else is yes yep yep we got that great all right moving on monthly financial report Mr. Mason good evening once again you have the reports in front of you tonight are are the financial reports as of the end of April which is our 10th month of the fiscal year and the reports you normally get at the general fund report which is a report by object code which is the expense types and and to note for the general fund report for this period we were projecting a balance of currently of 833,524 dollars and this isn't necessarily mean we're going to end at this this figure that we're still I know believe or not at this time of the year working through a lot of different options as we're trying to prepare for next year do a lot of projects as the schools are closed so some of the some of the other costs that we're looking at for preparation has been are related to COVID-19 we're purchasing probably close to eight hundred thousand dollars of worth of different type of expenditures this year which which which also came up earlier concerning the meeting which was tied to devices that are aging or that are not working to expectations of for teachers and other faculty members in the district that we're estimating to do a large purchase of about over five hundred thousand dollars worth of technology that the town will probably receive some sort of reimbursement at and at some future time in the future at the school committee or the school district will not necessarily say we also purchased a lot of things of preparation such as disinfectants disinfect hand sanitizing wipes we place a large order right before school closed that is shown as a concoference here because it hasn't been paid out yet but it was about sixteen thousand dollars worth of orders for a district for hand sanitizers and and hand sanitizing wipes we've also looked at purchasing thermometers contactless thermometers we've ordered about ten for isolation rooms that we that will probably need for each school next year and as well another fifty for access points in addition there is some holds for looking at thermal cameras at main access points of each schools and as we try to work out you know what maybe needed as well as we purchase we're looking at purchasing or it's in these figures oximeters to measure blood oxygen levels it's believed that that's also another way of determining if an individual has COVID-19 because some people may carry but not show a temperature so the the medicine department thinks that this is important that we include as well as we're looking at safety issues when school reopens at the autism school they've been having issues with their PA system so we've been quoting that project out and that's well over thirty thousand dollars to complete that as well as in order to better financially set us up for next year we were looking at this year doing some prepayments of special education tuition with the approval of of course of the school committee that will come out we will be presenting you those figures at a future meeting before the end of the year to allow us to do that with this year's current budget which will also give us a buffer the report also reports on the grant accounts and we did have you'll see that there's been there's some highlights and on the report where there have been increases title title one title two IDA 240 and 262 have all seen some increases and as well in this report is the revolving accounts report what you do not see a revolving accounts report at this moment which I noticed is that we did not show some of the transfers that we're going to propose so we're going to be transferring some expenditures from revolving accounts to also give us a disability in the out years is as COVID-19 may affect our revenues to have the ability to be able to spend out of those funds if needed so those projections are actually showing in the general fund report of the of that I initially discussed which I didn't I forgot to touch upon but they are expenses that will be moved off the revolving accounts that's my report for this evening are if you have any questions feel free to ask all right let's go around Mr. Heiner sorry yes do you have any questions no I'm sorry I apologize no problem Dr. Allison Ampe no we heard about most of this so budget thank you Miss Seuss anything same okay Mr. Thielman no questions Mr. Schlickman thank you for the report Miss Morgan all right yes I'll thank you Mr. Mason I just wanted to note that our second June meeting is very late so any actions that you might want us to take might be better at the first June meeting all right thank you thank you okay back to Dr. Bodie for the superintendent's report well we also didn't get to some of the other things earlier if you want maybe go back and talk about some I can do a couple things I'll try and make this short I have a few things but first I want to welcome our new Gibbs principal who will be beginning July 1 Mademoiselle Fabian Pierre Maxwell she she comes to Arlington with a lot of administrative experience in fact she had 13 years of a combination of sensible for eight years and five years system principal she we had a very positive feedback from all all the stakeholders as we went through this process but I also want to acknowledge how fortunate we were to have really such four strong candidates that was a very a difficult decision I have to say and two of them were sitting administrators in the district who I have a great deal of respect for so if that that made it very challenging because I also know the quality of their work and and they do but we've I actually had a conversation with again today pretty much every day this week in terms of starting to plan a little bit in terms of the transition and she will be coming to Arlington sometime this month and Kristen DeFrancisco who will be leaving as assistant principal superintendent and Groton Dunstable will be working very closely with her for transition and when probably at some a meeting in early fall we'll have her come and meet the committee as well as our new principal for the peer school Andrew Omadi we did not finish just a couple things I would want to leave the meeting without just mentioning that we have been doing a lot of planning around summer programming the questions that we've received both at the parent and the both parent meetings the secondary and elementary were questions around summer school what are we what would we be able to do to support students through the summer and of course a lot of questions around the fall what I was broad ideas here is that we are going to still have ESY which is a special education program at all levels supporting students who would have some regression over the summer that program is still going forward it's going to be however in virtual mode and that all that planning is going on right now for that program we are also going to continue our title one program which we had the last couple years and that program will also be virtual we can we can perhaps talk and what we're what we're doing at from a broad point of view is we're looking at what are some of the things we can do for all students over the summer K through 12 in terms of opportunities for their learning and we are particularly also looking at what additional interventions we might be able to do over the summer for the students who before closure already had in their schedule some form of intervention whether it's reading services or math intervention so we're looking at this in different and from different points of view at the high school the middle school and the elementary and what the plan is that we are we saw a few details to work out most of it has to do around software because for just to give you one example one of the things for all students in elementary level we're going to purchase an extension of Dreambox which has had a lot of positive feedback both from teachers and parents K through six and so that will be available in fact not only through the summer but it's going to be available all next year as well and that's a tool that we can also we gain a lot of feedback in terms of concepts and skills so that's an example but a letter I will present them a full program of what we're doing at the next board meeting but even maybe before that we'll be sending information out to parents in the district so they are aware of what the opportunities are going to be and by the way since we had discussion about EDCO one of the things that is an offer and we would have a bit of a discount in Arlington if any parent would like to have a virtual course they have something like 175 courses that they have contracted with a major educational company ingenuity and there's courses at all levels K-12 that that a parent can sign up for through and receive the Arlington discount so the other issue you mentioned it was about the the parent meetings rather than go into all the different themes one of the things that we were actually working on this afternoon is finalizing the answers to all of the questions when we had the elementary parent meeting last week we had a close to 475 participants and we had a hundred questions going into the meeting in which we had divide them by themes and different principles answered the questions but even during the course of the meeting we got another hundred plus questions which we have been working on creating answers that whole document is going to go on to the website a link to that will be sent out to parents so they know that it's there and that is will be happening very very soon so I don't know before I go on to other I want to talk about graduation and just a couple other things does anybody want to ask any questions so I'll look around at faces is he any okay Dr. Allison Ampe and Mr. Schuchman next can you speak to kindergarten I'm hearing questions from parents about when are assessments going to be done when should they be expecting information any kindergarten related stuff yes so I was going to come down my list here I can tell you where we are with a kindergarten numbers and we have 427 that are completed applications and we have another 52 that are in process to completion so for a total of 479 at the end of May so I don't know what will happen over the summer it could be that the last month or two people have not been focused on registration we've also had close to 50 other students I believe at different grade levels as well register over the last month or two so normally we have we watch this normally we have had screenings the last couple of years that are that have been at the end of the school year or or some time during June that we discussed it in the district and we decided that the best thing to do is to wait to the fall and do this do the kindergarten screenings that we used to do them in the fall and we just we decided a couple years ago that was moment to June so we have more information early on and I have to tell you there wasn't debate about that at the time because for kids for children that age a couple months makes a big difference but having said that that's the plan we're also need to create an opportunity for kindergarten parents to have a sort of a virtual meeting as well I just understand and we haven't decided whether do that all district or we're going to do it by by school but that that planning is in the works now one of the things that is repeating itself this year with the kindergarten numbers is where the increases are and I've been sort of waiting the last few weeks to see if it's actually looking this way but it is it is looking that we may need three kindergarten's appears yet again another year so that is going to mean that we're going to you know the teacher appears because that that group of three just keep rolling through the school the the same issue could be at at Stratton we're waiting on that a little bit but it's possible with the number of incomplete applications that we could also be pushing at Stratton toward needing four kindergarten's and we'll just have to wait and see on that but going back to the budget presentation for FY 21 we're going to have to probably have need some of those reserved positions in order to make sure that we don't classes of you know 28, 29 kids in our elementary schools so that's where we are I think that we were a little bit higher than this at this point but I haven't double checked the files to know that our own projections have us based on our weighted formula at about 530 I think like Mason has done the projections on that am I correct on that number Mr. Mason it's in that vicinity about 530 so we'll wait and see we have that number I'm sorry the projections for kindergarten for this year in our modeling I think it was about 530 wasn't it something yeah it was about it was around the 500 figure I wouldn't say 520 525 so as I'm looking at these numbers you know they're we could stop right you know we're certainly going to welcome every student that comes to Arlington I really truly mean that but we do have we're watching all of these numbers very carefully one in particular is Bishop because it's just the space there so by the next meeting I'll have a little bit more of a report and as we go forward we'll we'll see where this is but I think that the numbers at this point are going to be such that we're going to have to at least with Pierce move forward with another teacher okay Sonia Bay did you have anything else okay Miss Seuss Mr. Thielman no questions Mr. Schuchman yeah back in the earlier presentation Dr. Brody you mentioned some other alternative platforms as opposed to Google classroom and I just like it if you forward us links and information about them sure it's called seesaw a lot of districts are using it for the K2 we originally thought that it wasn't on the consortiums the alliance is a proof list that it is and we've actually already done quite a bit of professional development for teachers on that and it's being linked into Google classroom but you know yes but anyway seesaw and I will get you some links so that you can see it yeah it'd be helpful for us to know what you're considering using next year well here's again and one of the advantages of edco so when we're looking at some of these things that you just pick up the phone or do you know an email out to your colleagues and say what are you using and of course they're doing the same thing with us so we know that in a lot of the edco districts in the in the younger grades they're finding seesaw to be a little bit more child accessible because we want to if we're in any kind of remote environment we want kids to have some independence in the tool they use yeah I don't all I want to know is have background knowledge of what it is so that if we yeah we'll stick that on to you yeah oh I've had a chance to look at sure absolutely miss morgan also give a report on the all ancient high school progress yeah we didn't sorry we didn't finish going around yet miss morgan did you have anything no okay my my only comment is in the unlikely event that the commissioner comes out next week with guidelines that says we can have in in person esy I think we should have a conversation either at curriculum cia a or here at the board about about how we're going to approach that miss elmer yeah actually that is the guidance from the dese currently is to plan with having backup plans to shift to in person that become you know allowable under the phase reopening and can you meet your local health board requirements addition to whatever guidance this comes out so that's actually what we're planning to do essentially is begin with remote while having a backup plan to be able to shift at some point in the summer if that becomes an option right now obviously they don't have any detail on that option okay great that's a good that's an important clarification as opposed to it will be so solely remote which is what dr. Bodie said so thank you for that and any you know of course any communication it goes to the parents will it would have that qualification we'll have the we will have a full explanation of what will be going out the way of summer programming to parents and of course we'll get a copy of that as well because certainly things like occupational therapy and physical therapy and even speech therapy are extremely difficult to do remotely and any any in-person startup of that you know one-on-one you know behind a a glass partition you know would definitely be helpful if that's yeah it's going to be a balance of what state and local requirements are so if the state phases in Arlington obviously is going to have their own that you have to meet around you know actually offering that so that's we're able to meet that shift yeah great it was a call with the commissioner yesterday and there was no mention of the possibility at this point but I think everybody's waiting to see where right we just wouldn't shouldn't foreclose it unless it's foreclosed thank you exactly so so I'm glad you got that question to get that clarification out there I normally give a report on Arlington High School the there hasn't really been much that has changed the only thing that has happened over the last since the last meeting it's been a subcommittee meeting on exterior and landscaping and basically the discussion was all about high defenses design offenses plantings irrigation so it was a it was a very all of all of that will be brought forward to the building committee which meets next week also so it's moving forward if you've got and I'm sure you've all gone by by the high school so you can see that the work is the work is going on the last thing is talking about graduation and you know I want to congratulate all of our seniors I think universally staff at the high school and all the teachers in the district as well as administration feel very badly that all of the traditional activities that seniors get to experience are not going to be as they have been so the high school has worked with a team of group people to develop graduation plans they have surveyed students students actually served on the committee as well and survey students is what they what they really wanted in the way of the commemoration of their graduation so basically the high school graduation in a very simple way is it's just sort of in three parts they actually have already done well almost done it's going to go to the 30th of May they've been having small groups come together with the parents and caps and gowns all caps and gowns were they have they have them and taking pictures formal pictures of them receiving a diploma with their with their family all of the plans that are around graduation have been vetted with the board of health so I want to thank the board of health they've also been vetted with the police department the fire department and have but been very supportive of trying to make this special for seniors there it's going to be an ACMI has also been helping to create a streaming ceremony and all of the graduation speakers thank you Ms. Morgan for doing yours the other day have been have already had their their speech filmed a video and they're going to put it together into a virtual ceremony then one of the things that seniors really wanted was to be able to see their teachers so there's going to be a caravan on the sunday after graduation from 7th in which the caravan will go through they have a route that we worked out with the police department for all the seniors which if they were all showed up in their cars would be about 1.3 miles worth of cars will move through a designated pathway and so they have an opportunity to see the teachers the teachers can cheer them on and it's it's not a would like to say it could be a big community again that the police department just and at the border health both are in total agreement that we really want to discourage that because not that we don't want people to cheer them on it's just the issue of congregating at this time so I want to thank the high school they really have been very thoughtful about this and and particularly there's a couple of people I want to acknowledge Joanna Began who has just been just wonderful in terms of all the organizing of this Laurie uh Pescatori who has been the last last committee she's been very helpful in this and and I know last blast is thinking of some kind of event later maybe later the summer we'll see whereas seniors can have an in-person celebration and then Kevin Whitmore from ACMI and as I said the Christine Bonjuron the Board of Health police department Julie Flaherty Kevin Kelly for helping and supporting this plan thank you and that's it great thank you was there anything else about remote learning that we didn't get back to were you were you talking about a survey additional survey of parents yes we're going to do another survey of parents we have a survey for students that we're going to send out on Monday for students in grades six to eight to try to to understand their experience and what kinds of things that they have encountered and of that might help us going forward we certainly want to have a survey of parents so looking at the week of June 8th on that and we also would like obviously just to survey our staff and understand their experience so all of that will be very helpful great Mrs oh just two questions you said serving students six through eight do you mean six through 12 or is it separate I say six thank you for saying it six through 12 yes sorry it's not it's the middle in the high school they are the ones that have an email address I know there's been some discussion even among members about whether we should a lot may activate the email accounts for our students at K through five but there there's been a lot of discussion about it but are you on it still is that that's not the wise idea to do and then also just to encourage you that you should please use the school committee as a resource to look over any questions you know I know you have a bunch of administrator team looking at it and I'm sure they're helpful but we might also be able to catch things that might be ever left otherwise okay we'll take you up on it for we do the parent one it's the one to the student that's gone through many eyes at this point many revisions but I think it's just about ready to go sorry Dr. Allison MP go ahead also on the remote learning survey stuff going back to Ms. Morgan's concern that there may be people who are going to opt to homeschool in the fall I think it'd be really helpful as you put out the survey both in the email in which it's in and maybe any other emails that you're sending out about it that you're letting people letting parents know that school is a work in progress that you're working you know that part of the reason that we're collecting this information is to improve school for now and for next year and I think that people will feel better about it if they feel like it's going to be getting if school is going to be improving that's all okay thank you anything else all right on to the consent agenda all items listed are considered to be routine there will be an active in one motion there'll be no separate discussion of these items less than member the committee so requests and in which event the item will be considered in normal sequence approval of warrant warrant number two zero two eight three total warrant amount three nine four six seven six dot seven five dated five nineteen twenty twenty and approval of these school committee organized organizational meeting to be held on June 11th 2020 at six fifteen p.m. Can I get a motion? I'll move second second all right Mr. Hainer yes Dr. Allison Ampe yes Mrs. yes Mr. Thielman yes Mr. Schlickman yes Ms. Morgan yes and I also vote yes all right subcommittee liaison reports budget we met again to discuss the budget and you've already heard what we discussed in the results community relations yeah we met to interview some candidates for the poet laureate committee and then met again to date to finalize their selection I'm not sure we can we have not heard back from the person who we're we want to recommend do we want to do a motion now or do that later I don't care either way I don't think we have the person's resume but right we just finalized it today and that's why yeah why don't we just hold on to the next meeting okay great I won't be a part of it all right uh cia oh cia anything nothing facilities I had a had a parent contact me about uh basketball court of bracket uh damage passed it on to facilities and they said they would look into it okay policies and procedures no report nothing all right search process committee we already heard about anything else I'll just say anything else any other committees all right so I guess we had we had the election modernization committee we heard updates about the election mostly all right and we do not have executive session tonight correct just make one quick announcement please sure I would like to commend to the superintendent the faculty and students at oddison they usually invite veterans to a program every year they weren't able to do it this year they were able to put some videos from past things together and kids participated did a wonderful thing and I passed it on to several veterans and I as a veteran I really appreciate it so thank you great and I did want to recognize Jennifer Seuss for again for her six years of service six years and two months of service on the committee we already gave you your chair back on our very last time together and I want to thank you again for all of your hard work particularly your work and making sure our community is represented on the board and through actions through surveys and and focus groups and other open meetings to make sure that community input is considered and then in our major decisions it's really a quite accomplishment to have that sort of built into our processes now and we will do our best to keep it up as we leave so thank you once again thank you so someone asked me who was going to be doing the school updates as I have leaving and I said it was a personal effort so if you want to take it on you're welcome to do it I might update about other things in town but anyway if you're welcome to do it all right if I'm just saying yes yeah I I've just been so thrilled to have Jennifer as a colleague she's been the heart and soul of a lot of great things that have happened particularly those issues surrounding community engagement and she was steadfast in all the hard work of engaging the community and the solutions we had to come up with for meeting our enrollment crunch particularly the Gibb's opening it's been an honor to serve with her she's been a great member and I really really really appreciate you as a colleague you've made this a better committee Mr. Hamlin Jennifer and I have not always got along but we our disagreements have always been professional courteous and over the past four or five past two or three months I've really learned of appreciator and I will miss your voice thank you so you all gave speeches last time so you don't need to give a speech anybody else I'd like to just I think Jennifer and I have always gotten along so uh listen I want to thank Jennifer I mean really seriously our level of engagement with the community has increased significantly during Jennifer's six years on the committee I've enjoyed getting to know her enjoyed her friendship and her wisdom about all things in Arlington and beyond and her updates her school updates about once a month or so or whenever they come out are very helpful and people often quote Jennifer Seuss to me in the town when we talk about the school so we will miss Jennifer it's a big loss for this committee and I look forward to staying in touch outside of school committee may I say something Mr. Carter yes I I also want to thank Jennifer she's been terrific to work with and certainly the some of the committees that we have been working on this year together the calendar committee I would wonder whether she would be willing to continue on that as a community member certainly we've there's been a lot of work and more work that needs to be done as we go forward but anyway thank you I agree with Mr. Seelman that the engagement and not only the committee with the community but you know bringing issues to the school administration around how best to reach out it's been very helpful I appreciate that all right so I did I did skip over announcements future agenda items liaison reports so anything else from anybody before we conclude Dr. Elsnampy don't we need to send in our organization survey of who's going to do what next year I'll send an email about that tomorrow thank you yeah so I think Karen already asked for the people willing to serve as officers so that part has been done right Karen yes that's correct okay so it's just the committee preferences sorry subcommittee in assignments yep all right can I get a motion to adjourn so move second all right roll call Mr. Hayner yes Dr. Elsnampy yes your last vote Ms. Seuss yes Mr. Thielman yes Mr. Schwickman yes Ms. Morgan yes and I also vote yes thank you all then vivid as always good night good night everybody thank you