 Good evening everyone welcome to Thursday January 23rd 2014 regular school committee meeting in Arlington My name is Judd Pierce. I chair this thoughtful and fine committee Before we get started tonight, I'd like to introduce all of you to the new art on our walls here from the Dowan School Stacy Greenland Directly to our right here. We'll see foam mosaics by fourth grade students And these fourth grade students looked at traditional Roman mosaics to see how pictures can be conveyed through a number number of small Colored tiles the concept of mosaics was connected to the idea of squares and grids in the popular game of Minecraft Many students have made mosaic designs in the creative mode of the game by building on a flat surface with blocks of different colors and textures to create designs such as those and to our left here Observational drawings of nature and shadow students looked at the work of Hawaii based contemporary artist Wayne Zebsda who creates drawings in a unique way by turning the settings of his blow torch down very low to create a suity a Suti discharge of carbon smoke Which he must constantly move around the paper So his drawing won't catch fire and they worked on creating drawings with pencil From close observation of natural objects such as shells pine cones driftwood crystals and seed pods International dot painting day Now I'm having a hard time finding where the dot right there right behind mr. Slickman this project began as collaboration between Dowan's librarian Rebecca Aronson and art specialist Stacy Greenland to celebrate international dot day on September 15th 2013 with all the students at the Dowan International dot day reflects the values expressed in the story of the dot Where in main character Vashti? Overcomes her insecurities about about her art and gets break so bravely creative that she even helps another younger artist get over his own fears and During the library time the librarian read the dot by Massachusetts author and illustrator Peter Reynolds and Introduced students to the original artwork signed by the author that are now part of the library's art collection Then they let their creative juices flow using a temp tempura brush painting an art class and Each student was asked to make his or her own mark and sign it and just four days Dowan students made over 800 paintings exploring dots mark making and symbols of all kinds and Right behind the audience. We have monochromatic paintings second-grade students began by looking at the work of some contemporary artists such as Joan Mitchell and Christian Schneid Who make monochromatic? Paintings they noticed how interesting and diverse paintings could be even if they used only variations of one color and Then created color scales by mixing a tint and a shade of a pure color And the scale served as a guide for all the variations of one color that could be used and Right behind the screen. You can't see much of it But hopefully that screen will go up soon Wire art and this is designed by students in grades four and five at the Dowan to get inspiration and ideas They looked at the wire art of sculptor and musician Tom Kaufman They noticed that many of the sculptures incorporated movement and sometimes they look different from multiple angles and After a quick demonstration on how to connect the shape wire students sketched ideas and began exploring with pieces of colored wire Very excellent artwork from the Dowan tonight. Thank you for gracing our walls Before I get to introduce some special guests to lead off our meeting tonight, I'd like to just say a couple of remarks The subject is think big new year new Strategies and I'd like to take a moment to look back at the lessons we can learn from the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr This was a man who thought big Surely bigger than big And what he did was not only teach peace and compassion and equality, but also conveyed a practice of non-violence resistance He witnessed the brutality in our country African-American men and women subject to the most nightmarish of conditions and Dr. King observed the plight of our poor and that nothing was being really done to address any of this He and others in the civil rights movement back then opened our eyes to these atrocities Which white Americans either did not know about or choose to or chose to ignore or do nothing about because of fear And he taught those who were most affected not to fear that to effect change takes a number of people to stand up and say We are not afraid of you we can get through anything you put at us because you cannot conquer hate with hate only love can do that This was unbelievable truly amazing lessons about community and power to change things that folks thought could never be changed for the better I think mr. Hainer was around back then You can address some of this firsthand the holiday on Monday was important folks It's not only a day off from school and work We must always have at least this one day to reflect on mr. Dr. King's legacy and put it into practice And on the subject of public education I found that dr. King wrote a piece in the Morehouse College student newspaper the maroon tiger in 1947 which included the following passages and He said it seems to me that education is a two-fold function to perform in the life of man in society The one is utility and the other is culture Education must enable a man to become more efficient to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of life Education must also train one for quick Resolute and effective thinking to think incisively and to think for oneself is very difficult We're prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half-truths prejudices and propaganda At this point I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose a great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and Scientifically even the press the classroom the platform and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths To save man from a morass of propaganda in my opinion is one of the chief aims of education Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence to discern the true and from the false and the real from the unreal and The facts from the fiction the function of education therefore is to teach one to think Intensively and to think critically, but education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals But we deal with here every other Thursday night Has impact for all of us and it's in this spirit It's this importance of dr. King that we continue our school year and look ahead in our budget Preparations and to let us not forget to think big and I encourage all of you to join in that effort Public participation. I don't know if we had a Sign up Before we get to public participation, I'd like to and this is a good I think segue into what I was just talking about on Monday evening I had the pleasure of and many of you were there as well of attending the town hall presentation the Martin Luther King annual celebration of town hall in the evening and one of our guests here tonight Was honored for her work and for her commitment to the Arlington public schools And I'd like to welcome her and some of the students here at the Arlington high school tonight miss Carrie Dunn like to join us at the at the table and Maybe introduce those that you have with you Quick introduction, it's actually now dr. Carrie Dunn who has completed her doctorate at Boston College and A lot of work doing that with the job that she has which is director of social studies K to 12 and Since Carrie has been here we've had a lot of positive changes in in in opening up the world to our students and looking at different initiatives that They have a global perspective and gives opportunities to students to be able to participate in a much larger Out of this out of the school opportunities and is it was for her work in in Enhancing the social studies education in the Arlington public schools that she was awarded this year the outstanding achievement from the Martin Luther King observance committee and She's also gone to the well a few times with them to but to and they've been very responsive And I want to give them a lot of kudos on that as well in being very supportive of these initiatives that Dr. Dunn has Brought to Arlington and one of the one of the you're gonna hear tonight There's been a number of initiatives that that's sort of come collectively from the the whole school, but Carrie has been Charged with moving some of these forward and she's gonna talk about some of the other ones but more specifically what she's here tonight to talk about and has a couple of her students is the Academic internship program at the high school All right. Thank you very much for the kind words dr. Bode and mr. Pierce I'll bring up three students. We we actually have 13 students participate and complete our pilot program of the academic internship program But we had you know, we couldn't have all 13 present tonight, so I brought three so we'll bring up hara blannas Jamila Murazate and Chris Coleman and they'll be talking to you tonight a little bit about what they experienced during their internship this past semester So I'll give a little introduction to background our academic internship program was part of a larger initiative to Really reinvent the later part of high school as a transition point to college and the workplace and life beyond college So the idea is we'd like to have different ways in which an 11th or 12th grader in Arlington high school Can have one foot outside of the high school building Be earning some college credit. Maybe their senior year Be getting getting to build a foundational resume Do some career exploration while they're still in high school and all the have all the structures and support of high school Still with them So we have a number of pilot initiatives going on Starting last year and on also this year. We have some dual enrollment We brought in the Syracuse University dual enrollment program Pilot folks last year to speak to you about our economics course that we offer on-site as part of a partnership with Syracuse University It's been very successful. It's very inexpensive The feedback from students who've taken the course has been very positive We had a large cohort of students graduate from Arlington high school having completed that course last year and Virtually all of them were able to get the college that they matriculated to to accept the three credits from Syracuse for transfer credit which is really nice and in an era where AP Scores are becoming less and less Accepted for college credit. It's it was nice to see the the success rate for transferring that credit there We also have some online learning initiatives. We're moving towards a blended learning model for many of our in-person classes a special particular elective courses where a portion of that learning will be independent Online at home or collaborating with other students via an online platform at home But there still is the face-to-face component on it on a daily basis at the high school But we're piloting also a true online MOOC course that's going to start up February 3rd It's a sound engineering course offered through Coursera We'll have John D. Tomasso taking the course along with 10 to 15 students. They'll take the course It's entirely online But they will meet once a week in person to discuss the course hash out any problems that they experienced and the final project for the course to get the completion certificate is they have to build a little sound amplifier Themselves using soldering tools and that sort of thing so they can work with each other while they build their final project So tonight we'll be hearing from some of our academic interns We be in this process last year Searching for community partners to host some academic interns. These are students who get academic credit They get one semester's worth of one course of 2.5 credits at the honors weight We put it on their schedule at the end of the day So that when that period meets at the end of the day, they can leave the building at 1 30 and go to their internship site They have to be on site five hours per week It's flexible. They don't have to go one hour five days a week But they have to complete five hours per week and commit a sign Complete a sign time sheet time log that their supervisor signs They have a supervisor at their site who's agreed to mentor them and support them throughout this process They need to develop or work with a team project as part of their internship experience and At the conclusion of their internship at the end of the semester They had to present that to our group and we had a large group Present that and it was very exciting to hear their projects. They were very impressive We are right now in the process of starting to review this pilot program So we've sent out feedback forms to all of our site placement Liaisons and then also to the interns themselves to hear from them about suggestions one piece of feedback that I'm already hearing loud and clear is The challenges of a seven-day academic schedule imposed on a five-day work week So our internship placement sites want students to come every Tuesday and Thursday not every third and fifth out of seven days So or every Monday and Wednesday they want them coming on fixed days, and that's a real challenge with our current schedule So that may be something we need to dialogue more about in the future For next year, we're looking to expand our placement sites I'd like to offer more in the realm of STEM science technology engineering mathematics And I'm looking for other contacts in the community who'd be willing to host an intern So that's something I'll put out there And with that we'll hear from some of our interns We'll start with two of our interns who are in historical site placement And we'll conclude with Chris Coleman who did an internship in one of the bone density labs at Mass General Hospital So we'll start with Zaharullah Harah Blanas who's a senior at Arlington High School Hi everyone, so I was at the ultra bill and For those of you who may not know it's On 17 Mill Lane a little tucked away behind Mass Avenue Towards the Heights, so not very well known, but Quite the interesting place if you ever want to visit The old Schwab Mill is the oldest continuously operating mill site in America little known fact however As I was saying, it's a bit overlooked in Arlington It has great history the Schwams came from Germany and they started the mill It's a frame picture frame mill and we produce circular and round blades Or frames on lathes. Just kidding And so for my responsibilities I was there every Tuesday and Saturday the mill is open from 11 to 3 So whenever I got out early at around 130 I would go until 3 Or at 230 it depends But I do around an hour every Tuesday and then four hours from 11 to 3 on Saturdays So that's how I got my five hours as Carrie was saying And I learned how to give tours of the mill, you know be friendly be nice give tours Welcome people make them want to come back and Just kind of spread the word about the mill because as I was saying one of their major problems is with publicity So for my outreach project the one thing I really wanted to do for them was something that would stay with the mill and help them Even after I've gone off to college and I'm doing my own thing So I decided to compile a database for them and do a bit of an outreach program What I did is I went into Google and I researched and tried to find people who would be interested in seeing the mill prosper for a long time after And I looked into two groups of people specifically woodworkers and architects Simply because the mill has a large woodworking history the lades we use the machineries as it was in the 1800s and It takes a specific skill Specific type of woodworker to appreciate that Additionally the mill has an interesting background story in its creation It was built in three different sections So any architects or even historic preservation people would find that pretty interesting So I decided to send a letter of invitation for an event which is actually this Saturday the 25th from 10 30 to like 1 30 and Anyone can stop by of course, but we sent out this letter specifically to the group of people I had researched to see if they would want to come by and So I did the research. I wrote the letter. I sent it out to them And I've been planning the event We've kind of decided it'd be nice to have a light sort of breakfast for them And then they would get a tour and more in-depth look at the frame making process simply because this is geared towards woodworkers and architects and Yeah, it's this Saturday. So I I Think so far we've had 12 people RSVP by email We're assuming more people are coming because we've heard by word of mouth, you know people are on our own can saying Oh, we'll stop by we'll stop by but officially we have 12 I think I sent out around 50 or so letters of invitation and You know a couple of them were to place farther out like in Maine or New Hampshire So it's understandable if they can't come but it's just good for them to have us on their radar Thank you, Hara. We'll now hear from Jamila Mirzadeh who did her internship with the Arlington Historical Society The Smith Museum and the Jason Russell house I will note before I pass the microphone to Jamila She was one of our only 11th graders doing an internship this year. This is her first year at Arlington High School She moved here over the summer from Azerbaijan English is Jamila's third language after Russian and Azeri, which is the native language of Azerbaijan And so she showed up on my doorstep on the first day of school saying she heard there's a museum internship She wants to work at a museum I tried to convince her that it would be a good idea for maybe her to settle into Arlington High School first Before taking one foot outside of Arlington High and she was absolutely insistent that no she wants to work at a museum and How could she do that and I told her to think about it and she came back the next day and said the same thing So we set it up and She had a very successful experience. So I'll let her tell us about it And I'm new to town in Arlington. I just moved to United States this summer with my family So it was a huge experience for me to work in the Smiths Museum And it's also helped me a lot to gain more information about the history of town And so I did my internship in the Smiths Museum Which is an office of Arlington Historical Society and also it is an adjoining museum to Jason Russell house And it was built in 1890s Jason Russell house itself is a historic house in Arlington and also it is a site of ferocious fight, which was the beginning of American evolution and It's that was like for me. It was really interesting working there And so the Smiths Museum itself we have exhibits archives and artifacts and so in the beginning of my internship my duty was putting information about this collection that we have in the museum into the database and That helped me a lot because I got more familiar with the subjects that we have in the museum And I could easily choose what I'm more interested in as a topic of my research And so the objects that I chose for my research was a woman's evening's gown Which is approximately 117 years old And so this gown was worn by Ida Robbins in the 1896 to Dresden court And Robbins is well established name in the history of the town and they were big Benefactors of the town and Ida Robbins herself. She was the last member of this family And so this dress of hers it has the bodies which is made from white satin and also it has a skirt Which has two layers one of them is underskirt and another one is tool and this layers of tools they give to the To the skirt more volume and they make it more fluffy and my most favorite part of this dress And also I think the most significant is small embellishments which are in the shape of insects and they are made from silver beads and Chanel and pearls so in late Victorian period It was really popular to have these embellishments in the shape of insects on the closing because people started moving from rural areas into urban and suburban areas and so they miss nature around them and also there was a lot of scientific discoveries and Botanical discoveries also their venous area was published. So people were just fascinated with the nature So they started using these elements of insects and birds into their dresses, but the thing is that started in 1860s and they started sewing alive beats and live insects on their dresses So you kind of like I read in really in the articles that you could even see how that insects were moving all the dresses and also they were using stuffed birds Constructions on their heads and so the more they were doing it the more articles were published in the newspapers how brutal it was Killing insects and birds only because of the closing and even the book public was published in 1878 And so after that people started looking at nature more as Inspiration and they were doing the small embellishments as a shape of insects in more abstract way and they were using Materials just like on this dress. It was silver pearls and sometimes even gold So this dress is a unique example of the fashion in 1890s and this decade itself It was a very interesting to do in research about the fashion in that decade Because it was changing a lot of changed happened and especially as the role of woman in the society changed and that reflected a lot in the Closing that they were wearing Thank You Jamila. So I think we all learned something new about ladies fashion of the late 1800s and use of live bugs and Stuff birds for embellishment We'll move on and we'll hear from Chris Coleman Chris did his internship in partnership with another Arlington high school student who actually has his college interview tonight with tough So good luck to him, but we'll hear from Chris about his research at the MGH enderkin unit So like she said, I worked at Mass General Hospital in the enderkin unit. What this means is that I was working To study the effects of bone density in zero gravity So this can be anything from astronauts going to space to bed rest So what what this is so bone cells generally live in humans for about 25 years before all your bones are entirely replaced The they arise from osteoblasts, which is pretty much just a hormone that helps these grow and they produce sclerostin or sauce a protein which inhibits bone growth and rank ligand These for all intents and purposes for this are just Inhibitors that help the bones grow This is a picture of the different osteocytes that we were looking at so our specific goal there was to study what the Expression of the different cells would be at different densities So this was helpful not only to us, but to the entire research group there because it would show that Let's say we found this particular Density that help this is like had the best expression This would then Obviously make it easier for them to do all their experiments So what we did was or how we what we Decided was that there were really two things that could happen the density would make No difference whatsoever or there would be a specific density that did affect it So what we did was we would plate a certain number of cells in each different plate and then we would over the course of a few weeks Change the media, so we're just keeping a constant Environment for them and then we would study the results of the different expression of the three genes that I expressed earlier So this is the results and if you can read this it would have helped to know what it said so Moving on just to try to show what this says is that the different Rates did in fact have Or different densities did have different expression so the Well this slide shows how we got there Next one's fine So this is really putting it in perspective So the three different densities that were did were 100 200 and 300 these Really aren't too useful for this, but that's what we were doing and we showed the RNA expression in each one and While here they may look slightly skewed. This has taken a very very small margin These are in fact if you look at it on a bigger scale almost entirely straight lines So what this showed was the density of each individual Expression or so rank ligand and sauced were different but the Overall for the different densities were the same. So can you move on? So that's more or less what I just explained in the last slide here But the different expression we showed did not make a big difference. So this helped the Lab there because now they know that there is not one specific density that they need to be using for each thing to show the best expression And this will help them in the future And we will continue actually doing more research to try to make those bars closer and closer to show that these really are conclusive Great. Thank you. I think Karen to Sony emailed you a link to the entire slide show presentation and it might be interesting for you to flip through and see the different internship projects and the different interns and their placements throughout the greater Boston area and Potentially she could put that on the website too for folks who are interested to look at that Members have any questions for our students? I I appreciate hearing everyone's projects are really interesting Dr. Dunn, can you you said that you would be interested in expanding if any members of our audience are interested in in Thanks, how would they get in touch with you? Well, they should just email me for sure My email address is K done at Arlington dot K 12 dot ma US the easier way to do it would just be to find the Arlington High School website Find the social studies department and my listing right there And we certainly are going to need more placements we filled every potential placement we had this year with students and We were deliberately keeping it small But there was fold them in and and we'll need to expand I'd like to have at least 20 placements for next year Okay, thank you. I went to the full show the other night and it was just as exciting as this. Thank you all One of the interns had an internship in Cambridge. Am I correct? So it is not a requirement to stay within the town No, we had well Chris and Connor were at MGH the connection. We had there was it's actually an Arlington High School parent Who is the principal scientist at the bone density lab? Which was great in Cambridge. We had somebody at the Cambridge Historical Society We also had a student who was going to Dorchester Columbia Point to intern at the mass archives and Commonwealth Museum So it can be outside of Arlington. It is helpful if it's accessible by public transportation We have a few students with cars but most or access to a car but most do not so The most crucial piece would be access to public transportation I just wanted to make that clear to our audience because we may have people again living in town that Would be interested, but their actual workplace would be out of town Very exciting One of the things we talked about a couple of years ago I don't remember when was the possibility of doing stem Internships in greater Boston because there's so many high-tech biotech companies Is that when you had someone doing obviously that internship in at MGH is that in is that I mean I Realize it's not social studies. Well, I mean this internship program is not social studies specific in any way out of our 13 placements We have three that were explicitly stem placements the two People at MGH and we had a young woman who was interning with the town engineer's office doing a really interesting Satellite imagery mapping project. It was great Where she had to actually learn some pretty high-level Coding software, which was great. So That's the area that we need to expand the most and we need the most additional placements in Because that's it. This is town, you know We have we have a lot of folks who work in the biotech high-tech industry in the town We have about a thousand MIT alums in this town something like that So there's a I think there's a lot of good will that can make introductions. We have enough MIT alum at the table but we so There's a lot of people that can make introductions in that field so and it's something we've talked about for a while Is this a place to grow? I mean specifically out of the seven additional placements. I'd like to add There's a demand for one or two more in a law office We have a lot of students. We have a really active mock trial team They just won their first competition today kids who want to intern in a law office So we'd like to add two or three more placements in law offices And then I'd like to add five or six more spots that are specifically stem Placements I run a high school with a work-study program in my experience professionally is that Students who work in law offices rule that out as a career after that experience And you know what that's fine That's a cheap way for them to do that rather than spending three years in law school actually have data to show that so So that might it's a good thing you're right It's a good thing to rule that out as a career Like to recognize someone from from the audience Yes Six of our interns are actually continuing on into the second semester So we do have the possibility for a year-long placement as well We actually had several students who are graduating early So they're done at Arlington high school that on Tuesday is their last day And then we had students who did the internship opposite of one semester class So they really needed to be done at the semester But we do have students who specifically want a full-year internship So again, I think there's enough demand that if a placement said Site said it was an attractive placement site We want an intern, but we can only take somebody and invest the time if we knew we'd have them for a year that I could find That student who we could put on their schedule for a year. So that is definitely a possibility Well, thank you very very much. This is incredibly interesting. I'm very happy We have this program at the high school and I hope it continues to flourish and Congratulations on Monday night. Dr. Dunn. Well deserved. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you very much Moving on our agenda. We're arrived at public participation. We have Four folks tonight who'd like to speak first Yeah Yes, thank you, Mike, please Yeah Because I don't think it went good evening. My name is Mike Vada Bedean. I have a daughter who is in the kindergarten in Stratton school My wife and I have written letters and have come to speak on many occasions About our concerns about the tools of the mine curriculum that was implemented in the Allenton public schools this year Although we have made requests for public meetings and updating the school website to reflect what is being taught to our children We have not seen any attempt to inform parents as to what the new curriculum is and how it works To date the Allenton school websites still say that they're using foundations as a kindergarten curriculum Why does the school website say foundations as the as being the curriculum instead of tools of the mind? Is there a plan to have a public meeting to allow parents to ask questions and get informed information to address their concerns I Cannot help but to think that there is a reason for the lack of information being provided I believe that most parents are not aware that the curriculum has changed to the tools of the mind Most parents I have talked to are Uninformed and concerned about the new curriculum. Why isn't why is it that there is not more transparency about tools of the mind? I've come here tonight to once again go on record To respectfully request that a public meeting be held where parents can ask questions Make comments and be informed about the tools of my mind curriculum Also to once again request that the school websites accurately reflect what is being taught to our children I want to thank you. I want to thank the committee for affording me the time to speak here and I look forward to your cooperation. Thank you Andrew Shay Hi, my name is Andrew Shay I'm the person who sent each of you two magic treehouse books and I'd like to encourage you to read them if you haven't already I Remain opposed to the required use of the magic treehouse book series for the kindergarten curriculum Which has recently changed the tools of the mind district-wide? I believe there are too many books of the same narrative the scope of the books is narrow and the themes are often too mature You've read letters from concerned parents regarding Some of those themes, so I won't reiterate them today, although it's always very tempting to me And Arlington has selected a play-based curriculum developed originally for preschoolers Yet the treehouse books force themes of danger on our five and six year olds the minute They walk in the door of their of their kindergarten classroom in a district whose libraries are filled with wonderful text It breaks my heart that these 12 books and their accompanying study guides are the only the only required curriculum Required reading for kindergarten. I understand that teachers can supplement, but the only thing they are required to read are these books Even if the tools curriculum is perfect, it can't be utilized without the books Additionally and or separately I have a summary from Education Week which highlights several studies that have shown results of the tools curriculum To be lackluster in a September 2013 study from UMass Amherst Education researcher Patricia McKay finds a curriculum led to no improvements and some decreases in Massachusetts Students performance on state and reading tests. Importantly this study was published using data from kindergarteners Not preschoolers, and this is a pretty new study I'm happy to send you all a copy through the appropriate administrative channels I think it's important to review this decision in all its parts, and I thank you very much for your time and your service to our community Chuck Miller Good evening. My name is Chuck Miller. I'm the parent of two Thompson kids I think I'm supposed to also say my address, so I live at 9 beacon street if anybody wants to come visit I Please call first Anyway, so I just wanted to kind of you know, I saw that this was happening There was a lot of things flying around the Arlington parents list And you know there there are folks who have had kids who were in the tools for the mine curriculum last year My daughter was in what was still the pilot program My other daughter entered the same program this year now that it's incorporated across the schools You know all I can say is as a parent. We personally don't have any issues with the tools for the mine curriculum We were pretty well informed. I would say when we went to the stratton when we were at stratton last year we went to the The orientation it was presented to us as you know, what was being taught in the school I do actually acknowledge Previous speaker about it not being on the website. I didn't actually know that so I think that that you know Probably does raise a concern for some folks Again when we went to Thompson for the orientation this year Same same thing we were presented the tools for the mine curriculum So I think that in general we haven't had any issues with it a lot of the other parents who went through last year and You know last year with who now first graders And then this year some of the kids in the kindergarten class as well the parents that I've talked to have been I think fairly positive about it I can't really say much about the magic treehouse books. They do go through those books in you know the first You know the first year, but I don't think my daughter's always read any magic treehouse books in first grade And you know unfortunately if some folks are disturbed by some of the themes in the books You know I wasn't personally aware of that my daughter seems to just sort of be more excited about learning about Egypt learning about you know different different sort of Times, but I think more so it's just kind of that ongoing theme of these two characters going from place to place Again, it's not great literature, but I don't remember great literature when I was in kindergarten So I'm not trying to be glib or anything, but I'm not sure what my daughter would read Otherwise that would be any better. So That's really all I have to say I know a lot of times people who come to these things are are more negative than anything and I saw so many you know Comments most most of the time people have anything positive to say don't show up So I thought I just come along and listen and I'm interested in hearing what people have to say. Thank you and Chris Geegan Geyer, sorry Good evening. My name is Chris Geyer I am the parent of a child in Bishop kindergarten class and also of a child who soon will be going to kindergarten in about two years I'm actually tonight is my my date night and I would otherwise be enjoying a concert with my wife But I thought this is a very important issue. I wanted to raise some concerns that I had I'm I became interested in this issue because I one night I love to read stories my kids and my wife had purchased some of the magic treehouse books and I was reading the I think the pirates. I don't remember the name of the title on and Started reading one of I think the second chapter at a point where the pirates were grabbing the kids where One of the pirates points a pistol at the kids and I did not feel comfortable reading that material of course, I could have diverted and Surely, you know read around that passage and I think I don't I think I ended up doing so I'm But then I realized and I looked at some of the other books that were in the series the fact the ninjas the saber-toothed tigers The flesh eating piranhas the jaguars the mummies the medieval nights it seemed to be a consistent theme of Storylines centered around violence and chases and and just not as a series something that seemed appropriate for kindergartners Maybe one or two books would be great It just didn't seem to me like something that is a series that I would choose for my my kids in kindergarten I'm exciting definitely definitely gripping and exciting just not something as a series again as a whole series Taking the whole series something that was appropriate for that age I'm I attended a meeting earlier this month one of the subcommittee meetings curriculum sub committee meetings and found out other parents were concerned like I was and I learned from some of the teachers that That the curriculum Sort of in my mind what it sounded to me sounded like they were sort of put into a straight jacket in terms of what they could teach What books they could use what posters could be on their walls and methods that they had experience in or Material that they had a lot of experience in They were told to buy coaches from the tools of the mind not to use And that was I really came and part I came to Arlington I think it was four years ago because we liked the education system here we You know and I trust the teachers. I trust their experience That that they don't I'm not gonna say that they told me they felt uncomfortable But they just did not seem seemed like something was missing I also heard from other parents who said that they thought there was a lack of diversity and some of the things I think the ninjas that there was cultural stereotypes that were not appropriate So those are those are some of my concerns, you know, I think I'd like to hear I'd like the other gentlemen. I'd like to hear more about the curriculum and why we're using it I like the teachers to have more autonomy and what they can what other reading material They can supplement the curriculum with so thank you for your time. Appreciate your service Okay, that concludes our public participation portion of the evening Moving on to our superintendent We have a report which includes an update on this particular curfew I'm going to ask the dr. Cheson to talk to The process that we're going through we did meet with parents who expressed concern around the content of the magic treehouse series we have At this juncture, we have the person who has been the probably one of the lead People in the tools of the mind Program and fact she was a lead investigator through NYU who has agreed this to come to Winchester for an evening presentation I don't have the date yet. I don't know if that has been set. No, it hasn't been yet But it will be coming probably very in the next Tarlington Well, they're interested so So in fact, there's probably some other districts. I think are very interested in this as well in fact Lexington has this in its preschool and a very interested actually and Putting it into its kindergarten the program that we have by the way is a kindergarten program It is not a preschool program and in fact, it's something that we are considering Moving into our preschool program in the next few years, but there has been some concern expressed around the the content of the books Concerned that some of the some of the themes may be too Too too scary for students listening to this. I can tell you that I have talked with at this point, I think maybe two-thirds of the kindergarten teachers in this district and Asked them explicitly whether they're reading the alleged passages and they are not as when we had that meeting with Sherry Dunnevin who is our our curriculum coordinator for tools of the mind I should say she's curriculum coordinator. She is the kindergarten the elementary principal who is In charge of the tools of the mind program. She organizes the professional development for that program as well as Works with the mentor. She is the liaison to the tools of the mind program and the Arlington Public School But anyway, we have we have talked with her and Part of the process at that meeting that mr. Thelman mentioned to the parents was that there was a policy of the Arlington Public Schools that had a process when they had an issue around a Particular curriculum or parts of a curriculum that would be initiated and I think that one of the parents maybe two of the parents Contacted Stacey Kitts is who is our librarian for the high school asking for that form Which was then sent and then submitted and the process of which I will let Laura Chesson talk about is already in motion and As I said, I will let her speak to where we are with that We are very we're taking very seriously the concerns and there'll be a process that we look at this But the thing that I want to say about the magic treehouse just in terms of a global look at this is that it is Somebody's mentioned. It's not great literature. It's it's not great necessarily great literature What it does is become sort of a thread that is an activator for the different themes that the kindergarten teachers and students engage in for a three-week period and Essentially we do we look at the first eight books of the series I think the series actually goes up to something like 38 books And in fact, I've actually had a slew of emails recently from parents Which I will get to you very much in support of this and in fact talking about how it How some of the their children have continued in reading these books It is an activator It is not the only literature that's being read in our kindergarten and that is really important to understand And it's not even literature that's particular to the theme though kindergarten teachers do try very much if they're looking at Japan or Egypt or other areas of the world they try to have Literature that would be Particular to that that area that they bring in Outside outside people to help students learn a little bit more about Japan I was in classrooms just recently where the children were learning how to write letters in in Japanese and They had someone coming in to teach origami. So it's a it's an activator It is a very small part of it is it keeps the thread of it going of the curriculum going so Most of the teachers are using it in that way They're using a lot of discretion with respect to if there's some passages that they don't they don't Think is appropriate or they think might be too scary. They are not reading them and that has Every person I have talked with has said that exactly exactly that and Sherry Dunn had talked about that in the subcommittee meeting that that was Her experience hers heard sort of mandate and I say mandate but Her belief that teachers would exercise a lot of professional judgment and in fact they are So let me just turn this over to Laura But who is going to be chairing this committee and talk and talk about what the process will be and what the plans are going forward Before I do that. I just want to bring forward a point that we have four teachers who are currently working on the Documentation that's to be put up on the website We felt that was really important for that documentation to come specifically from teachers as they're the closest to the curriculum And also to make sure that they do a quality job and they're doing this on top of teaching their classes and doing their New teacher evaluation system taking their retail courses and several other initiatives in the district So that's why it's taking them a little bit of time to get it up there But I want to assure everyone that we have four teachers two from Thompson and two from Hardy who are currently working on The documentation that will be coming up on the website very shortly. I've already spoken to Claudia Bartoli who is the Person who does our website. She's ready and waiting as soon as they have the documentation available for her She will be putting it up on the website So about the request for reconsideration of material We did have that filed by two parents of a student enrolled at the Stratton school in accordance with the school committee policy KEC and KEC dash are As called for by the policy ever I've organized a review committee with the makeup that's called for in the policy The first is a principal representative and that will be Sherry Dunn of the Dunovan of the Thompson school The director of media services, which is Daisy Kitsis We will have a kindergarten teacher from the Brackett school and The citizen representative will be Becca Steins Becca Steins is a science is works as a literacy consultant in Many many schools. She has a PhD in English and has previously taught at Ohio Wesleyan University and created one of the teacher Education programs at Leslie University School of Education She's the president of the Arlington Educational Foundation and has two children in the Arlington public school district one at Audison and one at the high school. Did you want to add? I Will be chairing the committee I am also currently chairing the the search committee for the Dallin Principalship search and Upon conclusion of that work, which would be around the February timeframe We have interviews three nights next week Tuesday Wednesday Thursday And when then we'll have visitations of finalists the week after that at the conclusion of that work I will meet with the committee to discuss the protocol that we'll be using That's also talked to in the policy to review the curriculum materials as guided by that policy Also, the initial meeting will determine their schedule for the review of the materials We will following the policy invite the parents that filed the reconsideration request to come forward to Express their concerns and we will also as called for by the policy invite the teachers and administration that Participate in the selection of the materials will be invited to present regarding their selection at the completion of Listening to that and also personally reviewing each and every piece of material by the committee The committee will make a report to dr. Boaty. It's expected that the committee will complete its work sometime in the mid to late March Questions That's what the policy calls for actually And that said It's my understanding there are proof reading lists for each grade level including kindergarten from which teachers can select Books to read there are many many other materials that are supplemented and actually I've visited many as dr. Boaty has many of the classrooms already But I will be going around to each classroom and documenting the variety of materials that they include So as long as they're on that approved district list, they're welcome to be used not just if their magic tree has books Yes, yes and then At the beginning of the year Despite the fact their website has been slow to catch up with this at the beginning of the year Every elementary school does have curriculum informational events for the parents Was this presented at all the in all the schools Yes and One last I did not attend every teacher's presentation. So I can't I'm trusting you to have had this was this was When we have curriculum nights the intent is that we That they the teachers talk about what is the curriculum in their in their classrooms and I Can't attest to everything that was said in the classroom, but this is what there's be talking about That's what with the purpose of having a curriculum night my one last point is From somebody that came on this committee when we had Elementary schools are each doing their own thing with curriculum and we worked very hard To get everybody to a place that we could guarantee a baseline of good education for all our students and My understanding is the last place we had teachers doing alternative curriculum Was the bishop under their previous principal and that actually did not yield as good results of the district approved curriculum I just do not want to see people deviating from What is good for students and learning and being back to a position where we don't have all our elementary students equally prepared So we work very very hard to make sure that we have an equitable education so that when every student comes to sixth grade They've had this a very similar if not exactly the same educational experience K through 5 I've just a couple of questions the policy Allows the complainant to Make a presentation that's correct, and I've said that we're gonna we're gonna invite them to do so So are you gonna invite this is a public meeting about other people to come in which it doesn't I doctor And I will have to discuss that it does not specifically state in the policy that the meeting will be a public meeting So we'll have to discuss that and certainly we'll discuss that with the chair of the school committee as well Okay, it's silent on that it is silent on that We experience erupting answer a little bit more than that even though it's not a public posted meeting We will certainly let kindergarten parents know that that they can Speak at this in fact one of the one of the early issues is what's the protocol so Like the school committee has there's a there has to be some kind of a protocol in terms of time and yeah So we haven't established that protocol Okay, the next question You know the policy says the status quo remains Is this assumption correct is the curriculum and I'm just a follow-up on leave this question Is the tools in the mind curriculum being delivered in all 22 kindergarten classrooms and all seven schools in Arlington right now This is a discussion of habit principles. I'm not sure this entire fidelity This is a discussion that this had with the elementary principles and we're gonna have more discussion We have a meeting the first the first of February well the first Monday in February and we're gonna be talking about that We have is part of this program. We have a mentor and we have changed mentors in the last since December and The mentor goes to every classroom in the district. So to that to the extent that the mentor Observes what's going on in the classroom We They're not there every day and they're only there maybe once a month or twice a month in addition to that we have We have two teachers that who were in the original pilot in fact There were three schools in the original pilot and two of those teachers are mentors in the program This year as well. On the other hand, they don't go out to other classrooms Teacher all the other teachers who were not in the pilot go to their classroom on a regular basis as well They have a schedule for that so there is both the Principles who are looking for things to Honestly looking for things that they should be looking at in the classroom and that that is something that we are working on But we also have the mentor who comes from the tools mine program one goes into all of the classrooms and we have them We have the non-pilot Schools and the teachers from those schools attending a regular In-class visit with the mentors in fact This is not any different that we do with our reading our math program when we have new teachers in the elementary Coming into the district or teaching a grade for the first time We have a math and a reading mentoring program where We have a math mentor for each grade and a reading mentor for each day grade And they go five times a year to that classroom and observe For the morning or the afternoon depending on which program it is So so we're doing exactly the same thing with the tools program But actually have more opportunity than five times to go to the mentor's classroom and watch the class And have discussions after that and debrief about the lessons Mr. Hanner I got several questions at first off prior to this program. We had a program called foundations. Am I correct in the kidney? Well, that's one of the many programs that we had we also had The AMC program for math and thank you Can I interrupt on second foundations is a phonics program and we put a phonics program in quite a few years ago tools of mind has its own phonics program and There is a tremendous amount of overlap between the two there's some differences and these are more technical things in terms of cards that are used but we we do start Move the intention is and the practice is to start moving more toward the foundation so that there's a transition to first grade How many years are in the contract that we have with tools of the mind? Two years, this is the first well We had we had the pilot in which all of our Materials for that pilot were paid through the the study that was being done by NYU So we have two years on this on this Contract and we were in the first year of that we are in the first year of that. Yes, so okay And I heard you use the word mentor two different ways one comes from the program. Yes, they My understanding they call coaches to make differentiation. Okay, they call them mentors, but it is a coach It is a coach that comes in are they an element of the program in other words Could we have this program without the coaches once we have we have teachers trained right now you said So not the way it's set up with tools of the mind I know the part of the contract is having a coach because Is any new program you need some level of coaching to help? But you integrated that the teachers do go out to and we have mentors So they they had already done the program for two years and and so in order to actually see Someone who's experienced teaching it is one thing for somebody to come in and coach So we're doing it from two different perspectives one coaching watching that the teacher Teach in their classroom to see what they would make us a suggestions Is and then we also have teachers going out to our own teachers to observe a full lesson in a classroom Is this program and this may be something you need to check on compatible with all the IEPs that are in existence in the kindergarten Yes And eventually at the end of the two years will the program be self-sustaining? That's the intention. Yes, and then we have a consistent program through all of our elementary All things aside, I'm not suggesting having it but a year from next in Fiscal 16 we will be not be budgeting for anything except expendable materials for this program am I correct Sort of mostly yes, but there's a little no to that too when if let's say we were to have a new teacher Come in let's say we had to make sure we had to open a kindergarten classroom We would be sending that teacher to I believe is it a week or two weeks one week. It's one week Intensive but our own staff could not bring that person up to speed That might be something that we could do down down the way, but I'm not sure that we would do that I can't answer that right now But our what we have done is when we've had new teachers. We have provided them with that training I've got to say that At the curriculum committee meetings that I I sit on The concern that I have heard is that some of the materials not the program were questioned and What I'm hearing is that From one of my members here. We're looking for consistency in a program and not deviation But I'm hearing that the teachers have the option to pick and choose what they're reading in the program I'm confused. Well, it would be for example when they would be covering something that had to do with Egypt Both of us would supplement with other books in our different stations that would have to do with Egypt But we both still read that particular book that we still read that particular book But I would have stations within my classroom that might have a video that a child could watch that was about Egypt Or a piece of music that might have something to do with that, but what I thought I heard from Miss Donovan is That teachers would have the right to exclude Depending on their audience to exclude excerpts from those books That's correct the Magic Treehouse books the teachers are encouraged to use their professional judgment that if they have a passage that they think is Okay, the question I'm asking is if I can chop up a book That several of us have said that is not great literature We're just gonna why not just get a separate book that's supplemental material that you talked about I think it's important for us to follow the policy and have the commit and call the committee to order and have And hear all the information. I was not trying to make a decision. I'll get us to make a decision I'm just trying to understand with the things and I hope I can bring an answer to that for you It was a specter to literature with a lot of the kindergarten's and I don't I don't know if this is universal Have people come in and do reading read read Stories and in fact I've even met up someone who introduced herself to me the other night who had come in and into One of the classrooms to read and I asked are they required to read a book about that theme and the answers? No, so there's a lot of other literature in fact most a lot of the supplemental materials are Necessarily from that theme But they try to bring in some some of that because the intent is that through this process And there's a lot of goals around the program in which you've heard a lot about in the last two years as we've made this Try to make this decision There we certainly want them to to have the geographic Perspective and the cultural perspective as well But there are other wonderful books, and I know that teachers are reading them to their students And some students reading on their own and there are books in the classroom that they can read I'm just trying to reiterate so I've heard about two different meetings coming up One is the tool leader who'll be coming and the other is It sounds like the review committee will have some sort of public and organized We'll have an organizing meeting first. Yeah, right, but I mean later. They'll be something Okay, how can parents make sure that they're informed of when those meetings are I will be sending notices out through The the elementary principles or I will send it out through though my mechanism of everyone But I can't differentiate by grade so that will be notified right I was I'm just so as long as they're on the elementary their elementary schools news email list They should get it and it'll also show up on the website Yes, it'll be on it'll be in both. That's what they can watch for is it okay? I See I see some folks who may still want to speak in the audience I invite you to email all of us as many of you already have I thank miss Shea for sending us the actual books That was very kind of you to do and very thoughtful and consider it. Thank you. I did not have those at all We have public participation at every one of our school committee meetings And we we open it up to folks if you don't get here right at seven to sign up Please come again on February 13th possibly February 6th To speak to us if you don't get your stuff and writing to us we want to hear from you We want phone calls and emails at least I do I'm speaking for all the members. I'm sorry I do We have we have a policy as as as Dr. Bodie and others have said it's file KEC You can find it on the Arlington public schools website It talks about when there is a complaint about a particular piece of literature or book read the policy is just one page It's very informative. I'd like to see the process followed as dr. Cheson is indicated. It's going to start in February after some of the down-and-work is done and Then that there'll be some presentation to the superintendent who will then present it to the school committee and then I think at that point if there's still some Dispute or some discussion about the the evidence then I think the public hearing would be much warranted so in other words, I'd like to see one process start Continue and finish and then Establish public hearing for everyone else who would like to speak who hadn't spoken after that's conducted that would that ideally That's what I'd like to see that that's who rely So we we don't allow for questions and answers. This is a this is a working meeting of the school committee Again, I invite all folks who want to continue to speak to us to continue to speak to us through email or phone call Or to come to another meeting or to come to a subcommittee meeting. There are a lot of avenues to talk to us about this And I look forward to that conversation Anything else on tools in the mind tonight mr. Schlickman. I'm just very interested to see the result of the committee I think that's a great process the Ninja book is at a late first grade reading level so I'm Conceptually having a little trouble of thinking of something that's written at a first grade level being Troublesome in a kindergarten. Can I can I just introduce for that one of the things? I think that is very difficult to sort of picture how it's going to be and I would also say that Sherry Dunham in who's the principal of the Thompson school And I'm sure the other principals would say the same thing that Sherry said it at the subcommittee meeting would welcome anybody to Contact her and come to visit her school I think you'd have a better idea of what the classroom looks like if you came to visit Yeah, I'm just saying that you know I'd like to see the the process play out and people who have opinions on both sides be able to participate because I'm not quite seeing the controversy and I I'm trying to and I would like to so that if it comes back for us We make an informed decision, which is why I'm very appreciative of having the the committee set up and the participation of anyone who wants to come and talk and make a point and if there is a Way to strengthen the program. I think this will we'll bring it about that result And I just want to I want to emphasize that that we try to tie our agenda items To our meetings to to our district goals and that's also on our website our 2013 2014 district goals Says under goal to staff excellence and professional development that goal to subset three kindergarten teachers will be supported Professional development to implement the tools of the mind program in all APS kindergarten since September 2013 And can you tell us definitively that that has been has been done? I would say that the professional development is in place. Yes I would also say the professional development around this Program has been very thoughtfully done and is fairly substantial Well, I look forward to more conversations on this I'd like to invite the superintendent to continue your report if you'd like to I think We could I might let you have a break. It's okay. Whatever you like. I actually have a number of things to talk about Well, first of all This today we had a wonderful assembly at Addison Middle School and Our district attorney Marion Ryan came and spoke around about cyberbullying. I Have to compliment both District Attorney Ryan and the Addison Middle School for really an exceptional experience She was as I said to her later. She is a born teacher and storyteller and she had those those students we had 1100 students in The gymnasium sitting on the floor in the bleachers and mr. Hainer was there with me. They were Wonderful, they were very polite very cooperative collaborative to questions. She asked and But but she did a fabulous job of bringing home how important it is for them to be careful about What they do on their handheld devices. In fact, she was very interactive with the students and asking them how many how many of them had a Smart phone or phone or an iPad and a Sea of hands. I don't know if there was anybody who didn't raise their hand. It's pretty it's it's pretty amazing but she talked about The the trouble that students can get in and one of the one of the important Cautions is that often students believe that they meet somebody in a chat room that they really are who they are They really are the age or even the sex that they are and she gave some very Very good examples And actually her team was there as well and in the second part of the presentation They also reiterated that But judging from the students they were listening and hopefully they take this to heart because Certainly what is really rising in this this age group and an older and younger for that matter Well, a lot of other risky behaviors are going down such as smoking and Drinking alcohol for example, this is rising a Lot and it's actually very dangerous what she did is says, you know, your parents have all told you and your little children to be Don't talk to strangers and yet through this medium now that is happening and You just have to be very careful that you are not trusting that so she was very effective and Her team was as well and these students sat for an hour and a half Through a very long presentation and they were terrific Just like to add As dr. Bote said, I would like to commend the students the staff I know what it's like to have an assembly of that many students and They were they were enthralled and good speakers. You don't feel like an hour and a half has gone by so it's gone And I learned a lot of things today I also once again learned how old I am when they were asked how many have phones And I don't think there were three people in that whole room that didn't say they had phones She really touched on the bullying part of it too and how Students can go, you know, you get mean people can say mean things to you But when we were growing up you could go home and you were in your haven But today it travels with you and they can see in writing mean things Honestly, this is I was one of my strongest suggestions to parents of children this age In fact, even high school is take away the cell phone at night. I mean You know take it away. It shouldn't be there in their bedrooms. It shouldn't be there when they're doing homework Don't let them have it And I think that that would be one way to really monitor what's going on and to take a look periodically at what They're accessing The other important message and I and I we really stress this with high school students She gave a story of a high school student who Was a great football player had really done a lot of work in high school to get himself To the point where he would he was really a strong candidate for a very good school that and and went there on a football scholarship and During his first year there. He went to a party and this school has very definitive rules about what behavior they will tolerate from their Athletes and he went to the party pictures were taken some of them inappropriate That showed that he was really breaking the rules and they took his scholarship away the the the thing that that She also said there's a an app now that people think that you can send out a picture and It's the lead it as soon as the person opens it. I think it's called Snap right But that but the truth of the matter is it never is gone it is there and anybody who has any skills with technology can in fact Find those pictures and so We emphasize it in fact in our digital citizenship classes at and technology classes at the middle school We emphasize remember that anything that you put out there digitally is there and This can really affect so many things in your life and you need to be very careful about that and they also talked about For example, they think well I put some of them in Facebook in two minutes later I'll take it down. He says you don't understand that out there There are robots grabbers that go through the whole internet on a regular basis grabbing material You have no guarantee that with even two seconds after you put it up That it's not going to be grabbed and it's just there so it was very effective strong messages and I thought it was important to sort of pass these on because We need parents support in this because it's just it's such a rising risky behavior and she had a Lot of example. She had several examples that were Quite I think wake up calls that she gave so My student was sick today I'm wondering is there any place that people can reference the material outside of having gone to the presentation She asked them to write her letter about the presentation with pertinent information that she may have missed So I actually got to read a Little three paragraph essay about this presentation before coming here tonight But that's a great assignment because I make some think about all these messages over there So what what it did that what was your daughter's takeaway? I? I think this listening to her perspective on it really pointed out the difference between my generation and our children's because Her assumption is there is no such thing as privacy so so Even the putting the pictures up. She said, you know the big message really should be don't do anything That you don't want to have captured to begin. Mm-hmm. You know, it's not just don't take a picture of it It's don't do it She pretty much You know, but unfortunately Based on the nature of my employment and the nature of working on this committee She's she's been much more knowledgeable about this than perhaps some other children at the middle school, but but they You know, they um, they definitely Got the main messages. That's great. That's great. She's very perfect. Any internet post a picture of your cat One of the things that the the presented the assistant district attorney said Whenever you get an app or you join some group is that little accept and very few people ever read The full the whole thing and if you look in detail the one on Facebook It basically says all pictures all statements are the property of them not you forever So whatever they can do whatever they want with that stuff and they're supposedly one of the reputable groups It's I know for for parents Children this age. It's it's I'm sure it's a huge concern as to how you monitor All of the different places they could be going and of course one of the biggest issues is what they're seeing from from students that may be Saying mean things because it's you just you want to get away from that and As she said in those days in our days when we were growing up You had to actually if you wanted to make a phone call to your To your friend you had to call the landline in the house and have mom and dad answer the phone and say hello This is and so you're very reluctant to To do what we're we're seeing students do today, so I thought was a very effective and I really want to thank District Attorney Ryan for coming personally She doesn't always go to all of these programs because it's part of our membership of middle-sex middle-sex youth Partnership and to get a number of assemblies a year, so we were felt very fortunate that she came I Also want and Our school resource officer Detective Steve Porchella was there and I want to this sort of segues into the next the next topic And that is as you aware we had a Shelter in place at Hardy quite recently due to the bank robber But the reason for bringing this up is that I want to compliment the police For how well they communicated with the school During that incident and they were they were terrific As they off as they are all the time, but I think it's important They sometimes have a job where they don't get the compliments that they should and speaking of compliments Another one I want to give is to our department of public works They did an absolutely terrific job this week in working all night to make sure the roads were in good shape The school parking lots were in good shape is that we could open after the storm which It wasn't a lot of snow, but it was snow that made the roads very slippery unless you would have the treatment and I know they were up three hours when I was up because I was talking and they were up Early in the morning too, so they there was they were terrific Thank you I heard a lot of compliments on the call. There's a lot of very happy parents the Two things that I also heard Calling it a two-hour delay, but having Audison start at 10 and the high school start at 10 confuses people or the exact starting time So I'm suggesting next time in the email. Can we say when this you don't say to our delay say There's a delay or delayed opening school, you know, Audison will start at 10 Elementary school started 1015 or whatever it is and then the second thing is the phone call in the morning was not met with a Lot of happiness because it came very early and it didn't actually provide additional different information and So I'm just if you know if we're gonna do that could have gone through an email people could if they need to know They can look for it The phone call could come later if you feel like you really want to redundant phone call I mean to tell people but no that those good feedback I have heard that one about the 10 o'clock that that was an issue So I've told the elementary principles. I will not say 10 o'clock again It's but I but your point is well taken is to say exactly what the time would be I actually gave a lot of thought as to when to send it out See on our email system on our news not everybody In fact just take for audison there are 40 families that do not have Internet and we send everything up by hard copy So I thought about the redundancy for most people but I wanted to reach them because those families at least have telephone But it wasn't providing any new or different information But they may not have had the internet information They didn't get the first message. Okay, so maybe we want to do the phone call at night Well, I hadn't decided at night whether we're gonna have no school or early delayed opening If I may I thought that the message you sent out saying that is of now We have a two-hour delayed opening and we'll reconsider that if the phone call automated message goes out And says we're now scheduling a two-hour delayed opening. We will contact you further if we are closing school Expect to start two hours Late would would be the way to go Yeah, I don't have There's not next time, but there probably will be when was the last time we did a delayed opening Maybe two years ago. Yeah, it seemed to work Extraordinarily well, and I think that everybody that I talked to you thought it was an excellent decision the way it was Was done to first of all not to jump the gun and go over the delayed opening and inform folks on the previous night that if Circumstances change we might consider closing school. That was that was an excellent strategy. I really thought that was very well done Thank you But that's good to get the feedback. I Again, I thought should I do this at 630? Should I do this at 7? Some people gonna sleep in 630 You know that as a working parent, I need it early I leave and I need to know what is happening. So I thought the email was perfectly clear, you know, right now It's delayed opening. I'm gonna let you know in the morning what it is and in the morning. I got the call I need it early. I'm getting ready for work. I need to know who to get up who not to get up So, you know, it can't come much later than that. So Six Live and learn with these but anyway, thanks you for feedback. I appreciate it The other thing at well then we'll get to technology is that we are very star my kindergarten we are very close to beginning the kindergarten registration and That all will be Available online as we did last year since last year We learned a lot through the central registration process and we have somewhat fine-tuned We've had we've we've looked at a number of things and I don't necessarily need to go through all the changes Some of them are quite small but we but one thing I did want to mention is that we had our attorney take a look at our forms and Just to see if there's anything that we needed to update to change the wording of an end and we did change some things The other thing that is different this year is that? We are also going to for the high school in the middle school while the process will not be central be still Locational We are going to also Digitize it as well so that they can do all of the forms online before they actually come in so What we we will be having is announcements very soon as to what days they actually can come in they're all going to be in March as they did last year so that's happening So now I'm going to turn this over to dr. Chess and talk about technology As you're probably well aware, this has been a very busy year in technology Thus far this year. We have instituted a one-to-one situation in Thompson with iPads K through five We've also deployed 17 new carts spread across six elementary schools We've given iPads to teaching staff at Pierce, Dallin and Audison and all the other elementary schools actually had them up to this point We put it in a mobile language lab of 30 iPad minis for Audison We have a one-to-one pilot for the 610 cluster at Audison We also have an iPad cart that's being shared by the 630 cluster at Audison The 610 cluster held an open house for parents of their students involved in the pilot before Christmas break those students presented Cluster procedures and they were quite eloquent about the cluster procedures regarding the proper use of iPads And I thank our elementary people who have sort of piloted this at their schools that Provided some really great input to the 610 group these students also demonstrated several applications that they're using in science math and ELA and social studies through the generosity of the AEF we've Expanded our stem lab at the high school which will currently this week receive an additional iPad cart to be used to conduct simulations and math and science This cart is in addition to the laptops that were purchased this year through the AEF grant that were used for our new two Computer science classes being offered at the high school All this these devices wouldn't work well if we didn't have the proper network structure There have been significant network upgrades. We started the year with two 50 meg pipes Talking about the amount of bandwidth that's coming into the school district for instructional use And now we're up to two two hundred and fifty Meg pipes, so there's been a 5x Increase since the beginning of the school year. There was a new controller that was added autism over the Break had some problems with that and we'll be upgrading again to fix those problems We've upgraded power school. We configured and installed two caching servers to help with internet traffic We also have had a large Volume of professional development. We continue to run twice a month technology city group meetings with representatives from all the schools in the district This is a professional learning community where teachers share best practices in the transformation of education through the use of technology Susan Bisson Also, who's our instructional technology and database specialist provides classroom support for iPad initiatives across the district Assisted by Matt Paizano and Francis de Barra Susan has also been running before and after-school training in the use of baseline edge, which is our technology tool for the Arlington educational Evaluation system and last but not least we had a number of things that teachers went out of district, but probably Probably the most Noteworthy would be the 14 teachers who attended the International iPad Summit at the Heinz Convention Center earlier this winter As we told you before two of our teachers and Marie Abbott and Nicole Melnick presented at the conference to a packed room And we recently received word that Susan Bisson and myself will be speaking At the leading future learning conference to be held at the Holy Cross College Sponsored by edtech teacher and mass queue and we'll be presenting on the way we've used support structures at Thompson to successfully implement a one-to-one iPad environment and Most key to that has been utilization of students To provide expertise in the fourth and fifth grade student Susan has trained Fourth and fifth grade students to provide assistance in their classrooms to their teachers with the iPads Yes Have we got any indication from the state of how much bandwidth we Community is going to Use park to use park. They've already been testing that we've done and Park is set up so that you can actually cash it which means you can actually bring it down and sort of hold it in memory For students to go back and forth, but we have sufficient. We have more than sufficient bandwidth I'm talking about the testing right cat. You can actually cash the park test okay, I'm Liking knowledge of this my understanding is the child will take the test they hit return It goes gets corrected and you get it back right but when the questions come down It doesn't have to be real time. It's sort of can like it's sort of like you give me information I sort of hold it and then when I'm all done with it I send it back up as opposed to Question one. I send it down you answer it no wish to do okay. There's no issue of security No, I mean that's one method of doing it cashing. We actually have enough bandwidth that we don't okay Need to the second question totally unrelated. I talked to you before and I may not get this correct the Local channels are coming up for relicensing. That's correct We are well aware that that oftentimes when a community Negotiates its cable contracts that there are elements of technology that the district might receive in kind as It's clear. They have to provide us a certain percentage Each one of them has to provide the community now Whether we get a piece of the pie and we're probably one of the bigger users as a group in our budget and stuff like that, but I mean I just would like us to be as aggressive as we can we lost out to one of the Cable companies the last time it was the school lost out completely RCM Right, we got nothing the town manager is well aware of that and has discussed that as part the town has a Technology strategic committee and strategic plan that they're working in at the town level and that's one of the pieces that they're taking Yes, I said on that committee as well as David good who's the Chief Instructional Technology Officer David straddles the fence. Yes. He does both sides I just want to meet with David every Thursday Our technology needs are growing geometric the town has needs But then nowhere near as much as we are we are outdated the day before we get it With our students going forward and things of that nature and thank you for saying that because you remind me of something else We have recently come to an agreement with the capital committee that there will be increased funding For particularly for teacher machines. We have many many teachers 280 teachers that are using machines that are five years or older And we've been working with the capital committee and have come to an agreement on the process that we will be able to Expedite the upgrading of those machines. That's particularly Important because of the changes in the teacher evaluation system and the necessity for teachers to be able to monitor and at a very rapid pace On the data regarding their students performance in addition The capital committee has also seen fit to come to an agreement with us on Providing us with some additional funding that will help us to get equity at the different schools Thompson being set aside, but the other six elementary schools will have equity in terms of the technology that's available at those schools You know, I just want to make I just want to say something I know my experience with the IT department that meant that works for both the town the school departments This works very well, and I think it has worked exceptionally well I think they're fair to both sides. Yes, I did with special both sides. So I just want to make sure that that's been my experience and my observation and that's been my experience as well I Had wanted to ask about the teachers who need the new new computers Can you talk about what expedited means does that mean this year next year? Currently it appears that we will be able to bring all teachers into the 21st century by the end of next fiscal year By the end of 2015 Yeah, in the next school in the next school year wait so next for next school year for the 2014 2015 school year By by this end of that school year Well, I my hope is by the beginning of that school year, but Okay, thank you with regard to like the buying or purchasing of new hardware or software Has there been thought about leasing as opposed to buying and what are the pros and cons of of each? Because things do get updated pretty rapid There are a number of programs through the Apple Company Apple equity leases Diane Johnson, and I have looked into them a few times it depends on the district which is more advantageous I don't we are meeting with the sales rep from Apple on February 4th, and we'll be talking about that again Currently are we in any leases with anything not with any of our technology equipment just our copying machines Is that something that the cable companies could help us with if we work something out? My understanding was it's not only hardware But It does not have to be directly related to they get their function. Oh, I see what you're saying I I don't that wouldn't come up until their their contract was up And I think it has at least another year, right? I I guess you know better how to do it I apologize if it sounds like I'm trying to tell you your job But to be prepared with with for a better phrase a list and understand I don't understand exactly what they required to provide but what was expressed to me It does not have to be just within the realm of the table of their table company It's a dollar amount right that they they're required to or a percentage the capital committee required And I provided them with a three replacement cycle for your replacement cycle That goes out to 2019 fiscal year 2019. So we have a long-term plan in terms of dollar amounts I also want to follow up. I know you were present at the Odyssey and Opaq meeting And heard from some of that some of the teachers Find that the shift from having printers Versus now going to a copier a Copywriting is the printer. So it's in one location the teacher teachers have to go are finding that somewhat onerous and I'm wondering What I appreciate that we're trying to save money, but we also need to be evaluating how well does the setup work? And how are we evaluating that? How are you going back and checking with the users whether this new method is working? We have technology as I said we have a technology study group and there are technology Representatives in each school and they come and they meet with us twice a month And that's one of the things that we've been discussing. So that's how we get feedback from the schools So we'll be presenting. I mean we're about halfway through our first year and I of implementation And there were a number of technical problems at the beginning of the school year So I think we're into about two months worth of it being settled down and that all the technical problems being Resolved particularly at the elementary schools that have Macintosh machines. We had some Apple machines We had some cards that had to be gotten for the for the high-speed printers, etc Because that's what those copy machines really are as they fax they scan they do it all So I will have better Idea about how where the problems lie and Maybe where we might have to put you know one printer or another printer, but as I discussed at the OPEC meeting the cost of In cartridges is Outrageous and if you if you look at what I mean, it's almost half a teacher what we would spend on in cartridges I know, but we're not making any extra time for our teachers either So, you know the cost to that there there is a cost if they're having to to walk around right So we have to look at the cost benefit right and my so my question is are we actually I understand that the Tech representatives are reporting, but we actually Surveying or we're talking to the teachers All the teachers who are using this not just the tech representatives. I mean are we going to do a survey? We could that's a good suggestion That's not something we count on them to bring us information, but perhaps we should do a survey for all of them We've done similar surveys for other things so that would be a good suggestion. Thank you You just say something about the the cartridges are very expensive and there are needs for some teachers to have printers and The cartridges come out of the principal's budget So if we're not micromanaging these schools if a if a principal Wants to spend money on cartridges We're not saying no to that so That that's as you know the question will be is when a particular printer dies Whether that's something that we will continue to invest it and I think that there'll be a lot of a protocol Protocols, but sort of guidelines as to you know, whether we would do that or not so It is the the one advantage of these new systems is that you have a code that you put in so you do Maintain security around your materials. I think that was a worry That that wouldn't be the case, but that isn't the case And so it's right now we remain right now we had We believe we have sufficient number of copiers in loop in convenient locations because when we went into this copier arrangement Actually was done very thoughtfully in terms of trying to figure out exactly how many we needed and Odyssey in particular got additional ones because they were it was totally The previous system number was not workable So we'll see we'll see how it evolves But when you but it is an expense and as people you know have to make decisions about their priorities That'll be they'll figure into it Thank you. I Mean I We've got to set up in the school where I'm at and it works very well for us Obviously, we're a small geographic space so it's not that far from any Classroom to where the printer is located and that might be an issue, but there's a lot more you know the the qualities are higher quality If you scan something, you know, you're not running to the machine make photocopies if you've got a PDF You can just run that right out from your computer and not stand at the copier There you know once people get used to this and once teachers take their Source material that they use repeatedly scan it and have a file. I think they're gonna find the setup to be Something that they really like You know there of course benefits and minuses versus having a printer, you know Right next to your desk, but yeah I mean the printers are cheap, but the cartridges are very expensive the quality isn't as good and and they're slow relative to What what this machine? It seems like a good move to me The issue of printers for teachers that they have a quick copy you want to run off. It's just fine But if you have like a middle school you have 120 students and you're running off the same handout You don't want to do it on your printer When the the cost is so much more effective on a and higher quality I might add too I'm one of these Xerox machines, and you don't want to print a copy and then I have to stand at the copier You could just send you can send it out because most people can you know create these on Their own computer and they send it out or even if you didn't you can still scan it and do it Yeah, and keep the scan and use it again. That's right. The scan copy goes immediately to your email And I just want to say this is goal three point one teaching and learning Of the technology plan right now there's three We're good. We're good. Well, it's not like it sort of ends. It's sort of when we get to phase three We'll have a baseline and then we'll be moving into Hopefully technology won't go through the hoop It's gone through in the last three or four years, but I'm not really counting on that But we would hope that we would be in a replacement cycle as opposed to Initial purchase cycle as a matter of fact We are well ahead of where we would have been what we expected to be and through the work We've done with the capital committee We'll be almost a year and a half ahead when we if what happens That what we expect to happen for the the upcoming school year for next year Chavon Foley's here She's been here for two hours I was gonna introduce you right at the end of our meeting but I've been kicking him under the table Okay, and I know that you've been working not only on the district goals as you've been reporting out periodically But on the superintendent's own personal goals about visiting the schools. Could you just speak a little bit to that? I know it wasn't on our agenda specifically, but I know you talked a little bit about that I have it I it's There are nine schools, and I have been out visiting the different schools, but when I go to a particular school Initially started doing more walk walk arounds, but that's just seem more of a meet-and-greet and so what? Have been doing more recently in the last couple months really is really only going to visiting a couple of classrooms in a school and So I may not see every teacher in the building, but I'm gonna try to balance that a little bit more and trying to Just see people It's a challenge. It's a challenge. It's an awful. You know my days are awfully very busy and it's it's but I Usually try to get their first thing because once I get back Getting out is Really tough So that's that's pretty much the we can talk more about that in March if you want We look at that those goals, but yes, but one of my other ones had to do with You know achievement which has to which we really won't be able to take a look at until we get into next year the MCAS dates Oh, yes, we have and the thing to know about MCAS dates. They're usually MCAS windows And in here in Arlington, I think as most districts do you we don't have all of the elementary on the same day because a number in order to be able to sort of have the all-hands-on-deck kind of Approach that we need people to come in and do accommodations And so we might be bringing some people from one school over to help I Think that we're doing that a little bit less now than we've had to do in the past because we now have for example social worker in every school and with the way we've restructured in the last few years, but the So but we generally do stagger those so that we can do accommodations The the middle school in the high school that is not as much of an issue And and in fact the high school has set dates We have windows otherwise. What is also we have now are the park schedule. Mm-hmm, and those are also windows That will the students will be taking the test and we've already gone through the process of I think the principles have selected that just about not for the middle school Pretty much the element. Well, we just have down and Thompson and Bishop Selecting which classrooms so if you you're supposed to have two classrooms for example a down in this four in a grade Three in a grade you have to randomly Pull the names and then we upload all that data. So we're in the process of Selecting the classes uploading the data's we're ready to go On the evaluation itself the actual classroom teachers is that responsibility to the principal? The evaluation of the teacher at the elementary school level 99% of them is the principal at the middle school and the high school level Many many of those teachers are evaluated by their department chairs But but they have multiple observations and some of those observations are done by the principal Yeah, just while we're on the topic of windows, we're in a mass tell window as well I know that At least one school in our district didn't hit the 50% threshold last time and didn't report Do we have something in place to make sure that all our schools hit hit the 50% the the letters were sent out to the principals and And then a couple days later the print the superintendents and the commonwealth would notify that happened an issue but they they were and And I think most of our schools have some meeting Plan where they're going to be distributed They're asked not to put them in the mailboxes and they have a fairly wide window in order to to respond And I know the AA is a patient to get data. I will say one well Sometimes I think I don't I don't know what the data on this I think a lot of teachers started it but it's a very long survey and I don't know what percentage but we didn't have Full we we only had a few schools that made the 50% mark Last time I think it's important data so that anything we can do to encourage and for the AEA folks if y'all encourage your members to go and do this It's important for us to know what's happening out there we want to hear their voices right Linda Hansen our president is actually already sent out Notification about this coming up and that they should have that teachers should all be asking their principles for the I think it's an access code in order to get into it and also building reps have been asked to have a 10-minute meeting to personally encourage all of the teachers to to enter in this data because the union definitely does support Teachers getting their input into the mass tells How can parents find out what the MCAS windows are in the park schedule? The MCAS windows for the elementary school will be decided the specific ones for each school will be decided At the next elementary principles meeting so because I knew you had sent me an email There was a parent that wanted to specifically know for that school so not so much the window but the actual testing date for that school and That will be decided at the next element Elementary principles meeting which will be in February and then we'll post it on the website And for the park testing once we've got a definitive which classrooms are going to be tested Then we'll put that up on the website, too. I asked I also have to sit down with tech and work out Number of our schools are doing it online So we have to work out when we're going to be rotating those kids into the different computer labs or Putting the iPad cart in the room and we have to have a big enough room So there's some details yet to be worked out. So in terms of park I would imagine that it will be brought on the same time frame the first week in February Okay Very quickly, I'm just wondering if either dr. Cheson Ms. Cheson or dr. Bonney would Talk a little bit about what the mass tell survey is for those that are not familiar with alphabet soup as we are It's a survey That has been designed to get teacher feedback actually administrative feedback as well On a whole range of topics including culture professional development curriculum everything involved with a practice and Could be even the the facilities in terms of the the the kinds of if you have everything that you need In a particular classroom and your your opportunities to be a teacher leader It's just it's it's a full range, but it is a very it is a very in effect is 25 pages long Give it every year Um, they give it every other year When are the results reported out? So There is once I Complete it. I think it's February 17th is the last date that the window is open And then there's a period. I don't know when they're gonna Make it available, but there'll be a two week window in which schools and districts Teachers can look at it and then there's a then it becomes public. Thank you very much dr. Bonney dr. Cheson for updating us on those issues and topics Incentive gender I move all items listed with an asterisk or Considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion of these items Unless a member of the committee so requests in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence Approval of warrant warrant 14096 dated january 9th 2014 and the amount of 592 thousand 416 dollars and 37 cents Approval of draft minutes none may I have a second second Discussion all those in favor say aye All right moving on please subcommittee and liaison reports policies and procedures. Mr. Filman We meet on january 27th monday at 7 p.m. And rebecca bryant will be here and I am conscious of mr. Haynes request to try to get information for the meeting. I'll try to do that We have had two Budget meetings over the last couple weeks. Um, the first one was about the fy 15 budget And how it's shaping up Just talking about Kind of what about what we're looking at. It looks like given the money we have we're going to be able to Probably grant about half of Of the requests that we have heard from the principals and the department heads Which is always better than telling them they have to cut. So You know, I know it's not everything everybody wanted, but I think it I was I was very optimistic I'm also optimistic because really does kind of follow a lot of the priorities that came from us I think that, you know, I feel like we were heard and I feel that that means that people in town were heard And obviously the principals and department heads were heard. Um, so You know, I think that you'll see that And uh, so we're just moving forward with that. There's nothing obviously to share tonight. We're just still Working that through and the other piece that the budget subcommittee is working on is the Restructuring the formula for how we rent space to long-term renters, which are basically our after-school programs And making sure that that's equitable for all of the after-school programs and that there is reasoning behind the numbers Grab the number out of the air. So we are working on having a Motion, uh, it will probably require us to modify one of the Policy, thank you. I was looking for policies. We have a policy on rentals Rental that we worked on forever. I believe a couple years ago took us forever to come up with that. Anyway, It looks like what we're gonna probably end up doing is adding another Layer of rental on that. So, um, hopefully we'll have that for our next School committee meeting and our next budget meeting will be held on thursday, february 6th at 6 30 p.m Where we will hopefully wrap up some of that stuff. So we have it for the next Meeting So you don't envision discarding the whole policy, but just maybe adding no no I think that what we need is just for for long-term renters There was no there was really no place for that like we we came up with and we I think it was very thoughtful of You know this gymnasium costs this much, but if you're someone who rents it Every day for 180 days. Well, we wanted to make sure that we had a formula for how that was going to be rented out And so that's that's kind of I think so what we're going to do is kind of just amend that policy Okay Curriculum instruction assessment and accountability dr. Allison We'll be scheduling a meeting. Hopefully before our next meeting to discuss the athletic handbook. We've gotten information from town council to Move forward And the program of studies too for the high school I had heard that loop through, but I hadn't heard it directly So yeah, so we can discuss the program of studies also, but we'll need to have it supplied. I haven't seen it yet Right Well, I I sent a couple of dates That we could possibly do it and that that would work for Dr. Janger and bill mccarthy the high school Is it for us to review that the document? Yes Well, I think that they finished all the edits on it and you can see I think as I said to mr. Hainor I'd rather have it sent to you electronically because Then you can see the the edits The new text whereas if I do it By paper It'll come different gray, but you won't get the full All the different passages there were some things that we needed to To amend in terms of policy, but I think the And some of it's just simply wording as well Some improvements, but then the I think the most important thing is looking at what the new offerings are going to be in the rationale for those So when do you think we're going to be able to let me talk to them tomorrow and see if it's ready to go And even if it's not you could see where we are and you can tell you where there are some changes There's no reason why you can't have it Right, so I'm just trying to make sure I understand what's going on So our subcommittee is going to need to review that to to Before the next meeting which is fine. I didn't understand about the scheduling dates. Do you Do you want dr. Janger also to be at the subcommittee meeting? I mean do I need they need to be there with they do need to be there That's why I gave a couple of times that would work for him And if those don't work for the committee then we can go into the next week, but we really want to get this approved at the subcommittee with a recommendation because It's important that they begin the registration process right I think I've I didn't get an email so Yeah, that that's why I'm like Yeah, no, that's I have not gotten anything on this so that's Okay, so maybe you can resend that stuff and I'll look for it and if I don't get it tomorrow, I'll call When you send out the the scheduling thing to the subcommittee one, we just add their names to it Well, if she's already got dates, I want to see what they are first Already have dates. Okay. Talk about that after. Okay, great Anything else? Facilities having at this time. Okay, I would like to just say that I've been approached by A certain principal at the middle school about possibly having all of us tour With him the middle school. I don't have a middle school student. I know we did that with the high school recently I would like the opportunity to maybe do it out to all of you Some time some dates and maybe we could we could do that as a group I think that would be a nice Is the purpose to look at the facility look at the facility look at the space look at the curriculum You know The physical space Yeah, right because I know that a lot of folks in town have been talking about that size So great and I yes, I would like to recognize the vice chair for a brief moment about something very exciting in his life On february 1st Some people say i'm insane some people think i'm Well insane i'm doing what's called a polar plunge for polio. I will be running into the atlantic ocean At high tide at noon on saturday I would i'm doing this again for polio raising money for it if you're inclined I am soliciting please just email me I'm on the school committee's website and I will connect you with the actual web page To do that and if you pledge mr. Hanner, he promises to what I said A 25 dollar pledge gets pictures of 50 dollar picture gets no pictures Thank you All right, secretaries are important We have received the following correspondence since our last meeting a letter from parent Katie cofflin requesting the reconsideration of materials forms submission following up email asking about the request and a response from Miss cofflin from dr. Chesson Email announcing a draft revised science and technology engineering curriculum for the massachusetts from the dece Emails from dr. Bode on the commissioner's weekly update for both january 10th 2014th and january 17th 2014 email from dr. Bode informing us of a book drive led by pierce fifth graders to help restore some of the books lost due to the Water damage Email from dr. Bode about the delayed opening of schools on wednesday january 22nd due to snow Email from karen fitzgerald following up with documents on buffer zones from the last meeting Email from karen to sony about a student assembly at oddison, which has held today Which we heard all about at 8 30 about navigating the cyber world. We were all invited We all received two magic tree house books by author mary pope osborne sent by andria Shea to ensure that all school committee members had read and seen the series December invoices from stonem chandler and miller in excel format for school committee review Email from hearty parent stacey smith in support of the tools of the mine curriculum And email from hearty kinder garden parent gen mulligan with pros and cons of tools of the mine curriculum for kinder gardeners Thank you and thank you for taking notes this evening miss My computer's gonna die soon We just have a very brief thing to discuss in executive session Get up so I'd like to make a motion to move into executive session to conduct strategies Sessions in preparation for negotiations with union and or non-union personnel